Scott Benner 8/26/22 Scott Benner 8/26/22

#743 Bold Beginnings: Stacking

Scott Benner 8/24/22 Scott Benner 8/24/22

#742 Vocal Support

Suzanne has type 1 diabetes and was a back up singer for some famous acts.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 742 of the Juicebox Podcast

Never before has an episode had so much packed into one short hour. Suzanne's on the show today. And I'm not gonna tell you anything about her life except for this Suzanne sang backup for Billy Joel, Rod Stewart and other famous musical artists. Her stories about her life. Well, they fit right in with that. They are amazing. There are twists and turns in this one and surprises. Things you won't see coming. I certainly didn't. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. Don't forget t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Go there. Take the survey, complete the survey help people living with type one diabetes, it's super simple. That's not take much time at all. You could do it right now from your phone, or your iPad or wherever your butt is then you have access to the internet p one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. complete the survey. Do me a favor.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Omni pod five. Learn more about the Omni pod five Omni pod dash, and everything else on the pod has at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash find out at the link. Speaking of links dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Speaking of maybe being eligible, you may be eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six. Find out more about my favorite cgm@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox.

Suzanne 2:09
My name is Suzanne and I live in Canada. And I'm sure you can tell by the accent. That's not where I'm from. I was born in the UK, in Cornwall in the very early 60s. But I didn't Yeah, I moved away from there. I haven't lived back at home for a very, very long time. And let's get going

Scott Benner 2:34
since the very early 60s. That's when I was born. Yeah. Is that is that your way of trying not to tell me that you're 60 years old or?

Suzanne 2:43
No, I am 60 years old. No. I'm delighted to be 60. Come on. That's quite an achievement. I've been a diabetic type one diabetic for 59 years.

Scott Benner 2:50
Wow. You were you were diagnosed at a year old.

Suzanne 2:54
I was diagnosed very young. Yes. Just just over a year old. Yeah, that's insane.

Scott Benner 2:58
In like night, honestly like 1961 ish. Like, right around? Yeah.

Suzanne 3:03
No. Yeah. A little bit later than that, actually. But yeah, yeah, I was diagnosed pretty early. Yeah, I was born in 19. In. I was born in 1962. I was diagnosed in 1963.

Scott Benner 3:14
I gotcha. Okay. That's me not realizing it's 2022 already. But Jesus.

Suzanne 3:22
I know which one of us is 60.

Scott Benner 3:25
Listen, I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but my knee is 75. If anybody if, let me just throw this out here at the beginning this if any of you have been really helped by the podcast, and you're an orthopedic surgeon in the northeast, could you call me? Something's wrong with my knee? But I digress. What do you have you Oh, my gosh, you're you're 60 Your parents are with us or No,

Suzanne 3:49
no, no, unfortunately, not. My father died, Gosh, 35 years ago, from a heart attack. And my mother passed away just a few years ago, but was in her late 80s.

Scott Benner 4:00
Wow. Good for her. That's a good long time. I take late 80s No problem. Did you ever talk about your diabetes with them as an adult? Did you ever look back on it with them?

Suzanne 4:14
Mmm hmm. No, not Not really. Um, my sisters used to bitch about it a lot because they reckon I got all the attention and all the care and all the rest of it but and think I was a spoiled brat because I'm the youngest of three. But no, I didn't might we just dealt with it. So it became a fact of life. Nobody ever thought about it. I don't think so when I went home when I went back to my mom's house. Mom just automatically did what she'd always done I suppose.

Scott Benner 4:48
So but you guys never sat down and had a heart to heart about it. Or you were like Mom, was this hard to raise a baby with diabetes? You just I mean your English you probably don't talk about feelings.

Suzanne 4:56
No, we don't talk about things like that because that would involve feelings. Um, no, I never did. I did talk to my oldest sister though, who is old enough, who is older than me enough that she looked after me a lot when I was little. And I did talk to her about it. And she remembers a lot more about things than I do. So when I was diagnosed, my parents were told that I'd be lucky to make my late 30s. And certainly don't expect me to live into my 40s that I'd never have children and I have to and that my life would be difficult. And it hasn't been it's been great for you, and continues to be great. Amazing.

Scott Benner 5:40
I don't see why it couldn't be just it's interesting to me that

Suzanne 5:43
well, even back in the day, though, I mean, we were boiling urine and testing so you were always learning what your sugars were like six hours ago. There was nothing I mean, there were no a one sees until I believe the mid 80s.

Scott Benner 5:59
Right. Do you remember what you would do with that information after you after you threw your your urine and witches pot and did whatever you did with it? Like what would what did you do with the information then?

Suzanne 6:09
You know what, I don't remember my insulin being adjusted at all when I was little. I don't my mum must have done it all. I do remember that. My pediatrician got me this special injector pen, which was like a little gum thing with a trigger on the side, really. But it was glass syringes and metal needles and everything had to be boiled all the time. And then my mum stored it in surgical spirit. And we use the same needle several times metal needles until you know it became dull. I guess when I scream loud enough mum changed it. No. I mean, she. I didn't. I do. One of the things I do remember though, is that my mother? I do remember my mother telling me that she practiced injecting herself because she was so afraid to inject a baby.

Scott Benner 6:59
Yeah, I know. That's scary. I've done that. And it's yeah, it's a big leap to make by the way, they still make the injection gun.

Suzanne 7:07
with it. Mine was different though. Mine was it didn't look like the ones that you see. Now. It was it held a very small glass syringe and the trigger was on the side of it. It was it was a very different looking thing. I've never seen one like it before or since but I remember it very clearly. And I probably used it until I was about 14 I started off on cow insulin change relatively quickly to pork insulin, and then didn't go on then went on to I think it was called Novo rapid and insular tard. Those are the Canadian names. I tend to remember the English ones better. No, Toronto, it was called Toronto here. Went on to Toronto and insula tide when I was 14. Okay. And my insolence didn't change again, until I was about 48. Wow. Yeah, I know. Right?

Scott Benner 8:10
Wow, you just use a pump in that time? Are you injecting me? I went onto

Suzanne 8:15
a pump a year ago.

Scott Benner 8:20
Wow, look at you. Yeah, like innovating.

Suzanne 8:24
And I started the libre two years ago now. And now I'm on the libre to my insurance company. Because I don't live in Britain. My anymore. My insurance company won't cover the Dexcom because I'm too well controlled.

Scott Benner 8:38
Well, you know, there's a thing called a letter of medical necessity you could get here in the United States. I don't know if it exists in Canada.

Suzanne 8:45
But I just you know what, I honestly just decided not to bother because I'm good as I am really. You know, I do pretty well, my a one sees around 565 5.6 5.8. So, you know, I'm not likely to tighten that up much more.

Scott Benner 9:02
So we've been in that kind of in that range.

Suzanne 9:06
I've been in that kind of range since I had my son 30 years ago.

Scott Benner 9:11
And so, your first job? Yes. Okay. So is it fair to say for the first 30 years you weren't that concerned? And then somebody told you you needed to do a certain thing to have a baby? Is that what got you there?

Suzanne 9:24
No, somebody told me you're pregnant. You really better look after yourself. Because I was always told that I wouldn't want to have children. So didn't really think too much about it until all of a sudden my husband and I were pregnant. Well, you know, mostly me. Let's be real. Yes, so I was terribly concerned about having an unhealthy baby. So I pulled my a one C's back at that time to be low five with no hypose That's the tightest control I've had was with when I've been pregnant with both my with both of my children,

Scott Benner 9:57
where were they prior to your pregnancy?

Suzanne 10:01
They were probably in the low sixes. And my son was born in 1991. So 81 C's were also very new, and I only have my a one C done once every year.

Scott Benner 10:16
Okay. In the low 60s, do you think you were having a lot of like low blood sugars? Or were you push your variability pretty straight forward?

Suzanne 10:24
No, I I've always had extremely good hypo warning. So I get to about 3.5 3.6. Sorry, I'm, I'm English and Canadian, I don't do your thing. The number of store that I get to a date, that kind of number. And I know and I instantly will take a few swigs of a coke or Sprite, or something like that. That's my quickest way to get out of a Hypo is to take some kind of fizzy pop usually.

Scott Benner 10:53
So around around a 60 blood sugar for us is what it comes down to. It's

Suzanne 10:58
okay. Yeah. And I'll just take a couple of swigs. And that'll usually level me out. Gotcha. Like it took a long time not to stuff my face to the point that my sugar levels were then through the roof, you know that that that panicky feeling?

Scott Benner 11:14
Yeah. Did you learn to overcome it or learn to ignore it?

Suzanne 11:19
Um, I guess I learned to ignore it. Because really, during pregnancy, because I learned to do the 15 grams, 15 minutes.

Scott Benner 11:31
Or you saying that the pregnancy really just gave you the determination or the will to do the things you probably knew you were supposed to be doing all along?

Suzanne 11:41
100%? Okay. 100%, and then the fact that I had children and needs to change my lifestyle, because I mean, I was, I was a touring musician. I was a total Wild Child.

Scott Benner 11:53
Yeah, I know, we were gonna get to that. So I see you grow up the entire time with diabetes? Not really. I'm assuming it didn't really take up much of your life. Right? Like you're shooting that that like that cow and that pork stuff. What are you shooting that like once or twice a day? Twice a day? Yep. Twice, right. And when you get up and mix,

Suzanne 12:14
a mix of fast acting and a low acting in the morning and a mix of a fast acting and a low acting in

Scott Benner 12:20
the evening, okay. And so other than that, it's not like you're testing it's not like you have access to data you just be living if you get dizzy. Eat something. If you don't get dizzy. It's a good day.

Suzanne 12:30
Yeah, if you're thirsty, you increase your your fast acting a little bit.

Scott Benner 12:34
Thirst makes you think high blood sugar.

Suzanne 12:37
Well, not not just for us, but that kind of dry, really dry mouth.

Scott Benner 12:42
Okay, yeah. So Oh, that's interesting. So you, you totally looked to physical cues.

Suzanne 12:49
I had no, I had no choice. Really. Even if you were if you were in the hospital, you could get a blood test. And it took a short period of time for it to come back. But I have never been in DKA my life once I was diagnosed.

Scott Benner 13:03
Did you live as a child thinking you weren't going to live very long? Did anyone? Nobody told me? No one ever said it to you?

Suzanne 13:11
No, I was an extraordinarily happy, very middle class child with a pony in a boat. Gotcha. Oh, no, it was it was idyllic. Honestly, truly, my childhood was idyllic. I don't remember any problems from it. I'm sure my poor mother was frantic. But I don't remember any problems.

Scott Benner 13:32
Will you have kids? I mean, you have kids? Are you doing my math? Right? Your children around 30 years old, right are a little older.

Suzanne 13:39
I have a son who is 30 who is just my second granddaughter was born yesterday.

Scott Benner 13:44
Congratulations. Thank you. And I have

Suzanne 13:47
a daughter who is 22 who has her own autoimmune disorder, but not diabetes. My daughter actually has ailleurs Danlos Syndrome. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, we should have stayed at the gene pool, frankly. But you know what you're gonna do? Yeah, so and she is an F II I groom with showjumpers.

Scott Benner 14:11
Okay, hold on a second. There are a lot of words there. I only understood some of them. But I want to I want to go back to

Suzanne 14:15
the Olympic. She's basically a groom for an Olympic show jumper.

Scott Benner 14:19
Oh, no kidding. Alright, so we'll figure this out in a second. But my my initial thing for bringing up your children was to say, can you imagine if you're if you thought your son was on a 30 year countdown to being dead? No. And you didn't know you couldn't tell him?

Suzanne 14:35
No, I cannot even begin to imagine that at all. I just and I know that it was things like that were a constant worry to my mother. I mean, at nine I actually contracted salmonella. And I was in the hospital for about three months. And I suspect my mother thought I was going to die then as well. Yes, I think my mother lived in a state of constant fear and it must have been all before, but she didn't show it. She was a really great loving, kind fun, Mum.

Scott Benner 15:08
Wow. I just wonder if she looked at you like, like a ticking bomb. You know what I mean?

Suzanne 15:14
She she did, I think until things got easier. Okay. But they let me fly, they really did let me fly. I mean, I used to go off for the day with my packet of sandwiches and ride my horse and go with my friends. And there were no cell phones, there was nothing and I know now that mum would drive her car to places where she knew she could see us from the distance and know that we were that I was safe. But I had no idea that that was happening. I just thought I was just like everybody else. I had no clue that I don't think I am any different. But I had no clue that my mother perceived me as being a walking zombie effectively.

Scott Benner 15:55
This is that that almost made me cry. When you said about your mom driving places and watching you from a distance. It got me. Yeah, yeah,

Suzanne 16:02
I'm just what moms do, right?

Scott Benner 16:03
Yeah, yeah, no, I know.

Suzanne 16:05
My mom was a pretty awesome mom.

Scott Benner 16:06
No kidding. She certainly was. And plus, they were probably like, I let her go. She's gonna be dead soon. Anyway.

Suzanne 16:13
There's possibly some of that involved, too, that you let your child enjoy what you think they can?

Scott Benner 16:20
Right. Yeah, that makes See, that's what I was initially wondering about. Like you're, you know, you're basically what you did with your life? Like, did you ended up being a wild child? Because maybe in the background, people were sort of like, yeah, just let Suzanne go. Don't matter. You know, like me, that was good. It was good for you.

Suzanne 16:39
I've never been, I was definitely wild, but I've never been stupid. I've never played my insulin, I've never forgotten to take the right amount of carbs for the insulin that I've injected. I am. So I'm an odd mix. I think of control freak and wild child.

