#1779 Diabetes Variable: Finishing (for men)

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

In this episode Jenny and Scott chat about the end of the act. 

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

Scott Benner (0:00) Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box podcast. (0:14) Managing diabetes is difficult, but trying to do it when you don't understand the lingo, that's almost impossible. (0:21) The defining diabetes series began in 2019, and today we're adding to it. (0:26) Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu, click on defining diabetes, and you'll see a complete list of all the terms that we've defined so far. (0:36) Hey.

Scott Benner (0:36) Do you need support? (0:38) I have some stuff for you. (0:39) It's all free. (0:40) Juiceboxpodcast.com. (0:41) Click on support in the menu.

Scott Benner (0:43) Let's see what you get there. (0:44) A one c and blood glucose calculator. (0:46) People love that. (0:47) That's actually, I think, the most popular page on the website some months. (0:50) A list of great endocrinologists from listeners.

Scott Benner (0:53) That's from all over the country. (0:55) There's a link to the private Facebook group, to the Circle community, and, we have a a fantastic thing there, American Sign Language. (1:03) There's a great sign language interpreter who did the entire bold beginning series in ASL. (1:08) So if you know anybody who would benefit from that, please send them that way. (1:12) Just go to juiceboxpodcast.com and click on support.

Scott Benner (1:15) While you're there, check out the guides like the pre bolusing guide, fat and protein insulin calculator, oh gosh, thyroid, GLP, caregiver burnout. (1:25) You should go to the website. (1:26) Click around a little bit on those menus. (1:27) It it really there's a lot more there than you think. (1:30) Nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise.

Scott Benner (1:34) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. (1:39) Alright, guys. (1:40) I'm gonna do a diabetes variable with Jenny that I did not explain to her what it was beforehand. (1:44) This was sent in by listeners, but I think it's gonna make her giggle or laugh. (1:48) So everybody get ready.

Scott Benner (1:50) Jenny, people wanna talk about finishing for men with type one diabetes.

Jenny Smith (1:57) You know me so well. (2:00) I

Scott Benner (2:01) knew I knew what this was gonna do to you.

Jenny Smith (2:02) Okay. (2:04) I think this is funny. (2:05) I think we only ever had one conversation similar to this, and it was in was it in a I think it was in a very

Scott Benner (2:12) little a very well, we did masturbating. (2:14) Yeah.

Jenny Smith (2:14) We did. (2:15) Yes. (2:15) Exactly. (2:15) Yeah. (2:16) So that's kinda funny.

Jenny Smith (2:18) Yeah. (2:18) But what is well, is this a very could be a variable just like it could for a female? (2:22) I mean

Scott Benner (2:23) Well, it's possible that they just didn't know where this fit exactly, and maybe they figured it fit because of the masturbation episode of the I variable don't know. (2:33) So I guess the variable really is control. (2:37) I mean, insulin use. (2:39) Right? (2:39) And your and your management and your outcomes.

Scott Benner (2:42) Or am I wrong? (2:43) Like, why do guys with type one why can they have trouble I'm just gonna keep going with finishing. (2:49) Finishing. (2:49) Finishing? (2:50) Yeah.

Jenny Smith (2:50) Sure. (2:51) As a baseline, I think it also goes along with erectile dysfunction.

Scott Benner (2:57) Okay.

Jenny Smith (2:57) Right? (2:58) If I'm thinking of, quote, unquote, finishing in the right way.

Scott Benner (3:04) Do you need me to define it for you, Jenny?

Jenny Smith (3:06) No. (3:07) You don't. (3:08) Thank you so much. (3:10) You might be like, oh my god.

Scott Benner (3:11) This is all very interesting. (3:12) I won't say a word. (3:13) It's the part It's

Jenny Smith (3:14) all good.

Scott Benner (3:14) It's the part where you go, okay. (3:16) Okay. (3:17) You we're we're talking about the same thing.

Jenny Smith (3:18) Totally get it. (3:20) But I think it might have some of the same, which is why I connected to potentially erectile dysfunction.

Scott Benner (3:26) Okay.

Jenny Smith (3:26) Because if there is, as you said, management issues in general, not just in that time, but in general, there could be a reason that finishing doesn't actually happen

Scott Benner (3:42) Okay.

Jenny Smith (3:43) In the timeline. (3:43) Right? (3:44) There could be nerve damage. (3:45) There could be vessel damage that doesn't create a problem with actual, like, erection, but it could actually create a problem with release.

Scott Benner (3:54) Okay.

Jenny Smith (3:54) Now that being the big consideration

Scott Benner (3:57) Mhmm.

Jenny Smith (3:58) In the moment, absolutely. (4:00) I mean, it could be that blood sugar is dropping, and body's responses are for preservation of overall health, not preservation of, like, gosh. (4:10) You gotta get the job done. (4:11) Let's just finish. (4:12) Right?

Scott Benner (4:13) She looks bored. (4:14) Yeah. (4:14) Yeah.

Jenny Smith (4:15) So, I mean, it it certainly could be relative to whether blood sugar in the moment

Scott Benner (4:20) Okay.

Jenny Smith (4:21) Is dropping. (4:22) I can't imagine that it would be relative to a rapid rise. (4:26) Although, maybe, you know, in terms of a rise could probably be similar to an adrenaline spike

Scott Benner (4:35) Okay.

Jenny Smith (4:36) In terms of that finishing.

Scott Benner (4:38) It's interesting to hear you talk through it without having any any forewar knowledge that we were gonna talk about it, because I think you're doing a good job.

Jenny Smith (4:46) Oh, great.

Scott Benner (4:47) I, of course, I cheated. (4:49) And so, I have it broken out as blood flow. (4:52) There are tiny arteries that bring blood into the penis that can narrow or stiffen called microvascular damage. (4:58) So less blood in would be a weaker or shorter or lasting erection or harder to complete. (5:04) Diabetes can cause neuropathy, so nerve signals, which dull sensations or messes with the nerve pathways that trigger orgasm or ejaculation.

Jenny Smith (5:12) Which, again, both of those are, like, more long term

Scott Benner (5:15) Yeah.

Jenny Smith (5:16) Repercussions of an issue.

Scott Benner (5:18) I don't think you'd be diagnosed today, and next week, this would be your issues. (5:21) Right?

Jenny Smith (5:21) Right.

Scott Benner (5:21) There's some some quotes here that men can, in this situation, can say that they can get there. (5:26) This is a quote, but it can take

Jenny Smith (5:28) forever. (5:29) Yes.

Scott Benner (5:29) And then autonomic nerves, these are nerves that handle automatic body functions like ejaculation. (5:36) If they're affected, you could end up with delayed ejaculation or retrograde ejaculation when semen goes backwards into the bladder. (5:42) Mhmm. (5:42) There's a thing I didn't didn't need to know today.

Jenny Smith (5:45) You didn't I yeah. (5:46) And that actually is something I've I mean, it all goes along with when you're discussing with somebody what's going on.

Scott Benner (5:52) Uh-huh.

Jenny Smith (5:52) All of these things kind of get

Scott Benner (5:54) because it goes back is this where the phrase coming and going comes from? (5:58) They catch me coming and going? (5:59) No. (5:59) I don't think so.

Jenny Smith (6:00) Oh, I don't think so. (6:01) That's funny that you would put that together. (6:03) So quick. (6:03) I

Scott Benner (6:04) don't know. (6:04) It's it's just word play, Johnny. (6:05) So they'd also says mentally that you brought this up. (6:08) That's why thought it was interesting. (6:09) Anxiety about performance or having a low blood sugar during sex can, like, change your arousal and maybe then Yes.

Scott Benner (6:15) Have trouble before you get into there. (6:18) Mhmm. (6:18) Feeling frustrated with diabetes or body image issues can feed that loop.

Jenny Smith (6:22) Which those wouldn't really be diabetes specific. (6:25) No.

Scott Benner (6:26) No. (6:26) But they're you know, I mean, how about this one? (6:28) Low testosterone, which is common with men with more common with men with diabetes can Mhmm. (6:33) Impact your libido and your intensity. (6:36) Okay.

Scott Benner (6:37) Medications too. (6:39) Just some add ons here. (6:40) If you're on SSRI, that could

Jenny Smith (6:42) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (6:43) Do it. (6:43) And high or low blood sugar during sex could totally kill arousal stamina. (6:47) I hear women I've a lot of these conversations with people. (6:51) Men and women all talk about, like, the having to have snacks at the bedside and how kind of I mean, it kinda take you out of the moment kind of thing. (7:01) You know what Or I having to stop to take off your device or having your device knocked around or hit or, you know Right.

Scott Benner (7:08) During whatever it is you're doing over there. (7:10) Is that it? (7:10) Did we cover all the reasons why you might not be able to finish as a male with type one diabetes?

Jenny Smith (7:14) I do believe so. (7:16) Yes.

Scott Benner (7:16) Would any of this impact a woman?

Jenny Smith (7:19) Yes. (7:20) I mean, many of the things that you brought up are more internal with a woman. (7:25) Right? (7:25) So things like damage to nerves from a sensation standpoint, both internal and external for a woman, And then, you know, hormonal changes that could be impacted by blood sugar. (7:38) Again, the broader picture, just like erectile dysfunction, the broader picture for a woman.

Jenny Smith (7:44) Hormonal fluctuations up and down could certainly create a problem with, I guess, finishing it for a woman too. (7:52) It's this pretty much the same concept.

Scott Benner (7:54) Yeah. (7:55) Here it is. (7:55) Less blood reaching the clitoris and vaginal tissues, reduced sensitivity or difficulty reaching orgasm. (8:01) Nerve changes can delay or weaken sensation. (8:04) Also, general dryness or less natural lubrication since nerve signals and blood flow both play a part in arousal.

Scott Benner (8:12) Women with type one often have hormonal fluctuations that interact with blood sugars.

Jenny Smith (8:16) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (8:17) Estrogen, progesterone shifts can alter insulin sensitivity. (8:22) Oh, that's an interesting thing. (8:23) And then low estrogen, especially in perimenopausal menopausal women, can lead to dryness, pain, or lower libido. (8:29) Thyroid issues which can be more common with people with diabetes, can add fatigue or low desire. (8:35) And then it says high blood sugars can fuel yeast infections, UTIs, or general irritation that can make sex uncomfortable or painful.

Jenny Smith (8:42) So, again, all around similar. (8:45) And as far as, like, the actual moment, what your blood sugar is doing, again, more on the drop or the low zone, not so much a climb or a rise being problematic in that moment, but it's much more, you know, gosh. (8:58) If you guys have been having fun for a bit of time Mhmm. (9:02) You could absolutely have a drop enough in blood sugar that at the very end, it makes it very difficult.

Scott Benner (9:09) What makes your blood sugar drop drop faster? (9:11) Jumping on a trampoline or having sex?

Jenny Smith (9:13) I would expect jumping on the trampoline.

Scott Benner (9:15) That damn trampoline is amazing, isn't it?

Jenny Smith (9:17) So don't have sex on the trampoline.

Scott Benner (9:19) Well, yeah, you made a point there. (9:21) Didn't I didn't think about that. (9:24) Be cold, wouldn't it?

Jenny Smith (9:26) Well, it depends on what time of the year and where

Scott Benner (9:28) you live. (9:29) Oh, you know, then it would be hot. (9:30) Yeah. (9:30) You're making a good point.

Jenny Smith (9:31) There you go.

Scott Benner (9:32) I just wanna point out here, it says birth control or hormonal therapy can alter glucose patterns, making things feel a little off cycle or inconsistent. (9:39) And I will bring up, if you don't believe your birth control can have impacts like that, there's been this, I I think it's a study, but it's at very least colloquially understood that there are women who are on birth control while they're courting and then later go off it and find they're not attracted to the men that they married because am I right about this? (9:58) Got it.

Jenny Smith (9:58) That's actually been out for probably at least two years. (10:02) I Yeah. (10:02) I read that quite a while ago as well.

Scott Benner (10:04) Yeah. (10:05) So when you're on I guess the idea is the pill makes your body feel like you're pregnant, which makes you wanna nest, which makes you look for a certain kind of guy. (10:14) And then once that guy is living in your house all day long, you're like, oh, that is not the kind of guy I would have picked if I didn't think I was having a baby with him. (10:21) Ain't that interesting? (10:22) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (10:23) Yeah. (10:24) You're all individuals, you're doing whatever you want. (10:26) Or, you know, we're all being controlled by, like, little chemicals in our body, and we don't have any actual thoughts of our own. (10:33) You decide the difference. (10:34) Jenny and I have to go.

Scott Benner (10:35) It's Friday.

Jenny Smith (10:36) Awesome. (10:36) See you. (10:37) Thanks.

Scott Benner (10:44) Okay. (10:45) Well, here we are at the end of the episode. (10:46) You're still with me? (10:47) Thank you. (10:48) I really do appreciate that.

Scott Benner (10:50) What else could you do for me? (10:52) Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? (10:56) Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me or Instagram, TikTok. (11:04) Oh, gosh. (11:05) Here's one.

Scott Benner (11:06) Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page. (11:12) You don't wanna miss please, do you not know about the private group? (11:16) You have to join the private group. (11:17) As of this recording, it has 74,000 members. (11:21) They're active talking about diabetes.

Scott Benner (11:24) Whatever you need to know, there's a conversation happening in there right now. (11:27) And I'm there all the time. (11:28) Tag me. (11:29) I'll say hi. (11:30) Hey.

Scott Benner (11:31) I'm dropping in to tell you about a small change being made to the Juice Cruise twenty twenty six schedule. (11:36) This adjustment was made by Celebrity Cruise Lines, not by me. (11:39) Anyway, we're still going out on the Celebrity Beyond cruise ship, which is awesome. (11:43) Check out the walkthrough video at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. (11:48) The ship is awesome.

Scott Benner (11:50) Still a seven night cruise. (11:52) It still leaves out of Miami on June 21. (11:55) Actually, most of this is the same. (11:56) We leave Miami June 21, head to CocoCay in The Bahamas, but then we're going to San Juan, Puerto Rico instead of Saint Thomas. (12:04) After that, Bastille, I think I'm saying that wrong, Saint Kitts And Nevis.

Scott Benner (12:08) This place is gorgeous. (12:10) Google it. (12:11) I mean, you're probably gonna have to go to my link to get the correct spelling because my pronunciation is so bad. (12:15) But once you get the Saint Kitts and you Google it, you're gonna look and see a photo that says to you, oh, I wanna go there. (12:22) Come meet other people living with type one diabetes from caregivers to children to adults.

Scott Benner (12:28) Last year, we had a 100 people on our cruise, and it was fabulous. (12:33) You can see pictures to get at my link, juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. (12:38) You can see those pictures from last year there. (12:40) The link also gives you an opportunity to register for the cruise or to contact Suzanne from Cruise Planners. (12:46) She takes care of all the logistics.

Scott Benner (12:48) I'm just excited that I might see you there. (12:51) It's a beautiful event for families, for singles, a wonderful opportunity to meet people, swap stories, make friendships, and learn. (13:00) Have a podcast? (13:01) Want it to sound fantastic? (13:03) Wrongwayrecording.com.

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#1778 Doctor Mom

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

Pediatrician and mother Jen shares how her daughter’s Type 1 diagnosis reshaped her medical practice and how the Pro Tip series helped her move from clinical theory to practical management.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner (0:0) Here we are back together again, friends, for another episode of the Juice Box podcast.

Jen (0:15) My name is Jen. (0:16) I'm a pediatrician and a mom to three kids. (0:18) My oldest was diagnosed with type one diabetes about a year and a half ago.

Scott Benner (0:23) How would you like to share a type one diabetes getaway like no other? (0:27) Join me on Juice Cruise 2026. (0:30) You may be asking, what is Juice Cruise? (0:32) It's a week long cruise designed specifically for people and families living with type one diabetes. (0:37) It's not just a vacation.

Scott Benner (0:39) It's a chance to relax, connect, and feel understood in a way that is hard to find elsewhere. (0:44) We're gonna sail out of Miami, and the cruise includes stops in CocoCay, San Juan, Saint Kitts, Nevis aboard the stunning Celebrity Beyond. (0:54) This ship is chosen for its comfort, accessibility, and exceptional amenities. (0:59) You're gonna enjoy a welcoming environment surrounded by others who get life with type one diabetes. (1:04) I'm gonna host diabetes focused conversations and meetups on the days at sea.

Scott Benner (1:09) There's thoughtfully designed spaces, incredible dining, and modern amenities all throughout the celebrity beyond. (1:17) Your kids can be supervised, there's teen programs so everyone gets time to recharge. (1:22) Not just the the kids going on vacation, but maybe you get the kickback a little bit too. (1:27) There's gonna be zero judgment, real connections, and a whole lot of sun and fun on juice cruise twenty twenty six. (1:32) Please come with me.

Scott Benner (1:34) You're going to have a terrific time. (1:36) You can learn more or set up your deposit at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. (1:42) Get ahold of Suzanne at cruise planners. (1:44) She will take care of everything. (1:45) Link's in the show notes.

Scott Benner (1:47) Link's at juiceboxpodcast.com. (1:50) If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the juice box podcast private Facebook group. (1:56) Juice box podcast, type one diabetes. (1:59) But everybody is welcome. (2:01) Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me.

Scott Benner (2:05) If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. (2:16) While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (2:24) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. (2:34) This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Omnipod five. (2:38) And at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox, you can get yourself a free, what I just say, a free Omnipod five starter kit.

Scott Benner (2:48) Free? (2:50) Get out of here. (2:50) Go click on that link. (2:51) Omnipod.com/juicebox. (2:54) Check it out.

Scott Benner (2:55) Terms and conditions apply. (2:56) Eligibility may vary. (2:57) Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (3:03) Links in the show notes. (3:04) Links at juiceboxpodcast.com.

Scott Benner (3:06) Today's episode is also sponsored by the Dexcom g seven, the same CGM that my daughter wears. (3:13) Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox.

Jen (3:17) My name is Jen. (3:18) I'm a pediatrician and a mom to three kids. (3:20) My oldest was diagnosed with type one diabetes about a year and a half ago.

Scott Benner (3:24) Okay, Jen. (3:25) I like how long you took to pull yourself together before you said that. (3:30) Because I don't think most people don't hear the part that happens before because Rob edits it out where I say, like, know, the next sound you hear will be you introducing yourself, trying to give it to the idea of the person, like, go go ahead and gather yourself and go ahead. (3:42) And you did exactly that. (3:43) Some people launch into it very quickly.

Scott Benner (3:46) Others wait for me to prompt them again. (3:48) And we'll sit there for, like, an an uncomfortably long time, and I'll go, you can go whenever you want. (3:52) They go, oh. (3:54) Right. (3:54) So I like yours.

Scott Benner (3:55) Yours was like, let me think of how I'm gonna say this, and I'm gonna say it nicely, and we're on our way. (4:00) So, Jen, you have three children. (4:01) Do we wanna say their ages or no?

Jen (4:03) No. (4:03) That's fine.

Scott Benner (4:04) Okay. (4:04) Three kids.

Jen (4:05) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (4:05) Married?

Jen (4:06) I am.

Scott Benner (4:07) And you're a pediatrician?

Jen (4:09) I am.

Scott Benner (4:10) What do you take of this? (4:11) So a friend of mine is a pediatrician. (4:12) It's been for a very, very long time. (4:14) Went to a great school. (4:15) I one day talked to him about being a doctor, and he said, I'm not a doctor.

Scott Benner (4:18) I'm a pediatrician.

Jen (4:19) Yeah. (4:20) Some days, feel more like more of a psychologist than a medical doctor. (4:25) Yeah. (4:25) It's it's fun. (4:26) I've been practicing for about fourteen years out of fourteen, fifteen years out of, training.

Scott Benner (4:34) It's a good long time.

Jen (4:36) Yeah. (4:36) And I work part time, so I can kinda do the mom thing most of the time.

Scott Benner (4:40) Very nice. (4:41) He described it once to me as, like, having to have a, like, a wide understanding of what's going on in the community as far as people's illnesses go. (4:50) Because in the end, he said, you know, most of the time, you just see people coming in with what's going on. (4:54) Does that fit the criteria to you?

Jen (4:57) A little bit. (4:57) Yeah. (4:58) Yeah. (4:58) I mean, it's, you know, also kind of like, you know, your first patient weighs five pounds because they're a baby, and your next patient weighs three hundred pounds because they're, you know, an 18 year old. (5:07) Oh.

Jen (5:07) So

Scott Benner (5:08) Like I said yeah. (5:09) So there's a wide, a wide scope of people that you meet with.

Jen (5:12) Wider inch. (5:13) Yep.

Scott Benner (5:14) Yeah. (5:14) Yeah. (5:14) Very, very interesting.

Jen (5:15) Okay.

Scott Benner (5:16) What made you wanna be a pediatrician?

Jen (5:19) Oh gosh. (5:21) I don't know. (5:22) I was one of those kids when I was, you know, eight years old, and they said, what do wanna be when you grow up? (5:26) And I said, wanted to be a pediatrician. (5:28) I don't really know.

Jen (5:30) I did a lot of volunteer work and a lot of work in high school and college, you know, with kids. (5:36) I always liked working with kids, and I originally thought about doing pediatric physical therapy was one of my thoughts Mhmm. (5:45) But, really went with my gut and decided to, go into medicine instead.

Scott Benner (5:50) Wow. (5:50) How long do you train for that? (5:51) Like, from like, give me you know, I left for college as a freshman, did a four year, and, like, how long does that whole thing take?

Jen (5:59) So college, four years, medical school, four years, and then pediatric residency is three years.

Scott Benner (6:08) Oh, wow. (6:09) And and you've been practicing for fourteen on top of that?

Jen (6:12) Correct.

Scott Benner (6:13) Oh, so you have ten you have twenty five years of effort since you left high school. (6:18) Right.

Jen (6:19) Yeah. (6:20) Have you

Scott Benner (6:20) been paid back? (6:20) Ish. (6:21) Tell people how many student loans you still have left.

Jen (6:27) Oh, I still have them. (6:28) Yes. (6:28) I'm definitely still paying off my loans.

Scott Benner (6:31) No kidding. (6:32) And the and the insurance is insane. (6:34) Right? (6:34) The liability insurance and everything?

Jen (6:36) I guess so. (6:37) My practice pays for that, thankfully. (6:38) So

Scott Benner (6:39) Lovely. (6:40) Do you work in a kinda, like, family type practice, or has yours been swallowed up by a giant conglomerate?

Jen (6:47) Currently in private practice.

Scott Benner (6:49) Do you have a preference? (6:50) Have you done both?

Jen (6:52) I have not. (6:53) I prefer to be in a outpatient setting. (6:56) I wasn't always one of those doctors who said I never wanted to work in a hospital. (7:01) Mhmm. (7:02) So I like being, you know, just in a in a clinic and doing outpatient medicine.

Scott Benner (7:07) Yeah. (7:08) Tell me why you say a lot of your job is maybe being a therapist for people.

Jen (7:13) Well, you know, a lot of people come in saying, no. (7:16) I'm worried about this. (7:17) I'm worried about that. (7:18) You know, we do a lot of well child checks, especially in the first couple years. (7:23) You see the kids quite often.

Jen (7:25) So a lot of it is, you know, reassurance about your toddler doing this or your toddler doing that. (7:30) Will I ever get sleep again? (7:33) Or the teenagers, you know, in teenage behavior. (7:38) And, you know, there's a lot of counseling involved with, kids at all ages and family members at all ages as well.

Scott Benner (7:45) Is that an on the job training situation, or is that something you feel like medical school and residency prepared you for?

Jen (7:52) No. (7:53) I don't think any of the training really prepared you prepared you for that. (7:56) I think it's just with a matter of time. (7:58) I always joke because, you know, my oldest child had him at the end of my residency, towards the end of my residency, and it just completely changes your perspective of things where I'm like, oh, I can't believe these parents are doing x, y, and z. (8:13) And then you're a parent, and you're going, oh, okay.

Scott Benner (8:16) They think they're killing that kid twenty four hours a day. (8:19) They're looking for they're looking for someone to tell him it's okay. (8:22) He said this. (8:23) He made a noise. (8:24) He burped.

