Scott Benner 1/3/23 Scott Benner 1/3/23

#817 Wicklander

Patrick Wicklander returns (previously ep 512). Patrick is a type 1 who pitches in the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 817 of the Juicebox Podcast.

In 2021, a left handed pitcher from Arkansas was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays. His name was Patrick wick lander, and he had recently been diagnosed with type one diabetes. Patrick is back today to talk about just stuff he's checking in. And this was recorded back while he was playing, just as he was getting going in the minors. Love that Patrick back again sometime soon. But for now, I thought this was a nice way at the end of the year to remember the baseball season which is all dormant and cold for the moment, but getting ready to bloom again in just a couple of months. While you're listening today, 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. If you have type one diabetes, and are a US citizen or are the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and fill out the survey. T one D exchange.org forward slash juice box. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo Penn Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. today's podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one, visit them online at touched by type one.org Find them on Instagram, locate them on Facebook, but whatever you do, just find them. They're doing really great work for people with type one diabetes, and they'd love for you to see what they're up to touched by type one.org. Additionally, the podcast is sponsored today by Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes. You can get the ink pen right now at in pen today.com I'll be telling you more about it in just a few moments. Patrick, you were on the podcast prior when we talked about you getting drafted by the race and now you are actually playing right it is the season just starting right now.

Patrick Wicklander 2:30
Today is opening day for Tampa Bay Rays Charleston RiverDogs and all of minor league baseball.

Scott Benner 2:37
Excellent that's the best day of the year. Sometimes I'm more excited about opening day than I am Christmas. I'm telling you I woke up this morning thinking baseball baseball baseball excellent just I super excited that everything's getting going especially because you know as a as a cheering Phillies fan. Things look up all the sudden so I'm excited to see it get moving.

Patrick Wicklander 3:03
This is just an exciting time because like with a lockout everything. People weren't sure if there's gonna be baseball this year. Yeah, no

Scott Benner 3:11
kidding. How did that affect you? The lockouts?

Patrick Wicklander 3:16
So it doesn't affect minor leaguers because we're not put on the 40 man roster. So for us, I mean, spring training went just as just as scheduled. Okay, but the it turned chaotic a little bit when the big leaguers had to come back.

Scott Benner 3:34
So we say release. So you're, you're using the facility, they're not there. And then they just show back up and

Patrick Wicklander 3:44
you got Yeah, I mean, because like we are complex we we don't share with another team. So it's just a raise at our facility. So we were it was just all the minor leaders, you know, just going about, like, Hey, you guys had to do this, this and this today thing, get ready for a game like okay, no big deal then when the big leaders came back, so what the way it was. So it's been training started on March 10. Like first full day, and game started a week later, like I'm not joking, like on the 17. So I was like, damn, they're turning it around quick. But when games started they started pulling from like the minor league or like the minor league guys. They hate when EJ has done a big league game. So seeing that was cool though. That's what got to look out like chaotic a little bit because that was like some guys were scheduled to throw like the day before. And they would have to hold off another day or totally we work there throwing schedule.

Scott Benner 4:51
Let me make sure I understand so the major leaguers come back. A lot of the pitchers are not ready to go yet but they're gonna play games so they pull you guys eyes to go pitch because you've been working already. And then that that leaves your game short. And guys are thrown in situations they didn't expect I would imagine to.

Patrick Wicklander 5:11
Yeah. And that's that's all part about bombing from my friend so far, it's probably as long as you've got to be able to learn and flip and then like move on the fly. Anything can happen a drop of the dime, especially something like that.

Scott Benner 5:25
It's pretty cool. So you're on? Are you on the Charleston? RiverDogs? Is that your roster right now?

Unknown Speaker 5:32
That is the roster I'm

Scott Benner 5:34
on right now. Cool. And are you do you have any? So I'm interested does give any idea where you stand right now? Or do you just show up and do your work and hope somebody notices? How does that are you or are you in the rotation or

Patrick Wicklander 5:52
so right now, so I started as a stalker, but I'm the type of guy that was like, Hey, I just want to pitch. Like, let me be able to go out bro. And they have me down as a book. And a guy was called a piggy piggy back. So I come in right after the starter no matter what. So I'm scheduled to start or not sorry, piggyback Saturday. And it's like, what the rays are know for the to have the opener belong reliever, like the second starter. So I mean, they told us when they drafted us, they're like, Hey, be ready to do anything.

Scott Benner 6:31
Okay. Well, that sounds like a good offer, actually.

Unknown Speaker 6:36
So I'm not complaining about it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 6:39
It's a weird situation you're in though, because the guy starts the game. And as a teammate, you're like, Oh, I hope he does well. And as the guy who would really like the pitch, like, I hope he's got to come out soon.

Patrick Wicklander 6:50
That's a weird part about pro baseball. Like you guy, like, You got to be able to come as a team come down as a team and have that team aspect. But up until the big leagues like you want individual success. Yeah. It's just, it's just a weird. It's a weird dynamic, but very, it's just normal within professional baseball.

Scott Benner 7:11
Right? Hey, I have a question. So as you're coming out of college, you're an older guy at college. What's it like to show up and be a young guy again?

Patrick Wicklander 7:21
You've like, I told my dad this because it was like my first returning. And I was like, Hey, I feel like I'm living into my dorm freshman year. I have at the bottom of the totem pole. I earned my stripes, you know? So I literally felt like it was freshman year all over again. Because like, you have guys, I've been there forever, like, living there seven, eight years. And then you have some guys that are very like me. This is their first stream spring training. Yeah. So I mean, just being a guy to talk with many people that could. Luckily, like I was able to, like in the offseason workout with one of the guys on the big league roster. So like whenever I saw him like boots off and chat. And it was just like, this is this is what I'm doing for my for my job now. This is cool. This is cool.

Scott Benner 8:21
Okay, man, there's got to be like a little boy inside you. There's just like, every day like, look where we are. Look, what we're doing isn't I'm sure you'll get used to it at some point. But

Patrick Wicklander 8:30
you're on me. I think it was like, second week in spring or not. It wasn't second. It was like second to last week in the weight room working out. And it was to my right and it's Corey Kluber and Tyler glass now, like eight year old and he was like, Yo, okay, what is

Scott Benner 8:47
this trying to go? Hey, I'm Patrick.

Patrick Wicklander 8:52
You literally I'm just like, I'm not trying to stand right now. But like, you know, those are two of the best pitchers in the game right now.

Scott Benner 8:59
It's really something. It's pretty cool. It really is. Well, congratulations. It's amazing. Amazing success. Did you by any chance here? Trace Beasley on the podcast that not a week ago. He's the he's the bench or the equipment manager for Alabama baseball.

Patrick Wicklander 9:17
And he wrote about he actually reached out to me when he heard about my story on Twitter. Yeah. Fun fact I actually keep all the DMS about people who are diabetic

Scott Benner 9:30
that reached out to me. Oh, no kidding. Oh, that's very cool.

Patrick Wicklander 9:34
Even if it's like a mom or dad like a kid like if I don't get back to you i I will. I will keep it and like read them I don't know that sounded very weird coming out of my head. I

Scott Benner 9:51
know it's nice. Yeah, he cuz I said to him like you know, I started you know, Patrick, I don't know the map so well. So I'm talking to him like Alabama, Arkansas, I think They're relatively close to each other. And I thought like he must have, you know, heard when you were diagnosed. And he talked about you for a few minutes. And I just thought it was really kind of nice, you know? Just a nice overlap.

Patrick Wicklander 10:13
Yeah, I mean, because I got this message requests on Twitter, I was like, Who's this guy then? It was either Twitter or Instagram. I can't remember. And he said he was the manager at Alabama. And it was like, right after we played on so I was like, Oh, shit, those

Scott Benner 10:31
guys were both there. Sorry. So I got this. I just found you on the roster. It's so crazy that it That's amazing. You don't know. That's very cool. So I hope I hope you have a ton of success man and a great season and you know, everything goes the way you want. You feel good. Right now. Go on Phil. Right.

Patrick Wicklander 10:50
Oh, I honestly was great. I thought Bolton the other day, it was one of the better bullpens that thrown. I mean, just the weather here is so much better than Port Charlotte, Florida. Yeah, it's it's humid. But there is a waco get to the field. And somebody sent me one, what a breeze. I'm like, This feels great.

Scott Benner 11:10
So it's excellent. Did they help you with? Like, like you said, you're lifting like, are you on your own? Or are there people keeping track and helping? Or how does the is it chaotic? Is it does it feel? Does it feel like there's a plan? How does it all go?

Patrick Wicklander 11:29
Downhill plan? Do I know what it is off the top of my head? No, because it's a very long, detailed plan. But our strength, our strength and conditioning program is like we live twice a week is what I was told about. They're like, Hey, if you feel like you can't do it today, like you feel like you're not gonna get anything out of it. It's okay, we can rework it. There is a little chaos in it a little bit. But it's just you got to be able to take it a step at a time and just kind of like, okay, I need to do this. And this before I do. XYZ is just kind of, it's just kind of reading it. So like, the cool part about the funny part about Prolog is that they're like, Hey, bring your phones to lift. So you know what you're doing.

Scott Benner 12:20
So you can follow the plan, because we're not going to help you. How about on the field? Do you feel like? Is it just like you working and people watching? Are you actually being coached? Like, are people in your ear talking to you as you're working? Or like, are they just trying to get a feel for you? Like, how does that all work out.

Patrick Wicklander 12:41
Um, so at the beginning of it, like you had the coaches, you're like spring training, they put you the coaches that are gonna coach you at the affiliate. So I was with our pitching coach a lot of sprint training. And he said, to get a feel for you, like they understand what they like, the higher ups wanting from you. And so they tried to put together a plan. And like, hey, we need you, like we need and want you to do this as a mess. And I mean, because that like a lot of the programs like they like they understand it, they're like, Okay, maybe I could try this. Like it's a lot of bouncing ideas off one another. Like I could tell you right now I could stand in the outfield with like two or three of our other pitchers and I could probably learn the grip on a slider or something and try and give you a better slider. And that's the cool part about pro ball is like hey, you go out you talk to someone who has a really good breaking ball you have someone has a really good changeup

Scott Benner 13:43
kind of learn from each other.

Patrick Wicklander 13:45
Yeah, and that's, that's literally all pro ball is.

Scott Benner 13:47
Yeah. It's a so it's a little bit about your desire, I guess to meet people and form relationships and, and have these conversations and then have I guess, kind of the, like, the personal comfort to to admit to yourself, like his grip might work better than mine or, or something like that, and then go out there and and look around for it a little. It's interesting, really is it's it's a fascinating thing, because, you know, so many times in, like coming up through baseball, like you're the you're the guy and then all of a sudden you move to the next level and you start over again. And it just it just keeps happening and keep happening and because you know I'm putting myself in your head, but there's a moment where you're, you're at your house or wherever you are, you're like I just got drafted. I was I've just just chosen in the Major League Baseball draft, you got to feel like you're 1000 feet tall. And then you show up and you're like I feel like that's my first day of college it's it just kind of seems like a churchy back and forth a little bit and then it's up to you to define some centering and and move forward. It's interesting.

Patrick Wicklander 14:55
Yeah, it's it's it is a lot of like, humbling experiences because And you can't, you can't be too high and you can't be too low. There's got to be times you got to learn to just swallow your pride and be like, hey, I need to do this. Or that there are people out there that are better than you. And it's like, okay, what I need to do to be better?

Scott Benner 15:17
Well, it's a it's a really interesting. I mean, it's a perspective on life that not a lot of people are going to have. But it as you're explaining it, it seems like it fits with almost everything that a person would have to do. How are you making out? Managing your blood sugar during spring training? Is it any different than college? Or is it going about the way you expect?

Patrick Wicklander 15:37
So that's been training, they didn't have like Gatorade, like they had like a little eight ounce, eight ounces of orange juice in the cafeteria. So when I first got to Florida, I was like, Hey, I would take like, wanted to feel like the old ones use this from the cafeteria. And they're like, Hey, why are you taking it? I'm like, Well, I'm a diabetic. Maybe he would like plumb it a little bit. But so I started going out and buying like the flat to Gator that you get at Sam's, Costco, WalMart, wherever you get on and just start bringing to the field. I was like, Yo, where'd you get the Gatorade? I'd like you to that brought them. So I would always come to the field. Like what to Gatorade, like days, I would throw it. And I was like, really the way I was the way I really managed it. So. But the last, like last week of spring training, I think it was like nerves adrenaline, like I don't know what it was like, I wasn't changing my diet or anything. I kind of like would shoot up. And I'm like, what was going on here?

Scott Benner 16:41
Yeah, well, that could definitely be adrenaline as it gets closer, right? Yeah. Is there is that feeling like you're practicing right? Until you're not? And then it's very important all of a sudden, and, you know, you don't I mean, like, you know, you could throw 1000 pitches, and you're just like, Oh, I'm working on location, or I'm working on a slot or I'm doing this doesn't matter, blah, blah. And then all of a sudden, you think, Oh, somebody's going to be paying attention and keeping track and I'm trying to succeed to move up. And yeah, maybe it's adrenaline, you'll have to either either, it'll settle in and you'll get accustomed to it. Or you might mean you might get into a situation where you have to give yourself a little bit of insulin for it. But just be careful, because on the back end when the adrenaline goes away the insulin still there. So

Patrick Wicklander 17:27
yeah, that would have to be in college. Like after I would throw like I get this major, like just drop. And I got like, I go kill a Gatorade or two. And I'm just like laying on our training table during recovery. I'm like, I'm just gonna sit here for a little bit.

Scott Benner 17:43
need just a second? Well, so you know, it's interesting, because I think for people listening whose kids play sports, they're probably there's probably 1000 Moms listening right now who are like, wait, they didn't come up to him immediately when they arrived and said, Oh, you have diabetes, we have Gatorade for you. Like, no one's probably talked to you for four seconds about I would imagine.

Patrick Wicklander 18:02
They said they had stuff like, like, I have cars galore. Like all of our spread for food is like, it's always like carbs, protein, and some sort of greens. So I would load up on the carbs, especially after practice. And then the protein was going to help me balance it out.

Scott Benner 18:20
Right? Is there a trainer? Have you in the trainer had a discussion about it? Or is it something you're taking care of by yourself?

Patrick Wicklander 18:28
The trainers are there. They're like, Hey, if you need help, let me know if actually, I need to talk to him today about getting my bloodwork done to check my agency appointment next week. But they're very, they're very open about it. Because the way pro ball work in every aspect is like, hey, we'll help you if you come and ask for. I see. A lot of the time it's like you paid your professional.