Scott Benner 17:00
No, it's just I think it's wild pensioner trying to call yourself a child to get done talking to me and pick up a cane and walk away. I know how you feel. Yeah, right. But no, I mean, you know, I think that anybody who has a child will know this, that there's a moment when you you make a decision, right about like, How hard are you going to pull back on the reins and how much you're going to let go and in your heart, you want to just let them go? And then there's this fear in your head that thinks like, Oh, I'm gonna make them a heroin addict, if I don't give them some rules, right? Like you have some like wild concern. And then you'll pull back. And I wonder how much of that is valuable? And how much of it ends up being harmful? And how maybe it's sometimes not necessary for some people versus other children? And maybe you just got like, maybe you got the like, oops, let's go parents because they thought

Suzanne 18:00
Yeah, well, no, I do think I did. I think I got my Mum used did used to say that I raised you until you're old enough to know how to do it yourself.

Scott Benner 18:13
How old do you think you were when that was?

Suzanne 18:15
Well, I mean, I left I left home to go and tour at 15. But so was I old enough to know how to do it myself. I knew how to look after my diabetes, but I also knew right from wrong. Okay. And that was made very clear to us as children. I have never been smacked. I don't I've never smacked my children. And I have never been smacked. My mum was a reasoner. She would. She was a yeller, she would yell, but she was she would explain why you couldn't do it and why that was probably not the best idea. And if I wanted to survive, basically, this was what I had to do. And that was ingrained in me, I think.

Scott Benner 18:57
Okay. Well, that makes sense to me. So what makes you wait, you left when you were 15? To do what?

Suzanne 19:05
I went on tour with Krista Berg in 1977.

Scott Benner 19:08
How long did that last for?

Suzanne 19:12
On and off a couple of years. I've also tour with Rod Stewart, Elton John.

Scott Benner 19:16
Really? Like a backup singer?

Suzanne 19:20
Yeah, yeah. Started a tour with Billy Joel. But it didn't go very well for me. I quit that one. Um, I've been in musical theater. And then eventually I went back to school and now I have two doctorates. In what? I have a doctorate in advanced vocal production. I have a master's in jazz musicianship. And I have a doctorate in psychology.

Scott Benner 19:46
No kidding. Would you do something with those or you just show them off? To teach? That's lovely. Good for you. All right. Well, I I would be remiss if I didn't ask you a little bit about that life. So especially with diabetes, But yeah, I mean, but I'm drawn to first ask you why Billy Joel and you didn't get along. So let's, let's start there and work backwards.

Suzanne 20:11
Somebody got ahold of the bus key, the women's bus key, some guy and barged his way onto the bus. And I was furious about it. And nobody took me seriously. So I walked out.

Scott Benner 20:21
No kidding. What Tor was that? Do you remember?

Suzanne 20:25
Oh, gosh, that would have been in the early 80s,

Scott Benner 20:30
early 80s. So about Christie Brinkley time. Yes. Okay, maybe an old no and stuff that nobody else understands. I imagine there are just scads of people right now going Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel, what is he even talking about? Who is Billy Joel? First of all? Yeah,

Suzanne 20:48
who are these people talking about?

Scott Benner 20:50
I don't understand scenes from an Italian restaurant. What's this? No. Is that about the greatest job in the world being a backup singer? Or is it arduous? Is it repetitive? Or do you love it?

Suzanne 21:01
I loved it. I just I just love music. But no, I did love it because it was a different place. Every day you woke up in a different place every day kind of thing. It was. It was difficult as a diabetic because the hours are weird and wonderful. And you had to work your way around that. I also had some drug involvement, really, without almost knowing that I was taking it somebody gave me some pills to keep me awake. And that was that was a whole issue that developed that that changed things a lot for me and made me much more conscious of my health. But it was it was a good life, though. It was it was a lot of fun. It was a huge amount of fun. It was wild. And it was crazy. And it was it was who knew if it was Monday or Friday. It's It's Vegas, it must be Tuesday. It was It was wild. But it was some?

Scott Benner 22:00
I imagine. So how old were you when someone gave you? I'm assuming amphetamines and told you

Suzanne 22:06
17 Oh,

Scott Benner 22:08
and you just thought like, I mean, I mean, where I don't want to put words in your mouth. Did you think you were doing something a little wrong? Are we like, Oh, this is what people do? This is okay.

Suzanne 22:16
didn't have a clue. didn't have a clue?

Scott Benner 22:22
Did those? God I'm sorry.

Suzanne 22:24
I was just told I was offered these tablets and was told oh, this, you know, it's an upper keep your weight? And I'm like, Well, is this addictive? Is this going to be a problem? You know, I need to be aware of what I'm taking? No, no, no, everybody does it. So everybody did it.

Scott Benner 22:40
How long did you get stuck with that?

Suzanne 22:42
Um, about 80 months?

Scott Benner 22:45
Okay. How did that affect your diabetes?

Suzanne 22:51
Well, I don't know. Because I'm not great. What any, I didn't test during that time. You're not going to exactly be be collecting your urine and putting tablets into it. And because by that time, it was tablets, and then strips. I just didn't do it. I didn't.

Scott Benner 23:13
Okay. And do you have any health issues at this point?

Suzanne 23:17
Yes, I do. My kidneys are not great.

Scott Benner 23:21
Okay. Are they you're there watching them? I guess or Yes. Okay. Yes. They're watching them. Do you think you'll end up on dialysis at some point?

Suzanne 23:31
They don't think so. Because my kidneys have now been stable for seven years.

Scott Benner 23:35
Okay, so you found? Well, yeah, I mean, you pull it. It's interesting. You've got like a half and half life like You're like you're only 60. But you've got 30 years of probably not paying attention at all and 30 years of paying attention really strictly? Yes. Yeah. You probably just stopped whatever was about to go.

Suzanne 23:55
About to go. I probably caught it all just in time. Yeah. I also have visual issues, but it's nothing to do with diabetes. So it's just luck of the draw. Right. But diabetic wise, my eyes are good. Everything else is good. I have no peripheral neuropathy. Yeah, I'm actually pretty disgusted me healthy to be honest.

Scott Benner 24:22
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no good for you. There's a lot of people from back then that just that insulin seem to cover them. Well. You know,

Suzanne 29:11
yeah, we didn't eat sweets in the same way that kids do today, though. There wasn't when I was a kid certainly in the UK. I don't know. Obviously, I don't know much about America. But when I was in the UK, pop was pretty unusual. We didn't get sodas or juices very often. We drink milk or water really. And milk was a was a mealtime thing. Not a not a Oh, I think I'll grab a glass of milk. So I think our diet was really healthy.

Scott Benner 29:41
Yeah, that's interesting. It really is. Do you make any diet concessions now or do you just eat the way you eat and you use insulin?

Suzanne 29:49
Um, yes, I I'm I'm relatively low carb. Okay. I'm not zero carb and I don't restrict myself if I want something. I'll have it and I'll go through it.

Scott Benner 29:59
Right Okay. I'm sorry, I have a lot in my head from you there. So you have a big life. Hold on a second. Yeah, I do. Yeah. I want to go backwards a little bit. I mean, sure. How do you become a backup singer at 15?

Suzanne 30:15
Okay, so my aunt was the nepotism is the is the answer. My aunt was the head of the, the London School of Music was for many, many years and is a was a was a famous opera singer. Okay. So she was in the industry and the first person I toured with crystal Berg was somebody who requires backing singers who are quite good at singing in tune, because he will lose his pitch otherwise, and follow the about, you know, a backing singer who's not quite as accurate. And so I got volunteered voluntold to do some recording work. And it all went from there. No kidding. So, my whole family sang.

Scott Benner 31:08
How about your kids? Yes, everybody can sing. But that's, there's something I have actual jealousy about. I have a terrible singing voice. And

Suzanne 31:21
anyone can learn. It's just not always worth the effort.

Scott Benner 31:26
I'm not gonna shine quite bright enough that we're all think the juice was worth the squeeze. I think you're right. I think I'm just lucky to have a deep speaking voice to be perfectly honest.

Suzanne 31:37
Yeah, so you've got a very you got a very pleasant speaking voice.

Scott Benner 31:40
I get lucky there. So okay, so Chris de Burgh and then, like, like we're talking about, like, lady in red. Yes, I got the right person, right. Yes, yes. But I'm talking prior to Ligue one way, way earlier than that. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yes. I'm

Suzanne 31:58
talking Spanish train. Patricia, the stripper.

Scott Benner 32:01
And you're out there just every night. Just?

Suzanne 32:04
Yeah. Did you try to be super Trump?

Scott Benner 32:08
Are you really? Yeah, it's amazing. It really is. It's just wonderful.

Suzanne 32:13
And then to be Peter Frampton.

Scott Benner 32:16
No kidding. Yeah. And so if I said you, if not that I'm not going to do this. First of all, Susan, don't get worried. But if I started just spitting out songs, could you just start singing along to them? Probably. Yeah. But how long has it been since you've done it?

Suzanne 32:32
Since I don't want some onstage? Yes. Oh, gosh. Um, last thing I did was probably in the late 80s, early 90s. But I've never stopped singing. I still sing. I teach now. Right. And I'm an international judge for singing competitions.

Scott Benner 32:57
Are you really? Yeah. Okay. Did any of these people know you had diabetes while you were out on the road with them? Yes, everybody. You told them. Yeah. What was the reasoning behind telling them at that point? I had a hyper. Okay, so you were worried about a low but you didn't have that happen? Really? Did you ever have it happen on stage where you had to do something?

Suzanne 33:18
No, I didn't have any. I've never had. I never had a Hypo that that caused me to end up in the hospital. I never even had a hyper that pulled me off the stage. I have had hypose where I know I've needed something. But I've been able to get to the next break and run off stage and chug something and get back on again.

Scott Benner 33:41
Gotcha. Are there you'll forgive me because you're a lady. But are there massive amounts of indiscriminate sex during these things?

Suzanne 33:49
Huge amounts. Yes.

Scott Benner 33:53
Thank you for a good

Suzanne 33:54
time. Can I tell you sex and drugs and rock and roll?

Scott Benner 33:59
Did you meet your husband while doing this? Or afterwards?

Suzanne 34:02
I met my husband on the Royal Wedding Day Charles and die. So 1985 I met my husband

Scott Benner 34:11
in a pub watching it on television, or Yes,

Suzanne 34:14
he was he was it was his first job working as a barman. 1985 So we were no nice nice vibes when we got married and lying to you. The marriage. The wedding must have been a few years before that.

We got married in 1985 when I was 23. Yeah, we were 23. So we met before that though, a few couple of years before that on the royal wedding day, he overcharged me 10 Pence for a half pint of cider. And I argued with him until he finally said you can keep it and I said, I don't want it. It's daddy's and walked away. So he knew what he was getting into. I was

Scott Benner 34:54
gonna say he's like, You know what I would love to argue with this woman for a couple more decades. Let me get into this. By the way, do you think she's and that people right now, can't even hear the words coming out of our mouth because they're so impressed that I figured out that you met him in a pub because you said the royal wedding. Yeah. I really impressed myself for a second.

Suzanne 35:19
Actually, let's be real. It wasn't a public was a country club. Because again, daddy was a member.

Scott Benner 35:30
A bar had a nicer place. I see. Yeah. push bar. And, and at that point, you're a she got married a little later, huh?

Suzanne 35:38
Well, we got married. I mean, we were only 23. But yeah, we got married pretty quick. I guess. Really?

Scott Benner 35:43
Okay. Wow. And you're still so you're still performing at that point when you're married? Yeah. So you traveled without him? Yeah. Did the indiscriminate sex stop then?

Suzanne 35:57
Would anybody other than him? Yeah.

Scott Benner 36:01
Would it be great if I got you to admit to cheating on your husband? 30 years ago, just now on a podcast because later you'd be like, I don't know why I did that.

Suzanne 36:10
No, I've always been faithful to my husband. It's lovely.

Scott Benner 36:12
I just think what do you tell your kids? When they know this is what you've done for a living? Their assumptions got to be there that you lived a fairly wild life. Like, are you able to tell your kids like like when you're 16 year old goes out? Can you say to him like don't smoke weed? Like you can't do that. Right? Like you're

Suzanne 36:32
No, no, we just said make sure you're in company and be careful.

Scott Benner 36:36
Okay. Because that was your your experience with it. Was that it? Yeah.

Suzanne 36:40
Actually, I didn't I I've never been a smoker. So I haven't Yeah, I actually have an edibles. Yeah, different matter. But no, I've never smoked because I worried more about my voice I suppose that I did about my pancreas.

Scott Benner 36:57
What was big then? Was it acid?

Suzanne 37:00
Everything every cocaine, cocaine was the biggest thing on the music scene.

Scott Benner 37:04
Okay. Interesting. Who is your favorite person to perform with? Rod Stewart? Who's the best singer? Me is very, very diplomatic.

Suzanne 37:22
I don't know. It's very difficult to say. Probably the best musician was Billy Joel.

Scott Benner 37:27
Okay. But the rod store stuff is just fun to sing. I would imagine

Suzanne 37:31
he but he was just the loveliest man. He's just the loveliest guy. Okay, we would play football. Soccer backstage. Before we went on, and everybody would would have we would all gather together and do a pre concert warm up and and it was just a big family atmosphere. There was no it was much less bitchiness and, and, and drama on his tours.

Scott Benner 37:56
Don't say the name out loud. But in your head. Who's the most famous person you've been intimate with? You have it?

