Scott Benner 4/21/23 Scott Benner 4/21/23

#895 Best of Juicebox: Switching to an Insulin Pump

Originally posted on Jan 21,2021. The Juicebox Podcast: Type 1 Diabetes social media community sent their tips for switching from MDI to pumping.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 895 of the Juicebox Podcast

welcome back to another episode of the Best, the Juicebox Podcast. Today we're revisiting Episode 431, which originally aired on January 22 2001. This episode includes community feedback on the topic of switching from MDI to pumping. It's very informative. So if you're thinking of switching, check it out. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. Are you a US resident who has type one are the caregiver of someone with type one, please go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box join the registry complete the survey. When you complete that survey, you are helping type one diabetes research to move forward right from your sofa. You also might be helping out yourself and you're supporting the podcast T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med us med is where my daughter gets her Dexcom G seven and her Omni pods from you can to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 887211514 Use the link or call the number to get started. And by the way, they don't just have Dexcom and Omnipod. That's just what we use. You got the liberi over there. 10 a bunch of stuff I'll tell you in the ad. today's podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one great organization helping people with type one diabetes. I'm going to be speaking at their big event later this year. Go find out more about it right now at touched by type one.org A couple other great ways you can save through the podcast 35% off your entire order at cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box at checkout for 10% off your first month of therapy when you go to the link betterhelp.com forward slash juice box and free years supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order of ag one from Athletic Greens when you go to athletic greens.com forward slash juice box. And while I'm plugging stuff, check out diabetes pro tip.com for one of the greatest series that this podcast has ever put together the Pro Tip series Hello friends and welcome to episode 431 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is about switching from multiple daily injections to a pump. And what I've done is gone on to the Facebook page for the podcast and gotten people's feedback about what was most valuable to them when they did the switch from injections to Bombay.

Before I jump in and get started I'd like to remind you to check out T one D exchange AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And here's why. You can support T one D research and the Juicebox Podcast by checking out the T one D exchange because they're looking for type one adults and caregivers who are US residents to participate in a quick survey that can be completed in just a few minutes. You can do this survey from your phone or your computer and you never have to leave your home or visit a doctor's office to make a substantial impact on type one diabetes research. This is 100% Anonymous HIPAA compliant. And every time one of you completes the process by using my link, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. You'll be helping to support people with type one and the show. past participants just like you have helped to bring increased coverage for test trips, Medicare coverage for CGM, and they've helped to change the ADA guidelines for pediatric Awan seagulls you can give back in just a few moments

okay, I've done this a couple of times and it's incredibly popular. So we're doing it again and went on to the Facebook page Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. It's a private page where listeners can talk about whatever they want. It has well over 8000 members at this point and it's just a hotbed of discussion. And around diabetes management. So I put the question up there. For those of you who have transitioned from MDI, to pumping, please share your tips, things to look out for and remembrance. Here's what came back that I thought was very interesting. Right off the bat, Nicole says, start with what the endo suggests, but only give them 24 hours. If you've listened to all the podcast episodes, you know what to do, if you have a Dexcom Be bold. Maryann said that, initially, it was a little difficult to get over having a device attached to her, but that she eventually did. She said, you'll probably need to adjust your dosages with the team, be prepared for that. And nothing's really permanent. So if you don't like it, she's like, just send it back. She also suggested trying to create a time for the transition, that's a less stressful time in your life. Because there is a commitment involved in understanding it. I take Mary Ann's point. But I also think sometimes there's never a perfect time. So I guess, you know, figure out what would be best for you. But I would caution against waiting for the perfect time. And I would also caution against immediately wanting to give up, because it is going to be different. And if you've been doing shots for a while, and succeeding with it, you know, you might just be used to things working. And the truth is you're gonna have to start over might not just work perfectly immediately. Jen said that she switched from MDI, to pumping over 20 years ago. And all she really remembers was being terrified. She got a quick doctor's office visit tiny bit of training, they sent her home. But she called technical support a number of times the beginning. So she wants to let you know not to be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Katie says not to forget that you're no longer using a slow acting or long acting insulin like love Amir to recibo, one of those that your pump is giving you all of your insulin, it's doing your Basal insulin, as well as your meals and corrections. So if there's a problem with your pump site, you need to be aware that DKA can set in much more quickly than is likely with MDI. So if you get up in the morning, and you're, you know, MDI and you shoot your your Letelier Lantus, let's say, it's in there, it's doing something, but if you get up in the morning and put a pump on, and there's some sort of a problem with the site, and you're not getting your Basal insulin, you may not know right away. So you know, what I would do in that situation is test more frequently or pay attention to your glucose monitor if you have one. In my opinion, it's not something to be scared of, it's just something to remember, you're getting your Basal insulin from your pump. Now, Ashley said that the first few pumps that she put on just didn't go well. And she didn't realize that she could have them replaced the infusion sets or if you haven't on the pot, the pot itself, and she was just throwing them away. But if you have a failure, especially in the beginning, when you don't know what you're doing, call the company, they very well may replace your items. That would lead me to say that it is not uncommon in the first week or so of using a pump to have user error with the insertion or wearing of the pump, that it's important to, you know, keep trying get information, don't just think that the first experience you have is how this is going to be now because there are a lot of people who use insulin pumps of all different kinds very successfully all day every day. So when you're starting at the beginning, and it's not working, if it's not working, maybe look inward before you look outward is my best advice from what I've seen people talking about online all these years. Josh says that his remembrance for the beginning was that he just immediately felt more in control. And he started tweaking his Basal insulin and extending his boluses that that made him comfortable. Amy brings something up that I see a lot. They had fairly good control with MDI and then move to a pump and recognize the transition, that it's not just a flick of the wrist, and everything's okay. Again. What I would say that I notice is that sometimes doctors offices can be careful when they set up Basal insulin. I guess they think of it as careful when they set up Basal insulin for the first time. So say you've been doing MDI forever and you get 24 units a day. What I would do there is the quick math and say, Well, maybe I'm about a unit an hour then. But sometimes doctors offices are scared to send you out. dollar for dollar from the way you did it to the pump. And they kind of go without better high than low theory, and a lot of them will take back some. But if it was me, if Arden was using 24 units a day of Basal insulin, I'd start by saying Adding her Basal at one unit per hour, and I'd see what happens and make my adjustments from there. I guess the problem comes in where the doctors don't want you to touch the Basal insulin. So they set it low to show where the highs are, so they can come back in later and add insulin. Being a person, the way we are here that makes those changes on our own, I would start about where I thought, because here's what I see happen. Those ratios are kind of lost in the moment for people often. And what happens is, instead of thinking, Oh, I used to use 24 units a day MDI, and now I'm only using 19, or something like that, I'm probably not using enough Basal insulin, they think pumps don't work. So your brain makes this illogical leap that feels logical. And then you get caught in a little bit of a, you know, a shitstorm. And if you don't have a doctor's office that quickly gets back with you and makes adjustments, which a lot of them don't do sometimes, then you start blaming the pump, and you start having these feelings like oh, it was better on shots, you know, and you could lose faith pretty quickly. I've seen that happen a lot. So that is definitely something to look out for. So Mara warns that once you're on a pump, it's not a free for all of food, just because it's easy to Bolus, so you know, do your best to stay on track with how you eat. She also mentions that it's possible your insulin usage might go up, and that that's okay. I would say it's also possible that people lose track of the fact that they were taking 30 units of Basal insulin of one kind. And using, I don't know, let's say they use 20 units or 25 units of, of, you know, Novolog, fast acting insulin for meals and corrections. So in their head, they're only using like 25 or 30 units of insulin a day because people just generally don't think of Basal as insulin for some reason, they think of it when they're on MDI, like, I inject this once during the day. And then my fast acting insulin is for meals and corrections, somehow the two don't go together. To me, that might be where some of that comes in is then you move over to a pump. And instead of using 30, and 30, you're using 60 of all one insulin. And I guess I'll just say here in case people don't understand that a fast acting insulin like a nova lager humor, log art and uses a PG or there's fiasco, those kinds of insolence. Go into the pump, and you get little bits of it, you know, spaced out all day long to act as basil. And then you get more of it to act as a Bolus. So you're used to using to insulins on MDI. Going forward with a pump, you'll only be using one. Bob says have backup supplies, things will fail from time to time and you need some backup supplies. He's talking about MDI stuff, don't give away all your needles. I still have syringes from when Arden was four years old, and we still use them once in a while. Bob's 100%, right? He says and if you're using an omni pod have a paperclip around. So if a nominee so different pumps have different situations where they're going to all fail at some point, something will happen to the flow of insulin. The pump will recognize it and shut itself down for safety reasons. They all do it. When on the pod does it it beeps and sometimes the beeping doesn't stop and you have to flip it over. There's a little hole in the back and you stuck a paperclip in there, and it stops the alarm. So a paperclip is definitely something to have around. Bob. You're 100% right. I seem to remember one time when Arden was young and it happened at a baseball game we use the post of Kelly's earring to stop it. That was a desperate moment. Janelle says you're not going to learn everything in one day. It's trial and error. Pay attention to your CGM. If you have one adjust accordingly. small bumps and nudges. She says I have anxiety and was freaking out when I didn't have good numbers at first, but I had to just keep adjusting, and now she's in range 80% of the time and she's happy with her pump. Tara says that patience is key. It can take a few days or even weeks to get all the settings correct. She said they started without a Dexcom so it initially took longer for her son. Since then they've changed pumps twice with a CGM and with being bold and the transition went much faster and smoother.

What she's saying is is that when you can see the blood sugar and you feel the reading into what she's saying, but I feel like what she's saying is when you can see the blood sugar in real time and you have that faith in yourself to make changes. It will go much easier. Some of you will use pumps that offer soft cannulas or steel cannulas She said that they had great success with the steel ones. And that you can get your endo to write prescriptions for changes more frequently, if you need it to, to avoid absorption issues. And that's with any pump. Misty says it may get worse before it gets better. It takes time to dial in your settings. She's saying again, your rates from MDI will change and change again, but it's worth pushing through. And she suggests that Basal testing is definitely necessary. She found pick a timeframe at a time like I think that to start with overnight, then, you know, pick pick segments of the day to get I have to tell you, too, and I say in other parts of the podcast, I'm a fan of as few basil programs as possible. Like I don't think you're outsmarting diabetes by having like a different Basal program every hour, you know, it's point three, five at three o'clock and point four or five at four o'clock and point to like, Yeah, I think there's a balance in there you find you can find eventually, where maybe you'll have one, two, maybe three standard Basal settings throughout the day. I think if you start having more than that, there are other things you could be looking at. So let's go says start with the endo settings. But keep in mind they keep it on the safer side. I said this earlier, we give it a week to see they gave it a week to see how the body was adjusting. But she didn't want to keep things high too long. After a week, they started to make slow adjustments after talking to the Endo. And once she was confident and she understood how the body was reacting to the insulin, started making the insulin adjustments on her own. She says you can be as bold as necessary as long as you're paying attention. Joanne said what I said earlier, which is don't panic right away and just decide this is a bad idea if it doesn't go exactly right. A lot of people came in to agree with her about that. And Jessica wanted to offer that she loves using the extended Bolus features and Temp Basal is that pumping allows a different Jessica says listen to the pro tip episodes. Thank you, Jessica. Don't rely solely on your endo to make adjustments, watch the Dexcom keep track of your trends and make adjustments when it's necessary. I'm going to tell you about one of the better decisions I made last year I switched Arden's delivery of her diabetes supplies from where we were getting them to us Med and US med is more than edging out the service that we were getting from that previous company. right from the comfort of your home or office, you can join over 1 million satisfied customers who rely on us med for courteous, knowledgeable and trained customer care and their representatives are going to keep you up to date with your medical and diabetic supplies. All delivered right to your door. Us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 To get your free benefits check right now. US med features a litany of things that you're going to love. How about an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau. They accept Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers. They carry everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the FreeStyle Libre three, the Dexcom G six and a little bird told me the Dexcom G seven coming very soon. They always provide you with 90 days worth of supplies, and fast and free shipping. better service and better care is what you're going to get when you go to us med.com forward slash juice box on top of all of this US med is now dispensing Novolog insulin aspart and human log insulin lispro through their pharmacy benefits. What are you waiting for us med.com forward slash juice box 888721151 For us med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash. They are the place we got our hands on the pod fives from us med provides Arden with her Dexcom supplies and are the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide. I mean, I guess I could say it again. But are you just already online getting it done? Are you even listening to me anymore? Wherever you already called 888-721-1514 don't like the phone us med.com forward slash juice box. The other day I got an email from us Med and it said are you You want some more supplies? I guess it was time and I said yes. Click the button and then they just showed up. You want to do it like that. It's pretty damn easy. Us med.com forward slash juice box

