#1761 Kindness Goes a Long Way
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Lauren, an assistant principal and mother to a six-year-old son with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), shares her insights on navigating school management, advocating for a child's needs, and the importance of finding reliable information post-diagnosis.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner (0:0) Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of the Juice Box podcast. (0:03) Welcome.
Lauren (0:15) My name is Lauren, and I have a six year old son with type one, and I'm also an assistant principal of an elementary school.
Scott Benner (0:25) I am here to tell you about Juice Cruise 2026. (0:28) We will be departing from Miami on 06/21/2026 for a seven night trip going to The Caribbean. (0:36) That's right. (0:37) We're gonna leave Miami and then stop at Coco Cay in The Bahamas. (0:41) After that, it's on to Saint Kitts, Saint Thomas, and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands.
Scott Benner (0:47) The first juice cruise was awesome. (0:49) The second one's gonna be bigger, better, and bolder. (0:53) This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type one diabetes. (0:58) Expand your community and your knowledge on juice cruise twenty twenty six. (1:03) Learn more right now at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise.
Scott Benner (1:08) At that link, you'll also find photographs from the first cruise. (1:13) Nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (1:18) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. (1:30) The episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by Touched by Type one. (1:35) Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, at touchedbytype1.org.
Scott Benner (1:41) Check out that programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes. (1:48) Touched by type1.org. (1:51) Today's episode is also sponsored by the Tandem Mobi system, which is powered by Tandem's newest algorithm, Control IQ Plus Technology. (1:59) Tandem Mobi has a predictive algorithm that helps prevent highs and lows and is now available for ages two and up. (2:06) Learn more and get started today at tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner (2:12) The podcast is also sponsored today by the Eversense three sixty five. (2:17) The Eversense three sixty five has exceptional accuracy over one year and is the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get. (2:25) Ever since cgm.com/juicebox.
Lauren (2:28) My name is Lauren, and I have a six year old son with type one. (2:33) And I'm also an assistant principal of an elementary school.
Scott Benner (2:36) Lauren, do you have any other children?
Lauren (2:39) I do. (2:39) Joel is my type one kiddo, and I have two other kids. (2:45) One older, he's 10.
Scott Benner (2:47) Mhmm.
Lauren (2:48) And then Joel's six, and then their little sister is four.
Scott Benner (2:52) Okay. (2:53) Joel's had type one for how long?
Lauren (2:54) Three years.
Scott Benner (2:55) Three years. (2:56) He was how old when he was diagnosed? (2:58) Three?
Lauren (2:58) He was three and a half. (2:59) Yep.
Scott Benner (2:59) Okay. (3:00) Is there any other autoimmune in your family?
Lauren (3:03) None. (3:04) So I've kind of tried to dig in a little bit as far as I can, and I can't fight any other autoimmune, any other type one, nothing of that nature at
Scott Benner (3:17) all. (3:17) You've been asking family members, and they're just like, no. (3:20) Don't Yeah. (3:21) Don't know anything.
Lauren (3:22) Don't know of anyone that has any kind of autoimmune issues.
Scott Benner (3:25) Okay. (3:25) What made you dig in with them?
Lauren (3:27) Well, I've been listening to the podcast Oh, okay. (3:29) Since about a week after he was diagnosed.
Scott Benner (3:33) And Just trying to figure out.
Lauren (3:35) I really just yeah. (3:37) Was trying to figure out if there was any history of anything.
Scott Benner (3:40) Okay. (3:41) Does it make you feel any sort of way that you weren't able to find anything?
Lauren (3:46) I think it's just kind of makes it still a mystery. (3:50) I don't really feel necessarily one way or another about it. (3:54) Okay. (3:54) But no answers.
Scott Benner (3:56) Yeah. (3:56) I would I'll tell you some people are are impacted greatly by not being able to figure it out. (4:01) Some people are like, I don't know. (4:02) I couldn't you know, I don't know. (4:03) And sort of they don't think about it again.
Scott Benner (4:05) Interesting to me.
Lauren (4:07) Yeah. (4:07) It doesn't really bother me, I guess.
Scott Benner (4:09) Yeah. (4:09) You found the podcast right after diagnosis?
Lauren (4:12) Yeah. (4:13) So when he was diagnosed, so I'm an assistant principal, and my husband has a master's in business and works for the Air Force in contracting.
Scott Benner (4:23) Mhmm.
Lauren (4:24) And so we left the hospital very much feeling like there's gotta be more to this than what they're telling us. (4:33) Like, we have to know yeah.
Scott Benner (4:34) Right away, you thought it.
Lauren (4:35) Yeah. (4:36) Right away. (4:37) I felt like by the time we went home from the hospital, we were only there for three days, that I really needed more. (4:46) Okay. (4:46) And so I immediately went to social media, started looking at Facebook groups and things like that.
Lauren (4:53) And I came across a post that had the pictures of, the pro tip series. (5:01) And so I actually started there, very shortly after diagnosis.
Scott Benner (5:05) How did you find the process? (5:07) Was it okay for you? (5:08) Should you have found the bowl beginning series first? (5:10) Like, what?
Lauren (5:11) A thousand percent. (5:12) So I vividly remember a few days after he was diagnosed and I had just found the podcast, I went to the gym to work out because I just needed a minute. (5:23) And my husband was still home too. (5:26) And I turned on probably the first episode in the pro tip series. (5:32) And there were words like bolus and MDI and probably other things that I can't remember.
Lauren (5:40) And I thought Uh-oh. (5:41) I think this is another language.
Scott Benner (5:43) Uh-oh. (5:43) I don't understand any of the words. (5:45) Isn't gonna go well.
Lauren (5:47) So I was like very overwhelmed by that, but still like listened to the whole episode I think. (5:52) And then went back and started somewhere else, just on, like, a random episode, I think.
Scott Benner (5:57) Yeah.
Lauren (5:57) But I really do think bold beginnings and defining diabetes are amazing series and hopefully where people will start.
Scott Benner (6:08) Oh, I appreciate that. (6:09) Yeah. (6:09) And so you found it just through searching?
Lauren (6:12) I found it through Or post. (6:13) Like a comment on somebody's Facebook post in, the moms of type one diabetics group or something.
Scott Benner (6:19) You know, I have to tell you that, how do I say this? (6:23) I don't really look at all my ads. (6:25) You know what I mean? (6:25) When I'm tagging things, because it would be overwhelming. (6:29) But recently, I just thought, like, why don't I click on one of these once in a while and see what people are saying?
Scott Benner (6:35) And I boy, in some posts where people are like, hey, my kid was just diagnosed. (6:41) I'll tell you, there's gotta be 10 or 15 people, like, in the course of a week that are just like, hey, you should really try this podcast. (6:48) I don't you guys out there are awesome the way you the way you spread it around. (6:51) Like, I that that's really just my point. (6:53) Like, I could never have gotten that information to you on my own.
Lauren (6:56) Sure. (6:56) Absolutely. (6:57) But honestly, like, it's the thing that made me feel sane after diagnosis of, like, slowly starting to understand what was going on in his body.
Scott Benner (7:08) Okay. (7:09) Awesome. (7:10) Tell me more about that. (7:12) What was happening that didn't make sense, and then how did you contextualize it?
Lauren (7:16) I think the hardest thing for me was things like 15 grams of carbs and wait fifteen minutes. (7:23) Of, like, he was on this roller coaster of blood sugar and just immediately, I got this sense when we left the hospital of, like, there's got to be more information. (7:39) There's gotta be more I can learn, and this binder that I got from the hospital is not it. (7:46) And so I really just started digging in anywhere I could. (7:50) Mhmm.
Lauren (7:51) I started listening to the podcast, started scrolling through Facebook groups, and just figuring out what I could. (7:59) But I knew one of the episodes I listened to, I think pretty immediately was talking about like fifteen fifteen. (8:08) And, oh, look, a skittle is one gram of carbs. (8:13) And, you know, being able to kinda play with that and my mind was blown. (8:18) Really?
Lauren (8:18) I was like, yes. (8:19) This is exactly the information that I wanted to find.
Scott Benner (8:23) So just that simple see, this is the point I try to make and I I don't know if I make it well enough all the time. (8:29) But I don't think that doctors at the diagnosis level, like, those first days understand how much what they say sticks exactly how they say it when it sticks. (8:42) Like right? (8:42) Like, you get low, you take 15 carbs, you wait fifteen minutes, and you test again. (8:47) Like, could it be 12 carbs?
Scott Benner (8:49) Like, could it be eight minutes? (8:51) Like, we I understand what they're doing. (8:53) I I really do. (8:54) Mhmm. (8:54) Like, it's for safety, and I think I completely understand.
Scott Benner (8:57) But they don't realize that you go home, and now that's a rule in your head.
Lauren (9:02) Exactly.
Scott Benner (9:02) Yep. (9:03) And you would never think to break that rule. (9:06) And then everything starts going upside down, and you're looking for fixes, and the fix is right in front of you. (9:11) But in your mind, it's a rule and there's no way you would change it.
Lauren (9:15) I think it felt after the hospital like this was an exact science that you have to follow. (9:22) And interestingly enough, this week, Joel's teacher from last year who cared for his diabetes in kindergarten, her 12 year old son was diagnosed with type one. (9:35) And I'm actually walking through helping her know more than what the hospital taught her.
Scott Benner (9:43) Okay.
Lauren (9:44) And I see in her head that she thinks that what the hospital told her is black and white, an exact science. (9:53) And it's interesting to see that from the other side.
Scott Benner (9:58) And you probably look like a crackpot to her at first.
Lauren (10:01) Probably.
Scott Benner (10:02) You're like on the level of red light therapy fixes your eyesight. (10:06) Like, you're she's she's probably like, uh-oh.
Lauren (10:09) Yeah. (10:09) And it's hard to not feel like I mean, I wanna have seventy two hours with her and tell her all the things that I know. (10:16) But also, she would just cry. (10:18) Like, you can't get all of that information all at once, and I look crazy.
Scott Benner (10:25) She thinks you're some wacky conspiracist. (10:27) This lady said 15 carbs fifteen minutes isn't real. (10:32) Gonna kill that kid.
Lauren (10:34) One of the things that her son asked me the other night was, like, talking about where to inject his insulin because he's still MDI Right. (10:43) Obviously, in, like, the first five days. (10:45) But I had randomly learned somewhere about where you can put your Dexcom and your infusions or whatever, where you can pinch an inch. (10:56) Okay. (10:57) And I was like, oh, I can like tell her that advice.
Lauren (11:01) Like, if you can pinch an inch on the back of your arm or on the side of your leg, like, that's a great place to inject. (11:08) And it was just something random that I picked up along the way.
Scott Benner (11:10) Yeah. (11:11) Pinch up. (11:11) Right? (11:12) Like, just Yeah. (11:13) This simple thing you hear people say.
Scott Benner (11:14) By the way, again, I don't know. (11:16) It gets ignored sometimes, but the defining diabetes series is, like, 60 episodes long, but they're maybe mostly, like, five, ten minutes. (11:24) And it's just basically the, I don't know, the dictionary for diabetes. (11:28) Because, you know, when somebody says pinch up to you, you don't know what the hell that means. (11:33) But Right.
Scott Benner (11:33) People who do it just say it offhandedly. (11:36) Like, oh, what do you you know, when you put that on, did you pinch up? (11:38) And you're like, I what? (11:39) Again, you can kind of infer from it, but not everybody does. (11:43) You know?
Scott Benner (11:43) And that and everything else, like, even just to hear you say, like, he said MDI and bolus, and I don't know what those words mean. (11:49) Right. (11:50) I just think that's so important. (11:51) It's another thing that gets ignored at diagnosis. (11:54) Like, people just start rattling off terminology to you.
Scott Benner (11:57) People do this, by the way. (11:58) It's not just in medicine. (12:00) It's in every walk of life. (12:01) People throw their buzzwords around like they you know, business people all the time or, you know, do it and I you hear doctors do it.
Lauren (12:10) Even I mean, how many acronyms are there in education that nobody knows what they mean?
Scott Benner (12:13) Oh, sure. (12:14) Yeah. (12:14) You know, you could we could pivot this conversation right now. (12:17) You could start telling me about, like, I don't know, how you support children with special needs in school, and you'll you're gonna start rattling off stuff I've never heard of before.
Lauren (12:26) Right.
Scott Benner (12:26) Yeah. (12:26) So the same thing happens here. (12:28) How long did it take you to find some sort of calm? (12:32) Like, before you didn't feel panicked anymore, you felt like you might have a a handle on things.
Lauren (12:38) That's a great question. (12:39) I think relatively quickly, I started to feel calmer because I started absorbing more and more information
Scott Benner (12:48) Mhmm.
Lauren (12:49) Which made me feel more equipped to handle it. (12:52) We fought really hard to get him on an insulin pump, And the hospital wanted to wait six months, and we absolutely knew that that is not what we wanted to do. (13:06) Okay. (13:06) At three, injections were not fun.
Scott Benner (13:10) Mhmm.
Lauren (13:11) They didn't really get more fun in the two months or easier, before we got a pump. (13:17) But I think once we got him on his insulin pump, it started to feel more manageable because I could do little corrections and smaller corrections
Scott Benner (13:29) Yep.
Lauren (13:30) Without having to stress and worry about his emotional state while I was doing it.
Scott Benner (13:35) I don't mean this the way it's gonna sound. (13:37) Okay? (13:38) For everybody listening. (13:39) But is that me too? (13:41) Like, did I tell you that?
Scott Benner (13:43) Or did you figure it out on your own? (13:45) I'm not saying everything you know is for me. (13:46) I'm trying to figure out how much were you able to just sit back and say, like, you know what I mean? (13:51) Like, what's the difference between having to live through it to figure it out and having somebody point you in the right direction, I guess, is my question. (13:59) Today's episode is sponsored by a long term CGM.
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Lauren (15:58) Right. (15:59) I think allowing myself to do corrections before the designated amount of time Mhmm. (16:07) Came from you. (16:08) Okay. (16:09) And that made me want to do that more often to correct and get his blood sugars more in range.
Lauren (16:17) Doing that on MDI felt so much harder and I felt so much more guilty for giving him more injections.
Scott Benner (16:24) Tell me about that. (16:25) So you figured out, this can't be right. (16:28) I must need more. (16:29) But you then you when you did it, you felt guilt?
Lauren (16:32) Well, I felt guilt because he was really emotional about it. (16:36) Oh. (16:36) Or he would fight me or whatever. (16:38) And so that just really weighed on me emotionally.
Scott Benner (16:41) Yeah.
Lauren (16:41) And once we got on a pump where he only had a poke every three days, I was like, oh, now I can do what I want.
Scott Benner (16:49) So the guilt I thought the guilt was was going against the doctor. (16:52) The guilt was the what what your child was experiencing having to give them injections.
Lauren (16:57) Right. (16:58) I have no guilt for going against the doctor.
Scott Benner (17:00) Okay.
Lauren (17:00) I never have.
Scott Benner (17:01) I guess we should talk about that for half a second more though. (17:04) Sure. (17:06) Tell people what it feels like. (17:08) Like, what does it feel like when you're administering an injection? (17:11) You know you have to do it.
Scott Benner (17:13) Your child doesn't understand why they're having their reactions. (17:16) Kinda break that down more granularly for me.
Lauren (17:19) Yeah. (17:19) I think let me go back for a second. (17:22) Please. (17:22) Joel also now is diagnosed with pretty severe ADHD, and his emotional regulation skills are, I would say, younger than his age. (17:35) And so that
Scott Benner (17:37) Mine too.
Lauren (17:37) Factors in. (17:38) Sorry. (17:39) Yeah. (17:40) That that factors in to how he responded. (17:46) You know?
Lauren (17:46) And it was really hard for him. (17:48) I mean, he would, like, scream and run circles around the house away from me and having to, like, force him to come sit back down. (17:58) And I don't feel like with MDI, we ever had to hold him down or anything crazy.
Scott Benner (18:04) Mhmm.
Lauren (18:05) We were able to kind of talk him through that. (18:07) But the emotional weight that goes with any kind of fight like that is a lot. (18:16) Like, he just had to get lab his yearly labs done at the hospital a couple weeks ago. (18:23) And it took me, his dad, and a nurse to hold him down so that the other nurse could draw the blood out of his arm. (18:32) And that emotionally is really hard.
Scott Benner (18:35) Yeah. (18:36) No. (18:37) I've I've been there. (18:38) And hard for you, hard for him.
Lauren (18:41) Yeah. (18:41) Right.
Scott Benner (18:42) Hard on your relationship with your husband because he wasn't there that day and you had to live with it. (18:46) Right?
Lauren (18:47) Sure. (18:47) Yeah.
Scott Benner (18:48) Yeah. (18:48) Yeah.
Lauren (18:48) Yeah. (18:48) I think it just adds weight, you know, to an already difficult journey.
Scott Benner (18:53) Does it cause you to look at the other kids and think like, oh, these are easier?
Lauren (18:58) A 100%.
Scott Benner (18:58) Yeah. (18:59) That's tough too. (18:59) Right?
Lauren (19:00) Yeah. (19:01) He's also six and needs braces. (19:03) So it's just hard all the way around.
Scott Benner (19:06) He's six and he needs braces? (19:08) Yeah. (19:09) But his baby teeth are gone. (19:10) Right?
Lauren (19:11) Most of them. (19:12) Yeah. (19:12) He is early at that, and so they wanna go ahead and put braces on him, which they tried to do yesterday and it didn't work.
Scott Benner (19:19) Wait. (19:20) I'm sorry to ask this, Lauren. (19:22) Which directions are these teeth going in that he needs braces when he's six?
Lauren (19:27) So, basically, it's preventative because his bottom teeth on the front are, like, completely offset. (19:35) They're not centered how they should be. (19:37) Okay. (19:37) And there's so much crowding in the teeth that need to come in that if we wait a long time to give him braces, they're gonna have to pull a bunch of teeth. (19:49) But preventatively, they might be able to essentially restructure his mouth.
Scott Benner (19:54) Lauren, I'm not a professional in this situation, but it feels like it's possible someone's stealing your money from you. (20:00) So
Lauren (20:02) I have been doing a lot of research on the back end.
Scott Benner (20:04) Okay. (20:05) Because my son had a ton of teeth pulled when he got his braces. (20:09) Yeah. (20:09) And it wasn't great, but, you know, it also just cost what it cost.
Lauren (20:12) Right. (20:13) Right.
Scott Benner (20:13) I don't understand this at all. (20:15) I have no background on this at all. (20:16) I wanna make sure everybody understands that I could be completely wrong, and I'm not actually even making a a pronouncement. (20:21) I just wanna tell you something that I've been telling my wife since I met her. (20:24) Everyone is trying to take our money.
Scott Benner (20:26) It's our job to keep it.
Lauren (20:29) Yeah. (20:29) Sure.
Scott Benner (20:30) That's all I say to her. (20:31) That's for everybody, not you, Lauren. (20:33) Everybody. (20:34) Everyone is trying to take your money from you. (20:36) Okay?
Lauren (20:37) Listen. (20:37) Once the appointment didn't work yesterday because he had a complete shutdown, I was like, oh, cool. (20:43) We can try this in, like, two years.
Scott Benner (20:45) Yeah. (20:45) It's enough. (20:46) We're good. (20:46) Thanks. (20:47) By the way, how much?
Scott Benner (20:48) What are talking about? (20:49) $15? (20:49) What what's the cost?
Lauren (20:50) I don't know. (20:52) To be honest with you, my husband took him and our insurance pays for part of it for the first set. (20:58) If he had to have a second set later, we would have to pay out of pocket, I think. (21:03) But
Scott Benner (21:04) I don't know. (21:05) Lauren, do you understand? (21:07) Not good. (21:07) Not good. (21:08) Yeah.
Scott Benner (21:08) Listen. (21:09) Your shoes, your socks, your pants, your house, everybody's trying to take your money. (21:13) Like, you have to decide who you're gonna give it to. (21:16) Alright? (21:16) That you can't everybody that asks for it can't have it.
Lauren (21:19) Right.
Scott Benner (21:19) Okay. (21:20) Your six year old needs braces. (21:21) If somebody would have said that to me, would have went, oh, you. (21:25) Yeah. (21:26) I was
Lauren (21:27) like, I'm sorry. (21:28) What did you just say?
Scott Benner (21:29) Nice try, prick. (21:31) You're not getting a boat out of me.
Lauren (21:35) Yeah. (21:36) Kind of my thoughts too.
Scott Benner (21:40) Get the out of here.
Lauren (21:43) Yeah. (21:43) So I think we're gonna, postpone because I think yesterday was a sign that it's just not worth
Scott Benner (21:49) it right now. (21:49) If that wasn't a sign, take this as a sign. (21:51) Don't do
Lauren (21:52) that. (21:52) Perfect.
Scott Benner (21:53) Yeah. (21:53) Jesus. (21:54) My god. (21:55) I like, I'm already insulted that I went to the grocery store the other day, grabbed seven things, the lady was like, $65. (22:01) And I was like, for what?
Scott Benner (22:03) I was like, I don't Right. (22:04) Exactly. (22:04) I don't understand what just happened. (22:06) Now now my six year old needs braces. (22:08) What's next?
Scott Benner (22:09) You you know, I haven't ranted and raved about this for a while, Lauren, so I'll only do it briefly. (22:15) Every one of you who took your little kids to preschool, you ruined it. (22:18) You understand? (22:18) It used to be okay if kids were dumb until they were five. (22:21) Right?
Scott Benner (22:21) Like, you would just you let them just bang around the house, and and then they took them to kindergarten. (22:26) And then some of them figured it out, and some of them took longer. (22:29) But eventually, everyone figures it out. (22:31) You don't know any nine year olds that can't count to 10. (22:33) Right?
Scott Benner (22:33) Like, was no but then one one shiny lady with a little too much money took her kid to preschool and taught that little to count when he was four. (22:42) And everybody went, oh, no. (22:44) My kid's behind. (22:45) And now preschool's a giant industry. (22:47) Your kid doesn't need to know his ABCs when he's three.
Scott Benner (22:50) And if he does, teach it to him yourself. (22:52) Now it's an industry I couldn't afford to send my kid to preschool. (22:55) It's the whole by the way, it's the whole reason you got me. (22:58) Like, here, because because we went to the the the kid. (23:01) We made the he's older now.
Scott Benner (23:03) But we made the baby, not on purpose. (23:05) And then, we were married, but not on purpose with making the baby. (23:09) And then we looked around at preschools, and it was so goddamn expensive even back then, twenty seven years ago when we were or twenty six years ago when we were looking, that it was literally cheaper for us for me to quit my job than to pay for preschool. (23:25) And if one of those people I say lady, it could have been a guy, but let's be honest, it was a lady. (23:31) If one of those competitive ladies didn't send their three or four year old out to learn their ABCs back when they were still pooping in their pants, then you wouldn't have to listen to this podcast right now.
Scott Benner (23:40) But now you're stuck with me because I didn't have a job, then I got to write a blog, and now I got to do this. (23:44) It's the whole See? (23:46) See?
Lauren (23:47) So maybe I should be thankful for that lady.
Scott Benner (23:48) Or if you don't like me, you should be pretty pissed. (23:52) So There you go. (23:54) Anyway, everyone's trying to get your money. (23:56) It's your job to say no. (23:57) Yeah.
Scott Benner (23:58) Yep. (23:58) I agree. (23:59) I say no to everything immediately. (24:01) If you offered me sex right now, I'd go, no. (24:03) And then I'd think backwards from it.
Scott Benner (24:04) Then I go, oh, that was nice to that lady. (24:05) Maybe we should do that. (24:06) Okay. (24:07) So everything starts at no. (24:09) Okay?
Scott Benner (24:09) Because I don't wanna get tricked at anything because sometimes stuff sounds too good to be true. (24:13) You know what I mean? (24:13) Oh, yeah. (24:14) May I say I saw something today? (24:17) It was a gift box to put a gift in at Christmas, but it it was billed as, an escape room gift box.
Scott Benner (24:23) Now for the life of me, I don't click on stuff like that, but I was like, what is this? (24:27) You know? (24:27) And I clicked on it, and it was $441. (24:32) And I thought, yeah. (24:34) See, Lauren?