Scott Benner 18:54
Yeah, you're an adult and you know, you're gonna take care of yourself. Yeah, right. Yeah, we're not gonna hold your hands. Like, I respect that. That's how I was in college. Yeah, no, I mean, listen, it's not that it shouldn't be that way. I'm just trying to pick through how it is so that people can hear it and understand it.

Patrick Wicklander 19:12
Like, cuz it's funny because like, I talk like, I don't call our coaches coach. It's like, oh, a skit, or it was FRC or like, we call it the first names. And I'm just like, this is weird, and they're okay with it.

Scott Benner 19:31
Yes, sir. And, sir, and

Patrick Wicklander 19:37
yeah, it's just like, I think it was like, it was like a short season after I got drafted. I get to Florida and I'm like, Hey, Coach, like don't call me coach.

Scott Benner 19:45
Okay, that easy. My name is this

Unknown Speaker 19:48
guy. All right. All right.

Scott Benner 19:51
Well, you were in, you know, about five games that in that short season, right.

Unknown Speaker 19:57
That was it a little bit at 218 innings I believe. Okay. 18 innings 22 punches, three walks, couple hits, no runs.

Scott Benner 20:09
Nice. I must have felt good.

Patrick Wicklander 20:12
I felt good. I'm just excited to play a full season 140 Some games.

Scott Benner 20:18
I was gonna just ask it's 140 games. Wow. That's it. This will be the longest you've ever played, right?

Unknown Speaker 20:27
Yeah. Especially because like, because it's like, I think we get like, an off day, every 20 days, or something like that. Wow.

Scott Benner 20:36
So do you think there's a world where you'll say you really get they start using you? Will you? Can you pitch once a week? Or is it like, like, what's your rest time in between?

Patrick Wicklander 20:50
It's more five or six days. I can't remember off the top of my head. Okay, but so we played two weeks series. So we put a CMT in for two weeks, I believe. I see.

Scott Benner 21:00
So in fan or the guy

Patrick Wicklander 21:02
who throws on Tuesday, we'll throw again on Sunday against the same team. So let's see if I did fix it.

Scott Benner 21:08
Yeah. And, but that's actually good practice. Because you know, I mean, it's, it's obviously easier to pitch to somebody who you've never pitched to before, because they don't know what you're gonna do. But I can see where that would be beneficial for you to have to throw against the same guys over and over again, because you'd have to get more creative as they start learning about you. And I guess vice versa, you start learning about them. I guess you think it puts the pitcher an advantage over the hitter? Seeing I think

Patrick Wicklander 21:39
the thing is, is like there's so many different pitchers that like yeah, you got a scouting report, but the human aspects different because you're adjusting on the fly so many people. So that's like, if you go from a lefty to a righty, like that's two totally different types of fishing styles. So I feel like at one I feel like the most advantage pitcher, but then every like, you'll have your really good hitters don't get me wrong.

Scott Benner 22:06
Yeah. What about what was I just thinking? Oh, when you when you do get in? Do you have? Do you have it set in your mind? How long you'd like to go? Like, if everything goes right, I'll throw a certain amount of pitches. Is that how you think about it?

Patrick Wicklander 22:21
Um, as soon as I get it, I don't really think about it. I'm just thinking, hey, I need to get pallets quick. Just strike one strike to put them away. Get ahead. The other say my buddy's, like, enter on like, our on is three. So it's either out. It's either out or he's on base and three pitchers

Scott Benner 22:41
that are on in three. Because you don't want to use up seven eight pitches to lock somebody. Or?

Patrick Wicklander 22:47
Yeah, cuz Yeah. Cuz if you think if you think about it, so say say you just do four pitches, you get two outs and you walk through in a row. One, two or three pitches is what there's 16 pitches right there. That's a full inning, you got to throw an extra three or four to six guy that's just like 1920 pitches. And if you do that ever gonna you're not gonna you're gonna be lucky to last four or five.

Scott Benner 23:12
Yeah. It's interesting. It's a whole, like, I find the whole thing kind of fascinating. So, all right, well, we've, you asked to come back on because you've got something you want to talk about, but I don't actually know what it is. So I'm going to find out along with everybody else what's so. G voc hypo pen has no visible needle, and is a pre mixed auto injector of glucagon for treatment of very low blood sugar. In adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Find out more go to Jeeva glucagon.com forward slash juicebox G voc shouldn't be used in patients with insulinoma or pheochromocytoma. Visit Jeeva glucagon.com/risk. I'm feeling a little sentimental here. This is my last ad of 2022. I did some rough math before I started. I have done over 450 advertisements this year spread out over Oh God, I didn't do the math on that one hold on a second. Calculator need that. This is probably gonna be one of these things I could have done in my head over 200 episodes 450 ads. And Medtronic is not coming back next year with the red pen ads. So this is really a finale for me. Let me see if I can. Let me see if I can do a really good job here. Hold on a second. If you don't want to use an insulin pump, but you want a lot of the functionality that insulin pumps have, you should take a look at the in pen from Medtronic diabetes. The pen is one of today's sponsors. And if you really go look at in pen today.com What you're going to find is an insulin pen that doesn't look Much different than what you're expecting. Actually, I don't think it looks different at all from what you're expecting. But where the difference comes is that that pen connects to an app on your phone. And this app, I'll tell you that this app shows you your current glucose when paired with your continuous glucose monitor. Is that not enough you need more it has a dosing calculator calculates the optimal dose for meals and corrections using current glucose and activity levels. And excuse me an active insulin levels. I was getting ahead of myself, it shows you active insulin remaining, your glucose history generates reports for you or for your physician. It has an activity logs, you can see doses meals, glucose readings, it keeps a history of your doses. You can see when the insulin went in a meal history. It's amazing. It's right on this app, it's just fantastic. Now you can go to NPN today.com right now and just sign up and just get going. You can learn more watch videos, there's a lot to do on this website. If you scroll down far enough, you'll see that while this offer is available to people with commercial insurance, in terms of conditions apply, you may be one of the people who will pay as little as $35 for an implant. It's crazy. Medtronic diabetes doesn't want cost to be a roadblock to you getting the therapy you need. So with the implant Access Program, once again, you may pay as little as $35 in pen today.com, head over there now. I had a great time. I love him. I think it's terrific. I wish they could have come back. I think they wanted to but it just didn't work out. You know, grown up reasons. But don't take it out on them. Go get yourself an NPN from Medtronic diabetes, I really do appreciate the time they spent with the podcast. And I hope Medtronic comes back soon. I thought that our partnership was actually very enjoyable. And I'm thinking of one certain person. I can't say her name right now. But when she hears this, just know I really enjoyed our time together in Penn today.com G vote glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. Don't forget about touched by type one.org. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player to these and all the sponsors. And if you can't remember them, head to juicebox podcast.com You can just click on them right there. And that really helps to show. Alright, let's get back to Patrick. Oh, wait a minute, one last time for this. Let me get ready. In pen requires a prescription in settings from your health. All right. In pen requires a prescription and settings from your healthcare provider. You must use proper settings and follow the instructions as directed, where you could experience higher low blood glucose levels. For more information, and that safety information visit in Penn today.com Well, I messed that up but as last time, so

Patrick Wicklander 27:49
Wow. We have a few of the guys and organizations we like you understand what CAMI was right.

Scott Benner 27:57
cameo? Yeah, yeah, I

Patrick Wicklander 27:58
know. Yeah. Cameo you Are you familiar with discord also?

Scott Benner 28:03
Alright, so I know the word. But I couldn't describe it. I can describe what cameo is. Okay.

Patrick Wicklander 28:10
So Discord is like a like you can have live audio chats, just different chats with different types of titles. It's kind of like a more personal read it. Okay. So me, me and a few other guys came together and we put together this thing called athlete access those the regular fan to connect with professional athletes,

Scott Benner 28:38
right athlete access. Yes, sir. Got it. Got it.

Patrick Wicklander 28:42
Well, whether it's football, baseball, basketball. Like we, we have a good amount of guy like a good amount of people like we all the guys that are athletes, and they're gonna call them coaches. So we do offer coaching. We offer mental like mental wellness talks, we prefer over 18 There's sports betting, there's video games, like we have all of our socials in the come interact with us. Like it's we're trying to bring together the the youth like the just the regular player, the act and the professional athlete. So we're trying we're not trying to like we're trying to show people like, hey, these athletes are just like us.

Scott Benner 29:33
Is this a platform that you could get to like online or would it only be through an app?

Patrick Wicklander 29:39
So we have our like our Instagram social like we have it's athlete dot access, I believe athlete dot x is on Instagram, and athlete access, underscore access on Twitter, but it is a discord. It's a certain app you use on Do a computer to and we have like different a bunch of different people on the servers like we're doing. They're currently doing a giveaway. It's like, hey, that new MLB The Show 22 came out. You got to like, go on, go on the server and say hey, free stuff. And we're like we're giving away like the game currency right now. So we're, we're, we're still growing a bit. So we're trying to get more people involved because they were proposed we are on Tik Tok. We're on all the socials. So we're trying to, like you probably see what Trevor Bauer is doing right? With his walk with his logs. Yeah,

Scott Benner 30:43
I know. He was making like a ton of video blogs. Right. And yeah,

Patrick Wicklander 30:48
we're trying to allow more fans like hey, like actually interact with us. So we're not we're not really vlogging right now that's going to be like the next step. Okay. For us it's just getting our name out there a little bit more like we like the discord from for y'all a little bit.

Scott Benner 31:09
So if you broke up for a second there so so if somebody's looking for you, the best way is to find

Unknown Speaker 31:16
your good

Scott Benner 31:21
okay, it's back. Sorry about that. Yeah, that was my that's something that happened on my end. What I was gonna ask you so do people find you through discord? Is that the best way or through any of the socials that you're on? Or what what's the best thing?

Patrick Wicklander 31:35
Discord is the is the best way possible. But we still like we we will take DMS on Twitter or Instagram. So I mean, like some of the channels we have on our Discord is like we have general chat mental health and wellness pitching hitty guiding gaming. We have like Call of Duty like the multiplayer war zone, zombies, different clips. We have fortnight we got the show sportsbetting all athlete chat. It's just a bunch of different like, hey

Scott Benner 32:07
it's a hang for, for people to come in and meet guys like you. And even there's some discord. So some channels where people could ask questions about a pitch they're throwing or, or that they get nervous before they play or like anything like that, like just it's interaction that that's there. Yeah,

Patrick Wicklander 32:29
we're trying to bring that like that human aspect to so like, it's not like, some people are more and more comfortable around professional athletes. And they understand that, hey, they're the same person as the 1516 year old kid. Like we're all trying to get better was just thinking a little differently than the other.

Scott Benner 32:46
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I think that one of the things that allowed Cole to think that he could keep playing baseball was that he knew a guy who played the minor leagues. And that it seemed like a real thing. I don't know if that makes sense or not, you know what I mean? Like you. But as a way of an example, I wanted to write books when I was growing up, but I didn't know anybody who did anything like that. And so it didn't seem like, it didn't seem like a real job to me, I guess, as you know, is an easy way to say it. And so I never really aspired towards the biggest I couldn't, I couldn't see it anywhere in the world. It felt like it just felt like an idea that that happened to other people. And I know that when cold met a guy who's like, you know, hey, I played baseball around here in high school. And then I get I got drafted. And I went and did this. And I played the monitors for this many years. Guys got like, cool stories, like a lot of great stuff happened for him, etc. It made it feel possible. And when I think of that guy, he just seems like a regular person to me, like even you to me, like you, you just seem like a regular person to me. But later today, with any luck, you know, around the fourth inning, you're going to be like, Hey, I'm here to pitch and, and that's a thing that, you know, seems the other worldly to people. So it's a really cool idea. Just let people see you as as yourself.

Patrick Wicklander 34:07
Yeah. And that's what we're trying to get at. And nobody came to me with the idea after he's actually he called me one day when I was given lesson. I said, Hey, I'm giving them good working right now. You can like let me let me call you back after he goes, okay. I said, Hey, I'm working. What's up? And he's like, do you coach kids? I was like, yeah, he goes, Man, you're I got something for you. And he told me about it. I was like, Dude, I'm all in.

Scott Benner 34:35
That's great. So when we're done, send me the social links, and I'll read them in so that people have them perfectly.

Patrick Wicklander 34:45
Branding is becoming big and baseball too. And it's helping a lot of guys.

Scott Benner 34:49
You know who you're making me think of by talking this way. Trevor may with the maths. Yeah, yeah. Right. Like while he's in the minors, he's like playing music online. and doing like playing he did. He did so much stuff like that, where he was just interacting with people and making his stuff available. Whatever it was he was doing it was he was always putting it out there. And I think he's gonna be there. I think he's there set up man this year. Right at the at the pro level. So yeah, I can just think of him on Twitter with the twins. Match. Yeah, mess now, right? Yeah, he'd been with uh, yeah, he was he was with his twins prior. But and he spent five seconds in Philly, which is how I knew who he was. And then yeah, like, you could do all kinds of cool stuff on on social media. That's, it's I think it's a great idea, man.

Patrick Wicklander 35:38
I mean, because I know, so I watch a little, a lot of videogame streamers. And he'll play with them. Like, Well, did you throw you throw like a hundo? Like, and you're over here playing video games.

Scott Benner 35:51
on Twitch, like hanging out with guys.

Patrick Wicklander 35:54
Yeah, it's just really cool. And I'm like, damn, okay.

Scott Benner 35:58
Well, I'll tell you. This is probably this might not make a lot of sense to many people over a certain age. But my son watches some Twitch channels, like their television. Like, like, like a person, you know, like a person my age. But think of as watching a TV show. Like, there's people on Twitch them that my son's like a fan of and he'll he'll, he'll watch their stuff, even off to the side while he's doing something else. If not,

Patrick Wicklander 36:23
literally, that's what I do. Yeah, yeah. Like I'll be, I'll be on FaceTime with my girlfriend and like, she'll be doing something or like, talking to her mom or something. I just have the iPad up watching Twitch or YouTube. Big gamers.

Scott Benner 36:36
I think it's a whole world that that older people might not understand. But when you said it, I thought it's a good idea. You know, I wish you a ton of luck, but I hope it I hope it takes off and, and becomes a real platform for you. Because it's a great idea. And as you meet more and more people, you'll easily be able to bring more and more people into the fold and give other people access to new people all the time.

