Scott Benner 4/22/22 Scott Benner 4/22/22

#668 Defining Diabetes: Carb Absorption and Digestion

Scott and Jenny Smith define diabetes terms

Scott and Jenny Smith define diabetes terms In this Defining Diabetes episode, Scott and Jenny explain Carb Absorption and Digestion.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 668 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast, Jenny Smith and I are going to define carb absorption and digestion. There's no more to it than that. That's what we're gonna do. I mean, there's way more to it than that. But as far as the explanation prior to the conversation, that's all I've got for you. Please remember while you're listening, that my voice sounds terrific today, and that you should always look and that you should always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. Are you a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, because if you are, you can support the T one D exchange and research for type one diabetes by going to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. When you get there, join the registry fill out the survey the whole thing takes fewer than 10 minutes and you are going to help people with type one, you're also going to support the Juicebox Podcast. I don't even want to stop talking now. My voice sounds amazing in my ears. T one D exchange.org forward slash juicebox. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us med. US med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor from the pod dash, the number one fastest growing tandem distributor and the number one rated distributor index. com customer satisfaction surveys. US med is a place where you get your diabetes supplies from most of us use them right? Most of us are using some sort of an online Wait a minute, are you not getting your supplies online? Okay, hold on. First of all, it's super easy to get your supplies online. You just are you're not doing this. Alright, hold on a second. Let me get a sip of water I gotta explain this whole thing to you. So we used to use another company, we've actually used a couple of them. And in the past they've been you know, spotty, let's say spotty in their customer service. But us med prides themselves on their white glove treatment of their customers. US med has an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and they want you to get better service and better care than you're accustomed to getting now. US med always provides 90 days worth of supplies and fast free shipping. You can get a free benefits check right now at us med.com forward slash juicebox or by calling 888721151. For us Medicare is everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM including libre two and Dexcom G six. They accept Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers. This 888 Number is dedicated for Juicebox Podcast listeners. Call now 888-721-1514 Get the service you deserve. Get your supplies without a big hassle. US met us med.com forward slash juicebox look everybody these supplies are going to be common forever and ever. I'd love it if you had it set up so that it just happened and you didn't have to think about it. That's how we have it here. And it is a real it's a weight lifted. It's another thing you don't have to think about. Let us med think about that. You go live your life

okay, so we fixed your computer.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:08
We did thankfully Yeah. Good for us.

Scott Benner 4:12
Do you want to start with carb absorption and digestion as the defining or antibodies? I let it be ladies choice as I'm going to have very little to add on one of them for sure.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:28
How about we do carb absorption.

Scott Benner 4:31
Okay. Well then, in fact, Jenny, we are going to define carb absorption and digestion talked about that. Okay, can I tell you that the first time I want to be honest. The first time you said to me that the body digests things in an order. I had never heard anybody say that before. I knew

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:57
I remember telling you that. You told Utah in order.

Scott Benner 5:02
So I'll tell you what I remember,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:04
I might have to clarify, because I don't even remember

Scott Benner 5:07
what it is like, please don't put that on me I never said. So what I recall is that we were talking about pizza as an example. And right, and we were talking about how, in people's minds, pizza is an example could be a is a food. But if you really stop and deconstructed pizzas cheese, it's sauce, it's salt, it's oregano, it's flour, right? It's all these things, if you put sausage on its protein, if you put, you know pepperoni on it, it's protein, that's sort of an idea. If you put pineapple on it, it's a simple sugar, like getting these things, right. And you were describing why people get low blood sugars from pizza, because they look at the slice. And they, Oh, it's 35 carbs, they Bolus these 35 carbs, they hooked down this pizza, the, because that's how I eat it. If the rest of the first slice goes fast, and and then of course, the the insulin is working, working, working. But because of how digestion works, the pizza, the impactful parts of the pizza aren't being absorbed by your body right away. And you I if I'm wrong, stop me. But you said that the cheese is the most difficult part. For the body to break down, it starts with that it takes a long time, it's not pulling out carbs do I remember all this correctly,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:30
kind of it's sort of yes, in a way. Because, right, the fat in the cheese, and the protein and the cheese and whatever else you might have also put on top of it. I mean, it could be, you know, the Italian sausage and whatever. And the multiple cheeses that might actually be on top of it, right. But the body sort of breaks things down in a general sense to completely like process, right, almost like a blender, if you will. But if you have like the pineapple, if you only put the pineapple in your stomach, simple carb or simple sugar, so it's going to break that down really fast. Whereas when you start mixing that with the other macronutrients, like fat and protein, such as in cheese, you're really going to get a slowdown of the carbs, that you really only see the pizza as being or anything really that you've identified as a carbohydrate, you're gonna see it, you're gonna count the carbs, you're gonna say, Okay, I'm just gonna go ahead and give my insulin right now. And that insulin, it's meant to work. The way that you know, rapid insulin specifically is sort of designed is to work with carbohydrate digestion, it's got this in out sort of bell curve of action, which is kind of how carbs get digested and carb decarb. Even those are a little bit different, depending on the kind of carpet is right. But pizza, for example, being Yes, it might have carbs in it, but those carbs really get slowed down when everything gets blended together. And the body is trying to also work on, I guess, simple way to say it is a harder to process,

