#865 Go Marry Your Sister

Denise is the parent of a child living with type 1 diabetes.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 865 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today, I'm going to be speaking with Denise, she is the parent of a child with type one diabetes. And for the life of me, I'm not certain what this episode is about, but it was fun. So that's all I can tell you for now. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Please Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan are becoming bold with insulin. If you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one, and you're a US resident, you are perfect, because you can take the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. This whole effort will take you fewer than 10 minutes and you're going to help type one research immensely. You're going to support the podcast and you're going to help yourself you'll find out more at T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Go fill out that survey. Don't forget to finish it. Finishing the survey is important. T one D exchange.org. Forward slash Juicebox. Podcast this episode of The Juicebox Podcast as to sponsors first sponsor, Omni pod five, Omni pod.com forward slash juice box automated insulin delivery with your Dexcom G six. All in that little tubeless thing I'm gonna do they call the on the pod five, you gotta go get it. Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. Then next, the next and the next. Don't forget, by doing by Benga. Boom, bye, Papa. I'm sorry, I'm looking for a link. The next sponsor of the podcast is us med now us med is where we get Ardens Dexcom G seven and Omni pods from you can too. They also have libre three other pump, they got stuff. I'll tell you about it later in the show us med.com forward slash juice box to get your free benefits check or you can call 888-721-1514. Get your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med.

Denise 2:36
So my name is Denise and I have a son who is nine years old. And he was diagnosed about a year and eight months ago with type one. At the time, he had an A one C of 16 and a blood sugar of 910. Which is just mind blowing to me still. And the funny thing is that at the time, we saw pediatrician the week prior for well baby on the base, actually. And I had mentioned my concerns to him. And of course he missed it just like every other pediatrician. Unfortunately, I don't want to give them a bad rap. But it seems like a lot of pediatricians don't seem to detect this early enough. And then kids end up in the ICUs.

Scott Benner 3:27
What What were your concerns that you went to the doctor with?

Denise 3:30
So he he was really thin. But he was also growing in height. But we were concerned because it just seemed like too much. And we would be eating dinner and finish up the meal and the minute we would like clean up the plates or whatever he was in the pantry grabbing snacks. And I actually was getting mad at him because I was like, Dude, we just ate and if you were that hunger, you should have had like seconds of the meal and not plan to go binge in a cabinet. You know. So I was like getting really mad at him, you know, and I feel terrible still thinking about that. You know, little did I know he was like wasting away. But at the time, I thought it was a growth spurt like every other parent. And obviously now when you look back on those pictures during that timeframe, he was like, Somalian style. Like I could see all his ribs. It was it was terrible. So

Scott Benner 4:27
when you saw it a little then you just didn't see it for what it was.

Denise 4:32
I feel like when you live with somebody, you don't Yeah, you don't see it to the degree that it actually is, like you said I knew he was thinner, but I also knew he was growing and so I was like well, he's stretching out so that's probably why he looks thinner. And you know he grew in height so I expect here soon he will also put on some weight, you know?

Scott Benner 4:55
No, I mean makes sense. How long do you think that was going on for?

Denise 4:58
I mean with Send a one C like that, I would guess a good chunk of time. I can tell you this, I knew something was wrong. My husband and I both did, we were both concerned about his weight. But it was also during the time of homeschooling. And so we also were nervous about his emotional like outbursts. But we attributed it to, you know, learning from home and his, his, he didn't really like it at all, so, but he would just sit there and cry about having to do homework and stuff. And we would get really frustrated because nobody liked it. But we expected he would do the work and kind of suck it up a little bit more, you know, but he would just like sit there and pout and cry and whatever. And we would get frustrated because we needed him to do what he needed to do for school because we had no alternative, you know. So we knew he was more emotional, we knew he was super thin. We knew he was eating a lot. And that was pretty much it. And when I took him to the pediatrician, told him he was really thin. And we were concerned, but that he had also grown in height and he he never even lifted up his shirt to see like and do a thorough assessment. So at the time, I just took his word for it. And I was like, okay, pediatrician says it's a growth spurt, we're good. So when I got home, I still was worried about it. And so I was, you know, investigating things. But the thing that really clued me into the fact that it was type one was that we so we were getting ready to move to Virginia because we're military and my husband needed to do training for us to move to Slovakia. So before we moved from Vegas, I was like, I'm gonna get everybody set up with all their health appointments. That way, when we get to Virginia, we're up to date. So we went to the pediatrician, and then shortly thereafter, we had eye doctor appointments for all three of the kids. We lived in Vegas, of course, it was really hot. But on the way to the eye doctor, my son was like, Mom, I'm so thirsty. Do you have water? And I was like, No, I actually forgot a water bottle. for you guys today, unfortunately, which I never did, you know? And he was like, Oh, I'm so thirsty. And I'm like, Ben, I have no water bottle. I'm gonna need you to kind of suck it up a little, you know. And so we drove to the eye doctor, and we were waiting. My son's appointment was like the second one. So my daughter was like, in the chair with the optometrist or whatever. And he was like, Mom, I'm so thirsty. Like, can you ask them? If they have water fountain or anything? So I'm like, Hey, I'm so sorry. Because I'm like, embarrassed about the urgency of this. Because we weren't going to be out long. I was like, you could be fine. It's not really that big of an issue. Made it longer without water, you know? So I asked them, I said, Do you guys have a water fountain or anything? And they said, No, and they gave me know your standard plastic bottle of water and he slurped that whole thing down and like one breath. One goal. And so I was like, wow, you were really thirsty, and I apologized. And so then everybody, you know, had their eye doctor appointment. And I was like, you know, while we're all in the car together, we should just go get breakfast because it was like, you know, it was like the middle of Coronavirus, but we had been locked up for so long. I was like, let's just go get some breakfast. It was like the first time we had gone out in Muncie. And so we sat down to breakfast. And you know, the kids all had those standard sized OJ cups, you know, like diner style. And he again, drank that and like one gold. And then the girls, my daughters still had some orange juice left. And he asked for theirs at the end of the meal and gold those down. And so then this is after the pediatrician appointment, I was told nothing was wrong. So you know, the whole time I was freaked out about this, trying to figure things out. But I do have a nursing background. I'm an RN, and I also have an occupational therapy license. So I had some medical knowledge. And I knew things were wrong. But of course, you live with someone and you're like, Oh, he's fine, but I know something's a little off. So at that point in time, I started getting into his medical records, you know, because the base you can access all of your electronic medical records. So I went through all that. And the funny thing was at Nellis Air Force Base, they were switching from one database to another. So it was like TRICARE online, switched over to MHS Genesis, which I know no one cares about. But they were like literally literally right in the transition of the two. And so what I think happened was that the provider didn't actually look at the growth charts because when I went in there, I noticed he was gaining and height but losing weight, which is not the normal trajectory of a you know, kiddo, and it's not what's supposed to happen they're supposed to gain weight and increase in height. So that to me I was like, Oh my gosh, something is seriously wrong. And then I put two and two together. And I was like, You know what, I'm just gonna go out and get a glucometer. Because these seem like symptoms of type one. So I told my son and my husband, I said, I'm going to Walgreens, I'm going to get a glucometer. It's just a little test, it was a weekend, and we live 45 minutes from the base so that I could get my masters out there in Vegas. I didn't want to drive all the way to the base, because I was like, if this is nothing, I'm wasting all of our time. And I'm going to feel like the biggest idiot. So I'll just take matters into my own hands, spend the 20 bucks, and then I'll have peace of mind as we go through this weekend. So I did that. And I took my own blood sugar first, so I could show my kid what it was about and that he'd be okay. And then I took his, and of course, it read high, which I think is already 600 plus. So I said to Ben, I said, Hey, I'm gonna need you to go pack your stuff. We're going to the hospital. And we're probably going to be there for a little bit. And I tried to explain in a kid friendly way, like what diabetes was and how I was 99.99% Positive. That was what was going on. And of course, he was like, super angry with me. Because as a seven year old, you're like, it's your fault you picked up on it. Like, if you hadn't figured this out, I wouldn't have ever had this disease. You know, that was kind of the approach he was taking with me just crying and screaming like the whole way to the hospital, which made me feel like the biggest piece of crap, you know, well, but I knew it wasn't my fault. You know,

Scott Benner 11:34
let me jump in for a second. So, I mean, you alluded earlier but didn't really like follow up on it. Like he was having a lot of outbursts and having a lot of trouble with his, with his composure, too, right. And so you thought that was because like, everybody was like, Oh, we're gonna lock these kids up and make them learn online. That's gonna make them crazy. And you were like, oh, what's happening to my kid? Great. That's what you thought. Right? Exactly. Yeah. All right. And so I mean, God, a 16. So seriously, I asked you this earlier, and you said a big chunk of time. But but think on this again? How many weeks or months Do you can you look back and see the skinniness? Or whatever? Like, how long do you think it's possible this was happening for?

Denise 12:18
I don't even know. I mean, and a one C measures the blood glucose over the last three months? So I don't know, probably like six to eight months prior, maybe I don't even know.

Scott Benner 12:32
Maybe it was okay. What about the outbursts stuff? How long was that going on? For before diagnosis? Pretty much

Denise 12:39
since the beginning of the kids learning from home.

Scott Benner 12:44
How much time is that?

Denise 12:48
It was probably like four months or so by that point.

Scott Benner 12:51
All right. I just wanted to try to put some sort of reference. Okay. I appreciate it. I know you're it's, and I'm racking my brain. Basically, what I'm saying to you is Hey, Denise, how long were you not noticing the kid was dying?

Denise 13:05
Yeah, but that's the funny thing is well, go ahead.

Scott Benner 13:11
No, no, no, that's not the point. Like, you know, I'm not I'm obviously not saying that. I just wanted to apply some context to it, because then they won't save 16 is huge. So when they get him in there. What's the process? And how long does it take them to start bringing his blood sugar down?

Denise 13:27
So I show up and I'm like, Oh, hey, by the way, no one was in the pediatric er at the time, which was awesome. But I was like, Hey, I'm a nurse. I bought a glucometer. I checked his blood sugar it read Hi. I know that he has type one. Or at least diabetes at the time, you know, but he's been and we have a healthy lifestyle. So I assumed it was type one. So anyway, and they took him back right away. And then they were really surprised that he was doing so well with a blood sugar and a one C So hi, he's

Scott Benner 14:06
a little closer, a little closer to the microphone. Okay,

Denise 14:09
better. Yep. Okay, so they were super surprised that he was functioning so well with such a high blood sugar and a one C, because most individuals with the same numbers are typically like in a coma or in an ICU, at least, you know. So at that point in time, they were telling me I was like, it's type one, right? And I'm assuming because in your head, you're, I know this is wrong, but in my head, I was like, well, we eat well, and we're not fat people. And I know that's really wrong. But that was like what I thought at the time, because you know, my dad had type two, he didn't take care of himself. He ended up dying really young. And so I know the trajectory of a lot of people with type two in general, I've seen the complications associated. I know that a lot of the people that do have type two tend to not actually manage your blood sugar appropriately and, and then they end up with tons of complications. So in my head, I was like, It's not tied to like, tell me it's not type two, I want to know that

Scott Benner 15:13
type two didn't do anything wrong. Yeah, so type two seems worse to you.

Denise 15:17
Yes. And I know that's wrong. It was just like, as a parent, and unfortunately, I tend to be a perfectionist and a lot of ways I needed to know as a parent that I wasn't the reason that I screwed my kid up. This was what I told myself in my head, you know, and I don't mean to offend anybody that has type two, but this is like, what I processed at the time, you

Scott Benner 15:40
know, I appreciate you being honest. Yeah. So because it's just, it's, it's, it's such a human thing, right. You know, like, even in the middle of that situation, where you're like, there's something really wrong with my kid. There's still a portion of your brain that's thinking like you did. Don't worry, you didn't do it. It's okay. Like, yeah, it's exactly in there. What's that? I said, you have a cheerleader inside. They're trying to try to help you not like fall apart, basically.

Denise 16:11
Right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I needed to know, it wasn't my fault, too. You know, like, I feel like with type two, I know, kiddos, get it. But I do also know that it's a lot of times related to the types of foods they're eating and their sedentary behaviors, you know. And I just needed to know, that wasn't us, even though I already knew that in my heart, you know,

Scott Benner 16:35
did it? Did you ever think about it later? That like, because what I mean, how does it it doesn't matter. In the end, like, right, you have this emergent problem. But in the end, did you have a one someone told you? That's definitely type one. Did you have a letdown? I was relieved.

Denise 16:52
Yeah. And even the doctors though when we were in the ER, they're like, we can't guarantee it's type one. Because normally type one kiddos with these numbers are, you know, they've Crumped and they're in the ICU, or they're in a coma. So the fact that he had compensated so well, for so long and had such high numbers, they, they could not like guarantee me that that was what was going on. And obviously they had to check the antibodies and everything anyway, but but they were not sure. And they were totally surprised when he came back as a type one. And I like you said I was relieved, because I needed to know that it wasn't my fault as a parent.

Scott Benner 17:32
So are there any autoimmune issues in your, on your side of the family?

Denise 17:37
My mom and my dad both type two. And then my brother has colitis. And actually my sister just got diagnosed with colitis. So yeah, unfortunately, a lot of my side, my husband side, also colitis. But no type one.

Scott Benner 17:58
I'm, I never say this, but I always think it and I'm gonna just say it here, because you seem like you can take it. Was it okay? I'm, I'm I'm never not fascinated when I asked people about auto immune in their family. And they skip over that I asked them about autoimmune, and they just start listing health ailments. And how many people say, Well, my dad has typed too, and I always liked it. There's this little guy, right? Yeah, there's this little part of me that always wants to go.

Denise 18:29
Hi, no, I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 18:31
You don't need to be sorry. It's such a common thing that happens. I think that it's an association thing. I think, yeah. First thing they think of is diabetes, diabetes. So hey, no, there's no type one but there is type two, and and colitis is very well, autoimmune. Yeah. Right. And then I'm sorry. You said on your husband side.

Denise 18:52
He also has the colitis thing is his brother. Yeah, you're right. I just, I assume you can make the connection that clearly the Type Two is not the type one and therefore it's not out. Oh,

Scott Benner 19:04
no, no, no, of course I can. And you know, you know, I'm just right. It's just happened so many hundreds of times that I was just like, funny point. I have to point this out. So here we are, Denise. I pointed it out on your ass. Sorry, the mold

Denise 19:17
of the people you interview. Oh, that's

Scott Benner 19:21
how long did it take for him in the hospital to get down and how long do they have in the hospital for?

Denise 19:28
So we were in the hospital for days. And we actually averted an ICU admission they had to get like it was his sodium down. And so they were pumping him with fluids. And they said if they couldn't normalize it while we were in the ER that he would go to the ICU, but luckily they were able to get it back on track. And so we ended up going to a standard pediatric unit. And all of the pediatricians that we saw during that four day stay, they were all floored that he ended To up on a normal pediatric floor and then I had caught it in time, because they said like 99% of the kiddos they see with new diagnosis. Do new diagnoses end up in the ICU?

Scott Benner 20:12
Yeah. Was he doing the panting what does that called?

Denise 20:18
No. Oh, he was totally normal. No. He had no symptoms other than eating a crazy amount. He was emotional, but I didn't I didn't recognize that I thought he was just being an annoying seven year old and he was said you know that was it? He was totally normal every other way. Interesting. Kussmaul respiration respirations Yeah, no,

Scott Benner 20:43
but okay, so Alright, so now you're so you're I'm trying to track it because your military move on this was happening in Vegas right? I guess Yep. He gets out of the hospital what what kind of gear do you start with?

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Denise 24:14
we did not have a Dexcom. I begged. I begged them, and they would not do it. They said you have to wait till your endo appointment. I was so pissed. This wasn't even the military hospital. This was sunrise children's. They would not do it. Because at the time when you have four days on your hands, all you're doing is researching and actually I'm pretty sure I found you during that hospital stay because you know I'm like batshit crazy when it affects my camera. I spent all nights and days just researching all the things and I found out about Dexcom and I found out about you because nobody told me about you or your page.

Scott Benner 24:51
So you just found that on your own. Yeah.

Denise 24:55
So I beg them for Dexcom they wouldn't give it to me. And so we left with a a glucometer and MDI setup

Scott Benner 25:04
and how did his his overall behavior change as his blood sugar's came down,

Denise 25:12
he was still really angry with me for a while he, he just couldn't internalize the fact that he was going to have it whether I had found it or not. And so I remember him like telling me how mad he was with me. Because we shared a bed, you know, I had the option for like a pullout couch. But I didn't want to be on that we, we laid in the same hospital bed together. But at night, one night, he he told me how mad he was. And, you know, he was still very angry and emotional at the time. So I remember just laying next to him. We were both just crying. It was it was hard. But yeah, over time, things definitely improved.

Scott Benner 25:53
Such a human Denisa isn't it? You need people and you want to be around people, but really, they just try to kill you. Yeah. Yeah.

Denise 26:03
Especially your kid telling you that they they're so mad at you. And it's all your fault. Like, imagine that, like, in your heart. You're like, I did what's right, I saved my kid. Everybody else tried to screw him over. And he hates me now. How do you not lose yours? In that moment? You know,

Scott Benner 26:21
it's a it's not great. I mean, I would I trade my children. No, but you know, it's tough. It's just a really

Denise 26:29
that out of the mouths of babes moment.

Scott Benner 26:33
It's such an interesting thing that, um, the I mean, there's so many cliches, but like, you know, you heard the ones you love the most like all that stuff, even and not that he's trying to do that. He's expressing how he feels. And he's got a limited perspective on the world and understanding what's happening. So I mean, I don't not understand it. But on your side. That's an academic exercise explaining to yourself it still feels the way it feels. You know, that's just it's that sucks. I feel free there. That's a that's not pleasant. Over time. Has that gotten better? Are you still the Oh, yeah.

Denise 27:05
Yeah, I actually asked him so I was like, trying to think about what I would want to talk about today. And I asked him how he felt about the whole situation and, and if there were any positives, or whatever. And he said, The drawbacks are, how annoying it is that I make him dos all the time, and how annoying it is for him to wait for food. And then the positives. He said, I get delicious snacks and yummy stuff when no one else gets like so we just moved to Slovakia. And there's like this really awesome Italian market with like legit Italian cannolis and cheese and all this delicious stuff. And so we had a box of like delicious Italian cannolis in our fridge and my husband in the middle of the night. He was low and he actually ran him up a freaking cannoli. So my son was like, Yeah, like that other time when I had the cannoli, daddy woke me up and give me a cannoli to raise my blood sugar. I was like, Yes, pretty friggin lucky did

Scott Benner 28:12
bakery delivery at 2:30am, right?

Denise 28:15
I know, I would not do that. I was like, Dude, you're gonna get a couple of glucose tabs in night. My husband, the way

Scott Benner 28:22
you're thinking there are times where I feel like, I feel like I'm standing in a dark room talking to Arden. And we're, we're negotiating over what, you know, sounds good for her to eat. And you know that you have like a span of time before she gets so low that it doesn't matter. It's just gonna be juice, right? And you're standing there, you're like you sure because there are times she doesn't care. Like she just wants to bring her blood sugar back up. It's not a big deal. But sometimes she wakes up and she's hungry. And she'll go, No, you know what I want? That's exactly what happens. He's like,

Denise 28:56
can I get up later? Yeah, could

Scott Benner 28:59
I get this and you know, you're walking through the house, the dogs look up, like, Why are you awake? And like, It's not my fault. It'll like, go back upstairs with a handful of stuff. And like, what about this? What about this? But anyway,

Denise 29:12
that makes the parent of the year and those moments?

Scott Benner 29:14
Well, you would think but the award has never arrived. Denise no one's actually set it out.

Denise 29:19
Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing. When I was talking to my son today, I was like it realized I don't, I don't want to annoy you for fun. Like, it's not fun for me to annoy you. You know, I said, my main goal is to keep you healthy and strong so that you can live a normal, healthy, happy life. You know, I said I would annoy you till the cows come home just so that you can have a normal happy life, you know,

Scott Benner 29:43
so true. So it's quite a it's quite a balanced, that's for sure. And you're saying now he has Dexcom and does the pumper Does he still do? Yeah,

Denise 29:52
he isn't too slim. Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:54
Are you using the control IQ?

Denise 29:56
Nope, we're in sleep mode. 20 470 Wait

Scott Benner 29:59
control like you're using the algorithm?

Denise 30:03
Well, so technically you have to turn control IQ off for sleep mode to run. Okay. So basically with sleep mode on, the Basal itself just increases or decreases, pending his blood sugar.

Scott Benner 30:19
So sleep mode sort of turns into Basal IQ.

Denise 30:22
I guess I don't know anything about Basal IQ. It is the Basal rate. So I guess that makes sense. So interesting.

Scott Benner 30:27
How long have you been using it?

Denise 30:31
A pump itself or

Scott Benner 30:32
the pump?

Denise 30:35
We got it in Virginia. Once we moved our endo in Vegas, she was great. But she was like you guys are moving. So you might as well just wait. So you get set up in Virginia. And then we got it. So I think we got it maybe about March of this year. So no, last year previous? Yeah. Maybe we've been using it about 1415 months.

Scott Benner 30:59
It's interesting. You you measure all your time. With landmarks.

Denise 31:05
Assignments? Yeah, totally.

Scott Benner 31:07
It's it's very, it's very interesting. So you went from Vegas to Virginia, and brain year for a year, but now recently, you moved overseas?

Denise 31:16
Yeah, we're in Slovakia. We're in Bratislava, the capital.

Scott Benner 31:19
How long do you think you'll be there?

Denise 31:22
Three to four years? Definitely three at least. Is

Scott Benner 31:26
that a longer assignment than normal?

Denise 31:28
No, about right. Yeah.

Scott Benner 31:31
How did the kids go to school.

Denise 31:35
So they're not in school yet. When we got here, they had like two weeks left of their school. So I didn't want to put them through that at the very end of the school year. So I figured I would keep them out until they start again, which they will start August 25. And so my husband's affiliated with the embassy out here. And the embassy pays for them to go to a British International School. So they will be going there. Come August 25th.

