#1838 Psychopath with Peanut Butter
Single mom Sarah manages complex autoimmune conditions while navigating her teenage son's unpredictable type 1 diabetes growth spurts , exhaustion , and a dog that buried his pump.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Managing Multiple Autoimmune Conditions: Sarah navigates single motherhood and entrepreneurship while managing her own complex autoimmune diseases, including Lupus, Hashimoto's, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
- Alternative Pain Management: Facing severe joint and muscle pain, Sarah utilizes holistic approaches and medical marijuana (vaping/edibles) to manage her symptoms and get some rest without relying on heavy immunosuppressants.
- The Perfect Storm of Diagnosis: Her son’s T1D diagnosis occurred during a chaotic weekend of family events, stress, and moving, which initially masked classic symptoms like frequent urination as behavioral or environmental changes.
- Growth Spurts and Unpredictable Lows: Rapid adolescent growth and massive hormonal changes can cause severe fluctuations in insulin needs, leading to intense, unpredictable overnight low blood sugars despite consistent routines.
- The Value of the T1D Community: When the family dog unexpectedly buried her son's insulin pump in the snow, a local school connection provided a backup pump, highlighting the incredible, rapid support network within the diabetes community.
Resources Mentioned
- Touched by Type 1: touchedbytype1.org
- Tandem Mobi / Control IQ Plus: tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Eversense 365 CGM: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- Juice Box Podcast (Algorithm Pumping Series): juiceboxpodcast.com
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com
Introduction & Sponsors
Scott BennerFriends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast. Welcome.
SarahHi. I'm Sarah. I'm a single mom of three kids running a full time real estate business, a construction business, and my oldest child is a type one diabetic.
Scott BennerIf you'd like to hear about diabetes management in easy to take in bits, check out the small sips. That's the series on the Juice Box podcast that listeners are talking about like it's a cheat code. These are perfect little bursts of clarity, one person said. I finally understood things I've heard a 100 times. Short, simple, and somehow exactly what I needed.
Scott BennerPeople say small sips feels like someone pulling up a chair, sliding a cup across the table, and giving you one clean idea at a time. Nothing overwhelming. No fire hose of information. Just steady helpful nudges that actually stick. People listen in their car, on walks, or rather actually bolusing anytime that they need a quick shot of perspective.
Scott BennerAnd the reviews, they all say the same thing. Small sips makes diabetes make sense. Search for the Juice Box podcast, small sips, wherever you get audio. Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin.
Scott BennerThe episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by touched by type one. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, at touchedbytype1.org. Check out that programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes. Touched bytype1.org. Today's episode is also sponsored by Tandem Mobi, the impressively small insulin pump.
Scott BennerTandem Mobi features Tandem's newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus technology. It's designed for greater discretion, more freedom, and improved time and range. Learn more and get started today at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. The podcast is also sponsored today by Eversense three sixty five, the only one year wear CGM. That's one insertion and one CGM a year.
Scott BennerOne CGM, one year. Not every ten or fourteen days. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox.
Meet Sarah: Business, Kids, and Autoimmune Disease
SarahHi. I'm Sarah. I'm a single mom of three kids running a full time real estate business, a construction business, and my oldest child is a type one diabetic. So my life basically runs on contracts, carpools, blood sugar checks, and caffeine. Most days start for me before the sun with some sort of caffeinated beverage and a to do list that's way too long and generally end with late night emails after the kids are asleep.
SarahSo it's not always pretty, and it's definitely not always perfect, but it's real.
Scott BennerYeah.
SarahI'm building a business while raising three humans, and, honestly, they're the reason I keep showing up every day. So thanks for having me, Scott.
Scott BennerNo. It's a pleasure. I appreciate that's a great introduction.
SarahOh, thank you.
Scott BennerYeah. Other people should take note.
SarahThank you so much. Yeah.
Scott BennerThere's times when I I'll say to people, like, the next sound we hear will be you introducing yourself. And then there's this long pause, and I'm like I'm like, did they are they waiting for me to tell them to go, or are they like, as and then sometimes they're just collecting themselves.
SarahRight.
Scott BennerSometimes they'll say, you can start whenever you want. They go, oh, I'm sorry. I was like, was I too obtuse when I said the next sound we hear will be you introducing yourself? Funny. Anyway, how old are those kids?
SarahSo my oldest, who's the diabetic, just turned 14, actually. My middle will be 11 over the summer, and then I have a five year old daughter. Oh my gosh. Mhmm.
Scott BennerWow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Scott BennerI have to ask, they all the same dad? No. No. The five year old threw me off on that.
SarahYes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
SarahYeah.
Scott BennerSo Now so give me a little background on autoimmune in your family and your child with diabetes
SarahOf course. Father's family. I actually I have Hashimoto's, lupus, and a few other connective tissue disease, autoimmune diseases. My father and most of his side has Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. We have zero type one diabetes on either side.
Scott BennerK.
SarahHe was a post COVID diagnosis and truly and wholeheartedly will probably forever be ingrained in my brain that that is the reason why. So
Scott BennerThe virus that that kinda Yep. Got the whole thing going. Hey. What are you guys? Irish, English?
Scott BennerWhat's your background?
SarahSo I'm actually Irish and German, and his father is Mexican, actually. So
Scott BennerI I'm sorry. I meant your dad's your dad.
SarahOh, my dad? My dad is German and Irish. Yes.
Scott BennerGerman. Yeah. I just it it smelled like that with all the connective tissue stuff
Sarahand everything. Which is kinda funny. I also recently learned that I have, Ehlers Danlos syndrome as well Ehlers goes hand in hand with all the other connective tissue things.
Scott BennerI was gonna say how do you find that, but that's not what I mean. Like, what are the impacts of that for you?
SarahRight? I mean, everybody here is hypermobile EDS and thinks that we can do backbends. I'm just gonna tell you my knees say that that is a big fat lie. I can't do anything hyper mobile mobile whatsoever. It's more so just the connective tissue.
SarahSo I have a lot of gut issues. I have, gosh, a lot of joint pain, musculoskeletal pain. You can hear I kinda have a vocal fry right now, which that just kind of comes and goes when the weather changes. Just a lot of very weird things. I hemorrhage after birth, almost died with my daughter, actually.
SarahSo that was good times. So safe to say I'm done with three. But on the day to day, I really don't have time to notice a lot of my symptoms, to be totally honest with you. It's generally whenever I stop moving that I can really feel that things aren't normal.
Scott BennerHow do you get the diagnosis for the Ehlers Danlos?
SarahIt's essentially just a checklist of of symptoms. And with the other connective tissue disorders that I have, I have mixed connective tissue disease, which is like a buffet of different autoimmune diseases where how it was explained to me is you don't have enough of one to be completely solely diagnosed as that. It's kind of touch a touch of every single one of them, so it's kind of a blanket diagnosis. The Ehlers Danlos was just thrown in there recently by my rheumatologist.
Scott BennerAnd what do they tell you to do? Like, support the support your joints by building a muscle around it kind
Sarahof thing? Yeah. I guess. Yeah.
Scott BennerI guess.
SarahI guess. They really have until it's one of those things that they're like, oh, here you go. Good luck. See you later. Let me know if you have problems.
SarahBut I do a lot of I try as, you know, as often as I can with three kids and all the work things that I have going on to go and get regular massage therapy, and I do a lot of red light therapy. And I'm really good at just listening to when my body says, okay. It's time to sit your ass down for a day. That's really how I manage it.
Scott BennerDo you have a list of things that actually help, or do you just think there are things that are offsetting a little bit?
SarahI think mainly just taking the time to be horizontal, like, I like to call it. Mhmm. And just actually get good rest and good sleep because as you know, we don't sleep a lot as type one diabetic parents. Yeah. Or I don't anyway.
SarahIf somebody has any tips for that as a single parent, please reach out to me, but I haven't figured out how to master that just quite yet.
Navigating Pain and Medical Marijuana
Scott BennerXanax? I I is
Sarahthat good? Shoot. I, can I talk about
Scott BennerTalk about
Sarahtalk about?
Scott BennerYou can talk about whatever you want. Oh, I like when people get whispery. What are you gonna tell me?
SarahSorry. Well, I'm California sober.
Scott BennerOh, I gotcha.
SarahI can't drink alcohol. I don't like drink I don't like drinking alcohol. I used to love it, of course, growing up, but not growing up. That makes me sound like I was, like, 15. And, I mean, maybe
Scott BennerScott, I started drinking when I was nine.
SarahSorry, mom. Sorry, dad. No. We had field I'm from the Midwest, so we had field parties here. So when I was at friends' houses, we were absolutely near death in a field somewhere.
SarahAll that being said
Scott BennerI'm at Kathy's house, kind of. Right.
SarahYeah. Like, we're doing homework. Duh. And now now that I'm a parent, I'm like, oh my god, mom. Were you
Scott BennerWe paying attention?
SarahCompletely, like, unaware, blissfully unaware, or did you just not do that whenever you were 15?
Scott BennerHow old are you?
SarahI'm I'll be 37 this year.
Scott BennerSo This is in the eighties?
SarahNo. No. Like no. Nineties? Nineties.
SarahYeah. Nineties, early two thousands. So
Scott BennerOh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott BennerOkay. Alright. I know. And your mom didn't know?
SarahNo. I don't know if she knew or if she was just too busy with her own stuff. So I have a theory on that as well, not to dive off into another subject, but I think my age group, we were really the first people who had mothers that worked outside of the home primarily full time.
Scott BennerOh, okay.
SarahSo I think that has a lot to do with a lot of things anymore, my age group of people. But I don't again, I don't know if she was just too busy. You know? And we were we were grandparent kids. So we got off my both my parents worked full time.
SarahMy dad's an entrepreneur. My mom is a nurse. And we, we, you know, we got off the bus at my grandparents' house every day, and we were there until they were ready to come get us for dinner. So
Scott BennerHow young were you the first time you were blackout drunk in a field?
SarahOh god. Maybe 16.
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahBut I was very responsible. I will say that. I never drove. That was I I I am kind of a so with all of the back to the autoimmune things, I have mast cell activation syndrome as well. So I have histamine issues, which, I get really carsick, and I have to drive everywhere.
SarahSo there's no passenger princess for me in any time of my life. I am the driver. So anytime my friends wanted to go somewhere, I basically had to drive. So unless we were staying staying in that field or staying at a property on that field, we I I didn't drink. I drove.
Scott BennerSarah, please tell me how many times you've woken up the next day in a field.
SarahLess than five.
Scott BennerThat's not bad. Not a bad number.
SarahNot for the Midwest. I don't feel like it is.
Scott BennerFor the Midwest.
SarahThat's, like, our backbone.
Scott BennerYou're like, Scott, I avoided fentanyl. I am a success Okay.
SarahI am. For sure. Absolutely. So but yeah. So, I mean, I microdose marijuana medically.
SarahIt's legal where I'm at, recreational and medical. That's basically how I combat a lot of things
Scott BennerThat's what
SarahI medically for myself.
Scott BennerWhat did you find that helps you, and and what are you doing?
SarahBasically, just that.
Scott BennerSo, like, what do you, like, hit a pen a couple times a day, or how do you do
Sarahit? I have a I have a vape pen. I don't really know that I love the vaping idea, but with three kids, they don't know what it is, but they know when I feel better, if that makes any sense. I'm not like, hey. Mom's gonna go to the garage.
SarahLike, I do it when they're not around, of course. Mhmm. And, you know, just for anyone listening concerned with my driving skills, I never do it before I have to go anywhere or drive. So always safe. Never sorry.
Scott BennerHave you tried the, I'm gonna use the wrong word. But they're the they're the devices that just it they superheat it very quickly. It doesn't burn.
SarahIs it the RSO?
Scott BennerI don't know what it's called. I can find it.
SarahDab bin? No. I feel so ghetto saying all these cool words.
Scott BennerYou're like you're like, I just want everyone to know I'm not as cool as I may sound in this moment.
SarahNot, guys. Sorry.
Scott BennerLike second. So there's a way so you're so there's vaping. Right?
SarahUh-huh.
Scott BennerBut there's also
SarahI think it's a dab pen. I think that's what you're thinking of. Or, like, resin or something?
Scott BennerNo. It's not. It's, I'm sorry.
SarahNo. You're good.
Scott BennerThe smokers out there are like, you're this you're terrible.
SarahScreaming it at You're the
Scott Bennerterrible at this, Scott. Hold on a second.
SarahYeah. Welcome to, clearly. I'm, like, a, you know, almost daily user for sleep at least, and they're like, come on. Do you not know what you're talking about? I don't.
SarahI really don't. Just like, hey. Here's a cool flavored gummy that's gonna help me not feel like death tomorrow.
Scott BennerMy Google search is so bad that I just got back a torch that's meant to burn weeds in a field.
SarahOh my gosh.
Scott BennerThat's hilarious.
SarahIt's like, yeah. This guy's never used in his life.
Scott BennerNot. No one is talking.
SarahThat's hysterical.
Scott BennerGoogle's laughing. Yeah. So I'm gonna figure out what it is, but I'll get back to you on that. So so that's what you do, and that helps you.
SarahYeah. It does. Otherwise, I would have to be on you know, they've they've tried to put me on basically, like, a chemo pill for my lupus. And I am which is kind of hilarious, and I'm very anti big pharma, which, of course, I would get a child, you know, that has a lifetime dependence on big pharma to stay alive. So that was kind of a funny joke.
SarahSo I don't I don't like to do I don't like I don't like prescriptions. I don't like medication. So I try and do everything as holistic as possible that I can for myself.
Scott BennerHow do you end up scoring that circle exactly? Like, you have a feeling about about the industry, but now you're you are very tied to it.
SarahYes. So, actually, again, I told you my mom's a nurse. So she, it's kinda funny. You know, I was very pro everything when I was growing up, and then COVID hit, and I just have a little bit more time to start looking into things. And there's a lot that they don't tell you before they stick stick your kids with things or feed you pills all all day long.
Scott BennerCan tell me that you got high during COVID and went down some sort of a rabbit hole?
SarahDidn't actually I did not. No. I was not I went down a few rabbit holes, but I was I was actually pregnant during COVID. So no there was no no utilization of any of that during that time. But I actually just started that pretty much in, like, 2023 just for pain.
Scott BennerI have my answer, by the way.
SarahOkay. Great.
Scott BennerWhat is it? It's a heat it's a vaporizer, but it's only heat.
Scott BennerLet's talk about the Tandem Mobi insulin pump from today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care, Their newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus technology and the new Tandem Mobi pump offer you unique opportunities to have better control. 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. Tandem Mobi gives you more discretion, freedom, and options for how to manage your diabetes.
Scott BennerThis is their best algorithm ever, and they'd like you to check it out at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. 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. Tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. 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 Autobolus.
Scott BennerWhen you think of a CGM and all the good that it brings in your life, is the first thing you think about, I love that I have to change it all the time? I love the warm up period every time I have to change it? I love that when I bump into a door frame, sometimes it gets ripped off. I love that the adhesive kinda gets mushy sometimes when I sweat and falls off. No. These are not the things that you love about a CGM.
Scott BennerToday's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five, the only CGM that you only have to put on once a year and the only CGM that won't give you any of those problems. The Eversense three sixty five is the only one year CGM designed to minimize device frustration. It has exceptional accuracy for one year with almost no false alarms from compression lows while youre sleeping. You can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the Eversense three sixty five. Learn more and get started today at eversensecgm.com/juicebox.
Scott BennerOne year, one CGM. Interesting. And so where did I learn about this? I was watching a video one day about some kids who have seizures. Yeah.
Scott BennerAnd then they gave them weed.
SarahYeah. It's a miracle.
Scott BennerAnd it made their seizures go away.
SarahYeah. That doesn't surprise me.
Scott BennerBut the kids have to smoke a lot to get rid of the seizures. Right? Like, it's a pretty no. It's again, you'd have to look into it to get the whole thing. But these are these are kids who are just, like like, they're having three, four hundred c like, mini seizures a day.
Scott BennerRight? Like, something crazy like that. So, I'm watching was interesting. And then, you know, somebody brought up, like, you know, we at first, we were doing it, but, you know, we didn't want the kids smoking.
SarahRight.
Scott BennerAnd then they brought up these heat vaporizers. So in the course of that conversation, they mentioned one. It took me a while to Google to because I couldn't think of the name of it. But there's one I think it's called the Mighty or the Mighty Plus or something like that. And they just like, the flour goes in, and it quickly superheats it, and a vapor comes out that is not vapor and it's not smoke.
Scott BennerIt's hard to like, I'm I I would have a hard time describing it.
SarahLike steam almost?
Scott BennerI don't even know what to
Sarahsay. Dry?
Scott BennerYeah. It's dry. From what I I mean, from I I'd have to find the video.
SarahInteresting.
Scott BennerYeah. But but, nevertheless, like, it might be they pushed the button. I think it was heated in a couple of minutes. They hit it a few times, and then it cools down again. And you can do that a few times before it gets burnt, I guess, and you have to add more.
Scott BennerBut there's this very small, like, tip of your pinky size amount of flour that goes into
Sarahit. Interesting. Yeah. I'll have to look into that.
Scott BennerWhy
Sarahnot? Yeah. Because, of course, like, I don't wanna be, you know, I'm by I I probably sound like one, but I am by no means, like, a stoner. You know? I just I I don't do this to get
Scott BennerIt really provides you relief.
SarahOff my ass. It it's the only thing that literally can keep me going because I'm not sleeping. My son my son is very, very sensitive still even after being diagnosed for five years.
Scott BennerMhmm.
SarahLike, he when when he hits 70, we've got, like, two minutes or he's at 40. Okay. It's wild.
Scott BennerWhat kind of devices is he using?
SarahHe is on the t slim pump, and he's on Dexcom.
Scott BennerIs he getting low often like that?
SarahHe gets low quite a bit, more than high. And, of course, you know,
Scott BennerActivity makes him low?
SarahHe is no. He it's just random. It's very weird. It's almost like like when a nondiabetic is hypoglycemic and just I mean, you're fine until you're not fine.
Scott BennerMhmm.
SarahThat's kind of how he is. It's when we after we are under a 100, we are at 70 within less than five minutes, and then we're down to 40. So he's very it's very much so I call it it's like a fire alarm twenty four seven. So I live my life in fight or flight, which probably doesn't do well for my own health. But somehow, thank you, Jesus, by the grace of God, I'm still managing everything okay.
Scott BennerYeah. Oh, well, we'll figure it all out as we go.
SarahYeah. It's fine. That's kind of like I said earlier, it is it is real life, not perfect. Yeah. So
Scott BennerWell, so far, nothing I've tried has gone perfectly. But I
SarahI figure Me either.
Scott BennerOne day, something's gotta work out.
SarahRight? It's we're we're gonna get there someday.
Scott BennerBut I don't I honestly don't think that's true.
SarahThink Well, maybe listen, Scott. You gotta have faith. Okay?
Scott BennerI'm just gonna have faith that even if it's not perfect, I'll be okay.
SarahYes. Yes.
Scott BennerI'm gonna get off this page now because I've been staring at this vaporizer for a while. But, apparently, they're they can be expensive.
SarahOh, I'm sure they can. It's it's all very expensive. But, again, like, I look at it as, you know, I don't wanna be on I definitely don't wanna wanna be on the the chemo pill. I don't.
Scott BennerThe what?
SarahIt's like it's they call it a chemo pill. It's I can't even think of the name right now because that's hi. Have lupus brain. My brain is not normal. I can't think of it.
SarahSomebody is yelling into the the radio right now what it is. I can't think about it. Hold on. Let me look this up. Chemo pill for lupus.
SarahOkay. It Citoxin? It's called Cell cell Citoxin. Citoxin. Yeah.
SarahIt's it's essentially they just immune suppress your immuno immuno immune system. Mhmm. And it kind of acts like chemo. So
Scott BennerAnd what's it supposed to do for the lupus?
SarahI don't know because I stopped listening as soon as they say that word. I'm done. I'm out.
Scott BennerSo I wonder if the TEGO would work for it.
SarahI don't know. But they my all of my specialists are like, hey. You're good. We you're whatever you're doing is okay. As long as you're not feeling any worse, Like, we will stick to your plan.
SarahI've been very fortunate to have specialists who actually listen to me. And most of the time, I'm very I'm very self aware and very aware of my body, which is a good thing and a bad thing, I think, sometimes. Yeah. Wish I had a little bit more of, like, a Pollyanna syndrome where I didn't know what was going on, but I think that's also the blessing and the curse of having a mother who's a nurse. I was, you know, diagnosing my friends with strep throat in the third grade in the hallway.
SarahSo all that being said, I I know what I I know where I need to go and what I need to do, and they are really open to listening to that and then kind of formulating a treatment plan around what I feel comfortable with.
Scott BennerSo This thing here says the the it's it's called cytotoxin. It's the short name, but it's actually cyclophosphamide or maybe.
SarahMhmm.
Scott BennerIt says here it's often used for three to six months to treat severe lupus complications. While it can be given via, VIV, it can also it's also available as an oral medication. Yeah. I I don't I guess it knocks down your immune system and stops the the attack, and then maybe it doesn't come back. Maybe the hope is it doesn't come back at the same strength.
SarahAnd I will say it there are seasons of the year where I am in remission per blood work. Now if I actually believe that, maybe I got lucky on the day that they drew the blood, but I don't ever feel like I'm in complete remission, to be totally honest with you. But K. There are days and seasons and months, especially with the weather change, I can feel it in my bones and my body when a storm's going to come or the barometric pressure is going crazy with the weather. So I can kind of have a little bit of a heads up and know to kinda take it easy the next few days.
Scott BennerDo your kids have any other issues besides the type one?
SarahThey don't listen. No.
Scott BennerThey don't.
SarahIs that it? I think, like, that's a, general issue with children. No. My other two children are perfect, and my diabetic is perfect as well. Just that.
Scott BennerYeah. There's no other, like, autoimmune stuff going on.
SarahNope. Zero. It's wild.
Scott BennerI hope that keeps on like that.