Scott Benner 8:13
right? The macronutrient. So if so, if we took the slice of pizza as an example, and it just had, I don't know sausage and cheese on it, and we eat, we eat it, our body processes it in one bell curve that we could see. But if we rip the cheese off it and eat it, the bell curve completely changes.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:33
Right? That's a great way to describe it. Absolutely. In fact, something like the pizza crust with just the sauce, which pretty much that's just all carb unless you've added fat and whatnot to the crust, then yes, that's going to be a faster digesting type of food or meal because you really have added nothing to slow down. So you have a typical carbohydrate bell curve and in kind of out within, let's say about three ish hours, right? Whereas when you start adding those other macronutrients, they take proteins and fats take longer for the body to process you might actually have sort of a double humped kind of felt curve maybe, right, it might go up a little bit, or it might actually remain pretty smooth and steady. Especially if you've dosed your insulin in a split type of fashion, or extended your Bolus out. You might actually see something that's pretty stable for a while before it slowly starts to go up later, where things like fat and protein, those may be the end result of all of a rise up later. Not necessarily truly just carbohydrate,

Scott Benner 9:43
right? I just not that. I mean, I just think we should so bell curve. If you think about a spike that you see on your CGM where you're going along, you know, okay at 90 and then all of a sudden you go up to 140. It hangs there for a little while and it curves and it comes back down to 90 Again, if you can picture that in your head, it sort of looks like the outline of a bell. Yes. So the carbs, it's an impact of the carbs, the carbs start the impact, they impact heavier and heavier and hit harder and harder and harder. The bell at the top of the bell gets formed, the carbs start to be digested, so less impact. And at the same time, if you're lucky, there's another bell curve going on, which is the insulin. Yep. All right. But the insulin and the insulin is not working as hard at first, it starts to work harder and harder and harder, which is why you always hear me say something like, you know, you got to, it's all about timing and amount, you have to put in the right amount at the right time, you have to line up the impact of the carbs with the action of the insulin. However, I don't know I've said it, like 1000 different ways at this point. But those impacts have to be fighting the fight at the same time. Correct, right. But aside of that, just just sort of keep in mind that if you Hey, it's Scott, I know I put the ad at the beginning of the episode today, I trick you a little bit. But I still need to pop in and tell you that US med offers a free benefits check. And you can get it at us med.com forward slash juice box, or by calling a special number just for Juicebox Podcast listeners 888-721-1514 us med carries everything from your insulin pumps, to your diabetes testing supplies, go check them out. All right, sorry, I have ordered a new computer.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:30
Oh, that wasn't my fault. I did nothing.

Scott Benner 11:37
So but but what we're saying is, is that if you so if you eat the pizza, and it doesn't have cheese on it, your body can get right to breaking down the dough. And so you're gonna start seeing an impact sooner. But if you mix the cheese in with it, fat and protein slow down the digestion process, and your body sort of focuses on the things that are more difficult to break down first. So it's breaking down stuff that doesn't have carbs in it necessarily. So is there's less than

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:07
breaking it down all at one time. But because the carbs get mixed in with these foods that are harder, and it's breaking everything down, the whole slow the whole process down really

Scott Benner 12:19
significantly slow it down. And significantly

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:21
slow it down exactly which again, as your example when you then take a Bolus all up front for something like like pizza, or the other foods that would fit into that, you know, same category, you're really going to most likely get a low blood sugar, and up needing to treat the low blood sugar, that treatment might even be a little bit slower. Because you have this food that's a heavier type of food already in your stomach. And then you end up going up later, not only from treating the low, which you needed to do, but also now the food is actually hitting, and you got impact of insulin more upfront where you actually needed it stretched out over the course of how long that was taking to digest.