Scott Benner (8:25) Is he okay? (8:25) Right. (8:26) I can't go through this again.

Jen (8:27) Spot on their skin. (8:28) Oh, yeah. (8:29) It's it's a lot of that.

Scott Benner (8:30) Well, so you think a little bit of the timing of when you had your first helped you maybe as you launched into your career?

Jen (8:37) Absolutely.

Scott Benner (8:38) Yeah. (8:39) That's interesting. (8:40) Okay. (8:40) So let's fast forward a little bit. (8:42) I'm gonna I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say, hope that you were able to diagnose your kid with diabetes.

Scott Benner (8:49) But tell me what happened and, you know, how you figured it out.

Jen (8:54) Yeah. (8:55) So I did. (8:57) You know? (8:58) I'll hey. (8:59) And I get a lot of people saying, oh, at least you caught it early.

Jen (9:02) At least you know what to look for. (9:04) At least his parents are doctors. (9:06) And I think I don't wanna say guilt is the right word. (9:10) It's just maybe a little I don't know. (9:13) I'm having the trouble finding the right word for it.

Scott Benner (9:15) Are you are you trying to tell me that you still feel like you didn't figure it out fast enough?

Jen (9:19) No. (9:20) I think I did.

Scott Benner (9:20) You did? (9:21) What's the adverse feeling from?

Jen (9:23) I guess just I wanted to be wrong.

Scott Benner (9:25) Oh. (9:26) Oh, you feel like you gave it to him because you recognized it kinda thing.

Jen (9:31) Not that I gave it to him, but just I wanted to be wrong. (9:33) You know? (9:34) I was like, well, maybe it's just that he's, you know, just extra thirsty and growing and and all of that. (9:41) You know? (9:41) You you wanna be in denial.

Jen (9:43) You don't want something to be right.

Scott Benner (9:45) Jennifer, I'm gonna try one more time to pick through the, like, the psychology of this. (9:48) I might be way off. (9:50) Do you not wanna be part of the story? (9:52) You were just hoping that there was nothing wrong. (9:54) That was that was big picture gonna take the take up the rest of his life kind of feeling, or do you just do you hate that, like, part of that story is you going, oh, I think he has diabetes?

Jen (10:03) Maybe a little bit of both.

Scott Benner (10:05) Yeah. (10:05) I go ahead.

Jen (10:07) A lot of me just wanting to be wrong, I think.

Scott Benner (10:09) Okay.

Jen (10:10) You know? (10:10) Where I kinda had it in the back of my mind, like, could this be? (10:14) And then part of me getting him checked was thinking, okay. (10:18) I'm gonna be wrong.

Scott Benner (10:20) Yeah. (10:21) This is great. (10:21) We'll go over. (10:22) We'll do a thing. (10:23) We'll have lunch, and, you know, we'll figure out what this what else did you think it could be if it wasn't diabetes?

Jen (10:28) Yep. (10:28) Maybe just just growing, being active. (10:31) You know? (10:32) There's a lot of things that happen in the teenage years. (10:35) So, physiologically, so sometimes you just don't know if, you know, what you're experiencing is, right or wrong.

Scott Benner (10:43) What symptoms was he having that that got you thinking?

Jen (10:46) Mainly just the normal stuff. (10:48) You know, waking up at night to go to the bathroom and drinking a lot of water and, you know, wanting me to refill his water and finding water bottles in his room at night, and that was about it. (10:58) He felt fine.

Scott Benner (11:00) It was the excessive thirst that that clipped into it right away.

Jen (11:04) Yeah. (11:04) And, I mean, his a one c was around eight when he was diagnosed. (11:09) So even the doctor said, you know, they never see it that low a diagnosis.

Scott Benner (11:14) Yeah. (11:14) How long do you think it had been going on before you got him to the doctor?

Jen (11:19) Maybe a couple weeks.

Scott Benner (11:20) Okay. (11:21) That's pretty quick. (11:22) Anybody else in your family have type one, extended family?

Jen (11:25) Not blood related, but my sister's husband, my brother-in-law has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner (11:30) But nobody related to you or your husband?

Jen (11:33) No. (11:34) We do have other autoimmune things in the family.

Scott Benner (11:37) Like what?

Jen (11:37) Hashimoto's, ulcerative colitis. (11:43) So with those two things, you know, you're at higher risk for having other autoimmune things.

Scott Benner (11:47) Can I ask a crazy question? (11:48) Because I've been I've been thinking about this lately. (11:50) Anyone in your extended family, a great athlete, very flexible, can throw a ball hard, anything like that?

Jen (11:57) I wish. (11:58) No.

Scott Benner (11:58) No? (12:00) I was getting a massage the other day. (12:01) Somebody gave me a massage as a gift. (12:03) My wife, by the way. (12:04) Two Christmases ago, I sat on this thing stuck in my refrigerator for a year, made the appointment a day after the the gift certificate expired, begged them into letting me use it anyway, and went to just, you know, go get a a massage.

Scott Benner (12:19) And the person, who was doing the massage for me, she was lovely. (12:24) And during the the process, she was kinda going, like, off the side of my hips. (12:28) My hip pointers hurt a lot. (12:30) I was like, oh, that really hurt. (12:32) And she goes right here and she touched him.

Scott Benner (12:33) I said, yeah. (12:34) The left one's worse than the right one. (12:35) They've been hurting for a while. (12:37) And she goes, okay. (12:38) I'll fix that.

Scott Benner (12:39) You know, there's part of you that's like, sure. (12:41) You know? (12:41) But, like, she grabbed my leg, did a thing, was, like, leaning into my hip, like, going, going, going. (12:46) She's good. (12:47) And I'm sitting there going, this hurts.

Scott Benner (12:49) And and she's doing it. (12:50) I'm like, this is not helping. (12:52) And then as I'm thinking this is not helping, she was like, it's not releasing. (12:56) And then she kept going and kept going and I'm not kidding you. (12:59) As the pain disappeared, she said, oh, I got it.

Scott Benner (13:04) And I was like, I said, that was really impressive. (13:07) And I hadn't talked through the whole thing. (13:08) By the way, I know myself. (13:09) So at the beginning of the massage, she said, is there any instructions? (13:12) And I said, yes.

Scott Benner (13:13) I am an entertainer at heart. (13:15) If you start talking to me, I'm gonna want you to have a good time. (13:18) And I'm not gonna relax, and I'm just gonna talk through the whole thing. (13:21) I was like, so please, just don't talk to me. (13:24) And I was like, I'm not being rude, but trust me.

Scott Benner (13:25) I'll ruin it for you and for me. (13:27) So she laughed, and she and she and I really didn't speak for a really long time. (13:30) But I said, that was so impressive. (13:33) You announced that you got it just as the pain went away. (13:37) Uh-huh.

Scott Benner (13:37) How did you know? (13:38) And she said, well, from working on myself, I've been able to figure stuff like that. (13:43) I have Ehlers Danlos.

Jen (13:45) Okay.

Scott Benner (13:46) She starts going, it's an autoimmune. (13:48) I went, I I know. (13:50) I was like, yeah. (13:51) Yeah. (13:52) I got it.

Scott Benner (13:53) And, anyway, so she had that she and I chatted afterwards, and I said, I should send my daughter in here. (13:57) I said, I you know, no diagnosis or anything, but, like, Arden's really flexible. (14:02) She has joint pain. (14:03) Like, you know, her shoulders feel like they're not in place sometimes. (14:05) I was like, she was, yeah.

Scott Benner (14:06) Send her in. (14:07) I'll I'll help her. (14:08) And I was like, awesome. (14:10) And she said, how did you figure it out? (14:12) And I told her I kinda painted a bigger picture.

Scott Benner (14:15) Said, but, know, there's this one thing I've always wondered. (14:17) Both of my kids have exceptional arms. (14:19) They both played baseball or softball, and they could throw a ball like a rocket. (14:24) And when you watch them on video, what you see is they have this exceptional extension when they reach back, like, so much more so than most people do. (14:32) And I I always wondered if that's part of that or not.

Scott Benner (14:35) Anyway

Jen (14:36) I'm not sure.

Scott Benner (14:37) No. (14:37) You you would have no idea. (14:38) But I would just like you know, sometimes I say to people, like, are there bipolar people in your extended family? (14:42) And a lot of people go a lot of people go, yes. (14:45) So I thought maybe I could, like, find a new, question like, does anyone in your family throw really well?

Scott Benner (14:49) Anyway, there's a long way to go for no for nothing at all. (14:53) But anyway, I I think I might have her on the podcast how to help that because she was so effective with it and was telling me her own story that I think people would find interesting, but I digress. (15:02) Yeah. (15:03) Cool. (15:04) Okay.

Scott Benner (15:04) So in the extended family, you know, little bit of that, but not a lot. (15:09) Did it ever occur to you as a doctor? (15:11) Did you ever say I might have a baby one day that has one of these issues, or is that not a thing ever popped in your head?

Jen (15:16) Not really. (15:17) I mean, you always want your kids to be healthy, you know, but never really thought about it.

Scott Benner (15:23) Okay. (15:23) Alright. (15:24) So we got him in the hospital. (15:26) He's got his a one c around eight. (15:28) They think you got it pretty quickly.

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Jen (17:43) I tried to kinda keep that on the DL that I'm a doctor because I want people to talk to me like I don't know anything. (17:51) You know? (17:52) Because, truthfully, I don't. (17:54) You know? (17:55) When as a general pediatrician, you know, you see the kids who are sick, and they come in.

Jen (17:59) Oh, okay. (18:00) How's your blood sugar? (18:00) Is this and that? (18:01) Like, I really knew nothing about pumps and CGMs and this and that. (18:07) I was a diabetes camp counselor back in the day down in Florida, but that was when kids were still doing, you know, finger sticks before meals and lining up for their insulin.

Jen (18:18) Yeah. (18:19) So things have changed so much since I've been trained. (18:23) So I wanted people to talk to me like I was just everybody else.

Scott Benner (18:27) Yeah. (18:27) Do you have kids in your practice who have type one?

Jen (18:30) I do.

Scott Benner (18:31) Yeah. (18:31) Do you get very involved prior to your child's diagnosis? (18:35) Did you get very involved in it, or was it one of those things where you're like, well, that's the endo, and this is me?

Jen (18:39) Yeah. (18:39) Pretty much. (18:40) Yeah. (18:40) We don't have anybody locally, for pediatric endocrinology, so people have to travel. (18:46) But pretty much make sure, you know, they're seeing their specialists.

Jen (18:50) Their a one c's are good. (18:51) They're doing what they need to do. (18:53) You know, prior to this, kind of just let the endocrinologists deal with it all.

Scott Benner (18:58) In that situation, are there now hindsight? (19:01) Are there overlaps that should impact your care that previously you weren't thinking about that now you are?

Jen (19:08) Absolutely.

Scott Benner (19:09) So another learning experience for you. (19:12) Like, this is you think this will help a lot of your patients too?

Jen (19:15) Absolutely. (19:16) You know, so many things that I've learned about, especially with the pumps and the CGMs and the symptoms of things. (19:24) I've learned a lot about five zero four plans

Scott Benner (19:26) Mhmm.

Jen (19:26) And school accommodations. (19:29) So not just for diabetes, but for other chronic medical conditions. (19:33) You know, I really encourage families to be proactive and get five zero four plans and make sure they're advocating for their kids' school system, which I don't think I did as much of before all this.

Scott Benner (19:47) Are you telling me that there were other kids under your care that you maybe in hindsight should have said, hey. (19:52) Maybe you guys should have a five zero four plan?

Jen (19:54) Or yeah. (19:55) Yeah. (19:55) I mean, I know the endocrinologists and the specialists tend to take care of that, but, you know, in reality, it's the pediatrician's job to say, you know, do you have everything set up for what you need?

Scott Benner (20:06) I've tried my hardest to, forget about five zero four plans because I it harkens back to a terrible time in my life. (20:12) But when you Yes. (20:13) You kind of you kind of laughed about it. (20:15) So tell me, a little bit about the process. (20:18) So you realized he's gonna need this.

Scott Benner (20:20) You started looking into it. (20:22) You know, it's not cut and dry as far as, like

Jen (20:25) It's not.

Scott Benner (20:26) What should go in the plan. (20:28) You don't recognize at first that the school very well may not be thrilled that you're trying to apply a five zero four plan, that they might fight with you or try to simplify it to limit their exposure. (20:39) There's a lot of things that happen once this whole thing starts moving in in that direction. (20:43) But would you tell me a little bit about what happened to you guys?

Jen (20:47) It was interesting because he was finishing up middle school and then going into high school. (20:52) So we didn't really do anything in the middle school time frame because there wasn't a lot of school left. (20:58) I'm a reader. (20:59) I try to do as much reading as I can, and I get perspectives from other people, talk to some people online, get questions answered. (21:08) You know?

Jen (21:09) And I learned that, really, a 100% of type one diabetes kids should have a five zero four plan. (21:15) Research the ADA website. (21:17) You know, the school comes back with what they think. (21:19) You know, they're kind of their cookie cutter. (21:21) Okay.

Jen (21:21) They get this and that and the other. (21:24) Because cell phones have become such a bigger issue with schools over the past year or two

Scott Benner (21:30) Yeah.

Jen (21:31) You know, I was surprised at how much you need to advocate for your kids for a five zero four plan and what they need to thrive in school.

Scott Benner (21:42) Specific to cell phones or in general?

Jen (21:45) Generally, think everything is okay. (21:47) But I think with the cell phones, you know, you have people say, well, you know, kids dealt with diabetes, you know, before cell phones existed. (21:55) I think that the general public and even in education don't realize how important the cell phones are to keeping you alive and keeping you managed on a twenty four seven basis.

Scott Benner (22:09) Yeah. (22:10) Your regular NPH was not attached to a digital device that was control controlling it.

Jen (22:14) Right. (22:15) Right.

Scott Benner (22:15) It's almost more helpful just to talk about it as the insulin pump controller or the CGM Right. (22:20) Receiver and then spring on them at the end. (22:22) It's also a cell phone.

Jen (22:24) Right.

Scott Benner (22:24) You know what's so funny? (22:25) Because I'm old enough. (22:27) How old are you? (22:28) Do you mind?

Jen (22:30) Sorry. (22:32) She's she's That's okay. (22:33) I just had a birthday. (22:34) I'm 45.

Scott Benner (22:35) Oh, happy birthday. (22:36) I'm about ten years older than you.

Jen (22:38) Okay.

Scott Benner (22:39) When they started letting kids take cell phones to school, I was like, hey. (22:43) This is a bad idea.

Jen (22:45) Right.

Scott Benner (22:45) And then it was a bad idea, but it became commonplace and people, especially parents are so pushy. (22:52) Then they just my kids gotta have this. (22:53) What if there's a problem? (22:54) How are they gonna get ahold of me? (22:55) The same way I got ahold of my mom in 1978 if there's a problem.

Scott Benner (22:59) When I got home, I spoke to her.

Jen (23:00) Right.

Scott Benner (23:01) But okay. (23:02) We we got it into our heads that, like, you know, the danger that's around if you can't contact somebody immediately, like, you know, by and and it became the norm. (23:10) Right? (23:10) And by the way

Jen (23:11) Right.

Scott Benner (23:11) There's a ton of good reasons that people should have communication. (23:14) I'm not even saying that. (23:15) Right. (23:15) What I'm saying is it clearly messed with how school works. (23:19) Right?

Scott Benner (23:19) Like, kids are Right. (23:20) Like, can't put their phones down. (23:22) They're you know, it creates all kinds of other problems. (23:24) It took us I mean, when did I get my my first iPhone? (23:28) 2007?

Scott Benner (23:29) Is that right is that right? (23:31) I think that's right. (23:31) Mhmm. (23:32) Okay. (23:32) So if that's right, then nearly twenty years later, we all went, That was a bad idea letting kids take phones to school.

Scott Benner (23:41) It took eighteen years for people to go, you know, we probably shouldn't give them a screen to porn and games while they're trying to learn. (23:49) Right. (23:50) It's or whatever else they're looking at. (23:52) But mostly games are important just in case you're wondering what they're doing.

Jen (23:55) Oh, boy.

Scott Benner (23:56) Yeah. (23:56) I mean, just put your head down. (23:58) It's you don't wanna know. (24:00) Point being is that in that time, some really good things came out of it. (24:04) Like, hey.

Scott Benner (24:04) You can see your CGM on your phone or give you insulin for your phone or I'm sure there's a number of things outside of diabetes that has a lot of value for. (24:11) And now we're gonna tell everybody, nope. (24:14) You can't have them. (24:15) And then there's the part of me that goes, yeah. (24:16) That's a great idea.

Scott Benner (24:18) And then there's the part of me that says, well, what are you supposed to do? (24:21) Because then I say, well, Jennifer's kid gets to keep his phone, but not your kid. (24:25) And where is that gonna lead? (24:27) You know? (24:28) It's showing a half in five minutes.

Scott Benner (24:29) But, anyway, you're trying to get the five zero four plan in place. (24:32) They're not understanding the necessity of the phone, especially in this time when the pushback is now going the other way. (24:37) Is that what you're saying to me?

Jen (24:38) Right.

Scott Benner (24:39) Yeah. (24:39) Yeah.

Jen (24:39) Yeah. (24:40) And I think, you know, they got the point that the you know, seeing the numbers and keeping the phone close and everything. (24:47) But one of the things I fought for was his ability to communicate with me during the day Yeah. (24:52) If needed.

Scott Benner (24:53) Well, you know, I made that impassioned plea about you don't need to talk to your parents all day. (24:56) But I'll tell you, if you can text with somebody who's helping you manage your diabetes, especially when you're younger, you know, it's such a big deal, and it makes everything so much better.

Jen (25:04) So Right.

Scott Benner (25:05) Look at me arguing with myself. (25:07) It's fun.

Jen (25:09) Well and I think that if you have something in writing and you have, you know, legal protection, then nobody's gonna get in trouble, and there's not gonna be any problems. (25:17) So I think that, you know, being proactive and advocating for your kids is just so important on so many levels.

Scott Benner (25:26) You know, some kids are gonna be like, just say, hey. (25:29) Look. (25:29) I need this. (25:29) It's no I don't care. (25:30) But when the rules start flying back the other direction where people can't have them, there are gonna be some people who are gonna be embarrassed that now your cell phone's gonna be a way for people to know that you have an illness or something.

Jen (25:39) Right.

Scott Benner (25:40) Yeah. (25:40) You know? (25:40) So then there are gonna be kids who struggle with that, not wanting to take their phones out. (25:44) I already talked to people whose kids are like, don't know, I can't get him to give himself insulin in class. (25:48) Why not?

Scott Benner (25:49) Doesn't want he doesn't want to pull his phone out when no one else is allowed to. (25:53) Mhmm. (25:53) That nobody wants a, you know, a spotlight shined on them. (25:55) It's interesting how the problems will, like, continue to morph and shift off of the issue. (26:01) But did you finally get it set into place?

Scott Benner (26:03) Did they argue for a long time? (26:05) Did you need an attorney?

Jen (26:06) No. (26:07) We didn't need to make it go that far. (26:08) Everything got into place just fine. (26:11) I just kinda sometimes just had to make myself clear, I guess, go into mom mode.

Scott Benner (26:16) We so when you made the sound about five zero four, it's more about the the speed bumps that you look back on

Jen (26:22) and go, this

Scott Benner (26:23) didn't need to be this way. (26:24) Right?

Jen (26:25) Right.

Scott Benner (26:25) Yeah. (26:25) It's just tough. (26:26) It's frustrating, and it's a it's a lot of extra work that in the end, everybody goes, oh, okay. (26:31) And you're like, yeah. (26:32) Why were you fighting with me?

Jen (26:33) Right. (26:35) Well and it's interesting because I think, you know, I talk to families with, you know, multiple different chronic medical conditions. (26:45) Right? (26:45) And a lot of people will say, okay. (26:47) Do you have a five zero four plan?

Jen (26:48) And people will say, what's that? (26:50) So it's interesting to know, you know, that it's not even common knowledge that someone may need one.

Scott Benner (26:58) Right. (26:58) Or they go, oh, is that an IEP? (27:00) And you go, no. (27:01) Not really. (27:02) No.

Scott Benner (27:02) It's not not really the same thing.

Jen (27:04) Right.

Scott Benner (27:04) Yeah. (27:04) Yeah. (27:05) I I guess I remember your frustration because at one point, I recall telling somebody, you can argue about this as long as you want, but when it's over, this is what's going to happen.

Jen (27:15) Right.

Scott Benner (27:15) And I I know that's way more direct than most people probably. (27:18) I actually, people have been telling

Jen (27:19) me I got it.

Scott Benner (27:20) Yeah. (27:20) People online have been telling me I'm very direct, and I keep fighting with them, which I guess is part of me being direct. (27:25) I don't see myself as the I know that's maybe insane, but I don't see myself as being direct. (27:30) I just see the world as, like, more common sense y. (27:34) Like, why would you not say that?

Scott Benner (27:36) That's

Jen (27:36) Exactly.

Scott Benner (27:37) That's right. (27:38) You know? (27:38) And and if I'm wrong, then I'll be shown to be wrong, and then I'll stop saying it.

Jen (27:42) But Right. (27:43) Yeah. (27:43) I don't Well and I hear a lot of, you know, people wanna complain about things. (27:47) Right? (27:47) In general, people would rather complain about things than not be active and do something about it.

Scott Benner (27:53) Right.

Jen (27:53) Right?

Scott Benner (27:54) Yeah. (27:54) No. (27:54) It's easier.

Jen (27:55) So so I think it's easier to just be upfront and say this is the way it's gonna be, like you said.

Scott Benner (27:59) This is what's gonna happen, I said. (28:02) You can fight if you want, but when this is over, this is what's gonna happen. (28:06) And then when it happened, the problem is then if one side keeps ego about it, now you're at odds forever.

Jen (28:12) Right.

Scott Benner (28:13) Because now that person feels like I beat them because people are insane. (28:17) But just I guess the way the mind works is is is is bizarre. (28:22) Right. (28:23) So okay. (28:23) So now it's set in place.

Scott Benner (28:24) You probably never even look at it.

Jen (28:26) Right.

Scott Benner (28:27) Are you happy you have it still? (28:29) Absolutely. (28:30) Why?

Jen (28:31) Well, like I said, I think it's just legal protection. (28:33) I think if somebody in the hallway or somebody who doesn't know him or a substitute or somebody wants to get him in trouble, then I'd say, nope. (28:41) That's not gonna happen.

Scott Benner (28:43) Yeah. (28:43) It it well, it is that easy sometimes. (28:45) Like, you know, put your phone away. (28:47) I'm giving myself insulin. (28:48) Put your phone away.

Scott Benner (28:49) I don't care. (28:49) Well, you Right. (28:50) You're gonna care because, you know, the administrator's about to tell you to shut up. (28:54) So

Jen (28:54) Right. (28:55) Yeah. (28:55) Right.

Scott Benner (28:55) It really is that. (28:56) It's just it's more like a document that keeps people from who don't understand your situation from being a jerk to you.

Jen (29:03) They're pretty much as Exactly.

Scott Benner (29:04) Yeah. (29:05) Well and and then if something goes wrong, you can get it fixed because it's been laid out somewhere and agreed upon.

Jen (29:11) Exactly.

Scott Benner (29:11) Yeah. (29:12) Which is why they try to pass off a super simple five zero four to you because it's less for them to comply with.

Jen (29:18) Right.

Scott Benner (29:18) More importantly, fewer things for them that they could potentially get in trouble for.

Jen (29:23) Right.

Scott Benner (29:24) Always look at it like that, you'll know where people are coming from.

Jen (29:27) Alright.

Scott Benner (29:28) Yeah. (29:28) Anyway. (29:30) Okay. (29:30) So management stuff. (29:33) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (29:34) You don't know what you're doing. (29:35) You get people to talk to you plainly, but did that help? (29:38) Or were you did you find yourself like, my people are great, or were you like, uh-oh. (29:43) I'm not getting I'm not getting much helpful advice here.