Suzanne 38:03
Yeah. Okay. That's all. Yeah. Oh, my 16th birthday. Really?

Scott Benner 38:09
You'll tell me when we're done. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Girls. Yeah, yeah, girls, too. Yeah. I mean, why not write in for a pen? Absolutely.

Suzanne 38:25
I have no, yeah, no, I don't. I don't. It's it's, I don't know. Everything was just fun. Everything was fun, and free and easy. And it was the I mean, you know, I guess we had the liberation of the people from the 60s that passed on through into the 70s and the early 80s. And then, things became a lot more careful after the AIDS epidemic began

Scott Benner 38:49
right now. I remember, I was not. I mean, I was a child still in school. But yeah, I remember how that like hearing adults talk about it. Like, there was a way the world used to work and it was over now. Was Was, was the vibe.

Suzanne 39:05
Yeah. And it and it brought out a lot more homophobia. And

Scott Benner 39:13
I think racism too, right. It got Yeah, it got it got focused on blacks, too. And it was I remember it being really terrible for

Suzanne 39:20
it's pretty nasty. Well, yeah.

Scott Benner 39:24
Well, at least he got him before then.

Suzanne 39:26
Yeah, exactly. Right. I have my phone.

Scott Benner 39:28
The worst thing that happens is what something that takes a little penicillin, something like that. Back never never for you. Good for you. Good for you. tells you I was never stupid. Yeah, that's wonderful. So I didn't realize we were going to do all this. This is so much fun. I don't even give diabetes IVs we'll get back to it. No, but somebody told me the other day. They were listening to an after dark episode with the stripper. And she's like, it was like 45 minutes into it. And I thought, does this girl have diabetes? And she's like, I don't even care. And then we just, you know, she just kept listening. I thought that was just a wonderful thing to say that that the podcast is, is is entertaining for reasons that that aren't. Yeah, right.

Suzanne 40:19
I mean, yeah, diabetes is just a part of who I am. But it's not a defining characteristic. Yeah, I'd be naked on stage too, because I was in here.

Scott Benner 40:27
You were inherent. You know who was here? Oh, God, who am I thinking of? He's a Canadian. He has diabetes. He's older than you. Why can't I think of his name? He's been on the podcast now. People are like, Come on Scott. Victor Garber. Oh, right. Yeah. Victor Garber was on like, in the first couple years of the show. He's Canadian. left home very early at a really early age to perform, actually, yeah. And when he had type one, your stories are pretty interestingly similar. What was he in? Which was what was that big show? He was in Hold on a second. I got this. I got the internet.

He was in the Toronto production. Of Godspell. Gods. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. That's where he became famous first. Now young people are like great hair. Godspell. I don't know what any of this means. I know. Right? Yeah. But

Suzanne 41:36
I toured, I did tours Fantine in Les Mis before it went on to the Barbican in London.

Scott Benner 41:43
It was this more nepotism or by then had you like, really laid down? No,

Suzanne 41:47
I was known as being easy to work with, I think by then.

Scott Benner 41:52
If I Googled you, what would I find? You

Suzanne 41:55
know, because my stage name is not my real name. Okay. There are naked pictures of me out there. Scott. My children don't need to see that.

Scott Benner 42:03
I don't want to see those either. Not while I'm talking to you later, maybe later, but not now. We'll keep that for after the podcast as well. Well, I should start making it after the podcast list. I put an episode up recently were with a woman who was divorced. And she'd put up with a lot of things from her ex. And at the end, I said, Can I ask you a question? And then I'll and you can answer it. When the podcast is over. She was sure. And I said Did Did your ex husband just have a really big and then I just cut the audio off. But I never really finished the sentence. I just left it out there for people to wonder about. Because I couldn't understand why she was putting up with him otherwise, and and I'm trying to think of how to end the podcast with you. But I think you might say so many things. I won't be able to pick one. Is it? Do you feel younger now? Because of the experiences you've had in the past? Do you think?

Suzanne 42:58
Do I feel younger? When I get up in the morning, my body's not young my body creaks and cracks and moans and groans and I haven't placement yet, which is the youngest part of me. But my brain is no different. I don't feel any older. I wonder why people gave me all these responsibilities I have now I don't really understand where they came from. But I I think I am by nature. I'm very enthusiastic about everything. And I think that that keeps you young.

Scott Benner 43:30
Yeah, I mean, you can hear in your voice like you. You're You're telling me stories like you're 20 years old. And yes, yes. I feel the same way. I in my mind. I don't know how old I am. No, me

Suzanne 43:41
neither. But I'm certainly not 60 I walked towards a mirror and I'm like, Oh my God, there's my mother. And I'm like, oh, no, that's neat.

Scott Benner 43:50
I enjoy if I lay in bed in the same position too long, and then I decide to roll over I have to will myself to do it. That's my favorite part of being older so far. Like, my back getting stiff for just reasons that seem incomprehensible. You know? That's something else. So when did you so when you switched over to pumping? You're saying just a few years ago,

Suzanne 44:15
a year ago? A year and a half ago,

Scott Benner 44:18
I guess what made you do that?

Suzanne 44:20
Um, well, I was doing really well on in on the injections and I thought if it ain't broke, don't fix it as always been my kind of mentality. And then I thought but try it. So Alberta have a pump program where they pay for your pump. We have we have pretty good health care here. Um, a lot of things are covered, but a lot of things aren't covered so you have to pay for your own insulin and things like that. So I mean, you know, we've got insurance. It's not the best insurance in the world but it's pretty good but a bottle of insulin here of I use Nova rapid nine And a bottle of Nova rapid is like $35. Okay? So it's not nothing's terribly expensive. But I thought, yeah, I think I'm gonna try the pump. Now we have horses, so I ride horses. And so I didn't want tubing, I've got dogs and horses and grandchildren. And so I didn't want tubing. So I went for the Omnipod. Okay. And I also wasn't terribly interested in looping anyway, which is why I didn't go on to the depths calm, I am too much of a control freak to let a piece of computer technology managed my life for me.

Scott Benner 45:39
That's a fair statement, I would rebut by sending you Arden's last 12 hours on our graph. But

Suzanne 45:46
if I was a child, I think it would be very different than I think if I was younger, and I hadn't had all these years of thinking about my diabetes, these last 30 years of thinking about what everything is, I think it would be very different. But I don't know, that is such a large part of my daily existence that I was a little reluctant to give that up. Funnily enough, is it

Scott Benner 46:09
that you just do it now without having to think or that

Suzanne 46:13
I eat? Yes, I don't really think about it. I look at a plate of food, or I fight I think about what I'm cooking, and I go, Okay, I need this much insulin, 20 minutes before I eat it bang done. So I don't really think about it. But I also don't really want to give that control up. Do you know why? To do I just I think I'm a bit of a control freak. And I think if I didn't have that, I'd start over controlling everybody else.

Scott Benner 46:43
But the dogs would have to learn how to walk on their hind legs, because you'd be bored. Yeah, yeah, no, no, I take your point. Like, and I'm not. I'm certainly not saying you should or you shouldn't. I'm just interested in in why you say that. So

Suzanne 46:56
yeah. Am I against it, per se? No. And certainly, as I get older, and maybe if things start to get more difficult, I might look into it. But the the thing, the other thing is, it's almost a way to convince myself that I don't need a Dexcom I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. You know, it would be hard for me to get a Dexcom because I got a letter from a doctor, letter of medic or whatnot, you know, similar type of thing of the medical necessity. And Dexcom still refuse me I would my insurance companies still refuse me. And also, I would reach the maximum on my insurance payout pretty quickly. Okay, so exactly what I would do if the pump program here started to include CGM ins, I'm not sure. I think Libra is the best thing since sliced bread. So I probably love it. But I am not going to stress over any of it.

Scott Benner 47:50
Okay. Do you give a lot of time to thinking about when you're older? Like you're being able to see meters being able to like articulate with your hands and things like that? No. Okay.

Suzanne 48:05
Not really. I mean, occasionally, I do think, I mean, dementia is more common in in diabetics, right. So I do worry a little bit about that. But, but then I decide that that's a waste of my time, so I stopped worrying about it.

Scott Benner 48:22
So it's just gonna happen when it happens. And then you'll Yeah, I'm pretty optimistic by nature. Yeah. So you're gonna have to just adjust it and you're you are still married? Is that right? Yes. Yeah. Are you? Does he have much? You know, I asked him this question. I didn't know the answer to it. But I was gonna ask how much he helps you with your diabetes, but I'm guessing the answer is not at all.

Suzanne 48:44
Certainly not very much. No. I mean, he would if I asked him, and he's really good. If I may say to him, sugar levels are running low. And he'll go and grab me something if I'm doing something else. So he and there are a couple of times when I haven't necessarily pick it up and he'll go check your blood sugar and it will you so it's just a part of our life, but it's not something that he does know. Sometimes if I want to put my pump on my back, he puts it on for me. So yeah, seems like that.

Scott Benner 49:14
But you're on your own pretty much bite by choice. Yes. Okay. Would you mind if we pivoted to your daughter for a second? The light is the is it? How do they pronounce it? It airs.

Suzanne 49:28
Here's a news I think we say Ehlers in the UK and you say ailleurs, e h l e r s Danlos Syndrome.

Scott Benner 49:39
And that's a connective tissue issue, right? Yes, but mainly, mainly about skin.

Suzanne 49:46
No, hers isn't hers is vascular.

Scott Benner 49:50
Okay, how does that impact your life?

Suzanne 49:53
Um, she could die of an aortic aneurysm.

Scott Benner 49:56
So we can veins, arteries, that kind of stuff.

Suzanne 49:59
You Yes There go the dog sorry. Yes she could she we can veins are a part of it. She has a scan every six months to make sure that there are no bulges anywhere that needs to be treated.

Scott Benner 50:11
And is that what happens? They look for stuff and then they go reinforce it.

Suzanne 50:16
They'll look for stuff and then they'll if they can they'll they'll repair it.

Scott Benner 50:19
Has that happened to her yet? Not yet. Okay, how young was she

Suzanne 50:24
when you guys have permanent distribution does have constant dislocations?

Scott Benner 50:29
Her joints dislocate. Yeah, hypermobility? Yeah. How old was she when you figured this out about her?

Suzanne 50:36
She was diagnosed at 13. But we just thought she was clumsy because she was always hurting something and she got a lot of fractures, which we later come to find out or avulsion fractures because the tendon or the ligament have ripped off a little piece of the

Scott Benner 50:55
bone bone. Is that? I mean, you joked earlier about the gene pool. But is that stopping her from thinking about children?

Suzanne 51:06
She will not likely be able to have children naturally anyway, because of the weakness of the vessels. I doubt the uterus would die the baby or even Meredith would survive it. No, I don't think it's very likely.

Scott Benner 51:22
I say Is she married? No, no. She's

Suzanne 51:27
She's 22. And currently living her own wildlife is a groom.

Scott Benner 51:32
And you said groom so she was explained that to me is that she works in horses. Okay, so she's a she, she prepares them, grooms them keeps them how she rides as well. Yeah. Do you know, I know a man who does the dental work on horses?

Suzanne 51:47
I don't know, right? Yeah, we our horses get their teeth done every year.

Scott Benner 51:51
I don't know what it's called.

Suzanne 51:53
I just coined dentistry.

Scott Benner 51:56
So my son, you know, is a baseball player his whole life. And, you know, there's kids that you play with, and they come and go, and then they're back again. And so you know, eventually you meet people that you just see over and over again over decades. And one day, I was just talking to this guy who I'd known forever and I was like, what do you do for a living? He's like, I work on horses teeth. And I was like, why? I was. It was just endlessly fascinated by he files them and I'm like, how do you? You know? So now I'm like, he's a nice guy, but he's a real normal average guy. And

Suzanne 52:26
well, he'll be halfway up a horse's mind for the Black and Decker drill.

Scott Benner 52:30
I'm trying to figure out like, you know, did you Sorry, don't be so

Suzanne 52:39
hang on, give me a second your thing okay, they're gonna bark for that because someone's come to clean out the dog pen.

Scott Benner 53:00
Well, I'll say this and probably just trim out them barking later. So this this gentleman that I know like I asked him you know, what did you like go to school to learn this? You know? And it turns out it was a blue collar thing that he picked up. Like it was just a job that he worked with somebody else when he was younger, and he learned how to do it. He's no special degree or anything. And I thought oh, that's That's insane. It's very cool. He seems very happy doing it as well.

Suzanne 53:24
Oh, yeah. I mean, we use a vet. We don't use a dentist we use a vet but but I know people who do use an equine dentist

Scott Benner 53:34
you know we can wait a minute Susanna for one. So yeah, I'm really sorry. Don't be sorry.

Suzanne 53:39
Somebody comes on a Thursday. Normally they come in the afternoon.

Scott Benner 53:44
But not today. Thanks. Okay. Don't worry. We can chill out for a second. Your life seems lovely.

Suzanne 53:51
It is. My life is wonderful. My life has always been wonderful and continues to be wonderful. I am very very lucky.

Scott Benner 53:59
Were you able to pass this kind of free nature on to your kids?

