#1915 Island in the Sun
Island in the Sun
Eloise was diagnosed in DKA at seven, with a blood sugar of 750, while her family was between insurance plans. Her mom Eden talks about the bill, a school with no nurse, and finding her limit.
Jump to a moment
- A late diagnosis can hide behind an ordinary busy season. Eloise was losing weight, wetting the bed, drinking constantly, and had turned irritable — and the family read it as a seven-year-old going through a phase during travel-baseball season. Eden’s mother, a nurse, was the one who said out loud that the child looked unwell. Eden texted her husband “I think she has type one diabetes” before anyone confirmed it, and still hoped the hospital would say something else.
- Knowing type 1 up close is not the same as being able to see it. Eden’s husband grew up with a father who has type 1, and was a Navy corpsman and a medical lab technician — and by Eden’s account he was in denial right up until the fire station’s meter read error. She frames it as fear rather than ignorance: he had watched his dad seize and could not accept it happening to his daughter.
- The financial hit landed in a thirty-day insurance gap. The family changed jobs and gambled on a month without coverage; Eloise was diagnosed inside it. After applying for hospital financial assistance they were still left owing tens of thousands for a stay of under twenty-four hours, and retroactive COBRA would have cost more while disqualifying them from that assistance. Eden’s point is simply that this arrives overnight, with no warning and no good option.
- A school with no nurse pushed the whole load onto one parent. Eden teaches at the school two days a week and drives there the other three to give lunch insulin, and says plainly that she is reaching her limit. Scott’s suggestion on tape: use the summer to move all of Eloise’s bolusing to text message even when they are together, so there is a written record and the child builds confidence before the next school year. Anything involving doses belongs to your own care team.
- Comparison is the tax, and Eden names it. Predatory DMs arrived within forty-eight hours of the diagnosis post; a family friend could not work out why the sensor had moved arms; a neighbour assumed a college diagnosis meant the young man had not taken care of himself. Eden also describes the quieter version — measuring her parenting against other type 1 parents online — and Scott’s answer is that no one else has to live your family’s day, so their opinion cannot be a factor in your decisions.
- Eversense 365 — The one-year-wear CGM; sponsor of this episode.
- twiist — The twiist AID system powered by Tidepool; sponsor of this episode. Note the spelling has two i's.
- Bold Beginnings series — The newly diagnosed series — where Eden started, and what she found in the ER.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — Insulin timing and amount, basal, corrections, and variables.
- Small Sips series — Short episodes for the newly diagnosed; the series Scott references inside his 21-day practice.
- Mental Wellness series — Episodes with therapist Erika Forsyth on caregiver anxiety, guilt, and burnout.
- Juicebox Podcast Facebook group — The private community Scott mentions at the close — 86,000 members and everyone is welcome.
Every word of the conversation
Welcome & Sponsors0:07
Hello, friends, and welcome back to the juice box podcast. If you don't love today's episode, we can have your money back.
Hi. My name is Eden. I'm from Greenville, South Carolina, and I am a mom to three. And my eight year old, Eloise, also known as Weasy, is living with type one diabetes.
You should not, in any way, shape, or form, take anything you hear on the Juice Box podcast. As medical advice, I'm talking about medical advice, regular advice, any kind of advice. This is a podcast. 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.
I cannot stress that enough. Today, we've got a great podcast, and it's sponsored by great advertisers, US Med, the Eversense three sixty five, and Twist. You know about Twist? It's an insulin pump. I'll tell you all about it in a I'm having an on body vibe alert.
This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five, the only one year wear CGM. That is one insertion and one CGM a year. One CGM, one year, not every ten or fourteen days ever since cgm.com/juicebox. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by the Twist AID system powered by Tidepool that features the Twist loop algorithm, which you can target to a glucose level as low as 87. Wanna learn more?
Go to visit.twist.com/juicebox. That's visit.twist.com/juicebox, and Twist has two i's. Understand? Twiist.com. Visit .twist.com/juicebox.
Hey. US Med is a longtime sponsor of the podcast. It's where we get our diabetes supplies from. You could as well. Usmed.com/juicebox, or you can call (888) 721-1514.
US Med, that's where my daughter gets your supplies. Use the link or the number. Get your free benefits check today and get started with US Med.
Meet Eden and Weezy2:23
Hi. My name is Eden. I'm from Greenville, South Carolina, and I am a mom to three. And my eight year old, Eloise, also known as Weasy, is living with type one diabetes.
God bless you. Let me call this episode moving on up if you just say one heartfelt thing. That's right. Oh, gosh. You call her Wheezy?
That's awesome.
We call her Wheezy. We were like no nicknames before she was born, and yet here we are. We call her Wheezy or Weezer.
Weezer's awesome. Hey. She doesn't have, like, like, breathing issues. No asthma. No asthma.
I knew that was coming.
Well, I mean, that would be rude is what I'm saying.
No. No. No. We just live in the South, and Wheezy and Weezer is easy.
That's awesome. Weezer, I think, with an accent, must be an amazing nickname.
I feel like I don't have a crazy southern accent, but then, you know, I had these people who are around me who were like, Weezer. Come on, Weezer. Come on, Weezer.
Well, yeah, you're not all the way there. I hear you tail off a little bit, but you're not thick like that in the middle. But I I'm just imagining people in the grocery store calling her, like, oh, it's awesome. Look. There she is.
It's Weiser. That must be amazing. No disrespect. I think that would be fantastic. Okay.
So wait a minute. You got three kids. You're married. Right?
Yes.
How old are the kids again?
They are 12 12, nine, and eight.
12, nine, eight. Which one has type one?
Eloise is the youngest, eight year old.
Eight year old. Okay. Any other autoimmune in the family?
Unfortunately, yes. So I have Hashimoto's. My mom has Grays. My mom has psoriasis, and then my husband's father has type one diabetes also.
Woah. Woah. Yeah. This was always gonna happen.
Yeah.
Yeah. Look at you. Did you know any of this going in? Like, when you got how long you've been married?
We have been married for about twelve years this no. Thirteen years of September.
Okay. When you're dating and and hooking up and getting ready to get married, do you does anybody say, like, oh, I have Hashimoto's and you're not thinking about any of that. Right?
Absolutely not. Like, I knew my husband's dad had diabetes, but I didn't even know what kind of diabetes he had. Like, I always joke. I'm like, so you brought diabetes to the marriage.
Listen. I'll tell you right now. If you're out there dating and your boyfriend or girlfriend can't make it from the restaurant to home without looking for a toilet and you have autoimmune, I'd skip it if I was you.
That's right. Think think again. Try again.
I'll tell you what. My dating app would look way different than other people's
That's exactly right.
I'd be like, you have eczema behind your ear? Sorry. My my grandmother has Hashimoto's. We're not doing this.
Swipe left. Swipe left or whatever it is. Tinder was before my time. Swipe the way that you don't want them.
I don't know which way I would I don't understand the swiping either.
I don't either. It was before my time. My husband and I met before online dating was really a thing. We were he was in the navy and I was in the air force, and we were just like, hey. You're a cool guy.
You're a cool girl, and here we are.
Wait. He was in the Navy, and you were in the Air Force too. Did you land a plane on his boat? Is that how you meet, or what what how do
you meet? Absolutely not. We were just going to get physicals, and he actually was telling me about his 100 pound weight loss before he joined the navy. And I was like, okay. Well, this guy, he's, like, he's ambitious.
So But he's definitely not hitting on me because
Absolutely not.
It's not a thing you usually lead with. Hey. Do you know I used to weigh much more than this?
That's right. That's what that's exactly what he led with. But yeah. So he his dad had type one, and I Alex, I didn't even know I didn't even know the difference. I just knew his dad had diabetes.
Mhmm.
And, you know, hindsight's always twenty twenty. Even, like, the first few years we were married, he obviously, his life revolved around type one, and he is old school. He's he's 54, 55 now. I remember, like, he had his syringe and his his vial. I'm sorry.
His vial of insulin and his his syringe, and he carried them everywhere. No pump, no CGM, nothing like that. And I was just I didn't even, like, put two and two together that it was insulin. Like, I had no idea.
You're freaking me out. Your father in law's my age. How old are you?
I am 35, and my husband's 33.
Wait. Oh, thirty three forty three. Wow. Okay. So your father-in-law had your husband when he was, like, 20?
Yeah. They were they were young'uns.
I gotta tell you that.
Got started early. We have a middle schooler, and my husband's 33. Weird.
I gotta tell you that makes me feel a lot better because I felt very old for a half a second. I was like, wait a minute. Because you don't feel like you're that much younger than me, but are you? And then okay. Alright.
I feel better now. So you so you're aware now. You're dating and you're aware of the of the father-in-law and his diabetes, but he makes it look a little bit like you just have this with you and this needle and pop yourself some insulin once in a while.
Yeah. I just kinda just didn't really think much about it. I mean, we go on, like, vacations with them and, you know, I he his management style, I think, is is different than than how we manage our daughters. And, you know, I he had a couple seizures and things like that. And I was kinda like, oh, that's probably not good, but didn't really piece together that it was because of the diabetes.
Like, I was just like, oh.
He's like he's like, draw it up, jamming, and let's go. We'll see what happens.
Yeah. Just didn't really think anything, which hindsight, you know, I'm like, man, I I really should've I should've learned more earlier, and I should've maybe taken it a little bit serious more serious because our daughter, you know, fully was in DKA when she was diagnosed.
Okay. Did you notice, like I mean, did your did your husband see any of the signs, or how did you figure it out?
I think I think he did, but I think he was in major denial. You know, his dad was a single dad growing up, and and he really saw the rough side of diabetes. You know, saw him have several seizures as a kid and saw how difficult it was for him to manage. And even my my husband was a corpsman in the navy, so like a medic. And when our daughter was diagnosed, he was a medical lab technician.
So, you know, he knew all of it, but just kinda still didn't put it together.
Have you guys talked about that since then?
Not really. You know, it's it's only been a year and a half since
I had to communicate. You really, he needs much better. Not. Just Let him have his feel let him have his feelings. Look at
I do sometimes, like, send a screenshot, and I'm like, remember this text message I sent you? Remember this where I said, I think my daughter has diabetes?
Is that how you fight me?
Sometimes. Yes. He is the nicest guy you'll ever meet in your life, and I'm probably not the nicest person ever. So I'll about to remember this.
I have a saying. I and I believe this to be true that my wife is still mad at me for the first thing that I did wrong to her.
Absolutely. You can never forget that.
And I don't know what it is, I guarantee she doesn't either. But I know she's still mad about it.
You have to you have to remain mad about all the things and then bring them up, you know, when the time presents.
I just love you with, like, digital receipts, sending screenshots to people.
A 100%. No. I No. No.
I'd Feel like a 13 year old arguing with their friends.
Absolutely. I'm like, I have the receipts right here. I have the receipts.
Hey. You're not in charge of any of the rockets or anything like that, are you, on the planes?
No. I'm not in the air force anymore. I've been out for nine years since our since I got pregnant with our middle son.
Okay.
No. So I teach preschool now. So
They don't love you pregnant in the air force? That that it's not not helpful.
It wasn't wasn't really a great situation. I always say if the if the if the military wanted you to have a family, they would have issued you one. So both of us being in was a little a little tricky. And, I mean, again, hindsight is always twenty twenty because if I was a working parent and I had a child with type one and three kids and I was my ADHD self, it would be terrible. Like, the blood sugar would be horrible.
It'd be awful.
Diabetes, as you know, comes with a lot of things to remember. So it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. US Med has done that for us. When it's time for Arden's supplies to be refreshed, we get an email. Email just rolls up in my inbox.
It's like, hey. This is, you know, time for your supply order. I don't exactly know what it says. I open the email. There's a big button.
I click on it. I reorder, and I'm done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. And boy, oh, boy, has US Med done that for us. An email arrives.
We click 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. I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link, I open up a box, I put the stuff in a drawer, and we're done.
US Med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGMs like Libre three and the Dexcom g seven. They accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers, and all you have to do to get started is call that number, (888) 721-1514, or use my link, usmed.com/juicebox. Using that number or that link helps to support the production of the juice box podcast. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five. Get 300 and get three hundred and sixty five days of comfortable wear without having to change the sensor.
When you think of a continuous glucose monitor, you think of a CGM that last ten or fourteen days. But with the Eversense three sixty five, it lives up to its name, lasting three hundred and sixty five days. That's one year without having to change your CGM. With the Eversense three sixty five, you can count on comfort and consistency 365 a year because the Eversense silicone based adhesive is designed for your skin to be gentle and to allow you to take the transmitter on and off to enjoy your shower, a trip to the pool, or any activity where you don't want your CGM on your body. If you're looking for comfort, accuracy, and a one year wear, you are looking for Eversense three sixty five.
Go to Eversense c g m dot com slash juice box to learn more.
The Symptoms That Snuck Up12:11
Teaching preschool two days a week is is a much better fit.
You have ADHD as well?
I would guess. I would guess. You're formally diagnosed, but I would guess.
Are you anxious?
For sure.
Yeah. For sure. But I
don't know how much of that is from the diabetes, like, just not from me having diabetes, but from watching like, it's definitely gotten worse since her diagnosis.
It has.
But yeah. I mean, diagnosis wise, going back to her diagnosis story, it was it kinda snuck up on us. You know, she was losing so much weight, and that was kind of my first. She's tiny anyways. Like, she's eight now and maybe weighs, like, like, fifty pounds.
So she's she's tiny. But I noticed she was losing weight, wetting the bed, you know, the classic symptoms, drinking excess water.
Mhmm.
She was super irritable. Like, she was kind of she was getting a bit annoying the summer leading up to it. And, we were kind of like, is this because we have two boys, and then it's our first girl. And I'm like, is this how girls are? Like, I remember my sister being like, she's really bratty.
About you? Or or no. About your daughter? Your sister pulled you aside and said, hey. Your kid's a problem?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. We're we're just like that. You know? It's so it's just like, she's kind of, like, getting super bratty.
And I was like, yeah. You know, she really is. And all these things were just adding up. And conveniently, we were between insurance at the time. My husband had had taken a new job and it's gonna be, like, thirty days in between, and we're like, it'll be fine.
Like, the worst that happens is, like, one of the boys breaks their arm or something. It'll be fine. We did not expect a picky visit.
And that's something But that but that is Yeah. Just really is how things work.
Yeah. Murphy's Law. But we we had to see my parents in a couple weeks. My mom is a nurse, and we go to a football game where my son's playing football and and Eloise is cheering. And my mom was like she kinda looked at me and she was like, she looks really bad.
He didn't like, you know, you need to you need to take her in. She her analogy was that she looked like Bella from Twilight whenever she was, like, really sick.
Honey, get out in the sun. What what's going on? Hey. She was actually
doing good.
Can I can can I ask you, how's your relationship with your mom? How'd you take that when she said the kid didn't look good? Do you take it as helpful, or do you think that she's sticking her nose into your business?
We're we're we're super close. I took her to help look in. She's a she's a nurse. She's a mom of four, a grandmother of eight. So I was like, she probably means well.
Also, you know, most of my family's in health care, and they're they're usually pretty spot on. But I think all of us were still really in denial that it was type one.
Okay. So when your mom tells you, hey. The kid don't look right. And at that point, does your husband have an inkling? And has he shared it with you yet?
No. I I had texted him the night before. He was working, night shift. And I said, I just like, something's just this isn't right. And she was having UTIs, constipation, all these things.
And I said, I'm gonna go to CVS and buy a glucometer. Mhmm. I go to CVS and I'm like, I'm not spending $40 on a glucometer. Like, of course, you know, so I'm like, I'm good. I go back home and I again, I have the receipts where I texted him.
And I said, I think she has type one diabetes. And, he's like, no. It's it's anything else. It's not type one. But my mom is
like You think he just didn't want it to be. Right?
Absolutely. I think he would he just was like, I cannot handle you know, I've I've seen this with my dad. I cannot have a child with type one as well.
And your mom what did your mom say? Your mom backed it up?
Yeah. She was like, no. I think she was begging for a Fanta at this football game. She's cheering and she's begging us for a Fanta, probably because she was so thirsty. And we're like, sure.
You can have a Fanta, which is like, I don't know, 50 carbs. We give it to her and, you know, just looking at her, she looked terrible. So we we she cheers the football game. We give her fruit snacks at the end of the football game
Mhmm.
And we go home. And then at, like, 10PM, my or my mom, before we left, she was like, my dad has type two diabetes. So my mom's like, take your dad's glucometer. I think you should test her blood sugar. And I was like, well, that's a waste.
It's not her blood sugar, but whatever. So we go home, we stick the finger, and it just reads error. And I text my mom, like, this is a bad glucometer. It's broken. But I see this look on my husband's face, like, oh, this is not Mhmm.
This ain't good. So I don't for whatever reason, we're my brother-in-law is a firefighter. We're like, let's go over to the fire department, use their glucometer. We get there. They took the finger, and the fireman's like, is she again, we're in the South.
Bless his heart. He's like, is she afraid of of needles? Can I stick her finger? And I'm like, yeah. She's sick.
Of course, she's afraid of needles, but sure. You know, let's test the blood sugar.
I haven't met anybody who looks at a needle and goes, oh, awesome.
Right. So I was like, okay. So their glucometer just retie. And I I in that moment, that was the moment, like, I see on my husband's face, like, he knew. He a 100% knew.
The ER, and a Blood Sugar of 75017:00
So we go to the ER, and I'm I'm still, like, in denial. I'm still texting with, like, my mom, and I'm like, could this be anything else? You know, trying to convince myself. And finally, on the way there, my I I look at my husband, and I'm like, if you saw a patient like this, they have these symptoms, blood sugar's reading high, what would you say? And he just, like, looked at me on the way there and he was like, she has type one diabetes.
Yeah.
And, I still thought, oh, we'll get to the hospital. They'll tell us something else. So we get there. We, you know, we do a little triage and everything and ER doc comes in and she's like, how long has she had diabetes? Like
About twenty minutes? Since now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So blood sugar was seven fifty. I didn't even realize she was as sick as she was. You know? I I I like, I can't even look back at her labs because they're so bad.
How
about visually? How much different did she look a week later?
Oh my gosh. Just night and day. Like, she looked horrible. And now that I look back, like, she looked awful. She was skinny.
The eyes were sunken. Just awful. Isn't it That was
isn't it something when you stop and you quantify it and you realize, like, oh god, she was dying?
Like like Like, I can't even look back at the labs because they're so terrible.
Yeah. I I hope that when I bring that up, I hope that people take from it what I mean for them to take from it, which is health slips away. And even when you're like like, try to juxtapose it for a second. So, like, here's the situation where your kid is, like, her body's trying to shut off. Right?
And it's and it's going to in in a couple more days probably. But just imagine when you have just, like, small illnesses or a little infection or something like that. Happening. Yeah. What what's going on in your body and why it's so important to pay attention to stuff like that?
Or even what you know, when your vitamin d is low your vitamin b is low or or your iron's low. Like, it just it's not the same life that you get if things are optimized. And this is a this is a really, you know, a dire situation, and still the body's trying to make it through it. Like,
that's Absolutely.
Kind of amazing. You you know what I mean? So
It is. Yeah. It's amazing. It's also just, so sad and that you get that parent the parental guilt, I'm sure everybody feels, you know. How did I let my kid get this sick?
My boys both play travel baseball and, like, the season was kinda ramping up, and we've been really busy.
Mhmm.
But I had gotten her dressed that morning, the the morning before the morning before we took her in, and I was like, wow. Like, she's so skinny. You know? But, yeah, just just super sick when we got there, and they said we can't even treat her at this hospital. We need to we need to move her somewhere else.
We'll take her by ambulance. Like, they wouldn't let us take her. And, of course, conveniently, because we're in between insurances, like, yes, you're thinking, oh, this is horrible. But you're also like, how am I gonna pay for all this?
Yeah. We're selling the house now. What's going on?
Yeah. This is terrible. I mean, you know, as a result, like, we we were left with some pretty heavy medical bills and, you know, that's overnight. That's just one of those things that happens overnight. But what do you what do you do?
You know? It is what it is.
Would you do if if you're comfortable and if you're not, just tell me no. But would you put a number on that? Like, what did you end up owing?
Oh my gosh. I think we applied for financial assistance through our hospital here and and did get a little bit of that, but it was still over $50 at the end of the day. So we just kind of been slowly paying that off.
Yeah. Now you're a young family too. That's a that's a huge hit. You know?
It it is. And and and again, what do you do? You You know? We we thought about going back and retroactively getting COBRA, but, you know, the premium there was still, like, almost $2, and then you're still gonna have medical bills on top of that, and you can't apply for financial assistance. So
Oh, they yeah. Oh, then that 50 turns into what? A 150 or something like that?
Exactly. Yeah. So it's like you don't really have a choice. We we were in and out of there in less than twenty four hours, because we were, I think they I think they had too much faith in us, honestly. Like, they were like, oh, you guys probably got it.
They're in the military. It'll be fine. I I heard the guy say something medical. You get out of here, you kids.
Yeah. They were like, y'all probably y'all probably are fine. And we're like, don't think so. But I think they also knew, like, hey. These people are here, you know, uninsured.
We need to get them the heck out
of here.
Finding the Podcast in the ER21:12
Oddly enough, whenever we were still in the ER, like, I think this was maybe ten minutes after we had gotten the diagnosis, I'd already found the podcast.
Really?
Immediately turns to the Internet, of course, because, you know
Why not?
Millennials. Immediately turns to the Internet, and it's like juice box podcast. And I'm like, well, I'm probably not gonna need that because they're gonna tell me this is a joke, but whatever.
I Yeah. Just wanna point out, it's $50,000 for twenty four hours. That's $2 an hour. It's not bad work if you can get it.
I know. Alright?
Well, so you wait. So you are panicked, I imagine. You don't know what's going on. You're like, I know what'll help. I'll go to the place where email and porn lives.
That'll probably straighten it out for me.
A 100%. Yeah.
Yeah. And and you were and you were like, hey. What do you do you Google? Do you go right to a podcast app? Like, what's your inclination?
Here's what makes Twist different. It measures the volume of insulin delivered with every dose using Soundwave technology. That gives it the ability to recognize a blockage quickly. That gives it the ability to recognize a blockage quickly, allowing you to step in and deal with it before things potentially get out of range. It is also the only it is also the only automated insulin delivery system that can be controlled from an Apple Watch.
It is also the only automated insulin delivery system that can be controlled from an Apple Watch so you can discreetly check-in so you can discreetly check-in, enter carbs, or deliver insulin right from your wrist. You can also set your glucose target anywhere from 87 to 180 milligrams per deciliter and adjust it for different times of day. So if mornings, workouts, schoolwork, or bedtime all need a little different approach, Twist can flex with that. And here's a real life example. You enter carbs.
And here's a real life example. You enter carbs, then something changes. And you do not ex and you do not and you do not actually eat what you planned. And you do not actually eat what you planned. With Twist, you can go back and correct or remove the carb entry, and the system adjusts based on the new information because diabetes doesn't always follow the plan, and your tech probably should not expect you to either.
If you'd like to learn more, go to visit.twist.com/juicebox. That's visit.twist.com/juicebox. Don't forget, twist has two i's.
I think I had just typed in, like, type one diabetes on Facebook and or TikTok. I don't remember when the podcast popped up. And then my husband's got a buddy who's, like, his age who has type one. He's like, hey. You should you should really listen to this podcast too.
But, again, Fully was convinced, like, I'm not gonna need this because they are gonna tell me that this is an incorrect diagnosis.
Can I tell you a funny story? Was driving through South Carolina once on 95. Hold on a second. I swear to you, I'm going, like, 85 miles an hour, 95. I'm going north.
I'm in South Carolina. And this guy pulls up next to me in traffic. And you know how like, I don't know if you do this, but I'm I I look everybody in the face, like, while I'm driving.
Sure. Yeah. Right. Intimidation.
No. No. No. No. Just left, right.
I don't know. I I wanna see what people look like. I'm fascinated by people. So I left, right. I look at this guy.
He makes his weird face at me. And then we look back and forth, he kinda pulls forward, but then he slides back, like, equal with me again. He looks over, and he points at me. And he makes the little heart thing. And he and he points to himself, and he goes, I heart and then he points at me, and I went, what is happening?
Like, am I getting hit on? Like, by the way, if I've got that kind of gay, like, magnetism at 85 miles an hour, I probably picked I might have picked wrong. You know what I mean? I was like, because I don't see ladies chasing me around like this.
That's alright.
But then it hit me, and I I went podcast, and he nods really, like like and I was like, oh my god. Am I famous? I might be famous. That's what I thought. You are famous.
You are. And I was like I was like, this is really insane. Anyway, I waved and I said thank you, and he sped off.
I thought you were gonna tell me he had, like, a dupes of hazard, like, horn or something.
Listen. If I had to complain about you people in South Carolina, you you people can't drive. Like, that highway cannot drive.
So I just was like, he's gonna give some kind of South Carolina stereotype. I will preface this by saying my 12 year old and my nine year old son both have mullets, like intentional mullets.
On purpose, they're like, mom, can we get it like this, please?
They do. I don't know if it's, like, living in South Carolina or them playing baseball, but, yeah, every four weeks, I just walk into the Great Clips, and I'm like, can you trim up the mullet?
Get this thing clean for these boys. No. But seriously, like, I don't know why I brought that up other than it makes me sound great, and it was a South Carolina reference. But, but, no, I I was stunned by like, I'm I'm I guess I'm being serious. I wanted to bring this up to you, and I'm using this to say it.
Twelve Years and Still Surprised26:00
I've I've made a decision this week to stop acting surprised that people know about the podcast.
You should. You should stop acting surprised because all week, like, anybody, oh, I talk to, I'm like, I'm going on the Juice Box podcast. Especially if it's, my diabetes friends, like, they're like, what? I'm like, please, guys, try not to be too jealous.
Like, I
am a local celeb.
Step back, please. Don't get too close. But but seriously, like, it it so I wanna first say, it's genuine for me, but I've I've I tried to step out of myself the other day cause I found myself saying it to somebody. And the way it was how she responded back to me, she goes, oh, come on, Scott. Like, almost like she was like, don't do false modest here.
And I wasn't I wasn't doing false modest. I really am stunned by it still. But I I just said to myself, I'm like, I gotta get past that part.
Like You do. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, that's twelve years now. I I I think I it's okay for me to, like, be okay with the fact that it's a thing. So anyway, to get help me get past it, I've been working on a graphic for, for my social media.
And what I've learned is that this is the number one diabetes podcast in the world by download or by It is. By ranking. And if you then go to search results for type one diabetes inside of Apple Podcast, it also ranks in, like, a 175 other countries or some crazy number like that. I'm working through it right now. But, nevertheless, I'm like and I'm doing that.
I mean, honestly, I'm doing it business wise. It looks good when the people say it online. But, like, but the but the other thing is, like, I really have gotta stop myself out of going, oh, no kidding. You found the podcast? Like, because that's how, like, the little fat kid inside of me feels when you say it.
Right.
Like, I can't
I tell you how my husband felt when he met me, like, you know, all fat kids.
Well, no. He was probably like, is this girl really talking to me? Thank god I did that sit up. This is awesome.
But you do have to talk yourself out of that because, like I said, I literally found it in the ER. I mean, it was one of the first things that came up Mhmm. And was listening to it, like, on the way home from the pick you.
How was it was it helpful? Was it overwhelming? Did you just jump in and grab an episode? What what
I started at the beginning, like, went to the very beginning, your first podcast. And I think the first episode you were talking about, like, how it gives you a different perspective. And I was like, yep. Already. Like, I have a totally different perspective on just life in general.
Yeah. Oh, no. For for sure. Immediately. Like, I feel I've I twenty years ago, I felt like I was 70 years old.