Scott Benner 32:06
And that's that's an English speaking school.

Denise 32:08
Yeah. You know how much money it is? If I had to pay out of pocket? If you'll tell me I want to know 20,000 euro per kid per year,

Scott Benner 32:18
20,000 euros per kid, even like

Denise 32:20
Fathom without would be like,

Scott Benner 32:25
I can look it up right now.

Denise 32:27
Can you imagine? Like, I can't even I mean, I feel really grateful for my kids to have this opportunity. Holy cow.

Scott Benner 32:35
20 grand a year for each card?

Denise 32:38
Yeah. And then it's more for meals, which I don't even know what we're gonna do about that. Is there like, legit like home cooked type stuff over in Europe? Because it's not like cafeteria nasty food, like the states. And so I'm nervous about that already thinking about how many kids will actually bring lunch from home? And will my son want to do that? And if he does, like, what does that look like for me? You know, is the website even going to have nutrition facts on it for me to try and figure out a carb? Or a number of units prior to a meal? You know,

Scott Benner 33:14
are the meals extra money? Or does it come for the 20?

Denise 33:17
There extra money, we do have to pay for that. But they also have a bus that can pick up our kids from the door. And that is like 15 euro per day. But we don't have to pay for that, thankfully. Can you imagine you're already paying 20,000 euro per year, and you're also having to pay for transportation for your kid like,

Scott Benner 33:40
what the heck, but they get a nice fillet at lunch? Yeah,

Denise 33:44
I don't know, we'll see. But you have to pay for the meals, I will have to pay for that. I mean, the people have been really nice. Hopefully, there's no diabetic mothers or fathers that follow your podcast. So I won't have friends anytime soon. If so,

Scott Benner 33:58
you know, in my lifetime, when I was a kid growing up, my grandmother made school lunches at an American school. And she would get up every morning. Like, you know, five o'clock in the morning, she'd go to that school and prep and make by hand 1000s of sandwiches. Like, you know, real ingredients, like, you know, that kind of stuff. She'd finished those sandwiches up, and then she'd go home. It's all she did was make sandwiches every day for those people. And in just 10 years after she was doing that, and I was in high school, you know, 1015 years after, you know, I was I grown up knowing her doing that. They were down to like frozen pizza and like here, you know, like, so sad. It's really disappointing. You know, Arden said this year at school, and they blamed COVID But they didn't have any they just didn't open the cafeteria. So it's all packaged right by packs of chips. Yeah, that kind of stuff, but they didn't. And yeah, it's

Denise 35:05
disheartening because a lot of kids don't have parents that can provide them healthy meals at home, either. You know,

Scott Benner 35:11
I've had a half days where she was home by noon 1230. So she could kind of go in and come out. But if she got hungry while she was there, she was stocked with potato chips. That's all they had. And $15 a day to feed to transport your kids. Probably another 15 to feed them. 30 Yeah, it's nice how they pay for the school, but don't don't pay for you to feed them while they're there. Yeah, right.

Denise 35:36
I think we'll be packing lunch anyway, though, to have control.

Scott Benner 35:42
You know, you've used that word about six times that he's Do you want to tell us about your mental disorder.

Denise 35:48
I will curse you out right now. But I'm going to try and keep this clean. twice already. But I would throw an F bomb in there for you right now.

Scott Benner 35:56
Tell me about a little bit like what? Why? Like, what about it? Do you feel like you're too soon into diabetes to start eating like food that's being prepared somebody else somewhere else with? It isn't yours.

Denise 36:08
So with him, I think with the Pre-Bolus aspect. And even their schedule, I'm not sure how it works. I don't know if they go out to play and then eat or if they eat and then go out to play. I know they have a one hour lunch break. And I don't know, I don't know what the food looks like. And I don't know anything about the delicacies here and what the carb count might even look like. I think I never let him by when we were in Vegas, or Virginia just because I don't know. I like to have control over what they're eating. I don't know. I feel like the food is usually crappy, obviously, in the States, and so we just didn't bother there. But here the food will probably be a lot better. But how do I dose for that when I don't even know what it looks like, you know?

Scott Benner 37:10
So is this. So how long have you been there?

Denise 37:14
We just got here. I think we're here like almost a month now. Okay.

Scott Benner 37:17
All right. So yeah. Have you gone out for a meal? Have you eaten? Oh,

Denise 37:21
yeah. Yeah. I would need to see the menu to see if I even know what these meals are. I can tell you the top meal in the areas brings over a Hulu ski, which is like almost like little dumplings with sheep cheese. My kids really like it. They say it's like like Slovak mac and cheese. What's it called? pretty yummy. Britain's obey Hallelu ski. Our Y and DZOV and then Hulu ski is Ha L Yes.

Scott Benner 37:59
Ky. The Internet right here. Do

Denise 38:02
you find it out?

Scott Benner 38:02
Yeah. I want to understand what we're looking at here. super yummy.

Denise 38:06
It's almost like a new key concept.

Scott Benner 38:08
Bacon potatoes cream soft cheese flour. Yeah, you just said yeah, like it's pretty good. To medium potatoes, a cup of flour, a teaspoon of salt. 150 grams of smoked a regular bacon, half a tablespoon of vegetable oil. 125 grams. Britain the or other soft cheese like feta goat or cottage cheese. 50 milliliters of cream that are optional. Hold on a second. Are you gonna make it? I mean, I'm looking at it now trying to figure and it looks like

Denise 38:44
I don't know what's going on. Okay, almost.

Scott Benner 38:47
What I'm looking at is a plate that looks like lumpy white stuff with hunks of bacon.

Denise 38:53
Yeah, basically. Yeah. Hopefully we're not offending anyone.

Scott Benner 38:58
I'm not a fan. I'm describing it very accurately. So

Denise 39:03
here's what's objective data.

Scott Benner 39:05
Here's a here's a recipe that has six stars. Hey, somebody likes it.

Denise 39:12
Finally Great. Try it and report back to me. Oh, I

Scott Benner 39:16
have to hold on a second. Well, I mean, it's just it sounds like alright, I can't believe I'm doing this finally great to potato into a bowl keeping the juice out of flour, egg and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon at water stir until lumps are smoothed out though is not too runny at flour. If too thick add water. Large pot bring water to a boil add salt transfer potato dough into boiling water by using spatzle maker or push the dough through a large grater or colander. Thank you gently boil for seven to eight minutes until it floats I was it's like it's like it's like okay almost like me while me off by the big toe crest. I think the cubes strain It sprinkle the bacon on top and pour the rendered bacon fat all over it. Salt. I got a salted afterwards bacon that's not going to handle.

Denise 40:09
It's very healthy. Yeah.

Scott Benner 40:11
So what this sounds like is flour and a potato and bacon. And cheese. That's hard to go wrong.

Denise 40:18
Yeah, right. All the best things rolled into one so

Scott Benner 40:22
interesting. Denise, that you said you don't want your kids to have any junky food.

Denise 40:29
They have plenty of junky food, it's just I need to know how to control his blood sugar at school. Dude, we've had so much ice cream since we moved here, you would be floored

Scott Benner 40:40
because because you know how to Bolus for ice cream?

Denise 40:43
No, it's everywhere. And it's delicious. I mean, and really have become a real slacker with like, counting carbs. I just like eyeball it. I don't know if this makes me a good mom or a bad mom for diabetes, but I just eyeball it. And I'm like, You know what, let's just get two units on board right now. And then I think this is going to hit hard. So but we have the protein, it's not going to hit too hard. But once it does, it's gonna go real high. So we'll just like reconvene in like an hour. And then once I start seeing it rise, I'm like, Okay, let's hit it again with another three. And that's kind of how I do diabetes. Now I'm like, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But it's kind of fun.

Scott Benner 41:27
It's just sort of how I do it. So really, like, do

Denise 41:30
you ever like say, just looks to be about 50 grams of carbs?

Scott Benner 41:34
I mean, you do that? In a sense. Yeah, every time but not, but not in the way that you're imagining? I don't I don't look at it and think, Oh, that's a cup of this. And I end on the bag, right says this match? You know, I look at the plate. And I'm like, it seems like this much, you know, and if what, you know, if, if I think it looks like 60 carbs, and when she enters 60 carbs into you know, the algorithm. If the suggested amount of insulin is about as much insulin as I think that plate needs, then I go okay, well, that's it. All right. And then I just then you just watch it. And if it goes up, then you go after it again. Yep. And very infrequently. Is it too much. Although we used too much at a lunch yesterday, sort of how long did she go? She had to she had to do something like three hours later, she needed to like she had to take in carbs, like three hours later to stop. Like a drifting 60 ish blood sugar. It was a salad. Just the salad had stuff on it. And I was like, you know, that looks like this many carbs. We were in a restaurant and have to admit, I gave her a number that assumed that she was going to take a couple of bites of what I was eating. And then she just never did. And then it held so well for the first two hours that we kind of were like, Oh, we might have had this. Like we're I guess we're okay. And then in the like, two hours, 30 minutes time started getting a drift. And then we had to we had to jump in and do something then. Gotcha. But you know, still it was a salad, like a big salad in a restaurant. And we Bolus like 30 carbs for it. Wow. So we were almost right. So I would think that salad needed more like, it was probably more like 2022 Maybe carbs. And had she just had a couple of bites while I was eating we would have definitely been right, but tried. So you wrote maybe the most expansive note to me of anybody in the last two years asking really? I guess you put so much information there. I want to be that bad? No, I just want to be clear with you that I did not read it. So

Denise 44:07
I don't even remember what I wrote. So it's cool,

Scott Benner 44:09
small novel, I wouldn't even know. Yeah, it's a small like, you know, like, you know, not a, it's not a full novel. It's not a full book. But you know, Ben Franklin used to put together those little readers for people. He'd be like, here's common sense. Like it's sort of on that, that that level. Um,

Denise 44:25
that's really funny that you read it.

Scott Benner 44:27
You You know.

Denise 44:31
Now I know for next time

Scott Benner 44:34
how presumptuousness.

Denise 44:37
Know what all right if I ever come on again, and it'll be the F bomb, and then you

Scott Benner 44:43
fill in this jackass you don't even read this.

Denise 44:47
Go blank yourself. Yeah.

Scott Benner 44:50
I've, I've run my eyes over it before we started. But I don't want to. I don't want to know I don't want to put myself in a situation where we're just reading from a list. Yeah, no.

Denise 44:59
I appreciate that.

Scott Benner 45:00
But it's interesting because, yeah, but it's interesting because you wrote this probably six months ago, I'm guessing. And you're worried about your son's health when you make the move to where you are now? And you're still worried about it, aren't you?

Denise 45:17
Oh, yeah. That's like my life, unfortunately. Yeah. What it weighs heavily on you?

Scott Benner 45:24
What's going to take that worry away?

Denise 45:27
Um, nothing.

Scott Benner 45:30
Is it a real concern? Or is it honestly, is it? Is

Denise 45:33
it? No, I mean, we function fine. But I can tell you, there's always in the back of my mind, I really hope that I can send him off to college, if that's what he chooses, after graduation, knowing that I've done the best for him, and he will have zero complications at that point in time in his life that are associated with my and my husband's, you know, dosing, and treatment of his diabetes.

Scott Benner 46:02
Can we talk for real for a second, like we're friends? Yeah, I know you're at

Denise 46:08
D Nice.

Scott Benner 46:13
Last night, I'm going to deviate for a second I'm gonna go back to my last night, a person in the Facebook group was asking people questions, and people were giving a lot of good answers, but they seem to still be discombobulated. And I was up late editing a show. And I thought, well, let me see if I can't, like, be valuable here. And I asked, I asked to see a graph and they put a graph up, but then they were pretty clear that this was not a standard graph. And you know, that other people had been involved in the Bolus thing and that they were getting back involved in it. And, and I said, Okay, well, the graphs, like a little scattershot, I thought to myself, and if they're telling me this isn't the norm, then that's fair, like, so I answered back. And I said, Well, you know, why don't you, you know, get back in the game and send me a graph in a couple of days and just tag me at all. I'll take a look again, if I can. And in the meantime, I gave some, like high level ideas of what I thought I would concentrate on based on the graph I'm looking at, well, this this person did not like they did not think that my, my, my response was thorough enough. valuable, and they began to like, in 15 years of doing this for people bashes. I've never, I've never been spoken to like that before. Oh, and and I immediately thought, this person isn't a isn't a bad situation. They turned on me in, in it splits. It was like, it was like, defensive, it was like petting your favorite dog, and it biting you after it knowing you forever. I was like, I was stunned. I was like, You know what I mean? Like, like, I went back to, to have a back and forth. And the response was, so just, it was just so out of bounds for what was happening. You know what I mean? Like, there was no even like, slowly I turned, it was just like zero to 100 miles an hour. And I tried to respond and to, you know, I was like, Look, I think maybe we're just having a communication issue here. Because I know you what you're receiving right now is definitely not my intention. And I'm I'm very willing to believe that what I'm receiving from you is not your intention. Let's just start over and then they just deleted the whole thread.

Denise 48:26
Hmm. So they stay on the page? Or did

Scott Benner 48:30
they just stay on the page? I wouldn't, I wouldn't block them. I would have been happy for the person to continue to tell me how they felt like, yeah, you know, like, it just seemed like they were overwhelmed. And I could be wrong. Maybe I'm just okay. But I know what I said. And I'd be hard pressed to think that anybody would read it and think you're just being a jerk. I was not I was trying to help. Yeah, I just did not offer what they wanted. And I think I think there's

Denise 48:57
something deeper going on at that point, you know? Yeah, I think it's a perfectionism thing, probably to like, I don't want you to see my flaws. You know? I don't know. Yeah. Because I think people internalize the numbers a lot. I know that I do. Like, I feel like the biggest piece of when my son has a bad day. And I know, that's not a healthy way to live, but I can't help it because I know 90% of the day, I'm the I'm the one responsible, like, my husband helps at night and stuff. But right now he's in a vault, you know, he can't even take his cell phone. And so it's me, you know, when you have those days that are really crappy. Like, it's really hard to separate the fact that this is not you, you're not a bad mom, you know, like those kinds of things that go through your head.

Scott Benner 49:45
So I brought that situation up because over the last hour, aside from the first 10 minutes where you couldn't make any of your stuff work, which oh, by the way, I will I'm going to put at the end for people to hear just I wanted to make that clear here. So hang on a second. You're gonna hear Denise tried to make her headphones work. But no one will listen. Don't worry, Denise,

Denise 50:08
they'll probably let well, people I know that are going to be listening to laugh.

Scott Benner 50:12
Everyone's gonna hear they're like, oh, yeah, I do want to hear her fun for, but I brought it up because you're, you use you've used language for the last hour. That is over and over again, telling me that if he's not okay, you're not going to be okay. And and I mean, on a psychological level, but you seem aware of it?

Denise 50:40
I am. I know. I'm all about it. I mean, I have anxiety for sure. And I know I have perfectionistic tendencies. So I'm aware, I just don't know how to make it better. You know, I don't know how to separate the two like right now I feel that I am the type one diabetic, almost, you know. But it's worse, because it's my kid, you know, and I'm 100% responsible for his well being right now. Like he is not making these decisions. He and I work together. He has as much opinion on it as he wants. And I'm not going to overwhelm him by giving him more than he wants right now. But with that being said, it's me. And it's my husband, my husband's awesome and he helps when he can but he's not always home. And he, like I said doesn't have a cell phone on him. So doesn't know what his numbers are half the day, you know?

Scott Benner 51:33
Oh, yeah. Did you ask me not want a cell phone?

Denise 51:37
He's not allowed. He he has a, you know, secretive kind of job. Oh, I see. Yeah, you can't bring any technology. I'm with him when he's at work. Duty is not like Fred Flintstone.

Scott Benner 51:52
Would that make him a Luddite? If he didn't want to use technology? I have to find out if I'm right. This might be me showing off and I know what Luddite means. Or it might be me proving rare a person opposed to the new technology or ways of working a lot. I think. Speaking of big words, are you martyring yourself at all?

Denise 52:16
No, I don't think so.

Scott Benner 52:17
You don't think you will just be like, it's on me. It's all me. I might as well have diabetes. He's involved. He's

Denise 52:25
a he's a baby. You know, that's the thing. Like, he's not a baby, but he's not obviously making the decisions that affect his life from here on out, you know, and working as a nurse and seeing tons of type one, or type two complications. My dad was on dialysis when he died. Actually, he wasn't on it. When he died. My mom donated a kidney to him. Because he was on dialysis. Like, I don't know that I can let those things go. I've seen too much. I've seen amputees. I've worked with amputees. Yeah.

Scott Benner 53:00
Yeah. You have a bigger perspective. Your mom has a two as well, right?

Denise 53:06
Yes, but she didn't at the time. My dad had type two since I was like in third grade.

Scott Benner 53:12
And she No, I have a bigger one. Now. I don't even care about you or your kids. They were a perfect match. I was gonna say your mind blowing. How long were they married when she donated that kidney? Like how old was she

Denise 53:22
God a long time. I think my dad was diagnosed when he was 40. He died when he was 60. So that was maybe when he was 50. Something. They were married a long time they got married when my mom was 18. And she's 70. Now

Scott Benner 53:38
so Okay, so they married when they were 19 in his 50s. So 30 years later, your mom gave him a kidney? Mm hmm. I have been married since 96. Let me do the quick math on that. 2006 16 Hold on a second then forced 20 That's 24 That too. I've been married like 26 years. I'm not 100% certain that Kelly would cross the street to save my life. And you're telling me your mom gave him a kid? Did she love him? Or was she scared which wasn't?

Denise 54:09
Probably combo. She loved him. They had a really good relationship overall. That's really we have we have pictures of the two of them and hospital but it's like being wheeled back at the same time stuff is mind blowing. Lovely. Pretty beautiful and sad all at the same time. Listen, if

Scott Benner 54:29
Kelly ever listens to this just tell you like you better not need an organ. Don't ask me

Denise 54:34
because I don't know what my choice is going to be. I don't want to be put in

Scott Benner 54:37
that situation. You know what I mean?

Denise 54:40
Oh my god, I think you need to have her watch or listen now.

Scott Benner 54:43
All right, well, I don't want to have to shine a light on this. See where I'm gonna when

Denise 54:48
I feel like I need to like tag her. Is she on your page by the way? I think you need to let me know. I don't think that's important when it when it airs. I would be like, Oh Hey Kelly, this episode. You really want to listen to it.

Scott Benner 54:59
Don't worry, please Just last week when I talk about and I'll say, Oh, I just talked about how I don't want to give you an Oregon.

Denise 55:06
You better keep your blood sugar in check. You don't need I

Scott Benner 55:09
don't need any kidneys. I'm not giving them.

Denise 55:12
But yeah, there's not a lot of organs you can do it in anyway,

Scott Benner 55:15
I just found it really nice that people who were together that long would do something like that for each other. I usually imagine when people are together for that long, they're just they're out of convenience. Yeah,

Denise 55:25
they hate each other. Like,

Scott Benner 55:27
I don't want to go through selling this sofa.

Denise 55:30
Right. Right, or I need his medical benefits.

Scott Benner 55:34
Yeah, you mean the guy with the money? He's okay. He gets there. But not that that's really that's a I mean, it's a real indication of something. Giving somebody giving somebody a kidney? Yes, for sure. No. How long did it by him?

Denise 55:48
Oh, gosh, probably four or five years. Maybe I'd love to ask him. He thought he had COPD. And she gave him a yeah, he was in the Navy. He smoked like a chimney. We my sister and I used to like break his cigarette, his cigarettes. And we eventually got him to quit. But you know, the damage was done. So he was on oxygen and everything. And yeah, it wasn't dialysis at that point.

Scott Benner 56:20
snap decision, your husband needs a kidney. You given it to him?

Denise 56:25
Don't do this to me. I think as long as I don't know, you know, my situation is different. Got to know. I mean, with two parents with type two.

Scott Benner 56:39
Do you think you're getting? So I

Denise 56:41
don't know. Because I feel like I'm screwed. I'm gonna end up with type two, regardless of my lifestyle choices.

Scott Benner 56:48
I see your point, but I don't know. Like,

Denise 56:51
I think I would. I think I would. And then I'd also be concerned at the same time for my own future with the potential for myself to Andover type to see it's

Scott Benner 57:01
interesting. I thought you were gonna say I'm saying if I was gonna give anyone a kidney, I would give it to my son. So I want to hold on to him. I never

Denise 57:09
even thought about that. But yeah, absolutely. But who knows if you're even a match. That's the other thing. You know? I can't believe still to this day that my mom and dad, you know, we're a match. That maybe they were brother and sister. But I turned out damn good.

Scott Benner 57:27
You don't have a tail or anything like that?

Denise 57:33
Oh, god, that's gross to think about.

Scott Benner 57:35
Which part you having a tail or your parents being brothers?

Denise 57:38
My parents seems siblings.

Scott Benner 57:42
Definitely holding on to that excuse for oh my god, I'm saving it in case it needs it. I'm sorry.

Denise 57:47
Go see. That's a really good excuse.

Scott Benner 57:50
It's such a leap. Like when people donate organs. I mean, I find it to be one of the like, really major kindnesses. You know, it just it's just a big leap. You know? Yeah. I mean, it's not like you're letting your neighbor use your other weedwacker like, I got this one stole it's crazy. It's a crazy thing to do. I mean, a lot of respect for people who do that. I

Denise 58:14
really selfless. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Scott Benner 58:17
Okay, so I want to go back to your anxiety whole life.

Denise 58:22
You know, I think so. And I don't think I recognized it until my adult.

Scott Benner 58:29
Just thought you're on top of stuff.

Denise 58:32
Yeah, I mean, my childhood was a little rough. So. So I think that kind of makes you a little more anxious. And then like, I distinctly remember my sister and I, we were both camp counselors. And she was a camp counselor like the year before, when we were in high school or whatever. She and I are three years apart. And then I had just, I just got in my car. And I was like a brand new driver. And my sister and I were both driving separate cars to the camp but I'd never been there before. In this was like before the time of GPS or whatever. And so I was falling behind her. And she I think was trying to show off and so she passed this car in front of me. And I was so nervous about getting lost that I to pass the car without looking in the other direction and seeing this 18 Wheeler coming towards me. So I distinctly remember him like laying on the horn because we almost had a head on collision. Well, I almost had a head on collision with like an 18 Wheeler. And when we arrived my sister's like, I can't believe you pass that car. I should have never passed the card and think you were gonna follow me and I was like, Well, I was so nervous about you know, getting lost. I don't know my way around here and yeah, so I think that was a you know, first indicator where I realized But I probably needed to chill out.