Suzanne 54:03
One of them a little bit my son is much more like me. They're both an odd mix I suppose of myself and my husband my husband is is tends to be more serious and studious than I am

I'm just gonna go and shut them up okay

Scott Benner 54:24
don't like the lady. The lady looks pissed we'll stop well I was gonna say like your husband couldn't be like your you would not successfully have raised children or bought a home. So

Suzanne 54:36
this is this is true, although honest, I think is quite a he's quite optimistic too. But I am very much on the art side of things and he is an engineer chemical engineer who paints own artistic bent but he is much steady or I guess,

Scott Benner 55:01
yeah, Kelly's the one who's like more. Like, I don't know if serious is the right word, but she's very. She's studious. And yeah. And a hard worker. Like if you I don't care what kind of business you have you hire my wife, your lover. You know what I mean? Like she she works. She knows what she's supposed to do. She doesn't really well, she doesn't ask for help. She gets it done. She takes it seriously. Like, it's her own job. Like it's her own life that she's doing. You know, it's and, and I'm more like the one who's like, oh, it's nice out today, we should scrap all of our plans and do something that nice weather says to do? Yeah,

Suzanne 55:35
that's me. I'm very, I suppose spontaneous. Disorganized would be another way to call it. Name it. But But yeah, I think that we've complemented each other fairly well raising children. But, you know, if you want to know some more interesting facts about me, my husband actually is gay came out as gay 20 years ago, and him and his partner live in the basement of the house and I live in the upstairs of my house. Wait

Scott Benner 56:01
a minute. Wait, hold on. Okay. Really? Your children are obviously aware of this. Absolutely. Okay. And you. All right. Hold on. Do you date?

Suzanne 56:17
I have done Yes. I'm not dating currently. But I certainly have done in the past. Yes.

Scott Benner 56:24
That and so why did you guys decide to stay in the same house

Suzanne 56:29
is we still had a daughter to race together when we moved here. So we moved here from the UK. And everything was fine. And I thought everything in the garden was rosy. And we got here in the February. And in the end of March, I found out work out my husband was gay. And a week later, my daughter developed leukemia. So by the time I stopped to think about Alastair being gay, I had that initial oh my god, oh my God, oh, my God. And then the OH MY GOD moved on because my daughter was very, very sick. So by the time I stopped and thought about it all, we were still raising a child together. And he was doing him and I was really just raising the children at that point. And so we decided that he I am no longer in love with him, but I still love him. He is my best friend.

Scott Benner 57:28
So you weren't? Obviously you're not angry with him for feeling the way he feels. But it's it's shocking to you and you can't possibly

Suzanne 57:34
be angry at the way he feels because it's not the way he feels. It's who he is. Yeah, he can't choose this. It is the way he is genetically gay. It is in his makeup. And we had a great a great relationship up until he came out. We had a bit of a rocky road there for a little while. And now we are good again. So he is still my helpmeet.

Scott Benner 57:58
And I'm sorry, the Leukemia is the same daughter we were talking about earlier. In that that she she got through.

Suzanne 58:07
Yes, but only just we were told to pick. We were told to plan her funeral.

Scott Benner 58:13
No kidding. When she was just a couple years old. She was two and then again, free. Yeah. Oh my god. Sorry, no, don't be sorry.

Suzanne 58:27
Yeah, so she she was Yeah, so she she got through that and she's, she's a tough cookie. She really is a tough cookie. I imagine. She really really is. She's an incredible kid. She actually got into read Neurosciences at Calvary university, but decided that one her body would still support her. She wanted to run wild for a little while, and then she'll come back and go to university when her body starts to break down a bit more.

Scott Benner 58:56
Listen, you need to apologize for nothing except for waiting 54 minutes to bring up that your husband came out like that far into your marriage. The only thing you need to have all you should have what? When I said introduce yourself, you should have said, Hey, I'm Susanna. I have diabetes, and my husband came out. That's how that should have gone. But other than that, I'm good. Wow. And everyone should be proud of me. When Suzanne said she was busy raising the babies while Aleister was I thought raising penises but I did not say it out loud.

Suzanne 59:28
That's not true. He's a good dad. Wasn't and he is. He's an amazing dad and he's always been there for the children. But he has my daughter for a while called him the penny because he kept turning up in other men's pockets.

Scott Benner 59:42
Oh my goodness, you have a varied lifestyle. This is really something there's a book in you like you should be a movie or a mini

Suzanne 59:51
right? No one will believe it. Scott. I've said that many times before. If I wrote a book about my life, nobody would believe it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:57
that's true. I there's a portion Have my extended family that I once thought I should turn into a sitcom. And I just thought people would think it was ham fisted if I wrote it down, they just think like that's not people don't live like that. That's he's making this up. So

Suzanne 1:00:12
no, no, we genuinely sit around the dinner table never be burst into song because somebody said something. And I didn't know we're pretty. We're pretty crazy lot. So

Scott Benner 1:00:22
that's wonderful. I just because we're up on an hour. Is there anything I didn't ask you about that you wanted me to? I can't imagine there's something we left out. But if there is I want to know.

Suzanne 1:00:33
I don't think so. I guess I didn't talk much about diabetes, did I but it is a back. It's takes a backseat in my life. It's not front and foremost in my mind all the time. I am aware of it. It floats around in the back of my head all the time. Wherever I am, it is always and I will flat a panic if I don't have insulin and a blood testing kit with me.

Scott Benner 1:00:55
Okay, you're just you trained in a very modern way now.

Suzanne 1:01:00
Yes, but I Yes. So ever since I've been able to test my blood, which again, was about the 80s I believe. I have carried a blood glucose monitor of some sort, and testing strips and all the rest of it. And now I have the libre, which isn't a CGM. I realize that, but it's, but it's a similar type of technology, I suppose. And I have the pump. But I don't leave home without everything ready to replace it?

Scott Benner 1:01:33
Yeah. How did you find me? How are we talking?

Suzanne 1:01:38
How did I find you on the internet. Um, I actually I listened to a podcast. And I typed in on my apple podcast app thing. I typed in looking for things about diabetes, wondering if there was anything. And it was random at the time that I find out that my kidneys weren't doing quite as well. Um, that I started looking into various different forums, I suppose to begin with. And then I had pneumonia and my sugar levels were all over the place. And once I got rid of the pneumonia, I couldn't sort out my sugar levels again, I couldn't stabilize everything. And that was when I hit on the podcast, and the whole bowl with insulin thing and, you know, the whole everything sort of started to slop together. And I got back on track again.

Scott Benner 1:02:37
I'm glad. I mean, as you were talking earlier, like you said you didn't talk much about diabetes, but in my opinion, you did. I think, I think what we heard was, you know, you were diagnosed at a really young age before, you know, much treatment was really honestly available day to day. Yeah, that you went out you let an interesting, active life. You know, you met people had children got married, phallic rosin, was gay bought dogs rode horses. Like I think that's the kind of stuff people need to hear that you can do all that stuff with diabetes, like, there are plenty of people who are worried that not just you know, all of those things aren't possible. They think one of those things is impossible. So

Suzanne 1:03:18
hasn't stopped me doing anything I've wanted to do.

Scott Benner 1:03:21
Doesn't sound like it. But I just wondered, because, I mean, you sound like you're doing so well. Like I didn't imagine you would you would need like something like this. So, but you did find like the way I talked about diabetes to be valuable, kind of like straighten your back up again. You're saying?

Suzanne 1:03:39
Yeah, well, it got me back on track again. Because it's sometimes you do get, I suppose that's probably the closest I came to a diabetic burnout, which I hear about all the time. And I didn't think I'd ever had but looking back on it. Maybe I did, maybe this fighting constantly with blood sugar was was just getting exhausting. And I was like, it was like I was constantly correcting. Okay. And so that was when I thought about the whole thing and stuff and thinking about pumps and all the rest of it. And just thought, you know, yeah, I got a, I'm getting older. And so it's, I would say as I've got older, my diabetes has got a little more brittle. In a way. I think my responses are quicker and slower. So my responses to food are quicker. My responses to insulin are slower, maybe. So if I I am not particularly careful about what I eat, but if I step too far off that trail, I will pay for it. And I don't enjoy that feeling. I enjoy feeling well.

Scott Benner 1:04:46
Right. So what do you need to do now? Like are you Pre-Bolus ng longer?

Suzanne 1:04:52
Um, I use a lot of a you I always Pre-Bolus Anyway, but I use a lot of extended bonuses. Okay. Alright, um, yeah. And I, I didn't take a huge amount of insulin. I don't think I fill my pump every three days with 100 units.

Scott Benner 1:05:15
That's a I mean, that's 30 Some units a day. So yeah, yeah. I mean, what is that? What is your Basal like point seven?

Suzanne 1:05:25
Yeah, varies between point five, five at night to the highest is point eight first thing in the morning. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:05:32
Wow. All right sounds like you're doing great. I also don't think of it as using a lot of insulin or a little bit of insulin, I just think of it as using whatever amount of insulin you need. So

Suzanne 1:05:40
yeah, exactly. And I don't really care too much about about what I need. And if I'm sick, my insulin goes through the roof. I mean, I will literally use eight to 10 times more insulin. Gotcha. Okay, so if I, if I do get sick, I don't use the pump.

Scott Benner 1:05:56
Do you switch back? Yeah. Have you ever done what they call untethered? Like,

Suzanne 1:06:03
I, I've thought about it, but I don't need it. So. And I prefer, I suppose to what I what I what I do when I'm sick is actually I do leave, I leave the pump on. And I leave the pump running on what I've got as my sickness, basil, which is like two units an hour. And then I dose on top of that.

Scott Benner 1:06:27
It sounds like you've got a lot together. I was just surprised that you found me because I mean, not because your age, although it makes it a little more unlikely. But just because it didn't seem like you would have needed this. But it's really cool that it that you found it and that it was of any value to you at all. I'm

Suzanne 1:06:43
sure there's a difference between need and want. Okay, yeah. No. Like, it's nice to know there's a community out there. I don't have any friends who are type one diabetic at all. Gotcha. So I just, it's nice to know that you're not the only one because people don't understand me. Now. I'm sounding like, Oh my God. There we go. There we go. Everything is awful. And it isn't. But it is different. And it is a part of your life that you have to take care of. And sometimes it's nice to know somebody who understands the words hypo Bolus?

Scott Benner 1:07:20
No, I agree. I really do. I also think that's why like conversations like this one are some of my favorite because I think we both didn't speak about diabetes and only spoke about diabetes. Somebody asked me recently. I don't know, they the way they said it was like, you know, what, what's it like making a diabetes podcast? And I said, I don't really think of it is a diabetes podcast. I think of it as a podcast, where I mostly talk to people who have diabetes. And I don't Yeah, and I don't know that, that most people would see a difference in that, but I see a huge difference in

Suzanne 1:07:53
it. Yeah, so I am a diet. Like, I've always said, I am a diabetic, but it is not a defining characteristic,

Scott Benner 1:08:00
ya know, that's how I see this whole thing. So all right, well, I can't thank you enough for doing this. And for having such a great life and telling us about it. And being Yeah, you were demure in places you wouldn't say who the best thing or was, although I know someone popped in your head. And yeah, and I was demure and didn't ask you about the most famous person you had sex with, although I am going to stop this recording and ask you immediately. And then I'll spend my afternoon trying to find those nude pictures of you, and then I'll get on with my life. That'll be pretty much No, but seriously, I really appreciate you doing this and taking the time out of your day. It was it was

Suzanne 1:08:39
Thank you. I appreciate everything you do. You're out there for people. And it's a great thing, Scott. It's my pleasure.

Scott Benner 1:08:52
A huge thanks to Suzanne and Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor dexcom.com forward slash juice box Get started today. I also want to remind you to go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box get started with automated insulin delivery with that on the pod five, or check out the Omni pod dash and see if you're eligible for a free 30 day trial. When you visit the sponsors, including Omni pod Dexcom, and all the rest, if you do it from juicebox podcast.com and use my links or use the links in your audio app. Well, then they know you came from me. And that really helps. So thank you. Many of the series within the podcasts a lot of the management stuff is located in your podcast player, right? But if you're looking for lists of them, or you'd like to be able to listen to them online, you can do that at juicebox podcast.com, or more specifically, diabetes pro tip.com. Since this is a shorter episode, I thought I would leave you with a couple of minutes I'm Susanna ly trying to get set up for the recording. I don't know why, but I found it delightful. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast

Okay, do you have headphones?

Suzanne 1:10:18
Um, I do somewhere. Um, I don't to be truthful I hate them though do I have to use them?

Scott Benner 1:10:25
Well if you hate them so here's the problem is that you're going to when you're just speaking into the end of your iPad, which is basically what you're doing you are you're going to change distances from the microphone without realizing it your your voice is going to get softer and louder. We're also going to hear room noise and the hollowness of your room which is not something you're accustomed to worrying about but I think about Yeah, can we try it to see what it sounds like?

Suzanne 1:10:55
Yes, hold on a moment because I have to find something

Scott Benner 1:10:57
you go ahead Thank you

Suzanne 1:11:51
Okay, so I find the box that should contain them

Scott Benner 1:11:56
that doesn't sound promising.

Suzanne 1:11:57
No, it doesn't does it? You okay wire but

Scott Benner 1:12:32
you didn't fall, did you?

Suzanne 1:12:36
You know what, I genuinely can't find them. Scott.

Scott Benner 1:12:38
That's okay. Well, we'll just show sorry. I'll be sorry. We'll get you close to it and be a little bit cognizant about not tapping your feet or moving around stuff like that. That's okay. Right. Okay. Yes, I'm not wasting your accent. We're doing this, don't you? Were

Suzanne 1:13:00
we talking about I've been in Canada for 20 years.

Scott Benner 1:13:03
Sure. You sound like Wayne Gretzky.