Scott Benner (24:34) That's how I laugh when you told me about the braces for the six year old. (24:37) And so, like and I looked at that, and I thought, someone bought this or this wouldn't be here. (24:43) It's a goddamn box. (24:45) It's Yeah. (24:46) A $441 box, and someone bought it.
Scott Benner (24:50) I don't know. (24:50) Alright. (24:51) I'm done. (24:51) I learned. (24:52) Let's move on.
Scott Benner (24:53) So I wanna know a little bit about the intersection between your job and the diabetes thing because it must you you must have a different insight on school for diabetes. (25:03) I'd I'd really like to hear it.
Lauren (25:04) Yeah. (25:05) Absolutely. (25:06) So I think it started when he came to pre k. (25:10) Speaking of preschool.
Scott Benner (25:11) Mhmm. (25:12) See?
Lauren (25:14) We have a pre k four program at our school. (25:16) And so when he was four, he was able to come to my school. (25:19) He was staying with a babysitter before that. (25:22) And even though I was in the building with him, his classroom is right next door to my office, I was still kind of freaking out.
Scott Benner (25:32) Okay.
Lauren (25:33) And the education, I think that is so important to educate people who will have your child in their care all day is so much more than the nursing supervisor is going to give. (25:51) And so I started before school started, I said, hey. (25:55) Like, can all of his teachers can we have a meeting and talk about kind of what to expect? (26:02) And I, of course, in the way that I am made a PowerPoint presentation and really just tried to walk through a basic understanding of what diabetes is and how we'll care for it at school. (26:18) Mhmm.
Lauren (26:19) Kind of what I needed from those people. (26:25) And for me, because of the kind of community that our school is, it was very well received. (26:32) Like, our nurse was amazing. (26:35) And I just know that not everybody has that experience as a parent of a type one kid.
Scott Benner (26:41) Yeah.
Lauren (26:41) But I think my biggest takeaway in this conversation for other people to hear is keep advocating, keep educating, keep talking to the people in your child's school who are going to care for them all day because they have no idea.
Scott Benner (26:59) Two thoughts. (27:00) First of all, what do you mean the way that I am? (27:02) What does that mean?
Lauren (27:04) I am very organized, think, and try to be a really good communicator and even very like clear as a leader. (27:14) And so I feel like I took my assistant principal hat and just kind of tilted it a little bit k. (27:22) To now become like, a leader, educator of type one to those who needed it.
Scott Benner (27:28) Okay. (27:29) Now here's the harder question because you're involved in education to begin with. (27:33) Mhmm. (27:34) Why do I have to advocate to somebody who should understand this? (27:38) The your child's not the first one to type one to go through that building.
Scott Benner (27:41) Right? (27:42) You're right. (27:42) Sure. (27:43) Tell me the human part of it. (27:45) What is it you're overcoming?
Lauren (27:47) I think, honestly, it is the amount of information and the amount of plates that teachers have to keep spinning during the day. (27:59) And unless you educate them and tell them how important it is for this to also be one of the plates that they're spinning, then they won't. (28:12) So you have to convey in hopefully a very kind and understanding way Mhmm. (28:19) That this is life or death, that this is very, important. (28:24) And to get the nurse on your side, just all of that.
Lauren (28:29) I think everybody has a lot of things going on. (28:33) And the more that you can help them understand it, trying to find that line of not being too pushy. (28:41) Right?
Scott Benner (28:41) Yeah.
Lauren (28:42) We'll help your child have the best care while they're not with you.
Scott Benner (28:47) Try to imagine for a second that there's somebody listening who's had diabetes for forty five years, and they think you're being melodramatic because they didn't grow up with a CGM, and they didn't ever I never knew what my blood sugar was and, like, all of the other stuff that you might hear somebody say. (29:00) Right? (29:01) Like, explain to them how you feel when you say it's life or death. (29:07) How is it that you see this whole thing? (29:09) How is it that your experience has led you to say that out loud?
Scott Benner (29:13) Because that's not a that's not a lightly that's not a thing that anybody says lightly. (29:16) Right? (29:16) So Right. (29:17) Tell me about that.
Lauren (29:19) I don't mean to sound like cliche, but I think when you know better, you do better. (29:29) And being able to have a CGM and to see his blood sugars, being able to catch a 44 blood sugar drop when he's in the middle of PE class is something that we value, you know, now that we can actually see it. (29:47) And sure that comes with extra anxieties and extra layers of protection and making you a little crazy. (29:55) But in the long run, hopefully, it has better outcomes for his health thirty, forty, fifty years from now. (30:04) Yeah.
Scott Benner (30:04) Have you ever really thought to yourself, I can't send my kid here. (30:07) He could die and, like, and really meant it?
Lauren (30:11) I thought if I didn't work in his school building, it would be very, very difficult for me to send him to school.
Scott Benner (30:18) Because of your fear?
Lauren (30:20) Because of my fear and because I think I understand how school works from the inside that there has to
Scott Benner (30:30) be We're so close, Lawrence. (30:31) Say it. (30:32) Say say what you wanna say.
Lauren (30:33) He can't care for himself. (30:34) Right. (30:34) There has to be someone there who can do it for him and is paying attention. (30:39) And I have the luxury of the nurse and I meeting each other at his classroom door to handle a low.
Scott Benner (30:46) Okay. (30:46) Are you stopping yourself from saying I know these people and I don't trust some of them?
Lauren (30:52) I I if I didn't work there and have a relationship with them and know them on a deeper level, yeah. (31:01) For sure.
Scott Benner (31:02) So so you're like, okay. (31:05) Alright. (31:05) Fair enough.
Lauren (31:06) Because I understand how busy they are, how many fires they're putting out all day long, how crazy teachers jobs are to have twenty two four year olds following them around all day and being the only adult in the room.
Scott Benner (31:23) Oh, listen.
Lauren (31:24) I can't imagine being in their shoes and having to do this on top of it.
Scott Benner (31:28) Yeah. (31:28) You're you're talking to a guy that had the school bus driver glucagon trained. (31:31) So, like
Lauren (31:32) Exactly.
Scott Benner (31:33) Yeah. (31:33) I believe you. (31:35) I also don't trust people as far as I can throw them mostly.
Lauren (31:37) Right.
Scott Benner (31:37) It's no shade. (31:38) Like, you listening right now, you might be like, hey. (31:40) I'm a teacher and I you can trust me. (31:41) I'm like, yeah. (31:42) I probably can trust you.
Scott Benner (31:43) I just don't know which one you are. (31:45) And so I don't know. (31:47) Like, am I getting the school bus driver who's just, like, retired and looking for something to do during the day and loves kids? (31:53) Or am I looking for the one who's like, yeah. (31:55) I got a couple of convictions.
Scott Benner (31:56) This is the only job I could get. (31:57) Like, I don't know which one is which. (31:59) Like, am I getting the nice lady who loves kids and just wants everybody to be better, or am I getting the lady who's, you know, thinking of sending sexy photos to one of her students? (32:09) I don't know which one I'm getting. (32:11) And so, like, in that scenario, when a low blood sugar could come out of nowhere and you need a thoughtful person to understand the process and to put the save into place at the right time for the right reasons, I understand your fear.
Scott Benner (32:24) Like, I lived through it. (32:25) I'm not kidding. (32:26) Also, don't think every teacher's, you know, sexting their students. (32:29) I'm not saying that. (32:29) Obviously, that's probably not a thing that happens a lot.
Scott Benner (32:32) Although in Florida, it seems to happen more. (32:34) And at the same time and I know this is wrong to say, but if I was 15 and my teacher was like, hey. (32:39) I would have been like, oh, look at me. (32:40) I'm doing alright. (32:41) Trying to get at it is like, you'd it's just the same as going to the doctor.
Scott Benner (32:45) I just found myself three days ago saying that doctor Beach Gem was on the podcast. (32:49) By the don't know if you guys all know that episode sixteen ninety eight. (32:52) I got doctor Beach Gem to come on. (32:54) That was very cool. (32:54) You might know her from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, etcetera.
Scott Benner (32:57) She was very cool. (32:57) She's a pediatric ER doctor. (33:00) And while I was making that point about doctors, like, you get a doctor, you don't know which one you're getting. (33:05) Did you get the one who really understands type one diabetes and how insulin works, or did I get the one who's like, I don't really need to know this as much. (33:13) I don't know who you are when I start with you.
Scott Benner (33:16) So you gotta get in there and lay lay a groundwork, what, that feels like any dummy could follow this. (33:23) Right?
Lauren (33:24) Yeah. (33:24) And that level of trust that you have to try to build with someone who's gonna be with your child eight hours a day is hard. (33:33) And I think the younger they are and the less that they can feel their lows and know what to do to care for themselves, the harder it is.
Scott Benner (33:42) Don't lie to me. (33:43) Have you ever gone into the office in the summertime and said, don't put him with that one, please?
Lauren (33:48) No. (33:48) Not But I haven't cared about middle school.
Scott Benner (33:52) Not yet. (33:53) I invite. (33:57) Not Susan. (33:58) I think she does meth. (34:00) Oh.
Scott Benner (34:00) Like, yes. (34:02) I mean, listen. (34:03) In the end, I I've had you know, I've I've gone to school. (34:06) My kids have gone to school. (34:07) You know, most of the teachers that I've experienced have been really lovely.
Scott Benner (34:11) Seriously, you know. (34:13) And, just like most of the doctors and nurses I've come across have been absolutely awesome. (34:17) It's just, you know, I don't know. (34:18) In that moment, you wanna know that the people around you are competent and ready. (34:23) And that's Yeah.
Scott Benner (34:24) And only gets a lot to ask.
Lauren (34:25) I will say in the two and a half years that he's been in school, I could not have asked for better support from anybody. (34:34) From the nurse, from his teachers, you know, following his blood sugar and texting me at 8PM being like, is he okay?
Scott Benner (34:44) And you're like, please stop please stop following him at 03:30. (34:46) I I agree.
Lauren (34:47) I know. (34:47) We we did set up parameters to turn off their notifications.
Scott Benner (34:51) You're so nice. (34:52) Get a boyfriend. (34:55) Leave me alone. (34:57) Find a hobby. (34:58) Get out of here.
Scott Benner (34:59) But but but I take your point. (35:01) You didn't think they were being nosy. (35:02) They really cared. (35:03) Right?
Lauren (35:03) Right.
Scott Benner (35:04) Yeah. (35:04) That's awesome. (35:05) That's cool. (35:06) Well, how do you think his experience is? (35:07) Because in the end, the the other thing is you don't want his experience to be any more intrusive in their regularity than it needs to be.
Scott Benner (35:14) Right. (35:15) Is that No.
Lauren (35:15) I think it's pretty good. (35:17) We go into his class once a year. (35:21) So his diversaries September 12. (35:24) So I try to usually go in because that's towards the beginning of the year and do a little lesson for his class. (35:31) And we paint Joel's Omnipods.
Lauren (35:35) And so I actually let all the kids decorate their own coloring sheet that's an Omnipod. (35:41) And we do a cool fun lesson with that. (35:43) But just trying to help them understand like at four, five, six years old, what's going on. (35:49) Why is he getting a juice box when nobody else is? (35:52) You know?
Lauren (35:52) And our kids have been so understanding and so welcoming. (35:58) And I think we try to interrupt the least amount possible into his class. (36:04) Yeah. (36:05) But, yeah, I think it's gone really well so far.
Scott Benner (36:07) Good. (36:07) That's awesome. (36:08) Yeah. (36:08) You call that PowerPoint why Joel has a phone and you don't?
Lauren (36:12) Yeah.
Scott Benner (36:14) I got yelled at when Arden got a phone. (36:17) Lot of moms on the phone to me. (36:20) What are you doing? (36:20) What are you doing? (36:22) And this is a long time ago.
Scott Benner (36:23) They were like, oh, way to set the bar. (36:25) I was like, look, I don't wanna do this. (36:27) Is it you know, but here we are. (36:29) Yeah. (36:30) Arden was, like, rolling around with an iPhone back when people didn't have them.
Scott Benner (36:34) Yeah. (36:34) Because we tried by the way, tried to get her a little foot. (36:36) It was just for emergencies. (36:38) I wanted her to be able to, like, to to talk about how, like, how scary it can be. (36:44) There was a twenty minute bus ride at the beginning of the day and the end of the day.
Scott Benner (36:49) And I wanted her to be able to let me know if her blood sugar was low because there was no share, like, back then. (36:56) Like, I couldn't see her blood sugar. (36:58) And so you basically, you know, she'd text me at the end of the day, like, hey. (37:04) I'm getting on the bus now. (37:05) This is my blood sugar.
Scott Benner (37:06) And then she'd get on the bus, and I didn't I I couldn't track it. (37:09) And so if something went south, we wanted her to be able to reach out. (37:13) And, you know, we took her to the I I remember this. (37:15) We went to the cell phone store. (37:16) I got I wasn't looking to spend money on this.
Scott Benner (37:18) I'm like, look. (37:19) Here's a flip phone. (37:19) You open it up. (37:20) You push these buttons, and she just couldn't do it. (37:23) Whoever designed that UI on an iPhone, I you could hand it to a six year old and they and she was like, oh, yeah.
Scott Benner (37:30) I can make this work. (37:31) And I was like, oh, great. (37:32) So now she's got that and every mom in town is pissed at me. (37:36) You know, I was like, whatever. (37:37) By the way, all your kids have phones now.
Scott Benner (37:38) It's not my fault.
Lauren (37:39) Well, and I think that's probably worse now because a lot of states are outlawing phones at school. (37:44) Yes. (37:45) Texas just did it. (37:46) Mhmm. (37:46) And so now they really are like that kid who gets to have their phone during the school day, you know?
Scott Benner (37:53) Pulls it out like you're like you're George Clooney in his prime. (37:56) Look at me. (37:57) Rest of you suckers don't have your phone.
Lauren (37:59) Because their friends can't have it.
Scott Benner (38:00) Yeah. (38:00) Where's your phone, sucker? (38:02) I got mine right here. (38:04) So yeah. (38:05) Look at that.
Scott Benner (38:05) Now, I'll say if if if nobody else will. (38:08) Maybe the greatest thing ever not to let kids have phones at school.
Lauren (38:12) Oh, I agree.
Scott Benner (38:13) If you'd like them to learn something. (38:14) I mean, For sure. (38:15) If you want them to figure out TikTok, then, I mean, perfect. (38:18) You know, if you want them to listen, be able to focus, I think maybe, don't send them with the crack in their pocket. (38:24) That might be an easier way for them to to be able to focus.
Scott Benner (38:28) But yeah. (38:28) But there are plenty of people who have medical devices on their phones now. (38:32) So you're saying that they said no to the kids, but if you have a medical device, would you get, like, a special, like, hall pass for that?
Lauren (38:39) Yeah. (38:39) You have to write it into their five zero four plan or whatever, just to cover yourself. (38:45) But yeah.
Scott Benner (38:45) Nice. (38:46) Well, look at us finally getting something. (38:48) Although dis Disney took away the pass, I think.
Lauren (38:51) I did hear that.
Scott Benner (38:52) Yeah. (38:52) Yeah. (38:52) Also, we can't talk about that. (38:53) It makes people very upset. (38:56) Never seen people argue online more than about that.
Scott Benner (38:59) Like, if you wanna argue with people online, go to a place where there's people with type one diabetes and say, hey. (39:05) I'm taking my kid to Disney. (39:06) Is there a way that I don't have to wait in these lines? (39:09) Whoo. (39:10) And then here it comes.
Scott Benner (39:11) We're not disabled. (39:12) I'm like, I don't why can't you just stand in the line? (39:16) Blah blah blah. (39:17) You're making it bad for all of us. (39:18) My kid gets low.
Scott Benner (39:20) Oh, my god. (39:21) They don't stop. (39:22) Ridiculous. (39:23) Listen to me. (39:24) No.
Scott Benner (39:25) Keep arguing. (39:25) I mean, it keeps the group going. (39:27) So if you wanna argue, argue, I guess. (39:28) What I'll argue.
Lauren (39:29) Give you a little entertainment.
Scott Benner (39:30) Yeah. (39:30) It gives me something to do. (39:31) I mean, as soon as it pops up, the like, I get a message from one of the one of the moderators. (39:36) They're like, hey, we tag this to pay attention to it because it's t minus showing counting when it comes up. (39:43) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (39:44) It's like, That's for all you adults out there. (39:46) Like, hold yourselves together. (39:47) Okay? (39:48) What else do I need to know about the the school? (39:51) Like, what have you learned going through this process that you didn't know before setting up a five zero four plan?
Lauren (39:58) I think the biggest thing that I would say is not just with type one, but with any exceptional need that a student has.
Scott Benner (40:09) Mhmm.
Lauren (40:10) You have to communicate. (40:12) The parents, I want them to feel comfortable to keep communicating, to go in and meet with the staff whenever you need to as much as you need to to help your child be successful during the school day. (40:29) It doesn't just have to be your once a year meeting. (40:32) You can call a meeting whenever you need to.
Scott Benner (40:34) Okay.
Lauren (40:35) And so really just trying to help them to know that they can have their needs met and still be successful at school. (40:46) And I think communicating your child's needs clearly is one of the biggest ways to do that.
Scott Benner (40:51) What do I do though if the teacher or an administrator or somebody isn't, I don't know, compliant with what's been set out in front of them? (40:59) You put something reasonable in front of them. (41:01) It's agreed upon. (41:02) They don't do it. (41:03) Now what I basically have is an employee who doesn't wanna be bothered with the extra work that they've given me.
Scott Benner (41:09) And if I push back, don't I make up an enemy? (41:13) An enemy who's in charge of grating my son or you know what I mean? (41:17) Like and Yeah. (41:18) Is there a way how do you navigate that?
Lauren (41:22) Honestly, I think it's all about your approach. (41:25) It's very much about your tone of voice and your body language and the way that you maybe ask for help instead of demanding it in the first place.
Scott Benner (41:37) Mhmm.
Lauren (41:37) I'm not saying that that's, you know, gonna fix everything. (41:41) There's obviously still people who don't wanna hear it and people who don't want to help. (41:46) But hopefully, that's the exception.
Scott Benner (41:49) Well, there's gonna be some people who think your kid, like, has type one diabetes because they ate poorly. (41:54) Right? (41:54) And that's your fault. (41:55) Now you want me to do something about it? (41:56) Blah blah blah blah.
Scott Benner (41:57) Right? (41:57) There's ignorance like that.
Lauren (41:59) Yeah. (42:00) And that's why I think, like, I started with the PowerPoint presentation. (42:05) Like, let me, in twenty minutes, tell you the most important things about what type one is
Scott Benner (42:12) Mhmm.
Lauren (42:13) And why it's important to care for his blood sugar through the day and kind of try to ride some of those misconceptions.
Scott Benner (42:20) Yeah. (42:21) That's a great idea. (42:21) I mean and and probably, again, necessary because you don't know who's gonna, you know, hold a bias in their head and never say it out loud.
Lauren (42:29) Yeah. (42:30) The other thing that we do is I make a one pager, and it has there's one for the staff that I give to all of his teachers and our principal and nurse and everyone that has like this most important information on it.
Scott Benner (42:46) Mhmm.
Lauren (42:47) And then I also kind tweak it and make one to go home with all the students in his class that have, like, the signs and symptoms of type one and try to educate them too. (42:58) Because I feel like probably as you do, the more people that we can spread the truth to, the more we write those misconceptions.
Scott Benner (43:07) No. (43:08) I think it's a good opportunity. (43:09) Right? (43:09) You've got got a captured audience there of about 30 people that you can maybe hopefully put a flyer in their hand. (43:15) Maybe their mom will look at it or their dad will look at it for a second and understand it a little better.
Scott Benner (43:19) Right. (43:19) Yeah. (43:20) No. (43:20) And and it might also help the kids not to tease and and be, you know, unkind and, you know, it's it's a lot I think there's a lot of good that goes into it. (43:29) It's probably not that much effort for you either.
Scott Benner (43:31) Right? (43:32) You get a lot out of it No. (43:33) For a little a good bang for your buck, I imagine.
Lauren (43:35) Yeah. (43:35) I've actually had a couple of really great conversations with parents of a preschooler or a first grader who said like, yeah, my son came home talking about his pancreas and mom, what's insulin? (43:51) And they were able to have like a really good conversation about it. (43:54) And I think the little like flyer thing, you know, helps the parent to understand it, to be able to talk to their kid about it. (44:01) That's awesome.
Scott Benner (44:02) Good for you. (44:03) Look at you out there doing nice things. (44:06) You said something a minute ago that made me feel like you have had to stand in an office and be yelled at by a parent. (44:12) Were like, it's Of
Lauren (44:13) course, I have. (44:13) I'm an assistant principal.
Scott Benner (44:14) Like it's about tone and body language, and I felt like what you were saying is, please don't scream at me and look like you're gonna hit me.
Lauren (44:21) Well, mostly, it's like, if you come in and you're hateful and ugly, we don't wanna do anything for you.
Scott Benner (44:27) Well, yeah. (44:27) There's We want you to leave. (44:28) That's the human part. (44:29) I I say listen. (44:30) I've been on this a long time.
Scott Benner (44:33) Like, catch more flies with honey, you know, that kind of thing. (44:36) Assume they don't know what you're talking about, that you sound crazy. (44:39) Don't come in demanding things right away because you do sound crazy. (44:43) Even when you start explaining diabetes, to somebody who doesn't understand it, you sound crazy. (44:49) So you have to go just like Lauren's saying, like, education, slow, calm.
Scott Benner (44:54) Once they get a little understanding, move them forward a little bit. (44:57) It's a bit of an effort, you know, and and you can say I shouldn't have to do that all you want, but, again, you're dealing with people. (45:04) And not everybody's got the same level of understanding, compassion, desire, number of things that go into this. (45:10) You know? (45:11) I've had moments where, you know, I've gotten pushed back, and and I know if I would've lost my mind there that it would've it just would've died on the vine.
Scott Benner (45:20) Like, so you just have to stop and go, hey. (45:21) I see why you think that, but, know, that's not gonna work and here's why. (45:26) I have also, you know, over the years pushed harder on some things. (45:30) I yelled at one school nurse in high school for contacting Arden's endocrinologist without anybody's permission.
Lauren (45:36) As you should.
Scott Benner (45:37) Yeah. (45:37) I was like, that is none of your business. (45:38) Like, never call my daughter's doctor again. (45:40) So I was trying to help, I was like, I couldn't possibly care less what you were trying to do. (45:44) Like, don't that's you talk to me.
Scott Benner (45:46) That that's that. (45:47) You know? (45:48) Also, the thing was, like, why they even considered doing it? (45:51) But and I've pushed in the past too. (45:53) Like, you know, I we set things up.
Scott Benner (45:55) Those things weren't met. (45:57) It turned into a dangerous situation, and then I pushed. (46:00) But I waited until I didn't just yell every time they didn't understand something. (46:05) Like, one time they messed up a big a big thing, and I said, okay. (46:08) Like, I've got the high ground now.
Scott Benner (46:10) This is an opportunity for me to move this whole thing forward. (46:14) They can't fight about it because they had been fighting before because they didn't wanna spend money. (46:18) And this is a long, long time ago. (46:20) Arden was in kindergarten. (46:22) And all we really were asking for was, like, maybe an aid to move her around the building a little bit.
Scott Benner (46:27) I know you guys are listening now and you're like, oh, she's got c g I garden not a CGM on in kindergarten. (46:32) Like, you know, there was we were going to, you know, finger stick a couple of times a day. (46:37) We were managing the whole thing that way. (46:39) And so, you know, we just wanted somebody to be there when she was on the playground, just kinda keeping an eye on her and stuff like that. (46:46) And this was not like a teaching position.
Scott Benner (46:48) It was you know, I mean, it's an aid. (46:50) It's the it's not that expensive, and they have budget for that stuff. (46:53) They didn't wanna give it to her. (46:54) And then they made a mistake one day and put her in perilous situation. (46:58) That's the wrong word.
Scott Benner (46:59) It was a dangerous situation. (47:01) And I used that situation to push back. (47:04) And then you could see the ignorance, like, because there I was in the office with the superintendent of this district. (47:09) And he's like, why can't she just do it herself? (47:12) And I was like, well, she's five.
Scott Benner (47:14) That's one of the reasons. (47:16) Do you even understand what you're talking about right now? (47:18) You want her to do it? (47:20) And I was like, she can't do all that, and she doesn't understand any of it. (47:24) And, you know, I don't know.