Scott Benner 13:10
And that's why Chinese food can be difficult, right? Because it can be a mixture of a slow and a fast impact. Yes, you can almost have what you do have, you'll have two bell curves, you'll have quicker faster ones and slower, more drawn out ones. And you have to hit both of those differently with insulin differently. Yep, yeah. So. So now that we've kind of like walked through it, pizza is a great example. Because it makes the point but so if you have anything now, like, just think about all the different foods you're eating, if you eat them singularly, they have an impact, you know, across this curve, when you start mixing them together on a plate, you're now we were talking about this in another episode, you have different lines of I don't know reality happening, you have the bell pepper reality and the mashed potato reality and the meatloaf reality all kind of happening at the same time. Now, it's not. I mean, I have to say, like anecdotally from managing art, and it's not like there are these three different crazy, I don't know, things happening, they kind of blend together a little bit, you kind of almost can't see it with the naked eye. But it is true that it's working that way. It's different foods differently.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:21
And if you have paid enough attention, I've said it before, if you've paid enough attention to the 80% of time food that you eat, right what you've eaten over and over and over. If you've paid enough attention to that, you can get your timing down. Yeah, pretty pretty well, right? And in most mixed meals setting something like a you know, brown rice and I don't know broccoli and grilled chicken, right? I mean, that's still unless your portions are exorbitant or you've had them slathered in butter or some type of other fatty kind of, you know, dressing You are going to have the pretty typical bell curve of action. It's just when things get heavier in fact, especially and or heavier in protein and maybe lower in carbohydrate at the same time or lower glycemic. I mean, it brings in a whole carbohydrate to carbohydrate. Not all carbs are sort of digested by the body the same way, right? A good example being plain old white bread versus something like a sprouted grain like in Ezekiel bread, for example, right? Very unprocessed, versus really, really broken down. There's nothing left in that white bread. It's kind of like eating sugar. Really, right.

Scott Benner 15:50
It's funny, because I find it if you choose a whitebread that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it. I find it easier to Bolus for because I know what it doesn't right away and it takes a lot of insulin, but it doesn't it's not like these real kind of like, like the grains don't take more time. It doesn't stretch out the process like No, not at all. It's but it's a ton of it's a ton of insulin like you're making me think about, like I just I Googled, this is one of my favorite things and I'm not sure it's real in the world or not, but that there's that there's silicone in McDonald's french fries. So I Oh, is there silicone in McDonald's fries, the chemical sharing a link between finding a cure for baldness and fast food french fries is di meth low poly Ciloxan, which is a is reportedly found in the silicone that is added to the oil McDonald's cooks is famous French fries, and it's from 2018. So not not really my bigger point. My bigger point is that when you start looking at processed foods versus natural foods, this is a big deal. Because these foods are generally speaking going to be higher carbs. And there are things in them that your body is not really supposed to be dealing with. You know, you wouldn't, you don't I'm saying like deep frying is a great example to me. Because if anybody's ever like deep fried something on their own, you fill the you know, you fill the pot up or whatever, and you fry it. And when you're done, the pot has much less oil on it, but you don't think about it that you're the one eating the oil. Right? It's over.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:27
It's like it magically just just went someplace. It's like when you boil water and the water like sort of evaporates, right? You kind of think, well, they must have just like evaporated educated

Scott Benner 17:37
did by the way, it's up in the air now, right? Like it's still there, this oil is still it still exists on the world in the world, it's been absorbed into your food. And so if you go back to the pizza explanation, where fat slows down digestion, then fried foods are going to slow down digestion too, because you're gonna be taking in oil. And in a in most settings, it's not going to be like real expensive, cold pressed olive oil that they're making your french fries. And it's going to be whatever, like, you know, Jack's easy to buy, you know, stuff that these companies can use for their oil. So you're getting that in there, you're getting whatever is in French fries, you know, and I'm using this as an example because it's here's this from a 20 2015 article. Let's see if it shows you how McDonald's fries are made. There are real potatoes in it. That's nice.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:32
hatefully Oh my goodness.