Oh my gosh. So here's how this goes right you introduce yourself anyway you want to be known. And don't feel pressure to use your last name. Don't feel pressure to say specific places where you live where you do things or use people's names if you don't want to, you know, if you're going to talk about someone in your life, you can refer to them as your mom or your partner. You don't have to say you know Jim and bill or whatever. So, you know, after that just introduce yourself and we'll start talking. Okay, are we ready? I'm always ready. I've been recording the whole time you've been bouncing around your room looking for those. I'm so sorry. My dogs don't bark. I have to tell right now all that's going at the end of the episode. You just buried with no explanation. It's just gonna run at the end. It's gonna go straight in there. Fair enough. I get it. Okay, so

#741 Bolusing in Bucharest

Sergiu is the father of a young type 1.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 741 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Sergio was on the show today he is the father of a young child living with type one diabetes. And he's here to share his story with us. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. Let me take this opportunity to ask you to go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and fill out the survey. Every completed survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box benefits people living with type one diabetes. It also helps the podcast the T one D exchange is looking for surveys from US residents who have type one diabetes, or who are the caregiver of someone with type one. This is completely HIPAA compliant. Absolutely anonymous will take fewer than 10 minutes and helps everybody including you t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. It's a great way to be involved in type one research right from your sofa.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes, please go to in pen today.com. To learn more and get started today with Ian pen. The podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one go to touched by type one.org. To learn more about my favorite diabetes charity. The podcast is also sponsored by us med. US med is the place where we get Ardens diabetes supplies, and you could to go to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check from us med

Sergui 2:16
I in surgery. I am a 33 years old and I am the father of Stefan, who is almost four years old. And he's been he's been a diabetic since the age of two years old.

Scott Benner 2:32
Since he's almost How old is that? fine now?

Sergui 2:36
His birthday is on the second of March. And he was diagnosed in 2018. In November, just a few months before his birthday.

Scott Benner 2:48
So he's coming up on four years with diabetes.

Sergui 2:51
Yes. to two years, two years with diabetes

Scott Benner 2:55
two years. And how old is he?

Sergui 2:58
He's almost four years old. In one month, he will be 404 years old. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 3:04
Wow. Well, that's pretty young to be diagnosed. That's for sure. Yes, you know, I just reached out to a person today to try to get someone on the show whose five month old has diabetes. And that seemed crazy to me. So hopefully she'll be able to come on and talk about it. But where do you live?

Sergui 3:27
We are living in Bucharest, Romania, in Eastern Europe.

Scott Benner 3:32
Is that where you're from originally? Yes.

Sergui 3:35
My parents are from Bucharest and like, I'm also living here.

Scott Benner 3:40
Is there any history of autoimmune in your family?

Sergui 3:46
After Stefan was diagnosed, I research this because also the doctors at the hospital were were asking this if anybody in the family has diabetes, and nobody has diabetes type one but my mother she's she has Hashimotos she has an autoimmune disease with her thyroid

Scott Benner 4:10
associated, your mom has Hashimotos Your son has type one you couldn't find anything else like celiac or

Sergui 4:17
not, that I know of. And I don't think anyone has anything else because they they all lived long lives and

Scott Benner 4:30
it's a must have been a shock. That's for sure. Yes, yeah. So how did you figure out that Stefan had diabetes?

Sergui 4:41
I knew the symptoms of diabetes, but I didn't know what diabetes means. I didn't know that it was such a horrible disease and that you must take care of it your whole life. I knew that if somebody has to go to the bathroom a lot and they're thirsty most of the time they even I must have diabetes. And I went to his doctor and I requested some kind of analysis that could indicate to us if he has diabetes.

Scott Benner 5:15
Do you know what they did to check?

Sergui 5:17
More we made them they they were they weren't so concerned about this and they said we should go to a laboratory and they will take some blood. And we did this and we went home. They went to sleep my my wife and Stefan. And during that night, they they started calling from the blood laboratory, because they found out the result and it was around 600 milligram milligrams per deciliter.

Scott Benner 5:50
They they have you come right to a hospital.

Sergui 5:53
We they told us to call an ambulance and the ambulance picked my son up and they went to the hospital that is specialized, specialized in diabetes. And he was put on IV immediately with glucose and insulin, and he was stabilized in the next few days.

Scott Benner 6:17
Okay. Do you have any other children? No, no. How old? Are you?

Sergui 6:24
33 years old. 33.

Scott Benner 6:25
So you were just in your early? You were just 3031 when he was diagnosed?

Sergui 6:31
Yes, a few days after my birthday.

Scott Benner 6:37
Thank you. That's, that's insane. So how long does he stay in the hospital for?

Sergui 6:47
Usually, one has to stay around one week in order to learn the main principles of diabetes in order in order to learn how to Bolus how to take some big blood from the fingers. But they they stayed around 10 days because they wanted to learn more my wife and my son

Scott Benner 7:12
is that how does the health insurance work for you? Is that Is that something you pay for? From your own money? Do you have insurance? Does the state pay for it? How does it go?

Sergui 7:21
In Romania? Everyone who is employed has universal health health insurance. Okay. You're you pay for from your salary. The taxes are automatically collected and you are insured, I think and people who are not employed such as miners and students, they are also covered by the universal health care system. And this is a very, very good thing.

Scott Benner 7:52
Okay, good. That's wonderful. So who's not covered? people of working age who aren't employed? Where are they?

Sergui 8:00
Yes. Okay. Yes, people who are not employed, but if they pay their taxes, they can be insured. And how about the elderly? They're also insured that's based on because they have a pension and they they're automatically insured. Yes.

Scott Benner 8:17
So how does how do they set you up? For management? Are you using insulin pens, needles, they give you a pump? How do they think about it?

Sergui 8:30
They gave us a tense novel rapid tense and they put us to put us on fast acting insulin and low slow acting insulin. Let me let me run de novo rapid

Scott Benner 8:45
and just a meter to test with.

Sergui 8:47
Yes, the meter you you also use the Contour Next One meter.

Scott Benner 8:53
Wow. Wonderful. I'm glad it's getting around. So how did you find I mean, two years old, he couldn't have weighed much, right?

Sergui 9:04
Yes, I think it was around 13 or 14 kilograms.

Scott Benner 9:09
Gotcha. I'm going to do my little math here. So you come home, no real idea about this. Although they your wife and your son stayed longer to learn more. Who takes on the responsibility? Is it your wife or do you share it?

Sergui 9:35
My My wife was staying with him. At the time she was at home and she continued to stay with him and during the day she she was managing his diabetes and in the evenings and during the weekends I I took on this job.

Scott Benner 9:52
Okay to give her a break.

Sergui 9:54
Yes, yeah. And during my hospital stay, I spoke with a doctor and they told me that we could apply for a pump. After six months. This this was the this is the legal requirement after six months of diabetes, you can apply for a free pump and free sensor from the state. And the only supplier of such things is Medtronic.

Scott Benner 10:23
Right? Did you apply?

Sergui 10:27
No, because I knew that this that pump with a wire would be difficult for him since he was he was only a toddler. I joined a local Facebook group regarding diabetes, and I found out that there were other options. But these were not these were not paid by by our insurance, because they're not officially in our country.

Scott Benner 10:58
I see. So there are Dexcom and Omnipod. But yes, were you able to obtain them.

Sergui 11:06
I managed to obtain first the sensors. Because the doctor told us that we would first buy Medtronic sensors and afterwards they will be paid by the state. But they were very expensive and that the Tronic transmitters were very expensive. And also the sensors and I I also found out that they were not so not so reliable as Dexcom once, so I decided to buy Dexcom G SIX sensors.

Scott Benner 11:38
So are you I mean, how are you on E

Sergui 11:41
we used the blood glucose meter for only two months. And afterwards we we move to switch to the we moved on to the glucose sensors.

Scott Benner 11:53
Is that a burden for you financially?

Sergui 11:59
It is because I know I could I can obtain the Medtronic sensors and but they're not they're not so not so reliable. And I can I can look within and that's another reason i i cannot use them.

Scott Benner 12:19
Okay. Well, I mean, that's fascinating that you were able to find them. Do you mean? Do you get them through the internet? You have to travel to get them? How do you obtain them? I mean, you don't have to be super specific, but I'm just interested in how you're able to do that.

Sergui 12:33
We get them from another country. There are also some local suppliers, but they are more expensive. So it's cheaper to get them from abroad. And even even if we have to pay shipping, it's it's cheaper than buying them in Romania. I understand.

Scott Benner 12:50
Wow. That's something how is how's your son doing?

Sergui 12:57
He's doing fine. Yes, we were looking with Omnipod and Dexcom. And he has a GMI. I don't know what GMI stands for. But that approximation of in the clarity that

Scott Benner 13:20
we have a calling glucose management indicator.

Sergui 13:23
Yeah, he has GMI of 6.2 for the last 90 days. The standard deviation is about 50 milligrams per deciliter. Yeah. He has no eating restrictions.

Scott Benner 13:38
doing terrific. That's really wonderful.

Sergui 13:41
We have spikes because we never know how much he's going to eat. And one day he will eat a lot of one thing and the next day will he'll eat less. So I always Pre-Bolus. But I sometimes get it wrong.

Scott Benner 13:58
Yeah, me too. I sometimes get it wrong, too. I think everyone sometimes gets it wrong. How do you find yourself talking to me?

Sergui 14:11
I found your podcast in 2020. During the COVID pandemic, I started listening to it. But somehow I didn't think it was right for me because your podcast is in general, American oriented. And I couldn't get all of the inside jokes all of the manner of speaking

Scott Benner 14:42
Yeah, my stupidity doesn't translate well. No.

Sergui 14:46
No, but but I didn't have all the tools and all of the knowledge and it I was still in my infancy regarding diabetes and I left it and then a more unsurpassed. And I understood some things by myself and I really approached your podcast and I understood that what you're doing is universally Correct. Regarding

Scott Benner 15:16
diabetes in apply if you're using insulin.

Sergui 15:19
Yeah, it applies to everyone in the world. Wow, that's

Scott Benner 15:23
so I'm, I'm really grateful. How did you But initially, how do you find it? Are you searching on the internet or somebody tells you about it? Yeah,

Sergui 15:30
I was searching on the internet. Things about diabetes tools, I joined the main groups CGM in the cloud looped. I started reading about loop I had, I acquired the pumps in the first trimester of 2020. But we didn't use the pumps because we had to go to a hospital. And it was very difficult during that time, and we said we should wait more in order to see what's happening, because most of the hospitals were, were busy with school with them. We couldn't find the right time to go there.

Scott Benner 16:15
It's hard to want to go to a hospital during during COVID If you don't have COVID. I think that's a that's universal as well, we're actually seeing in America now that people were putting off other health issues. And so a lot of the a lot of the traffic that we're seeing at hospitals right now is for things that people were just waiting on, because they didn't want to go in right away. So I think that's a fairly common decision. How long has your How long is your son been wearing a pump at this point?

Sergui 16:47
I think it's almost one year in 2021. In January, we went to this doctor and they helped us put the few the the first pumps. And afterwards we, we were doing insulin therapy with a pump. And when I was growing impatient because I didn't like to wake up during the night and go to the Biddy and Beau's or stop the basals. So one day I took his phone I installed looked and I told my wife that from now on, we will be using this software, this algorithm,

Scott Benner 17:34
did you have the technical know how was it not much trouble for you to make the loop app and and put it on your phone?

Sergui 17:41
It wasn't that difficult because the documentation is really well well written. And I was able to follow the steps. And I read about the problem that might arise on the group. So it wasn't that difficult. It was difficult. It was difficult to to persuade my wife that this is the right way to go.

Scott Benner 18:03
Because it's something you got off the internet or because or because your three year old a cell phone

Sergui 18:12
he was already using the iPhone because we don't have a CGM receiver, we were using the iPhone as a as a receiver for the Dexcom. But she she she was not very happy because she didn't. She didn't read the documentation she hadn't time hadn't had the time to prepare to, to see what what what loop is and how, how one is supposed to use it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:41
it's a leap to do when you first find it, it's a leap for sure to trust something that you're just, I mean, I feel like I always have to put in the episodes in case people don't understand that loop is a do it yourself. algorithm. And it's just it exists online, you can just download it and use it it was written by people who have diabetes or love somebody who has diabetes, it's not it's not produced by a company. And it hasn't been any through at through any testing with the FDA here in America or any other body, you know, around the world. So you're, you're jumping in on faith, but it does work really well. And if you could figure out how to how to create that app and get it on your phone. You know, it's really just, there's nothing like it so far that I've seen I have a lot of hope from the pod five. We just just they just discussed it on the show four days ago as it was cleared by the FDA. But in a loop so loops are a lifesaver for sure. I'm fascinated that all of that stuff makes it to Europe because it's not sold there or is it sold some places but not in Romania. So um the politics is some places in your part of the world.

Sergui 19:54
Yes. Omnipod is present in all of the Western European countries, the developed countries Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Nordic countries in the UK, but not in, but not in all of Eastern Europe. Okay, that also applies to Dexcom. In the meantime, since I've written the email to you, I've seen that Dexcom has launched a new service in Eastern Europe called Dexcom, Dexcom. One, and they sell Dexcom G SIX sensors at a cheaper price the app is not so it doesn't have all of the options as the main as the normal Dexcom G six app, you don't have followers. But you can look with the sensors, and they have the same precision. So that's all all you need. Would

Scott Benner 20:51
you if you will, but you would like that other functionality. I imagine the followers and no, not

Sergui 20:56
really, I wouldn't be very happy if they all they also launched the service in Romania. Okay. Oh, neighbors in the south, Bulgaria, they, they got this new service, and they are officially supported by Dexcom. They could they can go to the app store and download the Dexcom G six app, or the Dexcom. One app, and they can buy locally, the sensors. This is great.