SarahYeah. I me too. Me too. Yeah. So and
A Chaotic Type 1 Diagnosis
Scott BennerTell me about his diagnosis. What what were the first signs
Sarahof it? So he, goes to his dad lives in a different state, so he travels there for the summer. I have him the rest of the year. So March that would have been '21. We had a lot of stuff going on family wise.
SarahI lost both my grandparents on my dad's side. The next day, I lost my brother in law's little brother in a very tragic accident, and it was just a lot of things happening. So I also sometimes wonder if maybe that contributed a little bit from just the stress response of seeing everybody else so stressed out because that's kind of when we started noticing behavioral issues with him. He is your typical firstborn. Well, I say that.
SarahI'm a firstborn, and I don't act like this. My sister is more like me, more like the firstborn child in our scenario, but he does not like rocking the boat, does not talk back. He's very respectful. I am both of those things, by the way. Just my sister is probably going to be listening to this, and she will argue that.
Scott BennerI was gonna say, why are you dragging your sister into this? Go ahead. There you
SarahMy sister, she's great. They, he was having a lot of behavioral issues at school, just not listening, very combative, and that's just not him. So we kind of took all this into oh, and by the way, we were, building a house at this time as well. So it was a nightmare, just generally speaking. So life was kinda crazy.
SarahSo I thought maybe that was just him kind of acting out or whatever he was doing because of the life situation at the time. Well, turns out, he goes to his dad's for the summer and late summer. So it was July. His dad sends me a text and says, you know, hey. We're headed to we're headed to the ER.
SarahWe think he has a UTI. I'm like, oh, okay. That's interesting. I was actually setting up for one of my best friend's baby showers that I was hosting the next day, mind you. So I was to have, like, 40 people in my home that we had just moved into a month and a half before.
SarahAnd there was a golf tournament that weekend that my significant other at the time was playing in as well. So it was just like a perfect storm, the worst weekend ever possible to have something like this come down on you. So I get a text about thirty minutes later and says his blood sugar is 790.
Scott BennerOh.
SarahYeah. And I'm like, What? So my mom is actually at the house with me at this exact moment getting ready for the baby shower the next day. And she's like, oh my god. What are the symptoms?
SarahHe was wetting the bed. And, again, he was nine, so that's not, you know, typical of a nine year old at that point. Had never done that before. Was, you know, having excessive thirst, just the classic textbook stuff. But it's summer.
SarahThey're having fun. It's hot. You know, he's not used to being at his dad's beyond the summer, of course, like, holidays and stuff like that. And his dad and his stepmom were just kinda taking little mental notes here and there, and then they were like, well, maybe we should limit the water at night because maybe that's why maybe he's getting too much fluid intake before bed while it kept happening. So then they thought it was a UTI.
SarahSo all of this stuff was happening behind the scenes, and I didn't know. And I'm glad I didn't know, actually, in hindsight because I probably would have lost my stress wise just waiting for this to come down because, again, having a mother who's a nurse, I know too much about these things even if it has nothing to do with me. So I immediately, alarm bells went off of my head. He's this is diabetes. And sure enough, there it was.
SarahAnd he was actually one of, a handful of cases that actually got to be sent home the night of diagnosis in at Vanderbilt Children's in Nashville. He was not in in DKA, which is wild to me. He was totally fine other than his blood sugar being crazy high and and the urination. So the doctor at Vandy Children's was like, this is probably one of five that I've ever sent home. So I was able to do the baby shower the next day, fly to Nashville right after that, and we spent the next few days in training at Vandy.
Scott BennerListen. That's fascinating. But more fascinating, I've been trying to talk to my wife and then moving to Tennessee for about a year.
SarahI miss Nashville so much, but it's so different than what it used to be. I will say that.
Scott BennerI was looking at a place that's, like, 30 east of Nashville.
SarahMhmm.
Scott BennerAnd the, cost of the property and, house is so much cheaper than here.
SarahWhere where are you at again?
Scott BennerIn New Jersey.
SarahThat's where I was like, yeah. I thought you were up north. Yeah. Well, I'm I'm near Kansas City, so we have kind of a boom happening in Kansas City as well. So and I'm also in real estate.
SarahSo I get to kinda see all that fun stuff. But I will tell you Nashville is not the same Nashville as it was when I lived there.
Scott BennerI don't know what that means. I don't really care. I wanna be
SarahYou're like, I just wanna move to Tennessee, Sarah. Basically, it's it's turning into, like, a tiny LA. There are everything is stacked on top of each other. I think they had the most people move there per capita than any other state or any other city in the entire
Scott BennerUnited States. Where, like, the house would be on, like, 20 acres.
SarahOh, yeah. Like, Gallatin area.
Scott BennerI don't know. Somewhere around there. East. Yeah. And but still within, like, a forty five minute drive of the city if you needed it.
SarahYeah. Well, even that I mean, there's there's literally they just keep building up in the city.
Scott BennerOh.
SarahSo everyone goes out those ways. So you might not even you know, you might have to go even further than that. I don't I
Scott Bennerdon't want telling you is also I don't know if people are aware of this or not. I don't wanna start a gold rush, but doesn't have what they call, income tax.
SarahYeah. I know. So I miss that heavily.
Scott BennerYeah. I'm thinking that might be a nicer way to live.
SarahMhmm. I agree. That's all. Apparently, Missouri is on the road to that as well, so we will see.
Scott BennerTell me about the humidity in Tennessee very quickly, though. Am I gonna be all soupy all summer long?
SarahNo. It's not bad. I have very, very, very naturally curly hair. And say I step out of a car in Florida, I look like Mufasa Mhmm. Or Howard Stern in about four seconds.
Scott BennerGotcha.
SarahDid not have that same issue in Tennessee.
Scott BennerI'm gonna I'm gonna I have a situation coming up here in about four or five weeks where I'm gonna go down to Atlanta and give a talk for touch by type one. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that. Whatever. And Now
Saraheverybody knows.
Scott BennerWell, now maybe I'm gonna drive to Atlanta and then come back up through Tennessee and take a look around.
SarahYou should. It's it's beautiful there. I will tell you that. It is beautiful.
Scott BennerMaybe I could drag the old lady with me.
SarahYou could. Just make it a little vacation.
Scott BennerYeah. I can. If she heard me say that, by the way, it's not a thing I've ever called her in my life. I was trying to be I was trying to I was trying to be funny, but
Sarahher up.
Scott BennerIf she no. I said my old lady. Like, she
Sarahold lady. Oh, I thought you just said lady.
Scott BennerNo. I figured we would that back. We're driving south. I thought maybe I would start speaking more like that. Oh, okay.
Scott BennerBut but
SarahYou have to start saying y'all for everything.
Scott BennerI'll do it. I don't care.
SarahAnd a Coke is not just Coke. Coke is a blanket term for every single pop or soda, if that's what you call it. But we call it pop.
Scott BennerThe only soda I drink is Diet Mountain Dew once in a while. I don't think Oh, yeah.
SarahSo you would you would order a Coke, and they would say what kind? And then you would say
Scott BennerThen I'd say Mountain Dew. Dew. Well, that seems like a waste of time, but okay.
SarahIt's very wild. Yeah. But everything is a Coke.
Scott BennerAlright. I'm go listen. You may have just talked me into a, into a weekend outing.
SarahYou're welcome.
Scott BennerThank you.
SarahI can send you recommendations. I don't know if any of them are still open because, again, it was decades when I used to live there.
Scott BennerLiterally, just you saying the humidity wasn't that bad, Soulmate.
SarahYeah. It's it's beautiful. It really is. Everyone is so nice, but people are nice in Kansas City too.
Scott BennerSo Is that Missouri or Kansas City?
SarahYes. Missouri. Yeah. We don't we don't talk about Kansas unless you live in Kansas.
Scott BennerI think I gave a talk in Kansas City once.
SarahDid you?
Scott BennerYeah. They took me to a a barbecue place.
SarahOh, of course. A barbecue place.
Scott BennerIt was like when I pulled up, I thought for sure they were gonna dismember my body in this building.
SarahOh, yeah. Arthur Bryant's probably.
Scott BennerOh, no kidding. You feel like you know where I'm talking.
SarahOh, 100%.
Scott BennerAlong a train track?
SarahYeah. Either of that I'm pretty sure it's Arthur Bryant's, but it's it's definitely sketchy, but it's the best.
Scott BennerIt was so good. Yeah. It's As I was walking into that room, I thought I might not leave here alive just because of what it looked like on the outside.
SarahYeah. That's it's close to yeah. It's close to prospect. So here yeah. That's about it.
SarahThat's
Scott Bennerwas very good if
SarahI so good. You can't beat it.
Scott BennerOkay. Alright.
SarahCan't beat it. Now I'm hungry. Thanks, Scott.
Scott BennerMhmm. It's not my fault. I I'm just talking.
SarahI know.
Scott BennerOkay. So this kid is diagnosed. Yep. And you have to, like, figure out how to take care of him.
SarahYeah. And I'm a psychopath. And So, whenever I go whenever I go and do things, it's the ADHD in me. I hyperfixate.
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahAnd the endocrinologist, after he came back and we were established in Missouri, because, again, he was diagnosed in Tennessee, so we have two endocrinology teams. So he has one when he's there, and he has one when he's here. She literally had to look at me and say, hey. You're doing a fantastic job, but, like, you probably don't need to keep a notebook of every carpet that goes in his mouth anymore.
Scott BennerShe'd tell you to chill out?
SarahShe was like, you need to calm down. I'm like, excuse me? I'm what do you mean I need to calm down? My kid could die at any given moment. And I I inevitably, I would feel the guilt of that.
SarahRight? And she's like, yes. But it's okay.
Scott BennerYou really think the kid's gonna die, though?
SarahI don't now. I did then.
Scott BennerYou did then?
SarahTell you what. Okay. Yes. I was so stressed out a few it was probably three months after he came back home, so it would have been the '21. I was so stressed out when I again, my significant other, we had an infant, and he was like, why don't we try and turn your notifications off for the night?
SarahJust put it on do not disturb, but let's let the Dexcom ring through. I was like, okay. So I tried it. It didn't work, Scott. Oh, what do
Scott Benneryou mean?
SarahMy daughter woke up bawling and screaming out of nowhere, which was so unlike her because she was a great sleeper. She woke up crying and screaming, and I just glanced over at my phone. He was at thirty eight.
Scott BennerHow did your daughter know to be upset by this?
SarahI don't know. It I I well
Scott BennerIs she a diabetic alert dog? The girl maybe.
SarahShe literally. Yeah. Well, yeah. Exactly. But, you know, she holds that over his head all the time.
SarahWell, I kept you alive that one time, so you have to do x y z for me. Yeah. If it wasn't for her, I truly I know I I know a lot of people have different beliefs and stuff, but that was definitely a god thing for me.
Scott BennerSo you're saying, like, a low blood sugar overnight kinda scared you into being Oh, I was terrified. Yeah.
SarahYeah. 38.
Scott BennerBut how long ago was that?
SarahLike, months after he was diagnosed.
Scott BennerSo how long ago since now?
SarahFive years.
Scott BennerAnd has it happened since then?
SarahNo. Because I never shut my phone off.
Scott BennerIs that why it doesn't happen?
SarahYeah. Are you sure? I don't sleep. Oh, 100%.
Scott BennerHow many 30 eights do you save before they happen?
SarahAbout probably one or two a month.
Scott BennerI think you're doing oh, I almost said, I words that people would be upset for me. I think you're doing something wrong.
SarahYeah. So I I always thought that too. But his, again, his endocrinology teams both say, like, this is just his body. He's just very it's very weird when he sleeps.
The Unpredictability of Teen Growth Spurts
SarahHe also should note at 14, he is six foot two and a hundred and ninety pounds. The kid is growing up. An adult.
Scott BennerYeah. Wait. So Wait. Hold on a second. You have a six two hundred and ninety pound half Mexican kid?
SarahHe does. He's he's he looks white.
Scott BennerNo. I was like, how did that happen?
SarahHe's blonde.
Scott BennerYeah. I I know. And I have a number of Mexican friends. They are very short people, generally speaking.
SarahSo his dad is small, but my my side is where he gets the height from. Okay. My dad's six six. He shrunk a little, so maybe he's six five now. My sister is six one, and then we have my mother who is, like, five foot in heels.
SarahSo I am down here at five seven.
Scott BennerSo height from your size, you're tall too. Okay. And, like, you are five seven for a girl
Sarahis height. Think that is a myth. I don't feel tall. I feel short.
Scott BennerWell, just cause you don't feel tall doesn't mean you're not tall. Five seven for a woman is, I think, a fairly tall height for I mean
SarahWell, thank you. Generous.
Scott BennerI didn't I wasn't trying to give you a compliment. I just think
Sarahit I'm gonna take it as that because I feel short. So
Scott BennerNo. Do you know women that are taller than you?
SarahOh, yeah.
Scott BennerAre they in your family? Just like a lot of tall people in your family?
SarahYes. Yeah. My dad's one of nine or eight. I can't remember. There's too many of them.
SarahCatholics. Yeah. My my dad's side is so tall. We used to joke. My my grandpa my dad's dad was, like, maybe five seven, and my dad's mom was over six foot.
Scott BennerSo what what are the doctors telling you? Like, is he just growing a lot? Do you think it's like
SarahI just think that he just goes through these weird spurts. And nighttime after he was diagnosed, after that first scare, that night nighttime was pretty steady because of the growth hormone, I think, that was kicking in.
Scott BennerWhat's your target set out on the what'd you say? You have t slim? Yeah. He's t slim. What's the target set at?
SarahOne ten.
Scott BennerHave you tried making it, like, higher overnight?
SarahYes. We have. And he still goes low.
Scott BennerOkay. There's gotta be a pattern to this. Is it
SarahI know.
Scott BennerA certain meal that gets a big bolus earlier in the evening?
SarahThat's exactly why, Scott. That's exactly why I kept my little handy dandy notebook that the endocrinologist told me I was a psychopath for having, basically.
Scott BennerDo you still carry it?
SarahNo. Hell no.
Scott BennerNo. You're done with the notebook now.
SarahNo. I'm done. You know what I've done? I have I everyone should be very proud of me listening because I am no longer a psycho with his management. He is, like I said, 14.
SarahThe kid is incredible at managing his own care during the day. I can't say enough about him. He's so responsible. I have never had I'm sure we'll still get there. Nobody scream at me through the phone, but we have never had the woe is me.
SarahWe have never had why me. We have never had rebellion. It's insane. He is a dream. Now if this would have been my middle child, I would have no hair right now.
Scott BennerWell but wait. Wait. For the lows, how about, like, like, a bunch of activity earlier in the day before it happens? Like, look earlier in the day.
SarahNo. Nothing. Nothing. He no. He is he is not a he's not an active he's not an he's not an inactive child.
SarahHe's not an active child. Scott is
Scott Bennernot active. He sits very still.
SarahScott, he likes to sit on the computer. He's a gaming child, loves three d printing. He's very nerdy. Yeah. He's I mean, he's not out running or playing sports.
Scott BennerThe giant six two nerd? Is that what you're telling me?
SarahYes. I'm like, oh my god. There goes all of my dreams being an NBA parent.
Scott BennerI didn't know they came tall, and six two is not gonna get you in the NBA anymore, by the way.
SarahYeah. Supposed to mind you, he's just turned 14. He's supposed to be, like, six seven.
Scott BennerOh, well, made
Sarahhim Six seven. Maybe we
Scott Bennermaybe he could still be maybe he could be taught still.
SarahI I he has no coordination. It's very sad. Lost his heart. Yeah.
Scott BennerHe has no coordination.
SarahYou, we have no coordination. He doesn't. He can I mean, he can operate a VR headset like a champ?
Scott BennerGood with that stuff.
SarahThrow a ball at that kid, and it's it's not happening.
Scott BennerGonna hit him?
SarahBut yeah. He's yes. He is amazing. Has no interest in any sports or physical anything.
Scott BennerYeah. Whatever.
SarahSo it's okay.
Scott BennerMy kid's incredibly athletic, and I don't know if it matters one way or the other.
SarahSo I really don't either. I'm like, cool. Just learn how to, like, do computer stuff, and then you'll be great. He's very into video games. Just loves that.
SarahSo I try, I tried to get him into sports when he was younger, prediabetes, and it just wasn't happening. So I just shelved it and said, okay.
Scott BennerWhat's he eat? Like, what's his diet like?
SarahLike a typical 14 year old boy.
Scott BennerI don't know what that means. You have to tell me.
SarahEvery, like, hour, he's eating almost a full meal. He like, you can't get the kid enough food throughout the day.
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahBut he's in range about 80% outside of the crazy lows.
Scott BennerYeah. No. It sounds it sounds like he does a good job. Like,
SarahHe's amazing.
Scott BennerWhat what I mean, like, is it a lot of processed food? Is it a lot of whole food? Like, does he
Saraheat No. We eat no. We eat a lot of whole foods. He does have a few food aversions, but he eats a ton of protein. And, course, you know, we account for that thanks to you teaching me that in the beginning.
Scott BennerWait. I didn't know you were gonna say something nice about me. That's awesome.
SarahYes. You're welcome. See, now that was actually a compliment. So now you can rewind and tell everybody that you called me tall to be nice.
Scott BennerWell, I I didn't. I I don't think that's necessary.
SarahYou're supposed to pretend.
Scott BennerNo. I'm I'm I'm not gonna not five seven.
SarahOkay.
Scott BennerMean, you know, five seven's a nice height is what I'm saying.
SarahOkay. Okay. Yeah. Tall. Take it.
SarahBut I'll still give you the compliment. How about that?
Scott BennerI'm just gonna take the compliment no matter what. Okay. Yeah. Cool. We'll
Sarahgo with that. Thank you. Yeah. So it's it's really weird. There's no pattern.
SarahAnd, again, we I mean, we have talked this through so many times, and it just is what it is. Now it's not an every night thing, like I said. So, like, last night, for instance and the weather's changing here, so that always affects him too, which is weird to me. But
Scott BennerThe warmer weather
SarahJust the change. So is Yes. How? I I don't know. It's it doesn't mean you
Scott Bennerchange the lower, more variable?
SarahIt's an absolute it's an absolute yes. It's a variable. So we could do the same thing four days in a row, the same foods, the same times. And if the weather is changing on that day or the day before or the day after, it's wild.
Scott BennerI hear you.
SarahJust very unpredictable. So but we're good. I have really shelved the idea of him having a perfect a one c. Mhmm. His is not terrible right now.
SarahI think it's a seven Mhmm. Which is low for him. He's usually about a seven five. And, again, his team is very okay with that. Obviously, the perfectionist in me and it's not even it's not even a me thing.
SarahIt's a, I want to instill good habits in my child so that he can live a long life. Right? And that is the goal for me and for him. And that stresses me out sometimes because I can't control it as much as I would like. But I think, again, it's the puberty.
SarahIt's it's the excessive growth because he's grown. He's probably grown a foot in the last year.
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahAnd it just it just keeps going.
Scott BennerI'm happy that everything feels good and that you found, like, balance and everything like that.
SarahYeah. Yeah.
Scott BennerWhen you were putting all of your effort into it, where was his a one c?
SarahLike, a 6.5.
Scott BennerOkay. And so he's maybe a half a point to a point higher on his own. But are you completely out of it at this point?
SarahI'm not completely are you kidding? I mean, I'm still neurotic, but no. I mean, he's only 14. He shouldn't be completely on his own Yeah.
Scott BennerI know.
SarahIn my opinion.
Scott BennerWhat's the difference between a seven five and a six five?
SarahA number?
Scott BennerNo. I mean, as far as, like, where you're putting effort or where you're not getting paid
Sarahback or whatever. Literally I was literally charting everything. We were weighing food. It was insane.
Scott BennerCharting everything, weighing food. But, I mean, he must eat the same stuff over and over again. Right?
SarahNot every day.
Scott BennerWhat is this? What's wrong with this cake? Can't he just eat the same thing over and over again so you know how the bowl is for?
SarahHe does that for lunch at school.
Scott BennerOkay. Do lunches go well?
SarahLunches are good. Yep. Breakfast, sometimes it's not great, but we have kind of dialed that in a little bit more the last year.
Scott BennerMhmm.
SarahAnd You think you're just
Scott Bennernot counting the carbs well enough?
SarahNo. I mean, I'm again, that's that's a habit that I have not lost from.
Scott BennerHow about him when he's
SarahYes. He's very, very accurate with them as well.
Scott BennerHe's not doing the, like, that's 30. That's 30. No. That's what he's not doing now. Okay.
SarahHe we utilize Alexa constantly. So if we're not looking it up on our phone, we're asking Alexa to look it up, And he will give her the exact portion amount that he I mean, he will measure out cereal if he's eating cereal.
Scott BennerAnd then
SarahAnd milk.
Scott BennerThere's a high blood sugar after the meal?
SarahNot always. Sometimes. But it's generally a delay.
Scott BennerK. Ninety minutes later, we have a high blood sugar?
SarahAbout two to three hours later.
Scott BennerIs that from fat, do you think?
SarahMaybe. I mean, he is not, like, a vitamin d milk kid. He's, like, a one or two percenter. So
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahI don't know that that's the issue. I I don't know. He is and it confuses his, like I said, his endocrinology team as well as I was like, yeah. They just don't like, they can't figure it out. His patterns don't make any sense.
SarahBut I am okay with that at this point.
Scott BennerYeah. No. I know.
SarahIn his life.
Scott BennerI'm I feel like I'm on this too long. But
SarahNo. You're good. No. I love I love the, I love the pushback. I love a challenge, but I wish I had the answer because I don't.
Scott BennerNo. I mean, if you had the answer, it wouldn't be like that.
SarahExactly.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. True. But I'm just wondering, like, what it is
Sarahwe're like, what missing. Yeah. What's being missed. I wonder that all the time.
Scott BennerAnd is it about his growth? Is has it been his whole life with diabetes or just more recently?
SarahWell, no. He started he was pretty normal growth pattern until he was about 12. So he's grown significantly in the last two and a half years. What's that what's that shoe do you wear, Scott? 12.