Scott Benner (47:26) Like, I just I took it I took advantage there. (47:28) And after that, you know, it it was pretty smooth sailing after that, to be perfectly honest.
Lauren (47:33) Yeah. (47:34) And I think you have to sometimes get to that point. (47:38) But the first five, ten minutes of your conversation, if you don't know these people that you're going into the school to talk to, are everything. (47:49) The way that you present yourself, the way that you talk about what your child needs is so important. (47:59) Because it doesn't matter who you are as an educator, you know, people can rub you the wrong way.
Lauren (48:07) And as a human, you just then really don't maybe wanna go the extra mile for them. (48:13) And so I think it's important to really come across very caring and empathetic and understanding also Mhmm. (48:22) How busy and crazy their lives are. (48:25) And then to clearly explain your needs in, you know, a kind and respectful way.
Scott Benner (48:31) I think you just said law a second ago. (48:33) Honestly, the way I think about it is you come at somebody the wrong way, they are not gonna be inclined to help you. (48:39) And that's it. (48:39) Like, you can take all of the the way it should be and we have it written down and there's a five zero four plan. (48:45) You just throw it all out the window because in the end, you just pissed off somebody who has a power over you.
Scott Benner (48:53) And if they're not incredibly forgiving people, they're gonna exert that power over you now, and it's gonna be at the expense of your kid and their diabetes. (49:02) Exactly. (49:02) So some people are is what you're telling me. (49:04) And I don't know which ones are which, so be nice. (49:06) Is that right?
Scott Benner (49:07) Right.
Lauren (49:07) Yeah. (49:08) Yeah. (49:08) Exactly. (49:08) So My motto in life.
Scott Benner (49:11) I mean, in the end, is is that not the rule about everything? (49:13) You you know what I mean? (49:14) Like, like, what are you doing? (49:16) You you have a problem at the cash register. (49:19) You have a problem at school.
Scott Benner (49:20) You have a problem anywhere. (49:22) You start with contrite. (49:24) I'm sorry. (49:24) Whether you are or not, by the way. (49:26) I got pulled over, a couple weeks ago.
Scott Benner (49:29) It's longer than that again. (49:31) I was on my way to the airport to go to touch by type one, and I got pulled over. (49:36) I don't know. (49:36) I was going too fast. (49:38) Guy pulls me over.
Scott Benner (49:39) I pull I got off the road. (49:41) He comes to the window. (49:42) I say, sir, how are you today? (49:44) He goes, good. (49:45) I said, was I speeding?
Scott Benner (49:47) And he said, yes. (49:48) Now I want you to know, Lauren. (49:49) I didn't know if I was speeding or not. (49:51) It just was like a safe assumption. (49:52) You you know?
Scott Benner (49:53) And I didn't wanna be like, Forever? (49:55) Why is this happening? (49:56) Like, you know what I mean? (49:57) Like, was like, what? (49:58) I said, was, you know, was I speeding?
Scott Benner (50:00) And he goes, yeah. (50:00) I said, I apologize. (50:01) I'm on my way to the airport. (50:03) Yeah. (50:03) I understand if you need to give me a ticket.
Scott Benner (50:05) I hope you don't. (50:07) I said, but if you do, I just I have a flight. (50:09) I have to make it this time. (50:11) I'm going to speak at, and I stopped and I said, it's gonna sound like I made this up to get out of this. (50:18) I said, but I'm going, to give a talk for a charity, and I really can't miss this plane.
Scott Benner (50:23) So whatever you wanna do, I said, you know, car's clean, title's all this is clean. (50:27) Here you go. (50:28) I am so I again, I'm very sorry. (50:30) Where was I speeding? (50:31) And he told me and I said, oh, I I I didn't realize.
Scott Benner (50:34) I I again, I'm sorry. (50:36) He comes back a couple seconds later and he goes, hey. (50:39) Everything's good. (50:39) You're you know, everything insurance, blah blah blah. (50:41) He goes, know, what's the talk for?
Scott Benner (50:44) And I told him, and he goes, well, get going. (50:46) I don't want you to miss the plane. (50:47) And I was like, no ticket? (50:48) He goes, no. (50:48) And I was like, oh, thank you.
Scott Benner (50:50) Like, great. (50:50) That easy. (50:51) Mhmm. (50:51) The guy had me. (50:52) You know what I mean?
Scott Benner (50:53) Like, he he had me, and I knew it. (50:55) Like, I don't start with, what are you doing? (50:57) Or I'm gonna be late. (50:58) Or, like, I just talked to him like a person, and he treated me like one in return. (51:03) Sort of the end
Lauren (51:04) of it. (51:04) But I wonder how many times they actually get treated like a person when somebody gets pulled over, you know?
Scott Benner (51:09) Well, yeah. (51:10) Like, if you if you get pulled over and you start with, I pay your bill, like, I pay your pay or whatever, like, I mean, yeah. (51:17) Well, you're about to pay me to write you a ticket then. (51:19) Because, like, that's when the human part clicks in. (51:21) Like, don't know why people don't understand this.
Scott Benner (51:23) Like, nobody wants to be treated that way. (51:25) And when people have power, they use it. (51:28) Right?
Lauren (51:29) Especially when you have a lot of emotions and stress and fear
Scott Benner (51:33) Yeah.
Lauren (51:33) Coming into, like, your kid's just been diagnosed with type one and you're trying to convey all of this, especially if you don't really understand it yet yourself. (51:42) It's harder to be calm and to be kind and to come in like that. (51:48) But it'll get you miles further down the road if you can do it.
Scott Benner (51:53) Yeah. (51:54) I just I couldn't possibly agree more. (51:56) I think the whole thing is human. (51:58) I don't wanna go down a a bizarre path with you, Lauren, but I think everything is power. (52:03) I think that if you're talking about it doesn't matter what you're talking about.
Scott Benner (52:07) It could be politics. (52:08) It could be talking to your kid's teacher about their, you know, their diabetes and everything in between. (52:13) I think everything is a power struggle. (52:15) I don't know that people do it on purpose, but don't think I've ever been in one situation that wasn't someone pissing on somebody else's foot. (52:23) Do you know what I mean?
Scott Benner (52:24) Like, it just and I don't know why people are like that. (52:26) I don't even care. (52:27) I just know that's the game. (52:29) So if I know if you know, I know the rules of the game, then I can get to the end. (52:32) And that's sort of how I feel about it.
Scott Benner (52:34) But I don't say it's right. (52:36) I just say it's it is what it is.
Lauren (52:39) When I first started as an assistant principal, my office was like a front office secretary kind of desk situation.
Scott Benner (52:48) Mhmm.
Lauren (52:49) So there was a counter like right in front of my face, and I stuck a sticker that only I could see that said kind words on it. (52:58) Because I inherently am kind of an aggressive personality.
Scott Benner (53:03) Mhmm.
Lauren (53:03) Kind of a loud, boisterous, can sometimes, you know, speak before I think person. (53:09) And I really put that there to remind myself to slow down, and to take a breath and to be kind because I knew that it would get me so much further.
Scott Benner (53:21) Yeah. (53:21) It just did. (53:22) It it it just is. (53:23) I've I've walked into school, you know, even like in high school, like sometimes, you know, pump failure or something goes wrong in the middle of the day or whatnot, you get a text and the text is like, hey. (53:34) Could you bring over, like, some insulin or whatever?
Scott Benner (53:37) Because I people are you should keep that at school, but, like, we just lived across the street. (53:40) So and I, you know, I work out of the house. (53:42) It's not a big deal. (53:43) Happens a handful of times. (53:45) And I go, oh, yeah.
Scott Benner (53:45) Yeah. (53:46) Sure. (53:46) So, you know, grab something, go over to the office. (53:49) Hi. (53:49) I'm here to meet my daughter in the, you know, the nurse's office.
Scott Benner (53:53) She's down there changing an insulin pump, and I have the insulin here in the pump or, you know, the pump we had at school didn't work or whatever. (54:00) Right away, there's rules. (54:01) You real I mean, and there's to the average adult who doesn't spend their time in a school, it's a lot of silliness. (54:08) Sign here. (54:09) Give me your, you know, driver's license.
Scott Benner (54:11) We hold the driver's license while you're in there. (54:13) I'm like, you know me. (54:14) I'm like, I've been like, okay. (54:16) And then if you push back a little bit, if you just go like, this is silly, you realize that the person on the other side is like, oh, no. (54:23) This is not silly.
Scott Benner (54:24) This is my domain. (54:25) This is a thing I control. (54:28) And I know it's at every level of people. (54:30) People like, no. (54:31) No.
Scott Benner (54:31) I got the rules on my side now, buddy. (54:33) You all do it. (54:34) You know what I mean? (54:35) Everyone does it. (54:36) Like, you know, everybody loves to be in power once in a while.
Scott Benner (54:39) And, you start pushing back, and then the next thing you know, nobody's helping your kid. (54:44) And and what did it get you? (54:46) Were you just happy to be right? (54:48) Like, you just want it to go the way you need it to go. (54:50) Who cares about the rest of it?
Scott Benner (54:51) I don't honestly care if I'm right or wrong or if they're right or wrong. (54:55) As long as the thing that needs to happen happens, I couldn't possibly care less. (54:59) So smile and wave, eat a big spoonful with a smile on your face if you have to. (55:04) Who could possibly care less? (55:06) That's how
Lauren (55:07) I Right. (55:07) But at the end of the day, you're getting what you want or what you need, and that's how you get there.
Scott Benner (55:12) Exactly. (55:13) You Yeah. (55:13) Yeah. (55:14) Yeah. (55:14) Again.
Scott Benner (55:14) Right? (55:15) What do you trap more flies with honey? (55:17) Is that the saying? (55:18) That saying's not out of nowhere. (55:19) They didn't make that up for no reason.
Scott Benner (55:21) It's because people have been forever. (55:24) And they and people like it is. (55:26) I don't even mean it. (55:27) You know what I'm saying though, Lauren. (55:29) Right?
Scott Benner (55:29) Yeah. (55:30) Of course. (55:30) I don't sound crazy to you.
Lauren (55:32) 100% agree.
Scott Benner (55:33) This is the world. (55:34) Like, play by the rules of the world. (55:36) Don't tell me how it should be. (55:37) Just I don't have time for that. (55:40) Yeah.
Scott Benner (55:40) I can't fix being kind and humanity and how people feel and, you know, that power feels nice and that, you know, you're you don't you don't have control at home, so you have it at work or whatever your thing is. (55:51) Like, I couldn't possibly care less. (55:53) I'm just trying to get out of here with the thing I need. (55:56) So
Lauren (55:56) Right. (55:56) Yeah.
Scott Benner (55:57) I don't care. (55:58) Wow. (55:59) Look at us. (55:59) Making a lot of sense here. (56:01) This is awesome.
Scott Benner (56:02) That, that little kid of yours. (56:04) Yeah. (56:04) What are your expectations for him managing himself? (56:08) Like, what's your timeline or are you just gonna go in with the flow? (56:12) How are you thinking about that?
Lauren (56:14) Yeah. (56:15) I am taking a lot of leads from him. (56:18) I think he reads the carbs on anything that has a label now and he really wants to tell me the carbs.
Scott Benner (56:25) Cool.
Lauren (56:26) And so that's really cute that he you know, he's taking ownership of that. (56:30) And I think that's one of the first things that he can take ownership of. (56:37) He chooses which pod he wants because they're all painted differently. (56:42) So like he goes and gets the basketball one or the Superman one or whatever. (56:48) And I think that will turn into, you know, more independence very slowly as we go down the road.
Lauren (56:56) My goal being that by the time he goes to middle school, he's fully independent of his care without the nurse needing to do things for him during the day.
Scott Benner (57:07) So Do you guys text during the day about diabetes stuff?
Lauren (57:11) Yeah. (57:11) So the I have two text groups, and I will say, I'm sorry if your school staff is not open to this. (57:21) I think they should be. (57:22) But I have a chat that's the teacher, the nurse, my husband, and myself.
Scott Benner (57:28) Mhmm.
Lauren (57:28) And then I have a separate chat that is only the nurse, my husband, and myself. (57:34) Because we still very much help the nurse decide how many grams of sugar. (57:41) Like, are we doing five Skittles? (57:43) Are we doing a juice box to correct his low? (57:46) Yeah.
Lauren (57:46) And things like that. (57:47) I'm gonna help make those decisions throughout the day. (57:50) And those text threads are lifesavers.
Scott Benner (57:53) Okay.
Lauren (57:54) And then we only include the teacher when we have to because we don't wanna interrupt her as much as possible.
Scott Benner (57:59) That's awesome. (58:00) And again, everybody texts at this point. (58:03) Like, it it couldn't possibly be more natural to do it that way, I would imagine.
Lauren (58:07) Yeah. (58:07) Yeah. (58:08) It's been very successful.
Scott Benner (58:09) Yeah. (58:09) I even, you know, now versus ten years ago. (58:12) Like, if you ask somebody to do that ten years ago, they'd like, I don't I don't wanna be looking everyone's got their phone. (58:17) It's glued to their face. (58:19) I like that's a that's really awesome.
Lauren (58:21) But my my friend, the kindergarten teacher whose son just got diagnosed, she went to the middle school that he attends and she was like, oh, yeah. (58:32) I have three other type ones. (58:34) They pretty much self manage. (58:36) They come in here if they need anything. (58:39) She was not open to following his blood sugar on anything.
Scott Benner (58:44) Mhmm.
Lauren (58:44) She said, you can email me if you wanna contact me. (58:50) But I about lost my mind. (58:52) I was like, can you just bring him back here? (58:55) We have sixth grade at our school. (58:57) And I was like, no.
Lauren (58:58) No. (58:58) No. (58:58) No. (58:58) No. (58:59) Bring bring him back here where we can help him and teach him for a year, and then he can go to middle school.
Scott Benner (59:05) You can email me is a loose translation of I don't care. (59:11) And that's crazy. (59:13) Well, no. (59:14) Because I ran into this too. (59:16) Like, well, you know, I started asking for things, like testing at certain times, stuff like that.
Scott Benner (59:20) And I got told there are other type ones in this building and there's other type ones that have been through this building and none of them had to do that. (59:26) And I was like, I know a couple of them and their blood sugars are in the two hundreds. (59:30) So was like, if that's how they wanna live, I, God bless. (59:33) Like, I don't care. (59:34) I said, but that's not that's not what we're here for.
Scott Benner (59:37) I think the argument that got me past that with them is I said, what is the point of me sending my daughter here every day for twelve years? (59:46) Keeping in mind that she was diagnosed when she was two? (59:49) Right? (59:49) Like, every day for twelve years, if at the end of those twelve years, she has complications and horrible health but a good education, What's she gonna do with that education when her health is failing? (1:00:03) Like, explain to me why I shouldn't just move to an island, sit on a beach, and enjoy our lives.
Scott Benner (1:00:09) You understand what you're here for. (1:00:10) Right? (1:00:10) Like, you're here to educate her so that she can go live a life. (1:00:15) And if in trade for that education, she gets terrible health, then what was the point of all this? (1:00:21) And somebody in the room was like, oh, okay.
Scott Benner (1:00:24) And was like, yeah. (1:00:25) Yeah. (1:00:25) Like, right. (1:00:26) Like, so you you get it. (1:00:27) Like, she doesn't just wander around here with a 200 blood sugar all day.
Scott Benner (1:00:31) She doesn't wander around here with a two fifty blood sugar all day. (1:00:34) Her blood sugar doesn't spike to 300, and we just go like, oh, cost of doing business. (1:00:38) Like, that's not what we do. (1:00:39) Her outcomes are what's important day to day, week to week, hour to hour. (1:00:44) Outcomes, outcomes, outcomes.
Scott Benner (1:00:47) Like, we want blood sugars to sit stable. (1:00:50) And we're gonna work towards that because otherwise, what is this all here for?
Lauren (1:00:56) Right.
Scott Benner (1:00:56) So I had a conversation. (1:00:57) This might sound disjointed, but I was listening to a conversation I had with somebody during an edit. (1:01:03) And he was talking about how he has type two diabetes, and he wanted to get his health in order to be around for his children. (1:01:11) But what I realized was that there was no extension of, the understanding that, like, my father had problems. (1:01:17) I have problems.
Scott Benner (1:01:18) I wanna be around for my kids. (1:01:20) But what I didn't hear was, also, I bet you my kids are gonna have these problems too. (1:01:24) It's hard to plan for that kind of thing. (1:01:27) Like, the human mind does not want to believe that that, you know, something's going wrong that we're gonna just see in the being. (1:01:36) That's not how we like, I don't know.
Scott Benner (1:01:37) Our brains just don't seem to work that way because my point is is that I thought during that conversation that guy was gonna say, and I should be looking into this medication for my kids because, obviously, it's happened to me. (1:01:48) It happened to my dad, it's probably gonna happen to them. (1:01:51) But his mind didn't go there. (1:01:52) And it just, I don't know, it gave me a pause for a second. (1:01:56) And I think this is this was the same thing.
Scott Benner (1:01:59) You're gonna let my kid walk around with, like, a blood sugar that's three times normal and tell me that at least she's not having a seizure, and so we're good? (1:02:11) And that's it. (1:02:12) I was like, What a lack of understanding about what being alive is about. (1:02:17) Like, you're, you know, you're impacting her now detrimentally and in the future detrimentally, but she's not passing out, so we're all good. (1:02:26) I was like, wow.
Lauren (1:02:26) When you look at her, she looks fine.
Scott Benner (1:02:29) Yeah. (1:02:29) She's not if her blood sugar is two sixty, which I made that point to them. (1:02:34) They're like, well, you know, the doctor said from, you know, this to this. (1:02:37) And I was like, hey. (1:02:38) You know, your blood sugar is 85 right now.
Scott Benner (1:02:40) I was like, so you want hers to be two fifty before we do something? (1:02:44) You know, two fifty is like it's like a 180 points higher than average. (1:02:49) Right? (1:02:50) And that's a lot. (1:02:51) Doesn't that sound like triple to you?
Scott Benner (1:02:53) And now these people have been told they understand what high blood sugar is, and they still don't nobody cares. (1:02:58) Like, I'm just I'm just telling you. (1:03:01) Like, you you know when your kids come to you at some point and they're like, people are looking at me, Like, you know, like, or they feel uncomfortable. (1:03:07) Like, the the time I was able to get through to my son, no one cares. (1:03:11) I was like, no one's looking.
Scott Benner (1:03:14) No one cares. (1:03:15) You're you're like, everyone's paying attention to themselves, and they're paying attention maybe to their families if they're lucky. (1:03:23) I was like, but nobody's looking at you. (1:03:26) By that same extension, no one is putting their resources, their compute cycles into making sure someone else's kid doesn't have a medical condition twenty years from now. (1:03:36) That's your job as the parent and nobody else's.
Scott Benner (1:03:40) And so if you can get somebody to comply and help, good for you. (1:03:43) But if not, don't expect them to do it for you.
Lauren (1:03:46) Absolutely.
Scott Benner (1:03:47) I'm a why am I in such a bad mood today, Lauren? (1:03:49) You're such a lovely person. (1:03:52) Pissed me off.
Lauren (1:03:53) But everything you're saying is true.
Scott Benner (1:03:54) I got them right. (1:03:55) I'm I'm a genius, but that's not the point. (1:03:57) I see the world. (1:03:58) I'm like an oracle. (1:04:03) I'm almost an idiot, Lauren.
Scott Benner (1:04:05) I just there's some things I'm just sure about. (1:04:08) And this is one of them. (1:04:10) Like, I love I have a lot of great friends, a lot of great people. (1:04:13) If we all crash landed on an island, every one of them would cut my throat. (1:04:18) So, like, I just you gotta you gotta expect people to be out for themselves, and I don't even mean I don't mean that in a bad way.
Scott Benner (1:04:25) I I'd like to be clear to all of you. (1:04:27) I know you think of me as a nice person that helps everybody, but if we all crash land on an island, I'm gonna kill you so my kids can eat too. (1:04:34) I would expect nothing else from you. (1:04:36) I just, you know Right. (1:04:37) That's all.
Scott Benner (1:04:37) Just anyway, that's the game. (1:04:39) Play the game that that you know, don't don't play the game you wanna be playing. (1:04:42) Play the game we're actually playing And be nice. (1:04:45) Yeah. (1:04:46) Because Lauren doesn't need you yelling at her while she's an assistant principal.
Scott Benner (1:04:49) She don't she don't get paid enough for your crazy ass to be in there yelling and screaming at her. (1:04:54) Right?
Lauren (1:04:55) Exactly.
Scott Benner (1:04:55) Tell me the best story. (1:04:57) No no details. (1:04:58) Just
Lauren (1:04:58) The best story?
Scott Benner (1:04:59) What's the best story from being a principal? (1:05:02) Oh,
Lauren (1:05:04) I so my school is on an air force base. (1:05:09) And I think the best story is we had a crazy parent who had, like, injured police officers and things in the past. (1:05:22) And he came in just yelling at the teacher and yelling at us and being able to, be the one to step out of the room and request a security forces officer to just show up was probably one of my favorite moments.
Scott Benner (1:05:42) You're like, oh, so you got him drugged Yeah. (1:05:44) Out of
Lauren (1:05:46) Basically. (1:05:46) Like, he was no longer our problem because you can't come in here and act like that.
Scott Benner (1:05:52) Alright. (1:05:52) I like you.
Lauren (1:05:53) And we're fortunate to have somebody pretty close who can show up in about, oh, I'd say a minute and
Scott Benner (1:05:58) a half. (1:05:59) I see you're upset. (1:06:01) This is the man with the m 16 who's gonna help you out. (1:06:04) Is that Right.
Lauren (1:06:05) Nice talking to you.
Scott Benner (1:06:06) Goodbye. (1:06:09) Also, I see where your kid gets it. (1:06:11) Tata. (1:06:12) She has yeah. (1:06:14) That's tough.
Scott Benner (1:06:15) It's also tough for the kids. (1:06:16) Like, nobody asks for a lunatic for a parent. (1:06:19) You know what I mean? (1:06:19) Right. (1:06:20) Like, you just you get what you get.
Scott Benner (1:06:22) Anyway, good luck to all of you. (1:06:24) It ain't it ain't fun. (1:06:26) But you can get listen. (1:06:27) I being very super serious, I got through it. (1:06:31) I'm, you know, a person who, you know, would you generally speaking think of as having trouble holding their tongue in situations of stupidity.
Scott Benner (1:06:38) I just held my tongue. (1:06:40) I smiled. (1:06:41) I came from a position of being contrite, and, I always let them have their their power. (1:06:50) Whether it was real or not, I think that's an important part of negotiation. (1:06:55) When people people want to feel powerful, so let them.
Scott Benner (1:06:59) You know what I mean? (1:06:59) And sometimes when you you just put your head down a little bit and say thank you, that's they just wanna feel like they're in control. (1:07:05) So let them who cares? (1:07:07) Listen. (1:07:08) Lauren, I don't know another way to say this.
Scott Benner (1:07:11) We're all married. (1:07:12) Just do that thing you do that stops everybody from fighting. (1:07:16) That's all learned. (1:07:17) Right? (1:07:17) You know what I'm saying?
Scott Benner (1:07:19) Yeah. (1:07:19) Yeah. (1:07:20) You just you just shut the fuck up. (1:07:23) And nod and go, oh, no. (1:07:26) You're right, sweetie.
Scott Benner (1:07:27) You're right. (1:07:27) Just like that. (1:07:28) And then you everything's fine. (1:07:29) And by fine, I mean, nobody's yelling. (1:07:32) Just do that.
Lauren (1:07:33) And maybe you'll get what you want.
Scott Benner (1:07:34) Yeah. (1:07:35) Pretend you're trying to get late at the end. (1:07:37) That'll motivate you. (1:07:38) That's all. (1:07:40) Send dads in with that prerequisite.
Scott Benner (1:07:42) You'll all the kids will get their insulin pumps taken care of exactly when you want them to. (1:07:45) They know how to handle that job. (1:07:47) What do you wanna do? (1:07:48) You wanna paint the wall purple? (1:07:49) Makes sense to me.
Scott Benner (1:07:50) I'll go get the paint.
Lauren (1:07:54) Yeah. (1:07:55) They'll understand that first.