Scott Benner 21:23
Yeah. I mean, perhaps it's, I've never spoken to them about it. But maybe it's spreading, maybe they're finding a way to move it around the world, which is incredibly needed. You know, just

Sergui 21:34
people because people are already buying in Romania, Dexcom sensors. And if Dexcom were to come, they could also participate in the state public tenders, they could sell to the state sensors, because the state of the we have a National diabetes Program. And the only supplier we have is Medtronic.

Scott Benner 21:57
Yeah, well, Medtronic is a it's a huge company. So they I think I mean, if I'm guessing they can absorb the cost easier of spreading the product out, whereas smaller companies might have a little bit of trouble with that overhead. As you're expanding. I mean, I'm guessing I don't really know. Maybe I'll ask them some time to really talk about the process and, and how they get into new areas. It's a it's really funny, because you really are being in Romania, you're sort of just right in the middle of Eastern Europe, right. You're or you're not landless. But

Sergui 22:32
you're No, no, no, we're we are not landlocked, we have access to the Black Sea. And we are surrounded by countries that seem to have one of these two suppliers, either Dexcom or Omnipod. And I don't understand why they're not coming here, because there is a huge demand for their products. Okay. I'll tell you what I like to use them.

Scott Benner 22:53
The next time I speak to somebody, I'll bring it up, and, and see if I can, I mean, I'm not saying I'm talking right to the top, but I'll put it in somebody's head that they're missing. They're missing a country in the middle of a place where they they're pretty much covered otherwise. So I mean, there's got to be some, you have to imagine if they're everywhere else around you, there's got to be something that's holding them back that is out of their control, you wouldn't imagine that they would just skip one country in the area, you know, after find out so we can figure out this. It's interesting.

Sergui 23:25
I mean, the products are being sold here by third party suppliers by the Dexcom and Omnipod. They are not officially present here. I cannot go to the Romanian app store and download the app, I have to register on a different country in order to download the app. I mean, the products are here, but they're not officially here. And that's the problem.

Scott Benner 23:45
Yeah, no, I understand. Well, you mentioned in your, in your note to me that you have a fair amount of guilt about your son's diagnosis. And I was wondering when you began to notice it and how it's impacted you and if you've had any luck working through it. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by in pen from Medtronic diabetes in pen is an insulin pen that offers some of the functionality that you've come to expect from an insulin pump. I know you're thinking, Oh, Scott, please tell me more. Well, I will. Yes, the ink pen is a pen. But it also has an application that lives on your smart device. This app shows you your current glucose levels, meal history, dose history and activity log glucose history, active insulin remaining a dosing calculator and reports that you and your physician can use while you're trying to decide what your next step is. Well, well well. It's not just an insulin pen. Now is in pen today. dot com. That's where you're going to find out more information and get started. If you're ready to try the M pen, just fill out the form at M pen today.com or do some more reading. There's actually some videos you could check out too about the dosing calculator, the dose reminders, card counting support, and the digital logbook. So if you want to lighten your diabetes management load, but you're not ready for an insulin pump in Penn is probably right for you. In Penn today.com in Penn also offers 24 hour Technical Support hands on product training, and online educational resources. And here's something else that you'll find it in Penn today.com. That is actually very exciting. Now this offer is for people with commercial insurance in terms and conditions do apply, but you may pay as little as $35 for the in pen. And that's because Medtronic diabetes does not want cost to be a roadblock to you getting the therapy you need within pen $35 How crazy is that? In pen today.com in pen requires a prescription and settings from your healthcare provider. You must use proper settings and follow the instructions as directed, where you can experience high or low glucose levels. For more safety information where to get started today, you can go to in Penn today.com Have you found that getting your diabetes supplies can be a pain in the butt. I have to but not any longer because now we're getting Ardens diabetes supplies from us med to get a free benefits check, just call 888-721-1514 or go to us med.com forward slash juicebox. US med has served over 1 million diabetes customers since 1996. And they want you to know that they're offering you better service and better care than you're getting now. US med always provides 90 days worth of supplies, and fast and free shipping. They carry everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the FreeStyle Libre two and the Dexcom G six. Arden gets her Dex comps and her on the pods from us med. US med accepts Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers. US med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems. The number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash, number one fastest growing tandem distributor, the number one rated distributor in Dexcom, customer service satisfaction surveys. And they are proud of the white glove treatment that they offer their customers, US med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514. And that 888 Number is special just for Juicebox Podcast listeners. Now if you decide to go to the website, it's super simple. Here's what it tells you when you get there. Getting started is easy. from the comfort of your own home or office, you can now join over 1 million satisfied customers who rely on our staff of courteous knowledgeable and trained us med customer care representatives to keep you up to date with your medical and diabetic supplies delivered right to your door. Super simple benefits check name, phone number, email, zip code, and then just hit the button that says Request a free benefits check. It's that easy. Let us med take care of your supplies. So you don't have to worry.

Sergui 28:40
I have no no I haven't thought about that in a long while but my wife she she blames herself. And also she blames me because she thinks that we could have done something some things differently in order for this not to happen.

Scott Benner 29:04
What do you mean? Like not take the baby somewhere or? I don't know what like what do you think could have? I mean, what does she think could have been done? Or has she not shared it with you?

Sergui 29:18
The first two years of parenthood were were were a difficult time for us because we're young parents and we feel that we could have done some things different we could have been there more for him. We could have gone in more vacations or want to know this

Scott Benner 29:50
is this is it kind of is it sort of just this nebulous feeling that there was something you could have done, but you'd Don't really know what it is. And you just feel badly for not knowing what that thing is.

Sergui 30:06
I don't think it's that nebulous, because we also had some discussions in the house some fights, and there was maybe some lack of emotional support on my side for her during her. Her motherhood and she feels that this might have had an impact on his health and might have maintained mom,

Scott Benner 30:33
like, stressful. Yes, festival, you okay, well, listen, you're a boy, you're only as good at this as you can be. It takes a while, it takes a while for you to figure out how to be a father much, much longer than it does. For most people to figure out how to be a mother. It's, it's it's much more instantaneous. A lot of times for women, that it is for men, and you you almost have to see, it must have to see things happen, then that require your emotions that maybe you weren't used to giving in the past. I mean, listen, if if you want my opinion, there's nothing either of you did that? Cause that? I mean, you have somebody in your family line who has an autoimmune disease. And that just makes it more likely, I will assume your your son had antibodies. And he probably they probably got triggered somehow a virus or, you know, some sort of an illness? I mean, I imagine I can't imagine that there was enough stress for a two year old in your household to notice it. But I do understand the feeling that you wish you would have done something.

Sergui 31:46
Yes. Also, people around us they blame. They never say but in a way they they hold us responsible for this, because they can't imagine how two years old boy can get such a terrible disease.

Scott Benner 32:05
So it feels so people from the outside who don't understand how diabetes works. Just assume that you must have done something wrong. There's just that assumption. Yeah, I think that happens pretty universally, honestly. People who don't understand diabetes, just I mean, in their minds, it's an old person's problem. And then when a child, it happens to a child, they just figure you fed them wrong. Or, you know, who knows, took them on a ski trip to Chernobyl. I don't know, you know, I don't know what I don't know. I don't know what they imagined. But it's just not the case. You know, I mean, I was I was a stay at home dad to Arden, I was with her every day. She did not have a particularly stressful life. And I was very careful with what I fed her and where I took her. And, you know, she was still diagnosed when she was too as well. I think it was just going to happen. You know,

Sergui 33:04
I understand. Yeah.

Scott Benner 33:07
Well, I hope that you guys can get past that. And and let it go. Because, I mean, it's not valuable, and you're certainly not going to figure it out. Yeah. And so you guys still split care now your wife during the week, you know, in the evenings in the weekends, still going like that? Yeah.

Sergui 33:26
Yeah. And I am I am the one who is bold with insulin. And she's, she's less bold with insulin. And we was sometimes we peacefully fight about this.

Scott Benner 33:39
Well, I we did that in my house last night. So don't I, I was upstairs working. And the girls were downstairs. My, my daughter is finishing up applying to colleges. This is her very last college to apply to she applied to like 10 of them. She wants to go to fashion school. And she applied to the top 10 fashion schools in the US. And she has already been accepted to most of them. But she still wants to make this this final application. And they're downstairs working working. And I think they left one room and went into another and somehow I don't know what happened. She got away from her phone and lost the signal for CGM, which, you know, with loop, you know, then her blood sugar started to go up. And then she got reconnected. And I noticed and you know, later in the evening, I said to my wife, I was like, how could you guys like, be together for two hours and no one thought about her blood sugar. And my wife's like, well, I thought you were looking at I said, Well, you know, you were with her. I just I assumed you are and we went back and forth a little bit about it. It's I don't think it's very uncommon to have those conversations when your kid has type one. Yes, yeah. Not it's not great. When does the or has he already begun school to stuff on go to school or will he start

Sergui 35:00
He is currently going to kindergarten. But since this is his first year, his most of the times he's sick. He gets the cold or the flu and his most of the time at home. And the kindergarten is close to home. My my wife leaves him there and she goes at lunch to Bolus for the food he's eating. We were thinking, to, to switching to Android APS since we could the remote Bolus for his fields. But it was difficult to she had to learn a new program. So we we decided to go on with loop. No one is going fine. Yeah, it's going fine at this moment.

Scott Benner 35:51
I imagine you is there any way we can't

Sergui 35:54
wait? Sorry. We can also use the remote overwrites in case he needs more insulin. It's okay. Ish. At the moment.

Scott Benner 36:02
Yeah, you is that through Nightscout? Yeah, yeah, I do that too. So I did it last night? You know, it's not, it's not a perfect answer. But you can get by with it. You know, there, there are definitely times I've seen art and be stressed out at school or something. And I can't reach her. And I'll like push her basil up temporarily. And it does, it does help. But what I was gonna say, is there no one at the school who's willing to be involved? Or is that just not how this works?

Sergui 36:36
I don't think they're ready at this point to take this task on because they're still there. They're still learning about the app, and what they might Bolus him at? Some point in time.

Scott Benner 36:51
Yeah, maybe you'll find some people there would save her the trip. It's not far though. You're saying for

Sergui 36:58
her? It's not far. It's so five minute walk?

Scott Benner 37:01
And do you work? Do you work from home? Or do you do you go to a place of business?

Sergui 37:07
No, we used to work from home in, in the first part of 2020. And afterwards, they decided to, to remove this option. So why I have to go to work. Every day,

Scott Benner 37:22
I see. My wife's getting ready to go back to the office. And if I can be honest with you, I'm a little excited. I want everything to go back a little bit more like the way it was she has been working from home, it feels like for two years now. Actually, actually might be coming up on two years. And it can be stressful. I think people just need to get out and move around a little bit. You know, it's, it's not, it's not great to be able to get up in the morning and walk 20 feet to the place where you're going to sit back down again. And you know, it often keeps people working for too long. And it's good to miss people a little, you know what I mean? Yes, we've run out of things to say to each other in the middle of the day. So hopefully, that'll all work out. I think they're starting back like two days a week. And then they're going to try to move it forward from there. So having said that, they've been saying that for the last seven months, and it keeps getting pushed off. But she's supposed to go back a week from yesterday. So I'm, I think she's excited to I'm making it sound like I'm the only one this excited, but I think she she'd like to go back to work as well.

Sergui 38:36
They're, they're putting this off because the number of cases is still big is

Scott Benner 38:42
Yeah. Every time they plan for something happens and and then there's something with the building and something was services and then it was Omicron. And you know, it just kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed. And she said to me the other day, I'm gonna go back on Monday. And I laughed, I was like, No, you're not, you know, there's no way that's actually going to happen. But but hopefully we'll we'll see now Arden uses our, our second car to go to school with so we're, I think I'm gonna be the one left without a car. I think I think my wife is going to drive to work. And Arden is going to drive to school and I'm going to be stuck in the house by myself. So we'll see what happens. Yeah, but Arden is off to school, you know, in the fall, and she won't be taking a car with her. So I think we'll be okay. What is the what's the what's the diet like where you are, you know, is like What are common meals that you have?

Sergui 39:44
I think we have a meat based diet in Romania, but one can also eat vegetarian, Mediterranean or vegetarian. I don't think the diet is very different from To the American one. I mean in this in the cities in the cities because we have McDonald's and KFC. And also people can eat fries with a steak at lunch.

Scott Benner 40:12
Or there are many processed foods, things that come in boxes and bags.

Sergui 40:17
We have those we have, we have a lot of processed food, but one can also eat from the green grocers and can go to the farmers market and get some fresh product. There are a lot of options. Okay, we we mainly cook in our home, but we also buy from restaurants or fast food sometimes because I don't want to restrict him.

Scott Benner 40:47
Is it? Do you find it easier to to Bolus from things you make at home?

Sergui 40:54
Generally, yes, because we use recipes that have been tested, and we know how his blood sugar will react to those ingredients.

Scott Benner 41:08
Are you um, wow, what do I want to ask you here? So do you know how to manage diabetes without the loop? Like, like, what would happen if it just like disappeared? Would you be okay? Or do you think there'd be a learning process again?

Sergui 41:29
He was on pence for one year, so I could manage him with pens. Although I never got to understand how the longest acting insulin works. I never got that. I knew how to Bolus I understood the bonuses. But I always felt that there was something not quite right with his long acting insulin and that thing? I don't know.

Scott Benner 41:57
Yeah, I don't think the lever me are really lasts for 24 hours. So you're probably

Sergui 42:02
yeah, I've listened to your episodes in which you said it's good. It's a good idea to split those doses. But I never got to do that.

Scott Benner 42:10
So okay, you got away from it before that before you try it? Yes, man, it's probably smart. Do you get out of loop often do you ever open the loop and make a manage on your own?

Sergui 42:24
Not really, only if we have problems with the site, or if he sometimes when we put the pump on his belly, he strips it and during sleep and the heme, and the program thinks he knows the pump is on his skin, and we get a lot of insulin on board. And afterwards, I have to open the loop in order to correct his blood sugar right? Or there. But I should do that more often. I should test his basil, but I never I never get to do that. Because at night, if he is stabilized after his evening meal, I am relieved and I'm happy and I can go to sleep. So I Yeah,

Scott Benner 43:09
it's it's hard to want to beta test overnight when you can get a good night's sleep for sure. Do you have people in your extended family who understand this? I mean, can you can you can you and your wife go to dinner by yourself or something like that? Or? Or do you not have anybody to help?

Sergui 43:25
Yes, my mother, she she knows how to interact with the application with a loop. And sometimes the protocol is that she has to call us and tell us what he is eating. And afterwards we can make a guesstimate of his carbs. But in the the last time she she decided to use it on her own. She introduced the carbs she thought were necessary and she took control of the app.

Scott Benner 43:59
Wow. Well, that's great. I mean, it's just nice to have a break. Are your parents or your both your parents together and living?

Sergui 44:07
Yes, yes. They're living in the same city. Does your father having to go first?

Scott Benner 44:13
Does your father have any understanding of it at all?

Sergui 44:17
I think he saw that my mother can use the app and he's happy with this situation.

Scott Benner 44:25
I bet I would be I'd say I'd be thrilled if somebody would figure it out and take it over. Give it give me a bit of a break. Are you planning on having any more children?

Sergui 44:38
I wish we had a brother or sister another sibling but it's difficult.

Scott Benner 44:45
Is it difficult? We

Sergui 44:47
cannot it's difficult to take to make this decision because we don't know if the next child will will have an auto immune disease or will have diabetes

Scott Benner 45:00
It doesn't feel it's a risk, right? It feels like it's

Sergui 45:03
a risk. And and also, because of the costs we are currently having with these supplies. If the supplies were provided by the state, maybe the decision would would not be that difficult to have another child

Scott Benner 45:17
understand. Yeah. You know, it's it's not something you think about often, but that I mean, you just said that it made a lot of sense to me, you're, you're putting out money that would go towards feeding another person or clothing them or sending them to school one day, and instead, you're paying for these supplies. And yeah, it's it would be a leap to make, do you think you're more worried about the money or the prospect of another child having an autoimmune issue?

Sergui 45:51
I think both of those things worry me. Because let's say he or next child can also have another another cannot have diabetes. And that would mean, that wouldn't be so difficult, because we know how to manage it. But it would be it would be difficult, money wise, because we couldn't afford to buy supplies for two children and have a normal life and have vacations and all of the other things, people with, with children that don't have diabetes, buy or enjoy.

Scott Benner 46:32
Where do you go on vacation when you when you leave?

Sergui 46:38
We go in the mountains because we have mountains here in Romania, we can also go to the seaside Black Sea, or we can go to in Greece, in Bulgaria.

Scott Benner 46:49
That sounds nice. My children bother me to go to Greece constantly. That's the place that everyone wants to go. Then there. They keep reminding us that they're graduating. My daughter's graduating from high school, my son's graduating from college. We want to celebrate we want to go to and then they both say grease all the time. Do you think that's probably

Sergui 47:09
it's probably a lot cheaper for us because we can go by car. It's we can drive 10 hours. And we are we can go there. Enjoy a nice.

Scott Benner 47:20
Well, hey, Lily, let me ask you a question. You had to fly across the Atlantic Ocean to go to Greece. Would you do it? Absolutely not. You told me, you told me to find a place in Ohio. Go for a little ride. How to Be wise? Well, I'm the one who's always like, I think that sounds like it's expensive. We're gonna spend that much money. You know, I don't know. Like, I don't know. That's just what they talk about all the time. So we'll see what happens. There's some sometimes Arden says France. And sometimes she says Greece and I don't know if we'll ever do it or not. But it was good to hear from from somebody who can drive to it that may be blind to it wouldn't be worthwhile. I forget what I was gonna say I had a thought in my head about that. Have you ever been to America was my question?

Sergui 48:13
No, unfortunately, I haven't been to America. I wish I could go there's some time in my life.

Scott Benner 48:20
Yeah, it would really be interesting to you to do. Yes. What's your under

Sergui 48:27
specialist? Since I've seen a lot of American movies and American shows and I've read the manga books, it would be interesting to to see the real thing there.

Scott Benner 48:38
Do you think you would do you think it would be disappointing if you got here and you realize that was a lot like Romania, but with newer buildings.

Sergui 48:46
I don't think I would be disappointed because I am conscious that America is a lot of things. And there are a lot of different people in different geographical areas. And

Scott Benner 48:58
I would like to see more. It's not

Sergui 49:00
the same. It's not the same in all the American states.

Scott Benner 49:03
It really is. It's very different. I mean, it's I mean, Romania is probably Gosh, not even the size of one of our I don't know like medium size states I would want I would imagine Yeah, that's it's really something How about anybody in your family has your mother your father, your brothers and sisters, anything like that anybody have been here?

Sergui 49:27
Actually, my my wife, she has been to the US during her student life. She she took on this work and travel option and she, she she worked there during her summertime. And she also got to visit some of the some of the states in the US.

Scott Benner 49:50
Wow, that's how long ago was that?

Sergui 49:55
Maybe 10 or 11 years ago,

Scott Benner 49:58
okay. I'm seeing I looked it up, it looks like Romania is about 70% larger than Florida, just by square kilometers. But it's interesting. I might not be interesting to you. It's interesting to me, I feel like, you know, Arden, for example, is looking at a school in Georgia. And in a couple of weeks, we're going to go visit that school so that she can get a good look at it. And we're talking about driving, and it's going to be like a 1213 hour drive for us. Just to get from New Jersey to Georgia. And I see Yeah, it's, it's, it's quite a, you know, it's, it's, it's hard to even consider, we're thinking maybe we should fly and, but we wanted to drive and kind of turn it into a little trip. So we're trying to figure out what to do. But I don't know, it seems exciting to me to be able to drive from one side of Romania to the other in a couple of hours, that that seems better. I wish I I wish I had that kind of proximity to the things that were, were important to me and around me. What? I was gonna ask a different question. Is there anything that I'm not asking you that you wished we were talking about?

Sergui 51:18
Not really, I had some notes for the show. But then I decided to talk freely with you. I, you invited me on the show. And I wanted to offer this view for somebody from this part of the world because there are not so many episodes with people outside of the US. So no, I think I am gonna go on Sorry, I was I think I am using the same things people on these international groups are using and my only desire is to have these options officially here in Romania. Yeah. I enjoy your show a lot. Because it's not only for the things I learned from it, but also for the therapeutic side of it.

Scott Benner 52:14
How so what about it is therapeutic for you

Sergui 52:20
that there are other people that are confronted with this. And it's nice to listen to their worries and desires and the solutions they find to the different problems in their life? Because it's difficult to discuss diabetes with people that don't have it or don't manage it for other people that have it cannot understand

Scott Benner 52:45
it. Does your wife listen to this at all? Or is it mainly you know,

Sergui 52:49
no, she doesn't listen, because she doesn't have the time.

Scott Benner 52:53
Now, it's just interesting, because mostly when it's one or the other, it's it's it's frequently it's the, the the wife over the husband, but I didn't think she did. I was just wondering, and you and you like that, that interaction between just, you know, a faceless voice out in the world that has pretty much every one of your problems. And every one of your challenges and issues these other people have as well, you can't meet those people anywhere else. And when you go to

Sergui 53:22
school, it's comforting to comforting to listen to people when I do the dishes at night, to listen to people that had the same problem. But as I did during the day, and after a botched Bolus when I'm sad and worried. It helps me to listen to the podcast.

Scott Benner 53:46
When that happens, describe the sadness for me. Is it concern for your son? Or do you feel like you failed? Where does that hit you?

Sergui 53:59
Oh, I I know that he will not be in any kind of danger in the short time. But I'm always I'm always thinking about the long game about the longer term consequences of this disease. And I don't know what will happen because I want to have stability in the blood sugar levels. And sometimes I feel out of control and I don't know what will happen in the future how I will be able to to pass on this knowledge to him at some point.

Scott Benner 54:39
Would you be willing to tell me how this process over the last few years has changed you because I if I'm listening and paying attention, you were maybe more classically a guy when maybe before you had kids, and now you're a person describing doing the dishes and worrying about the Future of Health. So has there been a big shift in who you are over the last couple of years?

Sergui 55:07
I don't think there has been a big shift, I might became even more worried. But fundamentally, I am the same person that is that likes control and that likes to have a grip on things.

Scott Benner 55:22
So you,

Sergui 55:26
but I was indeed more relaxed in the past. Less. So now,

Scott Benner 55:32
for me to was definitely, I was definitely more relaxed before diabetes as well. I said to my wife last night, I was she's like, What are you doing? We're laying in bed. And I was like, I'm rubbing my back. And she said, why? I said, Well, it's been hurting for 15 years. Trying to try to get ahead of it here. Which I'm sure some days is stress, actually. But okay, so it's so for you, it's, it's the feeling of being out of control is not comfortable for you. And the feeling of the unknown, for your son's health is not comfortable for you. And these were not things that you were feeling prior to diabetes.

Sergui 56:16
No. Okay.

Scott Benner 56:18
Do you see that as a liveable way to be or is it something you think about trying to work past

Sergui 56:29
I have come to accept some of the things I'm not so worried now when I see. A high blood sugar, something over 180 I try to those more insulin and take care of it. And I'm not so worried but my, I think about the moments who will be in school and or when he will be a teenager and my wife, my wife, she she thinks this is a very important aspect of his emotional well being and the way he will be able to accept this disease, because it's not enough if we take care of his diabetes now, but we also have to make him think in the right way about diabetes in order for him to take care of this disease when he will be on on his own.

Scott Benner 57:31
Well, I can tell you, there's some things you can't get prepared for. Yesterday, I watched Arden messaging with a girl who they both might end up at the same college and they start talking about rooming together. And I asked Arden afterwards, I said, Did you tell her you have type one? And she said, Yeah, I don't want it to be a surprise to people. And I had to say to her, I was like, you know, some people may be scared of that. And she's like, I know, I just you know, I don't want it to be. I don't want it to get dropped on them at the last second. So I'm telling people what I'm having these conversations and I wasn't sad about it. Like she she handled it really well. It would have been nice if that wasn't a reality for her. But at the same time, you know, she she assessed the situation. And then she did what she thought she was, you know, she shocked me, excuse me what she thought she should do. But later in the evening, after we went to bed, her blood sugar started to get a little low, and I had to help her. And I when I got back in bed, my wife's like, why are we letting her go to college? Like, how's this going to work when she's, you know, not here? And I have to admit, I still one of the things I'm working out. Um, I'm not sure either, you know, but all I know, is that hundreds of 1000s of other people with type one diabetes, go away to college, and, you know, far and wide there. Okay. So there must be an answer that that says, People figure things out, you know, you get what you get, and then you find a way to live with it. For the most part, you know, that does work out for people. So I just kind of keep the faith that answers will show themselves as time passes. I see Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully your son will will have that same experience. You know, yes. It's terrible to worry about things that may never happen and and that even if they do happen, you might not have much sway over to begin with. But I know how you feel. And I don't you know, I don't I don't say you shouldn't feel that way. Wow. Cool. How are we doing by the way? Is this going well for you? Are you enjoying this or are you like, Oh, this guy's boring in person?

Sergui 59:56
No, no, it's going great. Yeah.

Scott Benner 59:58
Oh, good. I'm glad because you Have you ever Are you nervous?

Sergui 1:00:04
Yes, I'm a little bit nervous. But I'm also have I'm calling this cold or flu. I'm having an it's difficult to. Oh, I did. Yeah, it's okay. I'm sorry. We know. Oh, well, it's not that bad. And I didn't want to reschedule the

Scott Benner 1:00:25
as my scheduling terrible and whatever. If you would have rescheduled, your son would have been in second grade by the time we spoke.

Sergui 1:00:33
I don't know what this would have meant. I didn't check the the next available. Slot.

Scott Benner 1:00:40
It's September, I think. Okay.

Sergui 1:00:43
So it's probably the best decision. A good decision. We scheduled

Scott Benner 1:00:49
Yeah, since it's what it is today. April Fool's. No. What was I gonna say? groundhog? What was I thinking? February 1. I think it's Groundhog Day, isn't it? That might I don't know. We don't we don't have that. Yeah, I'm, I'm wrong about that. Groundhog Day is tomorrow. Not that that matters to you. But yeah. Wow. It's February 1. And yeah, you couldn't have gotten back on the schedule until September? Yeah. So for people listening, rescheduling? Don't do it. Don't do it. Unless you've got time, I have had interviews with people that take place 18 months after they reached out eventually, because they'll have to reschedule a couple of times, which is fine. Like I don't mind just slides forward in the schedule. But I have put episodes up with people who I've spoken to, you know, over a year prior and sometimes longer.