SarahHe is a 12 at 14.
Scott BennerOh, does he trip a lot?
SarahNo. But, man, they sound like bored slapping the floor when he walks. The kid's huge is my point. So I don't know if his body just can't calibrate itself or what the deal is, but we're growing rapidly.
Scott BennerYeah. I I'll tell you the worst thing about having a Bigfoot is that when you find a shoe you like, usually they only have, like, two pairs of them. And if something and then they're usually gone by the time you go to pick them.
SarahRight. Yeah.
Scott BennerAnd you're left with whatever's left. Now the Internet has fixed that a little bit. Can kinda order stuff.
SarahBut Of course.
Scott BennerBack when you had to go to a shoe store, kids, Scotty never got the shoes he wanted. How could intense growth impact the blood sugar of a 14 year old boy? And I said, like a foot of height. And it says, growing a foot is an absolutely massive growth spurt. The kind of rapid change puts a 14 year old boy's body through an intense physiological marathon, packs how the body handles blood sugar primarily due to hormones driving all the growth.
Scott BennerTo grow that rapidly, pituitary gland is pumping out massive amounts of growth hormone alongside a surge in pubertal hormones like testosterone. Growth hormone naturally acts as an antagonist to insulin. Insulin's job is to act like, like, sensitivity during peak puberty, intense growth spurts as a teenager home. I didn't tell it on purpose that he has type one at first. So now I'm gonna tell
Sarahhim that.
Scott BennerThe teenager without any underlying metabolic or autoimmune issues, the blood sugar itself won't actually rise. Obviously, the body recognizes this. But okay. The changes in the picture since pancreas cannot produce extra insulin needs. This is about skyrocketing insulin needs, dawn phenomenon overdrive.
Scott BennerGrowth hormone is primary released in heavy pulses while we're in deep sleep. Extreme unpredictability growth does not happen in smooth city lines. A 100 factor. Okay. Hold on.
Scott BennerThis kid gets really low a few times a month during sleep.
SarahMhmm.
Scott BennerI mean, I don't know the answer. But if Vanderbilt doesn't know, let's find out if the Internet does.
SarahYeah. Me either.
Scott BennerTried to get Arden to go there for her, to consider Vanderbilt for her
SarahOh, yeah. First of
Scott Bennerfor a post grad degree. But it is very expensive, so I do
Sarahlike It is.
Scott BennerI do like the one she chose.
SarahIt's expensive.
Scott BennerOkay. So it might seem contradictory since the growth spurt is famous for causing stubborn highs, but at the same time, intense growth is very often the direct culprit behind the severe unpredictable overnight lows. The massive growth spurt in making his overnight numbers suddenly drops out from under him. So growing oh, I see. So the hormones and the growth all that stuff drives up need.
SarahYes. It's kind of fighting each other.
Scott BennerThe algorithm is fighting back with more insulin, which is keeping him, you know, where he's at.
SarahYep. And then Plummets.
Scott BennerYes. Then a 14 year old boy growing that rapidly is massive metabolism. If he's, say hours later in the middle of the night, his body will try to rebuild those depleted muscle stores from the day, pulling sugar directly out of his bloodstream, delayed effect combined with his nighttime insulin is class is it about a 2AM collapse?
SarahIt's about three. Yeah.
Scott BennerThree. Okay. Building bone and muscle takes an astronomical amount of calories. Okay. So how would we combat this?
Scott BennerAgain, I wouldn't just say. I'm asking. No. Yeah. I'm asking Gemini.
Scott BennerSo I'm I'm not saying this is advice for anybody listening. I'm just trying to, like I mean, we've been listening to Sarah say, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know for a while. And then nobody else is helping her, so maybe and I don't know the answer.
SarahSo Yeah. I'm again, like well, and it's so hard as everybody knows too. You know, your endocrinologist doesn't live with your child. They just know what they know. So it's kinda one of those things that, yeah, he's they say he's doing great, and I think he is as well, but there's always room for improvement.
SarahRight?
Scott BennerCan you feed him late at night? Like, something that'll sit in his stomach overnight a little bit?
SarahWe used to actually do, like, the little tiny you know, the individual sized Jif peanut butters?
Scott BennerOkay. Yeah.
SarahWe did that with a, with a protein milk, a Fairlife protein milk.
Scott BennerDid that work?
SarahEvery night before bed, it worked for a little bit, and then it stopped working.
Scott BennerJesus. A like a really, like, slow dissolving granola bar or something like that.
SarahYeah. I don't know about that because the carbs are different. So the peanut butter with the fat and the protein really did help a little bit.
Scott BennerYeah.
SarahBut, again, that was just a temporary thing. That worked for about a year.
Scott BennerWow. Maybe it's so maybe this
Sarahis A load of peanut butter.
Scott BennerCan we call this episode load of peanut butter?
SarahYes. Absolutely.
Scott BennerI I
Saraha psychopath with a shitload of peanut butter.
Scott BennerI bought ketchup at Costco the other day, and I thought, I may never buy it again in my life. Look at all this ketchup. Right? Yeah. And then I felt like I was saving money, but now I look at the ketchup on the counter or in the cabin.
Scott BennerI'm like, what was I doing? It's so
SarahYou got, like, a gigantic, like, concession stand three pump. Of them.
Scott BennerOf No. Like, three of them came with it. Like and I was like,
Sarahwhat do
Scott Bennerwe get it? But the price was so good.
SarahI know. Nevertheless. Well, they make you think it is anyway.
Scott BennerWell, it was on that thing. Trust me. I can't I cannot be fooled.
SarahOkay.
Scott BennerYou can fool me about a lot of things. Not about being cheap. That I'm good at.
SarahKetchup and pasta.
Scott BennerGot it. I'm good I'm good at being cheap. Don't worry about that.
SarahGot it.
Scott BennerWell, yeah. I mean, my my only thought here is that maybe as the growth levels out, this problem just sort of dissipates.
SarahI hope so. I can only hope and pray that that happens.
Scott BennerNo. It's scary. Especially if you've already, you know, had a scary event.
SarahYeah. It's scary. And, of course, you know, I'm on high alert for that. But, also, I have I have two other kids.
Scott BennerYeah.
SarahSo, I mean, I I
Scott Benneryou know, I
Sarahcan't yeah. I'm busy, and I have demanding careers, plural.
Scott BennerMhmm.
SarahAnd, thankfully, you know, I could never work for anybody else, I don't think, with a child.
Scott BennerBecause of the way your time's chopped up?
SarahYes. So I I feel for every single parent out there who goes somewhere to work every day in Clarkson and has a boss because I don't know that I could do it. Yeah. I really don't.
Scott BennerAre you with your youngest's father?
SarahI'm not.
Scott BennerYou're not? Okay. So then there's three. Yeah. And do is that a situation where two of the kids go one direction, one of the kids goes another direction sometimes too?
Scott BennerExactly. It's a lot it's a lot of stuff. Yeah.
SarahSo I have like I said, I have my oldest full time except for the summer, and the other two are split throughout the week. Okay. So we do get a little bit of reprieve Wednesdays and Thursdays because it's just my oldest and I. So we call that our we call those our rest day our rest days and rest nights because we can actually we generally sit in silence. I'm not gonna lie to you because it's usually so quiet and busy with the other two kids around all the time.
Scott BennerYeah. So Well, I was gonna say too, and you need that rest, you said earlier too.
SarahAbsolutely. Well, I take a lot of naps. But, again, I could never be employed by someone else other than myself ever again.
Scott BennerHow often do you nap?
SarahOh, I'm napping every day for sure.
Scott BennerDo you have thyroid?
SarahI forgot. I do. Yeah. I have Hashimoto's.
Scott BennerWhat's your TSH?
SarahI don't know. It's been I actually just got the blood work done in January, and I've still not received those blood work results. So I don't know.
Scott BennerThree months ago. How is that possible?
SarahTell you. I don't know.
Scott BennerLet's call them, first of all.
SarahI know. I'll I'll put it on the list, Scott.
Scott BennerYeah. But slide it to the top though because I know. Like, what if and my point
SarahI mean, I I'm I'm napping because I'm not sleeping.
Scott BennerAt night?
SarahYes. Because I am on high alert twenty four seven.
Scott BennerYou know this isn't, like, doable for long. Right?
SarahIt's not. No. I'm gonna probably fall over someday, and this will be why. And you're gonna say, oh, I told her.
Scott BennerI told that lady to go to sleep.
SarahTold that lady to sleep.
Scott BennerI mean, can you not why don't we get a second like, a like, a a third party to track his blood sugar? Like, so you have an extra set of eyes overnight so
Sarahhe can sleep a little bit. His dad does do that.
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahHe does do that, but that doesn't stop my brain from waking up every hour to check either. Yeah. I see. It's a a me problem for sure.
Scott BennerYeah. I don't know. You poor ladies are you're in a quandary. I watched my wife had a meeting today. She was nervous about it.
Scott BennerThink she was asleep at, like, five in the morning. Yeah. I was like, what are you doing? Like, every time I got up to, like, a pee or turnover, I was like, she's just sitting there. I'm like, what is I don't ask her anymore.
Scott BennerShe gets mad at me. I'm like, why are you awake? And she'll be like, g, Scott. Thanks for straightening this out for me. I shouldn't just go to sleep.
Scott BennerBut I'm like, wait. You should, first of all.
SarahThanks for the advice.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But, yeah.
Scott BennerI don't know I don't know what happens.
SarahYeah. I don't know. But but, like, last night, for instance, we sometimes get the the rarity of actually I woke up for the first time this morning at 04:00, which technically is 03:00, which is the general time I wake up anyway in the middle of the night, at least every night. But daylight savings time, I got to be got to be 04:00 today.
Scott BennerI I don't think that counts, though. Think it just moved. The clock just moved.
SarahTrying to trick myself into believing that it yes. So just let me let me live. Okay?
Scott BennerIs it is it believing you got another hour?
SarahJust let me get this one. Okay?
Scott BennerThat's so cool.
SarahTrying to fool myself into thinking. But
Scott BennerWell, I'm sorry for you. It's a it's first of Well, it's a lot, though.
SarahIt is a lot, but I'm you know, it's just I have people all the time. How do you do all the things? What what other option do
Scott BennerI have? Saying, what else are supposed to do?
SarahYeah. Not
Scott BennerRight. Right. Well, is he gonna be okay? Like, you think he's a college kid?
SarahI don't know. I don't I don't I don't even wanna go there in my brain yet. I am my next mental hurdle is driving.
Scott BennerSarah's like, I'm too busy worrying about now. I can't worry about later.
SarahYeah. No. I yeah. It's funny. The world is literally on fire, Scott.
SarahLike, let's just get through the day.
Scott BennerI just talked to a guy whose kid's only been diagnosed for a short time, and he's already worrying about twenty years from now.
SarahOh my god. No. I can't even I can't even think past twenty hours from now, most days.
Scott BennerIsn't it funny you both are panicking a bit about something different?
SarahJust completely different. Yeah.
Scott BennerRight? That's really something.
SarahYeah. But I will say I have calmed down a lot. So
Scott BennerCan you do a little of the weed before the bed? Does that help the sleep?
SarahI I do that mainly just so I don't wake up feeling like a tin man in the morning, but it does not do anything for my sleep anymore.
Scott BennerSleep. Also, I would tell you that a lot of the stuff I've seen recently says that weed doesn't help you sleep. It has, like, an opposite effect.
SarahOh, cool.
Scott BennerBut then there's so many people that say it does help them sleep. So where's that
Sarahcoming from? Who knows? I think they just make things up anymore, honestly.
Scott BennerThat I'm pretty sure about. Yeah. So
SarahSomeone somewhere is just making these things up.
Scott BennerThey're like, we need content. Say something.
SarahRight. Yeah.
Scott BennerExactly. You know what my favorite thing is now around sports? People will make posts, You know, they're just trying to drive their accounts to make money with them. Right? But it's it's like, I it's not even important.
Scott BennerIt's where do you live in Kansas City? It's like, you know, proposed trade Patrick Mahomes for this guy in New York. What do you think? And then you start reading it. You're like, my god.
Scott BennerAre they thinking of trading Patrick? You read it go, oh, no. This is just somebody said out loud. Like, what would you think of this? Yeah.
Scott BennerEverything is just rage bait in one way or
Sarahthe other. Is rage bait. Yep. Because it gets it it it gets clicks, and it gets people pissed off in the comments, and then they start arguing with each other. And all that does is just monetize, monetize, monetize.
Scott BennerAnd it and it works on levels too because the because somebody gets tricked by it, and then somebody comes in, then that person starts, like, complaining. Then another person gets annoyed that they don't realize it's not real, then they yell at them for that. And then someone yells at that person for not being nice, and you have three different
SarahIt's a snowball.
Scott BennerYeah. There's three different levels of rage off of one fake statement made out loud, and it just drives that thing to work and work and work, and they sell the ads on it. Yeah.
SarahSure does.
Scott BennerFascinating, isn't it?
SarahThe system never stops. That's
Scott Bennerfor sure. It never stop. And you can't teach the world because there's always somebody in a different version of understanding of how all this works. You I agree. You can always hook in enough people to make it happen.
SarahI agree.
Scott BennerYeah. That was my favorite though. Like, when they make up stuff and they go Oh, yeah. They go, what do you think of this? And I'm like, wait.
Scott BennerWhat it would be like if somebody said, like, what you know, like, if I made a post and I said, I'm thinking that a a cuckoo bird should be allowed to marry a volcano. What do you think of that? People are like Yeah. Volcanoes and birds don't belong in marital bliss together.
SarahThey don't even get married.
Scott BennerYeah. It's ridiculous. Birds don't even get married. And then and then somebody else would come in and be like, how would they even have sex? And then a third person would come in and say something like, you don't realize that this is just to rage bait you?
Scott BennerYou're such an idiot. And then somebody's like, why would you call them an idiot?
SarahWhen somebody's like, well, I hate I hate volcanoes.
Scott BennerOkay. Yeah. I don't like the holes in the top of them. What do you think of that? And it's just it's fascinating to watch that get
SarahIt is. People get
Scott Bennerjerked around that way.
SarahIs just, I mean, we fall we fall into it too. Hook, line, and sinker every time.
Scott BennerI just heard somebody say recently that we we used to think sex sold, but it's rage.
Sarah100%.
Scott BennerYeah. Rage is what sells.
SarahArguments sell is what it is. Conflict.
Scott BennerYeah. Really something is.
SarahDiffering opinions. All of it.
Scott BennerYeah. Can't get I mean, you can't get anybody to argue about anything that's actually important either, which is interesting.
SarahOf course not.
Scott BennerYeah. That that Yeah.
SarahI know.
Scott BennerIt's You bring something important up, people are like, I don't have the energy for that.
SarahI don't
Scott Bennerwanna talk
Sarahabout that. Okay. Cool.
Scott BennerBut I'll tell you what. Those birds and those volcanoes, I have a lot of thoughts about this. I have a lot of thoughts about it.
SarahTruly.
Scott BennerMy goodness. Well, what are you gonna do? Are you planning on giving up? Are you planning on like, what's what are you what's your wait. I mean, this has only been a handful of years for the diabetes.
Scott BennerRight?
SarahNo. I'm I mean, I'm definitely not gonna give up.
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahProbably just gonna continue to be you know, get more funny as the years go by because that's how I cope with things.
Scott BennerYeah.
SarahIt's a disability at this point. But I don't know. I you know, hopefully, eventually, we'll find someone worthy of marrying again, and, you
Scott Bennerknow,
Sarahthey are a light sleeper.
Scott BennerHey, anybody. Listen. Sarah's willing to trade fun time for if you'll just let her sleep. Okay? Just let
Sarahme just let the girl sleep. Okay? And, like, maybe go have these on the bills or something. I cook really well. I'm really funny.
SarahWell, I mean, that's, I guess, maybe a personal opinion, but some people think I'm funny. So, no, I really I really don't know. I think you
Scott BennerI didn't expect you to come from that angle. I'm sorry. You're like, I'm selling this Scott, I gotta get some sleep. Like, I'm like
SarahI gotta sleep, man. No. Like, truly, I literally a few years ago, I asked for a night nurse for Christmas just for, like, a weekend.
Scott BennerYeah. I hear you.
SarahAnd my you know, he my parents I will say my parents help out a lot when they can. They also have their own lives, and my sister has children as well. So there's grandkids everywhere. But when possible, you know, my my mom, who is a nurse, but, you know, as anybody who's a nurse or in the medical field, it's totally different when it's your own relative. Your all of your medical training.
SarahAnd, again, like, type one diabetes, especially juvenile, is something that's not necessarily I just totally blanked on what I was gonna say. Hi. Welcome, lupus, to the chat. The brain fog is lovely. I guess what I'm saying is it's not something that every single person in the medical field knows a ton about.
SarahYou don't they don't study that unless it's their specialty.
Scott BennerCould you go to your sister, for example, and explain your situation? And may maybe she already knows it.
SarahShe yes. She knows it.
Scott BennerAnd say to her, is there a world for the next month where on, like, I don't know, Thursday night at you know, for the next month. Could you be in charge of making sure he doesn't get too low? And I'm gonna shut my alarm off and only wake up if you call me. And then get your mom to take the next day.
SarahShe has little little children.
Scott BennerYeah. I'm not asking her do it forever. I'm saying a couple of nights over a week just so you could kind of like
Sarahyou ask her. She'll probably be listening to this.
Scott BennerI mean, I'm asking her right now. Like, say your sister, your mom, and then, I don't know, like, father's like, like, you know what mean? Like, pick three people in your life. Get one of the get the dads. Right?
Scott BennerLike Yeah. And get everybody to cover a day a week for four weeks, and just see if it can't just put you in a better place where you can find a way to sleep a little better. Yeah. Know You what I mean? Like, just to kinda break the cycle kinda thing.
SarahI mean, I as I would love that. I just it's I don't know that that's a realistic ask.
Scott BennerWhat about this? Here you go. What if you sent that kid off to diabetes camp?
SarahI would love that.
Scott BennerAlright.
SarahThat generally is when he's with his dad, though, for the summer, and he doesn't give up time.
Scott BennerSo We have Okay.
SarahWe've had this conversation before. So I will say when he is summer is my time to rest and recoup.
Scott BennerI was gonna say because when he's with do you shut your alarms off then?
SarahI don't shut them off, but I don't wake up as often.
Scott BennerOkay. Also waking up. And that helps, though.
SarahYeah. It does. It does. It's a twelve week kind of mental break
Scott BennerOkay.
SarahFor me. But, I mean, there's still, you know, the other weeks of the year.
Scott BennerI've I've I to do the math, but it's late in the day.
SarahMe too. Was like, is it forty two?
Scott BennerI think it's forty five. Think it's I think it's, like, forty four.
SarahListen. I can sell houses. I can't
Scott BennerI can't How many day how many months are the weeks? Fifty is there fifty six weeks in a year?
SarahI think it's is it fifty six or 52?
Scott BennerI think it's 52. So then you take months to turn it around with it says 40.
SarahOh, sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. It's too many.
SarahWe'll say that.
Scott BennerRight.
SarahBut yeah. No. I again, I I really do for as much as I have on my plate, I somehow and, again, I completely attribute that to Jesus for sure because, otherwise, there's no way that I could be doing all this and not drop dead.
The Sheepadoodle Pump Mishap
Scott BennerHow many dogs do you have? Two. Why can we get rid of them?
SarahSo no. Funny story. One of them was purchased to be a diabetic alert dog, and he had to go through, like, a pretest, and he failed. So now he's just a dog.
Scott BennerShouldn't you do that before you buy it?
SarahWell, listen. He's a sheepadoodle, and they're supposed to be, like, one of the better ones for that. But, apparently, I got the one who
Scott BennerYour sheepadoodle's dumb? You have a dumb sheepadoodle?
SarahI did. Yeah. I'm like, someone lied here in this bloodline. This is not true sheepadoodle behavior.
Scott BennerSheepadummy is what you're saying.
SarahSheepadummy. Yeah. Absolutely. But they're great dogs. They really are.
SarahIf the kids love them, I would never get rid of them. Oh. And that really truly wouldn't take anything off of my plate.
Scott BennerReally?
SarahNo. I'd have to get rid of a kid, which not doing that either.
Scott BennerBut if you were going to, which one? No. No. You already know which one?
SarahSaying that. No. Okay. None of them.
Scott BennerShe knows for sure which one. And so would never I didn't say you would. Didn't say you would. I said, you know which one comes to mind when I say that out loud.
SarahNone of them. I genuinely swear Alright. Could never get I love my children. They are without that's why I I have friends who don't have kids, and I'm like, what do you do with your life? I don't know.
Scott BennerThey probably go on vacation with all the extra money they have.
SarahSleep.
Scott BennerAnd sleep. They're probably having sex, going on vacation, and buying cars. Don't you think?
SarahYeah. Right.
Scott BennerYeah. I know. But Bastards.
SarahI I just either I just I just can't imagine. I truly you know, don't get me wrong. It's it's difficult. Any any child being a parent, especially in this world, is difficult. But we know whether they have any medical issue or not.
SarahBut I can genuinely, 100%, wholeheartedly say I would not want to live life without my kids.
Scott BennerThat's sweet.
SarahSo that is that is what
Scott BennerI mean, I think I feel the same. I'm I'm sure
SarahI feel
Scott BennerI feel the same way. Yeah. Would definitely get rid the dogs, though. I spent way too much time with those dogs today already.
SarahSee, my dogs, they're so they they're sheba dummies. Like I said, they just kinda chill and run around and bark at the air and stuff like that. So It's just I Diabetic alert dog is not in either of their future, unfortunately. Oh, I have a funny story.
Scott BennerI'll take it.
SarahOkay. So we disconnected our pump one day to but I don't know why. That is still a mystery. He never takes it off unless he's in the shower or in a swimming pool, and neither of those things were occurring. So I don't know what the hell he was doing Mhmm.
SarahBut he took it off. Comes to the realization that he doesn't have it. Can't find it. Like, what do you mean? Mhmm.