Scott Benner (1:07:56) Yeah. (1:07:56) Yeah. (1:07:56) Just send send the boys in with those marching orders. (1:07:59) They know what to do. (1:08:00) And for the ladies, you know, if your husband's crazy, just do the thing you do that keeps him from being crazy.
Scott Benner (1:08:05) Do that. (1:08:05) Like, that I don't mean it that way. (1:08:07) I mean, like, the you know what I mean, Lauren.
Lauren (1:08:09) Right. (1:08:11) Or just, you know, have the meeting without him.
Scott Benner (1:08:14) Mhmm. (1:08:14) Be nice. (1:08:15) Just be be overly nice. (1:08:17) Be overly contrite. (1:08:18) Just, you know, I'm I I you're always asking never for permission.
Scott Benner (1:08:23) Don't ask for permission. (1:08:24) That's a bad idea. (1:08:25) Right. (1:08:25) Like, just, you know, say, this is what we need. (1:08:29) What's the best way to make this happen?
Scott Benner (1:08:32) You know, how can you help me to put this in an order that makes sense to the teacher? (1:08:37) Would you help me talk to the teacher about this? (1:08:40) Because I'm not sure that everyone understands. (1:08:42) You know, do you wanna set up an educational meeting where we can explain to people why it's important? (1:08:46) It's always in that that perspective from that, you know, that footing of can we, should we, just put them in power.
Scott Benner (1:08:56) And then and then I'm gonna give you my best negotiating tool. (1:09:00) This is a simple one. (1:09:02) After an ask has been made, the person who speaks first loses. (1:09:09) Okay? (1:09:10) There.
Scott Benner (1:09:11) Mhmm. (1:09:12) There's life one zero one for you. (1:09:14) After an ask has been made, the next person to speak loses. (1:09:19) So just shut up and sit there. (1:09:22) Is it possible for us to have a meeting where the teachers come in and we can educate them for fifteen minutes and then don't say another word?
Scott Benner (1:09:29) Because what are they gonna say? (1:09:30) No? (1:09:31) No. (1:09:31) I don't wanna educate the teachers. (1:09:33) As soon as you start talking, you're giving away ground.
Scott Benner (1:09:37) Right? (1:09:37) Also, this works when you're buying a car. (1:09:39) So alright. (1:09:40) I've I've helped you people enough today. (1:09:42) I gotta go.
Scott Benner (1:09:46) Alright. (1:09:46) Come back tomorrow. (1:09:47) We'll talk about something else. (1:09:48) Lauren, thank you very, very much. (1:09:50) I really do appreciate your time.
Scott Benner (1:09:52) It's very it was lovely of you to come on. (1:09:54) If you learn things over the years, if you ever feel like you could put together, like, a rock solid conversation around five zero four plans after you've been in this a little longer, I'm gonna be around for a while, so reach back out. (1:10:06) Okay?
Lauren (1:10:07) Okay. (1:10:08) Yeah.
Scott Benner (1:10:08) Awesome. (1:10:08) Awesome. (1:10:09) Thanks very much. (1:10:09) Hold on one second for me. (1:10:10) Okay?
Scott Benner (1:10:11) K. (1:10:18) Head now to tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care. (1:10:25) I think you're gonna find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with the Tandem Mobi system. (1:10:33) This episode was sponsored by Touched by Type one. (1:10:37) I want you to go find them on Facebook, Instagram, and give them a follow, and then head to touchedbytype1.org where you're gonna learn all about their programs and resources for people with type one diabetes.
Scott Benner (1:10:48) Today's episode is also sponsored by Eversense CGM. (1:10:53) They make the Eversense three sixty five. (1:10:56) That thing lasts a whole year. (1:10:57) One insertion. (1:10:59) Every year?
Scott Benner (1:11:00) Come on. (1:11:01) You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. (1:11:03) Eversensecgm.com/juicefox. (1:11:08) Okay. (1:11:09) Well, here we are at the end of the episode.
Scott Benner (1:11:10) You're still with me? (1:11:11) Thank you. (1:11:12) I really do appreciate that. (1:11:14) What else could you do for me? (1:11:16) Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review?
Scott Benner (1:11:19) Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me or Instagram, TikTok. (1:11:28) Oh, gosh. (1:11:29) Here's one. (1:11:30) Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page. (1:11:36) You don't wanna miss please, do you not know about the private group?
Scott Benner (1:11:40) You have to join the private group. (1:11:41) As of this recording, it has 74,000 members. (1:11:45) They're active talking about diabetes. (1:11:48) Whatever you need to know, there's a conversation happening in there right now. (1:11:51) And I'm there all the time.
Scott Benner (1:11:52) Tag me. (1:11:53) I'll say hi. (1:11:58) If you're new to type one diabetes, begin with the bold beginnings series from the podcast. (1:12:03) Don't take my word for it. (1:12:04) Listen to what reviewers have said.
Scott Benner (1:12:06) Bold beginnings is the best first step. (1:12:09) I learned more in those episodes than anywhere else. (1:12:12) This is when everything finally clicked. (1:12:14) People say it takes the stress out of the early days and replaces it with clarity. (1:12:18) They tell me this should come with the diagnosis packet that I got at the hospital.
Scott Benner (1:12:22) And after they listen, they recommend it to everyone who's struggling. (1:12:25) It's straightforward, practical, and easy to listen to. (1:12:29) Full Beginnings gives you the basics in a way that actually makes sense. (1:12:34) If you have a podcast and you need a fantastic editor, you want Rob from Wrong Way Recording. (1:12:40) Listen.
Scott Benner (1:12:40) Truth be told, I'm, like, 20% smarter when Rob edits me. (1:12:44) He takes out all the, like, gaps of time and when I go, and stuff like that. (1:12:49) And it just I don't know, man. (1:12:51) Like, I listen back and I'm like, why do I sound smarter? (1:12:53) And then I remember because I did one smart thing.
Scott Benner (1:12:56) I hired Rob at wrongwayrecording.com.
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#1760 Boston Croissant Party - Part 2
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
In the conclusion of this two-part discussion, Anais, a scientist in the biotech industry and mother of a seven-year-old daughter with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), shares further insights into the first year of management, the emotional weight of grief, and the transition of care as children grow older.
+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner (0:0) Welcome back, friends, to another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
Anais (0:13) My name is Anais, and I am the mom of a type one diabetic child. (0:18) I have two daughters, seven and four and a half, and so my diabetic daughter is the one that just turned seven today. (0:25) It's her it's her birthday.
Scott Benner (0:27) This is part two of a two part episode. (0:29) Go look at the title. (0:31) If you don't recognize it, you haven't heard part one yet. (0:33) It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player. (0:39) 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.
Scott Benner (0:48) Look for the Juice Box podcast and follow or subscribe. (0:51) We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. (0:55) Wanna learn more about your diabetes management? (0:57) Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more. (1:04) This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin.
Scott Benner (1:12) While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (1:20) Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. (1:29) Today's podcast episode is sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed seven eighty g system and their new sensor options, which include the Instinct sensor made by Abbott. (1:44) Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed seven eighty g system? (1:48) You can do that at my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner (1:53) The podcast is also sponsored today by the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. (1:59) Learn more and get started today at kontoornext.com/juicebox.
Anais (2:05) I mean, you have to be a little bit brave. (2:08) I mean, I don't know if I'm if I'm there yet. (2:09) I mean, I I guess I'm on the podcast. (2:11) But
Scott Benner (2:12) No. (2:12) You're getting there. (2:12) Yeah. (2:13) No. (2:13) No.
Scott Benner (2:13) That's that's pretty good stuff.
Anais (2:15) But I think there is you know, work is there is stuff that should stay private, obviously, but I think it's good that they they're trying to improve, mental health because that's super important for sure.
Scott Benner (2:26) Nice people. (2:27) A lot of people working hard in a new world where some of them are, like, working out of their house and never see each other and, you you know, and some of them are are getting dragged into a building and and there's no one there. (2:38) So they're basically working by themselves in an office. (2:40) You know? (2:41) It's a and and like and like we said earlier, they all also have bills and problems of their own and spouses and children and you know?
Scott Benner (2:50) Like, every day somebody asks me, how how are you? (2:52) And I'm like, I have two kids, and I'm married. (2:54) I don't know. (2:54) Like, I get it.
Anais (2:58) Depends. (2:59) Depends on the day. (3:00) Is it Monday? (3:00) Is it Tuesday? (3:01) Who knows?
Anais (3:02) No.
Scott Benner (3:02) Some days, everybody's happy, and some days, people I love are yelling at me. (3:06) I don't know what's happening. (3:07) I I I can't follow this. (3:08) Oh, also, you know, try being me sometime. (3:11) Like, I mean this, like, from an outside perspective, not as a, like I'm I'm not celebrating myself, but I am a person who a lot of people would come to about diabetes stuff whose daughter doesn't see him that way.
Scott Benner (3:23) Right? (3:24) Like, I'm to me, the I'm the guy in the house. (3:26) Like, you don't listen to me. (3:27) Like, you don't send like, listen. (3:28) Here's a great piece of advice for everybody.
Scott Benner (3:30) I've said this a million times. (3:31) Yeah. (3:32) You shouldn't coach your kid in baseball. (3:34) And if you do and he's pitching, you're definitely not the one that goes out to the mound to talk to him when he's struggling. (3:40) Right?
Scott Benner (3:40) Like, that's just trust me. (3:41) That's great advice. (3:43) And it's the same thing with this. (3:44) Like, I spent three hours on the phone with a friend of Arden's the other day, and she was we got to the end, and she's like, thank you so much. (3:51) She's like, I just learned more about myself than I've learned in ten years, like, because her friend has type one.
Scott Benner (3:56) And Uh-huh. (3:57) If I turned to Arden, I was like, hey. (3:58) There's, like, five key things I'd like to see. (4:00) Be like, get away from me.
Anais (4:02) Yeah. (4:03) I mean yeah. (4:04) But you you're you're her dad. (4:05) Right? (4:06) So it's yeah.
Anais (4:06) Totally.
Scott Benner (4:07) I can see how into her differently. (4:09) Like, do you know what I mean? (4:09) Like but, like, still, it's I mean, that's a thing that I deal with. (4:15) Like, you know, and I'm saying people people are dealing with all kinds of little things that, you know I mean, that's the thing that makes me upset. (4:23) Like, I'm I'm just to be honest with everybody.
Scott Benner (4:25) I wish that my daughter cared to sit down and listen to the pro tip series. (4:31) You know? (4:31) Because not
Anais (4:32) that She hasn't.
Scott Benner (4:33) Not that she
Anais (4:33) She hasn't done that.
Scott Benner (4:34) No. (4:34) She knows most of it from my, like, incessant talking about it with her. (4:38) But, like, at the same time, like, I didn't wanna be the one to say it to her. (4:42) It's a weird mix to be. (4:44) You don't trust me.
Scott Benner (4:44) You won't know till you're there.
Anais (4:46) Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner (4:47) But you'll be there at some point. (4:49) She you know? (4:50) So good luck, by the way. (4:51) Ain't it great?
Anais (4:52) Yeah. (4:52) Thank you. (4:53) Yeah. (4:53) I am you know, it's it's funny because, I mean, obviously, my daughter is seven, so we do most of the management. (4:58) And she's she gets involved, and she's much better now with changing her device and all that good stuff.
Anais (5:04) I can see how as she evolve and become a teenager, there will be, you know, moments that are tough, and she's gonna take over the management. (5:13) I'm gonna have to let go. (5:14) I'm a type A person as well, so it's gonna be really hard for me
Scott Benner (5:18) Yeah.
Anais (5:18) To let her do her thing. (5:19) But I think at the end of the day, it's probably what she needs to do. (5:23) But, yeah, I can see all that super challenging. (5:24) We we're not there yet. (5:25) I feel like I have a few more years to
Scott Benner (5:27) You have plenty of time. (5:28) But just I'm just I'm here to tell you, it's just not gonna go the way you think.
Anais (5:32) Oh, yeah. (5:32) I'm sure.
Scott Benner (5:33) And I've never been more certain of this. (5:36) People want what they don't have. (5:38) Like, you know, I'm talking to her friend, and her friend's like, nobody ever helped me when I was growing up. (5:42) This is awesome to have somebody here helping me. (5:43) And I'm sure what my daughter thinks is, oh my god.
Scott Benner (5:46) You've been helping me so much. (5:47) Leave me alone. (5:48) Like, right like, like, everybody wants the opposite of what they get handed. (5:52) And so I think that you're not wrong, and it's a it's a lifelong thing of the passing of the information in such a way that in real time, they're healthy and safe and learning. (6:07) But at some point, it's gonna just sound like, oh, I can't believe that these people this is all they talk about, which by the way, and this will be hard for you to believe because you listen to my podcast about this, but I don't talk about this stuff much at all in my personal life.
Scott Benner (6:23) But the people around me think I talk about it all the time. (6:27) Yeah. (6:27) And it's because they don't wanna hear it from me. (6:30) It's a it's not about this. (6:31) It's not about the podcast.
Scott Benner (6:32) It's not about diabetes. (6:33) It's it's anything. (6:34) Like, you all right now are thinking about something. (6:37) Everyone listening is like, my god. (6:38) My mom always talks about knitting or my dad's always talking about the jets or, like, you know, like, that kind of thing.
Scott Benner (6:44) It's not true. (6:44) That's not what people are always talking about. (6:47) It's just the thing that you hear, I guess. (6:50) I'm not fully able to explain this whole thing yet. (6:53) I think a fair amount of the podcast over the next couple years is gonna be me, like, continuing to figure all this out.
Scott Benner (7:00) But I've been letting go for years, and I've been, you know, staying out of it for years. (7:07) And still, if you talk to her about it, she thinks I'm she thinks that's all I'm talking about. (7:12) It's really interesting.
Anais (7:13) That's so funny. (7:14) Yeah. (7:14) We'll see. (7:15) We'll see how it goes. (7:17) Yeah.
Anais (7:17) It's gonna be an interesting time.
Scott Benner (7:18) Well, also, good point. (7:20) Everyone's different. (7:20) Your kid might just be like, I don't know. (7:22) They helped me a lot. (7:23) It was awesome.
Scott Benner (7:23) And then that'd be it. (7:25) You know? (7:25) Like, who knows how people take it? (7:27) Don't don't panic yet. (7:28) There's plenty of time before I just realized
Anais (7:31) plenty of episode can listen to where you talk about that. (7:33) So that's good. (7:34) I'll have some resources.
Scott Benner (7:35) Maybe you can catch up for there. (7:38) So at her age, though, like so is she making decisions? (7:42) Does she count carbs? (7:43) Like, where are you at with that part?
Anais (7:46) She's not well, she understand the concept of carbs, and and I think the concept of giving insulin, pre bowl is saying she's very good about that. (7:53) I think she helps more with, like, device changes because at first, it was super hard for her to do an Omnipod change. (8:00) We had to, like, we watch pretty much all of the Simone Biles routine on YouTube every time we were changing a pod, so she will be distracted. (8:09) And it was just so hard, but now she's like, she take the the the Omnipod off. (8:15) She helps with the the adhesive and all that stuff.
Anais (8:17) So she's much better with with that, but she's not she's not doing the management. (8:22) Sometime if I say, hey. (8:24) Can you put in nine carbs in the the controller? (8:27) Like, she knows how to do it, she will do it properly, But she is not really kind of managing her disease. (8:34) She's she's pretty smart about it.
Anais (8:35) Like, if she goes play at the outside, she would be like, hey. (8:38) What's my number? (8:39) And I'm like, well, you're fine. (8:41) You can just go play. (8:42) Or I'm like, well, you need a schedule to to kind of get you up before you go running like crazy.
Anais (8:46) So she's aware, and I think she generally pretty vocal if she feels low or if she doesn't feel right. (8:54) Like, she will tell us. (8:55) Yeah. (8:56) She's not really involved in a lot of the carbs counting and all that good stuff.
Scott Benner (8:59) Yeah. (8:59) I wouldn't I would imagine. (9:00) It happens slowly. (9:01) It's also you know, you're still figuring it out. (9:03) It's hard to teach somebody something you're not sure of.
Anais (9:06) Exactly. (9:07) Yeah. (9:07) For sure. (9:08) No. (9:08) I was just saying, I think we're getting better because we didn't totally scrub pizza the other day.
Anais (9:12) So I felt like that was her, you know
Scott Benner (9:15) Big win?
Anais (9:15) Her montage to climb. (9:17) And I think we we stayed under one eighty, though. (9:20) Like, that was the maximum she went to after pizza, and I was like, I think we did pretty well this time. (9:26) Hopefully, we do that again.
Scott Benner (9:27) Do you have that moment, like, quietly over the table where you pick up the CGM screen and you show it to your husband and nod at each other like, oh my god. (9:34) We did it. (9:35) Like
Anais (9:35) Yeah. (9:36) Yeah. (9:36) We we yeah. (9:37) It's and we have, like we strategize. (9:39) Like, we we still talk about about about diabetes a lot at at mealtime, and it's like, well, what did we do yesterday?
Anais (9:45) Like, what do you think we should do? (9:46) Is it fifty percent now? (9:47) Like, so yeah. (9:50) Yeah. (9:50) Eventually, it will become easier, hopefully, in this work, but, we're still pretty involved in
Scott Benner (9:56) I mean, I'm personally, me, I'm at the spot where I don't really need to talk about it to make it work. (10:02) And that's that's awesome. (10:03) But it's funny because, you know, because Arden went off to college and she, you know, took over for herself. (10:08) She didn't obviously start at scratch, like, like, from scratch, but she started, you know, behind where where I was. (10:14) And it gets been interesting watching her figure it out.
Scott Benner (10:17) Like, I and she's doing I wanna say, especially if she hears this, she's doing an awesome job. (10:23) Like, she's keeping her a one c in the sixes.
Anais (10:25) Oh, that's awesome.
Scott Benner (10:26) Yeah. (10:26) Like, you know, she's going to college at the same time. (10:29) She, you know, she has a boyfriend. (10:31) She goes out. (10:31) Like, she does a accomplishes she a lot of things.
Scott Benner (10:34) And with an a one c in the sixth, I think that's just astounding. (10:38) Like, I I I mean, it's such a I don't know. (10:41) Such a thing to be celebrated, really. (10:43) You know? (10:44) Especially after interviewing so many people who are like, oh my god.
Scott Benner (10:47) In college, I don't even know what my blood sugar was, or I only gave myself basal insulin for four years in college. (10:52) Like, I hear that stuff all the time from
Anais (10:53) Oh, wow. (10:54) Yeah. (10:54) Yeah. (10:55) I don't know. (10:55) That's crazy.
Anais (10:56) That's amazing that she's doing so well. (10:58) Yeah.
Scott Benner (10:59) It's just hard that when you I don't think she feels it that way. (11:03) And I do believe she it's because to some degree, she knows it's not as good as it has been or that it could be, and yet she's taking a having a lot of pride taking it on for herself too. (11:15) So Yeah. (11:15) It's a real interesting journey.
Anais (11:18) Yes. (11:18) I I was gonna say, like, it's hard because we have a very tight control and, you know, her a was I mean, her a one c, I think our last one was five, and she she's she's doing great. (11:27) But I know that the amount of effort we're putting in, it probably is too much. (11:33) Right? (11:34) So, eventually, I think it's like, where do you wanna be Yeah.
Anais (11:37) And live your life and not worry about it all the time? (11:42) And so I think this is something that I haven't figured out quite yet. (11:46) It's like, you know, we No.
Scott Benner (11:48) You have a lot of time. (11:49) Don't worry. (11:50) Yeah.
Anais (11:50) But it's like, we are constantly working at it. (11:53) So
Scott Benner (11:54) I'll tell you right now. (11:55) From my perspective, there's two things that thwart adults. (12:00) Right? (12:01) And I understand completely why it would. (12:04) It's about attention and it not making you mental.
Scott Benner (12:07) Right? (12:07) And about you trying to live the rest of your life. (12:09) But the two things where people struggle the most as adults, and I've seen it talking to them, and I'm watching it with Arden. (12:16) Pre bolus thing long enough before a meal and readdressing a high blood sugar before it gets over, like, one eighty. (12:23) Yeah.
Scott Benner (12:24) Those are the two things that because they're trying to live their lives, I think that they're trying to be sane. (12:30) You know what I mean? (12:31) That they're they're not focused on all the time. (12:33) Those two things. (12:34) Like, if Arden came to me right now and said, fine.
Scott Benner (12:36) I'll listen. (12:37) What am I doing wrong? (12:38) And I would say, first of you're doing anything wrong, but just focus on these two things a little more. (12:43) I think that would change things for her dramatically.
Anais (12:45) Yeah. (12:46) Yeah. (12:46) So Maybe I should take that advice as well.
Scott Benner (12:49) Yeah. (12:49) As minimally as you can. (12:51) Like, once she knows what she's doing, like, you just want I actually think that the the reason, like, the pro tip series works is because it really is distilled down into just these ideas, and they are the core they are the core ideas that will keep you in a six. (13:07) Right? (13:07) And Yeah.
Scott Benner (13:09) Once you have a lot of them set up, you don't really have to think about them as much anymore. (13:13) And then from there, I saw I really think it's that. (13:16) I think it's don't let a blood sugar go over one eighty and pre bolus. (13:19) And those two things will keep you the rest of the way in it. (13:22) Now maybe a technology will take care of that in the coming years.
Scott Benner (13:25) I have no idea. (13:29) The Kontoor next gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of the Juice Box podcast. (13:35) And it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you're paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. (13:43) That's right. (13:44) If you go to my link, contournext.com/juicebox, you're gonna find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Kroger, and Meijer.
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Anais (15:51) Yeah. (15:51) Well, the the the bump and nudge one too, I thought, was super helpful because, like, it's like, okay. (15:56) Like, what do I do if I see this hour going up? (15:58) Like, do I wait a little bit? (16:00) Like, you know, being aware of, like, is she gonna go outside and running?
Anais (16:04) Like, that that type of things that maybe in the future technology would take care of. (16:08) But right now, I I saw that thinking about where the arrow is going, what the trend is. (16:14) I I saw that was helpful also to keep in mind Mhmm. (16:16) To stay within a certain range.
Scott Benner (16:19) I think in my mind, the bump and nudge is an expansion of it's not stacking if you need it. (16:25) Like yeah.
Anais (16:26) That's true.
Scott Benner (16:26) Right? (16:27) Like, once you get the idea of, like, oh god, I'm only supposed to bolus once every three hours. (16:31) Once you get that out of your head, and then you realize that it's I I don't know how to put this exactly. (16:40) I think that initially, bolusing for food is taught to you as a thing that only happens once every three hours. (16:47) Right?
Scott Benner (16:47) So the segments are farther apart. (16:50) And then when somebody tells you, well, no. (16:52) Like, if you eat now and then eat again an hour from now, you're gonna wanna bolus for both of those things. (16:57) You go, okay. (16:57) The segments come closer together.
Scott Benner (17:00) But it's not until you, like, go in on them in a micro fashion and start looking at them as not, like, things that happen every three hours, not things that happen every hour, but things that are happening every minute. (17:11) Like, once you see it like that, it's almost like shrinking down and going inside of it for a second. (17:16) Like, once you can see it from that perspective, then you realize, like, it's about timing and amount, but that always changes. (17:23) Now you don't have to watch it down to the millisecond, but if you watch it a little closer than that, you know Yeah. (17:30) Then all of a sudden, you're you're ahead of the the blood sugar.
Anais (17:34) Yeah. (17:34) Right? (17:35) And I and I think the pump really allows you to do those microdose and, you know, bolus for the food even though it's been less than three hours. (17:42) So it gives you a lot more flexibility. (17:44) I think that
Scott Benner (17:45) Yeah.
Anais (17:45) If you have to inject yourself all the time, I think that makes it challenging for sure.
Scott Benner (17:50) Yeah. (17:50) I've met people who do it, but, I mean, I don't know. (17:53) It's a it's a it's a to me, it's I don't know how you go after a a seven year old and be like, look. (17:58) We're gonna we're gonna give you a 1.5 now, and then once you start eating, we'll give you two more. (18:04) And then if this goes up 45 like, I mean, that's, you know
Anais (18:07) Yeah. (18:07) You I I think that would be super hard Sure. (18:09) For her, for sure.