I felt like I understood the world. Like, it strip it strips away all the nonsense in life. It does. From from
me, It totally does. Yeah. Even like the I'm very much a person who my family loves to remind me of this. I think I care too much about what people think.
Mhmm.
And I've had to let go of so much of that when it comes to diabetes, because people are gonna judge you either way, you know.
Yeah. I I I'll tell you. I don't know if I've I've it's not a thing I would normally wanna say, but the day before Christmas last year, I had to run out to get one last gift. And I definitely haven't told this in the podcast because it's So I go out to the out to the garage. I open up my garage door.
I noticed that my son is parked in an odd place behind my garage door. And I literally say to myself as I'm walking around and getting in, like, I'm gonna have to be careful of his car. And I'm backing straight out. And as my eye line clears the the garage, so I'm I can kinda see outside of the garage now, this Amazon truck comes flying into my driveway and comes to an abrupt stop. And, I mean, the guy's he's clearly like, he's rushing around like crazy.
Right? Like, you know, the day before Christmas. And god bless him. That's what we all want him out there doing. But, anyway, the timing was such that my eye cleared the garage.
He was, like, doing that rocking to a stop thing in a big truck, and my brain just went, what the hell is that? And in the split second that it took me to go, oh, that's a big truck. It's a delivery truck. It's not gonna hit me. I hit my son's car.
No. Yeah. Yeah. Because it was that close. Like, we were right.
It was close tolerances. Right? I wasn't going fast or anything like that. It was literally I listen. If I
just Listen.
If I just messed up, I would tell you. It was it was that it was just the confluence of what happened right then and there. Right?
Yeah.
Anyway, I'm telling you this because I get out, my bumper's trash, his hood and his bumper need to be replaced. And I went, And then I pulled forward, backed up, and went and did the shopping, came back home, walked inside. My son came down, I said, hey. I got bad news. I hit your car.
I'll get it fixed. Don't worry about it.
Yeah. Because, like, what are you gonna do? This is it is.
And I'm telling you that before diabetes, I would have had a meltdown.
Same.
I I would have thought about the money and the time and how irritated I was with myself and how let down I was and I felt stupid and the guy in the Amazon truck, why is he driving? So and I just didn't think about one of those things because I think I have a different perspective than I used to have.
No. For sure. It it definitely does. I used to be like my kids call it a crash out. Mhmm.
That's the term. Mhmm. They're like, mom's like the biggest crash out ever. They oh, sorry. They call me a d one crash out.
I love that.
Oh, those boys wanna play baseball in college. That's nice.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, a division one crash out. But, like, now, just some of this stuff, I'm like, this is just not this serious.
I mean Yeah. Like I said, they both they both play travel baseball and, you know, the mornings of these these these tournaments are crazy because you're trying to get your son ready and, you know, do they have the right pants and do they have the iBlack and what battery you're swinging today? It's not that serious because I'm also like, hey. If your sister doesn't have like, if her side's bad this morning, she could be in DKA by the end of this tournament. So it doesn't really matter.
She might ruin the whole day, like, one way or the hey. You know what, too? I'll I'll tell you something and to try to find a a silver lining in this. When you pay that 50 k off, you're gonna think, We paid off $50,000. I bet you we could save $50,000.
A 100 yeah. It totally puts it into perspective. It totally does. Well, even, like, the price of diabetes supplies, like, you know, it puts it in perspective. I'm like, well, overnight, you have to find the money for this overnight.
Like, one day, you're like, I got this, you know, whatever. And then the next day, no. No. No. No.
No. And people think, like, your insurance covers everything. I don't know what what the misconception is there. Like like, I'm like, no. These little fun over patches that she needs for over her Dexcom, like, yeah.
We can go without those, but Dexcom's gonna fall off in forty eight hours.
Mhmm.
I'm the one paying for those. I'm not asking, you know, my insurance to do that. I'm the one paying for them.
What the Diagnosis Reframed32:31
Yeah. Yeah. I I I absolutely I just think it really does shift your focus about what matters. And if you let it For sure. You you have to let it.
But, it's such a gift. Like, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it is one of the best gifts of this diabetes thing Is that I just I feel more centered.
Yeah. I mean, I definitely feel more centered and, you know, we are we're we're Christians and we're big believers, and my husband and I have plenty of days where we just sit down and, like, cry over diabetes. Yeah. And I'm like, this is the worst diabetes of day ever. But my husband's always like, you have to find a silver lining.
And most days, it comes down to, I think our family is supposed to educate as much as we can. Are my daughter's the first one in her school that has had type one. We also do not have a school nurse at our at our school.
Yeah.
So that's a whole another, you know, a whole another pot of things that we deal with. I teach there two days a week, but the other three days, there is no trained medical staff there. It's a lot of texting with me and the teacher Mhmm. Which is fine. Like, we we've figured it out.
We're in our groove. She's only in second grade. So she is not self managing. The teachers are really good, but there are days where I definitely have my moments of panic of, like, could they handle an emergency?
I mean and you're gonna educate them as they go. Listen. I I don't know if if somebody put me in a position like you think. I don't know that I believe that or it doesn't matter to me one way or the other. But I can tell you that, yesterday, I had, a moment where I went out with, I met a friend.
I'll just I'll just be I'll just be clear. Right? I met a a buddy of mine at a reptile show. And sorry. That's just something.
I'm still embarrassed. But but and his name by the way, his name's Frank. He's a great guy. And if you wanna buy reptiles, you should go to Living Art by Frank Payne. He has some of the most I
will absolutely not be doing that.
Right? Some of the most unique little lizards that he that he breeds and sells. Really lovely guy. Anyway, I get there a little early. I pay.
I get the stamp on my arm. I go, oh, I gotta go to the bathroom. But as I'm walking through the place, I have this feeling. And I go, I I think I look terrible. I shouldn't have picked the shirt that
I picked.
Your shirt.
Your shirt. I read the I read the post.
You read the post. Okay. So so I'll give people context who are listening, but then I'll tell you why. So I'm, like, pulling at it. I'm like, it's grabbing me weird.
I think I look I you know, in my head, I'm like, I think I look fat. Like, I can't believe I picked this shirt. Like, blah blah blah. And I and I so I go into the bathroom to use the bathroom, but also to figure out, like, how can I mitigate this, the, you know, abject disaster that is so that I'm not walking around feeling like this the whole time? And I look in the mirror and I go, oh, yep.
There it is. Like, look at my and then I looked harder. I was like, what am I talk like, this is ridiculous. I look fine. Like, I don't just look fine.
I look like anyway, I I thought, you know, a lot of people must be feeling this now. I know there's a lot of people using GLPs in the community. Like, I'm gonna take a I took a picture to prove to my actually, I took the picture to show my wife to go, I think I have a mental illness. And, like, you know, but I looked at it. I'm like, I'm gonna put this on Instagram, and I'm gonna tell people how I feel because other people must feel like that as well.
And then you get back hundreds of people who are like, oh my god. I feel the exact same way. I've and then I realized, like, yeah, that just helped a lot of people. And while they were responding, a lot of them would start by saying, Scott, I've lost a lot of weight in the last two years because I listened to your weight loss stuff.
Mhmm.
And it's funny because I saw a number of people online making fun of me about that weight loss, the content that I made, you you oh, when I first started doing it. And and it and, you know, so one person looks at it and mocks me for being open or whatever they who cares? But two years down the road downstream, I'm looking at 50, a 100 people just who saw that picture yesterday. Not necessarily the only 50 or 100 who are like, my life is much better off today because of the thing you learned and said out loud. And I think you can do the same thing even if it's just in your school or in your neighborhood or your community.
And you guys, everyone listening could be doing that. You could be moving things towards a better place. You could take your bad thing and turn it into something good. You know?
GLPs and Better Family Choices36:45
That's absolutely right. And you do. You kinda have to deal with with diabetes. Talking about GLP ones, my husband and I are are both on one, as are my parents. My brother loves to make fun of us.
Like, he's like, no one's eating at the family's option because we're all on GLP.
Yeah. It's how we're saving money for retirement. We're not buying food.
We have to pay off these medical bills.
How how am covering this 50 k if I'm buying if I'm buying Oreos? I gotta make a cut somewhere.
And we have two boys who are playing baseball, so we gotta, like, we gotta cut back. No. I'm kidding. But, no, mean, those those have been life changing. And, honestly, like, leading into her diagnosis, I was only one on a GLP, and I had made a lot of livestock changes.
And not like we don't make her eat like she's on a GLP, but, like, we try to make better family decisions.
Sure.
Probably decisions that I couldn't have made for our family before a GLP one.
Yeah.
So that that totally feeds into it. My mom is the same way. My mom had had she'd had gastric sleeve, and she tried all these things, and and she'd been on a GLP leading up to Eloise's diagnosis. And it's just helped us make better choices at our family events. Mhmm.
You know, like, we don't need to have a cookie cake, ice an cream and all these things. Like, let's try to choose a low carb option, not because we make her eat low carb. You know, I know
is supernatural. Say low carb. How about, like, why don't we just mitigate how much sugar is in the food we're eating? You you you know?
Like, let's just not go we call it hard in the paint. Let's just not go hard in the paint while we're eating, you know? None of us need to do it. Exactly. We all say that we have a TTC, a tendency to chunk.
So let's mitigate that TTC and, try to do better for her. You know, she I tell her all the time, like, you're probably going to be healthier than your brothers at the end of the day because you make better choices.
Paying attention to your health more so than most people do.
Right.
Yeah. That that's one of the things I've brought up to people before is that just by, you know, by proxy, you have to pay better attention to yourself if you have type one. And it probably has a ton of downstream effect after that.
For sure. I think that's the that's, you know, that's the whole huge picture of it. And we want our boys to be healthier. Yeah. You know, so our family kinda we we kinda dial in a little bit more and things that we wouldn't have done ten years ago because we just weren't thinking about it.
Mhmm. It totally makes me feel insensitive to my father-in-law who was, like, trying to make good choices. And then, you know, we're all, like, let's have spaghetti every single day.
Yeah. Let's have spaghetti every single day. Well, it's cheap. Listen. You know, there's a a fair argument.
I've I was listen I'm listening to an interview this morning, with this doctor in England who's talking about how, you know, he was managing a bunch of people with type two and how he blamed them and tell them, like, you know, eat less and and move. And then when they didn't have success, he blamed them. And then he said, do you he's he's telling a story about how one of his one of his patients comes in one day and just kinda chastises him. He's like, you don't even understand. Like, I I moved to a lower carb diet, and I'm off my metformin now.
And look at my blood sugar and blah blah blah. And the guy, he actually looked up and and paid attention and and and took, you know, took responsibility for the things he was saying to people and stopped saying it to them. And, you know, it's just real and but in the course of him talking, he, you know, he talked about how just by cutting some carbs out of your life makes you less hungry. So my point is you don't realize that you're on on a hamster wheel. Like, you know, like, somebody gets you started and, you know, you're eight years old and someone's giving you soda and something else, and then your body craves it.
And then it just keeps going and it perpetuates and perpetuates, and you grow you wake up fifteen years later. And, you know, you're you're 25 years old and you're 70, and you can't stop eating. And people are like, just, you know, just eat less. You know, like, I can't, like, you know
Oh, okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. You're just caught at that point, you know.
Yeah. I mean, I got super excited listening to you talking about Arden, and I think you said she microdoses hers. But I was like, wow. That's amazing because by the time Eloise is an adult, like, they're going to know more about the correlation between GLP ones and type one diabetes. And, you know, that's that's amazing for her.
Yeah. Lots of studies are going on now. So you we'll we'll wait and see. And, hopefully, maybe I mean, just they put that Ozempic out in a pill. I mean, my my brief unders that.
My brief understanding of it is that it I think they have to hit you with a lot of it because it's going in through your stomach, and it maybe is causing some some problems for people. But, you know, maybe they'll figure that out. Maybe they'll figure out better ways to inject it. Like, I don't know. You you know?
But at least people are talking about it.
For sure. I mean, there's so much stigma around it. I don't really know why. Mhmm. I just Why?
I do know why.
I just bullied my neighbor into it, two days ago. Let me get a drink. I'll tell you. So he's an older guy, and, you know, he's got issues, but he's got you know, he's probably prediabetic or has, you know, type two. And I got him a meter two years ago, and I don't think he used it.
And, you know, I've been I tried an he's you know, I'm not related to him. I tried a number of different ways to explain it to him, and he's like, you know, he's got some neuropathy in his feet already. He's, you know, he's gaining weight. His his energy is low, blah blah blah. And I'm standing outside with him the other day, and he's like, I got these terrible body aches.
They put me on a a statin. And I'm like, what well, I said, what are on a statin for? And he goes, oh, he starts talking about all the reasons the doctor put on the statin. I said, I I gotta tell you, I'm stunned they didn't just try to give you a GLP.
Right.
And he goes, oh, no. They did. And I went, oh, did you start using it? He goes, no. I'm not gonna do it.
Oh.
And I'm like, why? He goes, side effects. And I said, what what are those side effects? And he goes, I don't My wife said there's a lot of side effects. And that was kind of it.
And and and so just like that, he wasn't gonna do it. So I pulled out a photo of myself from three years ago, and I went, come on, man. Like, look at this. Like Yeah. I I he said, well, don't you have side effects?
I was like, I'm awesome. I was like, is that a side effect?
Was like The side effect is I might live a little longer.
Yeah. Yeah. How about I'll live longer? How about I I said it's it's dissolving fatty liver disease for people. It's you know, your weight will go down, but then it's interesting to hear me.
He goes, well, I don't really need to lose weight. And I'm like, sure you
do.
I was like, what do you and and you just you realize that people get comfortable with that or don't see themselves the same way. So then I just shared with him. I said, man, when I started doing this, I thought 20 pounds. And I lost 20 pounds. I stood in the mirror, and I was like, what in the world made me think I only needed to lose 20 pounds?
And then I thought, well, 30. You know? And then I got the 30, I was like, that's not enough. And then I got the 50, and I was like, oh my god. I thought I needed to lose 20 pounds.
I'm at 50. It's not even I'm no I'm nowhere near this yet.
Yeah.
You know? So I was like, you need to lose weight. I'm like, it's gonna lower your a one c. You're gonna I said, your brain you know, I started going over things. I was like, you have brain fog?
He goes, yeah. I'm like, that's gonna go away. I'm like, it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna, like, balance your blood sugar. I was like, I'm like, what do you think? And he goes, well, but what about the side effects?
I said I said, the side effects you're having now is you're dying.
Right.
Yeah. I was like, I'm I'm like, I don't know what's gonna I I can't. I don't have a crystal ball. I was like, I don't know. Maybe you'll get diarrhea for three months.
Okay.
What are you going out? Like, go to the toilet. Like, I said, your body will regulate. It'll it'll get better. I said, maybe you'll get constipated.
Take a little magnesium oxide. You'll be fine. I was like
That's interesting, GLP journey for us because my provider originally put me on it. My insurance would not touch it unless I had a type two diagnosis, which is probably the case for most people. And so she called it and compounded, did that for about a year, lost, And then my insurance or I'm sorry. The the compounding pharmacy that I was going to stopped carrying it. Mhmm.
So I like, what am I gonna do? Like, you know, once you're on it, you're like, what am I gonna do? Yeah. So I don't know if I could say this on the podcast. I guess I can.
My husband and I started compounding it ourselves. You know, you can order the peptides, which I I know is is controversial.
You really?
Yeah. So he just, like I said, he was a a lab technician before this, so knew enough scientifically to be able to do it. So he just, orders the orders the peptides, and we do it at home. And it's he's lost. He gained a ton of weight when he got out of the military, but he's lost a 150 something pounds.
Good for him.
I have stalled out at about 45, but I think I need to up my protein. And I I really think managing Eloise's diabetes makes me so much. It makes me more conscious of what I eat, but we're so busy that I don't really dial into my own nutrition.
Yeah. You do have to keep eating and and and the nutrition has to be I I have found that if there sometimes if I'm cut back on food too much, I don't lose weight.
And that think what's happening to
me.
Yeah. Really do. I'm so focused on her and, like, right now, a huge thing is figuring out breakfast. Breakfast has been just a huge disaster for her. I think her basal maybe needs to be turned up a little around that first hour or two of school.
Mhmm. I mean, today, she sat at, like, three like, 02:50 for, like, two hours. And, of course, I'm not at school. The school cannot give her a bolus of insulin. She's on the tandem Moby, so it'll give her those automatic boluses.
But sometimes they're just not enough.
No School Nurse, and the Daily Lunch Drive45:59
Why can't the school give her insulin?
I think it's like a I think they don't want the liability of of administering it. And, again, it's it's from the phone.
Can you just text her and be like, hey. Give yourself a bonus.
I think next year, we'll probably end up doing that. I have a lot of nerves about doing that right now. Again, we're only, like, a year and a half in. Yeah. She's pretty responsible.
Thank goodness it's her, not the boys, because she's way more responsible than them.
The mullets?
But the mullets would not be, like, the most responsible with it. But so yeah. I mean, next year, I think I'll probably be able to text her and say, hey. Give yourself a correction. But right now, she's she's she's super smart, but she has her moments where I'll be like, Eloise, bullish yourself 20 carbs.
And she'll just, like, type in two and administer her. And I'm like, that yeah. We can't and, you know, we have a limit set on there, but you can't give yourself 200 carbs as opposed to 20.
Yeah. You think you just don't think she's quite ready for it yet?
Not quite. I think in about a year, probably will be.
Fair enough.
But right now, she's just kinda meh. And I get the school. You know, that's a huge liability on them.
But can I make it an easy right now? Can I make an easy suggestion?
Yeah.
Summer's coming. Right? Right. So just do all of her bullsing through texting even when you're with her.
It's a great idea. Yeah. That is a really great idea.
Yeah. Just say, hey. Look.
We're gonna swing of it.
Yeah. We're gonna practice this here at home, and then we're gonna be all ready for school next year. And then we're gonna try to eliminate, you know, nursing visits and your blood sugar staying high all day. And, you know, we'll we'll practice, like, you know, when you need to drink a juice or have a gummy or whatever you're gonna do. Like, we'll do it all by text so then you can go back and look and see what she did until you're comfortable that she's gonna be good with it.
That's a a great idea. And I think, you know, the the phone is used way more than we ever wanted to use it. Right now, I primarily will just text the teacher and be like, two gummies, half a juice, and her teacher's great. Last year, when we went back to school, I did not know what we were gonna do. I I remember telling the the PICU doctors, like, look, we don't have a school nurse.
She has a male teacher who's in his twenties who is petrified of blood. Like, how are we gonna do this? And we go back to school and I'm like, shout out to our teacher last year. I love him. He's great.
But I said, hey. I need you to practice. She wasn't sticking her finger at the time. So I said, need you to practice helping her stick her finger. And he's like, yeah.
I got it. Young guy. No kids. Give him the alcohol wipe, and he wipes his own hand.
You know, like, uh-oh.
So that's not right. So we had to we had to really fine tune that a little bit, and, you know, she she does great with it. She just I think she needs to build a little more confidence with it and doing it herself. I know she'll get there. She and her brother will be in the same class next year.
It'll be a combined third and fourth grade class. So I'm a little bit nervous that either he's gonna feel I I feel like he's gonna feel too responsible for her next year.
You don't wanna put a lot him either.
Yeah. That's a whole emotional side of things where, you know, I I don't want him to feel like you're responsible for your sister, but I do think he will ultimately feel that way. It's taught both of the boys just a ton of empathy. They they know if we go on a family walk, like, they're gonna they're gonna be smart enough to stick fruit snacks in their pocket.
Mhmm.
So they have that, I'm I'm super impressed with, and I'm I'm proud of them for that. I had a bad mom moment last week. We went on a family walk or not family walk. It was just Eloise and I. She's on her scooter.
We leave the house. Blood sugar's, like, two fifty. We had pizza. We're gonna get the blood sugar down, we have some insulin working. All of a sudden, Dexcom's, like, 70 double arrow down.
No problem. We drink a we drink a juice box, sit down on the curb for a second, and then it's, like, 58 double arrow down, and I had no more low snacks. So I'm like, great. Okay. We're gonna hang out on the curb.
We're, like, we're probably half a mile from home at this point. My husband's not home. So we just sit on the curb and blood sugar was not coming up. So I called my sister, and I'm like, you're gonna she lives ten minutes away. I'm like, you're gonna have to come get us.
Bring food. Do what? Bring food.
Well, literally, I'm like, that's I think that's why I felt so bad. I'm like, how am I so dumb to just leave home with one juice box? So I go home at night, and I'm just I'm sobbing because I'm like, this is a terrible diabetes parenting moment. Like, I just didn't have it together. You know?
Yeah. But that's just kinda the way it goes. You have those days.
It's happened to all of us, if that makes you feel better.
Yeah. I just I felt so terrible. I was like, how am I? And then if you even tell that story to somebody who is not a type one parent, they're like, how could you? Like, do you know your daughter has diabetes?
How could you not load your back down with 13 juice boxes before you go on a walk?
People being bad to you or do you is that just your fear?
I think it's my internal thought. I do. I think peep I think I, like, I pride myself on being the best mom ever. Whether or not I am, I don't know. I think if you if you are worried about how your parenting style is, you're probably doing a good job.
At least you're paying attention. Right?
Right. At least you're paying attention. So but no. I mean, even, the mornings when we go into school and she has a crazy high blood sugar and I'm talking to people and I'm like, oh, she probably has this high blood sugar because she had a waffle this morning. I feel like they are thinking, why would you give your daughter who has type one diabetes a waffle?
Yeah. Because they're
Probably not. Yeah. They're probably not. Probably don't even know, like, what the carb count is in a waffle. They probably don't think that.
But that's my own, you know, my own thoughts. Mhmm. I don't want her to have those thoughts, and I'm trying to help her get to the point where she does not like, like, she had a low blood sugar at at gymnastics the other day, and I'm like, why didn't you come off? Like, why did you not look at your coach and say, my blood sugar's low. I need to go treat.
And she's like, I don't know. I just didn't wanna stop.
Why Kids Don't Stop to Treat51:47
Yeah. It's, it's super simple. Like, just it's not a thing. Listen. I've been watching it for twenty years, and I've had countless conversations with people.
It it's not as easy. Like, when it's you Yeah. When it's you, it's not as easy as, like, oh, these are the rules. We follow the rules. They they feel a certain way.
They don't wanna be inconvenienced or and it's not even that conscious, I don't think. I think it's just that, like, it doesn't even occur to you. You don't think of yourself as diabetes No. From what I can tell from talking to people and watching Arden. You know?
Like, I and I'll say to her sometimes, hey. You gotta, like like, now's the time. Like, if you do something right now, you won't get low. And some and sometimes she just won't. And and then she'll get low.
I'm like, Arden. And she's like, yeah. But it's not I don't know how to put it exactly. It's not them ignoring anything. It's it's just part of, like, the human side of
it. Yeah.
You know?
That's so tough. And, you know, I see that with my father-in-law, and it's it's made me reframe how I view him and his diabetes management. He is I would say he handles his diabetes management differently than we do for LOEs. Like I said, he's not on an insulin pump. He was on one in the nineties, and I guess it gave an automatic bolus and he had a horrible seizure.
And, you know, since then, he's like, I I don't wanna go through that again. I think maybe we'll be able to to to change his mind when he sees Eloise's success with it.
Oh, you might wanna assume that thirty five years later, something's changed.
Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
But, you know, even this past Christmas, we're sitting there and he and my husband were playing a board game and my husband realized, oh, his blood sugar is low. He's, you know, getting a little silly and, he had a pretty bad low that day. One of the one of the South Carolina family members hands him a Diet Coke. And we're like, okay. Probably not that.
Give him a diet Coke and get him get him some beef jerky. I've heard that's helpful too. I will need
anything but that. Maybe the box of honey buns over there. But anyway
Well, you know what
you should
do is just open up a chatbot, like, window or, you know, like, I don't know, get AI on your phone, open it up, and let him talk to it for ten minutes. Tell him, hey. Look. Have a conversation with us about something you don't understand. And then when you come back, instead of talking to him about that, go, can you imagine how much better insulin pumps must be by now?
A 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know, did does he have a CGM?
He has just started wearing a Libre. Good. And he, I don't think is in love with it. Like, I think he's like, this is cool, but not that impressed. But yeah.
So he's having this he left his phone outside at Christmas, so he did not realize his blood sugar was low. And then it it got pretty bad pretty fast. You know, he was probably seconds from having a seizure when my husband stepped in.
Mhmm.
And I'm watching my daughter watch this happen. And, you know, she's seven, and I can see on her face, she's petrified, like, petrified. And, you know, I asked another family member to take her outside, but it's it's tough to I can't imagine being in her shoes and watching that happen knowing, like, this could be you. So it's it's just that's tough. That's tough to explain because I'm I think he has a lot of, like, diabetes burnout, and I never I don't have diabetes.
I don't know what it's like to live with it for decades. But I'm sure that there's a lot of burnout there, but I also want her to see, like, you don't you need to do better because we know you can do better. We know we can do better.
Yeah. No. It's hard for I mean, it's gotta be hard for her because there's part of her is just probably worried for him, and the other part of her, if if not in that moment later, she's gonna think, oh, like, is that gonna happen to me?
Yeah. She's brought that up a couple times. She had probably her worst low blood sugar this past summer. We had gone to a pizza buffet. And, not my favorite place under the sun, but we've gone, come home, she's jumping on the trampoline, and I don't remember what I was doing, but I was busy.
And somehow her blood sugar had gotten into the forties, and we sit her down. And I like, I could tell by looking at her face, she was very, very low. My husband comes in, like, I have the glucagon on standby, and my husband is holding her face to try and get her to drink. And she does. And afterwards, we're both just, like, sobbing.
You know? It was so scary. And my husband's like, I think I'm more upset because I've seen how bad this can get with my dad. Yeah. And I asked him.
I was like, is it more traumatic watching your child or your parent? He's like, a thousand percent your child. You know?
You know it's the trampoline. It's trampoline. Dad. You know it's the trampoline. Right?
It's a 100% the trampoline. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. A 100%.
Like, I hate the trampoline anyways. But, yeah, she goes out there and and that's just that's I I I wish the trampoline would have blown away in the hurricane two years ago, to be honest with you. I was hoping it would, but all that all that was lost was the net. She goes out there and she knows it's a whole thing. She's a competitive gymnast and she knows what jumping does to her blood sugar.
She knows all that, but she still asked and I go out there and I feel bad because before she can even go out there, it's a discussion of what is your blood sugar. Your phone needs to be close by so you can get your blood sugar reads. It's a whole thing for her to even go on the trampoline, you know. And I think people don't realize that. Like, you know, she wanted to go swimming with a friend yesterday, and I'm like, oh, you probably can't go.
I can't just send you. I don't know if this person I don't know how comfortable they are with your diabetes, and we gotta disconnect the pump, and we gotta wrap the CGM. And you feel terrible in those moments.
Yeah. Are you Because
you want childhood to be normal, but it's not. It's not the same.
What do you think makes that more normal? Because there obviously, there are people do you think it's time? Like, what's gonna get you to the point where you go, go ahead. Go swimming now.
I think her getting more mature and, you know, just her taking more more control of her diabetes, I think that's gonna help a ton. Mhmm. But, like, that's the only thing I can think of. You know? We're not at the point where I can send her to a vacation bible school or a cheer camp and be like, oh, I think she's gonna be fine.
Like, I have to know who's there. Do they know how to handle the diabetes? Is she in enough control? We're just not there yet.
An Endo Who Has Type 1 Too57:48
You know, there's a camp in, Texas called Camp Sweeney. That's a diabetes camp. Yeah. That one might be good for her.
I've heard of it, and we kinda looked into that. Our local hospital here does a daytime camp. It's three days. Her endocrinologist actually, like, helps work it. Nice.
Shout out to him. He's on your, like, list of great providers. He's amazing. He also has type one diabetes.