SarahI don't know. It's gone. Like, okay. So we try and retrace our steps. Well, my mother had picked him up at school that day because I had a showing appointment.
SarahShe picked him up. She was home. She works remote half of the week, and she works in the office the other half. So luckily, it was one of those days where that's kind of how I have to schedule my life is around who can help when and where and, you know, do all the things. All that being said, they went and ran an errand directly after school was the UPS store and didn't know where it was at.
SarahWell, he was I can't remember now. This was, like, a few months ago, a month or two ago. I can't remember if he was higher or lower, but something had triggered in my brain to say, okay. This is where his blood sugar was at. So he would have had to have either have done a correction or had to have a snack or something at this time.
SarahSo he had to have had it on him at this specific time is what I'm saying. Because if he wasn't getting his, you know, his background insulin, then he wouldn't it was low. Then he wouldn't have gone low. So we tried to narrow it down of where that could have been at that point. So it was about the time that they would have been at the UPS store.
SarahSo my middle child had a basketball game this evening, and I immediately fly over to the school. We look around we look around the the school parking lot. I drive to the UPS store. I've got people looking. I have called the principal.
SarahI've called the janitors. I mean, his school is is not massive, but it's fairly big. And it's three three three floors, and I've got everybody and their mother looking for this freaking insulin pump. K?
Scott BennerMhmm.
SarahIt had snowed it had snowed a few like, a foot and a half maybe a few days prior to this. So nobody is, like, looking outside because it's snow. You would have seen it, a black insulin pump in the snow. So I literally go to the basketball game an hour away from my middle child, come back, go pick up a friend, and he helped me look. We looked for two hours everywhere.
SarahCouldn't find a damn thing. So, luckily, we have a friend here in town. I will say this. The community of people that the diabetic community has is amazing. That is the best thing.
SarahI we're all in this club that none of us wanted to be in, but we're in it. And I'm so thankful that there is you know, it's it's one of those weird spots. It sucks that there are so many people who deal with the same stuff that I do every single day, but it also is nice to not be alone. Right? So there is a classmate of his who is on the Omnipod now, but she used to be on the t slim.
SarahSo I the school sends out a mass email with a picture of the the insulin pump, and she's like, oh my god. Hi. You know, what can I do? So hi, Kara. She listens to this.
SarahThank you so much. You're an angel, and I will never be able to repay you. So she's like, listen. We have we have her daughter's old, t slim. Let me bring it over.
SarahI somehow was able to finagle the people at Tandem to wipe off her daughter as the owner. So we used that because we were two days away from warranty expiration when this happened.
Scott BennerWait. Where was the pump? Was it the UPS store?
SarahNo. No. No. No. It was just Wait. Okay.
SarahSo, sheep of dummies over here, one of them grabbed it, buried it in the damn snow in the backyard. We found it a week later.
Scott BennerBut your dog took the insulin pump and buried it in the snow? That's the opposite of being a good diabetes alert dog.
SarahLike, what the hell? And I I don't even know how it survived because there was a full cartridge, and it was gone.
Scott BennerIt's an anti alert dog is what you have there.
SarahLiterally. It's like the reverse.
Scott BennerWell, she might be, the episode So
SarahThere you go. There's my funny story. So I lit I mean, his school, bless her hearts. Everyone and their mother was looking for days. Everybody came into the nurse's office.
SarahThey had a reward for it because they thought somebody might have picked it up thinking it was some sort of Yeah. You know, game or
Scott BennerInstead, it was just your it was just a chew toy for
Sarahyour dog. It was just the dog.
Scott BennerSo ridiculous.
SarahOkay. If if you're gonna buy a sheep noodle, make sure it's not from, you know?
Scott BennerI'm not doing that. I I don't I I've already made my mistake.
SarahThe craziest thing you've ever heard?
Scott BennerI it it is pretty funny. Yeah. Yeah.
SarahOh, it was funny after the fact.
Scott BennerNot Dory. And and it still worked after all that?
SarahNo. No? It's done. Yeah. So he is still using said friend's old pump because we're trying to decide now if he wants to get on Omnipod, Twist, or the Moby or stay with t slim.
Scott BennerAnd t slim's the pump he had at first. Yes. Tandem, what's wrong with you? Your pump can't withstand being buried in the snow for days.
SarahI mean, come on. Yeah. Like, what if somebody lived in the Arctic or something? I don't know.
Scott BennerToo badder.
SarahReally? Come on, Tandem.
Scott BennerOh, that's so ridiculous. My god. Alright. Well, Sarah, you were delightful to speak to. I appreciate you taking the time to do this.
SarahYeah. Of course. Thanks for having me.
Scott BennerI enjoyed your ADHD.
SarahOh, well, thank you. It is very, evident, I'm sure, listening back to this probably. So
Scott BennerPlease. I had a good time.
SarahOkay. Well, me too. Good.
Scott BennerI do wanna say that I there was the one thing I looked at that I never brought up in the conversation because you brought up the chemo meds. Yes. And they're apparently, in the last couple of years, they're having a lot of success with something called CAR T
SarahOkay.
Scott BennerFor lupus and stuff like that. It might be worth, like, googling or doing a deep dive
Sarahsomewhere I will for sure.
Scott BennerOn more modern medications that do what that medication that you mentioned does. The there was a pretty long list. So I don't know if it's worth it would be worth your time or not.
SarahHey. I mean, anything is worth trying once at least.
Scott BennerSo Yeah. I mean, if you're struggling that much.
SarahYeah. Yeah. I mean, again and I say, you know, it probably sounds like I'm struggling, but, I mean, we're surviving. We're we're not thriving ever. We're we're good.
Scott BennerNot thriving. Surviving. But, no, I mean Okay. I mean, like, joint pain, muscle pain. Yeah. Like, that kind of stuff sucks. You know what I mean?
SarahIt does suck, and it definitely makes, you know, all the all the running I have to do difficult. And
Scott BennerI mean, you're in the Midwest. Have you tried heroin?
SarahNo. I'm just teasing You know, Missouri has a few of the meth capitals of the world.
Scott BennerBut And maybe some meth.
SarahHaven't haven't reached that low point quite yet, and I hope that I never do.
Scott BennerNo. I I'm I'm joking. Of course, no. Please, hey. Listen. Let me just say something. It should be obvious. Please don't use meth.
SarahPlease nobody use meth
Scott BennerYeah.
SarahOr heroin.
Scott BennerYeah. Seriously. Let's avoid both of them. How's that sound?
SarahSo Alright.
Scott BennerSo Yeah. Hold on one second for me. Okay? This was awesome. I appreciate your
SarahYeah. Thank you.
Outro & Sponsors
Scott BennerYep. Hold on. Are you tired of getting a rash from your CGM adhesive? Give the Eversense three sixty five a try. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox.
Scott BennerBeautiful silicone that they use. It changes every day, keeps it fresh. Not only that, you only have to change the sensor once a year. So, I mean, that's better. Head now to tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care.
Scott BennerI 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. This episode was sponsored by Touched by Type one. I want you to go find them on Facebook, Instagram, and give them a follow, and then head to touchedbytype1.org where you're gonna learn all about their programs and resources for people with type one diabetes. Okay. Well, here we are at the end of the episode.
Scott BennerYou're still with me? Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review?
Scott BennerMaybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me or Instagram, TikTok. Oh, gosh. Here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page. You don't wanna miss please, do you not know about the private group?
Scott BennerYou have to join the private group. As of this recording, it has 74,000 members. They're active talking about diabetes. Whatever you need to know, there's a conversation happening in there right now. And I'm there all the time.
Scott BennerTag me. I'll say hi. Check out my algorithm pumping series to help you make sense of automated insulin delivery systems like Omnipod five, Loop, Medtronic seven eighty g, Twist, Tandem Control IQ, and much more. Each episode will dive into the setup, features, and real world usage tips that can transform your daily type one diabetes management. We cut through the jargon, share personal experiences, and show you how these algorithms can simplify and streamline your care.
Scott BennerIf you're curious about automated insulin pumping, go find the algorithm pumping series in the Juice Box podcast. Easiest way, juiceboxpodcast.com, and go up into the menu. Click on series, and it'll be right there. Have a podcast? Want it to sound fantastic?
Scott BennerWrongwayrecording.com.
#1837 Chris vs. Life - Part 2
Chris shares how a supportive spouse helped modernize his 38-year diabetes journey. He also discusses overcoming childhood trauma , massive GLP-1 weight loss , and electric vehicles.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- A supportive partner can be life-changing: Having an engaged spouse step in to help navigate medical care and hold you accountable can be the exact catalyst needed to revamp decades of unoptimized diabetes management.
- CGMs eliminate excuses: Transitioning from traditional fingersticks (which are easy to avoid or dismiss) to a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) puts the data front and center, creating a strong sense of accountability and control.
- Childhood trauma impacts medical self-care: Past experiences like abandonment or a lack of support (measured by the ACEs quiz) can make asking for or accepting help in adulthood extremely difficult, even when it is desperately needed.
- GLP-1s offer massive systemic benefits: Beyond significant weight loss (like 58 pounds), GLP-1 medications can drastically improve insulin sensitivity, relieve sleep apnea, and fix diabetes-related joint issues like trigger finger.
- GLP-1 dosing must be precise: Taking too much of a GLP-1 medication can slow digestion excessively, leading to fatigue, weight gain, and chaotic delayed glucose spikes that make it seem as though insulin isn't working.
Resources Mentioned
- Bold Beginnings Series (Juicebox Podcast): juiceboxpodcast.com
- Medtronic Diabetes (MiniMed 780G & Instinct sensor): medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox
- Omnipod (Omnipod 5): omnipod.com/juicebox
- ABLE Now (Tax-advantaged savings accounts): ablenow.com
- Wrong Way Recording: wrongwayrecording.com
- Juicebox Podcast Private Facebook Group & Defining Diabetes Series
Introduction & Bold Beginnings
Scott Benner Welcome back, friends, to another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Chris Hi. (0:15) My name is Chris. (0:16) Been a type one diabetic for thirty eight years, and I'm excited to talk to Scott.
Scott Benner This is part two of a two part episode. (0:25) Go look at the title. (0:26) If you don't recognize it, you haven't heard part one yet. (0:29) It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player. (0:33) If you or a loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're seeking a clear practical perspective, check out the bold beginnings series on the juice box podcast. (0:42) It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over thirty five years of personal insight into type one. (0:50) Our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions. (0:56) You'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. (1:03) You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juice Box Podcast. (1:07) The bold beginnings series and all of the collections in the Juice Box podcast are available in your audio app and at juiceboxpodcast.com in the menu. (1:17) Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (1:22) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.
Sponsors: Medtronic, Omnipod, and ABLE Now
Scott Benner Today's podcast episode is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed seven eighty g system and their new sensor options, which include the Instinct sensor made by Abbott. (1:44) Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed seven eighty g system? (1:48) You can do that at my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox. (1:53) Today's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod. (1:57) Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. (2:03) You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link. (2:10) Go check it out. (2:11) Omnipod.com/juicebox. (2:13) Terms and conditions apply. (2:15) Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (2:20) The podcast is also sponsored today by ABLE Now, tax advantaged savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. (2:29) If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs, and many people in the diabetes community do. (2:37) With ABLE now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. (2:44) Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. (2:48) You spell that ablenow.com.
Transitioning Careers and Finding Support
Scott Benner How was the transition to being a normie? (2:56) How did that go?
Chris I liked it, but it was rough.
Scott Benner Why?
Chris I enjoyed the adrenaline rush of doing something and working on a car, something mechanical or something, and watching it perform and watching it win and have everybody happy was extremely gratifying.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Chris And it makes all that hard work. (3:22) I mean, the hard the the amount of hours isn't is endless, basically. (3:27) Yeah.
Scott Benner So So all the ups and downs and the hard work and the hustling, it's all, like, feeding, like, the adrenaline junky part of
Chris it? (3:37) Correct. (3:38) Yep. (3:38) Yeah.
Scott Benner Yeah. (3:40) That doesn't happen when you're taking out the trash. (3:42) You can't you can't gamify that?
Chris Well, if, you know, if if the trash bag is overly stuffed, the amount of nerves that it is to getting it through the kitchen and into the garage and the trash can before it ruptures is kind of a rush.
Scott Benner It's like, I don't wanna wipe the floor. (3:59) Don't wanna wipe the floor.
Chris Please open. (4:01) Please open. (4:02) God.
Scott Benner Well So yeah. (4:04) So what helped you through that? (4:05) The nice lady, her kids? (4:07) Like, where where did you get your comfort from? (4:12) Her.
Chris Yeah. (4:14) She was a I can't speak enough about her. (4:20) She was the absolute perfect thing at the right time, and it's exactly what she and I needed.
Scott Benner Yeah. (4:27) You guys are together still?
Chris You're still together? (4:29) Yeah. (4:31) Your anniversary this last month.
Scott Benner Oh, congratulations. (4:36) Happy anniversary.
Chris Thank you.
Scott Benner Oh, yeah.
Chris And I'm a stepdad now, and I'm raising teenagers that are driving, and the amount of nerves there is quite
Scott Benner It's it's something else out there.
Chris I don't fear for the I fear for the neighborhood as long as him, as well as him too. (4:52) You know? (4:52) It's but it's a thing, and my wife is she's in the medical industry and has grasped my diabetes and accepted the challenge more than I've ever expected a single person to. (5:08) She is on it.
Scott Benner Yeah. (5:12) Yeah. (5:12) Wow.
Chris She got me well, I didn't have any insurance yet, but she got me into, like, a cash pay kinda doctor.
Scott Benner Right.
Chris And then we started playing around with insulin and doing this and that.
Scott Benner Did you have I
Chris have a Did you Sorry.
Scott Benner Did you have to ask her to get involved, or did she
Chris No. (5:28) Jump in? (5:29) Nope. (5:30) She jumped in and said, you are not managing your disease like you should be, and I am going to do it whether you like it or not.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris And I can't and I and I I fight her sometimes. (5:41) Sometimes it's just really annoying, but I can't say she's wrong.
Scott Benner Well, my question here was, around that is, did it feel comforting to have a female presence interested in you, or was it hard to accept?
Chris It was hard to accept just because of I wanted to be able to do it on my own, but then again, I needed the help at the time.
Scott Benner Yeah. (6:06) So you you knew enough that you needed the help, and you had practice taking help from your father when you had your your other problem. (6:12) Right? (6:13) So you you were able to give yourself over to it. (6:15) And has that gotten easier, and does it feel more supportive and mutual now than it did
Chris Yes. (6:21) Yeah.
Scott Benner How long do you think it took you to to get through that part?
Chris I mean, it took I would say about a year. (6:30) Okay.
Scott Benner That's a pretty fair amount of time.
Chris Yeah. (6:33) I mean, because it was you know? (6:34) And it was hard to accept it, but I knew it. (6:37) But then I was like, well, you know what? (6:39) I've I've made it this far, and that wasn't really the answer. (6:43) So it's like I said, it's been a lifesaver. (6:47) She's just between us listening to your podcast and trying to figure out all the stuff and me playing around with insulin
Scott Benner Things have really changed.
Chris Things have really changed. (7:00) I have a really good job now that I'm basically an eight to five guy. (7:05) The health insurance is phenomenal. (7:07) Awesome. (7:08) Awesome. (7:09) So I have I open my refrigerator every once in a while and just look in there and be like, wow.
Scott Benner Look at all that insulin. (7:15) Look at all
Chris that that I got in there. (7:17) And it's great because it's just been a I've got pretty much everything I need.
Scott Benner Right. (7:22) That's awesome.
Childhood Trauma and The ACEs Quiz
Chris Hey. (7:24) Before before
Scott Benner we kinda dig into this part and go forward, going back, if you can Uh-huh. (7:31) Give advice to the 10 year old you, the the you that left the house, like, the the you that did the drugs, like, is the advice all the same? (7:42) Is there something about your reaction to things? (7:46) Or do you know what I'm saying? (7:48) Like, is is there, like, a a key takeaway from from these experiences, or or do you think that they've all been different in some way?
Chris I think they've all been a little different. (7:58) The the biggest issue that I'm I still battle today is the abandonment. (8:03) Yeah. (8:04) And it was really hard to say 10 year old me, hey. (8:07) You know, stick it out when the people that you're supposed to lean on aren't there. (8:14) Mhmm. (8:15) So that's, you know, that's kind of difficult, and it there's been some bumps with with my wife and I now that just is just basically my history.
Scott Benner What comes to get you?
Chris Asking for help. (8:32) Okay. (8:33) Asking for help is a difficult one for me because I never had I always had to do it on my own. (8:39) Right. (8:40) So now it's like this person wants to help me. (8:42) Well, okay. (8:43) Yeah. (8:43) Honey, I get it, but you also have your life and these three little people, their life, and I don't want you to have to do this now. (8:55) You know? (8:55) So that's what our big bump is sometimes, but we're getting through it.
Scott Benner I am not a therapist. (9:00) I think that's obvious for anybody that listens, but I think that has something to do with you not valuing yourself enough to believe that her time her time is is worth putting on you.
Chris Right. (9:11) Exactly.
Scott Benner Yeah. (9:11) Then you overvalue the kids and her other things more than you do yourself. (9:16) And you're getting through that?
Chris Yeah. (9:18) Exactly. (9:18) Yeah. (9:18) We're getting through it. (9:19) It's it's starting to come around, but it's been a tough one.
Scott Benner There's gotta be a reason though that this has been offset. (9:25) Yeah. (9:25) I mean, I assume you've heard me talk about, like, that aces quiz before. (9:28) Right? (9:28) So, like yeah. (9:29) So let's do it real quick because I wanna find out what offset it for you. (9:33) Did an an adult often swear at you, insult you, humiliate you? (9:37) This is prior to being 18.
Chris Yes.
Scott Benner Yes. (9:40) Did an adult often push, grab, slap, or throw things at you? (9:44) No. (9:45) No. (9:45) Did an older person ever touch you fondle you sexually? (9:49) No. (9:50) Did you often feel no one in your family loved you? (9:54) I I can answer this one for you. (9:55) Loved you or thought you were special. (9:57) Yes. (9:57) Did you often feel you didn't have enough to eat or that no one protected you?
Chris Yeah. (10:03) Sometimes.
Scott Benner Mhmm. (10:04) Were your parents ever separated or divorced? (10:06) Yes.
Chris Yep.
Scott Benner Was your mother or stepmother often hurt or physically threatened? (10:12) No. (10:13) No. (10:14) Did you live with anyone who used drugs or was an alcoholic?
Chris Technically, when I was out of high school, yes. (10:19) But not before you were 18, like, parent or No. (10:22) Not a parent or nothing like that. (10:23) No.
Scott Benner Is the household member depressed, mental ill, or suicidal? (10:27) Nope. (10:28) No? (10:28) And did a household member go to prison? (10:32) No. (10:32) No. (10:33) I didn't hear you mention that. (10:34) Now these are the positive ones. (10:36) Could you talk to your family about your feelings? (10:40) No. (10:40) No. (10:42) Did your family stand by you during difficult times? (10:45) No. (10:47) Did you enjoy participating in community traditions?
Chris I guess so. (10:55) Yeah.
Scott Benner Alright. (10:56) Did you feel a sense of belonging in high school? (11:00) No. (11:01) Did you feel supported by your friends before before you were eighteen eighteen and under?
Chris Yeah. (11:09) A little bit. (11:10) I had some pretty good friends. (11:11) Mhmm.
Scott Benner Had at least two non parent did you have at least two non parent adults who took a genuine interest in you? (11:19) Yes. (11:20) Did you feel safe and protected by an adult in your home?
Chris Yes.
Scott Benner Yeah. (11:28) So you have four you have four you you check four boxes on the aces side, but you also check four boxes on the paces side. (11:36) You had as many positive influences as you had negative is the idea. (11:40) Because I'm sitting here talking to you, and I'm thinking, you shouldn't be as okay as you are. (11:46) So what so that's why Yeah. (11:47) That's why I went through the the stuff to figure out, like, what what was the good stuff that happened to you. (11:51) And I think when you listen to it, you would think something magical would have to happen. (11:56) But just did you have friends in the high like, in high school? (11:59) Like, did you like, those things are really important to a to a growing mind. (12:03) And so and so you had enough, I think, again, not a therapist, but it you had enough stuff go right that it gives you a chance. (12:12) And then along the way, people step back up for you. (12:16) Dad steps up for you to an important moment. (12:18) You get a job that you can kinda put your, you know, your your effort into for a long time that you enjoy. (12:24) You're able to break away when you find yourself drinking more. (12:27) Yep. (12:28) You know? (12:28) And then you meet this this woman who's your who's your wife now who's accepting of you and patient, and you found a reason to give away that other stuff to do this other thing. (12:38) Like, there's a lot of good decisions in there for you as well. (12:41) Like, I I'm not taking it from you. (12:42) You've done a lot of you've made a lot of good decisions along the way in interspersed into a couple of bad ones. (12:48) But it would be it's an easy argument to say that your bad ones are more stuff you were forced towards, and your good ones were purposeful things you did to get away from them.
Working in the EV Industry & Starting Modern Diabetes Care
Chris Yeah. (12:58) Yeah. (12:58) That's interesting. (12:59) What are you doing now for like, what kind of work are you doing?
Scott Benner I said you did a good job.
Chris I'm still working on cars, but it's, for a electric car company in in the South.
Scott Benner Oh, oh, that's very cool. (13:12) How south? (13:12) Like, near Mexico South? (13:14) Texas. (13:14) Yeah. (13:14) So, like, so, like, Tesla. (13:17) You don't wanna say?
Chris No. (13:19) It's not Tesla.
Scott Benner Oh, then it's Rivian. (13:21) Right? (13:21) I I don't wanna ask you. (13:22) Okay. (13:22) Never mind.
Chris It is. (13:23) Yeah. (13:23) Okay.
Scott Benner Yep. (13:25) Oh, well, that oh, that's cool. (13:27) I have so many questions about that. (13:28) It'll be that hopefully, we'll have a little time to get to. (13:31) So you meet her.