Scott Benner 1:00:02
So your anxiety was so overwhelming that you were willing to put yourself into a harmful situation just to not have the feeling of oh, I might get lost falling apart. Yeah.

Denise 1:00:11
Yep. Yeah, that feeling of being out of control it couldn't handle. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:00:17
And so what do you do you do anything for it.

Denise 1:00:21
I mean, I've talked to therapists and stuff, I do meditation, when I'm exercising, I'm in a better place, I think overall, but have kind of come to accept that this is my norm. And I really don't think diabetes has helped it at all. I think it's made it worse. I think, if you have perfectionistic tendencies and anxiety, diabetes is like the worst condition for you to have to deal with in my eyes. Because there's so many numbers, you know, there's so much objective data, you go in every three months, and you get an A onesie and time and range, you know, and, and that's a reflection on, you know, how well you're managing. And so even if it's three months later, and your agency and time range go down, just by a point, you're like, Gosh, I really screwed up, at least for me. And of course, it's not my disease, but it feels like it right now. Because I'm the one managing my head. Do you have any

Scott Benner 1:01:17
idea of what age or what situation you'll want him to be in when you start giving him some aspects of a responsibility?

Denise 1:01:27
I mean, he has responsibility. I have him like, pull things out for a meal and, and figure out how much to dose for instead, but not when he's away from me, you know, and he plugs everything into his pump by himself. I just do and he feels comfortable with but he gets really annoyed by having to do too much, you know, he doesn't like to be interrupted while he's playing or whatever. And that's, that's the real disservice with the T Slim is. I can't just take the PDM because there is no PDM it's the pump, which he wears, you know, so I have to be nagging him, or I take it out of his belt and do it for him. You know, so does this and I know T Slim is coming out with the update, but it's not out yet. And I really look forward to that to reduce some of the pain in the ass burden for him, especially on nights. And we have like a tricky meal, you know,

Scott Benner 1:02:25
do you. So what you're describing to me makes sense, because he's nine, and I hear everything you're saying. And at the same time, I imagined that there are people listening who have had type one diabetes for 30 years who are thinking like, yeah, let that kid do more like that kind of stuff. Like, are you worried that there's a tipping point somewhere where he could go so far in the direction he's in now that you can't get him back? When it's time for him to take over? And do like, feed it a little out like what I used to do in Arlen was little. And we still do it now to some degrees, we kind of played that game where food would come out like like, how many carbs do you think that is? Or how much insulin Do you think that is? And or I do that? Or when our when our blood sugar starts going up, I asked her leading questions to teach her know, like, hey, was there any fried food in your lunch? Even now, today? I still do that. And it makes her think and then she'll go, Yeah, I had French fries. And I'll say, oh, we should Bolus for the fact that and you know where she says no, when I go, Okay, well, what did you eat? And so I'm teaching her without? Well, I mean, Denise, if I'm being honest, I'm doing to her what I'm doing to all of you, but I just I'm teaching her without letting her know she's being taught.

Denise 1:03:40
That's a good idea, actually. I mean, I do mention what I think happened in that moment, but I don't ask his opinion on those things. I mean, there have been times where he's like, I'm gonna take another tab too, because I'm starting to not feel good or whatever, you know. And we do talk about what I think is happening, when it's happening, and why it happened, and how I messed up or how we messed up. Well, really how I like, yeah, I should ask his opinion. For more. I like that idea, actually, like, just make it a game and not have him feel like I'm grilling him, you know, because I don't want to make it a burden. And based on what I've read in the beginning, I, I didn't, I just wanted to take his lead on things because I don't want him to have burnout when he goes off to college and be belligerent and not care at all and end up in the ICU or something. You know, you

Scott Benner 1:04:39
also don't want him to not know what he's doing.

Denise 1:04:41
Yeah, I know, like, how do you find that balance? So, you know, I

Scott Benner 1:04:45
just told you what I thought so

Denise 1:04:48
probably, I will implement ASAP.

Scott Benner 1:04:51
So like yesterday, we were coming home from lunch, and we had like a nice 20 minute ride and I said, Hey, I'm going to explain how your algorithm works to you She knows what and I was like, I like the background of it. I'm going to talk you through it a little bit. And she's like, Oh, that sounds so boring. And I said is going to be very boring. I was like, but just let me go. I was like, we're driving. And I'm talking like, you understand. I'm saying she's like, Yeah, and I looked over it again. She goes, I'm getting tired. This is so boring. I said, we'll just let me you know, fill in a couple more blanks for you. I've been doing that for years. Like I remember, I remember the first time we had a real conversation was after an endo appointment. And she showed some interest. She said, What could I do to bring my agency down? And I thought about it. I said, if I could ask you to do just one thing, until Daddy can figure things out a little better. Could we stop eating cereal for breakfast? That would be terrific. And she's like, if that'll help, I'll do that. And so she did that, which gave me more time to figure out things like this was many, many years ago. And, and ironically, of course, she doesn't even eat cereal anymore. But you know, there was enough time where I actually could figure things out back before I was good at polishing for things. And then I was able to take what I learned and then reapply it to cereal. And that's what I need. Hold on a second. This is unconscionable. My wife has one job in the world. To actually that's not true. She has three jobs. I'll tell you what they are. Make money. Tell me reasons why we can't have sex. And keep that dog quiet while I'm recording. The three things, three things

Denise 1:06:38
bring the dog in and I'll whisper sweet nothings in its ear. She's

Scott Benner 1:06:42
good at the other two things. Why can't she do this?

Denise 1:06:46
Probably because there's someone out your door or something. I

Scott Benner 1:06:48
don't care. There should be an urgency, a snap in her step. She should that dogs should bark and she should think Scott is recording that podcast is a very, very popular podcast. It cannot have dogs barking in the background. Let me leap to

Denise 1:07:01
know what people like to hear that you're like a normal human.

Scott Benner 1:07:05
Like, I don't know how normal I am.

Denise 1:07:07
Because I Googled earlier, right? You're not normal, actually. But

Scott Benner 1:07:11
I have a chart in front of me right now in case we want to play a game where we get to guess what US state it's legal to marry your cousin. And that's just based off of what you like, philosophize about your mom. Nice. Mostly. By the way, the answer is way more states than you think.

Denise 1:07:27
Well, there's so many Utah.

Scott Benner 1:07:32
I don't know what you just said because I love people in Utah, but I'm gonna look right now and give you us Hall. It's gotta be Utah. Yeah, only if both parties are 65 years or older, or both are 55 or older with a district court finding of infertility of either party.

Denise 1:07:49
Wow, my so old,

Scott Benner 1:07:52
cuz they're like, Please don't make babies when you're with your first cousin. I guess it makes Are you allowed to have sexual relations or cohabitation? If your cousin's in Utah? No. But there are plenty of states where you are legally allowed to

Denise 1:08:08
do it. Like where appears Don't tell me it's New York

Scott Benner 1:08:12
there's an interesting one in Wyoming you can't get married. But you can do the sexy part

Denise 1:08:21
Oh, wow. Is there an age limit?

Scott Benner 1:08:24
Not on not in Utah there's an age they're not in Wyoming there's an age limit in Utah. There's an age limit in Indiana you have to be over 65 in Illinois both over 50 were one is in fertile so you can be 35 if one of you can't have a baby. Arizona

Denise 1:08:44
How do you prove that you have to go to the doctor and prove that you're infertile?

Scott Benner 1:08:47
Have sex with your cousin nobody gets pregnant I don't know like it's the whole thing. When I googled that and there was a chart I was like

Denise 1:08:56
get out of here you know people are looking it up if that chart exists oh

Scott Benner 1:08:59
my goodness you have no idea i all i all i googled was married to your sister.

Denise 1:09:06
And you're gonna get like all kinds of all kinds of weird ads face to face.

Scott Benner 1:09:11
You brought this

Denise 1:09:14
I want to know like I need you to screenshot those and send them to me like what kind of ads you're getting on Facebook. Now it

Scott Benner 1:09:20
was your brain that brought this up. It has nothing to do.

Denise 1:09:24
You're gonna get like polygamy to polygamy, ads and

Scott Benner 1:09:28
there is just so like, what is it called when you date your sibling? While cousin marriage is legal in most countries. And a functional at marriage is legal in many sexual relations between siblings are considered incestuous almost universally Yeah. Okay, well, good. Oh, my goodness. I don't know how you made me think about these things. But you did. You're talking.

Denise 1:09:53
You gotta keep it fun around here, right?

Scott Benner 1:09:55
I don't know that. I'm not calling that fun. In case you're wondering where I draw the line for fun

Denise 1:10:00
Yeah, it's it's awkward and disgust I'm

Scott Benner 1:10:03
adopted. I can't even think of my cousin that way. And I've literally they they're not related to me in any way shape or form for real. It's just we grew up together.

Denise 1:10:11
Yeah. Hey, have you ever found like your birth mother and father know if you want to answer well, I mean,

Scott Benner 1:10:19
not have no. Suddenly we're on your podcast and he's been okay. Sorry. So when Arden was born, Kelly pressured me. And I'm using the word pressure to accurately pressured me to find out about my, about my natural parents. She wants to know for she said back then health reasons which never really panned out at all. We found we were able to find my birth mother who was already passed. And that was, I mean, when Arden was little so like, I don't know, 1718 years ago, and she had died in her 40s. We learned that she had a big family. And we contacted somehow contacted the family I think, an attorney that it for me, and then one person said they'd be open to speaking on the phone. I spoke to her one of her sisters. She described that my natural my birth mother was depressed her whole life. Because she gave me all the way she made it sound like it wasn't really her idea completely. Like sound like a lot of family pressure, maybe. Young. Yeah. And young guests, not really young, but younger. And she died. So I guess the depression turned into obesity. And she died having surgery trying to have like, like a stomach stapling or gastric bypass or something like that. She had a heart attack, I think in her 40s. And that said, obviously, I have no real emotional connection to the story. Right? So it's just the person then they had no, no idea who the father was, at least that they would say to me. Then later as the conversation went on, she described if you hear from your uncle this don't answer the phone. If you do this, don't answer the phone. Don't talk to that. And I was like, I'm out. And I never. I never ever watched him again. Yeah, too much drama. Yeah, so it turns out if it wasn't for adoption, I would have grown up in the mountains in the south somewhere.

Denise 1:12:35
Oh, dang. Yeah. southern twang

Scott Benner 1:12:39
Can you imagine? What if I had all these thoughts? And I was like, you know, living in a pickup truck in the woods. People would not be there but yeah, I don't think about it ever. I like the idea I've said here before I like the idea that I felt like as I was growing up, I felt like I was a new country and I got to make up my own walls. I always thought that was

Denise 1:13:02
so that was cool. Anyway,

Scott Benner 1:13:05
and I still live by those rules now the nice

Denise 1:13:08
nice I marry your sister

Scott Benner 1:13:14
are you trying to name this episode Denise?

Denise 1:13:19
Oh, ah you know what I always get a kick out of figuring out why you name the things you do this

Scott Benner 1:13:26
go marry your sister's a strong contender for this one.

Denise 1:13:29
Okay, what are the other options? I

Scott Benner 1:13:31
don't know whatever that food was called and friends of a Hiller ski Denise's anxiety one of the other I don't know.

Denise 1:13:39
No, leave that one out. You know, I know how to say I need help in Slovak. Oh yeah. Go ahead. It's put rebel Yeah. Promotes do people on the street but I will put caribou EMA promotes

Scott Benner 1:13:57
and people on the street don't speak English.

Denise 1:14:01
Young people do I'm actually taking Slovak lessons and I have been talking with her about learning more medical Slovak in case my kid gets admitted here. I pray he does not.

Scott Benner 1:14:15
Do you think you're going to get come along at all learning the language or is it hard?

Denise 1:14:21
Yeah, I mean, I know some stuff. I know how to order. I know how to say. Here you go. I know how to say good morning. Good day. You know? I'm sorry. I know some basic stuff.

Scott Benner 1:14:36
Are you obviously American? Oh, yeah.

Denise 1:14:39
I mean, I try to dress like I'm not but I stumble when I'm trying to use Slovak. You know, it's hard

Scott Benner 1:14:47
about visually. Like, can I look at you in that setting and think you don't know I'm here.

Denise 1:14:52
No, I don't I don't. I think everybody kind of looks a little different. I mean, everybody's white here. Okay. But I'm also white case you're wondering. Yeah, but people have all different hair colors and stuff. Yeah, I was just wondering, look like

Scott Benner 1:15:12
anything. I didn't know if there was an aesthetic that you don't fit somehow or No,

Denise 1:15:17
no, I don't think so I think you could blend in as long as you could speak and dress properly.

Scott Benner 1:15:22
Gotcha. How is it getting your medical supplies? It's all is that all through the military? Yeah,

Denise 1:15:26
I want them to talk to you about that, actually. So

Scott Benner 1:15:29
why did you bring a possibility of your parents being related? And not just

Denise 1:15:34
I mean, it was kind of a fun thought I thought it better not be true. I know. It's sad, but it's pretty funny to think about. So I can tell you this. So before we even got this assignment, we knew it was on the radar, because the whole reason we moved from Vegas to Virginia was so my husband could take Slovak classes and learn how to do his job in Slovakia. And so we were approved prematurely because they had to go through an approval process before they moved us to Virginia, because there's no point in taking these classes if we weren't going to be approved for the assignment to Slovakia. So then he goes through all these classes, and we knew we would have another medical board that had to meet again, Denise

Scott Benner 1:16:20
microphone again. Oh,

Denise 1:16:24
okay. Can you hear me now?

Scott Benner 1:16:25
Yeah. Where'd you go? What are you walking away from the computer?

Denise 1:16:28
No, I just sat up a little bit. Is this good though? Just get up. I'm in the most uncomfortable,

Scott Benner 1:16:34
I don't care. That's your problem, not mine.

Denise 1:16:36
I'm glad it's working out for you. So anyway, so we knew we'd have to undergo another medical board prior to actually leaving Virginia and moving to Slovakia. And so that second Medical Board, we were actually denied because of my son's type one, because the military doesn't typically move type one families overseas. And if they do, they're gonna go to a base that has a larger military medical facility like Lakenheath in England or, you know, launched or Germany has a big, like the biggest military medical hospital so they have more of the resources to manage it easier. So the board that met they were not keen on the idea of sending us out here, because Slovakia is not a first world country medical system is very different. They were concerned that we wouldn't be able to find a English speaking endocrinologist for him. So there was a myriad of reasons why they didn't want us to come here. But obviously, people out here have type one and type two, and there are providers. And there are ways to get supplies. And there is a Facebook page for military families that are stationed overseas with type ones. So I did a ton of research to make this happen, because it's like my husband's dream job. And I wanted it to work out for him. But I also obviously wanted to keep my kids safe in the process. But I knew if we did the research, we could be just fine. So anyway, so we had to do like a rebuttal. But my husband in the interim was like crushed, because we thought that that was going to be the end. And you know, we were going to submit the rebuttal. But chances are that we weren't gonna be able to come here. Which would mean he did all of that Slovak language learning for nothing, all of those other classes for nothing like that whole year of his life was a complete waste and all that hard work that he put in, you know, so we submitted the rebuttal, and then we were approved. So with that being said, by that point in time, we had already researched endocrinologist and the supplies and everything because we had to submit that and we you know, I'm very well prepared on that kind of stuff. So I had reached out to a foreigners in Bratislava Facebook page and asked if there were any other type one mothers. And if they had a pediatric endocrinologist that they could recommend, and there was one person who I believe is on this page now, because I actually told her about it at the time. She reached out to me and said she had a 13 year old type one, and that her daughter saw this one provider, but she didn't love that provider. However, she knew that the other provider in the office was much better. And she recommended that provider. So we reached out to her and she was like, incredible about getting back to us like I love Europe in the sense that there's no gatekeeper like there's no nurse sitting at the desk preventing you from speaking with a provider. Like she wrote us back that day. We were like, these are all our concerns. Are these going to be able to be managed? You know, like, is there a hospital that can see him in the event of ketoacidosis? Like, do you have glucagon? How would we get her insulin? Is it possible that he can use a T slim blah blah. So she's asked So in Bratislava, initially, we were planning to just go to Austria because Vienna is like an hour away, and their medical system is really great. But Vienna like Austria itself, they don't have the ability to write scripts for the T slim because it's not approved in Austria. So in Bratislava, the T Slim is approved, so we had to find a provider in Bratislava. So she was awesome from the get go really responsive. And when we got here, we were supposed to just meet with her so that she could just write scripts for her for us. And then we had an appointment with her like, a week or two later, but she was so awesome. Like, the hospital is sketchy as you know what looks, it looks like something you would find in a scary movie. At like a psych hospital with like some Red Rum going on. When we pulled up, I was like, oh my god, this is our life. And I know this is really wrong. And I'm not trying to offend anyone in Slovakia, you guys are great people. I just need a preface with that. But it is not aesthetically pleasing at all. It does not look like an American hospital at all. But the provider was incredible super kind. We wanted her because she has type one herself. She's probably late 30s, maybe super nice, really kind to my son wrote all the scripts we needed. We've received insulin here from one of the local pharmacies, the scripts that she wrote for the Dexcom and the T slim, we actually submit them to CBR medical who's out of Germany, and they actually have our first shipment on our way to us. Which is cool because they give us a six month ship and at once which is really nice because dealing with advanced diabetes, I had to you know, message them or whatever call them every three months, which was a big pain in the ass. So yeah, so far things are going well. TRICARE our insurance didn't want to pay for her. They had one other provider in Brighton in Bratislava, that apparently was TRICARE approved. So when I reached out to them, because I was already adamant about seeing this other provider because she was so good to us. And we had established rapport by the time we got here. TRICARE was like we will authorize two visits. But we need you to see the other provider because she's in network. And so I called her to try and make an appointment with them. And she's like, she's booked up and she doesn't even take insurance, you'd have to pay out of pocket. I'm like, What's TRICARE talking about? So then I told TRICARE. A, I couldn't even speak with a woman B, she's booked out for like months and see, she's not even taking insurance. So I don't know what you're talking. Like, if that's the case, you might as well play it pay for the provider that we want, you know? Yeah. So they've approved her, thankfully. So,

Scott Benner 1:22:53
Denise, your connection is getting noisy. So this is an opportune time to say thank you. It's okay. Don't worry. We got through as best as we can. And if people want to hang on for the next 10 minutes, and let us know how hard it was to get you on they can. But it was, it was really nice to talk to you. I hope we thank you. I hope we talked about everything within reason that you wanted to. And did you did you have a good time?

Denise 1:23:17
I did. Yeah. You're fun to talk to. It'd be fun.

Scott Benner 1:23:21
That's true. No, I'm just saying Oh, thank you. I mean, no, I really do appreciate. Can you hold on for one second for me? Yeah, thanks.

A huge thank you to neat. Hey, first, I'd like to thank Denise for coming on the show and sharing her story. And I'm going to thank all the above makers of the AMI pod five and the Omni pod dash and remind you to go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes, links at juicebox podcast.com. And of course, U S med.com. Forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514. Listen, switching is not fun. Looking into new things isn't fun, but some quality stuff here for you to think about on the pod, US Med and the rest of the sponsors. And if you hold on for just a second, I'm going to play you the 10 minutes of Denise not being able to get her I was going to curse not being able to get her computer setup. Here we go. Oh, before I do that, let me say thank you so much for listening.

Denise 1:24:31
Hey, everyone, my name is Denise and I am the mother of a nine year old type one diabetic child. He's been diagnosed I actually did the math before I came on a year and eight months ago. And at the time he had an A one C of 16 and a blood sugar of 910

Scott Benner 1:24:53
days. Do you remember before we started recording that you said I turned up the volume? Yeah, can you turn it back down a little bit? Yeah, let me hear that.

Denise 1:25:02
Can you hear me? How's that?

Scott Benner 1:25:05
I'm gonna need you to speak another sentence. So he was diagnosed what was his a one, two?

Denise 1:25:10
It was 16 actually.

Scott Benner 1:25:13
Okay. All right. I don't know if like, it turns out a little more. Okay. Am I like super loud sound like Darth Vader

Denise 1:25:22
is that? Oh, cool.

Scott Benner 1:25:26
That might be better. We'll try again. Okay, wow. So a year eight months ago, how old is he now? He is nine. Nine was the seven or eight when he was diagnosed. He was seven.

Denise 1:25:37
October 24 will make two years for us.

Scott Benner 1:25:42
You're up on two years. Okay. Any other kids?

Denise 1:25:47
I have two others. He's a middle guy or only boy. And we have an 11 year old and a seven year old.

Scott Benner 1:25:55
Denise Denise, Denise, Denise, I gotta figure out what to do about your microphone shoot. So you're talking and then behind your words, or? It sounds like it's okay. I think it's just the mic.

Denise 1:26:09
I go down lower. I don't know. Can I test it?

Scott Benner 1:26:12
I mean, if you've if you've been turning down the volume on your end, I don't hear any difference on my end. Really? Yeah. Well, crap, do you have like Apple headphones, just the white wire ones?

Denise 1:26:26
I do, but I can't find them. We moved and I seem to have like misplaced them.

Scott Benner 1:26:32
Is there? Are you using a Mac or PC?

Denise 1:26:37
A Mac? Is there a way to like test your settings and fix them? I'm like kind of computer illiterate unfortunately.

Scott Benner 1:26:44
Are you using the zoom app? Or are you using? Like just a portable app? Alright, so why don't we try this? Or you're on a laptop? Okay, so why don't we try it on my phone? Maybe? Well, I think it's the headset mic. Okay, there's my is my estimation. So if you click on Zoom, and then go to the top left corner where it says zoom.us of the screen all the way up to the top left.