Oh, cool. Juicebox.i just wanna say. Yeah. Yeah.
He's on there, and he didn't even tell us he had type one until, like, four visits in. Oh. He was just casual guy. Like, yeah. I'm telling him
Yeah.
But you know the first couple visits.
You don't wanna give it all away in the first episode.
Absolutely not. You know, we're we're it was the the first few visits, I'm like, I cannot take this kid home. I do not got this. This is terrible.
She lives with you now. Bye, sweetie. I'm like,
you I'm like, can can we just she's with you. But, like, the fourth visit, she was on a pump within three weeks. The fourth visit, he was like, this is the insulin pump I wear. Would she like to wear this one? I was like, oh, that guy also has type one.
So it's kinda nice. Yeah. You know, he's not just speaking from a he's not just speaking from a textbook. He's speaking from personal experience.
Yeah. No. I mean, you've gotta you've gotta imagine that that's a value. I think that, you know, most people I hear who who say that, oh, my endo or my nurse practitioner, somebody has type one, it is a huge benefit for them. So
Yeah. Absolutely. He's and he's not judgmental towards any of the questions that I have. Like, he's very, he's like, no. I get it.
But, you know, I I think going into this next year, my biggest fear for her is she has she's going into a different class. It's an older grade. I want her to have better management, but this is there's gonna be 20 kids in her class this year and, you know, no nurse. I'm like, how's it gonna go? How's she gonna do?
You'll be okay. I'm telling you, practice over the summer. You start texting with her about it. You'll be surprised.
I really love that idea. I think that's gonna be and that's tangible right there. You know, I can look back to the text messages. So I think that's that's a great idea.
Well And even if you're, like, even if you're panicked in the beginning, like, she could snap a picture of the screen before she gives the bold there's a lot of things you could do to make yourself more comfortable and to get her feeling confident and focused so that she's doing the right thing. Like, you don't wanna like, listen. She needs to understand. You don't wanna scare the hell out of her, but she needs to understand. Like, if I say two, it's two.
It's not it's not 20 or, you know, or, you you know, that kind of thing. But and stick stay with where she's comfortable and what and what you're comfortable with. But in your situation specifically, where the teachers are squeamish, the school doesn't wanna be involved and there's no nurse, like, what she just gonna run around 02:50 all day?
That's the thing. Like, that that can't be a thing.
No. Right. No. No. You gotta figure out something else.
And and you can't be driving over I mean, I don't know where you live. You probably live
I drive every single day to the school for lunch insulin. So I work there two days a week. It is insane. So I work there two days a week, and the other three days, I drive to school every single day for lunch. And it has been fine, but I'm getting to my limit, if that makes
any sense. No. That's gotta come to an end. That
that's Like, I'm I'm totally getting to my limit with it. And
Wait. Someone in the office won't act as a proxy? Just look over her shoulder while she's doing it?
So once or twice. And by one of the times, my husband was supposed to go and he forgot.
Hey. Listen. We have a lot in our minds. Okay?
Yes. So I had to text her. I had to be like, hey. I don't know if you know this or not, but our daughter needs insulin to live. He's like No.
I didn't say that. I nicely said, he sounds so incompetent to this podcast. He is not. He is the most involved dad you'll ever meet.
Listen. He figured out how to compound GLPs in his house. I figured oh, also, let me just say, nothing you hear on the juice box pocket should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care It I feel like you just made it in the kitchen. It's fine.
Well, listen. It's you know? Anyway, sorry. He forgot to give her the insulin. And what was the rest
of that story? To give it to her. So that day, the teacher just FaceTimed me and was like, hey. I'm going to physically let her plug it into the phone. I'll look over her shoulder.
You double check via FaceTime. And that was fine. Like, that worked. You know, I just it's it's exhausting. Like, my whole day revolves around diabetes, and that's you know, that's not including, like, I gotta fill the prescriptions every four weeks.
I gotta call for the prior auth. I gotta make sure I'm making the endo visits. It's just
it's just a a way also alive and you have a job and those you have two other kids and a house and everything else. Yeah.
Well, that's the thing. People are like, why don't you just work at her school five days a week? And I'm like, who is cleaning our house?
Why don't we just text each other and figure this out? Like, that's fine. And by the way, this this teacher, he's in his twenties. You could talk him into it in three seconds. He doesn't know anything.
Just be like, look. We did it once at work, man. Let's keep going, baby. And it doesn't have to be FaceTime. I trust you.
You know what a two looks like. Right? Come on. Get in there.
I love all the young teachers at her school, though, because they're, like, they're the best. They're like, we're gonna learn this. And they whenever they do a great thing, like, sometimes I'll I'll see her trending down, and then she randomly will study out, and they'll be like, just so you know, I gave her two gummies. And I'm like, wow. Like, they are getting it.
Yeah. They got it. And I'm so proud of them too.
I gotta tell you, it's not a there's not that much to it. It's not it's not it's I mean, it it seems reasonable that people should be able to understand, like, you know, sugar in place of low number, you know, high number gets insulin.
You would think. Yeah. You would think.
Well, I know.
Still say super dumb things, you know. They they still people still say super dumb things. People still like, I went on a walk last week and a neighbor said, how's Eloise? I said, she's doing great. And she said, my my nephew was diagnosed this past year in college with type one, so he obviously wasn't taking care of himself.
Because
he was in college? Oh, wait. She thinks oh, this person thinks they were diagnosed
diagnosed with type one.
Oh, they think they they think the kid got type one because he was away in college.
Well, because he wasn't taking care of himself.
Oh, you know how that goes. Type one. You know how when you don't eat chicken, you get type one diabetes.
Right. And Eloise was standing right there, and I just said, and some days, you know, you're like, it's my job to educate. And some days, you just wanna be like, can you shut the hell up?
Yeah. I'm not doing this with you right now. Yeah. You can't listen. You can't tell everybody.
Also, it's not even like, it's not their fault. Like, I I used to say a lot before. We could make a long list of things I don't have any meaningful understanding of. And, you know, and if you did, you might mark me as, you know, as uneducated or ignorant or something like that because I don't know about a thing you know about, but just not how it works. So In
the South, we just say bless your heart.
I know what you people do. I I've been there.
No. But if we say bless your heart, we mean that. But if we say bless it, that's very condescending. Like, that's not a good thing.
Oh my god. I know when you when you look at how some people react to things, I'm just like, I don't know. I I don't even know how we're all still here. You know, like like, there's a post up now where, you know, where I it's I I I I I mean, it's not a big deal, but, like, I listened to the, the financial call that Dexcom put on the other day, they announced some, like, product stuff. And so I kinda did a breakdown for it online.
And, you know, like, look, It's gonna g eight's gonna come out in the next year or so. It's gonna be smaller. They think there's gonna have improvements. Here's what they're shooting for. Blah blah blah.
Now, you know, some people are like, that's enough of all this. Just cure this.
Oh my gosh. You're like, oh, is that it? Okay. Cool. Oh, you're right.
Why didn't we think of that?
Say wild things online now. Like, things. And it I'm not gonna lie. It's usually, like, the demographic of my parents' age. It's kinda like the whole, like, AI making themselves into different people thing, and then they take the compliments for it.
I don't know why. Why are they doing or one person said, it it looks bigger in the picture, not smaller. And I'm like, those are AI representations of what they might look like one day. Like, you really don't know that, do you? That's fascinating.
Like, you think
don't make yourself into, like, an AI character and then have everyone be like, Scott, you look so good. And you're like, thank you so much.
Can you imagine that someone doesn't, like, realize that something that doesn't exist yet, if you have an image of it, it isn't actually the the thing?
They can't. Like They cannot. They can't.
How do you not be able to make that leap? Like, I don't understand.
Those are the people who are not finding the podcast early enough, though, also because they don't know how to use the Internet.
I don't think this is a bigger problem. Like, there's the thing that doesn't exist yet. It'll be out in two years. Here's a graphic because, by the way, if I don't put a graphic with it, then Facebook isn't gonna show it to you. So I have to And do and and so, like and now you know about it at least, and that's good, I think.
But I don't know. They're like, that looks bigger than the other one in the picture. I'm like, yes. Well, they're not this.
Oh my gosh.
They're in my head.
People get so tripped up. Even yesterday, this, like, this guy that he's a family friend, and we love him, but bless his heart. He came up to Eloise and he said he was pointing to her Dexcom and he was like, why is your thing not on the other arm? It was on the other arm at church last week. Like, he could not he couldn't process what was happening.
I was like, oh, you know, we move it every 10. And he thought that was her insulin pump and, like, she doesn't even bother to explain anymore. Like, she's just like, mom, take the wheels on this because
Your friend is annoying.
That's exactly how she feels. And I think now we've realized that little boys do not really care that much about the devices. It's the girls who do, and they will ask her every question under the sun.
Mhmm.
Every question. And she gets so perturbed. Like, she's like, please stop. But the boys don't care.
And boys don't well, I mean, your your husband didn't remember she ate insulin for lunch, so we don't really we don't really think about they think you think you do.
Care. They don't care. They're just like, this girl has a computer on her, and we don't really care. But the the girls, they're like, what is that? And telling you, these little girls now are so mean.
I don't know what you've been through with Arden, but they're all mean.
They're all like I've seen
a couple sequence.
I've seen a couple of mean ones over the years. Not usually about the diabetes, It's interesting.
And that's like well, and that's where I have to ask myself, like, am am I thinking that they're being mean or are they actually being mean? And, like, just now, Eloise is to the point where, like, this summer, the other day, we went to the pool and she was like, I wanna wear a one piece bathing suit instead of a two. And it it slowly clicked with me. She knew she was gonna be around all these girls and she didn't want her sight showing. Mhmm.
Which is fine. You know? I'm sure she's gonna have those days where she does and she doesn't. So, like, trying to help her with that, but also, like, I don't want her I try to always tell her, like, if someone is making a rude comment about your diabetes or, like, that they can catch it, whatever, that says more about them. It's not personal towards you.
They're probably just having a bad day. Move on.
Yeah. I mean, once you can I mean, that's tough as a kid? But once you realize that what other people are saying or doing is not any impact on you, it's a it's a pretty freeing moment in life. I don't know. It takes people a long time to get to it sometimes.
I'm sure, like, you know, the the way that everybody has contact with each other now. Like, I've I've mentioned to people in the back. I'm like, you you know you have a text chain with a bunch of friends where you make fun of other people. And they're like, no. I guess we definitely do.
Yeah. And I'm like, right. Right. So, like, when that's going on and you know those people are, you know, like, you know, I'm not in their texting. I'm I'm I'm sure they're talking about me in there.
But you gotta
be You probably have so many people with text chains about you because you're on a podcast.
Oh, I would imagine a lot of people hate me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I would never think about it, to be perfectly honest with you.
No. You have to get past that.
You have
to just say, okay. Well, that's on them. What what other people think of me is none of my business.
People try to come to me. By the way, I've even come to believe that those people aren't don't have like, they'll come to you and be like, I don't know if you know this, but this person's saying something about you online. I'm like, I don't care. I'm just
like I literally do not care. I'm on the Internet. I don't care. You have to just let it I struggle with that. And even, like, I've made, like, a couple TikToks where it's, like, informational things about diabetes because a lot of my friends do watch them.
But then I'm like, what is so and so from high school thinking about, I don't know, my hair length? You can't care about that. You cannot care about that. The other day, a lot of people are very curious about, like, glucagon. And I'm like, I should probably, like, either share something or repost something that kinda gives an overview of glucagon should she ever need it.
But I'm like, I can't record that because what if my house is not clean enough, You know?
Yeah. I don't
I will have to go to a deserted island.
I don't think about anything like that at all. As and listen. In the end, it I think the podcast is valuable because I am just sitting here like nothing's planned out. I am just talking off the top of my head. And I'm certain that I say something that annoys people every five seconds.
I I don't know how I couldn't possibly otherwise. If you wanted me to sit here and sanitize this to the point where no one would ever have their feelings or no one would ever disagree, then what this would be is not valuable. And it would and yeah. And so then it's just it's gone. I listen.
I I was contacted the other day by a person who I don't know that well, who I think probably thinks I know them better than I do, who I have a really, like, solid feeling about. Like and it's the best way I can explain it to you. Like, I know if they heard this, they'd probably be like, oh gosh. Like, you know, they're they're minimizing how much they know. I really don't know them.
You you know what I mean? But I I'm aware of them. I've had some short interactions with them.
They're a fan. They're a fan.
I I don't know even that. I but what I can tell you is I really genuinely I like this person. And this person comes to me and is like, I don't appreciate what you said. And I'm like, I I don't even know what you're talking about.
K.
Like, I I I really don't even know what you're talking about. Then they're more clear, I'm like, I don't remember that. And I was like I'm like and I I don't and then I then I get to drill down to figure out what it was I said, and then I was like, that's I meant that positively. Like, I don't now I don't even know what to do. I'm confused by this whole thing.
You know? And then I tried to talk to them about it, and then they they they clammed up about it. So they they come to me, like, kind of aggressively, and I'm like, hey. Like, let's talk. I don't I guess I don't know what you're talking about right now.
I have nothing but good feelings about you, so this might really just be a misunderstanding. I'm not sure. And now I can't get them to interact. And I'm like, ugh. I'm like, what do you I I don't know what you want from me.
Like like
You do a good job though of keeping it real. Like, even in the past when you I don't know. I love when you kind of passively talk about someone who is either trying to be an influencer or trying to, like, sell something diabetes related. I love when you call that out because that's gotten out of control.
I don't love the the the selling part. I don't care if you wanna be an like, if you wanna be an influencer, I guess, I don't really I don't care about that. Like, I think it's another way of, like and by the way, what does it matter what I think? But, like, but, like, I think that's just another way of getting information out there. And if someone's gonna come along and offer you an ad for something or something, then god bless you.
Like, I have no trouble with people making money at all. Like, that's the I again, nothing I I think it's fantastic. I I have it I have trouble with the coaching stuff.
Predatory DMs, Forty-Eight Hours In1:12:44
But Yeah. Within forty eight hours of my kid being diagnosed, like, I had posted something about her being diagnosed. I get this inbox from this person who actually seemed like, their profile seemed a little bit organic and the conversation seemed organic. And then the next thing was, okay. You should buy this horse.
I am forty eight hours into a life changing diagnosis Yeah. And you're trying to get me to buy something.
It's predatory.
It is.
Yeah. And
I just thought, what?
Well, I'll tell you what I've been doing. This is pretty recent for me, so there's no way for me to talk about it yet. But I have right now, have 50 people doing like, demoing a thing that I made. So Okay. What I so what I did was is I looked up and I I looked at these like, what are these people selling people?
Right? They're selling them courses, and they're not necessarily medical. They're almost more support like.
Yeah.
And and I'm like and then they're selling them for, like, thousands of dollars. And I'm like, I why don't I just make one of them and just give it away? That's what I was thinking.
And so gonna be real bad at yourself.
I don't care. So I made a 21 here, I'll tell you about it. I made a 21 let me see how I can explain it to you. So it's basically, like, the pro tip practice. Right?
It's, twenty one days plus an extra day, and you just agree to it and then, you know, go to day one. I'll reach you day one. It says most people come into something like this thinking they're catching up. They're not. There's no schedule for understanding type one diabetes.
There's no syllabus you missed. Whatever you know on the day you start is the right amount to start with. Whatever you don't know is what the next three weeks are for. And then it says today's idea, time with type one isn't the same as fluency with type one. There are people who've lived with type one for fifty years and still don't understand basal insulin.
There are people newly diagnosed who are already seeing patterns. Their their care team has missed it. The two often have nothing to do with each other. What separates the fluent from the time served is whether they've ever moved from passively receiving information to actively noticing what's happening. The pro tip series puts it this way, and there's a little quote from the series.
And then it says, today's affirmation, I'm not behind. I'm starting. Then today's notice, notice how you feel when you check your CGM today. Not the number, not the the feeling. Curiosity, is it dread, is it tiredness, nothing.
Just notice it. And then it gives you a link to a small sips episode. It says, if you want to listen to this short episode. And then there's an evening reflection. What did I notice about my relationship to the CGM today?
That's it. And when you mark that complete, it moves you on to day two. And this goes on for
That's so helpful. Yeah.
Yeah. And it's and then then day two is name what you've been carrying, and it goes on from there. And so I have 50 people right now. God bless these people. Very nice.
They're demoing it. 50 people with type one diabetes who are demoing it right now. They're going through the twenty one days. They're gonna give me their feedback. I'll make it better for them.
I'll find ways for it to do other stuff, and then I'm gonna move on, and I'll do an onboarding that'll that'll lean more on the bold beginning series. And I'll make a bunch of different things that people are selling you for thousands of dollars, and you can just have them. And that's it.
Wow.
Yeah. So it it just I don't know. Like, again, if you if you have a coaching thing and you're making money on it, like, that's great. But when I start I don't know. Like, I I interviewed somebody recently who was like, I paid $3,000 for a course.
And I was like, did it help you? And they went, not really. I was like
Absolutely not.
I was like, oh, god. Like and, you know, then why'd you do it? Well, I was lost. I was stuck and blah blah blah. Or I'm like and, you know, I don't know.
And listen. Everyone's not running around paying thousands of dollars for courses, and I'm sure that people are doing it or most of the people can afford to do it. And I don't and I I genuinely don't have a problem with somebody making a dollar. Like, I make money. You know?
I I I sell ads, But I I don't know. Like, it feels wrong to me to, like, charge somebody money to teach them what a pre bolus is. Or For sure.
And, yes, that's happening.
Yeah. And it just I mean I mean, okay. Like but but even that aside, that I even understand. Like, you're forty eight hours out of being diagnosed and someone's creeping in your DMs and be like, hey. I know everything.
Blah blah blah. I'm so sorry for you. Oh, hey. Buy this. Are you fucking kidding me?
Like
That's exactly what happened, and I was pissed. Yeah. And then, like, the next day is literally somebody in my inbox who was like, have you paid attention to her gut? I guarantee this has started in her gut. And I'm like, dog, I'm literally just trying to keep this kid alive.
I'm just
gonna sleep right now. Yeah. Your gut biome's off. This is happening. That's happening.
You know, we have these these pills that'll take care of the everyone is just like, listen. I'm gonna give you some advice that I've been giving my wife for thirty years. I said that's our money. Everyone's trying to get it. It's your job to defend your defend it.
You defend our money, like, because somebody's coming for it. And Yeah. That's just what's gonna happen. The Internet is it's way fuller of people trying to take a dollar out of your pocket than it is trying to help you out for for nothing. And listen.
Again, I was able to figure out how to do this. Okay? And fair enough, maybe everybody can't figure out how to do it so that it's free for the people listening. But, you know, I don't know. I figured it out.
Like, you could probably make a living without, like, reaching your hand in people's pockets. Like, try to,
like Without conning people.
Yeah. Yeah. At the very least, just offer them something legitimate, and they can make a decision about But don't come to them when they're crying in a in a hospital.
Yeah. It's no. That's exact and that's exactly what it was.
I didn't even know that was happening. That's terrible.
It it was it was I was so upset about it. Yeah. And I know you have mixed feelings on this next topic, but we're in the process of a service dog right now. And I don't know how much you know about that, Scott, but that is a wild and crazy and interesting market. Let's put it that way.
Listen.
I We can leave it at that.
I assume it's another opportunity for decent people to do a decent job and shitty people to rip you off. Like, it
That's exactly right.
Yeah. And and also, I mean, from I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I don't think you need a service dog. Like but if you want one, then go get one. I mean
I know it's I know it's it's got its goods and its bads and, you know, you have to you have to I will say this much. If you are, like, a newly diagnosed parent, do not jump two feet into it. Like, it's kinda like what she was saying in the the Boggs family when they were on a couple weeks ago. You know, do your do your research. Like, this is not a dog who is going to solve every single one of your problems.
Like, that is not the case.
Well, did you hear what she said at the end of that about the dog?
I think I remember her kinda being like, I don't know that I would've done this.
Yeah. That's my recollection that she was like, I don't know that we needed a service dog. So somebody definitely go listen to be sure, but that's how I remember.
Yeah. We've really we've really we've really put a lot of thought into it. And, you know, I'll say this much. We had a really generous person who is funding it. And I think it'll be great for her.
I think it'll be great in situations like, hey. You wanna go jump on the trampoline or you wanna, you know, go in the backyard by yourself?
I'm sure it will great.
Yeah. It's gonna be, you know, an extra line of defense at night for her when she's like, she's still sleeping in our room at night, and that's we're we're getting to our limit on that.
The Service Dog Question1:19:56
Really? Why is she sleeping in your room?
Her room is upstairs. Ours is downstairs. And, you know, it started out as, okay. We gotta wake up and do the finger sticks before we were on the CGM. And now I think it's just I think it's an extra peace of mind for me.
If we're going up and down the steps is annoying. But I I think we're getting to the point where I'm like, I want her back in her room. I think she's getting to that point. And maybe it'll make me feel a little better when we have this dog just you know, maybe it can work the night shift, and I don't think it's gonna catch every alert. It doesn't have opposable thumbs.
Like, it can't go get a juice box.
Maybe you should be talking to a therapist.
Right. Yes. I think that's lot of it. I think a lot of it is just being anxious about her at nighttime.
Yeah. Have you tried weed? They say that helps.
You know, the way being a teacher set up
Oh, then you're not allowed to smoke weed in South Carolina?
I don't even know. I think I think we actually have way more lapse laws here than other places do.
Mhmm.
But I I mean, for me personally By
the way, I'm not suggesting it. I'm just asking what you've done. Yeah. Yeah.
So yeah. I mean, I I think I think at the end of the day, it's know, you we just need another lot of defense for us just for me to feel a little bit better at nighttime. But this is still, you know, a pet that has to go everywhere with us. So it's gonna be a whole a whole lifestyle shift, but even that people ask stupid questions about and make stupid assumptions about. Mhmm.
You know, like, they just like I said, they think it can go, like, open their refrigerator and get a juice box. I'm like, it doesn't have opposable thumbs.
Listen. If you're looking for everybody not to be stupid, I think you're gonna you're gonna get let down there. But, listen. For me, I wouldn't want it. Like, I just I I I would think of it differently.
Like, I I hear all the positives you're saying. What I think is, can you imagine having to take a dog to the airport with you to the grocery store?
Think that will not be I think that will probably not be what our life looks like that this dog will go everywhere, which for some reason really offends people. Like, if you say, we're getting this service dog, but it's not gonna go every single place we go, they're like, what?
Yeah. Listen.
The animal will stay at home some? I'm like, I have three kids.
We're gonna make a list of things that people are offended by and will be done by the time I'm 350 years old. So be offended by whatever you want. It it doesn't matter. I'm gonna tell you that if she doesn't want people looking at her pump when she's at a pool party, I wonder how good she's gonna be with the dog with the vest on laying next to her.
Yeah. And we definitely had some discussions about that because I'm I'm curious to see we've talked a lot about that. She's a huge animal lover. So, again, if this comes to us and this is a very glorified pet, I wouldn't be shocked. I think she'd be okay with that.
Huge dog lover. But, yeah, I think I think you have to think about all those things and people don't. They just think, oh, I'm gonna get this dog and it's gonna solve all these problems or kind of like what Shannon was saying, like, they're like a less of a type one parent if they don't. No. Like, that's not the case.
And and that's kind of everything with diabetes tech and, you know, dogs and everything diabetes related. Do you feel like you I guess that's parenting in general. You have to go get all these things and do all these things or you're less of a parent or less of a caregiver? No. At the end of the day, you do the best that you can as a parent.
You you know, I don't I can't wrap my head around feeling that way. I really I'm I'm listening to you and I I I commiserate that you that you feel that way or that other people have, but I I don't understand, like, why you care what anybody else thinks.
Yeah. No. I mean, you're exactly right. You're exactly right. I've had conversations with other parents who who have children with type one diabetes, and sometimes it does feel like a little bit of a comparison game.
And I'm like, look. Everybody's just doing their best. You know, this is enough.
I'm unaware if like, I'm sure people are doing that constantly. I am completely unaware of it. And and I Scott. Well, I'm is that what it is? It's because I'm a guy?
That's probably part of it. I think I think moms, you know, they they have those comparisons.
I'd be like, fuck you. Trust
and believe that's what I'm thinking in my mind a lot of days.
I just wouldn't think about it after that. I'm I'm busy. I got stuff I wanna do.
Yeah. No. You're exactly right.
I can't imagine letting someone else make you feel a certain way. I already
just have to be like, I'm doing the best I can.
And my brain's already doing it to me. I don't need it done for me by somebody else.
My husband says the exact same thing. He's just for lack of better words, you know, he's like, screw them. Like, they we're doing what's right for our family, and that's what you have to do at the end of day. Diabetes has limited some perspective to that too. At the end of the day, nobody has to walk in your shoes.
Nobody has to be in your family situation, so you gotta do what's best for you.
Yeah. I boy, I have such a hard time wrapping my head around that. I don't even know how to properly think about it because it sounds insane to me that you're concerned with it.
Yeah. I mean And
I don't mean let me be clear. I don't mean you're insane. I mean that I I can't I can't grasp the idea of of of letting someone else's ideas, thoughts, things I imagine they might be saying impact my decisions. I couldn't possibly care less.
Yeah. This has definitely been one of the best things for me just to
Good.
You know, say it is what it is. It like, again, nobody else has to wake up with her when her blood sugar's low. Nobody else has to, you know, do all the things that come along with diabetes. Nobody else has to have the two mullets sitting right there.
Listen. Even down to, like, if you think of service dog's a good idea, you shouldn't, for a half a second, think about what I think about it.
That's right.
Yeah. That's meaningless. No.
No. No. No. I tore I you're exactly right. You know?
No. Your lifestyles all look so different. And that's a lot of diabetes too. If people think that their management style has to look like other people's, I want you to do what's best. I want you to care about your a one c, but I don't like, you don't really have to care about what other people are doing.
I know.
You know? Because lifestyle is different.
You Don't Have to Do It My Way1:25:44
Yeah. The first time somebody said to me on the podcast, they were like, I'm so sorry. Like, I tried so hard to follow all the things you were saying. I was like, you were trying to follow all the things I was saying? I was like, that that didn't even occur to me.
I was like, you're not wait. What? I was like, you thought I was laying out a a, like, a a list of rules? Was like, this is the stuff that I find that works for me, or it's been valuable.
Helpful. It's still helpful.
Listen. What, you don't have to be nice to meet you. Obviously, I've done an amazing thing for the world, but that's not the point. Like like but my point is is that, like, if you hear me say 10 things and five of them are valuable to you, then awesome. Like, you don't have to go find a way to shoehorn the other five in.
Like, this go make your own thing or or, you know, like, make your own stew out of, like, the carrots and the potatoes that I left you. Like, you know, like, you don't have to, like, anyway, my point is that I it never occurred to me that somebody would be like, oh, I have to mimic this exactly. Like, I really don't
social think media is a huge part of that too.
You think so? How how? What does that do?
I think, you know, it's like it's like with anything with social media. You see, oh, well, the person's handling it a b c way. And you're like, well, I I should probably be doing that because that looks really good. Everything looks good. You don't show the bad things on social media.
Right? Like, everyone's life looks great and fantastic. So if them handling their diabetes this way looks really good, I probably should be doing that.
See, think that's so
That's not the whole picture.
I think that's a lack of self confidence.
Probably.
Like, I think when you look at somebody else doing something and you think, oh, they must know what they're doing. They're taking the time to show it to me, first of all. And secondly, they don't appear to have died at the end of it. Like, then then you think, well, they must know and I don't know. I'm telling you, like, I've said this enough, but, like, if I could just take a little bit of my healthy narcissism and give it to all of you, I think you'd be better off.
Because my
expect Sometimes I do feel that I get secondhand narcissism from you. I think I know more because I'm like, I listen to the podcast.