Chris I I have a funny reference. (13:33) Go ahead. (13:34) If you if you work for Tesla, you get Mounjaro. (13:38) If you work for Rivian, you get Zepbound.
Scott Benner You're trying to tell me one of them has better insurance than the other? (13:45) Yes.
Chris I am.
Scott Benner It's funny. (13:53) Let's talk about that. (13:54) Let's get let's go present day to you pulling yourself together, like, diabetes wise. (14:00) Like, I know you looks like you did you're gonna talk about GLPs and some other stuff. (14:06) Like, where does your journey begin? (14:08) Like, what what's the first I I know how the decision's made. (14:11) This lady grabs you by the face and goes, listen. (14:13) I'm counting on you now. (14:14) Let's try not to die. (14:16) Right. (14:16) Yeah. (14:16) I that's really I know that's what they're thinking. (14:18) And they think I think that's what my wife is thinking every time she looks at me. (14:21) Like, look. (14:22) I've thrown in with you. (14:23) Don't screw me over. (14:24) Okay?
Chris Right. (14:25) Yep.
Scott Benner What's step one? (14:28) As I told you earlier, Able Now is sponsoring this episode. (14:32) Able Now, of course, tax advantaged Able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. (14:37) If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs. (14:43) Many people in the diabetes community do. (14:45) With ABLE now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. (14:51) And thanks to updates to federal law, ABLE accounts are now available to more people than ever before. (14:58) That means more individuals and families can use ABLE now to save and invest. (15:03) Funds in an ABLE now account can be used for a wide range of everyday needs, including education, transportation, health care, assistive technology, and more. (15:13) There's no enrollment fee, and you can open an Able Now account with a small initial contribution and build from there. (15:19) Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. (15:23) That's ablenow.com, ablenow.com. (15:29) Unlike other systems that will wait until your blood sugar is a 180 before delivering corrections, the MiniMed seven eighty g system is the only system with meal detection technology that automatically detects rising sugar levels and delivers more insulin as needed to help keep your sugar levels in range even if you're not a perfect carb counter. (15:51) Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes and their MiniMed seven eighty g system, which gives you real choices because the MiniMed seven eighty g system works with the Instinct sensor made by Avid as well as the Simplera Sync and Guardian Force sensors, giving you options. (16:11) The Instinct sensor is the longest wear sensor yet, lasting fifteen days and designed exclusively for the MiniMed seven eighty g. (16:20) And don't forget, Medtronic diabetes makes technology accessible for you with comprehensive insurance support, programs to help you with your out of pocket costs, or switching from other pump and CGM systems. (16:33) Learn more and get started today with my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Chris When I start with, actually, I used to work for the other company you mentioned, so we'll start there. (16:44) I started working at Tesla and made my appointment for my endo. (16:51) All went through, and I'm like, okay. (16:53) I haven't been to an endocrinologist and you name it. (16:57) I don't know how long it's been. (16:59) It's been a really long time. (17:00) I was terrified. (17:01) Wow. (17:01) He did a a one c on the with a finger stick, which isn't really that accurate, but it's gets you on the window. (17:09) And I think it was six. (17:13) So he's like, okay. (17:15) We're gonna give you it's called the Dexcom. (17:17) Do know what that is? (17:18) And I go, no idea. (17:19) So nurse came in and goes, wham, slammed it in my belly. (17:21) That was a g six, and I was blown away. (17:26) I'm like, I have my blood sugar on my phone. (17:28) Yeah. (17:29) Look, I just I couldn't like, I was like a kid. (17:33) It was I was just like, this is incredible.
Scott Benner Yeah. (17:36) No. (17:36) I know. (17:36) Yeah. (17:37) It really is. (17:38) I'm sorry. (17:38) When you were going to the doctor, you hadn't been there for so long. (17:41) What was that like, because you had to overcome some feeling. (17:45) Was it embarrassment? (17:46) Were you ashamed? (17:47) Like, were you Yes. (17:48) Were you worried you were gonna and the doc the the doctor handled it well, though, it sounds like.
Chris He handled it okay. (17:53) Yeah.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris He basically said, let's get you on insulin that I think is gonna work for you, and then let's get you on a basic you know, let's try and work all these things out and how you you know, your basal and your all that kind of stuff. (18:09) Let's get this worked out, I wanna see you back in, you know, a couple months, and then we'll do it again and do it again. (18:14) And then he actually relocated, and I got to another endo, which I am with now, and he's amazing.
Scott Benner Yeah. (18:22) So so this guy was enough to know so did he move you off a regular in Miles per hour? (18:28) Yes. (18:28) Wow. (18:29) But that must have fried his mind. (18:30) Imagine you you were looking at the CGM going like, this is amazing, and he's probably looking at you going like, I can't believe this guy's standing up.
Chris He's going, what that? (18:37) What in that? (18:38) Where the hell have you been? (18:39) I go, I've been hiding in a hole, I guess. (18:41) So
Scott Benner I was in a porta potty.
Chris I was in a porta potty. (18:44) You're trying to trying to draw two vials of insulin up.
Scott Benner This lady over here, she, she came and got me. (18:51) Yeah. (18:52) Yeah. (18:52) Yeah. (18:52) But you I'll tell you what. (18:54) That's gonna be that's gonna be end up being your luckiest role there probably is is reconnecting with her. (19:00) Right? (19:00) So Yep. (19:01) So okay. (19:02) So you get going with the first guy, but then what makes you switch to another doctor?
Chris He moved. (19:07) He that one at the time was relocating to another part of town and it was way too far. (19:12) So this guy that I'm with now was recommended, and the waiting list was quite high. (19:17) But I got in, and he's just phenomenal. (19:21) So I'm just like, look, this is at the time, I had different insurance. (19:24) So this is what we're gonna try and do. (19:26) And Mhmm. (19:26) I'm gonna get you on Mounjaro, and then we're gonna do Mounjaro. (19:29) And I want you to try let's try NovoLog, and then we'll try Tresiba. (19:35) And I'm like, okay. (19:36) Great. (19:36) So then I start doing all these things, and he goes, this you only have to do one time, and I was blown away that the the base will only had to do it one time. (19:44) So he's like, you only have to do this one time a day and then we're gonna look at this and then here's this and carbs and all that kind of stuff. (19:50) And and my wife once again grabbed all the paperwork right out of my hand and said, got this. (19:55) And
Scott Benner The kids like this guy. (19:56) We're gonna do it. (19:57) Don't worry.
Chris Yeah. (19:58) Let's keep this guy. (19:59) Yeah.
Scott Benner What Chris, do you not have the Internet? (20:02) How did you not, like, look into this sooner?
More Sponsors - Omnipod Trial
Scott Benner This episode is brought to you by Omnipod. (20:09) Would you ever buy a car without test driving at first? (20:12) That's a big risk to take on a pretty large investment. (20:15) You wouldn't do that. (20:16) Right? (20:17) So why would you do it when it comes to choosing an insulin pump? (20:20) Most pumps come with a four year lock in period through the DME channel, and you don't even get to try it first. (20:26) But not Omnipod five. (20:28) Omnipod five is available exclusively through the pharmacy, which means it doesn't come with a typical four year DME lock in period. (20:36) Plus, you can get started with a free thirty day trial to be sure it's the right choice for you or your family. (20:42) My daughter has been wearing an Omnipod every day for seventeen years. (20:46) Are you ready to give Omnipod five a try? (20:49) Request your free starter kit today at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. (20:54) Terms and conditions apply. (20:56) Eligibility may vary. (20:57) Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (21:02) Find my link in the show notes of this podcast player or at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Discovering CGMs and the Juicebox Podcast
Chris I've just never knew about it, Scott. (21:09) I never I mean, I knew there was other things, and I looked at these things that were called pens, and I was like, that seems weird. (21:15) You put a needle on it, and how do you I don't know. (21:18) It seems kinda and I was just so stuck in my ways for thirty five years that I it's just all I did.
Scott Benner You really are thirty eight years into diabetes, three years into modern care. (21:30) Yep. (21:31) Yeah. (21:31) Wow. (21:31) That's so interesting. (21:32) Okay. (21:33) So spend one more minute on what it's like to see your blood sugar on a CGM.
Chris So all of my diabetic friends that I know, there's only a few of them, I was just blown away. (21:45) I'm like, look what I can do. (21:46) I can got this number in it. (21:47) It's going up and down, and I can and I can share it. (21:50) Oh, god. (21:51) I'm gonna I knew who I'm gonna share it with, and I shared it with the wife, and now we're good with that. (21:55) And it it I was just blown away.
Scott Benner Did it seem like beyond the magical part of it, did it just seem like a safety element to you? (22:02) Did you were you looking at it initially? (22:04) It's like, oh, I'm gonna be able to, like, better my management with this, or you didn't think about it that way?
Chris No. (22:08) I did. (22:09) I was like, this is I have no excuse now. (22:11) It's a number that is posted on my phone.
Scott Benner Gotcha.
Chris I I can't I can't argue. (22:16) So now is the time to to get after it and sort through it.
Scott Benner So when you're finger sticking, if you want to consciously, subconsciously ignore it, you can say, well, I don't have time to finger stick and therefore, I don't know what the number is. (22:29) So then therefore, I don't have to do anything about it. (22:31) Correct. (22:32) Yeah. (22:32) You can kind of, like, give yourself a a a free pass whenever you need to.
Chris It's easier to dismiss it.
Scott Benner It's easier to dismiss it. (22:38) Okay. (22:39) So now it's in your face. (22:40) It's and and you've made a decision to do better. (22:42) He's put you on this new insight. (22:43) Did it wait. (22:44) I feel like some I get embarrassed sometimes because I feel like I'm asked I don't wanna ask a question that it feels like I'm leading you to say, well, you, Scott. (22:51) But, like, how do you learn how to use all that insulin? (22:53) How does she learn about it? (22:55) Like, where do you get that information from?
Chris She spent a lot of time on the Internet trying to figure out what I played around a little bit with the rapid acting. (23:09) I found some that I liked and some that didn't quite work very well, and we were trying to figure out the curves and how, like, how these insulins actually work. (23:17) And and it was a big learning experience for both of us. (23:20) And to be quite honest, once I found your podcast, it was like, this is how and, like, somebody would name off insulin, and I'm like, I would, like, back it up, and I would play it again. (23:30) I'd write that down. (23:32) Yeah. (23:32) Okay. (23:32) So we need to look at this insulin later. (23:34) And then what was it? (23:35) Person's taking this. (23:36) Okay. (23:36) Let me try that. (23:37) And and I I was, like, really enjoying the fact that I had access to all of this stuff now, and I wanted to make sure I was on the right stuff.
Scott Benner Doing what you should doing everything you were able to do.
Chris Doing what you should be. (23:48) The pre bolus. (23:49) I mean, all the little things that you point out that is I just never knew.
Scott Benner Yeah. (23:55) You and I appear to get along well. (23:56) So do you like listening to me, or is it more about just the information and the people stories?
Chris I think that your personality is very similar to mine.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris And and you just you're easy to listen to, and you're straight to the point. (24:10) You don't BS, and that's kinda
Scott Benner Okay. (24:13) You could see you could see us in one of those bars after one of those races together.
Chris Yeah. (24:18) I wouldn't For sure.
Scott Benner I wouldn't be drinking, Chris, but I would hang out.
Chris Yeah. (24:21) That's fine. (24:22) Yeah. (24:22) Yeah. (24:22) We could talk about chameleons.
Scott Benner I'll tell you. (24:25) When we first started recording today, I I don't wanna tell oh, Chris. (24:30) I I had a I haven't talked about this yet. (24:33) My first chameleon, my veiled chameleon passed away a little while ago.
Chris Okay.
Scott Benner Yeah. (24:38) And she lived, over three years, which in the, you know, in the wild is what you would expect. (24:43) In in captivity, you would have expected more, but she she was never able to pass her her eggs. (24:50) Like, no yeah. (24:51) No matter what we did, like, I you know, and how I set her up, she just didn't feel comfortable. (24:56) And so she'd hold her eggs in. (24:58) I think she reabsorbed them over and over again. (24:59) And one time, I think she just couldn't, and she passed. (25:02) Yep. (25:02) I was left with a lot of space. (25:05) And after some thinking and doing, I expanded again. (25:09) I guess I didn't really expand because I went backwards one and forwards one. (25:13) But I got something called a yellow tree monitor. (25:16) She is awesome. (25:19) Yeah. (25:20) So when we were first recording, there was this big, like people might call them tomato worms, but, like, a big green hornworm was in there with her.
Chris And just
Scott Benner and just as you and I were beginning to talk, she noticed it was in there, Just wandered over to it, flicked it with her tongue a couple times. (25:34) I was like, oh, that is what I think. (25:35) And then she grabbed it and murdered it. (25:38) And I got to watch that while we were starting to record. (25:41) Been the highlight of my day so far. (25:42) You and your story in our conversation.
Chris I had a I had a couple of panthers growing up, so I had a couple of panther chameleons growing up. (25:49) And
Scott Benner Yeah. (25:49) Did you really? (25:50) Yeah. (25:50) I
Chris have They're a amazing animals. (25:52) I love them. (25:52) They're so cool.
Scott Benner Yeah. (25:53) My I have a blue and banjo, and he's just awesome. (25:56) Who, by the way, I I bought from a from a company in out of Boston called Fram's Cams. (26:03) Uh-huh. (26:04) They had someone in their family diagnosed last year. (26:07) Oh, wow. (26:08) Of all the crazy things. (26:09) I have two chameleons in this room, and the people who bred both of them have a child with die type one diabetes, Interesting. (26:16) Which is completely not on purpose. (26:18) Just, an odd coincidence. (26:21) I mean,
Chris you guys can trade care.
Scott Benner Well, we've it's nice. (26:25) We may we have a little relationship now. (26:26) She's probably listening right now. (26:27) Like, hi. (26:28) You know, like that, you know, that kind of stuff is really interesting. (26:31) Anyway anyway, I'm so sorry. (26:32) So here you are now using a fast acting insulin. (26:36) You've got one that you've chosen. (26:38) You're listening to the podcast. (26:39) You're learning how to learning what? (26:42) You're learning how to think about insulin. (26:45) Like, what's the step that gets you? (26:46) Because your a one c is what now? (26:49) What do you have here in your notes? (26:51) Five and a half? (26:52) Is that right? (26:54) Right?
Chris Yeah. (26:55) Actually, I'm I'm a five three now. (26:58) I just went to my end of the other day. (26:59) So I'm
Scott Benner You're using a
Chris I'm not using a pump. (27:03) I'm still MDI. (27:04) Only reason why is because I'm always I'm always leaning, climbing, and doing things very physical, and I'm very I already lose Dexcoms looking at them. (27:16) So I'm trying to I my my next step is a pump, but I'm still I wanna fine tune the MDI to where I feel like I know exactly what I'm doing before I
Scott Benner Yeah. (27:29) Once you understand how the insulin's really working, you feel like maybe you can try it. (27:32) Okay. (27:33) And I'm sorry. (27:34) At five three, first of all, congratulations. (27:36) That's just insane.
Chris Especially your fault.
Scott Benner Yeah. (27:39) I'll take I will take credit for that for sure.
Finding the Right GLP-1 Dose and Massive Weight Loss
Chris Yep.
Scott Benner When do you ask about the GLP in your journey with the the second endo?
Chris So with the second endo, I was I was a little on the heavy weight side. (27:50) Nothing crazy, but just enough to where he's like, hey. (27:53) You know, this might help you more ways than one. (27:56) And I'm like, well, I I'll take it. (27:58) You know? (27:58) And at that time, it was Mounjaro.
Scott Benner Right.
Chris Actually, I started with Ozempic first. (28:05) Didn't get I got think I think I got two doses in with that, and I'm like, hey. (28:09) I wanna I wanna do this one. (28:10) He's like, okay.
Scott Benner Why'd you move you changed because of the of the GIP, GLP you wanted? (28:16) Correct.
Chris Yeah. (28:17) I think it was just a better choice. (28:19) Okay. (28:20) And so I got on the Mounjaro, and, man, just the insulin sensitivity, the aches and pains, the sleep apnea, the blood pressure. (28:34) I used to have what they call trigger finger.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Chris I apparently, it's a diabetes thing. (28:40) It it your joints kinda lock up.
Scott Benner It is. (28:43) Yeah.
Chris That's completely gone. (28:46) Dealing with that and getting up to I think I got up to ten milligrams on Mounjaro, and then I switched jobs. (28:53) Then I went to a different kind, which is Zepbound.
Scott Benner Now I Zepbound and Mounjaro are the same exact yeah. (29:02) Same exact molecule. (29:03) So okay.
Chris Zepbound ten milligram, I started to gain weight.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris So I went to twelve. (29:15) And my endo is like, sometimes he said, I don't know if this is the case. (29:20) We're gonna have to try it. (29:21) Sometimes you can, this is my my nurse wife, figure this out. (29:28) Too much GLP can can cause you if you overdo it, it can make it does opposite effects.
Scott Benner Okay. (29:38) No one's ever said that to me before, but that's okay.
Chris There's something if you look it up, and I can't remember what she said, but, basically, if if it's too much, it will cause your blood it'll cause you to god. (29:52) Yeah. (29:53) I should've wrote this down. (29:55) Anyway, so what he did was he brought me back down to 10.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris And I'm more responsive with 10.
Scott Benner Okay. (30:04) Awesome.
Chris And and I don't and I can't there's a there's a reason for it. (30:08) I wish I would have looked it up because I figured you would know it.
Scott Benner I'm looking right now.
Chris But there's some I can't remember what it does, but if you have too much of the GLP, it can cause
Scott Benner Your stomach slows too much and throws off the glucose curve?
Chris That's what it is. (30:22) So I'm not digesting like I should be.
Scott Benner Appetite. (30:26) Okay. (30:26) So our overlords say the following. (30:29) It tells you obviously what GLP is supposed to do, slows down stomach emptying, increases insulin when glucose is present, lowers glucagon, reduces appetite, improves satiety. (30:39) What happens when you use too much? (30:41) This is in quotes. (30:42) Stomach slows too much instead of smooth glucose curves. (30:45) You can get food sitting in the stomach too long, nausea, reflux, vomiting, delayed glucose spikes that look like insulin isn't working. (30:53) For someone using insulin, that can feel kinda chaotic like you're bolus, nothing happens. (30:58) Three hours later, your glucose jumps up. (30:59) That makes sense. (31:00) That's not the insulin failing. (31:02) It's the timing getting weird, it says. (31:04) Appetite suppression can become counterproductive. (31:08) Usually too little. (31:09) You'll be under fueled, which might lead to a cortisol rise. (31:13) You could feel fatigued and then binge later. (31:16) And excess GI stress raises stress hormones, impacts glucose control, increase insulin resistance, persistent nausea, or dehydration if you cause that. (31:26) Yep. (31:27) It says so paradoxically, feeling awful from too much GLP effect can worsen blood sugars. (31:32) And then a rare but real pancreatic or gallbladder strain, which is not what was happening to you.
Chris No. (31:38) Yeah. (31:38) Yeah. (31:38) Yeah. (31:39) It's basically my insulin sensitivity just Could
Scott Benner was like slowed your digestion down too much. (31:44) Yes. (31:45) And your wife figured that out again?
Chris She did. (31:48) Because because the I know. (31:50) My so I did change brands of of of rapid acting. (31:55) I went from Fiasque to Lunjev.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Chris And I'm like, this Lunjev isn't working. (32:01) Like, nothing like, I'm just I don't know what's going on. (32:05) I'm gaining weight and this and that. (32:06) I'm starting to get kinda tired. (32:08) I haven't been like that in a really long time. (32:10) So she she got it. (32:12) We went down to 10, and I think we're
Scott Benner You're where you wanna be.
Chris Where I wanna be.
Scott Benner Yeah. (32:17) How much weight did you lose?
Chris 58 pounds.
Scott Benner Awesome, man. (32:24) Congratulations.
Chris Yeah. (32:25) I was, at the height of my end of my racing career, I was two hundred and sixty something pounds, and now I'm just about two zero nine.
Scott Benner How tall are you? (32:35) Two
Chris Six foot.
Scott Benner Okay. (32:37) That's it. (32:38) It's not a bad weight then right there.
Chris But, I mean, it's, like, just drilling holes in your belt, I'll tell you, is a great thing to have to do. (32:45) Yeah. (32:45) Don't buy a new belt, but drill a new hole in it. (32:48) Right? (32:48) Because I lost so much weight.
Scott Benner Yeah. (32:50) No. (32:51) There's a lot of cool stuff that happens. (32:52) Like, eventually Oh, man. (32:53) Eventually, the tip of your belt is around the back, and you go, okay. (32:57) And it's hard to sometimes can be hard, difficult to, like, even throw your clothes away because you my my wife said, she's like, I couldn't get rid of my clothes for a long time because I just kept thinking, like, I'm gonna need them again. (33:07) And then one day, she's like, I gotta get rid like, I'm gonna donate these clothes. (33:11) Like, I'm I don't think I'm ever going backwards. (33:13) You know?
Chris Get them out of here. (33:14) Yeah.
Scott Benner I had a fair amount of I mean, I guess what you would call body dysmorphia, but, like, for a while there in, like, year one and a half, I was looking at myself and I felt I I didn't feel as as lean as I was. (33:28) Like, it was hard hard for me to see myself that way. (33:32) I'm I'm through it now. (33:33) Like, I feel I'm very comfortable now, but I'm probably right around sixty five, seventy pounds. (33:40) Yeah. (33:41) That's I mean, I'm only five nine, so it's pretty pretty darn noticeable.
Chris Right. (33:46) Yeah. (33:47) And it just like I said, all the other things that it's believed, I mean, Yeah. (33:52) Jeez. (33:52) I mean, all this stuff that it's just like, that's gotta be that. (33:54) It's gotta be the GLP, and it certainly is. (33:57) And, what a great, situation for us. (34:00) I hope it gets I hope the type ones are allowed to technically use it sometime soon.