when you leave the house, it's more than 20 minutes away take an insulin pen as a backup because in case you have a bad site, so I have to say we don't bring extra insulin with Arden. If we're in what I think of driving distance. Like if it's an amount of time I wouldn't care If I had to go back, if I'm going to try to spend the afternoon at someone's house for a picnic, and it's a half an hour from my house, we take extra insulin and some pumps with us. I don't bring needles, I have to admit. But her point is valid and worth considering having backups is not a bad idea. Brent makes what I think is a great point. He said that it's just the new ballgame when you start over. And this is something I find myself telling people privately as well. Well, let's see how to put this. You might be doing terrific on MDI. But what what comes with a pump, you know, maybe you just don't want injections, or you want more control over Basal insulin or something like that. Anyway, it took you a long time to figure out injections. And it's going to take you a little bit of time to figure out pumping, it is a different game. But at the same time, it's really exactly the same. It's the mechanics of the pump, the nuts and bolts, how it works that you have to get accustomed to. And while you're getting accustomed to it, you will feel like where you could feel like I should say that you don't know what you're doing, which might lead you to have that feeling like why did I do this, I knew what I was doing. And now I don't again, but trust me, it's worth the effort. If it's something you're looking for. Amy makes a great point here. She said that after you're up and running and things are working, take a step back and look at the pump data, right look at what it's doing. Especially she says if you're using an algorithm based pump, because you'll be able to see the increases and decreases in Basal when corrections go in and stuff like that. And it'll give you an insight into what's happening. Heather says that she felt like every new step was scary for her son, who was just diagnosed recently, and eight years old. They got their demo on the pod and just left it on the table for a few days until he was ready to try it on. She also figured out things about how to remove adhesive and overlay patches that help hold things on. So there's a little bit of a new world in there. Some people use patches, Arden doesn't we never put a patch on Ardens Omnipod. It stays on fine for three days. But I liked that she didn't rush here, she went out and got the on the pod demo. And just was like, alright, let's just leave it here till we're ready. It gets a good vibe. Even though this episode doesn't have a sponsor, it's a great place to say, I really do believe when I say during the app in the ads for on the pod, one of the greatest things about Omnipod is you can get a free, no obligation demo, you can actually try it on and where the other pumps just don't lend themselves to that. But on the pods tubeless nature makes that accessible to you. My on the pod.com forward slash juicebox to get that free demo. And you're helping out the podcast if you use the link. Allen's recommending the book pumping insulin which I've never read, but I've heard so many good things about I'm absolutely happy to say it here. He also wants to point out that the information that's available in doctors offices can often be lacking. And that's what led him to pumping insulin. He said back in. Let's see back in 2007. My doctor at the time told me they'd write a prescription for a pump. But if I needed help with it, I'd have to get it somewhere else. He said he appreciated the honesty but finds that a little frightening. Lauren says Keep in mind that you are probably rounding up your insulin amounts of MDI. So the same ratio on a pump might not work. So this is the exact opposite of what I was talking about earlier. But it's still really valuable to say that you might what she's saying, Laurie, I'm Lauren, I'm sorry, Lauren, I'm speaking for you here. But what I'm saying is you might have been using a unit or a half a unit because that's what you could measure with a syringe when maybe point four or point six or 1.1 was more like what you needed. Brianna says to do your research to decide what pump is right for you. She spent a long time looking at the pros and cons of all the pumps that are on the market. She says that she eventually found that her body responded differently to insulin going in through MDI and through a pump that there was a big learning curve for she had to end for 19 years and was previously on a pump years ago as a child but didn't use insulin correctly then it eventually transitioned to MDI, having been well controlled with MDI. She just thought the transition to a pump would be seamless. And it wasn't. Kristen says try not to put too much pressure on yourself when you make this switch. She found it stressful to learn to use a new piece of equipment, and says give yourself or your child some time to adjust. And you may hate it at first, but give it time. She said it can be strange to wear something on your body at first, but one day, you'll probably barely notice it. I must say that I've worn a couple of Dexcom and some Omnipod demos on my time. And I have to agree with that. I've obviously never used them for insulin or for actually taking care of diabetes. But when I've worn the things myself, I have forgotten that they were there eventually they do become pretty seamless. And that's probably hard to imagine especially for parents who are looking at their kids and thinking Oh they're so small on this thing, but I do think you just get accustomed to it. I know Arden did. Kristen continues on that for her switching to pumping was life changing, it just took time to adjust. She says as far as management goes, you already know how to use insulin and pumps to the same. This is a great point that I really want to echo. You're just delivering the insulin a different way. That's it, the basil is going in a different way. The boluses are going in a different way. Instead of pushing in a needle and pushing on a plunger, you're pushing a button, and it's going through a tube, she finishes by saying, take your time. And if you need help, come back to this Facebook group, we'll help you Kaylee's saying something that I've heard people say before, a pump is not a cure for diabetes. And while it makes life much easier with type one, or type two, I guess if you need insulin, it still sucks, you still have diabetes, it's going to be work to learn a new method for both you or if you have a child for your child, too. Don't forget to write down your settings, she said. So you're not scampering around trying to remember things. And remember that technology can fail at times. So you're going to want to not just rely on that programming to remember all your settings forever, write them down somewhere. But what she's saying is valid, that sometimes you can hear people outside of diabetes say, Oh, do you have one of those pumps, and they say it like oh, you must have if you have a pump, it's probably just super simple, right? Probably makes the whole thing go away. If you're feeling that way, like a pump is just going to make diabetes disappear. That's not going to you're still gonna have diabetes, you're still gonna need a Bolus, your meals Pre-Bolus You know, understand your settings, just the delivery of insulin is going to be different, easier, in my opinion, and you're not gonna get stuck as much, which is a big deal to me, Arden also being on the pod user, I really enjoy the fact that she does not have to take her pump off to bathe or to swim, which means we can get a nice stable Basal setting and use it 24/7 Kate just jumped in and thanked me for doing the episode and said that they've been MDI for three and a half years and the idea of pumping scares everyone in her family. And I'm, I've got to tell you, Kate, that is unfounded fear, you really don't need to be afraid you're just delivering the insulin a little differently. You get rid of the shots, and you're picking up your ability to manipulate your Basal insulin and create extended boluses. It's not scary. I know you're scared, but trust me, it's not actually scary. Christy said she wished that someone would have told her that her on the pod beeps to let you know when it's done. She was in a board meeting the first time it went off and she had no idea what to do. Christy, I would tell you that the on the pod came with a book and it would have explained all that in there. But I get your point, it would be nice if someone would just go over it real quickly with you. That's one of the great things about I don't know about other pumps, but on the pod for certain. Let you know when your reservoirs getting low, let you know when it's coming time to change it. It's good stuff. Linda says they got a pump quickly and not had and at that time had not known about the podcast. So they were very reliant on their endo team for help. She said her diabetes educator was awesome and called several times after we placed the pump. In the days and weeks that followed. They were calling to make sure everything was going good to help with adjustments. See, this is great if you've got this kind of Endo. Good knock on some wood good for you. She still says she remembers being overwhelmed at first by all the steps that it took to replace the site and being afraid that she'd forget something. That's just the I get that but that's the not knowing right? It's like you don't know what you don't know. So you're worried about everything. She has a T slim pump. She said it's user friendly, told her exactly what to do. Her biggest advice would be to just know that there will need to be adjustments made. Julia says something I've heard a lot of as well. She remembers feeling like she had just been diagnosed all over again. We kind of touched on it earlier, but it could give you that feeling. Heather says take your time. Listen to the instructions on how to change your sight. And if you're getting persistent highs, it could be that your cannulas bent or something like that happened while you were changing your infusion set. We've only ever had that once where Arden got a bent cannula. And it took a couple of hours to figure out because we were swimming and she was away from her CGM. Had she been right with her CGM. At the time we would have noticed the rise right away.

And he says I remember being in high school and pumped started really being used that her endo was all about it. Her mom really wanted her to get it and she didn't want anything to do with it. She didn't want the tubing, the pumping attached to her all the time, the newness of it. She just didn't want it. She got a two pump and had it less than a year and hated it. She'd get it caught on doorknobs drop it never had a pocket to put it in. She was in private school. She wore skirts sounds like everything was not going well. It wasn't until her sophomore or junior year of college that she got an omni pod and it was a game changer. Oh, well. Thank you, Miami bah Calm forward slash juice box. That was nice for you to say any Thank you Carmen figuring out how to adjust the Basal rates on time of day was a huge advantage. So, you know, my daughter, you guys hear me talk about all the time but Arden needs less insulin from basil overnight and she does during the day. And you have the ability to make those changes. You can say from midnight to seven, I want it to be point nine, five but from seven to, you know, midnight, I want it to be 1.2. Sara says she's a type one she's had it for 29 years, she used the pump for about 13 years got tired of it went back then di was never super comfortable with extended Bolus and stuff. But she says however, I am now trying to regain better control. And I'm about to switch back to a pump. She's got a Dexcom G six now, for about six months. She loves it and she's eager to get going with a pump again. And she's hopeful to lower her one season to the sixes Sarah, I definitely think you can do that. Christine is talking about the power of temp basals and extended boluses. There's things that I think a lot of people don't think about. I talked about them pretty extensively with Jenny in the diabetes pro tip episodes. I think these things are amazing tools that pumping offers. And please take a look at those episodes and try to figure it out. Dee says that when they started on on the pod, she had a couple of errors in the beginning. And it all seemed like a pretty big mess, but she stuck with it. Just remember Basil is not going to be right right away. And the need to make changes. It's obviously you're hearing a lot of people say the same things. It's because it's just what happens. Meghan basil testing and patience is huge, especially if you're moving to an algorithm based pump. Like the Medtronic 670 G, for example. Both of these systems should be started with the algorithm off until basil testing is complete. So if you're thinking about doing that, she's 100%. Right? If you're starting with an algorithm, you start with the algorithm not working so that you can get the basil right before you start expecting the algorithm to do something. She said juice box listeners know the importance of Basal testing. However, it seems there's not enough follow up in the transition from MDI. long acting insulin to pumping Basal rates I very much agree magnets. We do not talk about Basal insulin the right way overall. Tara says if you have a younger child, this is a good point that on the pod like ticks as it's getting ready to go in and she said it made her daughter anxious. They gave her headphones and an iPad so she wouldn't hear it. It's click click click. I have to tell you Arden has been wearing it on the pod for 13 Maybe years. And she still counts the clicks as they go in. So I hear you I think everybody within Omnipod knows about the clicking. But the clicking is it's part of the game. It's how it makes tension to put the insert. It's not important. It's just you know, tout works, but the headphones to eliminate you being able to hear the clicking smart coordinates reminding us that the pump is only as smart as the settings that are in it. She had to remind yourself that the pump was only going to do its job once she did hers. Here's a fun story from Danielle. She said my daughter was six years old when we told her how she wasn't going to have to get shots anymore because she was getting in on the pod. So she was very excited. The first time they put on the pump. The clicking and insertion scared her but they told her Don't worry because you're not going to feel it anymore. No more shots than it came time to give her her first Bolus. They explained it again no more shots that her daughter ran from the house down the street to avoid the Bolus. She said when they finally got her to calm down and gave her the insulin. Her eyes went very big and she suddenly realized no more shots. She thought she was going to feel the insertion every time she got insulin. That was the one thing they didn't think to explain to her. That's a great little piece of advice and an amusing anecdote. Sara just says please everyone share your tips so we can get this episode up. I need it for making the transition soon. Big smiley face. That's really great. People here we're waiting for insurance approval. A lot of people in the thread are just talking about we're getting a pump. Laura, I would say that the fear of making the move from MDI to pumping at least for her fear of change. Yeah, what's worked we already doing something it's working. And then she said we should have they were worried about and then she says they were worried about cost. Is this really something everyone would like? So a lot of those concerns. Okay, good. I was hoping this one came up with. Okay, good. I was hoping this one would come up. Marta says that her total Basal insulin went down, that the initial formulas for pump therapy starting with about 80% of original Basal dose had to be dramatically reduced. She went from injecting 18 units of Toujeo to 12 units on the pump. See, everyone's not the same. And I'm not saying this happened to this specific person. But you There are many people on MDI who are using way too much Basal and find themselves feeding their insulin constantly. So as long as they eat on a certain schedule, they don't notice that they're using too much Basal insulin. And it mimics really great control because you're being held low and steady. And as you try to drop you add food. I hope that makes sense. So there's a lot of different scenarios people find themselves in with their Basal. Some people don't have enough some people have too much, you know, etc. You'll find out who you are. When you change your pump. Jennifer says, if you're using a tube pump, remember that you're going to disconnect it for, you know, bathing, for example, she says, Be aware that your child may take the pump off for a shower and forget to put it back on. Of course, whether you're a child or an adult for getting to hook back up to your pump, you know, you don't have insulin, and you will be surprised how quickly your blood sugar will rise to a dangerous level without any insulin. Tommy asks for me to talk about transitioning during the honeymoon period. Tell me what I would say there is if someone's honeymooning, and they maybe don't need very much insulin or at times it feels like they don't need any for 15 or 20 minutes at a time. Your ability to shut basil down or to tamp it back is going to be amazing for you. Here I'll bring this up. Never turn your Basal insulin off, so you don't suspend your pump. When you want your Basal to go away. You always do a Temp Basal decrease, because when they end, you go back to your regular Basal rate. Suspending insulin and again, maybe forgetting to turn it back on is another quick way to get into DKA always Temp Basal never suspend. Now I hope all of you find the diabetes pro tip episodes that are here in the podcast, they begin at episode 210. With an episode called diabetes pro tip newly diagnosed we're starting over, but if you've been through them, and just want to get back to some things that might be specific to this to 19 is about insulin pumping to 26 about the perfect Bolus setting Basal insulin to 37 Pre-Bolus ng 217. These are all things that might have more stuff for you about using a pump like episode 218 Temp Basal. There's also one here about fat and protein rises, which we'll talk a little bit about using extended boluses. And that's episode 263. You can find them all in your podcast app or at diabetes pro tip.com. All right back to the list. Kyle says Don't forget to rotate your sites, that's a great one. Don't always put your pump in the same exact place. Oh, he also says you can do a Temp Basal like 0% type Temp Basal off when you first start pumping until your old injected Basal insulin get through your system and then boom, pop it right back on again. You can just sort of match them up as close as possible, so you don't have an overlap of your injected Basal insulin, and your pump Basal insulin on your first day. Eva says that for her pumping was the first time she had any concept of insulin onboard, since it was now being displayed right there on her pump and sometimes scared her away from being as bold with insulin as she was with MDI. It was only once she pushed that out of her head that she was able to add insulin when she knew she needed more. So we talked about insulin on board through the Pro Tip series, I hope you've heard them. There's a lot about how your settings get set up on your pump, your doctor chooses an amount of time that they think the insulin stays in your system. If that number is not accurate, then the pumpkin imagine that there's insulin that's still active when there's not. In other words, imagine that the pump thinks that the insulin stays in your system for four hours. But really, you use up the insulin most times in three hours. Then between that third and fourth hour. The pumps gonna still think there's insulin active in there working and say you go to have like three or four carbs. The pump might say no, you don't need any insulin. You still have some active, but he may not. It's you'll figure it out. But don't just maybe I'll do an episode of insulin on board with Jenny sometime might be a good idea.

Alright, let's see what's next. Abby says I need this episode now. very forceful IV it's coming. Carrie remembers being excited that she would not wait. I remember being excited that I would not be as lazy of a diabetic since I would not have to get all the paraphernalia out just to give myself a single shot. But I wish I had a provider that once we had all the settings in would have done the little small tests with me to really hone in the settings. Also remember that it's a tool not a savior or cure. We've gone over that you're still responsible for understanding. Absolutely true have a backup plan for are failures with your pump. It is an electronic device it could fail to and describes learning about a pump as an elephant that's charging at you. I think she's mixing her metaphors she'll join. I think you're mixing your metaphors, but I love it. I'm just starting this week. So I'm super new. But here's what I know. It's an elephant, a giant elephant that feels like it is charging you the classes and forms the logging pump. The represent the logging, the pump reps, the saline start actually starting it more logging, it feels like you'll never see the end of the tunnel, but you get there. So an elephant one bite at a time. So worth it. So where she mixed is she said I love this. You said it's like an elephant charging eight. But I think the saying is how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time, right? I'm not sure what you did there join. But I like you kid who I like what Vicki does here. She says I can wholeheartedly say it was the worst thing I've gone through in 25 years of having diabetes. Looking back, I wish I really understood all the terms in the defining diabetes series before getting a pump. I went from MDI and basically had no knowledge of carb counting. I was diagnosed in 95. And I really didn't stay up with it. So overnight, I needed to understand Basal correction factor, insulin on board, extended Bolus, etc. Also, she says work with your diabetes educator when you're setting the Basal rates, get them to teach you when you should make the changes. I was on 14 units of Lantis on MDI, my diabetes educator who I hate her fired started me on four units. Yeah, that wasn't going to work out with a pump. And would only let me increase it if she said it was okay, they need to teach you how to use the pump. I agree. And Vicki, I appreciate you bringing up the defining diabetes series. There is a series within the podcast called defining diabetes. And this is going to be a big deal for you. Because new terms are gonna pop up with a pump. If you don't know what they mean, you might as well be reading a different language when someone's explaining it to you. You need to understand the terms that you're going to be using. And I do believe just you know, I know I made them. So I might be a little bias but those defining diabetes series are an amazing way to learn a lot of things very quickly. Hey, Katie, you have a great post here. But we covered everything that you said already, but I want to thank you for it. Oh, Jennifer says I recall being nervous about my son accidentally dosing. When he first got his pump. He had an animus ping. So I learned how to lock the pump or use the second security feature that helped ease my anxiety. Apparently there was a pin number she could use. Also, I recall being thrilled that our world got bigger once parents don't have to worry about the needles. He got invited to a lot more playdates and sleepovers. People were just more comfortable with the electronics. That's an excellent point. And leads me into the idea that I'd like to bring up which is that I know the Omni pod has limits that you can set I'm sure every other pump does as well. Max Bolus Max Basal rate so that you can't by mistake want to give one unit and give 100 units is a Bolus or so you can set it wherever you want. I think Arden's Max Basil is set at like six units or seven units an hour. So I can't mistakenly type in nine or 10 or 77, or something like that. And same with her Bolus. I don't remember where it's at at the moment, but I just took the biggest Bolus I've ever made in my life added a couple of units to it and limited it at that so that somebody doesn't end up doing, you know, 175 if they mean 17, but I'm also not in a situation where if suddenly she eats something more than usual, the pumps not stopping us from giving a couple of more units than we normally do. It's a very important safety feature. Please check it out. Kelsey, you're asking a lot of good questions here in the thread. They're all covered in the diabetes pro tip episodes. Stephen says best tips I got were in my original training from a CDE, who was also a T one D. The first was about changing sites, be sure to prime the cannula and add the appropriate amount of insulin to create the puddle of insulin. So it can able so it can enable the insulin to start the absorption, breaking the clumps of insulin into single molecules so the body can use them. Steven, I'm not following you because orange never used the to pump but I trust you as a great person on this site. So I'm going to continue reading. The second grade tip was to use skin prep as a skin barrier and adhesive enhancer been using it for over 20 years. The third was to understand that the Basal rates will change and that the insulin to carb ratio will change no matter what you do. Don't take it personally, Steven, I'm gonna say I'm guessing tube pumps get air in them you have to prime them through. It's not something I understand. Because I've never used the tube pump but I do know it's important. So if you have a tube pump, make sure you understand how to prime it. If you have an omni pod, it takes care of that automatically. And what else did I want to say here? I just had a thought in my head Stephen What the hell you made me think of something and now it's gone. Oh, Tim, what about Basal rates? I got it, but you may have lost my mind yet. Basal rates are going to change. That's whether you're MDI, or you're pumping, you're gonna gain weight become more or less sedentary. There's all kinds of reasons why the amount of insulin you'll need will change, hormonal changes. It's not ever going to be set it and forget it, you're never just going to be like, Oh, my Basal rate is point seven, five an hour. I'll never think of that again. Don't think that's gonna happen. Jenna, this is brilliant. Start your first few sites around the same place on the body. For consistency. Different locations can require different Basal rates. Like for instance, Arden's thigh needs a little more insulin than Ardens arms, very good. Her belly doesn't need as much as your thighs, etc. That could be different from every for everybody. Jenna goes on to say different locations can require different Basal rates, Pre-Bolus times and just overall insulin need and action time. Personally, when doing MDI, I recognize that I have poor arm absorption and great belly absorption. Jenna has great belly absorption. If you're ever on the podcast. Yeah, that's gonna be the title of your episode. So I started putting my pods primarily on my belly for the first few months. So I could figure out how to best use my pump. And its features without adding confusion of absorption differences. That's pretty brilliant. Also a great time to read, mind you that you can't just put the pump in the same exact spot over and over again, very similar to you just can't inject over and over in the same place, you have to have a few sites and you should rotate them often. And don't forget that please. In the same vein, Arden has times of the month where she is more easy to control and less easy to control. I don't think that was English. But when I know she's going to be harder and need more insulin, I make sure that her pumps are on her sites that work better. And times when she's going to be easier. I put it on the sites that need a little more work. So it's not that drastic, but it is significant enough to mention that you should be paying attention to it. Okay, well, that's it. I appreciate everyone jumping in the thread and leaving their thoughts remembered his and tips of switching from MDI, to pumping. I remember the time personally as not that confusing or different because I was pretty bad with MDI. So I didn't notice if I was bad at it would pop, just just move one show from this side of the room to that side of the room. You know what I mean? I can say now looking back with hindsight that everything that everyone mentioned here is well worth understanding. But in the end, you're changing insulin delivery systems, you're eliminating using two different insolence, you're using just one fast acting insulin that's being dispersed by the pump, both for basil and Bolus. You need to know the terms of the pump stuff, because otherwise you're like, I don't understand what a Temp Basal is. You learn that kind of stuff, you learn what a cannula is, that kind of thing. You start figuring out what spots on the body work better, which spots need a little more insulin, get that Basal insulin, right? Don't sit and stare at it, especially especially just do the math. If you were using 10 units a day, and now all of a sudden you're using five units a day of Basal insulin. And you're like, Oh, the blood sugar is always high. Please don't say pumps don't work. Think, why are we not using all the Basal insulin we used to? That's just such a big thing.