Jen (29:46) No. (29:47) I mean, I think, you know, a lot of people talk about horrible hospital experiences. (29:50) I think that we had a pretty good experience. (29:54) You know, everybody was really good. (29:56) I kinda got online right away, found some I'm in some doctor mom Facebook groups and got connected to some people who, you know, kinda gave me some basic advice.

Jen (30:07) One of my favorite expressions that I learned early on from someone, I wish I knew who it was, but they said, don't drink from the fire hose.

Scott Benner (30:15) Yeah. (30:16) And

Jen (30:16) that has stuck with me because I think you get so much thrown at you at one time. (30:21) You know? (30:21) And I can't imagine what it's like to not have a medical background and have all this stuff thrown at you.

Scott Benner (30:27) So even with things being thrown at you quickly and you understanding a lot of contextually what it was, it was still too much.

Jen (30:33) Yeah. (30:34) Okay. (30:35) Yeah. (30:35) Exactly.

Scott Benner (30:36) I made that die the finding diabetes series because of that idea. (30:40) Like, I thought everyone's yelling buzzwords at people and they don't know what they mean. (30:44) And they say them they say, like like, you don't realize if you're a person who says bolus all the time that there are a lot of people who go, I don't know what you're saying. (30:52) You know, like, so and then you just keep rolling on with it. (30:56) And the person you're talking to is back there going, I don't know.

Scott Benner (30:58) I guess I'll figure out what bolus means later, and then I'll maybe this will all make sense. (31:03) Nope. (31:03) It won't. (31:04) So what did you find like, I know how I think of it. (31:07) I mean, if you it's not a secret.

Scott Benner (31:09) I think of it the way it's in the bowl beginning series. (31:12) Like, that's that's how I think about the beginning. (31:14) But what did you find that was helpful?

Jen (31:15) You know, just talking to people, really. (31:17) You know? (31:18) And I think that the people in the hospital did a great job with him and with me. (31:22) And, you know, we were it was less than twenty four hours, so we were in and out and, you know, put a Dexcom on him right away, which was great. (31:31) And, you know, it it turned into a pretty good experience.

Jen (31:35) Went back to school the the following day.

Scott Benner (31:38) Did you realize he's right back again?

Jen (31:40) Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner (31:41) Well, did you have that, like, we can do this, nothing's gonna stop us vibe going?

Jen (31:45) I tried.

Scott Benner (31:45) You tried? (31:47) Is your husband in medicine too?

Jen (31:49) He is.

Scott Benner (31:50) Yeah. (31:50) Is he, like, just a different kind of doctor?

Jen (31:54) He's an anesthesiologist.

Scott Benner (31:56) That's the best job, isn't it?

Jen (31:57) Yeah. (31:59) He just doesn't he talks to them, puts them to sleep.

Scott Benner (32:01) And he pops

Jen (32:02) on a

Scott Benner (32:02) pop then he pops on a podcast. (32:03) Right?

Jen (32:05) Yeah. (32:06) I guess. (32:06) Don't know what he does. (32:07) I

Scott Benner (32:07) don't ask him. (32:08) Hey. (32:09) Listen. (32:09) An anesthesiologist saved me recently. (32:12) I've been put out a number of times.

Scott Benner (32:13) Actually, my son said to me the other day. (32:14) He goes, you you know, you've had a lot of surgeries? (32:16) And I was like, yeah. (32:17) I was thinking that the other day too. (32:18) You know, when I get the Jackson juice, it burns like crazy for me.

Scott Benner (32:23) It doesn't it doesn't for everybody, by the way. (32:25) So last time I had to have it you're laughing at what part? (32:28) The Jackson juice? (32:29) Yeah. (32:29) Okay.

Scott Benner (32:29) And so, like, I so I said that to the anesthesiologist. (32:32) I'm like, hey. (32:33) Yo. (32:33) Easy. (32:33) That's gonna burn.

Scott Benner (32:34) I was like, is there anything you can do about that? (32:36) And he goes, oh, yeah. (32:37) No problem. (32:38) And he tourniquet my arm and kinda, like, put it in a little slower and then held it for a minute before he let it through and it didn't burn. (32:45) And I was like, I remember thinking, thank you, but I couldn't actually say it because I was gone.

Scott Benner (32:50) I was gone.

Jen (32:51) Right.

Scott Benner (32:51) But now if I have something done, it's the last thing I tell people. (32:54) Like, are you aware of how to do this? (32:56) Because otherwise, when they inject it into my IV, my arm feels like it's on fire. (33:01) And then that goes across my chest and that's like my last remembrance as I pass out. (33:06) Oh.

Scott Benner (33:06) I mean, in the in you know, meanwhile, I I guess it really doesn't matter because you're asleep in, like, a split second. (33:11) Tell your husband if he ever wants to come on to a podcast to explain the complexities of the idea that we understand that anesthesia makes people go to sleep and wake back up again, but we don't know understand how. (33:23) I'm fascinated by that conversation. (33:25) So yeah.

Jen (33:26) Oh, yeah. (33:26) He would love

Scott Benner (33:27) I there may be I was just saying it to Arden the other day. (33:30) She was talking about something medical. (33:32) She's like, why can't they just I was like, Arden, you know what? (33:35) I said, do you know that we don't know why anesthesia works? (33:38) And she goes, what?

Scott Benner (33:40) I'm like, the stuff they put in you, you fall asleep, you don't die, and you wake back up when they take it away. (33:45) And she goes, yeah. (33:45) I said, we know that happens. (33:47) We have no idea why. (33:49) She's like, what?

Scott Benner (33:50) I'm like, yeah. (33:51) Now imagine what else we don't know. (33:55) Yeah. (33:56) Yeah.

Jen (33:56) Right.

Scott Benner (33:57) But okay. (33:58) So he's he's been through med school. (34:00) You've been through med school. (34:02) But does somebody take the reins on the diabetes thing, or do you have that, like, I I we're we're trying to stay very vague about your children. (34:09) Is your child of the age where you're like, oh, no.

Scott Benner (34:11) It's theirs to take over, or did you feel like, no. (34:13) I should be helping?

Jen (34:14) Yeah. (34:15) It's I mean, it's pretty much all me. (34:16) Like I said, I work part time. (34:18) So and because I'm more on the general practice kinda side of things, I tend to manage most of it, you know, as far as I'm the one who's calling the insurance and, you know, making appointments and sending the messages. (34:34) I mean, the nice thing about having a teenager who is smart and functional is that he does a lot of it himself.

Jen (34:44) You know? (34:44) Every once in a while, I'm like, oh, is it a Dexcom day? (34:47) Or so a lot of it is on him.

Scott Benner (34:50) But By choice? (34:51) Like, does he want you not to be involved, or is it No. (34:56) He's looking for no?

Jen (34:57) No. (34:57) I mean, we I'd say it's a team effort, but, you know, he's very intuitive

Scott Benner (35:02) Okay.

Jen (35:03) Which I think is good. (35:05) It's funny because we've even had his endocrinologist, the nurse practitioner say, you know, don't make changes on your pump without talking to us. (35:13) And I'm gone, okay.

Scott Benner (35:16) Yeah. (35:17) I'll call you up before I change the basal from point six five to point seven.

Jen (35:22) Exactly. (35:22) Exactly. (35:23) No. (35:23) There has been I mean, we definitely communicate with them. (35:26) I I I try not to play doctor with my kids.

Jen (35:30) So, you know, I do wanna communicate with them and make sure that everybody's on the same page. (35:34) But I think for little things like that, you know, that's definitely something he and I can do together.

Scott Benner (35:40) You feel like you'll grow together? (35:41) Do you have an expectation that at some point he's gonna look at you and go, okay. (35:45) That's enough now? (35:46) I'm good? (35:47) Like, I don't want you involved anymore, do you think he'll keep accept accepting your your help?

Jen (35:52) I don't know. (35:53) I guess we'll see what time.

Scott Benner (35:54) You're not an anxious person.

Jen (35:56) That depends who you ask.

Scott Benner (35:57) I know. (35:57) Your husband thinks you are, but I I'm asking you. (35:59) Yeah. (35:59) Yeah. (35:59) Yeah.

Jen (36:00) He probably does. (36:00) Yeah. (36:01) Yeah. (36:02) I mean, I'm definitely a worrier, but I think it just depends on what's going on.

Scott Benner (36:06) More so since you had kids? (36:08) Definitely. (36:08) Definitely. (36:09) Yeah. (36:09) That's the thing.

Scott Benner (36:10) I I I know I've probably joked about it one too many times, and I was like, I think there's a switch in there. (36:14) The kids grab it on the way out, and they, like, flip it. (36:17) And then Mhmm. (36:17) Like, because my wife was a lot more chill before, like, I made her pregnant. (36:21) But it's good though.

Scott Benner (36:22) Right? (36:22) You're keeping the kid alive. (36:24) Not good for you. (36:24) It's good for them. (36:26) You're you're very vigilant for them.

Scott Benner (36:28) That's awesome.

Jen (36:30) Right.

Scott Benner (36:31) So I will tell you, as a person who's been at this for a a very long time, being the parent of someone with diabetes, there is more than likely going to be a moment where your your child is just like, hey. (36:44) I'm good. (36:46) And Mhmm. (36:46) They're probably not really going to be. (36:49) But it turns into more of, like, a a psychological necessity at that point.

Scott Benner (36:55) Mhmm. (36:55) You're going to have to, at some point, like, like, create boundaries. (37:00) And they'll he'll probably make them. (37:02) And then you're gonna have to, like, find a way to, like, live with them, not ruin your relationship, but still at the same time make sure that the health part is okay. (37:10) It's a really unfun part of this whole thing.

Scott Benner (37:13) In case any of you are wondering what comes next, this is there's Right. (37:17) The it's not a big party. (37:19) But you get through it, like, you know, and it's it's just it's a process like the like the rest of

Jen (37:23) it. (37:24) Right.

Scott Benner (37:25) What what kind of outcomes are you having right now? (37:27) How does this, like, what do you think of as a spike at a meal? (37:31) What are numbers you're shooting for? (37:33) What kind of a one c's you're trying for? (37:34) How do you like your variability?

Scott Benner (37:36) Stuff like that.

Jen (37:37) You know, I mean, the crazy thing that, I mean, you know about diabetes is, like, doing the exact same thing every day, and your numbers are gonna be different because that's just the way it is. (37:46) One thing that I think helped early on was that one of the doctors said, you know, the goal is to not be a 100% in range, right Mhmm. (37:56) All the time.

Scott Benner (37:57) Mhmm.

Jen (37:57) And I think that, you know, knowing that the goal is not perfection and that the goal is, you know, being safe and having quality of life and, you know, functioning and feeling good, I think, is the point. (38:09) On the I don't know if it's on the Dexcom app or the Mobi app, but they're they do give a percentage on the bottom of the app Yeah. (38:17) About, like, your time and range Mhmm. (38:19) Which I think is good and bad if you're a numbers person.

Scott Benner (38:23) Because if you're you think that any number under a 100 seems like failure to some people?

Jen (38:29) I mean, I could see where some people might feel like that. (38:32) Yeah. (38:32) Right? (38:33) And because every day is so different, you might have a day where you're 50 to 60% in range. (38:37) Right?

Jen (38:38) And then you might have a day where you're 90% in range.

Scott Benner (38:40) Yeah.

Jen (38:41) So I think that seeing that and can sometimes be a little bit frustrating, I'm sure. (38:47) But, yeah, I mean, the goal is to, you know, make sure he's feeling good and keep numbers in range as much as possible. (38:55) But I think that, you know, aiming for that a 100%, I think, is is tough.

Scott Benner (39:00) You don't feel that way? (39:02) Like like, it's failure if you don't do a certain thing. (39:05) If not, how did you get to that?

Jen (39:06) No. (39:07) I don't. (39:07) And I think that, you know, like, all things in parenting, you see things online. (39:11) Right? (39:11) And you see you know, at first, I was following all these people online and, oh, my kid only eats veggies and meat and blah blah blah.

Jen (39:19) And, you know, and you're like, oh, I wish that it was like this, and I wish it was like that. (39:25) But in reality, I think you have to do what works best for you and your family and your situation.

Scott Benner (39:31) Mhmm.

Jen (39:32) Right?

Scott Benner (39:33) Yeah. (39:33) For sure. (39:34) I agree. (39:34) Like, so how does that happen? (39:36) You look online for what?

Scott Benner (39:37) For community, for people who understand, for answers, that kind of thing. (39:41) At some point, you find someone who was like, I'll tell you what I did. (39:45) I'd I eat one carb a year, and it's fixed everything. (39:49) And you're like, okay. (39:50) Well, we'll just that's what we'll do.

Scott Benner (39:51) Right? (39:52) Because they show you a beautiful graph, and you're like, yes. (39:54) I'm looking for that.

Jen (39:55) Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner (39:55) Yeah. (39:55) And then what does it hit you five seconds later? (39:58) You go, I I do I would like a piece of bread once in a while. (40:01) Like, hold on a second. (40:02) Like, I Exactly.

Scott Benner (40:03) Yeah. (40:03) I didn't want things to change that much. (40:05) Does that leave you feeling like it's an all or nothing situation? (40:10) Like, well, I either have to be completely no carb or I have horrible blood sugars?

Jen (40:16) Not necessarily, but I think that that probably takes time to get that message through.

Scott Benner (40:22) Yeah.

Jen (40:22) And think there's a lot of that in parenting, you know, the comparing to other people and, well, my kid's reading at three years old and, you know, my kid's in advanced classes and my kid's not. (40:32) And Mhmm. (40:32) You know, there's a lot of that, I think, in all aspects of parenting. (40:35) So I think that it's important to step back and realize, you know, again, what works for your family is what works for you. (40:43) And I counsel that a lot in my job with different aspects of life.

Jen (40:49) So a lot of this has kind of turned over into the way that I counsel families and do reassurance and have empathy for their situations and talk to them about their life.

Scott Benner (41:03) Yeah. (41:03) I I find that the messaging I I wish hope I'm I'm giving out is that there is a standard that you're reaching for. (41:12) You don't need to get to it today. (41:14) And Exactly. (41:15) You also don't wanna get halfway to it and go, that's good enough.

Scott Benner (41:19) It's a process, and that process may take longer or shorter for different people. (41:24) And you're certainly not gonna get through it, quickly or at all if you don't have at least some of the tools and the basic understanding. (41:31) So go find those understandings, live through your experiences over and over again, and keep making adjustments till you find find the thing that works. (41:38) The tough part is that the diabetes is adjusting while you're adjusting.

Jen (41:42) Correct.

Scott Benner (41:42) Yeah. (41:43) Yeah. (41:43) It's not a lot of fun. (41:44) Right. (41:45) It really it really isn't.

Jen (41:48) Right.

Scott Benner (41:48) Can I ask you a question?

Jen (41:50) Okay.

Scott Benner (41:50) Yeah. (41:51) Yeah. (41:51) So this is have I not been asking you questions? (41:54) You just think, like, have you not been asking me questions for the last forty minutes, you dumbass? (41:58) But, like so I've been I I just talked about this with another person, so it's gonna come up in the podcast in succession.

Scott Benner (42:05) So for you listening, guys listening, I'm sorry. (42:07) But so you're a mom. (42:09) Your your kid has type one diabetes, not for a long time, but for, you know, a rather newer diagnosis. (42:15) You're also obviously who you are professionally. (42:19) If I told you that I have on my website, I've just not made it public yet, I have a calculator that if you put your weight into, it would give you an average start for insulin to carb ratio, basal, and sensitivity.

Scott Benner (42:38) Would you say I think that's a good thing for people to see? (42:42) Possibly. (42:43) How much does your child weigh?

Jen (42:45) Mine? (42:46) I have no idea. (42:47) Can

Scott Benner (42:48) you ballpark guess?

Jen (42:50) Maybe one thirty? (42:51) Okay.

Scott Benner (42:51) So if I type one thirty in as the the weight, it will tell you that an estimated total daily dose is around thirty two and a half units. (43:00) Do you think he uses about thirty two and a half units a day, or is that wildly off for him?

Jen (43:05) No. (43:05) That's probably possibly about right.

Scott Benner (43:07) About right. (43:07) Okay. (43:08) Is his basil about point six eight an hour? (43:12) Point seven? (43:13) Does he use about sure.

Scott Benner (43:15) Does he use about sixteen units a day in basil?

Jen (43:18) That sounds about right, I think.

Scott Benner (43:20) It's Okay. (43:21) Do you think a unit moves him how far? (43:24) Like, when you're doing a correction, if he's 200, what gets him to 100?

Jen (43:28) Maybe three or four units. (43:29) I'm not sure.

Scott Benner (43:30) It could be more yeah. (43:31) It's interesting. (43:31) This tells you, like Yeah. (43:33) You know, it it says, look. (43:34) Here's an estimated start for your insulin sensitivity.

Scott Benner (43:36) You know, one unit drops you by 55 at a standard eight so it's using for insulin sensitivity, it's using the, the 1,800 rule to find the number. (43:46) Mhmm. (43:47) You can switch it to use different like, a more resistant or a more sensitive rule. (43:51) Same thing for the insulin to carb calculation. (43:54) It's being done by the 500 rule, which is where the math comes from to figure out people's starting rates for their their carbs.

Scott Benner (44:01) And for basil, there's, different factors. (44:03) It's using the standard, which is point five five, but it it also gives you opportunities to switch to high sensitivity resistant or highly resistant. (44:10) My question is, if you had that because you have access to people. (44:15) You talk to a lot of people. (44:17) So if if it's true that people are being asked to do something with specious settings, they're not quite sure if their settings are right, would it not be helpful to give them something that says, look.

Scott Benner (44:30) These are about maybe where you should start looking at your settings for. (44:34) Does that seem like a value to you?

Jen (44:36) Possibly. (44:37) I you know, I I know we relied on his doctors to kinda create those settings and at the beginning and and periodically when we check-in. (44:47) You know? (44:47) And those are all on his phone, which is why I said I wasn't sure. (44:50) Yeah.

Jen (44:51) Yeah. (44:51) No. (44:51) Of course. (44:52) So all of those settings are there, and I know that the, you know, the medical professionals created those settings, and we adjust up and down, you know, as needed.

Scott Benner (45:01) Mhmm. (45:02) I'm just I'm wondering because you're a doctor. (45:04) Like, if if Mhmm. (45:05) You could somehow look at this calculator and go, okay. (45:07) Well, these are the these are the mathematical formulas that an endocrinologist is using to get a starting point for these numbers.

Jen (45:13) Right.

Scott Benner (45:14) Right? (45:14) Would you consider sharing it with somebody, or or would that scare you? (45:18) And if so, what scares you about it?

Jen (45:21) I would probably let the specialists do that just because they have so pediatric endocrinologist has three extra years of training

Scott Benner (45:28) Mhmm.

Jen (45:29) Compared to me.

Scott Benner (45:30) Yeah.

Jen (45:31) So, like, my residency is in general pediatrics, and I did some rotations in in endocrinology. (45:37) But if you're an endocrinologist pediatric endocrinologist, you've done three more years on top of that. (45:43) So I feel like probably leaving it to them to create the mathematical goals and do that, at least to start everything, is a good thing. (45:54) Like I said, we kinda adjust up and down in increments if needed, but Right. (45:59) I think getting their perspective from the beginning is important.

Scott Benner (46:03) How long has your child had type one now?

Jen (46:05) A year and a half.

Scott Benner (46:06) Year and a half. (46:07) The reason I asked you a question about the calculator is because you're very new at type one, but you've been a doctor for a very long time. (46:14) Mhmm. (46:15) So you're gonna be more risk adverse about, like, just telling people like, hey. (46:18) Click on this link.

Scott Benner (46:18) But at the same time, have you not gotten a lot of your information that way?

Jen (46:24) Right. (46:24) That's true.

Scott Benner (46:25) Yeah. (46:26) Yeah. (46:26) So I it just it's it's interesting. (46:28) The the reason I ask is because I'm gonna spend a fair amount of time this year talking to people in clinical settings. (46:34) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (46:34) I want to be able to say to them, listen. (46:36) I've been doing this for twelve years. (46:38) This is what they need to know, and these things will help them get to it faster. (46:43) Mhmm. (46:43) But you've gotta believe that it's a big leap if you're a person who went to medical school or you're a nurse or, you know, a professional person, And a guy comes along and goes, hey.

Scott Benner (46:54) I make a podcast. (46:56) I you know, everything that I know about diabetes is in these these series right here. (47:01) I think if you listen to them and understand these t shirt slogan sayings about type one, you'll be well on your way. (47:06) But you do need good settings. (47:08) So here's the thing that'll help you get to that.

Scott Benner (47:10) Godspeed. (47:11) Like, take all that, synthesize it together, apply it to your own life, and I think you're gonna be better off if you do. (47:17) How do you make a person like, because that's my pitch. (47:20) Yeah. (47:21) And by the way, I believe it.

Scott Benner (47:23) Okay? (47:23) And I believe it because I've seen it work for, I mean, honestly, countless people. (47:29) Mhmm. (47:29) So, like but how do I say it? (47:32) But but what I just realized is when I said it to you, you were kinda like, I don't know.

Scott Benner (47:35) I don't think so. (47:37) I want I want and you listened to you listened to this podcast. (47:41) Right?

Jen (47:41) Yeah.

Scott Benner (47:41) Yeah. (47:42) So you you listened to this podcast. (47:44) You've had some success, I would bet, on things that I've said. (47:47) And and then what's your kid's a one c?

Jen (47:49) Right now, probably around six point something.

Scott Benner (47:52) Yeah. (47:52) You're doing good. (47:53) And when I said, hey. (47:53) Do you think I should tell people about that? (47:55) She were like, what made you go,

Jen (48:02) Well, just kind of like I don't know. (48:04) It's hard to explain. (48:05) You know? (48:05) I mean, it's good to get online and get people's perspective of things, I think. (48:09) Like, when we were looking at pumps or, you know, various inform to get information.

Jen (48:15) Right?

Scott Benner (48:16) Yeah. (48:16) Yeah. (48:16) Go ahead.

Jen (48:19) But

Scott Benner (48:21) May I? (48:22) Yeah. (48:22) You trust yourself. (48:24) Yeah. (48:25) And so if we step out of this conversation and we and we you, as a doctor, look at you as a parent situation, you say, well, yeah.

Scott Benner (48:33) That person was able to go online, get things and synthesize it and put it together because they were a doctor and they had more critical thinking. (48:39) But what about the people who don't have the critical thinking? (48:41) So you think it's possible that you had success because you had knowledge that other people don't have. (48:46) I'm telling you that this works eight to 80, blind, cripple to crazy. (48:51) It doesn't matter.

Jen (48:51) It's just like a lot of things. (48:53) I mean, half my day is people coming into my office saying, well, I looked at this online or I found this on Google. (48:59) I asked chat GPT.

Scott Benner (49:00) Right. (49:01) Right. (49:01) And so you're freaked out because what if they're getting bad information, but you got good information when you did

Jen (49:07) it. (49:08) Right.

Scott Benner (49:08) That so my that's gonna be my problem when I'm talking to doctors. (49:12) So you've just identified for me what I have to change about my pitch. (49:16) Thank you. (49:18) Because, because here, I'll pitch it to you a different way. (49:21) You may or may not know this, but if you go to one of these AI, like, models at this point and ask a diabetes questions, it's gonna give you some pretty rock solid advice.

Jen (49:29) Oh, yeah.

Scott Benner (49:30) Yeah. (49:30) I just had a medical problem cleared up for me because of chat GPT.

Jen (49:35) Oh, definitely.

Scott Benner (49:35) Something I I struggled with forever. (49:37) I talked about on the podcast recently. (49:39) If you haven't heard it, it's worth listening to. (49:41) I was hilarious when I explained it. (49:43) But I'd still be struggling today if it wasn't for that.

Scott Benner (49:46) And you could say, well, you could have googled it. (49:47) I did Google it. (49:48) It didn't work out that way for me. (49:50) Like, I couldn't get an answer that way. (49:52) I've seen people drop their graphs into a model and ask it where they think they're making their mistakes with their insulin and without any context, it's being valuable to them.