Scott Benner Yeah. (34:05) They're working on it. (34:06) I I just posted a trial that's going on right now in Canada, but it's, you know, it's on I think it's on clinical trial clintrials.gov. (34:16) Like, so I mean, you have to be local to do it, but they're they're doing trials right now with type ones and GLP. (34:22) They'll get the trials are happening is great news.
Chris Yeah. (34:26) That exactly.
Scott Benner Yeah. (34:27) Because that means at some point, once they prove out what we all out here know already, then
Chris Have told them.
Scott Benner Yeah. (34:33) Yeah. (34:33) Then insurance will probably need to cover it, and that'll really help, you know, be and plus there's a ton of companies making biosimilars and stuff like that right now.
Chris So Right. (34:43) Yeah. (34:44) Should
Scott Benner pricing and availability should not be an issue moving forward. (34:48) Could be a much healthier world ten years now if it doesn't make us grow a tail or a horn out of our head. (34:53) But even at that
Chris Hey. (34:54) You know what, though? (34:55) If I have a little tail or a horn, I could deal with that. (34:57) I'll just put a hat on.
Scott Benner Said it before? (34:58) I'll take it out. (34:59) I said if if the horn I I think I I think I said one time, if the horn says Eli Lilly on the side, but I'll be like, well, alright.
Chris I I get Technically, they do own it, so they can have it.
Scott Benner As long as my my waist stays at a thirty two, I guess I'm gonna be okay with that. (35:16) Right. (35:17) Seriously, my I think at my biggest pant size, I was wearing a forty. (35:21) It's you know?
Chris I was right in there. (35:23) I was right in there. (35:24) Thirty eight, forty.
Scott Benner So and GOP helping with your blood sugars immensely, imagine too?
Chris Oh, man. (35:31) Yeah. (35:32) Huge. (35:34) Yeah. (35:35) Very, very drastic change in everything, and and, like I said, just when I before I got on the GLP and I was doing my pens, my MDIs before the endo interaction, I was Jesus. (35:51) I was taking twenty, thirty, forty units of of of regular a day. (35:58) Easy.
Scott Benner How much of your insulin need has, dropped just because the GLP is slowing your digestion down? (36:04) How much of it just dropped because you're taking in fewer carbs?
Chris Oh, that I mean, that's a double yeah. (36:11) So I got
Scott Benner it twice. (36:12) Yeah.
Chris Yeah. (36:13) I think the most that I take a day now is probably twelve at the most Mhmm. (36:20) Depending if we go to Mexican food or not. (36:22) Yeah. (36:23) Yeah. (36:23) That's a tough one to bolus for.
Scott Benner It made me pull out my phone, which I haven't looked at yet today, but I'm looking at it now. (36:29) Since I'm just going back to midnight last night, Arden's blood sugar has not been under 70 or over a 105. (36:38) Like, it's just it's just rolling along, and she's Yeah. (36:41) She's using a GLP.
Chris And I and I and I also too, on that note, my comfortable spot to sit Mhmm. (36:50) Used to be, like, in the one fifty or something, kinda, maybe a little less.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris I am really, really happy at 90 to a 100.
Scott Benner There's just not the feeling that you're gonna suddenly experience a a huge spike or a drastic low out of nowhere. (37:03) The stability is, like, really insane, and you can really see it on your CGM too.
Chris And and you're also, like, at 70, you're kinda, like, you're in the lower side of it, But, man, I feel great.
Scott Benner Yeah. (37:14) No kidding. (37:15) And do you have any besides the trigger finger, do have any other impacts from your earlier life?
Chris Just a lot of I got a lot of arthritis in my hands Okay. (37:25) From using the the wheel guns that we used to use were extremely heavy, and I've got a lot of arthritis. (37:32) That's it is what it is, but it's not any worse.
Scott Benner Do other guys, that use the gun have the same, or is it specific? (37:39) It is. (37:39) Yeah. (37:39) It's the Yeah.
Chris It's just part of the game.
Scott Benner The weight and the and the the, I guess, the viciousness of how it probably shakes your your body. (37:46) Right?
Chris Yeah. (37:47) Yeah. (37:47) Exactly. (37:49) So but, I mean, aside from that, just like I said, my, obviously, with the weight going down, the sleep apnea has almost relieved itself.
Scott Benner Yeah. (37:57) Your neck got smaller? (37:59) I don't know a ton about sleep apnea, but I hear people talk about that, like, the neck size is kind of
Chris Yeah. (38:04) It's it must be that or the like, the dentist always tells me, he's like, man, you do you snore? (38:09) I'm like, how do you know looking down me? (38:11) Because I guess I have, like, a pretty pretty large neck and a pretty large tongue, I guess, is what it is or something in there. (38:17) And he's like, yeah. (38:17) You're kinda born to snore. (38:19) And I'm like, well, I'm sorry. (38:20) But, yeah, I think the neck the neck's gotten a little bit smaller and just not carrying the 60 pounds around, I think.
Scott Benner Yeah. (38:27) Well, I mean, in the end, like, there's a lot of impacts that are positive, but you can't undervalue just losing that much weight. (38:35) Like, it's
Chris I know.
Scott Benner Yeah. (38:36) It's what'd you do to combat muscle loss? (38:40) I mean, you're probably pretty active at your job, but, like, what do you
Chris Yeah. (38:43) So, I I'm also on TRT. (38:46) So I I get testosterone shots every week.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris That has helped with a lot of the aches and pains and the energy and walking the dog and and riding bikes and trying to keep up with kids, think, is the basic my
Scott Benner That's your exercise.
Chris Yep.
Scott Benner Yeah. (39:03) How, low did your testosterone have to be for them to prescribe that to you?
Chris Their number for the insurance was 390.
Scott Benner And you were under?
Chris I was under that at the time. (39:14) I was two fifteen.
Scott Benner Okay. (39:16) And a big difference.
Chris Big difference. (39:19) Yeah. (39:19) Big difference.
Scott Benner I couldn't get my doctor to let me try it. (39:21) I think my number was too high. (39:23) It's it's one of the first things I said when I started losing weight. (39:26) Was like, can I try, like, testosterone replacement? (39:29) And she's like, sure. (39:30) We'll look. (39:31) And then she looked, and she's like, sorry. (39:32) And I was like, okay.
Chris Oh, bummer.
Scott Benner Yeah. (39:35) I don't know if it would if there'd be any actual value in it if my number's high enough. (39:39) Or
Chris Right. (39:40) I mean, it just makes you feel makes you feel pretty good.
Scott Benner Really?
Chris Yeah. (39:45) It's just a whole it kinda adds a new little bit little bit of life. (39:49) You sleep well because your hormones are all balanced again, you I sleep really well now.
Scott Benner That's awesome. (39:55) Yeah. (39:55) Yeah. (39:57) Better health through pharmacology is a little different than how you were using chemicals when you were younger.
Chris Yes. (40:03) Yeah. (40:03) Yeah. (40:04) Yeah. (40:05) So needless to say, I feel I feel really good.
Scott Benner Man, good for you. (40:09) That's awesome. (40:10) I appreciate you sharing all this with me.
Chris Yeah. (40:12) Of course.
Scott Benner Mhmm.
Chris And my wife my wife has just been a saver for sure.
Scott Benner Yeah. (40:18) No. (40:18) It sounds like
Chris And she annoys the piss out of me sometimes, but she's right. (40:22) So I have to, you know she's trying.
Scott Benner You don't like to s light her, tell her she's wrong?
Chris Oh, no. (40:30) She doesn't listen to me.
Scott Benner She she
Chris she knows enough. (40:34) She she she's yeah. (40:37) She's just as much of a smart ass as I am.
Scott Benner Okay. (40:39) Alright. (40:40) So do I I have a couple more questions for you, but I wanna make sure you feel like we covered all your history, your health, your diabetes stuff. (40:47) Did we talk about everything you wanted to talk about?
Chris Yeah. (40:49) I think so. (40:50) Yeah.
Scott Benner Cool. (40:51) You have a couple more minutes?
Chris Yeah. (40:52) Absolutely.
The Future of Electric Vehicles (EVs)
Scott Benner Okay. (40:54) Tell everybody why electric cars are so much better than gas cars. (40:58) And I don't mean, like, energy or the planet. (41:00) I mean, like, the drivability of it. (41:02) And this is gonna mean something from you if you believe this because you love race cars. (41:07) So, like, what's what about them should people be looking forward to, I guess?
Chris We're not gonna get into the whole environmental part of it because that's gonna start a war.
Scott Benner I don't even care about that. (41:18) I mean, the drivability and the the way they work.
Chris They are they don't have transmissions. (41:24) They are basically point and squirt, which means you can drive it as fast as you want, and there's not usually a whole lot of cars that can keep up with you. (41:34) Mhmm. (41:34) No. (41:34) They're usually very tech oriented. (41:37) They have a lot of features that most cars standard cars, I say, the inner internal combustion vehicles, but they're just a blast to drive.
Scott Benner Yeah. (41:48) So My favorite aspects of them are the regenerative braking Yes. (41:54) Changes driving. (41:56) It's Yeah. (41:57) Fundamentally a different process and way more enjoyable.
Chris We don't put brake pads on cars.
Scott Benner Yeah. (42:04) Yeah. (42:05) There's an argument to be to to be made that the person could buy an electric car and maybe never change the brakes on it while they're driving it.
Chris It's very possible. (42:12) I mean, I there's vehicles that don't you just don't need them. (42:16) The cars are 80,000 miles old, the brake pads are brand new.
Scott Benner Yeah. (42:19) That yeah. (42:20) Regenerative braking, I think, is a big deal. (42:23) I have driven a steer by wire car in the past, and I have to say I would like to see that on more vehicles. (42:30) Yeah. (42:30) Really fundamentally changes, like, driving habits, and and it it's a it's again, I thought it was a better experience. (42:38) And then I've experienced self driving a number of times, and it's fascinating how well it works.
Chris It's fascinating how well it works, and the technology is ahead of us. (42:52) So a human can't interact with something that's through the fog that the cameras can see. (42:58) Mhmm. (42:58) Yeah. (42:59) Safety safety wise, that's really good. (43:02) I like driving vehicles. (43:03) So the self driving, I've been in them. (43:05) I it's great. (43:06) I like to drive.
Scott Benner Yeah. (43:08) I think about it more like when you're older and you still wanna be mobile and get place to place and you don't trust yourself as much or you can't do the, know, you can't do the hump of a long drive anymore. (43:17) Like, how much that's gonna help people? (43:19) Yeah. (43:19) Yeah. (43:20) They're basically just really, like, expensive big slot cars. (43:24) Right? (43:24) Like, it's that there's not a lot to break on them, is there, mechanically?
Chris Not mechanically. (43:30) No. (43:30) I mean, you got your typical things and things do you know, you got batteries that can have issues, and you got motors that can have issues. (43:36) And that's like any car. (43:37) Any car you buy could be have issues. (43:39) But reoccurring is they're pretty maintenance free. (43:42) You put tires and white windshield wipers on them and
Scott Benner And you're on your way. (43:46) So Yeah. (43:47) Rivian just released what? (43:48) That r two? (43:48) Is that the new vehicle?
Chris It's gonna be, in this next quarter. (43:53) Yes. (43:53) That's the new smaller version of what we have now.
Scott Benner And this business wise, this is this this the make or break moment? (43:59) Yes. (44:00) Yeah. (44:00) Like, this car needs to go wider and people need to like it and and buy it.
Chris Yeah. (44:04) And it's a better it's a it's a lower price point, so it brings in more clientele.
Scott Benner Yeah. (44:09) Is Tesla's real advantage the supercharging network? (44:14) Do you think, like, when it comes to, like, sales and why like, what do you think stops people from buying an electric car most?
Chris Well, yeah, we also everybody uses Tesla network now. (44:25) That's gonna be the new standard.
Scott Benner Okay.
Chris But, yes, the range anxiety was what they call it. (44:31) And it it can it can get you because you don't have, you know, you don't have an opportunity to run down the gas station with a milk jug
Scott Benner and Yeah. (44:41) Yeah.
Chris And dump some dump some gas in your car. (44:43) You're pretty much if you're out, you're out. (44:45) But the mapping and the cars are extremely smart. (44:49) They know exactly where things are and how long you have to stop. (44:52) And Yeah. (44:53) As long as you pay attention to that, that's you should be good. (44:57) Paying attention to that sometimes, it's difficult for people.
Scott Benner For people. (45:00) Yeah. (45:00) Yeah. (45:00) Yeah. (45:01) I won't say who it is, but I have a a person closer to me in my not in my house, but in my life who still as an adult runs out of gas an alarming a number of times. (45:10) And and they always tell me, it's like, have ADHD. (45:13) I really don't remember to get gas. (45:15) I I take your point. (45:16) At least, you know, you can dump a can in there. (45:18) But I I don't know. (45:20) Like, I don't understand, like, you know, geopolitically or, like I said, like, whether what's actually better for the world or whatnot. (45:26) Like, that stuff all aside. (45:28) Like, I've been in enough electric cars to say that, like, I think they're really fantastic. (45:32) And and the way they work is just it's different. (45:36) It's not like I remember driving. (45:38) Like, I had a, jeez, I had, like, a a custom deluxe pickup truck when I was, like, 19. (45:43) It's not like driving that. (45:44) You know what I mean? (45:44) Like, it's not it's not like, it's not like driving a gas car. (45:48) Even nice gas cars, like, they can't mimic the smoothness of the the acceleration and, like, how great it is when shifting goes away. (45:57) I know it sounds crazy, but,
Chris It it is. (45:59) Yeah. (45:59) You and you're getting in it and putting your foot on the brake and going. (46:02) Yeah. (46:02) You don't have to turn anything on. (46:04) You don't have to you just
Scott Benner Yeah.
Chris Seat belt. (46:06) Go.
Scott Benner Don't need a key. (46:07) Like, it's just
Chris need a key.
Scott Benner Yeah. (46:09) I anyway, I I I can't wait to see where it all goes. (46:13) Yeah. (46:13) No. (46:13) I followed enough to know that, like, Rivian's putting that that vehicle out now. (46:17) And, I mean, if you can drive a Rivian to a Tesla supercharger and plug it without an adapter, you're telling me?
Chris No. (46:23) You need an adapter, but the newer so that Tesla charging plug is gonna be the new standard. (46:28) Okay. (46:28) Any vehicles built before '26
Scott Benner Will need
Chris won't have that. (46:32) You have to have an adapter, but all of the new Rivians have Tesla plugs in them.
Scott Benner Oh, so a new Rivian, I'll drive up and plug in. (46:38) I don't even need an adapter.
Chris Correct. (46:39) Yep. (46:40) It's got the it's got the it's a it's a new standard plug, which is good. (46:43) It's the Tesla plug.
Scott Benner That changes the whole thing. (46:45) That network, I it's fascinating. (46:48) I think you could drive from the Everglades to Alaska on that network. (46:52) And Yep. (46:53) Like, that's really sad.
Chris It tells you where to stop, how long you need to be plugged in for. (46:57) Yeah. (46:58) The vehicles are very, very sensitive with what you're doing. (47:02) If you're driving at 100 miles an hour and the AC is blasting, you're gonna burn, obviously, more fuel Yeah. (47:09) Technically.
Scott Benner Right.
Chris But for the most part, they're you can't go wrong. (47:13) It's it makes the trips a blast. (47:14) A lot of the chargers will have, like, little buildings and little things you can do and
Scott Benner Yeah.
Chris Some offer free coffee or, you know, all that kind of stuff.
Scott Benner Right. (47:22) Right. (47:23) No. (47:23) Well, what kind of work are you doing now, like, with, like, what
Chris what Technician.
Scott Benner Okay. (47:29) So you just you're turning wrenches still or
Chris you're part
Scott Benner of the Yep. (47:33) R and d?
Chris Nope. (47:35) Still turning wrenches, and, it's an awesome company. (47:37) I love it.
Scott Benner Awesome, man. (47:39) That's really fantastic. (47:40) Well, dude, I can't I can't tell you. (47:42) I've I mean, obviously, it's gonna be a two parter, and I really appreciate it. (47:45) I'm gonna call this one Chris versus life. (47:47) And
Chris I thought it was gonna be get your belly out.
Scott Benner Yeah. (47:51) I don't well, no. (47:52) I don't know.
Chris That might be weird. (47:53) Yeah. (47:54) Think that don't have a belly anymore, really.
Outro, AI Translation & Final Sponsor Messages
Scott Benner So Also, I think people might read that and go, you know, it's okay. (47:59) I'll skip that one.
Chris Yeah. (48:00) I'm gonna pass that one.
Scott Benner But no. (48:01) Seriously, man. (48:02) I I appreciate you taking the time. (48:03) Please, you know, I imagine your wife listens too, and please tell her I said hello. (48:07) I'm I'm really happy any of this has helped you. (48:10) You know, again, thank you for coming on here and talking about it with me.
Chris Scott, thank you. (48:14) I mean, I you you hear it every single time, but I'm gonna say it again. (48:18) Your community is phenomenal.
Scott Benner Thanks. (48:22) Go ahead.
Chris And just the fact that you sit down and actually care and have helped us through all of what seems basic to you, but, it's a tough journey, and you've made it so much easier on everybody.
Scott Benner I appreciate that. (48:36) I really do. (48:36) It's gonna make the rest of my day easier because I'm working right now on a web page that has every definition from the defining diabetes series, and it's clickable. (48:46) And so, like, I'm looking at analysis algorithm, the brain inside your pump that tries to do some of the heavy lifting for you. (48:53) When you click on it, it gives you a link right to the episode that where you could listen to the defining diabetes that describes that word, all the other ones as well. (49:03) And right now, it's looks like I'm gonna be able to put it up in English, Spanish, French, German, and I'm working on Hindi and a couple of other things. (49:13) So Wow. (49:14) Yeah. (49:15) And that's all just AI. (49:16) I mean, speaking of, like, cars that, you know, drive themselves, this is all just taking content from the podcast and being able to repurpose it for people so they can see it and and interact with it easily.
Chris It makes it easier to find.
Scott Benner Yeah. (49:28) Yeah. (49:28) It really does. (49:29) Yeah. (49:29) You know, we didn't talk about it, but one of the things that I think is, I've been fascinated by for a number of years now is going back a few years ago when Tesla said, like, we're gonna have to build our own supercomputers because we have so much data, we can't crunch it well enough.
Chris Right.
Scott Benner And so they build a computer so that they could put the driving data into it so that the computer could teach itself how to drive. (49:50) Like, that loop to me is is super interesting. (49:53) Like, the way that, like I just think that's gonna that concept can apply to so many other things.
Chris Oh, yeah. (49:59) Yeah. (49:59) I mean, it's I mean, some of the my wife uses it for some of our tricky bolus events.
Scott Benner Yeah.
Chris And and it's and it's sometimes it's right, sometimes it's not. (50:09) But now I'll tell you what, it gets you damn close.
Scott Benner Yeah. (50:11) I just think there's something to that idea of, like, even within the podcast, like, creating a loop that teaches itself and puts you in that loop so you're being taught along with it. (50:20) Like, I think there's I don't know. (50:21) I'm still working it all out, but I think there's something in there that's valuable. (50:25) So, anyway, I really do appreciate this. (50:27) Would you hold on for me for just one moment?
Chris Absolutely. (50:30) Thanks, Chris.
Scott Benner A huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod. (50:42) Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. (50:48) You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link. (50:55) Go check it out. (50:56) Omnipod.com/juicebox. (50:58) Terms and conditions apply. (51:00) Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (51:06) I'd like to remind you again about the MiniMed seven eighty g automated insulin delivery system, which of course anticipates, adjusts, and corrects every five minutes twenty four seven. (51:16) It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters. (51:21) The Juice Box community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes. (51:26) To learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, visit my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox. (51:38) A huge thanks to today's sponsor, Able Now. (51:41) AbleNow offers tax advantaged able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities. (51:46) If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify because of ongoing medical needs. (51:51) With AbleNow, you can save for a wide range of disability related expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid. (51:59) And thanks to recent federal law updates, more people are eligible than ever before. (52:04) Learn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com. (52:08) You spell that ablenow.com. (52:12) There's links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com. (52:17) I can't thank you enough for listening. (52:19) Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app. (52:22) I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of the juice box podcast. (52:26) Hey, kids. (52:27) Listen up. (52:27) You've made it to the end of the podcast. (52:29) You must have enjoyed it. (52:30) You know what else you might enjoy? (52:31) The private Facebook group for the Juice Box podcast. (52:35) I know you're thinking, ugh, Facebook, Scott, please. (52:38) But, no, Beautiful group, wonderful people, a fantastic community. (52:43) Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. (52:45) Of course, if you have type two, are you touched by diabetes in any way, you're absolutely welcome. (52:51) It's a private group, so you'll have to answer a couple of questions before you come in. (52:54) We'll make sure you're not a bot or an evil doer, then you're on your way. (52:58) You'll be part of the family. (53:00) The episode you just heard was professionally edited by Wrong Way Recording. (53:05) Wrongwayrecording.com.
#1836 Chris vs. Life - Part 1
Chris shares his 38-year type 1 diabetes journey , overcoming a 1980s diagnosis , family abandonment , severe drug addiction , and near-fatal DKA to build a professional auto racing career.
Companies that Support Juicebox
Key Takeaways
- Early Diabetes Care Was Drastically Different: In the late 1980s, type 1 diabetes management involved rigid schedules using Regular and NPH pork insulin, thick syringes, and cumbersome glucometers requiring physical coding and calibration solutions.
- Diagnosis Impacts Family Dynamics: A childhood diagnosis can profoundly affect family structure; in Chris's case, it brought his estranged mother and grandmother closer together temporarily to provide the necessary medical support.
- Adolescent Burnout Can Be Severe: Struggling with shifting home environments, Chris hid his diabetes to avoid feeling different, demonstrating how social pressure and lack of stability can lead to deep diabetes burnout and neglect.
- Substance Abuse Rapidly Escalates Diabetes Risks: Heavy drug use, like methamphetamines, and subsequent reliance on alcohol completely masked diabetes management, quickly driving Chris into life-threatening Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA).