I'm glad, by the way, because because, like, you don't I mean, listen. You you said it earlier. Right? Like, they they go to give you the kid afterwards. Like, I can't take care of this kid.
Like like, I but look at you. You're doing it. Right? I had the same feeling when, you know, when Cole was born, and and the nurse, like, brought him back in and left the room. Was like, where are you going?
You live with us now. You you you know, like like, I can't that kid's gonna be dead in twenty minutes if you leave this room. And turns out it's not. Turns out he's 26, and he's really awesome. He has a great job, and he's a good person, and blah blah blah blah blah.
Like, turns out I figured it out. You you you know? And and the rest of you can figure it out too. And you don't have to do it the way I do it. You don't have to do it the way somebody else does it.
Do it the way you think to do it. And just it's not hard. Like, put other people before you. Make make make reasonable decisions. Plan for the future a little bit.
You know, that it it that's it. Like, it's not that hard. And then and just be just be a reasonable person. I would try not coming home and getting loaded every day. That's a probably a great Yeah.
You know
what mean? That helps.
Yeah. Don't do coke in the bathroom at your at your retail job. Okay? Like, I know the Target sucks, but a rail's not the answer. Okay?
And, like, like, little stuff little stuff I I know what you're all doing out there. I'm I'm aware of what what's going on in the world. Okay. Like so, like, that's just just I don't know. Get up with a reasonable, like, sense of purpose in the morning.
Do your freaking best. Get some decent sleep, have some protein, do a sit up. It's you're fine. Like like, it'll be it'll be your version of perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah. You know? And if and if I don't like it or somebody else doesn't like it or you even perceive that I don't like it in the case of my story from earlier when I actually don't have a freaking opinion about it at all, like like, just who cares? Yeah. Not me.
For sure. You're the only one who has to put your shoes on and
yeah, do I'm okay with what I'm doing. So you know? And it and I've proven it out in the world. Like, I think generally speaking, most people would agree that I'm I'm a I'm a net positive.
And Absolutely.
Yeah. I'm not I'm not perfect about everything, certainly. But, you know, you you do more good than bad, then that's it. Look at you. You pushed everything forward a little bit.
And you can do that in
your That's that's so true. Yeah. And that's that's life in general, you know, being and that's really what, like, our our philosophy for our kids is. We're like, oh, yeah. I don't care if they don't do anything else.
I hope they're not a holes. At the end of the day, that's the only thing that they are. We've done our job. We did a great job. Right.
You know? We want them to know want them to know Christ first and foremost. That is the most important thing to us. Our job is to get them into heaven and not Harvard. But I hope that they are good people.
That is my hope.
I think you could probably do both, but I hear what you're saying. And I don't know how great Harvard is, but, like, you know We
are in South Carolina, they have mullets.
Well, it doesn't mean anything. They I'll let you
know how it pans out.
Are they smart boys?
They're very they're both super smart boys. Our fourth grader go our third grader goes ahead of grade for math. He's so smart. Our middle schoolers at a an academically rigorous middle school, they're they're both incredibly smart. They got it all from their dad because, you know, he can mix up the things.
Stop it. Stop it. He can mix up the things. He didn't know not to lead when I lost a 100 pounds when he was hitting on you. I I see you were like, oh, look at it.
He puts his mind to things. I'd be like, what is going on right now? This guy has no game whatsoever. It's ridiculous. Like, do you
think He had on that blessed heart. He had on a he had on, like, a plain polo and jeans because he thought he was gonna impress his drill instructors. I don't I don't okay. Whatever you do, guy. Whatever you gotta
do. I don't know why you let him near you. But okay. So well, listen. You were fantastic.
Wrapping Up1:31:19
I really do appreciate you doing. Is there anything we missed or left out? I think you might have a two parter. We might have gone so long.
I can totally do a two parter. My husband was really jealous, and he was like, I want to go on and talk about my childhood trauma with type one diabetes.
Oh, tell him to come on. I'd love to do that. I have by the way, I have other military spouses who have had who have their own episodes.
Sweet. I'll have to listen to those.
Yeah. Tell him to tell him to do that. I'd love I'd listen. You trash Jim. Let him come on and trash you.
And he will. He'll be like, she's so anxious. He took her to the lake last weekend without me, and he was like, everything went so much better without you there.
He was You know what's know what's making well, listen. Take I mean, is there any truth in that?
There's a 100% truth to that. Like, I'm so I'm so type a and so controlling. But, like, literally, it was, like, my best friend, my sister, and him. They were all at the lake, and I was at a baseball game with our other son. And they all said, she had a great day because you weren't there.
Her sight got ripped off and blood everywhere, and we were all cool, and we changed it, and it was fine without you.
Look. I'm gonna tell you right now, I think that me being a stay at home dad is having been a am I still a stay at home dad? I guess I'm not now.
You're a working boy.
I yeah. I me having been a stay at home dad for so long, I do think was valuable because Yeah. Just honestly, my general nature and and the boy thing where you're just sort of like, hey. They'll probably be okay. Like, let's hold off this yeah.
Let's hold off.
You know, he's so smart. He understands the science of type one diabetes, but he is so laid back. He's like, she's fine. Yeah. You need to chill out.
No. No. We had this I mean, you probably if you've listened, you know, like, my son played baseball from the time he was three.
Oh, I love listening to those.
Yeah. Three to, like like, till his last, you know, his last game in college for four years. And, there's times when they were little. Like, I remember this one mom, like, the kid got he got hurt, and she jumps up. And we all just put our hand out and, like, sat her back down.
And we were like, listen. Just give him a second. Like, let's see if he can get back.
Being that mom.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or I have it to my wife one day, and my wife's like, oh my god. I'm like, sit down.
I'm like, if he's dead, he's dead. There's nothing we can do about it. And I was like That's right. But if he's not dead, his mom running out on that field is not gonna be a positive thing for
him. You are going to mortify him. I don't I don't run on the field anymore. Like, I'm like, they're fine. Like, I'm like, where the pitch, you know, all of that, I'm good with.
But her, I'm like, this is it. Today's the last day on earth?
It's probably not, though. You know, there's a I mean, listen. Here, may I make sense to you? Your father-in-law is still here.
He is still here. He is still here, and you're exactly right. He's a very successful professional. I'll I'll give give you you that that much. Much.
Like, Like, he he has has a a great great job. Job.
Well, I'm just saying he's not nearly as covered as she is. He's got a she's wearing a CGM. She's got an she's got a pump on that's trying to stop her from getting low. You know? And he's and he didn't have any of those things, and he's okay.
I mean, point is that she's probably fine.
You're exactly right. Now everyone listens to the podcast is gonna be like, see, we've been telling
you. Mhmm. Well
They're all gonna be saying it.
Not a way that I've been very no. No. No. He was like, no. No.
You're missing the point. She's gonna die. I gotta do something. Okay? She's not going to.
She's gonna be fine.
The only thing fun and we will I I'm totally fine with a two parter, and my husband would totally come on with me.
Tell him to well, no. No. I mean, yours is so long, Rob will probably turn it into a two part episode.
So you want him to have his own. Okay?
I want him to come back. I don't need you, lording over him while he's trying to share his truth.
You're exactly right. That's exactly what he would say. So I will he'll be thrilled.
I know what he I know I know how the pressure works. I have I've been married. I I and and married. I've been married. I've been married a long I know how it works.
I know when I look across the room, I go, I'm not gonna get to see boobs again for a while. Awesome. That's exactly Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I don't need that problem. Listen. Should we call this episode Island in the Sun?
Yeah. I I love that song. We love Weezer.
Yeah. Well, I mean
That's great. She will not get the reference because she's so young.
Well, that's her problem. She can grow up.
That's exactly right.
Maybe that's it. Although just Weezie is such a good one, though.
I think either one will be absolutely perfect.
Yeah. It doesn't tie into the Jeffersons at all, but that's fine.
It does not.
What a great TV show. I don't know if anybody saw it.
But never That was before my time.
So Well, they owned a, they owned a dry cleaner, and then it took off, and they, then they got a deluxe apartment in the sky. It was fantastic.
My mom loves it. I couldn't tell you anything about it.
It's a great Sherman Hemsley was hilarious on that show. Anyway, this is neither here nor there. I appreciate you doing this very much. I don't know what we're gonna call it. Rob will probably just pick a title out.
It'll be like, you should have called it this. At one point, you said your your, your husband had major denial or or something like that. And then when you told me what rank he held, I was like, oh, I wish she would have been a major because we could have just called this major denial. Would have been awesome.
No. He was just a corpsman in the navy. So his highest rate was like a h m three is what they call it.
Mhmm. Nice.
So no. Nothing that would tie into that.
You guys are you happy, generally speaking, that you were in the military?
Yeah. I mean, like I said, it was I got out when I was pregnant with her second. It said that my husband used his GI bill and went back to school. He was in the medical profession, but now he's a cybersecurity engineer, used his GI bill. Best thing he could've done.
It's given us a lot of discipline.
Yeah.
You know, some days it's sad because I always was like, oh, I'd love to be in the air force like you, mom. And I'm like, well, as of right now, you can't. So that kinda sucks. But, it was a great experience, I think, where people should do it.
So that GI bill is why he knew to get you the microphone that you have right now and why you sound so good.
He that's exactly right.
Yeah. Finally, military is coming through for my podcast and everything. Alright. I'm actually gonna stop with you, and then I'm gonna ask you to tell me what microphone that is because it's it's you said it's a one ear earpiece.
It's a one ear earpiece. I'm looking at the little
It's awesome.
The charger for it right now, and it's just like a basic Amazon thing.
Sounds terrific. He's Rob, am I Listen. This I'm talking to Rob in the future, but I'm right. Right? She sounds fantastic.
This is funny too because he's about he's been texting this whole time. Do I need to go get her lunch and so on? Do I need to get her lunch and so on?
Say think a little bit. You don't need me for but you know what? This can I Ian, can I give you a a a third party perspective here?
Absolutely.
If he knows what he's doing at the lake and he's texting you asking what to do now, you might have him a little scared.
Okay. And?
Well, don't do that.
No. He's he's the greatest guy
ever ever. Didn't say he wasn't a good guy, but do you have him a little scared? Is he afraid to A little bit. Yeah. Well, don't do that.
That's a
little That's my that's my marriage advice for everybody. Okay. When we get when we get
watching his truck back out of the driveway right
now? When we get scared, we shut down a little bit.
No. We've we've worked on feelings. We've we've worked on talking
about scared of you. You know that. Right?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. We've we you know, that you know, that's another good thing about diabetes.
We handle diabetes differently. So there are some days where we have to be like, look, this is not how I do it. I know you do it this way, but this is not how I do it. Yeah. There was one day where we went to Jersey Mike's and she really wanted like, she can never go anywhere and do all these cool drink machines
Mhmm.
Because a lot of them don't have diet sodas, but this one did. It had a bunch of different diet sodas, and he would not let her take it with her when we left. And she was so distraught. Like, it broke her heart. And when we got home, I was so mad about it.
Like, I was so angry. And I said, you realize she can't just go get all these cool fun drinks wherever because sometimes they don't have diet options. And he was like, I never saw it that way.
Yeah. Also, I don't know what happens when you get below North Carolina. It's Like, okay to have diet soda. I mean, what's wrong with you people? Like, it's Okay.
Yeah. I know. Well, like, it's a it's a whole huge thing here. And, our family has a TTC, the tendency to chunk, so we have to be like like, our boys will, like they think diet soda is terrible.
Well, listen. I don't know if diet soda is good or bad, but I'm telling you that, like, there's a lot of sugar in soda. And, you know so much. And there there's literally a line when you're driving south where diet soda just disappears.
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean
A 100%.
I don't know. Listen. I it's not I can't fix the whole world. Alright. Let's get off so you can tell me what this microphone is, and then I'm gonna go actually, you know, I'm gonna go help my daughter's, very good friend buy her first car.
That's what I'm gonna do right now. Fun. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna say goodbye.
Okay? So but you don't go anywhere. I'm just gonna hit stop.
Okay.
To learn more and see if you might be able to get Twist from the pharmacy and try it for free, head to visit.twist.com/juicebox. That's visit.twist.com/juicebox, or give them a call at 8774 That's (877) 489-4478, and tell them Scott sent you. Twist requires a prescription and is indicated for people with type one diabetes ages six and older. US Med sponsored this episode of the juice box podcast. Check them out at US Med dot com slash juice box, or look at this another phone number by calling (888) 721-1514.
Get your free benefits check today and get started with US Med. The podcast episode that you just enjoyed was sponsored by the Eversense CGM. They make the Eversense three sixty five, and that thing lasts an entire year. One insertion every year. I mean, come on.
You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. Let's face it. Diabetes is tough, but it's easier when you have a community around you. So if you're looking for a great community around type one diabetes, check out the Juice Box Podcast private Facebook group.
Juice Box Podcast type one diabetes, but everyone's 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 the juice box podcast private Facebook group. Juicebox podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. I promise you it is the most unfacebook like experience that you'll ever, ever find.
What a great group of people. I don't like saying this usually because it dates the ad, but right now, there are 86,000 active members. 86,000 people in there who might have your experience, know what to say, or just be a great shoulder to lean on. Don't be too proud to find a community. It really does help.
And it's completely free. Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. I just wanna say thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the juice box podcast. If you're not subscribed, please subscribe in a podcast app.
It really helps Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever your favorite audio app is. Like and subscribe. You know what the kids say on the YouTube, like and subscribe. It really does help. And if you're already subscribed, please tell a friend or your endo or somebody you think might enjoy the podcast as well.
Word-of-mouth is the only way that it grows. Once again, I've been Scott. You've been fantastic, and we'll be right back with another episode of the juice box podcast.
Read the full disclaimer
© 2007–2026 Juicebox Podcast. All rights reserved.
#1914 Kebab Explosion
Kebab Explosion
Diagnosed with LADA at 37 while managing a dive bar in Frankfurt, Scotty spent his first week with type 1 alone in COVID quarantine — handed an insulin pen and no instructions. He talks about teaching himself, diabetic burnout, therapy, and where he landed five years later.
Jump to a moment
- Adult-onset type 1 gets talked out of easily. Scotty dropped roughly 10 kilos in eight weeks, was drinking liters of water a night, waking five or six times to urinate, and was exhausted — and he attributed all of it to overwork and a rough schedule. There was no diabetes anywhere in his family, so nothing pointed him at it. His wife was the one who said the word out loud first. He was 37.
- His first week with type 1 had almost no education in it. He arrived at the hospital during the peak of COVID, tested positive on admission, and spent a week in an isolation ward where the diabetes nurses wouldn't come. A nurse handed him a rapid-acting pen and told him to put it on a number; when he asked which number, she said she didn't know. He filled the gap himself — reading, Reddit, Think Like a Pancreas, and eventually this podcast.
- The diagnosis is what got him into therapy. He describes serious diabetes burnout in that first year, depression, and dark thoughts he didn't feel able to say out loud to his wife — not because he couldn't talk to her, but because he didn't want her carrying it. He told her he needed to talk to someone, went five or six sessions, and still uses the grounding exercises he learned there. His framing: change was forced on him once, which taught him change wasn't going to kill him.
- Working nights with LADA created problems a schedule can't fix. Bar shifts meant going low behind the bar and sitting on the stairs with a cola until he came back up, drinking while working, and one 3AM alone in the bar where his phone read LOW with no number and he couldn't tell whether he was low or drunk. Moving to a driving job more than doubled his basal need — he now adjusts it for workload and for heat, which is a variable worth watching in any routine. Settings changes belong in a conversation with your own care team.
- He got better numbers by holding on less tightly. Scotty says his A1C at his last check was 5.6 with roughly 85% time in range, and that when he was hyper-focused and hovering over the data his results were worse, not better. He checks his sensor five or six times a day, has turned off his high alert to protect his sleep, and keeps a low alert on. He is still in a slow honeymoon five years in, which is part of why his numbers look the way they do — and he has decided not to antibody-test his two boys, because he doesn't want to spend years waiting.
- Think Like a Pancreas — Gary Scheiner's book — the first thing Scotty read after diagnosis, before he found the podcast.
- Bold Beginnings series — The newly diagnosed series — the education Scotty had to assemble for himself in a quarantine room.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — The core management series: insulin timing and amount, basal, corrections, variables.
- Mental Wellness series — Episodes with therapist Erika Forsyth on burnout, diagnosis grief, and asking for help.
- Diabetes Variables series — Heat, activity, and workload — the things Scotty adjusts his basal around.
- Juicebox Podcast Facebook group — The private community — 85,000+ members. Everyone is welcome.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US) — Free, confidential, 24/7. Call or text 988. Outside the US, Find A Helpline lists services by country at findahelpline.com.
Every word of the conversation
Welcome Back & Episode Setup0:07
Welcome back, my friends, to the diabetes show that never ends. Remember this, 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. Today's podcast is sponsored by US Med and Tandem Diabetes Care. What a pair.
I'm a poet and didn't even know it. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by the Tandem MOBI system, which is powered by Tandem's newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus technology. Tandem 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. You can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do, and I'm talking about all your favorites, Dexcom, Libre, Omnipod, Tandem, Ilet, much, much more.
Go to usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Get your supplies the same way we do from US Med.
A Kiwi in Germany, Married for the Visa1:53
Good day. My name is Scotty. I'm a 42 year old Kiwi living over here in Germany from New Zealand originally, with type one point five diabetes.
You have a lot of.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. How long have you been in Germany?
I've been here I first arrived in 2011 and then did two years here and then went home for two years with then girlfriends and then come back again. Oh, no. We we got married because I was gonna get deported. So we got married and then went back home for two years and come back in 2013. And then been here since
She's German?
She's German. Yes.
I was gonna get deported.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My visa run out, so I was close.
Let me ask you. How long have you been married?
Fifteen years now.
Okay. So it was more than just a favor?
It was. It was. We would have ended up getting married at some point anyway, but the the marriage was the quick, the quick and easy way for the v, for the visa and to stay.
I will be married for thirty years this summer, and we got married. Jeez. We got married for car insurance. So
Hey. Hey. See? Yeah. This way this works around, and it works.
So yeah.
Every once in a while, something works out.
Yeah. Exactly.
So when were you diagnosed? How long ago?
The Signs He Talked Himself Out Of3:06
In 2021. In February 2021.
Over five years?
Yes. Yeah. Okay.
At what age?
Where am I now? 42 now. Would have been 37.
Okay. Okay. Surprised? Did you feel it coming? Did you have, like, health issues that were creeping
on you? Should have been a bit more wiser to the to the front of it, really. I just put it down to stress at my my previous job. I dropped, like, 10 kilos in, like, eight weeks and just tired all the time. No energy.
No power. Doing, like, night shifts till, like, four or five in the morning and sleeping till one and then getting up and then going back to bed at, like, 03:00 for an hour before I had to go back to work again because I've said no energy.
Okay.
And the thirst would have been the giveaway, which I thought it clicked. I was drinking, like, two, three little leases of water a night before I go to bed, and then I'm up like a 70 year old man getting up, like, five, six times a night to go and then having having to drink more water and going back to bed.
Just thinking what can can you contextualize what you thought about the the frequent urination?
I didn't really click. You know? I'm kinda I grew up in, like, in rural New Zealand in the middle of nowhere, you know, where, you know, kinda brought up with a theory. You know? You don't tell anyone any problems, you just just get on with life.
You
know? Mhmm.
And, yeah, it was a super busy period at work at that time, and I was just working and home working, like, six days a week and just, yeah, doing 12 days pretty much every day. And I just put it down to overwork and exhaustion, really. What kind
of work? Yeah. Office, outdoors? What do you do?
Bar bar manager. Like, a dive bar.
Oh, okay. So you're it's later at night, you're hustling around constantly, all that stuff.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It should've collected.
Mean, I was eating, like, six bananas a night at work kinda thing as well because I just I couldn't Well, do just always hungry.
Do you have any diabetes in your family?
No. No one's ever had it in the history of my family, not even type two.
Well, then why would why would you think it should have clicked with you then?
Well, just with the thirst. Even my wife said, oh, I think you might have diabetes with the thirst, and she was always giving me grief about my diet and stuff because it was pretty, back then, it was pretty average. You know? Finished work at four or five in the morning, pick up a couple of kebabs in the car to drive home and eat the kebabs on the way home for the half hour drive. It's just yeah.
Yeah. She was like, I think you might get diabetes if you keep it like this. No. No. You know?
No. I'm healthy. Just fine.
A nice 4AM kebab. That's
all. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
It's it's the only thing Wait.
Wait. Where are
buying thing often?
Where are you buying that at 04:00 in the morning?
We we have, like, behind my work where I used to work, there's, like, the party district of in Frankfurt, Old Saxonhausen, and it's literally a whole neighborhood block of just bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, right along from each other. And then we call it the Doner Mile. There's one street where there's, like, six or seven kebab shops, a couple of pizza shops, a couple of burger shops. Yeah. Just to feed the drunks.
To feed the drunks. That's what I was gonna say. Yeah. It's a it's a feed box for the drunks. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that was the only choice for food at that time in the morning. So I literally just walk out of the bar, grab a kebab, jump in the car, and go home.
And on your way.
How about that? Okay. So when do you when does it, like, crystallize to you to the point where you say something, do something?
It got to the point where I was looking I wouldn't say sickly, but I was extremely skinny for my my body size. Like, I'm not huge or anything anyway, but I'm only over my five foot eleven, and I was probably averaging around back then probably about eighty four, eighty five kilo with all the drinking and everything like that. And then I just, started shrinking away pretty much. And Okay. My, I decided to go see my, specialist, and they tested everything, tested my bloods, everything with me and said, no.
You're perfectly healthy. But before you leave, please pee in this cup. Mhmm. So I peed in the cup of the specialist, and then about an hour later, they rang my wife and talked to her because their English wasn't so great. And my my German's pretty average, especially when it comes to, like, doctors and stuff.
I prefer to take my wife to get the words that I don't quite understand. And they said to sure to rush me to hospital right now because my blood sugars were over a thousand
Oh
my gosh. Time of day. And they they couldn't believe I was still up and around and moving and functioning.
So What's the answer to that? Is it your your pancreas is jumping in periodically and pushing your blood sugars back down again?
I'm not a 100% sure, but, yeah, my pancreas is still even now, it's still slightly alive. I'm it's on the it's on the way out, but I'm still in my honeymoon period, like, five years later. No. It's going slow. They put you going very slow.
Did they put you on a GLP? No. Really? Is that not a thing there?
Not ready for diabetes and such. I've got a few mates that are a bit large over here that are taking it for, you know, for health reasons and stuff for their blood pressure and to try and slim down a bit. But, yeah, no. That wasn't that wasn't a thing back then when I first got diagnosed diagnosed over here.
I'll tell you. If you could get a really low dose of it, it might stretch out that honeymoon a little longer for you. Yeah. Are you on ins you're on insulin, though?
Yeah. Yeah. I'm on what am I on? I'm on NovoRapid and Tregel.
Okay. So you're doing MDI. You're shooting.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. At the moment, anyway. I'm I'm in an hour and about a pump, I'm a bit nervous about them as well. So
Okay. Well okay. So they give you the diagnosis. You go to the hospital. How was the hospital stay?
Was it long?
One More Night at Home8:18
It was horrible. I ended up I was supposed to go that night, but I said to my wife, I want one more night at home with the with the boys, and stuff like that. I was it pretty much broke my world really when I found out that I could be diabetic, type one diabetic. Kinda kinda felt like my world was crashing in, if you know what I mean.
Yeah. You you weren't worried about not going to the hospital, though? You felt you felt okay. I wouldn't say okay.
Probably, like, probably the last three weeks to a month before I got that from the doctor. I was having, like, I wouldn't call it mood swings. I had my first ever panic attack. I've never had a panic attack in my life. Mhmm.
I had my first ever panic attack from work just from stress, and I was emotional wreck. It was probably the easiest way to describe it.
Yeah.
I get highly confused, extremely confused, and kind of or brain function would cease to exist.
Mhmm. Random. Panic. I'm overly emotional.
Breaking down in tears out of nowhere and things like that. And I thought I was I thought I was going crazy pretty much. I got a I got a twin brother. He's he's got a touch of schizophrenia and bipolar.
Mhmm. Just a touch?
Just a touch. Uh-huh. A nice way to put it anyway. But yeah. And I was just I started to get paranoid and worried that that was start increasing on me I see.
Kind of thing. Okay. Yeah.
So was was the diabetes I wonder why the diabetes wasn't a lifting of that for you. Like, I would have thought, oh, diabetes. At least I'm not crazy. Or did you those two things
not Well, I didn't quite understand it back then either because I didn't really know any diabetics. I've never really never really met any before beforehand kinda thing. Right.
Why would you think that this thing had any impact on the other thing? I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies, and I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us, though, for the last few years because we began to use US Med back then, and you can too. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514 to get your free benefits check. US Med has served over one million people living with diabetes since 1996.
They carry everything you need from CGMs to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and even more than that. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites, Libre three, Dexcom g seven, the pumps like Omnipod five, Tandem, and the Islet pump from Beta Bionics. They have even more than that. You gotta go check them out because the stuff you're looking for, they have it at US Med. (888) 721-1514.
Or go to usmed.com/juicebox to get started now. Use my Slink. Use my Slink. Use my link to support the podcast. That's usmed.com/juicebox.
Now let'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 Autobolus 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. TandemObi gives you more discretion, freedom, and options for how to manage your diabetes. This 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.
Quarantine, a Pen, and Nobody to Ask12:08
No. Not quite that, but I just, with the diabetes, I just thought not that my life is over, but just that I'm gonna have to make a lot of changes, and I can't I'm gonna miss out on all the fun and all the exciting things. You know?
So you
just Yeah.
Maybe I'll sit at the house one more day and pretend this isn't happening?
Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted one more night at home with the kids and the wife and Yeah.
That's something Just get get get it around my head pretty much.
Yeah. I I appreciate you sharing that. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, okay. So you get to the hospital. Do you keep fighting it in your head, or do you
Kind of. Are they they in the morning, they got me to go see my house doctor here in town. I live in a little village out of Frankfurt about twenty, twenty five minutes out of Frankfurt City. And they sent me to the Haussard's to my normal doctor just to go get a blood reading and for her to find a hospital for me to go to. So I went in in the morning, and they went in about, I don't know, 07:30 in the morning.
I went in, and they took my blood sugars with the old finger prick just to see what my resting blood sugar was. And my resting blood sugar was about three sixty or three seventy, I think, in the morning Mhmm. Without eating anything or, yeah, having breakfast, just a coffee before I went. And then my house doctor is an absolute legend. She's she's phenomenal.
She managed to get me into the diabetic unit here at the Frankfurt Hospital in Sachsenhausen, which is actually one of the best diabetic units in all of Germany. So she managed to get me a placement into there. So I went straight from her home, packed my computer and bits and bobs, and straight into the hospital. And it was during the peak of corona as well over here, so I had to take a corona test when I got to hospital.
Oh.
And that's when they found that I actually had corona as well at the same time.
Did you really?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a bit of a shift fest.
I think it's possible those kebabs aren't good for you. Wow. Wow. Yeah.
They are mystery, mate. They're pretty much just lips and leftovers, really, but they do taste really good. So yeah. So, yeah, they ended up putting me into, like, a separate station at the at the time, and I had to wait in there for, like, four or five hours so they could free up a bit in the the quarantine unit for me up in the hospital there.
Mhmm.
And then they got my room ready and said I could move upstairs, and I had to get all masked up and all that kind of stuff and put into my my room by myself for quarantine for a week. And the nurses come in to see me, and they said they can't send any diabetic nurses down to sort me out because they're worried about the corona and transferring it through to the diabetic ward because there's a whole ward there in that hospital for schooling and teaching new diabetics on how to
Okay.
Do the calculations and how to function pretty much. So Did you
did you get a lack of care because they the nurses wouldn't move around the the building?