Scott Benner (18:11) You know, for some people, no. (18:12) And for the ones it is hard for, I understand why they're not doing it. (18:15) So once and and, again, I'll I'm happy to say this over and over again. (18:19) It isn't really I understood it all, but I really understood it once I had Nightscout on my phone for Loop. (18:28) Like, because once I watched Loop work in the moment and I was able to say to myself, oh, that's what I've been doing.
Scott Benner (18:35) I've been doing like, because, know, when Arden was in school, I'd be temp Basil off ten minutes. (18:40) Like, you know, I'd send her a text or let's do, temp Basil increase 150% for an hour. (18:47) Like, I was acting like an algorithm like that, and I was really good at it. (18:51) Like, you know and, you know, bolus again here. (18:53) Do another unit.
Scott Benner (18:54) Do a half. (18:55) Like, blah blah blah. (18:56) And it wasn't constant. (18:57) Like, don't get me I I don't want anybody to think I was texting her every five minutes in school. (19:00) But, like, you know, a few times throughout the day, like, in this drill down idea, like, we went from three hours, and I was kinda down to, like, more like every hour.
Scott Benner (19:08) And then most hours, you didn't need to do anything, but then you saw something move, and you could kinda get ahead of it a little bit because it started to move. (19:15) And then I saw the algorithm doing it constantly. (19:19) I saw that loop doing it over and over and over again. (19:22) And I was like, oh, that's how this works so well. (19:25) And that is what I was doing.
Scott Benner (19:26) It's just more micro now. (19:27) Like, it's it's it's finer. (19:30) Yeah. (19:30) Once you understand it, then you can kinda back back out again and then control it in bigger segments, if that makes sense or not. (19:37) But
Anais (19:38) Yeah. (19:38) Yeah. (19:38) Yeah. (19:39) And I guess the pump takes a little bit of that work away from Yeah. (19:42) You, and then you have to figure out.
Scott Benner (19:43) Right. (19:43) And that's where we are right now in the in the zeitgeist with all this, which is the people of now I I watched it happen online the other day. (19:50) I did not have the energy to jump into it, where people are like, the thing doesn't work. (19:54) It's not doing what it's supposed to do, and I'm like, you are not doing the things it needs you to do. (19:59) And and, like like right?
Scott Benner (20:00) So, like, you're acting like I put it on. (20:03) I turned it on. (20:05) Why is my blood sugar not 95 all day long?
Anais (20:08) Yeah. (20:08) That doesn't work that way.
Scott Benner (20:10) And I'm like, well, you didn't pre bolus. (20:12) I know that. (20:12) I can see that. (20:13) Right? (20:13) You didn't do this.
Scott Benner (20:14) You watched this thing go up for an hour and a half. (20:16) You didn't do anything about it. (20:17) Well, they're sitting there thinking, well, it's been going up. (20:19) Why won't the thing stop it? (20:20) And I'm just because the settings and the situation don't match up.
Scott Benner (20:25) It believes through settings that it's doing the right thing and that this shouldn't be happening. (20:30) And so, you know, when people don't understand how it works and they want it to just be magical, that becomes a different problem again. (20:40) Yeah. (20:40) I think a lot of people are gonna need to learn that lesson in this time period with these devices. (20:45) So
Anais (20:46) Yeah. (20:46) I mean, maybe one day, but not now. (20:48) That's for sure. (20:49) Yeah. (20:49) That's for sure.
Anais (20:50) You still have to put on some work, into
Scott Benner (20:51) that. (20:52) Exactly.
Anais (20:52) But yeah. (20:53) Yeah. (20:54) So I guess I don't know. (20:55) I mean, I know we're over time. (20:56) So I'm just
Scott Benner (20:57) You're fine. (20:57) Listen. (20:58) I mean, you you can keep talking. (20:59) I can keep talk. (21:00) I just make a podcast, so I'm good.
Anais (21:02) Oh, right. (21:04) No. (21:04) But I you said something about school management, and I think that's something also that the first year, you know, we rely on a school nurse. (21:11) And and she's a wonderful person, but I think she has a a very different way of managing that we do, and she also has there is four type one kids at the school and so and one nurse. (21:23) And so she has to make sure that they're all stay alive all day.
Anais (21:26) Right? (21:26) And they all do recess, they all do pee. (21:28) And and so, you know, at first, like, she was running. (21:33) I mean, I'm sure she run the other kids pretty high, but, like, she was running my daughter pretty high. (21:37) And so there is a lot of back and forth that goes in, hey.
Anais (21:41) Texting the nurse and being like, hey. (21:42) She's going up. (21:43) Like, it's been a while. (21:44) It would be nice if you could just do a little bullish here because we're not comfortable with her being, like, at two hundred. (21:50) You know?
Anais (21:50) And and so there has been a lot of adjustment. (21:54) And I think most of the time, she she does a good job. (21:56) And, honestly, I would lose my mind if I had four team type one kids to manage. (22:01) But it's true that she it's it's sometimes frustrating when someone has a very different approach and, like, the pre bolus is a little short and the correction are a little bit aggressive when, you know, there is a low because she wants to make sure the kids are safe. (22:16) And so so that has been a challenge.
Anais (22:18) And I think when my daughter is able to manage on her own a little bit more, I think you had mentioned in in several episode that you were just texting with Arden, and she was doing a lot of the management that way. (22:31) So I'm really looking forward that stage because I think we'll be it will be a little bit easier.
Scott Benner (22:37) Yeah. (22:37) You're you're thinking you're gonna loop her into this as soon as possible and and take the nurse out of the the moment to moment?
Anais (22:46) I think she's not ready for that, but I think when she is, it will it probably be a little bit more straightforward to manage with with my daughter. (22:53) I mean, I don't know, like, when she will be ready to do that, but I think it I know that some kids in fifth grade are already kind of taking care of, you know, bullicing and all that stuff, texting with their parents. (23:06) So I feel like that's probably the the age where we'll try to transition to her managing a little bit more. (23:12) Yeah. (23:13) But, yeah, I think it's challenging.
Anais (23:14) Like, the day to day and the schedule at school is really not very well suited for a kid with a kid with type type one for sure.
Scott Benner (23:23) Mhmm. (23:23) No. (23:23) No. (23:23) I think in you'll find out. (23:25) I don't know if there's a certain age.
Scott Benner (23:27) You'll I think you'll see where it works for her. (23:30) You know what I mean? (23:30) Like, you'll see where she's ready for it. (23:32) But I agree that, you make a great point. (23:35) The nurse is doing an awesome job.
Scott Benner (23:37) Right? (23:37) And and it's a tough one at that. (23:39) But at the same time, taking out the gaps and, you know, the time it takes to accomplish something. (23:45) You know, hey, can you please bolus because this is happening when you knew twenty minutes ago you wanted to use insulin. (23:51) Yeah.
Scott Benner (23:52) If it would be just as easy as like, hey, sweetie. (23:54) Like, let's just do a half a unit right here. (23:57) And and she could pick up a phone, push two buttons, and be done with it again. (24:02) Then Yeah. (24:02) You save that forty five minutes that that, you know, that you never go up to 200.
Scott Benner (24:07) You never end up having to do more later getting low because of that. (24:10) Like, I it's a great texting is, as far as I'm concerned, diabetes parenting, texting is maybe one of the most important tools for management.
Anais (24:20) Yeah. (24:20) Yeah. (24:21) Oh, yeah. (24:21) I can see that. (24:22) I so so I think, eventually, that's where we'll go.
Anais (24:26) But, yeah, it's just difficult when there's a lot of different people managing your kid's diabetes. (24:31) Everybody's different. (24:32) Everybody has a slightly different level of comfort with lows and highs, and I'm, like, an anti high person. (24:39) I would if I could have her always under one forty, I'll be, like, so happy, but that's not realistic. (24:45) And I'm more comfortable.
Anais (24:47) Like, I don't like when she goes lows, and she almost never goes low because we always try to avoid when we see a down arrow, which is microdose skittles. (24:54) But if she goes low, like, I know they have a lot of different tools that I can reach for before it gets too low. (25:01) Mhmm. (25:02) So I know, like, this this arrow is going down very quickly. (25:04) She's been running.
Anais (25:05) Like, this is a gel situation, but maybe this situation is like a gummy. (25:10) And so I feel like you have a lot of different doses that you can reach for and and vehicle to get sugar into her that, I'm more comfortable with that than when it's high. (25:21) It takes forever to get her down. (25:23) Yeah. (25:23) So that drives me crazy.
Scott Benner (25:25) Yeah. (25:26) No. (25:26) And and to be perfectly honest, but this is a thing I find myself saying all the time, but diabetes takes the effort it takes. (25:32) You're putting in a lot of effort whether you're doing it and keeping the blood sugar from spiking or letting it spike and then bringing it back down again. (25:40) I think it's less effort to keep it from spiking than it is to fight with it after it has spiked.
Scott Benner (25:46) Right? (25:46) So Yeah. (25:47) Yeah. (25:47) I always think, like, people are just putting their effort sometimes in the wrong place on the clock. (25:52) You you know?
Anais (25:53) Oh, for sure.
Scott Benner (25:54) Yeah.
Anais (25:54) For sure. (25:55) I mean, when you're high, it's yeah. (25:57) It it's a journey to get down. (25:59) Yeah.
Scott Benner (25:59) Do you wanna spend two minutes with it here at 9AM, or do you wanna spend two hours with it at 11AM? (26:05) Yeah. (26:06) That's the way I think about it. (26:07) And I just I think being proactive listen. (26:10) Being proactive in life in general is is valuable.
Scott Benner (26:13) But, like, you know, doing it in diabetes, I think it just saves you a lot of a lot of time and a lot of mental focus that you could be
Anais (26:20) put put
Scott Benner (26:20) on something else. (26:21) You know?
Anais (26:21) For sure. (26:22) Also, a lesson that we learned in the first year.
Scott Benner (26:24) Good. (26:25) Good. (26:25) Good. (26:25) Good. (26:25) I'm glad.
Scott Benner (26:26) Listen. (26:26) Earlier, did I mishear you, or did you say that your daughter watches Simone Biles videos while you're changing her stuff?
Anais (26:32) She does.
Scott Benner (26:33) That would be She's Okay. (26:35) I wasn't sure if, like, for because of, like because your accent's not, like, not I mean, you speak very clearly. (26:40) Like but I it it went by so quickly. (26:43) I'm like, did she say Simone Biles?
Anais (26:45) Yes. (26:46) I did. (26:46) She she does gymnastic, and she's a huge fan of Simone Biles. (26:50) And she was I mean, she was so scared of the pump, like the Omnipod, you know, when it gets in, like the cannula gets in. (26:57) Mhmm.
Anais (26:58) And she was crying so much, and I was like, okay. (27:00) Like, let's watch a YouTube video. (27:01) And for some reason, I was like, oh, you love gymnastics. (27:05) So I I put on gymnastic on YouTube and, you know, Simone Biles' routine comes in. (27:10) And she's, like, mesmerized, obviously, because Simone Biles is awesome.
Anais (27:15) And so we've spent probably, like, the first three months on the pump watching in, like, reruns and of Simone Biles' routine, during pump change. (27:26) So she's seen, like, the floor routine at the Olympic, like, probably a million time. (27:30) Right. (27:30) But it's it's pretty cool.
Scott Benner (27:32) So Let me give you a little something that you can do. (27:35) So Charlotte Drury, who is an Olympic trampoline ist is trampoline ist the word? (27:41) She's been on the podcast, but she has type one diabetes.
Anais (27:43) Oh, okay.
Scott Benner (27:44) So if you ever wanna watch her bounce for that, and as a bonus, her girlfriend is Laurie Hernandez.
Anais (27:51) Oh, no way. (27:52) Yeah. (27:52) That's awesome. (27:53) Okay. (27:53) Yes.
Anais (27:54) We definitely need to check that out. (27:55) That that'll she's gonna be super excited about this.
Scott Benner (27:58) I thought that might help a little bit. (27:59) Yeah. (27:59) Yeah.
Anais (27:59) So Thank you.
Scott Benner (28:00) Yeah. (28:00) Charlotte's awesome. (28:02) Charlotte's been on the podcast. (28:03) I don't know if Laurie jumped on at the end or not or if it was a conversation we had privately, but she was delightful too. (28:08) But yeah.
Scott Benner (28:08) Yeah. (28:09) So if you want, you know, Charlotte has type one. (28:12) So you can, show her her some of her trampoline routines.
Anais (28:15) Oh, yes. (28:15) That would be great because she sometimes she's a little bit embarrassed, like, at gymnastic because she has her devices hanging out, and people are usually pretty nice. (28:23) You just say, I'm tired to to answer questions. (28:26) Everybody always asks me the same question. (28:27) Why do I have a device?
Anais (28:29) And I have to explain to them they have diabetes, and I'm like, I'm sorry. (28:31) I think it's gonna be for the rest of of your life, honey. (28:34) But so it's nice to see other people that have devices as well.
Scott Benner (28:37) Well yeah. (28:38) And let me say this, and this is something you're obviously, her mom, you'll do what you want, but she doesn't have to explain it to them if she doesn't want to.
Anais (28:45) Yeah. (28:45) That's true.
Scott Benner (28:46) Yeah. (28:46) So, I mean, she needs to it's it's tough to learn at seven years old, but forced is the wrong word. (28:52) But I don't think she should feel forced by other people to make them comfortable if it makes her uncomfortable. (28:57) You know? (28:58) Yeah.
Scott Benner (28:58) So Yeah. (28:59) Charlotte is on episode six eighty two of the podcast by
Anais (29:02) the way. (29:02) 82. (29:03) Okay. (29:03) I'll check that out.
Scott Benner (29:04) Yeah. (29:04) Yeah. (29:04) So Thank you. (29:05) Okay. (29:05) Absolutely.
Scott Benner (29:06) What else you got? (29:07) I feel like I I talked a lot in the beginning, and I might have kept you off of things you wanted to say. (29:11) I for example, in your note, you said life in general, grief and lack of awareness. (29:18) What what what did you mean by grief?
Anais (29:20) Oh, grief. (29:20) I think for me, grief was like I was saying as the beginning, you know, like, maybe being pretty stoic through the the diagnosis, but then being very angry afterwards. (29:31) And I think it's sometimes regretting a little bit how easy it was before diabetes. (29:36) Like, we could just go out. (29:37) We didn't have to think about, do I have low snacks?
Anais (29:40) Do I have, you know, my my insulin? (29:43) Do I have everything? (29:44) And I think haven't stopped doing the stuff that we love doing. (29:47) So we went camping. (29:48) We've traveled, all that good stuff.
Anais (29:50) But it just takes a little bit of extra efforts, and there is moments where I'm like, you know, everything's fine, and you're like, oh, well, this really sucks. (29:57) And I think that never necessarily leaves you. (30:00) So that's the grief part. (30:01) And the second piece is, like, the long term consequences of diabetes. (30:06) I know that, you know, she's gonna live all her life with it, and sometimes it seems very daunting.
Anais (30:12) You know, it's it's great to see that there's a lot of people that have it and that great are great role models. (30:18) They've done so many things with our life. (30:20) So that that's very encouraging, but you always have those moments where you're like, oh, well, this really sucks, and it's not gonna go away. (30:27) I think that's something that I realized through the past year that you have to kind of process through.
Scott Benner (30:34) Yeah. (30:35) You know, I found myself telling somebody the other day that I just I I do wonder sometimes, like, what was Arden's life gonna be like without all this? (30:43) And what was what was ours gonna be like and without all this happening? (30:47) And, I mean, obviously, we'll never know, but I do and I do think about it sometimes. (30:52) Like, you know, like, there's days where I'm like, I don't wanna be doing this.
Scott Benner (30:56) Yeah. (30:57) You know, she and I are, you know, in the middle of something where she's like, oh, he's you know, I don't want my dad involved in this, which is something I've been ready for my whole life. (31:06) Like, I didn't not know it was coming. (31:07) You you know what I mean? (31:08) And I and then there I go.
Scott Benner (31:09) I go, that's cool. (31:10) I don't need to be involved. (31:11) And it still it's not a smooth transition still. (31:14) Yeah. (31:15) There's a thing.
Scott Benner (31:16) Like, this is shaping our relationship. (31:17) Like, I wanna be completely clear. (31:20) It's gonna be okay. (31:21) Like, we're gonna make our way through it. (31:22) This is a thing, like, you have to go through because this is the situation, but would have been cool if this wasn't the situation.
Anais (31:30) Yeah. (31:30) Exactly. (31:31) And I think that's yeah. (31:33) I I you know, I think you can always wonder, like, what it would have been like. (31:38) So I think, generally speaking, that's what I meant.
Anais (31:42) And and I think grief is very different from different people, but for me, it was more like kind of a little bit of regrets, like, how our life could be. (31:49) But at the same time, I think we have gained a lot of things through the experience. (31:52) I think I'm a better person. (31:54) We we are have a stronger marriage, and we've met so many incredible people. (32:00) So the silver linings is, you know, exist.
Anais (32:03) It's just sometimes, you know, the grift strikes. (32:07) You're like, oh, this sucks.
Scott Benner (32:09) Well well, the the rest of that thought for me is that I have to yeah. (32:13) I can't sit here and tell you I I see other people and it seems like everybody wants what they don't have or the opposite of what they get, and then I can't do the same thing. (32:22) So when I'm having that feeling, I try to go to what you just said. (32:26) Like, there's also a lot of it that's come out of it that's been positive. (32:30) And, you know, and so I you try to pay attention to that.
Scott Benner (32:33) Would you trade it? (32:34) Of course, you would trade it. (32:35) Like, you know, anything positive that comes out of type one diabetes, I'd be happy to give away right now if it meant it didn't exist. (32:42) Mhmm. (32:42) You know?
Scott Benner (32:43) But since that's not the reality of it, I'm I'm trying not to lose sight of the things that have come from it that have been good. (32:50) So
Anais (32:50) Yeah. (32:51) Totally.
Scott Benner (32:51) And continue to be.
Anais (32:53) Yep. (32:54) Go ahead.
Scott Benner (32:54) No. (32:54) It and these things continue to happen.
Anais (32:57) Yeah. (32:57) Right? (32:57) Yeah. (32:58) So Yeah. (32:59) For sure.
Scott Benner (32:59) Yeah. (32:59) And they they it's not just because I have this podcast or I get to go talk to people and, you know, tell them, like, do a better job and maybe that'll actually help somebody, stuff like that. (33:08) I mean, just, like, personally. (33:10) You know? (33:10) Like, I really talking to Arden's friend last week on the phone, like, I felt really awesome when I was done.
Scott Benner (33:16) I was like, wow. (33:17) Like, there's one person I like, I'm used to talking to a lot of people, but I don't really get a lot of opportunities when I'm not being recorded to talk to somebody and say, like, you know, tell me where your, you know, where are your problems? (33:29) Let me see if I can help you get through them and then have them at the end go, wow. (33:33) Thank you. (33:33) That was awesome.
Scott Benner (33:34) Like, I'm I'm gonna be better off now because of this. (33:36) I was like, you know, that's a good thing it's come.
Anais (33:38) Yeah. (33:38) It feels good. (33:39) Yeah. (33:39) It feels good.
Scott Benner (33:39) It really does.
Anais (33:41) And then you said lack of awareness. (33:43) I think that one is, I mean, we all are converted to this. (33:47) I think people have that have had diabetes for years and and newly diagnosed people. (33:51) But I think there is a general lack of awareness in this in the world about diabetes, what that means, what that means for parents, what that means for someone that has diabetes. (34:00) Like, you know, like you were saying at the very beginning of the episode, the the example you gave about the insurance company, like, we all have lives.
Anais (34:08) We all, like, are sleep deprived because maybe the CGM went off at, like, 3AM, and people just don't get it unless they have lived through it. (34:16) And so and you always constantly have to educate about, like, diabetes and know she didn't eat too much sugar when she was a baby. (34:24) You know? (34:25) It's just it's it's, like, silly stuff like that that keeps coming up, and you're like, come on, people. (34:30) It's not that hard, but I guess it is maybe hard to understand when you're not living in it.
Anais (34:35) And Right. (34:36) But you're you're
Scott Benner (34:37) a bright person. (34:38) You know that everybody doesn't know everything about everything. (34:40) Right? (34:40) But so what's
Anais (34:41) And even me. (34:42) Like, the injection example that you gave, I think, yeah, being converted to this makes me more aware. (34:47) But it's just very frustrating sometimes to have to educate, and and you're like, come on. (34:52) Just go on the Internet and Google it. (34:54) You know?
Anais (34:54) Like, ask GPT. (34:55) I don't know.
Scott Benner (34:56) Do you really want them to understand, or you just want them to not ask you about it?
Anais (35:02) That's a good question.
Scott Benner (35:03) Mhmm.
Anais (35:04) I think in some situation, not ask about it is probably the the more the more appropriate move for some people. (35:12) I think people just don't realize that they are a bit intrusive, but I think I want them to ask about it. (35:19) Because if they are educated, hopefully, they have a little bit more understanding what's going on for other people and other encounters. (35:24) And so it's I'm I'm I'm of both ways. (35:28) I think in some situation, I would rather not have to deal with it.
Anais (35:31) But in at the end of the day, I think the more predictive approach is to try to educate. (35:36) So here we are.
Scott Benner (35:38) I don't ask because I'm judging. (35:40) I ask because I really like, people have this question over and over again, and I keep thinking, like, what fixes it for you? (35:47) Because we're the you're not going to like, this is an appropriate thing. (35:51) It's November 19. (35:52) We're in, like, smack dab in the middle of diabetes awareness month, which I I think they changed the name of or something.
Scott Benner (35:57) But, anyway and I've watched it in this space forever. (36:00) I don't even get involved in it. (36:02) Like, I don't do extra different stuff for I'm I'm doing diabetes awareness every day of my life. (36:07) Like so, like, I I don't need to do a special because it's November. (36:10) But at the same time, I step back and watch everyone else do it.
Scott Benner (36:13) And I'm like, this is just a din of noise now. (36:15) And there's so much of it. (36:16) I care about it, and it's starting to bother me. (36:19) You really think a person from the outside is seeing one or two posts about this and going, oh, I really should learn more about type one diabetes. (36:26) I'm like, because they're not.
Scott Benner (36:27) Do you see what I'm saying?
Anais (36:28) Yeah. (36:29) I totally I agree. (36:30) I and I think I I do think that big initiatives are great, but it's probably more one on one that you educate more effectively. (36:38) Yes. (36:39) I think what's frustrating is not so much complete strangers.
Anais (36:43) It's the people that are in a closer circle that, you know, may I I say we're very lucky because most of our friends and family have been amazing, and they've, tried to read and learn about it. (36:56) But there is, from time to time, someone that you're like, okay. (36:59) It's been a year. (37:00) Like, we've you've seen it. (37:01) Like, just go read about it.
Anais (37:03) I don't want you to spend extra energy explaining to you. (37:06) Like, if you care about us, just go educate yourself. (37:09) And I think that's maybe I'm not being very empathetic to the other person here, but, I'm also tired. (37:15) God, I wake up at 3AM. (37:17) I don't want to have to explain this.
Scott Benner (37:19) You don't have the ceiling for empathy anymore.
Anais (37:22) I'm good.
Scott Benner (37:22) Yeah. (37:23) Yeah.
Anais (37:23) I've used it up all up.
Scott Benner (37:25) Either shut up or learn about it on your own. (37:27) But, like, you don't don't come asking me for help because Yeah. (37:31) I don't have an extra half a second in my brain. (37:34) Yeah.
Anais (37:34) Yeah. (37:34) I think the the best thing that a friend like, several friends actually have done is being like, hey. (37:42) I went on on this website, and I I read about this. (37:45) And can you tell me a little bit more about, like, CGM or about this? (37:49) Like, how is it for Lira?
Anais (37:51) And I just felt so seen and so supported by those friends that they just, on their own, were like, hey. (37:59) Like, this is something really big. (38:01) We want to help. (38:02) We want to learn about it. (38:03) And and I hope people have those friends in their lives because we've been super lucky to have many of them, and we love you.
Anais (38:12) They probably would never listen to this podcast. (38:14) But
Scott Benner (38:14) Well, they might. (38:15) Also, how do we all get your friends? (38:17) That's what I was wondering. (38:18) Like, how am I where are you meeting people at? (38:20) This is awesome.
Anais (38:21) Yeah. (38:21) Yeah. (38:22) We've we've been, yeah, we've been really lucky.