Just I just see it so much with people. And here's one last tip from me. When you're wearing an insulin pump, and you think this site might be bad for whatever reason, and you're pumping in insulin, you're not seeing anything happen, and you're not sure if the site's bad. Or if you just have a high blood sugar and you're not using enough insulin. Making an injection, as a correction will bypass the pump, right? So if you inject in that scenario, and your blood sugar starts to move down pretty quickly, that's a good way to figure out that the site might be bad. You say makes sense, Scott, but what I think of it in the moment, you probably would not just why I've mentioned it here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I really want to thank the people on the private Facebook group for the podcast. It's called Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes, I hope to see you there. And that's it. They don't forget the T one D exchange. If you can go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And get involved in the registry. You'll be helping people with type one diabetes, a huge amount you'll be helping the show. That by the way is for US residents who have type one diabetes or US residents who are the caregivers for someone who has type one diabetes, and because we talk so much about it. I know there are plenty of other pumps. But of course the on the pod is a sponsor of the show, and they offer a free, no obligation demo it will be sent right to your house and you can actually try it on My Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. There's still links in the show notes, and links at juicebox podcast.com. I forgot to mention that the defining diabetes episodes are of course available, they're spread throughout the podcast. But if you go to diabetes pro tip.com, and scroll to the bottom of the page, there's, they're all there. So you can find them that way, if you just want to find out what number they are, and then listen to them in your player or you can listen to them right on the website. I really appreciate you listening. I'll be back soon with more episodes of The Juicebox Podcast.

If you think you'd be a great guest for the podcast, reach out to me by emailing me at Scott at juicebox podcast.com. I'm currently booking for the second half of 2021. I think that's August or later, I'm looking for anyone who thinks they have a good story. Somebody who really wants to share help people or just want to be involved in the podcast. Bonus if you think you have a good after dark episode and you email me. I'll wait for this. I'm Scott at juicebox podcast.com.

Want to thank you for listening today. And of course thank you s med for sponsoring this episode us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 You can get your diabetes supplies the way we do from us met. Of course 35% off cozy earth.com with the offer code juice box at checkout, save 10% On your first month of therapy@betterhelp.com forward slash juice box. And if you want to get started today with ag one from athletic greens, you will get five free travel packs and a year supply of vitamin D with your first order at my link. All the links are available at juicebox podcast.com. And in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now. When you click on these links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and I can't tell you how much that means to me keeps the thing free and plentiful. So if you're enjoying the podcast and you need one of these services or products, please consider using my link. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes online. That's where all this came from absolutely great community. It's absolutely free. I said absolutely twice but whatever. Still good Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. You don't have to have type one. You could have type two. You could have Lada you could be the caregiver of someone with diabetes. It's just a great place in general. Thanks again for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#894 A Fault In Our Thinking

Erika Forsyth is an LMFT who has type 1 diabetes. Scott and Erika discuss feeling at fault.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, this is episode 894 of the Juicebox Podcast

good news Erica Forsythe is back, Erica, of course a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist from California. You can learn more about her at Erica forsythe.com. Today the conversation between Eric and I begins with the idea of fault. People wanting to know why something happened, why did I get diabetes? Why did my child get diagnosed, that sort of thing. The conversation grows from there. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. If you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one and a US resident, please complete the survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. This simple survey takes about 10 minutes to do and your answers move diabetes research forward T one D exchange.org Ford slash juice box go complete the survey please. And don't forget, if you want 35% off your entire order at cosy earth.com use the offer code juice box at checkout.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ag one from athletic greens, athletic greens is going to give you a free one year supply of immune supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs. With your first purchase. All you have to do is visit my link athletic greens.com forward slash juicebox. Today's show is also sponsored by better help, you can get 10% off your first month of therapy@betterhelp.com forward slash juicebox. I was wondering if we could very specifically talk about the fault that I hear people talk about. My child has type one diabetes, and I have a thyroid thing. So it's my fault. Or my husband's aunt has RA and now my kid has blah, blah, blah. It's his fault. Or you know what I mean? Like the fault, the fault that gets addressed? It seems so it just seems like it happens to everybody. Like I don't think I've ever met a person who hasn't thought Why did this happen? Whose fault is it? And it's a strange way to think to me, but it's so common. So I wanted to ask you about it.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 2:54
Yes, it is common. I think as parents. I think you said this a long time ago, one of our first episodes that you know when as a parent, you don't have your child and think when is my child going to get sick or when is my child going to be diagnosed with a chronic illness. So you have this mindset and hope that your child will be healthy. And then the first time the child gets injured, or the first time that your child gets sick. It's surprising and shocking. But then we also automatically as parents, I think want to find responsibility in ourselves or somebody else or something else. Because it's painful. It's shocking. It's surprising, and you're not starting out as a parent with that mindset.

Scott Benner 3:42
So I I can almost get wanting to blame somebody else. That almost makes sense to me. But why do people relish in it being their fault? That happens? Like they wanted to like, want it's the wrong word. I don't know where I'm going with this. Exactly. There are just a lot of people who want to tell you. This is my fault. But I've said it a number of different ways. I've never once heard somebody say, Oh, you have blue eyes. That's my fault. They take credit for that. Right? Like, oh, if you get the blue eyes from me, you get that cheekbone for me. You get that jawline from me. Oh, you fart after dinner. That's your mother's fault. Like, like, Why? Why? Like, why do people? Why do you think that's important to people? That's my question, I guess.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 4:37
Important, that's an interesting word choice. I think it might be their tendency or nature. When things feel out of control or chaotic. People sometimes have kind of an automatic default way of thinking or believing. And for some it's I'm going to blame myself I'm going to shame myself. Or I'm going to blame or shame others. But this focus on paid life feels chaotic. I feel out of control. And so my automatic This is how I function is I'm going to blame myself and fight and try and find reason, right? Like, I think people want to find an explanation. And when there is no true set, you know, explanation, it may be just their nature to place blame on themselves.

Scott Benner 5:36
So, do you think that's something that everyone has, like innately? Or do you think there are some people who would never have this conversation? Like, do you think there are some people who would never once think like, oh, Whose fault is this? They're, like, my wife, put it on herself, because there were autoimmune things on her side of the family. And I'm adopted. So of course, we don't have a ton of knowledge. So I get to pretend that there's no way any of this would be from my side of the family, which is ridiculous. But I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. I've never once cared. And I do think you, you are really getting to know me because I said important. And you were like, that's an interesting word. It's an interesting word. Because I don't understand why anybody cares. I really don't I don't know how this would like when I see people online, put so much effort into trying to find out why even the conversations forget, like, whose fault like the conversations about like, well, I need to know what happened. Right? Like, that's fat. That one's like, you know, yes. Oh, my God. Well, they got COVID. And then they got diabetes that had to have been that, okay, you still have diabetes, or maybe my daughter had hand Foot Mouth. Then she got type one. We assume that's what it was. But we weren't like Colombo, and around trying to figure it out, it just all sort of fit, you know, the amount of people I see put a lot of effort into that. Like, I need to know what happened. I don't understand that either.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 7:11
I think a similar analogy could be. So let's say this, there's there's milk spilled on the carpet. One parent might look at that and say, All right, who spilled the milk? Who did it? You're gonna have to come here and clean it up and fix it. But I want to who How did this happen? How did this get here? And then a different parent might say, Oh, my gosh, there's milk spilled on the rug, carpet, whatever, let's clean it up. Let's move on the we have to hurry up. Let's clean this up, move on. And so I think this is same analogy of their, you know, wondering, is it important to find out how the milk got there? Or is it more important just to clean it up and move forward? And I think that might be from your nature, from your upbringing, from your life and all the automatic thinking, it might be important to some people. And I think it would be hard to make a generalization, but I could generalize it. There are people who want to know how it got there, and people who just want to clean it up.

Scott Benner 8:10
Do you need to know so that you can ascribe fault so that you have a place to focus your anchor? Because they still don't understand what happens once you know, right? By the way, you know why I love you. I have two words written down on my whiteboard in front of me. And nothing else for this whole conversation. It says move on. Because I thought, well, this conversation when you and I get done hashing it out, we're going to need to tell people, how do you move forward from this? And then you just said it. I was like, This is why I picked Erica.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 8:42
Well, thank you.

Scott Benner 8:45
But But seriously, like once I know, okay, let's say I can figure it out. My daughter, I definitely took her to a ball pit at a McDonald's when she was blah, blah, blah. And she bumped into a little kid with a snotty nose that gave her hand foot and mouth. And then six weeks later, she had type one diabetes. I know that now. So So what like what do I do with that? Like, I don't know why I would mine up all that information. It doesn't get me anywhere. It doesn't change anything.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 9:20
So someone might say it's a more ascribing blame. So you could say, Oh, if only we didn't go to the McDonald's to that ball pit and she didn't get Hanford if only so you kind of living in the past trying to make sense of why things happened. Going back to the blame, blame and shame game that some people really struggle with and it's painful. And working out, as you said is that the emotions that you're trying to work out the anger, the sadness, the confusion, the shock. So what do you do with all of that you can let it out or Are you trying to make sense of it and say, shame on me, we went to the McDonald's and she got sick. If only we hadn't done that she wouldn't have gotten hindfoot mouth and she wouldn't have that type one, you know, that type of,

Scott Benner 10:11
I get that type of thinking, but but I don't get where they don't add the next part, which is something else just would have happened. Like, it's not it's type one diabetes. It's not a quarter on the ground that you didn't you didn't find the only one like it was coming, you know, right. By the way, I made up the whole McDonald's in the ball pit thing just I just thought of the most disgusting things I can think of in ball pits was right at the top.

Unknown Speaker 10:38
I was gonna say I hadn't heard that story

Scott Benner 10:40
before. Oh, no, no, no, I completely made that up. When you recounted it. I was like, Oh, God, she thinks I'm telling you a story from my actual life. So I don't I don't understand. Like, okay, now I know, let's say it's the kid at the ball pit. I can be mad at that. Or I can blame myself for going. I don't know where that gets us. Like, why? Why does my brain not let me want to be mad like that? I can't even when my wife's a real Ask America, this could happen. I never have a desire to be mad at her. Never. I'm not mad at my kids ever. I'm not. I don't know, like, and I grew up with people who were mad at each other constantly. And I just think I just like I saw enough of it to go, Okay, well, this is not a valuable use of time. I mean, people are going to do what they're going to do, they're going to morph and change and things are gonna happen out of your control. I don't know that being angry about any of it is valuable. Or, and I'm sure I've done things wrong. Like, I mean, I'm more than sure. I mean, I could probably sit down and make a list, right? But if I look back on my life, I think well, I've done a bunch of things wrong. Sure. But my kids are here. Everybody's warm, safe eating. What was it gonna go perfectly? Like was I never gonna make a mistake? Like, that doesn't make sense to me, either. I don't know. All these episodes are just about what I don't understand.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 12:07
Why think what you just said in the middle of that was somewhere along the line, you learned that holding anger or trying to place blame wasn't helping, right? It's, for some, it might feel like it's serving a function of trying going back to the control piece of trying to make sense of why things happened. And if you're trying to place blame on yourself, or others or other outside forces, it's a continuum, you're trying to figure out how could I have controlled these variables? Could I have controlled these influences environmental stressors, all these things to prevent and protect my child from getting diabetes? And so I think it's a process of letting go of that, which is really painful, that we are in control of everything.