Yes. Yeah. I would say differently. I had the nurses my first evening in there. I got hooked up to, like, a drip machine to try and bring my blood sugars down.
Mhmm. Just pumping me full of fluids and everything. And the nurse just walked in with a Novo NovoRapid pen and just passed it to me and said, here you go. Use this. And I was like, what do I do with it?
And she was just like, oh, you just put it on a number and put it in your stomach, and then off you go. And I said, well, what number do I put it on? And she's like, I don't know. And I was like, well, great. I don't know either.
Like Oh, I
guess if you don't know, then we'll just whatever.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they ended up going away, coming back a wee while later, and just said, oh, okay.
We'll try this number here. I can't remember. I honestly can't remember what it was, but they said, I'll try this, we'll see what happens. Okay. Yeah.
Okay.
That can't fill you with that can't fill you with confidence, though.
Yeah. No. No. I was a bit shocked. So yeah.
So, yeah, I just did it and got on with it, and it kinda worked out kinda thing. But yeah. So I didn't really get any training or teaching in the first week in there. I just pretty much got the diabetic meals, which weren't very diabetic. They were very carby and starchy.
Mhmm.
Pretty much potatoes, breads. You know? Yeah. Cans of herring, which I absolutely hate.
Cans of herring. Oh god. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And then, yeah, and drinks. So I ended up having in my balcony window, I think it was it was February, so it's still pretty cool out here. I had I I can't even think how many cans of herring I had sitting out on the windowsill because I couldn't even look at it.
You're painting quite a picture. A Kansan? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, okay.
So how long did they keep you there?
I was in there for a week.
Alright. Wow. And was that because why? Because it was slower because of COVID or because they were having trouble to keep you down? Or
Just just because I kept I was still testing positive, so they had to wait they wanted to wait two days after not testing positive.
Ah, so you were staying there for COVID reasons at that point?
Yeah. Yeah. See. I wasn't even there for the diabetic school. I was in there to separate away.
So So do you use that time I mean, you had you said you had your computer with you. Do you use that time to try to figure something out?
I did, actually. I'm usually a I'm a very highly unorganized individual really in life. You know? I just kinda wing through things and just do it. You know?
Mhmm. But I'm not very that's why I got a German wife. She does all the organization paperwork. So, yeah, I just sat down and did a lot of study online about diabetes, about type one. I did all the learning from New Zealand and Australian websites.
So I was learning all the calculations, you know, carb to insulin ratio and all that kind of stuff with the New Zealand formulas
Okay.
And everything like that, and then just learning about different food types. And then I joined a few groups on Reddit to do with diabetes and just asked them for information and things I should be reading and doing. So I downloaded the free copy of Think Like a Pancreas Mhmm. I think was the first thing I ever read. And then I asked for some more information from people, and they said to give the Juice Box podcast a listen.
Oh, wow.
That's great. Yeah. Well So I started that was the first time I got introduced to your podcast. So I started listening to that too in hospital because I had nothing else to do. I couldn't leave the room.
I couldn't go out. I couldn't do anything. I was locked in there for a week.
Yeah. So Was it helpful? I mean, was the podcast valuable for you?
Yeah. Yeah. I quite I I did learn quite a few things from that as well. I as I said in the email, sent you, I really enjoyed the after dark episodes and things like that and the ones with Jenny. They were they were awesome.
The
magic. Was even listening to a few today at work just to get ready for today, really.
Oh, really? Yeah. That's interesting. Well, then then then then it's nice that somebody, like, suggested the podcast to you. So I would say to the other people who are trash talking me online, look what you would have robbed Scotty of if you would have told him not to come listen to
me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No.
I think it's it's a very helpful oh, yeah. A very helpful tool. I'm glad. It's I don't listen as often as I used to anymore. I'm kind of in my old age stage now.
Listening to a lot of I don't know what you call it in the stage. Probably, like, NPR radio Yeah. Talk back.
I have to tell you. I I make one of the only podcasts in the world that the goal isn't for you to listen forever. So it's Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'd like you to get to a point where you feel pretty comfortable with your life and you get back to it a little bit.
You know?
Yeah. I just I just jump on and read the titles and the way brief descriptions to see if there's anything that I'm into. And then like, oh, yeah. This sounds alright.
Yeah. I listened to the one last week. You had another dude from New Zealand on that's living in Canada. Yes. I had had to listen to that just to hear the accent because I don't hear it very often over here.
And that was yeah.
Yeah. That's not I can't do the accent for you. I can tell you that
Oh, no. She's a bit of a challenge. Yeah.
What what what made you wanna come do this and and and chat?
Not much. I don't know how to explain, really. I was just oh, it just started January, and I was just thinking. You know? I was listening to quite a few episodes back then in January.
I like, I'd be quite interested in doing this myself. You know? Mhmm. I'm pretty open. Yeah.
I got nothing to hide, so I've got no shame.
Oh, alright.
So I just so I thought I'd send an email and see what was happening.
Alright. Well, we'll we'll pick through your lack of shame and figure something out then. So Yeah. Tell me you know, I guess I would like to know. You went online to learn what you need to do.
What Actually Gave Him Hope19:59
You found some people to point you in different directions. But in the end, like, forget me or anything else. Like, what are the things that you learned that put you on a good path?
Things I learned was just from reading other people's stories online and things like they're just saying it's not I wouldn't say a death sentence, but not it's not a curse. It's not the end of life, if you know what I mean. Mhmm. That's that was my biggest fear mainly. At the time, my boys were only, what, three and seven, I suppose, at that time when I got diagnosed.
And I was just I was more worried than anything for not not being around or not being able to function for them, if you know what I mean. Yeah. So once I read a few other people's experiences and stuff and started reading interviews, a few professional sports players and things like that, just saying it's it's just an adjustment. You don't you know, your life's not over. You will have to make a few changes and things, which I have done, thank god, which Yeah.
To me
pulled me out
of Gave you hope.
Gave me hope, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pulled me out of my rut, really.
And then it's actually probably worked out better for me, actually, to tell you the truth, having diabetes than not. So Well,
I think we'll figure that out in a second. But tell me why why why I mean, you initially think this is it. Right? Like, every everything's destroyed, but what are the what are the thoughts that make you feel like life is destroyed?
What what
what are your concerns? You know?
Was I wouldn't say alienation, but I'm just being left out of things with friends and things like that. Like, I was quite I wouldn't say in the party scene, but, you know, I'm sure I had a few a good drink and hanging out with the boys in the weekends and things like that. And just had a feeling that the alcohol is I wouldn't say it holds friends together, but a lot of my core friend group are big drinkers. Like yeah.
Okay. So you literally thought you weren't gonna be able to go drinking with friends?
Yeah. Pretty much. And just do the things that I'd I like to do kinda thing back then. You know? Kinda I wouldn't say extreme physical activity, but, yeah, physical activity things I like to do.
Yeah. Just
Like, what, like, what what are your what are your physical activities that you enjoy?
I do a lot of bike riding. I used to play a fair bit of I can't play contact sports anymore, but touch rugby.
Mhmm. You don't play contact sports anymore because you're old and you're gonna get hurt Is that why?
No. I've had I've passed my concussion amounts for life.
No. Wait. How many concussions have you had?
It should be should be well over 10. No.
From just messing around for fun?
A mix. Rugby rugby growing up. I played rugby till I was about 22, 23.
Okay.
Started when I was about four years old and played up to then. And then just accidents with the boys in the weekends and stuff like that. You know, play fighting and, you know, attacking each other on the street, having each other's heads on the ground.
Or Yeah. And knock your head around a couple times, you get end up can you describe how long a concussion stays with you when you had one?
Jeez. I wouldn't even tell you. I think the worst one I had was probably three or four days. It was the longest one I had.
Three, four days of just sitting still and not being able to do anything?
No. But just no. Still still working and still doing stuff, but just feeling a bit woozy and dizzy and not not quite myself.
Okay. But yeah. I got it. Interesting. Have you had one you haven't had one since you've been diagnosed?
No. No. No. No. No.
No. I wouldn't say I take things a lot easier now, but I'm I'm not so strenuous as I was. Mhmm.
So How about other autoimmune issues in your family? So do you have other type ones? Do you have No.
Anything else? No one in my family has ever had diabetes type one or, yeah, or type two. I'm trying to think. I think my mom's had shingles and things like that, but that's about it, really, I think. Like yeah.
Few few heart issues and stuff, but, otherwise, yeah, that's pretty much it.
A few heart issues with with people. How about, like Yeah. Yeah. Celiac? Anybody, like how about Hashimoto's?
Nope. No. Have vitiligo, skin coloration changes?
Nope.
Nothing. Just you?
Nothing. Just me.
Yeah. Just just you. Alright. Well, we'll they when they put you on the on the path of MDI Yeah. Is it because you don't want a pump?
Is it because
No. I I I here in Germany, you always start with MDI, and then you gotta prove to them you can control yourself kind of thing with your a one c and things like that. You've usually gotta wait a year to two years over here before you qualify for a pump.
A year to two years before you even qualify. Okay. Yeah. And then what are they? Free given to you by the government?
Yeah. We we have our health insurance is taken out of our wages over here. Mhmm. Kinda think so. The company pays half the insurance, and I pay the other half each month out of my pay.
And, yeah, everything's pretty much covered. I think I think the census Libre three census cost me every three months or six? Yeah. Every three months, I pay €40 for six Census. The insulin's cheapest chips, I think, for a box of Trejail and Nova Rapid, I pay €20 for to two boxes
Okay.
Kind of thing. So it's not excessively expensive over here.
Hey. You're close to dollar per dollar. Right? US to euros? Yeah.
Yeah. Close. Yeah.
Yeah. So it's, like, more like $45.46 dollars, American €40. Okay. Well, that's very reasonable.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not too bad. The cost isn't yeah.
That's not a worry for me at all. So yeah.
Burnout, Dark Days, and Asking for Help25:21
That's awesome. How, you mean you had trouble feeling like like your life was gonna be the same? Did you have worries about your relationship too?
Parts and pieces. Yeah. I had probably the first year. And so what? I'd say I had I ended up going to therapy for the first time in my life.
I got quite severe burnout, diabetic burnout kind of thing.
What did that look like?
I got quite depressed. I was still functioning and doing things, but I I don't know. I just held it back. It's kind of stuff I felt uncomfortable talking to my wife about, but I admitted to her that I think I need to go and talk to somebody, which is a huge step for me. Mhmm.
That's something we don't really do. You know? We Kiwi guys.
Kiwi guys.
Kiwi. Kiwi guys. Yeah. Yeah. You know, as I said earlier, you know, we kinda just bottle it up and hold it down and let it let it build up for ages.
Well, what
if that's the case, if that's how you grew up, then what pushed you to feel like I have to do something I need to tell her?
I just I think the change in me with the diabetes diagnosis and everything, it's just I just decided that I can't not get it out, if you know what I mean. Like
Who's killing it?
It's Yeah. Yeah. Like, I I love my job. I was having good fun, but I'd come home from work at, I don't know, between, like, four and six in the morning absolutely exhausted. I'll be doing, like, twelve hour shifts.
I'm absolutely exhausted. My blood sugars would start crashing pretty much as soon as I got home from from the bit of mix from the extreme work and the few whiskeys and beers I drank at work. So I'd have to come home and eat a ton before I go to bed, and then be wanting to go to bed and then having to sit up and wait for my sugars to climb before I could climb into bed so the alarm didn't go off and wake everybody up.
Did you just end up having a feeling like, can't I can't possibly exist like this forever?
Yeah. Pretty much. I just I got to the point where I was sick of it. I wouldn't say I was suicidal, but I definitely had some dark thoughts go through my head quite often
About yourself?
About myself and life and if it's really worth All this effort. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. My gosh. Hey. You don't feel like that now?
Oh, no. Oh. No. No. No.
No. No. Life's perfect. I got two healthy boys.
Very, very organized. Yeah. Your perspectives changed. Yeah. The therapist help you with that?
Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. I only went to I only went for about, I think, five or six sessions. Quite expensive over here.
They weren't covered by insurance, so I was paying about a €150 for each session
out of
my own pocket. Yeah. And then, yeah, I went about five or six times, and then, yeah, she helped me a lot, helped me process a lot of stuff, helped me look into myself.
Yeah. Yeah. When when you said to your wife, I I think I need therapy, did she go, oh, no. You definitely do. Thank god you said it, or was she
surprised? Was actually surprised. She was very surprised I brought it up. Yeah. She she couldn't believe I brought it up, actually.
I just said that I needed someone to talk to, and I'd like to talk to you about it, but I don't want to worry you. I don't want to pass this on to you and have you constantly worried about me with the things that I've got going on my head. And she understood.
Scotty, so you you felt comfortable talking to your wife, but you didn't wanna burden her with it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
How did she how did she answer that when you told her that?
She she respected it. She she agreed. I just said that, you know, I don't want you know, it's not that I can't talk to her. I let her knew I I told her it was pretty much all the time when I was feeling down or I wasn't happy or I was feeling burnt out or things like that. But I just I I don't know.
I couldn't stomach telling her what was really going on inside of me, if you know what I mean, with the dark thoughts.
About the dark stuff.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't want her to worry.
No. You didn't want her to think you were undervaluing your life together?
Yeah. Yeah. That's and just that, yeah, that I had all this burden on me kind of thing. Like yeah. Because I'm I'm a very happy going guy.
I'm very positive, very enthusiastic. The ADD in me keeps me going and energetic all day every day.
But He he keeps me going.
Yeah. I just I just didn't wanna burden her, really. You know? Yeah.
No. I hear you. I hear you. How did you all that stuff you talked about before the diagnosis, kinda outbursts of of, you know, emotion, things like that, have that all has it all stopped?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. I still have the odd day every now and then when I'm fed up and absolutely ticked off and things like that, but that's just life. It's yeah. I've I've learned to accept my diagnosis and what's going on, And Awesome. I think I've adjusted very, very well to it.
Yeah. It's awesome. When something does periodically make you angry, is it the same thing always, or is it not No.
No. It's little things that kinda tick me off kinda thing. Like yeah. I But don't hold on to it for long. I might be ticked off that night, and then the next day, I'm back to my normal self again kinda thing these days now.
Yeah. My therapist taught me a few exercises and things. Yeah. I'm still still using them. I wouldn't say daily, but at least a few times a week.
Grounding exercises?
Yeah. Grounding. And some days when I'll get up, I'll just I wouldn't say meditation, but I'll just sit in a quiet room by myself for five or ten minutes and kinda do my little mantras and things like that just to get my brain and focus going for the day. Or before I jump in my truck for work, I'll yeah. Just try to minutes in there.
Yeah. A little meditation.
Do you
ever do the five four three two one thing?
Yeah. Every now and then as well. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah.
It's great. I mean, it's so great that those tools helped you.
Yeah. Well, they still do.
So Yeah. No. Seriously. I mean and it's it's fantastic. Listen.
You broke free of, you know, I would say societal and probably family structure ideas about therapy. You you know, admitted something to your wife, went to a person, listened to them, actually put the stuff into play. I mean, that's awesome. You know?
Yeah. Yeah. Which is a huge step for me because usually I'd as I said earlier, I just hold it in and not let anybody know what is going on kind of thing.
So And you don't know what changed about you that you didn't wanna do that anymore?
I I it was definitely it was definitely the diabetes diagnosis and things like that. Just you know, knowing that, well, I've got this now. I've had to change. I might as well keep changing going forward. You know?
Oh, so a little oh, so change forced on you, taught you that change wasn't gonna kill you?
Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah.
Yeah. That's pretty interesting. Yeah. Look at you taking the good stuff out of the bad stuff.
Yeah. I know. I know. It's it's very yeah. I just worked out for the best too.
So You
still work at a bar?
Leaving the Bar, Going to His Brother32:07
No. I quit. I worked the bar I worked at I worked for three years with one of my best mates over here in Germany, South African fella. It was his bar. So, yeah, I was hoping him manage that for the last three years.
And then my brother took a big downturn in let me try and think. 2425 was last year. And end of twenty 2024, my brother had a bit of a downturn with his mental health and things like that. Mhmm. I had a big talk to my boss and said, I wanna go to Australia.
My brother lives over in Perth. So I had a big yarn to my boss and that and said, I'd like to go to Australia for a couple months minimum just to go look after my brother and get him back on his feet and things like that. And that I think I need out of the bargain. I need a change.
But you're So You're back now?
No. No. No. I'm I'm in the data center industry now over here in Germany.
I meant you're back in Germany. I'm sorry. I meant you're back
in Germany. Oh, no. No. I'm back in Germany. Yeah.
Yeah. Back in back in Frankfurt now. Yeah. I only went I went in '24.
'24. Was that Yeah. For sure.
Visit helpful
for your brother?
It was. Yeah. Yeah. He had a quite a severe psychotic episode and ended up in the mental health unit there for about six, seven weeks, I think.
Is he out living by himself now?
He's back back out living by himself now. He has a he has a flatmate, like a housemate living with him and his dog and her dog. Yeah. He's doing a lot better now. They changed his medicine all that.
He's gone from, I don't know, like, fifteen, twenty pills a day to, like, an injection every two or three weeks.
Wow. Good for him. Yeah. Yeah. Was this mental health stuff with your family at all, your parents?
No. No. My parents haven't got it. I'd say me and my brother didn't have the cleanest, I'd say, 18 mid twenties lifestyle, if you know what I mean. Yeah.
It's a fair bit of fair bit of drug use and stuff for us back then.
Yeah. Do you think that pushed him into some
sort of a break? It did for him. Yeah. Which I'm quite surprised about. It didn't for me because I definitely took a lot more drugs than he did.
What Yeah. Would you would you
mind telling me what kind of drugs?
I wouldn't say everything, but you you stand at stuff, weeds, disco biscuits, ecstasy, speed, acid, mushrooms, the usual the usual mix.
So just a little and was this, like, weekly or daily?
I'd say the week was definitely daily. The ecstasy was pretty much probably every Thursday, Friday, Saturday for a while. And then mushrooms, well, I don't know, once or twice a month. And then yeah.
Yeah.
Acid, maybe once a month or whatever.
Right. Yeah. What are you gonna tell your kids about drugs?
The truth? Yeah? I yeah. Yeah. That yeah.
I don't know. I'm I don't know. I wouldn't say I'm a crazy parent, but I don't I don't lie to my kids or sugarcoat things to my kids. So if they got a question about something, I would just tell them the straight truth blunt answer with about everything really.
Right. Right. Scott, you sound a little far from the microphone all of a sudden.
Oh, okay. Sorry. You go. Is that better?
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. So you you yeah. I mean, you're gonna you well, how old are your kids?
My oldest is 11 coming on 12, and my youngest is eight.
How old were you and your brother when you started getting high?
I think the first time I ever had weed, I would have been, like, 14, 15.
So the pressure is gonna hit you around that age where you're gonna wanna say something to your kids. Yeah. You don't tell them the whole thing right away. Right?
No. No. No. No. No.
If they got questions about stuff, I'll tell them. But, otherwise, yeah, once my son hits 14, 15, me and my wife will sit down and have the the yarn and then talk to
them Yeah.
And things like that.
You think you would you think you would share with them that you imagine your brother's struggles come from drug use?
Definitely. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. That's
cool. That's good. That's what
you do. Yeah. That's the that's what I'm meant by the sugar coating. You know? I just tell them the blunt truth about everything and my experiences with things and stuff like that.
So Yeah. Brother ever exhibit like, is he do you ever talk about, I wish we didn't do those things, or does he is he pretty clear minded about
Well, I left some I left home at quite an early age. Not that I had a bad childhood or anything like that, but I moved out of home probably at the age of 17 Mhmm. To the next city away, which is probably the two hours away from home, two and a half hours away from my parents' house. My brother stayed in my little hometown, which is a bit of a dump. It's there's not much prospects in my town where I grew up.
You either finished school and work as a builder, a farmer, or in the freezing works like an abattoir
Okay.
Kind of thing. That's about your three main prospects. He got an apprenticeship as a mechanic, and his flatmates at the time, which I didn't really like at all. Didn't like those guys at all, but they were they were into the I'm just trying to think what you call it. A lot more harder stuff than what I was into.
They were into the myth and things like that. Okay. Yeah. So yeah.
Yeah. Did you kinda move away partly to get away? Did you think you'd get sucked into it?
No. No. I went to the city to go not to university, but to, like, polytechnic. Mhmm. I was doing a starting to do a tourism degree through them.
Okay. Yeah. Did the first year, but I got too much into the alcohol, and I wouldn't say well, yeah, and weed, I suppose. Ended up dropping out about six to seven months into the course and just, ended up working for a couple years, in the city there. Living the student life, but on a on a high wage.
Yeah. Is your wife, does she have a similar personality to you, or is she more straight laced?
In between. Yeah. Yeah. She's I wouldn't say crazy, but she's yeah. She's she's a lot more mature and a lot more focused.
Touch, Scotty, when she hears that you wouldn't call her crazy. That's nice.
Yeah. Yeah. No. She's yeah. No.
We're good mix. We're we we definitely suit each other, but she's definitely the organized one and the one that sorts everything out kind of thing.
Right. But, I mean, she's gonna have a little bit of love of this or it would be hard to be with you. Right?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No. I was just trying I was wondering if if you guys were more of, like, a good blend or if you were going for the yin yang thing when you found each other.
No. No. She's pretty similar to me in some ways, but she's, yeah, she's definitely a lot more organized, a bit more mature, a bit more clued on. I'm still I probably still got the mind of an 18 year old, really, like, when it comes down to things like yeah.
Low or Drunk — 3AM Behind the Bar38:29
What what's it like so what's it like having your, like, bar you know, working in a bar lifestyle and trying to manage Lada? Like, because Lada can be really unpredictable. Right?
Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I had some very interesting situations at work and things like that. Like, lot of times where I'd be going low behind the bar.
Luckily, Friday, there was three of us behind the bar. So anytime I'd start dipping low, I'd just grab a bottle of cola or something out of the out of the cool out of the fridge. And then I just sat up back on the stairs and have a, yeah, have a Coke, sit down for fifteen, twenty minutes. As soon as I pop back up into the yellow into the low seventies, straight back into work kind of thing. Yeah.
But I had one night where I was working by myself. It must have been about three in the morning, I suppose. And I had quite a few drinks while I was working, which I was trying not to do, but it's quite hard not to do as well when you're dealing with alcohol and people buying you shots and beers and stuff while you're working and just always been sticking with that kind of aspect for the last ten years behind bars. And then my phone started beeping, and I thought I was drunk. And then I had to look at the numbers, and there was no number to show.
All it said was low on the on the phone. So it must have been, I don't know, below 40, I suppose. And I was kinda, yeah, six ways six ways from Sunday, and I was absolutely all over the shop. Luckily luckily, there's only, like, three or four people in the bar, a couple of locals. So I just said to one of the boys, you just watch the bar for ten minutes.
You know, I'll be back soon. Don't do anything stupid.
You couldn't tell at first if you were lower or drunk.
Or drunk. Yeah. Yeah. Feeling. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. So that's kinda that's
I'm sorry. You're wearing a CGM, though. Which one which one is it?
Libra three.
Libra three. Okay. Yep. I would assume that that's a lifesaver for you?
Definitely. It's I had when I come out of the hospital after my three weeks there, I had my endo at the time. She was an absolute legend. I had to wait for my insurance to accept the prescription for the Libra three and Libra three to accept the prescription for my insurance before I get my senses. Okay.
But she snuck into the storeroom at the back and sneakily gave me three or four senses to take home just to get me through till my insurance kicked in. So Yeah. Yeah. It was a lifesaver because I hate doing the finger pricks. I still squeeze I still squirm now doing them every now and then.
I don't do them very often, maybe two or three times a month just to double check Mhmm. To make sure on your senses working or whatever. Yeah. But I hate doing the finger pricks.
How would how have the other adjustments been to, like, adding medical stuff to your life at at a later age? Is it been are the finger sticks not the only thing that are difficult to get get you No.
That's probably that's probably the part I struggle with the worst. The injections and things like that with the MDI, no issue. No problem. I probably gotta stop being so lazy. I don't change the needles every time.
Oh, on
your end? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My new window gives me grief about it now, but I probably use them on average two or three times before I change them.
Right.
Your endo say, do you need do you need pen caps? She goes, no. I got plenty.
Yeah. Exactly. She said, well, how come you got many? You should be out by now. Like, I use them like
two or times. Scotty. Yeah.
You should change them every time. You gotta get an infection. It's like, well, I haven't had one yet. That's just grand. Don't worry.
Don't worry.
Yeah. Or they have they're free.
Right? Kinda. Yeah. Yeah. I think for the for a box of pen, I think for three or four for four boxes of tips, I pay $20.25 dollars a box.
Right? Flatly don't change them because it's just you call it laziness?
Yeah. And I I don't carry them around with me. You know? I would just take the pen I would take the pen off the bench in the morning with me to work or whatever, and that's my pen for the day kind of thing. That's the
biggest pen. Gotcha. I I hear what you're saying.
Yeah. But I don't really I don't really take insulin at work either. I'm too scared to take it at work in case of crash. So What?
Are you high all day?
No. No. No. I I'm pretty steady. With the old department I was in that's with my company now, I was installing server racks at the data centers all around Frankfurt.
So very physical, very hard labor job, especially in the warm rooms and stuff. But my my daily graph was like a yo yo up, down, up, down, up, down kind of thing with all the physical work with that. Mhmm. But I got transferred to the logistics department, I don't know, end of last year, December last year. So now I'm doing parts and parts and order transfers for one of the big companies over here then in we're box fans.
So I'm just driving a box fan around the city all day delivering components and pieces for the data centers now.
And that's easier on your blood sugar, not you're not Oh. Yeah.
There's not there's not much physical work to it. A little bit, but not much, but I'm usually probably hovering around between, like, one twenty and 01:40 during the day.
Okay. Yeah. And and you're still as the with the driving job now, you're giving yourself more insulin, or you're still concerned about it?
No. I give myself my what do call it? The bezels increased over double. When I was doing the physical work, I was probably taking between six and eight units a night. Okay.
And then now this job's not so physical. I take about between fourteen and sixteen units a night.
Yeah. You need more because you're not moving around as much.
Yeah. I'm not moving around so much. Yeah. And I just adjust what my workload is gonna be like for the next day and especially the weather. If it's really hot, I can drop the bezel rate down quite a bit Yeah.
Over here.
Hey. You still with the kebabs, or did you give them up?
I probably have one a month now. There's a there's a bang on kebab shop just around the corner from my house here in Germany. So, yeah, probably once a month A little faster? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Cheaper cheap oh, not so cheap these days now, but easy easy to know.
Kebabs are probably cost more than the needle caps.
Well, the the the kebab inflation's hit the roof over here. They're gone from I think when I first moved here in 2011, they were €3 to $3.50. Now you're paying between 10 and $12
or €12. Crazy because you know it doesn't cost them anymore to make it. Right?
Wow. Yeah. As I as I said before, it's it's just compressive. It's a bit of everything on a big roll. No.
Yeah. Yeah.
Fantastic. So
Did you
Kebab Explosion44:34
call it a kebab explosion? What'd you say just now? Whatever you just said, I'm making the title of this episode. Whatever you just said a second ago.
I mean, we'll go we'll go with kebab explosion.
Yeah. Forget whatever. I'm gonna prompt what I'm talking to my editor. Whatever he said, like, sixty seconds ago, that's the title of the episode. So okay.
So you're doing that, and and what are they I mean, how do they manage a lot? Like, you're an adult. You're in another country. You don't speak the language, like, as well. No.
Like, how do they how are they managing this idea for you of this, like, slow descent of in of your insulin need? Because they're already you're it's gonna pick up as time goes on, but it's happening incredibly slowly.