Jen (50:01) Right.

Scott Benner (50:02) So but I get also that I don't want just people running around yelling out into the and whatever they hear echoed back at them, they just start doing. (50:10) But I'm I'm not saying that. (50:11) I'm saying that when a person is lost in the woods, if you don't have a flashlight and a map to give them, it still might be nice to stand off in the distance and yell, over here, and see if they can't make their way to you. (50:24) Right? (50:24) Right.

Scott Benner (50:25) That that's kind of how I think about it. (50:26) I know that the medical system, and for a lot of good reasons, does not think about it that way. (50:32) But, you know, I'm I'm gonna guess a couple 100,000 people listen to this podcast and, they're doing okay. (50:39) So, like, so I'm trying to figure out how to, like, how do I leave that message because I have until April. (50:45) I have until the April because I have, hey, Scott.

Scott Benner (50:50) I am the diabetes coordinator for the office, and I am thrilled to announce that you have been chosen as the keynote speaker at our symposium. (50:59) So I have about Yeah. (51:01) Three I got about three months to figure out how to say that. (51:08) So, anyway, I I I I like that you were I I could bounce it off of you for a second. (51:13) Thank you.

Scott Benner (51:13) Sure. (51:14) Yeah. (51:14) Yeah. (51:14) But I but your reaction told me a lot. (51:17) It was very helpful.

Scott Benner (51:18) Because you're you're a you're a lovely, reasonable, smart person. (51:21) I've been talking to you for an hour. (51:22) And you listen to the podcast and got value out of it. (51:26) And still when I said, should we tell other people about it? (51:28) You're like, oh, I don't know, man.

Scott Benner (51:32) That was pretty that was pretty good information for me. (51:35) I appreciate that. (51:36) Anything in your story that we haven't touched on, stuff that you wanted to talk about that we've missed? (51:40) I won't I don't wanna miss any of your topics.

Jen (51:42) I guess just talking about, like, the way that it's changed the way that I practice medicine a little bit.

Scott Benner (51:48) Yeah.

Jen (51:48) You know? (51:49) And it's not not just diabetes, but just really any chronic medical condition too. (51:54) One of the things that I try to address, I try to be a whole picture kind of person. (51:58) Mhmm. (51:58) So if I know I'm seeing a sibling of someone who's you know, I know the sibling has been undergoing cancer treatments or the sibling has had some health problems.

Jen (52:09) You know, I try to make sure that the siblings are okay and the families are okay and how can I help kind of thing? (52:17) Yeah. (52:18) Or what do you need kind of thing. (52:19) You know, I'd like to admit that I was like this before.

Scott Benner (52:23) You don't think you are?

Jen (52:24) I don't know. (52:25) I think that it has changed a little bit. (52:27) Like I said, I definitely know more about the school stuff and the five zero four and the you know, just in general, you know, I recently was on the school on the phone with a school for, like, almost an hour talking about a kid with a not diabetes, something else. (52:41) But I think it's just wanting to help those kids and those families navigate the health care system because it can be really challenging if you don't know what you're talking about.

Scott Benner (52:52) What I feel like I'm hearing is that as your family's story gets deeper and richer and you have more perspective and experiences, that's impacting how you're talking to people in the practice.

Jen (53:05) It is.

Scott Benner (53:06) That's what people mean when they, you know, when they say, like, oh, my doctor's great. (53:11) They've been doing this forever. (53:12) It's the it's the bad stuff. (53:14) It's the nuance stuff, the stuff that nobody teaches your rights in a book that you get out of out of that. (53:20) Like, it's it's life.

Scott Benner (53:22) Like, you have more you have more life now than you had before, and now you Right. (53:26) And you have a a really great place to apply it in. (53:28) Answer for me why is it that that stuff wasn't common sense before you had the life experience? (53:35) And this isn't me coming down on you. (53:36) This is me trying to understand the the human mind.

Scott Benner (53:39) Like because, honestly, now that you've said it out loud, it's not like it's some great, like, stroke of genius. (53:46) Right? (53:46) To say yeah. (53:47) To say to somebody, hey. (53:48) Your brother's sick.

Scott Benner (53:48) I'm gonna be a little more compassionate to you. (53:50) Like so what what do you think that is? (53:52) Is the job just so clinical that it doesn't allow for that, or what what is that?

Jen (53:57) It is. (53:58) And then a lot of it is time. (54:00) I'll be honest.

Scott Benner (54:01) Mhmm.

Jen (54:01) You know, if you're doing a well child check and you have fifteen to twenty minutes in with, like, with someone, you know, you're you're going over a lot of things in those that fifteen, twenty minutes. (54:11) But I think I've also learned to kinda pick and choose what needs to be gone over.

Scott Benner (54:16) Okay. (54:17) So your experiences are making you reallocate the time differently?

Jen (54:20) Correct.

Scott Benner (54:21) Gotcha. (54:22) It's like when they ask you, what's that one pediatrician thing that I they clearly you're supposed to assess their mental health, right, if they're depressed, and you do it with, like, one sentence. (54:31) What's the sentence? (54:32) Say it.

Jen (54:33) Well, there's different screenings that we're supposed to be doing with the kids. (54:37) Like, there's one called a PHQ nine. (54:39) I tend to just talk to the kids about how they're doing or if there was any concerns.

Scott Benner (54:43) I have an interesting experience because my my kid's pediatrician who's no longer their doctor, they're older now, but was a friend. (54:50) And so he'd, like, look and go, Arden, are you sad or anything?

Jen (54:57) I don't say that.

Scott Benner (54:58) Yeah. (54:58) And and he'd be she'd be like, no. (54:59) And he'd look at me, I go, she seems okay. (55:01) They're like, alright. (55:01) And then that was sort of how it would go.

Jen (55:05) Right. (55:05) Right.

Scott Benner (55:06) But yeah. (55:06) But you so you have, like, these little, like, lead in questions that you're supposed to ask, things you're looking for,

Jen (55:11) that kind of stuff. (55:12) Yeah. (55:12) And I think, like, I don't I tend to not argue with parents as much if they're wanting something that's relatively easy. (55:19) You know, a lot of people come in and they say, well, I want labs, or I want a referral, or I want this. (55:23) And a lot of the times, if it seems reasonable, I'm like, okay.

Scott Benner (55:27) And prior, you'd be like, this situation doesn't call for that, or I don't Right. (55:32) Right. (55:32) Instead, you're like, this will make them happy or comfortable or or satiated.

Jen (55:36) Exactly. (55:36) If you feel more comfortable checking some lab work and we have a reason, like, something we can code for and you're concerned, I'm fine doing it.

Scott Benner (55:44) Yeah. (55:44) Why I am you have a tough enough life. (55:46) Why am I making a fight here?

Jen (55:48) Exactly. (55:49) Exactly.

Scott Benner (55:49) And that comes from now you know what it's like to have a tougher life.

Jen (55:53) Right.

Scott Benner (55:53) Prior to Arden's diagnosis, I would tell you that I had a two year old and a, like, I don't know, four year old. (56:05) And I just bought a little house and we were fixing it up and we had a property and everything. (56:11) Like, we were doing okay and everything felt like it was going and I was like, oh, my life is this is what I was trying for. (56:16) Like, you know what I mean? (56:17) Like, all this stuff is happening.

Scott Benner (56:18) And prior to that, like, any of the hardships I had before that were gone. (56:22) Like, I'd I'd kind of, like, moved into another part of my life, you know, and then this happened. (56:28) And I was like, oh, god. (56:30) Like, this is I didn't expect this level of resistance from the world.

Jen (56:35) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (56:35) You know? (56:36) And it it was it it was really a shift. (56:39) And I'm wondering, like, did you have a similar experience where things were going okay and then suddenly this happened? (56:45) Or did you have a lot of struggles that prepared you for this?

Jen (56:49) No. (56:49) I think probably very similar experience, you know, when you're just cruising along. (56:54) And then, you know, my grandfather used to have an expression where he would say, man plans and god laughs. (57:00) So you know? (57:02) But I wouldn't say it changed too much.

Jen (57:03) I mean, we still travel. (57:05) You know, I think when you originally maybe get the news of the diagnosis, like, okay. (57:10) What's gonna change? (57:11) Right? (57:11) Well, we still travel.

Jen (57:13) We still do the things that we wanna you know, but you have to adjust. (57:17) So but I think that is the original fear, of course.

Scott Benner (57:20) Yeah. (57:21) So it's not perfect, but you still you make your way through it. (57:23) Okay?

Jen (57:24) Yeah. (57:24) We try.

Scott Benner (57:25) I feel badly when, like, you're talking about how, like, you know, how it impact how things can impact people. (57:30) Like, I mean, it was hard. (57:32) I'm not gonna say. (57:33) And, I've I've said this before. (57:35) It I I didn't have a podcast to listen to.

Scott Benner (57:38) You know, a lot of the things that I just say off the top of my head now that people are like, oh, Scott's so lucky. (57:42) Like, I had to figure all that out by, like Mhmm.

Jen (57:44) You know,

Scott Benner (57:44) living through horrible situations. (57:46) Still, I'm okay. (57:48) Mhmm. (57:48) You you know, you know, like, but it wasn't great. (57:50) Like, there was there was a there were years of, like, oh my god.

Scott Benner (57:54) This is going wrong. (57:56) You know? (57:56) And and this isn't gonna be okay, she's gonna have real problems. (57:59) And but I just I don't know why I didn't give up, to be perfectly honest with you. (58:03) I'm just happy that sort of not how I'm, like, built or whatever.

Scott Benner (58:06) But but now I look up and I see people who are have access to help or information or even ideas, you know, and then they can't get to them. (58:16) And then that that kinda breaks my heart too.

Jen (58:18) Oh, right.

Scott Benner (58:19) Because you know what people are going through. (58:21) And Absolutely. (58:22) Some of it's just not necessary.

Jen (58:24) Yeah. (58:25) And that Well and, I mean, I see a lot of kids who don't have supportive families, and it's you know, don't have transportation to their specialists and don't have people who are taking care of them. (58:37) And I think that that is even more difficult Yeah. (58:40) And sad.

Scott Benner (58:41) Out of 10 random people, how many kids do you think are living a life with a a parent that's not not, supportive in one of those ways?

Jen (58:52) You mean on a, like, on a regular day?

Scott Benner (58:54) Yeah. (58:54) Like, how many how many how many times a day do you walk out and just run your head into the concrete wall across from the door when you walk out?

Jen (59:00) Boy. (59:03) Multiple. (59:04) No. (59:05) Probably a handful.

Scott Benner (59:06) Yeah. (59:07) Yeah. (59:07) It's tough. (59:08) Yeah. (59:08) I mean, have you sat quietly and thought about that?

Scott Benner (59:11) Like, what's the help there, or is there just nothing to do? (59:14) Definitely. (59:15) Have you come up with any answers? (59:17) Like, how do you how do you circumvent a a parent that's not valuable in this situation?

Jen (59:21) I mean, it's definitely tricky. (59:23) You can't call CPS on everybody. (59:26) You know? (59:26) I try to just make sure that they have what they need and, you know, any referrals. (59:30) Or like I said, I try to say, how can I help?

Jen (59:33) You know? (59:34) Sometimes it's just a tricky situation.

Scott Benner (59:36) Yeah. (59:37) Does it end up I mean, you've been at it long enough now. (59:40) Think back ten years ago to a family that you were like, uh-oh. (59:43) This is a show, and this kid's in trouble. (59:45) Did it end up that way, or did it do do things have a way of working out when you don't expect them to?

Jen (59:51) It's hard to know from ten years ago because a lot of times people fall off the grid. (59:56) So, you know, if there was somebody at that point, they may not even be in our town anymore or in our practice or

Scott Benner (1:00:03) You don't

Jen (1:00:04) You know, hard to hard to know. (1:00:05) Right?

Scott Benner (1:00:06) Yeah. (1:00:07) You don't you don't always get to, like, see somebody all the way through. (1:00:10) Is that tough?

Jen (1:00:11) Exactly.

Scott Benner (1:00:11) Is it hard to, like, put so much effort into somebody and then not see the result, or is that part of the job?

Jen (1:00:17) I mean, it's kinda part of the job, I think. (1:00:19) Especially when you're in a practice with there's, there's six of us in our practice. (1:00:23) So, you know, I'm not always seeing the kids for everything. (1:00:27) So sometimes people will bounce back and forth between different doctors. (1:00:31) So you may see them for a little bit and then not see them for a little bit.

Scott Benner (1:00:34) Yeah. (1:00:35) People people don't even consistently come when they're supposed to? (1:00:39) No. (1:00:40) Oh, you said that like, no, dummy. (1:00:41) I can't believe you asked that like a question.

Scott Benner (1:00:43) I would never not do that. (1:00:46) That's why I like, it doesn't it doesn't occur to me.

Jen (1:00:49) Yeah. (1:00:49) Well, I'll see someone who said, oh, I haven't been here in three or four years. (1:00:52) So, well, a, you're lucky.

Scott Benner (1:00:55) Yeah.

Jen (1:00:55) Right? (1:00:56) That you haven't needed a doctor in three or four years. (1:00:58) And b, I say, well, you're here now, and that's all that matters.

Scott Benner (1:01:02) You just made the same noise my son made to me the other day when I said, like I I go this is gonna sound I don't know if this is gonna sound Pollyanna or childish. (1:01:10) I'm not sure. (1:01:11) But I said, man, so many people drink too much in the world. (1:01:14) It's not part of my lifestyle, so I don't really, like I'm not aware of it, I guess. (1:01:19) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (1:01:20) But he laughed and he went, yeah. (1:01:22) I I was like he's like, dude, everybody. (1:01:25) And I was like, gotcha. (1:01:28) It's also by the way, you do whatever you want. (1:01:30) I honestly don't I honestly don't care.

Scott Benner (1:01:32) We me and my kids had this conversation again recently about, like, judgment.

Jen (1:01:36) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (1:01:37) And I stood there and I was like, listen. (1:01:39) I am not judgmental. (1:01:41) I was like, you can live your life any way you want to. (1:01:45) That's not gonna stop me from assessing it the way I see it, but my assessment's not a judgment. (1:01:50) And I was like, and that's only a thing you can measure in my heart, so you have to believe me.

Scott Benner (1:01:55) Mhmm. (1:01:56) Like, like, if you ask me to talk about a life's ill, like, in, like, stark terms, I guess you'd be like, wow. (1:02:02) That's really judgmental. (1:02:03) But the part you wouldn't hear is that, like, I if that's their life and that's what they want, whatever. (1:02:09) Like, I don't really have an opinion about what other people do.

Scott Benner (1:02:12) I have an opinion about the idea, but not about your decision. (1:02:15) And I I keep, like, oh my god. (1:02:17) Are they gonna understand what I'm saying at some point or not? (1:02:20) Because I think people who listen to this would say, generally speaking, like, don't think Scott's judgmental at all. (1:02:24) Like, I think he's I'm pretty live and let live.

Scott Benner (1:02:26) Like, I'm a Mhmm. (1:02:27) You know, that that's my vibe. (1:02:29) But if you ask me, like, do I think you should be drinking a case of beer every couple of days? (1:02:33) I have some pretty strong thoughts about that. (1:02:35) Right.

Scott Benner (1:02:36) Yeah. (1:02:36) Yeah. (1:02:36) Yeah.

Jen (1:02:36) Me too.

Scott Benner (1:02:37) Yeah. (1:02:37) You're right. (1:02:38) But if that's what you're doing, like, go get it. (1:02:41) You know what I mean? (1:02:41) Like, it's sorry with me.

Scott Benner (1:02:43) Like, just, you know, pretty much it. (1:02:44) Anyway and so when I said that about the drinking, my son was like, yeah, durr. (1:02:49) Like, it was which is, anyway, what you just made me think of when I was like, do people not come to their appointment? (1:02:53) You're like, yeah, idiot. (1:02:55) They don't.

Scott Benner (1:02:55) Yeah. (1:02:56) Yeah. (1:02:56) What?

Jen (1:02:59) Sorry. (1:03:00) I didn't know that.

Scott Benner (1:03:02) I was like, I just like, if you tell me I made this baby and I gotta take care of it, I'm taking care of it. (1:03:10) Like, I don't know. (1:03:10) Like, I just that's again, I'm not even taking credit for it. (1:03:14) I think I'm just wired that way or my past experiences have put me in that situation or whatever. (1:03:19) Anyway, so okay.

Scott Benner (1:03:22) Well, this is interesting. (1:03:24) Like, I I do you think you'll keep practicing?

Jen (1:03:27) I do. (1:03:28) You know, I'm still young in the field of medicine, I guess. (1:03:32) I always think that maybe I'll do some other things, but this is kind of what I know how to do. (1:03:37) Mhmm. (1:03:37) So I don't really wanna start over and do something else.

Scott Benner (1:03:41) Well, if you keep that promise to yourself, and I can keep this podcast going, would you, like, come back in a few years?

Jen (1:03:49) Absolutely.

Scott Benner (1:03:50) I really wanna hear how you've morphed.

Jen (1:03:54) Okay.

Scott Benner (1:03:54) Yeah. (1:03:55) Because you're very new at this. (1:03:56) You don't even realize it. (1:03:57) You're like, no. (1:03:57) I've at this a year and and three the year and three months, Scott.

Scott Benner (1:04:00) I don't know you heard the three months. (1:04:01) Okay? (1:04:02) You're gonna like, three years from now, you're gonna have such a different perspective, and I am super interested to figure out how it impacts your profession.

Jen (1:04:10) Mhmm.

Scott Benner (1:04:11) Yeah. (1:04:11) Keep me in mind is what I'm saying. (1:04:13) I mean, did you have a good time?

Jen (1:04:15) Yeah. (1:04:15) Definitely.

Scott Benner (1:04:16) Good. (1:04:16) Good. (1:04:16) You're a little reserved, so sometimes I didn't know if I was insulting you or you're just being proper. (1:04:21) Do you know that about yourself? (1:04:22) Are are you being professional or you're reserved?

Jen (1:04:25) I don't know. (1:04:25) I talk on the phone to a lot of people, parents, and stuff, so maybe it's just me being

Scott Benner (1:04:30) You're like, you have a you were you were measured a couple of times. (1:04:32) You're like, oh, I'm not gonna say that out loud. (1:04:34) He joked about this. (1:04:35) I will not respond to that. (1:04:39) But but but I made you laugh a couple of times, which made me feel yeah.

Scott Benner (1:04:42) Yeah. (1:04:42) Yeah. (1:04:42) I'm like, oh, I got to her. (1:04:44) Which, by the way, is why I told the masseuse, let's not start. (1:04:48) Okay?

Scott Benner (1:04:49) Because if you start chatting me up, I am gonna feel like a compulsion to make you laugh, and I'm trying to relax. (1:04:57) Okay? (1:04:58) Yeah. (1:04:59) You're really you're lovely, Jennifer. (1:05:01) Thank you.

Jen (1:05:02) Well, thank you.

Scott Benner (1:05:03) Seriously. (1:05:03) Do you think you'll keep listening to the podcast for support community, or do you think you were there for information and you have it?

Jen (1:05:11) I think I will. (1:05:12) I tend to be a little bit choosy, can I say? (1:05:16) You know, a lot of things that I see online and things that I look at are younger kids. (1:05:21) Mhmm. (1:05:21) And, you know, while it's still helpful for me maybe in practice, not really personally.

Scott Benner (1:05:29) Might not feel the same.

Jen (1:05:30) Yeah. (1:05:30) So it just it feels a little bit different. (1:05:32) But, so I I kinda go through the podcast and look for things about teenagers and various things.

Scott Benner (1:05:38) And Yeah.

Jen (1:05:40) So it hits home a little bit more for me.

Scott Benner (1:05:42) Gotcha. (1:05:42) Yeah. (1:05:43) Well, don't miss knowing all of your tools part one and part two because in part two, I talk about the medical thing that happened to me. (1:05:49) And Okay. (1:05:49) If nothing else, I believe I was hilarious when I explained it.

Scott Benner (1:05:53) So you don't wanna miss that. (1:05:54) I also think that not that not that I'm telling look. (1:05:58) And I crank out a lot of content. (1:05:59) I'm not telling you you have to listen to 20 episodes a month. (1:06:01) Although, I please do.

Scott Benner (1:06:03) But it but what I am saying is that I think there's something in those stories sometimes that you don't know the value of until the day you need it, and then suddenly you have it. (1:06:14) Maybe not unlike, you know, what you're learning about, you know, your own personal experiences and how they're helping you at work. (1:06:21) So Right. (1:06:22) I just like to tell people that one of the reasons like, when people are like, why don't the the descriptions of the podcast tell you exactly what the episode's about? (1:06:31) There's a couple of reasons.

Scott Benner (1:06:32) One, if you even just stop and think about the last hour, what the hell was this about? (1:06:36) You you know what I mean? (1:06:37) Like, how you breaking that down? (1:06:38) You you you can't break that down into a sentence. (1:06:40) But Right.

Scott Benner (1:06:41) Two, let's say it was about, like, I don't know, celiac. (1:06:45) And, you know, like, say that when we got done, you were like, well, what we basically talked about here was celiac and this. (1:06:50) I know it's not what we talked about, but, like, let's say that was it. (1:06:52) And I put that in the description. (1:06:54) Today, Jen comes on.

Scott Benner (1:06:55) She's a pediatrician who's blah blah blah blah blah. (1:06:58) And you see two words, you go, I don't need that part. (1:07:00) Mhmm. (1:07:01) And then you miss the rest of it.

Jen (1:07:03) That's true.

Scott Benner (1:07:04) That's the thing about it. (1:07:06) Maybe I'm giving myself credit, I don't mean to be. (1:07:08) But I think that these conversations are really valuable in ways you can't even know all the time even while you're listening to them. (1:07:16) And and sometimes it takes time before you go, oh, I'm glad I heard that.

Jen (1:07:20) Right. (1:07:21) So Right.

Scott Benner (1:07:21) Anyway, keep listening if you like. (1:07:23) If you don't, there's other people listening. (1:07:25) I'll be okay, Jen.

Jen (1:07:26) I will.

Scott Benner (1:07:26) Alright. (1:07:27) Hold on one second for me. (1:07:28) Okay? (1:07:28) You really were terrific. (1:07:29) Thank you.

Scott Benner (1:07:30) Happy New Year.

Jen (1:07:30) Thank you.

Scott Benner (1:07:38) This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Omnipod five. (1:07:42) And at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox, you can get yourself a free what'd I just say? (1:07:49) A free Omnipod five starter kit. (1:07:52) Free? (1:07:54) Get out of here.

Scott Benner (1:07:54) Go click on that link. (1:07:55) Omnipod.com/juicebox. (1:07:58) Check it out. (1:07:59) Terms and conditions apply. (1:08:00) Eligibility may vary.

Scott Benner (1:08:02) Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (1:08:07) Links in the show notes. (1:08:08) Links at juiceboxpodcast.com. (1:08:12) Dexcom sponsored this episode of the juice box podcast. (1:08:16) Learn more about the Dexcom g seven at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox.

Scott Benner (1:08:25) Thank you so much for listening. (1:08:26) I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast. (1:08:30) If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. (1:08:38) Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. (1:08:42) 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.

Scott Benner (1:08:48) And if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. (1:08:53) Would you like a Christmas card? (1:08:55) If this is your first time listening to the Juice Box podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple Podcasts or Spotify, really any audio app at all. (1:09:10) Look for the Juice Box podcast and follow or subscribe. (1:09:13) We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy.

Scott Benner (1:09:17) Wanna learn more about your diabetes management? (1:09:20) Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more. (1:09:27) This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. (1:09:34) If you're new to type one diabetes, begin with the Bold Beginnings series from the podcast. (1:09:38) Don't take my word for it.

Scott Benner (1:09:40) Listen to what reviewers have said. (1:09:42) Bold beginnings is the best first step. (1:09:45) I learned more in those episodes than anywhere else. (1:09:48) This is when everything finally clicked. (1:09:50) People say it takes the stress out of the early days and replaces it with clarity.