Scott Benner 12:58
That is it right like that. If there's something about me and how I grew up, what lets me think that I am a piece of dust floating through the universe, that one day just won't exist anymore. And I'm completely okay with that. And everyone else wants her to be one not everyone else. But a lot of people want there to be big reasons for things like that, that I guess I didn't I didn't consider but I'm, I'm okay. Being Meaningless. If that if that makes any sense. Like it's okay with me. Like I even think of like, I you know, if you if you were to say, when people die, this is horrible. I'm using the basic example I can think of when people die think oh, gosh, that sad for the people who knew them. But I've never felt sad about it. Like if a person dies that I don't know, I go, Oh, what a tragedy in their sphere, right? It's meaningless to me. Like, you know, there's statistics how many people die every day? That person was one of those people. If it would have been my mom, then it's horrifying. If it's me, I guess I don't care. But I guess the people around me would know and Okay, good, right. I just don't see why. I can't make sense of why it matters. Because, oh God, am I gonna say something like, meat? I'm gonna say something deep. That's gonna sound stupid. I don't think anything matters. To some degree or another. Like, I think you just do the best you can. And you help people as much as you can. And you garner as much happiness and love out of life as possible, and then ride that as long as you can. And then that's it. Like, well, I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know how this got here.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 14:49
Or what we're getting into some deeper topics, I think, perhaps, maybe generalizing out of that is, you know what, how do you find per First in your life, do you have a belief in a higher being? Do you find what is your purpose in life? And perhaps some of that line of thinking, you know, is there? Is there an afterlife? We know all of that, you know, what is my purpose in life, basically? And why am I here? And if you have that, maybe your your mindset is nothing matters, you're going to do the best you can live, love and serve, right? Others, excuse me, then it doesn't matter to you why things happen, or how things happen. You're just going to face them one moment at a time. I

Scott Benner 15:43
feel like everything's that way, though. Like you're on a step. You can't see the step above you. It doesn't mean it's not there. Right? Because you might get to it at some point. So if you asked me, you almost just did. Do I believe in a higher power? I would say no. Unless there is one. And then I definitely would, but big but for this moment. Do I think if I went up the next step, I'd see. Buddha, God, better Hari Krishna, whatever. I don't think I would. But if I did, I'd be like, Hmm, well, that's really cool. You know, and then, but I don't think it matters because I try to live my life as if they do exist. So it doesn't matter to me if they exist or don't exist, because I'm doing what I would be doing if I believed in them anyway, if that makes sense. But I also don't think I'm smart enough to think that I know. So I mean, I'll be the first one. If I shut my eyes and open them back up. And I'm standing in front of gates, I'll be like, Get out of here. This is nice. Everybody. I didn't think like I would definitely. And then I'd be like, right on like, let me see what's up like in? That'd be it like if I don't say that there's not a god. I say that if you made me choose, if you told me, Scott, you have $5,000 in the whole world? And I know the answer to this question. You have to bet your five grand I'm gonna go I haven't seen any existence of God, I'm gonna bet against it. And then if it was there, I'd say, Oh, wow, I was wrong about that. I don't I don't I'm not angry. If there is one, I think that'd be terrific. You know what I mean? Like, I just I don't see it. So I don't spend time thinking about it. And what's the point of this is that you can live like it's not there. But live like it is there at the same time. So you have the freedom of not being beholden to something like maybe what am I saying you can act right for the sake of acting right? Like, I don't think there's no rules that are making me help people with a podcast, for example, or that. I don't know, make me hold a door for somebody or all the other things that I think I do that I probably don't go noticed outside of my bubble during the day. I don't know. I'm sorry. I didn't expect to talk about this.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 18:01
Okay, so the what? I think we went we got here by you know, what drives you what is your purpose? And what matters. And in your, your mindset and belief system is that you're, you're doing the best you can you do. You're doing what you can each day, but you don't you're not looking backwards too much. And you're not looking forward too much. either. You're kind of just you're going moment to moment, doing the best you

Scott Benner 18:33
can and well intended. I don't have I try not to regret things. And I just think you know, have good intentions. Follow them as closely as you can, doesn't always go right. And keep moving. So if I did take Arden somewhere that got her sick, and she got diabetes when she was two, but if I just didn't go there that day, she might not have gotten until she was five. I mean, that's a lot of like assumption. You don't I mean, and so sort of probably why I brought the God thing up, like, I'm not gonna spend time making those assumptions. If they're true, that's fine. But if I get to the end, and somebody pulls out like a dossier, and they're like, Yeah, no kidding here. You did take her to the thing that got her sick and turns out had you not gone there that day. You wouldn't have happened till she was eight years old. I would be like, oh, gosh, well, that sucks. But I don't know what to do about that. You don't I mean, like everything to me, it's about what do you do next? Right. That just seems to be what life is to me.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 19:34
Right? And so with this fault piece around? Why do parents often find fault in themselves when their child is diagnosed or gets sick or injured? I think connecting to the either the god higher power control piece Who's Who are you in control of your own destiny? Can you protect Your children from everything, and you prevent all harm. I think we can't. And as parents, it's that is what we're learning each day, you know, as our children, we let them out into the world and they fall and, you know, scratch their knee is the first moment, you're like, Oh, I can't protect my child from everything. But you weren't going to, you're not going to sit there and say, Gosh, I shouldn't have let them go to the park. But I think on this grander scale, when maybe we can connect some dots to autoimmune connection, or we can connect some, some dots on larger, you know, some traits or, you know, genetic markers. There's connection, but I think the fault piece is tricky, right? We can say, well, of course, yeah. There is some connection, some genetic markers and lineage through these auto immune issues through our, you know, grandparents and aunts and uncles. But did we control that? Did we create our own, you know, genetic markers? Well, yeah,

Scott Benner 21:02
cuz you could start getting really deep into bizarre things. Like for instance, I'm not saying I tracked my kids, but I can see where my kids phones are. So last night, I could see Arden moving at a speed that indicated she was in a car on a highway. And she's way at school. She's 14 hours by car away from here. And I did not think oh, God, what if I saw the dot stopped abruptly? And I realized Arden was in a car accident. What would I do? And I thought I would call 911 and then get on a plane. Not I shouldn't have let her go to college. You don't I mean, because the truth is, I might not make it like Eric, I might walk I might leave here when we're done fall on the stairs. And then I'm totally kill me if I thought I was there's no way I'll be able to hold up that so I fall down the stairs. Do you think my 18 year old mom's somewhere? Come on, I shouldn't let him have a family. He should if he would have gotten married and made those babies and you know, bought a place to live and then he wouldn't have stairs to fall down because we were broke. We didn't upstairs anywhere. We lived on one level or like there's that would be a ridiculous thing to do. So I just don't there's no way I would do that. If I'm just gonna come out and say something ridiculous right off. Arden died right now in a car accident. I wouldn't regret anything that happened to her. And I I try to point as much as I can to the first year of the podcast to a woman who came on her name was Lindell Haulover. And she came on because her son who had type one died in college, he got sick. And I think he fell asleep and he just died in his sleep. And his heart. I mean, it was the first year of the podcast like it was a horrible conversation. I have chills thinking about it. Now. I don't remember anybody's name. This woman has a different name. It sticks out to me like this. But during the conversation, she said I don't regret anything. Because he lived for I forget 21 Really amazing years and would I have preferred him to live three times as long? And she said yes, but not if it was that a lot if it was if we were limiting his life. And I thought and that's just sort of how I think about it, like, do the best you can today have good intentions. Hopefully you won't fall down the stairs. And if you do, you can't look backwards, right? You just gotta keep going. Hey guys, just jumping in to remind you that one of our sponsors BetterHelp is offering 10% off your first month of therapy when you use my link better help.com forward slash juicebox that's better. H e l p.com. Forward slash juicebox. Better help is the world's largest therapy service. It is 100% online boasts over 25,000 licensed and experienced therapists and you can talk to them however you want text chat phone or on video. You can actually message your therapist at any time and schedule live sessions when it's convenient for you. Better help.com forward slash juicebox save 10% On your first month. One of the first things I do every morning is take ag one from athletic greens. You could do this as well. You could build a foundation for better health with ag one. Use my link athletic greens.com forward slash juice box to get started today. When you do you'll also unlock an offer to receive a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs that's on top of your ag one. Come on. He wants supports immunity boosts energy helps recovery and promotes gut health. I take it because I'm afraid that my diet doesn't quite include all the vitamins and nutrients that it should and he one helps me to feel better every day. I tried a handful of other range drinks before coming to AG one. One of them I won't mention the name tasted like what I imagined feet will taste like if you made it into a drink. He one however, goes down nice and easy. And my palate is hard to get along with. So that really is saying something. He one from Athletic Greens contains less than one gram of sugar no GMOs. No nasty chemicals or artificial anything's right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition. It's just one scoop and a cup of water every day. That's it, no need for a million different pills or supplements to look out for your health. Of course, to make it easier athletic greens is gonna give you a free one year supply of immune supporting vitamin D, and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do to get that offer is visit my link athletic greens.com forward slash juice box once again, athletic greens.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes, links at juicebox podcast.com to AG one and all the sponsors.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 26:07
I imagine that she probably went through a grief process, though, you know, in that to get to arrive at a place to say that. And I think, you know, not looking back and placing blame on ourselves as parents or you know, as caregivers or trying to find fault that that's all part of the grieving process. So maybe you I don't know if you did that a little bit when she was diagnosed when Arden was originally diagnosed. But I know that that is really common for caregivers that I meet with, you know, gosh, what could how could we prevented it? How did we? How did we miss the signs? Or I thought this is our fault? Yeah,

Scott Benner 26:48
yeah. I thought like, I mean, I'm gonna stay at home dad, right? I thought like, what did I do that put us in this position? And then I thought, well, that's silly. And I didn't think about it anymore. But I get the idea. I do think I had a thought earlier. Where's it at right now I wish I could access it in my head. That being able to see if I can talk myself to it, being able to find the cause and point to it. It does offer relief, I guess. And it's the control piece like like Elise, that wasn't, I didn't do it. It wasn't me. But But then if I were to argue somebody out of that, I'd say well, you pick the guy or the girl that you got married to and made the baby and there was something about your juice and his juice that made a baby, they got diabetes. So turns out if you would have just gone out with the guy from 11th grade instead of the guy from 12th grade, none of this might have happened like we we can we can do that forever. Like it's just it's not valuable. And people get caught in it like, like badly and it ruins years of people's lives. And that's why I brought it up because I watch people do it every day.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 28:00
Yes, yes. Or they I inherit conversely, I thought I was doing everything right. living healthy eating healthy exercising, you know, keeping my mind this is for maybe the more a lot of people, people with a lot of who I work with the thing I was doing everything right? How did this happen? And so it was still trying to find yes, we're trying to find Yes, I think the relief trying to find reasons, explanations as to how something painful and sudden can happen. We just think human nature, we want to find an explanation for hard things. And part of the pain is most often we can't find clear explanations. And then that forces us to process. Am I in control? Why do bad things happen? And how am I going to face with this quote, bad thing? This hard thing? Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:00
You're not in control of anything. Like not big picture stuff. Because if you skip if you if, if you date, I don't know if you married this person, but you could have married the next one or the one before you don't know what would have happened when those two people got together. Like, you know, who knows. It's just it's it's all bad. Listen, I know it's a a, an audio medium, but my children are so much more athletic and attractive than I am that there are days that I'm like, they're definitely like the male bands. You know what I mean? Like, there's no way there's no way those are my kids. And if you would have looked at me and my wife and been like, hey, you'll probably give birth to a girl who's looks like a model and a kid who played college baseball and a bit like that's not gonna happen. And then it did, which is crazy. Think of all the famous hot people whose kids are ugly. Sorry. Like it's your See, they tried to control it. Super hot guy and marry super hot girl kid comes out homely. And you go, what else could I have done? Eric is not gonna agree with any of this. But trust me, it's a great example for our conversation. Those people who, who they tried to, they tried and it still didn't work out. You don't I mean, like, I mean, you don't know, when you're 18 years old. And you you come by and you're your girlfriend, you're picking your girlfriend up, and the mom is sitting over in the corner, and she's rubbing her hands going, my hands hurt again, you don't know, that's like I that's an autoimmune disease, get the hell out of here. Don't make a baby with this one. And lately, like, there's, you're not going to know that. And to put that on yourself afterwards. Also, I think of this for all the people who torture themselves about it. Ask them if they would, if they could go back in time and not have the baby. Would they do that? And no one says yes to that. No one ever I asked people constantly, no one ever says yes. Like not not just get rid of the diabetes. Just the person just doesn't exist anymore? And if the answer to that isn't Yes, then I don't know. I don't know what we're talking about that. Because if it's not that bad, then this is just what you got. And here we go. You know,

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 31:30
it makes sense. I think what one of the myths of living in the land of if if only right, if only I had married this person, or if only we hadn't gone to McDonald's, whatever. The Myth of that thinking is that the if only did it it is going to be better than the reality you're facing now. And then that's how we, as you said, torture ourselves of thinking, If only I had gone left instead of right, then this wouldn't have happened. But if only I had gone left, then that could have happened in that could have been worse. Yeah. But we trick ourselves in thinking that it's the alternative is better.

Scott Benner 32:11
And not only that, but then it sticks you in a position. Like there's no moving along, then, like the amount of people who I've heard tell me, you know, in their 40s and 50s. Oh, I think back to when I was 18. And this is like, I don't know, people. We're not supposed to talk like this. But I think back to when I was 18. And my mom said I was fat. And I think I would kill to look like that now. Like that. That feeling. But it sticks with you the first time it says that your mom says, Oh, are you wearing that? You know, like? Or did you really you think this now you're stuck, right? And then you move forward five years and 10 pounds, you look back and you go, Oh, what was I doing? And then you move forward 20 years and 10 more pounds, you look back you oh my god, I was gonna but in the meantime, you're the one not leaving the space. And you just create these hazy patches of your life, where you're not fully being yourself busy trying to get back to the to step one all the time. Like, I don't know if that makes sense. I see the connection to it to what you just said, of just holding yourself in a spot over and over and over again, instead of getting through it or pass it around, or whatever you have to do to let it go. Because it will follow you right into your grave. And then what do you do if you close your eyes and they don't open back up again, like you all that time is wasted then, and I'm, I'm believing I'm seeing this happen with people around diabetes, type two and type one, just you know, what did I do? What did I eat? What did I say these on? You know, why did I marry this person? Like why did I just gotta let it go? I mean, it's just

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 33:52
Yes. And the the lies that if only I had done this or that then I would be happy or happy or right that that is a distortion a lie that we believe and it's ultimately preventing you from processing the true feelings in those moments of anger, sadness, shock, disbelief, you know, all of those initial grief, emotions post a diagnosis or any other trauma that you're experiencing. And so how do you move on, you know, going back to the, your, your way of your kind of mindset, the milk spilled on the, you know, the, the rod of okay, how do we how do we clean this up? How do we move forward? Well, we can be we can be frustrated, maybe there's going to be a stay in there. Maybe you're going to be sad and that's okay. But the and what we cover that primary emotion with the blame and shame so allowing yourself that space to the Akash I'm so disappointed that this happened I'm so angry. And I do want to find an explanation but I'm ultimately how do I get to a place of peace without having an explanation or without realizing that no one's really at fault.