Patrick Wicklander 36:59
Yeah, like I was actually talking to one of my buddies last night and cuz he's, he's trying to, like he's in a good job. Now when he's trying to get somewhere better. I'm like, Hey, you just got it. Like the now is important. But what you do now dictate your future?

Scott Benner 37:17
Yeah, no. Listen, I made a podcast for a long time that nobody listened to. So it takes it takes a while to build things up. Yes, you got to stick to it. Yeah, no, really nothing. I think that anybody that believes that you just do something, and it automatically works. That's the random, like, you know, there's one person that that happens to and even then if you spoke to them, they probably had a long journey that you're not aware of things don't just happen overnight. And when they do, they burn out as quickly as they start up a lot of times. So I think putting a lot of work into something and building it up and making it valuable is, is it's the only way to go. Really. So I liked it. I liked this. I like talking about something like this, that's just starting to happen. And you know, be interesting to hear you. You know, be interesting to hear you four or five years from now where you're like, Hey, Scott on the you know, I mean, look at Trevor, like you could be like, I'm the setup man for the you know, for the raise now and and we've got this whole thing going. Alright, cool. I wish you a lot of luck with that. I hope it goes great.

Patrick Wicklander 38:21
I appreciate it. Absolutely. I mean, that's, that's all it is like branding was baseball now. It's like, well, you fell back, because a lot of like a lot of good relationships. Like I've been talking to you like you and getting to know you and call. Right. So I mean, it's just, it's cool to see the people you meet along the way too.

Scott Benner 38:40
Yeah. 100%. Like, you really don't know, like, seriously, there's a weird world where, I don't know, 10 years from now, you and my son know each other because you came on a podcast because you got diabetes, like it just like it's a weird, like, you never know how things are gonna are gonna go and you need people, especially in a modern age. Like the I mean, listen, it's not going to die overnight. But going into an office and doing your job is I mean, my wife has been working in my dining room for two and a half years now. And if you ask her, is there any significant reason why you need to be back in that office, she would tell you, you know, she's getting more worked on like this. It's easier. She's not traveling as much, you know, etc. The world, the way people are interacting with each other has already changed, but it's going to continue to morph. And you know, the way you meet people is going to change as well. So I think it's a I don't know how long I'll live, Patrick, if I'll see the end of it. But, you know, people are gonna have jobs one day through people that they know, who they've never stood in front of. And I think that's 100% True. So yeah, dude, I think you're on top of something there. Make sure the guy running the digital stuff that he's the important one and Everybody be nice to him

Unknown Speaker 40:03
make or break this whole thing.

Scott Benner 40:06
All right, so what's the rest of your day like now we're talking pretty early in the morning, what time you have to be at the field.

Patrick Wicklander 40:12
So, I'm leaving the field to the field at 145. It's like 1520 minute ride. And that's how far out I am of actual the City of Charleston. As got my schedule last night stretch at 350. So get there eat, chill out for a little bit, do some athletic. Prefer stuff I need to find out if I'm hot or not to like, I don't think I am because I'm piggybacking tomorrow. Okay, so it's kind of really hard today to leave my tariffs on. Or put spikes on the play catch. It's in the dugout, look good.

Scott Benner 40:56
Tomorrow. So if you if you have no plans on pitching today, you might have a catch. But you're not going to you're not going to ramp your arm up at all right?

Patrick Wicklander 41:08
Like it's it's a giant like usually for me deal for it, though. It's a big field a day. So I get to a point where my arm, my arm and other pitches you'll get to. So it's like, okay, I got some, I feel good going into my outing.

Scott Benner 41:20
Gotcha. And then on a pitching day, like tomorrow, there's a certain time tomorrow afternoon, you're going to you're going to, you're going to get loose, and then there's another time where you're gonna get hot, and then you're gonna go play. What's it like? Is it better to have short? How long I guess my question is how long in between innings once you're in the game, if if you you pitch you know, let's say you get your you know, you're in and out of your get on and get in. Whatever you were saying earlier about three pitches. You have a nice quick inning and you come sit down. How long until you are starting to think like I want to get back out there again. Like how long is too long to sit on the bench between innings?

Patrick Wicklander 42:02
I would say too long would be shoes would be like this. Very rarely happened. Say that again. I would say I would say the too long would be like 10 to 12 or in any okay innings. That very rarely happen the older you get.

Scott Benner 42:26
Yeah, hopefully, right?

Patrick Wicklander 42:28
Yeah. But it's when the opposing pitcher doesn't throw like It's like ball one, ball two ball three. Strike one, strike two, when it's like those high pitch count innings. You're just like, hey,

Scott Benner 42:41
get back out there. Yeah, it's hard on you as well, I would imagine. All right, cool. Well, I wish you a ton of luck. I mean, 140 games, man, like, I don't imagine I'll talk to you again for a while. You're gonna be you're gonna be underwater for a little bit. But Nah, man, I really appreciated having you on so I feel like we I feel like you're the the official baseball player of the Juicebox Podcast. So I think we're all pulling for it.

Unknown Speaker 43:08
I really appreciate that.

Scott Benner 43:17
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G voc glucagon.com. Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. I also want to thank Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you that in pen today.com is waiting for you. And of course, a huge thanks to touched by type one, find them at touched by type one.org or on Facebook and Instagram. And there's two things I need to tell you about Patrick before I go. So one obviously Patrick was like in a hotel room or something when he recorded this so he had kind of spotty internet service. I'm sorry about that. I hope it wasn't too hard to listen to. But the other thing is that he talked about a discord idea that they were doing that did not end up panning out. So don't go looking for it. But do go look for Patrick. He's on Instagram. Patrick wick lander. Terrific. I just I wish him a ton of success in the coming year. I mean, it's a long road right from, from the little kid playing baseball to the minor leagues and trying to go further and go check out his other. His other interview with me. I think it's like 512 Yes, Episode 512. It's interesting. Patrick thought, anyway, I won't ruin the story. But I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't think? I don't know if I'm gonna do one more in 2022 or not. I'm still deciding. Looking at my content with Jenny and I'm trying to decide between putting up another one this week. Yeah, we're putting up all three of them next week as a way to start the new year off. I'm still figuring that out. You know, you'll see it in your podcast app if it's there. That's pretty much it. Thanks so much for listening. Check out the Facebook page Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, private fate, private phage private page with like, 33,000 people in it. Really fantastic place to get support and ideas about diabetes. Find juicebox podcast.com If you need to use the links, when you support the sponsors, it really does help the show it helps me pays my bills. I appreciate when you do that. Gets that's about it. Right? I'm going to wish you happy new year here just in case there's not another one. But I'll be back on January two, with an all new season. It'd be laying out some pretty cool stuff for you. That's it. I hope you had a happy holiday. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#816 (Not So) Blue Christmas

Blue has type 1 diabetes and a lifetime of stories.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 806 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today, I'll be speaking with blue, and she has had type one diabetes for a very long time. Despite the title of this episode, there's nothing sad about it. I just couldn't resist using Blue's name along with Christmas this close to Christmas. Today we'll hear blue story talk about how her life with diabetes is going now. And we'll get into a few things from a number of years ago. Just the first couple of minutes the audio is wonky, but I left it in because it it anyway, we get it fixed and I wanted you to have context for what gets said afterwards. 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 healthcare plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. If you are feeling festive and charitable. Take out that feeling AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. By joining the registry and filling out the survey you need to be a type one who has I'm sorry, you need to be a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of type one. Boy, I'm a hot mess here. Listen, just go take the frequent survey T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox there's plenty of good reasons why you shouldn't apparently I can't say any of them right now. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom and Dexcom makes the Dexcom G six and Dexcom G seven. You want to go learn more about it. You certainly can and you can do that@dexcom.com forward slash juice box a G six is available everywhere. G seven was just a couple of weeks ago okie dokie by the FDA in the United States, but you can already get it Europe anyway use my link to find out about it. The podcast is also sponsored today by the insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing since she was four years old the Omni pod head to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box to learn more about the Omni pod five, the Omni pod dash or, or the possibility of getting yourself a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash all that can be learned about at my lake Omni pod.com forward slash juice box on last one. US med that's where Arden gets her diabetes supplies from and you can as well you can get on the pod five Dexcom libre three all kinds of stuff. They are even starting to carry some insolence. So check them out us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check.

Blue 3:04
Okay, hi, my name is blue. I am 56 years old, and I've had played one for 40 years.

Scott Benner 3:14
40 years 56 years old. My goodness. That's a heck of a long time. 40 years 1982 Yep. Okay. I had I might have been in middle school, then blue, what's going on?

Blue 3:33
I don't know what you're not that much younger than I am

Scott Benner 3:35
not. But I'm trying to do the math. I mean, well, you

Blue 3:39
know, I'm okay. I was only in 10th grade. So I'll give you that.

Scott Benner 3:44
10th grade and the ad is getting diabetes, huh? Yeah. How did that go? Exactly?

Blue 3:50
It was well, I was actually while I was symptomatic for months, like before Christmas, I was diagnosed more 16. So I would say I remember we went Christmas shopping for like jeans and stuff. Probably August, September. And by Christmas, they didn't fit. So then my birthday is March 14, which is when I got pregnant, but didn't know. And then two days later was diagnosed with type one. So funny stuff.

Scott Benner 4:30
Alright, so hold on a second. So you're saying that in the 10th grade, you found out that you had diabetes and found out how reproduction work?

Blue 4:43
I probably knew before that before.

Scott Benner 4:48
Oh my gosh. So how old is your daughter? Your daughter right?

Blue 4:52
Yes, I have two girls.

Scott Benner 4:53
Okay. How old is the oldest?

Blue 4:56
You tell me? Well, no, no,

Scott Benner 4:58
I think two Let me get. So she was you were 16 I

Blue 5:03
was still pregnant at the time. So I don't know. But tell me how old are you? 39

Scott Benner 5:08
Okay, cool. 39 And how's the youngest? 17? Okay. You just trying to hit all the decades with a baby if you can.

Blue 5:19
Yeah. And the second one was plan. The first one wasn't? Yeah. Do

Scott Benner 5:27
do any. Do either of your kids have autoimmune stuff?

Blue 5:31
No, no. They are very healthy.

Scott Benner 5:35
Oh, that's so cool. How about in your extended family like your mom, your dad, uncles and aunts.

Blue 5:42
My mother was a type two. She I don't know what else she had. My family is very small. But I you know, because we have like, family that we don't talk to anymore. But my aunt, I named my aunt and her daughter. So my husband, they have thyroid issues. And I just found out my oldest, my oldest sister who I haven't spoken to him, like 37 years. She has MS and some kind of blood cancer. I can't really get I mean, I wanted that inflammation for, you know, health purposes.

Scott Benner 6:26
Well, I have to tell you, before we continue, I'm very worried that the way your voice is recording, people aren't gonna be able to hear you. Right. Okay, so let's try taking those headphones out and putting them into the case so they don't connect to your computer to do with the microphone on the computer. I think if you're okay with this, I think this is how we should do it. That's fine. All right. So I'm gonna recap very quickly. 10th grade diagnosed with type one, pregnant the same year 1982 You are 56 Now you had diabetes for 40 years. You have two girls 39 and 17. Neither of them have autoimmune stuff. And we were just talking about your mom has type two. You have a pretty small family that you haven't been that connected to. You've reconnected a little bit with a sister who's 37 You learned that she had go

Unknown Speaker 7:22
now my sisters are older. My sister I haven't spoken to her in 37 years. But um, I got this information from a cousin who speaks with her. So yeah, she has MS and a some kind of blood cancer but I I can't find out what kind.

Scott Benner 7:41
This is a sister, like from your parents like not a half sister or step sisters.

Unknown Speaker 7:46
She's a half sister. We have the same mom. Yeah. Okay. Um,

Scott Benner 7:52
I wonder if Ms is autoimmune. It's gotta be something with is multiple sclerosis and autoimmune disease. Let's see what the is commonly held view that multiple sclerosis may be an autoimmune disease. Most neurologic neurologically MS is an autoimmune disease and most texts on autoimmunity point to ms as a prime example of an autoimmune disease. This view has influenced research into the pathogens of Ms. Okay, so I don't think they're ready to say for sure, but it seems like they're pretty, pretty comfortable saying it might be. Okay. Alright, so there's that.

Unknown Speaker 8:37
You your mom, my dad, my dad has one half sister. And she has tight to now.

Scott Benner 8:44
Okay, but no, like celiac? Thyroid.

Unknown Speaker 8:47
My sister has, I think Crohn's. They don't make this stuff noon. i It's weird.

Scott Benner 8:54
How everybody stays quiet. I understand. It's only it's only type one to talk about their stuff to be honest. I mean, Crohn's is autoimmune, right. It's an autoimmune disorder. Yeah, Crohn's is autoimmune. Okay. Okay. See, now we're, we're, we're picking through like, 23andme for your family. We don't even need them here. Yeah. Alright, so going back to being diagnosed in high school. I do want to hear a little bit about that. So you have diabetes for how long before you know you're pregnant?

Unknown Speaker 9:30
Um, a few months. And then my mother actually asked me in the summer went well, actually. So I was diagnosed March 16. We didn't know I was pregnant yet. And that whole thing. I didn't really go to school. Again, excuse me like after that. So in the summer after a few months, I knew but I was scared to death to tell my mom. Okay, so when I was like five months, she sat me down and asked me if I was pregnant. And I said, I don't know. And she said, What do you mean? You know, now, when's the last time you had your period? And I said, five months ago. And she's like, you haven't had your period and five months, and you don't know if you're pregnant. So you should

Scott Benner 10:27
have said no way you did a poor job of explaining to me how all this work.

Unknown Speaker 10:31
Which is crazy. I'm one out of four girls, even I don't have contact with any of them. And my mom was always like, about the birth control because she was very young. You know, she was back in the day where you didn't talk about it. Right. So she was strapped with three kids by the time she was 19. Wow, really? Yeah. It's sad.

Scott Benner 10:51
No kidding. That's really something three kids by when she was 19. How old was her oldest?

Blue 10:58
Um, three. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 11:01
I think she was 14 or 15. When she had the first one. Yeah,

Scott Benner 11:06
but you didn't miss by much either. Right? Were you like 16? I was 1616. Okay. Are you by any any chance with that man? No, no. You left your voice you're like, that didn't work out.

Unknown Speaker 11:20
I will chuckle out loud. Yes. Actually, he was 22 when she was born. And he denied her. So that was fun.

Scott Benner 11:30
So he's in prison here saying?