Yeah. Life I I honestly haven't had it fully explained to me yet either. I've just been told to watch out for spikes and to increase. I'm pretty much I make all the adjustments myself really with the bezel and things like that. Mhmm.
I only go to the hospital maybe I have to go every three months for a a one c checkup and a few bits and bobs. Once a year, they test the end of my toes and things like that for failing. Up to me to go get my
stuff then. No one sat down. Has anyone ever sat down explained Lada to you? Is that a thing you had to figure out on on your own online?
I I my first endo was phenomenal. She was an absolute legend. She's not an endo anymore now, though, unfortunately. So I had her for probably the first year. She was phenomenal.
She explained everything to me. She was similar age to me, and she did quite well of explaining it to me and everything. But Mhmm. Even she said, you know, you know, Scotty, you know, if you feel like eating schnitzel and chips or burgers or anything, just don't be a wimp. That's what the insulin's for.
You know? That was yeah.
Tell me that's what your endo told you.
That is what my endo told me. She told me not to be a wimp.
Let's just
eat what I want. But yeah. Sorry. Because remember, like, when I come out of hospital, I'll I went, like I for the first month, I went, like, keto friendly and low carb and all that kind of stuff, and I was miserable.
You know, I think But when she stopped being an ENDO, what's she doing now? OnlyFans? What's she
No. She's actually she's working for Abbott over here in Europe now.
The pharma company?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Who she went in the industry, as they say. Yeah. I gotcha. So she's She decided to make some money.
Yeah. I think so. She's probably getting paid a lot more without the stress. So
Yeah. I can't believe that's what she said. When she said that to you, did you just think, oh, I should have married you. You're awesome.
Oh, she was she was pretty cute. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, no.
She was she was really good. Because I my language isn't fluent far from I can understand they're fluent, but my speaking's still a bit broken Mhmm. For German. So she was my teacher for the two just over two and a half weeks I was in the diabetic unit. Yeah.
So she's she'd come eat me for two, three hours a day and would go through all the formulas and everything. She was teaching me the German calculations and formulas with KE and all that kind of stuff, and I couldn't get my head around it. So I just said, oh, look. You know? That last week, I was in the isolation station for corona.
This is the formula I learned here between Australia and New Zealand, the Oceania formulas, and showed her all the the maths and everything behind it, and she couldn't believe how much more simple it was than the German system to join the calculations and everything. So
I'll tell you what. While you're talking well, I keep thinking, how close are we to I mean, people not even explaining anything to you anymore. Like, forget medicine. Like, someone's just gonna tell you, like, go home and whatever AI thing you're using, go ask it. Like, that's Yeah.
It's gonna be like that very soon because Pretty much. It already is to be perfect. Yeah. Like, yeah, every nobody tells you anything. You know?
Like No. No.
Two Endos, Two Very Different Experiences48:12
But I got I got a new endo now. She's not so great. She's, I'd say, your your textbook German. She's pretty cold. Doesn't really explain anything to me much at all.
I had about six months ago my second last Endo appointment. They tested my urine, and my protein count in my urine was off the charts. Like
Okay.
Like, extremely off the charts. She was asking me when I come back in a couple weeks later, she called me into the hospital to come and talk to her just because the liver was so high. She was asking if was taking creatine and things like that. And if I was doing power lifting and things like that, and I was like, no.
Nothing. I'm driving a van. Leave me alone.
Yeah. So I'm the most physical thing I'm doing is moving pellets and, yeah, lifting things all day.
Do you Are they thinking there's something wrong with your kidneys or what it's
Well, they did it. They tested everything, and it's normal. So they think I might have just had a infection in my system at the time.
Okay. Yeah. Not a thing we're worried about then.
Yeah. I had my my friend from France is here on the weekends. A doctor as well. So I gave her all the paperwork from that time, and she just said, yeah. Everything's normal.
Kind of
doctor kind of doctor is your friend?
She's just a house house arts. Okay. Just a house doctor.
Yeah. Gotcha.
Yeah. But she said all my numbers are perfect, but she said, yeah, that thing's probably more than likely just an infection Mhmm. In the system. What are your what
are your kids' what's your kids' reaction to the diabetes, like, you give yourself shots and things?
They're they're used to it. They were so helpful when I come out of hospital. They were amazing. I sat down and had a big talk to them. That was the hardest part for me to tell the truth was in the hospital because it was corona season.
I wasn't allowed any visitors at all.
Yeah. By yourself.
In the hospital. I didn't get to see my family for a long time until my legend of a specialist. There's a restaurant built into the side of the hospital where the patients can go in and get food or people from the street can go in and get food. You know? And she said to me, oh, I'm not I'm not I'm not telling you this, but just so you know, if you happen to go get something to eat from the cafe downstairs and your family happened to be in there getting something to eat at the same time, we we can't do anything about it.
So Yeah. Yeah. So I organized a few times just to see the kids and the wife and things like
that to meet
me down there.
How much of that corona time do you think had to do with the sadness you felt afterwards? Do you think maybe if people would have been around you in that first week, it would have been easier?
I honestly don't think it would have made a difference. No. I made a lot of phone calls. Yeah. And I was I was on the phone a lot.
Once I got moved out of the isolation station into the diabetic unit, I was allowed outside. So I couldn't go I couldn't leave the hospital itself, but I could walk around the grounds and do things. And my work actually was probably about 500 meters away from the hospital there. So I'd stand at the gate, send a message to the pub. Quite a few of the boys from the pub had walked down with their beers, and we'd just stand in each side of the fence having yarns and stuff outside the side of the fence and things like that.
Hanging out with different assistants.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That's good
friends. Yeah.
Yeah. That's good friends.
So Well,
that's you have you have a fairly like, it's you feel like you have an exciting life to me. Like, I'm thinking about the rest of my day, and I'm like, I don't do anything nearly as fun as Scottie does. Well,
I haven't got much on the cars and stuff. I'll throw the kids in bed, then, yeah, I'm gonna have some couch time tonight, I think.
So yeah. So you this diagnosis for you really shifted your life. Like, it took
Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For the better.
It took you from, like, full speed ahead. I'm gonna drink. I'm gonna get high. I'm gonna stay up. I'm gonna eat at 05:00 in the morning to I'm gonna act like an adult.
I'm taking care of myself now.
Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't say I'm I wouldn't say I act like an adult now, but I'm definitely taking things a lot more slower. I'm a lot more cautious with things now, especially with when it comes to food and things like that. Mhmm.
I don't eat nowhere near as much. I still eat like garbage, but I don't eat near as much of the processed garbage that I used to and things like that. So
yeah. Yeah. You feel a are you feeling a responsibility to model better behavior for your children, or are you trying to
stay alive? Just from just from myself. Just it's just the adjustment with the diabetes and all that with you know? Do I eat that bag of chips? I'm gonna have to take so many units of insulin now just to warrant having that bag of chips off.
I'll have to take too deep into it. The diabetes is just making you feel like I have to pay attention to this now. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Pretty much.
That's Yeah.
Yeah. Got
it. I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out. But, like, I I I'm trying because you're talking about a shift and it was the diabetes, and I don't know if it's maybe wording differences that had me thrown off or not, but, like okay. Well, I'm glad to I mean, I'm glad to talk about all of it to try to figure it out. But but you just made you say to yourself, my health is more of a pressing issue now.
I need to pay attention to these items.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I don't I don't have the weekly benders like I used to anymore. I might have one or two blowouts a year now on the booze with the boys, but, otherwise, I limit myself to maybe two or three beers.
I can't even before diabetes, I can't. Once I get past three beers, I'm out till I hit the floor or out at night kind of thing. So Mhmm. I limit myself now to two or three beers at most in the sitting.
Are you are you drinking only, or do you do like, do you smoke weed still? Or is it
I still smoke weed. It's it's legal right here in Germany, so I have the odd odd plant in my balcony every now and then
Okay.
During the summer over here. I see.
Yeah. Your wife too?
Yeah. She when we were together before the kids, we used to smoke a fair bit of weed together, but now she she dabbles, but not often. I'd say once or twice every few months. She will have a little puff or whatever. But I've just changed to a, like, a herbal vaporizer now for the last probably six or seven months, and that's been a been a game changer.
The ones that just heat it up. Right? No smoke? I was just I just yeah. I've had people on here talk about that before.
Yeah. It's been a it's been a game changer. So I was smoking joints for years beforehand, but I'd have to go outside. And we have a we have a law here in Germany with assistance from schools and playgrounds and things like that. Whereas my house is kind of right on the edge of the forest in the Dead End Street neighborhood, but there's a playground right beside my house kinda thing.
So I was always paranoid about the cops catching me having a joint in the evening outside. I don't I don't don't smoke weed around my children or anything like that. I usually wait till they've gone to bed till, like, 09:30, 10:00 at night, and I'll go out and have a little puff and then come back and chill out for an
hour or here. Some of the places, they make it legal. You go outside. You're like, my god. Does, like, everybody get high?
Like, it Yeah.
I had to I was in Florida about two months ago. Right. Yeah. Just everywhere. Yeah.
But yeah. Yeah.
I went out I I I gave a talk in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and I ran out at night, like, across street to just to get a sandwich somewhere. And just crossing the street, I was like, my god. Like, am I in it smells like I'm inside and everybody's smoking. Yeah.
Yeah. I was, it was like that in Frankfurt even before I got legalized over here. So yeah.
Yeah. Nothing really changed. They just made it legal.
No. No. Just just just less trouble you can get in now. So
yeah. Everything's exactly the same. It's just legal now. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I hear that. Yeah. Well, what did you what are you thinking about a pump? Is it a thing that's in your head?
Like or are you not sure?
Wouldn't say that I'm I'm the thing it was not in the head as such. It's just with I do a lot of resting with my kids, and I'm in a lot of tight spaces at times and stuff with the job and things like that. I'm just worried about it getting caught on something and ripping it out. The thing I don't like the most is having to change it every three days Okay. From site to site.
Right. Yeah.
The trade off there for changing it every three days versus giving yourself an injection a few times a day is not doesn't feel like
the pressure. Are so easy. So easy and quick.
Mind them all. Yeah.
Nah. Nah. What's it's I don't really take any oh, sorry?
No. I've I almost stepped on you, but go ahead and talk. I'm sorry.
Oh, I don't really take much insulin during the day. I don't really take any insulin during the day at all. It's just in the evenings when I get home for dinner and things like that. That's it.
Yeah. You think when the insulin becomes a bigger part of your life, you might look at it again?
Yeah. If once my pancreas fully carcassed and then my my rates go up, then I'll probably definitely look at getting
You might look at it again at that point. Yeah. Yeah. But for the moment gonna be even.
Yeah. Exactly. My my ratios are pretty low at the moment. I'm think I'm on one unit of insulin per ten grams of carbs at the moment.
Basal, Heat, and Adjusting on the Fly56:27
So How much basil do you use a day?
Basil, I'd say
You shoot a
twelve twelve and sixteen.
Twelve and sixteen. Depending on your activity and the heat. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. When I was in Florida a couple months ago, I think I had to chop it down to two or three units over there just for the heat and everything.
So was hitting. It was was really helping. It was helping the the insulin move around. You're probably more active too than you are sitting at home.
Oh. Yeah. But I still do. I don't know. I probably average between, like, I'd say, and 18,000 steps a day with my job.
Oh, so like that. Yeah. So you really you really feel like it was the heat. That's why I dropped down. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And it's hot there now, you said, in Germany?
Oh. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't too bad today. I think she was above me 30 degrees Celsius, but yesterday and the day before, 33, 34.
Okay. And are you are you adjusting your insulin for that too?
Yeah. Yeah. I went down to eight units just for the last few heat days. And then last night, I went back up to 12 because I thought I was gonna have an easy day. I had an easy morning, but the afternoon was absolutely slammed, but it wasn't too bad.
So humid there too?
It can. In the evenings, it does. I'm right out by the forest, so it's not too bad. But if you go into the city of Frankfurt itself, it's absolutely heinous. Okay.
So I've been in Saigon or something. Just with all the all the concrete buildings and, yeah, cobblestones and high rise towers and everything, it just holds the heat.
Sits in there and holds the heat and everything. Yeah. Jeez.
Yeah. Yeah. And Germans Germans still don't know about the great air conditioner. Yeah.
Oh, and or or is that another place they don't have air conditioning?
Yeah. They're they're not the biggest of it. I've got it here at home. We can have it installed here at home, but they don't like it over here. Not many places have it.
And the houses are very old. Like, the house I have is under the roof, so it gets very hot in the summer. Mhmm. So, yeah, we've had the air conditioning for the last few years upstairs, and it's been a lifesaver.
I don't know how people live without it, to be perfectly honest.
No. No. Neither do I. Like, yeah, everything's run off the old radiator heaters and stuff in the winter. Mhmm.
And yeah. Yeah. The the Germans love opening the windows even when it's negative 12 outside. Open the windows to get the fresh air in the house in the mornings. And yeah.
Oh, jeez. Yeah. I'm okay. I don't need to I don't need to my wife leaves for work sometimes. She's like, well, here goes a week with no ice.
I'm like, yeah. Yeah. That's I gotta be drinking warm drinks for a week. I gotta go to Europe. I'll see you later.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But, you know, it makes sense. I think the electrical grid's not really the same in some of these places too. Although Germany is pretty pretty modern. Right?
Yeah. They took a lot nuclear reactors offline.
Oh, I remember that.
Yeah. Yeah. Was a bit of a bit of a mess, and then we had the issue with the gas and stuff once the war started in Ukraine. Gas process went through the roof. Still not as bad now, but, yeah, the house gas and things like that.
You think they'll crank
those reactors back up or no?
Well, there's talks of it, but I don't know. Yeah. The green party is too high on power over here at the moment, I think. So I don't think there's yeah. There's talks of it happening, but, yeah, I just said I had a big solar panels on my roof two or three months ago, which has been a game changer here as well.
So Please. I but make sure my news is right on this. They were they wanted to cut the reactors down for social, like like, reasons, like, you know, around around and then they ended up burning, like, way more gas or something for it or something.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And coal. Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right. They had
to go
back to coal. That's the story I heard. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah.
We'll fix it.
Yeah. I had, Yeah. I've I've actually one of my one of my friends is actually a nuclear engineer, and, yeah, he he lost his job and had to go move to France to go work there because yeah.
We'll shut the reactors off and start burning coal again. Everything will be cleaner. Don't you worry.
It'd be fun if you're hunky dory. You know? It's cleaner. It's better.
Yeah. I wish people would stop pretending there was an actual answer to anything. And
Yeah. You know what
I mean?
Yeah. No. It's stupid. And then, yeah, the prices of electricity went through the roof as well after they turned all the nuclear stuff off and everything as well.
So listen. I'm I'm I'm waiting for the the the part in in the future where we all get a little tiny desktop reactor that powers our house. I'm I'm I'm Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Because I was listening I was listening to my NPR today, and they're talking about how America's planning on building the station on the moon. Like yeah.
Yeah. Good luck.
Yeah. Mean I wonder if I wonder if to get the helium three to make some cold cold fusion or whatever.
Yeah. If I see them fill some of the potholes around here, I'll imagine that they can get to the moon and build a reactor.
It's not it's it's not just your country with potholes then. Yeah. It's mine as well. So
You show me 10 guys in the same place and get something done, and I'll go, okay. Maybe we can accomplish this.
Yeah. I know. But there's always 10 guys. One's only doing the work, another night send it around watching
the Three of them called out sick and the other ones are wild.
Yeah.
It's kinda like, could build a reactor on the moon if you guys would just be like, shut up. And then what if we just went to the bar you shut up? How would that be?
Yeah. Exactly. Sit the corner and be quiet and jukeepied.
Yeah. Yeah. I showed up at my first job out of school, and those guys pulled me aside in no time. And they were like, what are you trying to prove? Slow down.
And I was like, well, I'm just working. And they're like, not that fast. Don't don't ruin it for the rest of us. And I was
like Yeah. You're gonna make us look bad. Yeah. And
got that talk real quick when I got out of it.
I was cool. Increase the workflow and make me look bad. Yeah.
Just slow down is what I was told. Yeah. And it wasn't a friendly conversation. I got pulled to a corner by a bunch of bunch of grown men. I was, like, 19 years old.
I was like, oh, oh, okay.
Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's try to fear him when he's young.
Well, no kidding. What what are you trying to prove? First words out of one of their mouth. I was like. I'm trying to keep my stupid job where I make $4.50 an hour.
Oh, jeez.
Yeah. Yeah. I already that was my first job. It only $4.75 an hour.
Exactly. Oh. Don't know. Pranking around, and then this guy pulls me aside, and he's like, no. No.
No. I don't think those guys are gonna get a reactor on the moon either is what I'm saying.
No. No. No. Yeah. They're probably they're probably fine.
When people complain about capitalism, like, you know, the the desire for money is the only thing that makes anybody do anything. You're like
Oh. Yeah.
Yeah. We wouldn't have anything if their scumbags weren't out there trying to get rid.
Oh, no. Yeah. No. No. No way.
No. No. No. Yeah.
Let or them we're gonna be walking again. Wow. We can't walk. That's over. I just want to say.
Yeah. It's so funny. Oh my gosh. Alright. I I mean, have we done any of what you imagined we'd do when you came on here, are we just messing around?
I'd I prefer the messing around. It's my it's my it's my forte.
Yeah. You're not gonna hear this on NPR. I'll tell you that much.
Yeah. Yeah. No. No. No.
No. No. Yeah. No. Not with the seven second delay that we're blurring all the swear words or anything at.
No.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't I there's part of me that needs to keep this episode shorter so I don't go over on editing cost for the cursing. But, but, no, seriously, though. Like, I think chatting like this is good sometimes.
Like, I don't I Oh, definitely. Yeah. You're a real person In the middle of being an adult, you were living a certain life, and somebody showed up and it was like, hey. That's it. You have diabetes now.
Everything's different. You you were really honest about all the different ways it impacted you. And I think you're being honest about the fact that you don't really have it all worked out yet. You're just you're No. No.
It's I just I just tell everyone my my daily life is like a science experiment. Every day is different. I don't know what's going on, and I'll just deal with it when it pops up. Yeah. But you
I've Scott, you characterize yourself as happy, though. Right? Oh, yeah. Definitely. Yeah.
Definitely.
A 5.6 by Loosening the Grip1:03:52
Yeah. Still have my moments every now and then, but I don't have the burnout like I did. I function pretty well. My averages in a one c is great. It's I think the last test I had two months ago, I think my a one c was 5.6.
Woah. Look at you. That's awesome.
And then I I think my average is, I think, 85 in the range.
Hey. Good for you.
That's awesome. Yeah. I I I figured out last year, the less I'm focused on it and the more blahs I am about it, the better my averages in a one c is. Whereas if I'm hovering over it and trying to concentrate more on it, the worst it is.
You you had too tight of a grip on it. You're overmatched.
Yeah. I wouldn't say tight of a grip, but I was hyper focused on it.
Okay.
Yeah. Now I I probably check my sensor maybe five or six times a day. That's about it really now.
Yeah. I don't know that people believe me or not, and I certainly don't have as much to do with Arden's diabetes since she's older, but I just have a I I have a, you know, an my alarms are set where they're set. And if the thing doesn't beep, I don't look at my phone.
Yeah. Same as me. Yeah. It's I've turned off the high settings because I was sick of that going off in the night when I'm trying to sleep. Because once I get up in the night, it's a real challenge for me to go back to sleep.
So Right.
I've turned off the high settings, but I got the low set. I think once I hit 75, then my alarm goes off just to let me know.
I have to say, Arden just finished her her semester. So it's gonna be a little confusing for people. She has graduated, but she only walked. She still has three courses left to actually get her diploma. So she finished the semester.
She's gotta go back one more time. But this is, like, the day or two after the semester, so she's just sleeping.
Right?
So I I I just look because I was I I found myself thinking about it. At 8AM, she was asleep. And I thought, oh, the the algorithm's doing a good job of pushing her blood sugar where it should be, but it'll go it should go a little faster. I gave her, like, a bump of, like, a quarter of unit of insulin, and that was now moved five and a half hours ago. I haven't thought about it since, and I just pulled up her six hour graph.
She's been between one ten and seventy seven for the last, like, six hours.
Yeah. That's yeah. That's yeah. Yeah.
I wish
I I could get my averages down to there. I'm usually hovering, I'd say, between 01:20 and 01:40.
Yeah. Well, Scotty, that's an algorithm. That that's doing a lot of work behind the scenes, given and taking its own away and stuff like that.
So Yeah. I'm pretty I'm pretty glad to have that at all. I just I just take it when I need
some time. I think you're doing a great job. I mean, sounds like you're doing a great job to me. Honestly, you've you've balancing your mental health with your with your physical health and your, you know, the amount of effort and time you're putting into it, it's, it all sounds like a good thing to me.
Yeah. Yeah. No. No. I'm I'm in a I'm in a good spot at the moment.
So yeah. I have one last question. How much do you let your wife in on the diabetes stuff now? Like, could she help you if she needed to? Does she understand glucagon?
Like or is it a thing you
kinda keep saying? I had I had a big lesson with the boys and things like that when I first came out of hospital, still do now. We sit down and talk about a family about everything really. We don't really hide anything from each other. I've got a good we have a very good relationship with our kids.
My oldest will come to me and my wife very often with problems he's having in life and things like that, which I'm so thankful for. You know? He's not hiding it away. But the the kids know exactly what to do if they find me on the floor or anything like that. I've never passed out or had anything yet.
You know, I'm not saying it's not gonna happen, but
I'm not gonna
wait for
you if you want. There you go. Yeah.
Yeah. But I have little I have little stashes of those Glutagon inhalers and things like that hidden around the house and stuff. So Yeah. The boys know where to grab one and know exactly what to do and things like that.
It's
awesome. I've got the Libra hooked up to my wife's phone as well. So she's she's quite onto it. If I'm if I don't know what's going on or I'm not paying attention and my phone goes low, she'll send me a WhatsApp straight away or give me a ring. Are you okay?
What's going on? Yeah. Blah blah blah. Blah. Yeah.
Yeah.
So Is that is that about the level of com is that where you want it?
That's pretty much all I needed, really. They they know what to do if there's an emergency or anything like that, but we haven't crossed that bridge yet.
And,
yeah, I've had no issues around the house or anything with it. But there's been times and stuff where we've been out and about. I forgot to put, you know, glucose tablets or some sugar in my pocket, and me and the wife have gone for a walk. And I've had we've had to stop and then ring one of our friends to come pick us up to take me home again because it's too far to walk home
Mhmm.
Because I'd I'd crash and things like that. But yeah.
She's comfortable too. She doesn't ask you for more than what you're giving?
No. No. That's there's nothing really more to give if you know what I mean.
No. No. Yeah. It's good. I was just trying to say it's a good balance for both of you.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't wanna burden her with too much of it, but there's not much she can really do for me really either anyway. Like, it's yeah.
Yeah.
You're an adult.
Right? She's yeah. And she she watches. She keeps an eye on the numbers and things like that. When she tell me, oh, you're bit high.
Do you think you need some insulin? Bits and bobs. But, otherwise, I'm pretty much just left to my own devices, really.
Any concern for the kids now that you have type one? Are
The Antibody Test He Doesn't Want1:09:00
you There is there is a bit. I can't get the I can my endo asked if I'd like to do the antibody test with them
Mhmm.
To see if they have the antibodies, but I don't want to. I don't want to know, if you know what I mean.
It's not known you for an hour, and I could've guessed that's what you were gonna say. So
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It you
you don't wanna know because you don't wanna worry?
That's yeah. If I knew they had them, and I'd be waiting for the bomb to explode, if you know what I mean.
I that would be bad for your your mental health.
Yeah. I think so too. So I'd rather let them I'd be more worried about them. I'd rather they're at that age now where I just want them to be kids and have fun, you know, not have to have anything. I don't want the thing in the back of my mind either.
You know? Right. Right. Right. So yeah.
But it's very
and you'll you'll you'll speak up.
Yeah. Exactly. I do the old I do the old finger prick with them every now and then. You know? It's a fun game.
Have you ever caught a a nat of whack blood sugar? No. Good. Not at all.
That's awesome. So my my old endo, she just said, you know, chances are very, very low. I think she said it was, like, eighteen to twenty percent or something that the kids could get diabetes as well.
Yeah. Well, you probably answered, hey. Is there any worry about kids? And she said, stop being such a wimp, Scotty.
Pretty much. Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. Even even she said, you know yeah.
Pretty much. She just said, oh, you know, if you wanna do it, do it. But if you don't wanna know, you don't have to know.
I have to say just in case any of my doctors are listening, I would love it if we had conversations like that. So feel free.
Oh, that's the thing I missed that's the thing I missed about my first endo. She was I was so comfortable with about talking with her about everything and anything. Yeah. My new one, not so much now. Like yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. You said different. Yeah. No. You only get special people like that don't come around all that often.
You know?
No. No. So, yeah, I'm a gutted about it, but it's it's alright. I just go and get my meds, get tested, come home again. Yeah.
It's pretty much
What time is it there? Yeah.
Quarter past seven at night.
Oh, you gotta get going. Okay.
No. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You do.
Yeah. The kids go to bed about nine, 09:30. So yeah. Let's They're out in the pool. They're out in the pool with their mates swimming anyway.
So
Oh, no kidding. Yeah. I wish I was a kid. That sounds awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah. I'm gonna drive to the pharmacy instead after this and then come back and make Facebook ads.
Yeah. No. I get the I get the neighborhood kids ringing the doorbell every day. Towels, tugs on. Winston home.
I come in. Yeah. Just out the back in the pool. Out the back in the pool.
Now, Scotty, those kids have you eyed up. They know that you're where they're gonna get their drugs from five years from now. So they're
Well, possibly. Possibly. Yeah. I'll tell what, it's not it's not much of a challenge over here in Germany anyway. So yeah.
They're like, listen. I think I think Scottie's gonna be able to hook us up one day.
Yeah. Yeah. No. And there's there's a few of us in the neighborhood. Like yeah.
Yeah. I went around to my my other son's friend that lives down the road instead. I went around to see him the other night in Aveyard. He's like, oh, do you smoke? I was like, oh, I don't smoke cigarettes, but I smoke the other stuff.
Come with me. Come with me. Yeah. Yeah. I got three kilos in the cellar here.
Take an ounce. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It's Pablo Escobar's living up the street from you.
So yeah. It's yeah. But it's you know, I'm I don't know. I don't I'm trying to think what you'd say. I don't think there's anything wrong with weed
at all. I think
it's much more cleaner and better than alcohol. It's yeah. My wife prefers me on the weed than the alcohol.
I would listen. I prefer you smoke weed than drink alcohol. I am we I'm I'm building a a a like, a proper recording studio in my basement, and, you know, I had painters come in to paint after the drywall went up and everything. And, like, it like, everybody's walking around the house looking at each other funny and, like, every and then finally, we all just kinda because we all work at home. Like, you know what I mean?
So we all collected together and we're like, hey. The painters are high. Right? And then and, and everybody's like, oh, is that what that is? I'm like, yeah.
I was like, I think that's what's going on here. So but I'll tell you what, they paint great. He's got that brush in his hand, and he's, like, lining the wall. And I'm stunned at how great the line looks between, like, the wall and the ceiling.
He's I think it's a pretty standard. I got mates at home and use it on the other pages, and that's pretty much how they function. A quick joint in the van before they go in for work.
And then that house is perfect. I said, I don't I don't question anything. Look how nice that line is at the ceiling. It's
Yeah. Exactly. If it works, it works. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I care. No kidding. Alright. Well, Scotty, I appreciate you doing this with me. Thank you very much.
Oh, no. It was great. Yeah.
Did you have a good time?
I did, actually. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. A lot more comfortable than I thought it was gonna be.
You said you were really nervous at the beginning, but did it end up
that way? Yeah. Yeah. I was I was I'm in an hour in this morning when I got up.