Denise 1:27:14
My screen is like, minimize. Okay, here we go. Top left. What does it say? So it's not aimed at us.

Scott Benner 1:27:22
Okay, you see that? And when you click on that, you go to Preferences. It's the second choice down. Yep. And then audio. Okay, okay. So right now the microphone. What is it set at?

Denise 1:27:38
The input volume, is that what you want?

Scott Benner 1:27:40
There should be after you've clicked on audio on the left, on the right side of the screen, it should say speaker than test speaker and then next to test Speaker It tells you it's like a drop down box. It tells you what Speaker you're using. That should that's probably the headphones.

Denise 1:27:57
Okay, so yeah, it's like in the middle ish. A little further. Now you're

Scott Benner 1:28:02
answering the wrong there's no there's no numbers. Scott. Denise. No, I'm not asking for a number you need you're not listening to. So there's a drop down box next to the word the button that says test speaker next to it on the right is a drop down. What is this Denise's be solo. Great. Now when you move down to microphone, it says test mic and then what's that set toe? That also says the same thing. What are your other options when you click on it?

Denise 1:28:29
built in microphone try that. Is that better? There we go. Can you hear me?

Scott Benner 1:28:38
Yes, that's better. All right. So can you still hear me in your headphones? Can you hear me? Hello? Denise Denise, can you hear me?

Denise 1:28:53
Yeah, so I put on the built in microphone under microphone. Should I? I couldn't hear you at all when I did that. Should I do built in output on the speaker thing instead?

Scott Benner 1:29:05
No. I was hoping for you to use your headphones as the speaker and the microphone on the laptop as the microphone.

Denise 1:29:12
Okay, I couldn't hear you.

Scott Benner 1:29:15
When you did that. You couldn't hear me in the headphones anymore. Now. When you change the microphone, then you couldn't do you have any other headphones

Denise 1:29:26
my kids do.

Scott Benner 1:29:27
So that's what we need because the mic on their laptops. Great. Yeah. And so

Denise 1:29:33
let me see if my daughter can grab some real quick. Take your time. You know what, though? I think they have a wire. I don't know if she has wireless.

Scott Benner 1:29:42
Why? Why do you have these wires? Is that better? Or it's probably better

seriously, take your time.

Denise 1:29:54
Do you have headphones? Can you grab them real quick please? This is gonna be my best setup. So

Scott Benner 1:30:04
first of all, don't be sorry, because we're going to start over. Okay? But I'm putting all of this at the end of the episode so people can listen to it. I've been I've been thinking about doing this for a while now.

Denise 1:30:15
Sure. I would like to curse but I'll be nice

Scott Benner 1:30:20
because I'll bleep it out later.

Denise 1:30:22
Okay. All right. So I have these wired headphones

Scott Benner 1:30:28
now. Okay, so I think you have to turn off disconnect. Yeah, just literally power them off

Denise 1:30:43
Okay, how about now?

Scott Benner 1:30:45
Well, I'm always gonna be able to hear you because you're using the mic on the laptop. Can you hear me in the headphones?

Denise 1:30:51
I can just slow How about can you talk again?

Scott Benner 1:30:53
Hello, testing. Hello. Hello.

Denise 1:30:56
That's better. My voice better now or am I still Darth Vader?

Scott Benner 1:30:59
No, you're good because that you're not using those horrible Beats headphones. They're like frickin expensive. Our horrible. Bluetooth Bluetooth sucks. That's why

Denise 1:31:10
Oh, yeah. Well, that makes me want to like, write them a nasty gram.

Scott Benner 1:31:14
Well, now you're now you're all staticky. though. What are you doing?

Denise 1:31:18
Well, I was moving for a second. Hang on. Just get in position. All right. Can you hear me?

Scott Benner 1:31:25
I can. So if the laptop is on the desk in front of you, or something like that, I imagine.

Denise 1:31:30
It is actually sitting in my bed with a laptop on top of the pillow. Is that a bad situation? Should I put it on the dresser?

Scott Benner 1:31:40
I'm just wondering, I can't wait for people to hear all this. I'm just wondering if you couldn't bring the laptop microphone closer to your face?

Denise 1:31:50
Where is the microphone?

Scott Benner 1:31:52
It's on a laptop. Just bring the laptop close to the knees have you? Better about now, it's pretty good. Just keep your face in one orientation. You know? I mean, like, don't start looking into other corners of the room while you're talking and stuff like that. Okay, all right, because I will be frozen in place because the mic is in this in the central location. Okay, so now I have the last thing I have to figure out is the staticky thing. I'm not sure what that is. Which it didn't. It is.

Denise 1:32:22
Don't mean to relocate to a different parts of the house.

Scott Benner 1:32:26
I mean, are you moving around right now? No, no. Interesting. Unplug the headphones for a second

Can you hear me through the laptop?

Denise 1:32:42
Now,

Scott Benner 1:32:43
can you hear me through the laptop?

Denise 1:32:46
I can hear through my headphones. Plugged you and then I couldn't hear you at all.

Scott Benner 1:32:50
Okay, so I'm in your headphones now. There's something there's a lot of noise. I don't know what it is. You're not moving or scraping or moving blankets or something like that? Nope. Okay. And the Bluetooth or the bluetooth headphones definitely off. Yep. Okay. What was that? What were you just doing just now?

Denise 1:33:16
I was just moving. Okay. I'm not moving right now.

Scott Benner 1:33:21
A Sure. Yes. Like, like, just now like you're not moving at all. Like you're not rustling something?

Denise 1:33:29
Oh, I was laughing. So now. Theater.

Scott Benner 1:33:33
So wait, so the computer is moving when you're laughing? Well, it's

Denise 1:33:37
on my chest. Yeah, we

Scott Benner 1:33:39
don't want to be in that situation. That's

Denise 1:33:43
when we put it on the dresser. We'll see if that defies problem. I'm gonna be in like a padded room by the time we're done here. I'll put it on the floor. I don't

Scott Benner 1:33:55
want to give you pressure here. But this better be a good interview.

Denise 1:33:59
Right? Okay. How is this?

Scott Benner 1:34:04
I mean, you don't have to, like speak a sentence. How about the rain falls? No. How's this? That's better. Really? Yeah. Okay, well, now it's right. You're Are you farther from the laptop now than you used to be?

Denise 1:34:20
No, I'm like right up on top of it in the most uncomfortable position known to man

Scott Benner 1:34:24
back up a little bit because it's not loud. About now Hey, there, don't know now. 20 minutes later, if I took the last 27 recordings I've done and adds up all the difficulties someone's had getting set up. They don't they don't best to you right now.

Denise 1:34:51
Good. Makes me feel better. We're gonna get you.

Scott Benner 1:34:53
Yeah, we're gonna get you. I don't know. Some sort of a website where people can send you headphones. All right, so you hear me through your ears in like in your headphones or you through my

Denise 1:35:05
ears. Excellent. Okay, so my headphones, I am in position and ready to go. Nice let's Shall we freakin begin.

Scott Benner 1:35:19
We absolutely should go ahead and introduce yourself again.

Denise 1:35:22
Okay. All right.

Scott Benner 1:35:26
Hope you enjoy that if you're still here, you should check out the private Facebook group a fantastic place for community. Right now someone is saying something that you need to hear. Or they're asking you a question that you can answer Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook private group, absolutely free 35,000 members. It's a really terrific. Alright, that's long enough. I'm gonna let you go. Have a great day. I'll talk to you soon.

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#864 Type 2 Diabetes Pro Tip: Guilt and Shame

A series for people with pre and Type 2 diabetes.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

• 00:06:12 Addressing guilt and shame.
• 00:09:00 Stigma around Type 2 diabetes.
• 00:16:14 Lifestyle and genetics contribute to type 2 diabetes.
• 00:17:53 Emotional response to diabetes diagnosis.
• 00:24:17 Education is crucial for managing type two diabetes.
• 00:29:24 Misdiagnosis and stigma in diabetes.
• 00:35:57 Education is vital for diabetes management.
• 00:40:10 Type one and type two diabetes are related.
• 00:45:37 Take action for someone else.
• 00:53:00 Take care of your health.
• 00:59:57 Empowerment through education and action.
• 01:00:55 Successful type two community is possible.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 864 of the Juicebox Podcast

Welcome back to the Type Two diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast today is the next episode in that series, and Jenny Smith and I will be discussing shame and guilt, and how those things may be tricking you into not taking care of yourself. While you're listening. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. This is the spot in other episodes where I remind type ones to go to the T one D exchange and take the survey but instead because this is a type two centric podcast, I want to say this to the type ones that are listening. You love the podcast, you subscribe. That's why you got this episode. I bet you also know people in your life with type two diabetes that need help. Please pass these episodes on to those people. And if you're new to the podcast, and you have prayer, type two diabetes. Welcome. I hope you'll love this. I really think it's going to help you.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. That's right, the contour next gen. What do you think the Gen stands for next generation, whether you have type one, or type two diabetes, or pre diabetes, and you need to check your blood sugar, the contour next gen is for you. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box. I'll tell you a little bit more about that meter later on in the program. But if you're looking for accurate blood glucose meter results, contour next gen is the way to go. Hey, Jenny, how are you?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:16
I'm great. How are you? Scott?

Scott Benner 2:18
Jenny's not great. Her dog ran away and she's trying to be

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:24
doing this while my husband is

Scott Benner 2:26
out looking for the dog. Sure the dogs gonna be fine.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:30
You got a caller? He's got a number on it. You know, it's all?

Scott Benner 2:33
Yes. Let's just say the people just missed a nice five minute conversation about the responsibility of dog ownership.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:40
If you're going to own a dog, be prepared to take care of it like you prepare to take care of a child

Scott Benner 2:45
exactly, essentially. Yes. So we hit record here because I'm in slightly unsteady water for what we're trying to do here. So I think everybody who listens to the podcast knows that it is overwhelmingly it's a type one diabetes podcast, right? It's I think it helps adults and caregivers pretty equally, but it's mainly about type one. And then over the last few years, I've been thinking about, as I mentioned, in the first episode of this series, I wanted to figure out how to help type twos. And then I started seeing type twos come into the Facebook group and listen to the podcast. And then they were making these kind of really amazing, like improvements in their life. So we we asked the listeners of the podcast, you know, what would you like to know about type two diabetes. And it's going to be a little strange talking about it, because my conversation is going to come from kind of some anecdotal stuff and kind of my reflections of what I've seen people talk about you, of course, Jenny are not just the CDE. But you have a degree in nutrition. Yes. So you're going to be a great help here and Jenny, in a former life, why don't you tell people what you used to do?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:00
Yeah, so within the realm of diabetes education, and while I was working as a dietitian within a hospital care system, I was also helping to teach the type to accredited classes within the hospital that I worked at. And I was working with a nurse educator who was head of the education, the diabetes education department, and we coordinated the classes together on the angle of, you know, all things diabetes, in terms of the medications and monitoring and the nutrition part and the activity part. I mean, all the things that go into managing, so that is what I did, and it actually helped me as well. A crew, enough hours to sit what was the CDE exam certified diabetes educator exam, which now we are CDC, e ss, right? Everybody's still calls us CDs. shots. All right?

Scott Benner 5:03
Well, I so here's what I've been thinking forever. And I mentioned a little bit in the first episode, but I'll just say it here again, if you see behind the scenes, the diabetes space, people, companies, organizations, institutions are always trying to figure out why type ones are such a close knit group of people online. Like there's a real type one diabetes community online, as Yeah, it's just the reasons why I mean, you can all guess for yourself, but it just exists. It's a helpful community, it's a vocal community, they're not afraid to share what's going on with themselves. And anyway, these organizations, these companies, they've all they all use kind of behind the scenes about I wish we could, you know, build a community for type twos. And we tried, and it didn't work. And we tried this, and it didn't work. And, and I've had conversations in meetings where I've given my opinion about why I think it didn't work and how it could and people didn't take my advice. So now I'm just going to do it myself. And I'm going to do it here with this. And I thought I thought the way to start off was by addressing guilt and shame. So there were a number of different categories that people brought up medications, doctors, you know, die diets, which we're not going to call diets, Jenny, we're going to call fueling plan fueling plans, I'm gonna have to leave that written in front of me for a couple of weeks, the way I speak. But, to me, if we're going to start this conversation, I think we have to start it with why if you have type two diabetes, is it difficult to step up and say, I have type two diabetes, I don't understand it. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I think it's killing me. And I'm not really sure how to stop it. You know, like, that's the insecurity I see with a lot of people with type two, like this thing is happening to them. And they, they don't seem to know what to do about it.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:02
There's absolute negative, there's a negative piece to having type two diabetes. From an from an understanding perspective, but I think that, that it lacks information. And I think that that's where it comes from, in a lot of a lot of that negative attitude can be because the majority of people who don't have diabetes of any type, type two, specifically here, there, there's a lot of missing information. And so there are there are silly statements that are made that are completely not true. And you never know, when you're seeing something that might be just an off the, you know, off the cuff, kind of like, Haha, joke, whatever you don't know if somebody that you're sitting around, has type two diabetes, and then that's taken, it's taken in or you

Scott Benner 8:11
internalize, no, and then you realize I need to keep this quiet, or I'm going to take, I'm going to take this from other people, or I'm

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:17
going to be the brunt of the jokes, or I'm going to be the brunt of, Hey, did you know this could help you? Or hey, did you know you know, I've got this friend who's talking to this person? And don't you know, that this could really help you or, you know, we'll talk about all the supplements and all the funny things that people get offered help from. And I think that brings a lot of it in it's like, I'd rather maybe be quiet about it. And just

Scott Benner 8:41
Well, I think we always end up in this situation where we sort of talk around it because, I mean, obviously you and I don't want to insult anybody. And we don't have oh, we don't have those feelings. But it's I think it's worth, like just vocalizing right now that other people do that. And that's hard to hear. And you don't want to hear that. And I understand not wanting to hear that.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:03
Right. And I think a lot of it too comes from the people who may be making con comments or may be thinking what they know about type two diabetes, but it's completely false. It's it's from this idea. People have that it is self induced. Yes,

Scott Benner 9:19
exactly. Right. I did that to myself. I did

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:22
something I have it or God there, they must have totally just not paid attention. Or they must have done something that created this problem for them. Yeah, right. Look

Scott Benner 9:34
at you, your body is whatever. That's obviously because you don't take care of yourself. And so you deserve somehow this thing that's happened to you. And that's I think that's the that's the path that minds can follow when they say stupid things like that. And it lets them off the hook to they get to say well, I'm, I'm okay being horrible to this person because look, they did it to themselves. And and then whether that's true or not, and we're going to talk about why it's not. But whether it's true or not. That's how you feel it. If you're on if you're on the receiving end of that, that's how you felt it. And now someone picks up and says, Hey, I've started a diabetes group that might help you understand your diabetes better. Or why don't you talk to your friends who have it and see if nobody, nobody's gonna want to do that then. Right? Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:21
Right. Absolutely. And I think, as you said earlier, the the type one world has a lot of has a lot of connection, they've, it's a very big community. That's like getting a big hug whenever you reach out for something, right. And people are very willing and open to talk about it. But it's the minimal percent of people who have diabetes as a whole. The bigger community has type two diabetes,

Scott Benner 10:55
by leaps and bounds numbers wise, right? Absolutely.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:58
And even now, and I think it's unfortunate, but now even includes children and teens, with type two diabetes, not type one. And thinking of that, and how they will grow. If they don't get the right information and the right way to feel about how to navigate this, they will get that same image that maybe their parent with type two has, or maybe their grandmother with type two has, and a lot of the older information, unfortunately, is kind of clouding what those with type two in the past 10 or even 20 years, could be doing differently, if they just got around that mindset of I clearly must have done something wrong. Well,

Scott Benner 11:45
in regards to being open about it, I guess, type ones are sort of protected, right? Because, and here's how I've seen it like that. Again, this is anecdotal from watching people talk about it for so long. But because it's an autoimmune issue, and your pancreas, you know, was attacked by your own body and doesn't make insulin anymore, you get to say, I didn't do this to myself, I don't you don't make an autoimmune issue. So you can you can shed, you would think you could be able to shed some of that, the guilt and the shame that could come along with it. So I guess we should first talk about what are the ways that people get type two diabetes? Like if you if you have an autoimmune disease that gives you type one? Can you eat your way into type two diabetes? Or is that? Is that just a misnomer? Is that the quality of the food? Is it like what? What's the real honesty of it?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:51
That's a deep rabbit hole.

Scott Benner 12:53
I don't want Listen, I don't wanna get anybody in trouble, because I know. But I mean, let we can't start talking about it if we're going to lie to people in the first 10 minutes. So you know what you mean.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:03
Right. So to be quite honest, in terms of lifestyle, absolutely, lifestyle does play a part in terms of the potential for somebody to have type two diabetes, you're more likely to develop it if you are overweight, or what you know, is categorized as being obese, which is a certain BMI level above being just overweight. extra weight can cause what we know is called insulin resistance, or the inability for for the body to utilize the insulin that is being produced by the beta cells in your pancreas. And initially, somebody with some dysregulation of insulin production in the body. In terms of potential for having type two diabetes diagnose, some of that comes from the resistance factor. The location of where the weight on the body is distributed, can make a big difference. activity level can make a big difference. Can food make a big difference? Absolutely. It can. Is it? You said quality? Could the quality of food make a difference? Yes, if you're thinking on the on the edge of preservatives and more processed versus more real food, let's call it right. Sure. There is a big difference. I mean, that's it's kind of a question that's in the air, regardless of what condition you have heart disease and all of those kinds of things. Could it be worse or could I have brought it on because I'm eating more of this processed, less real food than real real food? Sure, but those are some of the big pieces from a metabolic standpoint that somebody is more likely to have type two diabetes is does it mean that every person who might be overweight is going to have type two? No, it does not. Family history or genetics, we know play, it plays a very big part as well, in terms of the potential. So if you have a strong family history of type two diabetes, then some lifestyle things that you put into action for yourself. may very well be preventative. Yeah,

Scott Benner 15:28
I would say this too. I don't think I mean, yes, if you're an adult, you're in charge of what you're eating, right. But there are, there are other factors at play, like financial implications about the foods you can afford to begin with, how you grew up, what somebody put in front of you, when you were a child, and told you this is good food, this is not or in. And by the way, no one may have said to you, this is good, or this is bad. They may have just, maybe it's just giving you food, you remember, like, oh, like when I was a kid, we used to eat this. And so you become an adult and you make that, you know, like, it's, it's not, it's not, I don't think it's a malevolent issue. Like, I don't think that somebody's parents three generations ago, were like, I'm going to eat unhealthy, you know, and it's gonna cause all kinds of medical issues, and I will teach my children to eat unhealthy and they'll teach their children like, it's not like that. It's just you do what you do. And but to not understand that that's what's happening. I think that's the crime, right? Like, if and to not know how to get out of it, if there are actually ways and it turns out, there are a number of ways that you can help yourself, then, you know, that's a crime too. So we're not going to pretend like I mean, listen, this is straight from the ADEA. Type Two diabetes is generally caused by a combination of lifestyle and genetic factors, lifestyle factors, including being overweight or obese, eating a high, eating a diet high in carbohydrates, sugars, and fats and physical inactivity. Um, that's a, you know, that's directly from their website. And it's dated just last year. So, but that's all but the point is, is that that's, that's all both. Now, you've got type two diabetes, like, who cares how we got here, right? See what we can do now. But that becomes an issue because guilt and shame are real things. They are real things and they burden people. So I want to read you a couple of a couple of things. And I'm not going to tell you who they're from, until, until we're done. But I asked a group of people, if you struggle with guilt, or shame, and he found a way past it, can you please share your experiences here. And I told him that their experiences might be used anonymously on the podcast. So you know, everybody's first person just says, I went to therapy. And other person said, I connected with other people who were in the same boat and hearing their stories helped me, giving myself grace, being patient, focusing on my family, prayer, therapy, connecting with others. This goes on and on. My neurologist put me on an antidepressant for migraines, but that ended up helping me with my anxiety. You know, like that stuff. I was embarrassed. And I felt guilty for adult. Now, here's where the, here's where the secret comes in Jenny, because I think I've read enough now that anybody with type two diabetes is listening and said, Okay, I have felt like that, you know, here at the beginning of the onset, it was the realization that I'm often part of strategies, I went through a bunch of grief, you know, I, I went through the stages of grief, I had to get educated the education empowered me, I felt a lot of guilt. I felt like I brought it on myself. These are just over and over again, there are dozens of responses here, right? So if you're a type two, and you're saying yourself these sound like things, I have thought for myself, these are all responses from people with type one diabetes, type one or type two, type one. Because in the end, it doesn't matter how you got here, it feels the same once you're there. You know, like, how did this happen to me? Bargaining people talked about bargaining with God, I'll do something different. Please take it away, you know, and this person of course, said they'd bargain that they would eat better if their pancreas would start working again. And these are real real responses from real people who live with type one diabetes, but yet their responses I imagine mimic how anyone else would feel type one or type two.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:30
I would agree especially within the like I said, I I taught classes for type two diabetes and many of the people that initially came into our classes, which was like a four part series.

Scott Benner 19:48
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Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:31
Many of them appeared to just come because it was something their doctor required them to do or really requested for them to do or felt like they had enough questions to their doctor that they needed to go somewhere to get them answered. And I would say that many people didn't appear to really want to be in that first class. Yeah, they. And that was just my perception. Right? What I could see. But once once we got rolling, and they could see that information, the tidbits that would make sense in their life. This bit of information, that bit of information. Well, gosh, what? How many questions or how many times I heard, why didn't nobody tell me this? I've had this for you know, our classes were people who had had type two for a number of years, or who were newly diagnosed as everybody all together. And eventually in class those with type two for a longer period would bring in to the people that they'd get connected with the people who are newly diagnosed, I've tried this or Oh yeah, I was on that medicine, and ever worked for me, you know, kind of thing. So there was a sense of bringing people together that they felt comfortable to talk with others who had type two. And then by the end of class, the questions and the things, and they they would leave class, feeling like whatever portion of education or information they got, from what we gave them. There was a way to put it into action. Yeah, there was something that made sense. As their this is why I this is why I can try this, or this is why I can go back to my doctor and say, Well, I learned all this stuff. And I've been trying this and this isn't working. So I might need a medicine change. Would you talk with me about the other options? So in terms of education point for type two, that's one piece. I would definitely say if nobody's ever told you, you can have education. You can Yeah. And you should ask about it. If nobody's ever told you to go and see somebody. The classes for type two, I think are enormously beneficial. And if you can find one within your area, like I said, getting to be in class with others who also have type two, it brings in a sense of community that many People who've lived with type two for a number of years already have not ever had.

Scott Benner 25:04
What would you say that people lack the most? Like, what do they lack? That they're there to learn about? Is it basic understandings of nutrition? And that because I find, I find there are times that people say to me, I didn't realize that this food had this impact on a body forget my body on a body, I just didn't know. And then somebody told them, they're like, Okay, well, then I won't do that anymore. You know, and it's the, it's the feeling. To me, I think that the the implication from others can be that, again, you're doing it to yourself, but I just think that we're just doing what occurs to us. It's not like we're making a bad decision on purpose all the time. I'm sure there's some people are, but that's not my, that's not my point that overall, I find that people don't run around doing things to hurt themselves on purpose. Correct, you know what I'm saying, and so you just need to understand enough to get you going. And then you get a little momentum and you see a little, maybe you feel a little better, or, you know, maybe you lose a couple of pounds, and you'll have a little more energy and you start having a little more focus. And you think, Okay, well, I made this small change. Maybe I'll add a walk, you know, go for a walk now. And you know, if you can't walk outside, walk around your house, like work on your apartment, like, I don't care, like do something, you know, and then incrementally, you'll see change. And that change should draw you in that other direction. And but again, it seems like the problem is, I should go to a class to learn, but I'm embarrassed. I feel ashamed. Listen, the guilt and shame of not noticing made me sick. My initial gut reaction when my PCP told me that I had diabetes, was of shame. But people use the word shame constantly over and over again. And this is a very, I'm not a therapist, okay. But I have, I have a therapist that comes on. And this is a big thing that she talks about all the time that people just can, the feeling of shame and guilt are not exactly the same, and I'm not qualified to talk about it. But I do know that it holds you down. And it stops you from doing things you want to do. Because you don't want to feel it anymore. And then that is not a tenable situation like it's not going to you're not I mean, you're not going to pretend your way through this, basically,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:35
no, you're not. And in fact, if you if you feel that way, forgetting will, will will make it worse. Whether nobody again, as you said sets out for that to happen. But it's almost a will, if I just put it to the side, and I just take the meds that the doctor told me to take, that should take care of like, it's almost a convincing of yourself that they do this bare minimum thing. Yeah. And, again, I go back in terms of education. At diagnosis, it shouldn't be this rip off scrip of, well, this is what you have. And there's no education about even what Type Two diabetes means, like, physiologically, what's happening in the body? Why do I all of a sudden have this or, quite honestly, type two diabetes has been a progressive state, where initially your body tries to handle the glucose levels that are not contained in the normal range without diabetes. And so you know, your body needs more insulin to essentially get the glucose levels down, and to help that glucose get into the cells, right. So at first in type two, your pancreas actually kicks in, it's like I have to make more I have to keep up I have to give, give, give, give, give and eventually over time, at that point, many several years later, that's when you actually find out a diagnosis of type two after your body has already not been handling things well enough

Scott Benner 29:24
to tell me the the other side of it so it's a combination of lifestyle and genetic factors. So you could be I mean, people say it all the time on the on the podcast, right? I was I was diagnosed with type one as an adult, but I was first misdiagnosed as a type two, because they looked at my body style and they just assumed I had type two diabetes, but that can happen in the reverse for people too. You can be you know, I always use the example of when I was growing up. My neighbor's husband was tall and lean and fit, but he died of a heart attack. act really young. And when he passed, everybody was like, that doesn't make sense to them. That doesn't make sense. He's not fat, right? Like, because back in the day, I mean guy was the 70s and the 80s. Like, that's what we understood. You know what I mean? Like, heavier people have heart attacks, you know? Yeah, trust me, we didn't know a whole lot. And my best toy was like a stretchy doll. World was not as advanced. But, but he's a good example. This man is a good example. He didn't fit the bill visually. And so nobody paid attention to his heart. And right, and people in diabetes get kind of yanked around like this all the time. Oh, you're heavier, you have type two, they won't even test you. Like I've heard people tell stories. Like, look, I'm in the doctor's office, I tell them, my mom has type one diabetes. My grandmother has type one diabetes, I have diabetes, test me Give me a C peptide test. I think I have type one. No, no, we're not doing that. You're overweight. It's type two. Like, That's just insane. And so when that kind of stuff also exists, and you're already embarrassed, or you feel ashamed or guilty? How are you supposed to stand up in that moment and tell the doctor, I need help? Like, you're not explaining this to me? I obviously don't know. And I think, look, I can't speak for every doctor, obviously. But it wouldn't have gotten this far. If there wasn't a preconceived notion, hey, you have diabetes now. And now we're gonna write you off, like you're a lost cause we move you over to the other side of the ledger. And I really think that happens to people. And it doesn't need to be like that. But the doctors probably bump into so much what they consider to be God, that word. I don't even want to say, I want to talk around it. Okay, I assume they mean, I assume they bump into patients that they think, have no interest in getting better. But the doctors are going to call them non compliant. They're gonna say, they're gonna say, I gave them a diet. And I told him an exercise routine. And six months later, he came back, and he hadn't lost weight. And there was no difference. So I take you and I slide you right off here. And then that happens enough times that Dr. And my assumption is that they just begin to believe that people aren't going to try to change, or to do the things that they, you know, whatever. But it's never that easy. It just isn't like I, for some people, like your body's built the way it's built, like you ever see a real muscular person and you're like, I would like to be like that. But my body doesn't. It's not built that way. You know what I mean? Like, everybody's not gonna, I'm not saying people shouldn't get more exercise and eat better. Everyone should be doing that. That's just, I think that's obvious to all of us. But correct. But just changing something if you don't really understand what to change. Like, I watched it with my mom. My mom got type two diabetes should not have been a surprise. Your father had it. His father had it. This is not her brother has it? Like you don't I mean, like, everybody's got it. And my mom says to me, I have to start eating more healthy. That's what she said. That's what the doctor told me be more healthy. My poor mom in her 70s trying to decide what that is. I said, well make a list of foods you think of as healthy we'll sit down look at them together. There was not one valuable food on that for Lauren, her blood sugar. Not one. I'm sure oh my god, it was I wasn't mad at her. Like I was like, I'm like mom, like, like, Honey, listen, like, here's what we're gonna do. You don't eat meat. And I got her into a slightly lower carb situation. set her up with some like, my mom just thought a vegetable was a vegetable. You know, like, so I said, Mom, these are the vegetables that are actually lower in carbs. Your vegetables

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:44
were corn and peas. Because she comes from that she comes from that era. Yeah, it does. Yeah, great. Well,

Scott Benner 33:49
we'll throw a potato in. It'll be lovely. Man, we're not gonna have a potato for a while. Okay. And so it was just very interesting. That when given the task of why don't you write down things that you think would be less impactful on your blood sugar? She couldn't she couldn't for the life of her think of any of them?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:11
No, I'm sure she couldn't. And again, I bring in Oh, my dog is back. By the way not to interrupt. Oh, no,

Scott Benner 34:17
that's a good thing to say. Everybody's probably been worried.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:20
Yeah, sure. They're not. Yeah.

Scott Benner 34:23
You have no idea. I'm gonna get emails about your dog. I'm glad you said this.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:28
So anyway, there you go. Okay. All dogs back. But in general, you know, my dad also had type two diabetes. And were it not for the fact that I had had and lived with type one diabetes prior to his diagnosis, and I think he was diagnosed when I was in like the end of high school probably like my senior year in high school. And I had, you know, been living with type one for a number of years already. And so my mom had, she had learned because of me. Yeah. However, had she not my mom being the primary like cook in the house. And my mom having grown up on a dairy farm, she would have continued to cook the very typical, I call it the meat and potato type of fair. Yeah, right. That would have been what she did. And we also wouldn't have known the things that we knew from learning from my experience. So my dad had a very different start with type two diabetes than somebody else, but he was of the same age as kind of your mom, who, well, goodness, what's wrong with like corn and peas? Right. And, in general, they're better than sitting down to a bag of Cheetos. Absolutely, from a nutrition, like, nutrient standpoint, they are. But from a blood sugar management standpoint, they're different. And that's where, like I said, I keep going back to education. But quite honestly, from a type two perspective, I think, some of some of the stigma some of the feelings of Gosh, I've got this thing now. And I don't know where to turn, or even know who to talk to. And maybe my, you know, my grandma had it, my dad had it. So I was gonna get it anyway, I saw how they navigated it was never really talked about. So I guess I'm just gonna go about and maybe I'll eat a salad every day, because that that's better, right? I mean, that's better, the doctor said to try to eat better. And there's there's not enough information. And that kind of boils down to the fact that majority of people with type two, they're being navigated in management, by primary care. Yeah. And thank goodness for health care, thank goodness for physicians, for general practitioners for PCP, thank goodness for them. However, type two diabetes is definitely it's a metabolic, right, it's much more metabolic. You can hear all the things we're talking about that are lifestyle that many people, they don't really think about too much, until Oh, my goodness, I have type two diabetes, and primary cares, or they are not. They're not educated, for lack of a better word. In terms of teaching the things that are needed for type two management, they are not, they should be referring for people to learn more, you've got this major thing that's going to be there 24/7 For someone now, you have to give them more tools than telling them to just eat better, and to get exercise. That is that's like speaking Greek. You need it to somebody

Scott Benner 38:06
you need a chance to you know, it's interesting. You told your story. And I told my story. Your father and my mother both had the same thing. Yes, they had the benefit of someone else's experience. It's exactly what they had. My mom was helped by me because I have a daughter with type one diabetes. And this podcast and I was like, I know how to. I have seen every food go in my daughter's mouth. And I've watched it on her CGM. And I was like, Mom, I don't know anything about nutrition, but eat these things. These things don't hit his heart. And that's it. I know you want a piece of bread. We'll get your bread. We're gonna make sure it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it. We're gonna make sure it does this. We're gonna do like little things, right? Yeah. Your father had a woman cooking for him who had to cook. Right? Because that was a long time ago. Your dad probably made a meal in his life. And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:51
oh, no, he was actually he was he was a he was a good cook. It was just that my mom. You know, they grew up the way that they grew up. And it was just that my mom. She was the cook and she was a really good cook. But yeah, my dad could. He could in fact, we have a hot dish. I don't know that. No, anybody even knows what hot dishes. It's like a casserole. Okay. He had a hot dish that on the nights that my mom had my mom was a teacher. And so on the nights that she had, like teacher, you know, teacher, he would make the dinners and that kind of stuff he had we still call it dad's hot dish. Now I make it with like, better thing. But it was essentially ground meat. And then they always did these canned jars of like was peppers and onions and tomatoes from the garden and my mom did all the canning and it was like a hot dish seasoned kind of thing that you'd put over elbow noodles and ground meat or ground beef. And it was mixed together. So

Scott Benner 39:51
why my dish is different because when I would get in a corner I would just take ground meat and then melt cheese over and I would put on a plate and my son was like What does it sound like? It's cheeseburger surprise. So what's the surprise? I'm like, It's not on a roll. I'm stuck. I guess all dads do something silly like that. But they do. But the point of it is, is that whether you're a person who has type two diabetes, who I've witnessed in the Facebook group, or come on the podcast and been nice enough to tell their stories, they all have the benefit of listening to someone else. And I know we want to stand around and like, some people want to argue that type one diabetes and type two diabetes like I don't want there, they don't have anything to do with each other. Okay? They're different diseases. And that's 100%. True. I'm not arguing that point. But both of them are about blood sugar management in Yes. And that's what they're about and the and the things that you can learn from watching a type one manage their blood sugar's whether it's about how you're fueling plan, or it's about using medication, or insulin, or exercise, or all of the other things that impact blood sugars, those same things are going to impact blood sugars, for type twos. So as I'm sitting around, trying to figure out how do I talk, type twos into creating their own community, what I realized was, they don't need their own community, this one's already here. It helps your dad, it helped my mom, it helped those people, it can help them as well. And they can deal with the guilt and the shame and the embarrassment in their own time and still listen to this. Because if you have to go to a therapist, and spend three years getting over the shame, just so you can walk out and go to a class. Well, that's too much. That's too long, it's too long to wait. So here's this thing, you can listen to it completely anonymously. And, and I at first I thought, Well, how am I ever going to get it into these people's hands? But there it is, right? People with type one diabetes, they all know people who have type two diabetes. And they already believe in the podcast, and they'll have no trouble sharing the series with them. And I thought this is this is it. Like, this is going to work?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:03
And I, you I think you bring in some things sort of behind the scenes here that, like jogged my brain, it's people with type one diabetes are very vocal. They are they they are very big advocates for themselves, or the person that they're caring for with type one. If somebody says something to them about, oh, hey, did you try this? Or, you know, if you did this more with your kid, you probably, they step in? And they're like, No, you are wrong, but they educate the person, they don't just blather a bunch of offensive words to the person because they're angry, they educate the person and they say, This is why you're wrong. This is what we do. This is how we do it. And maybe in broad sense, or maybe in a couple of sentences. And I think, in that respect, one, somebody with type two has enough information that they can spit back. That doesn't work, I will tell you why. But at this point, a good majority of the population with type two, unless they've done their own research, and, you know, people have they don't feel set with something to come back with.

Scott Benner 43:21
Yeah, how are they going to argue something when they think maybe they did it to themselves too, right? And type ones that this was my point earlier, at least what type ones have is they can they can stand up and go, I didn't do this to myself, right? I'm gonna argue, and they won't get hit with Well, you did it because they can go No, I didn't. And but a person with type two might actually, by the way, a lot of people think this, you could be a person who thinks this too, and then get type two diabetes. And now you, you believe you did it to yourself, because that's what you thought five minutes before it happened to you. Right. And this is just a, this is a unique opportunity to take something that already exists. Just adjust that a little tiny bit and make it work for a whole new group of people. And you don't have to get over I want you to get over the shame and the guilt because you don't deserve it. And it's it's misplaced, if you feel that way about type two diabetes, but in the but I think maybe the process of understanding how to help yourself might actually help you also get rid of some of those things. Like I don't think you all have to go to a therapist to get past that. Do you know what I mean? Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:26
And eventually may also help again, if it because of the large or the heavy genetic component to type two, you will impact somebody in your family's future. Yeah,

Scott Benner 44:40
I was gonna say, yeah, you will help

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:42
if you're, you know, brother has type two now as well. Well, what you've learned, you can get them going in the right way. Right.

Scott Benner 44:53
So no, no, I mean, I the way I was thinking about it was much more ham fisted. But, I mean, if you've gotten your is off to a point where you think I'm never going to be able to get this back again, like, alright, I respect that maybe that would be difficult to do. Also, trying doesn't hurt anything, but at least you could put the people in your family on a better path. Like I mean, everybody talks about breaking circles all the time, there's an easy circle to break, you know, you feed your kid, the way you got fed, they're going to eat that way when they get older. And that's just

Jennifer Smith, CDE 45:25
and they may not, maybe that's enough lifestyle change from a genetic standpoint, that you've impacted enough that they won't have type two diabetes. Exactly

Scott Benner 45:35
right. And so, so this is gonna sound strange, if you don't have a podcast listener, this is your second episode, because somebody shared this with you. But what I've noticed, overwhelmingly after, after she's interviewing, like 1000 people is that it is a very common human trait, to not be able to do something for yourself, but to be able to do it for somebody else is a lot easier. So if it's not for you, if you have feelings of like inadequacy, or you feel beaten already, to do it for someone else, like do it for a kid or a loved one, or somebody who will benefit, you know, and you'll, and listen, you're gonna get the benefit, too. And you'll see six months from now a year from now, that, you know, wow, this is helping me as well, like, there's no secret here. Like, just, you know, there really isn't you, right is hiding

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:21
something from you, you're just not getting the right information to start with.

Scott Benner 46:26
And my bigger point is that it doesn't matter how we all got here, I hope I'm being clear about that. It doesn't matter if I have an autoimmune disease, and my pancreas stops making insulin, and I'm a type one diabetic. It doesn't matter if I ate myself into this, and I have type two diabetes, it doesn't matter if my genetic predisposition put me into this type two diabetes, none of it matters. We're all here now. Time to do something, right. And so that I think ends up being it's why I wanted to talk about this as we were going into it, the impediment in those other people's minds about starting community for type twos and how to help people have type two diabetes, it's because they always get stuck on this piece, the like, well, how are we going to get them out of that mindset. And what I'm saying is, you don't have to get out of that mindset. Just we'll work on that over time, right now, let's do some simple things. And by the way, if one of those things ends up being insulin, not a failure, if it's an injectable, not a failure, we're going to Jenny and I are gonna go over all those different medications in another episode, if you need help getting out of your situation. There's just no shame in that whatsoever, you know, right? Like, you need to do what you need to do. I mean, for type twos we talked about with type ones, a lot of type ones will um, they'll feel badly if they're using quote unquote, too much insulin, they think the amount they're using is too much. Right? We have episode after episode, you need the amount of insulin when you're a type one that you need. And, and when you're a type two, if you've gotten to a point where your body just can't, it can't shoulder it anymore, then help it don't just go down with the ship and say, I got the sugars. I guess I'm done. You don't? I mean, like you're not, there's so many good things you can do.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:07
Right? Your ship still has lifeboats, yes, utilize one,

Scott Benner 48:11
there's things to do, and we're gonna, we're gonna and you'll be surprised how quickly you can get to them as well on how once you change those insulin issues, or metabolic issues, that things like weight loss can come along, like, it's very interesting. And a lot of these medications that will help you with your type two will actually help you with weight loss to begin with. So, my gosh, and to Jenny's point earlier, your doctor probably doesn't know. So. So we got to figure out what to do for ourselves. So that's going to be an interesting portion of this journey is that type ones are at their core, very independent in their care. And they're very accustomed, because the the one thing I wanted to mention that I haven't mentioned so far is that I think the benefit that you have, this is gonna sound strange. When you get type one diabetes, this is gonna sound really strange. So give me a second to get through it. I think the benefit that you have is that if you don't do something right away, it'll kill you. It forces you to do something, it forces you to learn about it, it forces you to it forces you to get in the game. When you get type two, the feeling is Ah, well. I got time. Yeah, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 49:26
time. That's, that's a good word use because I think from a physiology standpoint, there is not there's a big difference in terms of one versus two. Right? And time is a big reason that, as we already know, with type one regardless of how you're managing, you don't get a complication on on day eight on day two of diagnosis. Right. And these are things that until there's enough issue long term. Finally, there might be some symptoms of something, right. But for both type one and type two, then diabetes, it is not a visible condition to live with. In either regard type one, you're right, if you don't do something about this right now, meaning take your insulin, you will have a very quick impact of that, a very quick visual impact. Whereas with type two, if you forget to take your oral medication of whatever kind it is, or even maybe your insulin, one, maybe you don't have enough test strips to monitor. Or maybe you don't know what the numbers mean, or where you were before. So who knows what difference this made. Maybe you don't have a CGM. So again, you're completely blind. And until you're really paying attention to how your body feels when you are in those target ranges where you should be. You may be able to, as you said, get away with

Scott Benner 51:01
Yeah, well, it's the strength in the immediacy of the implications. If they're not too strong and not too quick, then you can procrastinate because yes, because in your mind, you're like, Yeah, well, I've been okay, this long. Like, so what if I let me just get through one more Christmas season? Right? Yes. Oh, but to have cornbread stuffing one more time, LA, like, you know, like, who knows what the thought in your head is. But I'm saying that people the way people's minds work, it's like, oh, I have time I can I can do something about it. It doesn't mean they start necessarily doing something about it, it means they have time to do something about it. Like I think, oddly type two diabetes and the way I see people, even in my own life, decide or not decide to, I think the same attitude that put them in that situation is the same attitude that got my powder room needing a paint job three days, three years ago, because I was like, ah, nobody sees it that much. And I can get to it eventually, like the problem is, is then once it's too late, it's really, it's really good. And it becomes a real issue like act now, like do it when it's only a little touch up, I should have done that when I just needed a couple of touch ups in one hole filled in, I could have got it all done in a couple of hours. And now I'm looking at ripping out a vanity and doing the whole thing again. You know, anyway, I don't know if that makes sense or not.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:21
No, it doesn't. It also brings into as I said earlier, with type two, it's almost an accumulation over time. Right. And for some people who haven't, maybe you haven't really kept up with health care, because other than the average yearly cold that you have, or whatever it may be, you've been feeling fine. And so you skip your yearly visit with your doctor and you never get lab work done. So there are many things that can sneak up then if you haven't been at least going in yearly for a checkup. Those are mean they're important. Even I go in yearly to my primary care. I just write it's part of my checklist of things to get done. Not that my primary care for me, but I'm glad that she is there if and when needed. And if I've got questions to bring up in that visit, so you know, a checkpoint is just start going to your doctor yearly, at least. And if there are things that you're kind of, hey, I've got a history of type two diabetes in my family. If the doctor doesn't recommend checking, you know, an average glucose or even Hey, asked for an E one C, right? I get it checked if it's this range to this range. Well, goodness, Doctor, could you send me in for you know, some additional questions, I'd like to ask somebody about this. I think as adults, we get away from taking care of ourselves. Because there are so many things get loaded on as an adult. That until, until you're hobbling into the doctor. Clearly your leg hurts so bad. You're like, oh, well, it started hurting about six months ago. But now I can't walk on it. Well, oh, you know, it's too

Scott Benner 54:06
late now. Now it's broken. We got to do a whole thing. I we just we live in a different time. Like when do you know if you listen, I wasn't alive in the 50s. But my expectation is that if I got a Coca Cola in the 50s, it was a special thing that happened for me every once in a while. Yes. And now if I go to the grocery store, and I'm willing to buy 10 bottles, I can get them for $10 because they're $1 a bottle if I buy 10 bottles, and so I listen, I'm I want to say I'm not a judgmental person on this on this front. I'm not because I do believe and I do think the way I said earlier I think people just end up being carbon copies of what happened before them right? Sure. But I will walk down that aisle to get a sparkling water for myself. And I look in people's carts and I'm like you are leaving here with more soda than I will drink in the next 10 years of my life and you're going to be back here next week to buy more of it. Like that's not a thing your body's supposed to process. Right? Oh, I mean, I eat a burrito once in a while, but you shouldn't. And there's just there's there's food process. I know people hear this and they must be bored by it. Process food is difficult for your body to process. So. And it's not food, no. And it's everything everybody eats. Like, there's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:28
just it is, it's something with calories. It is not food, right?

Scott Benner 55:33
You'd be surprised how much better you feel when you get away from that stuff. And again, it's a financial thing. I understand. But, I mean, and now we're all like, I mean, we're gonna end up talking about as we go on, like, maybe people are thinking right now like, I can't break this cycle. I'm, I'm addicted to that food. Like, I absolutely know people who are addicted to food. Yeah, so it's, I understand all of that. But we'll talk about some things like maybe we'll talk about, you know, trying a intermittent fasting to help break some cycles, the foods that you're stuck to, or things like that feature,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 56:06
or budget. And you know, budget eating, honestly, is another thing to bring in. Because, unfortunately, type two diabetes doesn't care what you bring in monetarily. It doesn't. And it can be a major strain on many people, especially adults with families to take care of. And often as you know, as a parent, you're very willing to take care of outside of your own cell. Yeah,

Scott Benner 56:32
that's hard to write yourself. Yeah. No, I know, as soon as my it wasn't, as soon as my kids, my son went, got his own job. And my daughter went back to college. And the first thing I did was make a doctor's appointment. I was like, oh, and I wonder when the last time I did this was, you know, so I know how I know what how I know what happens. And I know how you feel. And I know that it can feel like between the guilt and the shame and the uncertainty about how to deal with things, and not really understanding nutrition, as well, as we all think we do. All that stuff together can feel like it's too much, but it's not. And I'll end with this. And then you can say whatever you want. At the end, I have now interviewed three people with type two diabetes, who have significantly changed their life through listening to this podcast. And they're really good. I left I've listened to them. Yeah. And we're going to put them back into like, circulation with these episodes too. Awesome. But But it's so doable. And these people like, I wait, I want to be clear. They're not like superheroes. Like, they're not a person you'd look at and go, Oh, well, yeah, of course, they can do it. Look at them. These are these are people just like you and me. You know, and, and they did it. They figured out what was going on. They made some adjustments, some of them added medication. And they came out the other side better off. And I think that's possible for everybody. So anyway,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:52
I agree. No, that's excellent.

Scott Benner 57:54
Thank you. I thought you were gonna say something thoughtful at the end, but just goodbye.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:01
I just Well, actually, what I was gonna say is that I think this was a really good place to start. Because I think it's a big piece specific to type two, despite the comments that you had from the type ones and how they felt and kind of that background. You know, that background piece of, I don't know, feeling bad about like, Why did I do something wrong that I have this? I think it's really important to address some of the reason that type two hasn't been well navigated in terms of helping people know how to do better for themselves, there

Scott Benner 58:44
is some disconnect between between the machine and the people. And the people don't believe in the machine, the machine doesn't believe in the people. And that's how it looks. To me, it looks like nobody thinks anybody can be helpful. And I think maybe, maybe they can't be helpful, but I do think there's help that's available, that would be beneficial and create a big change in your life. I'm just tired of watching. I'm tired of watching people say like, oh, I we really do care about this population. And I'm like, well, we should make some content for them. My we don't have a budget for that. Okay, thanks. Great. So you know, so it's just it's everybody, it nobody wants to they want, they want them to be there. If you're listening type twos, they want you to be there right because they want to market to you and they want to tell you what you need and everything. They don't know how to get you all together. And turns out I don't want to get you all together. I want you to go live your life and be happy. I'm not looking to make a pile of people with type two diabetes who we can sell something to write, write, write. I'm not that's not my thing. Like so I want to make content that helps them and I want them is I have the same feeling about type juices I have about type ones. I love People listen to the podcast. And I think that's amazing. But I want them to get to a point where they don't need it anymore. And they can go on and just live their life. This should be a pitstop in your life, not the story of your life.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:11
Right? You know, and it should be a place to that you get enough information in digestible. Yeah. In a digestible way that you can take action from just listening for 20 minutes about something that was very specific, like you know, your Med, here it is, I'm gonna listen to this one, because this is what I'm on. And you're like, well, darn, it's supposed to be doing this. And it totally isn't. Maybe I could just go back to my doctor and talk about this, right? You know, it's those pieces that are really important, because they're empowering, right? They're, they're a way to say, Gosh, I get this now. And I want this to work. But it's not. So I have to try something different.

Scott Benner 1:00:53
My hope is that when this is over, people will understand how food impacts them, how medications can impact them, how exercise will help them, and then they can go do these things on their own. Like it's just it to me, it's it's not as difficult as people have made it out to be. But I do, I do believe that the reason that somebody hasn't successfully put together a large type to community is because of, of the stuff that we talked about here. And that's why I just wanted to dispense with it and just get it out of the way right away. Like, let this go. Let's get to the part where we we do something positive. So Right. That's great. All right. Excellent. Awesome. Thank you very much, Scott. Yep.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:01:30
Thank you. Okay, bye, bye.

Scott Benner 1:01:36
I hope you're enjoying this. So far. The next three episodes are going to be about your medical team, your fueling plan, and technology that might help you with type two, or pre diabetes. Keep coming back. This series is going to be terrific. Thank you so much to Jenny, and of course to you for listening. And to all the people who shared this with you. I also want to thank the contour next gen blood glucose meter and remind you that if you're testing your blood sugar, you want to get a good, accurate number. And you can do that with the contour next gen contour next.com forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

If you're enjoying what you're hearing, subscribe or follow the podcast in an audio app like Spotify, Apple podcast, Amazon, Amazon, whatever they're called Amazon music. Sorry. There's a whole bunch actually, if you need a podcast or an audio player, there's a ton of links to free ones at juicebox podcast.com. You shouldn't have to pay for a podcast app. But if you hit follow or subscribe in those apps, you'll get new episodes as they're available. And it helps the show

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#863 Tackle Box

Mary Martha toddler has type 1 diabetes and uses Omnipod 5.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 863 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show I'll be speaking with Mary Martha. She is the mother of a toddler who has type one diabetes, and they use the Omni pod five. I hope you enjoy our conversation. While you're listening to it. 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 are becoming bold with insulin. Hey, if you're a US resident who has type one, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and fill out their survey. When you complete the survey you are helping with type one diabetes research, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. If you're looking for community around diabetes, head over to the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes over 35,000 members, someone there is talking about something right now that you know about or want to learn about Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. It's a private group, and it's absolutely free. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one, there's a ton going on and touched by type one, you can find out about it all at touched by type one.org. Please also find them on Instagram, and Facebook. today's podcast is also brought to you by the Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitoring system dexcom.com forward slash juice box the g7 is here it is ready for you@dexcom.com forward slash juice box.

Mary Martha 2:07
I'm Mary Martha. My son Davis is two years old and he was diagnosed with type one diabetes in January of 2022.

Scott Benner 2:18
Not 10 months ago.

Mary Martha 2:20
Yes. So we're nearly in our diabetes journey. But I think because of you, Scott and Juicebox Podcast, we've really gotten a handle on things fairly quickly. So I have a lot to thank you for

Scott Benner 2:38
no, no, this is this is very interesting, because because you know there are some people who would tell you not to get technology at the beginning. And you know, you should learn diabetes from the ground up. And there's a lot of different opinions about that. So I think it's interesting to hear from somebody who's having your experience. So first of all, are there were there any reasons to imagine your children might get type one diabetes? Or was this a surprise? How did the initial days go?

Mary Martha 3:07
It was a complete surprise, really the only person in our family that has had type one, it was my mom's aunt, so my great aunt. And it's pretty removed, I would think and that's at least what the doctor said whenever we were diagnosed. And they asked us about history and all of that. And we leading up to diagnosis. We've spent a few nights it was in January. So we spent Christmas with my parents. And I think my grandmother really put it in my mom's head along a lot of times about that type one and the symptoms, because I think she would my grandmother was always really nervous about her son getting it herself and then her children getting it. And so I think through the years of growing up, my mom kind of was always told about it. And then, you know, through in our experience, she was really the one that kind of told me said I think something's going on with Davis because he was drinking lots of water. wetting his diaper overnight, he would be soaked his diaper would be we would put pads in. And then his pajamas would be soaked. And it's just like this is I don't know if this is normal. I actually asked friends that had children that are similar ages or who had gone through the stages that Davis was in and I said Is this normal? He's wanting water all the time. And he's, he's going through his diaper at night and other during the day really quickly. And they were like, Yeah, that's just that's just toddler stuff. You just need to size up in your diaper and he'll be fine at all absorb it, that none of that worked. So we came to a point when We had gone to the local university, where we live. And we we got to their games all the time. And my mom, at one point was just like, Mary, Martha, you need to take into the doctor tomorrow, like, no question you need to. And she had kind of been putting it in my mind, you know, a few weeks. And that's like putting it off and like, no, he's fine. And it's early, actually interesting, because he had a couple of ear infections on leading up to Christmas. And then after Christmas acid, I think he might have an ear infection again, let's go in to the pediatrician and see if he does, and I actually mentioned all the symptoms that we had. And he was like, no, he's fine. That's just normal. Just try to cut off his water intake at dinner. And said, Okay, if you say looks, okay, if you think it's okay. I'll just, you know, take him home and go on my merry way. And then that my mom came to that point when the mom was like, You need to take him. And so they did that and took him to the pediatrician. It was a Monday.

Scott Benner 6:05
Is is Davis, your first he is my first child. So

Mary Martha 6:09
it's all very, everything was very new to me. And it just wasn't something that was on my radar.

Scott Benner 6:17
Very Martha's, the reason I ask is because you sound like you're 19. But how old are you?

Mary Martha 6:21
I'm 31. Okay, well,

Scott Benner 6:23
you sound like you're 19 Which I guess is great. Probably it, or I don't know, how do you find it?

Mary Martha 6:29
I think it's I mean, I still get carded at the grocery store every time I get a bottle of wine. But I didn't live in a college town. So they don't want to get any but let anybody slip. I see. But yeah, so he's my first. So anything out of the ordinary? was yeah, I wasn't really I wasn't really sure what the symptoms were. Or if it wasn't for my mom, I really wouldn't have had the gumption to take him in and see the pediatrician again, stand up for myself. Really?

Scott Benner 7:01
Yeah, she really helped you. Well, she she was indoctrinated. It sounds like through her life to be looking for diabetes.

Mary Martha 7:08
Yeah, and I think I remember there are certain times when I was growing up that I might have, you know, had to go to the bathroom a couple of times in a row. Maybe we've been on a road trip or something. And you'd be like, are you okay, are you getting diabetes? It was kind of like she was even with me going. Growing up. I remember there were a couple instances that she kind of was on high alert for me. Hmm. And it might have even just been me. Just drinking a lot of water. It might have been around when I was playing tennis or something. And I was just really thirsty. I don't know. But um, and I've been normal every time I've gone to the doctor, so I didn't have any sort of any need to do to be really on high alert. But you know, she was still on high alert when I was growing up too. But if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have known any of those symptoms.

Scott Benner 7:58
How about other autoimmune issues? Does anybody have celiac or thyroid problems, anything like that?

Mary Martha 8:04
My mom has taken his app was she's actually here with me now she's watching Davis or being on kind of high alert for a low or anything while he naps, so she could give him juice in case something happens. But um, you know, she said she was on a has a thyroid medicine, but I'm not sure if I guess it's probably hypothyroid I'm not sure. Um, and then my dad has a neurological disease that he deals with, but it's not anything that's autoimmune. My mom also has arthritis, but it's not rheumatoid. It's osteo. So, um,

Scott Benner 8:43
so maybe your mom's your mom, but your mom doesn't. I mean, sounds like she doesn't talk about her thyroid thing very much. So you don't know. She doesn't? Yeah, it's autoimmune or not right?

Mary Martha 8:52
I don't know if it's auto immune or not. Okay. She just kind of told me that in passing today in and I called my mother on the audit, because I knew that was a question you normally asked. And she didn't have any any autoimmune on their on my husband's side of the family either so

Scott Benner 9:10
well, so like, let's I mean, let's figure this out. So you when you take him to the hospital finally and you get your diagnosis and your life begins with all this just 10 months ago, did they give him technology right in the hospital? Were What do you start with because I want to you get you climb through things pretty quickly. So I'm interested in how it started and how quickly it moved along.

Mary Martha 9:34
So when we were admitted they did not give us any technology they gave us the glucometer and the lancets and they gave us an insulin pen. And then the Lantis pen and that was what they sent us home with but the so the one of the big reasons what we are able to get the technology was our endocrinologist. Dr. Zimmerman, she's we had our first appointment with her I think it was we were, it was a week after we were diagnosed, we went and saw her immediately practically. And I think they're the real life friendship with her has been so wonderful she get a guest with in her practice, and I guess this might be the norm, she was able to give us a sample Dexcom from the, from that first appointment we had with her and she actually was really great. And she would save us a few every time the Dexcom rep would come by. And so because you know, being a two, he was 21 months wasn't quite to yet. And I feel like the Dexcom is the most important technology a type one diabetic can have because of the just the information, it gives you the the trend levels and just the alerts that it provides for a low in the middle of the night there just with the with the toddler, it's just you never know. And obviously you went through that that you didn't have that technology. No. With Arden

Scott Benner 11:12
No, not at all. I was gonna say Davis and Orton were diagnosed right around the same age. So yeah. But I'm sorry. Like I was just wanted to ask how much did he weigh at the diagnosis?

Mary Martha 11:25
I think he was about 25 pounds. He and the doctor always said that, oh, he's a good way. I remember growing. You know, we went in a few times before his diagnosis, and it was always around the same weight. But he didn't seem to think it was an issue. But then looking back now pictures, you could tell he was very skinny and sick. It always hurts me to go back and look at those pictures. Yeah, no. We had this the the university mascot. And it was the Saturday the Sunday before he went to the hospital. And he actually had the courage to go sit in the mascots lap. And we've been training for that day. You know, we watched videos of him. But that day is one of my favorite pictures. But now it's kind of tainted because it was a day before he was diagnosed. So you can see how sick he is. Yeah, in the picture.

Scott Benner 12:22
I have pictures out of Arden to

Mary Martha 12:24
watch. So it's really it's sad to look it's like how did I not know, you know, but I

Scott Benner 12:30
think it's because normal? Yeah, I think it's because the weight loss happens, generally speaking slow enough that you don't notice it? You know, like it. But then once you look back and you realize once they get insulin and they look so healthy again, you know, you're like, oh gosh, like what was that, that I didn't realize plus 25 pounds. Was that? Did he gain weight after you got him on insulin? Or was they was that?

Mary Martha 12:56
Well, he weighs about 32 pounds now. So he's put on weight.

Scott Benner 13:00
Cool. How hard is it to take care of? I mean, so let's break down like this. How long did you manage with like syringes and a meter.

Mary Martha 13:11
So we did that. From January 24th was diagnosis we got on the dash dash on right after his second birthday. So it's about April 12, I believe was the day that we went and got it. On Monday after

Scott Benner 13:30
his birthday. So January, February, March, April, about three or four months you did shots.

Mary Martha 13:35
Okay, we did shots. And I mean, Davis is probably I don't know how the Lord blessed us with one of the most brave little boys that I've ever met he from the beginning, you know, printing and singer the first time at the, at the pediatricians office to to getting everything hooked up to him in the hospital and being awake all night in the PICU and all that. I mean, he has never flinched once. Interesting. And it's I mean, I don't know. I mean, I can only thank the good board because he has been a trooper from the beginning. So from that first finger prick to any needle from the insulin pin. He's taken it like a champ. Still to this day with the Omni pod putting that on the Dexcom. Last night, we changed his Dexcom and he actually pushed the button for the first time he was like, let's get him on the countdown and save go. He's one of the strongest little boys. I mean, it's a he makes me good for you.

Scott Benner 14:43
That's really excellent good for him. So then you move to a dash after three or four months to use an Omnipod dash then you didn't How long did you do that for just like four months again.

Mary Martha 14:55
We actually did it from April to June. So the Whenever the Omnipod, five was released for public consumption, we called Dr. Zimmerman, actually, we had been texting and every time I'd see something posted in the Facebook group, or on Instagram, whenever I saw it, any news about it, I would forward it to her. I was almost her, her news reporter about everything on the pod five. And it actually came out, like their news about the limited release came out the Friday after he was diagnosed. So it was on my radar from the beginning. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, we have to get on that as soon as it as soon as it's available, and she did everything in her power to, you know, figure out a way for us to get it and ended up having to call insurance over and over and over again. And I think I was the one that figured out what steps we need to say like I was just I was very determined to get that technology. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 15:59
so early on, sometimes your providers Even the companies don't know exactly what's going on in the in the beginning days when they're trying to get lost set up with insurance and everything. So it takes that perseverance to get through it, if you want to do it right away. Okay, so we basically have about the same amount of time with shots with Dash and with AMI pod five are Are you experiencing any honeymoon type things with Davis.

If you live with type one diabetes, if you have type two diabetes, and use intensive insulin therapy, if you experience severe hypoglycemia, or hyperglycemia unawareness, you should be looking at the Dexcom CGM. dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Just this small device that you wear that sends your blood sugar's speed, direction, and number. Are you kidding me the speed that your blood sugar is moving at the direction it's moving in, and what the number currently is, all from this tiny little device that you wear. It's insane. And you can see all that information on your Dexcom receiver or your compatible smartphone, Android, or iPhone. Up to 10 people can follow someone using a Dexcom. I'm going to pick up my phone right now and tell you my daughter's blood sugar. Swipe up 105 and stable it has been in this range for the last three hours. Nice and stable right now at 105. Not dropping, not falling. I can see I can see where she No Look at all this. There's so much information here. I can't tell you all about what I'm looking at it my daughter's blood sugar. But you could find this information for yourself. Getting an idea of where and how to use insulin by seeing how it works knew I put insulin and what happens next I eat carbs what happens next. You can see it right there on the graph. It's a window into into a whole new world that my daughter's Dexcom brings to us uniquely DAX comm.com, forward slash juice boxes to G six which my daughter is using right now. And the g7 has just been made available in America. It's already out overseas. In places where it's available, you can find it@dexcom.com Ford slash juice box at Arden's next delivery the next time she gets CGM from us Med, they're going to be sending her the Dexcom G seven. So she'll be using it very soon. You'd could be to dexcom.com forward slash use boss links in the show notes, links at juicebox podcast.com. Or just type it into your browser. You know what else you can type in your browser touched by type one.org? Do both today. What are you busy, you can't go to two web addresses for me touched by type one.org Dex comm.com forward slash juicebox. Now let's get back to the show.

Honeymoon type things with Davis.

Mary Martha 19:16
We haven't. That's another thing that I guess. I see a lot of parents struggling with it in the Facebook group and I'll see people posting about not really sure how to how to dose for things. And you know, I've actually become a couple of friends here that three daughters and our men I've found for a couple of ladies who have children around the same age and they've gone through that situation. We've been really blessed I think because that if I had the pancreas was still working a little bit. I don't know what I would do. It would have been it would have been a little bit harder. I definitely

Scott Benner 19:53
yeah. How is it? How is he with treating lows does he pretty easy about it or do you ever I have problems where your time's me, you're concerned that like, he's not going to eat this fast and offer. How was that?

Mary Martha 20:07
I think he actually, he's always been a pretty voracious eater. So I've never really been that concerned about him not eating. And if I, if he won't eat or drink something out just without chocolate milk, he seems to really like that. Anything that with chocolate milk involved, he's very motivated. Also juice as well, he'll drink that pretty easily. In the middle of the night, we started doing, we were doing some glucose shell, and then we did maple syrup. We actually found that using syringes that for medicine, like the Tylenol and such, those syringes are really helpful to put in his mouth and just squirt it in there and hardly not even wake him up. But we've counted even just now he's still doing juice in the middle of the night he'll do with Omnipod, five, we rarely have to do that. Because of the algorithm and how it works. But we if we do, it's just one really small sip of juice. And he just sits up, takes us up and lies back down. So whenever my mother in law is mentioned one time, he was so good about that. He took a sip of juice, looked at her and waved bye bye and laid back there.

Scott Benner 21:27
See the lady? Good enough? I'm good. Okay. Well, that's

Mary Martha 21:31
really to sleep and get my nap.

Scott Benner 21:34
And so do you. I mean, I don't even know how many a one sees you've had tested in 10 months, probably one or two.

Mary Martha 21:41
So we actually have have, I've saved every one of the printout. So I have it here in front of me. I think at diagnosis, I texted or communicating with Dr. Zimmerman about it. And she said that a diagnosis he was his agency was higher than the machine read. It was greater than 13. And then, I guess this was in March, we I did another one. And he was 10.5. And this was I think it was still taking into account some of the the months that he was diagnosis. Yeah.

Scott Benner 22:24
But still that attend three months into it. Is still I mean, it's still a high number. It's,

Mary Martha 22:31
it's still a high number. Yeah. We in the beginning with the I think it was probably before we found the podcast in the beginning, we had really bad issues at after breakfast. Because they were like, Oh, you can just feed him what you normally do in golf, about the carb count on the packaging, because actually one of his favorite breakfasts is oatmeal. I don't give it to him as much now, but oatmeal, you know, it's like, really high. Yeah. And I, I was like it says 15 carbs on this thing. And that is not working. So nothing is wrong. And so I think, you know, listening to you and hearing about Pre-Bolus thing and doing all that, that helped with doing that. And then of course, we would change the ratios, obviously needed more insulin. And those types of things. So anyway, it was it was in the beginning, he definitely did have those days where he would go really high. And yeah, but once we were able to hone in those numbers and figure out the strength. I feel like there's such a strategy and a science to everything that you just have to learn. And I wish it was I don't know how how I could explain it better in the hospital. But of course with a toddler. They're like, Oh, you don't need to wait until after he eats to this because you don't know how much he'll eat. And then you're basing his blood sugar. You even prick his finger and then give him that get and basis carb count on what his blood sugar and his the calculation on what it was before he ate. Anyway, it was all I feel like it's a little bit backwards. But anyway,

Scott Benner 24:19
so So okay, so that I'm sorry to cut you off. Go ahead. Oh, no,

Mary Martha 24:23
but after we figured out Pre-Bolus thing and all that the science behind it. It just really helped. make more sense.

Scott Benner 24:33
So did I mean how did a pump impact you? Like, did you even did you feel like you understood injections? And you're like, yeah, and then so now you're you move on to a pump. Was that your idea? Or was it Dr. Zimmerman's idea or how did you get from the shots to the pump so quickly?

Mary Martha 24:52
I think it was both of us. I think she saw the benefit because you know, because of the small doses In, that you couldn't give, because sometimes, you know, he needed point two verses a half a unit. And that was all that the pin would give for half a unit. And so I think I really didn't want to keep giving him shots because I felt like, you know, you know, you go through a meal and obviously wasn't enough. And then you'd have to get all the get the needle out and do the whole process. And you know, if you just had the pump, you pull out the PDM and plug it in, and you kind of give what you think he needs, in addition to whatever you already does. But I like the fact that it wasn't, didn't have any tubes. And it would be easy for him to, you know, my mom teaches swimming lessons. And I knew that we needed to be able to get in the pool. And I knew that the Omnipod was the best choice for us because of more than that was one of the main reasons but also being an active toddler I didn't want him to be have tubes on him to be caught on all sorts of things. But that was what, what I thought would work for us. And I wanted to get it as soon as I could, because I knew it would bring some level of ease to just take just everything in general.

Scott Benner 26:18
And while you were doing that you were still thinking, I want this algorithm as soon as it's right. So I'll move on to this update. I'll update our stuff off of injections, keep us from having to stick him so many times. So we can make better adjustments after meals and things like that. But I on the algorithm the whole time. So first of all, how did you do on the dash? Was it? Did it improve things over injections?

Mary Martha 26:43
Oh, definitely. I have the we went to Dr. Zimmerman in June, after we saw her in April to get the pump. And his a onesie was 6.5. And it drastically improved. Dr. Zimmerman, and although CDE is there at the office, they're all trying to now get me to become a CD and help them out in the in the office. Because obviously something I'm doing is right. And I pump helped. And obviously the strategies that you provide in the pro tips helped as well.

Scott Benner 27:24
That's great. That's really congratulations. First of all, it's a big shift, right? Because you're not a you're not a young mom. either. You don't I mean, like so you're, you're on your way with your first baby. And then it's not too long before somebody is saying diabetes to you, which is a surprise. And and you're adapting really well. Why is that? Like? Why are you adaptable like this?

Mary Martha 27:48
I'm not really sure I guess it. Um, I one thing I'm I know, technology pretty well. It's what I grew up, you know, when I was always born the next thing in technology, whether it was, you know, a new cell phone, the next model or a new Playstation, Gameboy, whatever it was, I was always itching to get that new thing. And maybe that's why I'm so adaptable. I don't know that as far as technology goes. And my dad is in, you know, the he grew up in. He's 75 Now, but he grew up kind of changing. And he's always been a little in the technology. He worked with telephones. And so he was always there always trying to find the next thing that was going to be big in that realm. And so it kind of always seem that I feel like in my background,

Scott Benner 28:39
yeah. Just just being comfortable with technology and changes.

Mary Martha 28:44
I think so. I think I owe to my parents. And then my husband's been really great, throughout it all. And he's even wanted to learn everything and adapt along with this. Like, we just want what's best for Davis and whatever we can do to provide that for him. The ease, whatever we can do to make it easier and better for him is what we're willing to do.

Scott Benner 29:10
Well, how about the other side of it? So away from the technology more on the psychological side? Is it been a big? I mean, I imagine it's been a big adjustment for you, but how are you handling it?

Mary Martha 29:22
Oh, it was a huge adjustment. I think I went through the stages of grief, for sure. Because I remember getting in the car. And just so we drove to Birmingham, we live in Alabama, and that was the closest Children's Hospital and I just remember getting in the car with my husband and crying and like what did I do wrong? Like could we hadn't get asked? Lord, why did you why did this happen? You know, I went through all those stages of grief. And I think it's hard for me to explain things to people sometimes. And people don't understand how diabetes is a 24/7 365. You're dealing with it all the time. And it is tiresome, especially in those first few months of diagnosis. It's almost like having a newborn. Again, especially with a

Scott Benner 30:22
toddler, I was gonna say just with a two year old, you basically just got done with a newborn. Yeah.

Mary Martha 30:27
And those guys that a good sleeper, so he's thankfully it's been quite, it wasn't as hard. I feel like the diabetes first few months was harder than his newborn stage, honestly. But, but yeah, I've gone through the stages of grief. But I think listening to the podcast helps a lot hearing other people going through different things. I mean, even though they had different scenarios, it's like, okay, this person is going through it just like us. And are they been in a similar situation? And I think the community really helped me, too. I'm not very, I think you and Jamie talked about it the other day in the community episode about the lurkers. And I think that I would consider myself a lurker in the Facebook group, most people are but and I learned so much just lurking and and I see people you know, that have toddlers or older children, and I'd see them doing going through similar things, or they're encouraging other people who are going through those things and giving their examples. And that helped a lot to see. Excellent. That's all people.

Scott Benner 31:46
That's really it's How did you find the podcast? Do you find the Facebook group first to the podcast first?

Mary Martha 31:52
Well, actually, when I was Googling symptoms of diabetes, I landed on the juicebox. Website.

Scott Benner 31:58
Yeah. Oh, I have that thing. Yeah. Right.

Mary Martha 32:01
And so I saw it there. And then I kind of I think my sister in law had a friend whose child is type one. And she sent me a bunch of groups to join, there's one, there are a lot of them and yours was one of them. So I think I probably joined in the hospital, as I was waiting and trying to fill my time was, you know, just not just sitting there. And cars, the movie Cars was on repeat the whole time. So I was trying to find Google and research everything. I could turn that out as well. But the Yeah, I found it pretty quickly. And then I think I was sitting in Davis's room that he was playing, and I found that the episode about start just or the first episode of the pro tips, oh, wow, no, that's immediate. It was within the first couple of weeks. And I was like, That's and immediately copied it and sent the link to my parents, my in laws, my sister in law, and I was like, everybody need to start listening to this. And to this day, my mom listens every time an episode comes out.

Scott Benner 33:14
Thank you, mom. I appreciate that.

Mary Martha 33:17
And I did too. So we should be like, I'll talk to her on the phone and just say, Hey, did you listen to that one about, you know, the lady here, you know, anyway, so we kind of keep up with it, you know, and talk about it. And she learns a lot. And I learn a lot every episode. So

Scott Benner 33:34
hey, Martha, I don't know if it will surprise you. But I'm absolutely delighted to think that you and your mom are having conversations about the podcast. That really makes me happy. That's, I think, do you think other people do that too? I bet you maybe they do. They do? Yeah, that's really cool. All right. So do you work? I'm sorry? Or how do you manage home daycare for your for Davis,

Mary Martha 34:00
I stay home, I've been blessed to be able to stay home with him since he was born. Okay. And so I've been able to throw my whole life into type one diabetes care management,

Scott Benner 34:14
I imagined that that was the case. Because it is, I mean, obvious, but it's so much easier to figure out if you're not going to work every day, you know,

Mary Martha 34:23
going to work and having and having to teach. I know there's so many people, like another daycare workers that are very willing to learn and do all that. But I just feel like it would be such a hard thing to do. And I commend all the mamas that do that. I know it's hard for them. And I'm very blessed that I can stay home and I don't think that he would have scared of it time and range and a one see if I was unable to sort of fully dedicate

Scott Benner 34:54
No, I agree. I think that that's a big part of the reason why I know as much as I do. I Honestly, because I was just a stay at home dad. And there was, you know, like you said, you can kind of push the other stuff aside, just focus on it and really try to figure it out. So do you think that's a mean? Because your leap forward? Well, let me ask you this question before I asked that one, I guess. So you're about a six and a half a one C on dash, but then on the pod five gets wide released, and you get yourself right onto that, what has that experience been like for you using an algorithm.

Mary Martha 35:27
It's been a learning curve, because I think with Dash I was really used to whenever he would start or after a meal, and whenever he would start rising, and be like, Oh, I didn't give them enough insulin. I'm gonna give him like just a little bit more and see if that will kind of did it that way. And what the algorithm had, I've had to learn to kind of take a step back a little bit, and say, let it do its job a little bit more, and kind of relinquish a little bit of control. But there are certain situations where I've been like, Okay, this is a little bit out of hand, I'm going to go in and do what I need to do. Give them a little bit more than the algorithm is telling me to do.

Scott Benner 36:12
Right, right. And so let me was he you started so quickly, like you got on the pod five, even before my episodes about how to start on the pod five came out, is that right? That is

Mary Martha 36:24
right. And I listened to those immediately the day that they came out. And I learned a lot. I think it was things that I'm in a Facebook group that solely about Omni pod five, and I work in that and I watch what other people say and I would use their strategies like Okay, I think I might try this instead. And I furless listening to podcasts, I think I'd seen all those comments and I heard you talking about it with the light other lady. And Cory I heard already talking about it with her and I was like it it kinda even opened my eyes a little bit while I was like, oh, okay, I need to do this. And so I still, even though I was in the throes of it already after hearing, listen to the podcast, it helped me a lot too. But you didn't know how to manage it,

Scott Benner 37:21
but you didn't notice anything. We were like, oh, geez, like we totally set this up wrong. Like you had it pretty well set up to begin with. So did somebody tell you like 5050 Or did his settings just kind of work out that way?

Mary Martha 37:31
Well, his it's not 5050 pretty much at all his been going back and forth between 20 to 30%. Um, Basal thanks a lot de Bolus 20% Basil and 80%. Bolus insulin, his basil was pretty low going into the Omnipod five and I think you know, if we restarted it, we might go a little bit stronger on the basil side. But it was such a I feel like with a toddler, it's such a small number can really mess things up. And you know, you can be too strong, you know, to go. And so we kind of were he was he was going low a lot of the times in the middle of the night around three to five in the morning. I know on Dash. And so we had kind of turned it back to like getting him giving it point oh, five every every hour on the dash in the middle of the night. And you know, then increasing it when he woke up. And so though I feel like that that has maybe made the Omnipod five a little bit more timid. I know those auto boluses we the only number we ever see is point o five. know a lot of people have seen that increase over time as I've been on it. But we still only see a point of five and there are a lot of times when I said say to my husband, I really wish it would give him like point one or point one five right now rather than point oh, five every five minutes.

Scott Benner 39:10
But your Are you seeing any lows?

Mary Martha 39:14
Really Honestly, the only time we see lows is when I over Bolus for a meal. Or you know, after a meal A few hours later, he might get a little active running around or well, but that's really the only times we see Lowe's and also in the middle of the night. We've seen Lowe's recently, and it's hasn't been a low it's been an issue with the Dexcom being like 30 or 40 Points off. And it's reading way lower than what the what his blood sugar is. What's interesting.

Scott Benner 39:47
So but besides, besides the CGM like was that a compression low or do you think it's just needs to be calibrated or

Mary Martha 39:56
I think it's mostly it needs to be calibrated because I feel like we've only had one come The question was the whole time and that was a few weeks ago with, I remember from like 60 to 40, double down on the instance. And I don't think I've ever gotten out of the bed and run up the steps clicker.

Scott Benner 40:14
There, and he wasn't he wasn't that low.

Mary Martha 40:16
He wasn't low. Yeah, I think it was probably around 90 or 100. But it's actually been really good about the lows in the middle of the night. Like I said, the majority of the ones in the middle of the night have been Dexcom. Getting a little bit off.

Scott Benner 40:32
Right. So you're seeing with Omnipod? Five, a lot of stability overnight. Yes. Are you sleeping more?

Mary Martha 40:41
Oh, for sure. Definitely. It's been amazing. We actually, um, I think I sleep through the night like I did before his diagnosis. So it's been really, really helpful.

Scott Benner 40:57
That sounds nice. It really does. I just had, Arden had a like a big influx of hormones from her period. Yesterday, so yesterday was really like a difficult diabetes Day for Aardman. She's in college. So I was there, she and I were going back and forth throughout the day, because we were being really aggressive just the whole time to where we were, which was not in the no great shakes. And so then as the day wore on, and we started to get it down to got later and later, and I was like, I was up way too late. Or Martha and like I got up this morning, I was like, oh, like, old man's gonna need a nap today. You know what I mean? And it's just not something. It's not something that you can sustain forever. So I'm just such a big fan of these algorithms to help people sleep if almost nothing else.

Mary Martha 41:46
Oh, for sure. Like I have a have a lady, the doctors around put us in contact with does the loop and she has a little boy, that's too I'm not sure he was diagnosed very young, but they've been on loop. And they do amazing. And I've gotten a lot of tips from her. And she's wondering about Omnipod five for her son. And you know, said if only if anything I could recommend I couldn't recommend it enough because it helps me sleep. Because that's the only reason that you get it, then it's a big deal. It is a big deal. I think from what I know of her situation, I think they sometimes do have still have nights where she asked to correct a low blood sugar. And so I was like if you can, if any reason just do it because you can sleep.

Scott Benner 42:36
Just get an Omnipod five, just sleep. I actually don't know if I ever brought this up. But you know, in the months leading up to the on the five Omni pod five coming out, I was talking about it with Omni pod one time. And I said, I think you guys should give it like a pillow away or a coupon for a new mattress. And it should be like, hey, guys ready for a good night's sleep? And the person I said that to laughed, and they were like, Do you have any idea? Like how many people say that I was like, Oh, really? And I thought I thought I was being very thought, you know, I thought I was having a great idea. And she's like, No, it is a great idea. We don't have any tie ins with it. But you know, just That's how impactful we felt like it was gonna be interesting to hear you say that exactly. does impact you that way? Oh, it does. How involved is your husband with understanding the diabetes? Or does it not even matter now that you're using an algorithm is it just is it easier for people to help him

Mary Martha 43:29
he my husband's been there every step of the way. He actually in the hospital, I was feel like I was a little more I guess I was kind of in shock still. And so he kind of took the took the lead and he did the first injection he did the first finger prick and all that. But of course I'm I'm home with Davis. So I am the person that handles it most of the time. But my husband understands everything, sometimes even better than I do. He's sometimes even bolder than I am. It's he doesn't actually listen to the podcast, he he just hears me talk about it. But he understood it. He has a great understanding of everything. And he he and Davis went to Monster Jam a few weeks ago. He had the whole day of diabetes management. It I think there was some connectivity issues in the arena they went to but he did a really good job Davis went a little bit high. But you know, what can you do with all the excitement of the monster trucks? I'm sure Dana's had some adrenaline and all that going through his body.

Scott Benner 44:39
But you did right. Especially in the indoor event. It's probably so loud and there's fire trucks are jumping all over the place. Right? That's crazy.

Mary Martha 44:48
Oh, yeah. But he they had a great day and he was able to, you know, handle everything and you know, I felt comfortable sending him up there and I had the day off and I'm But my husband's great. And there's all I can also thank my bad parents in my in laws and my sister in law. From the beginning, they've been incredible. They ask questions, they, they want to be involved in Davis's care. And, you know, the CDE is at the the diabetes and Nutrition Center, we go to, they, they told us that we could bring anybody we wanted to, to any of these, you know, education, meetings, and we scheduled one for my parents, we scheduled one for my sister in law and brother in law and, and my in laws, and they came and they learned all about everything that we learned in the hospital. And so that was great. And they've been my in laws kept Davis for the first time for a long weekend when my husband and I were able to take the mini vacation. And, you know, they did great, they did a pipe change. And they did a Dexcom change all in one weekend. They were baptized by fire.

Scott Benner 46:03
Do you think like, I'm not trying to get you to say something you don't believe but it has the I mean, you've seen three forms of care in less than a year. And it is one of them. Easier for you is one of them easier for other people? Is one of them making daycare or you know, other people being in charge of Davis when you're not around? Like? Can you kind of go through that a little bit for me like because I think the reason I'm asking is because I think there's a I don't know if you realize this or not. But there are a lot of people with type one diabetes, and not many of them have insulin pumps comparatively speaking to the number. And I don't, I don't know if that's because of access or if it's cost or if it's if it's fear. But if it's if it's fear, I'd love for you to be able to talk about that.

Mary Martha 46:55
I definitely think that the Omnipod five is probably the best scenario for help for having outside help. From my parents, from a babysitter from malls to it's very seamless technology, and it connects to the CGM, which correlates to how much insulin is gonna deliver. And I think that in itself, AIDS letting you know, letting somebody else take care of Davis, it makes it so easy. And there's no calculation. I know, in the beginning, we had that we wrote down on a whiteboard, what His correction factor was, and what the you know, based on what his carb ratios were two, and so we would look at that board every time we were about to feed him and say, Okay, this is what we need to do and subtract this from this and all that. The fact that the pump does it for you, and you don't even have to plug in your blood sugar, the blood, his blood sugar, and it's also seamless. It just makes it so easy. Yeah. There is really invaluable tool.

Scott Benner 48:06
That's really, I mean, that's kind of how I say it, at the very least. And like I said, I don't know if I'm trying to remember if this has been said out loud on the podcast yet, or if it's been recorded, and it's going to be up soon. But you know, I always lean towards if you want technology get after it. And just recently we're talking about and Jenny was like, you know, I kind of agree with you about that. And I was like, oh, and she said, but I do think there's value and understanding diabetes, kind of on a more manual way, which I'm not saying there isn't for sure. I'm just saying that. Like, how does it in a world where the idea is I have this little baby or this young person, and I'm gonna stick something on them. I think that's how people think of it. Like I don't want to stick something on them. And I want them to have a machine on them. Did you have that feeling first?

Mary Martha 48:54
I didn't. And I remember I saw maybe it was a picture on Facebook or something, maybe a tick tock I don't know. But somebody was like, this is the last picture of my son without anything on him. Like I didn't know that this would be the last time I would see him without a device and that never cost that much. And I was always just like, if it's going to help him, then put it on him. I don't I don't really care. I don't care. I just want it to help him. I want it to bring him to the vet, you know, keep him healthy and Aiden keeping him healthy and never crossed my mind. Why? Yeah, I do think

Scott Benner 49:36
I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah, go ahead.

Mary Martha 49:39
But I do think it does hinder people from that thought of not putting a device on or having something stick out or it keeps people from getting the technology.

Scott Benner 49:52
Why were you so understanding of the reasons, it would be important like how did you understand How did how did you learn about diabetes in the end the needs you have as far as variability and agency and things like that related to better health?

Mary Martha 50:10
How do I learn about it? I think I learned about it through the podcast and just Googling stuff like, honestly, I figured out that you had all those episodes about pro tips, and then the the defining diabetes, and that was really how I learned everything.

Scott Benner 50:26
Cool. Oh, that's amazing. I was not looking for an answer. That was like all I learned on the podcast, Scott, but I will accept that as an answer. So thank you.

Mary Martha 50:33
But I think before I started listening to those episodes, I was in the Facebook group, and I would see people talking about Pre-Bolus. I said, What in the world does that mean? And then I took it to Dr. SHERMER. And I was like, What does Pre-Bolus mean? Or what does Bolus P? And she explained it to me? Oh, okay, that makes sense. And so she also definitely helped him that in the education as well, she and her team that have nutritionists and CDs, they helped as well, but I think they kind of I would come in after, or our appointment, I'd be like, the podcast says this. And they're like, Okay, yeah, that's, that's right. This is basically everything I learned was for me.

Scott Benner 51:17
They must be thrilled. Or maybe they are, I don't know, like, did they like hearing that? Well, like,

Mary Martha 51:24
they probably, I feel like, every time I spoke, I was like, Well, this is what I heard on the podcast, and they probably thought it was getting old. But um, you know, I think with the results that I saw so quickly, they, they really didn't have any room to complain about me learning everything, because it was working, obviously. So

Scott Benner 51:45
I see what you mean. Like, like, yeah, yeah, she's coming in talking about a podcast, but but the information is correct. So who cares where she's learning it from? That?

Mary Martha 51:56
I think they liked the fact that I was taking it into my own hands and, and learning everything that I could.

Scott Benner 52:04
Well, that's an open mind so far. And that's an open mind to Dr. To.

Mary Martha 52:08
Oh, I mean, Dr. simmerman, has been welcome to all of my ideas from the beginning. And, you know, she, she's young, and actually, she's a type one diabetic herself. And she has probably experienced everything. I think she was diagnosed later in life, but she's experienced everything that we have. And so she knows. You know what we're going through. And so that's been so helpful.

Scott Benner 52:37
I want to ask her a question. I feel like I asked before, but I just want to go over it again. When your husband took Davis the other day to go to Monster Jam. What was it? Did he tell you later? Like? Like how he found the experience of being by himself with Davis? Like, did he find it stressful? Or did he find that it went the way he expected? Was there trepidation? I mean, does he not? Does he go with him frequently by themselves like this for a full day? Or was this kind of something new?

Mary Martha 53:05
Oh, they do things all the time. They love to go to waffle house in the morning, Saturday morning, let me sleep in a few extra minutes. They do things like this all the time. And I think the monster dam was a little bit more of a an adventure than his normal just going to waffle house or spending the afternoon with that type deal. Yeah, it was he was in the car for a long time. And I know sometimes when you're setting Terry makes your blood sugar go up a little bit. Um, and then the whole connectivity issues with the Dexcom not reading the his phone. That was a little bit I think it had to do with Bluetooth and being in that big arena. But I think he was a little bit more stressful than he then the normal couple hours that here and there that they would go out.

Scott Benner 54:00
But nothing, nothing that ruined his day or knocked them off track or anything like that.