- Resilience and Second Chances: Despite hitting rock bottom and relying on over-the-counter insulin without modern technology for decades, Chris managed to turn his life around, build a successful career in professional auto racing, and eventually establish a stable, healthy family life.
Resources Mentioned
- Juice Box Podcast Small Sips: Available wherever you get your audio.
- Eversense 365 CGM: eversensecgm.com/juicebox
- Tandem Mobi / Control-IQ Plus: tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox
- US Med: usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Juice Box Podcast Facebook Group: Search "Juice Box Podcast, Type 1 Diabetes" on Facebook.
- Wrong Way Recording (Podcast Editing): wrongwayrecording.com
Introduction & Sponsors
Scott BennerWelcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juice Box podcast.
ChrisHi. My name is Chris. I've been a type one diabetic for thirty eight years, and I'm excited to talk to Scott.
Scott BennerIf you'd like to hear about diabetes management in easy to take in bits, check out the Small Sips. That's the series on the juice box podcast that listeners are talking about like it's a cheat code. These are perfect little bursts of clarity, one person said. I finally understood things I've heard a 100 times. Short, simple, and somehow exactly what I needed.
Scott BennerPeople say small sips feels like someone pulling up a chair, sliding a cup across the table, and giving you one clean idea at a time. Nothing overwhelming, no fire hose of information, just steady helpful nudges that actually stick. People listen in their car, on walks, or rather actually bolusing anytime that they need a quick shot of perspective. And the reviews, they all say the same thing. Small sips makes diabetes make sense.
Scott BennerSearch for the Juice Box podcast, small sips, wherever you get audio. Nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by Eversense three sixty five, the only one year wear CGM.
Scott BennerThat's one insertion and one CGM a year. One CGM, one year. Not every ten or fourteen days. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. Today's episode is also sponsored by the Tandem Mobi system, which is powered by Tandem's newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus Technology.
Scott BennerTandem Mobi has a predictive algorithm that helps prevent highs and lows and is now available for ages two and up. Learn more and get started today at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. The podcast is also sponsored today by usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. US Med is where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from, and you could too. Use the link or number to get your free benefits check and get started today with US Med.
Interview Begins: 38 Years of Type 1
ChrisHi. My name is Chris. I've been a type one diabetic for thirty eight years, and I'm excited to talk to Scott.
Scott BennerOh, well, Chris, I am Scott. So this is gonna work out perfectly.
ChrisGood.
Scott BennerThirty eight years seems like a chunk of time to me.
ChrisYeah. It's, I want don't wanna say it's flown by, but certainly between 1987 when I was diagnosed to now, oh, what Type one's gotten a little bit more complicated and easier to manage, I think, all in one.
Scott BennerReally?
ChrisI had let's see. So when I was diagnosed, my grandmother pretty much raised me as a child. My mom and dad split up early.
Scott BennerOkay.
ChrisFive years old was when mom and dad kinda went different directions. My mom worked at a bar, and my dad was in and out, traveling through different states and countries for his job, and I didn't see him that much in my early childhood days.
Scott BennerOh, Chris, I'm sorry. When you said they went in their opposite directions, I thought you meant from each other, but you meant from you and each other.
ChrisYes. Yeah. Correctly. Gotcha. Yeah.
ChrisCorrect. Yeah.
Scott BennerGotcha.
ChrisAnd so my grandmother raised me, from the time jeez. I can't remember from that time all the way until all the way until I kinda got on my own kinda thing.
Scott BennerOkay. And you were diagnosed at what age?
Chris10. 10.
Scott BennerOkay. So you're 48. You're 48.
ChrisMy tenth my I'm 48. Okay. My tenth birthday, I was in the hospital.
Scott BennerNo kidding.
ChrisHow does that
Scott Bennerhappen to so many people?
ChrisI don't know. Yeah. I I don't know, but I'm going back to my grandmother. My grandmother had a brother that was type one. And one evening, pretty normal day, I'm going to the refrigerator.
ChrisLet me get some water. Let me drink some water. Let go to the bathroom. And this cycle just kept going. I mean, and this I remember it almost to the tee, and I'm pretty certain that I was grabbing everything in my grandma's refrigerator to drink aside from, you know, anything like ketchup or mustard.
ChrisRight? But I'm pretty certain that I downed a, Seagram's, wine cooler too.
Scott BennerJust it not it didn't matter. Thirst was thirst.
ChrisNo. I just wanted something liquid, and she caught wind of what was going on, and she goes, you're diabetic. And I'm like, I was terrified. I I was like, I just I don't know. I feel I felt horrible.
ChrisFollowing day this was the evening. The following day, after the hospital, went and grandma was right.
Scott BennerYeah. And she knew because I'm sorry. Who in her family has it?
ChrisHer brother.
Scott BennerHer brother. And is she your father's mother?
ChrisShe is my mom's adopted mom.
Scott BennerOkay.
ChrisSo my mom my mom was adopted, from my grandmother, obviously. How that works.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. No. Yeah.
ChrisIf you you don't you don't need to be a genius figure out.
Scott BennerWe should take a left turn and explain adoption to everybody now. No. No. Anyways, I'm
ChrisThat's okay. I'm trying to fill in the pieces correctly.
Scott BennerYou're doing a good job, man. Don't worry about it. Okay. So she's your your mom's adopted mother Yes. And Her brother Wait.
ChrisWas a was a type one.
Scott BennerBut that's insane though because Mhmm. Because there's no blood connection to your grandmother's brother. Correct. Oh, so it's possible your grandmother is a totem that gives people type one diabetes. Is that what you're telling me?
ChrisThat's what it could be. Mhmm. I mean, it's possible. I don't know if I would wanna claim that.
Scott BennerI've seen the movies. I know what's going on.
ChrisRight. Well, that's
Scott Bennerwow. That's really something. Yeah. That's so I'm so glad you put that little piece in because that that was a that's an interesting little tidbit there. Okay. Yeah. So she knows what it looks like because she, you know, extensively grew up with a brother who had type one.
ChrisYep. And she knew that whole peeing and and and drinking thing.
Scott BennerYeah. And you were diagnosed, I'm gonna tell you, right around the time my buddy Mike was diagnosed. And you're you're a little younger than we are Yep. By by about six years, but still, like, the timing's there.
ChrisUh-huh.
Scott BennerThis is where your statement about it's gotten easier and harder comes in. Right? Because Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So tell people a little bit about what what it was like being diagnosed at 10, how you manage yourself early on, where you were getting your support from, if any.
Diagnosis & Early Diabetes Care in the 80s
ChrisI'm in the hospital. I'm terrified I'm gonna have to poke myself for the rest of my life with a needle because needles are all evil. And then I started you know, the nurse came in and the usual stuff, inject the orange, inject the nurse with water.
Scott BennerWait. They had you they had you inject the nurse with saline?
ChrisYep. At the time, they were really big on pinching and finding the pocket Okay. Right, for the needle to go in, which you don't really do anymore for but needles were longer and larger, and it was a syringe back then. So it was a big thing that they were teaching me on. You grab your index and your thumb and you and you pinch, and then in the middle of that pinch is a pocket.
ChrisThat's where you put the needle, and that's where the fat is, and that makes it feel the best.
Scott BennerOh, wow. Did that work?
ChrisSeem like it.
Scott BennerI'm gonna I'm gonna try it the next time I inject myself or something.
ChrisYeah. I mean, you have to be kind of at a 45 degree angle, but that makes it the easiest without going into a muscle or hitting the nerve or something like that.
Scott BennerSo this was wrapped around the fact that the needle was larger than you see now in an insulin needle?
ChrisOh, for sure. Yeah.
Scott BennerOkay. So I'm sorry. I'm gonna get stuck on this for a second. Like, they just came in
Chrisfor it.
Scott BennerYou're 10 years old. They came in the room. They're like, hey. This is Patty. Go ahead and jab this jab her with this. They're like, what? Did she lose rock, paper, scissors in the hallway or something? Like, how did how did she you know what I mean?
ChrisI have no I have no idea, but having a 10 year old with a syringe in his hand, I remember it was it was in her arm. I was in the hospital bed. She sat down, and she goes, we're gonna try this orange. This is what it's gonna feel like. Mhmm.
ChrisAnd then we're gonna inject me. And I'm like, are you are you crazy? I can't even bear to get a needle into myself, let alone, you know, what's going on here. And I remembered that they they taught me to turn it to where the edge of the needle is, you know, facing like a fish hook kind of thing. Right?
ChrisSo you then I just she drew in some saline, and I injected her with it. And I thought it was the cry was shaking. I remember I was shaking. I couldn't do it. I was crying.
Scott BennerImagine. Doesn't it add another level to it to do it to somebody else. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Scott BennerYeah. Hey. If anyone out there was a nurse at the time this was happening and let kids do this, then please reach out. I would I'd be ecstatic to speak to you on the podcast.
ChrisYeah. I think it's and I and I think it's interesting because you were blown away by it, and to me, it seemed normal.
Scott BennerNo.
ChrisYeah. But I've never heard anybody else say I've I've heard the fruit stuff.
Scott BennerBananas and oranges, usually.
ChrisYeah. Yeah. I've heard that just to get a feel for the for the skin, but, I mean, I I've never heard any nurse go. It's almost twelve. I may as well sit here.
Scott BennerGo ahead, kid. Yeah. Take your best whack at it. Like, that well, that's really something. I bet you she had a lot of problems. I just wanna say that.
ChrisWell, I don't know. It's just that was a long time ago. So
Scott BennerAnyway, okay. So you're in the hospital. This is how they're teaching you to take care of yourself. Are you Yep. What's the what's the insulin setup at diagnosis?
ChrisInsulin setup is NPH and regular. These were pork at the time, and I cannot remember my blood my decks my my glucometer at the time, but I do remember that I had to put codes in.
Scott BennerOkay.
ChrisSo the the strips you would get, you would get a machine and you would get a a strip package or actually just like a jar like they are now. Mhmm. And it would have a code on the back. But you'd have to enter that code in before it would read any of these strips in that bottle.
Scott BennerRight. Did you have to do the, the solution? My god. What did they call it? The used to have to, like, test the solution once in a while to calibrate it. Right?
ChrisYep. It was this whole this whole kit, and then in the kit that I had for that was also my
Scott BennerThe lance?
ChrisThe lance. And then I and that also too, I had the emergency
Scott BennerOh, they gave you
Chrisshot to which was down there. Yeah. It was a it it looked like something out of a horror movie. It was it was a glass syringe. It was in a red container Yeah.
ChrisAnd it had half fluid drawn in it, and I was supposed to do another thing and jam it wherever it would go.
Scott BennerIsn't that fun? And you you don't recall what that thing was you were supposed to do?
ChrisI don't remember what it was, but I remember you needed to mix it before you could use it, and it was a glass syringe, and I hated looking at it.
Scott BennerYeah. You would take the the syringe had the the fluid in. This was the the red box from Lilly. Right? So the syringe Correct.
Scott BennerIt was a big needle too.
ChrisYeah. Oh, yeah. It was a honker.
Scott BennerSo you were supposed to inject the liquid into the powder, and the powder was in a vial. Yep. And then you're supposed to spin it in your hands till it kinda constituted, then draw it back out, then find, I think, a muscle like your butt or something like that and jam that needle in and throw it in there.
ChrisYeah. And this is all while you're, you know, going through a coma or, you know, have pass out on the floor.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. This is either obviously not for you to do because you're probably having a seizure while it's happening, but some lucky person in your family trying to stay calm and doing it at the same time. I'll I'll tell you that when Arden was a few months diagnosed, this happened to us. And I
ChrisI remember I know the story.
Scott BennerYeah. I failed miserably trying to put that Lilly thing together. I'm very happy she carries those, ChivoC hypo pens around now. So Yes. Yeah.
Family Dynamics & Shifting Homes
Scott BennerAnyway okay. So this is the setup. You're scared, and and you are now home with your grandmother. And is she is she this is interesting because she's two generations away from you. So
Scott BennerIs she, like, all, you'll be fine. Good luck, or does she jump in to help? Like because I'm trying to decide if the the guilt and shame she feels about her daughter abandoning you overwhelms her generational ideas about how to take care of things.
ChrisShe dove in. She dove in. It brought I think, to be honest, Scott, it brought my mom and her mom kinda and us together again. Oh. It helped a little bit.
ChrisIt was kind of a scare. I think it my mom was terrified for me. And my grandma said, well, we got no choice. We gotta, you know, we gotta take care of them, keep them alive, so here's why we're gonna do it.
Scott BennerAnd Yeah.
ChrisShe was all for it. And I think for the most part, I stayed with her longer during most days, weekends, and trips like that just because she was there to be able to pinpoint the stuff that I haven't caught on to yet, like highs and lows.
Scott BennerWait. Wait. Your mom or your grandmother?
ChrisMy grandmother. Your grandmother. You stayed Yep.
Scott BennerWhat do you mean you stayed around longer? You you think you lived with her longer, or you hung out during the day, Mark?
ChrisI was like, my typical visits with her were longer because of the support that she was offering, and my mom didn't have a grasp on it yet.
Scott BennerAh, so make sure I understand, Chris. The the diagnosis brings your mom back into the fold. You go to live with her, but you're still spending a ton of time with your grandmother.
ChrisYeah. I'm often I mean, I'm often on with my mom just because of the fact of the diabetes and the care that my grandmother could provide when my mom couldn't at the time.
Scott BennerGotcha. I understand. And your mom was not quite as good at the that one, probably not did she ever catch up? Did you feel like? Did you ever Yes.
Scott BennerYeah.
ChrisYes. Yeah. Yeah. She caught up and, you know, having having the lows having the lows the first time in the middle of the night and having that experience where you just don't know what you don't know how to describe how you feel is really, really hard when a parent is standing over you like, what can I do?
Scott BennerYeah. No. The whole thing
Chrisis upset. You know, it's it's either a high or a low or it's just a f this. I'm tired of this already. You know?
Scott BennerYeah. Chris, I you might not have perspective for this because of your age at the time, but do you think you're being diagnosed with type one brought your back together with your mom? Like, do you think it would have happened otherwise?
Sponsor Break
Scott BennerDiabetes comes with a lot of things to remember, so it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US Med has done that for us.
Scott BennerWhen it's time for Arden's supplies to be refreshed, we get an email. Rolls up and in your inbox says, hi, Arden. This is your friendly reorder email from US Med. You open up the email. It's a big button that says click here to reorder, and you're done.
Scott BennerFinally, somebody taking away your responsibility instead of adding one. US Med has done that for us. An email arrives, we click on a link, and the next thing you know, your products are at the front door. That simple. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514.
Scott BennerI never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link. I open up a box. I put the stuff in the drawer, and we're done. US Med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGMs like the Libre three and the Dexcom g seven.
Scott BennerThey accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers, and all you have to do to get started is call (888) 721-1514 or go to my link, u s med dot com slash juice box. Using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juice Box podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by a long term CGM that's going to help you to stay on top of your glucose readings, the Eversense three sixty five. I'm talking, of course, about the world's first and only CGM that lasts for one year. One year, one CGM.
Scott BennerAre you tired of those other CGMs? The ones that give you all those problems that you didn't expect? Knocking them off, false alerts, not lasting as long as they're supposed to. If you're tired of those constant frustrations, use my link ever since cgm.com/juicebox to learn more about the Eversense three sixty five. Some of you may be able to experience the Eversense three sixty five for as low as $199 for a full year.
Scott BennerAt my link, you'll find those details and can learn about eligibility. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. Check it out.
Adulthood, Rebellion, and Rock Bottom
ChrisI think it would have happened. It was not really a lost cause. It was just a
Scott BennerShe was working stuff out.
ChrisTo be honest, Scott, she was working her ass off to to pay for me and to cover us and to make sure we were doing good and
Scott BennerSo she was out hustling I mean, how did they measure success for you back then?
ChrisI mean, obviously, I went to went to the endo quite a bit, pretty good health care where I grew up. And I remember that once I started, like I switched schools quite a bit, because my mom would move quite a bit. And then once I started trying to kind of accept the fact that I'm gonna have to live with this the rest of my life, that's when that's when things kinda turned and and life got even more complicated, I guess.
Scott BennerBecause you couldn't accept it?
ChrisI was I wasn't accepting it, and I hid it from everything because I didn't wanna get made fun of.
Scott BennerOh, okay. So I wasn't sure. Do you mean acceptance, like, doing the things you need to do?
ChrisYes. Yeah.
Scott BennerAnd on top of that, making sure no one else sees it or knows about it?
ChrisYeah. And having to be honest, having kind of a home life was difficult. So home life being difficult and a new disease and a new school here and there Yeah. It was difficult. It was difficult to get accepted and not feel like a special kid.
ChrisRight? Just because I had I had to have candy or I had to check my blood all the time or Yeah. Or, you know, there was a syringe sitting on my desk or something like that. So it was it all kinda happened relatively quickly in a time when, you know, at this time, maybe you're 11 or 12, you still don't really know everything.
Scott BennerWhen you look back now as an adult, did did you feel abandoned as a child?
ChrisYeah. Yeah. Pretty much so.
Scott BennerAnd that that sticks with you. Right? That's not a thing you work through on your own at, like, 10 to 15.
ChrisSomething I am still dealing with.
Scott BennerYeah. Do you have are you married now? Yes. You are. So I'm adopted, and my and my parents got divorced when I was 13.
ChrisK.
Scott BennerAnd when in the beginning of my marriage and even in my, like, like, dating relationships, if people got upset, I got I got really upset. So yeah. So if people look like they were arguing or upset with each other or there was any feeling of the one that took me the longest to get through was when people are disagreeing and they can't come to an agreement before they leave the room, that used to make me feel panicked. Yeah. Like, we couldn't disagree and then I'll leave because I felt like someone I don't know what I felt like, honestly.
Scott BennerBut in hindsight, I think I felt like somebody would definitely not come back if that happened. Yeah. I I anyway, stuff like that.
ChrisAnd and there's a lot of guilt too. There's a lot of, you know, why did mom and dad split up? Yeah. You know, what what what was it me? Was it because of, you know, was it this or that?
ChrisAnd that actually carries through now to this is going way forward. We'll get there eventually. But my kids that I have now are from a previous marriage. So now I'm dealing with a new me in the same situation with the stepdad, and we'll get there eventually. Yeah.
Scott BennerYeah. Okay. I gotcha.
ChrisOkay.
Scott BennerAlright.
ChrisI don't wanna I don't wanna jump too far forward,
Scott Bennerbut Look at everybody just I I like it when you guys produce when we do this. It's good. It's good. Keeps me keeps me on track. Keeps me from asking the wrong question at the wrong time.
Scott BennerI really am getting a lot of help. Also, I don't wanna brag, but I just noticed my calves were dry and moisturized them during that conversation. And Oh, good for you. I really wanna say that I I think it's possible I'm a professional at this point, because I never lost track of what you were saying or stopped being interested and was able to really take care of some dry skin.
ChrisSo No. You're like, oh, Chris is bobbing. Look at my calves.
Scott BennerThey're crazy. I was doing it at times when I was talking. I'm I'm really I'm showing off by sharing this with you, by the way,
Chrisis what
Scott Bennerthis is this is a flex for me. Right. Okay. So back to my original question, what did success look like, or were we not even worried about that? Was just standing success, or were you looking for
ChrisYeah. Getting getting through the day, getting through the shots, and that was a win for me.
Scott BennerOkay. And then does your health slip as you decide or, you know, maybe it's not a conscious decision, but you're gonna kinda put it in the background, not let people see it. You know, I had an adult say to me this weekend that I don't wanna malign any pumps, but, like, I had an adult tell me this weekend that the pump they had that they could control from their phone helped a lot with their management and their outcomes. When I asked why because I assumed they meant there was something about the algorithm or the pump or whatever that would made it better for them, they said, no. I'm, I don't have to pull the controller out now.
Scott BennerOh, yeah. I don't want people to see I'm giving myself insulin. So when I can do it with my phone, it really opened her up to being able to do it in public, which stopped her from waiting long distances of time to give herself insulin.
ChrisRight.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah.
ChrisYeah. I mean, I get that.
Scott BennerYeah. I guess you do. So what did that look like? Because how long were you doing just two shots a day before you moved up to some other you know I mean? Like, what did ignoring it look like?
Scott BennerThis episode is sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care. And today, I'm gonna tell you about Tandem's newest pumping algorithm. The Tandem Mobi system with Control IQ Plus technology features auto bolus, which can cover missed meal boluses and help prevent hyperglycemia. It has a dedicated sleep activity setting and is controlled from your personal iPhone. Tandem will help you to check your benefits today through my link, tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott BennerThis is going to help you to get started with Tandem's smallest pump yet that's powered by its best algorithm ever. Control IQ Plus technology helps to keep blood sugars in range by predicting glucose levels thirty minutes ahead, and it adjusts insulin accordingly. You can wear the Tandem Mobi in a number of ways. Wear it on body with a patch like adhesive sleeve that is sold separately, clip it discreetly to your clothing, or slip it into your pocket. Head now to my link, tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox, to check out your benefits and get started today.
ChrisI think because I had guidance and I had, you know, every three months appointments and all this and all that, it went fairly well. It wasn't really, oh, it wasn't really until probably 16 or 17 that my life changed quite a bit again, and that's when the care really started to kinda crash.
Scott BennerWhat's the change that happened to them?
ChrisAs I got older, my mom remarried. We went from kind of a we were pretty poor to the my stepdad at the time, still my stepdad now, made quite a bit of money. We moved into a nice house and went to a nice school, and everything really turned. But we my stepdad and I struggled quite a bit. And, basically, from my senior year in high school, I moved out on my own.
Scott BennerWhat was the friction point? Did you just not like him being close to your mom, or did you like you would you have trouble taking direction from him? Was there something you can pinpoint?
ChrisDirection, extremely strict and kinda came in. You know, at the time, I was 13 and kinda came in like, this is how you're gonna do it. You're gonna brush your hair this way. You're gonna tuck your shirt in. And I'm like, I don't want any of it.