Do I do it? Do I not? No.
Were you gonna bail on me? Is that what you're thinking?
I was I'm in an hour in about it. Like yeah.
Nobody bails. Don't bail on me. I'm busy. I sit over here.
I'm waiting for you when I Yeah. Talk to talk to the talk to the wife about it this morning and stuff. And she's like, I just She said Scotty.
She she said call your doc old doctor. She'll tell you what to do.
Exactly. Don't be a wimp, Scotty. Do the podcast. No. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. Alright, man. Hold on one second for me.
Yeah. All good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It seems that the podcast you just enjoyed was sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care. Learn more about Tandem's newest automated insulin delivery system, Tandem Mobi with Control IQ plus technology at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. There are links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Tandem and US Med, who also sponsored this episode of the juice box podcast. Get started with US Med at usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514. Get your free benefits check and get started today with US Med, the same place that we get our diabetes supplies.
Usmed.com/juicebox. Links in the show notes. Links at juiceboxpodcast.com. Click on those links, baby. Support the podcast.
The juice box podcast has been in production since January 2015. And in that time, I have amassed just a fantastic catalog of information for you, Defining diabetes, bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, small sips, fat and protein, algorithm pumping, mental wellness, ask Scott and Jenny, the diabetes variables, defining thyroid, after dark. There's even an Omnipod five pro tip series. Come on. Pregnancy, how we eat, grand rounds, cold wind, GLP meds.
What else do you want from me? And if you'd like to get going now with this podcast, boy, oh, boy, you have not picked a better time. You haven't because we have a diabetes myth series, and there's even a type two pro tip series. All of this all of this is free. Free.
That's right, Scott. Free at juiceboxpodcast.com. Go up to the menu, click on a series. They're all right there. Or you, of course, could use your Apple podcast app, Spotify, or wherever you get audio.
Every episode is listed on the website along with its episode number so you can search for it in one of those apps. I've done everything I can do, baby. There's transcripts. You wanna read the podcast? Go read it.
What do I care? I'm not your mother. You do whatever you want. Juiceboxpodcast.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your audio, baby. Go get your audio.
Why did I say baby so much? I'm just realizing now this all seems like it's something you can't believe, but I swear to you, it's a great podcast. You'll really like it. If you want, go to juiceboxpodcast.com/reviews and read what other people have written.
Read the full disclaimer
© 2007–2026 Juicebox Podcast. All rights reserved.
#1913 Two Mirrors Part 2
Two Mirrors Part 2
Part two. The advice lands — two mirrors bouncing anxiety back and forth. Hidden apple pouches, a thyroid checklist, a Texas move, and Scott’s blunt fix for a burned-out mom.
Jump to a moment
- The advice part one built to: you’ve got to actually calm down — not perform calm. Scott’s image for it: Amy and Emily are “standing very close to each other like two mirrors, just bouncing anxiety back and forth.”
- “Don’t say the thing. Do the thing.” People don’t learn by being told — they learn from experiences that make their nervous systems comfortable. Kids absorb what parents are, not what they say.
- The hidden apple pouches: Emily treats lows in secret because lows scare her, then lands at 400 with no explanation — and sometimes skips food to avoid another shot. Scott flags it plainly as a pattern worth real therapeutic attention, and the Mobi should remove the extra-shot barrier.
- “In range” is not the same as right: Amy’s TSH is 4.33 with a near-perfect hypothyroid symptom checklist — fatigue, weight gain, cold sensitivity, brain fog, mood changes — and Scott, on tape, sends her to fix it. Emily’s 2.8 is worth watching in a family full of Hashimoto’s.
- Find something you can control that isn’t diabetes (or your husband, or the sweet eight-year-old): a hobby, a run, golf. A rested caregiver with her own life does this job better — and Scott ends by yelling at the recycling department to prove the point.
- Part One — JBP #1911 — Start here — the diagnosis story, the needle phobia, and two sleepless years
- SugarPixel — The bedside CGM display Scott plugs mid-episode — now with characters, including a pirate Scott
- Tandem Mobi — The pump Emily is about to start; sponsor link
Every word of the conversation
Welcome to Part Two0:00
Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box podcast. My diabetes pro tip series is about cutting through the clutter of diabetes management to give you the straightforward practical insights that truly make a difference. This series is all about mastering the fundamentals, whether it's the basics of insulin, dosing adjustments, or everyday management strategies that will empower you to take control. I'm joined by Jenny Smith, who is a diabetes educator with over thirty five years of personal experience, and we break down complex concepts into simple, actionable tips. The diabetes pro tip series runs between episode one thousand and one thousand twenty five in your podcast player, or you can listen to it at juiceboxpodcast.com by going up into the menu.
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. Today's podcast is sponsored by US Med. Usmed.com/juicebox. You can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do, and I'm talking about Dexcom, Libre, Omnipod, Tandem, and so much more.
Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Today's episode is sponsored by the Tandem Mobi system with Control IQ plus technology. If you are looking for the only system with auto bolus, multiple wear options, and full control from your personal iPhone, you're looking for Tandem's newest pump and algorithm. Use my link to support the podcast, tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. Check it out.
This is part two of a two part episode. Go look at the title. If you don't recognize it, you haven't heard part one yet. It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player. You gotta calm the fuck down.
Gel Nails and a Blepharoplasty2:11
So Yeah. Yes. Yes. I do. So this is really weird and probably TMI, but I had a blepharoplasty done.
Oh, this is a weird thing.
Wait a while.
Yeah. So I somehow, when my son was, like, 12 old, my the bottom below my eyes blew up, swell swelled like a bee sting with like, a person who has an allergy to a bee would potentially look like, And my eyelids swelled. And it took two, three weeks to go down, so I didn't wear my contact lenses in that time. And then it happened again. And I was like, what the heck is going on?
And I thought, is something during my pregnancy be I've now become allergic to contact lenses. So I went ahead and I got PRK, which is, like, a form of LASIK, but my corneas were too thin to do LASIK, so I had to get PRK. Whatever. So I did this whole surgery to fix my vision so I wouldn't have to wear contacts because I didn't wanna wear glasses because I'm a runner. And so then I moved to London then I was in London.
Sorry. And then I, it happened a third time. And I saw a private dermatologist in London, and she was like, are you wearing gel nail polish? And I was like, yeah. She's like, that's what's doing it.
I was like, are you fucking kidding me? So I have three episodes of the most swollen eyelids one could possibly get, and it was because I had a systemic inflammation from the chemicals in gel nail polish that went through my bloodstream to my eyelids. And if you Google it, it's a thing, apparently. So she's like, the problem for you is that this has happened three times. The skin on your eyelid is so thin, it's never going to stretch to go back now that it's stretched so much.
So I had extra skin on my eyelid that I could feel the weight of it, and people would be like, I don't see it. But I could feel the weight of my eyelids. And so I had an upper blepharoplasty. So they cut the it's like plastic surgery, but, like, I did it because it was so heavy. People do it for, like, looks, but I just had it done, April 30.
So I have the scars still from my, you know, stitches or whatever. And during the procedure so I was not under full anesthesia. I was just sedated. Mhmm. And during the procedure, I hear my low alarm go off, and I'm like, oh, like, so out of it.
I'm like, listen. I need my phone. And the guy's like, no. I don't think that's I'm like, yeah. I need my phone.
So the nurse brings me my phone, and I open it. And she's 55, and she's in school. Right? And I'm like, oh, damn. And this is the words coming out of it.
Oh, it's because I'm sedated. I'm like, oh, she could go into a coma. I should probably do something about this. But meanwhile, my husband's on it. He's in the waiting room.
He's already taking care of it, but I just don't know that because I'm just the primary caregiver.
Not make that assumption, though.
I don't know because I can't shut my brain off.
Oh, Amy, you're out of your mind. That's lovely. Hold on a second. Oh, wait. I don't wanna go I wanna go back to you being crazy.
But but first but first, I wanna understand. I don't wanna get past the gel nail polishing. What did they tell you?
So something in gel nail polish has been leaked to causing, eyelid inflammation.
Specifically? Yes.
Which is so weird, but I don't know how it happens. I don't know. But if you Google this, I have after it happened to me, was like, this is so weird. And those and the dermatologist in London picked up on it within seconds of me coming into her office. But I didn't go to a doctor before that, like a dermatologist, so in America, so, like, nobody knew.
But you're not saying it's not through contact with your with your fingers.
No. No. It's It's from the soaking it in from your nail beds in through your blood stream to your eyelids.
Okay. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna task something with researching that while you and I are still talking. But I I'm not gonna, actually, it's like I'm not gonna do anything. I just wanna be clear. So Yeah.
Yeah. But I'm gonna see if I can find an answer for that. Yeah. Now wait. Wait.
Now back to you being crazy. So you you weren't before this. You have
Maybe in I don't think so. Like, I don't ever remember being an anxious person. Yeah.
The Guilt6:35
Hey. Listen. I'm not married to you, but I'll assume you were a little crazy before. I think every I think everybody is a little crazy. But but you have interestingly enough, after an hour of talking, you have not mentioned the one thing that you put in your note, which is that you feel guilty.
Oh, yeah. Well, I think, like, you know, this obviously came from my side of her like, the genes. Right? Because my two people in my family have had it. So it's like if you were to go back and be like, listen.
Something bad's gonna you're gonna give your kids something bad. You still wanna have kids? You're like, who would be like, absolutely. You know what I mean? So I just feel like this is my fault.
And at the end of the day, whether she's, you know, 18 and moves to college or 21 and moves away or whatever it is, I get to kinda take a step back from it, and I don't have to worry or deal or you know? At one point, she's gonna be an adult. She's gonna have to worry about waking up from Lowe's and ordering the supplies and, you know, all that stuff, and, like, I'm not going to have to worry about it. And that's like, I just feel bad about that because she doesn't, at 10, get a break ever, you know, if that makes sense, where, you know, she had nine years of, like, healthy
'She Never Gets a Break'7:50
What does that mean she doesn't get a break ever? May contextualize that for me.
She doesn't just ever get to, like, you know, not have anything attached to her body, or if she doesn't, then have to do a finger prick. She doesn't have to think about what she's eating.
Is that bothering her?
Yeah. Yes. Well, like, this is why she doesn't wanna pump first. Like, she you know, a lot of her friends have the Omnipod. She's like, I don't want stuff on me.
So we went to the Moby because we decided on the Moby, which, again, we haven't started it yet, but because we can disconnect it in the shower and the pool so she can get, like, a quote, unquote break, and whatever's left on her is just tiny. She yeah. She doesn't you know, she just like, we'll be in the car, and she's like, oh, I just don't wanna have to do this anymore. And I'm like, I I don't the alternative is not something we're doing. So, you know, we're not gonna let diabetes win today or tomorrow or yesterday.
You're getting the shot. And she won't do shotspot on her own yet. I still do them or the school nurse. But, like, sorry. Like, you you know what I mean?
Like Mhmm. Or she'll be carved for x, and she'll want additional food. She'll be like, I can't eat. I'm so like, I'm so hungry. But, you know, I'll be like, well, let's just give you another shot.
It's fine. No big deal. Like, there's a fix for this. And she'll be like, no. I don't want another shot.
I'm just not gonna eat. And I'm like, Emily, like, this is not like, this is not a big deal. I know it hurts for ten seconds, but, like, let's just if you're hungry, you're hungry. And I get it. At twelve, how are you supposed to know how much you're gonna eat?
What like, you know what I mean? That's a lot to have to think about.
Oh, god. I'm I'm minimizing anything you're saying. I'm just I at all. No. No.
No. No. Yeah. There's no easy way to to do what you're saying.
Yeah. No. No. I just I'm thinking out loud. Like, this is
what was thinking about. I think that's good. Like, because I mean, but she's gonna develop listen. I think there's an argument to be made that, honestly, that everybody living with type one diabetes has some sort of a weird relationship with food. Right?
But, I mean, if she's physically not eating be when she's hungry to avoid an injection, I mean, that's I mean, you're you're looking at an eating disorder at some point.
Yeah. And that's what I try to, like, install on her. Like, Emily, it's just another shot. And this is why I've been like, Adam, just get on the this is gonna be solved because when you're on the pump, you don't even have to get another shot. It's just a few boop boop boop into a little foam, like, you're good to go.
And the move to Texas, I think, has kinda pushed her in that direction because, you know, she's gone to a few birthday parties or friends' houses now where, you know, she again, she won't let she let one mom do one shot one time. And other than that, it's they've had to call and be like, okay. We're eating now. So then I have to go back to that house, give her a shot for the food, leave because no one wants their mom hanging out at 11, 12 years old. Sure.
And then the mom at that house will call me, they'll be like, we're having cake. So then I have to go back and give her a shot for cake. And then, you know, two and a half hours later, it's pickup time. So I'm like you know, most parents can just drop their kid off and, like, whatever and pick them up four hours later. I'm, like, hovering in circles within a, you know, a few minute radius to, like, be on shot call.
You know?
At the 07:11 Yes. Reading reading your phone.
Yes. Yep. And and and I just feel and so I think, like, I've been, like, pushing the pump, but now she's like, okay. I'm moving to Texas. I wanna meet new friends.
I don't want mom hanging out. I don't know who the nurse is. Like, I gotta just have a little bit of that taken off me. And so, you know, as soon as this person from Tandem gets their act together and sends us the rest of our supplies, then we can get the training done and all the things. And we'll, you know, hopefully be in a better spot and hopefully sleep more nights and hopefully Yeah.
Volleyball Lows and Strawberry Lemonade11:28
You know, have less anxiety and hopefully do all this stuff a little bit better and, you know, and and have less highs as well. And, you know, I I don't know. So she plays volleyball and, like, you know, she'll she likes these drinks from Starbucks. It's these strawberry acai lemonades. And we've noticed that she tends to go low during a sporting event.
And so all the proteins, carb snacks, peanut butter, like, we'll try them. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. But if we figured out if she has, like, a half of a grande size of that drink, it'll keep her up enough during the event, and she'll be fine Mhmm. Nine times out of 10.
But then there's that one time where even that doesn't keep her up. And you're just like, what you know, like, it's it's I feel like you do the same thing. She puts in the same exerts the same amount of energy. She's eating the same thing prior to that lemonade. She's you know, it's the same time of day.
It's the same but, like, two totally different results. And that's just one example of Well the things I've seen. You know?
Yeah. I hear you. And I I obviously, that's the thing people say all the time. Like, I did the same thing today as I did yesterday, but I think it's possible that if you had a third party there looking, they might see something that you're not seeing. Yeah.
You know? Because it it could very well be I mean, it could be hormonal. Right? She's old enough for that.
Yeah. For sure.
She's get I I I hate to ask you, but she gets a period?
No. Not yet. But
she's Okay. Well, that could be on its way. Yeah. And it could be activity. It could be I mean, you could be I mean, time of day a little bit, like, based on because you're shooting basal insulin.
Right?
I can.
Yeah. So, like, you could say, oh my god. It's it's volleyball, for example. But volleyball at 8AM on a day where you shoot basil at 7AM might be different than volleyball at 5PM when you shot the basil at 8AM.
Yeah. And then
that would be, like, a small difference that you would you wouldn't see when you were saying, like, I just I keep doing the same thing over and over. I I I I I wouldn't guarantee you, but I would strongly be willing to bet a couple of dollars that that there's something different that you're not seeing. And and and these things are impactful. And it could be around exercise, it could be around hormones, it could be around sleep, it could be around hydration, like but something's different that you're not seeing.
Well the yeah. And the other thing is she's a little bit deceitful too.
You've probably heard me talk about US Med and how simple it is to reorder with US Med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you. But I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email because I don't trust myself a 100%. So one time, I didn't respond to the email.
And the phone rings at the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works. And I picked it up. I was like, hello?
And it was just the recording. It was like, US Med. Doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, hey. You're I don't remember exactly what it says.
But it's basically like, hey. Your order's ready. You want us to send it? Push this button if you want us to send it. Or if you'd like to wait, I think it it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks or push this button for that.
That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514. Get your free benefits checked now and get started with USmed.
Dexcom, Omnipod, Tandem, Freestyle, they've got all your favorites. Even that new islet pump. Check them out now at usmed.com/juicebox or by calling (888) 721-1514. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to US Med and to all of the sponsors. Let'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. This 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 auto bolus.
Hidden Apple Pouches16:26
Like, like, I I when she was first diagnosed, I get it. She was used to being high all the time before we knew. So, like, a 90 felt kinda like, whoo. This is ugh. I don't feel great.
And then, you know, we've slowly kind of been, like,
a seem
to coming down and down and down. But she still gets nervous depending on where she's at and what she's doing of the numbers. And so I have gotten really good at being, like, take you know, we don't need 15 grams of carbs. That's an over overdone. Let's have eight.
Let's wait ten, fifteen minutes. Let's see what that's gonna do. Mhmm. We'll double check with a finger prick, and then we'll have something else if we need to. This is no big deal.
But before I can even get to that point, she's ate in, like, an apple pouch and stuffed the empty thing behind something in the pantry, which I find, like, for months later.
And so there's an impact now, you're just you're not you're unaware of what it is.
Yeah. And then she's four hundred, and I'm like, how did eight grip you know what I mean? And it's like, oh, no. She had that apple patch that she snug that she didn't tell me.
Or I'll find my She had your eight grams plus the twenty three in the thing. Right. Right.
Yes. Yeah. And I'm like, Emily, like, we have to work together on this because if we don't, like, this isn't good. This we need you know? But she's she's not doing it to be a brat.
She's doing it because she's afraid of Sure.
No. Yeah.
Yeah. I imagine. So afraid.
Yeah. But why wouldn't she tell you, though?
Because I think she she wants it to come up really fast. Like, she's comfortable at, like, a 200. Like, she's like, I'm good. Like, this is fine. I'm not low.
I'm not gonna die. I can coast. But I think, like, I think for me, I'm like, let's try to get you at, a 1 or a 100, a 110, 100 or a 110.
Yeah.
You know? And I think for her, she's
Three Therapists Later18:10
like Is she seeing a therapist?
Well, so so funny enough, when we moved home, we saw one. She hated her. And to be honest, the lady was kinda condescending, and I didn't like her either. And then we saw two others, including needle exposure therapy guy, who I thought was great, by the way. And he was super chill, and he had all the right techniques with toys and different stuff, whatever.
And then we saw a therapist that the hospital Rainbow Babies here in Cleveland gave us. So she was, like, in the endocrine world directly. I was like, she'll know all the things. And she just has she comes across as rude. And my husband and I have gotten on her because we're like, listen.
If you go in there and you don't wanna talk, like and you just want me to do primary talking until you get to a point where they know a little bit about you and you're comfortable with them, and then I can step out of the room and you can but, like, she she likes the eyes she gives these people, I wanna be like, she's really not that rude. She's just mean to you because and, like, the doctor, like, the doctor will ask her questions, and she, like, doesn't look at her. I'm like, Emily, this lady saved your life. Like, you you know, that's her job and fine, but, like, at the same time, she didn't give this to you. She's helping us survive this.
You gotta be kind to this lady. But it's like anybody She's having a lot of anything.
She's having a lot of trouble with this.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.
So it's just it's honestly, it's like a day to day thing, and that's the other thing too. Like, you know, she'll if my husband's up on, like, a Friday night watching, like, the basketball game or whatever, and I'm like, I'm tired. I'm going to bed. And she wakes up from something, he'll be like, I got this. Like, we're fine.
And she'll run past and wake me up. And he's like, I have told you to let your mother sleep. Like, she does not get enough sleep. This is her night to sleep. Let it go.
I've got this. And she just until I'm awake and I'm aware of what is happening
Mhmm.
She is not and I have a sugar pickle pixel next to my bed. So if she's, you know, 85, that thing's waking me up regardless. So I'm not worried about missing something, but she is worried so so much that I will miss something.
Can I can I pimp for a second? Did you see the sugar the sugar pixel update, the new one with the big screen? Oh, wait. You should go to customtype1.com/juicebox and take a look. Okay.
But I am I've he added, like, all these characters and everything to it for younger kids, and and I'm one of the characters. I just wanna say that.
Carl, look away. That's amazing. Yeah.
Yeah. He he really set up this really lovely it's really something. Anyway, people should check out the new SugarPixel. Pretty cool. Yes.
I think I make a couple if you use my link, I make a couple of bucks when you buy one. And that's not why I told you about it. I told you about it because, like, I'm I told you about it because I'm, like, a little there's a pirate character that has a chameleon living on it, and that's me.
Okay. Yeah. I love it. Yeah.
It's pretty
I love it.
That's so funny. Jumping in. I I I don't know if I I should say the owner's name, but he's really a a really lovely person. But okay. Back to your daughter.
Would she talk to somebody else who's not you about it and not a doctor? Would she, listen, would she come on the podcast and talk about having diabetes, or is that a thing that you think would mortify her?
Grandma, Babysitters, and Trust21:21
You know, it's a good question. I don't know. So last summer well, so I right after she was diagnosed, my mom came. Right? So my mom, diabetic herself, type one, ICU nurse for her entire career that she worked.
So I was like, perfect. Like, I've got a babysitter. I've got backup. She lives in Maine, so she's not always available, but whatever. She came out to help, and it was awful.
I love my mom. So, mom, if you ever listen to this, I love you. But she bruised Emily so bad. And I'm like, how have you been an ICU nurse this long? Like, I don't know if you're just like, I don't know.
But she's been on a Omnipod, so she hasn't had to worry about, like, actual injections all the time, you know, frequently for herself. But, know, like, she would be preparing food, and there was a thing where I was like, mom, I gave Emily a shot like, a fourth a cup of strawberries. Like, this was in the very, very beginning, like, a month after we were diagnosed. And I I leave the room, I come back in, and Emily has probably, like, a cup's worth of strawberries on her plate. And I'm mom, did you hear a fourth of a cup?
Because I'm not or she would throw things in the rubbish, like, can or the packaging on, like, a tortilla wrap, and I'd be like, I need to know what the carbs are. Oh, I threw that in the rubbish. Well, how do you know what you're dosing for? You're a diabetic also. She's like, ah, you know?
And you're just like, oh, but find your things dinging all the time.
How's your mom's health? How's your mom's health?
It's dinging all the time. It's dinging all the time. She has you know, honestly, for what she bless her heart. She took care of us. She put herself on the back burner for for her entire life, like, when she was 42 or 40, I think, when my dad died.
And she just worked, you know, twelve hour shifts. She walked to work sometimes so we could have a car to drive when my older sister had got her license. Like, she sacrificed everything for her children. So I think she put her health on the back burner. For what she's done and how she is today, she's 75, and she's really not terrible.
Like, she has no high blood pressure. She doesn't have high cholesterol. Like, all the typical things you see people getting around their seventies, like, she doesn't have them. She has the Hashimoto's. She has the type one, and she does have eye issues where she has to get an injection in her retina every four weeks, I think.
And she claims it's not from diabetes. I think she claims diabetes exacerbated her condition, but it's something different. I don't know if she's telling me the truth because she's just trying not to scare me for Emily. And I do know somebody else who has the same thing, and they don't have diabetes. So I'm just like, I don't know who to believe.
But I overall, for what you would think she would be, she's actually not
terrible.
She's yes. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, gosh. I so I don't so so you were kinda hopeful that your daughter would talk to your mom, but that didn't go as well.
No. And no. No. And she won't even sleep over at her house. And that was, like, an annual summer thing.
We'd go to Maine, and Emily would get, like, a private sleepover with grandma, they'd go out to dinner, and they'd get a toy, and they'd go and now she's like, I'm not going there.
No. Because because of the bruise from the needle?
Because of, yeah, she's just scared that grandma won't wake up from a furlough or, you know, she'd get bruised or she won't know what she's doing or how to count. The only person she's let babysit her for we'll have a local babysitter, but I'll only go away for three hours. So I'll give Emily a shot. She'll have dinner as I'm walking out the door, and I'll come back by nine to give her her next shot for bedtime. The only person that she's allowed to babysit her longer than three hours is my sister who is an RN forever.
You know, the over the top, like, ove you know, checks everything. She is my best friend. She is everything to me. We are pretty much twins separated by nine years. And that's the only person who Emily has let babysit her for an extended period of time when Adam and I went to my husband and I went to a concert last summer, like, forty five minutes away.
And it
was actually the it was Jack White. But it was the first time in this diagnosis that I was away, and I didn't look at my phone. I'd looked at it, like, once or twice, but it was
like Well, what changed? How come you didn't look? Were you high?
Because my no. Because my sister was watching her, and I have all the faith in my and, yeah, all the faith in my like, I love her. She is my best friend. Like, we are yeah. I couldn't do life without her.
You a question, Is there some reason why your sister's a better choice, or is it just a person you're comfortable with?
I think it's a person that oh, I think because she's an RN, she knows what she's doing, she's not relaxed. Like, she wouldn't be relaxed about Emily's care my daughter's care because she knows like, you know, like, she would she's just if anything happened on her watch, like, she would not forgive herself. So she's very on top of it. She is a great RN, and my and my daughter knows how much I love my sister. And, like, we do girls trips and stuff like that, like her me and my sister.
So, like, I think Emily realizes how much I trust my sister even before the diabetes, just in life. And so that was like, oh, I no, auntie.
Two Mirrors — Where the Anxiety Bounces26:40
So, Amy, are you telling me that your attitude and what you say is transferable to your daughter about her care?
I don't so I've never said anything about Kristen being a good caregiver for diabetes.
That's the vibe that she gets from you?
I just think because she sees how close I am with Kristen, yes, that my sister that yeah.
My question would be, isn't it possible that some of the anxiety is a vibe she's getting from you too that you're not aware of?
I don't maybe. But, like, me and my husband are getting along great. Like, we we don't fight. Like, we're not, you know
No. I don't mean that. I mean, you I mean, listen. I I think the the the the value of this recording for other people will be one thing. Yeah.
But for you, it's gonna be a completely different thing. Because when you listen back to this, if you don't listen to this and think I sound a little unhinged, I'm gonna be surprised. Okay? And and if and if you don't thank you. And if you don't listen back to this five years from now and go, holy hell.
Is that how I was? I'm gonna be surprised.
Like It's gonna be a good time capsule.
That No. I really think so. Like, I think it could be really valuable for you. And and I don't I just don't don't disregard the idea that you might be giving off weird energy that you're not aware of and that she's not reflecting it, and that you guys might not be standing like two mirrors just reflecting it back at each other.
Yeah. I do agree. I'm exhausted. So I I think you have
this in it. In your speech pattern.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And, like, I think, like, that comes like, I get I get, like, I have no patience.
And, like, a lot of people are like, oh, I hate everybody in my forties, perimenopausal, but and I'm just exhausted. So I'm, like, I'm annoyed at everything and every you know, I mean?
Have time to hate anybody.
I'm too tired. Yes. I do. But I think, like and and she has a little bit of the teenage tood coming on too, so it's like a double whammy. You know?
And I think, like, there will be some times where I'm just like, oh, this is like just you know, I just told you to wait fifteen minutes or eat your protein first or whatever.
That that's gonna start happening.
Yeah. Like, I don't know. Like yeah. So I just I
have to tell you. I don't know if it's right or wrong or if I should use it. I wanna I wanna talk to your daughter so badly. I could taste it. Yeah.
Yeah. Like, don't don't force her, obviously.
But No. Will.
Say, if you like tell her she can complain about it or whatever she wants, she can I also, I love the way you curse? Will she curse like this too?
No. So I always say I'm from Massachusetts. Like, that's part of who we are. I don't know if that's a thing or not, but
I Such an interesting mix of the time you moved out. You referred to the trash as rubbish, so that comes from That's New England thing, though. Wait.
That's a New England. My grandma UK? It is, but I think it came over to New England a bit too because my grandmother and my mother, we grew up calling it rubbish. And a lot of people call me out on that. I'm like, no.
No. That is a New England thing.