Unknown Speaker 11:33
Actually, she after all these years, she has a great relationship with him. And I'm very, I'm glad because our family is so small. Yeah. And yeah.

Scott Benner 11:47
That's really something what was management? Like an 82? I mean, did you have a regular an MPH or not even?

Unknown Speaker 11:54
Yes. Well, this is the thing, like I hear people, I'm not going to touch anything. You're going to touch things, right? So I, I hear people say, Oh, I was misdiagnosed and everything. And I'm gonna go yeah, whatever. Um, but thinking about it now. My I was diagnosed by my physician, my family physician who actually delivered me. So he knew me, you know, my whole life. And I think he was kind of in denial. So my mom's like, you're losing a lot of weight. I was down to like losing a pound a day towards the end. And my mom's like, what are you doing diet pills? What's going on? And I said, No. And she said, You have to go to the doctor. I mean, you know what it

Scott Benner 12:50
is? I say, all the time. If if people's diabetes devices can make noise on this podcast, I don't know where they can make. That's fine.

Unknown Speaker 12:57
I had a horrible night. But anyway. So first, he, Okay, it's time to go low, which was something I want to ask you about, but I'll get back to that. So, at first he said, my mom thought, Oh, it must be diabetes or cancer. So of course, she's glad it's diabetes. And they just took like a urine test. And my sugar was in the six hundreds. And he said, Try diet and exercise. Excuse me. So I did that for a few weeks at 600. And that didn't work. So then he said, Oh, no, you must be a type two, because you're 16. And that's a weird age to be diagnosed that you know, in those dates. So you put me on diabetes, which I think was like the only diabetic pill. My grandmother took it. And that I say my grandmother was tied to said your mom was my mom. Yeah, I don't think that my grandmother was also but yeah, that was, she's been dead forever. So

Scott Benner 14:12
that made me laugh for some reason.

Unknown Speaker 14:14
Sorry. No, I wasn't close to my grandma. Just

Scott Benner 14:18
dead forever. For some reason. I was like, I don't know. It just made me chuckle I it's inappropriate.

Unknown Speaker 14:24
That's okay. You know, some people can't say things like that. But so yeah, so I was on that and that wasn't working. And then so I never had the whole go in the hospital, get this training, go home and all this pamphlets. I never had any of that.

Scott Benner 14:43
Because they thought you had type two if you don't exercise. Right. Did you think exercise is that what happened there where you're like,

Unknown Speaker 14:50
oh yeah. So then finally when he said type one, and he sent me home, you know, with the MP Ah, and the regular and said, and the syringes and you know, we practice on the oranges. And that's what we did. And that's it. So that was that was by May. So I was diagnosed in March. And I started insulin in May, March.

Scott Benner 15:16
That's a long time. It's a couple of months. And so you were just doing like a shot in the morning and a shot at dinner.

Unknown Speaker 15:23
I can't remember what I remember the MPH was like, two units, something ridiculous. Um, and then

Scott Benner 15:36
how did you measure success? Was Was their meter you just did the thing they told you to do. And that was that.

Unknown Speaker 15:43
I didn't have a meter at first. Yeah, I didn't have a meter for a while. So what what we did was we went to his office and got blood drawn every four months. And he made adjustments according to that blood test. Okay, because I don't even think they had the a one CS back then. Or they weren't talked about because I remember when they talked about them. They were like, Oh, they're going to be able to tell and I was like, oh, no, I'm not going to be able to, like, be good before that blood test. So it looks like I'm doing well.

Scott Benner 16:14
Is that how it felt? Like, I'll I'll eat like a bird for a couple of weeks before my blood test. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 16:19
Yeah, that's what we did. That's how judged

Scott Benner 16:22
Yeah, and then. So how did your pregnancy go? With I mean, newly diagnosed diabetes and 82.

Unknown Speaker 16:30
Um, I have preeclampsia. I don't know if that's do. I mean, that if diabetes contributes that too, because I know, people have it that aren't diabetics. But, um, because of her size from my diabetes. She had to be induced three weeks early. And she's still weighed 911. Wow, three weeks early. Yeah. natural births. So coming out, She almost killed me. I guess both of us.

Scott Benner 16:59
I bet you three more weeks, she might have been 10 pounds or 12 to 15. And they were saying My goodness. That's

Unknown Speaker 17:07
crazy. Yeah, they're like, We got to get this baby out. Wow. Okay.

Scott Benner 17:11
And did she have any issues coming out? Or was she okay?

Unknown Speaker 17:14
Because of being huge, which this makes me angry. She has, she got a pinched nerve. It is called. I have that brain fog all the time. I don't know if it's age, or what it is. Let me turn this phone off. Because that's why I didn't get your text earlier because I hadn't silenced. She has a name. The layman's term is Erbs Palsy.

Scott Benner 17:46
Okay. And that was from from birth. She's had it.

Unknown Speaker 17:49
Yeah, she had she got she was too big coming out. So she got stuck. So I had a nurse on either side of me, like with their fist pushing her out of me, my gosh. And she has a pinched nerve on her. I believe her l five.

Scott Benner 18:07
The bronchial Plexus stem from the word she has Plexus. Yes. brachial plexus that so she has that from the birth because she was too big to come out. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 18:18
they should have done a C section. And they didn't. Yeah. Interesting. makes me angry. So I tried to you know, anybody I find out any of my type one friends, I find out they're pregnant. I'm like, Oh my God, you need to talk to your doctor. And they're always like, brushing me off. And I'm like, You're crazy, because my daughter is 39. And he still suffers.

Scott Benner 18:39
Yeah. You have an interesting path through diabetes. Really? I'm going to fast forward a little bit. So you and I probably meet just quickly, I would imagine in that church, is that right?

Unknown Speaker 18:56
That's when we met right? Carson? Yes. But

Scott Benner 19:00
online before that. Yes. Yeah. So you've been listening to this podcast for a long time, haven't you?

Unknown Speaker 19:06
A long time. episodes in the hundreds? Well, you remember Amy?

Scott Benner 19:14
Your friend? Amy? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 19:16
We met in the diner, the blonde from the diner, right? Yeah. And she was so excited. She was saying, oh my god, do you listen to the podcast? And it's helped me so much about you know, she was going on and I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. But I'll listen to it. And I went home and listen to it. And we're good friends. That was four years ago. Yeah. So that's how long it's been a long time. Yeah, it was four years ago.

Scott Benner 19:43
How? How do you find so you seem to meet a lot of people with type one in your personal life. Is that fair to say?

Unknown Speaker 19:53
Um, I did it through camp because I met Amy. I went to diabetes adult weekend. And I can't Magetta and we met 70 type ones. And we were very fortunate that a lot live in our area.

Scott Benner 20:12
So you made friends? Yes. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 20:15
So that's how we have like, we made a personal Meetup group for people in the Philadelphia area. And oh, yeah, I have, I have two friends that live once a mile away once two miles away, okay.

Scott Benner 20:28
I, most of the most of the messages I get from you are about you meet people with diabetes, and you want to help them, and they're resistant to it. And it makes it seems to hit you on a personal level. Like, I wonder if you could tell me, I've always wanted to hear you talk about this more long, like long form. So how does that make you feel when you meet them, and you're trying to impart something on them, you know, would be valuable to them, and they don't want to hear it.

Unknown Speaker 21:00
It's, it's very frustrating. And it's sad, because I know, I know, the complications they're going to have in the long run. And I mean, when you see your friends, and they go up to 400, and then they go to 40. And then they go to, you know, up, down, up down constantly. And I'm like, it doesn't have to be that way. And people are always like, I don't listen to podcasts. I never listened to a podcast before. Before juicebox. I never listened. But she told me to listen. I'm like, hey, this sounds like it can help me. So I'm gonna listen. And

Scott Benner 21:36
well, what what was going on in your life that you were like, Okay, I'll just do a podcast. Like, I'll give it a try. Like, where was your? Where was your diabetes at at that point?

Unknown Speaker 21:45
Um, I, it was, it was, I was doing the best I could not I was doing everything I'm supposed to do and counting my carbs and everything. And so I would say my A onesies, although I don't put a lot of weight into those because I've seen graphs. And I've seen my friends say with their 81. CSR, and I'm like, oh, that's scary. Especially when others when they post it online, and then others say, Oh, my God, what are you doing? You're a one sees great. And I'm like, Ooh, yeah, I see that I see what's going on in the background. So I don't put a lot of weight into the a one C's. But um, it's definitely helped me that, like, when I first got Medtronic years ago, the trainer, and this makes you angry. She's like, Oh, this thing has a lot of bells and whistles. It has things you don't need to know about.

Scott Benner 22:52
This. What? Like, extended boluses the life? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 22:56
exactly. So I wasn't even taught about it. Right? That makes me mad.

Scott Benner 23:00
No, I understand. You mentioned brain fog a minute ago. You think that's from diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 23:05
I have no idea.

Scott Benner 23:08
How does it strike? You just are you in a loss for words? Or

Unknown Speaker 23:12
I cannot remember the words of things. Okay. Like, I'll, I'll just describe it. And my husband and my daughter, like, um, like, you know, like that green thing. And it's shaped like this. And they're like, and they'll name it. And I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm just at a loss. Yeah.

Scott Benner 23:34
You mean the mixer? Mom? Like, like that kind of a thing? Like almost a simple word.

Unknown Speaker 23:38
Or? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 23:42
That's something how long has that been going on?

Unknown Speaker 23:45
Oh, I would say at least the last couple of years. Okay.

Scott Benner 23:48
So we knew we've had diabetes a very long time. Obviously, you've been through a number of different iterations of how people have told you to manage I imagine you move to you know what they call fast acting insulin back then and basil they probably put you on what human Lantis and Yes, right. And then you probably did that for a very long time. When's the first time you to CGM? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 24:13
it was the ducks calm.

Scott Benner 24:21
Let me give this to you. Quick and sweet. Usually short and sweet as the saying, but I wanted to say quick and Squeak, quick and Squeak, quick and sweet. Now of course, none of this is it's not sweet or it's quick, nor quick right now it's late at night. dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Make knowledge your superpower with the Dexcom CGM system, zero finger sticks, glucose readings right on your smart device. And customizable alerts and alarms are but some of the reasons why you should get started with the Dexcom Here's some of the other reasons how about you can see blood sugars in real time on your Dexcom receiver or on your smartphone. And not just you the person with diabetes or the child with diabetes. But if you prefer, people can follow you. For instance, I'm following my daughter right now, she had some french fries with dinner tonight, had a high blood sugar got a little stuck, she's been making some nice Bolus is to get it down, using her Dexcom to see where she's been all night. And I'm seeing a nice decline, she's starting to drift down. And not just the drift. It's a purposeful move that we made. Actually, I don't what am I saying I haven't helped her with it at all. Tonight, she made she's looking at her Dexcom graph, thinking about what she ate, seeing what's happening, which is probably a fat and protein rise from the French fries. And she's bolusing to make meaningful change to her blood sugar. I'm looking at it right now, I'm actually it's gonna change while we're here, she's 188 Diagonal down, which means she's falling between like, you know, one in three points per minute, maybe. Anyway, that's what you get from the arrows speed and direction and the number all with your Dexcom dexcom.com forward slash juice box get started right now. It's, it's the device to have if you're using insulin. Another great device to have if you're using insulin is the Omni pod. Now that's going to be on the pod.com forward slash juice box as well. When you go there, I'm sorry to tell you there'll be a photo of me try just what I do when it comes up as I hold my hand up, just out in front of me so I can't say and then you just scroll past the photo. And it starts talking to you about a lot of different things. One of them is if you'd like to take the Omni pod dash out for a test drive, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial. Where are you going to learn about that omnipod.com forward slash juice box. At that same link. You can also talk to a specialist read about the Omni pod five, fill in some information to get the whole thing going. It's a one stop shop for your Omni pod needs. Now, do you want an omni pod five? Do you want an algorithm based pump? I think you should think about it. It's a viable option. And it's unlike anything else you're gonna find. Omni pod five is the first tubeless automated insulin delivery system. It's not bad. It's making adjustments to your insulin. Automatically. I thought I thought you got that by the name but it's amazing. And it might just be for you. And if it's not, if you don't want automation, I get that you can still get the Omnipod dash wonderful, wonderful device tubeless insulin pumps, both of them Omni pod five Omni pod dash Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox head over right now and take a look. Now, you want that on the pod and that Dexcom you can get them the way you're getting them right now. No harm no foul like that. Or you could get them the way my daughter does. From us med That's us med.com forward slash juicebox you go there and get yourself a free benefits check. Don't like the internet, call the phone number 888721151 for us med carries everything. Everything from insulin pumps to diabetes testing supplies, the latest CGM Dexcom G six libre three I'm hearing whispers Dexcom G seven producing. And I mean goodness take Medicare nationwide. Over 800 private and end over 800 private insurers. They offer you better service and better care at US Med and they always provide 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. US med has served over 1 million diabetes customers since 1996. My daughter is one of them. You could be to get white glove treatment at US med us med.com Ford slash juice box or call 887211514 please use my links because when you do Dexcom on the pod us Matt and all the rest know you're coming through the podcast. And that really does help the show. If you can't remember these links, they're in the podcast player you're listening in now in the shownotes or you can find them at juicebox podcast.com. For a free for full safety risk information and free trial Terms and Conditions about the Omni pod. Go to omnipod.com forward slash juice box. I'm sorry I was supposed to say that a minute ago but I didn't so say it now back to blue. When's the first time you the CGM

Unknown Speaker 29:54
Oh, it was the dex calm I,

Scott Benner 30:01
Okay, couple generations ago,

Unknown Speaker 30:03
that was the five. Yeah. So that was about why I've been listening to you while I've been listening to you for, I guess it was before I was listening to you was shortly, like, maybe five, five years. Because I had Medtronic first. And I had even before the InLight came out that other CGM that they had. It was horrible. The numbers were horrible, so I didn't even bother wearing it. Yeah. I'm like, This is not good information.

Scott Benner 30:36
Right? When? So when you start listening to the show, like maybe about four years ago, did it? Where did the value come from? First for you? Was it hearing people's stories? Or was it hearing about, like management ideas? Or what did you care about at that point?

Unknown Speaker 30:53
Um, management ideas? Were very helpful. Okay. Yeah, like, um, because I told you before, but I have guests or creases, I was diagnosed about five years ago. Now, it's not bad to where I throw up like, people. I've heard stories people get really bad, right? I actually have a friend who has a pacemaker in her stomach. For her GP. Really? Yes.

Scott Benner 31:19
What does that do?

Unknown Speaker 31:22
It makes her stomach move.

Scott Benner 31:26
It stimulates her stomach. Yes. Oh, I say

Unknown Speaker 31:29
he loves it. She's like, it's the best thing she ever did.

Scott Benner 31:33
Okay, that's very cool. Yeah, it's amazing. So with my

Unknown Speaker 31:37
GP, that makes it more difficult. So when I found out about like, the basil lowering or hiring the Basal, like, that's very helpful.

Scott Benner 31:53
So just little stuff about manipulating the insulin has been helpful for you. Yeah. So. So let's go through it for a second. So you have brain fog. You're not sure what it's from gastroparesis. I mean, that's, that's the neuropathy, right? So do you have and you have trigger finger, right. Did you just get surgery?

Unknown Speaker 32:11
I did. Yeah.

Scott Benner 32:12
How's that go?

Unknown Speaker 32:14
Wonderful. It looks great. You can see it, but yeah. Well, um, I've been seeing that surgeon for 17 years. Yeah. So I've had five trigger finger surgeries. Both these ones, carpal tunnel, carpal tunnels, right. I had I had frozen shoulder very bad. It was frozen, to where I could barely move it for five years. Before I got the surgery. And that was nine years ago. Surgery helped. It did help. I'm still in pain. I still have to stretch a lot. I don't have full range of motion. I have maybe 70 80% range. Yeah, so that's like an ongoing thing.

Scott Benner 32:59
Battle, right. Anything else?

Unknown Speaker 33:03
Um, and I had my old honor. So I'm not sure if that's related to diabetes where it gets numb. It goes down these two fingers. Baby fingers. Just goes all the way down from your

Scott Benner 33:16
elbow all the way into your finger. Yes. Surgery is there. Yeah. How often does that happen? What do you mean?

Sorry. That should not that should not the only nerve is that pain constant or does it come and go?

Unknown Speaker 33:39
It's not a pain. It's a numbness, numbness. And it is. Now it doesn't bother me too much. But I can't lean on my elbow. Like if I'm driving. I can't have it on the headrest. I have to have it back.

Scott Benner 33:54
Interesting. Okay, but you're not sure if that's diabetes or not?

Unknown Speaker 33:57
No, but I have another diabetic friend who had the same surgery.

Scott Benner 34:01
Oh, no kidding. Okay. Oh, my goodness. Okay. So at this point, now, we started to talk about and you kind of stopped? What, what's your control? Like, at this point? Are you? You know, is it way better than it was a year ago than five years ago, then? I mean, are you happy with it? Are there days you think I wish I could do something different here? Or like I guess I'm asking you if you're still sort of like if you feel like you're battling with diabetes, or if you have some sort of a stability for yourself

Unknown Speaker 34:34
lately. The stability is better. Lately, I've been finding at night, I'll run high. And then I can take insulin. Like five times like it'll wake me up and I'll take insulin to bring it down and it doesn't do anything. Until I start. I just want to turn my and so on

Unknown Speaker 35:08
so I just saw my endo last week. And she's a wonderful woman. Oh my goodness, I've had diabetes longer than she's been alive. But um, and I said, Listen, you can see it's high. And as soon as I wake up, it's like, the insulin starts working. So I don't know if that's, um hydration problem do you think

Scott Benner 35:31
over so overnight, your blood sugar's going up? When does it start going up?

Unknown Speaker 35:36
Um, sometimes it's not all the time. But if it does it I can't get it down. It will not get down until I get up and move around.

Unknown Speaker 35:48
How high does it go up?

Unknown Speaker 35:51
It can go to 50.

Scott Benner 35:55
So randomly, not always, not always the same time even. You can jump up overnight to 250. And until you wake up and move around, you're having trouble moving it with insulin, there's no amount of insulin little break it like having been used. So you've made like big hard swings at it and try to move it.

Unknown Speaker 36:14
Yes, I'll take like up to 10 units. Okay, like not at one time, I'll get like, it'll wake me up. And I'll take like, two, three units. And then it'll wake me up again. And I'll look like if it's been an hour or whatever, then I'll take two more. I'll take two more, and it won't come down. And the minute I get up and start moving around. I have a slight down arrow, and it finally starts going down. Have you and he she said to me? We'll get up and move in the middle of the night.

Scott Benner 36:46
I said why sleeping?

Unknown Speaker 36:49
I'm supposed to. It's bad enough. I don't get sleep, you know, because I'm up peeing all night. I'm like, I'm supposed to get up and walk around at night. But she kind of chuckled and said yes.

Scott Benner 36:58
Well, I have. So my question. First is how much insulin would move you from 250 to 100 during the day normally? Um 233 minutes. Okay. Yeah, you're doing too. And that's not touching it. So something's driving your blood sugar up. And it's not I mean, at that late at night, it's unlikely to be food. Like you're not eating a cheeseburger and fries before you go to bed. Right? Yeah, I'm a night person. Oh, maybe maybe it's a fat rise from Lady eating?

Unknown Speaker 37:27
Um, sometimes. Okay. But still, if I take the insulin shot and bring it down, if you take

Scott Benner 37:33
it off. But yeah, but I mean, if you ate, I mean, using it as an example. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 37:41
you're like a grilled cheese. Yeah, eating grilled cheese.

Scott Benner 37:45
So then you've got butter, right? There's butter in there. There's bread, and there's fat from the cheese. So if you see a rise for grilled cheese, 90 minutes or so afterwards, then that could just be the fat from the cheese in the butter. I mean, have you ever looked at that? It's not.

Unknown Speaker 38:03
It's like with the GP, the GP comes into play. Right. All right. So then, like, it'll be a couple hours later, and I checked my sugar before I go to bed. And it's great. Right? 120? And I'm like, Okay, I'll, I'll go to bed.

Scott Benner 38:20
So you think that's yeah, I'm sorry. I mean, to speak over you. But that so that's possible, then that there are times when you're able to Bolus for well, because the foods digesting the way you expect it to, then there's times where the gastroparesis kind of clicks in. And maybe that foods just sitting in your stomach and not digesting then all of a sudden hours and hours later you start getting the impact from this stuff. Yes. And when you make a small Bolus, or a Bolus that you would expect to work during the day, it doesn't work at all. Right? Interesting. Have you ever just taken a like, a larger Bolus inside yourself? Let me make a big swing here. And I'll eat something if I have to if it goes down, like if you ever tried four units instead of two?

Unknown Speaker 39:03
Um, I don't think so. I mean, I think three was the most.

Scott Benner 39:08
I mean, that's the only thing I can think is that be ready with like, some fast acting carbs. And take a take a big swing at it and see if you can move it. Because it doesn't make I mean, listen, should you be hydrated you should be but it sounds up all night too. So it sounds like you are hydrated. Right? Right. So I mean, my first initial thought understanding that I'm not a doctor would be that there's got to be an amount of insulin, it's gonna move that number. Right, you know, and there could be a mean, are you 5056 Are you are you you're not done with your period yet, right?

Unknown Speaker 39:49
I've had the Mirena for since I had my youngest. Is that the ring? It's the IUD, okay, so I don't get period And I have no idea like, I shouldn't. I'm 56. They said, Actually, I should have it taken out. And he's like, oh, you know, you shouldn't get your period after now.

Scott Benner 40:12
Like, do you think you've been through menopause and don't know it?

Unknown Speaker 40:17
I have no idea. I wanted them to test me. Because I'm like, Yeah, I'm not dealing with periods, because they were always very, very bad. For me. That was the reason I had the IUD. And I got enough prep.

Scott Benner 40:36
Well, I mean, I wonder, is the plan like you pop it out, and then see if it's over? Because if it is, then you're done with those hormones from the IUD to, which would be nice,

Unknown Speaker 40:46
right? But if it's not insurance, it's like, yeah, you're 56 We're not paying for another Oh,

Scott Benner 40:51
you feel like if you stop it, you might not get it back if you need it.

Unknown Speaker 40:54
Right. So right now it's in an extra year. And the hormones just get less, he's like, it's not going to hurt you staying in longer. Okay. They're just less effective.

Scott Benner 41:08
I switch me so that it does have a shelf life, which doesn't work, but but that the the IUD does have a lifetime, and then and then it needs to be replaced. Like if you put it in when you were 20. There'd be an amount of time until you had to replace it. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 41:25
Every five years. Right. So this is my third one I got when my daughter was born.

Scott Benner 41:32
Gotcha. All right. Well, I mean, so could be hormones. Could be gastro precess could be fat and protein from mostly fat from the cheese and stuff like that. And that example. I mean, I don't know why. There's not a Bolus that wouldn't work if ever tried doing like a Temp Basal on top of the Bolus. Yes. That that doesn't touch it either.

Unknown Speaker 41:56
No. But I'll try. I'll try a bigger Bolus.

Scott Benner 42:00
If it's not moving at all, and you're ended up like kind of nickel and diamond it to you. And it's too nice to just doing that anyway. I mean, I might try for to see what happens. That's all even if you can get it to move, but not go all the way down. At least then you'd have the indication. Wow, it did move it in, in a scenario where it normally wouldn't. I don't know. I mean, good luck. That's, uh,

Blue 42:22
I'll let you know. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:25
I just that's like, why did you want to come on the podcast?

Unknown Speaker 42:30
Because I, you haven't had people talk a lot about teen pregnancy with type one. That was like, the main thing. And I think the guest I'm just looking at my notes. Yeah, I guess so. precice? Um, I actually try to I try to get my actual diagnosis notes. But he's dead also, because he was super old. So I can't I mean, and I hear, there's like Iron Mountain. And this is where the old records go. Well, no. Temple says, oh, no, we we've just we could render those after 10 years. They just

Scott Benner 43:14
try the records after 10 years. Yeah, they're destroyed. Well, so what did you want to talk about about about the teen pregnancy? Like what was the what sticks with you that

Unknown Speaker 43:23
that was the thing like how she had the nerve damage. Damage he had to be, I had to be induced three weeks, which was a big deal back then. Now they're like, oh, 37 weaker. That's full term. That's okay. I don't know. It's my, my second girl was a 12 week preemie. So she was a 28 weaker.

Scott Benner 43:45
Do you know what your like, what was your control, like during that pregnancy? Because that wasn't as long ago. So you were probably using fast acting insulin at that point, at the very least.

Unknown Speaker 43:53
Yeah, I wasn't pumping. Although, my doctor at Temple. I didn't, I didn't have her temple. But I like that doctor. She walked in. She didn't really talk to me. And she said to the Assistant, oh, yeah, we'll order her pump and whatever. And left and I said, I don't want to pump like that's another thing we're pumping. I was like a beach funny. Because like I told you before, I was always down AC we grew up going down AC as a family. And it's only like an hour half hour away from my old house. Right. And so I misunderstood about pumps. I thought it was surgically implanted.

Scott Benner 44:38
I'm not kidding. Yeah, they were gonna cut you open and put it in.

Unknown Speaker 44:42
Not like the actual pump but like the port. I thought the port was in plant like implanted. Okay, so I was terribly ignorant about that. Got it. Got me a pump and it sat in mind Yeah, in my room for months until they were like, Yeah, we're paying for this pump, you need to either use it or send it back. And so I sent it back.

Scott Benner 45:07
You said you didn't even even did you send it back thinking you were sending it back because you didn't want to have it implanted? Or did you realize you never realized that that

Unknown Speaker 45:17
there I never really checked it out. I was like, No, I'm not doing this. And the reason I got the Medtronic, this is crazy. I visited a friend who had the Medtronic, and this is all talk. He showed it to me. And he said, Oh, this is what I do. And I put my carbs in and I put my sugar in. And then it gives me you know, here it is. And then I moved this around. And I was like, what? So I went home and ordered it online myself.

Scott Benner 45:49
Where did you where's it surgically implanted? Is that the moment that you recognize that wasn't? Yes, yeah. How long was it between when you sent that first one back? And when you recognize that that wasn't the case?

Unknown Speaker 46:01
Oh, goodness, um, years? Why had? Yeah, I just had my daughter, my daughter, when they sent it. They sent it when I was pregnant with her. And I got my Medtronic when she was in fifth grade. I mean, not fifth grade, I'm sorry, kindergarten, for probably like, five, five years. Wow. But that's, that's all it took. I mean, it was ignorance. You know,

Scott Benner 46:23
it's not even ignorance. It's just that it's just, I mean, somebody, you were too young to probably say out loud. But you are wondering, like I said, as an adult, you would if you had that moment, as an adult, you would say, Hey, I mean, I appreciate this. But I don't want to have something surgically implanted. And the person would say, well, it's not surgically implanted. And then that would have been the end of it. But when you're a kid, you don't speak up. You don't I mean, right. And your life was probably pretty tumultuous by then. Anyway, I mean, your mom. I mean, you're basically I mean, you're reliving your mom's life at that point, as far as kids are going. So how did she handle that with you? Was she disappointed? Or was she supportive?

Unknown Speaker 47:02
About the baby? Yeah, she was sad for me.

Scott Benner 47:06
Okay. Does that make you sad then, to realize that? Because I mean, honestly, right, what your mom is saying is in any not your mom, but anybody in that situation? If I have a baby when I'm 16, and then my baby has a baby when it's 16. Like turn to and go, Oh, gosh, I'm so sad for you. What I'm saying is, I don't enjoy having kids. And you're not either. And I'm saying that about you and to you at the same time. Does that make sense?

Unknown Speaker 47:34
Yeah, yeah, it was actually didn't get to live her life.

Scott Benner 47:39
But do you think that was? Do you think she thought that was your fault?

Unknown Speaker 47:44
Oh, no, no, yeah, me later. I was the one that was planning

Scott Benner 47:47
the other ones then.

Unknown Speaker 47:49
But I was like, 26 or 27. By the time she had me.

Scott Benner 47:54
Do you think she thought that of the older ones though? Like these kids ruin my life? Um,

Unknown Speaker 48:02
yeah, I think she was more angry with her mother for finding out that there was birth control out there. But her mother did not tell her about it. Didn't want to give

Scott Benner 48:11
it to her. Nope. How? How is your mom alive?

Unknown Speaker 48:17
No, no, my mom died in August. I did tell you that. So So I remember with the Dexcom thing going down and all that crap. Yeah,

Scott Benner 48:24
I do. I'm so sorry. But how old was she when she passed? 82 for cancer, right?

Unknown Speaker 48:31
She beat the cancer, right? She died from everything else she had. She basically couldn't breathe because of her heart.

Scott Benner 48:38
Okay, should she have like congestive heart failure?

Unknown Speaker 48:42
Yes. And her heart only function that 20% And she also had stage four kidney disease that she was she was staying off of dialysis. So she was like on the cusp. Right? What she had said to me, I won't do dialysis.

Scott Benner 49:00
Okay, well, did she was she a smoker?

Unknown Speaker 49:05
Until she got sick? Yeah, yeah, six, five years. Yes. She got sick. April 1 2017 is when I start taking care of her.

Scott Benner 49:15
So my initially my question was going to be She's mad at her mother for not telling her about birth control. How old was your mom when your mom was 16? Like, what year was that? Do you think?

Unknown Speaker 49:25
Oh goodness. She was born in 1939. She had her daughter. She had my sister when she was 15 she was 15 Yeah.

Scott Benner 49:33
That's a Yeah, that's like 50 for like 1950 for

Unknown Speaker 49:36
my sister. Yeah, my sister was born 55

Scott Benner 49:39
Okay. Oh, yeah, I bet you nobody talked about anything at that point. No. Right. Interesting where they were you was your mama Philly girl to where they did

Unknown Speaker 49:50
young family? Yeah, yes. I finally got out to the burbs. But

Scott Benner 49:58
well, I do know what you mean about the yum. I mean, my mom just finished her chemo. recently. She got six rounds of chemo. She's still getting an infusion of something. I actually know what it's called. I can find it here. But it's not the chemotherapy anymore. It is. Where it is that Avastin Oh, she told me what I thought is she just texted me last night. Is that an infusion? Yeah, it gets infused. A drug used to treat what age related macular degeneration. To treat diabetic itis he's over how it's used for this. She also could be wrong. My mom's something my mom says the wrong drug names. Sometimes her nurse tells me all the time. She's like she said she has this but she doesn't. It's this and then they laugh and I'm like, my mom laughed. She's like, I can never remember. But she don't because she's not that oh, she's 79. Right. She had I would say that back in October. Before we understood what was happening. I thought she was dead. Like I looked at her. I was like something she's this is it. And then she ended up having a full hysterectomy to remove, among other things, an ovary that had a tumor on at the size of like a softball. And then they found it had metastasized and go on to her uterus as well. And it jumped out to her omentum I believe I'm saying that right. It's kind of lining inside your body. They cleaned all that out. They fixed the hernia while they were in there. And then the next day, I'm talking to her on the phone and she's like, I'm doing good. And I was like how's the pain? Because no pain really? And I said oh they got you on the good pain meds mom. She goes no, I'm taking Tylenol and ibuprofen I was like no swear to God she didn't take anything but Tylenol ibuprofen after the surgery. But different error my mom and so yeah, and then you know she convalesce two days in the hospital, they sent her to the place where she's living now. She did physical therapy for a little bit kind of recruit like just rebounded from the from the surgery for maybe three, four weeks started on chemotherapy. She did six rounds of that. And that's you know, she started though, she's hoping her hair is gonna come back soon. She's not the same person she was six months ago. And it's, um, I mean, it feels like it aged or a decade and like a half a year. But she's okay. And you know, living our life. And it's, it's kind of crazy, honestly. So

Unknown Speaker 52:40
it's sad when they're not the same people like I took care of my mom. She lives with me the last three years of her life. And you know, yes, it's different.

Scott Benner 52:51
No, it definitely is. I mean, it's, I mean, being alive is better than not being alive. I'm certain, but I will, I will have to say you don't know. I guess.

Unknown Speaker 53:01
Towards the end, my mom was like, I'm ready to go. I mean, and like I said to my friend recently, I was like, I look at my mom, because even though she was in the next room, I would be watching TV in the living room. She had to she basically lived in her room. She had a hard time making it out to the kitchen. She forced herself to get into that pool one time. Two years ago, thank goodness. Because that was the only time she made it. Yeah. But her texts, like, you know, our texts back and forth would be fine. But the last text for the last couple months. Not good. It

Scott Benner 53:41
makes sense. I know my son's graduating from college this this weekend. And my mom can't make it to that. And, you know, and I know it is it sucks because I do. I do wish everybody wishes she could come and it's just not. It's a few hours away, and it's just too much. You know, even the traveling and then being outside and moving around. It's just not gonna it's not gonna work. So it's I, you know, you're not wrong, like it's different. Two years ago, my mom could have just come to my son's graduation, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

Unknown Speaker 54:15
Right? Yeah, it needs to be where even the car rides are too. Too much for them.

Scott Benner 54:19
Yeah, she's thinking of moving. And just the and she's thinking of moving pretty far. And, and to live near my other brother. And even just the idea of how to transport her that far. Is it's a bit of a problem. Like, we're not 100% sure how to handle it. You know, I joked with her and I said I will put you in a trailer with some hay. We'll just tell you there. She said I'm not doing that. I was like, Alright guys, it's viable. It would work. You know?

Unknown Speaker 54:50
It was Yeah, Minnesota.

Scott Benner 54:52
Like Wisconsin. It's gonna be like, it's gonna be like 13 hours. So it's gonna be a long ride and I don't think putting on a plane is gonna work.

Unknown Speaker 55:00
So, you know, we're probably gonna get an ambulance but not for 13

Scott Benner 55:03
We're probably just gonna take, you know, probably drive and drive and stop and drive and it's gonna take longer than it should as well. So, but anyway, what else? Let's see, what do you use? Now? You have Omnipod? Yes. Dexcom? Yes. Excellent. Are you gonna get an algorithm? Do you use loop? What do you do?

Unknown Speaker 55:23
I don't use. Listen, I got brain fog. I can't even, you know, thinking the name of a toaster, let alone, you know, looping? I can't. I'm not doing that. Yeah. My older girls in IT tech. But yeah, I wouldn't put her through that, would you? I'm waiting. So I'm a little bit jealous that I see you have the five and I'm like, send it to the people that aren't looping first. That's not right. I mean, first, I thought they would have sent it to you first.

Scott Benner 55:50
Well, they didn't send it to me. I, I got it the way everybody else gets it.

Unknown Speaker 55:54
So I know. Yeah, you should assign it to your first.

Scott Benner 55:57
Well, they should have sent it to me first. There shouldn't be a special page in the book where I get it. I hear what you're saying. But that's not what happened. Now we just I went right through my insurance and got it through us Med and did it the same way everybody else does it. It's just I just got lucky and my insurance covers it. But I can so I'll tell you the story. But you have to you have to agree not to tell anybody in the whole world. It's just between you and I because your recording is not going to come out for months. Okay. So I need this to work in the timeline of what's happening. If we agree, I will continue.

Unknown Speaker 56:31
i What do I do this? Yeah, you just cross your heart.

Scott Benner 56:36
I swear to tell the truth. So artists promise this weekend. And she has this little clutch. She's already upset that her phone won't fit in very well. And so thing comes yesterday, on the pod fives here, we get all set. Like you know, I go online, I do the the training. We're all ready to go. And she's like, let me get a shower, then we'll put that on. I was like, Okay, great. And she just she comes downstairs like, you know, just the herself sits down next to me. I pull it out of the box. I put the PDM down next to it. And she goes, No. I would watch she goes, nope. I was like, wait, what she was, I gotta carry that with me. And I said, Yeah, she was No, no, I'm I'm out. Just like that. She's like, I'm not doing this. And so I'm like, wait, wait, what's wrong? Because I don't want to carry something else. And. And I said, Well, Arden listen, here's the situation we're in right now. Right now you loop with arrows, pods, you have the orange link that connects the phone to the CGM to the out, you know, to the pump and all this stuff. And I said, too frequently. You can wander away from the the Orange Line, which happens to people all the time. It's,

Unknown Speaker 57:48
it doesn't you have to carry that also. Yeah.

Scott Benner 57:51
And I said, so I said, not going to be good. You going off to college. But the thing that if you wander away from it, it's just not going to work. I said on top of that, you know, Omni pod five is it's a retail system, right? Like, it's just gonna come out the box that's going to work. You don't need to own a computer to build an app and all this stuff. And I said in a perfect scenario we want on the pod five to work for you so that you can go to college with it. I said, so we are going to do this. And hopefully they'll come out with the iOS the Apple app for the soon because it came out with an app for Android. It just isn't for Apple yet. And Arden has an iPhone. I said if it's that big of a deal, I can get you an Android phone tomorrow. And she was Oh no, she's like, I want one. I was like I noticed that I teased her about it. She wasn't switching phones. I said, so what I need is two months with this on the pod five. So I can completely understand it. And we can make a decision about whether or not this is right for you. And I said and you're leaving for school in September, it's may now it's the middle of May, I got the middle of June, middle of July, then you're leaving a month and a half later as this is when we're doing this. You know, I said I don't know that two months from now we might not say okay, well, we're not going to do that. I said if that's the case, then we'll probably go back to looping but with the dash pods, which is something that's under development in the do it yourself world and should be ready to go in a few months. I said but we'll have options at that point. And we need options and we need to understand our options. We can't just a week before you're going to school say oh throw the on the pod five on now. Like that's not what we're doing. So my wife said I will talk to her and I was like okay you know, it's gonna be fine. It just let it was I think it was the prom and the in the space and her clutch, threw her off and then I'm being fair. She doesn't want to carry something. Something else. I can't blame her. I wish it would have come out with an iOS app at the same time as well. But you know, summers coming. She won't care about carrying it. I don't think once we get past the prom, so I'm still very hopeful. I'm being a 100% Honest, I want Omnipod. Five to be the answer for her. I think it would be great for you, honestly.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:05
Oh, yeah, my mind is working on it. Yeah. And actually said, she's like, You should get it. I don't know what she's done. I don't know why she thinks I would get it soon. She said, If you don't hear from me by the end of may call me the first week of June, because I want you to be on it for a few months before we get your new data.

Scott Benner 1:00:27
Yeah. My next appointment, Jenny and I have been talking privately for like a blast day and a half, like just texting about it back and forth. And it's going to be it's very settings oriented. So as Luke by the way, if your settings are wrong, a loop loop doesn't work. It just doesn't. And same thing with this. And same thing with all these algorithms, you're gonna have to have your settings right, or these things aren't going to work. And, you know, we were just jamming I were talking an hour and a half ago, and I said, such an exciting time, like we're learning about this new system, we're going to be able to help people with it in the future. I'm really excited by I don't know if Omnipod five is going to replace loop for people who are like big time managers of their diabetes. You know what I mean? who are who are like rolling along with a five, three, a one C like it's nothing like I don't, I don't know that any out of the box algorithm is going to be good for those people. But for the masses, for most people, it's going to be, I think, an outstanding improvement changer. Yeah. Just super excited for everybody.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:29
My endo didn't even want me to go on the pod a few years ago, because she wanted me to go, that's when that I'm casual like you. Yes, yeah. I made it to she, she was adamant. And I said, Listen, I'm about to hang myself with this tubing. I am not doing tubing anymore. So she, you know, she's I'm not going to let her dictate what I'm going to use. Right. And I feel bad for the people that get pushed around.

Scott Benner 1:01:55
I happens a lot. I think honestly, I think doctors have preferences on pumps. And they push them on on their patients. I think that happens a lot. And most people don't have the the nerve to say no, or push back

Unknown Speaker 1:02:09
because they don't know. I want to tell you about my girlfriend. This is another thing. I have a girl that she's my age. I've known her since second grade. And she had skin cancer. And the immunotherapy attacked our beta cells. Now she's moved one.

Scott Benner 1:02:30
Now she's insulin dependent now. Yes. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:33
So this has been for three years. So I'm like, well, you're lucky that you know me, you know, so I've been trying to leader, you know, and teacher. And I went to the I went to this one appointment with her when we were talking about the pod. And I'm talking to the, you know, the nurse practitioner, which I'm sorry, I don't deal with nurse practitioners. I have an endo, I'm just whatever. I'm fussy that way. And she says, you know, she's trying to tell her some BS. And I'm telling her right back, this is how it is. And she goes, like, I have my pod here. I know it's here right now. Yeah, I always wear them where they're visible, because that's how you find others. And I looked, and she looked at me and she looked at my pod, and she knew she wasn't getting overall me. And I'm like Now this, this and this and like what you're saying is wrong. And she's gonna get the pod and that's just the way it is. And yeah, she didn't like that.

Scott Benner 1:03:38
How many people do you think you've helped with their diabetes?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:42
Um, I, I try. I mean, I use I used to actually take care of my mom's take two, she was insulin dependent. And I got her the Dexcom which made my life a lot easier. Yeah. So a few I hope I, you know, I tell everyone, whether they listen or not, you know, like, come on, you gotta listen to the juicebox. Like, it's going to it's going to help you What do you got? I'm sorry. My one friend was here one day. I'm gonna call them out. Jim and drew not that the Listen, but they tease they're the ones that tease me and Amy and cost the, you know, juice box posse. They're like, we swear you're getting paid for, you know, all this app talking about them all the time. But it was it was funny. Drew was here one day, and I said something about the Juice Bar. I'm like, Listen, you should listen to this episode. He's like, listen, does he have type one? Because he's very high strong. He says, does he have type one? And I said, No. He manages his daughter's type one. I listen and anybody that doesn't have type one, and my daughter my 17 year old who she thinks very quickly, and she turned around she says, Oh, so your endo is a type one. And that does show Add him right down.

Scott Benner 1:05:01
It's Do

Unknown Speaker 1:05:03
you don't want to help?

Scott Benner 1:05:04
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say Do you think it's just an excuse?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:08
Yes. Right.

Scott Benner 1:05:09
I mean, this person you're talking about. I'm not trying to ask somebody but like, I mean, are they walking around with a five, eight a onesie? And don't go over one ad after a meal and stuff like that?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:17
No, no, I used to I used to follow him. I used to follow each other. And then he's like, Yeah, you're getting your peripherals taken away? Because I would be like, dude, that you know that you got to stop the arrows. No, you don't want to hear it?

Scott Benner 1:05:32
Yeah. Well, that's what I was gonna say is that I think it's not everybody's interested in, in helping themselves, honestly. I mean, because What's it matter? If it's first of all, if it's me, or for somebody else? Now? What's it matter? If they have type one, or they don't? If they know what they're talking about, then great. You need help. Maybe you don't know what to do? That person doesn't know what to do. So who, you know, that's, I don't know what that is, you know, if it's ego, or if it's pride, maybe or something. But I think you're gonna think you're gonna find that a lot. And I do. I do also believe that that's part of the reason why you have to reach people earlier. So that they don't get so set into this. There's no, because I guarantee you what he really thinks is, this can't be better than this. I am working very hard. If it was, if it was possible for this to be better, it would be better. And so I know, this is the best I can expect, which isn't true. And it's a shame, but I understand why people think that way. Yeah. So I mean, you can't help everybody, which is, is a it's a terrible thought, but it is true. So it's just it's nice to try to do your best and you reach the people you can reach and the ones you can't. I mean, it's they're still adults, right? They can decide for themselves. Yes. And he's right. I don't have diabetes. I don't know what that means. But he's 100%. Right? Yeah, yeah. Lucky me. Yeah, I should knock on something right. It would make,

Unknown Speaker 1:06:54
it just amazes me, the people in the group that, oh, that find the juice box, like, while they're at the hospital, you know, and their kids in intensive care. I'm like, Oh, my God, these kids have such a wonderful chance with their diabetes. I mean, it's amazing to me. So that's, you figure. This is another thing. I had my daughter in November. So I had diabetes for whatever, since March. And I moved out a week after I turned 17 with type one with a baby. Well, it was my mom, my mom was petrified. So I'm basically, you know, taking care of myself the whole time.

Scott Benner 1:07:41
Well, what you just said about like, people now finding the like finding the podcast in the hospital, I hear stories all the time, like my kid was diagnosed on Tuesday and Tuesday night while they were sleeping. I was listening to a podcast. Yeah. But that I what you said in there, I thought it was really thoughtful. It was about the, it was about hope and possibility. Like you said, like, these people have a chance like it. It's not, everybody's not going to come out of this, okay? You know what I mean? And for some people, it's going to go, okay, for some people, it's gonna go great. For some people, it's going to be up and down. For some people, it's gonna go terribly. Some people are going to have horrible, you know, complications. and anywhere in between those things. It, there's no guarantee of which person you get to be in that situation. So the sooner you understand, and the sooner you work towards putting things into play, that are going to help you with your health, the better to me, it's the sooner the better. You know, because you lose too many people to that feeling of like, well, I'm trying very hard. And this is as good as it is. So this must be what it is. And just oftentimes isn't the case. So yeah, I like the idea that at least people have a chance and the better the chance they have that the happier it makes me.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:01
So yeah, I feel bad for the parents sometimes, though, that they're like, I feel like they're constantly like watching these numbers and feeling like they're not doing well.

Scott Benner 1:09:12
Yeah, some people can get overwhelmed by it. That's for certain, but the truth is, I mean, I'd rather if I'm being honest, I'd rather than be overwhelmed by trying, then overwhelmed by it just happening to them and failure, Capcom, because you're gonna get overwhelmed one way or the other, you might as well be overwhelmed going forward. You don't I mean, but they do have to, I mean, if any of them are listening, at some point, you've got to find a balance. You got to find a way to try hard to care and not make yourself mental because there's no win in that at all.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:47
So here's one thing you said to me that that helped, because I do people think I'm nuts. I do. Watch my number constantly. Does it help you know, I mean helps me with my sugar. Mentally it does not help me. I hate diabetes. I hate everything about it. People that say, oh, diabetes is fine and diabetes made me who I am today and I'm a healthier person and and I just I don't feel that like I was always I was always a sickly actually I didn't start out with the first three years of my life. I throw up every single thing that went into my mouth. I was very sickly child. I was sickly strep throats my whole I missed so much school. So I've been sick my whole life and I'm tired. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:10:37
Now well, then why do you not? So listen, you didn't answer me earlier. So if you don't want to, you don't have to, but what's your what's your a one say?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:45
Am I a one C 6.56 by five, okay? And I keep it in a six mid sixes

Scott Benner 1:10:51
slot is really good. But why are you having to stare?

Unknown Speaker 1:10:56
I one thing you said to me which it made sense. You were like, Listen, you have your alert set. You don't need to look at it. Alert and tell you. So I'm like, Okay, let me do that. Let me not have my phone on with my numbers showing while I'm driving. This is how bad I was. So I'm like, Okay, let's but then it aggravates me. Okay, the alert, I have it set 80 to 130 the ad is because of my gastroparesis because I need to have time to catch it. Yeah. Okay, say, okay, it goes off, and it's 130 Diagonal up. And I'm like, I could have stopped that arrow. If I had seen that sooner. Now. That's what was pissing me off. So I'm like, okay, Scott says don't look at it. So that's helped. That has helped

Scott Benner 1:11:52
good, but I think you're just torturing yourself. I am torturing myself. You're no matter what happens. You're gonna find a reason why that shouldn't have been what you did. Yeah, yeah. That's not something I can help you with. That you get a therapist for maybe?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:10
I haven't got with my therapist. I haven't gotten into my type one to modulate. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:12:14
But you know, well forget type one. Just how come you want to punish yourself? Is the is the is a good question, right? Because, because 130 is not a bad blood sugar. And it's all mindset, like you're looking at it and you're thinking, Oh, see if I would have seen this an hour ago, this wouldn't have happened. When you could just be saying, I'm so glad I set my alarm at 130. So I can address this and put it right back to where I need it. So it's all just how you proceed after you see the number.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:42
Yeah, yeah. And that's one thing. I also like you have a very healthy mind. I hear a lot of people on the podcast, some have very healthy mind. You can tell the difference between the people. You definitely can I know. I? I do not. And I know I do mental health problems. Right in my family and the bipolar. I forgot to bring up the bipolar. Yes.

Blue 1:13:06
And depression for you. Yes. Bipolar

Scott Benner 1:13:09
depression for you as well,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:11
since I was 17. Yes. So it's been it's been a rough

Scott Benner 1:13:16
road. Is that where the sex came in Young? Isn't that isn't that a side effect of like, Bipolar depression to like, act like I don't want to call it acting out sexually. But isn't that one of them like sexual? Like early sexual? I think I think

Unknown Speaker 1:13:31
that was more trying to because my dad was wasn't around that long. I mean, he lived with us. But the dynamic at home, my parents weren't really together. I think like the, I don't know, like girls that don't have good relationships with their fathers, then they seek it with guys and they have sex. That's why yes, I became sexually active at 14 So even before, even before,

Scott Benner 1:14:05
so it's not like because it says here in a person with bipolar disorder. They may also lead to hypo sexuality, which is a low or nearly non existent sex drive. hypersexuality may experience symptoms such as What about HyperX out here you go hypersexuality or an increased sex drive can be a sign of manic episodes.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:26
Yeah, I've been through that. Yeah. Talk about when I ran the escort service, okay.

Scott Benner 1:14:38
I don't think you should say something like that out loud. No. Okay, well, because I mean, that could and I wonder now that I'm asking, Does your mom have bipolar or? No, no, she did.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:53
Um, mental health issues right. And my family like my uncle is schizophrenic. hmm. Um, to the point where he was, he was really, really bad. And he's managing now he's, he's, you know, elderly now he's the only one left out of the siblings. He's in his 70s.

Blue 1:15:15
But um,

Unknown Speaker 1:15:17
was it? Oh, my sister. See, I have three sisters. And we don't none of us speak. But the one is paranoid. paranoia, very bad and bad mental health. Real like, yeah. Yeah. Bad.

Scott Benner 1:15:34
I understand. I think that's all in some way related to inflammation. I don't know anything but always

Unknown Speaker 1:15:42
formation. So that's what they were talking about this type three. Did I hear that? On the juice box? You probably did. The Alzheimer's type three. Yeah. I'm like, no, no type threes are the people that our family of type two type one. We always called type threes now that like, oh, type three is Alzheimer's.

Scott Benner 1:16:04
That's a colloquialism. Not a scientific distinction. But I understand what you're saying. And I hear you. Alright, well, blue. We've done a lot here today. Do you think we've gone over everything? Are you looking at your list? Have we covered what you want?

Unknown Speaker 1:16:18
Oh, yeah. So I feel that before I was on a pump list, mainly before the CGM for 28 years, I was MDI. And I'm kind of glad I had that time to enjoy where diabetes wasn't right in my face. Because I feel like now it's like, right, in my face.

Scott Benner 1:16:39
Do you think that you would have preferred that over being diagnosed today and going right on technology that probably would have stabilized things better? Um, whereas this just based on the reality of what your life was, and where you're trying to find some kind of happiness and good news?

Unknown Speaker 1:16:57
Yeah, I think it's the second part. Yeah. I'm also very jealous of the people who are diagnosed later in life.

Scott Benner 1:17:02
Because they got to live without it for a while. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:05
And they got to do things. They got to have the kids they got to go to college, they got to go drinking. Without what you know, like, I have a lot of anxiety over getting anything go into carnivals going to concerts, like any any kind of outing, I immediately panic just thinking, how am I going to do this? Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. One thing I wanted to bring up. I was trying to find the medical, I can't get any medical notes. But this is like strange. Back in 1988, I'd say 8089. I think it was 88. So you figure out how to take one for six years by then I take a ride down the shore with my dad for the day. And I end up stopping by my friend's summer house down Wildwood. And they're like, Oh, you could spend a night when I go okay, Dad, can I spend the night you know, I'll get right back with them tomorrow. And I had nothing with me.

Scott Benner 1:18:14
But if anything at all. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:18:16
we're tester. No insulin, nothing. I don't know what I was, I guess I wasn't think like, I don't know what I that far removed from it. But we I mean, I was so bad. And I had to be a dk. I had I'm sorry. I had to be in DKA. Because we were out on the boat. And I was actually putting my hands in the water and like trying to wet my mouse. Okay, with the saltwater. So what what they did was they took me to the hospital. I said, I have to go to the hospital. And they they gave me insulin. And I said, Well, I got I got what I came for, I needed the insulin to bring my sugar down. So now I want to leave. And I left. And they said we really like, I don't remember hearing this was a long time ago hearing like DKA or stuff like that. But I left I said I got what I get I need an insulin, you gave me insulin. And now I'm leaving. I'm psyching myself out. And that's what I did. And I really tried to get those notes because I was very curious to see what they said how

Scott Benner 1:19:31
they talked about you like in the notes.

Unknown Speaker 1:19:33
Yeah. What about Yeah, or to see what my sugar was? Or any, you know? Yeah, no, I've never been in DKA. Aside from maybe that time that I know, like, I've never been in DKA. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:19:44
It's interesting. Well, it's a whole different world. I mean, just being diagnosed. I mean, 40 years ago, it's just, it's completely different. I mean, you describe a thing that people who are diagnosed today don't even recognize honestly, besides from the word insulin and diet biddies, there's nothing similar to, to how you had diabetes and how somebody who's 16 today and gets it will have it? Absolutely, it's really kind of a, it's kind of amazing to be alive and a time to see something, progress so drastically and you know, inside of a lifetime, you know, and I think it's possible that in the next 10 years, you're going to see a leap bigger than that, just for these algorithms. I mean, if they could get some of these insulins to work a little more quickly. You know, we've tried fast was terrific, but whatever that is that they put in it, that makes it burns are in a little bit, so she can't use it. But such a big deal. Just the insulin working and work, what doesn't work, that one's faster. It just helps with not having to Pre-Bolus as long as Pre-Bolus. You don't? You're in a different situation.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:52
Yeah, I just do normally 5050. Right, over like a half hour.

Scott Benner 1:20:58
That's another reason why the algorithm is going to work well for you. Because you're not worried about Pre-Bolus. Yeah, because that's going to be still I mean, my guess is I haven't used it yet, obviously. But based on what I know about looping what I'm hearing about on the pod five from people who've just gotten it just a week before I have it. For Arden, I think Pre-Bolus is still going to be a big deal. You know, so even if your insulin work more quickly, again, that's another big leap for people, like you know, that suddenly meal spikes, not going as high as they used to. I mean, that that's a big piece of it. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:34
It makes me angry that they still tell people, there's going to be a diagnosis in five years, people that are just being diagnosed. I mean, I think that's mean, do you

Scott Benner 1:21:44
think they're still telling people there's gonna be a cure in five years? Yes. Really? Yes, that would be stupid. But it's also an indication of turnover in its turnover in marketplace, right, like doctors and nurses and health care providers, new people come in new people come in, they hear the same stories, and they just recant. They just, they just regurgitate them, you know, like, Oh, I heard and five years is gonna be so or maybe they even heard, Oh, I heard in five years, that there'll be an algorithm that will, you know, you won't even have to tell it that you that you ate. And that you know what I mean, like, and then they just misrepresent what they've heard. And, you know, it mean people talking about, forget one of the algorithms right now I let or something like that, like, you know, I'm seeing I'm seeing a push in, you know, when you see the other side of diabetes, you kind of see, like, I'm seeing a push in them wanting to be on, like, they're getting the word out again, which must mean they're getting ready to do something or say something or whatever. But I go back, like, I've been hearing about this for 10 years. You know what I mean? Like, fair, spare takes however long it takes, and I'm grateful someone's doing it. But someone here hears about it 10 years ago, and they talk about the same exact way as they'll talk about it when they hear about it today. And nobody knows what they're talking about. And I don't know if people are running around promising cures, or if they're just saying half baked stuff that they heard somewhere, you know, so

Unknown Speaker 1:23:08
that's another thing. Like the thing that makes me angry about type one is that are people saying stuff? Like, and I said this to my girlfriend the other day? I don't know about my Allume myeloma, is that myeloma, myeloma? Um, so I'm not going to say things that I think I know about it. People do that. That's what they do without the IB,

Scott Benner 1:23:34
you wouldn't. You wouldn't roll into the food court and you would like, want to hear my loose understanding of your cancer. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:41
Right. You know, people would just like, like, the episode that you have with the nurse was, you know, sure opened her eyes, didn't it?

Scott Benner 1:23:52
Everybody gets everybody learns. It's always there still learning? I mean, not everyone's going to understand everything from day one. It's just one of those, right? Where where it becomes dangerous is when people are people and they hear enough of something that they think they understand it and then they start talking. And you know, and you got to keep your mouth shut. You're talking about and you're talking about people's lives. It your points well taken, no one would run around talking about, oh, you know what I heard about your cancer. Somebody heard that if they heard you had multiple myeloma, and I heard the words multiple myeloma in a radio ad, I certainly wouldn't start regurgitating what I what I had heard out loud, but nobody has any trouble for the most part. Yeah, talking about diabetes when they when they don't know what they're talking about. That's for certain. All right, blue. This has been delightful. Thank you very much for doing this with me. I really appreciate I have the strong feeling we could just keep chatting. And I have. I'm looking at my calendar and I gotta make it to my next thing. So I have to say goodbye. But I really do appreciate you doing this with me. Thank you so much.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:59
Thank you for having me, of course.