ChrisI it's just not me. And my mom and I, we struggled, but we were a team. And so that being a team, you know, it might have been chicken nuggets on dinners some nights, but at least, you know what, it was a struggle, but it was a struggle with my
Scott Bennermom. K.
ChrisAnd we kinda like we bonded quite a bit, actually.
Scott BennerDid you you liked it better when you were broke?
ChrisIt seemed like it because we supported each other.
Scott BennerOkay. Did she have trouble pushing back against him? Yes. Probably because she was moving on. By the way,
Chrisdid she was moving on and happy. Yeah. Yeah. You know, she was she was happy and things were good and money wasn't a problem anymore and
Scott BennerRight. And she's singing that Jefferson song in her head probably.
ChrisRight. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Scott BennerSo she she's got a reason to and did you feel like she let you down by not sticking up for you when the hairbrushing and the shirt tucking and
Chrisall that? Yeah. When it came down to it, I was really struggling. And my diabetes started to slip, and I kinda said either him or me, and it ended up being him. So off I went.
Scott BennerWhere'd you go, Kurt? No. No. Don't be sorry. Where'd you go, and how did you how did you get insulin and all the things you needed?
ChrisSo at the time, the state I was living in, which is where I was born, you could get insulin over the counter.
Scott BennerOkay.
ChrisSo I would basically, I had a pretty good job in high school. Senior year in high school, I was working in a machine shop, so I was making pretty good money. And I could afford all my stuff. And after high school, I moved into another house to start a new job, and that's where my life turned, like, pretty much a 180 degrees. I got into some really heavy drugs
Scott BennerYeah.
ChrisAnd really stopped basically giving a shit.
Scott BennerWell, it it occurs to me that you you experienced abandonment over and over again from the same people. Yeah. Like, yeah, from, like, a younger age and then again and then it's not that I can't put myself in her position, but, like, I you know, in the end, like, I don't I'm trying to decide if you moved out to avoid the pressure for him or if you moved out to avoid the the letdown you felt when you didn't see her trying to get in the way and help you?
ChrisLike I think in my brain, it was, nobody's cared before, so I'm just gonna kinda get the hell out of here and go do what I want.
Scott BennerYeah.
ChrisAnd with that attitude, I carried it and got into some pretty bad stuff. And
Scott BennerHow long did you hold together the, like, Chris is gonna be an adult by himself game before it fell apart?
ChrisOh, not very long. I mean, I
Scott BennerI see.
ChrisYeah. I mean, it it didn't take very long at all, and the people I was around, and it was just a it was a it was as textbook as you could get as the wrong situation Yeah. For for for me. And
Scott BennerPeople you met at work who were older than you or people you met other where where did you meet these people?
ChrisPeople at a different job and someone said, hey. You know, we got this place for living in. We need help with rent, and it ended up being just an absolute just party house. And I got into some really, really heavy drugs that don't cooperate with diabetes very well.
Scott BennerCan you would you put a name to them, or are you not comfortable
Chriswith them? Methamphetamine.
Scott BennerYeah. I guess that's that that's you started with meth? That's a a hell of a leaping endpoint.
ChrisPretty pretty much I did. Yeah. I didn't really drink or do any drugs in in, like, you know, high school or anything after and kinda went right to that because it seemed like the answer, and it took all the pain away.
Scott BennerOkay. That's why I was gonna ask you, what did it do for you?
ChrisYeah. It made me forget about the situation that I was in.
Scott BennerOkay. Did you have a girlfriend?
ChrisI had often on girlfriends at the time. A lot of lot of friends through school, but, at that time, I did not know.
Scott BennerBecause you're a father now. Right? Uh-huh. Is there any hindsight at all that you have? Like, what besides I guess this is tough because I think the hindsight is your mom should've stuck up for it and you would've been okay.
Scott BennerBut, like, like, after you were on your own, like, is there a moment or something you could've done, or are you at the whim of the of the current at that point?
ChrisYeah. I'm pretty much just whatever will
Scott Bennergo and Okay.
ChrisOh, that made a lot of things difficult. Obviously, the some of the drawbacks is you don't eat. So my blood sugar, I had no clue what it was. I didn't check it. I wasn't doing shots like I should have.
ChrisAnd Can I ask
Scott Bennera hard question?
ChrisAlright. Go for
Scott Bennerit. In that situation, you're not managing your type one. You understand the impacts of not managing your type one at that point? Yeah.
ChrisProb at that point, yeah, but I didn't care.
Scott BennerOkay. And math is, you know, is I mean, it's a pretty big swing. Yeah. So if you're not connected with your mother, your father's absent Yep. You're doing meth and not taking care of your diabetes, this is the hard question.
Scott BennerDay to day, what's the point of your existence? Like, I don't mean I don't do you understand what I'm saying? Like like, what what is what is it you're doing? Is it are you just functioning going from, like, numbing thing to numbing because you're going to work. You gotta make money.
Scott BennerRight?
ChrisUh-huh. Yeah.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. I'm I'm asking where did you I guess I'm asking what did you think you were doing when you had time to think about it, or was there no ability to think about it?
ChrisI don't think I was thinking, Scott. I think I was just I think I was I was so in the fog that I just stayed in it.
Scott BennerI see. High blood sugar is on top of the drugs too, probably. I mean Spacey.
ChrisVery high blood sugar. I remember there's times where I would you know, obviously, when you get super high and DKA starts to hit, you start to puke on yourself. And I remember that I wasn't eating, and I wasn't doing my shot. But I'm like, well, I'm not eating, so I must be okay. And I wasn't.
Scott BennerYou weren't doing And basil even?
ChrisWell, so this was still my regular and
Scott BennerOh, you're still regular in NPH at that point.
ChrisOh, yeah. I was regular in NPH, Scott, until 2015. Get the
Scott Bennerout of here. Seriously? Yep.
ChrisI'm dead serious.
Scott BennerHoly damn. Look at you. You're a time traveler.
ChrisYeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. I just well, yeah.
ChrisOnce again, you could buy insulin over the counter. I struggled through jobs as I grew up, but we're gonna I don't wanna skip ahead. So So in so in this whole deal, speed up a little bit. January 1, we go out on a party.
A Wake-Up Call and Returning to Family
ChrisI remember we went somewhere. The whole group, everybody was doing all the same crap. So everybody's, you know, did the same crap. And the next morning, that was January sorry. That was January's December 31.
ChrisJanuary 1, I woke up in the ER with a catheter and stuff hooked up to me, and I basically was unresponsive for fourteen seconds, they said.
Scott BennerOh my gosh.
ChrisSo my party friends dumped me off at the front door, and they saved me. My blood sugar was 900 when they dropped me off, and DKA had already came in and presented itself. Yes. And that was what we call a wake up call.
Scott BennerYeah. I was gonna say,
Chrisis is that is
Scott Bennerthat the moment where you go, oh, maybe I should try to stay alive a little harder?
ChrisYeah. I think yeah. I think, and that scared the that scared the me.
Scott BennerI really did. That. The catheter, if nothing else.
ChrisYeah. Jesus. Yeah. God. I can't.
Scott BennerI have to imagine there's a moment when you've you've regained some clarity and you go, oh, there's a tube in my penis. I wonder how that got
Christhere. Yeah. I wonder and how are they gonna get it out of
Scott Bennerthere? Yeah. Oh. And then you're looking around the room, you're like, which one of these people did that? No.
Scott BennerNo. No. I I I imagine. Yeah. So were you high at that time or just in DKA or both?
ChrisWell, it was died. Everything's pretty much worn off by then, so it was d DKA that took me down.
Scott BennerI see. Okay. Once you realize there's something to do, you're locked into where you live. Like, how do that's a lot of change to make all at once. I mean Yeah.
ChrisYou know what I mean? That's where that's where my father comes in.
Scott BennerMy dad Not mister Jefferson. The the Not
Chrisnot mister Jefferson. This is
Scott Bennermy real dad. Okay. Okay.
ChrisHe was, back in town, I heard, and I've always remembered his phone number. I called him and basically confessed. I said, dad, this is what happened. This is where I'm at. You have to come and get me out of here.
ChrisAnd that's what he did.
Scott BennerWow. No kidding. How long did it have been since you seen
Chrishim? Oh, three to four three years.
Scott BennerNo kidding. And Yeah. No no judgment? Just came and got you?
ChrisNo judgment at all.
Scott BennerDoes he have a similar background to yours? Could he understand your plight, or is this just good?
ChrisHe no. He he didn't, but he understood the situation.
Scott BennerOkay.
ChrisAnd like I said, I was straight up with him. I said that I I messed up big time. I I don't wanna be in there anymore. If you don't come and get me, I'm gonna go right back there.
Scott BennerYeah. And tell me one more time. Your dad not a partier? Not a nothing he wasn't like that guy?
ChrisNo. Uh-uh. Not like that at all.
Scott BennerOkay. Alright. I have a tiny bit of well, I've I've a lot of knowledge about not seeing my dad for a long time and then going to see him again, and it's an uncomfortable moment for him,
Chrisfor you. Tough.
Scott BennerYeah. For everybody. Because everyone is either hurt or embarrassed or some mix of that. You know?
ChrisAnd Or angry.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. Yeah. All trust me. I think we could sit down and write down emotions for twenty minutes, and I'd go, yeah.
Scott BennerThat one too. Yep. So Mhmm. So so that all gets overcome because he realizes you're in actual trouble. Do you live with him then?
Scott BennerYes. Wow. How long did you
Chrislive with him for? I lived with him for a couple years, and then I moved on and went to some school for some mechanic, like car mechanic stuff Mhmm. Where that ended up taking me to my next venture of traveling around the world racing cars.
Scott BennerOkay. Well, real quick, though. In those years you lived with your father Uh-huh. Do you guys ever talk about where he was? Because, I mean, he's did he mature?
Scott BennerLike, why was he able to be a dad then, I guess, is my question.
ChrisI think it woke both of us up. Okay. I think I think it was a ton of a kind of a, like, this has to happen, and it's going to happen, and we're gonna make the best of it, and we did.
Scott BennerDid you start talking to your mom more again or no? Was you and
Chrisyour dad? I was talking to my mom off and on, but it was still pretty negative because there wasn't much reach out after I left.
Scott BennerYeah. Well, if you had a nicer house, if she could've lived with you, then she might have been nicer to you. Have you let any of that go, by the way, as an adult? How much therapy do you do exactly?
ChrisWell, we have up to Thanksgiving of last year, my mom and I, let it all out, and we are now perfect.
Scott BennerOh, good for you.
ChrisSo it's but it's taken that long, Scott. Like, it's been
Scott BennerYeah. No. I understand.
ChrisYou know, it's been from the time that I was in high school to yeah. We spoke a little bit here and there. My grandmother ended up passing. I heard about that. But, like, we haven't really thrown it out there to what actually did all this until last year.
ChrisChris, I have to
Scott Bennertell you something. In thirty three minutes of talking, I've just been trying to act as a, you know, as the person kinda getting your story from you. I haven't felt sad yet even though you said a lot of sad things until you said, I learned of my grandmother's passing.
ChrisUh-huh.
Scott BennerThat made me sad.
ChrisYeah. That's that was a rough one. She was, she got dementia really bad and that was it. But
Scott BennerI don't even mean that she died. I mean that she died and you were unaware that she died. Yeah. That's the part that made me sad.
ChrisYeah. That that did suck.
Scott BennerYeah. Jesus. You okay? Is he already talking about all this?
ChrisYeah. I'm fine. I I expected it to. I'm just trying to make sure I don't jump around too much. So
Scott BennerYeah. No. I just want people to real like, sometimes I get back from people, like, they didn't wanna talk about that. I'm like, listen. I didn't make them come on the podcast.
ChrisNo. I I I mean, a lot of this has to do with what we're here for. So, I mean
Scott BennerYou know? No. I know. I imagine your whole lead up is gonna is gonna is gonna crescendo in a in a pretty interesting way. So, my god.
Professional Racing Career
Scott BennerWait a minute. So you're racing
Chriswhat are you what are
Scott Benneryou racing? Like, little quarters, dirt track? What are you guys doing?
ChrisNo. Sports car. So twenty four hour, twelve hour stuff.
Scott BennerOh, wow.
ChrisAll the way from all over the country to France to Italy, Germany, all that kind of stuff. And that took me through my career from, let's see, the pretty much the year of 2000 all the way to '14, 2014.
Scott BennerYou're a mechanic on a crew? Are you driving? Or what do you do?
ChrisYeah. A crew, over the wall tires and and all that kind of stuff, and I loved it.
Scott BennerOh, let me ask you a question.
ChrisK.
Scott BennerHow much did you enjoy the movie Ford versus Ferrari?
ChrisSo it's kinda funny. I used to work for one of those teams and ended up working for one of the other teams, and that Ford versus Ferrari situation kind of, happened again in 2016 in France. So it kinda relived it, and I worked for both companies that were part of that.
Scott BennerNo kidding. I can't tell if I just love that movie or if I love Matt Damon more than I think I do.
ChrisIt's it's a good they did a really good job. Okay. They did a really good job on that movie.
Scott BennerSo here's the question. If I only let you watch one again, Ford versus Ferrari or the f one film with Brad Pitt, which do you choose?
ChrisI think that if we're gonna go with the reality basis and the history of it, Ford versus Ferrari for sure.
Scott BennerYeah. I didn't not like f one, but at some point, I thought this is going on forever, and it feels a little fantastical. I like and I wanted it to be a little more real.
ChrisI mean, yeah. And I don't think that a 48 or 40 or 50 year old guy with suntan, wrinkled skin can jump into a Formula one car and do
Scott BennerYou think he'd drive eight feet and go right into a turn. Right?
ChrisYeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mean, there's a lot going on there.
ChrisSo either way
Scott BennerI'm just gonna admit that I'm 54, and there are times I'm completely with it. Okay? And I'm probably as healthy as I've ever been in my life. And there are some times when you're on the road where you think, like, I was a little better at this when I was younger.
ChrisExactly. Yeah.
Scott BennerSo yeah. And I'm not going, however, hundreds of miles. Right. Yeah. Feeling every pebble on the road as the car is dancing over the air.
ChrisRight.
Scott BennerBut, anyway, I'm sorry. So that's our well, that's a really interesting life. Now during that life, are you married? Do you have kids during that time? Are you drug
Chrisare you drug free? Yes. But alcohol started taking over because that kind of flows when you start winning.
Scott BennerOh, the part the party picks back up and
Christhings are going well. The I started drinking quite a bit. Nothing out of control, but more to where it was really starting to affect my diabetes quite a bit. Okay.
Scott BennerIs that a thing you got under control again?
ChrisYes. You did? Yes. Yeah.
Scott BennerWould you consider yourself an alcoholic or no?
ChrisNo. It was just too easy.
Scott BennerIt's all always there.
ChrisIt was always there. It's like you you go out, you work all day getting everything ready, and then you go out and have a beer. And then, oh, look at these there's other teams here. Okay. Let's hang out with them.
ChrisAnd then, oh, then, and then you lose, and then you hate each other, and then you love each other, and then it's just it's just a cycle, and it was kinda starting to take over I see. Quite a bit.
Scott BennerSomebody have to step in and help you, or did you figure it out for yourself?
ChrisNo. I figured it out for myself.
Scott BennerOkay. Any AA or anything like that?
ChrisOr No. Nothing like that. No.
Scott BennerJust you just were like, I'm gonna stop drinking now. This is not Yeah.
ChrisI'm just gonna I'm gonna yeah. Okay. So that lifestyle, it was difficult doing shots in a porta potty in the middle of the night, but, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Scott BennerThat's where you're doing your insulin? Yeah. Because wait. Because, Chris, are you still hiding it at that point?
ChrisI'm not hiding it, but the races would go the twenty four hour races would go to the following day.
Scott BennerAnd you're just looking for a place to be And I
Chrisand I'm just looking for a quiet place where I can I have a suit on, so I have to unzip the suit and get the belly out and do all that kind of stuff? And I didn't wanna do that right in front of somebody. So That's what I would be doing.
Scott BennerI gotta tell you, get the belly out is the most descriptive thing anybody said to me all week so far. Yeah. Well yeah. It's like you had to present it to the world so that you could get it.
ChrisWell, yeah. They you wear these suits and you're pretty much shoehorned in this thing. You know, it's like a
Scott BennerYeah.
ChrisYou're getting they're pretty snug. So trying to get the zipper actually zips from the bottom up, you know, or top down, whatever you wanna do. So you get the bottom when you zip it up and get the belly out and just enough skin and off it goes.
Scott BennerAre they fire suits? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
ChrisYeah. No mechs.
Scott BennerBut you're still a regular on Miles per hour though. Right?
ChrisYes.
Scott BennerOh, wow.
ChrisSure am.
Scott BennerWhat are your do you know a one c's? Like, what's the level of health care for you during that time?
ChrisDuring that time, it was it was okay. I was getting my a one c's done. I was running about seven or eight. Okay. Not the best control, but I knew it.
ChrisI mean, I I I would I wanted to make sure that my blood sugar was a little on the higher side because when we're doing pit stops, I wanted to make sure that
Scott BennerYou don't wanna get low.
ChrisI don't wanna get low because that's I feel like of one of the k two cases, I can at least get my job done if my blood sugar is a little on the higher side than it is if it's low.
Scott BennerOkay. And what would management to lower have meant to you? Would it have meant more insulin, or would it have meant different eating? Both. Both would have helped that.
ChrisYeah. Both would have helped that. And to be honest, at that time, I was so in the gray about insulin. I had no idea. I mean, I just was like, this is what you do.
ChrisYou get this foggy stuff, and you get this stuff. And
Scott Benneroh, you don't have a functional idea of what all this is doing. It's just
ChrisI know what it's doing, but I haven't I haven't updated anything. Just still cruising right along with the same scenario.
Scott BennerWhatever your shots used to be is what they are now, and you're you're not thinking about it. I mean, you understand functionally what it does, but you're not you're not looking at an outcome and saying, oh, had I just done this, then this might have gone differently.
ChrisCorrect.
Scott BennerI gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Alright. 2015 is when you got a faster acting insulin?
ChrisIs that what you're when I got so my health care has never been with racing, you don't have your you're a contract employee.
Scott BennerMhmm.
ChrisSo you don't have any kind of health care, and everything you do for health care for is kinda up to you. The third party health care for a type one is is insanely expensive.
Scott BennerRight. So that's part of why you stayed with that insulin. Right?
ChrisStayed with the insulin because I could go anywhere and buy it over the counter.
Scott BennerYeah. But you weren't using a CGM during that time?
ChrisNope. I had my Dexcom that I'm wearing now was started in 2019. Wow. My goodness. Yeah.
ChrisYeah.
Scott BennerI bet you the first four years without the CGM were probably a rocky start, right, to figure out. Yeah.
ChrisYeah. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Trying to figure out this and that.
ChrisI was obviously still sticking my finger, but, boy, it sucked because I wasn't to be fair, I wasn't really doing it. You know, I when I got on my own and I didn't care about anything anymore, the last thing I was gonna do is poke my finger.
Scott BennerYeah. Well, that pivot from regular and Miles per hour later in life to a faster acting insulin, you know, long acting that stuff, most of your knowledge doesn't transfer to the new idea. And No. That's Not
Chrisat all.
Scott BennerThat really is what I noticed when I talk to people over and over again is that they were they have diabetes and they take insulin. But when you switch them to, you know, I don't know, Humalog and, you know, something like that, then they don't know what they're doing. They start over again as a person who feels like they have twenty years of experience without any of the knowledge that goes along with it.
ChrisRight. Yeah. Exactly. Wow.
Transitioning to a Normal Life
Scott BennerOkay. So I'm sorry. The the racing thing, when that ends Yep. Why does it end, and where do you go next?
ChrisSo it ended basically around COVID. It got really, really difficult to do anything, obviously. Right? Racing is kinda like a it's a it's an extra thing. Right?
ChrisIt doesn't have to happen. It's all extra money that, you know, I used to call it April 15 racing because a lot of it, you know, is tax Tax tax and all that kind of stuff. And I had a really good friend of mine that I had kept in touch with who is my wife now. I moved to another state when I started racing and stayed where I am now, we'll just call it the South. Mhmm.
ChrisMet this lady when I first moved here, and we stayed in contact. She got married again, had some children, and it went really sour. And that's when, basically, I was tired of racing. I got tired of the hotels. I got tired of the suitcases.
ChrisI got tired of the horrible breakfast in the morning. Just all of the typical things of travel. And her kids said, you know what? We like seeing you on TV, but if you were here, it would be better. And that's all it took.
Scott BennerThat's nice. Look at that. Look at that.
ChrisYeah. You
Scott Bennerjust went into a I mean, that's a pretty big shift from your story to just a regular, like, I'm gonna live here all the time life.
ChrisIt but but, I mean, it's yeah, Scott. I mean, I lived out of a suitcase, single life, all the way until 2018.
Scott BennerYeah. Wow. That is not that long ago.
ChrisI know.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and how was the transition to being a normie? How did that go?
Outro & Sponsors
Scott BennerThis episode was too good to cut anything out of, but too long to make just one episode. So this is part one. Make sure you go find part two right now. It's gonna be the next episode in your feed. Today's episode of the Juice Box podcast was sponsored by the new Tandem Mobi system and Control IQ Plus technology.
Scott BennerLearn more and get started today at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. Check it out. The conversation you just enjoyed was brought to you by US Med. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Get started today and get your supplies from US Med.
Scott BennerToday's episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five. You can experience the Eversense three sixty five CGM system for as low as $199 for a full year. Visit eversincecgm.com/juicebox for more details and eligibility. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast.
Scott BennerIf you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend. And if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card?
Scott BennerIf you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juice Box podcast private Facebook group. Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome. Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook.
Scott BennerIf you have a podcast and you need a fantastic editor, you want Rob from Wrong Way Recording. Listen. Truth be told, I'm, like, 20% smarter when Rob edits me. He takes out all the, like, gaps of time and when I go, and stuff like that. And it just I don't know, man.
Scott BennerLike, I listen back and I'm like, why do I sound smarter? And then I remember because I did one smart thing. I hired Rob at wrongwayrecording.com.