Think it's a wrong word. I just think it's and and there's and there's times where you have, like, some southern stuff from the South Carolina going on, but your your language is definitely from Boston. Like, it's all really you're a really interesting mix.
So I'm mutt. You've said
fuck more times in this episode than I've said in the last month of making the podcast. Like like, so much so that at the end of this, I'm gonna have to leave a note for the editor and go, hey. Like, listen. She even said it under her breath one time. By the way, like, thirteen minutes into it, you said it under your breath.
And and so anyway but I don't care. I just think I I think it's for the anyway, I'm gonna tell you that you're early on in this. Yeah. I understand all of your concerns. If you can find a way to believe me, they're not really things you have to worry about mostly.
Okay.
I'm not telling you not to pay attention and just throw it off to God. I'm not saying that either. There are definitely things you have to pay attention to. And but I just think you're you're just too deep in it right now. Like, you sound you sound so far up your own ass, I don't know another way to put it.
Like, you Yeah.
No. You're not wrong.
Oh, I know. I'm I've been doing this a long time. I'm good at this.
I wanna Yeah. I wanna I wanna go to a comedy show with my sister in December in Rhode Island, Providence, and Emily heard me talking to her. She's like, you can't go. Like, Emily, it's eleven months from now. She's like, no.
You can't go. I'm like, well, I'm gonna go, and that's gonna be a different we'll have a conversation about that at a different time, but, like, you will live.
But you the conversations aren't gonna fix it. Like, you have to meaningfully do something without talking that alleviates her anxiety about it. Yeah. Yeah. The you can explain shit to people all you want from here to eternity.
If that worked, then Jerry Springer would have only had to run one episode where a 13 year old was pregnant and the rest of the world would have went. That's not a good idea, and then it wouldn't happen again. Okay? But that's not people don't people don't learn by being told. People learn by having experiences that make their nervous system comfortable.
Yeah. Yeah. That's true.
So yeah. And you might not be the best arbiter of it. And even like like and and that's gonna be tough because you've also tried three therapists. You've only liked one of them.
No. No. I like two. I didn't like one. That so yeah.
The other way, but it's fair. And now
and now you're gonna move to Texas. Yeah. Right? So the so things are gonna change. She's gonna get a new school.
You run the real possibility of her hiding her diabetes, like, deciding, like, oh, change of, like, venue. I'll just pretend this isn't happening to me. And then you guys are just gonna get into fights about it. And and it's gonna get worse, and she's gonna eat more food and hide it, you're gonna you're gonna be I I don't listen. I I like you.
I I I don't think but you're you're you're aggressively unapologetic when you're talking about stuff.
Well, it's so funny because I just listened to your podcast with that lady who moved to Finland for six months, and she was like, but we don't because kids need stability. And then I was like, oh, we've moved our kids so many times. Like, that lady would hate me.
I'm sure she wouldn't hate you. And and and I think there's ways to to find stability in in this too. Like but, again, like, you are I I know nothing. I wanna be clear. I barely graduated from high school.
I did not go to college. I hold no degrees. For the lady on Reddit that likes to say all the time that I think I'm a therapist, I don't. But but but what I'm gonna tell that. What I'm gonna tell you I just assume it's a lady, by the way.
Lead by Example — Don't Say the Thing, Do the Thing32:53
And, and it might not be. It could just be a very sensitive guy. I have no idea. But but but what I'm gonna tell you is that is that you gotta lead by example. Yeah.
That's how kids learn. That's where they get their confidence from. When you panic, they panic. When you think you're not showing your panic, you're out of your mind. My we we just my kids are 26 and almost 22.
We and you haven't had this yet because your kids aren't old enough, but we older parents wouldn't know about this. We had a lovely couple of hours conversations where our kids broke down everything we do wrong recently. Mhmm. It's a nice thing you gotta let them do as they grow up when they think they're understanding the world, and they and they think they're smarter than you now, and they they sometimes they wanna let you know. And I went through the same thing as a as a you know, when I was young too.
And we very, like, happily stand and have conversations and let them explain how we've everything we've done wrong. And and, you know, and we try to absorb it because they might have points, and there might be situations where they where they they're misunderstanding because they don't have enough life experience. But my point is is that the only thing that really comes from that conversation is they feel heard, and they believe we're listening. And that teaches them lessons outside of the conversation. Our parents will listen to us when we're talking.
They'll let us be critical. They'll push back when they don't agree. Those are the lessons from that conversation, like, the life lessons. The the the words from the conversation are not what's gonna be remembered. And and, like, I try to make that, example more simply when I said, like, I think that one of the greatest things about being a stay at home parent was that when my parents when my kids opened the door after school, they knew I'd be there.
Yeah. That builds that builds stability. It builds trust. It builds calm. And and my point is is that all the things that you think you're hiding, you're not hiding from your kids.
Like, so your anxiety I I really do think that the best analogy for your conversation right now is that you and your daughter are standing very close to each other like two mirrors just bouncing your anxiety back and forth with each other. That's how it seems to me. And I don't know how to fix that other than to say, you've gotta calm the fuck down. And then
the steps.
And then and not just pretend to be calm, but actually be calm so that she can absorb that, and that's what you can start balancing between each other. Yeah. Yeah. Don't say the thing. Do the thing.
Right. Right. Yeah. No. I do and I do think there's been a slight increase in my, you know, less having less anxiety since diagnosis.
But and I'm hoping you know, and I'll go back and forth, and I'll be like, in three years or five years, maybe I'm a diabetes educator. Maybe that's what I'm gonna take away from this. Maybe I'll be a
You stop. Like, really, your husband's gonna leave you for sure. I just wanna say that. And no. No.
Seriously.
Is that why he travels to place for work?
I have to go to Brazil.
Yeah. He
may you should have googled that. I don't think his company's probably even in Brazil.
He's watching.
Yeah. Up the street to the best western. Yes. Like, just sitting there.
Oh, man.
So so, like
wouldn't blame him.
No. But but seriously, like, he's not gonna say this to you because he would like to continue to see your boobs. But, like, I'm telling I don't care about that, so I'm able to tell you, you really gotta calm down. Yeah. Like, I don't know how to do that.
Like, I know that's not functionally helpful, but you have to figure out what that means. Yeah. Yeah. That's my best advice. And I am a podcaster, so you should probably listen to me.
I I also wanna tell you that I was not able to, nor was ChatGPT or Google Gemini, verify what you said about the the gel nails. That that is not a yeah. There's no there's no nothing I can find that says that. Here's what it It's
so funny.
Extremely common due to hand to face transfer. That can happen.
K.
Confirmed by patch testing, that it could be an allergic reaction, but the idea that it's drawn through the blood through the nail bed, I could not find any backing for it all.
Really? Oh, that's funny. So I'll have to look that up again. And if I find it, I'll send it to you.
Yeah. I love that. Or just keep in mind that, like, it could be a colloquial thing that the doctor said to you. Like It could be.
It could be. And and All I remember is her saying, this is never gonna go back. You were doomed for life. And I was like, okay. I just gotta get an upper blepharoplasty.
I'll be fixed.
And, also, I'm not judging you because I I came very close to having the sunspots lasered off my cheekbones. Talking about bougie. And, like, I I and the the the the cost scared me, but it wasn't but I could've I could've found a world where I would've gotten over the cost, except they were like, it's gonna come back in a year. And I'm like, well, then what's the point?
That's not worth it.
Yeah. No. Yeah. What's the point? Because it's a thing I'm anxious anxious.
I I see it when I when I see myself. I see it. Yeah. And I do some I do a few things on video. Like, they usually put makeup on me, so it's not an issue.
But, like, I I I worry about it. And so I did go to ask about it, and I probably would have shook the money free for it if it would have been a a forever fix, but the the lady was like, it's gonna be back in a year. And I'm like, well, then I don't yeah. I was born in the seventies. I don't that sounds like bullshit to me.
Yeah. I was like, you're either fixing it or you're not. Like but we Right. Yeah. We're not patching.
I'm not throwing spackle on this thing and, like, you know, waiting for it to crack and fall apart again.
That's so funny.
'You Need a Hobby'38:37
Alright. So have I been at all helpful to you? Have you had a good time? Is there anything you wanna say?
Yes. No. Great time. You know, I just hope that maybe as I get become more of a seasoned veteran at this whole thing, I'll be a little bit able to roll with the punches a little bit more and, know
fully alright. You listen. And that that's the hidden secret of all this is that eventually everybody gets there.
Yeah.
You just gotta get out of your own way so you can get there faster.
Yeah. A 100%. I think then there's the whole other thing and talking about being worried is, like, my eight year old. Like, is he gonna get it? You know?
And I don't wanna do the testing because I don't wanna know what I don't wanna know. You know what I mean? But it's like and I've had two different opinions from endocrinologists, from my endocrinologist who she has spoken to different endocrinologists, and they've been like, one has gotten their other kid tested because they wanted to know, and one was like, well, if it happens, it happens, and I don't care to have that in the back of my head. So I'm like
I've heard both arguments.
Fifty fifty thing.
I understand. I've heard both arguments. I I agree with both arguments. Like, they're you know, it's that's a personal thing. But, like, you need a hobby worse than anyone I've ever met in my life.
Like, is there a thing in your life you don't do anymore that you miss?
Oh my god. You're so funny. I just I love, well, I don't know. I mean, I always say, like, I think it's a weird time of life too because a lot of my friends here in Ohio are just people I've met since we've moved here. So, like, my my close close friends do not live here.
They live in England, live Massachusetts, whatever. But, like, the people I know, I'll be like, let's go play pickleball just for fun. And, you know, it'll be like, yeah. Let's do it Wednesday. And then someone gets sick.
A kid has whatever. You know, there's always just something with life that comes up. I used to, like, horseback ride growing up, and I loved it. And I'll go back into it here and there. But, yeah, I don't know.
Like, I always just feel like
I feel like you need a thing to do worse than anybody I've met recently. Seriously. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I I think pick something that's not gonna get like, that that you can do by yourself or that maybe you and your daughter could do together that that you could that wouldn't you know, maybe it's a thing, like, that you I you know, like, go to a movie. Like I
wanna take up golfing. I think golfing would be fun.
Go learn there. Go you are the whitest lady I've talked to in a while. I just wanna say. It's absolutely fantastic.
I feel awful about that, though.
You're translucent. I imagine I could see through your skin you're so white.
Which I do? And it's it's a combo between red and white depending on the sun shining.
I like horseback riding. I might wanna golf. You
make me sound terrible. I'm
so sorry to
make people
listening to this subject. Don't sound terrible. You sound like you. There's nothing wrong with you. You're awesome.
But it's just I'm just making fun and and joking. Also, I I'm very I say a lot of very Caucasian things. Don't worry. It's, you know? No.
Like like like, listen. We didn't get to it, but I called the township today to complain about my recycling pickup. Yeah. You know? As I was doing it, I was like, this is terrible.
Oh, man. Not a thing I don't think my dad would spend any time on. You know what I mean? No. But but but, seriously, like, something something that's that that takes you out of it for a minute.
Oh, man.
You know what
I mean? Too funny.
Yes.
Now I'm now I'm gonna go around thinking all day. I'm too white, Scott. Thank you.
No. There's no there's no
such No. There's no such thing.
Like, you just funny. No. No. I but, seriously, like, one of those things, like, go do one of those things.
Yeah. Yeah. But because Yeah.
You need to not think about this for a little while. And I don't mean, like, planned, like, planned not thinking about it. Like, I mean, your life has to be such that there are times where you just don't think about it, or you're thinking about something else and it's and it's occupying some of your time.
Yeah. Yeah. I do think though, like, if I if this was me, I probably would be like, whatever. Like, this is but because it's my kid who I'm supposed to be able to protect, like, there's a part of me that's like, shit. You know?
Like,
I'm gonna guess if it was you, you would turn this type a personality on that.
Probably.
Yeah. Which, by the way, I'm I'm beginning to think that type a just means anxious. So, like, and and not for you, I mean, in general. Like, the more people I talk like, time wise, we like, used to call people, like, type a, and now I realize those were anxious people. And and so but, yeah, you you would probably do that thing where you, like, you you controlled it, and that would give you some sort of feeling of calm.
And and it feels to me like you don't have control over this, and it's so out of control. Like, there's just so much about it that you can't know. I think that's what your language means when you say I do the same thing over and over again. Think I what you're actually telling me is, like, I feel like I don't know how to wrangle this, and and that's making me feel uneasy.
Yeah.
Yeah. And so, like, find something you can control. Not and don't make it your husband. He really will leave. Like, pick like, and don't put and don't put it on that little boy, by the way.
Like, you have to go find something he's so sweet. You have to go find something else that you're good at, that goes the way you expect it to, that takes up a little bit of your time.
Well, I mean, you know, it's funny because you wouldn't think somebody who's this anxious and this type a to move as much as to be so free to be like, yeah. Let's just let's move country, like, whatever, or state, or the other you know, like, and all that stuff. It's like but then this is so different. Like, it's so bizarre to me that I could be two separate personalities in one person.
Well, it might be something about it that, like you know, like, almost like two tuning forks. If you hold them together, they stop. So, like, you know, like, maybe maybe there's something about the excitement and the unknown part of, and there's something to do. Right? So here Yeah.
You so you've moved a lot. So there's a lot to do when you move, but you know you can get through it and get it all done. So the it probably moving probably just seems like a lot of tasks that you know you're going to win at.
Sure. That's true. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. Because it's a it's a it might be your hobby. It's a thing that you know how to do. You know how to do it well. You're going to get it accomplished.
At the end, you get a prize. You get a new house. So you get oh, you're like you know what mean? Like, that whole thing. It's probably just the thing you're comfortable doing.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And and so you yeah. So it probably bring listen. I and, again, I I hear you. I'm not a therapist. Write it.
I I I I I'm just this is how it sounds when I'm talking. I could be a 100% wrong, by the way.
Like Who cares? It doesn't matter. It's shitty. Better.
Yeah. Yes. A Star Wars song about that. If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad. So I was gonna call this episode yard house, but but now I don't know.
Now I might call it something else. Feel like in the in the last twenty minutes here, I feel like we actually hooked into, like, what what the the thing like, it took me a while. Like, I think you're delightful, so, like, I got lost in the conversation a little bit. But but, like, you seriously, like, I I think it's there's something about the I just think you guys are just reflecting it. I I think you're just in that mirror situation I was talking about.
If you can figure your way through that, I think you get it. But if not, I'm sure you'll be fine. You just you just live anxiously your whole life. And I haven't asked about medicating yet because I don't I mean, I'm I assume there's ways that you could probably work your way through it, but, I mean, maybe? No
idea. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I've not even taken, like, a Tylenol my entire life. Like, I hate medicine.
And and it's funny because I was listening to your episode about your daughter taking the levothyroxine or whatever every day, and, like, there I am pretty good about it, but there'll be days, like, I'll be like, oh, shoot. Like, maybe once every three months, I'll be like, did I take that? You know, but it's normally a thing.
Thyroid Time — Check the TSH46:39
That's hey. Did your daughter
I'm not yeah.
Did your daughter get checked for Hashimoto's?
So she did. She's fine on her TSH and her celiac panel that is typically high, I guess, when your first diagnosis is coming down nicely. So she seems to be everything seems to be checking out as far as, you know, all the other potential
What what's your TSH?
What's hers or what's mine? Hers. I am not sure. I could pull it up on the
Do you know yours while you're looking?
I can my chart. EMH. Hold on. See what if I can log in really quickly here. It's so funny because I was actually gonna have this number ready to go because I thought we would talk about it, and then I didn't do it.
My last TSH was TSH was 4Point33, which is actually higher than it normally is. Wait.
Yours was? Yeah. Oh, sweetie. That's way too high.
You think so?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We want that under 2.1 at least.
The other one, the one before that was three point nine four.
No. No. You're not taking enough.
So I need I'll just double up on my pills.
You call your doctor. They'll do the math and tell you what to do. And if they don't know how to do the math, you have the wrong doctor for your thyroid. Okay. What was your daughter's?
I'm gonna go back to her now. Hold on one sec. Oh, that's funny. I honestly, like, didn't even like, you know, my stuff now, just like, yeah. It's fine.
It's not, though, but some of your anxiety could be from that.
Yeah. That's true. That's true. Okay. Hers was in what date was this?
January of this year. Mhmm. It was two point eight.
No. No. No. No. Okay.
Alright. Now we're getting to it. Oh, Rob, two parter. Okay. Alright.
The Symptom Checklist48:48
Ready? First, Fatigue? Okay. Yes or no?
Yes. Oh, but I mean, but I don't sleep. So that's
something. Don't do that.
Okay.
Are you fatigued? Yeah. Okay. Have you gained weight unexplained?
I'm huge. I used to be one twenty, and I'm now one thirty eight. And every day, I'm like, those cage
genes are convenient. That people who are body positive are not gonna let you say you're huge at one thirty eight.
Okay? For me. For me. So that's fair. But, like, when you know when you put on your favorite jeans and they don't they don't cut in anymore.
You've gained weight.
You've gained weight. I have gained weight.
Yeah. Sensitivity to cold.
Oh, oh god.
Yes or no, please?
Just check all the yes boxes.
Are straight up what? Constipation or decreased bowel frequency?
I would say I would say, like, I wouldn't say constipation, but may potential digestive issues.
At least once a day?
Yes.
Yes. Skin and hair changes, dry skin, brittle nails, hair loss, or thinning? Yeah. Poggin of issues like brain fog? We're gonna say yes.
Muscle and joint pain, aches, stiffness, or weakness? Oh, well None. Oh, god bless you. We're nine deep in the list, you found one you don't have. Mood changes, feelings of sadness, or depression?
Yep. Depression. Not depression. That
yep. Was but that yep was awesome. In
my defense, it's not depression, but it is mood changes. Like, I'll be like, I'm just so tired of everybody. You know? And I freak out, and everyone's like, mommy needs to go to bed. And I'm like, yes.
I do.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Hold on a second. Yep.
Now your daughter.
Mhmm.
Fatigue? No. Weight gain? Nope. Sensitivity to cold?
No. Okay. Does she have digestive issues? No. Skin or hair changes?
No. No. I don't think so. Not that I've seen or she's complained about. Definitely not hair change, and her skin seems great.
Brain fog?
No. She's a straight a plus student.
Okay. Mood, joint pain, achiness, stiffness, weakness?
I wouldn't say stiffness or weakness. She does seem to be, like, injury prone, but I kinda, like, tease her because I'm like, Emily, like, this is not well, how are you getting hurt, like, stubbing your toe? You know, that kind of thing, but not but it I don't know if it's just for, like, picking up on things to complain about. But I wouldn't say no. I would say no.
Mood mood changes?
How do you differentiate between
a normal mid teens from a girl? I've only had a daughter for twenty one years, and I've only been married to a woman for thirty years. I haven't I don't have any of this figured out yet, just so you know. And anyone who's Undeterred. Anyone who's insulted by that, stop it.
So okay. So symptoms of hypothyroidism so the anxiety adrenaline cycle, if the thyroid is in a phase of releasing excess hormone, your body is essentially in a state of chemical overstimulation. This mimics the physical sensation of anxiety, racing heart, shakiness. Your brain then attempts to find a reason for these physical sensations, which can manifest as psychological anxiety or hypervigilance, blah blah blah. Point is is that there's stuff about thyroid issues that can kind of make anxiety worse.
Yeah. Okay? Yeah. And so Yeah. I would tell you this, that your mom and you have Hashimoto's and her TSH is in the threes already.
It's it's here if it's not coming.
Yeah. Okay. For sure.
And and so it it's great that she didn't have any symptoms, but don't let those things pop up and you go and make excuses for them. Like Sure. Because she's I would absolutely bet my my little pinky on my right hand that she's gonna have Hashimoto's at some point if she doesn't have it now. Right?
Are you left handed?
No. That's why I said my right hand because I was trying I was trying to project actual confidence in my statement. Okay. So, I mean, I might get her scanned now, like, let them do the scan because an undersized thyroid is is probably Hashimoto's or if she's got little the the nodules. Right?
Yeah. And so but you you should know better that your your TSH is way too high. It might just because of the weight gain that it is. I don't know. It might just be that you need more medication and you haven't adjusted it lately.
But what do you want? Point seven five?
No. No. I think, I could be wrong, but it might maybe it is point seven five. It's either point seven five. I've never been higher than 1.25, and that was, like, peak pregnancy.
So maybe it is back down to one point
I I would get your I would get your TSH under 2.1. I'd get it as low as you can get it without being hyper. But, like, I would I would def in the fours. My goodness. Most of these issues are gonna probably go away for you when you get it down.
Honestly, like, it's so weird because I get this, like,
The Recycling Rant54:13
I can't be in charge of all of you. Okay? Like like, I need some of you to do something once in while. I had to explain dumping a trash can to a person who works in the recycling office today. And I I can't I need I wanna go listen.
I wanna go out in the world, and I wanna see someone with some level of confidence do their fucking job. Okay? Like like, seriously, I can't I I I I I can't. Okay? I I I I just I need you cannot have nine things wrong with you.
Know you have Hashimoto's and not do anything about it. All of you. I'm talking to all of you, not just Amy. Well,
the thing is in the green, Scott. So I thought it was okay.
The green you're a you know who's bad at being
I know.
You nurses are a problem. I'm just gonna tell you right now. I've I've talked to enough of you. Uh-huh. Yeah.
Siri seriously, I'll say it again, but people have to be sick of it by now. Your lab results in range doesn't mean anything.
I know. I know.
But you know
I don't. I know. But I kinda do, like, the bare minimum. I go to the doctor once a year. They do the thing and whatever.
I walk away. None of this stuff was happening to you anymore.
Oh. Why is that love it.
Since we're into a two hour episode, Amy, explain to me before we go, explain to me why that's a laughable idea. Like, this
I just I'm just so, like I feel like I'm two different people, Scott. Like, I have this massive anxiety about stuff, but at the same time, I I just love to, you know, have a good time and relax.
But what a weird no. Hold on. I'm I'm cutting you off now. What a weird statement. Right?
Like, I have massive anxiety about things, And I say to you, hey. You have fatigue, weight gain, sensitivity to cold digestive issues, skin and hair changes, cognitive issues, muscles and joint pains, and mood changes, and I didn't ask you about your heavy periods. Do you have heavy periods?
Sometimes. Not all the time.
Decreased labino? I bet your husband would like that one fixed. Now listen. What I'm trying to tell you is is that, like, literally, you would take the same size pill. It would just have a different dose inside of it.
But that's different number. And and why aren't you anxious about that?
I don't know. It's a good question.
Oh, it's a goddamn good question. Like like, no. No. We're not fixing the world's problems today, but, like, that's the thing I want you all to ask each other. Like, why are you putting so much effort into stuff that and and on the it's I don't even know how to put this exactly.
It's like it's like you're trying to walk into an open fire hose. Yeah. And and you're struggling to get through this jet of water that's that's never gonna get through. And and then I pull back and find out you're the one shooting the hose at yourself. Like, just shut the hose off, and then you don't have to fight anymore.
I can't possibly make more sense than this. Oh. Everyone fix themselves and leave me alone. That's what I'm on this I'm sorry. I'm so upset about the recycling still.
No. Why could they not just take the recycling? So
well, it's annoying because then it's in your house for another week, and you don't know.
I made that point to the gentleman. Also, we're two weeks here. So I said, now I'm sitting on this can of recycling for a month. He goes, why a month? I said, well, I've already been holding it for two weeks, and now it's gonna be two more weeks.
No. Do you know what? In England, the rubbish would not come every it would come every two weeks. You only had one can, and they would not take a bag if it was not inside the the can. Right?
So if you had extra stuff, you're, like, shit out of luck that week. And so we would go, and we would walk down the street, and we would find other people's rubbish bins to put our trash. Like, not big bags, but, like, little coffee cups Because it would take up precious square footage with my rubbish can. We didn't wanna do it.
Worst episode of Pattings and Bear ever. And so I would, I just I will say this that this is a thing that's I'm not gonna bore people with this. But in my town, they suddenly decided there was one can they'll pick up and no other cans. So about a year and a half ago, suddenly, they just weren't taking one of my cans. When I called and made the the point to the lady on the phone that, I'm now stuck with this at my house for a month, She said, and I'm quoting, just throw it in the trash.
And it's been in my it's been in my head ever since. And so today, when so, anyway, a few months after that, I was talking to the driver, and the driver goes, I'll take whatever can you put out. So for a year, they've been taking all my cans. Now today, suddenly, they don't take it again. I'm back on the phone.
I hear the lady, and and she's like, you're complaining to the wrong person. I'm like, well, do you not work in the trash and and and the recycling department in my township? And she said, yes. I'm like, well, I don't why are you not the right person? She goes, well, we contract out to another company.
I'm like, well, that's between you and Jesus. That has nothing to do with me. Okay? I'm like, you're telling me she thought she wasn't responsible because they pay someone else to pick up the I'm like, are you out of your mind? So I tried not to get upset, and then I might have.
And I was trying
to explain to her my
taxes and other things. I sounded insane. She didn't even she just put me on the phone with another guy. And, like, she didn't even say hold, please. I just there was another voice on the phone, and I I I laughed.
But but I said to him, I was like, I it it's either important that we recycle or it's not. But if it's not, then I'm gonna stop recycling and throw all my recycling in the trash. And and that's not a thing I wanna do. I wanna do whatever the right thing is here, but you can't tell me just throw it away now. And and and and he goes, we'll come pick it up.
And I went, thank you, but don't use that can again. I said, but I've been using it for a year. He goes, you probably got a different driver now. And I'm like, none of that makes any sense. And I was like and I I I am insulted that I seem like the crazy person now.
I was like I was like I'm like, you are you are you are taxed with picking up my recycling. Just do that, please. I was like and and and and and and don't tell me that the guy you hired to pick up my recycling is at fault, not not you. Like, I pay you to pick it up. I don't care I don't care who you subcontract to.
Like, what are the main conversation? Then I came in and complained to my wife for ten minutes. And then and she stared at me like, Scott, what do you want from me? And I was like, I I I I just want somebody to pick up the garbage. And so, anyway alright.
Wrapping Up1:00:31
Listen. I I I I wish you a ton of luck. I think you'll get there. I want you to get your thyroid checked. I want you to stay on top of hers, and I want you to find a way to do not say the right things.
And then see if your daughter doesn't pick up on that, and maybe start having that experience as well. Also, you should probably see a licensed professional. I am probably I'm probably an idiot. Okay. So that's pretty much it.
You good?
I'm good. Yeah.
I really did love you. This was awesome. If I didn't know what a mess you were, I'd track you down if my wife died and your husband left you. But I I I think it would be upsetting after a while. So party.
I think we'd have a good time in the beginning, and then it would go wolfily wrong. Although you would move to Tennessee if I asked you to. Right?
I would listen. Apparently, I'm just whatever. I'm up for anything as long as it doesn't involve health issues.
Because these sons of bitches are arguing with me.
Listen. It is way better. I mean, I'm sorry, but New Jersey is a bit cold. It's a bit gray. Tennessee, not so much.
So That's
where I'm at.
And there's Nashville.
So, I mean That's where I'm at.
Just need to listen to me.
Alright. Listen. God bless you. I I I hold on one second, please. Okay.
This episode of the Juice Box podcast was sponsored by US Med, usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514. Get started today with US Med. Links in the show notes. Links at juiceboxpodcast.com. The podcast you just enjoyed was sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care.
Learn more about Tandem's newest automated insulin delivery system, Tandem Mobi with Control IQ plus technology at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox. There are links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com. If this is your first time listening to the Juice Box podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple Podcasts or Spotify, really any audio app at all, look for the Juice Box podcast, and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Wanna learn more about your diabetes management?
Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of Choose Box five.
Read the full disclaimer
© 2007–2026 Juicebox Podcast. All rights reserved.