Scott Benner (38:24) So It really is giving to spend some time like that. (38:27) You know? (38:27) But it also, by the way, is indicative of the fact that their life allows them that kind of time.
Anais (38:32) Yep. (38:32) True. (38:33) True.
Scott Benner (38:34) And not everybody even has the the bandwidth for it, really. (38:37) I think I've been I've somehow been searching for the word bandwidth, like, for the last half an hour, it hasn't come out of my mouth, you know, in a lot of different parts of the conversation. (38:47) You know, we have much less of it and some people get more. (38:50) And, by the way, I've seen people be mad at those people, like, for having extra bandwidth. (38:54) Like, you know, like, I and I've had that thought sometimes.
Scott Benner (38:57) Like, not not in an anger way, but you know when people get really angry about something that you now think of as trivial that you might have a year and a half ago been angry about? (39:08) Like, I think that diabetes ups your perspective, like, fifty years. (39:14) Yes. (39:15) You're suddenly walking around with the perspective of, like, a 90 year old woman who's just like, you know, everything's on fire, and she's like, it'll be fine. (39:21) Don't worry.
Anais (39:22) Yeah. (39:22) Yeah. (39:22) Totally. (39:23) Oh, I see. (39:23) Yeah.
Anais (39:24) That's
Scott Benner (39:24) Yeah. (39:25) Yeah.
Anais (39:25) You know Tory.
Scott Benner (39:26) And that's one of the things I'm happy to have, like, from it. (39:29) It is one but I've also seen people be pissed that they don't that they don't have that kind of time and other people do. (39:36) Like, right, I've I've heard it talked about two ways. (39:39) Like, I would you know, if you're listening, I would hope that when you see somebody else who's complaining about something that you now know is trivial, that you would just say, like, oh, lucky them that they're not burdened by the things that that I am. (39:51) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (39:52) You know, that they can that they can spend a whole day being mad about this. (39:55) Like, good for them. (39:56) Their their lives must be free and easy, and I'm happy for
Anais (39:59) them.
Scott Benner (39:59) You know?
Anais (40:00) Yeah. (40:01) I yeah. (40:02) You know, I think it we don't know what's going on in other people's lives. (40:05) So even if they seem to have time to complain about something trivial, maybe something else is going on. (40:10) I I it's it's sometimes I'm trying to approach it that way, and I'm like, whatever works for you.
Anais (40:15) If you're happy, you have the bandwidth, not the bandwidth. (40:18) But, yeah, you know, we're all humans, so sometimes we get frustrated.
Scott Benner (40:22) Yeah. (40:22) Cut everybody a break. (40:23) I I think just, you know, be on your way and everything. (40:26) But, yeah, that's a a great advice. (40:28) Also, we have I have an episode in the pro tip series that explains type one to people on the outside.
Scott Benner (40:34) So if you ever just, like, wanna throw it out and be like, look. (40:36) If you really care that much, here's forty five minutes. (40:38) This will explain to you what my life's like. (40:41) Yeah. (40:42) You know?
Scott Benner (40:42) But, again, that's a weird thing to do too.
Anais (40:45) That's yeah. (40:46) That's
Scott Benner (40:46) Not a thing I would do. (40:47) Isn't it funny? (40:48) It's a thing I created because people ask for it, but I would I wouldn't do it. (40:52) Like, I would
Anais (40:53) I I don't know who this will be received. (40:55) You know what?
Scott Benner (40:55) That that's
Anais (40:56) an interesting experiment. (40:57) Like, maybe with some very good friend, I'd be like, hey. (41:01) But they already have done their homework, so I don't think they necessarily need it. (41:05) So I don't know.
Scott Benner (41:06) There's plenty of stuff I do on the podcast. (41:08) It's for other people that I think I'm like, I wouldn't do this, but, like alright.
Anais (41:12) Love it.
Scott Benner (41:12) Yeah. (41:13) I mean, perfectly honest with you, I you said something earlier. (41:16) It made me feel good, like, you're enjoying the bolus four episodes. (41:21) That those are a thing that I did that I was like, I don't really feel like we need to do this. (41:26) But and then I realized that for some people, it would be really helpful.
Scott Benner (41:30) And I thought, well, then I make it for them, not for it's not for me. (41:32) It's for them.
Anais (41:33) I love it. (41:34) I because it gives you strategies, and maybe it it won't work exactly the same for
Scott Benner (41:40) Sure.
Anais (41:41) My kid or myself. (41:43) But it gives you, like, a way of thinking about it, and you're like, okay. (41:46) I'm gonna try this, and then we'll see what happen. (41:49) And then we can kind of tweak it. (41:51) And the bread was super helpful.
Anais (41:53) I don't know if you've done pasta, but if you if you have a pasta episode, I'll I will save it and listen to it 50 times because we are we're really having problems with pasta. (42:02) But
Scott Benner (42:03) We're still working on the list of things. (42:05) Sadly, Jenny has a life and a job. (42:06) I can't just, like, snatch her up whenever I want to. (42:08) Although, I stole her I stole her for the for the Thanksgiving one. (42:12) Like, you'll actually I think I left it in the beginning where I'm just like, Jenny wasn't supposed to record.
Scott Benner (42:15) Hey. (42:16) I made her come do this.
Anais (42:17) We all need it. (42:19) Okay? (42:19) Thanksgiving is a big deal. (42:20) I think Halloween is the most hellish holiday that was invented for diabetic, but but we made it through for the second time.
Scott Benner (42:31) So Good. (42:32) Good. (42:32) Good. (42:32) Yeah. (42:32) It should well, yeah, you had to do it the first time, like, fresh like, fresh.
Scott Benner (42:36) Oh, yeah. (42:36) Right? (42:36) Oh,
Anais (42:37) boy. (42:37) That was rough. (42:38) Yep.
Scott Benner (42:38) Yeah. (42:39) I remember Arden, diagnosed in August, and then we went to our first JDRF walk in October. (42:45) And as you're approaching the walk and getting going, it's it's outside of Philadelphia, there's a giant table of soft pretzels. (42:53) Oh my god. (42:53) I was like, is this a joke?
Anais (42:56) Like, hey. (42:57) Good luck. (42:58) Enjoy your walk. (43:00) I was like,
Scott Benner (43:01) is what? (43:03) This is mean. (43:04) Why did someone do this? (43:05) Yeah. (43:05) Wow.
Anais (43:06) Yeah. (43:06) Well, this is for the the the, the supporters. (43:09) It's not for the diabetic.
Scott Benner (43:10) Well, I don't know. (43:11) I in my in my wildest dreams in that moment, I was like, what? (43:14) Because she saw it. (43:15) She's like pretzel, and I was like, yeah. (43:17) Awesome.
Scott Benner (43:18) Then Yeah. (43:19) Yeah. (43:19) You know, now she's on and it's cold, and she's got a jacket on. (43:22) And now I'm, like, in the weeds with a needle giving her an injection in the back of her arms so she can have her pretzel. (43:27) Oh,
Anais (43:27) my gosh. (43:28) And I
Scott Benner (43:28) totally get the pretzel wrong and her blood sugar gets high, but we don't have a CGM, so I don't know that. (43:33) And, like, you know, then you'll Oh. (43:34) You look at her a half an hour later, she looks like a zombie, and you're like, what's happening? (43:37) You test your blood sugar. (43:38) It's super high.
Scott Benner (43:39) And you're like, oh my god. (43:40) Like God. (43:41) That was literally, like, maybe
Anais (43:43) That was a pretzel.
Scott Benner (43:44) It was, like, six weeks after she was diagnosed.
Anais (43:47) Ah, this is so hard. (43:47) Yeah. (43:48) We did Halloween what? (43:49) It was well, we get out got out the hospital, and it was Halloween the next day. (43:53) Yeah.
Anais (43:53) And she wanted to go trick or treating, and so we did it. (43:56) And I don't even remember. (43:59) Honestly, I was in such a daze for the first few weeks that I remember a mom saying to her kid, and she was just, like, walking by. (44:07) And she's like, oh, don't eat too much sugar. (44:09) You're gonna get diabetes.
Anais (44:10) And I'm sure I said it at some point in my life like an idiot. (44:14) Mhmm. (44:14) But it hit differently when your kid just got out of the hospital with a t one d diagnosis. (44:19) I was like, oh, this one hurts.
Scott Benner (44:22) The cops got called because there's a French lady beating somebody up in a bush. (44:26) Yes.
Anais (44:27) No. (44:28) Yeah. (44:28) No. (44:28) See, I was just like, I I I know I just pretended I did I ignored it. (44:33) But, yeah, that was that was bad.
Scott Benner (44:35) Did you look inward during that? (44:36) Did you think, oh, I probably said that in the past?
Anais (44:38) I did. (44:39) Yeah. (44:39) I was like, oh gosh. (44:40) That that's terrible. (44:41) I prob you know, I probably said that, but I probably say a million stupid things that, in retrospect, probably were hurtful.
Anais (44:48) And and sometimes when you reflect and you're like, oh, what an idiot. (44:52) I should have never said that or done that. (44:54) Yeah. (44:55) But it's too late, and so you can just try to learn from it. (44:59) I don't
Scott Benner (44:59) wanna freeze everybody, but imagine all the other things you don't understand that you're saying all day long.
Anais (45:04) Oh, gosh. (45:04) Yeah. (45:05) I'm sure. (45:05) Yeah. (45:05) Sure.
Anais (45:06) But that one that one was like yeah.
Scott Benner (45:08) I have this odd thought exercise that I I do sometimes where I wonder do you ever just you do something and you realize, like, oh, I was misunderstood in this situation or that's not what I meant. (45:20) And it's just in your it's in your house. (45:22) It's with your husband or your kids. (45:23) You're like, oh, they're misunderstanding me. (45:25) Do you ever wonder, like, if they're being misunderstood too?
Anais (45:28) Oh, yeah.
Scott Benner (45:29) Yeah. (45:29) And then you look back and you go, are any of us communicating how we actually feel to each other or hearing it? (45:35) Like like, I don't know. (45:35) Are we all just five steps off of center of really understanding what's happening around us?
Anais (45:41) Right? (45:41) Maybe.
Scott Benner (45:42) Oh, I think about that all the time.
Anais (45:43) Yeah. (45:44) I I you know, I think some people are very good at communicating their thoughts and their needs. (45:49) And we're trying to teach that to our kids because, you know, at four, we have a lot of big emotion that we try to to rationalize somehow. (45:58) But, yeah, it's tough. (46:01) I'm I'm sure we some sometimes miss on what the other person is trying to say for sure.
Scott Benner (46:06) All I know is is that there's a way I know I am, and then there's a way I know I'm perceived. (46:11) And then Yeah. (46:13) I think, well, then when I'm perceiving my son or my daughter or my wife, they they don't feel exactly the way I'm perceiving them either. (46:22) And it's it's just I don't know. (46:24) Like, when you really stop and think about it, it'll make your brain explode.
Scott Benner (46:27) Yeah. (46:27) I don't
Anais (46:27) I don't know if I want to do this. (46:29) It's too early in the morning. (46:30) I just don't want to I just don't want to do And
Scott Benner (46:33) it and it just it really it flips me out. (46:35) I'm like, oh gosh. (46:36) Like, I don't know if what I think is happening is really happening sometimes.
Anais (46:40) Yeah. (46:40) You're in the matrix.
Scott Benner (46:41) And what if everyone's having that experience at the same time, but we're together? (46:46) I don't know. (46:46) Like, I don't even know how to do the calculus on it, but I know it makes me it fries my brain a little bit. (46:51) I would probably need to smoke weed and then talk about it because I don't know that, like because you kinda get to an end point in the thought where you're like, you know? (46:59) Anyway
Anais (47:00) Maybe that will help. (47:01) Maybe that will help. (47:01) I don't know.
Scott Benner (47:02) Yeah. (47:02) Good luck. (47:03) Well, good luck to everybody. (47:04) Like, go go have your own deep thought. (47:06) I have to I thank you very much for doing this.
Scott Benner (47:09) I know I kept you longer than normal, but I really thought that sharing my brother's story in the beginning there, even though it took up some time, I really did think it was it fit here. (47:20) So I appreciate you sitting through that while I was talking about
Anais (47:24) Well, thanks for sharing, and, also, I really hope he's doing better.
Scott Benner (47:27) Thank you. (47:28) We should find out together. (47:29) I'm gonna text him. (47:29) I have two texts to send this morning. (47:31) One, and I I have to send one to Rob, the guy that edits the podcast, because he had a little bit of a meltdown last night in text, but I was asleep.
Anais (47:40) He's gonna have so much fun trying to figure out my accent.
Scott Benner (47:44) But but he oh, god. (47:47) What happened here? (47:48) Do you ever do you ever, like you know, somebody starts texting and then they text again and again and again? (47:52) You're like, uh-oh. (47:52) They're in trouble?
Anais (47:53) Yeah. (47:54) Or you're like, I'm not gonna I'm not or sometime I'm like, ignore until I feel ready to deal with, like, 10 texts.
Scott Benner (47:59) Well, Rob, just Rob, just so you know, I I was asleep last night when you texted this stuff. (48:04) So I'm sorry, but I'll get back to you right now and my other texts to my brother. (48:09) Actually, I'm gonna do it right now. (48:10) I'm gonna say I'm gonna say here's what I'm gonna say. (48:14) I'm gonna say Anise and I
Anais (48:17) Want to know if you're doing better.
Scott Benner (48:18) Wondering if you're feeling better. (48:20) Hopefully, he doesn't see that and think it says anal. (48:23) Alright. (48:23) Here we go. (48:26) Hold on a second.
Scott Benner (48:27) You were great. (48:28) Thank you so much.
Anais (48:29) Thank you so much.
Scott Benner (48:36) I'd like to remind you again about the MiniMed seven eighty g automated insulin delivery system, which of course anticipates, adjusts, and corrects every five minutes 20 four seven. (48:46) It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters. (48:51) The juice box community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes. (48:56) To learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, visit my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox. (49:07) I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter.
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#1759 Boston Croissant Party - Part 1
You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.
Anais, a scientist in the biotech industry, details her daughter Lira's first year following a Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis at age six.
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Scott Benner (0:0) Welcome back, friends. (0:01) You are listening to the Juice Box podcast.
Anais (0:13) My name is Anais, and I am the mom of a type one diabetic child. (0:18) I have two daughters, seven and four and a half. (0:21) And so my diabetic daughter is the one that just turned seven today. (0:24) It's her it's her birthday.
Scott Benner (0:28) I am here to tell you about Juice Cruise 2026. (0:32) We will be departing from Miami on 06/21/2026 for a seven night trip going to The Caribbean. (0:39) That's right. (0:40) We're gonna leave Miami and then stop at Coco Cay in The Bahamas. (0:44) After that, it's on to Saint Kitts, Saint Thomas, and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands.
Scott Benner (0:50) The first juice cruise was awesome. (0:52) The second one's gonna be bigger, better, and bolder. (0:56) This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type one diabetes. (1:01) Expand your community and your knowledge on juice cruise twenty twenty six. (1:06) Learn more right now at juiceboxpodcast.com/juicecruise.
Scott Benner (1:11) At that link, you'll also find photographs from the first cruise. (1:16) Nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. (1:21) Always Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. (1:29) The episode you're about to enjoy was brought to you by Dexcom, the Dexcom g seven, the same CGM that my daughter wears. (1:38) You can learn more and get started today at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner (1:44) The podcast is also sponsored today by Omnipod five. (1:47) Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a one c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. (1:59) Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox. (2:03) At my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. (2:06) Terms and conditions apply.
Scott Benner (2:07) Eligibility may vary. (2:09) Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox.
Anais (2:14) My name is Anais, and I am the mom of a type one diabetic child. (2:20) I have two daughters, seven and four and a half. (2:23) And so my diabetic daughter is the one that just turned seven today. (2:27) It's her it's her birthday.
Scott Benner (2:28) Oh, happy birthday.
Anais (2:30) Thanks.
Scott Benner (2:31) Very nice. (2:31) Say your name again.
Anais (2:33) Anais.
Scott Benner (2:34) Anais?
Anais (2:35) Mhmm. (2:35) Yeah.
Scott Benner (2:36) You know, when an old man sits down at his computer and his eyes are still blurry, it looks like your name's Anos. (2:41) Right?
Anais (2:42) Yes. (2:43) Yeah. (2:43) So I sat It's a French name. (2:46) I I am French. (2:47) So Yeah.
Anais (2:47) That's
Scott Benner (2:48) I didn't think it was from Ohio. (2:52) I sat down, and everything popped up in front of me. (2:55) And, you know, everyone's heard me complain before. (2:57) My eyes don't adjust as quickly as I'd like them to anymore. (3:00) And all I thought was, oh, this better not be a prank.
Scott Benner (3:04) No.
Anais (3:05) No. (3:05) It's my yeah. (3:06) There's supposed to be two dots on the I. (3:09) But Oh,
Scott Benner (3:09) that would have helped.
Anais (3:10) But yeah. (3:11) It would have helped tremendously. (3:12) I I see I see that now. (3:14) Anyway,
Scott Benner (3:16) I appreciate you doing this. (3:17) Thank you very much. (3:18) So okay. (3:18) Let's talk about those kids for a second. (3:20) They're how old again?
Anais (3:22) Seven is my, diabetic. (3:25) She just turned seven today. (3:26) Mhmm. (3:27) And I have she has a little sister. (3:28) She's four and a half.
Scott Benner (3:29) Seven and four and a half. (3:31) Okay. (3:31) Do you have any, I don't know, autoimmune stuff? (3:35) Do you have hypothyroidism or scissor celiac in the family line, anything like that?
Anais (3:39) Yes. (3:40) So I actually did did a little bit of research. (3:43) So I don't, but I do have a cousin who is type one diabetic, and I also have, apparently some remote cousins that do have celiac. (3:52) So I think it's it's coming from my side. (3:54) It's my it's my DNA that I might be responsible.
Scott Benner (3:58) You know, it was it was my my inclination to yell at Jacuzz, but I don't remember if that's the right word or not.
Anais (4:03) Yes. (4:04) No. (4:04) Good job. (4:05) Yes. (4:05) Yes.
Anais (4:05) Exactly.
Scott Benner (4:06) It would have been right?
Anais (4:07) It would have been totally right.
Scott Benner (4:09) Oh, damn. (4:10) You know who's gonna be so mad at me, Isabelle? (4:12) She's you know, because I always tell her I only know one French word. (4:16) I always tell her whenever she says something to me in French do know who Isabelle She helps me run my Facebook group.
Anais (4:20) Oh. (4:21) And Okay.
Scott Benner (4:22) She's she's French. (4:23) Like, she's always like, you would love French. (4:24) You have to learn French. (4:25) It's so, what does she tell me? (4:27) It's a poetic language.
Scott Benner (4:28) It speaks the way you think. (4:30) It would fit really well. (4:31) And I'm like, I can't learn French. (4:33) And she's like, no. (4:34) No.
Scott Benner (4:34) No. (4:34) You could. (4:35) And I I one day said to her, Isabelle, I took three years of French in high school, and all I know for sure is means nine. (4:43) And so sometimes she'll write to me in French, and I will just respond back, means nine. (4:49) That's all I know.
Scott Benner (4:50) But but now why do I know that's from a movie, isn't it?
Anais (4:54) Yeah. (4:54) A book and and maybe a movie. (4:56) I don't know if they if they've done a movie out of that.
Scott Benner (4:59) Oh, I have to I have to figure out where I know that word from now because because trust me, I don't know it from French class anyway.
Anais (5:07) Three years. (5:08) You have some foundation, though, I feel like.
Scott Benner (5:10) You guys are all so sweet. (5:12) She did the same thing. (5:13) She's like, no. (5:13) No. (5:13) You could do it.
Scott Benner (5:14) I could help you. (5:14) I'm like, no. (5:15) I you don't know my mind. (5:17) I could not Yeah. (5:19) If I get bored at the end.
Anais (5:20) So it's from it's it's it's from a writer named Zola. (5:23) I think you can you can check it out.
Scott Benner (5:25) Yeah. (5:25) But I wonder where
Anais (5:26) cool story.
Scott Benner (5:27) Okay. (5:27) Alright. (5:28) Alright. (5:28) I'll I'll check. (5:29) Look at me learning things early in the morning.
Scott Benner (5:31) Where are you at, by the way?
Anais (5:33) You mean, low low local
Scott Benner (5:35) Physically, where do you live? (5:36) Yeah.
Anais (5:36) Oh, I'm in the Boston area.
Scott Benner (5:38) In Boston. (5:38) Okay. (5:39) What do have? (5:40) Like, a job? (5:40) Why are we doing this so early in the morning?
Anais (5:42) I do I do have a job. (5:43) Yes. (5:44) Yes. (5:44) I do. (5:47) I work for a living.
Scott Benner (5:48) Everyone we're talking to a gainfully employed person who speaks at least two languages. (5:53) How fancy.
Anais (5:53) I do. (5:54) I I work in in the biotech industry, like, half of Boston, I felt like.
Scott Benner (5:58) Oh, I was gonna say, yeah. (5:59) No wonder Boston. (6:00) Yeah. (6:00) Somebody's trying to get my wife to move to Boston about every five minutes, it feels like.
Anais (6:05) It's it's a great place. (6:06) It's a great place
Scott Benner (6:07) to live. (6:07) Cold to me, but okay.
Anais (6:09) It's cold. (6:09) Yeah. (6:09) It's it's, yeah, it's very cold right now.
Scott Benner (6:12) I've been there. (6:12) It was, it was nice the time I was there. (6:14) Actually, I guess I can say this. (6:16) I believe I'll be there in a couple of months.
Anais (6:19) Oh, okay. (6:20) That's cool.
Scott Benner (6:20) Wait. (6:21) What a great place to say this thing that I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say or not.
Anais (6:25) Oh, well, you you don't have to say anything revealing. (6:28) Maybe you can just tease it out and be like, hey. (6:30) I might be in Boston, and then just stop there and see what what happened.
Scott Benner (6:33) I how about this? (6:34) I might be in Massachusetts Oh. (6:37) Giving a talk, and I might be running a giveaway that lets some of the listeners come, hear the talk, and take a tour of something.
Anais (6:52) Okay. (6:53) That sounds really cool.
Scott Benner (6:55) Alright. (6:55) Let's see if that happens or not. (6:57) Yeah. (6:57) Oh, I hope it does happen. (6:59) Actually, I remember the meeting I was in now, I really hope that happens.
Scott Benner (7:02) Oh, okay. (7:02) Alright. (7:03) Sorry. (7:03) So this this, these little girls, I'm sure they're adorable. (7:06) Are they born in in Boston?
Scott Benner (7:09) Are they Bostonites? (7:10) Or are they
Anais (7:10) Oh, yes. (7:11) Definitely. (7:11) Yes. (7:11) They they're born in The US, and, they're very much, from Boston.
Scott Benner (7:16) Okay. (7:16) They don't speak French?
Anais (7:18) They do speak French. (7:19) Yes.
Scott Benner (7:19) Oh, are you married to a Frenchman?
Anais (7:21) I am not. (7:22) I'm married to a a person, a man that grew up in Chicago and that has a nice Midwest accent.
Scott Benner (7:28) Oh, yeah. (7:29) Your parents must be devastated. (7:31) Am I right? (7:34) I thought you didn't answer that. (7:35) Yeah.
Scott Benner (7:35) Your parents are pests. (7:37) Right? (7:40) Sorry. (7:40) Anyway okay. (7:41) So what's the first signs of the diabetes?
Scott Benner (7:43) How do you see it coming on?
Anais (7:45) She started drinking tons of water and having accident at night, which was super unusual. (7:50) And at first so we we had just been on a trip to Portugal. (7:54) So it was super hot, and she was drinking a lot of water, but it was super hot outside. (7:59) Then we came home, and I kind of continued. (8:02) And after a few days, I was like, this this this seems not right.
Anais (8:05) So I called the pediatrician. (8:07) I was like, hey. (8:08) She drinks a ton of water. (8:10) She's having this accident. (8:11) Maybe it's a UTI.
Anais (8:13) Like, what do you think? (8:14) And she's like, well so it was I called on Saturday, and she say, well, we have a a doctor on call. (8:19) Why don't you just go tomorrow, so Sunday morning, just to get her checked out? (8:23) Because that doesn't seem right. (8:25) And so we went to the pediatrician on the Sunday morning and then did the whole thing.