Scott Benner (1:09:54) They tell me this should come with the diagnosis packet that I got at the hospital. (1:09:58) And after they listen, they recommend it to everyone who's struggling. (1:10:02) It's straightforward, practical, and easy to listen to. (1:10:05) Bold Beginnings gives you the basics in a way that actually makes sense. (1:10:10) The Juice Box podcast is edited by Wrong Way Recording.

Scott Benner (1:10:14) Wrongwayrecording.com. (1:10:17) If you'd like your podcast to sound as good as mine, check out Rob at wrongwayrecording.com.

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#1777 Scratch That Itch

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

Christine, a 73-year-old living with Type 1 for 67 years, reflects on the evolution of diabetes tech and the resilience required to thrive through nearly seven decades of management.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner (0:00) Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast. (0:03) Welcome.

Christine (0:14) Hi. (0:15) My name is Christine. (0:16) I'm 73 years old, and I've had type one diabetes for sixty seven years. (0:23) And, you can call me Chris.

Scott Benner (0:25) How would you like to share a type one diabetes getaway like no other? (0:29) Join me on Juice Cruise 2026. (0:32) You may be asking, what is Juice Cruise? (0:34) It's a week long cruise designed specifically for people and families living with type one diabetes. (0:39) It's not just a vacation.

Scott Benner (0:41) It's a chance to relax, connect, and feel understood in a way that is hard to find elsewhere. (0:46) We're gonna sail out of Miami, and the cruise includes stops in CocoCay, San Juan, Saint Kitts, Nevis aboard the stunning Celebrity Beyond. (0:55) This ship is chosen for its comfort, accessibility, and exceptional amenities. (1:01) You're gonna enjoy a welcoming environment surrounded by others who get life with type one diabetes. (1:06) I'm gonna host diabetes focused conversations and meetups on the days at sea.

Scott Benner (1:11) There's thoughtfully designed spaces, incredible dining, and modern amenities all throughout the celebrity beyond. (1:19) Your kids can be supervised, there's teen programs so everyone gets time to recharge. (1:24) Not just the the kids going on vacation, but maybe you get to kick back a little bit too. (1:29) There's gonna be zero judgment, real connections, and a whole lot of sun and fun on Juice Cruise twenty twenty six. (1:34) Please come with me.

Scott Benner (1:36) You're going to have a terrific time. (1:38) You can learn more or set up your deposit at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise. (1:43) Get ahold of Suzanne at cruise planners. (1:46) She will take care of everything. (1:47) Link's in the show notes.

Scott Benner (1:48) Link's at juiceboxpodcast.com. (1:52) If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the juice box podcast private Facebook group. (1:58) Juice box podcast, type one diabetes. (2:01) But everybody is welcome. (2:03) Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me.

Scott Benner (2:08) If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. (2:17) Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (2:22) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. (2:33) Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five, the one year wear CGM. (2:41) That's one insertion a year.

Scott Benner (2:43) That's it. (2:44) And here's a little bonus for you. (2:45) How about there's no limit on how many friends and family you can share your data with with the Eversense Now app? (2:51) No limits. (2:53) Eversense.

Scott Benner (2:53) Today's episode is also sponsored by Tandem Mobi, the impressively small insulin pump. (2:59) Tandem Mobi features Tandem's newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus technology. (3:04) It's designed for greater discretion, more freedom, and improved time and range. (3:08) Learn more and get started today at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. (3:14) The podcast is also sponsored today by US Med.

Scott Benner (3:17) Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. (3:24) Get your supplies the same way we do from USMed.

Christine (3:28) Hi. (3:28) My name is Christine. (3:30) I'm 73 years old, and I've had type one diabetes for sixty seven years. (3:36) And, you can call me Chris.

Speaker 3 (3:38) Chris, you were diagnosed when you were six years old?

Christine (3:41) Yes.

Speaker 3 (3:41) Wait. (3:42) Sixty seven years ago?

Christine (3:45) Yes.

Speaker 3 (3:46) Alright. (3:47) So if it was 2000 right now, that would mean you were diagnosed in '33, but it's not. (3:53) It's '25. (3:54) So I take '33 and I add '25 to it. (3:57) Now I get 35 is '8, and then 32 is but were you in '58?

Christine (4:02) Yes.

Speaker 3 (4:02) Look at me.

Christine (4:03) Ex exactly.

Speaker 3 (4:04) Thank you. (4:05) Thank you. (4:06) That's what you get when you don't pay attention to math class. (4:08) You get some roundabout way of thinking about numbers.

Christine (4:11) Math was always my worst subject too. (4:14) So Well, I just figured that out.

Speaker 3 (4:16) I just proved myself pretty capable.

Christine (4:18) I think so.

Speaker 3 (4:19) 1958, you were six years old. (4:22) My goodness. (4:23) Your parents tell stories of it. (4:24) How do you know of that time? (4:26) Any remembrances?

Christine (4:27) I remember a few things about it. (4:30) You know, I've talked to my brother and sister about it and my mom when she was still alive. (4:36) And from what I remember, I probably was in first grade. (4:41) I would sit down and my mom would say I could eat, like, a whole package of graham crackers and drink milk and drink milk, and and I was losing weight.

Speaker 3 (4:53) Okay.

Christine (4:53) So that concerned her greatly. (4:56) So then, of course, we went to the doctor. (4:59) I really had a wonderful pediatrician back then. (5:02) He, at the time, was probably close to retirement.

Speaker 3 (5:07) Mhmm.

Christine (5:07) Back in those days, as you've heard a lot of people say, you know, you weren't expected to live past your 20 or or thirties.

Speaker 3 (5:16) Yeah.

Christine (5:16) And I think everything based those first maybe twenty years of my care was based on that kind of thinking. (5:25) As far as my mom and dad, my mom I think she planned on being a stay at home mother, and then my dad was a truck driver. (5:35) There were the three of Us kids, and then my dad, somewhere in the late fifties before I was diagnosed, came down with polio.

Speaker 3 (5:45) Jesus.

Christine (5:46) And polio was, like, rampant back then, but it was mostly kids, although I know adults did get it.

Speaker 3 (5:54) Yeah.

Christine (5:55) And so he was paralyzed from his waist down. (6:01) He couldn't, like, sit up by himself, couldn't really get dressed by himself. (6:06) He did have control of his, like, bladder and bowels. (6:10) We learned how to take care of him at home. (6:13) There weren't a lot of social services back then.

Christine (6:16) Yeah. (6:16) And I would say for the first, you know, decade of my life, we were pretty poor. (6:21) My dad was 24 when that happened, so he was really young.

Speaker 3 (6:25) 24 years old, he got polio and it paralyzed him.

Christine (6:28) Yes. (6:29) My gosh. (6:30) And then he oh, well, here's the other thing. (6:32) He was in the hospital for about a year. (6:34) He was in an iron lung, and that would help you breathe.

Christine (6:38) It it's like a cylinder. (6:39) I don't know if you've ever seen an iron lung,

Speaker 3 (6:41) but it's,

Christine (6:42) yeah, it's a cylinder.

Speaker 3 (6:45) Chris, there's an alien landing behind you. (6:47) What is that?

Christine (6:47) Yes. (6:47) I know. (6:49) Honestly, people only call me when I don't wanna be called.

Speaker 3 (6:53) They're coming to take you away. (6:55) Right. (6:56) He was in an iron lung for a year?

Christine (6:58) No. (6:58) He was in an iron lung for a month. (7:01) Okay. (7:02) That helped him breathe because I don't even think back then they intubated people. (7:07) I mean, this was

Speaker 3 (7:09) pretty I'm a little confused. (7:10) Hold on a second. (7:11) How old were your parents when they were married?

Christine (7:13) 20. (7:14) I mean, my mom was I think my dad was 23. (7:17) My mom was 24.

Speaker 3 (7:20) And this polio thing happened to him just the following year?

Christine (7:23) I think it was a couple years out. (7:25) Couple years. (7:25) A lot of this is

Speaker 3 (7:26) It's muddled.

Christine (7:27) All mixed. (7:27) Yeah. (7:28) Muddled. (7:28) Gets all mixed up together.

Speaker 3 (7:30) Yeah.

Christine (7:31) But it but it ended up with three small kids, my dad in a wheelchair. (7:35) We had to take care of them.

Speaker 3 (7:37) They had the kids before the polio? (7:40) Yes. (7:40) Okay. (7:41) You they stayed together their whole life?

Christine (7:43) Yes. (7:43) They did. (7:44) My mom took her marriage foul seriously, I would say, through sickness and health. (7:49) Yeah. (7:50) And I it was I'm gonna say it was tough.

Christine (7:53) We lived in a very because my dad was in a wheelchair, we lived in a what they used to call prefab houses.

Speaker 3 (8:00) Mhmm.

Christine (8:01) No basement. (8:02) I think there were one or two steps, and then they built a ramp so that he could get in and out of the house.

Speaker 3 (8:09) Yeah. (8:09) Your mom did that her twenties or thirties or forties. (8:12) How long did your parents live?

Christine (8:13) Well, my dad died when he was 42.

Speaker 3 (8:16) As a result of the polio?

Christine (8:18) It was complications from it. (8:19) He came down with a really bad urinary tract infection. (8:24) Hospital that time. (8:25) He I think he had septicemia.

Speaker 3 (8:28) Mhmm.

Christine (8:28) And then, yeah, he eventually had a blood clot and died.

Speaker 3 (8:32) About how old were you when that happened?

Christine (8:35) I was in my early twenties.

Speaker 3 (8:37) Okay. (8:38) My gosh. (8:39) So your mom was taking care of him and your diabetes?

Christine (8:42) Oh, yeah. (8:43) And

Speaker 3 (8:44) The other kids have any issues?

Christine (8:45) My sister would come down with a lot of colds and strep throat and stuff. (8:49) I never had that kind of stuff. (8:50) I was pretty healthy that way as a kid, and my brother, I don't think, got too sick, but no. (8:56) No other issues.

Speaker 3 (8:57) Did they take tonsils out back then, or did they not do that back then?

Christine (9:00) Yeah. (9:00) Although I for some reason, we did not have our tonsils removed when we were kids.

Speaker 3 (9:07) I have to tell you I shared with you, I'm a little sick right now, and I was complaining to you before we started that these people got me sick. (9:14) And it started with is my son. (9:16) He went to visit friends. (9:17) He got on a plane. (9:18) He came back here.

Speaker 3 (9:19) He was sick. (9:21) My wife I was like, stay away from him. (9:23) You know you're going to get sick. (9:24) And she's like, no. (9:26) No.

Speaker 3 (9:26) No. (9:26) Like, we'd he'd been away for a week. (9:28) She's like, giving him a hug. (9:29) I'm like, hug him in a couple of days. (9:31) And, you know, she got sick.

Speaker 3 (9:33) She's getting better now, but the truth is I thought she was gonna die there for a couple days. (9:37) I have, like, low grade sickness. (9:39) Like, my I'll fight off most of it. (9:41) I'm not gonna get very sick, but I am sick. (9:44) The reason I'm telling you that because not only was Cole sick made Kelly sick, Cole got sicker again after he felt better.

Speaker 3 (9:51) It's gotten to me who'd never get sick. (9:53) But you know who's not sick? (9:55) Princess Arden who got her tonsils out.

Christine (9:57) Oh, really?

Speaker 3 (9:58) Yeah. (9:58) And she's like, if I had these tonsils in, you know I'd have strep throat by now.

Christine (10:03) Really? (10:03) And

Speaker 3 (10:04) Yeah. (10:04) She's not wrong.

Christine (10:05) See and I always thought my tonsils kinda saved me from some of that stuff.

Speaker 3 (10:10) Supposed to. (10:11) Yeah. (10:11) I'm not saying everybody shouldn't run out because their tonsils out, but Arden had, like Arden got sick a lot, and, she just has not been sick once since she had them out. (10:19) Those things were back there just trapping flies and then whatever else. (10:22) I don't know.

Speaker 3 (10:22) Yeah. (10:23) Well, listen. (10:24) Your mom's a a good lady. (10:25) I would have pushed Kelly right into a river. (10:27) So

Christine (10:28) May I say, I mean, there were so many problems that you can't I can't even begin to tell you all the things bad things that would happen mostly to my father, sometimes to me.

Speaker 3 (10:40) What do you mean? (10:41) What's an example of that?

Christine (10:43) Well, one time, you know, after my dad came home and stuff well, here's the thing. (10:48) My dad ended up being a stay at home dad like you were. (10:51) So he learned how to cook, and he would make meals for us. (10:55) He was able to drive with hand controls, so he was at least able to get into a car and go places. (11:02) He could never get out of the car.

Christine (11:03) Right. (11:03) And my mom went to work. (11:05) My mom was going to work back when this is before women's live and all this stuff.

Speaker 3 (11:11) Yeah.

Christine (11:11) And so my mom would work I think she mostly worked part time when we were all little, and then she went more to full time when we got older, and then we weren't quite as poor, and it wasn't quite as bad. (11:24) But, anyways, yeah, a lot of things happened to my dad. (11:28) One time, he had a commode chair that would go over the toilet, and he bent down to pick something up off the floor and the commode fell. (11:36) He fell against the bathroom door where the doorstop is, cut open his head. (11:44) Blood was pouring out under the bathroom door.

Christine (11:47) We couldn't get the bathroom door open. (11:49) We had to call the firefighters. (11:50) They had to take the window out to get in to get by him.

Speaker 3 (11:54) Because he was blocking the door.

Christine (11:55) He was blocking the door. (11:57) Traumatizing things kept happening in our family like that. (12:01) Another time, he was in the alley in his wheelchair, and my grandfather, who was older then, backed up into him and knocked him out of the chair.

Speaker 3 (12:12) With a car?

Christine (12:13) With a car.

Speaker 3 (12:15) That's not funny.

Christine (12:16) I know. (12:18) Well, you should hear when my brother and sister and I get together. (12:21) I mean, we just we laugh about this kind of stuff. (12:24) People look at us like we're nuts.

Speaker 3 (12:26) Wow. (12:26) Yeah. (12:26) It's a lot going on. (12:27) I'd laugh too. (12:28) Listen.

Speaker 3 (12:28) Can I ask an inappropriate question? (12:29) I feel weird because you're 73, but could your dad take care of business, or did your mom have to make a friend somewhere?

Christine (12:35) I believe he could take care of business. (12:38) Yes. (12:38) Okay.

Speaker 3 (12:40) Well, that's good. (12:42) Yeah. (12:43) This is mommy's friend. (12:44) Yeah. (12:45) We know.

Speaker 3 (12:45) It's okay. (12:49) Oh, wow. (12:50) Oh, that that's a heck of a start. (12:52) And so is there really any space in that story for you having diabetes, or is your diabetes really just kinda like shooting insulin once or twice a day to begin with? (13:00) It's not really that intense.

Christine (13:02) No. (13:02) No. (13:03) I wouldn't I was somewhat of the focus, but not too much. (13:06) I only took insulin back then once a day. (13:10) It was a a glass syringe with a steel needle on it.

Christine (13:15) Well, here's the story that my brother and sister especially remember. (13:19) For the first year that I had it, my mother would have to sit on me and give me my injections because I would just scream and cry. (13:27) And I personally don't remember that. (13:30) I think I blacked that part out. (13:32) But I know by the time I was seven years old, they had a visiting nurse come for, like, a week or two before I went to school and then taught me how to give myself my own injections.

Christine (13:42) Injections.

Speaker 3 (13:42) Okay.

Christine (13:42) You know, starting on an orange and then eventually myself. (13:46) But back then, we we didn't have, like, disposable needles. (13:50) And, honestly, I think I used the same needle for a couple years in a robe.

Speaker 3 (13:56) Would you take it to the pharmacy to have it sharpened? (13:58) No. (13:59) No. (14:00) You know, I I once talked to somebody who's was from a poor family. (14:04) They had to buy the needle from the pharmacy on, like, a layaway plan.

Christine (14:07) It seems to me they were very expensive, which is probably why we didn't get why I didn't get them.

Speaker 3 (14:13) I wonder what that means for that time. (14:15) Was it $5, you think, or something like that? (14:17) You know what I mean? (14:18) Like, how different money is

Scott Benner (14:19) now. (14:22) You've probably heard me talk about US Med and how simple it is to reorder with US Med using their email system. (14:28) 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. (14:33) They don't just randomly call you. (14:34) But I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email because I don't trust myself, a 100%.

Scott Benner (14:40) So one time, I didn't respond to the email and the phone rings at the house. (14:45) It's like, ring, you know how it works. (14:46) And I picked it up. (14:47) Was like, hello? (14:48) And it was just the recording.

Scott Benner (14:49) It was like, US med, doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. (14:52) It said, hey, you're, I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, hey, your order's ready. (14:57) You want us to send it? (14:58) Push this button if you want us to send it. (15:00) Or if you'd like to wait, I think it it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks or push this button for that.

Scott Benner (15:05) That's pretty much it. (15:06) I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. (15:11) That's it. (15:11) Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. (15:16) Get your free benefits checked now and get started with USmed.

Scott Benner (15:20) Dexcom, Omnipod, Tandem, Freestyle, they've got all your favorites. (15:26) Even that new islet pump. (15:28) Check them out now at US Med dot com slash juice box or by calling (888) 721-1514. (15:37) There are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to US Med and to all of the sponsors. (15:44) Let's talk about the Tandem Mobi insulin pump from today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care.

Scott Benner (15:49) Their newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus technology and the new Tandem Mobi pump offer you unique opportunities to have better control. (15:57) It's the only system with auto bolus that helps with missed meals and preventing hyperglycemia, the only system with a dedicated sleep setting, and the only system with off or on body wear options. (16:10) Tandem Mobi gives you more discretion, freedom, and options for how to manage your diabetes. (16:16) This is their best algorithm ever, and they'd like you to check it out at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. (16:24) When you get to my link, you're going to see integrations with Dexcom sensors and a ton of other information that's gonna help you learn about Tandem's tiny pump that's big on control.

Scott Benner (16:35) Tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. (16:39) The Tandem Mobi system is available for people ages two and up who want an automated delivery system to help them sleep better, wake up in range, and address high blood sugars with auto bolus.

Christine (16:50) Oh, I can I do have one statistic that I wanted to tell you that I came across? (16:55) Yeah. (16:55) In 1984, I wrote a checkout for two bottles of insulin. (17:00) It was a bottle of regular and a bottle of NPH. (17:03) Alcohol wipes, it cost me $17, and it was $8 for three months of syringes Yeah.

Christine (17:10) Disposable syringes.

Speaker 3 (17:12) Am I remembering right back then the insulin didn't need the prescription? (17:16) It was the needles you

Scott Benner (17:16) needed the script for. (17:17) Right?

Christine (17:18) Oh, see. (17:19) I don't remember that.

Speaker 3 (17:20) That? (17:20) I that's a thing I feel like somebody's told me in the past.

Christine (17:23) Yeah. (17:24) That kinda seems right, though.

Speaker 3 (17:25) Yeah. (17:26) Oh my gosh. (17:27) Yeah. (17:27) Though things have changed. (17:28) That's for sure.

Speaker 3 (17:29) I I saw a sandwich the other day that was $22, and I thought we're all gonna I'm like, we're all gonna starve to death. (17:35) This is if a sandwich is $22, I don't know how long we're all gonna make it. (17:38) That's ridiculous. (17:39) You know?

Christine (17:40) Right.

Speaker 3 (17:40) Oh my gosh. (17:41) Okay. (17:42) So you're doing one shot. (17:44) And but see, here's the like, here's what we gotta figure out. (17:47) You're 73.

Speaker 3 (17:48) Do you have any issues right now?

Christine (17:50) Really, the only diabetes complication that I came down with was retinopathy.

Speaker 3 (17:57) Okay.

Christine (17:57) And here's here's the thing. (17:59) Everything that ever went wrong with me was always kind of a weirdo thing and not standard. (18:06) So when I I had background for, you know, retinopathy for, I'm I'm gonna say, twenty or thirty years. (18:12) I'd go to see the eye doctor. (18:14) He'd always say, oh, it's stable.

Christine (18:15) It's stable. (18:16) Well, finally, my left eye developed more of the I think they call it pro proliferative retinopathy, and that's when I started seeing a doctor and having lasers done. (18:30) My other eye is still fine.

Speaker 3 (18:32) Okay.

Christine (18:32) I mean, there's some there, and I go to the eye doctor, but it hasn't developed any retinopathy.

Speaker 3 (18:38) And that's the extent of your complications after all this time?

Christine (18:42) Yeah. (18:43) Except now, I think my autonomic nervous system is finally starting to crack, and I think I have a lot of problems from that.

Speaker 3 (18:52) How so?

Christine (18:53) Well, I'm, like, lightheaded every morning when I get up. (18:57) I'm the room does not spin, but I feel unsteady on my feet. (19:01) And for the first half of the day, I walk around in the house with, like, a four pronged walker a cane.

Speaker 3 (19:08) Does your vision ever get dark? (19:10) Do you have trouble bending over and standing back up quickly?

Christine (19:14) Well, I I don't do that too often, but I'm able to.

Speaker 3 (19:17) Have you had COVID?

Christine (19:18) I believe I had COVID before they knew what what it was.

Speaker 3 (19:22) Yeah. (19:23) I wonder if you have, like, have people checked for POTS and things like that for you?

Christine (19:27) Yes. (19:28) I've been whatever test you can think of for this, I've been tested. (19:33) I have another whole story, but I think it might have something to do with either my medication or my autonomic nervous system.

Speaker 3 (19:42) Okay. (19:43) So Yeah. (19:44) Well, I hope you worked that out. (19:45) Are your doctors helpful, or do you find yourself mostly trying to deal with it on your own?

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Christine (20:58) Well, right now, I my kind husband and I kinda deal with it on our own.

Speaker 3 (21:03) Yeah.

Christine (21:03) Because there really is nothing they can do. (21:05) I've tried everything that they can do. (21:07) I've been tested for things. (21:09) I've had, you know, CAT scans, MRIs, whatever.

Speaker 3 (21:12) I don't mean to say people your age because the truth is is I feel I feel like in five seconds, I'm gonna be your age. (21:17) So I'm not I'm not casting aspersions. (21:18) But, like, do you guys use the Internet to try to figure stuff like that out? (21:22) Have you tried, like, you know, having a I know it's gonna sound crazy to you maybe, but have you tried having a conversation with an AI model to talk it through to try to figure out if you can find more answers than what the doctors are providing? (21:33) No.

Speaker 3 (21:33) No. (21:34) Is that a thing you would do?

Christine (21:36) Okay. (21:36) Well, Scott, here's the deal with me. (21:39) I worked in health care for forty years. (21:42) I worked in two different hospitals over those forty years. (21:45) I gained a lot of medical knowledge, especially about the diabetes and stuff that way.

Christine (21:50) I also went to school to work in medical records, and I was a medical record coder, not the kind of coder that codes computers.

Speaker 3 (21:59) Yeah.

Christine (21:59) Ones that read through charts. (22:01) You know, you take the diagnosis and the procedures out, and then that gets sent to the billing office. (22:06) We did that kind of work.

Speaker 3 (22:07) Right.

Christine (22:08) No. (22:08) I haven't been on chat GPT or do anything like that.

Speaker 3 (22:12) Like that. (22:12) Because, I mean, sometimes it just helps to to sit there without being rushed and say, this is how I feel. (22:19) What does that suggest? (22:20) Oh, and then maybe you'll think like, oh, also this happens to me. (22:23) What does that and maybe it's just a better list that you can go back to your doctor with then.

Christine (22:27) I have to say I have a very good PA now, an endocrinologist PA, and she's great, and she's open to a lot of things. (22:34) So I I definitely will do that, see if I can come up with anything else.

Speaker 3 (22:38) I mean, what are you? (22:39) Busy? (22:39) You you know what I

Christine (22:40) mean? (22:40) Exactly.

Speaker 3 (22:42) And but you're you're stuck with a walker now because of this? (22:45) Because why? (22:45) Because you think you might fall?