Scott Benner 35:15
It's also very doable because when I was very young I I mean I wouldn't be making the same podcast I am now right like so I a different personnel and as luck may have it for this conversation this weekend, I took a small chicken and season that and put it in the oven and had a little liquid in it. And it was almost done cooking Erica when the glass pan that it was an exploded. And I have to tell you that about 25 years ago, the pan would have exploded, and I would have cursed for 20 minutes. Every bad word I could think of I would have cleaned it up while he was cursing. I would have cursed each little piece of the glass. Everything I just looked at I went that's crazy that I pulled the chicken bottle off to the side. My wife like what are you going to do that chicken I'm like, I'm going to check it for glass. I'm still eating it. I sopped up all the water and I cleaned up the oven and I cleaned up the glass and I vacuumed everything up and mopped everything up and checked the chicken. It didn't have any glass on it. I put it on a different pan, not a glass one that I shoved it back in the oven, and then I ate it later. And nothing's different in the end whether I would have yelled or screamed or been upset or thought like because I have can I tell you something? I hate that we own glass cookware. I've hated it for 20 years. I've never said anything about it. I thought it was a misstep. And it took 20 years for me to be right, Erica, but I was right. But it didn't. But there was no reason for me to say it. There was no reason for me to be upset by it. How many chickens I put in that thing? It didn't break. So I was like, Yeah, all right. Fair's fair.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 37:08
You didn't go around and say, Ah, ha,

Scott Benner 37:10
no, that's not what I would have said back then I would have been like mother. Chicken

why me? I just don't feel that way anymore. Like I just I don't? I don't know why. I mean, I think I outlined it loosely. While we've been talking. But yes, I mean, I grew up poorly. A lot of stuff went wrong. I had very low expectations for anything. And there's actually a part of me that thinks that helps when the chicken blew up. It did feel like it blew up on the way home and I was like, Wow. I was like, Huh, okay, like, my bar is so low. That I was just like, if I still get to eat this chicken this day still okay for me? Like, like, you know, I don't know. I don't know why we think everything's supposed to go right. And that's interesting to me like that feeling that, that no matter what, no matter what we're involved in, or who were involved with, or what the situation is that it's that it's supposed to be. I don't know that I'm supposed to be living like I'm a professional athlete on Instagram. Like, and if I'm not that everything's a mess. And I just don't I've seen it go back to. I've brought this up on here before because it was so like, impactful to me, like one of the very first professional football players whose contract was made public took him from, like, beloved person to hate it in a city that he had to leave. Because people found out he had, he was making $8 million that year. And it just it ruined people. They were like, I can't be around this anymore. Like he doesn't deserve this. Nobody deserves this much money. Like that kind of thing. Somehow along the way. It's turned into something different. We're now like, it's almost like we fetishize people, the more money we make they make the more we like to hear about it. And, and I don't know if people hear that and think, oh, that can be me one day. And that's hopeful. You know, there's that saying about the biggest, the best thing about America and the worst thing about America is that everybody believes the American dream. And I wonder that about like, Forget America for a second like life, like Does everybody have a picture of perfection they think exists, and they just have to find the way to it and then it's theirs. And then so every time every day I wake up, and I haven't ascended. It's because I made a mistake because the path is really there because the truth is the American dream is for whoever works out for it's not it's not every it's not everybody's and you didn't do it right. That's not That's not what it really means. You know, the American dream means that in America I'm putting quotes around. I don't I don't mean to get political. But nothing is supposed to stop you from a Sunday, you're supposed to have a clear path to it. It doesn't mean that the man who I saw today while I was driving down the street, who looked up at every car when yo as it drove by, he's not getting the dream. Okay, that's not happening for him. And I don't know why I don't know what has happened to him, it seemed like he might have been mentally unstable. But that's not the point. The point is, is like, there's no path for him to get to the dream. And I wonder if everybody doesn't just think it's there. They just haven't found it yet. And, and I wonder if that translates back to health? Does everybody think there? If they just did everything right? They'd be 95 years old on the news, smoking cigarettes, talking about how they've lived this long? You don't? I mean,

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 40:56
I think there's, there might be some people who think that I think most most people have hope, even hope for, to for their dreams to come true. And so then what? And then everyone's dreams are different, but I think most people get up everyday because they have some sort of hope and purpose. Do they? Do they all realize their dreams? Know, for all the various factors and variables of life? But I think most people have hope that they might, but and then you said, do they have hope too, that their life will be perfection? And I think what what is perfection look like for each person is different is perfection, your bank account, your status, your your emotional and physical health, you know, whether what is perfection, right? But I think that sense of will free will and freedom to make those choices is one of the you know, blessings of our country. What impedes that then going back to the you know, our general question of, is it up to the control piece? Is it? Is it my own control? Is it and then is it if it is all in my control? That if then if I make a mistake, then it's my fault. Right? I think that's. So if I have this dream, and this hope to get there. But my mindset is that I it's up to me to get there than any mistake along the way. Physical, emotional, mental, or otherwise, is my fault if I'm ultimately in control. Yeah. Does that make sense? No,

Scott Benner 42:50
it does. It's just a shame that that's not obviously not the truth. That's all like it would be, it would be nice if everybody could believe that they're doing their best. And they'll they'll get up as many steps as they can. And each one is a success. And it doesn't matter if you're the guy who like who cleans the balls in the ball pit, or, you know, at the McDonald's, or if you're, you know, whatever your idea of like making it is like, it doesn't matter, it's the best for you. And that really is important, you know, like just doing the best you can for you. There's no fault there, then, I mean, I think that's what I'm saying earlier is that I don't have any expectations. Like I get up every day, I just do the best I can. I mean, I do have some basic rules, I do try to help people. I tried to I tried to treat people the way that I would like to be treated. I, well, I do treat people the way I would like to be treated. I try not to lie, then I think that's a very important distinction. Because there are times when lying is important. So like, you know, I try not to lie, I don't do it as a knee jerk reaction, like just to make things easy or anything like that. But there are moments when I'm like the nobody benefits from this. It's just going to hurt somebody I'm not going to do I'm not going to say. And that's it. But I mean, I honestly don't have any more rules than that. Just try not to lie and treat people the way you want to be treated. I mean, I would tell you about the podcast, that I never imagined I would do something for a living that would help people and pay my bills, and that I would enjoy. And that's a pretty big trifecta for me. And so I don't sit around every day thinking like, Well, what else can I squeeze out of this? Like, it just doesn't occur to me like that I wanted to reach more people. And I know that if it reached more people, I would probably make more money, you know, and I would probably then be able to do other things. But if it just stayed like this, that would be a lot actually. Like I don't know how to, like why would I think of this as a as a failure, you know, and you know, and it's interesting that financially the way business works, especially here, you see the stock market all the time. Like there's these companies who are like, they're doing fantastic. But they did a projection, they're like we projected 16%, but we only grew 14%. And their stock falls, because they're losers. And you're like, Wait, why? That doesn't make any sense. You know, and I just feels like, everybody has that. Pressure, almost like we've been commingled, like human beings and entities and ideas, we're judging everything on the same level, at this point, instead of just saying, you know, I'm a, I'm a compacted bunch of like, dust. And I'm, somehow have the ability to think a little more than other things on the planet that are made out of dust. And we're just thinking too much sometimes about things that have no answers. I know, that's sound, I think that's sometimes about therapy to like, like, sometimes I'm like, Just try not to care so much. Like it'll be it doesn't matter. You know, like, some things matter. But some things No, that's all

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 46:11
well and good. When the when we're trying to find reasons, or blame or fault, maybe there is, maybe there is blame or fault that should be placed in certain situations. But when we get stuck there, that becomes problematic. So even if we can point to grandma, and great grandpa in the lineage down to how our child now has type one, we have found, we have, we have sort of a loose explanation. And then we can practice grace, you know, to our ourselves and say, You know what, this is okay, I love the partner that I chose to have this child with, or, you know, however you have this child, adopted or otherwise, now we have this child and they have diabetes. And I know why or I don't know why, but I'm just going to practice grace and love on myself. And I'm going to model that for my child. And not pointing any fingers anymore at this point,

Scott Benner 47:23
the pointing fingers is it's forgiveness for forgiveness sake, without having to say something needs to be forgiven, like, so that's kind of the important part, right? It's just the thing, no matter what may or may not have happened here. I forgive it. Like, with just, that's great, right? That's just like, let's just let it go. And move forward. We'll get stuck here forever. And you know, you'll live your whole life in your kitchen with your mom saying that those pants are too tight. And you can't get past that then. Right? I kept thinking forgiveness, then you said grace. And I thought, Okay, this is right. That's great. You know,

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 48:02
it's hard to do if that hasn't been modeled for you, if your mom or dad or parent figure has not modeled that, it's hard. So that's why you might find yourself as a parent now, not knowing how to do that. Can

Scott Benner 48:15
you practice on something small? And being serious? Like, could you pick something that you could just say, like, there's something in my life that I'm pissed off about? There really has no, like, I can see this has no impact on anything. And I'm just gonna let it go. Like it's they tell them what's the saying, right? You don't forgive people? For them. You do it for yourself. Yeah. Right. You unburden yourself.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 48:38
That's right. And that's hard. It's an oftentimes, I think, we think that it's, it's just going to happen, and it's a feeling that's going to come over us and sometimes that happens, but most often, forgiveness is a choice that you are making, and then the feeling times later to forget, I think we get we get stuck in that waiting, well I just gonna wait to like, feel like I want to forgive myself or I feel like I want to forgive him for doing that. But often we have to we have to decide. Okay, and that's hard. That's really hard to do, but it's can be done.

Scott Benner 49:14
Okay. All right. That's, that's what I'm up against that. All right, this is a good place to stop. I do want to say something at the end, though. For I get to look at you while we're doing this. And you're like, What am I like you think like I do. I know you and I don't let me get to it. You and I don't like you. And I don't think the same. Our process is the same. Like I watch you go into your head when you're talking. It's interesting. Like, I think if I forced you to keep eye contact with me, you wouldn't be as clear. Like you sort of you sort of go away into your head. And you speak out of your heart, if that makes sense or not. Yeah, and I do that too. Like so when I'm talking you see be like look away from you, right? Yeah. And I just realized that today like you do the same thing. That's Really interesting. It's, it's lovely because because I don't I never get the feeling that you are reaching into a bag of tricks and pulling out canned responses. Like you're I, I'm a lot, I talk fast. I say things that don't seem connected to each other right away, and you're actually listening to me. And I can see you keeping mental notes in your head like I can see you go say this when we go to this point when he's done talking. And then like, I'm watching. It's very impressive. I'm just very impressed. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Scott. Oh, people should people should see you for their therapy needs in what California? Hold on. Let me see if I know. California, Washington State. No, no, which one Oregon, Oregon, Utah, Utah, and Florida, Florida right now you can do those virtually? Yes. As far as Erica forsyth.com? Yes, thank you. Do you do it in video? Well, they get to see you like disappear into your head before you talk?

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 51:03
Yes. Well, I mean, maybe they'll be looking for that.

Scott Benner 51:06
I would love it. I because I believe when I say something to you, and you respond. I don't think she's just saying what I want to hear. I don't think she's just saying what she can thinks about this topic. Like, I feel like we're having a really a real conversation. And I think that's just it's just very important. And it doesn't always happen. I interview people. I mean, you and I are different. We talk a lot, right? And but I interview people who are just there to say something. And they're just waiting for the spot in the conversation where they can get out their thought. And it's not like that with you. It's very nice. Actually.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 51:46
I appreciate that.

Scott Benner 51:48
Actually, what am I supposed to say when somebody? Thank you? Oh, you're welcome. I'm trying to be of off to you Oh, you think so? Every day, I'm not sure about that. I'm trying my best. And I think and I guess just to wrap it up for everybody. You know, if you can take it from me, a person who's probably spoken to 1000 people who have diabetes or love somebody with diabetes, it just this part you're stuck in is not valuable. And it's never going to lead anywhere. That you are just spinning in circles. And if it if it takes you to make something up to forgive, or to forgive a thing that you can't even put a face to, just to get past it. I think you'd have you'd have a lot more happiness, and a lot less anxiety and I mean the amount of people that just keep coming on the show that describe themselves as anxious. It's never it feels never ending sometimes. It's really, really interesting. Okay, all right. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate this.

Erika Forsyth, MFT, LMFT 52:56
You're welcome. Thank you

Scott Benner 53:04
a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors better help, you can get 10% off your first month of therapy with my link better help.com forward slash juicebox. That's better. H e lp.com. Forward slash juice box. If you've been thinking about speaking with someone this is a great way to do it on your terms betterhelp.com forward slash juice box. You can get started today and everyday with a G one from Athletic Greens by going to athletic greens.com forward slash juice box Don't forget you're gonna get that free vitamin D and the travel packs with your first order. Athletic greens.com forward slash juice box and check out Erica at Erica forsythe.com Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast

#893 Stupid Eggs

Charissa has six children and one of the has type 1 diabetes. There is also a lot of auto immune issues in her family.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 893 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's podcast we're going to be speaking with Chris and I Chris who has 12345. Wait, I ran out of fingers on that hand, six children, and one of them has type one diabetes, but there's a lot of autoimmune going on in her family. It's an interesting conversation, to say the least. While you're listening to me have that conversation with Karissa. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. If you have type one diabetes, or are the parent of a child with type one, like Carissa says, you can go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and complete their survey. Doing that helps move type one research forward. It takes you fewer than 10 minutes. It helps you It helps me it helps the world T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. amount of stuff to say. Still loud music. Geez Hey, you can get 10% off your first. That's gonna be on tomorrow's episode. Now the music's over this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by cozy Earth. Get great sheets, towels and clothing at cozy earth.com. And when you do that, use my offer code juicebox at checkout to save 35% off your entire order. Actually, you have to check out the webpage because I just said like towels and sheets. And that's not fair. There's way more there. I'm wearing the sweatshirt today from cozy Earth and it's banging. So soft, comfy, comfy, comfy, comfy 35% Off with juice box head over now. today's podcast is also sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Now, we all have a blood glucose meter. Right? If you're listening to this podcast, there's a meter in your house somewhere the question is, is it a great one? Is it accurate? Is it reliable? Does it offer Second Chance testing? Because if yours doesn't contour next gen does contour next one.com forward slash juicebox

Charissa 2:38
I am Karissa. I am a mom to six. and my Number five is my type one. Kiddo. So I think that's my introduction.

Scott Benner 2:52
You have the six children the classic way or did you find them places or?

Charissa 2:57
No, they're all mine. Yeah. I popped them out the good old fashioned way.

Scott Benner 3:04
How old? Are you? Karissa?

Charissa 3:06
I am 38.

Scott Benner 3:08
Holy Hannah, are you building an army? Or are you doing this for Jesus? What is the reason you have 16? Yeah,

Charissa 3:14
a little army. I thought maybe a football team or something? Because I only have one girl and the rest are all boys. So don't stop

Scott Benner 3:21
now.

Charissa 3:23
Oh, no, I'm good. Once the youngest is out of diapers, so there's no turning back?

Scott Benner 3:28
Was there ever a thought of a seven?

Charissa 3:31
I'm probably more for me than my husband.

Scott Benner 3:36
Yeah, cuz, right. Well, what made you want to have such a big family?

Charissa 3:41
Um, I just always did. I mean, when I was little, and I played dolls, I had all of them were all of my children all at once. Like, I didn't just like pick one. So I wanted them all. And that was, you know, when when I met my husband, Andy, I was like, Listen, I'm gonna want a lot. And if that's scary for you, you're gonna have to leave. And I think he did debate it. But he stayed. So

Scott Benner 4:08
I asked. This is a serious question. That's gonna sound like a joke. Do you hoard other things?

Charissa 4:16
Um, no, I like to throw away a lot of things.

Scott Benner 4:20
That's interesting. Did you come from a large family?

Charissa 4:23
No, I I'm the middle. I have an older sister and a younger sister. And that's it.

Scott Benner 4:28
That's fascinating. Was there any point during the making of the baby's like around the third one where you thought and is this good? Or, like were you just completing the set at that point? Or were you really like did you never doubt it as you're going along?

Charissa 4:45
And no, I think I think had my body not said hey, the first one was that 10 years from the from the last one. And the last one definitely felt a little bit harder. And I think like, if that would have been a thing, I think I'd had more. But I will say my body felt it 10 years later, a lot more. And I also wanted to have like, even numbers, you know, like an amusement park, somebody had a partner, that sort of thing.

Scott Benner 5:18
I'm doing so late math in my head right now. 10 years has 120 months. That's simple math, right? But nine months to make a baby times six babies is 54 months. So 120 minus 54. So the last 10 years you've only not been pregnant for 66 months. Yeah, good times. I'm gonna divide that by 12. Real quick, just for fun. So you've been pregnant four and a half of the last 10 years. Holy hell. Okay. All right. I don't know we shouldn't like nominate you for something I guess.

Charissa 5:58
I think there's a lot more other you know, crazy people, if you will, than me. So I but it is kind of fun when you walk down the street and people like what? They all you're like, look at them. They all look yes,

Scott Benner 6:13
this lady stole children. She's rounded them up. And she's taking them somewhere someone stopper and they're so there's a 10 year old and what's how young is the youngest?

Charissa 6:23
So actually, my oldest is she's about to turn 15 And my youngest is about to turn five. So there's just 10 years between.

Scott Benner 6:32
So there's Yeah, okay, well, just for fun. 15 What's the next 150?

Charissa 6:39
Well, yeah, 15 1311? Nine, seven, and then almost five.

Scott Benner 6:48
Okay, and which one has type one the seven year old?

Charissa 6:52
The seven year old? Yes. Okay.

Scott Benner 6:55
All right. Well, you're gonna have enough energy to record this. Yeah. Okay.

Charissa 7:00
Man, I mean, they keep me going. So sure. Yeah.

Scott Benner 7:02
Is this the first year your youngest is going to school?