Anais (8:30) They test their urine. (8:32) Then the doctor comes back in the in the little area where she was checking her, and she had, like, a glucometer in her hand. (8:41) And I was like, oh, this doesn't seem good. (8:44) And she's like, I'm gonna test her her, blood sugar just to be sure, and, of course, it was reading high. (8:50) So she sent my daughter name is Lira.
Anais (8:53) She sent her to play, in the playroom, and she's like, I'm pretty sure she has diabetes. (8:59) I'm gonna call ahead to the ER. (9:01) You're gonna go home, pack a bag, and then you just go straight there. (9:04) And you're gonna be there for, like, three or four days. (9:06) And I was like, what is happening to me right now?
Anais (9:09) This is not how my Sunday was gonna unfold.
Scott Benner (9:12) But it's the weekend.
Anais (9:14) Yeah. (9:14) I was like, what? (9:16) And then I'm like, I don't know. (9:17) I was in shock. (9:18) I think I was kind of, like, in the days.
Anais (9:19) Like, I, you know, packed my kids, drove back home, called my husband. (9:23) He was at soccer with the the little one. (9:26) And I was like, hey. (9:27) Lira's diabetes, and, I'm gonna drive her to the ER now, and we're gonna be gone for three days. (9:32) And he's like, what?
Anais (9:33) What's going on? (9:35) And yeah. (9:35) So so we just drove to, to Boston Children, and they they were ready for us. (9:41) We arrived. (9:42) They did hold the tests.
Anais (9:43) She got on an IV immediately, and then they gave her insulin a little bit later. (9:49) And, yeah, she was and then it was kind of, like, three days of trying to learn how to to keep her alive, really.
Scott Benner (9:57) Tell me again. (9:58) How long ago was this?
Anais (9:59) It was, about a year ago. (10:01) She was diagnosed on at the October, like, three days before Halloween last year. (10:06) And so, yeah, it was about a year ago.
Scott Benner (10:08) Does it feel very fresh to you in your heart right now when you're talking about it?
Anais (10:12) It's all fresh. (10:14) But at the same time, I feel like this year was just so much it was just crazy. (10:19) It was so much learning. (10:20) It was kind of a roller coaster. (10:21) So it feels like very fresh, but also I felt like I've changed so much in a year that yeah.
Anais (10:28) But I still I felt
Scott Benner (10:30) It feels like it happened five years ago.
Anais (10:32) Yeah. (10:33) It does. (10:33) And at the same time, when I talk about it, I'm like, oh. (10:36) You know, I have, like, this little butterfly in my stomach, and I'm like, yeah. (10:39) That really was a rough day, rough few months really, though, at the beginning.
Scott Benner (10:43) But Yeah. (10:44) Yeah. (10:44) I wonder does your so sound weird to people who maybe don't know people from France, but I wonder if your your upbringing maybe helps a little bit because I'm I'm right to say that it's a little more stoic. (10:55) Right?
Anais (10:56) It it is. (10:57) Yeah. (10:58) It is. (10:59) But I yeah. (10:59) I I don't know if it I I think I'm not really the kind of person that panic, but I do it comes out later.
Anais (11:08) Like, I think I was really hungry for a long time. (11:10) Mhmm. (11:11) And I had to deal with entrance. (11:13) We can talk about this, but I was, like, a very angry person on the phone and was like, this is weird. (11:18) This is not me.
Anais (11:19) Something's wrong with me. (11:20) Like, I'm really angry. (11:22) You know?
Scott Benner (11:22) You know what? (11:23) This is super interesting. (11:24) I just did a thing for I I think I'm just gonna say the name of the company. (11:29) I just did a thing for Cardinal Health. (11:31) Okay?
Anais (11:32) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (11:32) Where Yeah. (11:33) I I spoke to the entire organization to try to, you know, humanize some stories that I've heard on the podcast Yeah. (11:42) So that people working there don't just feel like they're moving stuff around in boxes because they don't have any context for diabetes. (11:48) Right?
Anais (11:48) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (11:49) And that's I mean, I spent I spent two days doing that, like, you know, meeting with people. (11:54) I and I just had a phone call with somebody yesterday to find out you know, figure out more ways to to do it. (11:59) They're very focused on helping their staff understand diabetes. (12:05) And they they just they want from customer service to the top. (12:08) They want these people to really understand what it's like to live with diabetes type one and type two Mhmm.
Scott Benner (12:13) So that people can be more empathetic. (12:16) You know? (12:16) And and then you just the the way you just kinda put all that, like, made me made me remember, like, that what I've been telling them is, you know, when you're on the phone with somebody and you say to them, like, you know, oopsie made a whoopsie, you know, that your thing's not gonna be there on time. (12:33) You're not talking to a regular human being. (12:36) You're talking to someone who's married, has two kids, has a job in biotech, and on top of that, whose kid's blood sugar last night at 2AM did this.
Scott Benner (12:45) She thought they were it was possible somebody was gonna pass out. (12:48) Their lives are terrible. (12:50) They were just in a museum on Saturday where they had to change an insulin pump behind a tarp.
Anais (12:54) Yeah. (12:55) Yeah. (12:55) Right.
Scott Benner (12:55) They've been arguing about what best fix a low fixes a low blood sugar. (13:00) They're worried that their CGM doesn't work right. (13:02) And, you know, and CGM is the only thing keeping them alive they feel like, and they have regular lives on top of all that, and it's all churned up. (13:09) And there are people living with autoimmune issues. (13:11) So some of them might have anxiety or blah blah blah.
Scott Benner (13:13) Right? (13:13) And you're on the phone with them telling them not only is the thing that they think is keeping them alive not gonna be there when they think it is, but you don't even really understand why that's important.
Anais (13:22) Yeah. (13:23) That's exactly right. (13:24) I think this is such a great yeah. (13:26) This is ex I mean, you sum it up very well.
Scott Benner (13:29) And I said, and then some lovely woman is gonna start yelling the f word at you, and you're gonna think she's the problem. (13:36) And and and right?
Anais (13:37) I've never done that, but but yes. (13:39) But I I had you know, I really it was taking a lot of discipline not to, honestly, in some some moments.
Scott Benner (13:46) And then you hang that phone up and you start what? (13:48) You you start questioning yourself? (13:52) Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. (13:54) We talk a lot about ways to lower your a one c on this podcast. (13:58) Did you know that the Omnipod five was shown to lower a one c?
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Scott Benner (15:15) The Dexcom g seven can help you spend more time in range, which is proven to lower a one c. (15:21) The more time you spend in range, the better and healthier you feel. (15:24) And with the Dexcom Clarity app, you can track your glucose trends, and the app will also provide you with a projected a one c in as little as two weeks. (15:33) If you're looking for clarity around your diabetes, you're looking for Dexcom. (15:37) Dexcom.com/juicebox.
Scott Benner (15:41) When you use my link, you're supporting the podcast. (15:43) Dexcom.com/juicebox. (15:46) Head over there now. (15:48) And then you hang that phone up and you start what? (15:50) You do you start questioning yourself?
Anais (15:51) Yeah. (15:52) I mean, I think, you know, again, like, it's I think it's more like not being understood. (15:57) It's like you have a lot of stuff going on, and then this is you're just, like, a name on the list asking for something. (16:03) And they're just trying to do their job, but it's just yeah. (16:07) It's frustrating sometimes.
Anais (16:08) And I I think I never had to before, I never had to deal with the health care system to to that degree. (16:14) And I was not prepared to face how complicated it can be even though we have a great insurance, even though we have, like, a lot of resources. (16:23) Like, it still it still really sucks. (16:25) And so I think it it could be a lot easier. (16:29) It could be a lot easier.
Anais (16:30) And I think it's great that you're doing this because a little bit more empathy would go a long way, I think, for sure.
Scott Benner (16:36) I said yes to the whole thing because, I mean, I realized that that's act I mean, they're they're selling, you know, devices to people. (16:44) They're you know? (16:45) Mhmm. (16:45) But at the same time, I I saw them as another line of defense in this whole thing. (16:50) Yeah.
Scott Benner (16:51) You know? (16:51) So I then, anyway, we'll see how it goes. (16:53) The there are sponsors already that US Med buys ads on the podcast, but, yeah, that's how they thought of me for it. (16:59) But instead of just going off and doing the job, you know, I I thought, let me put some real effort into this and see if we can turn this, like, large group of people into advocates. (17:09) So Yeah.
Scott Benner (17:10) Anyway, that's what I
Anais (17:11) That's awesome. (17:11) Hopefully, it works out. (17:12) Even if there is only one person that is just a little bit nicer and accommodating, I think he might make someone's day. (17:18) So Yeah. (17:18) I think that's a great idea.
Scott Benner (17:20) Awesome. (17:20) Now to your point about health care, I'm gonna I wanna I wanna find out all about the first year of of this diagnosis because it's fresh in your head. (17:28) But let me tell you this first so that I can tell you where I'm at. (17:32) Two weeks ago, my sister-in-law called me, and she's like, hey. (17:37) Your brother doesn't feel well.
Scott Benner (17:38) And, like, I know he's been talking to you the last couple days, and I haven't heard him bring it up once. (17:42) I just wanted you to know. (17:43) So she's ratting him out for not feeling good and not telling me. (17:46) Right? (17:46) And I have a strange situation with my brothers where I basically raised them.
Scott Benner (17:51) So I'm sort of their dad and their brother at the same time.
Anais (17:55) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (17:55) And so she explains to me how he feels, and I pressure her to take him, you know, to the doctor. (18:03) And he's had the chills, and he's been sweating, like, through his clothes at night, and his knees hurt, and his elbows hurt. (18:10) He's got pain in his thigh, and, like, it's getting worse. (18:13) And she feels like he almost looks like he has the flu, but he doesn't, like, this whole thing. (18:17) And it's not going away.
Scott Benner (18:18) He's felt bad for four weeks, she tells me.
Anais (18:20) Four weeks. (18:21) Wow.
Scott Benner (18:21) Yeah. (18:22) So I said, okay. (18:23) We'll get to the doctor. (18:23) So she gets him to the doctor, and he runs a bunch of blood tests and tells him, you know, you probably have a virus or something.
Anais (18:31) Mhmm.
Scott Benner (18:32) And, you you know, last Yeah. (18:34) Set well, thanks. (18:36) Last Saturday in the morning, I'm in the shower, and my brother calls me. (18:41) And I'm like, well, this is weird. (18:42) Like, I I answer the phone.
Scott Benner (18:43) I'm like, yeah. (18:43) I'm so sorry. (18:44) I'm in the shower. (18:44) Can you hear me okay? (18:45) And he's like, Scott, I just got my labs back.
Scott Benner (18:48) Will you please look at them? (18:49) And I was I said, sure. (18:51) So he sent them to me, and I did what any good person would do. (18:54) I fed them right into ChatGPT because I don't know what the hell they mean. (18:57) Yeah.
Scott Benner (18:58) I mean, everything's whacked. (19:00) Like, he is showing, like, severe infection or cancer. (19:04) Like, it's it's like Oh, wow. (19:05) That's where he's at. (19:06) Right?
Scott Benner (19:07) So I said, you know, I said, Brian, I think you need to get to urgent care because your doctor's not gonna like, they're not in the office today. (19:13) Right? (19:13) He said, no. (19:13) I said, go to urgent care. (19:14) You probably need an antibiotic.
Scott Benner (19:17) So he goes to urgent care, calls me an hour later, and he goes, well, I'm in a wheelchair. (19:22) They're pushing me across the parking lot to the hospital. (19:24) And I was like, what? (19:26) He goes
Anais (19:26) Wow.
Scott Benner (19:27) They looked at me, took my vitals, and said, we are not comfortable with this. (19:30) Took me to the ER. (19:32) He spends the afternoon in the ER. (19:34) My lovely wife and I are out that day. (19:36) If you must know what we're doing, we're shopping for bras.
Scott Benner (19:39) Not for me.
Anais (19:40) Very very important.
Scott Benner (19:41) She's lost she's lost weight in her you know, she had to go get more bras. (19:44) And so, like, we're out shopping and hanging out and everything and and having lunch. (19:49) We're doing a thing. (19:49) Like, we're pretending we know each other. (19:51) We're doing some stuff, and my brother starts texting me.
Scott Benner (19:53) I don't have Lyme disease. (19:55) I don't have this. (19:55) They gave me a scan. (19:57) I don't have cancer. (19:57) I'm like, awesome.
Scott Benner (19:58) Like, great. (19:59) You know, good news. (19:59) Blah blah blah. (20:00) And he gets down to it. (20:01) And I'm like, well, where's the infection?
Scott Benner (20:03) They said they can't find an infection with the labs. (20:06) And I said, okay. (20:07) I said, what are they gonna do? (20:08) And he goes, they're sending me home. (20:11) And I was like Oh.
Scott Benner (20:11) With an antibiotic? (20:13) And he goes, nope. (20:14) And I said, a steroid pack? (20:15) And he goes, nope. (20:16) And I was like, with anything?
Scott Benner (20:17) And he goes, nope. (20:18) They told me to go to rheumatology. (20:21) And I said, well, what about now? (20:23) Like, right now? (20:25) And he goes, nothing.
Scott Benner (20:27) And so I got, I texted him, and I was like, man, listen. (20:30) I'm not a person who says just, like, sprinkle antibiotics and everything. (20:33) I was like, but I'd ask for it. (20:35) You know? (20:36) So he asks.
Scott Benner (20:37) They turn him down. (20:38) And then, he texts me back, and I text him. (20:40) I said, maybe get a steroid pack. (20:42) And then the nurse practitioner says, who are you texting with? (20:46) And she he goes, it's my brother and my sister-in-law.
Scott Benner (20:49) What are all these questions coming from? (20:50) So he says, look. (20:51) You know, vaguely, my sister-in-law has a, you know, a a science background. (20:56) She works in medicine, you know, tangentially, and my my my brother has a podcast. (21:03) They were probably like, oh my god.
Scott Benner (21:05) Right? (21:06) As they should be. (21:07) One of those. (21:08) Oh my god. (21:09) The guy thinks he knows something.
Scott Benner (21:11) And, anyway, like, so I said I so we pushed, and I said, ask her if a steroid pack would hurt you. (21:16) Because he's in pretty bad pain too. (21:18) Yeah. (21:19) And they give him the steroid pack. (21:21) Comes home.
Scott Benner (21:22) First day, he feels a little better, but second day, it's not helping as much. (21:26) So yesterday, which is Tuesday, this whole, like, little charade has played played through.
Anais (21:31) And So it's two weeks later. (21:33) Right?
Scott Benner (21:33) Well, no. (21:33) It's a week a week since he's been in the like, four days since he's been in the hospital, two weeks since he's gone to the doctor the first time.
Anais (21:39) Wow. (21:40) Yeah. (21:40) That's crazy. (21:40) Right? (21:41) Okay.
Scott Benner (21:41) And so I'm like, alright. (21:42) So I text him yesterday while I'm recording. (21:44) I'm like, hey. (21:44) What'd your doctor say? (21:46) And my poor brother is like, I'm at work.
Scott Benner (21:50) You know? (21:50) Like, I don't I couldn't contact the doctor today. (21:52) I don't have that kind of time. (21:54) And I said, you feeling any better? (21:56) He goes, no.
Scott Benner (21:56) I feel worse. (21:57) Now my brother stands on a factory floor for twelve hour shifts and Yeah. (22:02) Runs a giant piece of machinery. (22:05) And Yep. (22:05) And I'm like I'm like, Brian, this is crazy.
Scott Benner (22:08) I'm like, you need help. (22:10) And he's like, I know, but I gotta go to work. (22:12) He messaged his g his GP through his app. (22:16) My brother is going to call you. (22:18) I want you to talk to him.
Scott Benner (22:19) He basically gave me, like, you know, a little HIPAA roundabout. (22:24) So I get on the phone and explain the whole thing to the person on answered the phone who did a wonderful job and then passed me off to the nurse who did a wonderful job. (22:34) And I got my brother in yesterday afternoon, and he got a, besides a an antibiotic a course of antibiotics, he also got, like, a starter. (22:43) Like, they did, like, a deep muscle shot of something to get the antibiotics moving. (22:48) Okay.
Scott Benner (22:48) I'm telling you all of this because what that thing as we were paying attention to it from a distance and listening to what people were saying, what we learned in the end was this is crazy because what I what I what I forgot to tell you, the way we get from Saturday to Tuesday is that on Sunday, his doctor does call or Monday, his doctor calls him back and says, go back to the ER. (23:10) This is Monday afternoon.
Anais (23:12) Yeah.
Scott Benner (23:12) And my brother goes, do want me to go back to the same ER that told me they wouldn't help me? (23:16) And the guy goes, I think you have a bacterial infection. (23:20) Go back to the ER. (23:22) Mhmm. (23:22) And my brother goes, why don't you give me an antibiotic if you think I have a bacterial infection instead of sending me back to the ER that nobody's gonna help me at?
Scott Benner (23:30) And the guy goes, just go back to the ER. (23:32) So my brother did that on Monday. (23:34) They ran the No. (23:35) No. (23:35) They ran the same labs and then told them the same thing and then treated him and kicked him out.
Scott Benner (23:40) That's how we got to yesterday to that's how we got to Tuesday. (23:43) Right? (23:43) I'm sorry. (23:44) Missed this. (23:44) I missed a step.
Scott Benner (23:46) So what we what we learned I'm so disappointed in myself. (23:49) My storytelling is usually so right on. (23:51) And so what we've learned yesterday as he leaves the doctor's office because the doctor the last thing the doctor says to him before he puts the injection into him is, you know, I could get in trouble for this. (24:03) My brother goes, what? (24:04) And he said, your diagnosis does not point to needing an antibiotic.
Scott Benner (24:09) And that's when the whole thing just started to make sense. (24:13) On a paper, for the insurance or for the business, my brother didn't code out to antibiotics.
Anais (24:21) And so they can code it. (24:22) Yep. (24:23) Yep. (24:23) Yeah. (24:23) That's that's messed up.
Scott Benner (24:24) Everyone thought he needed them. (24:27) The ER, he now realizes, by the way, woman was talking thought he needed them. (24:31) The doctor, we now know thought he needed them because he sent him to the hospital the second time saying, you have an infection. (24:38) You need this. (24:40) But he was too much of a and excuse me.
Scott Benner (24:42) I know you're a person with a French accent, so it's gonna make me feel bad saying this. (24:47) But the doctor was too much of a to do it himself. (24:50) Right? (24:50) So he tried to put it on the hospital. (24:53) And then when the hospital wouldn't do it a second time, they ignored him again when he was messaging.
Scott Benner (25:00) And it wasn't until I got on the phone and browbeat them into helping him that they did it.
Anais (25:05) Yeah. (25:06) It's I mean, you really have to advocate for yourself, I feel like.
Scott Benner (25:09) Well yeah. (25:10) I mean, and it's beyond advocacy. (25:11) If that's a that's a real story. (25:13) I swear to god I didn't make a word of it up. (25:15) Right?
Scott Benner (25:15) Like, so one, two physician's assistants and a doctor in a hospital, that's three people, and his GP, four people are willing to look at him and go, well, if it gets worse, we'll help you. (25:26) But right but right now crazy. (25:27) The the the chart in front of me says you don't get this even though they all thought he needed it. (25:32) So Yeah. (25:33) Good luck.
Anais (25:33) Yeah. (25:33) That I'm I'm hopefully, he's he's better now.
Scott Benner (25:37) I haven't talked to him yet today. (25:38) He could be dead. (25:39) I'm not gonna lie to you.
Anais (25:40) Okay. (25:40) I hope not. (25:41) I really
Scott Benner (25:42) hope I think somebody would have texted.
Anais (25:43) So Oh my gosh. (25:44) Yeah. (25:44) Yeah. (25:44) He probably will know.
Scott Benner (25:45) I'll check on him later.
Anais (25:46) He's fine. (25:47) He's fine.
Scott Benner (25:47) Yeah. (25:47) He's also you know, it it's embarrassing because he's also 49 years old, and his brother's calling his doctor's office. (25:54) But he's just he's just an I don't know how to put it. (25:57) Like, he's a little more of a people pleaser than I am. (26:00) Yeah.
Scott Benner (26:00) Right? (26:01) And I wasn't mean. (26:02) I wanna be clear. (26:02) I I just found somebody who would actually listen, and then I was persistent.
Anais (26:07) Yeah. (26:07) I think it's persistence. (26:09) But, you know, this is something that I learned, like, over the past year is, like, I never really had to do this because, you know, like, when when you feel fine and you go to the doctor once in a blue moon, like, you nothing really it doesn't really matter. (26:20) But, like, when you have when you have a bacterial infection, when you have diabetes, it matters, and you have to be sometimes a little pushy or persistent, like, we wanna we wanna call it.
Scott Benner (26:32) Yeah.
Anais (26:32) And doing it in a nice way is a learned skill, I feel like, that I'm still working on.
Scott Benner (26:37) I did it very kindly. (26:39) But to your point, if they would've caught me fifteen years ago, I would've just I would've been a lunatic. (26:45) Would have been like, help my brother. (26:46) What are you doing? (26:47) I lost my, temper once when my mom was living in an assisted facility recovering from her cancer surgery, and she kept getting a UTI.
Scott Benner (26:57) And I just like, I was on a phone call one day, and I I yelled at people. (27:03) Like, my brother was in the room. (27:04) My brother was like, well, thanks. (27:05) That was very comfortable. (27:06) And I was like I think I said something like, if my mom dies because you guys can't figure out how to clean her up after she uses the bathroom, I said, I swear to God, I'm gonna sue each and every one of you.
Scott Benner (27:20) And I am not telling the story that my mom died from not wiping properly. (27:25) I was like, you have That's insane. (27:26) I'm like, come on everybody. (27:29) You know? (27:29) Like and I did lose my temper that day.
Scott Benner (27:31) But but this, I just got on the phone, and I I laid out my brother's weekend when I got to the nurse, and I was like, so come on. (27:37) Between you and me, what's he need? (27:39) She goes, I mean, he needs an antibiotic. (27:41) And I was like, right. (27:42) And I said she goes, but it's not up to me.
Scott Benner (27:44) And I was like, no. (27:45) I know. (27:45) I'm like, but I'm on the phone asking you, please don't put this down. (27:49) Make sure he gets helped. (27:51) And then she and then she did that.
Scott Benner (27:53) And so, like, I just found I just got to a person who was reasonable who would help.
Anais (27:57) Yeah. (27:58) Yeah. (27:58) That that's key also. (28:00) Yeah. (28:00) The person on the other side.
Scott Benner (28:01) So what what's happened over the last year that's that's given you this perspective already? (28:06) Like, has this been a problem this first year? (28:09) How how's it going?
Anais (28:10) Well, yeah. (28:11) I mean, I think the entrance piece, like, figuring this out was was tough, just, like, making sure that we had the supplies that we needed. (28:19) And, you know, sometimes people want to be helpful, and they send the prescription to the wrong place and know you have to call. (28:25) And and, again, like, when you're busy, like your brother, you don't necessarily have, like, the extra thirty minutes to spend waiting for someone to pick up the phone and fix your prescription problem. (28:36) So I think we we we figure out a lot of stuff like that.
Anais (28:40) Like, you know, we go to a local pharmacy because they are, like, just really nice. (28:44) They get they're on top of their stuff. (28:46) We don't do, like, the big box chain except for some some of the tech that we get from from one of those, like, mail in order pharmacy. (28:55) But, like, figuring this out, like, took a while because we you know, the first time I went to the to the pharmacy to pick up insulin, they just, like, threw the insulin on the counter, not even, like, refrigerated. (29:04) Like, I was like, well, I need a high spec to take it home.
Anais (29:07) And turns out you probably don't need a high spec for the ten minutes you're in the car, but I didn't know that at the time. (29:12) And I was, like, freaking out. (29:13) I was like, why? (29:13) There is no cooler. (29:14) Like, you're not giving me and they were just so very careless.
Anais (29:18) And so I was like, I don't want to go to this pharmacy. (29:21) I want a pharmacy where I feel like they're treating me as a person, not as, like, a, you know, one customer or one you know?
Scott Benner (29:28) Yeah. (29:29) Isn't it interesting? (29:30) Thing. (29:30) What that points out to about all the little new things that you don't have context for.
Anais (29:35) Yeah.