Christine (22:47) No. (22:47) It actually, it's a I said walker, but it's a four prong cane. (22:52) And here's the weird yeah. (22:54) Here's the weird thing, Scott. (22:56) By the afternoon, after lunch

Speaker 3 (22:58) You're okay.

Christine (22:58) Usually am okay.

Speaker 3 (23:00) Is it maybe are you is your salt level is it something simple? (23:03) Like, have you tried having something salty in the morning to see if it's your blood pressure?

Christine (23:07) Well, of course, because I'm a cardiac patient, they want me to stay away from salt.

Speaker 3 (23:11) But, yes, I

Christine (23:13) yeah. (23:13) But I have tried that.

Speaker 3 (23:14) What's up with your ticker?

Christine (23:15) Oh, jeez. (23:16) Well, I had a heart attack. (23:18) They did a cardiac cath, put two stents in, and then I had a small t stroke after that.

Speaker 3 (23:25) How long ago was this? (23:27) In your fifties?

Christine (23:27) That was a couple years ago, like, three years ago.

Speaker 3 (23:30) In your six at the end of your sixties?

Christine (23:32) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:32) Did they didn't attribute the heart problem to the diabetes?

Christine (23:35) Oh, the anything that ever went wrong with me, they always would say, well, you know, diabetics are more prone to this, and I go, yes. (23:42) I know.

Speaker 3 (23:43) Prone. (23:43) Thank you. (23:44) Speaking of prone, have you heard what happened to my dad? (23:46) Now, let's see. (23:48) Thank you.

Speaker 3 (23:49) Thank you, Chris. (23:50) I appreciate the laugh. (23:51) I'm wondering I guess I'm wondering when things shift for you going through time. (23:58) Right? (23:58) One shot a day goes to probably two shots a day.

Speaker 3 (24:01) When do you start counting carbs? (24:03) What are your outcomes like when you're younger? (24:05) Do you even know what they are? (24:07) No. (24:07) Because you're doing well.

Speaker 3 (24:09) I mean, mean, you you're having some issues, but also you're 73. (24:12) You you were gonna have issues one way or the other. (24:14) So I'm 54. (24:15) I have issues. (24:16) So Sure.

Speaker 3 (24:17) I'm wondering, like, when you grew up in a world where someone told you you might not live till you were 20, I guess my I have a two pronged question. (24:25) First of all, like, did you grow up believing you were gonna die young?

Christine (24:29) Oh, yes.

Speaker 3 (24:29) And what was that like? (24:31) How did that impact you?

Christine (24:32) Well, I think part of it was my parents both knew of one guy who must have died when he was a teenager from type one. (24:42) Mhmm. (24:42) I don't know if he was, like, a neighborhood kid or whatever. (24:45) So I think that was in the back of their mind. (24:48) Yeah.

Christine (24:48) They kinda just said, well, it's, you know, it's a very difficult disease and blah blah blah. (24:54) And so, yes, I grew up until I got to about my mid thirties.

Speaker 3 (24:59) You're like, I don't think I'm gonna die. (25:00) What's going on here?

Christine (25:01) Well, because exactly.

Speaker 3 (25:03) Because I

Christine (25:04) did stay kinda healthy, and I I didn't have a lot of complications. (25:09) And when I was a kid, oh my gosh, I was just scared to death of going blind.

Speaker 3 (25:14) Mhmm.

Christine (25:14) And that and seeing Patty Duke and Bancroft in the miracle worker. (25:20) I don't know if you ever saw that movie. (25:21) But as a kid, I would sometimes just close my eyes and pretend I was blind to see how I could do.

Speaker 3 (25:26) Oh, because you thought it was coming for sure.

Christine (25:28) I did.

Speaker 3 (25:29) Did you plan differently? (25:30) Like, did you pay different attention in school or go to not go to college right away or anything because of, like, thinking, like, what why would I bother doing all this?

Christine (25:39) I actually did not go to college purposefully, but part of that was I didn't I didn't really know what it what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Speaker 3 (25:47) Yeah.

Christine (25:48) And then the other thing was like, why bother?

Speaker 3 (25:50) Because you're not growing up anyway.

Christine (25:52) Right.

Speaker 3 (25:52) Wow. (25:53) How crazy is it to live thirty years of your life until one day you go, maybe I am gonna keep living.

Christine (25:59) Yes. (25:59) And that's exactly what happened to me. (26:01) And I have to tell you, my mother till the day she died, and she died in her late eighties, was felt so guilty about this. (26:10) And, like, what did she do wrong? (26:12) And by the time I hit probably 40, I would say to her, look at me.

Christine (26:17) I'm doing okay. (26:18) You know, you don't have to feel so bad about this.

Speaker 3 (26:21) Right. (26:21) Well, you that's good to know I'm not gonna stop feeling bad. (26:24) Awesome. (26:24) Right. (26:25) Do you have kids?

Christine (26:27) No. (26:27) And that was one of the decisions. (26:30) Back then, I worked with a nurse who also had type one. (26:35) She got pregnant, and she lost the baby. (26:38) It was, like, a stillborn Mhmm.

Christine (26:40) At seven months. (26:42) And then because I worked in a hospital, I had access to the medical library. (26:47) So I went in there. (26:49) I would look at journals and medical books aimed at doctors, and I didn't understand a lot of the language, but I kinda read up on pregnancy and diabetes. (26:59) And

Speaker 3 (27:00) Scared you.

Christine (27:00) I think back then, they could actually hospitalize you for a month or two to try to get you through.

Speaker 3 (27:06) That was enough for you to say, hey. (27:07) Maybe we won't do this. (27:09) Yeah. (27:09) Yeah. (27:09) Do you have pets?

Christine (27:10) We did for many years, but now we moved to a condo. (27:14) Our whole life has changed and stuff.

Speaker 3 (27:16) Well, if you want a blue chameleon, he's staring at me very, very oddly right now. (27:21) I could ship him over to you. (27:22) Why are you looking at me like that? (27:23) He is eyeballing me in a very strange way right now. (27:26) I just wanna say it.

Speaker 3 (27:26) I think if there wasn't glass there, he'd be on my head right now.

Christine (27:29) See, I'd I'd rather have a puppy than a reptile.

Speaker 3 (27:32) So Well, hey. (27:33) Listen. (27:34) Tell your husband. (27:34) I didn't make you pay for kids. (27:36) Get me a dog.

Speaker 3 (27:37) Seriously, you guys must be wealthy from not having kids. (27:42) Oh, we don't even wanna go down that road. (27:45) My gosh. (27:46) My wife and I just stood around the other day going, like, I wonder how much money we'd have if these freaking kids weren't here.

Christine (27:50) Can I just I just have to say something in our defense? (27:53) Yeah. (27:54) My husband and I both were very frugal our whole lives. (27:59) We were savers. (28:00) We never well, we both worked a lot, and then we never we would save up and go on, like, a really nice vacation every five years.

Christine (28:08) And then Awesome. (28:09) Yeah. (28:09) Once once a year, we'd take well, we only had two weeks vacation. (28:13) We'd go camping in Canada or or do something like that.

Speaker 3 (28:16) So That's nice. (28:17) That sounds very nice. (28:18) Do you think he's disappointed that you don't have kids?

Christine (28:21) No. (28:21) He he knew going in.

Speaker 3 (28:23) Did you get married later? (28:25) Yes. (28:26) Yeah. (28:26) Because you were like, I can't get if I'm if I don't need to go to college, I definitely don't need to get married.

Christine (28:31) Right.

Speaker 3 (28:32) Yeah. (28:32) You know, it's starting to freak me out, Chris, how many conversations I've had with older people who've said this to me.

Christine (28:37) Well, that's yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:38) One lady sticks in my head so hard that that and I I bring it up every time because her doctor told her to drop out of college and told her that no man would want her. (28:47) You should just just go home. (28:49) Isn't that great? (28:50) Isn't that horrible?

Christine (28:51) That's very harsh. (28:52) Yes.

Speaker 3 (28:53) So okay. (28:54) So do you regret it?

Christine (28:56) I will say at this age, I do. (28:59) I think during the times of, like, my, you know, thirties, forties, fifties, no. (29:05) But now that we're getting more feeble, and I think I have the beginning of maybe some, like, dementia or something.

Speaker 3 (29:13) Really?

Christine (29:14) Yeah. (29:15) And my husband has some medical problems. (29:17) I'm like, woah. (29:18) Who the heck's gonna take care of us? (29:20) What happens now?

Speaker 3 (29:21) When you're younger and he's younger, you have each other. (29:25) And the minute you start getting older, you think like, woah. (29:27) I can't count on him as much. (29:29) He can't count on me as much, and there's no one else coming.

Christine (29:31) Right. (29:32) Wow. (29:32) Right.

Speaker 3 (29:33) That's tough. (29:33) Yeah. (29:34) I'm sorry. (29:35) T1dto100.org is a website set up for people who are older of type one diabetes. (29:40) Might be helpful to you.

Speaker 3 (29:41) I just wanna double check to make sure I have the URL correct.

Christine (29:45) Yeah. (29:45) No. (29:45) I actually looked I looked there. (29:47) I there's a type one of people who have had it fifty years or more.

Speaker 3 (29:52) Mhmm.

Christine (29:53) And I'm on that one, and then I'm also on juice box a little bit.

Speaker 3 (29:56) Okay. (29:57) T one D to 100, did you hear about that on here?

Christine (30:01) Probably.

Speaker 3 (30:02) Oh, she'll be thrilled to know that. (30:03) That was great.

Christine (30:04) Let me just ask you. (30:06) Is that the what used to be the JDRF?

Speaker 3 (30:09) No. (30:10) This is run by a lovely woman named Joanne Milo. (30:12) It's lit

Christine (30:13) Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:13) You know that one. (30:14) Sure. (30:14) Okay.

Christine (30:15) Yeah. (30:15) I do.

Speaker 3 (30:16) So, yeah, that's a great website for for people who are older of type one. (30:21) My gosh. (30:22) So you were worried about dying. (30:24) It kinda slowed everything down in your life. (30:26) You eventually got moving there.

Speaker 3 (30:28) When do you come up on carb counting? (30:30) Do you remember?

Christine (30:32) Well, I had sort of a carb counting. (30:36) See, I had a really good internal medicine doctor for, like, thirty years.

Speaker 3 (30:41) Mhmm.

Christine (30:41) And he was real open to stuff. (30:43) And this is a shout out to doctor Tanti, and you can keep his name in there because he was great. (30:49) Yeah. (30:49) And he was willing to try things with me. (30:52) He got me before I well, right when we could start doing blood sugars.

Christine (30:59) My husband and I, they were so expensive. (31:01) We would cut the strips in half. (31:03) And then, you know, you'd put your blood on it, you'd have a a chart of a certain it wasn't certainly very accurate, but at least gave you kind of a showing where you were. (31:15) And from there, he would say to me, now maybe when you have lunch, take, like, a unit or two of regular insulin or change your Miles per hour to this. (31:27) So he and I kinda worked things like that out, and that was in the late eighties.

Speaker 3 (31:31) Yeah. (31:32) Just feeling your way through it.

Christine (31:33) Yes.

Speaker 3 (31:34) Yeah.

Christine (31:34) Yeah. (31:34) Then in 1994, I can tell you this, I had my first a one c.

Speaker 3 (31:39) And it was?

Christine (31:41) 12.5.

Speaker 3 (31:44) My god. (31:45) Why am I trying so hard? (31:46) What's going on? (31:47) Well,

Christine (31:48) you know what? (31:49) He and I looked at each other like, really? (31:51) Because we both thought I was doing pretty well at that time.

Speaker 3 (31:55) Yeah.

Christine (31:56) I think it was more we got into taking a little more regular insulin before I ate and stuff, and it was still all until I got my CGM, it was really all just a guessing game. (32:06) Yep. (32:06) And after a while, I got to kinda know what would really raise my blood sugar a lot and what was safer.

Speaker 3 (32:12) Mhmm. (32:13) All these years, all the different devices and different ideas, best thing that's come along, CGM?

Christine (32:18) Yes. (32:19) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:19) You have a pump now?

Christine (32:21) I do. (32:22) I've been on a pump for, I think, since the early since 1999. (32:27) '99. (32:27) Twenty six years.

Speaker 3 (32:28) On the same pump for twenty six years?

Christine (32:30) Well, always a Medtronic, so I kept you know, once the new one would come out every four years, I could get another one.

Speaker 3 (32:37) Yeah. (32:37) No. (32:37) I hear your Midwestern accent. (32:39) I knew you had a Medtronic.

Christine (32:40) Oh, wait till I start. (32:41) I could yeah. (32:42) We have a lot of things we say.

Speaker 3 (32:45) No. (32:46) I know. (32:46) I hear you. (32:47) Yeah. (32:47) Medtronic, is is based out there.

Speaker 3 (32:50) Well, they were. (32:51) I don't know if they still are in Minnesota at one point. (32:53) So they were the preferred insulin pump of the Midwest. (32:56) That's great. (32:57) And what are you on now?

Speaker 3 (32:58) Do you use seven eighty g, or are you doing automated?

Christine (33:00) I'm on a seven eighty, but I I do not do, like, their sensor with it. (33:07) I use my CGM separately, and I control everything.

Speaker 3 (33:10) Okay. (33:10) Are you thinking of trying their new sensor and going to automation, or does that freak you out?

Christine (33:15) Here's where I'm coming from. (33:17) I don't know that I would ever go to automation. (33:20) I think I can zero it in enough. (33:22) But, yes, I would eventually probably go to their sensor.

Speaker 3 (33:26) Okay. (33:27) This is interesting, though, at your age. (33:28) I'm sorry. (33:29) Like, what about being on an automated system throws you off?

Christine (33:33) I just don't trust it. (33:36) I just

Speaker 3 (33:37) Why not? (33:38) I wanna

Christine (33:38) know. (33:39) I see people, you know, like, on juice box, and they're going, well, I'm having trouble with this or I'm having trouble with that. (33:44) And Yeah. (33:45) I think there's part of me too I have to be in control.

Speaker 3 (33:48) Well, that's what I'm wondering about because, I mean, do you get low overnight?

Christine (33:52) Not oh, I screw around with my basil all the time.

Speaker 3 (33:56) Yeah. (33:56) What's your

Christine (33:57) It depends. (33:58) Oh.

Speaker 3 (33:58) No. (33:59) No. (33:59) Go ahead. (33:59) Depends on what?

Christine (34:00) It depends on what I'm eating and what's going on. (34:05) Mhmm. (34:06) I'm gonna go into the I started about six months ago trying to eliminate seed oils in my life, and I have to tell you my basil has come down, and I don't eat as much.

Speaker 3 (34:18) Yeah. (34:19) What's what oils did you cut out? (34:20) Like canola? (34:21) Yes. (34:22) Yep.

Speaker 3 (34:22) Good. (34:23) That's awesome. (34:23) Yeah. (34:24) Just use a cold pressed olive oil when you need oil.

Christine (34:26) Well, and here's the thing. (34:28) I love butter because, you know, I'm in a dairy state. (34:31) Then the cardiologist doesn't like that. (34:33) But, yes, it's like butter and olive oil, and I've eliminated a lot of that kind of food from my

Speaker 3 (34:40) Good for you. (34:40) I think I think that's a good that's a good decision. (34:43) Dementia. (34:44) Why do you think you have the beginnings of dementia?

Christine (34:46) Well, from all the scans and MRI and all that, they can tell, you know, there's a lot of vessel disease. (34:53) Mhmm. (34:53) And I just think, I'm not as sharp as I used to be. (34:57) Although when I talk to my friends and I've had the same group of friends for, like, fifty years too, they all seem to have a little bit of the same problems, but you can't come up with names quite as fast or I forget. (35:09) And I'll say my poor husband, I'll say to him, did I tell you this already?

Christine (35:13) And then you know?

Speaker 3 (35:14) Like, real forgetfulness, not just, like, when I call the dog the wrong name.

Christine (35:19) Yeah. (35:20) Yeah. (35:20) I

Speaker 3 (35:20) yeah. (35:21) I do that no matter what, by the way.

Christine (35:24) I

Speaker 3 (35:26) call the one dog the other name, and I look right at him, and I go, Friday, I go, your name is Basil. (35:30) Sorry. (35:30) And then yeah.

Christine (35:31) More and more, I hear this from people, so maybe I won't have dementia, which would be great. (35:37) I'd be

Speaker 3 (35:37) I think I'm just busy, but also old because I really am I don't know, like, what other people's lives are like, but I'm flying around doing, like, a thousand things at one time pretty constantly. (35:47) But yeah. (35:49) No. (35:49) I just sometimes I look at that dog and I'm like, Friday. (35:51) Damn.

Speaker 3 (35:52) Basil. (35:54) And I mix oh my gosh. (35:56) I can't believe I'm gonna say this. (35:57) I call Arden Kelly and Kelly Arden sometimes.

Christine (36:00) Oh, yeah. (36:01) I but people do that. (36:02) I mean, people in my own family do that too. (36:05) So

Speaker 3 (36:05) Yeah. (36:06) I don't know why it is, to be perfectly honest. (36:07) Their voices are starting to sound more similar.

Christine (36:10) Yes. (36:10) That might be a little

Speaker 3 (36:11) I believe you're like, how would I know, Scott? (36:13) I'm the guest on your podcast. (36:14) I have no idea about your kids and your wife. (36:17) Anyway, chameleon's still staring right through my soul. (36:20) Through my soul, he's looking.

Speaker 3 (36:21) What is wrong, man? (36:22) Go for a He's so adorable. (36:25) Blue and red, and I don't know how nature made him that way. (36:29) So you're have being forgetful, blah blah blah. (36:31) You went and got scans done.

Speaker 3 (36:32) I remember when my mom got her scan, and they talked about, like, the front of her brain having atrophy, and it broke my heart when they said that.

Christine (36:40) Oh.

Speaker 3 (36:41) Yeah. (36:42) No. (36:42) I'm so sorry. (36:43) Your husband same age? (36:45) Yes.

Speaker 3 (36:46) Okay. (36:46) You guys are the same age. (36:47) How'd you find each other late in life? (36:49) At work?

Christine (36:50) No. (36:50) We actually met at a wedding.

Speaker 3 (36:52) That's a good way to do it.

Christine (36:54) Oh, yes. (36:54) Yeah. (36:55) And there were, like, three I was the maid of honor. (36:58) There were, like, three single guys there, and so it was kind of fun.

Speaker 3 (37:02) Tell people that's how it used to work. (37:03) Right?

Christine (37:04) Oh, yes.

Speaker 3 (37:05) Absolutely. (37:05) You go to somebody else's wedding to get married yourself.

Christine (37:08) Yes.

Speaker 3 (37:08) Or to get laid. (37:10) You know?

Christine (37:14) I'm not

Speaker 3 (37:15) Chris, here I go.

Christine (37:16) Don't use if you no. (37:18) Don't Don't go

Speaker 3 (37:19) there. (37:20) She said no. (37:21) Don't. (37:22) I was just gonna ask if you took your pump off to have sex. (37:26) I remember

Christine (37:29) we talked about it. (37:30) It did not bother us. (37:32) I had the longer, tubing, so it was, like, fine. (37:36) It worked out just fine.

Speaker 3 (37:38) Look at you bragging. (37:39) You had longer tubing. (37:40) I see what you're saying. (37:41) Yeah. (37:41) Well, that's that's very that's very

Christine (37:42) Now I'm blushing. (37:43) My husband's looking at me like, what the hell are you laughing?

Speaker 3 (37:47) Tell him we're saying great things about his long tubing. (37:49) And Yeah. (37:50) Did you have to have snacks at the table for that?

Christine (37:54) No. (37:54) Not usually.

Speaker 3 (37:55) No? (37:56) Okay. (37:57) Even if you moved into a different position? (38:01) Even. (38:01) Okay.

Speaker 3 (38:02) Yeah. (38:03) This is great. (38:04) I should talk more with people in their seventies about sex. (38:07) I think it's fun.

Christine (38:09) We don't wanna give all the secrets away.

Speaker 3 (38:11) There are not that many secrets. (38:13) Only works a couple different ways.

Christine (38:18) Let me can I just say this real quick? (38:21) Since I've had my stroke and this last heart attack, though, and I'm this age now, I don't feel that I can tell when my blood sugar is dropping as much. (38:30) So, like, when my CGM says 85, I take, like, a a glucose gummy because I just start feeling too weird and stuff.

Speaker 3 (38:39) Mhmm.

Christine (38:40) So I walk around every day with my CGM in one pocket, my glucose gummies in the other, and that's kinda but no.

Speaker 3 (38:49) What are other adjustments you've had to make as you get older?

Christine (38:53) Well, I think I lost my peripheral vision from the retinopathy. (38:57) So I have to, like, when I'm walking with people, I always ask them to walk on the right side of me, or I'm afraid I'm gonna bump into them. (39:04) Or when my husband and I are working in the kitchen together, I can't always see them, and I'm afraid I'm gonna turn around with a pot or milk or whatever

Speaker 3 (39:13) Yeah.

Christine (39:13) And bump into them. (39:14) So stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (39:16) That that kind of thing. (39:16) What about about management stuff? (39:18) Like, you're saying you have to you know, you're 85. (39:20) You know you should treat because you're probably falling. (39:22) Like, has there been have you become less aggressive with prebolising?

Speaker 3 (39:25) Like, are there other things that that your age scares you about?

Christine (39:28) No. (39:29) I think since I got the CGM, I can

Speaker 3 (39:32) You're okay.

Christine (39:33) Just about anything.

Speaker 3 (39:34) Yeah. (39:34) That's great. (39:35) Do you worry about dexterity and using your devices?

Christine (39:41) Oh, yeah. (39:41) I have to say I cannot get my c I cannot get my CGM. (39:45) I could not unscrew that thing if I had to do it myself. (39:49) My husband always puts it in my arm for me

Speaker 3 (39:52) and stuff. (39:53) Seven, you you're having trouble on twisting it?

Christine (39:55) Yes.

Speaker 3 (39:56) Okay. (39:57) And then what about this? (39:59) And he's gotta insert it for you?

Scott Benner (40:01) Yeah. (40:02) Okay. (40:02) Because it's hard to hold, articulate, push the button Yes.

Speaker 3 (40:05) The whole thing.

Christine (40:05) Plus, I have arthritis really bad in my right hand, so that doesn't help either.

Speaker 3 (40:10) Oh, okay.

Christine (40:11) Oh, and we didn't even talk about when I had cancer.

Speaker 3 (40:14) What the hell? (40:15) How'd you boy, Chris, I love people who have lived a longer life because, I seriously I don't know what episode it was, but I think I interviewed a lady once who was married, like, three times. (40:26) And while I was talking to her, you realized they weren't, in and out marriages. (40:29) She had three separate lives.

Christine (40:32) Sure.

Speaker 3 (40:32) She remembered generously, like, each one of them.

Christine (40:35) Sure.

Speaker 3 (40:36) Yeah. (40:36) Yeah. (40:36) So it's interest it makes me feel like that. (40:38) How old were you when you got cancer?

Christine (40:40) I was 64.

Speaker 3 (40:42) What kind?

Christine (40:44) Well, Scott.

Speaker 3 (40:45) Oh, the lady cancer.

Christine (40:47) Yeah. (40:47) No. (40:47) No. (40:47) Well, it was in my breast.

Speaker 3 (40:49) Oh, wow.

Christine (40:50) But I came down with what's known as triple negative, and it was stage two b. (40:56) So it wasn't three because I think it was only in one lymph node.

Speaker 3 (41:02) Mhmm.

Christine (41:02) Yeah. (41:02) I went through a whole year of chemo and radiation, and that radiation then left me with lymphedema on my right side, and it's, like, a more it's not in my arm so much. (41:14) It's under my arm and into my back and into my one breast.

Speaker 3 (41:19) What is that like to deal with?

Christine (41:21) It's not fun. (41:22) I luckily have a wonderful physical therapist. (41:26) I actually have two of them. (41:28) And my husband and I are very lucky. (41:30) We live within two miles of the places I have to go for medical treatment.

Christine (41:35) So that helps a lot, and she's been really helpful. (41:39) I do have a machine that I can use at home that I zip up and it kinda compresses that area, but she's really good about, like, getting the drain in and out and stuff.

Speaker 3 (41:50) Did you get a mastectomy?

Christine (41:51) No. (41:52) I had a lumpectomy.

Speaker 3 (41:53) A lumpectomy. (41:54) Okay. (41:54) Yeah. (41:55) Oh my gosh. (41:57) It's interesting to hear you say, like, how lucky you feel just for something to be close to your house.

Christine (42:01) Yes. (42:02) Oh my gosh. (42:03) My sister lives in the Boondocks in Wisconsin, and she's gotta travel, I think, forty five minutes just to get to town to get to the one hospital that's up there or the or the doctor clinic or whatever.

Speaker 3 (42:16) So I remember my brother one time said he had to pick something up, and I was like, why don't you just go get at the mall? (42:20) He goes, I don't have a whole day to give away to that. (42:22) I was like, wait. (42:23) What?

Christine (42:23) Well, that's the other thing when she goes grocery shopping. (42:26) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:26) It's It's a it's a trek. (42:28) You know, it's funny. (42:29) I don't think I talk about it much when you're my my wife and I, we're very hopeful about self driving cars helping us as we get older.

Christine (42:37) Oh, yes.

Speaker 3 (42:38) Yeah. (42:38) And it's funny. (42:39) Do you do you have that thought too?

Christine (42:41) Oh, yes.

Speaker 3 (42:42) So you're okay with a car driving you, but not a pump taking care of your insulin?

Christine (42:46) Yes.

Speaker 3 (42:48) Goddamn, Chris. (42:49) I've been setting you up for that for, like, a half an hour. (42:51) I just want you to know.

Christine (42:52) Yes. (42:52) You have.

Speaker 3 (42:54) Of why? (42:56) What how could you possibly now listen. (42:58) For anybody who hasn't done it and I'll just say, like, it it I think there's a couple companies that do it. (43:04) I've been in a few cars that do it. (43:05) Teslas do it incredibly well.

Speaker 3 (43:08) It's something else. (43:10) If you have not sat in a car that's driving itself and you have not had to touch the steering wheel or the brakes or the pedals or anything Right. (43:16) And watched it, you would be amazed at how well it works.

Christine (43:19) We actually either knew somebody who did that or something because my husband's very impressed with it.

Speaker 3 (43:25) Yeah.

Christine (43:26) And it would be ideal probably for us.

Speaker 3 (43:28) Yeah. (43:28) My neighbors are in their seventies, and they're like, the next time we get a car, we're gonna get a car that drives itself because they try to visit their kids, and their kids are far away. (43:37) And they talk about just how just the drive beats the hell out of

Christine (43:41) them. (43:41) Sure.

Speaker 3 (43:42) But okay. (43:43) So you would that's interesting. (43:44) Do you think you're from a different generation. (43:46) Do you think you're comfortable with self driving because your husband's impressed by it?

Christine (43:50) Yes.

Speaker 3 (43:51) Okay. (43:52) But I wish I husband

Christine (43:53) can can I just say my husband has one of those cars now that he almost it almost is self driving. (43:58) He doesn't have to have his hands on the wheel. (44:01) It's called Super Cruise.

Speaker 3 (44:02) Yeah. (44:03) Yeah. (44:03) But is that the Chevy? (44:04) Is that a Chevy? (44:05) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:05) Yeah. (44:05) Listen. (44:06) Again, I took a long drive in a Tesla, and the driver never touched anything. (44:11) I mean, it was right turns, left turns, stop signs, merging, speeding up, passing cars. (44:18) Awesome.

Christine (44:18) I think I could have been in a Tesla. (44:20) Was I in a Tesla in Vegas? (44:22) Oh, my friend and I went to Las Vegas a couple that was maybe three years ago. (44:26) Yeah. (44:27) Two years ago.

Christine (44:28) Yeah. (44:28) We were in a Tesla.

Speaker 3 (44:29) And you

Christine (44:29) know what? (44:30) I like the way the whole inside of the car

Speaker 3 (44:33) looked simple and empty and yeah. (44:35) Kinda clean. (44:36) Okay. (44:37) So how long you've listening to the podcast?

Christine (44:39) Pretty much from the beginning, I think.

Speaker 3 (44:40) Pretend then that I'm your husband for a second, and I'll tell you I'm pretty impressed with the automated insulin delivery systems.

Christine (44:46) I know. (44:46) I can tell by the way you talk about it.

Speaker 3 (44:48) So why don't you try it?

Christine (44:50) Because I'm stubborn. (44:51) Well,

Speaker 3 (44:55) I think Medtronic seven eighty g is a good pump. (44:57) And if you got their sensor and paired it up, I think it's possible it could take away a lot of the thinking about it.

Christine (45:04) Okay. (45:05) Well and like I said, I am open to that. (45:08) Mhmm. (45:08) And at some point next year, I may go to that.

Speaker 3 (45:11) Good for you. (45:12) Yeah. (45:12) Well, that's a good listen. (45:13) You don't have to love it. (45:14) You could hate it.

Speaker 3 (45:15) But maybe it's a control thing you won't be able to give away. (45:18) But, also, maybe you'll just think, hey. (45:20) This is awesome not thinking about this.

Christine (45:23) Yes. (45:24) I suppose. (45:24) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:24) As much. (45:25) And as you get older too, you know, maybe maybe it could buy you some extra time because, know, the end of this, you know, for all of us living, the longer you go, the more help you're gonna need. (45:36) But with type one diabetes, it's an extra burden. (45:39) Right? (45:39) And now you're counting on somebody around you to help.

Speaker 3 (45:42) It's not your husband, and it's not kids, and, you know, then you're you're looking at nursing home staff. (45:47) Like, they're not gonna understand it. (45:48) My gosh. (45:49) Yeah.

Christine (45:49) Oh, can I just say my husband and I have talked this over, and we are going to age in place? (45:55) So, hopefully, an aide or whoever can come here.

Speaker 3 (45:59) Yeah.

Christine (46:00) I'm thinking if the worst ever happens, I will go to one injection a day and just let me whatever.

Speaker 3 (46:07) Whatever happens happens? (46:08) Yeah. (46:08) Yeah. (46:09) What's the worst that could happen? (46:10) You mean your husband passing?

Christine (46:12) No. (46:13) I would say, like, if I had a stroll

Speaker 3 (46:15) or something like that where you couldn't handle it.

Christine (46:17) Yeah. (46:17) Where where I was totally incapacitated.

Speaker 3 (46:20) Yeah. (46:20) What a what a great conversation to have on the last day of the year. (46:23) Everybody's feeling hopeful about next year. (46:25) You and I are like, we're all gonna die. (46:26) So I

Christine (46:28) hate to tell you this, but a lot of not good well, not a couple bad things have happened to me on New Year's, but talking to you is not one of them. (46:36) So

Speaker 3 (46:36) I'm glad you're having a good time. (46:38) But did someone hit you with their car in the driveway? (46:40) What happened?

Christine (46:40) Well, no. (46:41) This is I found my breast lump on New Year's Day. (46:46) Yes. (46:47) I had my heart attack on New Year's Eve Day.

Speaker 3 (46:50) What the hell?

Christine (46:51) I know. (46:53) And I would just wanna say to to people, my only symptom for that was my pulse was up to a 100 and yeah. (47:00) I had tachycardia. (47:02) My pulse rate went up to about a 128. (47:04) The only reason I really paid attention to it is because this was during COVID, and everybody was getting those pulse oximeters for their fingers.

Christine (47:13) And then if it went below something, you were supposed to go to the hospital immediately or whatever.

Speaker 3 (47:18) Yeah. (47:19) How about that?

Christine (47:20) So that's how I caught that?

Speaker 3 (47:21) Wow. (47:22) That's insane. (47:23) My gosh. (47:24) What wait a minute. (47:26) How did you find the lump?

Speaker 3 (47:28) Do you, like, doing a self exam where you're

Scott Benner (47:30) like, hey. (47:30) It's the first of

Speaker 3 (47:30) the year. (47:31) Let me take a look. (47:31) Or

Christine (47:32) Okay. (47:32) I'll tell you the the story before it. (47:34) We have we were in Arizona. (47:37) We lived out there part time for about fifteen years, and we were at our friend's house. (47:42) She's a wonderful cook.

Christine (47:44) She made this really kinda spicy chicken dish. (47:48) It was tremendous. (47:49) We had a really good time. (47:51) I ate the spicy chicken, and I woke up the next morning, and my right breast itched so much. (47:58) And I went to scratch it, and I'm like, holy crap.

Christine (48:01) There's a big lump here. (48:03) And I'm like, for five minutes, I said to myself, I'm gonna pretend I never found this because I knew I knew then what it was having worked in, you know, the health care industry for forty years. (48:16) I was like, this is not good.

Scott Benner (48:18) You were saved by itchy titty?

Christine (48:20) Yes. (48:20) Oh, shit.

Speaker 3 (48:21) Boy, what if I made that the title of your episode?

Christine (48:23) No. (48:24) Please don't. (48:27) I

Speaker 3 (48:30) feel like I could get $20 out of you right now not to do that. (48:33) I if I You you

Christine (48:35) could get more than that.

Speaker 3 (48:39) No kidding. (48:39) Just an incredible, like, bothersome itch, and you're like, woah, gosh. (48:43) What is it? (48:44) Tell me that five minutes of, like, I'll just ignore it. (48:47) Is it just, like, I can't do one more thing, or what's that feeling?

Christine (48:50) That. (48:51) Yes. (48:51) Yeah. (48:52) What was that?

Speaker 3 (48:52) What about living your whole life like this? (48:55) I mean, you have a great attitude, and I don't feel like I'm speaking to a 73 year old person. (48:59) I just wanna say that. (49:00) Right? (49:01) At the same time, it's a lot.

Speaker 3 (49:03) I mean, listening over your life, being poor, your dad becoming incapacitated, like, you know, your mom going off and working at a time when that's not what has happened. (49:12) You're taking care of your diabetes, but really, you're living with, like, a twelve a one c for a long ass time.

Christine (49:17) Mhmm.

Speaker 3 (49:18) Heart attack, cancer, retinopathy, a lot's happening. (49:22) You didn't get to have kids. (49:23) It's not I don't think it's a thing you didn't want. (49:25) You had to live thinking you were gonna die early. (49:28) Why do you still have a good attitude And but at the same time, like, this struggle must have done something for you.

Speaker 3 (49:34) Have you ever thought about what it is?

Christine (49:37) Yeah. (49:37) I've tried to examine it quite often, and I can't quite figure it out. (49:43) I think if anything I I I have this one saying. (49:47) I think this came up during COVID, but it was like, I'm bloodthirsty but faint hearted. (49:52) So I think there's a part of me that's willing to fight for a lot of stuff, and then there's a other part of me that's like, yeah.

Christine (49:58) What? (49:58) No. (49:58) I'm not doing this.

Speaker 3 (50:00) And so what does it come and go depending on the situation? (50:03) Is it situational?

Christine (50:04) Think prob probably sometimes.

Speaker 3 (50:06) So give me an example of something you fought for.

Christine (50:08) Well, we didn't even get into

Speaker 3 (50:11) Well, we got time. (50:12) Take your time. (50:13) Go ahead.

Christine (50:13) Oh, good. (50:14) Yeah. (50:15) Well, I'm on Synthroid.

Speaker 3 (50:17) Have Hashimoto's? (50:18) Or

Christine (50:19) No. (50:19) I came down with hypothyroidism because I believe when I went through my cancer treatment and I was going through the radiation

Speaker 3 (50:29) Exactly.

Christine (50:29) They make this, you know, like A collar. (50:33) A collar so that you're

Speaker 3 (50:35) Protects your thyroid.

Christine (50:36) And everything. (50:37) And then yeah. (50:37) And they're aiming right for under your arm and where the your lymph nodes are in that. (50:42) You're supposed to and I think it used to take I had to go there five days a week for a month and have this radiation therapy. (50:50) And when they were doing that, I could not move.

Christine (50:53) Mhmm. (50:53) I was not allowed to move. (50:55) And I think one time, either I must have started to fall asleep or whatever, and I, like, jerked. (51:01) And I think I jerked my neck up enough for the radiation to hit my thyroid because it wasn't till after that that my thyroid was just, like, destroyed. (51:12) It was gone, and they caught it on a CT scan, I think.

Christine (51:16) I caught it, actually. (51:17) I was reading through my whole report, and I know I had symptoms, but a a lot of it, they would say, oh, well, you're getting older. (51:25) This is why, you know, you're losing your hair, and you feel tired all the time.

Speaker 3 (51:28) And yeah. (51:29) Yeah. (51:30) Bad aim. (51:30) They zapped you.

Christine (51:32) Well, I yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:33) Don't don't take blame for it, Chris. (51:35) You've been you've been through a lot. (51:37) Let's just say that somebody messed it up for you. (51:38) I don't need you I don't need you walking around with that burden too.

Christine (51:41) Okay. (51:41) Well, I just have to say when I did mention because I get checked once a year for cancer.

Speaker 3 (51:46) You know,

Christine (51:46) they check up on me. (51:48) And, I did say to that PA once about how I thought that that's how I got it, and she said, oh, no. (51:54) We're not gonna say that happened.

Speaker 3 (51:56) So No one's saying that. (51:58) Yeah. (51:59) Being that it's the anniversary of all your bad news, if you and I get done recording right now, I don't know, and, you know, you look outside and there's a SWAT team coming at you with guns and they're yelling your name and you're like, oh, I'm gonna get shot. (52:12) This is the end. (52:13) Do you go good life do you go, it could have been better?

Speaker 3 (52:17) Like, how do you think of your time?

Christine (52:18) Oh, I think I had an incredible life. (52:21) The the beginning was very hard, and that's maybe what made me a stronger person is I lived through, like, so much horrible things going on.

Speaker 3 (52:30) Yeah.

Christine (52:30) And and then when I met my husband, I mean, it took us a long time before we got married, but he got it from the beginning kinda. (52:40) Mhmm. (52:40) And he's really been helpful as far as like, he can look at me and go, oh, you're going low. (52:45) Yes. (52:45) Or if I'm bitchy or whatever, you know, it's like, well, high blood sugar,

Speaker 3 (52:49) just your blood doesn't get bitchy. (52:51) Her tolerance just changes for my bullshit.

Christine (52:54) That's probably it.

Speaker 3 (52:56) I said, well, it's crazy because you seem bitchy. (53:01) So

Christine (53:03) Yeah. (53:03) We're not supposed to use that word, you know.

Speaker 3 (53:05) No. (53:05) No. (53:05) No. (53:05) It's okay. (53:06) Whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:06) You're old enough. (53:07) You're grandfathered in on something. (53:08) You have to be. (53:09) So yeah. (53:10) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:10) I'm not supposed to use it, but I was using it because you used it. (53:13) You understand? (53:14) Yeah. (53:15) I was just agreeing with you. (53:16) You're the guest, so I'm I'm agreeing with you.

Christine (53:18) Okay. (53:18) Well, thank you.

Speaker 3 (53:19) No. (53:19) No problem. (53:19) It's no problem at all. (53:20) Oh my gosh. (53:21) So how's this conversation going for you?

Speaker 3 (53:23) Because at the beginning, right before we started, you scared me a little because you were like, I have plans for this. (53:28) But how's it going?

Christine (53:30) It's going very well.

Speaker 3 (53:31) Good.

Christine (53:31) I just I just wanna say that I think I was blessed and cursed by having so much medical knowledge and not being formally educated.

Speaker 3 (53:41) Yeah.

Christine (53:41) And I came a lot of well, here's the thing. (53:44) When I worked in medical records, I read thousands of charts, and then we would assign, you know, the diagnosis and the procedures to them. (53:53) I learned a lot about the different procedures, and that I would get myself in trouble because I'd go to doctors and say, well, I don't want this, but I want this. (54:01) And they'd, like, look at me like, who the hell do you think you are? (54:04) Why are you telling me this?

Speaker 3 (54:05) You say, read some books. (54:06) Yeah.

Christine (54:07) Right. (54:08) And then finally, one of my nurse one of my good friend nurse nurses said to me, she says, I never let any medical personnel know that I'm a nurse. (54:17) I just ask questions in a way that sound like, why are you doing this? (54:22) And so I kinda learned from her not to go at it from that angle.

Speaker 3 (54:28) Them think they're having the idea? (54:29) Yes. (54:30) But getting what you need?

Christine (54:31) Yes.

Speaker 3 (54:32) Yeah. (54:32) Also, that works when you're married too. (54:34) Right?

Christine (54:34) Sometimes.

Speaker 3 (54:35) Mhmm. (54:36) Sometimes. (54:36) I check my kids that way a lot.

Christine (54:39) Well, don't all parents?

Speaker 3 (54:41) Yeah. (54:41) You have to. (54:42) You can't tell anybody anything. (54:43) By the way, that's not just parenting. (54:45) Anytime you try to tell somebody something, right away, they're upset.

Speaker 3 (54:48) You know? (54:48) But you ask a question and then let them come to it on their own, and they're like, everyone's proud of themselves.

Christine (54:53) So Sure.

Speaker 3 (54:53) Whatever. (54:54) However it has to happen, you're just looking for good

Christine (54:55) care. (54:56) Yes.

Speaker 3 (54:57) Alright. (54:58) So Oh. (54:59) Go go ahead. (54:59) Go ahead. (54:59) Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (55:00) Want you to say a bunch of things. (55:01) Say whatever you want. (55:02) I I wanna tell you, Chris. (55:03) I'm having a lovely time talking to you. (55:05) I think this is very appropriate for my last episode recorded this year.

Speaker 3 (55:09) I'm feeling very lucky to have this conversation with you right now. (55:12) I'm not sharing it with you, but I'm sitting here feeling that way. (55:15) And, yeah, I just I feel really grateful in, in the moment to get to meet you and everyone else that I talked to this year. (55:22) I'm looking up at my calendar and thinking it's possible I had over 300 conversations this year with different people.

Christine (55:29) Bet you did. (55:30) Yeah. (55:30) And I have to tell you, I'm very flattered because I've listened to so many of your podcasts, and so many people have interesting stories. (55:37) No kidding. (55:38) It's just amazing.

Speaker 3 (55:39) Yeah. (55:39) Yeah. (55:39) No. (55:39) I'm I'm listening back to one today where a guy is telling me about his neighbor who built a twenty twenty one twentieth scale battleship that actually floated. (55:47) And I was like, what's the whole whole world's out of its mind.

Christine (55:51) You know what? (55:51) That sounds like something my husband would

Speaker 3 (55:53) wanna Yeah. (55:54) Yeah. (55:54) Yeah. (55:55) Oh my gosh. (55:56) But what'd you wanna say?

Speaker 3 (55:56) I'm sorry.

Christine (55:57) I just this is I can't explain why, but I think somehow I have my body has the ability to self heal. (56:04) I've had so many things go wrong, and, you know, I had all the joint stuff, you know, carpal tunnel, trigger finger, you name it. (56:13) And I never went for any surgeries for any of that, and eventually, it all went away. (56:18) So I I

Speaker 3 (56:19) You outlasted it?

Christine (56:20) Yes. (56:21) I guess so.

Speaker 3 (56:21) Do you have any other autoimmune issues? (56:23) No. (56:24) No? (56:24) How about in your family line? (56:25) Your mom, dad, brothers, sisters?

Christine (56:28) No. (56:28) I talked to my my sister about this. (56:31) We have more genetic. (56:32) We have, like, a genetic blood thing in our family.

Speaker 3 (56:35) Okay.

Christine (56:36) And then I will tell you though, when I first came down with diabetes, apparently, between the two families, it's like, where did this come from? (56:46) Who had diabetes in your family, and how did this happen? (56:49) And it wasn't until I was in my forties or fifties, and it must have been either it came from, apparently, my maternal grandmother's side of the family, and there was one uncle left who that would have been my mother's uncle.

Speaker 3 (57:03) Mhmm.

Christine (57:03) And I think eventually, they figured out that my grandmother either had cousins or some aunts or somebody who must have died before there was insulin, and they figured it was diabetes.

Speaker 3 (57:14) Type one there.

Christine (57:15) Yeah. (57:16) That

Speaker 3 (57:16) yeah. (57:17) Well, jeez, not something. (57:18) Oh, can I throw this in here real quick? (57:20) This is apropos of nothing, Christine. (57:21) But if anybody from the Smart Wool sock company is listening, I would love to rep you and sell some socks.

Speaker 3 (57:26) These things are awesome. (57:28) I would do it maybe just for free socks. (57:30) So if you wanna trade ads for free socks, let me know. (57:33) I got these for the holidays. (57:35) My son, I can't believe my son's like, here.

Speaker 3 (57:37) I got you socks for Christmas. (57:39) They're awesome. (57:39) I'm like, okay. (57:41) Thanks. (57:41) But he's not wrong.

Speaker 3 (57:42) They're really great. (57:43) Sorry. (57:43) I know that takes everything off case. (57:45) But, anyway, anyone's working at SmartWool, reach out, please. (57:48) I think I think we could sell some socks together.

Christine (57:51) That sounds like something my husband could use.

Speaker 3 (57:53) Yeah. (57:53) They're beaut they're, like, just really fit well, and they're warm, and I don't feel sweaty in them ever. (57:59) And my goodness. (58:00) I don't know what they cost. (58:02) The kids got a job.

Speaker 3 (58:03) You know what I mean? (58:03) But Yeah. (58:04) That's it. (58:05) Thank god he's got a job. (58:06) He actually got me a really nice Christmas present.

Christine (58:09) What?

Speaker 3 (58:10) And oh, you want me to tell you? (58:12) He he got me tickets to the Eagles game for he and I.

Christine (58:16) You're kidding.

Speaker 3 (58:17) As happy as I as soon as I got them, as happy as I was to think, oh, we're gonna go to the game together. (58:22) This is awesome. (58:23) There was part of me that was like, oh my god. (58:25) He can afford this. (58:26) Thank god.

Speaker 3 (58:27) Like like, do you know what I mean? (58:28) Like like, just like it felt like a weight lift. (58:30) And I was like, he bought an expensive gift for me. (58:33) He must be saving his money and and then doing okay. (58:36) Like, I was just so happy to think that he was okay.

Speaker 3 (58:39) Sure. (58:40) Know? (58:40) Don't know if that makes sense or not. (58:41) But

Christine (58:41) Well, yeah, that's what you want for your kids, so to eventually be on their own, but but, like, capable and thinking ahead.

Speaker 3 (58:50) I just, yeah, I just was happy to know that he was, like, stable. (58:54) Yeah. (58:54) You know? (58:54) So Sure. (58:55) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:55) Really cool. (58:56) And he knows good socks when he sees them, so bonus. (58:59) Smartwool. (59:00) Again, guys, go check them out. (59:01) They're not not a sponsor, but would love for them to be.

Speaker 3 (59:04) I got I got rid of got rid of is the wrong word. (59:07) I wouldn't wanna say that. (59:08) I'm not doing business with a g one anymore. (59:10) So, like, if you want, I could fill that I could fill that space with smart wool very easily.

Christine (59:15) Yeah. (59:15) Well alright.

Speaker 3 (59:17) Do you know anybody at the company, Chris?

Christine (59:20) I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (59:21) No.

Christine (59:21) I don't have that kind of pull.

Speaker 3 (59:22) But listen, a lot of people listen to this.

Christine (59:25) Oh, that's true.

Speaker 3 (59:25) I've said things out loud a number of times and gotten responses. (59:28) I once spoke to somebody who works, like, inside at Facebook by saying out loud, I'd like to speak to somebody who works at Facebook. (59:34) So I'm making a wish right now. (59:36) I'm using my wish up on smart wool socks.

Christine (59:38) Okay.

Speaker 3 (59:38) Okay. (59:40) What kind of socks do you like? (59:41) Do you like the short ones, or do like to pull them up?

Christine (59:44) No. (59:45) I'm better off now probably with the shorter ones.

Speaker 3 (59:48) Yeah. (59:48) How is it can I can I ask, like, you've been so candid here just about getting older in general? (59:55) Is it still the way it is for me and the way other people talk about it? (59:58) Like, do you bend over and struggle to pull on your shoes and think, this isn't me? (1:00:03) How is this happening to me?

Speaker 3 (1:00:05) Yes. (1:00:06) Is that that part doesn't go away.

Christine (1:00:08) No. (1:00:08) It doesn't. (1:00:09) And I have to say in the last couple years, my husband and I will wake up in the morning and, like, we just like, our bones ache.

Speaker 3 (1:00:16) Yeah.

Christine (1:00:17) And it's like it's not that we did anything that, you know, strenuous the day before or whatever. (1:00:23) It just yeah. (1:00:24) It's the natural part. (1:00:25) And I would say definitely, like, I if I turn my neck or something, you hear your neck creak. (1:00:30) It's like, yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:00:32) Do you ever joke with each other? (1:00:33) You're like, look. (1:00:33) Why don't we try to smother each other with a pillow or something? (1:00:36) Like, get the hell out of this. (1:00:38) No.

Speaker 3 (1:00:39) We're not Not to that point yet. (1:00:41) Do you do you wake up in

Scott Benner (1:00:42) the morning and think, I'm gonna need a minute,

Speaker 3 (1:00:45) or do you jump out of bed?

Christine (1:00:47) Can no. (1:00:47) Can I just tell you most mornings, especially since I've been retired, I am in bed for at least an hour or two drinking coffee, looking on my Kindle, looking up articles, reading different stuff? (1:00:59) I try to stay away from the news as much as I can. (1:01:02) But

Speaker 3 (1:01:02) How do you like being retired?

Christine (1:01:04) Oh, I love it. (1:01:06) I would say that I've been the happiest I've ever been since I was retired.

Speaker 3 (1:01:10) Oh, well, it's Chris's fault. (1:01:13) This is the last episode of the podcast. (1:01:14) That's perfect. (1:01:15) We're just starting to think about, like, you know, that next part of our life.

Christine (1:01:21) And Sure. (1:01:22) And Yeah. (1:01:22) And I have to say my husband and I started thinking of that, like, in our thirties, and we were able to retire when we were 55.

Speaker 3 (1:01:29) Wow. (1:01:31) I am gonna be 55 in a couple months. (1:01:32) I cannot retire yet.

Christine (1:01:34) No. (1:01:34) But maybe by 60.

Speaker 3 (1:01:36) Also, in fairness, I make a podcast. (1:01:38) It's not incredibly taxing. (1:01:43) I had to have a guy come out today to, like, a a problem in my house. (1:01:46) Right? (1:01:47) This guy had to come out to look at it.

Speaker 3 (1:01:49) My phone rings, 10:30. (1:01:52) I said I said, oh, I'm so sorry. (1:01:54) I'm like, is this Joe? (1:01:55) And he goes, yeah. (1:01:56) I said, Joe, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (1:01:57) I'm talking to you from the shower. (1:01:58) I apologize. (1:01:59) And he goes, we're we're out front. (1:02:00) And I went, oh. (1:02:02) I'm like, I thought so early?

Speaker 3 (1:02:04) But but but instead instead I said, just give me five minutes. (1:02:08) And the whole time until I went out to to let him in the house, all I thought was, man, I'm really lucky. (1:02:14) Like, I really am. (1:02:15) Like, I slept. (1:02:16) I I don't feel well today.

Speaker 3 (1:02:17) No big deal. (1:02:18) I slept a little longer.

Christine (1:02:19) Sure.

Speaker 3 (1:02:19) I got up, you know, took care of some things around the house, did what I needed to do, jumped in the at 10:30, I'm in the shower trying to get ready to record with somebody at noon. (1:02:27) You know what I mean? (1:02:28) But at the same time, I'm working, like, in between pretty constantly. (1:02:32) It's the face actually, you know, it's the Facebook group that takes up a lot of my time.

Christine (1:02:39) Yeah. (1:02:39) And I love how you or it's one of your moderators or whatever get in there and say, just stop doing this now.

Speaker 3 (1:02:46) Yeah. (1:02:46) Yeah. (1:02:46) We're we're no no bull I I I don't I don't have time for all that. (1:02:49) I watched a gentleman degrade yesterday in real time. (1:02:52) It was it was fascinating.

Speaker 3 (1:02:54) And it went from he tried to give away insulin. (1:02:59) And it was a real person who really just switched insulin and was like, hey. (1:03:02) I've got this Humalog. (1:03:03) I'd like to give it away. (1:03:04) Now I can't let him do that.

Speaker 3 (1:03:06) Like, Facebook won't let that happen. (1:03:08) It's it's bad for me if I let it happen. (1:03:11) It's you know, it creates a lot of scammers. (1:03:13) People right away are like, you know, I'll take it. (1:03:15) Like, send it to me.

Speaker 3 (1:03:16) Like, you know or or he could be a scammer where he's like, you know, like, just send me $20 for shipping and, like, take $20 off a bunch of different people. (1:03:24) I don't think he was, though. (1:03:25) I think he was a real person just trying to do a nice thing Sure. (1:03:28) Which I would have liked to have supported, but I can't. (1:03:30) So you go in.

Speaker 3 (1:03:31) You gently, like, look. (1:03:32) Hey. (1:03:32) We can't do this. (1:03:33) Like, I need you to delete the post. (1:03:36) And then he doesn't delete the post, so you delete the post.

Speaker 3 (1:03:39) So then he reposts again. (1:03:41) I guess I'm not allowed to do this. (1:03:43) And blah blah blah. (1:03:43) You could see him getting angry. (1:03:45) Then someone else jumps in and is like, stop being a baby and complaining.

Speaker 3 (1:03:48) And I'm like, oh my god. (1:03:49) Like, what is happening? (1:03:52) And so, you know, we, like, you know, settle up so that he can't just post again because he's just gonna keep posting about the insulin. (1:03:58) We wanna be able to cut it off first if it happens. (1:04:01) And then third time he tries to post, the the system stops him and he leaves the group.

Speaker 3 (1:04:06) Uh-huh. (1:04:06) And I was like, I watched in a four hour period, like an adult lose their mind. (1:04:12) Yeah. (1:04:14) Yeah. (1:04:14) It was fascinating.

Speaker 3 (1:04:16) Because I even said, hey. (1:04:16) Like, call your endo up and see if there's I'm sure your endo knows somewhere that can can use this insulin.

Christine (1:04:22) Or go to a homeless shelter or something and say, who who around here takes insulin?

Speaker 3 (1:04:26) Because you're about to ask people on Facebook who don't live anywhere near you. (1:04:30) Right? (1:04:30) Like so right. (1:04:31) So there's anyway, but that's not the point where everyone was being very supportive. (1:04:35) My point is is that he went from, like, I'd like to help some people to everybody can go fuck themselves in four hours.

Speaker 3 (1:04:41) And I was like, I'm like, what is happening? (1:04:44) And and then and at that, like, another person that jumped in who was, like, nasty to him for, like, no reason.

Christine (1:04:50) I was like Sure.

Speaker 3 (1:04:51) I was like, wow. (1:04:52) It's the human psyche is just awesome. (1:04:54) But, anyway, what you you don't realize is that that took up the time of three different people.

Christine (1:04:59) Oh, I bet.

Speaker 3 (1:05:00) Yeah. (1:05:01) It's not an easy thing to accomplish keeping a harmonious place online for people to talk to each other.

Christine (1:05:06) Well, when I look at what you all do sometimes, I'm like, how does he keep this up?

Speaker 3 (1:05:10) There's a lot of very nice people volunteering their time.

Christine (1:05:13) Yeah. (1:05:13) There there must be.

Speaker 3 (1:05:14) Smart, thoughtful people

Christine (1:05:16) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:05:16) That appreciate the podcast and what it does for people and what it's probably done for them in the past, and they're just trying to give back a little bit. (1:05:23) And they do it in a in a a stunning way. (1:05:26) Sure. (1:05:26) Like, just yeah. (1:05:27) I couldn't possibly, like, I sent them all a gift card recently, like, as a thank you.

Speaker 3 (1:05:32) And as I was sending it, I thought this is insulting. (1:05:34) It's such a little amount for what they've done. (1:05:36) And, like, you know, like, I don't I'm just certainly don't wanna insult them. (1:05:39) I can't afford to give them No. (1:05:41) More.

Speaker 3 (1:05:41) But at the same time, like, jeez, it doesn't come close to the amount of effort, time, or

Scott Benner (1:05:47) Well

Speaker 3 (1:05:47) or love and compassion they put into it.

Christine (1:05:49) I think it would be really hard to monetize what you do without behold being beholding to a certain entity, whatever that might be, and then yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:06:01) Yeah. (1:06:01) Well, you listen. (1:06:02) You can't monetize a Facebook group no matter what. (1:06:04) Right? (1:06:04) Like, it just it doesn't it's not set up for that.

Speaker 3 (1:06:06) But the truth is even if you did, then it would fail.

Christine (1:06:09) Right.

Speaker 3 (1:06:10) No one wants to I once worked at a credit union when I was in my twenties, and we were in a sales meeting talking about, like, ways to get people into the credit union. (1:06:18) And I said, why don't we put dog in a brown bag and write free dog on it? (1:06:22) I think because if it's free, people love it. (1:06:25) You know what I mean? (1:06:26) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:06:26) Like but you ask somebody to pay $5 for something that's worth a 100, and they'll go, I'm not up for that. (1:06:32) Yes. (1:06:32) If you're gonna help people, you have to you have to help them for free, or they'll stop themselves. (1:06:38) And so or or maybe they just wouldn't have the $5. (1:06:40) Like, one way or the other, I'm not interested in limiting anybody's access to the conversations and and everything else.

Speaker 3 (1:06:46) You know? (1:06:47) So I I mean, I offset it with ad sales. (1:06:49) It's just it's what I do, and it it's the only thing that works. (1:06:53) Well I didn't record 300 and some times this year and pay an editor and do all this on, like, the good graces of, like, you know, mother nature. (1:07:01) You know?

Speaker 3 (1:07:01) Like, somebody's gotta pay for all that. (1:07:03) And it's not you. (1:07:04) I don't want you to pay for it, Chris. (1:07:06) And I I can't pay for it. (1:07:07) If I was wealthy, I'd pay for it.

Speaker 3 (1:07:09) You know what I mean? (1:07:10) I won that

Christine (1:07:10) lot Monday.

Speaker 3 (1:07:11) Do you see that lot the lottery the other day? (1:07:13) 1,800,000,000.0?

Christine (1:07:14) Can you imagine what you could do with that money?

Speaker 3 (1:07:16) One person in Arkansas bought it. (1:07:18) Oh, one they're gonna buy Arkansas, I imagine.

Christine (1:07:21) I suppose.

Speaker 3 (1:07:22) Well, for 1,800,000,000.0, you could probably get the the state next to it too.

Christine (1:07:26) Hey. (1:07:26) While you're saying that, can I just say that one of the things that drove me crazy is in the eighties and probably into the nineties, I was going crazy because everything was devoted to, like, breast cancer and AIDS? (1:07:44) Mhmm. (1:07:45) And later, I come down with breast cancer, which is the ultimate kinda on me. (1:07:50) But I was like, where are the people screaming about diabetes?

Christine (1:07:53) And we and I would be writing to my congresspeople and saying, you have to start putting some money. (1:07:59) We need a cure. (1:08:01) You have to start putting some money here. (1:08:02) I see all these people coming into the hospital, you know, especially the old old guys who'd be smoking, and then they'd lose their leg and stuff. (1:08:10) And it was like, there's gotta be more education, and and Yeah.

Christine (1:08:14) It just

Speaker 3 (1:08:14) It's all Yeah. (1:08:15) That's all money too. (1:08:16) Right? (1:08:16) Like, you know, that whole, like, breast awareness thing is probably, you know, part of a bigger consortium of people trying to raise money so that their research is funded and and there's probably, you know, more people with cancer than there is with diabetes type one.

Christine (1:08:33) Well, you know? (1:08:33) Yes. (1:08:34) That is true also.

Speaker 3 (1:08:35) The way the world actually works is, you know, break everybody's head if you understood it, I imagine. (1:08:39) But I take your point. (1:08:40) Like, it would be lovely if there was more to it, but, also, play devil's advocate. (1:08:44) You guys you know, you're type one. (1:08:46) You have CGMs.

Speaker 3 (1:08:47) You have insulin pumps. (1:08:48) You have you know, they came up with faster insulin. (1:08:51) They're working on algorithms. (1:08:53) Like, there's an argument to be made from somebody else like, hey. (1:08:55) You're getting a lot already.

Christine (1:08:57) Oh, well and I will say, I don't I'm not sure there ever will be a cure.

Speaker 3 (1:09:01) Yeah.

Christine (1:09:02) But I I certainly, system is beats what was back then.

Speaker 3 (1:09:07) Yeah. (1:09:07) Chris is like, look. (1:09:08) If you want me to vote between what I was doing before and what I'm doing now, I I take now. (1:09:12) Thank you.

Christine (1:09:13) Exactly.

Speaker 3 (1:09:14) Well, listen. (1:09:14) If a cure comes, I think just based on the pure complexity of it and the amount of things we can't possibly, like, factor in in a human mind, it's gonna come through a computer is gonna figure it out if it if it gets figured out that way. (1:09:32) And Phil don't know that that's possible.

Christine (1:09:34) Right.

Speaker 3 (1:09:35) You know? (1:09:35) And in the world that I understand today, like, can I tell you that, you know, fifteen years from now, AI might not teach itself how to make better computing and blah blah blah? (1:09:45) And then one day, we just start asking it everything, and it's like, yeah. (1:09:48) Here. (1:09:48) You you know, like like, may maybe, but not with today's understanding of the world.

Speaker 3 (1:09:54) I mean and all these people are working on is like, oh, we're close. (1:09:57) We're close. (1:09:58) And, like, you know, listen. (1:09:59) I like your enthusiasm, but I don't see it coming. (1:10:02) And I have that horrible experience of interviewing a, a researcher, like, fifteen years ago.

Christine (1:10:08) Oh, yes.

Speaker 3 (1:10:08) And he's talking about, like, encapsulation back then, just, you know, putting a a pouch of cells inside of somebody. (1:10:15) And the the one question I asked him that I think has broke my heart forever, I said, let's say you had it all figured out and it worked today. (1:10:22) How long till I my kid can have it? (1:10:24) He's like, may maybe fifteen years. (1:10:27) I was like, so if it Yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:10:28) I was like, so if it worked today and you had it figured out today, maybe I could have it in fifteen years. (1:10:33) And he's like, yeah. (1:10:34) You know, because of production, you gotta get the cells, he's, like, talking about all that. (1:10:37) Here's what that makes me think about, Chris. (1:10:39) Like, because and you've lived through a big change in technology, bigger than the one I lived through.

Speaker 3 (1:10:45) Right? (1:10:45) Like, I mean, if you were born in what were you born in? (1:10:48) '52? (1:10:49) Yes. (1:10:50) Look at me with the mask still.

Speaker 3 (1:10:51) So if you were born in '52, you drove in cars where air was coming through the floor while

Scott Benner (1:10:57) you were driving.

Christine (1:10:57) Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:10:58) Right?

Christine (1:10:58) Without seat without seat belts.

Speaker 3 (1:11:00) Seat belts. (1:11:01) No power steering. (1:11:02) No power brakes. (1:11:03) Your mom was probably, like, stomping on that goddamn thing to get it to stop. (1:11:06) You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (1:11:07) Like, no kidding. (1:11:08) Right? (1:11:09) And you went from that to what? (1:11:12) Tube televisions? (1:11:13) Like, you probably had a one of the first TVs, but you were broke.

Speaker 3 (1:11:17) Maybe you didn't even have one.

Christine (1:11:18) Well, I have to say back then, it was barely black and white. (1:11:22) They were just coming off of radios, really.

Speaker 3 (1:11:25) Right.

Christine (1:11:25) And and that was the early part of TV. (1:11:27) And then, yes, we finally did get a colored TV when I was a little bit older, and I think my grandparents might have

Speaker 3 (1:11:34) helped. (1:11:35) What was TV? (1:11:36) Like, uncle Milty and

Christine (1:11:38) Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:11:38) Like that. (1:11:39) Right?

Christine (1:11:39) Oh, sure. (1:11:40) The honeymooners.

Speaker 3 (1:11:41) Yeah. (1:11:41) Honeymooners, uncle that that stuff. (1:11:43) Right? (1:11:43) There's, three TV shows. (1:11:45) And my point my point is is then you live into tubes, into transistors, into personal computers, into cell phones.

Speaker 3 (1:11:53) I mean, seriously, do you remember the first time somebody had one of those bagged cell phones? (1:11:57) You were probably like, this is magic.

Christine (1:11:59) Yes.

Speaker 3 (1:12:00) Yeah. (1:12:01) Exact right. (1:12:01) And now today, you know, I'm saying to you, still in your lifetime, why don't you go sit down in a prompt and talk through your your thing and see if it'll maybe, like, pull an answer out for you that you could take back to your doctor? (1:12:12) That's a real thing. (1:12:13) And so, you know but every time

Christine (1:12:16) You're spurring me on here.

Speaker 3 (1:12:18) Get you on a pump. (1:12:19) Watch what I do. (1:12:20) But, like but my my point about talking about it in the timeline is there's there's moments in time where everything seems like the most amazing thing. (1:12:30) But when you look back five years, you don't really use it anymore the way that we thought we were going to. (1:12:35) It all kinda commingles into something else.

Speaker 3 (1:12:38) And I think that sometimes the promise of it never comes to be. (1:12:42) Yes. (1:12:43) I think there are times that we're so busy expanding and trying to find the next thing that we don't bother putting the thing we have into practice.

Christine (1:12:53) True.

Speaker 3 (1:12:53) You know what I mean? (1:12:54) Like, that it's a bigger idea, but, like, I see that in technology through my lifetime. (1:12:59) I think this possibly is the first time we're gonna get to the end if it works, if it doesn't kill us all like in that Terminator movie.

Christine (1:13:08) Yeah. (1:13:08) That's right.

Speaker 3 (1:13:09) And listen. (1:13:09) And if it does, what the hell? (1:13:11) You know?

Christine (1:13:11) Could happen at I grew up, you know, during the Cold War when we were assured that we were gonna

Speaker 3 (1:13:19) be bombed and we were all

Christine (1:13:20) gonna that was gonna be it.

Speaker 3 (1:13:22) You know? (1:13:22) Right.

Christine (1:13:23) And then my my dad this is my dad had a sense of humor. (1:13:25) He'd say, them drop the bomb on this house, and then it'll all be over.

Speaker 3 (1:13:31) So He's like, I'm looking for a way out of this. (1:13:33) I I'll tell you right now. (1:13:35) I'm taking Adam bomb. (1:13:36) Let's go.

Christine (1:13:37) Truly.

Speaker 3 (1:13:38) Yeah. (1:13:38) It's a shit show your life. (1:13:39) I imagine he thought that a couple of times in that wheelchair. (1:13:43) But no. (1:13:43) But seriously, like, with the with the AI, like, this is the first time it's gonna grow fast enough and not need us to understand it to keep growing.

Speaker 3 (1:13:53) And, like, maybe that actually gets us to something. (1:13:55) And I also understand all the bad things that could possibly happen too. (1:13:58) But, like, maybe this is the dice roll time. (1:14:01) Like, maybe you just say, like, we can't keep up with it. (1:14:05) Right?

Speaker 3 (1:14:05) Because somebody comes up with something in 1970, and they spend ten years trying to understand it, And then ten more years trying to perfect it. (1:14:14) By the time they've done that, it's over. (1:14:15) It's gone already.

Christine (1:14:16) Yes. (1:14:17) Yes.

Speaker 3 (1:14:17) And they've wasted their whole damn life on it. (1:14:20) And then you look forward, and no one's even they've built off of it, but they're not using it anymore. (1:14:26) And then it took up someone's whole life just to have an, an understanding of it like that that didn't in the end end up helping that many people. (1:14:34) Like, this is my hope right here. (1:14:36) Like like, I think this could do it.

Speaker 3 (1:14:39) And if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. (1:14:41) Or if it's earlier than I think it is, then it's earlier than I think it is. (1:14:44) But, like, this to me makes a lot of sense about, like, what could possibly happen moving forward. (1:14:50) And you gotta stop being afraid. (1:14:52) Everyone needs to have been born in 1952 and have their husband tell him it's okay.

Speaker 3 (1:14:56) Yeah. (1:14:56) And we'll be alright. (1:14:57) What's that like, Chris? (1:14:59) Is that comforting? (1:15:00) Because, you know, younger women would be like, I don't listen to that guy.

Speaker 3 (1:15:04) But, like, do you find it comforting?

Christine (1:15:06) Well, I trust my husband's judgment on so many things that, yes, I guess I do. (1:15:11) And the stuff that I don't really care about, I I figure, well, he's right unless I go investigate it. (1:15:17) And then I'll come back and say, well, I I disagree, blah blah blah or whatever. (1:15:20) So but, no, to me, it's yeah. (1:15:23) It's very comforting.

Speaker 3 (1:15:25) You've been together a long time. (1:15:26) He hasn't led you wrong. (1:15:28) No. (1:15:28) Good to trust him. (1:15:30) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:15:30) Is my wife listening to this? (1:15:32) No. (1:15:33) She's not, by the way. (1:15:34) Nobody listens to my podcast in my family.

Christine (1:15:36) I'll tell you this. (1:15:37) I'm not sure how many of my friends or family will listen to this. (1:15:40) No.

Speaker 3 (1:15:41) Of course not. (1:15:41) Yeah. (1:15:42) A whole a whole hour of you, they're like, ugh, it's enough.

Christine (1:15:44) Yeah. (1:15:45) And here's the other thing. (1:15:46) People are so busy with their own lives and whatever is going on in their lives

Speaker 3 (1:15:51) Yeah.

Christine (1:15:52) That to sit down and be able to sit and listen to something, it's very difficult.

Speaker 3 (1:15:57) Yeah. (1:15:57) I I I and also the way content is, like, given to people nowadays. (1:16:02) Like, you know, you when you and I got on, you were like, oh my god. (1:16:05) This was a lot to get set up. (1:16:06) I mean, you know, between you and me and Chris, you were jumping on Zoom.

Speaker 3 (1:16:09) Most people don't have trouble with that.

Christine (1:16:10) I know.

Speaker 3 (1:16:12) You looked at me like, that's enough. (1:16:14) I've I got on. (1:16:15) Like, let's just stop now. (1:16:18) But it just is generational and and all the other things that you've mentioned, getting slower, getting older, like, you know, everything else that comes with it.

Christine (1:16:26) Sure.

Speaker 3 (1:16:26) Yeah. (1:16:26) Alright. (1:16:27) Well, I I hope for a world where your insulin pump is driving your blood sugars and your car is driving you to go visit people and you Great. (1:16:34) You know, and and some computer tells you what's wrong and and tells you take this or do that, and it's all gonna be better. (1:16:40) That's what I'm hoping for.

Christine (1:16:42) Sounds great.

Speaker 3 (1:16:43) Yeah. (1:16:43) Let's get that. (1:16:44) I want that. (1:16:45) I just wanna say I want that. (1:16:47) Yeah.

Speaker 3 (1:16:47) In case I've been ambiguous and you're listening. (1:16:50) I'm I'm I look. (1:16:52) I'm willing to roll the dice on the destruction of the planet to see if we can get to this Because what I've been doing for the last fifty four years, it ain't that great. (1:17:04) Wanna get that in the next thing, Chris. (1:17:05) Alright.

Speaker 3 (1:17:06) Hold on one second for you. (1:17:07) You're really terrific. (1:17:07) Happy New Year.

Christine (1:17:08) Thank you. (1:17:09) Happy New Year.

Speaker 3 (1:17:10) Yep.

Scott Benner (1:17:16) Head now to tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care. (1:17:23) I think you're gonna find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with the Tandem Mobi system. (1:17:33) The podcast episode that you just enjoyed was sponsored by Eversense CGM. (1:17:38) They make the Eversense three sixty five. (1:17:41) That thing lasts a whole year.

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