Charissa 7:06
No, he, he did go, we did go back to school. Right, you know, right at the beginning. So he was diagnosed may 24 2020. And then we had the option where we live to have to either go back or stay virtual when we went back to school. And that was a big debate for us. But we were like, well, hopefully a lot of people aren't. And then this is a good chance for the school nurse and the school to learn him when there's less kids. So even though that felt like really terrifying at the time, because he was, you know, only diagnosed for a few months, and he was still kind of honeymooning, and he was NDI and all the things. I was like, you know, we were thinking it's probably it's probably our best bet to put them in now. And then even though we couldn't go into the building, like make all the phone calls, because hopefully they'll have more time to hear us when we call the nurse's office

Scott Benner 8:06
that workout.

Charissa 8:08
Um, yeah, I think so. I think it really did. He was the only type one that year in kindergarten and then partway through first grade, there was a second one that joined and then ending last year, there was a third one that came to the school. And so then this year, there's still three there this year.

Scott Benner 8:33
So that was that was actually very interesting. You misunderstood my question, but I let you finish Oh, you were telling me it was I just wanted to know if the five year old if this is their first year at school?

Charissa 8:44
Oh, my five year old he's not five yet so he does not start

Scott Benner 8:48
school. Okay, so you see his home so you sent five kids off to school when school started like I

Charissa 8:52
said five off? Yes. And this is our first year with three schools because then we have high school middle school and elementary Do you

Scott Benner 8:59
own your own bus company? Or does this school coming?

Charissa 9:03
Do you have a mega van? So sorta and we did name it adventure bus so sorta, but not really.

Scott Benner 9:09
So before I asked you about before I ask you about the diabetes stuff I want to understand you please don't like I'm not looking for your tax return here. But would you characterize the money that your household makes as amazing average or below average?

Charissa 9:26
Probably average okay.

Scott Benner 9:27
How do you manage this

Charissa 9:31
so I stay at home and we my two oldest boys were the same size so that's really convenient. And then the next one is kind of all where the so like in a lot of ways. We so we live near the Austin Texas area so it's not the cheapest however, we moved from Columbus, Ohio and I'm The job change did come with a raise there. And it has allowed me to be able to continue to stay home. And in my previous life, I used to do hair. So it's not like it would have been an amazing bump. Depending on what area of talent you worked in, and how many hours I wanted to put in, you know what I mean? Yeah. And so my priority was still going to be my family, because, like, I kind of told you already, like, my dream was my family. So the the job was to get me to to that, and then I'll actually I'll probably change careers when I go back to work next year.

Scott Benner 10:43
Just because are you looking forward to going back?

Charissa 10:47
Um, yes, I think so. I, I do enjoy having something that's just for me, I do a lot of volunteering in a lot of different places. So it'll be nice to have all those hours make money. Yeah. What do you know, what did that downlink?

Scott Benner 11:04
What do you think you spend on food in a month,

Charissa 11:07
um, in a month

probably around a little over 1000, maybe 1200.

Scott Benner 11:19
You just feed the kids like it's the army, they get powdered eggs at every meal and a piece of toast.

Charissa 11:24
We do by a cup, we do by about 10 dozen eggs a week. We don't drink a lot of milk. So that's not super crazy, we eat a lot of fresh produce, and like meat. And that's probably the biggest expenses on those things, right. And then really, some of those like, convenient low carb snacks that we want to have like in the bag just to take those are expensive. So we don't like the whole family doesn't eat those. Those are usually just for Titus is my type one. So the rest of them will kind of eat something a little bit different. That's not always true. But you know, for the most part, we just really like normal real food, as opposed to just buying the convenient things,

Scott Benner 12:17
do you find yourself coaching them towards trades, when they talk about what they're going to do when they get older?

Charissa 12:23
Like, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt

Scott Benner 12:27
you, I'm just I'm looking at the sheer number of people, right. And then I'm doing the math on what college costs. And there's sort of, there's like an upper tier level of what college costs, which at this point, is, I'm gonna say between 65 and $75,000 a year, right. And then there's sort of that like, 30 $40,000 range. And then there's, you know, there's lower, obviously, there's some schools that are six grand a year, there's community college, pay a few $1,000 for, but even if you went, even if you went like, I don't know, mid level, like if all of your kids were good students, they're like, I want to go to school and I want to be an accountant or this or that you're looking at like, I don't know, it's like a million dollars to send them all to college. You just so that so my point is when they're like, I want to be an accountant, do you say, you know, wouldn't you prefer being a roofer? Like, that's what I would do. I would just be like, you know, what's underserved in the world plumbing? Would you like to be a plumber? I would

Charissa 13:29
trade school.

Scott Benner 13:30
Yeah. Yeah. I pray to Chris, you just you disappeared for a second. So just start over there. But I'm wondering if you guys talk about college for the kids like you and your husband, you're sitting exhausted in the pile at the end of the day? Like, what do you say to each other about that?

Charissa 13:49
Um, I think that, for the most part, we try not to, to worry about it. Because, you know, at some point, I'll go back to work and if we continue to live like we do now, when I do work, everything I make can go for the colleges and the cars and all the things that we're gearing up for, like 10 seconds, really? Um, but no, I don't really I don't think we do because right now, my doctor, my doctor, my daughter is has been talking about being a doctor and she's the first one so cool, cool, we'll be paying for her while everybody else is also going through forever.

Scott Benner 14:28
You should abandon them that would be the best way to stay take them.

Charissa 14:32
Yeah. I mean, I don't I mean, whatever your I think I'm stumbling over this one a little bit because I think because of my personal like, family stuff like my growing up with my sister as a teacher and then became a principal and she's amazing. Super, like I've done all those things. And then we've also like, and then I did cosmetology school. And really, that's kind of what I did. And then but I also still have like, some regrets of not just going and doing like the nursing side of things that I considered previously. And doing it before I got married and have my kids and, you know, did all of those things. That like, I think because of those types of things, it makes me want to, like encourage them to go be and do whatever it is biggest dream their biggest dreams early. Yeah, and then change their mind later. If that makes sense.

Scott Benner 15:42
Man, I suggest trying to groom the 13 year old into being a bank robber, I think that's get him working.

Charissa 15:49
Ironically, that might be the one who would do it

Scott Benner 15:59
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Hey, whether you're interested in cozy Earth contour meters or any of the other sponsors using my links really helps the podcast there are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in now, there are links at juicebox podcast.com, where you can type them in the way I say them. And do all the stuff the offer code. If there's an offer code or with most of them, just go to the link, these things help out the podcast. Thank you very much for considering that. Let's get you back to Carissa. Oh, did I pick the right one?

Charissa 20:23
Yeah, or the nine year old is the topic.

Scott Benner 20:29
How long ago? How long ago was Titus diagnosed?

Charissa 20:34
So it's about two and a half years.

Scott Benner 20:38
Okay, two and a half years ago. So he was, uh, he was pretty young. He was not quite five.

Charissa 20:44
I mean, he was just five I should say, Okay,

Scott Benner 20:48
right. Around five years old. That's fine. Yeah, I just, you know, I don't know exactly when they were born. I'm just guessing from numbers. So yeah, did it how did it present?

Charissa 20:58
Um, so he went the long version, the short

Scott Benner 21:02
version, I want the version you think people would be interested in?

Charissa 21:06
So I honest, I knew nothing about type one diabetes. I have heard of it. But I didn't. I didn't know enough to like watch for symptoms. So they were all there. However, it was right when COVID was happening. It was right. In May. It was when everybody was home for spring break. It was right. In Texas. It was like, you know time to put on all the shorts and change all the clothes and so, you know, even though he was starting to lose weight I and I saw that. He's kind of my beefy guy like we call him the tank. Because he's not chubby. But he is very solid. He has more muscle mass and just general math to him. Then my other kiddos all have made me Yeah, I mean, like he's just always been heavier, bigger guy, even though he's not like, round and like full cheeky, you know what I mean? Like, he's not like chubby, so you didn't like think of like, oh, look, he's finally you know, he's finally like, you know, cutting energy wise catching up to the foodies eaten or something like that. It wasn't like that. However, because his brothers are a little bit more lean. They, when they were outside playing, or we were playing in like the water in the pool in the sandbox, in our backyard, then there. I was, like, I did say, like, man, he's, he must have just had a big growth spurt. He's really kind of shot up. And he's been down more, but he still was not looking like scrawny or anything like that. He just looked thinner, closer to his brother's body type. Just a lot different for him. And then because he was also not wearing pants anymore, he was wearing shorts, like it's not like his clothes seemed a lot different. And then, so we had also been helping our neighbor across the street wanted like a bunch of rocks taken out of like a flower bed. And so we had been over my older boys had been going over and like pulling it all up. And there was a lot. And so we over like a couple days, I would go like check on them. And so we had gone over there and it was kind of hot. And I went over and and I guess I should back up and say like, while we were playing and I noticed like he's kind of like lost a little bit weight. We hadn't really left the house because of COVID. So like there was no stopping to like say, why are you going to the bathroom so many times? Because like, there was he could go whenever he wanted

Scott Benner 23:50
freedom in the house. He didn't notice it happen. Yeah,

Charissa 23:52
there's a, there's a busyness in the house that like people are in and out of the bathroom and coming out of the house all the time that like it was fine. Like, go ahead, do whatever you want. Yeah, and there's water in the refrigerators. And he can go get it whenever but we were also playing outside playing in the pool and sandbox, whatever and it's hot and so we're all drinking a lot of water and because we drink a lot of water in general like we don't drink a lot of milk or juice there was no like asking for it. You can just go get it right now you're free to get the key cups on the counter. So but like when it really kind of came close to like, oh my goodness, I was like man, he kind of feels like he he kind of seemed like something's off and like right before that he had cut his chin. Like I don't remember if they were like jumping playing whatever but he had a pretty good gash and we went to like urgent care and they glued it shot and it didn't really hold. So like that kind of kept opening until part of that was like just getting an infection because like he would play with us but then he'd also come in to like lay on the couch for a little bit. And he's not really like a lay around guy. I do have one of my kiddos is like the lay around. Like he loves to go read a book for a while and not go be wild all the time. But that's not that's not really Titus. That's more you know, that's more that's actually more Lucas, we call them lazy Lou because he wants to go lay around. But so he, he would kind of come in lay down on like I kept taking his temperature and like, I mean, he's on watch, like he doesn't really have anything going on, but like, and then I kept like trying to treat this like his chin because I'm like, maybe he's getting an infection. Like, but again, I was like, I don't really want to take him to the doctor unless we see something. So I just kept trying to clean it and put like, you know, we posted on it, or you know what I mean? Like just trying to take care of it and keep it clean. So anyway, we went over to the neighbor's house, and we're trying to help, like, with the rocks, and I was hoping for a little bit. And he came over with me. And then he was like, I feel like I'm gonna throw up. And I was like, Oh, well, you're probably getting too hot. Let's go home. And so, um, and he drank like some propel while we were out there. And so he, we went back over to the house, gave him something to drink, he started feeling a little bit better. And that was a Saturday. And he laid. You know, he did, we did all the things he didn't really dinner because he didn't really feel great. He had a little bit. And then he went to bed and I checked his temperature. I checked him one more time before we went to sleep. I mean, after you've gotten to sleep, and His room was upstairs, and he shared with his brother. And then so Sunday morning he and my 13 year old is the only one who sleeps in India. But so everybody else had been up and up and moving around for a while. It was about like 930 Because church had come on like the TV, right? Like we were watching. We weren't leaving the house for watching. And I was finishing up making everybody breakfast. I'm like, where's Titus? Somebody go get your brother, please. Because it's time to eat breakfast and we're gonna we're gonna sit and do church together. And my daughter Caylee went upstairs to get him and she came carrying him down the stairs. And she's like, he doesn't feel good. And so she brought him down and like stir them up. And then he was just like breathing really heavy. Like, that's not good. And he wouldn't talk to us like, I'm like, so I like trying to like finish making these eggs and like, I'm stirring it. And I'm mostly just looking at him. And I'm like, I this is not right. Why is he breathing so hard? And why is he not talking? I took his temperature and it was something like 95.8 like, super cold. And she's like, Mom, I found him on the bathroom floor. breathing really hard. And I was like, was he asleep? Did he get up to go? That doesn't feel good. She's like, I don't know if she was asleep or not. He had his eyes open, but he's not talking to me. And so then we're trying to talk to them, or I'm trying to ask them what's wrong. He's not really responding. And I'm like, I don't even care about the stupid eggs. Like I just like, I'm like, I'm done. I don't care if these are done these. Something's not right. So I call a friend of mine, who has she fostered and then adopted a lot of medical kids. I say a lot. She fostered a lot of kiddos, and then she adopted two or three medical kiddos. So they have a lot of stuff at their house. And I'm like, Listen, I need like a pulse ox. And I need an I don't know something's not right. So she came over pretty quick, maybe within like 10 minutes, and we were trying to get like, his, like, you know, numbers and stuff. We just wouldn't read. And I was and he was so cool to head on, like wrapped in a comforter and on the front porch, like in the sun. And, and then he threw up and I'm like, Nope, we're done. I'm not staying here. We're going to the we're going we're taking him in somewhere because this is not okay, we're not talking

Scott Benner 29:09
if it wasn't, if it wasn't for COVID Do you think you would have gone sooner? 100%. Okay. Yeah, I just was wondering what you were, what you were, I mean, because on the floor unresponsive is, you know,

Charissa 29:24
yeah, I mean, like, he wasn't talking he was like stand and he was like, you know, whatever. But like he wasn't like, like, it's more like lethargic. Yeah, kind of thing. But not like not responsive. Like couldn't shake him awake. He was awake and standing talking to us, but not like something else. You know what I mean? If he was just breathing heavy and unresponsive it called 911. And they did. It had been a squad. Yeah, you know what I mean? So but he wouldn't talk to us respond to us that way. And so then he threw up everywhere and I'm like, nope. And I quickly like all over me and all over him like we quickly showered him And me and I started like, and I'm like instructing like my family, like, you go get a bag, you go get a book, you go get whatever, and get it all packed up. And I like pack stuff for him and me, like, I knew we weren't going to just be there for like, an hour, you know what I mean? Like, I knew this was a minute, like, there's something was not right. And so we got to the ER, and, you know, they do all the classic checking on things, but they were trying to get him to like, put his arms up for for an x ray. And he was like, just kind of like, crying because he like really just couldn't. And they gave him an IV in one arm. And he didn't even read. Like, he didn't like, flinch to that. And you're like, No, that's not. That doesn't feel like a normal five year old response. Right, like, and I

Scott Benner 30:50
asked you, of course, like, at that point, having no feedback yet from the doctors. What was going through your head?

Charissa 30:57
Did you have right, it was I was not understanding why they weren't moving faster.

Scott Benner 31:02
Okay. But I just felt like position where you like making things up in your head? Like, what was your, like, your worst nightmare in that moment?

Charissa 31:10
Yeah, I mean, I was like, he's never had asthma. So like, I don't understand the breathing. He isn't talking and they're trying to make him like walk down to the room, like, you know, from triage down to the room. Like, why are we doing triage at all? Like, why are we not just going to a room, this doesn't feel like you guys are understanding how urgent this feels to me. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I was just like, I feel like this feels a lot more urgent to me. I feel like you are not seeing how wrong something is happening here. And I remember being enough in a daze that it was. It was a while later, that one of the nurses said after he had like, after we found out was going on, like one of the nurses said, Okay, he's no longer tech product. But like, I even realized that was happening. You know what I mean? Like, there was enough happening, that I was like, why is he and I think I think people were moving quicker. I think I was I was worried enough that I was like, I feel like y'all aren't doing enough. Why are you not doing more. So they did do a decent amount of things. They did all the lab work, they did all kinds of stuff. And we were kind of waiting and I and he the the really the rapid breathing and the fact also his skin was like really like patchy meaning like, it was kind of like purpley and like, almost had like, circular kind of pattern on it. And all of his extremities were like super cold.

Scott Benner 32:43
Sounds like its circulation was poor. Yes, yeah.

Charissa 32:47
And yeah, it was it was not good. And I think like he had probably gone into DKA, that while we were doing the rock stuff, where I had is going into DK then, and I didn't, I didn't know. And then I let him go to bed. And I I'm like, I cannot believe I let him go.