Sergui 1:01:40
It's a good loyal to the show,

Scott Benner 1:01:43
I always think that, oh, I always think like Wow, you really like I mean, if you made me plan something next Wednesday, I'd be like, Oh, I don't know if I can do that or not. That seems so far from now. But yet people do it. And I don't bug them. And they're always here, I turn this thing on almost every day, and there's someone on the other end, I'm very grateful for that, actually, the loyalty. And then the concern to want to build on top of the show, which I think is really what you're doing, you're trying to you're just trying to put a building block for somebody else to hear some

Sergui 1:02:16
very Yes. And also the podcast empowered me to such help some other people that were using Omnipod and Dexcom. And sometimes we on this local group we have here, somebody needs Dexcom sensor, and we can somebody else offers to sell one. And I got to sell a few centers because they were having some problems with their shipping. And we discussed about the management style and about the supplies we use. And I found out they were using Omnipod and Dexcom. And I told them about loop. The first time I sent them the documentation. And I told them once more the next time we got to sell them some sensors. And because they were they were afraid to try it I offered to help them with look, although I know this is the contrary to the to the spirit of loop and to the because one has to do with only one one own in order to get it right. But I help them and they they are managing. Okay. Right now with loop.

Scott Benner 1:03:31
That's very kind of you I and I understand the idea that people should figure it out on their own. But I have to be honest with you, if I had to figure it out on my own. Arden wouldn't have it. I don't I know. I mean, what you said earlier about how clear and well written the documentation is you're 1,000,000%. Right. But my brain doesn't work that way. Like I just I don't know how to tell you if I look at instructions. I don't even read them in order. I just my eyes dart around for pertinent information. And I just I don't know, there's something wrong with me. But I don't think I mean, maybe I could force myself to do it. But it would not be easy. And by the way,

Sergui 1:04:11
is it? Is it anxiety or you?

Scott Benner 1:04:15
I don't know what it is. I don't even if I look at a recipe, I just look at the ingredients. And I know there's like there's, you know, like do this first do this second, I have a hard time even looking at that. I just like to dive into things. I open up a box. I don't care about the instructions. It's a It's not. I'm not impatient. And it's not laziness. I just I don't know another way to say it other than my brain just doesn't work that way. I think that's why I think that's why I'm I'm good at talking about diabetes because it's not if it was segmented or bulleted, you know, I wouldn't be the worst person to sit down and read through it. You know, a list of 10 steps you were supposed to take? I can't. I can't do that. You know, while you were talking earlier, it made me think and I looked them in the in the pretty recent history. I have 5000 downloads in Romania. I'm huge in Romania. This is very,

Sergui 1:05:19
I don't there is very little or a lot. I don't

Scott Benner 1:05:26
Well, I mean, for, you know, listen for in the Eastern European country where, you know, I would think it would be pretty unheard of for you even to figure out that I exist. That's a that's a fair amount. It really is. It pretty, pretty comparable to Saudi. I'm looking around here, Russia, India, the shows really picking up in India over the last year. I'm noticing more and more listeners in the Facebook group who are from India. But yeah, I mean, you know, once you get into Germany, France, the numbers jumped up significantly. United Kingdom, it's actually pretty huge. In the United Kingdom, there's hundreds of 1000s of downloads in the United Kingdom.

Sergui 1:06:16
Because they're also they're already English speaking. Yes.

Scott Benner 1:06:19
Yeah. They can probably make a little more I probably don't do I sound? Do I speak quickly for you?

Sergui 1:06:26
I know you speak very fine, I can understand you because but I don't have the practice of speaking English. And that's why my, my English is not that good. But I do. We consume a lot of things issue speaking products here in Romania.

Scott Benner 1:06:41
Well, what I have to say, I don't agree, I think your English is great. Like I've heard you, like, slow down to find a word. But now that I understand you're sick to I don't even know if that's what you're doing. So no, I have no trouble understanding you. Or we're keeping the conversation going whatsoever. Yeah, I just never would have imagined you may be my my emissary in Romania. I appreciate this. Do you tell people about the podcast?

Sergui 1:07:09
No, not really, because I don't know. I never got to tell anyone about the podcast. Because I don't think people hear our podcast listeners in generals. And I feel like this podcast is a niche thing. And I don't know if they could listen to it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:07:33
I mean, listen, I'm not gonna lie to you that, you know,

Sergui 1:07:35
it has a very American vibe to it. And I think people have to be accustomed with American culture in order to start listening to it.

Scott Benner 1:07:46
Well, just to say that in that part of the world, I did not expect to have many downloads. And to be perfectly honest, I don't accept in Romania. That's insane. I just I've never really looked at it before. And now I'm looking oh,

Sergui 1:08:00
maybe, maybe. Those are my downloads.

Scott Benner 1:08:04
I don't know you. I don't think you can listen to that. You didn't listen to the show. 70 times over. Did you like the whole thing?

Sergui 1:08:10
Oh, no, no, no. Oh, well, I've listened to most most of it. I have the up to date with the episodes. I think I have 10 or less than 10 episodes I have to listen to oh, that's because you put you put out a lot of episodes every week.

Scott Benner 1:08:24
I'm prolific. Yes,

Sergui 1:08:26
you are very pointed.

Scott Benner 1:08:28
Listen, I got that. Understand what I'm saying I need a place to put

Sergui 1:08:31
them. That's a very good thing. Yeah, it really is.

Scott Benner 1:08:35
It's unexpected, I guess is the best, best word for me to use. I didn't think you know, I asked on the pod. My gosh, you know, eight years ago, almost. I was like, I need you to buy an ad on this podcast. So I can tell my wife, it makes money so I can do it. And you know, they gave me a very little bit of money and bought an ad and it was incredibly helpful. So I, you know, that's what got me started. I never imagined it would be so popular that it would that it would do this actually last night as the as the month ended. I looked at some numbers. I'll share them with you. I have no one else to tell about this. I just keep it for my own edification. But the month of January 2021. had more downloads by 100,000 than the year 2018. I see which is which is insane. And the last three months had more downloads than 2019. So

Sergui 1:09:43
and the majority of these downloads come from the US or they come from

Scott Benner 1:09:48
all around the world. Yeah, overwhelmingly they're from the US but then places like Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, those My next strongest downloads. And it's picking up in other places picking up in Japan, like I said, India, South Africa. It's fascinating where, where people find it. You know, I just I just interviewed a boy, like a 17 year old kid from Ecuador recently. And he listens. So it's getting there. Hopefully one day people will talk more freely about it. But I still think the problem is sort of what you brought up earlier is you don't know what anybody really who has diabetes that you could speak to about it. It makes it that much more difficult to share, because you don't meet people who who would be interested, you know,

Sergui 1:10:42
I mean, I know that the people in the local diabetes group, but I do it would be difficult to recommend the podcast because this seems like a personal very personal recommendation to make. Certainly. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:11:00
Plus, they probably hate me. And then that, then they they're looking at you and wondering why you like you're listening to this, yeah, then they start judging you, I understand what's going on. Don't worry. You don't want to you don't want to be embarrassed by me. I hear it. I feel like we're dating.

Sergui 1:11:17
I don't think that it's that but the most of the time, they are looking for some fast device or some website, they can read some information. In the podcast, the broadcast takes a lot of time in order to, to understand it and to, to make the most of it.

Scott Benner 1:11:36
It's I agree, it's a it's a commitment, but I think it pays you back from that commitment to in a way that just reading an article or hearing a little bit of information, maybe can't enrich you as much. So I listened. I'm thrilled that you reached out. And I'm so glad you found the podcast has been incredibly enlightening for me talking to you. I want to make sure you don't have anything else you want to say before I say goodbye. But I really do appreciate you doing this.

Sergui 1:12:06
Yeah, it's been great, Scott. Well,

Scott Benner 1:12:08
I hope you I hope you feel better as well. I felt I feel badly that you're sick. No, it's

Sergui 1:12:15
going away. It's, it's fine. I just wanted to thank you for the podcast and for, for the opportunities that it gave me to help other people with loop and with managing diabetes for their children.

Scott Benner 1:12:33
It's my pleasure. I I appreciate that you listen, it's I hope you can I hope you can understand how kind of fantastic and strange it is to learn that there's somebody you know, in Romania listening to me talk about diabetes, it's it's certainly unexpected when I get these notes, so I really do appreciate you telling me or I would never have any way of knowing. Yes, thank you. Please tell your wife I said hello, even though she doesn't know me. And you know, and he did want to ask you one question. When your son's a little older, and he starts involved getting involved in sports. What would the what would be the sport of choice where you live?

Sergui 1:13:23
This poor like choice? I think, I think it would be soccer, as you call it in the US. But I'm not such a big soccer fan. So maybe he would go swimming or riding a bicycle.

Scott Benner 1:13:42
Gotcha. There's no

Sergui 1:13:45
Soccer is the national sport running.

Scott Benner 1:13:50
I have it right. It's just there's so many options here that that people choose from. And I was wondering you know, like there's is there baseball where you are?

Sergui 1:14:00
No, no, nothing. We don't have baseball in Romania or in Europe. I don't think it's that

Scott Benner 1:14:06
big. Right, cricket?

Sergui 1:14:08
No, no, that's India.

Scott Benner 1:14:10
That's just just pretty specific to India.

Sergui 1:14:15
I mean, football, from my knowledge, yes, we I don't know anybody who's playing cricket in Romania or Europe. You know, there might be clubs but but it's not a big thing. Yeah. See now that your soccer, tennis These are big things. cycling.

Scott Benner 1:14:31
Cycling. Yeah, I realize now that you're saying that that I see men playing cricket all the time. But now I realize they're all Indian. So yeah, I guess now I'm thinking about I've never seen anybody but but Indian men playing cricket around me, but I just we just have such a mix of people that you you just kind of get accustomed to it. You know, it's funny. I never considered that those guys weren't mixed very much. That's interesting. Okay, well Um, I appreciate you sharing all that with me, I really do.

Sergui 1:15:04
Sure, yeah, well wanted to tell this funny story because I helped that family with a loop. Because they were, they were already using Omnipod and Dexcom. And afterwards, I, somebody requested some help on loop, they weren't using Omnipod, they were only using Dexcom. And because I was very excited from the first time I got this very positive feeling from helping them, I decided to help this family and I, I sent them the documentation, they try to, to build the app, and they didn't manage to do it. And afterwards, I decided to go to drive to their home, two hours drive. They never used Omnipod before, and I installed the pump on on their son was a teenager, but in the same time I was I was feeling very strangely because it wasn't quite right. But there was no one else to help them. The father of this teenager was a cop, and he was looking suspiciously at suspiciously at mean, doing all those things. Now I was working on on my last laptop trying to build their Nightscout and the app, and they were looking at me in the same time, but I managed to do it finally. And they were relieved.

Scott Benner 1:16:28
Yeah, well, they were probably very grateful. And at the same time thinking Who would do such a nice thing? You know, it's, yeah, I've had that experience. By the way. I've I've there are a couple of people local to me that I've helped. And, and I have been in people's homes. And it's it's a, it is a different feeling when it's not somebody you know, at all I can, I can understand completely what you're talking about. But it's really nice, easy to do. And you got a lot out of it, too. It felt good. Yeah, it

Sergui 1:16:59
felt really good. Especially because I know it will make a difference in the long time. And the more stable blood sugars and lower blood sugars. And this could mean a lot for a child and a teenager.

Scott Benner 1:17:13
It certainly can I get to feel like that every day. But it's very exciting to hear that somebody else gets to feel that way. Because I know how I know how personally valuable it is, honestly. And then

Sergui 1:17:24
I would I would have never would have done it without listening to your podcast that would I would never have have discouraged to talk to people and to tell them that we can do this together. We can build the envelope app and yeah,

Scott Benner 1:17:41
that's that's extraordinary. I appreciate you sharing that with me very much. Thank you. Wow, now you touched me at the end there. I didn't expect that I I feel like I was in Romania helping somebody with loop. Although you were you were much better suited to do it. Because if I showed up with a laptop, I'd be like, I don't know. I gotta call a guy. Don't know how to do this. Wow, thank you so much.

A huge thanks to one of today's sponsors in pen from Medtronic diabetes, head over to in pen today.com. To get started with the in pen. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player, and links at juicebox podcast.com. To in pen, US Med and all of the sponsors. And speaking of us med you can get your free benefits check at 888-721-1514 or by going to us med.com forward slash juice box. Getting your diabetes supplies shouldn't be difficult. And don't forget to check out touched by type one It touched by type one.org or find them on Facebook and Instagram. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group for the podcast Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, it is free and it is private. Go over there meet other people like you ask questions or just look around and see what other people are talking about. Most other podcasts wants you to pay to be in their private group. I would never ask you to do that. All the information you want all the interaction you need Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. I want every aspect of this podcast to be valuable for you and free to you. Everything you need to know about the podcast is that juicebox podcast.com. For instance, say you're looking for a podcast player but you can't find one. It's a juicebox podcast.com You're looking for the diabetes pro tip episodes, but you don't know where they are juicebox podcast.com. Also, by the way, diabetes protip.com. Anyway, that's the website. Check it out. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Yes

#743 Bold Beginnings: Stacking

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Test your knowledge of episode 743

1. What is the role of basal and bolus insulin in diabetes management?

2. Why is carbohydrate counting significant in diabetes management?

3. How should high blood sugar episodes be handled?

4. What psychological aspects of living with diabetes should be managed?

5. Why are regular medical check-ups important for diabetes management?

6. How does physical activity impact blood sugar levels?

7. Why is it important to have a personalized diabetes management plan?

8. How can staying informed about new research and developments in diabetes care help?

#742 Vocal Support

Suzanne has type 1 diabetes and was a back up singer for some famous acts.

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#741 Bolusing in Bucharest

Sergiu is the father of a young type 1.

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