Scott Benner (29:36) Like, yeah, they hand you the insulin, and you're like, no. (29:38) That should that's supposed to be refrigerated. (29:40) And now you're in a panic. (29:41) I'm gonna take it home. (29:42) It's not gonna work for my daughter.
Scott Benner (29:43) There's gonna be a cascading Exactly. (29:44) Cascading problems, you know, like, you're and the person behind the counter is, an 18 year old who's, you know, maybe in art school, and you're just like, hey. (29:54) Write this in this thing, and she's like, lady, I don't know.
Anais (29:56) Yeah. (29:57) Exactly. (29:57) No. (29:57) It's totally true. (29:58) And so so there is a lot of things like that that you're like, okay.
Anais (30:01) Does this matter really right now? (30:03) Do and kind of learning that balances. (30:06) It took a little bit of time. (30:07) But no. (30:08) But, I mean, the we're doing great.
Anais (30:11) So, actually, I discovered your podcast because our diabetes nurse, she's amazing. (30:17) And, you know, after getting out of the hospital two weeks later, we had this visit, and she's like, hey. (30:23) You should you should check out this podcast. (30:25) Like, this guy, he he puts up episode. (30:27) I think that could be helpful.
Anais (30:28) Like, it's it's nice to hear other people perspective. (30:32) And I'm like, okay. (30:33) And the first episode I listened to was the story of this nurse at school that I don't know how many units she gave to that poor kid, but it was, like, a crazy amount of number where she had to do, like, three different injection.
Scott Benner (30:45) Oh, Anise, that was not a good that was not a good episode for you to start with.
Anais (30:49) Yeah. (30:49) So that was my first episode, but you know what it did to it? (30:52) So and then I just sent my kid to school. (30:54) Like, it was, like, this whole ordeal to find a phone and get her Dexcom connected, whatever. (30:58) And I listened to this driving to work, and I was scared.
Anais (31:03) But then you it made me laugh so hard. (31:06) Like, the the reaction that you had in this mom, she was so funny. (31:10) And I was like, I can really I'm I'm loathing about this. (31:13) This is insane. (31:14) And I had to stop on the side of the road because I was loathing so hard.
Anais (31:17) I think it was like a laugh cry kind of situation. (31:20) And I was like, oh, I can laugh about this. (31:22) So it's gonna be okay. (31:24) You know? (31:24) Like, it's we're gonna be fine.
Anais (31:26) Like,
Scott Benner (31:26) let's You just made my day. (31:28) Like, I thought I was happy that your microphone was clear, but now I'm really happy. (31:32) By the way, she when she got on, was like, oh my god. (31:34) Your microphone sounds great. (31:36) Thank you so much.
Scott Benner (31:36) But no. (31:38) No. (31:38) No. (31:38) Like, this is this is awesome because that's my intention. (31:43) And that that it worked out like that is fantastic.
Scott Benner (31:46) I mean, this for people who don't know, this kid got, like, what was it, like, two hundred units of insulin or something?
Anais (31:52) He was insane. (31:53) I was like, how can you make that mistake? (31:55) I get I'm a rookie at this. (31:57) I've been doing this for two weeks, and I would not do this.
Scott Benner (31:59) The school nurse gave her two full syringes of insulin, like, misunderstanding the the system. (32:06) And the mom happened to be coming to the school, so, like, she was there and the and the school nurse does what was it? (32:12) Right? (32:12) The school nurse does Band Aids afterwards. (32:15) So the the mom was like, why are there two Band Aids on you?
Scott Benner (32:18) And that and that started the whole thing. (32:21) And then the mom panics, takes the kid, like, out, like, is gonna take him home for, like, I forget, for glucagon or something. (32:28) And then Yeah. (32:28) And then
Anais (32:29) she ends up in the
Scott Benner (32:29) it's just like this crazy story. (32:32) And and I and now I realize that it's a crazy story that at the end, the kid's okay.
Anais (32:37) Yeah. (32:37) No. (32:37) That the mom is
Scott Benner (32:38) talking about it, and I'm making fun of the nurse, she's laughing. (32:42) And you think, oh, as crazy as this is and as scary as this is, maybe it maybe it'll be okay and nothing even this bad will even ever happen to us.
Anais (32:49) Yeah. (32:50) Exactly. (32:50) That was kind of the where I started.
Scott Benner (32:53) Oh, that's wonderful. (32:54) And but and but you also took the right lesson from it because there are probably people who are gonna get on here and be like, I heard that one and hid in my closet for three weeks. (33:02) So but yeah. (33:03) Oh, that's really great. (33:04) So you tell me about that.
Scott Benner (33:06) Like, how did that re kind of remake you in that moment?
Anais (33:10) No. (33:11) I I think he made me realize that I mean, obviously, it's it's a, you know, it's a serious well, serious. (33:18) It's a serious disease. (33:19) It's here forever. (33:19) It's relentless.
Anais (33:20) I think that was, like, where I was. (33:22) And I was like, okay. (33:22) Well, yes, but we can laugh about it. (33:25) And, I mean, clearly, this woman had, like, a crazy experience, and then she must have been terrified. (33:30) But she's, like, telling her story, laughing about it, and you're, like, you know, cracking jokes.
Anais (33:35) And I'm like, okay. (33:36) Like, yes. (33:37) This is hard, but I think we can find a little bit of hope and levity in this whole thing. (33:42) And it it makes the whole journey a little bit more bearable to know that there is other people that that live through it. (33:49) And, I mean, since then, I've I've listened to a lot of other episode, but what I like about I'm gonna be nice to you now.
Anais (33:56) This is the part where I'm nice.
Scott Benner (33:57) But Thank you.
Anais (33:58) What I like about it is that I would have never learned about that many different people from that many walk of life before. (34:07) I think that's a silver lining for me is that I have had to meet very, very different people, caretakers, people that will work with my daughter, but also people that have diabetes that in before, I would have never interacted with ever. (34:22) And I think the podcast is really nice because you discover stories from people that have very different life and very very different perspective from my own. (34:31) And you do it in a very nonjudgmental way, which I I really like because it could go anyway. (34:38) And and you you just kind of give space to people to tell their story.
Anais (34:41) And I I I really have learned so much about diabetes, but also about, like, people's life situation, what they go through, and I I really enjoyed, kind of hearing those stories. (34:51) So thank you for doing that.
Scott Benner (34:52) Oh, it's my pleasure. (34:53) It really is. (34:54) I am really at my core just a person that's super interested in things. (34:58) I love hearing people's stories. (35:00) I don't really have a feeling that anyone's out there not doing a good job for themselves on purpose.
Anais (35:07) Yeah. (35:07) Like, That's totally true.
Scott Benner (35:08) I just think it's a strange decision to make to look at a struggling person and decide that they're there of their own accord. (35:15) What is funny? (35:16) I think what's funny is that I'm I'm one of those people that when you listen to me, you either like, you you think I'm the other thing or you think I'm you. (35:25) So, like, I think there are plenty of people who would maybe have conservative values who'd be like, I come across as, like, thinking the way they do. (35:33) And so they don't think that I'm making some, like, ultra liberal excuse for people who aren't trying hard.
Scott Benner (35:40) And I think that I'm very kind and and I am genuinely. (35:44) And so I think that people who might think of themselves as as super, you know, I don't know, community focused and and understanding, they see me as an ally as well. (35:53) And the truth is is that, you know, in a weird world where I think the Internet has tried really hard to put us all into groups, I really am just a moderate person around about a lot of things. (36:03) And I don't see that as meaning that I don't take stands on things. (36:08) I just try really hard to see everybody's perspective.
Scott Benner (36:11) And Yeah. (36:12) When it comes to people living with type one or other autoimmune stuff or the people that I've talked to on this podcast, I've never once heard a person who just said, yeah. (36:21) I don't care. (36:23) I'm just I'm sick and I don't care. (36:24) I I hear people who, don't understand how to use their insulin, who haven't been supported well, who don't have good technology, who maybe don't have the money or the time or the resource, who are struggling.
Scott Benner (36:35) I've heard of very bright people who are having psychological implications and that slows them down from helping themselves. (36:42) But I've never heard a person just stand up and say, you know what? (36:45) I don't care and that's why I'm not trying. (36:49) I think everyone is trying really, really hard. (36:51) I don't think they all have the same starting point and I don't think they all have the same tools, but I do think they're all really trying.
Scott Benner (36:57) It's my assumption and my assertion that if we give them the right tools and a better new starting point, that they could all have a lot more success. (37:07) And and that idea to me translates out to how we talk about people. (37:13) I don't know. (37:14) Like, I've never I I just I don't see people struggling and think, oh, they don't they must not care. (37:19) You know?
Scott Benner (37:20) So Yeah. (37:21) And and then you get to hear and this is a feeling I've had in the background. (37:25) And since you I don't talk about it often out loud because I'm always afraid it's gonna sound, like, judgy, but I don't mean it that way. (37:31) But you brought it up, so I'll say this. (37:34) I think it's awesome to turn this thing on on a Monday and hear a French lady, you know, who lives in Boston who's in biotech.
Scott Benner (37:42) And then to turn it on on Tuesday and hear somebody from Louisiana who, you know, doesn't have a job and still has type one diabetes. (37:51) And then to hear a guy from Arizona and then somebody from England tell you that their child passed away and then talk to somebody from Australia to realize that if you have type one or if you have autoimmune in your life, it does not matter which one of these continents you're on, which one of these states you're in, Your life is very similar to the rest of ours.
Anais (38:12) Yeah.
Scott Benner (38:13) And it's the details that make it different, really. (38:16) Anyway, I that's my goal in making it.
Anais (38:18) That's yeah. (38:19) Yeah. (38:19) So I I could not agree more.
Scott Benner (38:21) I don't mean to mix thoughtful Scott with stupid Scott in the same episode because it might it it might confuse some of you. (38:28) But
Anais (38:29) No. (38:30) No. (38:30) No. (38:30) We we we we can all be multiple persons.
Scott Benner (38:33) You you know you you you know isn't it great that you've listened to this podcast long enough? (38:37) You're like, oh, I know what he means. (38:38) Like, sometimes he said dumps, and sometimes he says stuff like that.
Anais (38:43) So we we all we're all complex creature. (38:45) I think that that's okay.
Scott Benner (38:47) Yeah. (38:47) Thank you. (38:47) Thank you. (38:48) I appreciate it. (38:48) Well, I I just love that it's that it's it's done that for you.
Scott Benner (38:51) And because because I can imagine that there are multiples of people who it's also done that for. (38:58) It's just it's lovely because, you know, I'll say over and over again, when when I started making this, I thought I was just telling you all how to pre bolus. (39:06) Like, I really that's what that was my goal. (39:08) I my goal really was I know that there's these 10 things that I do, and when I do them, my daughter's a one c stays in the low sixes. (39:14) I'll share it with people.
Scott Benner (39:16) I didn't know it was gonna turn into all this. (39:19) I didn't know I was gonna mature the way I did while I was making it. (39:22) You you know? (39:22) Like, I didn't know all of this. (39:24) This is ridiculous that that any of this has happened.
Scott Benner (39:27) I recorded the other day with a guy who has, like, a YouTube channel about GLP medications. (39:34) I like his vibe, but I wanted to have him on so he could tell people a little bit about what's coming in the future. (39:38) And I was feeling him out to maybe have him back on the podcast because I think he might be have good information as we go forward over the next, you know, decade or whatever and and where I think GLPs are gonna change and morph and be more valuable for people with type ones. (39:53) And and I realized that before we started talking, before we started recording and we were talking, like, he sees me in a completely different way in a way that I don't see myself because I'm not surrounded by other people who would consider themselves content creators. (40:09) Like, so I really do just think of myself as a guy that sits in a room with a chameleon staring at him making a podcast where people with diabetes get to tell their story.
Scott Benner (40:17) Right? (40:18) And I realized from his perspective, he's like, how many downloads do you get a day? (40:21) And I told him and he goes, dude, that's crazy. (40:24) He's like, a niche podcast about type one diabetes? (40:27) And I was like, yeah.
Scott Benner (40:28) He goes, oh my god. (40:29) He's like, you're, like, in the top, like, like, fine percent of all podcasts. (40:33) And I was like, no. (40:34) I know. (40:35) It was a big deal to him.
Scott Benner (40:36) And I was like, I didn't even, like, care. (40:38) I was like, oh, I know. (40:39) I'm I'm just trying to reach people with diabetes. (40:41) And I was like, oh, in a in another world, this thing means something completely different. (40:46) Like, if you take you out of diabetes, I didn't realize that, like, other people saw me a different way.
Scott Benner (40:52) And it was it was helpful, like, just to to understand
Anais (40:55) that. (40:56) To kinda have a different perspective on on it for sure.
Scott Benner (40:58) Yeah. (40:59) On myself or on the podcast, really. (41:01) Yeah. (41:01) You know? (41:02) Okay.
Scott Benner (41:02) So do you use the podcast for use it to learn management stuff? (41:07) Are you in the Facebook group? (41:09) Like, how else has it been helpful?
Anais (41:10) So I'm on and off on the Facebook group, but I I've used the podcast. (41:14) I did the pro tip series. (41:16) I it's super helpful. (41:17) I think I probably need to relisten to it now after having a little bit of experience.
Scott Benner (41:22) Mhmm.
Anais (41:22) My daughter's on Omnipod, and so I did the I think there was, like, three three or four episode, I don't remember, on Omnipod. (41:28) So when she was gonna start, I listened to those to try to kind of understand a little bit better how it all works. (41:36) And so that was super helpful. (41:37) I mean, I think there is a lot of things.
Scott Benner (41:39) The
Anais (41:39) hospital classes kind of make you generally aware of who know to kill your child, I would say, or keep them alive. (41:48) And I I think for me, what the pro tips and the the specific series did is, like, giving me more tools to, I think, really actually manage her disease and and hopefully do a good job. (41:59) And I think the next level is being able to manage to the degree that we are, but maybe with a little bit less effort, and that would be lovely. (42:08) But I I think we're not there yet. (42:10) We're still kind of tweaking a lot of the ratios and trying to understand who to bolus for certain foods.
Anais (42:15) And and oh, actually, bolus four, the series that you're doing where you just pick a random food, this is super helpful too.
Scott Benner (42:23) Okay.
Anais (42:23) I like that a lot.
Scott Benner (42:24) Oh, we're doing we're doing one for Thanksgiving. (42:26) It comes out Wednesday night.
Anais (42:27) Oh, really? (42:28) Oh, awesome. (42:28) Oh, yeah. (42:29) I'm gonna need that one for sure.
Scott Benner (42:31) Well, listen. (42:32) I'm gonna tell you a secret. (42:33) Thanksgiving's easy. (42:34) Like, people don't think it is, but you just have to treat it all like one big, like, timeline of eating and Yeah. (42:41) Get ahead of it, keep it down, and then get out of any extra that you're doing as far as basil goes or something like that.
Scott Benner (42:48) You just gotta get out of it in time to not cause a low, and then save one save one dessert for the end in case you've used too much insulin. (42:55) That's pretty much it. (42:56) But
Anais (42:57) Yeah. (42:57) That's a good strategy. (42:58) Like that.
Scott Benner (42:59) Get ahead. (43:00) Stay ahead.
Anais (43:01) Yeah.
Scott Benner (43:01) So let me ask you. (43:02) Like, you you mentioned working in biotech. (43:04) That made me pick around in your life a little bit while we're talking. (43:07) Does your education help you with this at all, and does what you do help you at all with the illness or not really?
Anais (43:15) I think yes. (43:16) I mean, I think to some extent because, I mean, we both my husband and I, we're both scientists, and I think it gives you a foundation to understand a lot of, like, the undialing make underlying mechanism and then the mass and, like, kind of anticipating things, solving problems, having that mindset. (43:34) But I do think that it's you don't necessarily need to have all that background to do a good job. (43:41) Actually, something that I realized that is people that care for my daughter the best, it's outside of me and my husband, are people that have a very practical, logical mind. (43:52) It doesn't matter what background they have.
Anais (43:54) It's just like they say, okay. (43:56) This is happening. (43:58) This is happening probably for this reason. (43:59) I'm gonna tweak this and see what happened. (44:01) And then the next time, I know that that happened, so I remember, and I'm gonna do the same thing because it worked out.
Anais (44:07) And I think people that have that mindset do real pretty well. (44:12) I don't think it matters what your background is. (44:14) It's more like the problem solving, recognizing patterns, and just, like, embracing the chaos. (44:20) I think it really is needed also.
Scott Benner (44:24) Has the experience you've had over the last year has it in any way impacted your work? (44:30) Like, did does it change for you now to be in a situation where you have, you know, personal perspective on illness?
Anais (44:39) Yeah. (44:39) That's a super good question. (44:42) I think so. (44:43) I do think so. (44:44) You know, I think part of my job sometimes is to try to understand how a drug is gonna be delivered.
Anais (44:49) So is it gonna be an injection? (44:51) Is it gonna be, you know, a pill, an IV? (44:54) And I think when you are the parents injecting a child six times a day, you realize that this is actually a big deal. (45:02) It's not just like, oh, it will be better if this injection was once a month. (45:07) Of course, it will be better.
Anais (45:08) You know that. (45:09) But it makes it a little bit more real. (45:12) Yeah.
Scott Benner (45:13) I won't give any details, but many hundreds of thousands, if not a million or more people across the country are gonna have a better user experience with an injectable because my wife was in a meeting and spoke up about something. (45:29) And she only she only knew to speak up because of, like, our lives.
Anais (45:34) Yeah. (45:35) I mean
Scott Benner (45:35) Yeah. (45:36) And it's not because the other people in the room didn't care. (45:38) It's not because people were being cheap or, yeah, you know, whatever people would, like, you know, jump to conclusions about. (45:42) Like, it's that there were five or six people in a room who'd never injected themselves with anything, and their job was to be in that room and talk about which one of these injectors to buy from a third party to package this stuff into. (45:54) And my wife looked at it, she was like, I don't think that's the right one.
Scott Benner (45:57) And then explained to them why and, you know, took a little time, and they got out of a contract, changed something else. (46:03) And now a lot of people are gonna have a better experience because of it.
Anais (46:07) And Yeah. (46:07) That's awesome. (46:08) And that's awesome when you can bring a little bit of your experience into your work and that can benefit more people for sure.
Scott Benner (46:14) Do you know another interesting thing? (46:17) My wife was brought into I have to be pretty vague about this, but her company is doing kind of a mental health support thing for for the for the, you know, the entire company. (46:29) And they wanted somebody from each, you know, kind of part of the company that's higher up to be involved a little bit. (46:35) And so my wife said, god. (46:37) They've reached out to me for this.
Scott Benner (46:39) And she's like, I just I do not have time for this. (46:41) And I was like I'm like, no. (46:43) I I know. (46:44) And I was like, are you gonna do? (46:45) She's like, I'm gonna do it, I guess.
Scott Benner (46:47) You know, it's it's it's a meeting a month. (46:49) Like, I can do it. (46:50) Like, my my wife for those of you who don't understand what it's like to have a a type a lady, in your house, My wife got up this morning at 05:00, got in the shower, was on a call at six. (47:03) She will do calls until one, and that's when she'll start working. (47:08) And then she'll work till 10:00 tonight.
Scott Benner (47:11) Yeah. (47:11) You can't talk her out of it. (47:14) It doesn't matter. (47:15) You could say whatever you want. (47:16) That lady needs weed.
Scott Benner (47:17) She gotta relax. (47:18) Whatever you're gonna it doesn't matter. (47:20) Like, she's type a. (47:21) She's Catholic. (47:22) She's she's responsible.
Scott Benner (47:25) She works hard. (47:26) She's the person you want. (47:26) You should any anyone listening should hire my wife. (47:29) You're gonna get an amazing employee.
Anais (47:31) Good value. (47:32) Good value. (47:32) Oh my god. (47:33) Yeah. (47:33) You're gonna
Scott Benner (47:34) yeah. (47:34) Whatever you're paying her, it it's you're getting twice the work. (47:36) It may and maybe twice as even undervaluing her. (47:40) But, you know, she took this this gig and she then you know, this extra thing, and she's in a meeting and somebody's talking and and she realizes, like, nobody's opening up. (47:50) So she started talking about, like, what it was like for Arden to be diagnosed.
Scott Benner (47:55) And in five minutes of being open, which is not really my wife's vibe, she's very Irish. (48:02) And so and, oh, you're French. (48:04) You really know what that means? (48:05) Yep. (48:06) Unfortunately.
Scott Benner (48:06) And she she opened up a little bit, and she said, Scott, it was like it was like cracking the seal on a on a old fire hydrant. (48:16) She's like, everybody just started talking. (48:19) And it was a lot of people with big titles who don't wanna be seen as weak, who were not gonna speak up in that room, and then they did. (48:27) And she's like, and now the whole thing is moving, and then the people under them realized they could open up. (48:32) And then people started talking about their struggles at work, and now they're gonna identify what's causing people issues, and they're gonna have a better workforce because of it.
Scott Benner (48:39) And people are gonna feel better, you know. (48:42) So and that comes from Kelly's growing up, you know, as an adult with a kid with type one. (48:48) So
Anais (48:48) Yeah. (48:49) That's awesome. (48:49) I mean That's pretty cool. (48:50) That she was I mean, you have to be a little bit brave. (48:53) I mean, I don't know if I'm if I'm there yet.
Anais (48:55) I mean, I I guess I'm on the podcast. (48:57) But
Scott Benner (48:57) No. (48:58) You're getting there. (48:58) Yeah. (48:58) No. (48:59) No.
Scott Benner (48:59) That's that's Yeah. (48:59) Pretty good stuff.
Anais (49:01) But I think there is you know, work is there is stuff that should stay private, obviously, but I think it's good that they they're trying to improve mental health because that's super important for sure.
Scott Benner (49:19) This episode was too good to cut anything out of, but too long to make just one episode. (49:24) So this is part one. (49:26) Make sure you go find part two right now. (49:28) It's gonna be the next episode in your feed. (49:31) Today's episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g seven, and the Dexcom g seven warms up in just thirty minutes.
Scott Benner (49:39) Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox. (49:44) Today's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod five. (49:48) Omnipod five is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a one c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. (49:59) Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox. (50:04) At my link, you can get a free starter kit right now.
Scott Benner (50:06) Terms and conditions apply. (50:08) Eligibility may vary. (50:09) Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. (50:14) Okay. (50:15) Well, here we are at the end of the episode.
Scott Benner (50:17) You're still with me? (50:18) Thank you. (50:18) I really do appreciate that. (50:20) What else could you do for me? (50:22) Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review?
Scott Benner (50:26) Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me, or Instagram, TikTok. (50:34) Oh, gosh. (50:35) Here's one. (50:36) Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page. (50:42) You don't wanna miss please, do you not know about the private group?
Scott Benner (50:46) You have to join the private group. (50:48) As of this recording, it has 74,000 members. (50:51) They're active talking about diabetes. (50:54) Whatever you need to know, there's a conversation happening in there right now. (50:58) And I'm there all the time.
Scott Benner (50:59) Tag me. (50:59) I'll say hi. (51:01) The Juice Box podcast has been in production since January 2015. (51:05) And in that time, we have amassed just a fantastic catalog of information for you. (51:10) The defining diabetes series, also bold beginnings, diabetes pro tips, small sips, fat and protein, algorithm pumping, mental wellness, ask Scott and Jenny, diabetes variables defining thyroid, after dark, the math behind Omnipod five, pregnancy, how we eat, grand rounds, cold win, GLP meds, the quick start guide if you wanna get going with the podcast but you don't know where to go.
Scott Benner (51:33) Diabetes myths, there's even a type two diabetes pro tip series. (51:37) All of this is at juiceboxpodcast.com. (51:40) Go to the menu, click on series, and they can all be found right there. (51:45) If you go to juiceboxpodcast.com/lists, you'll get all these great downloadable lists of all the different series so you can save them on your phone, keep them for later. (51:54) Every episode is listed along with its episode number.
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Scott Benner (52:22) Truth be told, I'm, like, 20% smarter when Rob edits me. (52:26) He takes out all the, like, gaps of time and when I go, and stuff like that. (52:31) And it just I don't know, man. (52:33) Like, I listen back and I'm like, why do I sound smarter? (52:35) And then I remember because I did one smart thing.
Scott Benner (52:38) I hired Rob at wrongwayrecording.com.
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