Scott Benner 33:09
Well, that was his blood sugar. When they finally figured out he had diabetes.

Charissa 33:14
It was still only like in the 380s. Which, to me doesn't sound like insane. Considering, you know, his his agency, I want to say was a 11.2. And then what kind of gets me a little bit is it because they don't do like the urine tests in the pediatricians office like had he just had one at his Wilczek made a scene it was elevated then probably because he had his wheelchair. And then to have a little point to he had to have been prior. You know what I mean? Yeah, how

Scott Benner 33:53
long did it tell him? I'm sorry. I was gonna ask how long did it take him to kind of bounce back after they got him? You know, the treatment he needed?

Charissa 34:01
Yeah, um, so he, we were in the PICU for two days. And then they they moved us to a I want to say they moved us to a regular floor, like that night. On the last like the night of the second day, and then the next morning, they did let us like that's when we kind of moved and then we move and then we left like that evening. So he was there for about three days.

Scott Benner 34:32
All right. This was completely unexpected. There's no other diabetes in your family.

Charissa 34:38
There is nothing there is no type one. I will say like both of my parents like their parents and siblings or their parents and their parents siblings. So going back like decently far right. Didn't live a long time. So I feel like there's a possibility But having been there because they had children, like my grandparents had children that died young, or they had nieces and nephews who died young. So like, I think there's probably a possibility but there's not enough history and knowledge there. To know.

Scott Benner 35:18
That's yeah, that's very interesting. How about other autoimmune issues?

Charissa 35:23
Oh, yeah, we're a mess. Well, my, my niece was probably the first one that we realize, had something. So she has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. And she was a little like, maybe two when she was diagnosed, and she was diagnosed because she had like, broken bones that were like, Why is she breaking so easily? And then it had been a number of years, because I want to say she's 12. Yes, she's in between two of mine. So she's, she's 12. So it's probably been about 10 years from there. So, you know, she was eight ish, before Titus was diagnosed. And then really, when Titus was diagnosed, that's when, really, and then kind of when we found your podcast. And I started, like, digging in more and wanting to know more than I looked for my own stuff, like what was wrong with like, I have hypothyroid. But I was like, but there's enough weird things that like, I need you to test for other things. And so that was finally, you know, I fought with that for 14 years. And then really last year, is when I was like, can you test me for Hashimotos? And then, my endocrinologist was like, yeah, it came back. Do you have that? See, see?

Scott Benner 36:51
So Well, hold on a second. So you have Hashimotos and the grandparents that you were talking about? Are they on your side of your husband's side? My side, your side? Okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Keep that.

Charissa 37:04
So really, and then my, my younger sister has a probably fine to say like a an autoimmune like colon issues. So she can't have any theory of any kind. And that was really diagnosed about two years ago.

Scott Benner 37:21
colitis, maybe? Yes, yeah.

Charissa 37:23
I was trying to remember what it was earlier today. And I was like, I don't know. Don't worry, figure it out. You probably have them in your brain bank.

Scott Benner 37:33
Okay. Your sister has colitis. You have Hashimotos Your son has type one.

Charissa 37:39
Yeah, right. And then we've had like some weird things like pop up. So we did do TrialNet thank you for that. Um, so my 13 year old Emmett has one marker different than Titus. Titus only had had one also, but a different than Titus. And then my nine year old LinkedIn has to, and he was in a trial, which I originally thought, oh, we'll talk about this trial, but it was cancelled about a month ago. And so he has to and they're different than either of the other boys.

Scott Benner 38:23
Okay, so your seven year old has type one, your nine year old has two markers for type one, your 13 year old has one marker for type one. Correct. And they've all been done

Charissa 38:32
and everybody else is clear? Yeah. Okay. Including my husband and I, we all

Scott Benner 38:36
did it. You have Hashimotos Your sister has colitis. And wow, that is a lot. You okay,

Charissa 38:45
and then, and then really like my older sister has just recently been like, referred to a rheumatologist. So she's just trying to discover what's going on there. And then my oldest two have now been referred to rheumatologist to try to figure out what's kind of happening there. And we've had a few different markers of different things, not type one, but other autoimmune things come up that we're in the discovery phase of now. What are they trying to figure out? What's happening?

Scott Benner 39:14
Your older your two older ones.

Charissa 39:17
So I met had, so he's 13. But over last year, he kind of got like, like sports suddenly became super hard. And he's always been like very athletic and you know, do his things. And just super busy and you know what I mean? But he could not keep up and cross country. He could not keep up in football and we're like, Are you are you not trying? Like what? And actually I feel really bad because I felt frustrated that he wasn't trying hard enough. Because I was like, why? Why don't you care? You said you really wanted to do this. And now you're not working as hard. Now, I didn't really say to him as much, you know, to me, and I try not to be that way. But, but I did say like, you know, are you okay? Because like, you seem you seemed a little more tired today, you know, do you mean, but I really noticed that we do. My daughter is a swimmer. And we it started because we started summer league swimming. And so all of my kids do some really. So for the youngest, he still more of a thinker than a swimmer. And so during summer league swim, that's when it really clicked in my head that something was not quite right, because he couldn't hit last year's times. And normally, like last year's times, you kind of hit that and like the first week, and then you improve on your times, all summer. That all the meats because you have meat, like almost every weekend for like, six weeks,

Scott Benner 40:57
what are his complaints,

Charissa 41:00
he was just not able to keep up. Like he just couldn't keep, like, he had no endurance, I guess that's really like, the biggest thing there. So like, he'd be fine. And like the normal short spurts, he also has like ADHD, right. So like, he's also a very, he can be very busy. And then, so it's sometimes harder, I think, maybe sometimes a little bit harder to see there. Because if he was like, if you if he was like a little bit more, even all of the time, I think it would have been a little bit easier to spot but because he's him, you kind of have to like, you know, I thought maybe he was just like calming down a little bit more. You know what I mean? But then I was like, maybe he just can't keep up. But over last school year, he got everything. I mean, he had COVID and flu, and strep, and colds, and he got mono. Like he had everything. And so I think mono is kind of what we assumed was playing a big part in it. But then I was like, I need more blood work. Like please, please do more laps, like please look into it more. And so when we did that, and our pediatrician was really good about like, I need, I now need you to do this, you might think I'm crazy, but let's just let's just humor me here. And like, let's give it a shot. And so she will. And so that's what they did. And she was like, Okay, I see some markers here. Now we're going to refer you to a rheumatologist for that.

Scott Benner 42:46
What did she say?

Charissa 42:49
Um, it was.

Scott Benner 42:58
Chris, you have too many. There's too much. There's too much happening in your head. I think you should just lock them in a closet and leave for four days. It leaves them with

Charissa 43:09
did I just make people to break them? It's not fair. I was just trying to do my part to make the world a more beautiful.

Scott Benner 43:15
Well, does it feel like that? Do you feel like I have questions. But let me take a sidebar for a second. So do you feel let down because you talked about church on TV. And that makes me feel like churches important to you? Because if I had to get to church through television, I definitely wouldn't do it. So that seems like a commitment. And it is important. Yeah. So you felt like you were is that right? Like you felt like you were populating the earth. And now you're spending your time worrying that your son can't run or swim and that your other kid has diabetes, and the other one has two markers and like it, do you feel? I don't know what the word would be. I need you to tell me how it feels.

Charissa 43:57
Um, I think I know what you're saying. But no, I don't feel ripped off. I don't really feel like that so much. I do feel a little bit like I wish I wasn't making their life harder because I didn't know I had these things. But I don't know that it would have stopped me from having them because I want them you know what I mean? Like I want them in my life and I feel like they make my life better. And I feel like as a family we are strong. And and I like the idea of what we can do when we go into the world and we try to look people right so like I don't know that I would have changed anything. I think I maybe as a young person was a little bit more naive as to what life was going to be like when you got old Sir,

Scott Benner 45:00
yeah, it's a very, it's a very hard question to answer. Because if I said to you or to anybody or to me, you know, here's what life is like with this issue, whatever it is. And you don't have the context of knowing your children at that point. Like, if I could take you back in a time machine and say, Look, you don't have kids, you have no connection to them. I know, this is what you want, you want to make a family, etc. But here are the things that are going to happen. I think that the 23 year old you are, I don't know, however old you were when you were really considering having children. 25.

Charissa 45:32
Ironically, 23 is when I had my first one,

Scott Benner 45:34
I was doing the math like vaguely like, so like, so. Yeah, thank you, that you. I wonder how that you would have answered? Because I don't know, that version of me would answer either. And I don't also want to articulate on the podcast that if you gave it to do over again, I'd say no, this isn't worth it. Because that's hurtful for people to hear, who have, you know, Taiwan or my kid or whoever, you know? And I don't I don't mean it that way. There are two different. I mean, there's no way to do what I'm proposing, right. You can't actually go back and ask yourself that question before you know this. So knowing what I know, now, I wouldn't, I wouldn't make a decision that led to art not being here. Like I just wouldn't do that. But I take your point, you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's a tough thing to swallow, because people are now you have these people you love, and now they're struggling. And you're not, it's not like it's not the kind of struggle where you're just like, Oh, you have a headache, take this aspirin, it'll go away. It's the kind of struggle where you don't even know what's happening. And you go to a doctor, and the doctor is like, I don't know, go to a different doctor. And that's a long road. I mean, of all the kind of fascinating things that you've said or not said so far today. When I asked you what the markers were that sent your 13 year old to rheumatology, you couldn't think of it? And that's not because you're not paying attention. That's because you're overwhelmed. And there's a lot going on. Yeah, I think it sounds to me, so but what are his complaints? Like? Just the tiredness? I mean, did they check in for hypothyroidism? Or Hashimotos?

Charissa 47:09
Yeah, I while I make them always check, thyroid, and all those kinds of things, like, every year, at well checks all the time, just because that's how I, how I am it was the AMA heater was the

Scott Benner 47:22
what are their TSH has come back like, um, because a lot of times doctors will tell you, they're in range, but they're high. And then you can mitigate that and feel better.

Charissa 47:34
Right? They, so a lot of times they'll call us and tell tell us, right? And so when I asked what the numbers were specifically, I can't tell you what the numbers are at the moment, because we've been away enough from those appointments, right? Like my kids are. February, January, December. I have one in June, and then September birthday. So really, it's been closer to a year. And I don't have a great memory. Especially like for some of those types of little things. Like I know where to go look for it. Because I know I don't remember I keep it somewhere.

Scott Benner 48:14
Listen, if I was you, I remember either door. Yeah.

Charissa 48:19
But I don't remember where he's going with that. See that one? No, it's

Scott Benner 48:24
fine. Well, I was just asking, like, what if their TSH numbers were coming back over to

Charissa 48:28
Oh, yeah, I do remember like asking about it. Close enough to where I felt like it needed to be that I was like, okay, that's fine. Because they don't like I wish it was like in the patient portal where you can just go look at it. And then I could like screenshot it and save it in there and look at all of them my own self, but the pediatrician specifically will just call and go over all of the numbers and discuss it, which I do appreciate, because then we can talk about it, as opposed to just kind of looking and we can discuss what we want to do from there. Yeah. But if you forget, or you don't write it down, or you're somewhere else, then then you don't really have a great way. Or if you're like on a podcast and you're like I want to talk about the specific detail.

Scott Benner 49:17
One of my one of my anxiety points is as you're searching for the answer to a problem, I always think what if we already found the answer and we're not looking at it? Right? And like, Dude, I mean that it's that idea of wasted time. Like what if we did a blood test got this answer, and just didn't like it didn't like ring the right bells for people so it sits there written down on a piece of paper the answer to your problem and now you're moving forward to another doctor, another doctor, another doctor. And here it is way back here the answer. I always I always end especially for a person like yourself who's managing six kids? And you know, there's health issues kind of spread around you have them yourself. Like, how much time can you actually spend sitting down poring over all this stuff trying to go, hey, well, what does this mean? Somebody addressed this plus the way. We talked to doctors, you know, the communication process, you sit in, you go and you sit down in this in this thing, and they look at everything and go, Well, these tests were okay. And then you just go okay, and then you write those off then like, alright, well, that wasn't the issue. We'll go to the next thing. But I mean, just being so so your, your 13 year old for an example, his his complaints are just he's tired, and he's not performing the way he used to?

Charissa 50:43
Mm hmm. Well, that's really what I saw for him. For sure, yeah. I'm sure there's probably other things that he's not discussing. Okay. But that's what I see. For him. My daughter, I saw more like arthritis see kinds of things for her. And then a lot of her stuff was really kind of triggered when when she broke her fingers. And then she was allergic to her past. And then since then, she is super responsive to anything. It's gotten a little bit better, but like, right after she had like, a contact dermatitis from her cast, like her arm was swelling above her cast, super vague, and we had to make them take it off early.

Scott Benner 51:30
Having an auto immune response to the cast.

Charissa 51:33
Correct? Yeah. And then, but really, like, we went to a bunch of doctors, repeatedly, we ended up going to an ER finally went to a dermatologist. And then like, then we floated around for three years trying to figure out like, why is it and then not too long ago, I was like, Wait a minute. Doesn't this sound like an autoimmune response? It was triggered by something. And then so from there, and then I was like, and then you know, she's had some joint issues, she'll, she'll kind of have like swollen knees, she's six foot and 14 at the moment. So like, she and she's very athletic. Like, she's a swimmer. But she also did cross country and she's built very. I mean, you can tell that she's so in six days a week, and she runs and she works out and she Tracy eat really healthy. And you know what I mean? When we first

Scott Benner 52:27
set out the knees, they're swollen or they warm to the touch.

Charissa 52:31
Sometimes there'll be warm, red, swollen, and then sometimes like her hands, so it's more knees in hand, sometimes elbows will play in it. It definitely is affected by weather. Cold. Like when we went to Colorado A couple years ago for Thanksgiving, she was like, just so at every time we'd go outside, and like plan the snow and she you know what I mean? Like, so that's quite a lot more closer to like, my husband has psoriatic arthritis. And so we were like, Okay, maybe you're getting like maybe you actually have something more like that, which is, you know, also autoimmune. And so, okay, well, maybe that's kind of also happening there. Is she?

Scott Benner 53:17
Is she single rheumatory. Physician?

Charissa 53:21
Yes, yes, yes, she's she. So the rheumatologist did a whole bunch of stuff, including a lot of genetic testing. And then we see him again in middle of September, to kind of go over everything. But he also sent her to like an ophthalmologist, he sent her for a CAT scan of her hands, and an MRI of her hands. And also to like a specific allergist. For kind of looking at why she reacted to the cast, because she also gets like a contact dermatitis looking rash as opposed to more hives. But like, for weird things, like sometimes she'll like eat peanut butter, and we're like, oh, this brand like she can't eat just anymore, right? Like that's not a brand that she can eat. The rest of the family could eat it but she can't. So we were all natural peanut butter. Well now even some of those she can't for like maybe it's the oil in the peanut butter. Because she can do like PD fish. She can toss that like a protein shake. And that's okay. So it's like there's some weird things there, which she just found out she's allergic to Koloff honey, which is a pine. And in resin is like the biggest thing that it's in. And it's in like paints and makeups and all different things. So I don't know, we'll see where we are from there. But they both had that like definite high marker of that as a theater.

Scott Benner 54:57
Right? Well, I mean I'm glad everybody's being seen, then you're seems like you're moving towards something. I mean it. The red knees, the heat, the cold and hot. Like that does sound and there's RA in your family. Right. So, I mean, that seems like half the doctors talked about what they would do to try to help her if this is what it is.

Charissa 55:19
Yeah, they kind of told her like, at least tentatively that like it's an idiopathic arthritis at the moment, which is more like, for from what I've read, like more for like, kids who are like diagnosed like in that team area. And so at the moment, it's still more of a kind of treat the symptoms a little bit more, but it does have like some skin element to it for her, which is more on her scalp. Which is super fun when you're a teenager, you know. So but we just got a new, like treatment from the from the dermatologist. And that seemed to actually really help significantly. That's more for more for Soria for psoriasis, then just eczema, which is kind of what they were treating it like before, but they can kind of go hand in hand.