Mary Martha 54:05
Oh, take it really stay. I mean, seeing Davis's joy when seeing those Monster Trucks jump up and down in the air and do donuts in the mud. I think that kind of. He did go a little high. But I think that joy that Davis was experiencing was like, Okay, we will handle this. When we get in the car. We'll handle this. You know, we're going to just do the best we can right now and let Davis enjoy this and then we'll figure it out.

Scott Benner 54:34
Hey, Martha, you didn't want to go see the trucks?

Mary Martha 54:37
I would have loved to but um, they didn't. Well, my husband went with a couple of his buddies from college and they also have little boys and they all went up there and it was it was a guy's day.

Scott Benner 54:50
Yeah, I was just teasing you. I didn't I imagined you were like who day off? So yeah.

Mary Martha 54:55
Well, I think it would have been worth it to see Davis's reaction to the monster trucks that were also videos of him going wow. And his it was just, I would have loved to have seen it. But it was nice to sit back and not worry the whole day.

Scott Benner 55:14
No, that's really wonderful. It just is I trying to put myself in a in a position where I'm imagining 10 months into Arden's diagnosis, if I handed Arden off to Kelly and was like, here you go, just, you know, we'll see later today, not that Kelly couldn't have done it. But I mean, with the needles and the meters, and it really just would have been something you No, it's not that long ago. I know. It feels like the people, maybe it is, but 16 years ago, and like the world of diabetes technologies just not that long ago, and it's taken the whole thing. She's taken such a leap, you know, and you'll never know, it's just kind of cool to like, you hear the stories on the podcast, which is great. But you're never going to know about most of the stuff you hear people talk about when they're like, Oh, I had to pee on a stick or? Yeah, you know, I actually had somebody contact me recently. And there's, they're an engineer, and they had like an idea about collecting urine for kids. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting. But it just, I don't know, the world's just, it's different now. You know, like for this stuff, and it's really beneficial to me for you guys raising them for your family around you trying to help him but for him as well, like, what's his agency now?

Mary Martha 56:24
So back in September, and it was 5.90. My

Scott Benner 56:28
gosh, it's crazy. It's so cool.

Mary Martha 56:32
It's amazing. Yeah. The technology. I mean, I'm thankful that we live in this day and age where the technology is available. How much? I mean, it's only getting better. Yeah, no

Scott Benner 56:44
kidding. How much interaction do you have with the Omnipod? Five? Are there other times where you're like, oh, like it needs more here? I mean, I'm sure there are, but how frequently is it?

Mary Martha 56:56
It's an I haven't checked it in a second. I think it's handling everything pretty well. Yeah, so I feel like I look at it more at night, and have to intervene a little bit more at night, we see. protein and fat rises, and I guess it might be growth hormones to happening at night. We've had to, to give him more insulin more frequently over the past couple of nights. But during the day, it's, I just look at it, you know, at lunchtime, or with or out, I'll check it and make sure it's, you know, in a good range to see if I need to pack a juice box in a purse or bring his diaper bag in the place where we are and but, you know, honestly, it's, I feel like I don't really look at it that much. It's taken a weight off my shoulders, you know, it's gonna it's in the background doing its job. And

Scott Benner 57:58
yeah, that's really excellent. Good for you. I'm, I'm thrilled for you like, it's amazing to watch how quickly you ran through the whole thing like you found the pie since you found the podcast, it took you a couple of months to figure everything out. Next thing you know, you had an A one C and the sixes, you weren't scared to move to an algorithm. And now you're having a five nine with the algorithm. It's just, it's astonishing, really, how quickly you jumped through it. Do you ever stop and think that like, hey, I really figured this out because you did. Like it's but it's cool, like ever give yourself credit for it.

Mary Martha 58:31
It's hard for me to do that. I think the times I remember when we went into our, I think maybe our second in though, I was really nervous about his a one C and I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing because we had a couple of days that he was high and higher. And, you know, Dr. Zimmerman has made it a point to always tell me how good I'm doing well, well, I'm doing and embrace as my husband does, too. And it's I have to give myself credit a lot of times and it's really hard to because some that I beat myself up a lot. I know I did in the beginning because I was like, Man, I'm failing him. I'm not doing it right. I'm not. He's still going higher, you know, and but I've, I've had to take a step back sometimes and say, you know, you are doing really well by Davis and you should be proud of yourself.

Scott Benner 59:28
I'm glad you're doing that because you are and it's a hard thing to give yourself credit for especially coming out of a new diagnosis the way you did because I know everybody blames himself from the beginning, you know?

Mary Martha 59:39
Yeah, definitely. And, I mean, I have to give all credit to the good board above because I think all through every situation we've been in. I've seen him working in our lives. It's crazy. From diagnosis like my mom knowing all about it, and then Did you know Dr. Zimmerman actually was a childhood friend of mine? And her, her dad or mom worked with my dad? And my dad was integral in bringing her to the hospital here locally?

Scott Benner 1:00:14
Wow. It's Chelsea right. So,

Mary Martha 1:00:17
yes. Dr. German? Yeah. She It's crazy to think about that, you know, the the hospital here, here in town is it's a Regional Medical Center. But you know, the big hospital is in Birmingham. And the fact that we have an a pediatric endocrinologist here in the community is amazing. And it's, I mean, I do a lot of everything, almost to her because, you know, she's very accessible. And she goes along with everything, but all my crazy ideas like putting my child Omnipod, five, when it's just brand new, she was ready and willing to do that, and wrote the prior authorization and all that. So,

Scott Benner 1:01:05
yes, you said she has type one. Do you know how old she was when she was diagnosed?

Mary Martha 1:01:11
I think she was in her later teenage years. But I think from the beginning, as soon as she was diagnosed, she kind of maybe she wanted to be a doctor from the beginning. But I think since diagnosis, she was like, I'm going to be an endocrinologist, and I'm going to help children who have type one, she kind of had that mission ever since she was diagnosed.

Scott Benner 1:01:35
Yeah. Well, you know, Omnipod actually got the clearance for ages two and above now for Omnipod. Five,

Mary Martha 1:01:42
right? Yeah, I remember. As soon as that came out. She doctors everywhere connected me with another lady with another outfit that I don't think she's quite to yet. But I think they just started on Omnipod. Five. And I know I immediately sent that news to her. I was like, this is this is it. Y'all can get on it. You know, y'all should do it. And they just started a few weeks ago, and I hope I need to check in with them and see how they're doing. But I hope, I hope it's hope it's going well for them.

Scott Benner 1:02:15
Yeah, me too. Hey, I have to ask you a question. So a moment ago, I stopped myself from making a joke. But now I want to know if you would have handled it okay or not. You said that you really wanted to give a lot of credit to the Lord. And I thought, it's me and the Lord in a rowboat, Mary, Martha. And you can only throw what you gotta keep one of us for diabetes only. I beat. I beat the Lord, right.

I just I'm delighted by the idea of you, politely asking the Lord to jump out of the rowboat. We got to keep this guy with the podcasts or I'm sorry.

Mary Martha 1:02:55
I'd like to think that he's the one that has brought you into my life as well. Just the he.

Scott Benner 1:03:01
I see what you're saying. Okay, I'm accepting of this. I just wanted to I just wanted to put you in a really farcical situation. So

Mary Martha 1:03:11
I get it. It's funny.

Scott Benner 1:03:12
I didn't know were you in the moment like I can't tell. Because they're Murthy because of your accent. I can't. I can't tell. If you I can't decide if you would have gotten my sarcasm or not. I think I think I would. I do too. But I just can't tell that's all. You know, I can tell easier with choose those people I can I vibe with them very well. I have a great episode up today with a woman and she and I had the most just delightful conversation. But I already knew her like I could I understood her the tenor of her of her sense of humor. Like right away. And you're as I'm trying to figure out still, even though we've been talking for an hour, I'm still like, I'm not sure but I don't know. It's cool. How is it living in Alabama?

Mary Martha 1:03:59
Oh, it's great. It's still pretty hot. It'll be like I feel people that joke about how it's fall in the morning and then in the afternoon. It's summer. We turn our heat on in the morning and then that 12 noon, it's back on AC blow and full blast.

Scott Benner 1:04:17
No kidding. How warm is it there today? middle of October.

Mary Martha 1:04:21
Let's see. Right now it's it's Saturday seven. Wow. It's actually quite pleasant today. But over the weekend, it was hot. Right?

Scott Benner 1:04:35
And when you say the school the school you mean the University of Alabama right? Oh, no, no, no,

Mary Martha 1:04:42
that's not it.

Scott Benner 1:04:43
Oh, there's a better one you're saying and you don't want to fight other people?

Mary Martha 1:04:48
Well, I know a few months ago you had a podcast and the title is

Scott Benner 1:04:53
key. Oh, you don't even say that where you're from? Did you skip

Mary Martha 1:04:59
up now? I actually listened to it almost went to the I'm a big Auburn fan. I have been since I was a very small child. And I'm indoctrinating Davis into this as well. He is obsessed with going to Auburn games in the marching band and I'll be the mascot. But we say War Eagle in our house.

Scott Benner 1:05:26
Did you go to Auburn?

Mary Martha 1:05:28
I did. Yeah. Yeah, I grew up pretty close to Auburn and actually ended up going to school up in Virginia for a couple years. And we in Auburn ended up winning the national championship, my sophomore year of college, and I wasn't there to experience it. And it haunts me. And so the next year, I transferred to Auburn. And

Scott Benner 1:05:57
if nothing else,

Mary Martha 1:05:58
for the football, if nothing else, I was very homesick because of it. I remember when I told all my friends at school in Virginia, I was like, Yeah, I'm transferred over and they're like, why are you transferring? I'm like, Well, I think it's because of I miss going to football games and they thought I was crazy.

Scott Benner 1:06:17
What would you get a degree in?

Mary Martha 1:06:20
I got a degree in entrepreneurship and family business.

Scott Benner 1:06:24
Do you get to use it at all?

Mary Martha 1:06:27
My I do a little bit. My dad was an entrepreneur and in was an investor in a bunch of small businesses and started a bunch of businesses. I felt like I got that gene from him. On my husband's family had a business that they recently sold to a national business. And so my husband used it in his he actually had the same major. That's really where we met in class. And he, he used his degree in his family business. But actually, after college I did, I went and worked at a small startup. But it was a pine straw company. What they sold and delivered pine straw and installed pine straw as a ground cover, I don't know

Scott Benner 1:07:16
it was I happily use it. There. Martha I have context for this. So in the south, you guys use that instead of mulch, right? Like around bushes and trees and everything. See, I know, I've traveled I know what's going on. And so and they're just pine needles, right?

Mary Martha 1:07:31
Right. You just collect it from basically pine tree orchards down in Pine Tree fields down in South Georgia and South Alabama, and North Florida, that panhandle area. But it was a it was a startup and it was we helped grow it, it's still going well, I ended up getting married and moved away. So I didn't continue working there. But it was it was really fun to, to experience it and learn more. It's kind of like I feel like I've done the same thing with diabetes, because I've been thrown into it and having to learn everything. And I did the same thing. When I was just out of college, the pine straw, I knew every single type of pine tree needle like the different cones and what would work better and and I ended up being a dispatcher for some time for the trucks that would deliver it Home Depot, the big loads. I mean, it's like you're working in a startup you just kind of go where they tell you or where they need you. And so that was what I did. And it was really interesting. And I learned a lot I learned how to be that as I say that maybe that's where I learned how to be adaptive. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:08:39
right. That's interesting. It really is do you what are your plans? You guys gonna make your family bigger? Are you gonna go back to work one day? Or what do you think of that doing?

Mary Martha 1:08:49
I do think we'll make our family bigger. One thing that was really you know, bring it we were talking about the good Lord above right before Davis was this is that like diagnosed actually was pregnant and I had a miscarriage not even like a month, like two weeks before he was diagnosed. And I really do you think that that was also the word working? Knowing that I wasn't really able to handle that. I don't think I could have been pregnant in that first trimester while you're being so tired while also learning diabetes and spending day after day fighting with learning how to do everything and being held up half the night you know, finding a higher worried about a low and all that. I think that all that happened for a reason.

Scott Benner 1:09:43
Yeah, Mary Martha. Even in a comical way I can't take credit for helping you with that. So yeah, no, that's nothing I was not involved. Well, I'm sorry that you went through that but ya know, I can't imagine and I see to how you How you keep a very positive outlook on things, which is gotta be incredibly helpful through with all this?

Mary Martha 1:10:07
I think so. I mean, I can only, you know, I feel like that if you maintain that positive attitude it, it really does keep you going. And if you dwell on how bad things are, I mean, you're only going to be unhappy and sad all the time. So you might as well be happy and think positively. Yeah, you have

Scott Benner 1:10:27
what I would call a boys attitude. You're just like, like, just get it, we'll just do it. Let's just do it. Sucks. Let's do it. I don't know if it's really a boy's attitude or not. But it's, it's, uh, it, we were just, it's funny, right? Great. Before I recorded this with you, my wife, and my son and I were downstairs and my wife works from home, my son just got home from college. So we're happy to all be together. And we were talking about this thing where somebody, you know, kind of made a commitment to something. And then it ended up being more than they expected. And you just were hearing from him a lot about this isn't what I thought it's hard. I don't like Baba. And it's only a limited time, this thing is not the rest of their life, you know? And I'm hearing the story. And I said, I said, Look, I have a lot of compassion for this. I know, it's, I know, it sucks. But now we know what it is like, let's just do it and be done. And my son kind of chimed in, and he's like, I really agree with that. He's like, just like, do it. You know, and I thought, it's just sort of what you've been talking about along the way, in a roundabout way. You're just gonna get it done, and then move to the next thing. And it's not what you wanted. But it's not it's not insurmountable. And the worst thing you can do is fight against it. Sometimes I think, you know? Yep. So sure. Yeah. No, I think that's really wonderful. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to?

Mary Martha 1:11:56
Well, so I wanted to tell you about my diabetes tackle box that I have, this is kind of a random thing that I thought might help other people. Okay. Um, so my husband was actually on the fishing team at Auburn. So he was a bass fishing on the bass fishing team.

Scott Benner 1:12:18
Hey, Martha, before you go forward, I want to ask you, were you trying to say the most Alabama thing you could think to say just now?

Mary Martha 1:12:24
No, I wasn't. I figured it would probably come across that. It's

Scott Benner 1:12:28
really, like, I was like, oh, there's a fishing team. I was like, that's amazing. I didn't I had no idea. But okay, your husband's on the fishing team. at Auburn. Yes.

Mary Martha 1:12:37
Okay. So he, and he's, you know, we've, he's fished pretty much his whole life. And so, what, whenever we got home, you know, we went to the, to the pharmacy got all of our supplies, the pin needles, the lancets, the test strips, the alcohol wipes, all of it. He was like, we need to tackle box for this. And so we have a tackle box that holds all of Davis's diabetes stuff, and I have it right here in front of me. Um, but literally, whenever we do a pod change, whenever, you know, I need to check his blood sugar if I think the Dexcom is off, whatever, I just pull this bagel toggle box out, open it up and has everything I need. That's amazing. And so anyway, my husband's ingenuity. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:13:30
being honest with me when your husband first said if you think oh, is he gonna have more ideas like this? Or were you like okay, let's do it. Now there's a tackle box in the kitchen I imagine which was probably not what you expected but but be just for a split second. I know it's working great. But would you first set it were you like come on man. or No? Or do you like

Mary Martha 1:13:51
I think that I was pretty on board I saw how many things were involved in I was like we need it in a organized manner. So that's what you if we want to try it go get a taco box. We'll do it that makes sense. So I actually took it into our endo appointment that first time and I was like, here's everything we our whole life like tell me you know, this is what we got right here and they were very impressed by it and I think they're actually mentioning it to new patients that they come across so they will start a

Scott Benner 1:14:23
trend Do I need any special kind of box or does any brand that I think will work do for me?

Mary Martha 1:14:29
I think a good Any brand will work this one's Plano which which is probably from Academy sports and outdoors I would guess. But well yeah,

Scott Benner 1:14:38
that's really isn't isn't that interesting though. Like you know, just how his own experiences you know, informed the next thing he looked at all that stuff and he thought I don't know what all this is it needs a home. We have to put it somewhere. I know what I organize random stuff. For me. It's a tackle box. Some people Oh, that's right. And so But that's not all your storage, right? You have diabetes supplies stored somewhere else, but you've stocked the tackle boxes, you need it.

Mary Martha 1:15:06
Yes. So like, all of our, we have a couple of drawers filled with all the Dexcom supplies and the Omni pod supplies and all that. And that we just keep a small amount in the tackle box and each little designated area. So if we go on a day trip, or go anywhere, we can just grab it and know that everything that we need is in there as the insulin that we use to refill the pod. It has a juice box sparks plans, everything you can imagine that you need.

Scott Benner 1:15:42
I think it's brilliant. I really don't. Really is I wondered if you were like come on, but I didn't. I was it's it's really kind of like it's brilliant in its simplicity, how like perfect, it would work for that. But Plus, they have little like tours, you can resize them and make it work just for how you want it. Right.

Mary Martha 1:16:00
Right. So you can, you know, pull the little thing out and make it as big or as small as you want. It really does work really well for instead of ordering one of those fancy are using those. Yeah, I think there are a lot of diabetes supplied bags and such that we just have to pack a box.

Scott Benner 1:16:20
And it's durable, too, right? Yeah, for sure.

Mary Martha 1:16:23
Yeah, this is knocked it off the counter a couple of times. And it was watch, thankfully,

Scott Benner 1:16:29
there you go. That's pretty cool. That's I mean, I didn't expect you to say that. But um, I think it's a great idea. You're like, you know, I just want to tell people about one thing. It's a tackle box. I'm like, wait a minute, what's happening? Yeah, that's pretty kind of bro. Yes. Really? Yes.

Mary Martha 1:16:44
It's really worked out for us. And so I'm thankful for my husband's fishing background? I don't think we would have we would have thought of it otherwise. Is

Scott Benner 1:16:52
that a fishing team? Is that? Could he get money for that?

Mary Martha 1:16:57
Oh, definitely, um, we actually one of his teammates. Two years, two brothers, they're actually really successful. I'm one of his good friends named Jordan Lee has won, he won the Bassmaster Classic two years in a row. And that's what that's basically like the Super Bowl of all bass fishing.

Scott Benner 1:17:17
So like, Oh, my son got money to play baseball kind of an idea. Your husband got money to fish at school?

Mary Martha 1:17:25
Yes. So it's actually really changed in the past few years. I feel like he was the president of the club his senior year, and he laid a lot of groundwork for where the club is today. He, I feel like whenever he was on the team, he always really, he pushed to get sponsors on, you know, put them on their jerseys. And the people in the, in the club sports were like, you know, we can't do that. Because of the, I think it was due to copyrights, with the logo with Auburn logo, such. And now, they do that all the time. And they have sponsors all over their jerseys. And I don't know right now, they may start next years, or they might already do it now. But they might have scholarships towards bass fishing, I'm not positive, but, you know, they, they made a ton of money through those tournaments, and they just put it back in the club, and they would have tournaments themselves, and then they would send them for entry fees, those entry fees for those tournaments would be a lot. But anyway, so I kind of would think I don't really know the whole system now but but it's definitely grown a lot. And I think a lot of is due to the groundwork that Briggs laid and then also the the the popularity that it garnered through Jordan Lee and his brother Matt, and some of the teammates that Burke's had that were so successful.

Scott Benner 1:18:57
Yeah, I mean, listen, I have to be honest, I Googled Jordan Lee while you were talking and it pops right up. But professional bass fisherman Jordan Lee is a two time winner of the Geico Bassmaster Classic presented by Dick's Sporting Goods. Like that's crazy. I mean, it's not crazy. It's amazing, actually, that they got that off. Yeah, round that has turned into this.

Mary Martha 1:19:15
And Jordan has, you know, sponsors like Carhart, and Abu Garcia, which is a really big real company. No, I'm

Scott Benner 1:19:24
looking at him wearing a shirt here. Does there's no room on it for any other logos. He's doing okay.

Mary Martha 1:19:28
Yeah. He's doing really well. And, you know, he's a good friend of ours, and we're proud of all the work that he's done. But, you know, if two bad words wasn't as successful as he was, but, you know, he really enjoyed his time on the team.

Scott Benner 1:19:42
Well, it sounds like your husband's family sold a business to somebody who had pretty deep pockets. So I feel like it's going okay, right. Yeah. By the way, this led us to

Mary Martha 1:19:53
where we are today. So we're, you know, we're happy where we are and good for you.

Scott Benner 1:19:57
You're making me think I gotta make get one of these shirts for me with all the different sponsors of the podcast on it.

Mary Martha 1:20:06
Maybe with Omni pod and Dexcom and touchpad type thing for diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:20:14
You really listen to the podcast. Thank you.

Mary Martha 1:20:18
Yeah, I really wanted to come here you speak in Orlando, but it didn't work out. But

Scott Benner 1:20:22
I would have loved to. I would have loved to have met you. Yeah, maybe next year. I just recorded something with somebody from touched by type one earlier today. That you can, you'll hear coming up on the bold beginnings episode. But I would have loved to have met you. And now you're making me think I need a sponsor t shirt.

Mary Martha 1:20:40
Definitely. Yeah, I think we would. I think it'd be good.

Scott Benner 1:20:44
All right. Listen, you were terrific. Thank you for doing this. Did the nerves ever go away? Do you feel okay, at any point?

Mary Martha 1:20:50
Yeah, I think I got into a groove. Like said it just comes natural after a few minutes. Talking. Yeah, no,

Scott Benner 1:20:57
you were terrific. You really were. If there's nothing else, I'm going to stop. But please just keep me in the loop. I'd love to know how things go. It's just an interesting story, your son being diagnosed and you get into on the pod five so quickly, like, I'd love to know how it's going for you along the way.

Mary Martha 1:21:15
I'll definitely keep you updated.

Scott Benner 1:21:17
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Well, of course, we're gonna thank Mary Martha for coming on the show and sharing her story. We're also going to thank touched by type one.org and Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six and now Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitoring systems. That little Dexcom G seven, where do you see it? It's a it's quite a thing. dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group for the podcast Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but there are also plenty of people in there with type two and caregivers. Just it's a great mix of people. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of Juicebox Podcast.

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