Scott Benner 1:25:05
First, I'd like to thank Blue for coming on the show and sharing her story. She's just one of my favorites. And want to thank Dexcom as well dexcom.com forward slash juice box, get your Dexcom G six right now find out about the G seven. Let's get going on the pod. How about the Omni pod five on the pod.com forward slash choose box or the Omni pod dash? Both of my link and of course us med get your diabetes supplies the way my daughter does from us med us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another year of the Juicebox Podcast. Just a few more episodes left in 2022. And then the ninth year, the ninth season of the Juicebox Podcast begins on January 2 2023. And we're going to come out of the gate Swain. Understand. I've got Kate on the show. Kate is a quadriplegic who has type one diabetes, listening to her story of how she handles her life is just astonishing. Steven is going to be on the show Stephens had type one diabetes for a very long time very smart guy. I really love talking with him about type one. We're also going to do a beautiful young lady 13 years old, who's managing your diabetes so so astonishingly, well, she just came on the show and recorded with me recently, I had such a great time with her. I told her I was going to start the season out with her. Jenny and I are going to do a three series, a three episode series about the math of diabetes, how to set up your insulin to carb ratio, your insulin sensitivity factor and your and your Basal sorry, it's really late at night here. It's just after Christmas. And I don't have it all. You know what I mean? I'm tired. Anyway, I've got big things planned for the podcast for 2023. I really appreciate all the support you guys have given me so far. You know, when I tell you there's another season of the podcast? I mean, it's a lot. I do. Think we delivered Spotify sent the little notification, I can find it here for you. You don't care. Are you still listening? Doesn't matter. I got this from Spotify. It says you created 12,182 minutes of new content in 2022. And this was I got this a couple of weeks ago from them. Anyway, it goes on to say that is more than 99% of other creators in the health and fitness category. It's pretty awesome. They also told me that let's say you're in the top 15% of most followed podcast. So let me thank you for that. It also says here your podcast was in the top 15% most shared globally. Astonishing. That's you guys too. Thank you very much. What else they tell me. Hold on, I have to look at a different screen. Sorry. I'm probably looking away from the microphone. Like this is it really? You know, just that amazing stuff about you guys in the podcast? We're not going to quite make it. But it's okay. I know mind. record setting year for the podcast last year. Let me just tell you, I don't usually tell you guys this stuff, but you caught me late at night. And I'm uh I'm a little giddy. Let me go back here to January 2021 On the first and then I'll go to the end, which would be December 31 of 2001. I will tell it I want to know how many downloads there were in that timeframe. It's telling me right now. The number is populating in 2022. The podcast got 2,157,162 downloads or streams combined. That's astonishing. Makes the podcast very very popular. And me very very grateful. I can't I have to be honest with you at the end of 2021 I was like I cannot believe this many people listen to the podcast this year. Going back to my little like isn't this machine here 2022 January 1 Two today, which is the 27th of December I can't give you the entire there's still four days left but 2022 up to this 187 $4,886,470 are streams and I say this once in a while throughout the year but it just begs repeating podcast don't grow because of marketing because on social media, from me, the it grows when people shared it grows when you share it on your social media, or were you tell somebody about the podcast or share it with your doctor or a friend or someone you bumped into at Costco. That's how the podcast grows. And so this amazing growth, it's you guys. And it's, it's not something I can properly say thank you for, I'm trying. But I haven't found a way yet to say that. I can't believe for instance, that your podcast was in the top 15% most shared globally, like that's straight from Spotify. And you guys don't even really listen through Spotify. Most of the listeners are listening in Apple podcasts. So anyway, if you're not subscribed right now, please subscribe on your favorite podcast app, your favorite audio app like Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple podcasts, so many others. Continue to tell people about podcast, it helps it grow. Thank you so much for supporting the sponsors. That's amazing. I've had longtime, terrific sponsors, who buy ads on this show, and it keeps the show free for you guys. And it keeps me in a situation where I'm able to make episodes, you know, multiples a week because of the podcast, getting that support and because of you then going out and supporting the advertisers. They don't just buy ads because nobody clicks on them. They you know, much like the listens. You guys are the engine that drives it. I think I'm gonna put out one more episode this year. Maybe to have to look at my to look at what I've got. And then we're going to start right up. Like I said, January 2, ninth here. Really? I can't I can't even tell you how stunned I am to be able to say that. It um gosh, I guess about halfway through 2014 I decided I was definitely going to make a podcast. And me God, we just finished 2022. Seven years, like seven straight years. But eight seasons. 2015 was the first 2016 1718 1920 21 this year 22. Eight full years of the podcast. Today's episode, my goodness episode, I'm trying to find out I grabbed the wrong mouse. Today's episode was 816. We're gonna get 1000 episodes, we're gonna hit 1000 episodes and 2023 we're gonna hit. I mean, in just a week or so 10 million total downloads since 2015. That's crazy time. And we just missed 5 million just in 2022. Can you imagine that right now the podcast just about has 10 million downloads, and 5 million of them came in the last 12 months. It's there are days that I feel like I've been doing this forever. And there are days I feel like I'm just getting started. And I think the podcast maybe is just getting started. So I don't know if we're gonna do 5 million in 2023 or 10 million or this is the last year. I have no idea. But I'm having a great time making the show. I can't tell you how grateful I am that you enjoy it that you're supporting the podcast in so many different ways. Please go check out the private Facebook group which is astonishingly supportive and amazing. Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, absolutely free. 33,000 members between 80 and 110 new posts a day. So many people in there some supporting so many people with so many different topics all about diabetes. I've been talking too long. I'm gonna go. I really appreciate everything. I hope that's obvious. Again, thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#815 The Elves and the Shoemaker

It has become a bit of a tradition here on the podcast for listeners send me Christmas stories that they'd like me to read. And this year I'll be reading the Elves and the Shoemaker by the Brothers Grimm. Previously in Episode 291, about at the 30 minute mark, I read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And in Episode 600, Twas the Night Before Christmas. Whether you celebrate Christmas, another holiday or no holiday at all, I hope you enjoy this. I read this today for Ysabelle.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, as has become a bit of a tradition here on the podcast. Listeners send me Christmas stories that they'd like me to read. And this year I'll be reading the Elves and the Shoemaker by the Brothers Grimm. Previously in Episode 291, about at the 30 minute mark, I read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And in Episode 600, Twas the Night Before Christmas. Whether you celebrate Christmas, another holiday or no holiday at all, I hope you enjoy this. I read this today for Isabelle, the Elves and the Shoemaker by the Brothers Grimm. A shoemaker by no fault of his own had become so poor that at last he had nothing left but leather for one pair of shoes. So in the evening, he cut out the shoes, which he wished to begin to make the next morning. And as he had a good conscience, he lay down quietly in his bed, committed himself to God and fell asleep. In the morning, after he said his prayers, and was just going to sit down to work. The two shoes stood quite finished on his table. He was astounded and knew not what to say to it. He took the shoes in his hands to observe them closer. And they were so neatly made, that there was not one bad stitch in them, just as if they were intended as a masterpiece. Soon after, a buyer came in, and as the shoes pleased him so well, he paid more for them than was customary. And with the money, the shoemaker was able to purchase leather for two pairs of shoes. He cut them out at night, and next morning was about to set to work with fresh courage, but he had no need to do so for when he got up, they were already made. And buyers also were not wanting who gave him money enough to buy leather for four pairs of shoes. The following morning to he found the four pairs made, and so it went on constantly. What he cut out in the evening was finished by the morning so that he soon had his honest independence again, and it last became a wealthy man. Now it'd be felled at one evening, not long before Christmas, when the man had been cutting out, he said to his wife before going to bed. What thank you if we were to stay up tonight to see who it is that lends us this helping hand. The woman liked the idea and lighted a candle. And then they hid themselves in a corner of the room behind some clothes which were hanging up there and watched. When it was midnight, to pretty little naked men came, sat down by the shoemakers table, took all the work which was cut out before them and began to stitch and sew and hammer so skillfully and so quickly with their little fingers. The shoemaker could not turn away his eyes first banishment. They did not stop until all was done and stood finished on the table, and they ran quickly away. Next morning, the woman said, The Little men have made us rich, and we really must show that we are grateful for it. They run about so and have nothing on and must be cold. I'll tell the what I'll do. I will make them little shirts, and coats and vests and trousers and knit both of them a pair of stockings, and do thou to make them two little pairs of shoes. The man said, I shall be very glad to do it. And one night when everything was ready, they laid their presents all together on the table instead of the cutout work, and then conceal themselves to see how the little men would behave. At midnight. They came bounding in and wanted to get to work at once. But as they did not find any leather cut out, but only the pretty little articles of clothing. They were at first astonished and then they showed intense the light. They dressed themselves with the greatest rapidity, putting the pretty clothes on and singing. Now we are boys so fine to see. Why should we longer cobblers be than they danced and skipped and leftover chairs and benches. At last they danced out of doors from that time forth. They came no more. But as long as the shoemaker lived all went well with him and all his undertakings prospered. I'd like to thank you all so much for listening for the last eight years for supporting the show and sharing it with other people. I hope you have a peaceful and Merry Christmas Happy New Year. And as 2022 ends here on the podcast. I hope you're looking forward to 2023 I have a lot planned. We're going to start the year off strong with a lot of great content and just keep it going every week through 2023. And now with my children off at college and working I might have a little extra time. Maybe I'll maybe I'll take some time every week and do what I really want to do for Christmas, which would be record A Christmas Carol. That's just is going to take a lot of time. But I would love to try. My favorite adaption of it is Patrick Stewart does an audio version of it that you should find. I would love to do that I don't think I would do nearly as good a job as he did. But I still think I'd like to try one day. Marley was dead. To begin with, there is no doubt whatsoever about that the register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, The Undertaker, and the chief mortar, Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge, his name was good upon change, for anything he chose to put his hand to, would not be fun, I would love to read that whole book. Anyway, we'll take a lot of time. If you don't want to hang out for this part, you can go now I'm done. But I want to thank some people who are unknown to you. But I spent a lot of time with during the year. I don't want to use their first names. But first, I want to start with Omni pod. The company who has been buying ads on this podcast since early in 2015. They they bought ads, when to be perfectly honest, no one was listening to the podcast, or at least not in any great numbers. And their support is, in large part why the podcast exists the way it does now. Because in the very beginning, I didn't realize that, you know, the money it would take to buy equipment or the time it would take to make the podcast and not long after I started making it I realized I kind of realized when my wife was like, Are you going to spend this much time on this thing, you should get a job. Anyway, um, the pod was there from the beginning. And they gave me money and bought ads, even though they weren't sure anybody would hear them. And they did that when I asked them to. And the only promise I made them was that I was going to try to help people with diabetes, and that they could help me to do that. So to the people who I work with now from Omni pod, and to the person who heard me the very first time in 2014, as I was pitching this idea, I really appreciate your time and your trust. I want to thank the people I work with a Dexcom they came along not soon after AMI pod and have been with me for a very long time. I think the next company that came on was touched by type one but they're not really a company or they they're an organization helping people with type one diabetes and they just were trying to get the word out about themselves. After that, I tried so hard to get this one the Contour Next One blood glucose meter love this. Love this. Love this little meter and the people that Ascencio that I work with a Sensia makes contour you guys probably don't know that. But just like insolate makes on the pod actually Dexcom makes Dexcom insolent makes on the pod assenza makes the Contour Next One zerust makes Chivo Capo pen anyway, oh and Chivo Capo penne, I work with some really cool people from there. I also work with great PR people from Dexcom, who don't work at Dexcom. Same goes for G voc and a number of other companies where I've just met some really wonderful people who helped me help you again. They're not coming back next year, but in pen. I love talking about the Punisher. I think it's a terrific product. Medtronic didn't want to keep going. I guess that's not true. I think they did want to keep going but nobody at Medtronic could agree on where the money should come from. So I think it was one of those budget things where people are like, well, I don't want to pay for it. But anyway, I hope they come back one day I love talking about in pen Medtronic was great to work with. And my friend at Medtronic who I did all this with a she and I just had the greatest time texting back and forth and I'm gonna miss her. Another one that came on this year US med but this is one you don't know much about probably but they bring you diabetes supplies or distributor right? And

and they reached out to me about a year ago now and they wanted to buy ads on the podcast. And they've just been wonderful to work with. I switched Arden's supply delivery to us men have had nothing but good luck with it. And there's a person there that I'm thinking of specifically. And she's very, very supportive of what it is I'm trying to do. So just remember that the podcast is a lot of work. I usually put about 70 hours a week into it. And I couldn't do it honestly without these without the sponsors and without you guys clicking on their links and buying their stuff. And everything else anyway. Oh and a new a new sponsor for 2023 athletic greens, right. It'd be talking more about ag one which is a green drink I drink and dum. It's a great indicator of the great indicator of how the podcast is doing. When Athletic Greens reached out to me, I really thought, Wow, I'm getting I'm getting this somewhere. This is this is working. I know that's weird. But athletic greens is it's one of those companies, they don't they don't put ads on just anything. And not that the other companies do. But you know, they're diabetes specific company. So it's kind of a no brainer to put ads on the show. But athletic greens is it's an indicator that the show is reaching a wide audience. And I hope you guys take a look into that, as the 2023 moves on. That's it, I'm not giving you links or anything like that. I just genuinely want to thank the people that I work with. There's as I'm looking here on the pod Dex calm contour, G voc in pen, T Wendy exchange us med Athletic Greens touch by type one, I work with dozens of people behind the scenes people you'll never meet, who, in private conversations with me are very supportive of helping people with diabetes. Now, before I go, I want to thank Jenny Smith. Jenny came on the show years ago as a guest, and then came back as a guest. And then was kind enough to make the diabetes Pro Tip series with me and our relationship personally and, and here on the podcast. It's just grown and grown over the years. And there's just no doubt that without her, the podcast just wouldn't be the same. I can't thank her enough. I love her. I think she's a wonderful person. The way she helps people with diabetes is inspiring. And the selflessness in which she gives herself to this show means very, very much to me. So Merry Christmas to you, Jenny. And to the four people that helped me on the private Facebook group. I don't know if you want your names out there. One of them of course is Isabel and the other three are just They're magical. That group flourishes because of of of them being there. And I just can't thank them enough. It means means the world. Okay, I'm really gonna go now. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon, with another year of the Juicebox Podcast.