Scott Benner 56:22
Well, yeah, there's a lot also on top of all that, ADHD, there's some an NIH writings about it. One of them is a personal history and maternal history of autoimmune diseases were associated with increased risk of ADHD. And several authors have proposed associations between ADHD and inflammatory mechanisms due to positive findings regarding inflammation related genes. So it's really mean that's a lot. It's just if if juice, are you okay, I asked you earlier and you blew right past it, but

Charissa 56:56
Oh, am I okay? Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, okay. I don't I think I didn't even hear you. I'm sorry. No,

Scott Benner 57:04
no, don't worry. I just I wasn't sure if you were didn't hear me or you were just like, I'm not okay. And I don't need to say it.

Charissa 57:09
I just use okay, what's okay? Even mean? I'm not even sure at this

Scott Benner 57:13
point. You know, I'm the most stunning thing you've said is that you help your neighbor pick up rocks, my neighbor is. I don't think I've ever shared this, but we live across the street from I don't mean this, like, in a bad way. But she's so old, this very, very old woman, like when we moved in 20 years ago. And I first saw her I thought, oh, that lady will be dead soon. Like, that's how old she is, you know what I mean? And, and she lives with her nephew. But if she's in her 80s, he's, you know, in his 50s. And he was sort of, he's the he used to be the guy in town who would, you know, kind of show up, like passed out places. And that doesn't seem that doesn't seem to be anymore. But they're very, I don't know the word. I can't explain the word other than just say that the piece of property they have. They have filled in every square inch with a bush or a tree. Like no one's going to buy this house unless they want an arboretum Plater. They spend every waking hour tending to the, to the grounds. And besides the fact that she will sometimes scream and yell at you, when you're driving in and out of your driveway for reasons that are completely innocuous. Like you're not doing Vicky come out of the you come out of your driveway, stop at the end go to turn. And you just hear ask. You're like, Okay, we've never we've never spoken we don't know each other like I tried waving and talking in the beginning, but it just didn't matter. They wouldn't respond. Anyway, I tell you all this to tell you that there are this is not an infrequent thing. But frequently, she will go outside with a heavy pair of metal kitchen shears and cut the weeds at ground level with them. And she'll she'll spend days doing it. Like just and there. There was this one time. We were all up late. Hold on. I swear this happened. Let me get a drink. You were in the house. We watched a movie. It was late. Two o'clock in the morning. You're closing everything down. The house was getting quiet. And all we could hear was like Ting Ting Ting and everybody's like, what is that? And we got quiet like it's outside. It's outside. So we start looking out the windows because you know what the hell Ting Ting. And then finally one of the kids goes, Oh my God. Now it's after two o'clock in the morning. She's across the street cutting the weeds with their scissors. Oh, that's what the thinking was. So when you were like, we helped our neighbor pick up rocks, I was like, oh, people talk to their neighbors. They liked them enough to do. I mean, I would like her if she didn't like, creep the enemy if I'm being honest. But she I know, she's like, she's like a Scooby Doo bad guy. You know what I mean?

Charissa 1:00:22
I mean, that's pretty creepy. It is very, I don't like that. I can't

Scott Benner 1:00:26
even tell you the story of one time my kids were playing in the driveway. And she just randomly started screaming at them. And I think I had had enough. So I went to the end of the driveway. And I had harsh words for her, which seemed to push her back into the house. And when it was over, I turned I looked at my daughter's friend, and she was like, oh, oh, and I'm like, sorry, I didn't mean to sorry. We just I'd like she can't yell at you guys. Like, it's like, you're not doing anything. You're just existing on our property. And she's just, I, there's something clearly, let me be honest, there's something very wrong, you know what I mean? So most of the times, they're innocuous. And every once in a while, they're just like, out of their minds anyway. Let me ask you here at the end, how your son's managing with the type one and how you're making out with it. That is it? Did you get certain technologies? How did you start? Like, how's it going?

Charissa 1:01:26
Yeah, we got the Dexcom, G six, pretty, pretty quick, not quite as immediately as I wish we would have looking back. I think the whole like, put something on your kid was this like was a moment for my husband, like when we were still in the hospital. But within like a month or so we got it. And it's magic. Everybody needs one. And then he's on the Omni pod now. And he has been for I guess it'll be two years in November. So and that's really been really very, very helpful. I wanted him on the on a pump, simply because his, we needed to be able to adjust his basil, we needed to be significantly lower at school and significantly higher, at night and at home. Like we needed to be able to double or triple it and be able to step it up and step it back. It almost looks like stair steps, like when you're looking at the line. And that was super helpful. He's also for the most part, adrenaline still makes him dropped more than it makes him rise. I don't I don't know why his body wants to try to kill them when it's supposed to try to save them.

Scott Benner 1:02:52
I've heard other people say that, by the way that like that fear and anxiety where some people get a bump up makes them crash down.

Charissa 1:02:59
Yeah, so like, for him, like when he walks into the school building. His his, his his basil. He's around like 11 units during the summer. And as soon as we hit like school, he can probably go down, like almost a full unit just for being at school during the day, and sometimes even a little bit less. And we don't necessarily always have to cover every car, we're like at home, I still would cover like to, you know what I mean? Like the only time I'm like, you might be okay is if you're like at five and you're eating something that says it's one I'm like, okay to eat that. That one thing right now. You know what I mean? Otherwise, no, we're, we have to cover that. So, but at school, you might even be able to go to like, five or whatever, and not have to necessarily worry so much about it. So it's weird. And then the second he walks out of the building, you know, like at three o'clock or whatever he that, like that moment is when his Basal will go from, you know, whatever it is. It'll it'll, it'll double for him to walk out the door.

Scott Benner 1:04:19
I'm sorry. So while he's at school, he almost needs the equivalent of like five units a day but away from school. It's more like 11 Total Basal.

Charissa 1:04:28
Well, during during the school year, he gets around like closer to nine and 9.4 or five or something, right? That's about what it is with all the adjustments, but like, during the summer he was 11 Solid. Just just Basal

Scott Benner 1:04:47
so when he's not, not at school, he's getting like point four or five an hour on average, but when he's that you lose a couple of of units on that total Basal and most of it goes away during the day too. I'm always in school.

Charissa 1:05:01
Yeah, I mean, he'll go down to about like point two, five, during during different parts of the day, like during recess and lunch?

Scott Benner 1:05:08
Because he's super active at school.

Charissa 1:05:11
Um, yeah, I mean, he'll play hard when he's at recess. He's not wonder like, kind of do nothing but like a though it will need to start almost as soon as he walks in the building to drop down. And as soon as he walks out, he will start rising. The second he comes out of the building because he starts relaxing. And then when he falls asleep, it's significantly more than like, as soon as he falls asleep,

Scott Benner 1:05:36
every time that is super interesting, because Arden's exactly the same. The opposite. Like she needed, she needed more at school, and the minute she leaves left school, her blood sugar started to drop.

Charissa 1:05:47
Well, when you were talking about that on episode previous, I just did whatever you said their

Scott Benner 1:05:51
opposite. The backwards. Yeah, like I just said, I was like, that's that makes sense.

Charissa 1:05:55
Okay, let's just do opposite of what he just said, well, then that will probably work. And then it kind of did.

Scott Benner 1:06:00
Good. Well, yeah, that's really something I, I just, I'm not sure what to say? Or do you look at your other two with markers and wonder if they're gonna get type on?

Charissa 1:06:14
Um, sometimes even the ones that don't have markers every now and again, I'll be like, I feel like I need to just poke your finger real quick here. Because I think that is always now in the back of your head. You know, like, Are we are we sure we're good? Like, you just went to the bathroom? Like 18 times? Give it UTI? Are you trying to have something? You know, like, what's going on? Or, or just have a bunch to drink? That's also a thing. But it's still a little bit. There. I don't worry about it, though. I'm not, I guess I'm not afraid of it anymore. I think if you'd asked me that first year, I'd have been afraid of it more, but now I'm like, Well, I mean, we know what we're gonna do, and they're more ready to like take it on, even though their own selves, then then we would have been and now they have somebody. We had nobody until halfway through Tituss first grade year to even know another kid who had type one. Like we just, we had nobody near us. And the podcast was, like, legit are my best friend. Like it was the place I could go to know. Someone or something. Oh, that's great.

Scott Benner 1:07:33
I'm glad. I'm glad to hear that. Thank you for telling me. Do you have? Do you think that the type, the type one doesn't scare you as much because you now have perspective about elements that don't seem to have answers? Like I always think one is at least it has an answer.

Charissa 1:07:52
Yeah, I think I, I 100%. I do feel like it does. And I don't. It was an answer. It was a quick answer to Right. Like as soon as, as soon as I knew for sure that something was wrong. You know, it wasn't. It wasn't very long. Once we were in the hospital. I think we were really only there for probably two hours in the ER before. Literally the ER doctor came running and it was like, I know what's wrong. We're canceling this ultrasound. He has type one. I'll be right back. And then she was like, Okay, I'm coming back. Let's talk about it. And you're going up to the PICU. And like, it was scary, but at the same time, like, Okay, we had an answer. Yeah. We've had other things come up the we're like, okay, we still don't have an answer. What's going on there?

Scott Benner 1:08:42
I find that Yeah. Yeah,

Charissa 1:08:45
that feels that feels harder than okay. Well, this will be the next thing. And we know what to watch for. So that doesn't feel as scary.

Scott Benner 1:08:54
Yeah, no, I It's a weird thing to say. But I I understand how you feel and I agree. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Well, I appreciate you doing this. This was it's enlightening. There's a lot going on in your in your life, obviously. And I have one last question though. What was the first thing like, was it Titus is type one. When When was the first thing first time you thought oh, one of my kids has an issue.

Charissa 1:09:25
Yeah, I swear it was not long before Titus was diagnosed that I said, How do we have six kids and nothing's wrong with anyone. Like there should be something happening. I feel like that's thing that should be happening. That's doesn't feel normal. So I think maybe I was just like living in a happy little bubble for a minute. And then now it's like, you know, I think that yeah, so Titus was the first okay. Like, big thing and then I feel like honest flea, his diagnosis helped us to kind of look into other things, not just for my household, like my personal home, but like, also for my siblings, and my, you know, people started kind of looking a little bit more, and I have friends who reach out to me and say, Oh, I have this friend, they're having these symptoms. What should I do here? You know, I think you should call your doctor and go, you know, ask for a test here. And if you're super worried about tonight, then go get a glucometer. And check it out real quick. And, you know, or if you're super concerned, and you want to come over, like come over, I will check it. So I've met people in town at like, the local, you know, little Dairy Queen, or, or whatever. And then like, Hey, let me do a finger poke in the car, see how you don't have to worry, you know, so? Or, you know, and you do or please go get a Dexcom or, you know, whatever it is, you know, it's been nice to, I guess, have a community and being willing being able to help a little bit more

Scott Benner 1:11:08
that way. Are you saying that the things that you're identifying in your family are helping other members of your family identify things, too? Yes. So they have complaints that they were ignoring, but now you've given like, voice to it? And they're like, Oh, that is how we feel, too.

Charissa 1:11:25
Yeah, like, what if what if that's an autoimmune thing that's connected to a bunch of things as opposed to your your leg hurts? And that is that shouldn't be, you shouldn't have to worry, that shouldn't hurt for 30 years. You know, what do you mean? Like, what is there's more to it than that. And then, and then also, like how we advocate at a doctor's office has changed significantly, like, because of trying to do type one, right? Like, I want a pump, and I want it before you said, I'm ready. So like, Let me prove to you that I'm ready, here's all the things, here's what I'm gonna do. And here's why I need it, I need to be able to change the basil, I need to be able to just sit here and here and here. I need to be able to keep him in range here. And so, you know, being able to go in and say like, this is what I want, and why. And then going into my doctor's office being like, now for myself, I need, I need you to check these things. And I want you to adjust my medicine here. Also, I've changed this for myself, and this is working. So I need to make this adjustment. And then you know, same thing, like when I call my mom, I'm like, hey, you need to say this to your doctor, don't wait for them to call you call them. Tell them what you need. And if they're not listening, new doctor, that's the next step. Well, no, no,

Scott Benner 1:12:44
that's really, that's, that's excellent that you're doing that and helping people to, to kind of advocate for themselves better and for yourself, but it's something good has come from it. It's a it's helping other people realize what their what their ailments might be. And hopefully, they'll they'll do what you're doing and chase it down and see what they can figure out.

Charissa 1:13:05
Yeah, I mean, if you don't know that you need to push you just trust this trust a system that is not quite there, then.

Scott Benner 1:13:15
Dr. Sachs okay. Okay, great. We just how many

Charissa 1:13:18
do they see you live with it? They don't. Yeah. So I was telling them. I was

Scott Benner 1:13:22
just telling Jenny yesterday that my mom's blood pressure went up. And the doctor was like, Oh, we're just going to give her more medication. And you know, it didn't work. And so I said, Well, what are you going to do now? And the nurse said, Well, your mom's got heart problems, like, you know, these things don't get better. They get worse. And I was like, Oh, wow, they gave up how about that? And I called the doctor and I said due respect, your general practitioner said, my mom, a cardiologist sent a cardiologist. The cardiologist was like, oh, yeah, there's new newer medication that works better, we'll switch her and in like two days, her blood pressure is coming down. But the other doctor would have never known to do that and wouldn't have asked any more questions. He did this he in his brain he went this is the problem. This is the answer I have at my disposal. That didn't work. Oh, well. That was it. Yeah, you know, it's just you do really have to keep pushing for yourself somebody somebody might know something.

Charissa 1:14:17
There Yeah. And keep looking until it until you have it you know, I did a bunch of I did a bunch of reading after tidy Titus was diagnosed, I wanted to know everything. Right away. Your podcast was recommended pretty quickly on like Facebook, but it took me a minute to get there, which I think was like, the stupidest thing I ever did. As far as like weight because I expected it to not be so much knowledge. So now when I recommend to people I don't just say like, Hey, listen to the podcast. I'm like, You need to listen to this episode. And then these things or goals in the 411 which will tell you where you want to start from there like this area. or that area and go find your questions answered there. Because it's not just a listen to people chat all the time, although that's kind of what I did. But there's so much learning there that it was beyond and I spent hours and hours like, I don't know that I did anything else for probably six months straight. Like, it didn't watch TV. I didn't read anything else. All I did was like podcasts was on while I was painting and cooking and cleaning, and washing, you know, like, whatever I was doing Sure, it was on, and I was learning. And it was amazing.

Scott Benner 1:15:36
I'm glad Wow, that's that's really makes me happy to know. You don't you know, you don't do something like this and hope that it doesn't. It doesn't help people. So it's nice to hear it. Actually, I got a I get an email when somebody leaves a new review for the podcast. And one popped up while you were talking. It's so funny how much it it mimics what you just said. She said in this. In this review, I just started listening to Episode One. I'm already hooked. It is hard to find a trustworthy podcast that specializes in type one. So, you know, that's what we're trying to do. So it's nice that it's reaching people that way. It really is. Chris, I really appreciate you doing this. I'm going to I have I'm up against time today I have to jump into another thing. But I want to thank you for for taking the time to tell us your story and the story of your giant family of eight p of eight people in your family. My little crew Yeah, no kidding. Well, I wish you all the best.

Charissa 1:16:36
Thank you very much got it was a lot of fun.

Scott Benner 1:16:44
Let's thank Karissa for coming on the show and sharing her story. And let's thank cozy earth.com for offering 35% off sitewide with the offer code juice box at checkout. And don't forget to check out speaking of checking out contour next one.com forward slash juice box like I said earlier and I sincerely mean this, you're using a blood glucose meter. The information that comes back from it is important to you. The least you could do for yourself is make sure you're getting a really good accurate meter contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it very much. Don't forget to check out the private Facebook group. links in the show notes links to juicebox podcast.com. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast