Scott Benner 7/28/25 Scott Benner 7/28/25

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Tammy, a 51-year-old probation officer from Manitoba with T1D, opens up about outdated care, online toxicity, and how the podcast finally taught her what 30 years of doctors didn’t.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Tammy 0:15
Hello. My name is Tammy. My dad had type one diabetes. They wouldn't discharge me from Children's Hospital until my mom could give me insulin. If

Scott Benner 0:25
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. 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 us med. US med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, US med is where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from, and you could too use the link or number to get your free benefits check and get started today with us Med, a huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox you may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link, go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox Terms and Conditions apply. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox today's episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 you can experience the ever since 365 CGM system for as low as $199 for a full year visit, ever since cgm.com/juicebox, for more details and eligibility.

Tammy 2:28
Hello. My name is Tammy, and I'm from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Scott Benner 2:33
Oh, no kidding, I didn't know. Did you know The National Food of Canada is poutine? Yes, I did. Oh, I didn't know that, but I did learn it in a Buzzfeed last

Tammy 2:43
night. Did you know that Winnipeg is the Slurpee capital of the world?

Scott Benner 2:46
Slurpee like frozen slushy drinks? Yeah, yes. Is the irony that you don't need a machine to make it. They just are made outside

Tammy 2:54
our backyard. Yeah? Just go outside or some flavoring on the snow. Yeah, yeah. You

Scott Benner 3:00
just go outside with a bucket and yeah, and a little maple syrup and water and star, and you shake it, and there you go. Yeah. How old were you? You're diagnosed with type one diabetes. I was four, yeah, 26 years ago, four years old in Manitoba, yes. Oh, hell. What did they give you there? Did they just rub a seal on you? What did they do?

Tammy 3:21
No, they did not. We were at the Shrine Circus. I've heard this story 7000 times, and we lived in a small town, and we came into Winnipeg to go to the Shrine Circus. I was rushed to Children's Hospital. It's a whole story there. But to make a long story short, my dad had type one diabetes, oh, and he was diagnosed at 25 and I guess what happened was, after, you know, we learned what needed to be, they wouldn't discharge me from Children's Hospital until my mom could give me insulin. Okay? And like my mom, like she just couldn't do that. So finally, I guess she told herself, you know, like, I have to do this. You know, my daughter's coming home, and that's it, right? So finally she did, but I think it was one of the hardest things for my mom to have to give me an injection,

Scott Benner 4:13
a real struggle for Yeah, did she have a needle phobia, or did she feel weirdly about actually, like, the way she probably saw it, like, hurting you, or like,

Tammy 4:21
Yeah, I think Yeah. I think she just couldn't believe that she had to do this to her daughter, like it was just awful. But when I was diagnosed, everyone laughs at this. What happened here? I guess my mom was devastated. My dad was devastated, and I was just grinning, you know, because I was going to be just like my dad now, oh no, no, I'm just like, Oh God no, Kenny,

Scott Benner 4:48
I don't think we should laugh through this I saw recently. Here's an example recently where the internet did not let me down. This lovely person posted a picture of a note that their child. Child had written in school, and it was a really heartfelt letter from a little kid about how alone they felt because other people in their family had diabetes and they didn't I read that? Did you see that note?

Tammy 5:17
Nearly in tears. Oh, my God,

Scott Benner 5:20
I'm reading this. I'm like, I gotta get out of this game. Like, I'm like, I can't take this anymore. What a sad thing you would never consider the kid without diabetes. Is like, why are you people leaving me out of this yet? You know,

Tammy 5:35
dare you. Yeah.

Scott Benner 5:36
Oh, I was, I was heartbroken. I read that. My God. So the thing you felt is not crazy, like, oh my god, I'm like, my dad now. Oh, no, kidding. Did it always feel like that? Did that stick with you? Or did you realize how ridiculous that was? At some point you were like,

Tammy 5:54
the last thing I'd like to have in common with my dad, you

Scott Benner 5:58
know what? Why did I pick his love of cars, exactly. Oh, what do you remember about your management as a child? I think I, you

Tammy 6:07
know what? I was always a rule follower and structure routine was my life like I couldn't change things like by a minute, I was very structured. Did what I was supposed to do. I see people writing about how they remember their A, one CS when they were 11. Like I don't remember a single a, 1c I do remember my endo at the time. I think she gave me a hard time one day, and I left there in tears. I don't know why I was there on my own, because usually my mom attended with me, and my mom got on the phone called bendo,

Scott Benner 6:46
I'm gonna stab you if you make my daughter cry again.

Tammy 6:53
No, and I guess it whatever it was, you know, I guess I was so upset. I don't know if that she scared me or what it was, but the next time I walked in, she was like, Good morning, Tammy, let's talk about your diabetes today. It was so funny, but I think at one time I remember, I'm so embarrassed to say it now, like I was writing sugars in because I had my black book. You know, you had to keep all your sugars written in a book, because there was no technology the way it is today. And I was like, oh gosh, I have an endo appointment. Oh, shoot. You know, I haven't written anything down in two and a half months. There I start doing this, and I can only imagine what she thought when I opened this, you know, when she opened this book and there this, this is all written in the same like, hello, Tammy, your a 1c just might show what you really are. But you know, I really I don't remember a lot about that, but I'm probably better. I don't where's your health at today? I'm doing well. What does that mean? I'm 51 years old. No complications. Awesome. I consider that pretty darn good. Doesn't mean I don't worry. Do you

Scott Benner 8:04
have any other autoimmune issues? No, I do not nothing. How about in the family, besides your father, of course. No, oh, just the two of you of type one. Yeah? Awesome. Lucky it, yeah? Well, I mean, listen, it's better than having a bunch of other stuff, obviously. But yeah, I'm sorry if that triggered people who have other

Tammy 8:21
things. I was just gonna say, Oh, hold on. I mean, my God, there's nothing wrong with having other immune issues.

Scott Benner 8:28
Can I take a sidebar for a second? Yeah, I don't know how old I was. I was in my 20s, and Howard Stern had been on the radio for a while, okay, and I had been listening since I was a junior in high school, maybe whenever he came to Philadelphia, I started listening. And, I mean, I think I listened every day. I mean, he used to put on five hour shows. Like, by the way, can I take a sidebar from my sidebar for a second? I love all these people running around, like, like, Oh, my podcast is so influential. Like, I You're all lucky. I consider doing this. And like, you know, like, I sit down and speak long for him. And nobody's ever done this before. Howard Stern has been doing it forever, okay, like, he's got the first podcast, like, and there's other guys too. There's Phil Hendry, and there's other people who've been doing talk radio for a really long time that have done it really well. Like, you know what? You don't even have to agree with this politics. And I'm not gonna say where I am one way or the other. But you know who was amazing? Rush Limbaugh sat down and spoke into a microphone for hours with nobody else there. That's hard to do. You know who does that now? Bill Burr, the comedian, has a podcast. I think he does it weekly. He just talks and it's entertaining, and he goes at it for hours. My point is, is your podcast is not a new idea. These people were doing it in the 60s and the 70s, and there were probably people doing it before that. Well, maybe not back then, it was just deep voice guys doing soap commercials, right? Like, hey. Like, so anyway, my point is is that, like, podcasters are not a new thing, and it's just a way of talking long form. Going back to my first turn off, you need. Need this conversation. You need Tammy to come on here and tell her story and her story like it's not fun, like diabetes sucks. And I have a unique perspective, because I get to intersect with people who listen and are really helped by the podcast. And I'm going to tell you, what they tell me is that they listen to an episode, they hear a few things that are valuable for them as far as management goes, but the rest of it is somehow comforting or uplifting or something or the other, and they only listen because it's entertaining. I'm having a conversation with somebody recently who asked me, like, do you think this is kind of like a business conversation? Like, do you think the ADA should be doing this. I was asked Yeah, and I said no, because no one will care about it and as it, because it'll be bland and in bullet points and written by six different doctors and then edited by four more doctors, and it'll be perfect. No one's gonna care enough to read through it like so, believe it or not, this dumb conversation that Abby and I are having at the end of it, she's gonna say something about her life or diabetes. She maybe already did. Maybe it's the story about the little boy who felt left out. Who knows what you're gonna take from it, but you won't listen to it if it's dry and boring. That's the thing I'm doing, like it or not like I am telling you stories and letting people tell their stories. And you're here because you're entertained by it. Is everyone entertained by it? They're not. That's fine. Those people won't get the thing, but I can only deliver it one way. That's all I had. Tommy, I'm sorry, what do I want to know? I don't know. No, no, I know. Don't worry. I know what I want to know. Okay, your dad's got type one. He's managing it one way. Are you managing it the same way? No, no, and not at all. And, and is that just because generationally, you came a generation after.

Tammy 12:03
I think maybe that's part of the reason. Okay,

Scott Benner 12:06
do you ever have a moment where you want to go back to your father and say, Hey, man, like, Look at this. They gave me this thing, or I did, or there's new idea out there. Did you ever have conversations like that with him? This episode is brought to you by Omnipod. Would you ever buy a car without test driving it first? That's a big risk to take on a pretty large investment. You wouldn't do that, right? So why would you do it when it comes to choosing an insulin pump, most pumps come with a four year lock in period through the DME channel, and you don't even get to try it first, but not Omnipod five. Omnipod five is available exclusively through the pharmacy, which means it doesn't come with a typical four year DME lock in period. Plus you can get started with a free 30 day trial to be sure it's the right choice for you or your family, my daughter has been wearing an Omnipod every day for 17 years. Are you ready to give Omnipod five a try? Request your free Starter Kit today at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox find my link in the show notes of this podcast player, or at Juicebox podcast.com. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 get 365 days of comfortable wear without having to change a sensor. When you think of a continuous glucose monitor, you think of a CGM that lasts 10 or 14 days, but the Eversense 365 it lives up to its name, lasting 365 days. That's one year without having to change your CGM with the Eversense 365 you can count on comfort and consistency. 365 days a year because the Eversense silicone based adhesive is designed for your skin to be gentle and to allow you to take the transmitter on and off, to enjoy your shower, a trip to the pool or an activity where you don't want your CGM on your body. If you're looking for comfort, accuracy and a one year wear, you are looking for Eversense 365 go to ever since cgm.com/juicebox, to learn more,

Tammy 14:28
I did a lot. Yes, my dad passed away in 2021, so yes, I every time I got something new or learned something new, I did tell him, but you know, he was still, my dad was still of the opinion that watermelon was very high in sugar. So you should really watch how much you eat, because you could, you know, you could be a diabetic. You know, he said to my niece once, my sister was, we're all sitting at the table. And so that's what exactly she was eating watermelon. And he said, Oh, that's a lot. Don't forget, watermelon has sugar. You don't want to eat too much. And my sister was like, Dad, that's not how you get, you know, type one like, you know, he came from it the old school. When he was 25 years old, the doctor told him not to eat sugar. So he stopped putting sugar in his coffee, stopped putting sugar in his whatever. Drank a liter of orange juice a day, and all of a sudden, it's to all his teeth fell out.

Scott Benner 15:25
Wait, you're telling me that he stopped using sugar in his coffee, but didn't see that there was sugar in orange juice, because it's fruit.

Tammy 15:31
Well, he just the doctor said, you know, don't use sugar. Oh, okay. Oh, he took that burger, you know, he didn't use he didn't put it over his cereal, didn't whatever. But, you know, and, and that's how it was,

Scott Benner 15:44
he didn't understand from the jump what he was talking about,

Tammy 15:48
right? But again, he was a real rule follower as well. Rule follower as well. You know, he was very, you know, took his insulin, was supposed to do whatever. It's not that he didn't do that stuff, right? It's just, you know, finally, he used the pen rather than a needle. And I was like, oh, there is a God, thank you. That was his big upgrade. Yeah, that was the big revolution. He's

Scott Benner 16:13
like, I'm gonna, am I yelling, by the way, I'm sorry, but, like, that was his that was, maybe she moved the microphone farther for me, that was his big upgrade. He went to

Tammy 16:21
pen. Things have evolved. Yeah, he was used to leave a bottle of r, right, you know, in his trunk. Like, he didn't think, oh, it's going to be 180 degrees in there. Yeah, it was just, it was very different. And some days were harder than others, you know, yeah, with that, you know, he took the same amount insulin. It didn't matter if he had, you know,

Scott Benner 16:42
just didn't matter. I'm gonna take three of these supposed to have a starch.

Tammy 16:47
Still called it starch, you know. Like,

Scott Benner 16:49
can you hear him saying this in your head right now? Oh, yeah. 100% Yeah. Oh, so what's he got to have a starch? What else? What's he gonna

Tammy 16:56
do? A starch, a fruit. But he can't have fruit after six or something like it was the, you know, Canadian Food Guide, you know, 1978 right? That's just how it was, yeah,

Scott Benner 17:10
yeah, I hear you. But how long did he live with type one? He passed away at 79 Well, god damn it worked. Everybody. Get out there. Have a starch, a fruit, and don't eat after six or whatever. He just dead And damn, for God's sake, don't put, don't put sugar in your coffee. You'll live forever. 7179 Jesus, that's not a bad run, is it?

Tammy 17:28
Well, 75 he was on dialysis.

Scott Benner 17:31
That part wasn't great. Okay, so he made it to 75 without having, without

Tammy 17:36
complications, any. Yeah, no complications, nothing. I'll

Scott Benner 17:40
tell you. I think that cold helps you, it keeps you picked up somehow. You know exactly? Yeah, you can't even like, your cells can't even change. They're just like, they're too busy shivering,

Tammy 17:50
right? That's why we can't have more than one autoimmune

Scott Benner 17:54
Yeah, you can't get in once the Shivering starts. How's it get

Tammy 17:57
through layers of clothing? Yeah? Well, that's exactly right, right?

Scott Benner 18:01
Tammy, you understand how medicine works, yeah? Like, by the way, don't listen to me. I'm just the father of a kid with type one diabetes. I don't even have it. Like, you shouldn't listen to me at all. I don't know. What do I know? I've been mismanaging it forever. Terrible. Yeah, my daughter in the other room with, like, a low six, a, 1c, while she's in college right now, you know, healthy as a horse, it's me. I'm the bad guy. I don't know. I can't I'm sorry. It's so infrequent. Honestly, I don't even think I should mention it for every one note that I get, there's literally 1000 other ones that come where people are just like, Thank you for sharing this. I'm doing great. Like, you know, I'm doing great because of this information. I hear that so frequently I have to remind myself how wonderful it is sometimes. Like, imagine something so wonderful being said to you so often that you have to remind yourself it's wonderful. Like, that's the really lovely position that I'm in. Then to have somebody come along and go, No, that's not true. Actually, you're a piece of, okay, sorry, and like, and back in the day, like, maybe you'd be like, Oh, God, that sucks. But I think it just caught me last night, like I was so tired that I let it in for a second. If that means something or not, I know I'm now being transparent about that, and I'm sure that I'm a bad person for that. Now too, I will say this. I want to say something I don't think, even though the internet would say differently, I don't think that's most people. I really don't I just think that's enough people that you see online that it feels pervasive. But I really don't think that's true. I don't think that most people are not seeing other people's perspectives. I don't think that most people are being mean to other people, like, like, I hope not in your day to day life. Do you see any of that outside of the internet? Like, do you see people just being to each

Tammy 19:50
other? No, I don't think so. No, I think the internet is just, you don't have to identify yourself. You can say whatever you want. There's no consequence, really, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's half the problem. Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:02
And let's be clear again, you're a probation officer, so you're saying, No, I think the world's a pretty decent place. And I talk to people all day long who have been in prison or jail.

Speaker 1 20:11
Oh, yeah, really bad things. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 20:15
Can I ask you? Do you ever get involved with somebody who's done something terrible and you find yourself thinking, I like this person every day, yeah? And that's something, yeah. Like, some people are habitual. I understand that. But for those who aren't, what do you think it is? Do you think it's just a bad moment sometimes? Like, how do people get in those situations? Tammy,

Tammy 20:37
I think the upbringing, you know, we're, we're not born bad or, Okay, I better. I don't want to be a trigger here. I don't, I don't believe you're born bad. You've seen something, you've grown up a certain way. You know, sociologic, you know, your your environment, right? Yeah, whatever it may be, psychological, there are reasons people do what they do. You know? It's just like they say racism. It's learned behavior. You're not born racist.

Scott Benner 21:17
If somebody says something to you and it sticks to you, and then it doubles, and before you know it, it's your identity too.

Tammy 21:25
Yeah, addiction, if some you know if, if all you've seen is addiction your whole life, why wouldn't you drink or use illegal drugs? You know, if all you've seen is violence when you're angry, well, why wouldn't you? You know, and it's very easy to say, you know, they shouldn't have no they shouldn't have perfect, but if you don't know any better or any different, I shouldn't say better different. You know, it's really not hard to believe,

Scott Benner 21:52
right, in a perfect situation, you would think, why did they not know not to do this? Or why did they not stop themselves, etc, so on, but just absolutely, like, they didn't have enough or the right kind of input to stop them in that situation, or to even have them avoid it at all. But it doesn't necessarily make them a bad person, right?

Tammy 22:13
No, I always, I say to anyone that says, you know, because you know, you see a lot of things on the internet, people are saying why? You know about jail, and they should be doing this and this and that and all these punishments. And everyone's got something to say, but you know, you really don't know where the person comes from. And I'm not saying it's right what someone does, yeah, but it's not so cut and dry, right? Is that, you know, yeah, they chose to do this, or they chose to do that. There's a few more factors

Scott Benner 22:44
involved. I'll tell you that, aside from being periodically yelled at on the internet, making this podcast has been such a wonderful experience, because hearing from people who you could just offhandedly disregard, and then listening to them talk about their lives. And, I mean, I just got done interviewing a young guy, like, who was in jail for like, a year and a half, yeah. And you know, as you're talking to him, you're like, I see that moment, but I see how you got to it, and it's still your fault, like you did the thing. But yes, yes, but all the building blocks that somebody laid on top of him were leading him to do that thing, and he was going to at some point. And, you know, listen, there's during wars, they do tests on prisoners and stuff like that. Like you can make people do things. You can condition people to act a certain way. And if you don't think that parenting is that, then you're not paying attention what parenting is. And parenting done wrong is conditioning somebody to do something wrong, and they will like they'll have the right intersection of opportunity and situation, and then the wrong thing is going to come out to and to your point, a thing that would not have happened if you would have picked that baby up on day one and put it somewhere where it would have got better direction. So you think it's a lot about nurture. You've probably heard me talk about us Med and how simple it is to reorder with us med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email, because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email, and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works? And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, us, med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your orders ready? You want us to send it? Push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait. I think it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks, or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it. Us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888, 7211514, get your free benefits. Check now and get started with us. Med, Dexcom, Omnipod, tandem freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new islet pump. Check them out now at us. Med, Comm, slash, Juicebox, or by calling 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at Juicebox podcast.com to us, med and all the sponsors.

Tammy 25:30
Well, we we teach in one of our groups socialization, and the first thing we say is, who did you learn from? Teachers, parents, grandparents, siblings. Well, for the first let's say, 15 years of your life, if not more, those are the important people, right? So you've learned a lot in that time. And you know, those are your formative years. They say males brains don't develop fully until they're 25 I mean, there's a lot of learning going on, right? And you're with, if you're with people who are doing things that we would consider wrong and possibly illegal, chances are they're not always going to be doing the right thing, right? At 26 years old, right?

Scott Benner 26:16
I'm taken back to one of my after dark episodes, yes, where a girl talks about her dad passing away from a fentanyl overdose, and she says it in such a matter of fact way, it's normalized. It struck me. It has how normal it was to her, yeah, yeah, really, like, heartbreaking, you know, she's a lovely girl. Like she just, she really is, you know, she sticks with me right there, like, that moment, like the way she was, just like, I don't know, she said it, like, you know, my dad walked through the room and took off his slippers, like it was so just like, almost a throwaway line. And I know that's not, I know she's not. I don't it's not a throw away to her, their father passed away. Like, I'm not saying that, of course, but like, in the manner it happened, it just wasn't shocking enough. The number of times somebody says something that, I think, like, why are you not shocked by this? The reason is probably what you outlined. They don't know to be shocked by it. They know to be comfort, almost comforted by it, because it's normal. You know, how much is alcohol involved in people's sliding ending up talking to you one day,

Tammy 27:23
usually, whether you know addiction or drugs or alcohol in excess, it's quite often

Scott Benner 27:30
not a lot of pieces of paper you pick up that don't say it on there somewhere, right? Yeah,

Tammy 27:34
right, yeah. Well, it's coping mechanism, right, right, yeah. So what do we do? Self medicate. Oh gosh, don't you tell me we have an hour this could take. This is like my old career.

Scott Benner 27:48
No, Tommy's like, condoms. Condoms are the answer. Everybody gets up. Don't get me started on that one. Yeah, we just need for no one to have babies for a while so we can calm down.

Tammy 28:00
All right? I don't know. I think I don't know. I think we just need to look know a lot more than we do. I think, you know in school, because I kind of specialize more so in domestic violence. Or I think they say in the States, intimate partner violence. Is that? What they're calling it now? Well, IPv, but we consider domestic violence all violence, so that includes family violence as well, from like sisters or brothers or whatever it may be. But you know, you learn all these things in school when you're growing up, whatever calculus and this and that,

Scott Benner 28:38
and nobody teaches you how to talk to people or no

Tammy 28:41
one shows you sort of healthy relationships. Communication skills. You know, these kinds of skills aren't taught. Yeah? Life Skills, yeah, communication. I mean, if you don't have communication, every aspect of your life is going to be problematic, right? Yep. So how do we kind of miss that as we're being raised, if you're not hearing that at home? Like, when do you learn that when you get fired because you told off your boss for the first time, you know? Like, I don't, you know. I just think, yeah, there needs to be a lot of learning done, teaching and,

Scott Benner 29:20
yeah, getting away from life skills was, I mean, is a real weird thing to me. You know, balancing your checkbook and making dinner and sewing a button on and, like, stuff that, like, comes up day after day that I see people go, I don't know how to do this. You know, I'm stunned at, like, some of the things they don't know how to do. And I'm stunned by the way that I know how to do some things that somehow didn't get passed to my kids. Sometimes, you look at them and they're like, I'm like, Oh God, they, they don't know how to do that. That's crazy. But where did I learn it? Did I learn it from? Sometimes, from just hard times, and you had, you had to, like, I guess so. But I look back like, I can work. I'm not a. Master woodworker, but I can work with wood. I can work with metal. I can cook, I can sew. Like, these are things I was literally taught in middle school, the way to get by I was taught. I was taught at the end of middle school, the beginning of high school, like, how to balance my my bank account. Like to make sure that, you know, the amount of money I thought was in there was actually in there. Not big finance stuff, but like, why not teach people how money works? And why are people having to come to like, Jenny and I just got done making a nutrition episode, like, a series like, to explain to people that, like, just because it goes in your mouth and comes out your ass doesn't mean it was food. I say it like that, but they don't really know. Like, some of them, like, they they think Doritos are, are corn and cheese. They're not Tammy, really, no, but that's not a thing everyone knows. And who's going to tell you that? Like if, if you go to the grocery store when you're six and your parents are throwing 19 cases of soda in the cart and a bunch of stuff in boxes and bags, well then to you, that's food. And if you don't die after you eat it, then that's food. And if you if you're sick, or you gain a crazy amount of weight or something like that, you just think, well, that's what life is like. That's how it works.

Tammy 31:12
But they were taught, that's what you know, that's what they saw, right? And to them, it's better than someone else who doesn't even have that, because then there's the other person who's saying, oh my gosh, I wish I had that. I

Scott Benner 31:23
can't afford it.

Tammy 31:24
Yeah, go on and on and on, right?

Scott Benner 31:28
Like, so you can, you can not excuse it, but you can justify it the whole way. Like, you know, and listen, there are big ideas. Like, there's a lot of people in the world. It's, you know, probably the industrialized farming and things like that probably were necessary. I don't know I wasn't there, but it's got us here, like we are where we are now. But along the way, everyone stopped thinking about food like food. If you don't see the connection between this and diabetes, I'm being too obtuse, and I don't mean to be everything's tools, whether it's not ending up with Tammy at a parole board or not. Oration, what's that? Probation? Excuse me.

Tammy 32:05
Excuse me. Parole is federal probation, prevention.

Scott Benner 32:09
I'm sorry. It was 2p words, Tommy, I'm doing my I know everybody mixes it up. Tommy's like, this is the bane of my existence. People say in probation when they mean parole. Okay, gotta be people. I gotta correct on this a day, but like, but whether it's you ending up with Tammy because you're on parole, or it's you're on a face, you not let me be funny for five seconds, or you're on a Facebook group arguing with somebody that they have privilege because they're not as sad as you are. Or you don't know how to Pre-Bolus for your meal because the doctor these are all just different tools. Let me be clear. I understand that what the person wrote is upsetting to people who don't have the thing they have. I get that, but it's in the way we respond that is important. And I understand that if your a 1c is 13 because no one told you that fat makes your blood sugar go up, or Pre-Bolus your meals, or the extent of what they told you is don't put sugar in your coffee. Yeah, that's not your fault. You need those tools like so like, go get those tools. That's not what happens. We end up in a gas station sticking a gun in somebody's face. We end up in a Facebook group telling somebody off, where we end up with an A 1c that's 13. I know I don't have diabetes, but you end up with an A 1c that's 13, and you're dying faster than you should, and we're fighting there, instead of going back and getting the tools and then restarting the journey. Is that the human condition like do some people make it and some people don't, and that's just what it is. Or can we throw a rope to those people and pull them up here where somebody knows something more like that's my contention, is that those people can just be fast forwarded to where they need to be, and then let them continue to live their lives from there with good tools and good ideas, whether they're about how to talk to people or how to Bolus for your food. You know, Tammy thing, don't stab somebody in a bar. Probably,

Tammy 34:09
by the way, come talk to me first. We'll go over some emotion regulation.

Scott Benner 34:14
So is that what happens is that once they get to you, you're going to try to teach them how to get back into the world. So this doesn't happen again. Some

Tammy 34:22
people, I can do that with. Other people I work with the highest risk individuals, so it's a different unit. So a lot of people I work with, maybe we just have to make sure they have the necessities of life. Okay, you know, we we are do as much as we can, but I'm not able to go through an entire program, you know, one to one with them on emotion regulation, or whatever it may be. I see, you know, they're just getting by. You know,

Scott Benner 34:52
are some people redeemable, but not like, are there some people you feel like you just

Tammy 34:56
can't get to? Don't know if it's that you can't or it's. Just they won't let you we don't have, no, maybe we don't have the tools. Okay? You know, a probation officer can't fix everything. Sure. You know, you may need psychiatry, you may need psychology, you may need, you know, there's a lot of things that are needed, so I don't know that. You know it can't you know, some people over what if it's they have a, you know, cognitive levels, or, you know, they have a cognitive disability, or whatever it may be,

Scott Benner 35:28
right? Yeah, there's just a lot of different reasons why it may or may not.

Tammy 35:32
I don't know if it's just such a cut and dry, easy question to just say yes or no,

Scott Benner 35:36
yeah, right. There's, there's people who could be helped, but this situation is not going to line up for them, and there's and there are people who are going to resist, then maybe there's a way around that resistance, but there's not enough time or resources to do it, and so you try to give them enough life skills to hopefully keep them from falling back into that situation again, right,

Tammy 35:54
from hurting anyone else, or, you know, being a safety concern, safety risk to, You know, society

Scott Benner 36:01
of people that hurt other people. What percentage of them mean to hurt them, and what percentage of them is it just an outcome that wasn't like, premeditated?

Tammy 36:10
I really, I don't know. Yeah, what about well, that's fair question, though. What's that like if I'm seeing these people like I'm seeing people my caseload once a week, every you know, every week I see and you know, I can't just focus on the offense or what you know. How do you you have to be able to have, you know, meaningful conversations and whatever. So you kind of put the offense aside. Okay, you know, deal with the person. John Doe talking with Tammy, and we're discussing, you know, how they spent their spare time, yeah, that kind of a thing. We're not, like, I can't focus on who they hurt. How old were they? How old was the victim? You know, like, I can't, you know, you wouldn't be able to do the job you do, yeah, if that's what you concentrated on, how many people they heard, what's their criminal history? You know,

Scott Benner 37:03
it's it doesn't matter. You have to do what you have to do,

Tammy 37:06
right? This is my client, and it doesn't matter what they've done, whether I you know how I feel about it, we have to just, you know, I supervise their probation order, and I get to know them quite well.

Scott Benner 37:20
How long have you been doing this? I think it's been about

Tammy 37:23
12 years. I was with the just Justice Department for, I think 15 years. How long do you

Scott Benner 37:29
think you can do this for before you just one day wake up and go, You know what? I'm going to go hide in the woods. I gotta get out of here. Oh,

Tammy 37:34
I'll do it forever, really, if they'll keep me

Scott Benner 37:38
Tammy like unless I get fired, which I'm not saying can't happen. Very rewarding. Why are you so, like, attracted to it?

Tammy 37:47
I think somewhat is a bit of an adrenaline rush. Like, I like the somewhat chaos, organized chaos of it. No, it's not rewarding at all, really. You know, one client, maybe two in 15 years, said, you know, called me after they completed, you know, after their order expired, and said, You know, I just want to thank you. Yeah, you know, no, we don't. This is not a rewarding. It's you don't enter this because you want to be rewarded. Not at

Scott Benner 38:18
all. I think I should hire you to manage the Facebook group. Yeah,

Tammy 38:22
I'm not good in management. He's

Scott Benner 38:25
like, I'd just be yelling at everybody too. Yeah, 10 minutes in it, I'd be like, I'd be the only one working,

Tammy 38:31
and exactly within 15 minutes, don't say the right thing. Okay, thank you for coming out. Yeah,

Scott Benner 38:39
it would be so easy to manage a group by just, like, like, just banning everybody that caused you a problem. But I don't do that like. I really do try to, like, manage it almost the way you're talking about, like, get people

Tammy 38:51
to do it. And you do, you find ways to, you know, to have these conversations. And you know, you don't focus on what's irritating you or, you know, right? You're truly feeling you,

Scott Benner 39:05
you know, often I want to be like, you know, I have an opinion about this too. You don't see me arguing with you. I'm just telling you, please be kind to people. Be nice. Don't put them in a position where they feel like, you know, the thing they think is not welcome here, because it is. I love it. When people come in and they're like, that's not what this place is for. This place is for. I'm always like, I'll tell you what the place is for. It's not up to you. If you want a place that's for something, you go make your own place and then run it any way you want. You know, I think the other side of it is, is that sticking up for what's like, common sense and right that intersects well with most people, like most people say, like, if you don't like me personally, I understand that. But if you don't like the way that I moderate that board, then I do believe it's you're having the problem, because I am trying incredibly hard to be midline and not on anybody's side. Mm. You get to say what you want to say, and they get to say what they want to say, and we say it nicely to each other. And if you know, like but it does sometimes feel like you're talking to a five year old, which is crazy. It feels like you're running up to somebody and going, No, then going, this is what we do, right? You know, when she hands her that you take it from her nicely and say thank you, or, you know, blah blah. I don't know. I don't understand. Like, I guess it's, I know I'm all over the place, but I'm also willing to think I'm wrong. And I think sometimes that's maybe more important than being right, yeah, just being able to say, like, I might not be right about this, but like, this is how I feel this. If this jives well with you, hang out here. I think you'll like it here. And if you don't, you know, if you if you think that you should be able to be to somebody, I made a list, where the hell is it at? Did I lose it? I made a list of, oh, God, I can't even tell you what I call it. I made a list of terms I've seen online I think are ridiculous. I don't know how to explain exactly that when you start telling somebody that they're gatekeeping, or you're gaslighting them, or this is a microaggression, or, you know, I'm seeing a lot of toxic competitiveness here, I just think you're out of your mind when I hear you're saying stuff like that, whether it's actually, I mean, I don't, I don't, not believe it's Not happening. I just want to say that like I do believe that most of these things happen. I think the way you talk about it is ridiculous when you start. I think we name things so we can be mad about them, or throw them in somebody's face or or whatever. You know what I mean. So anyway, your privilege is showing to use another word triggered me. I don't know we said it earlier. Just like, I don't agree with you, it's okay, you know, like, and move on. Your job is is really cool, though. Like, I know I'm all over the place. This is not my

Tammy 41:54
fault. It is, it is. It's really interesting. I always say we could have a reality show, or when I retire, I'm going to write a book. Because, like, no one would believe some of the things that go on.

Scott Benner 42:05
Yeah. What would the book be called? Where do you hear this? Oh, gosh, no. I Yeah, no,

Tammy 42:09
something like that. Like, if you only knew, like, something I don't know, I I'd have to get my office to, we'd all have to, you know, brainstorm and come up with it. But you know, I was thinking when you were saying about how the Doritos thing, and people didn't know this and that I I've kind of changed my thinking on something. When I'm reading your posts or your website and different posts, and people are saying how, you know, they're upset because of, maybe I don't know the nurse in school, the EA, whatever it may have been, didn't this and that and the next, and initially, when I first, you know, when I was reading your posts, I was like, I giggled. I thought, Well, gosh, if you only knew what it was like when I was in school. Yeah, you know, there was no such thing as the nurse. The EA, my mom dropped me off, crossed your fingers and hoped all went well till 330 when I, you know, walked off the bus. We're

Scott Benner 43:05
Canadian, where most of us are. Most of us are on our insulin because there's no nurse at the school.

Tammy 43:12
Okay? Triggering, No, I'm joking,

Scott Benner 43:15
but Tammy, that's the thing I've learned from the podcast. Is that school systems that don't have, like, when you think, like, in 2025 How is somebody diagnosed and put on, like, like, regular and mph. How does that happen? It happens because they want you to give a shot before you leave. That's gonna cover lunch and get you home. And so in a lot of not a lot, but there are some Canadian provinces they give out that insulin for that exact reason. Still, that's actually true. I know I'm not just joking about Canva. I did say Provence, weird to say,

Tammy 43:47
Do I correct that or no? People can say what they want, even if it's wrong. You

Scott Benner 43:54
just sound like you're from Detroit, by the way. Oh, really.

Tammy 43:56
Oh, I don't know. I don't know what people from Detroit sounds like, no, but like, in 1980 there was no such thing as, you know, someone helping you, and that kind of thing. I always say, like, so what's the big deal? You know, whatever. And I guess one day I did comment, and it was, it wasn't rude, it was just, I now I'm saying that I sound just like everybody else. Go ahead, but it was just more that I didn't under, like I didn't understand why everyone was so panicked about it. And the person actually kind of said to me, Well, just because we used to use a washboard to wash our clothes doesn't mean today we don't use a washer and dryer. You can't improve this, right? Should we go back to it? Like, I was like, Oh my gosh. I felt so bad. You know, here I'm

Scott Benner 44:44
to you, right? Yes,

Tammy 44:47
it did. So now I yeah, I understand why people, you know, and if you have an EA, if you have a nurse, if you have a whole team, you know, all the power to you. And you're so lucky. You know, I have changed. My thinking in that way, and I'm glad because, no, we don't want to go back to using a washboard, right?

Scott Benner 45:05
But you were able to have that moment because you were open to having it, and because the person did not start with you by going, Oh, your privilege is showing Tammy, right? Yeah, yeah, or something, because they just said, look, there's your experience. Hey, here's ours. And you thought, Oh, that makes sense. And then, and it changed, you right? Am I right? Like you, you would not

Tammy 45:28
know why? Yeah, I felt it was a good learning experience, exactly, you know. And now I'm, you know, I yeah, I'm able to understand,

Scott Benner 45:38
yeah, had they said you were engaging in a micro aggression or gaslighting them about their experience.

So that person, did you the favor of just responding back the way? I mean, how is this all coming together so perfectly, even though this has been such a show of, yeah, it really did come together nicely, didn't it? How about that? We should stop right here. Because I'm like, That's so perfect. I'm like, I can't believe you told that story. I was like, awesome redemption.

Tammy 46:13
I was really resentful after I, you know, I listened to the podcast and I learned again, I'm embarrassed to say, but I didn't know about pre bolusing. I grew up thinking Huma log work 15 minutes after you took it, and it was the fastest, you know, it was so fast and, you know, protein, if I was high after I had butter popcorn for the movie, it was because popcorn hits me hard, yeah, you know, I really, I didn't know those things. And, I mean, it wasn't a one year after diagnosis. I'm talking 30 years, yeah, yeah. And I was, like, I was angry. How did I not know this? Like, you know I was Yeah, I was really angry. And I still, I think I have some resentment towards the whole medical system because

Scott Benner 47:02
of it, yeah, who were you angry at? Please. I don't know if it's

Tammy 47:05
I, if I blamed my city, my province, overall medical system. I don't know. But I just thought, you know what? I go to these appointments, or I go to these. You know, my my family was one of the four families that started at the time it was called the juvenile diabetes foundation. Then it was JDRF, and now it's type one breakthrough, type one Earth. I don't even know the name. I don't

Scott Benner 47:29
know why they I bet you they don't know why either. We were

Tammy 47:33
very in a very involved family in diabetes. And I thought, well, how on earth could I be this age and not know that, yeah, like, all these years I didn't understand, you know, how could that be? Is everyone like this, blah, blah, blah. And, yeah, I've, I've learned a lot good. I'm glad that's awesome. Yeah, I'm really thankful that I happened, you know, upon come across this or hear about it from someone and, yeah, I'm making big changes. Good for you, or I have made big changes.

Scott Benner 48:06
Yeah, it's awesome. So I'm not a terrible person. You're saying terrible person. I mean this, this review. I thought I was I thought I was Puff Daddy, but the way she was writing, I was like, Jesus, my goodness, I just told you how my weight loss went. How dare you? Yeah, no, not. I'm not kicking a girl in an elevator and drag her through a hotel like by the way, has anyone seen this Puff Daddy stuff? My god, he's going to jail. Am I wrong? And I think it's puff Diddy. Sean Sean Combs. P Diddy, not daddy, though. P Diddy, hey, was Puff Daddy. He's P Diddy, no, he's been, did he's been daddy's been Sean Puffy.

Tammy 48:43
Thing is, is too much for me, that whole story. It's

Scott Benner 48:47
when you change your name 17 times, something's going on exactly. Oh, my one time Snoop Dogg had to call himself Snoop Lion that was a, that was a contract thing that I understand. Okay, you don't know he did that. You accept it. I

Tammy 49:02
don't know he just

Scott Benner 49:04
came out one day. He's like, I'm Snoop Lion now I'm like, That ain't gonna work. But okay, he was making a legal distinction. They owned his name, or something like I was trying to get back. This is neither here nor there. What I'm saying is, is that what I feel like I'm hearing is I made a thing that made your life better? Is that correct? Oh, 100% I can't wait for someone to write a review that says that I'm arrogant for saying that.

Tammy 49:27
No, but it really I that was interesting to me, and I did, and I came back to hear more. And now I go through certain, you know, I scroll and see which ones. Oh, which 1am I having problem with, or this and that? Yeah, I put forth, you know, an effort, more so probably, than I ever did. I

Scott Benner 49:45
am so genuinely happy for you, and I am Thank you. Just congratulations. It's wonderful. Yeah, it's awesome. I don't know I just, I can anymore, I but I'm not going to let a few people like, I want to call them crazy. Crazy, by the way. I hope they know if they're listening, I want to call you crazy, but I know that's the wrong thing to do, but in 1978 I definitely would have called you crazy, right? I'm so vexed from growing up in a time where I would have just said to somebody like a dick, and having lived through this experience of making this podcast and knowing the thing that you just said about those people that end up at your desk. No one gets there by mistake, and it's not really your fault. You know, when you're out there writing a review about me that makes me sound like a felonious people herder, and then you hear Tammy story, like, please understand the position that puts me in. Like, I don't know what to say. Do you know what I mean? Like, all I can do is what I do. It intersected you in a certain way, which is awesome. I'm super happy for you. It intersected that person in a different way. But like, just like, I don't expect you to run around telling the whole world how awesome I am. I don't expect someone else to run around going like, I didn't intersect well with this. But they don't see it that way. They don't see it as like, he's got a way of speaking and a perspective, and he's sharing it, and I don't like it that being the thing it's you're wrong. And I guess that, like, somewhere between that comment, somebody made this post that I had to deal with this morning. And, you know, the fact that I'm a real person too, like, I just That's why this episode went this way. I can't be more transparent than that, like I am a person trying to help other people, and you hurt my feelings, like, and I don't mean that in like, a boo hoo, like, snowflake way. I mean like, you actually, like, it hit a nerve, yeah, you found a way to take a person who dedicates most of their life to helping other people, and you said to them, Hey, you're shitty for doing that. And I was like, Oh, okay. Like, if you want me to fire back, like, let me tell you something, Tammy, I'm a pretty bright guy. I could do other things. I could take how my brain works and go apply it to something else and be just as happy and just as successful somewhere else. I'm sorry if that's me showing my privilege about how my thoughts work. There's a moment where, like, if you wanted to hear what the little kid inside of me thinks when I see that, I think, Geez, just say thank you and get the away from me. I don't have to do this. Don't listen to it or say thanks and move on. But like, and it's not that I don't want constructive criticism. I take constructive criticism constantly. I can't believe I'm saying this, because I know I'm not supposed to say this. But like, I take her point that if you have an eating disorder that this was hard for you. It's not lost on me, and I won't forget what you said. But like, there was a nicer way to say it to me, I guess is the point. But

Tammy 52:36
if you said that to that person, they would think you said you would call them crazy. Well, they would call you crazy unless you acknowledge or believe that what you said was wrong. It's always going to be the other person. That's why we kind of, like in my job, will just we're not going to tell you you did something wrong, wrong. We're not going to keep doing that, because until you believe it or feel it. It's just a weight, like it's just nonsense.

Scott Benner 53:06
Yeah, yeah. Just sound like noise to them. No, I know like and again, even like and as frustrating as that must be, because it sounds like you're living through it every year for 15 minutes. Here's the crazy part. Is like the person who made that comment in another thread that led me to write that thing. I've already responded to them like a human being, and they've responded back to me like a human said, Hey, so I'm really sorry I like, I'll try not to use that phrase again. That was it, like they were just very I said to them, like, That phrase is, Listen, I have to blow it up for the sake of this conversation. Okay, like, so we can make the points and everything. What happened was, is it in another conversation, someone responded the way I described an hour ago, and I responded back and said, Hey, listen, like, you know you have some reasonable thoughts here. Like, I'm not saying otherwise, but you can't start this with like, you know your privilege is showing because nobody's gonna understand this way I started talking to you, and that person, while you and I are recording have already responded back to me and said, Hey, I'm really sorry. Like, I'm sorry, like, you know. And then I said, thank you. And they put a little heart on it, and we're all good. And if that person's listening to this right now, I'm not mad at you, like, and I don't think poorly of you at all. I genuinely mean that. Like, it's a lovely experience where at the end everybody gets to see it, and hopefully more than just that, person walks away thinking, yeah, that's not a cool thing to say to people, because they don't mean it that way. It's just become lexicon at this point. Your privilege is showing back in the day, but is biting commentary now. It's just the thing people say. It's almost like woke. Woke is almost a word that has no meaning anymore. It's been co opted by every person who's trying to like it almost means, like, I think you're wrong at this point, but at one point it actually had a meaning, like, we used it up and bastardized it so much that now it can mean anything. And when you're trying to oversee seven. 70,000 people talking to each other, you have to see that the only way through that is everybody counts. Everybody has an opinion. And if their opinion is weird or skewed or you think wrong, there is a way to talk to them about it where you can get to where I got with this person, which is, hey, you know, please hear the reasons why they say, I understand. I say, thank you. And it's over. It's just basic communication, like it's all it is. And anyway, I've lost the thread about how to bring it back to diabetes. But you know, just God,

Tammy 55:36
I do so I am coming back. I do think fault. I do believe you know it's their fault. I was thinking about that as you said that it's not someone's fault. Well, it is their fault, still, everyone's actions, they're responsible for your actions, right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 55:51
no, I agree with you. Like, that's a weird line right between like, that's nature nurture. Like, is it your fault that you're doing this? Or, Yes, like, you're an adult, you're doing it. You're standing in the gas station pointing the gun at the guy. This is your fault.

Tammy 56:06
Like, right? Like, no, it's not mine. Yeah,

Scott Benner 56:09
exactly. And I'm totally not taking that away, like, at all. You know what I mean, like, but it isn't unreasonable to take a step back, see the path that got them there, and try to help them into not this, not being their situation, another the next time. Right, right? Yeah, that's all. And they're nice people like you out there trying to do that. And apparently, me, I'm trying to

Tammy 56:30
clients would agree with you, but Well, no, I'm glad you think so. Well,

Scott Benner 56:34
I do think so, like, from a perspective of society, I think so, like, I'm not a criminal, so I don't have the problems they have, right? I know that's my privilege showing does everyone say I'm doing it with satire? Does everyone get it or not? I don't know. I believe that most people are listening going like, Yes, God, we get it, man, shut up like you figured, like, we agree with you. And the people who don't agree maybe aren't going to see it because they're steeped in it, like you said, like at the moment, like, that's until they What did you how did you say it, until they understand it's just going to wash over them and be nonsense, right,

Tammy 57:07
right? Until someone thinks they're wrong. You, it doesn't matter what you say,

Scott Benner 57:13
till they're willing to imagine they're wrong and listen to somebody else. Yeah, yeah. But you think they actually have to get to it. They actually have to go, oh god. I was like, You did in that post. You're like, oh God, about the nurse thing, I was wrong. Yeah,

Tammy 57:27
yeah, you have to, I mean, and it could take years and it or it could never

Scott Benner 57:31
happen, you know, to stay open minded. Is that the message? Well, I think

Tammy 57:35
that's really important. Yeah, I guess you can't be responsible for someone else's action. You know, you can only how you respond. Someone would say, if you write a bad comment, if someone writes a bad comment, and you respond, well, really, you're the one, because, yes, it's getting to you, so you're the one that needs to work on how to respond, right? Yeah, you know, I don't mean, I'm not saying you I'm just saying, in general, that's you know you can only you know you can work on yourself, and as long as you're being the best person you can be, I guess. What more can we ask for? Right?

Scott Benner 58:10
It's a grace cascade. Like, I'm serious, like you have to keep giving grace to people as you intersect with them, so even if someone starts off terribly. Yeah, you never know Hulk, yeah, yeah. So we don't know how they got there, right, but if you respond back gracefully and genuinely and kindly, then you'll probably get the outcome that I got right with this person.

Tammy 58:35
Yeah, maybe right. I'm not all the time, but yeah, someone might, yeah, see, oh well, they were kind to me. You know, maybe they haven't been no one's been that way to them before,

Scott Benner 58:45
exactly. Also, that's just online, like, I'm not, like, Listen, if the guy's pointing the gun at you, the gas station, responding with Grace is probably not going to get you anywhere. That won't be your first response. You don't reach out and go, Hey, man, I know your parents didn't give you the tools to get through life, and therefore, I'm not feeling bad about this right now. Like, I'm talking about online, talking about your goddamn diabetes with people,

Tammy 59:07
let's just talk about type one and call it a date. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:10
right. Or, or maybe me even, like, you know, if I'm asking for it in return, like, if you're getting ready to say something terrible to me, like, what if you just reached out and said, Hey, I was listening to this thing, and it made me feel a certain way, because I have an eating disorder, and, you know, a lot of people with type one diabetes have an eating disorder, so don't say that. And I would respond back and tell you that, you know, a lot of people don't have an eating disorder, and they find this really valuable. And what are we going to do? Should we all just stop talking like that's going to be my perspective. You can agree with it or disagree with it, but at least I would at least I would know your perspective, and you would know my perspective. But instead, it turns into, like, just some kind of, like, kind of vicious, like, you know, attack that I can't really respond to. And back to my original point, who do they think they're telling like, what do you think you just fixed it? Like, oh no, everybody listening? You don't. Understand how this works, like you want me to be cynical for a second. Every person who thinks you're a snowflake for writing that is going to come listen to me now like you only make me stronger when you do those things. Right? There's a ton of examples in a ton of examples in pop culture where that

Tammy 1:00:17
happens, right, right, right. Any any publicity is good. But you know

Scott Benner 1:00:23
that line, or whatever, Tommy, exactly, all the sayings from the 70s work, fine. Yeah, people who think they're out there, I know this is even a thing anymore, really, but people you think you're out there canceling somebody you're not, no, you're literally making them stronger. For every person who dis who agrees with you, there's somebody who disagrees with you, and you just drove them over to that thing. There's the way that the world works, and you got to figure it out, or you're just yelling and screaming about something. It's never you're never going to fix it the way you're going about it. That, to me, is a little political, and I don't want to be political, so I'll

Tammy 1:00:58
stop if it has to do with diabetes, though, I think we all have to just really all come together and agree type one isn't the same as it used to be, and through all this technology and everything's evolved and it's changed, but also that means we've learned so Much more we didn't know about all this autoimmune, you know, like, I never knew what gluten intolerance, Hashimotos, like, I didn't know what any of that stuff, yeah, you know. And now we know so much more. So there's going to be so many more ideas and opinions. And 30 years from now, there's going to be a whole different set, you know, and they're gonna know more. And hopefully they won't have to, actually, hopefully

Scott Benner 1:01:46
we'll be done. No, well, yeah, obviously, but if

Tammy 1:01:49
not, yeah, like, I just think it comes with everything in life, like things evolve, we

Scott Benner 1:01:54
evolve, we learn more stuff. Hopefully, 30 years from now, I'll still be alive, and I'll get to see somebody talking about diabetes, and I'll be like, Wow, my podcast sounds like regular and mph to them. And good, exactly, right? Yeah, good, good, good, that we got to that, yeah, yeah. It's very Yeah. I'm going to tell you right now, like, beyond, like, an article once in a while that's like, you know, there's, you know, people have type one diabetes, have a higher instance of other autoimmune issues, like, some of them are thyroid, like, beyond that kind of, like, surface level stuff. And nobody in this space talking about thyroid like I am, you know. And again, you have no idea how many notes I get from people are like, Hey, I manage my thyroid better. Here's a list of things that are going better for me now because of this podcast. And, like, awesome, like, so I'm all right, that's enough. We're done. I can't do this anymore. Tommy. I mean, you wasn't you? I'm done with the Internet. I'm gonna go do something in real life now I you know, good luck all you guys.

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Scott Benner 7/25/25 Scott Benner 7/25/25

#1585 After Dark: Coma

A mother recounts her son’s near-fatal DKA, coma, recovery, and life with type 1 diabetes, blending hope, resilience, and humor. - Book Link

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back friends to another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Rosana 0:14
My name is Rosanna. My youngest is 14 and has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 0:19
If your loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're seeking a clear, practical perspective, check out the bold beginning series on the Juicebox podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal insight into type one our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions, you'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juicebox podcast, the bold beginning series and all of the collections in the Juicebox podcast are available in your audio app and at Juicebox podcast.com in the menu. 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 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. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 the only one year where CGM that's one insertion and one CGM a year, one CGM one year, not every 10 or 14 days ever since cgm.com/juicebox This episode is sponsored by the tandem mobi 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

Rosana 2:37
My name is Rosanna. I'm a 53 year old, mother of four. My youngest is 14 and has type one diabetes. And I have six grandchildren. Oh,

Scott Benner 2:49
Rosanna, an eclectic Little Mix going on over there. Oh, boy, yeah, I do. Were you 12 when you had your first one or no? How old were you when you had your first kid? 22 okay, that's all fair. Well,

Rosana 3:02
they are third, 3129 20 and 14. Second marriage. No same marriage.

Scott Benner 3:09
Wow. What happened?

Rosana 3:11
We thought we were done after the first two. They were girls. We kind of built a business. And then, surprise, I was pregnant at a boy. The last one was kind of so the boy was always like, when he was three or four, was always like, I wish I had a sibling. Why do my sisters have each other and I don't have anyone? So we tried, had a miscarriage, gave up, and then at 39 got pregnant with

Scott Benner 3:34
leaf. You tried to get pregnant because your kid asked you to,

Rosana 3:38
yeah. I mean, I had always wanted like, six kids, but it didn't look like it was going to work out that way. So,

Scott Benner 3:45
oh, you're either brave or stupid. I can't wait to find out which one while we're talking both, for sure, you and I are the same age of a 14 year old. Yes. Oh, that makes me nervous.

Rosana 3:59
Yes. I feel very old some days, oh,

Scott Benner 4:01
I can't imagine, like, Wait till that 14 year old is, like, 18 and you're almost 60. Oh, good luck. It's gonna be awesome. Which one of those four has type one you said the youngest? Oh, look at you. Yep, yep. Couldn't just stop, huh? Is there other autoimmune in your family, none. It was a complete surprise, no thyroid or celiac, even with the grandmother. I

Rosana 4:27
mean, I have a cousin who has celiac. That's it, though, huh? Yeah, my mom has passed away. I think in her past, there may have been a thyroid issue, but it was never discussed.

Scott Benner 4:38
Was she super thin or opposite? No, she was opposite, opposite. Did it hit her like out of nowhere? Was she heavier her whole life? She was heavier most of her life, and she passed away about a year ago, of a year and a half ago, she had CLL, chronic lympho. FONA leukemia, oh my gosh. How was she in her 80s?

Rosana 5:04
She was 72

Scott Benner 5:08
Oh, it's too young, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. She was, Are you her oldest? Yes, yeah. Look at me doing the math. You figuring things out. Are we going to use the name of your child who has type one leaf, l, e, i, f, okay. Like leaf Garrett, yes. Like Leif Erickson, the Viking. Does anyone remember the leaf Garrett posters on girls rooms, bedroom walls when we were in school? Yeah? I remember, yeah. The boys had Heather Locklear or the girl from the or the girl from the fall guys angels, or the Charlie's Angels, ones and boys had leaf, and girls had leaf. Garrett everybody's bedroom you walked into.

Rosana 5:55
Yeah, I didn't have posters.

Scott Benner 5:58
Where are we getting $1 from you little getting great. Oh my gosh. How old was he when he was diagnosed? Just turned 14 a week after his 14th birthday. Oh, this is very recent. It is about eight months. Oh my gosh. I haven't done a very recent one in a while. Are you okay?

Rosana 6:16
I am getting there. It was a wild ride. We were in the hospital for two months. No,

Scott Benner 6:21
wait, hold on. All right, let's go back to the beginning. What is the first thing you noticed that made you concerned for his health?

Rosana 6:28
Well, nothing. I guess that's the problem. My husband and I, my ex husband and I are divorced. We've been divorced about eight years, and he's the only minor child. He goes back and forth weekly. Every week he's one week. He's with me one week he's with his dad. The day before he was going to his dad's for the week, he had mentioned being thirsty, and I was like, well, you need to drink more water, like, because he'd always been healthy. He was on a competitive soccer team, right? We only saw the doctor when he needed a sports physical, so it didn't connect that anything was wrong?

Scott Benner 7:01
Oh, this one's so dumb. It doesn't know to drink when it's thirsty. Great, well, and he was

Rosana 7:05
drinking too much soda, I'm sure, like drink some water. So he went to his dad's. I went on a work trip. I came home and he was gonna go ahead and stay the next weekend with his dad's, because he was gonna have a slumber party for his birthday. But Saturday afternoon, his dad called me and said, Hey, he's really sick. He's asking for you, will you come and get him? So I went and picked him up, and he was gaunt and white, like he had obviously lost weight. And so I took him. It was like Saturday afternoon. I took him straight to the urgent care near our house, and they ran strep, flu, a, flu B, COVID, mono,

Scott Benner 7:45
and they did a UA, really, yes,

Rosana 7:49
and they said, and by this time, it's after five, and they're like, Well, it all, you know, all these things came up negative. We still think it's strep. They did a long strep test, and they said, We won't know for a couple of days, but we're gonna send you home with an antibiotic. She did mention that the UA showed high sugars and high proteins, but then she said, Well, that's probably because he hasn't been eating. And we found out he'd lost 20 pounds, yeah, and he was only 110

Scott Benner 8:14
I was gonna say 14. How much? How big he was, 90 at that point, 90 pounds. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Now that did that set off an alarm for you?

Rosana 8:25
Well, yeah, at that point, I'm like, Okay, this like,

Scott Benner 8:28
yeah, stop running the urgent care playbook here, and let's think a little closer, right? So well, but

Rosana 8:33
I'm like, okay, they know what they're doing, right? So I go home, I get the antibiotic, and go home, and Sunday, he spends all day, lying on the couch watching the TV, peeing, which, you know, I didn't know anything about type one diabetes, yeah, didn't know what the symptoms were. So he's like all now I look and I see all the symptoms during that day, Sunday night, went to sleep, he peed the bed, which he's not done since he was little, and I couldn't pick him up, and he was non responsive to me. Oh my gosh. So I called his dad, who met me at the apartment, and we rushed him to the Children's Hospital. They immediately took him back and almost immediately told us he was in DKA. His sugars were 649 his ketones were over 80, and his Ph, his blood pH, was 6.70 God, which. I didn't know what any of those numbers meant at the time, but they told us they were not conducive with

Scott Benner 9:35
life. Yeah, that's not a good thing to hear.

Rosana 9:38
So he slipped into a coma, and he was in a coma for about four days. And you know how you watch, like, Grey's Anatomy or shows, and they just like, wake up out of a coma, and they're like, wide awake.

Scott Benner 9:50
Well, they need to, yeah, they need to move this scene along. So they got to talk again. Not like that. Is that what you're telling

Rosana 9:56
me? Yes. Not like that. You know, one day he's like. Responding by squeezing your hand, but he's not awake, and then it's just like he's slowly, like it's, he's fighting through a boggy water or something to come back to consciousness. So it took him a few days.

Scott Benner 10:12
Oh, my God. So go ahead, keep going. I'm sorry. No, don't be. Are you okay? Talking about it? I mean, it's very recent.

Rosana 10:19
Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to get through it, because that was not the

Scott Benner 10:22
end. I almost cried. So, like, I'm like, You must be really upset, like, and I'll tell you, what got me was, is that, you know, I remember being told when we got Arden there, Hey, she's like, 24 hours away from being in a coma. And also thinking about all the stories I've heard of people who have been diagnosed like this and not made it, you know, so

Rosana 10:42
well. And the doctors, like the second night, one of the doctors, and they were all so good and so attentive and doing everything they could, and they just they didn't know what else to do, and they were running all kinds of tests because they couldn't figure out why he wasn't coming back. And I wasn't sure why they were running all the tests. To me that was like, okay, he's in DKA, and this is what happens. But I guess it doesn't always follow that. Usually when they get the sugars down, they rebound pretty

Scott Benner 11:09
quickly, okay? And he didn't, Jeez, what are they telling you? Two days into it, what are they saying?

Rosana 11:16
You know, it was kind of a wait and see. And they kept running tests and trying to figure out, you know, different things. And one night, I'm laying there because I slept in the room, the whole basically, I lived in the hospital for two months, and I'm quietly crying on the bed, you know, the guest bed, and one of the doctors, the female doctor, came over and kind of crouched in front of me and put her head down for a few minutes, and then she looked at me, and she was crying. She's like, I'm so sorry. You're going through this. I'm so sorry. And it's like, you could tell they were really emotional and upset about it.

Scott Benner 11:48
Yeah, lost as well. They weren't exactly sure what was happening, yeah. And so he woke up about

Rosana 11:54
four days later, and they started, you know, the rehab and swallow tests. And because he'd had every thing connected to him imaginable, dialysis, EEG, yeah, the EEG is on the head, intubated pic lines, you name it. So they started, you know, dealing with all of that. He had a swallow test. He had an MRI, which showed a little bit of brain bleed, and then he was awake for about six or seven days as they're trying to get everything back in order. And then one night, something happened, and he started thrashing. They thought he had a stroke. They weren't sure why they were giving him drugs, like one night, they were giving him fentanyl. And I was like, What are you like? Because I deal with fentanyl every day, like, this is not good. And they were like, No, this is medical. That's okay.

Scott Benner 12:49
Can I ask you? I mean, are you on your own at that because you said because the way you described your life, right up until you said you were divorced, I never would have expected you to be divorced, like four kids married that long. I was like, they're gonna be stuck with each other forever. When that got introduced, I was like, oh, gosh, and now you're in there. Like, do you and your ex reconcile enough to be together during this? Like, I mean, maybe you have that agreement already.

Rosana 13:14
He was there the entire time along with his girlfriend, awesome. So that's a total other trauma that we won't discuss.

Scott Benner 13:24
I mean, listen, you don't have to dig deep into it, but four kids a marriage this long, he did something wrong,

Rosana 13:30
right? Yeah. I mean, the easy, the easy answer is, midlife crisis.

Scott Benner 13:34
Gotcha. I mean, like, you smell it a mile away. So it's just you your ex and his girlfriend hanging out in your son's hospital room, who's in a coma, and the three older kids were in there, off and on. Okay? Is there a conversation that's had out loud, like, do you say we don't know if he's gonna live through this or not, or how do you manage that unknown? Time? 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 a long term CGM that's going to help you to stay on top of your glucose readings the ever since 365 I'm talking, of course, about the world's first and only CGM that lasts for one year, one year, one CGM. Are you tired of those other CGM the ones that give you all those problems that you didn't expect, knocking them off, false alerts not lasting as long as they're supposed to. If you're tired of those constant frustrations, use my link ever since cgm.com/juicebox to learn more about the ever since 365 some of you may be able to experience the ever since 365 for as low as $199 for a full year. At my link, you'll find those details and can learn about eligibility ever since cgm.com/juicebox check it out. There was a lot of

Rosana 15:57
just kind of discussion on what ifs you know, because it wasn't just that, like when he woke up, it wasn't just is he going to live? It's also they had no idea what kind of neurological deficits he would have. So and then after he went into he had a stroke, which later they determined is something else, but he

Scott Benner 16:15
went back into a coma. So the thrashing led back to the coma. Yeah,

Rosana 16:19
something he had, his blood pressure went too high. Oh, god. Okay, so by this time, he'd been on constant dialysis for two weeks, and that was as long as they could do it for. And so they sent us to another city. They life flighted him, and we drove to another city to have a different kind of dialysis. And once we got there, his doctor there took all of his records home to try to figure out what was going on, and came back and said that she believed he had had press, which is pulmonary rehabilitative encephalopathy, with the syndrome,

Scott Benner 16:57
okay? And this is as a result of the dka, or in addition,

Rosana 17:01
they think so, yes, and then his blood pressure skyrocketing, and he had a hemorrhage in his occipital lobe. We were there for about three weeks. He got out of the PICU, went to a regular ward. We had our diabetes education, he was in therapy, and then we were moved to an inpatient rehab at Bethany in town. Stayed there for three weeks, and just once he woke up from that, he just progressed really quickly, much, much quicker than they thought he would. They really thought there would be more neurological issues.

Scott Benner 17:36
That's what the swallow test is for, right? It's looking for early neurological issues,

Rosana 17:40
yes, and to see if he can swallow anything without aspirating, because he'd had a he'd been intubated and had a feeding tube most of the time.

Scott Benner 17:49
So even though he comes out of this, I mean, and that's obviously good news, you're still unsure of his path to that

Rosana 17:55
right? And in the end, it ended up being they were worried about his peripheral vision, and he has foot drop okay. After we came home, we were still in therapy for those things. He still has about a 20% foot drop, but he's walking and even running. I mean, he's just, he kind of, if he's not thinking about it, he kind of walks on the balls of his feet.

Scott Benner 18:17
So for people who don't know is that where you take a step and your foot kind of doesn't come along with you, no? Or what is

Rosana 18:23
that? I think, if it's more severe, yes, it's just he doesn't walk with a heel toe strike. Okay, his feet are always more pointed than they should be. And

Scott Benner 18:33
is this going to be forever, or is it a thing they can help him with?

Rosana 18:36
Well, rehab finally got to a point where they said that they didn't think it was going to help. Rehab was going to help anymore. So now we're looking at possible neuromuscular doctors or Botox

Scott Benner 18:47
therapy. Okay, with some hindsight, let me take you out of this moment for a second before you die. Yeah? Like she's just gonna explode and start crying, if only that was the end of it. No, no, I know. I want to give you a pause because and I'm a little embarrassed, but as I logged on here, I thought, people listen. You might not listen much like, but for people who listen, they know like, I'm kind of proud that I don't prep for the episodes. Like, I find my way through the conversation with people, and I think that's what makes it interesting. Except when I logged on today, I did think like, how this lady got a hold of a VIP link, and like, I'm like, I'll figure it out. And then, as you're talking, I thought, oh God, you put the post up in the Facebook group, like, right? And then people said you should be on the podcast. You're that person, right?

Rosana 19:33
I don't know about you. Asked you, you asked for some after dark people to sign up, and I sent to send you emails, and I sent you an email.

Scott Benner 19:41
Oh, no, kidding. Okay, yeah, anyway, like, one way or the other, until you really start telling your story, I'm not sitting here thinking, Oh, this is the person who's gonna tell me that their kid was in DK and in the hospital for two months. So like, I'm Yeah, being my dumb self, like in the beginning, trying to loosen you up to get ready for the podcast, and as you're talking, I was like. Oh, geez, that's okay, no. And now I'm hearing you struggling, and I just thought, like, let's break for a second. So with some hindsight, how long were his symptoms active before you ended up in the hospital?

Rosana 20:16
As far as actual symptoms, other than the thirst, I don't really remember anything. Looking back now, I remember throughout the school year, he would call me and say his stomach hurt after lunch, and in my mind, it was because he was bored and didn't want to be at school.

Scott Benner 20:30
He thought he was trying to get out of school. I mean, he's the fourth kid like this time. I've heard it all. He's also like, he's like, I could push this lady around. She's old and she don't got the she ain't got the energy for this anymore, you know. But now I wonder, what was that distance though, that stomach pain to the diagnosis? How long had that happened? You know, it had been months, months, okay, and then the thirst,

Rosana 20:52
the thirst was the first thing that I could look back and say, hey, you know, that's pre and that was only a week and a half

Scott Benner 20:58
before, okay, okay, please don't but I imagine you are, but please don't beat yourself up over it. But are you beating yourself up over this?

Rosana 21:05
No, at first I was beating myself up over believing urgent care and taking him home for 36 hours, but after, like, reading all of the posts and listening to blog, you know your podcast, I mean,

Scott Benner 21:19
it really is just kind of, what happens, yeah, I mean, because it does seem like, from a from an outsider's perspective, who's not been dealing with all this stuff for their whole life, it seems insane that urgent care could miss. Oh, yeah, what you're describing happened 36 hours later. You know what I mean? Like, it does seem insane, but at the same time, like, I don't know, like, they probably, so once I got

Rosana 21:42
to the hospital and we were settled in, you know, I looked at the paperwork that urgent care sent me home with, and it said, Well, I didn't have it with me. That was the deal. I didn't have my paperwork with me. So I called urgent care, and the receptionist was new, and I said, Hey, I don't have my paperwork from Saturday. Can you email it to he said, Well, I don't know when he figured it out, and he sent it to me. And this paperwork, as opposed to the paperwork I got sent home with that, I remember reading that paperwork said blood sugars, high, proteins, high, no numbers. It just said high. Well, the paperwork he emailed me had numbers, okay, and was in bright red. So I'm like, why didn't somebody see this?

Scott Benner 22:28
I mean, even high, like a blood sugar, that's high on a I mean, let's guess it's over 400 maybe over 500 right?

Rosana 22:34
The numbers that they sent me said 500 plus, because that's as high as their thing that, you know, test for and proteins were 80 plus. You just

Scott Benner 22:43
have to want, you do have to wonder, I don't want to, like, get into, like, the blame game, but like, you do have to wonder, like, I mean, they don't see any 500 plus blood sugars from people just because they're sick. I can't be right, especially a little 14 year

Rosana 22:56
old kid, and it was an NP, but I think that it was near closing time.

Scott Benner 23:01
Oh, you can eat Buffalo Wild Wings up the street. Maybe we needed to get going.

Rosana 23:04
Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Does Buffalo Wild

Scott Benner 23:08
Wings do all you can eat? I don't know. Oh, my God. So, okay, so you're not alone. Listen, just real quick, the girlfriend's not like way younger than you. Is she? I think she might be about eight to 10 years younger than me. Geez, I'm

Rosana 23:22
sorry. It all sucks. Not as much of an age gap as the girlfriend he had before that. So, oh,

Scott Benner 23:27
okay, least he brought the one he found at the gym, not the one he found at the club. Is that what you're saying? I'm so sorry. They both work for him. So, oh geez, it's a good collection system. Are you still in business with him? No, oh yeah, you made him buy you out, I imagine, yeah, good for you. Okay. Wow, you've had quite a decade. Are you okay to move forward now, like I stopped you so you could collect yourself and say some stupid so you could relax. You want to keep telling the story now? Please do Yeah, sure.

Rosana 23:56
So we've been home since December 6, and he's doing really well. His diabetes is like, probably the least has been up to this point, the least of his problems. I mean, as we're healing from all the other stuff, even now it's still he's within range about 95% of the time. Awesome, yeah, and he just got a tandem Moby Monday. Do you like it? He is, and he's been doing really well, keeping everything in in range.

Scott Benner 24:21
Awesome. That's great. Tandem diabetes.com/juicebox.

Rosana 24:26
We tried to get the Omnipod, and our insurance was like, Yeah, you're gonna have to pay out of pocket to eat. You reach your out of pocket Max every year, okay? And we're like, yeah, we're not gonna do that.

Scott Benner 24:36
Okay? Omnipod.com/juicebox, use the links support the show. Let's move on. Though, if diabetes is the least of his issues, what are his issues?

Rosana 24:46
I mean, he'd still like to play competitive soccer again, so getting his foot issue is probably the biggest thing right now.

Scott Benner 24:54
But that's physically like is he struggling psychologically by being waylaid like this? You

Rosana 25:00
know, he asked a lot of questions. At first, we have a scrapbook because he wanted to know. He wanted to see it all. He also firmly believes that he's a miracle, being alive. Being alive, okay, yes. And there was a whole thing centered around Ezekiel 37 which is a scripture about dry bones coming alive, which is his favorite song. He

Scott Benner 25:23
doesn't feel like this was all purposeless and no,

Rosana 25:26
and he's kind of a typical youngest child where, you know, he's enjoying the attention.

Scott Benner 25:32
It's like, Finally, someone's paying attention. I had to get this foot drop and diabetes and be in a coma, but they really are looking at leaf now, yeah, well, I'm sure he would have taken it a different way. Yes. So neurologically, all okay,

Rosana 25:45
seems to me, he missed a whole quarter of school, and then when he went back, it was for half days, because he was going to therapy in the morning. So they dropped his math, which was his favorite subject, they dropped him from algebra down to pre algebra, which he'd already taken. That was one thing they were worried about. Was his math, whatever part of your brain does math

Scott Benner 26:06
really? Oh, that was a that was a health decision, not a school decision. Well, it was a school

Rosana 26:11
decision, but we're just kind of waiting and seeing how that comes back.

Scott Benner 26:14
Is he having difficulty with mathematics?

Rosana 26:17
He doesn't think so. So we're going to wait and see how next school year goes.

Scott Benner 26:21
Do you notice anything different about him, like intellectually, or how quick he is, the sense of humor, stuff like that? I

Rosana 26:29
think his peripheral vision is still has a deficit, and that kind of makes a difference, kind of in how he does things. Yeah,

Scott Benner 26:37
other than that, not really.

Rosana 26:41
He still has a really close knit group of friends. He still plays video games. He's just not playing soccer right now.

Scott Benner 26:47
Did the doctors give you any indication of why they thought this became so severe? No, they still don't know. And do they have a feeling for how long he was without as much insulin as he needed before. No, no,

Rosana 27:03
we went back to the hospital here in town and took a basket for the nurses, and they were all very happy to see him. And several of the nurses said that he was one of the worst cases that they had had. And they were very, very happy to see

Scott Benner 27:17
him, happy to see him meeting. They're a little stunned he's alive and doing okay,

Rosana 27:21
yeah, walking around and smiling and joking. Does that

Scott Benner 27:25
make you feel like, does that make you feel lucky, or does it make you mad? I don't know how you I'm wondering.

Rosana 27:33
Makes me feel blessed. I think it's just that he's he is still alive. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:39
it's so random, right? Like, it feels like, like a car accident, almost like in its right. How did the other three kids? I know some of them are much older, but like, how did they, how did they handle, like, going through all this? Did everybody do it differently?

Rosana 27:51
They were all pretty emotional about it. My 20 year old son, Joel, he got a tattoo

Scott Benner 27:57
for his brother, oh, I was gonna say, depicting the event. Where, like, it says Ezekiel 37 that makes more sense than my idea. Yeah,

Rosana 28:06
so and his older sister spent a lot of time with us. Came, came to the city and stayed with me some nights. And the second sister has four children, and was pregnant.

Scott Benner 28:15
Oh gosh, she didn't. She didn't have any space for any of that, huh? Probably

Rosana 28:19
no. So she, she came with when she could, but that is

Scott Benner 28:23
interesting, right? Did I met? Am I remembering right, that she's is she 33

Rosana 28:27
she's 2929 you're 22nd

Scott Benner 28:30
one, you're 29 okay, you're but the old, the oldest 133's right? She's 31 I was gonna give myself credit for remembering that number randomly. But okay, but your 29 year old has four kids. You know, was was pregnant with the fourth. During this happening, she's pregnant with the fifth. The fifth, yeah, are you guys? Like, where are you building an army for the Lord, what's going on over

Rosana 28:51
there? Kinda, I guess her husband is second of seven. Oh, no kidding, yeah. And he was homeschooled, and she was homeschooled. And I'm

Scott Benner 29:00
not talking to you from Utah, right? No,

Rosana 29:03
okay, we're not the denim jumper kind of homeschoolers. I don't

Scott Benner 29:07
know what that means, but I'm sure those people are offended, and everybody else is laughing. Wow, that's that really is life altering, isn't it like that's, I mean, do you feel like life's the same thing as it

Rosana 29:19
used to be? No, but that wasn't the end of the trauma. So

Scott Benner 29:23
wait, all right, I'll write my question down and then keep going. Where's there's give me the rest.

Rosana 29:29
So about a month after we came home, I had just bought a house, in fact, just closed on it on that day, and later that evening, my daughter, who was 39 Weeks Pregnant, she was planning to have a home birth with the midwife, and she had a placental abruption. I

Scott Benner 29:44
don't think I can handle your life anymore.

Rosana 29:49
And they live about 30 miles south of town, so about 45 minutes from the hospital, and they called me. I was just leaving work. It was rush hour traffic, and I said, I'll meet. You there. I'll get the other kids. And so I met them at the hospital. They pulled up right behind me, like he said. He literally put the cruise control on 100 put the blinkers on, and drove on the shoulder. I don't know how he made it without stopping or without getting stopped, but he did. I took the kids and parked and cleaned up the van because it was not good. Kids were pretty traumatized.

Scott Benner 30:25
Were they in the car for the for the 100 mile? Are you just here to say speeding is okay? Is that what you're saying?

Rosana 30:33
No, I was, I was pretty traumatized about that, that she had passed out on the way. He

Scott Benner 30:37
was,

Rosana 30:38
he was pretty shaken. She's, you are

Scott Benner 30:41
gonna make me cry. Rosanna, Jesus, oh, God, this guy who's not 30, probably, maybe all of like, 30 years old, maybe is in a car with his pregnant wife and his four kids, and she loses consciousness. Yes, dear, jeez. Oh, okay, all right, so he what happens? Is she okay? She

Rosana 31:03
had an emergency C section. She's okay. They had to, I think they had to give her turnover. If they had to give her blood transfusion, I think they did, but she was okay. They, you know, kicked her out. 48 hours later,

Scott Benner 31:15
really, they're like, Okay, get out. Typical

Rosana 31:19
baby was born with a hard knot in his umbilical cord. Oh, and they did not know how long he had been without oxygen. How long ago is this now? January? Mid January, and how was the baby? He spent a month in the NICU, the first 72 hours on a cooling pad, which very few hospitals have, but luckily enough, Children's Hospital here had one. They still were, like, we don't know what kind of neurological deficits he's gonna have. Like, basically, I go to the hospital room and it looks almost identical to my sons. It's two floors lower and it's a smaller bed. He's got all the things hooked up to him, EEGs, and he's tiny. He's got a bunch of dark hair, you know, just all over his head. For a while, he had a feeding tube, and they didn't think that he would be able to swallow or eat on his own, but that went away. They didn't think he'd ever be able to breastfeed. He did. He is at home now, progressing. He's still, I think they say neurologically behind, not rolling over yet. He's about four months old. How

Scott Benner 32:26
long does it take to get a real assessment? How old does he have to be before they can start figuring out what has or hasn't happened?

Rosana 32:33
I don't know when with Leif, they told us that brain, any kind of brain bleed or brain tears to take up to a year to heal, and so they told us to wait a year before we really start

Scott Benner 32:46
trying to assess what happened, right? I hope this wasn't too upsetting to your husband. Ex husband's girlfriend, sorry she wasn't there too, right? No,

Rosana 32:55
not this time. Okay,

Scott Benner 32:58
I don't know how you don't know, by the way, not to be there.

Rosana 33:04
Yeah,

Scott Benner 33:06
it was a whole thing. I can't imagine. It wasn't just wait in the waiting room. Like, what are you doing anyway? No, no, oh, my goodness. Well, has any other horrible things happened to any people you love?

Rosana 33:20
No, please. No, no. You're

Scott Benner 33:21
like, I mean, you know, it's funny now, like, I go back to the beginning of our conversation where I just thought you were telling me that your son was diagnosed with type one diabetes eight months ago, and I said, you're okay, but now I'm going to ask you much differently, because I think it's possible the answer is, no, Scott, I'm not but are you okay? I

Rosana 33:37
most days I'm getting there. I probably should see a therapist, but I'm out of money and I have no time, so let's

Scott Benner 33:44
forget everybody else for a second and just think about you for a second. What's the journey you've been on? Like forget the nuts and bolts of it. How have you felt, and how have you gotten through how you felt and what has it led to?

Rosana 33:57
Definitely traumatized. My personality is such that I'm always anxious and always looking for how the next shoe is going to drop, basically what's going to go wrong. Obviously, this is something I'd never imagined. So no matter how much you worry, it always ends up being something you didn't worry about. A lot of, you know, kind of depression, maybe, of just trying to handle little being alone. And his dad stepped up and has really helped, and he still goes, you know, week on, week off, to his dad's house, which gives both of us a break, basically, right? But yeah, just handling it alone, and yeah, financially.

Scott Benner 34:37
How much do? What can you tell me? What was the bill.

Rosana 34:41
Obviously, they have their bill. The insurance has what they're going to pay. And then we had our out of pocket Max, which I have pretty good insurance through my work. So our out of pocket Max was 8700

Scott Benner 34:53
still a lot of money, huh? Yeah. Do you remember the pre insurance bill? The bill the hospital?

Rosana 35:00
It was very close to 2 million. Wow, yeah,

Scott Benner 35:03
jeez. And the insurance company, like, what do they do? They pay half of it.

Rosana 35:08
Oh, I think it was less than half. Yeah, I want to say it was like, 750,000

Scott Benner 35:12
Okay, and then you get to pay, uh, can you imagine? What do they need your eight grand for? Like, if seven you don't even, like, if 750,000 was a good number for them, what do they need? Your eight grand? Eight grand for? What are they doing with that? Buying a cooling pad? I don't think so. There's only one hospital has one. Oh, my God. Okay, so you've you feel like you've been depressed. Definitely struggled with that for a few months. And I've struggled, not clinically, like I've never seen a therapist, and I always kind of have when I start feeling that way, I have steps, I guess, to get myself out of it. If that makes sense. Is it wrapped around your anxiety that something else is going to happen?

Rosana 35:56
Oh, yeah, but I think this definitely, like proved to me that things are going to happen, whether I worry or not

Scott Benner 36:03
prior to your son's illness coming on, had there been a lot of health issues at all to deal with over the previous years?

Rosana 36:12
Nope, none of my kids have been sick or unhealthy. In fact, Leif was really the only he had broken his collarbone before he'd actually broken it twice. They had to break him to get they had to break his collarbone to get him out of me. He was a very big child.

Scott Benner 36:28
Sorry. I mean, honestly, did you say just leave him in it's all right. Like, I was like, I changed my mind he could live in there. I didn't know all this was gonna happen. But point being, is that you've made your fair share of babies your you know, your daughter's making them probably. I mean, it sounds like everybody's pretty fertile, so there's a lot of kids going on and, like, and no one's been sick. And then all of a sudden, you're 53 and your son is, like, being life flighted and is in a coma, yeah. And then before you can look up your daughter's almost losing her life and a baby in a

Rosana 37:03
pregnancy, Yep, yeah. And it feels like, so I live in Oklahoma, in the middle of tornado alley, and it does. It feels like it's just, you know, kind of a normal day, and all of a sudden tornadoes come through, lift your house, drop it back down, and you're just supposed to get up the next morning and go back to

Scott Benner 37:24
work, yeah, and that's what you've been doing, yep. But you think maybe you should talk to somebody I don't know, Rosanna, you probably should let me just listen. There are days you wake up and you like, is it dread, or do you feel like, Oh no, here it comes. And then you something bad is going to happen today, and then you have to you have to talk yourself out of it. No, you

Rosana 37:46
know, the anxiety has pretty much, I mean, I think for now, I've kind of looked at being 53 and looking at the rest of my life as being alone and having to get up every day and go to work and take care of everything by myself.

Scott Benner 38:00
You feel lonely, yeah, yeah. Well, you should start your own business and then start dating the men that work for you. I think that sounds like it works. I hear that works. Do you try to date? Do you try to go meet people I haven't dated in four years? I did before that. In fact, in 2019 I went on 10 first dates. Oh, and then what happened COVID. I

Rosana 38:27
actually got married, and COVID hit. And, well, I got married during COVID, I think because I thought the end of the world was coming or something, I'm not sure. And I needed major surgery, and he was there and being helpful, and then he lost his job, and turned out that he was a ranching alcoholic and decided to start stealing things from me and pawning them.

Scott Benner 38:49
Rosanna, listen, I need you to. I need you just to. I don't know what I need you to do. Hold on a second. You know, it's not often people come on here with so many problems that I'm like, have you tried drinking?

Rosana 39:04
No, not no to look at me. I'm like, very

Scott Benner 39:07
feel together, calm. So you took a shot with some guy and then he wasn't all he purported to be. How long were you with him before you married him? Over six months. Yeah, that's not long enough. Was he your age?

Rosana 39:22
Yes, yeah. And I only knew my first husband six months before. And then, how

Scott Benner 39:28
long were you married to him for? Though, 23 years. So you thought, Oh, this is how it works. Yeah, yeah, it's not how it works. I'm sorry to ask you, like this way, do you feel lonely, like, intellectually, or do you feel lonely, physically, probably both. I mean, the kids just bang, they use the apps, and then they have sex. You could cover half of this that way, if you wanted to right, swipe, swipe, swipe. You show up somewhere. Yeah, I think you do. You're not

Rosana 39:56
up for that. You know, after all this, I'm feeling very. Bold and frumpy, like, I'm in my Nana years, you know, 53

Scott Benner 40:04
I don't think that's true. I don't think you're Nana yet. Like, I mean, just because that kid got out there and started working early doesn't mean that you're like a grandmom. I

Rosana 40:14
mean, I feel like a lot of the guys my age are looking for younger women, and they can get them really, how do they do that? I mean, there's a lot of single women,

Scott Benner 40:23
so they're out there fishing for girls with daddy issues, and you're like, could you go older? Could you get like, could you go to 60? I mean, possibly, you know what? I mean, like, a surprise 60 year old guy. Yeah, right. They got meds now, like, if need be. I mean, listen, you're in a it's a difficult situation. I don't say otherwise. You know what? I mean, like I'm sitting here joking with you, but I don't think I could date like that seems ridiculous.

Rosana 40:49
No, it's not fun. Yeah, I'm not a looker. I'm not someone you would like twice. You have to get to know me before you decide to like me.

Scott Benner 40:59
I'm sure that's not true, but so you're worried that you're not visually, uh, appealing enough to, like do the quick dating thing. Yeah, so you worry guys are going to reach cheat just for

Rosana 41:10
sex. I don't even think they're interested

Scott Benner 41:13
in that. You never been a guy, so,

Rosana 41:17
I mean, after the last two I think they're mostly interested in somebody to take care of them.

Scott Benner 41:21
Oh, you, you end up finding guys who are, like, near to wells and need help.

Rosana 41:26
Yeah? I mean, they need somebody to cook and clean and yeah, pay for, yeah, pay for the second. With the second one, that was pay for things. But yeah,

Scott Benner 41:33
I can't imagine. Was he your age? Yeah, he's looking for you to pay the bills.

Rosana 41:38
Yeah. I mean, he's, he's since married again and living with his parents.

Scott Benner 41:43
Was that his third marriage? Yeah. See, he married you left you married another woman. Is in his 50s, married a third time, living with his parents, yeah. Oh, goodness, is it that bad out there? Yeah, that's upsetting. I mean, he should be embarrassed.

Rosana 42:03
And maybe it's just where I live, I don't know. Well, I

Scott Benner 42:06
was gonna say, Can you move? Well, not now that I have, you know, children and grandchildren. Yeah, you don't want to leave the kids. No, they're all here. Well, you should be depressed. I guess it's, I guess I don't want to argue with you about it, but I think you should talk to somebody about it, though, someday I'm gonna chuck it all and move to London. Really is that? Chuck it all? You're all on your own. Go yourselves. I'm out of here. Send pictures if you want, but don't feel pressured. Is that a dream of yours to live there? Oh

Rosana 42:39
yeah, I got to go for the first time last year, and it was everything I thought it would be.

Scott Benner 42:43
Why don't you and leaf go? Well, it's expensive, is it? I don't know. I've never been there. I think it's fancy that you've got to go at all.

Rosana 42:50
I'm a huge history like, I've read history since I was a kid, and I know I'm an anglophile. I know so much about one you know English history,

Scott Benner 43:00
right? And you just and that'd be a good place for you to eat. What can you guys go explore for a while, or

Rosana 43:06
go live there? Or, I'm hoping some someday when I've recovered from this.

Scott Benner 43:10
What do you think that looks like being recovered from this? I kind

Rosana 43:15
of have a five year plan of just trying to get out of debt and get physically back to where I can, you know, go and do fun stuff, and by then, leaf will graduate high school and

Scott Benner 43:25
I'll have some more freedom, okay, getting out of debt. Is that from the medical

Rosana 43:30
stuff? Oh, I wish I could say it was, but it's not. Is

Scott Benner 43:33
it from your crack Asia? From your crack addiction?

Rosana 43:37
No, it's from going to London last year. Oh, and also, I've written three books and self published and paid for my dream that turns out I'm not very good at marketing. Well,

Scott Benner 43:49
you should have come and found me rose, and I would have told you that that's not going to work. I had a publisher, and it's impossible to move, yeah? Impossible to move books like it just, it's really hard. Yeah, yeah. Also, I'm looking at you here, and you're not giving yourself enough credit for how you look. So I decided to, like, find you on the thing. You're fine. Don't worry about it that I wouldn't. I wouldn't worry about that one time if I was you. How much does it cost to self publish a book? Well, the

Rosana 44:16
last time around, I figured out that I could put it on Amazon and I wouldn't have to pay up front. But the first few times I sent it to a publishing I sent it to someplace where you could pay for copies and then sell them on your own. Okay, so, and then, you know, writing it, I you have a lot of copies of your book. Is that what you're telling me? Yeah, no, I have a couple boxes. Yeah. I also paid for an editor and I paid for an illustrator, because one of the books I wrote was a children's

Scott Benner 44:42
book. Well, let me ask you a question, do you think it's a good book? Yeah, yeah. You just can't, like, there's no way to get people to notice it,

Rosana 44:49
right? Yeah. I mean, you kind of have to be really into social media and have a lot of followers.

Scott Benner 44:54
Yeah, listen, I have a lot of followers, and it's still hard to make people notice stuff. So, yeah, yeah. Yes, you're at the whim of the platforms. Generally speaking,

Rosana 45:02
that's okay. Lesson learned. I went after my dream. I'm proud of myself for doing that. Now I just have to pay for it.

Scott Benner 45:07
I would give that book as gifts at every gift giving occasion for the rest of my life. Anytime somebody has a baby, I'd be like, hey, congratulations, Mazel Tov, here's a book. It's signed, I would tell

Rosana 45:19
them. The funny thing is, it's at the Children's Book is at my local library. I took it there, and it gets checked out all the time. People, like, always checked out. Yeah, yeah. And the library, in fact, said they have two copies now, so they'll check it out. They just

Scott Benner 45:33
won't buy it. Yeah? I mean, it's a tough road. I'll share a story with you that you're gonna say, well, would have been nice, Scott, if you shared this with me before I self published my book, while I was writing my book, which is now over. I mean, a long time ago, 2013 right? I had a daily relationship with my publisher. We talked all the time, and I'd pick around and, like, ask questions. And I one time said, like, Are people always bothering you with their book ideas? And she laughed, and she's like, constantly, like, Do you know what the worst ones are? And I was like, what's that? She goes, the people who think they have a good idea for a children's book. And I was like, Oh, yeah. She goes, everybody, everybody thinks they have a children's book. And I was like, Okay. And she goes, and don't get me wrong, she's like, some of them do, and she's like, but a lot of them don't,

Rosana 46:23
oh, I've read some. I'm like, and that's what kind of made me, pushed me into going ahead and publishing mine, because I was like, if they can get theirs out in the store, surely

Scott Benner 46:32
you could. Yes. Can you do something like, I mean, honestly, could you go to a local bookstore and tell them you'd like to, like, look, I want to put an author event here one evening, and I can bring in a certain amount of people and like, could you do that? Could you invite 2030 people to come? I've done

Rosana 46:50
book signing signings here in town, sold a few books. My biggest problem is I am very much an introvert, and I feel very awkward saying here, please find my book,

Scott Benner 47:02
so you're gonna find this next little thing interesting. Then after I got my book written, and I was out, you know, pushing it, which is the only way to talk about what you're doing, you're just out there, like, just trying to make anybody aware of it, I finished an interview one day, and the publisher called me, and they were like, that was so good. And I said, thank you. I was like, Why do you seem like, surprised that I did a good job with the interview? And she goes, I think it's just because authors are terrible at talking. Usually, that's why we write. Yeah, that's exactly what she said. She said, You're clearly not really an like, I'm not a writer. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not a book author, and she's like, but on this part of it, you're way better at this part of it, she's like, significantly better. They just go out there and they sit and they wait for questions. Nobody asks them a question, and they sit there. Have you ever heard me tell that story about the book fair I went to one time? I think I did. You were talking? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was stunned. I looked around the room and I was like, do all these people think someone's just gonna walk up to them and magically buy this book? Like I was out in front of the table handful of books. I was like, Hey, check this out. I sold all those books. I was out of there by like, lunch. That's what you I mean, if you're not doing that either, there's no way I'm just always so awkward I don't know you're doing a good job of this. Why do

Rosana 48:22
you think you're leading? You're telling you're asking me questions,

Scott Benner 48:27
and I really am the secret to this whole thing. But that's not the point. The point is that is that people should I never do this, but if you send me the link to your book, I'll put it in the show notes of the podcast.

Rosana 48:36
It doesn't have anything to do with diabetes, although maybe I need to write a book. I don't know.

Scott Benner 48:41
I don't care. Okay, I don't I don't know what it's about. I don't care what it's about. I don't even care if it's good. What do you think of that? But if you send me a link to where people can buy it, I will put it in the show notes of the podcast player. Because, by the way, let me just say this out loud. No one else try that like, don't I am NOT DO I already turned down 10 emails a day from people like, I just want to come on and talk to come on and talk to people about my app idea or my business idea. Oh, shut up. Leave me alone. Leave me alone. So uh, but for you, Rosanna, because of everything you've been through, that's why poor pitiful, because of the luck you and your family have, we're gonna see if some people might not buy this book. What is the Book about? The children's book. Yeah,

Rosana 49:23
here's the other thing. I'm terrible at describing it, so it is and I wrote it when my oldest daughter was a child, was a baby. Okay?

Scott Benner 49:32
It's about the life of a rock, like a pet rock.

Rosana 49:36
It's called stone story, and it's about a rock that's in a creek, and he gets kicked out of the creek. And over the years, he gets kicked and damaged and thrown through a window, and then at some point, thrown in the trash. And then somebody digs them out of the trash and cleans them up and puts him in a special place in the wall of that's being built. And he's a shiny jewel. Yeah, nice.

Scott Benner 50:00
And what does that mean to you? Is that something you feel like happened to you?

Rosana 50:04
Yeah? I mean, I think it's a kind of a parable, I guess, or an allegory, whatever you call that, but of how people sometimes feel,

Scott Benner 50:11
you know, yeah, well, I think everybody has a good opportunity to be a part of that, of that wall like, you know, just what do you need? You need somebody around you that cares a little bit, a little bit of a little bit of self confidence. Maybe that's where you're, you know, where you could start for yourself, like along the road here, like, you know, people have been through some hard things. You've supported them and done a great job of being somebody's mom a number of times, right? You know, you tried to be a good wife, and just because the person on the other side of that doesn't receive it that way. Doesn't mean you didn't do well at it. You know, even the second guy who took advantage like you were, you were earnest with him, I imagine, oh yeah, yeah, right, I'd get out there and do it again. I'm not kidding. Persona like, what's the alternative for punishment? No, but what's the alternative? Now that you know this is how it could go. Anything better than this is going to be a win. So your bar is super low. So that's awesome. And the other seriously, Hey, you can't get let down, really, if somebody has sold your belongings. I mean, you know what? I mean, like, it's not good. He didn't sell him, he didn't sell him for meth. Did he?

Rosana 51:17
Life does not sound that bad in my head.

Scott Benner 51:21
Well, I'm trying to be fun. But my point here is that, like, you know, I'd say, get out there and try again now, you know, maybe put up a little more of a wall. Let's not marry anybody six months in. But, you know, thought the world was ending. I hear what you're saying in the moment, it felt like, I mean, I felt like it was ending to me too. I'm

Rosana 51:39
not. I rationally knew that. I think it was just, you know, emotionally, because I was also staring down I needed a full hysterectomy surgery, and I had no one to help me.

Scott Benner 51:49
Oh, you, Oh, you, you maybe did a little of, like, if I'm married, this will be easier,

Rosana 51:54
you know, and yeah, and then the whole COVID thing, and I got laid off, and then I was working from home, and it was just he was there, and he was helpful, and he was nice.

Scott Benner 52:06
Well, listen, put that right on your profile. Hysterectomy. Can't get pregnant. You know what I

Rosana 52:09
mean? Well, I'm 53 I don't think I could have anyway at this point, but

Scott Benner 52:13
we're going to be telling them you're 43 in the profile. So you gotta jazz this up a little bit. You know what I mean? Same thing you got to do with the book when you're selling it. Yeah, did you say it was about a rock or a stone? A stone? Yeah, that's good. Don't say rock stones better. Is it shiny the stone? Well, not to begin with, no, but at the end, it's

Rosana 52:31
shiny. It's been through everything it is, yeah, like a tumbler of life,

Scott Benner 52:36
exactly. Do you not see this as your path, too? Why can't you actually be that Shiny Stone. It could be just waiting for somebody to find me. What would have to happen for you to end up in that wall nice and shiny, I guess somebody coming along that actually saw me, for me, yeah, and not for what I could do for them. That'd be a damn good start, wouldn't it? Well, yep, let me say this, Rosanna, you're not going to meet those people in your apartment. They're not. They're not. I mean, look, unless they're at work. Oh yeah, you said, I think before we started recording, you said you work with, how did you put it? Tell me what you said, again, criminals and lawyers. She's like, I work with criminals and lawyers, and often, would you say the lawyers are worse than the criminal? The lawyers are worse than the criminals? Okay, yeah, okay, so yeah, for you specifically, let's not date at work. I think that's, that's an obvious one, especially like, yeah, I probably want to avoid cops to older cops, right? Yeah, yeah, no disrespect to older cops, but you all know what I mean. A little jaded by now, you know I'm saying, yeah, yeah, right. So what do we do? Like, do you I mean, I don't even know how to do this. Like, I'm sitting here thinking, like, if I had to go meet somebody right now, I swear I don't know what to do. But can I say this last summer, my wife went away for business, my kids were they didn't live here, you know? No, I was by myself, is what I'm saying. And I wanted to see that first mission, Impossible movie of the two parter that ends the series. The second part is out. Now. I want to see the first part. Nobody went with me. I went to a theater. I went out one night, made the podcast. I did my business was supposed to do, you know, and I went out to a movie, and I'm sitting there watching a movie. I am by myself. There's probably 10 people in there, not many at all. Movie ends. Lady in front of me turns around, looks. She goes, boy, I really love that. I said I did too. And we started chatting a little bit. She's a lovely woman, probably a little younger than me. She kept chatting with me as we walked out, she stopped me in the parking lot to talk again. And I thought, hmm, I could get this lady, and she was being very friendly, and she was lovely. And of course, me, being married in the that I wasn't there looking for a date, slowed down the whole thing. I said to her, it was really nice to meet her, and I left, and she went on her way. But we could have kept talking like if I would have said to her, if I wasn't, let me just be clear, if I wasn't married, I could have said to her. We should go. You sit down somewhere and get a drink and talk. She we would have gone. Now I don't know how that would have ended, maybe with her selling my belongings. I don't know exactly. I gotta tell you like I didn't expect that. And there it was. So maybe you just gotta keep putting yourself out there till something, something fires off. You know?

Rosana 55:19
Yeah. I mean, this woman obviously had more confidence than I do. I don't

Scott Benner 55:23
know about that. I think we were just caught up in the we enjoyed the movie, and we started talking to each other. Yeah, if she's listening, really pretty Indian lady in her 40s. I wasn't married, I definitely would have asked you out. We were having a good time so and all it was is that we had like, a mutual like interest. At the moment, it was enough to start talking about that. Don't go picking other people have self published their books, because then we're going to find more introverted people, and you guys are just going

Rosana 55:50
to sit still and not talk well. And everything I like is an introverted thing. I mean,

Scott Benner 55:54
well, there's a good point. What are some of the things you enjoy doing? I

Rosana 55:57
love history of museums and antique stores. And I do genealogy, I go to cemeteries.

Scott Benner 56:05
Well, these seem like things other people like to do. Why don't you? Like, that's awesome. Like, I mean, can't you find somebody else who enjoys like, I mean, let's start cheaper. Like, going to cemeteries, do that, and then, and then find somebody that wants to travel and go see other stuff and like, I mean, people love history. There's got to be other it's got to be men who enjoy that too, yeah. And they don't have to be like, it could be friendly at first, because you said you want people to get to know you, right? Yeah. Rosanna, this is done deal. I think this is easy. Let's get this accomplished. Don't do it through Facebook. I feel like I just sat through a therapy session, though. Do you feel good? Good enough to send me a co pay?

Rosana 56:47
Oh, but I'll send you a link to my book.

Scott Benner 56:49
Awesome. Not even offer me a free book. Fine. That's fine. Well, I'm glad that this felt good. Do you feel better now?

Rosana 56:55
Yeah, yeah. I'm obviously going to sit back and be worried about all the stuff I said. But

Scott Benner 57:00
really, do not worry about anything. I don't know anyone in my personal life. Well, that's upsetting to me. I wish everybody listened. No, I tried, I tried. Believe me, you get it out there. Thank you. Yeah, awesome, awesome. That is that. I appreciate that very much. Oh, I didn't even ask you, but does the podcast, is it been valuable for you with your son's

Rosana 57:22
diabetes? Oh, yeah. Like, right away, I found the Facebook page, and then, think her name is Nico. She had I asked a question. She posted a series bold beginnings. I think it was Yep. So I listened to all of those. And then I've been listening to defining,

Scott Benner 57:38
defining diabetes, going through different terms. You can understand what they mean.

Rosana 57:42
And then also, I listen to like, the new ones as they come out.

Scott Benner 57:45
Awesome. Well, I appreciate that very much. I do. And you've probably just made it so that Rob will drop the bull beginnings trailer right after you stop talking.

Rosana 57:53
It was a very good one. Yeah,

Scott Benner 57:55
I appreciate that. See, it's a series, as a lot of people seem to find, that it's helpful getting

Rosana 57:59
going. I mean, I reading Facebook posts on the group, I think we had a special understanding of diabetes because we actually went through diabetes education three times. How so, once at the hospital in the city, and then once at the rehab. And then when we came back, our endocrinologist made us go through education, like a five part education series. Okay, wow, so we got the same thing three times.

Scott Benner 58:28
And Was that helpful, or did you still was the bold beginning still additive for you?

Rosana 58:33
The bold beginnings was definitely helped fill in, like this is what we can really do, you

Scott Benner 58:38
know? Okay, took you from maybe more basic ideas to something a little deeper. Yeah, yeah, awesome. I'm glad, and I'm glad he's doing well, that's awesome. I hope he gets back to playing soccer. That would be I mean, I hate soccer, but I if he likes it, I'm okay with it. By the way, hates a strong word. I just don't understand it. It seems like track and field without purpose. It's a lot of running, a lot of running, not a lot of scoring, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Nevertheless, those of you love it, I'm not saying you shouldn't love it. Continue on, and please stop sending emails saying, Stop talking badly about soccer, because that happens a lot. I just don't like soccer. It's no shade. It was really nice of you to share this. I know that was a really difficult thing to talk about. And then you talked about some personal stuff, which was, was really kind of you. I'm sure you're not nearly the only person living through, you know, being still young and viable, but feeling older and, you know, I mean, listen, we didn't really say it out loud, but what you're thinking, and that didn't say, is that, like people my age, the good ones are probably taken it's a lot of picking through the others to find the ones that are left, right, right, yeah, well, but if you don't pick, you won't find and I guarantee they're good people out there. Yeah, that's, that's the hope, yeah. And if not, you can always use male escorts. There's nothing wrong with that. Did they exist? And I. I, you know, I don't know. Hey, have you actually, like, lived through a heart like a tornado?

Rosana 1:00:05
I mean, not one that's actually hit me, but gone overhead and I curved it? I mean, I've been here most of my life, so they're always close frightening on a scale of one to 10. I don't get frightened by those kinds of things. Interesting, but definitely, I mean, sounded like a train coming,

Scott Benner 1:00:26
yeah, just cruising down the coming at you from, like, just a direction, yeah? So that doesn't scare you, but you do worry about things that could happen to my kids that don't exist. You always like that. Or was that after you had babies, after I had babies, for sure. Yeah, that's a, it's a God's little joke there. Yeah, yeah, I got you. All right.

Rosana 1:00:47
Well, I mean, yeah, even the ones that are grown up and out of the house,

Scott Benner 1:00:51
oh, good news. You don't stop worrying about them. Never. Jesus. All right. Well, this is good not spend the rest of my life doing that. I guess, Rosanna, you were really nice to do this. I know this was difficult for you, so I appreciate it very much. Thank you. Yep, hold on one second for

me. 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 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. Touched by type one, sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Check them out at touched by type one.org on Instagram and Facebook. Give them a follow. Go check out what they're doing. They are helping people with type one diabetes in ways you just can't imagine.

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Scott Benner 7/24/25 Scott Benner 7/24/25

#1584 Tiger By the Tail

Andrew, living with T1D for 31 years, and his wife Gina share their journey after their 3-year-old daughter’s diagnosis—while raising a toddler and expecting another baby.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Andrew 0:15
My name is Andrew gears. I was diagnosed at the age of seven or eight in late April, our three year old daughter, Brooke, unfortunately, got diagnosed as well.

Scott Benner 0:27
If your loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're seeking a clear, practical perspective, check out the bold beginning series on the Juicebox podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal insight into type one, our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions. You'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juicebox podcast, the bold beginning series and all of the collections in the Juicebox podcast are available in your audio app and at Juicebox podcast.com in the menu. 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 Medtronic diabetes and their mini med 780 G system designed to help ease the burden of diabetes management, imagine fewer worries about Miss boluses or miscalculated carbs thanks to meal detection technology and automatic correction doses. Learn more and get started today at Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at contour next.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the twist a ID system powered by tide pool that features the twist loop algorithm, which you can target to a glucose level as low as 87 Learn more at twist.com/juicebox. That's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. Get precision insulin delivery with a target range that you choose at twist.com/juicebox. That's t, w, i, i s t.com/juicebox,

Andrew 2:47
my name is Andrew gears. I was diagnosed at the age of seven or eight, so I've had that type one diabetes for 3132 years now, and about 1212, to 14 months ago, in late April, our three year old daughter, Brooke, she unfortunately got diagnosed as well, which kind of came as a shock to all of us.

Scott Benner 3:08
And Gina's here too, your wife. So Gina is Brooke, your only child.

Speaker 1 3:13
No, Brooke is our oldest. We have another child, Graham, who is two years old, and we have another baby on the way. Do any week now?

Scott Benner 3:23
Oh, I saw you on camera. I just thought you had a big lunch. But does that what's going on?

Speaker 1 3:28
No, no,

Scott Benner 3:30
I wasn't confused. Well, congratulations. Thank you. That's lovely. Do you know what you're having?

Speaker 1 3:36
No, we're going to be surprised with this one. I think it's our final so we have boy girls. So we figured this would be a good last hurrah to be surprised. Did you know

Scott Benner 3:45
The first two when they were coming? Yes, yes. So have you shared at all with Andrew? Like, does it feel similar to one of them or the other one the pregnancy?

Speaker 1 3:54
I'm thinking it's girl. He is thinking, I think more boy. But also he's got such a special relationship with Brooke, which will come out through our conversation, that I think he's afraid for it to be another girl and to split his, you know, and you're you have a daughter. So, I mean, the daddy daughter relationship is, is very strong.

Scott Benner 4:16
It's fun most of the time. Yeah, although I'll tell you Andrew, as they get older, they they push back. So

Andrew 4:22
I both. I have a co worker. She always says, I enjoyed these first 11 years, because then our son's name is Graham. She goes, Graham's gonna become your best friend. So soak up these first 11 years, because that pendulum swings pretty quickly and aggressively.

Scott Benner 4:34
My son and I make the I'm scared face at each other once in a while. But no, no, it's that's lovely. Congratulations. How long you guys been

Speaker 1 4:41
married? We've been married six years. Six years this August. Awesome.

Scott Benner 4:45
That's great. You guys, you got busy and got started making, making a family, huh?

Speaker 1 4:49
Yeah. Well, we got together in our 30s, and we lived, you know, in Chicago. That's where we met. That's where Brooke was born. And then we moved to Louisville, Kentucky. So, yeah, you know, we kind of got all the fun out of the way early on, and we were ready for family.

Scott Benner 5:09
I just want to say now that you've mentioned Kentucky that I saw on the internet, I think it was yesterday, somebody took a replica of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard and jumped it through a square over a fountain in Kentucky. Is there any way you knew that that was happening? I don't know how big

Andrew 5:24
Kentucky is. I did only because, and I'll be shocked you, and if you say that you were aware of this, I got a like, an Instagram reel, or a couple co workers had shared a video, because I do some work in that area. It's in Somerset Kentucky, okay? And I know the exact location where they did that. So I had a good chuckle thinking, God, that would have been fantastic. I was out there watching that live, but that's that's about an hour and a half from us. I have

Scott Benner 5:47
to tell you, prior to me seeing that video yesterday, my only story about Kentucky was at a waffle house, but this was a much better story. Also, did you? Did you see the video the cameraman that just got out of the way at the end of

Andrew 5:57
it? I didn't see that part. I just saw him just completely take off, airborne through that blue fountain. And I thought, okay, that is like the Sunday

Scott Benner 6:05
it comes crashing down on the other side. The guy loses it. It starts heading to the left. And there's a guy on the side of the road with a camera on the street, and he is committed to getting as much of that as he can, because he grabs that camera, jumps out of the way the last second it's I would have been gone much quicker than him, is what I'm saying. But nevertheless, casualties, no, they looked like it went okay. I think one of the doors fell off, but other than that, so I'm gonna just bounce around the way this occurs to me. So, Gina, can you tell me a little bit about what you recall about your daughter's diagnosis?

Speaker 1 6:35
Yeah. So, I mean, I remember it like when she was born. I was traveling for work, going to Chicago, and I was in Chicago prior to Brooke's diagnosis, we had noticed some erratic behaviors from her, and I just kind of chalked it up to toddler threes. You know, they say terrible twos, but really it's like terrible threes, just tantrums, and, you know, they were just becoming really extreme, really aggressive, crying, hitting, just more so than I thought was maybe normal. You know, our nanny, who happened to at the time, be a type one diabetic as well, had asked me, you know, have you ever thought about checking Brooke's blood sugar? Or do you ever think that Brooke could be diagnosed with type one? And this is something Andrew and I honestly never talked about when we were having kids dating, the likelihood of our kids ever getting type one. So I remember telling her No, but I'll, you know, run it across Andrew. And I remember vividly having the conversation with Andrew, do you think that Brooke would ever get type one? And he shot it down immediately. Absolutely not. No. And that was kind of that we never talked about, like checking our blood sugar, nothing.

Scott Benner 8:00
Can I jump in and ask Andrew, did you shoot it down so quickly because you didn't want it to be true, or because you didn't think it was a

Andrew 8:06
possibility? No, I just never thought there was any chance. I and we'll get into this, I'm sure. But I think that's why the day of her diagnosis, I just, I mean, I was stopped and stuck like a deer in headlights, feeling so exposed and ignorant, because it had truly just never crossed my mind, not for a single second. You know, Gina even references that specific conversation in our kitchen where she said, you remember the one time I asked, like, hey, what do you think the odds are that any of our kids would have type one diabetes? And he said very quickly, like, oh, zero, yeah. No chance. You know the way the doctors had kind of explained how my diagnosis had occurred, which I'm sure we'll get into at some point, I just thought it was, you know, no hereditary component, a series of events, a possible sickness followed by some emotional stress. But I never that never crossed my mind when we talked about family, growing family, the last thing that I ever thought about was potential type one diabetes presenting itself in any of our children. Yeah,

Scott Benner 9:07
do either of you have other autoimmune issues in your family line or personally,

Speaker 1 9:11
Andrew's mom, Andrew's family has autoimmune his mom is celiac. She's got shogrims. His sister celiac. They both have hypothyroid. Her brother was celiac.

Scott Benner 9:28
You have type one. Do you have anything else, Andrew, besides type one?

Andrew 9:31
Not right now, but I'll be honest. You know, Brooke's diagnosis has made me think I'm much more adamant about annual blood tests, getting the comprehensive panel taken care of, but right now, just type one, and I'll be honest, I look at what my mom, sister and brother like, what their diets entail, and their strictness around intense celiac as well. And you know, I always look at it and say, like, Hey, I just have to give some insulin. I can still eat whatever I want, but as long as I exercise and. Give insulin. So everyone's got kind of their challenges, and you got to play the cards that you're dealt. But at the end of the day, that's that's something that's definitely top of mind nowadays. So just being aggressive and out in front with that, with Brooke over the years, and making sure I'm getting my annual blood work done, and you know, our son, Graham, and our third child that's to come here in the near future, just making sure that we're doing what we need to do to detect that early and often, I think, is of paramount importance

Scott Benner 10:26
for us now. Gina, there is there any autoimmune on your side of the family? No, nothing. No. IBS, eczema, anything?

Speaker 1 10:34
No. I mean, the kids is babies, like Graham right now has eczema, and Brooke has had some eczema, but like nothing, that's extreme. I mean,

Scott Benner 10:43
I'm interested in my one question before I move forward, is the the friend that was like saying to you, like, do you think there could be type one? Do you think they were trying to hint to you that they thought it was type one? Or do you think it was just like an actual wonderment of theirs? I wonder if that's a thing that could happen. No,

Speaker 1 10:57
our nanny, I think she was expressing her concern that her behavior seemed out of the norm, and she's here today. She's watching the kids right now, and she's honestly a godsend. Her name's Donna, and I think she was brought to us, you know, for honestly, this very reason, if not, and many others, but lucky to meet her, yeah. So I'm in Chicago, and Brooke is with Donna Graham. Is not even a year old. He's 11 months. And something happened in the morning where Brooke just had, like a knockout tantrum that just didn't warrant any kind of reaction that she was giving Donna, sure, and Donna just something in her was like, This doesn't seem right, and she took it upon herself. She knew she was overstepping, but she's like, I just, I can't she finger poked her, because Donna is the type one, and she finger pokes herself all the time, and the meter just registered high. Is

Scott Benner 12:01
it just random that Donna has type one diabetes? Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 12:04
yeah, huh? How cool. Yeah,

Scott Benner 12:07
it's crazy, yeah.

Speaker 1 12:08
So you know, her meter ran registered high. So she's like shaking. She calls my mother in law because she was afraid to call Andrew, overstepping. And then the possibility of sharing this news. And my mother in law was like, Did you wash your fingers? Wash your hands, to make sure that you know there's nothing sticky on there. Did it again? And I think it was either high or force something crazy. High. Donna

Scott Benner 12:37
said, this isn't my first day. I know what I'm doing, but I'll do it one more time. Right, right?

Speaker 1 12:40
Yeah. So then, you know, my mother in law was like, call Andrew. He's, you gotta call him. He's got to come home. So she made the call to Andrew, and then I, I get a call from Andrew. I think I've silenced him first, because I was in a meeting, and then he's like, call me back. And I was like, Oh, that's not great. And he's just kind of rambling and crying. And I'm like, what? And he just tells me, Brooke has diabetes. Oh,

Scott Benner 13:09
gosh, how did that, like, hit you? Did you believe it? At first,

Speaker 1 13:13
I was numb. I was really calm. I was really numb. I was shaking because I wanted to get the hell home. You know, I got to the airport right away. I got on a flight right away. I remember calling my mom, and this is what he told me, I get to the hospital. I just see my baby in the hospital bed, Andrew's crying, you know, he's like, uncontrollable. And it didn't really hit me until we were checked in at Children's and, you know, she started to, like, claw at the door, wanting to go home, and she just didn't want anybody touching her anymore. She didn't want any more finger pokes and and then I'm like, thinking to myself, this is our life now,

Scott Benner 14:03
Andrew in that room, what's the crying? Is it just breath that something happened? Are you picturing a life for her? What is it that's got you at that moment? The brand new twist insulin pump offers peace of mind with unmatched personalization and allows you to target a glucose level as low as 87 there are more reasons why you might be interested in checking out twist, but just in case that one got you twist.com/juicebox, that's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. You can target glucose levels between 87 and 180 it's completely up to you. In addition to precision insulin delivery that's made possible by twist design, twist also offers you the ability to edit your carb entries even after you've bolused. This gives the twist loop algorithm the best information to make its decisions with, and the twist loop algorithm. Rhythm lives on the pump, so you don't have to stay next to your phone for it to do its job. Twist is coming very soon, so if you'd like to learn more or get on the wait list, go to twist.com/juicebox. That's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. Links in the show notes. Links at Juicebox podcast.com. The contour next gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you're paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right. If you go to my link, contour next.com/juicebox you're going to find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreen, CVS, Rite, aid, Kroger and Meijer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips in meter than you would pay through my link for the contour next gen and contour next test strips in cash. What am I saying? My link may be cheaper out of your pocket than you're paying right now, even with your insurance. And I don't know what meter you have right now. I can't say that, but what I can say for sure is that the contour next gen meter is accurate. It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years. Contour next.com/juicebox dot com, slash Juicebox. And if you already have a contour meter and you're buying test strips, doing so through the Juicebox podcast link will help to support the show.

Andrew 16:30
And I get emotional now sure about it. Think all of the above. And I knew when Donna called us, or called me, I should say about an hour away from home, and, you know, she was getting a little long winded, and I just said, Hey, I, you know, do you mind spit it out? I feel like something's coming. And she said, you know, essentially, hey, when you left, as you could see, she was having terrible, a terrible tantrum. And what Gina had left out was we were on a family vacation in Florida, and the week prior to that, she'd send me videos. I flew back a week early to work, and they stayed down there for an extra week with Gina's parents, and she was sending me videos and said, you know, these are so abnormal. And of course, at this stage, she's eaten, you know, chocolate chip mini muffins for breakfast, you know, Skittles for lunch. You know, just normal stuff. So in that moment, I think there was a lot going on. I think first and foremost, I was thinking like, How in the hell did you miss the exact signs of her diagnosis that you had? Yeah,

Scott Benner 17:27
I wanted to ask you, do you know, I mean, you were young, do you remember anything about your own

Andrew 17:31
I remember two specific events. I remember going to the barman Bay. I think it was Barnum and Bailey, you know, the circus, yeah, when, when it used to be actual animals at them. And I remember drinking. I still have the cup at my parents house, but, you know, one of the extra large cup had a tiger tail, is the cup holder, and still at my parents house. But, you know, those are pretty large, and I was just downing drinks. I mean, Sprite after sprite after Sprite, then water after water. My mom wasn't a registered nurse. She's retired now, but for a few nights leading up to that, that circus, she told my dad, you know, I think he's got diabetes. He's up urinating, he's drinking so much, no bed wetting, nothing like that. But just, you know that the telltale signs that are present, but it's just hard for people to act on right until there's an actual diagnosis. So I remember that, and then I remember one day it's been too weak to go to school, and I remember the finger poke at the doctor's office. It was like five something, getting to the Children's Hospital, and then, you know, I was in there for, I think, about five nights, I want to say, with Brooke. Luckily we caught it early enough, where it was a one night stay at the hospital. It just felt like two weeks as I'm sure any parent who has a child with type one diabetes that that probably resonates with them. But, you know, in that moment, I just remember thinking number one, like, how, how in the world we were just cracking jokes about her bathroom usage. She was potty training. And then every 20 minutes she'd be on her little, you know, little toddler toilet filling the thing up, you know, that was the first thing that just really pissed me off. I was angry at myself. And then number two, when Donna had called No, just thought through all of, you know, the challenges and just yeah, you feel like some of their innocence is just kind of stripped and stolen, you know. And you look at a three year old and how did that happen, and why? And the mind is, you know, it's a powerful thing. You know, luckily, when Gina got there, she's always kind of been the rock, and she jumped to it. I was kind of frozen, stuck, you know, just letting my mind race a little bit. And like Gina had just mentioned, that first night in the hospital bed boy, when Brooke was kind of clawing at the door. And you know how regimented it is during the diagnosis period? Hey, here's her food. She has 30 minutes to eat. In 30 minutes, we're going to come back, take the food and give her a shot. And it was, you know, just the reality, like, wow, in the moments notice, like, things have changed very drastically, and this isn't temporary.

Scott Benner 19:57
So how was your experience growing up with. Have fun. I give my parents

Andrew 20:01
all the credit in the world. It wasn't a factor. I mean, I had the lows. I had the highs very early on. I remember in second grade, in order to do sleepovers and overnight camps for soccer and basketball, it taught me the importance of being able to kind of control your sugar, check your sugars, give insulin, give your shots. It was insulin and mph at the time. So, you know, my mom would roll it up in an aluminum foil label, everything, the notes on when to take it so it was present, that's for sure. But, you know, I didn't have an understanding around it. I still remember coming back from the hospital and going back to school. Yeah, you know, no one could eat or drink during class, but the teacher had juice boxes and peanut butter crackers in her drawer. And I remember that first day walking up there saying, I need another Juicebox and another pack of peanut butter crackers. And the teacher said, Hey, you're you're all out. I don't know. I don't know if that's the way it's supposed to be, but I just remember thinking like, how great is this? I can eat and drink in class, and no, no one else can, you know? So I'd say the first few months was learning, and then my mom saying, hey, probably breaking it down in more of layman's terms, so that an eight year old can understand right when that is designed. And the question I always ask myself is, could I feel a low blood sugar at that age? Because what I always tell Gina is our lives, and any, anyone who has a toddler or a baby, I just remember life becoming so much more independent when I could feel low coming on or a high that was hitting me. You know, your body just kind of tells you what's going on. And, you know, I always look at it during the rough patches, like in the middle of the night, when we can't sleep because all the sirens and the alarms are shooting off from her phone, Brooke phone, my phone, you know, you feel like you're in the middle of a war. Yeah, I just keep on saying like, we're we're getting there. You know, you see a three year old become a four year old, and the growth that takes place. And, you know, in my mind, I'm just thinking, we're in the thick of it right now. As anyone with a like, I said, a baby, a toddler, an infant, probably is, but once that individual's body can say, hey, I'm low, I'm high, your body wakes you up naturally. When you do go low in the middle of the night, that happens for you? Oh, gosh, yeah. I mean, I didn't use a CGM in a weird way. I remember listening to the podcast with, I think it was Noah Gray, the chiefs tight end, but where he talked about the blessing that he's been given with diabetes. And, you know, I chuckled at that at first, and I was thinking, like, boy, this guy is he's got more faith than I do. Let's put it that way. I looked at it like the one positive that has come from Brooks diagnosis is it has forced me to use updated technology. I always despise the CGM because the readings wouldn't be accurate with a finger poke. I'd go into exercise, the CGM would say I was 140 within 10 minutes, I was taking like a glucagon pack to get my sugar up to where I need it, and there's a 60 point differential. But you know, through Brooks diagnosis, I didn't want her to start wearing a CGM with a no on a three year old that patch takes up looks bigger, yeah, takes up an entire butt cheek or the back part of her arm. So, you know, in solidarity more than anything. But then through her getting it, it has been a blessing with, you know, control when my a 1c is finally where it should be, and as hers comes down, my comes down. So,

Scott Benner 23:06
yeah, let me ask you that, like, so I get that while you're growing up, your mom says, you know, hey, you can do anything. We're going to play sports. We're going to do a list. You just need to do these shots. When I tell you to you do that. But outcomes wise, what was your a 1c like, as a child and through, like, high school, into college. Oh, I'd have to

Andrew 23:23
take a look at that. I mean, even recently, I look at the last trend chart, because I took a screenshot to compare my chart with my results to Brooks. You know, I was consistently, I'd say the last few years, eight, one to eight, five, okay. I'd always tell myself, that's not bad, because the endocrines would say, oh, you know, pretty good. You should use advanced technology, closed loop systems. And I'd say, Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. And that was the end of it. So

Scott Benner 23:47
even to up to recently, you were an MDI, were using a pump. I've always

Andrew 23:51
used a pump, okay? And my interference said, Hey, man, you got a Ferrari, but you got cloth interior, roll up windows and no radio you gotta use,

Scott Benner 23:59
right? Let me ask Gina. Now he's sitting here telling this story about growing up and all this. Do you know any of that before Brooks diagnosed? Is that a thing that you guys actually spoke because it occurs to me that if you got married a little later in life, that might be a thing you don't talk about.

Speaker 1 24:15
So I remember his mom telling me the story of him getting diagnosed and just this little tough guy walking around the hospital with his, you know, his IV card, and just, you know, determined as hell, which is Andro, it always sounded like from the stories. I mean, yes, he had diabetes, but he was never deprived of anything. So in terms of food, like,

Scott Benner 24:43
yeah, and that was more, how you how she told the story, yeah, now that your kids had diabetes for how long? Just 18 months, yeah, since April. Yeah. Do you look back and wonder, where were all those other stories were? How come they didn't those stories didn't get

Speaker 1 24:57
told, you know, I mean, now. We share now we swap more stories, for sure. And you know, I give Anne so much credit because she didn't have the technology that we have. The fact that you wouldn't even know what your child's blood sugar was, and you were just always going in and finger poking. Imagine that, right? You know, is kind of crazy.

Scott Benner 25:21
Yeah, it's interesting how the technology changed everything. Yeah, prior to diagnosis of Brooke, if Andrew had a story about, like, a kid in school that said something about him, about diabetes, or a time he got really low, or, like, did you hear about any of that as a thing you knew and it just seemed like this anomalous thing, or is it something you didn't speak about. 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 and 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

Speaker 1 26:48
No, so, I mean, while we were dating and everything, I remember, like, you know, we would have like, a night out of drinking. I would always get like, low blood sugar in the morning, and he would finger poke me in the morning just to see what it was, and he's like, Yeah, you're not low.

Scott Benner 27:05
You're fine. You're just hungry and hung over, right, yeah, right. I do

Speaker 1 27:09
remember vividly, though, a story he told me of when he was traveling and we were dating, where this was probably one of his worst lows and the scariest low he had. He was dreaming, and it was me in the dream telling him he has to wake up. You got to wake up, go to your backpack. And he was so low, he like, was able to manage to get to so when I hear that, I'm like, oh gosh. Like, yeah, you know, because he's never made it a big deal,

Scott Benner 27:39
and I'm sorry. I feel like this is important, this first marriage for both you, yes, yeah, yeah. So this was like, you guys were busy building careers and doing stuff like that, yeah, yeah. Okay. And when you're dating Gina, does it ever occur to you, like, if I'm marrying somebody with red hair, my kids might have red hair. If I'm marrying somebody with diabetes, they might have diabetes.

Speaker 1 28:00
I mean, I thought about it more, but to myself, like I never brought it up to him, because it was something he never, he never talked about. He never talked about his diabetes as like a deficiency. You know, it was never, it never held him back in any way. I mean, he's physically fit. He's an athlete. He played d1 soccer, yeah, it was never an issue, okay? I mean, he would have cocktails on our honeymoon. We went to Italy. He ate pasta, you know? I mean, so it never limited our experience. So

Scott Benner 28:36
looking back now with your your new life experiences, do you think he should have told you more? Is your level of understanding of diabetes prior to Brooke and after? What's the swing? Do you know what I mean? Like, oh,

Speaker 1 28:49
it's extreme. I mean, so when we were in the hospital, I had told the nurses and the educator, I'm like, talk to me like I don't know anything because I don't know anything. Like, I never understood carb counting. I mean, I still was like, not even understanding like, and I feel silly saying this now, but like, when you give insulin, it's because you're, you know, you're too high, not because you're low. And you eat because you're low. You know, I never even understood what he was doing.

Scott Benner 29:22
So Andrew, my two part question is, is, did you not tell her that stuff on purpose? Or were you not really that keyed in? Like, is this a situation that, like, after Brooks diagnosed, you learn so much that you look back at yourself and think, God, what was I doing before this? Or did you know and it just wasn't a thing you shared?

Andrew 29:38
No, I never concealed anything. I've shared this with Gina. I have learned more in the last 1415, months from her diagnosis than I have in the combined 3031, 32 years that I have had it because you're worried about her now, yeah, that's an understatement. Yeah, that's a given. So when I was growing up, I mean, it was different. And this is funny, because, like, my mom brought my diagnosis pamphlets from like 1992 thinking that they could be beneficial for Brooke. And you've talked about this on previous podcasts where, hey, if they're low, give them 15 grams, and wait 15 minutes if they're still low, give give them 15 with, you know, suggestions on insulin shots, because this was before technology was available, but the game has changed so much in terms of just resources and educational content that are out there. Finally, I always tell Gina this, I said I've learned more from the Juicebox podcast, and I sincerely mean this, than the 20 plus endocrine centers that I've gone to with all the different areas I've lived. And that's not a knock on any of them, but sure, I think traditionally, people just want to avoid hypoglycemia as much as possible, and that's it. And I think that was evident when you when we went in for Brooks first, you know, I don't know if it was three months or six months, but her follow up and her a 1c was like in the high eights. And they said, Oh, this is great, and she's in range 55 or 60% of the time. And I said, I know it can be better, like I'm seeing people on the Facebook group and on these podcasts that are achieving, you know, unbelievable numbers in the mid fives and low sixes with toddlers like this can be done. So I think it really just lit a fire under my rear end to making sure that, hey, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that she gets a head start with this where her a 1c is in great control. We develop those habits early on. We're definitely getting better. We haven't arrived, and I don't know if anyone ever truly does, because the disease state changes

Scott Benner 31:34
and flows too. Man, like sometimes you got it, and then the next month you're like, what happened? Do you know what your a 1c was before her diagnosis. Her a 1c or mine, yours before her diagnosis. Where were you settled in at 8.1 and what are you now? Five, seven? Wow, wow. That's crazy. Good for you. You

Andrew 31:51
know, I got an insulin pump, metronics. First one, it was like this intense indigo blue. My thought it was cool as a 13 year old and big old block. But, you know, that didn't, that didn't, that didn't have a closed loop system or anything, no really intelligent about it. It was just one large, massive insulin shock, for lack of better words, with a basal. But you know, ever since switching over, really understanding how a CGM works, again, I do ask myself, like, if I understood that it's not reading the blood, but it's reading the tissue. And if I understand that, there's usually a 10 to 15 minute delay, 15 minute delay, what I've stuck with that 10 years ago, when an endocrine was successful with getting me to initially trial it, you know, these are the things I'm glad I slowed down, and it was nice, you know, Gina is much more patient than I am. So really saying, hey, if this could benefit long term, we need to, you know, give it a try. And

Scott Benner 32:40
it would be nice if they would realize, like, Look, someone had to go first, right? Somebody had to make a CGM, and it was going to be what it was going to be, right? But there should have been some sort of plan in place to say, we're going to slap this thing on some people, and it's not going to be the magic that they expected to be. Like, I guess they didn't know. But like, now, in hindsight, there's so many stories, like, a bad CGM experience puts people off for like, a decade before they try it again. That's not uncommon, right? That story of yours if, like, Okay, I tried it, I didn't like it, or it was super inaccurate, or woke me up in the middle of the night and wanted me to calibrate. All that, whatever this story ends up being, there's a giant like, some people called that first Medtronic CGM they would like, playfully call it like a, you know, a harpoon. And then, yeah, that's not a playful thing to call something. Now, their new one, there's Templar one, which is, I think, just about out now, like looks like the rest of them, looks like a Dexcom, looks like a libre like little, tiny thing, you know, but, yeah, put you off for such a long time. So are you telling me that, like, when she's diagnosed? Do you think, Oh, my God, my a one season the eights. This is how I know how to take care of diabetes. This is what's going to happen to Brooke. Or were you still like, this is good. Like, they told me, I'm doing okay. No,

Andrew 33:50
I knew an eight was high average at best. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Air quotes over here, as I say, average. But you know, in hindsight, my overnight high, so the amount of time I'd wake up at 181 90. Now that I'm on a closed loop pump, you know, I wake up like 110 without doing anything, and I just think, like seven to nine hours, six to eight hours, however many hours that is. But that's at least 25% of the day where you can be in the low hundreds. That's a lot of time. You know what I

Scott Benner 34:17
mean? You're saying, even if you reach that 180 overnight, you don't wake up at it because it's pushing it down the whole time.

Andrew 34:23
No, I will. I've become a little obsessive with this now. Like, it's become a game where, like, okay, you know, where can I keep my three day average on my g7 or, like, on the tandem app, like, can I get it to 100% in range? So, like, if I start flirting with my high limit on my CGM, which, you know, again, even the simple trick on that episode, I think it was you and Jenny who did it, but where you talk about changing the preset high number, where, why 180 or 200 whatever it is, if you set it at 140 and you're heading in that direction, you know, you can kind of bump and nudge it in the right direction. So, you know, implementing stuff like that has worked. And then if I notice a trend, because a lack of extra. Size, or maybe more of like a starchy carby meal before bed, I'll set an alarm like, you know, if I'm, let's say 160 I give whatever the tandem suggests, maybe a few extra tenths of a unit. And then I'll set an alarm for two hours just to make sure that it's heading down. And if not, I'll kind of, you know, bridge Bolus a bit more to get it where it needs to be. But it's, you know, it's become almost like a competition, which, you know, that's why it's down to a five seven at this point.

Scott Benner 35:25
And Gina, does that surprise you about his personality? No, here's my question. Why do you think he didn't do it previously?

Speaker 1 35:31
I think, I mean, he's also very stubborn, and I think he had one bad experience or then, you know, he just gets turned off, and it's kind of very hard for him to revert, you know, to change his mind about something, you know, this kind of competition side that you're hearing of him. And this, you know, obsessive compulsive. He also has it with Brooke and her diabetes, yeah, which is a little hard for me, you know, as the mom again, I don't know what they go through, I don't feel what they go through. And this is where my experience, you know, is is different than his. You know, Andrew has played such a big part in caregiver of her diabetes that it's been a big adjustment for me, especially as a mom. You know who you know knows their children's cries, knows what they need. It's like mother's intuition. That is not at all the case right now. Why

Scott Benner 36:31
is it hard for you? Is it hard to see someone besides you know what to do for her? Yes, yeah, okay, absolutely. You liked it better when he was just a dummy over in the corner and you were, like, handling everything, yeah,

Speaker 1 36:42
you know, like, you know, I nursed her, you know. I mean, I did everything, and he, you know. I mean, he always had a special relationship with her, but now it's on a whole nother level, and I love that for them, you know, everyone tells him when we tell people, yeah, we have a daughter with type one. Oh, my husband's actually type one too. Oh, wow, that's so great. You know, that's great for her. He's like, Yeah, but no, I think yes, because he has already so much knowledge, and he's gained so much from your podcast, more than I have, because this is his language. This is what he knows. And he's also in the medical field, so he just gets the stuff little easier, a lot, yeah, a lot easier than I

Scott Benner 37:29
do. Okay, did you try bold beginnings? Yes,

Speaker 1 37:33
yes. And I do. I listen to it when I'm on the treadmill or taking the kids for a walk, and I love all of that, and that's been so helpful for me and understanding. But like, he knows how to go into the Omnipod and set the settings and change this and change that. Whereas I'm a little bit more like the doctor's telling us we need to kind of do this way, oh, he is very much more like, no, no, I'm pushing back. I don't like this. I know it can be better where I'm very thankful for him, because if he didn't have diabetes, I don't know if we would be like this.

Scott Benner 38:09
Yeah. How it would be for you? Have you ever had to help him out of a low Has he ever had a seizure or been unable to help himself?

Speaker 1 38:15
No, okay. He's never had to use a glucagon pen, but you have them? Andrew, yes, yeah.

Andrew 38:21
Since Brooks diagnosis, I started, I was gonna say you didn't have one before, right? There was a gap from 1996 to 2024 let's, let's call a spade a spade. But I, you know again, that I always wondered, like, why do people need this? When I get a low in the night, like, I'll wake up everybody and everybody is different. So like, I'm fortunate, my body was very in tune, especially with lows. I mean highs. Like, I used to be able to sit around probably mid twos, low twos all day long and not realize it. But the lows, my body was always very attentive and responsive. Only twice did I have episodes where and both happened after flights, which I'm still trying to crack the code on something happens on flights where, like, even if you're high and you give insulin, it doesn't want to come down on the flight, but when you land, like, 45 minutes later, it's like it hits with a double whammy. And those are the two times I had scary lows. I'd say those were dangerous lows. But luckily, no seizure, no medical attention needed. It was just putting as many Skittles and a Swedish Fish in my in my mouth as I could. And just, you know, chew, swallow, and just know that in the next 10 to 15 minutes, the sweating will stop, I'll be able to feel the fingertips all that sort of stuff. But wow. I mean, those were road the two incidents, both after airplanes, which now I'll put my my pump into activity mode. I tend to go in a little bit higher. I don't let it give auto corrections, so I'm starting to figure that out. But something with gravity or flights or the pressure in the cabin, yeah, I

Scott Benner 39:50
think the pressure, we have an episode somewhere, but the pressure can push the insulin through the tubing, and so you end up getting some insulin that's in the tube. So if you're on a tube pump, you could end up getting more insulin that way. That's

Andrew 40:03
probably exactly what it is, because I've always been on one,

Scott Benner 40:06
yeah, that could be that, for sure. There's a thing they don't tell you. One thing

Andrew 40:10
that Gina had said, I'll never forget this. She made a comment, she's been fantastic, like I I sympathize with anyone who walks into this situation without any kind of previous experience, because it's a lot and, you know, to your question earlier, I think you had said, like, hey, what you know, did you think about telling her? The reality is, like, no one really understands diabetes unless you you have it or you're intimately involved, whether it's your child or spouse or someone living with you, like, there's, there's so many ebbs and flows to your point that a lot of times, I just there wasn't a point in chatting about it, because the person typically confused type one to type two, or the conversation would turn to like, Well, do you eat a lot of candy?

Scott Benner 40:51
Yeah, yeah. So you didn't mind her knowing. You just thought, like, maybe there's not going to come a lot of it, of that conversation,

Andrew 40:58
yeah, that and it was never real. It's not like I hit it, like she saw my pump on, you know, our first date, hey, I'm gonna give insulin real quick, which, you know, it's, it was just part of me, and that's how I look at it. With Brooke is like her baseline will be having type one diabetes. She won't look back and say, like, I have a co worker who got diagnosed after he was in the Navy and got it while he was in the Navy. Yeah, that'll get you out of the Navy. So, you know, understanding what life was like before that or after it. Like, the good news is this will be her baseline. So I look at that as a positive

Scott Benner 41:29
tell me the difference between before you started listening to the podcast and now? Like, what do you do now that you didn't do before? Like, this is a big change. You moved your A, 1c almost three full points. So what would you tell people was the difference?

Speaker 1 41:45
Well, and I'll just chime in too, yeah, please. Brooks a 1c is 5.7 Okay, and she was like, probably, I think she was nine when she got diagnosed. So I mean, all of the things that Andrew has learned through your podcast. I mean, yes, our endo team has been lovely. I think we've now found a doctor that we will see consistently, but the tips and tricks have not been from them, okay, it's been from your podcast.

Scott Benner 42:16
Okay, yeah, yeah. And, but you know what I mean, Andrew, like data specifically? Yeah, here's my first question. Is, what you're doing now, more or less effort than before, less is the short answer. Okay? And is it because you're putting the effort into more valuable places?

Andrew 42:33
Yeah, I care. Finally, you know, I was never one of those who hit a rebellious day saying, Woe is me. I'm not going to live my life and not going to live my life and not care about this. I'd still give insulin, but I wasn't given insulin 10 to 15 minutes before a meal, right? If I was going high, I'd give a unit. I'm trying to think what I used to do with the Medtronic pump I had when I didn't use the smart feature, but I'd give it. I checked my blood profiles, 214 it would have insulin on board, but didn't make any auto correction. I just give, you know, to me, that's another two units, and if I started to go low, then I'd pop a yogurt pouch or some Swedish Fish, life saver, whatever it was in my bag. But I was Yo yo, and a lot more. So for me, I'd say, becoming a little more consistent with what I'm actually eating now too. And thanks to the CGM, you know, I realized the effect that certain foods have on me now. So like pasta. I'll eat pasta if I go to a restaurant and the pasta looks good, but for the most part, I steer clear of it, just because I can control the sugar the first maybe hour to maybe even three hours after I eat it. But middle of the night, I look at and I'm like, How did I go up to 275, yeah, you know, the closed loop still got me back down to like 121, 10, with due time. But I'm just starting to realize certain foods hit me a little bit differently. We talk about the complexities of the disease state. The hard part is, I was at dinner with my coworker. He had tuna sashimi and, like, some kind of steak. So to me, I wouldn't give anything. He gave two and a half units, and I said, for protein only. Said, Oh yeah, this will spike me throughout the night. So, you know, next thing I know, I'm experimenting with seafood and steak like, will this drive my sugar up? And it really didn't. But, you know, I share that story just because it's just different one person to the next. So, so for me, the pre bolusing was huge.

Scott Benner 44:16
Okay, not a thing somebody ever told you to do, or a thing you knew to do that you didn't do.

Andrew 44:20
I believe when I was younger, my mom, which would have come from the endocrine and said, like, let's try and do this 30 minutes before you eat. But I was eight, you know, 1012, I said, Okay, I'm just going to start eating because I'm hungry. And, you know, I think that was the end of it. I think as a parent, you don't want to restrict your kid too much. I totally get that, yeah, and that never changed. You know, through my teens, through the college years, through the post college years, still going out eating whatever that was, one small thing that the trend with the arrows, like understanding what an arrow straight up, an arrow to the right, like I'm more comfortable and very confident in bumping and nudging that down now and catching it with a gummy or two. Or a little bit of yogurt when I see it start to take off, maybe a little bit more aggressively than what I had hoped, and to what Gina had had said earlier, like, we do the same philosophy with Brooke now, like even today, she has a granola bar every day for breakfast, like some banana chocolate. Try and keep it as unprocessed as possible. We have it down to a near science, I'd say. But today, for some reason, she went up to 240 So Gina had text me and said, Hey, did you give her a different bar this morning? No, it's her usual one. And I look at the follow app and she's 252 60. So I said, Hey, do me a favor. Rage bolster with one unit. We'll catch it when it's on its way down. But you know, the same things that I've learned just from listening to the podcast we're putting into the actual play with Brooke now and again, she went from a 9192 I forget what it was, where they were saying, like, Oh, this is good to you know, hey, let's really be adamant. Let's figure out what's working what's not. Let's start trialing some things. Like, I know there's room for improvement, yeah, for a four year old like their their diets not as regimented as an adult. So trying as best as we can to apply what we can without we want her to be a normal toddler. There's no doubt we're never going to be the parents, and I applaud those that can do this, but she's not going to have, you know, greens and protein, like she's going to eat what her little brother's eating, or she's going to have cake at the birthday party, and we look at each thing now, as you know, not really a failure, but a lesson learned. So like now, we know when we do cake, maybe we need an extended Bolus, or maybe more more insulin upfront or with more lead time, but that was a painful lesson to learn. I'd get so frustrated and irritated at the erratic blood sugars early on. And you know, to Gina's point, she's trying to figure things out, right? She has no idea what this disease is, because she's never needed to know it.

Scott Benner 46:47
Can I ask you, Gina Andrew leaves for a week, goes away from work, how much of this can you accomplish? Or do you just go into like, does it become him helping remotely? Or do you just accept different outcomes?

Speaker 1 47:00
Oh, it's a little bit of both. So it's like, if I'm, you know, if Andrew's traveling for work, I mean, even, like, so now I'm fully staying at home with the kids, which has been great. But I tell them, like, you know, let me drive. Like, I know I'm not going to be yes, chime in. But like, let me do it a little bit. And if I make a mistake, I learn from it. We'll fix it. We definitely communicate together. He gets a little bit more upset. He would like me to or he would like her to stay pretty strict with what we know works, and we know not every day is going to be the same, even if she eats the same foods, okay, but at the end of the day, she's also four years old, and the granola bar she liked today, she's maybe gonna like tomorrow, right? So I just sometimes, I also have another kid here, a two year old, and I just sometimes I just don't have the fight in me. So

Scott Benner 47:58
Andrew, Does that scare you? Or are you up tight and you can't be flexible?

Andrew 48:02
Depends on the day you catch me, I guess. But I think I was out for a full week in January, and she ran it perfectly. Yeah, she does a fantastic job. Now, honestly, I'm more of a passenger. I mean, I still have the follow app up quite a bit, just kind of, kind of looking at it, because she Brooks doing summer camp. Now that was a little bit of a concern, because, you know, the swimming in the water phone doesn't project the sugars, and she still can't. I always ask her when she's low, hey, how do you feel? And she can't really articulate that yet. I think once she said, I feel fuzzy. So I was like, Okay, we're getting somewhere.

Speaker 1 48:38
She felt wiggly, wiggly.

Scott Benner 48:41
Yeah, I think I've heard wiggly before, good. I mean, she's so little, right? Like, yeah, the word she has her are pretty limited. What's her understanding of her situation?

Speaker 1 48:51
Oh my gosh, she is so aware. And it's almost like, and I hope this never changes, but it's, she's, you know, she'll tell people I I'm a diabetic, and this is my Omnipod, and this my Dexcom, and now I have one, and we just recently changed to one phone, so we are just, you know, graduated to the one phone. Oh, yeah, sure. Not using the controller anymore. Was a bit of a nightmare, because re learning the algorithm, and she was yo yoing, and we didn't have the auto correction turned off.

Scott Benner 49:26
Oh, she's on the pod five then, yeah, correct. Okay, and Andrew, you're using Moby. No, I use tandem tea slim too. Okay. Did you upgrade the new control IQ, the the new algorithm? Has that been different for you. I was

Andrew 49:41
Medtronic all my life. I was laughing when he said, the harpoon like first thing, when I saw the auto inserter similar to the Dexcom g7 where, like, it's, it's standardized. It's a uniform application each time. You know, I was used to for 34 years. Using that Harpoon, you got to angle it right with that long needle, where, if it hit, like. Man, if it hit the wrong spot, that thing would hurt. I switch over the tandem T slim too, because again, I was in that mindset of like, hey, if Brooke is using all this closed loop technology and our devices communicate, I I need to be able to understand that and experience it myself. So I did tan MT slim two. And then for the CGM, we both use the Dexcom g7 Yeah, because the g6 when we started that was, that was a bear. I remember you had to use the gun to insert it and then attach the adapter as well. Kind of pop

Scott Benner 50:30
it in, yeah? You pop the transmitter into the sensor bed. Yes,

Andrew 50:33
yes, but that the pop would freak her out. So we did okay, two or three tries with that, and then I had messaged the Facebook group out of curiosity, like, how are people doing this with toddlers? Our three or three and a half year old just freaks out, and it's, you know, the tears I have flashbacks to when we got back from the hospital and Gina had said, I don't know how we're going to do this. I literally just had to pin her down in the pantry to give her an insulin shot. Lo and behold, like the g7 something had changed with the software, where you could use it now with the PDM, but also have an iPhone for I forget what it was, but we switched the g7 early on, just because that one step application process was a game changer, and that pop that the device makes it was just so much more subtle and gentler. I think mentally for her to overcome that was significantly easier. Okay,

Scott Benner 51:23
it makes sense to me. Gino, yeah. Gene, what's your level of comfort? Like, seriously, like, Andrew just disappears. He poof, he's gone. You're good. You think you could do this forever?

Speaker 1 51:34
Yes, I just don't have, like, I mean, I know I would get it, but like, the the pushing back of like to the doctors, and I know this can be better. I mean, I know I would be able to take that on. That's my only thing, is just really understanding the technology of it, like the Omnipod, like nobody ever satis, like when we got her on the Omnipod, this was so frustrating. We got the transmitter phone, and then we find out you don't need that because you want to do the follow app like nothing was or maybe it was communicated to us, and we were just in such a fog of like, follow it. Well, yeah, but I'm like, What in the hell? Like, nobody is making this easy.

Scott Benner 52:22
You know, it definitely isn't easy. None of it's easy,

Speaker 1 52:26
you know. And like, we're buying these devices, and, I mean, you know, we're fortunate where we can but like, if somebody wasted their money on that, and that's like, a $200 expense like that was just so frustrating to me, or the Pre-Bolus seen and, you know, setting the target range, you know, your target range shouldn't be 300 like, that's absurd. It should be, you know, realistically, 160 nobody's ever talked to us

Scott Benner 52:53
about that. That's crazy. You're at a pretty made a reasonable size, like Children's Hospital and everything when you were diagnosed and all, and your endos seems to know what they're doing.

Andrew 53:03
Well, we never deal with we, I don't mean to interrupt, but we didn't really, we didn't really deal with endos, to be honest. We had a variety of care team personnel, but we had brought that up as a concern in our last appointment, so we have one now, but

Scott Benner 53:16
nurse practitioners, people, yeah, and

Speaker 1 53:18
your messaging through my chart, and they won't, you know, get on a call it, yeah, it just didn't. We didn't feel like we had individualized care for her, where we just had a doctor that was getting to know us and getting to know Brooke, yeah, and we expressed that. I mean, it got to the point where I had called Andrews endo from when he was diagnosed, is still practicing up in Cincinnati Children's, and I reached out to them, and I'm like, I'm going to make a damn appointment with him, like, if we need to go to Cincinnati every three months, that's whatever. Yeah, but I think we're on a better track now, okay, but I mean to answer your question, could I do this if Andrew wasn't in the picture? Absolutely do I think I would do I think I benefit having Andrew as my partner in doing this without a doubt.

Scott Benner 54:12
Yeah, no, obviously I just wanted to, yeah, kind of understand where you were, where you're at in the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, Andrew. So can I ask you, do you think you were motivated like to do better for yourself so that you knew what to do for Brooke. What's the thing that pushes you deeper than just, oh, my daughter got diagnosed, so I paid attention to like, what do you think the psychological component is of you saying I've been 8.1 my whole life? But that's not okay, and I can fix it like that.

Andrew 54:39
I think priorities change, obviously, especially as you know your family grows so, you know, trying to be as healthy as possible, just so there's no long term medical issues. And again, we're not talking about an A, 1c that was 12 or anything, but you know, with due time, like in a one season, the eights and nines, you're probably at higher risk. Less than someone who's running typically in the mid

Scott Benner 55:01
fives. Let's put it that way. So yeah, I'm gonna say definitely. So

Andrew 55:05
you know that was in my mind of like, okay, like, start embracing the technology and give it another shot. Why not? There's nothing to lose. And then I also look at it just solidarity is not the right word, but being able to show like, my daughter as she gets older, like you can have outstanding care and still do what you want to do, eat, what you want to eat, exercise as much as you want to exercise. You know, almost the role model thing comes into play. And just, you know, I want her to to see that it doesn't need to be restrictive in any way whatsoever. Yes, you're going to have the highs and you're going to be moody, you're going to have lows and feel very off and tired afterwards. But you know, outside of that, like it shouldn't restrict you in any way whatsoever. And I don't want her to grow up thinking that, you know, for some reason she can't do something because of fear that her sugar might be going high or low. So yeah, I'd say two things, really just the long term vision of making sure that I'm around as long as I possibly can be with no complications from it so I can, you know, continue to have fun with my kids. And,

Scott Benner 56:11
yeah, you know, your average a, 1c slightly over an eighth. Your average blood sugar is like 185 your average blood sugar now is probably more like 9092, something like there, like that, which is crazy. You cut in half. Yeah,

Andrew 56:24
yeah, absolutely crazy. And, you know, full transparency didn't really make too many changes to the diet. I mean,

Scott Benner 56:30
pre bolusing, stopping highs, if they happen, looking, looking, basically, I'm going to adopt you, Andrew. I'm pretty sure I'll send Arden to Gina. You mean, you're pre Boston your meals, and you're looking in again after you eat to make sure nothing's going crazy and and adjusting it if you do bingo, yeah, you got good settings, that's

Andrew 56:49
it, yeah? And then I changed my high alert. Personally, it's, it's 140 now, yeah,

Scott Benner 56:53
you said it was more like 200 before, right?

Andrew 56:56
Yeah, it's like 180 or 200 but still, like on the episode I listen to, you know, if it's if it's 180 I think it was you who said this, if it's 180 and you get those alerts like, why not at 140 when you can detect that it's starting to trend a little bit higher, you know, catching it 40 points lower than what it normally would trigger an alert for. I don't see there being much downside. So I did that. And then, you know, hopefully, at some point maybe, you know, we make that 131 20, the more episodes I listen to, and the more people I chat with that I've met. I don't know if that's the right word, but communicated with through the Facebook group like it is crazy how good some of these parents are with backtracking. I was sending Brooks auto logs when we couldn't figure out her Omnipod and she was running high. I was sending someone auto logs. She's not a medical professional. Never, never claimed to be, but her daughter's name was Kate, so hopefully, if she's listening, she understands the impact she had with us, finally understanding the Omnipod, but she could back math the auto events to figure out, you know, if her insulin sensitivity ratio needed to be tweaked, if her food to car or carb to insulin ratio at a specific time needed to be massaged a little bit. But it's fascinating like this, the group and the educational resources that are available through that

Scott Benner 58:11
so those beautiful diabetes dorks out there. Good job, Kate, that's awesome. Yeah,

Andrew 58:16
exactly. So it allows people like me to nerd out and, you know, try and try and get our daughter scare one step

Scott Benner 58:23
further. Yeah, I'm gonna say honestly, if Kate's listening, she should contact me. I'd have a conversation with her about that. That'd be awesome. I

Speaker 1 58:29
mean, it was amazing. I will tell you what he was showing me, and I was and then it was also kind of annoying, because nobody had ever told us to change her auto correct amounts, like it was set at point 05 and it's like, well, she's constantly getting these little bits of insulin. Why not just take her to point five?

Scott Benner 58:52
Yeah? Plus she's gaining weight and getting bigger, she goes right, like, that's probably happening all the time, changing her knees, yeah.

Andrew 58:58
Let me real quick. You know, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I just remember

Scott Benner 59:04
figure out if that's because you got married late and you're an adult when you got married, or if genius told you to apologize when she when you cut her off. But that's awesome when you do that every time. Yeah, yeah, also, and in fairness, Gina, you're like, nine months pregnant, so, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, I might pay for this in 30 minutes if I don't. No, no, no, you could get hit with a rolling pin or something. I don't know how it goes exactly in 2025 sorry,

Andrew 59:28
but when she because everyone raved about the Omnipod and when she got diagnosed, I wasn't even on board with the CGM because I wasn't wearing one yet. And again, the optics of that on a little three year old body, I'm like, I had a really hard time during diagnosis. I remember, I'm not a very anxious person. I have never had a panic attack, but that first night, when you know she's she's fighting us tooth and nail at 2am to check her blood sugar and crying, and you're their parent, like you should be a safety net, not this. Is this source of fear of what's going to happen. And I remember we checked Brooke's blood sugar, and it was like 92 and for the first time in days, I was like, hell yeah, she's finally in a normal range. And Gina said, that's fantastic. So we both kind of put our heads down and go to sleep, and I'm like, Wait, is that fantastic? She's had diabetes for three days. I have no idea how sensitive her body is to insulin, how much insulin is on board. Is she actually trending down rapidly? Because she'd be 50 in the next 30 minutes, and we're going to sleep through, you know, the mind starts racing. So in that moment, I realized we have no choice. We're going to have to get her on a CGM. And I said, but absolutely no to an insulin pump. The visual of that would just be a reminder, and I'm sure you're thinking a reminder of what I think it's really just just guilt of the hereditary.

Scott Benner 1:00:48
This is the part where I kind of want to finish up because, like, I've been waiting to ask you for a while, or do you feel are you? Do you feel shame? Do you feel guilty? Like, what's the feeling that comes with all this?

Andrew 1:00:59
I think ignorant would be the first word that, like, I just remember being stopped out of my my tracks and thinking that there was never really any kind of hereditary component. I thought when I got diagnosed it was a fluke, I swear, I think the doctor had said, like, it's probably from the combination of, yeah, I had, like, bronchitis, which turned into pneumonia, I want to say, but it was right after my grandpa had died, who I was close with, so they'd kind of served up like, you know, extreme sadness followed by an intense sickness might have attacked the beta cells and the pancreas, something that didn't make too much sense at the time. I still never heard that philosophy to this day, so who knows. But

Scott Benner 1:01:38
let me tell you this. I've heard people tell stories about having traumatic events and then having a diagnosis after but it's my expectation full well, like whether it's an illness or a traumatic event, that you did have markers for type one diabetes. It's not like somebody ran around the corner yelled boo and you got diabetes, right? Like you? Yeah, right. You may have had one to, you know, however many number of markers I'm going to tell you right now, with all that autoimmune on your side of the family, nothing about your diabetes or your daughter's diabetes surprises me, not at all. I talk to a lot of people like I could have bet 50 bucks on this one. You know what? I mean, it's not crazy at all, but, you know, fair enough. You get sick, you have a sadness, like, you know, like, that kind of stuff happens. You've got the markers already. Here you go. You have type one telling people that that doesn't mean that anybody else isn't going to get it. It's fair. Like, there's, it's still a relatively low, you know, percentage. Like, please don't hold me to this. I think, like, there's a one in, like, maybe, like, a certain percent chance for the regular population, and that chance goes up, but not even that significantly, if you have type, if your parent has type one. But I'm telling you, like, what are you Irish? German? Irish? Sure. Yeah, yeah, I could tell by all the celiac in your family there was Irish in you. Like, I mean, that's how many people I've spoken to like that doesn't surprise me at all.

Andrew 1:03:03
Yeah, that's crazy that there's, you know, you can tie it down at the Gina's

Scott Benner 1:03:07
Got nice dark hair. She might be the only thing holding this off. You know what? I mean, Gina, what are you Italian? Greek and Italian? Yeah, like, she might be helping a little bit. Who knows? But, you know, I mean, that's not a hard and fast rule or anything like that, obviously. But I speak to a ton of people and that part of the world, you see a little more autoimmune issues. And then, you know, come over here, and you know, that gets mixed your mom, your dad mix up there, and you know, there's a lot of autoimmune like, all that thyroid, all that celiac. I mean, it's coming Gina, what's what's the bathroom line look like after Thanksgiving dinner? Is it crazy?

Speaker 1 1:03:45
Well, you know, yeah, I mean, it's all gluten free at their house. So you

Scott Benner 1:03:49
ever said this out loud? Andrew, I've never heard more people talk about anything than your family. Have you ever heard that

Speaker 1 1:03:57
one? No, that's really funny.

Scott Benner 1:03:59
Andrew, you're not in therapy, right? No, I can tell, because you're telling, yeah, yeah, oh, don't worry, she's gonna keep encouraging you. Because when I asked if you were ashamed, you used a different word, but you are describing shame,

Andrew 1:04:11
yeah, I think I used guild that was going to be my, my second, you know, descriptor, yeah, you know, like, it's hard to not look at it that way, where, you know, and not just for Brooke's purpose, like I look at again, I keep coming back to the complexities of it, and just knowing the load that Gina was going to have to it landed on her plate, did nothing to deserve that. And I just thought through, you know, in that moment, I also think, like I realized, through the last 30 plus years of having it, like some of the struggles, the mood swings, just different events that had come up to realize, like, you know what? There have been some, some moments of heavy lifting with this, that that

Scott Benner 1:04:49
have sucked, yeah, oh, there's no doubt. Can I tell you something? My daughter's gonna be 21 in a couple of weeks. She's had diabetes and she was two. We're pretty good at this, right? Like, we're in a train. Transition period right now, Arden is getting older. She's doing things for herself. There's, you know, she's having her moments where she's figuring things out, and blood sugars are higher than they would be if, you know, if it was me doing it, but it's a transition period, and she still has an Arden still going to keep an A, 1c, in the sixes as a college student, taking care of herself like everybody's happy, don't get me, but there's still moments, you know what I mean, where, like, you say something, and she's, you know, being her own person, and not maybe being as, you know, quick to move on something, or taking something quite as seriously, or whatever it ends up being. And, you know, once in a while it comes up and you start talking about it. Well, my wife and I spent the day together yesterday. We were all over the place, going to different stores. We were just in the car a lot, and we were talking about it, I mean, and we've been at this now for, I mean, she's two, she's 21 minutes for 19 solid years, and we were both crying in the car by the time we got home, like, just trying to talk through how hard this is, you know, like I said to my wife last night. I'm like, I am so sorry. I was like, I would have never asked you out if I knew all this was gonna happen, but I felt like I did it to her just by asking her out. Like, you know what I mean? So I know how you feel. But also, if you ask my wife, she'd say there's a lot of autoimmune on her side of the family, so she feels guilty being dude, it's not your fault. Like you didn't you had no idea. And it's not like, you like, we're like, oh, Gina, let's have a baby. I'm going to try to make one with type one. Let me really concentrate here. Yeah, if it wasn't this, it would be something else, man. Like, everybody gets something, is the thing. I think I've, I think I've come to believe,

Speaker 1 1:06:33
I mean, with Andrew, like, there's never been one moment where I've been like, You caused this, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:06:39
but you feel like that though, Andrew, right?

Andrew 1:06:41
I do. And then, you know, also in conversation, when people make that comment, like, Oh, so you have it. And I'm thinking, correct, but we're talking about two different events here, right, right, exactly. And so,

Speaker 1 1:06:52
yeah, it's like, you always want to chime in and say, well, there. It doesn't mean that he has it, she was going to get it, or that Graham is going to get it. I mean, I will be very honest with you, though, I am terrified to figure out if Graham will have it or if our third will have it. And we did go down the path of T cell and doing the blood test. You know, in talking further with the endo team, Graham is two, so he can start the testing, but if he tests for two antibodies, there's nothing I can do for him, because he's not eligible for teas all yet. Not old enough. Yeah, I'd rather have ignorance right now. You know what I mean, like, just don't let me know anything yet. Yeah, that that thought is

Andrew 1:07:36
always lurking like Graham, I'll never forget this, like three weeks ago, started to have some pretty crazy outbursts. More More so than your, you know, traditional two year old boy, and he came up to me with three consecutive, like, yogurt, yogurts, whatever it is. And I'm thinking that's a lot of yogurt for a little body to be putting down. And he was still, he came with a fourth and was still freaking out, and, like, had a tantrum. And I'm thinking, oh no, you know there's, there's no way, and Gina wasn't home, and I thought, Hey buddy, I apologize in advance, but let me see your finger. And I finger poked him. And in that moment, like, again, I was like, everything from Brooks diagnosis came back to me, and I'm thinking, I, I don't know if we can go down this path again.

Scott Benner 1:08:19
Hey, listen, brush up on thyroid symptoms too, because, I mean, it's a fair bet with your family too. You know what I

Speaker 1 1:08:26
mean? Well, she did test for a marker for thyroid, but dead. Keep in

Scott Benner 1:08:31
mind, yep, going forward, that thyroid symptoms can come and your test results can still look quote, unquote, in range. So if you have thyroid symptoms and a TSH over 2.1 then it's time to start finding a forward thinking endocrinologist to manage your

Andrew 1:08:51
thyroid. Say that one more time. Those parameters thyroid

Scott Benner 1:08:55
symptoms, like, like, I don't know, Andrew, there's a ton of them, but off top my head like no matter how much you sleep, you can't get rested. Your hair is falling out. You're gaining weight for no reason. Your fingernails are brittle. You're having trouble regulating hot and cold. You're having mood swings that you can't explain, like those things and a TSH result over 2.1 if your TSH is like 3.5 and you go to the doctor and say, Hey, I'm having some thyroid symptoms, they see a 3.5 most doctors are going to say that's in range. It's not that, but interesting. I'm going to tell you right now. Go listen episode 413 and let that lady explain it to you. So, yeah, so keep an eye on that, especially with kids, it's hard to tell. I mean, I'm sure they're going to test her every time they do a blood test for thyroid. Moving forward, if they don't, they should be, yeah, they said that they are going to do it yearly, yeah. Well, every time they check her blood, I'd have her, have them do a thyroid also, just figure out where it is now, so that you can next time it goes, like, Did it go up? Did it go down? Like, is it swinging around? Crazy, anything. Mean that maybe draws your attention to it and for yourself too, Andrew, I mean, a lot of people on your side of the family also. I hate to say this, but because of the construction I told you about, we're gonna have to be done. I'm sorry, normally I'd go a little longer with you, but we, we stretched out a little bit, and I'm having a little bit of work done in my house. So it's about, it's about to get real Bangy in here. So I'll just let Rob leave the banging in. But let me let you finish. Is there anything that we didn't talk about that we should have, anything you feel like you left out?

Speaker 1 1:10:28
Not from, I mean, not from my perspective. No. I mean, I know that Andrew probably has a ton of questions about more diabetes and managing and things like that, so he'd probably love to email you.

Scott Benner 1:10:40
Don't email me. Andrew, no, I'm just kidding. You could come back on, or you can send me an email if you want, you know, like if you want to come back on sometime and talk, like, management stuff, we can absolutely do that

Andrew 1:10:49
too. Yeah, I look forward to that. I appreciate the time. And more than anything, we just appreciate the community and the people that have kind of become part of it, because that's that's helped us out, me too, in more ways than words can say. So we appreciate you. Man, no,

Scott Benner 1:11:01
I appreciate that you said that I spent the last week on a cruise ship with a bunch of listeners. Really, that's pretty cool. Yeah, we did a cruise. We just got back, about 100 of us on the cruise ship. It was awesome. Awesome enough we're gonna do it again next year. But,

Speaker 1 1:11:16
yeah, you've built a pretty incredible community. I will tell you that. Thank

Scott Benner 1:11:20
you. I appreciate it. But sitting there really getting to know people like that in person, over meals, over days, and then kind of coming together on Friday with Erica. Came on, Erica from, like, all my mental health stuff, and she came on the on the ship, virtually, and we almost ended up being like a group therapy session, and people were just baring their souls, sure, yeah. I'm telling you from like, parents of kids, parents of young kids, parents of teens, parents of adults, were there and up to I want to say that the oldest type one on the ship was 75 with us. Like, we had such an eclectic group of people, and they just went around the room and started talking, and every story was somehow really different and really same at the same at the same time, yeah, and I just watched one mother, and I'm gonna try to get her to come on. I won't say her details, but the entire week, I thought she was mad at me every time I because I did a lot of speaking, I get, like, three hours here, two hours there. Like, I was always looking out into the crowd. When you do public speaking, if you've never done it before, like, usually, like, if you're up on a stage, I just pick a friendly face on the left and a friendly face on the right, and I talk to those two people, and everyone in the crowd thinks you're looking at them. So you don't lose you know what I mean? You just find two people who think you're funny or engaging, and you just keep going back and forth. But when you're that close to each other, like in a more of a conference room setting, or, like, you know, sometimes it was like a little ballroom. One time we did it in this, like, little restaurant with, like, all this neat seating and everything. And you kind of can't do that because people are a little up on you more. So I kept avoiding this one woman because she looked mad at me. And it wasn't until the very last part of the very last thing that we did when she got the microphone to speak, and I realized she was just holding in a ton of sadness, oh yeah. And then she just let it out, and I watched her feel better for saying it. And then people gave her great advice. People hugged her. They came up to her, they supported her. It was awesome. Oh, I couldn't believe. Like, there are times like I'm going to take a minute after we're done here, and I'm going to think about what you guys said, and I'm going to feel overwhelmed and lucky that I pulled this whole thing together. Then that happens to me a lot, making the podcast and seeing people online, but being in the room, yeah, oh my god. Like I was, everyone was crying. It was, you know, just cathartic and lovely. So anyway, it was, it was awesome.

Speaker 1 1:13:47
Well, you've been tremendously helpful to us. So I mean, there's hundreds of 1000s of people out there that you don't even get to talk to every day, that are communicating back and forth with each other via your

Scott Benner 1:13:59
platform. I have a hard time wrapping my head around it most days, but, yeah, it's pretty amazing. This helped. Like, standing in front of people, I not that I haven't done it at like, I'll go do talks, but they, they last a few hours. So not that they're not people when you get there, but you're so rushed that everybody's just, like, an what are the kids call that the characters that walk through your video game? Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know, I mean, like, there's just a bunch of people there, but you can't really focus on many of them. Get to talk to some of them. But this i i made very certain I ate dinner with every person over the six days where we were there. Very awesome everyone. And it was, it was just a really wonderful experience. So I appreciate all the people that came and all your kind words. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 1:14:42
Well, we've really been looking forward to this. This is a big fan girl moment for us. So Thanks, Scott. I didn't

Scott Benner 1:14:48
know Andrew was fan growing, but that's awesome.

Andrew 1:14:50
Oh yeah, oh yeah. He's like,

Speaker 1 1:14:53
your number one fan girl. He's like, so Scott said this, and bold beginnings, and Gina, watch this. And yeah, it's

Andrew 1:14:59
like, when. You and Jenny on an episode once. I'll let you go after this. But she had said, You're joking around like your husband probably is wondering who Scott is, and I'm sitting there at dinner that night, like, and then Scott said this. Scott said that I'm like, I bet Gina is sitting here wondering, like, who's Scott again, and why are you spending so much time with us?

Scott Benner 1:15:13
Six more weeks, Gina is going to be like, if Scott can't breastfeed this baby, I don't want to hear about it. Yeah, we appreciate it. Of course. I wish you a ton of success with the upcoming birth and congratulations again. It's really exciting. I don't imagine you're gonna name the baby, Scott, but if you do, please let me know. Never, never. Say Never. Thanks, Scott. Hold on one second for me. Guys, you're very welcome. Hold on one second.

Having an easy to use, an accurate blood glucose meter is just one click away. Contour, next.com/juicebox That's right. Today's episode is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. The episode you just enjoyed was sponsored by the twist a ID system powered by tide pool. If you want a commercially available insulin pump with twist loop that offers unmatched personalization and precision for peace of mind, you want twist, twist.com/juicebox, 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 you 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 if you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox podcast. Private, Facebook group, Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me, if you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out Juicebox podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. 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.

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