Scott Benner 18:35
Do you add any type of flavor guests so they put in flavors and oil blends be flavoring? Like there's all kinds of stuff? What kind of oil do you use, we use an oil blend made from four different kinds of oil, canola, corn, soybean, hydrogenated soybean, those are four oils, I wouldn't eat. And I am not nearly the healthiest person in the world. And so I'm assuming there's salt. You know, a lot in

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:02
thankfully, salt is like one of the least dangerous things on the whole list. Fries,

Scott Benner 19:08
Chinese, like maybe you'll get some iodine. Exactly knock your thyroid down. They use the right kind of salt. But I just think that when I watch people online speaking and talking about the problems, they have bolusing for their meals, they only ever think of it as the number on the carb count. Like the the rest of it just usually doesn't come into play for them. And I mean, I just think I don't think you should eat any certain way and I'm not telling anybody how to eat. I enjoy McDonald's french fry. But you have to understand it. You can't just blindly look at this meal and go McDonald's says that this is the 86 carbs and dial it up and think that's going to work out for you because it very likely is not going to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:53
right i mean it brings in a bigger a definite bigger piece of it. The lack of detail in education that's provided, because majority of people diagnosed are sent home and told, count your carbs, take your insulin, maybe they're told to Pre-Bolus by 10 minutes. And it's sort of left at that. Most places unfortunately, don't even go into use of potential split Bolus ideas, or whether you're on multiple daily injections or have the use of a pump with extended Bolus and those types of things. There is there's no definition to these type, this type of carbohydrate, or these types of carbohydrate are these groups here, you can expect quick impact, sort of moderate impact, really slow impact that gets into glycemic index. And from the get go, if we're not giving this information. That's where the confusion starts to come in. But if I was just told the count carbohydrate and that every single apple out there was 12 grams of carbohydrate, well, great, fabulous. So then I go and get my big old honey, crisp apple, and it's 12 grams of carbon.

Scott Benner 21:11
Not really. And I say good luck using a 12 gram count for a big apple because you're gonna be in trouble. All right, where you send your kid to a pizza party, and the kid has three slices of pizza and you're like, well, that's 90 carbs, you give your kid 90 carbs worth of insulin, that insulin is going to crush them long before the pizza catches up. Some other stuff, we know that

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:31
most kids are not sitting at a birthday party, right? I mean, it's a trampoline park or something. Right? Yeah,

Scott Benner 21:38
the balance of the timing and the amount is just it's more important in different situations. It's also Alright, hold on. So from online, how are carbohydrates digested absorbed? During digestion, starches and sugars are broken down both mechanically through chewing, and chemically by enzymes into the single units glucose, fructose, and or galactose. That sounds like a transformer, which are absorbed into the bloodstream and transported for use as energy throughout the body. Which, if you listen closely to that sentence, what it means is, is sugar gets put into your blood. So yes, and so this happens at a different time. The end here, very quick googling How soon after eating our carbs absorbed, the denser the food, meaning the more protein or fat it has, the longer it takes to digest notes, Dr. Li simple carbohydrates such as plain rice pasta, or simple sugars, average between 30 and 60 minutes in the stomach. So you put your insulin in at noon, it starts working really well. 20 minutes, it starts working 20 minutes later starts working really well at 45 minutes, this pasta, except this stuff might not even be impacting you yet, or not impacting you enough to combat this.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:51
And it's, you know, these are the pieces of science education, I guess, that? No, I mean, unless you really Google something yourself. Most people wouldn't know, unless they've gone for some type of a, you know, nutritional biology degree or something that they get the understanding. I mean, most people don't even know that starches essentially start to get digested in your mouth, right? I mean, one of the enzymes is amylase, it's like a salivary based thing that starts to kind of break things down. Thus, a really good reason, then even if you don't remember any of that, it's a really good reason to Pre-Bolus Most things that are simple carbers, right, baseline carbohydrates, and then, you know, other other types of carbohydrates actually, kind of get moved further down. And in your small intestine, you actually have a whole bunch of other enzymes, which, at this point, I would have to look them up, I would have to go back to my nutrition physiology books to look exactly which one they are up, but majority of their those kind of come in through the small intestine. And so we have, we have to wait out this process, right? Your stomach is like a big turning place, and absorption gets done in your digestive tract. Right, so the more things that you put in with carbohydrate, that are longer in terms of the body breaking them down, such as fats, the more drawn out that whole process gets,

Scott Benner 24:26
I wonder, and this is just me wondering if you're constipated. Does your body slow down digestion? Does it say it didn't come out? So we're not going to worry about it right now. We're just digestion just keep happening and the constipation just keeps being forced from what's in your stomach. Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:44
I mean, constipation is usually there are many reasons for obviously too many to kind of get into and discuss but your body is still breaking down and it's still absorbing. But I've had quite a number of people who've definitely said As soon as I go to the bathroom my blood sugar's seem to even out a lot better who have who have said that, you know, I have trouble with constipation or a lot of the people that I work with through pregnancy, essentially, that's a typical thing in pregnancy is constipation.

Scott Benner 25:18
I remember saying it once, too. And you looked at me a little weird, but I swear to God, I knew what I was looking at. Like, if Arden gets constipated, then she disappears in the bathroom and comes back. You're like her blood sugar is gonna, sticky blood sugar is gonna start going down. Yeah, I mean, that's one of those things I can't prove.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:35
But I bet you have hindsight. Yeah,

Scott Benner 25:37
I would, if you made me bet. I'd bet in that direction for certain. Yes. So have we done justice to this idea?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:45
I think so. I mean, in a general sense, it's yes, I think so. Yeah,

Scott Benner 25:50
I just want people to understand that the time it takes for food to go through your body impacts where you're going to need your insulin. I mean, I think in very simple terms, I think that's important to understand, you can't just have this blind idea that, you know, it's gone out of sight, out of mind with the food, it must be doing exactly what it's going to do right now. And because, you know, on the flip side of that, you have to understand how insulin works to an insulin, really, you're in the same problem as it just doesn't start happening immediately at full speed, you know, the foods not impacting you right away at full speed. And, either is the and so on. And so you just have to, I mean, you said it earlier, but it bears repeating, you have to eat these things, you have to watch it happen. And then next time believe this is about how it's gonna go. You know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:44
that's exactly right. And again, sometimes those normal things that you eat over and over can then give a little bit of insight to something that you may choose at a restaurant or a friend's house that you haven't necessarily had before. But if you're looking at them, you can gain a little bit of perspective from what you've done and say, Ah, this looks kind of like something I've had at home. And I would have probably done this type of a Bolus strategy for it. So I mean, the best that you can do is give it a try, which is kind of what we all do.

Scott Benner 27:13
Right? Exactly. I always tell people, somebody asked recently, can you do a pro tip on eating in a restaurant? And I said, it doesn't eat a pro tip, the better it tastes, the more insulin it needs.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:26
Possibly a drawn out

Scott Benner 27:27
fashion. Yeah. Yeah, cuz that's probably going to be butter that's making you happy. Yeah. All right. Well, I appreciate you doing this with me. Thanks. Yeah, absolutely. Want to thank Jenny for being here. Don't forget that Jenny works at integrated diabetes.com. If you'd like to hire her, you can. I like to thank our sponsor today us med get your diabetes supplies, easily. It doesn't need to be a big hassle. And with us med it won't be check them out and get your free benefits check at us med.com forward slash juice box or by calling 888-721-1514. There are links to us Med and all the sponsors in the shownotes of your podcast player and at juicebox podcast.com. And don't forget to go take that survey AT T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting the show. At this point, I don't even remember how many defined diabetes episodes there are. But there's got to be more than 40. If you're enjoying them, you can find them at juicebox podcast.com diabetes pro tip.com, or by joining the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, and then heading up to the top I want to call it the I always want to use the wrong word. And then I hold on a second, I'll tell you what it's called when you get the the Facebook page is a private group. It's really terrific. I think it's got like 24 25,000 members in it right now. And at the top. Not here this, there's a feature tab. So you have to answer a couple of questions to get in. But once you're in there, go to that feature tab. And there's a list of all the defining diabetes episodes, all the variables, all the how we eats the Quickstart guides. If you're just starting with the show, the Pro Tip series is a list of popular requested episodes popularly requested episodes if I'm going to use English, special episodes, Scott and Jenny's where they're called ask Scott and Jenny, people send in questions and Jenny and I answer them a whole bunch of stuff on how to Bolus for fat and protein. I mean, there's a ton here anyway, it's all in that private Facebook group up under the feature tab. This is the part where I say thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Please subscribe and your apps Subscribe and follow follow and subscribe.

#667 Type 1 and Vision Loss

Ryan has type 1 diabetes and lost his vision due to retinopathy.

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

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 667 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show I'm going to be speaking with Ryan, he's an adult who has type one diabetes. He also lost his sight later in life because of diabetes retinopathy. Today, Ryan is going to share his story with us. And Ryan would like you and everyone listening, including the manufacturers of diabetes devices to know that accessibility is incredibly important. While you're listening today, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. If you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one, please take a few minutes today to go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And take the survey your answers which will not be hard trust me easy, easy survey. Those answers will help people living with type one diabetes T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Find out more at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox get the meter that my daughter uses. The podcast is also sponsored today by us med if you're tired of your diabetes supplier, and you'd like to get better service and better care, go to us med.com forward slash juice box or call 888-721-1514 Get your free benefits check right now and get started with us MIT

Unknown Speaker 2:12
AI guys, my name is Ryan Hui i am the program lead have come to work for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. I am 35 years old and I've been diabetics and type one diabetic since I was seven years old. I'm currently a pump user and I actually lived with a condition called diabetes retinopathy, which has taken away a lot of my sight. But I'm not letting it slow me down. And you know what, we're going to talk about that today.

Scott Benner 2:37
Cool. And before we do anything serious, and that was a lot of important serious stuff right there. I'm just gonna get out of the way letting you know that every time you pop up on my calendar, I think of that Hong Kong phooey cartoon, from when? I'm sure most people

Unknown Speaker 2:51
I get that a lot. It did. I do get that a lot. It's funny.

Scott Benner 2:54
It messes with my, it just messes with me, because I know you're coming on and you've got like a really interesting story. And, you know, it's a fairly serious topic. And in my mind, like, this is the it just doesn't feel that serious right now. So

Unknown Speaker 3:06
I, you know, I have a good sense of humor about it, because let's face it, I'm visually impaired, but I would I just do funny things that I wouldn't do if I had sight and you got to have a sense of humor about it, or else, you know, I'd be one, I'd be a shut in. And just, you know, I got a lot to give, um, young ish will say, and I, you know what, I think I got a lot still left to learn and a lot to give, especially in the diabetes world.

Scott Benner 3:28
All right, right. So let me try to make sure I understand everything. You were born sighted. I was yes. Right. And if I use bad terminology, please let me know as I'm going because I really don't have the first idea of of what I'm doing here. So but sighted seemed like something I'd heard before that sounded right. And the the loss of vision? Was it genetic? Was it diabetes related? Was it a blend of the two?

Unknown Speaker 3:54
Great question. But I really hate this question for a number of reasons. And so like, I don't know, who's listening, but I'm very careful to say that it was diabetes related, because there's so many diabetics out there, that I don't want them to think it's inevitable, because it's not it just I think I do the short stick. So it was diabetes related, but I'm a little bit different. Usually, there's warning signs, there's treatments nowadays that you know, can can help out and stem the loss or even stop it completely. Right. Right. So that you can keep your usable vision or, you know, full vision, right? This happened to be about 10 years ago, I actually was bowling the night before, drove home completely fine. I wore reading glasses. But that was nothing out of the ordinary. And I woke up the next morning and people were texting me and I wasn't answering them and they finally called me and Ryan, why aren't Why aren't Why aren't you answering your phone? And I said I couldn't see the screen. So I'm like, You know what, maybe just dark in here. I opened the windows turned on the lights. It's you know, 10 in the morning, but still couldn't see and eventually this was a this was a Sunday. I went to the emergency room. And at that point, they looked at my eye and said, There's something serious going on here. And that was, like I said, Sunday by Thursday, I was up in Toronto at the big hospital, having some surgery done on my eyes to try and save my my sight. But unfortunately, at that point, both of my retinas had detached

Scott Benner 5:19
oh my gosh, so diagnosed, it's 718 years later in your mid 20s. And you just wake up one day, and things are gone. Let's ask about. So you're Canadian, which I can tell by your general pleasant demeanor and your accent. Plus, you work for a place in Canada, which would be a weird poll if you were like in Texas or something like that. But but your healthcare system and being diagnosed that long ago, they put you on regular an MPH and did you stay on it for ever? How did that go at your diagnosis? Do you recall

Unknown Speaker 5:54
really interesting. So over the course of the years, and I'm going to age myself here, but there's been several different times that I've changed all kinds of whether it's insulin, counting carbs, you know, the the big chart you get for fruits and vegetables, you get 12, proteins, whatever, that kind of thing. And then there was even like, the weird pyramid you had to use and like counting, I don't even know what this is. But like a kilojoule back in the day, but insulin wise, I learned very quickly and in what I tried to be a half a glass half full kind of guy, but it diabetes helped me grow up a lot faster. So I learned to mix my insulin and give myself injections. And of course back then there wasn't there was no pen. It was you know, syringe, okay, you got to test your blood sugar, don't touch the strips with your hands, because then they're not. They're not usable. And then it's like, Oh, you got to, you got to wait 60 seconds. And now it's like four seconds until you get the reading. Right. So I was on regular and mph. And what's interesting in Canada, we used to call the regular the human are we call the Toronto. I don't know why I have to ask my diabetes educator about that. But it was actually really cool because I learned to give myself injections on an orange. So like they'd say, Okay, I dropped the insulin, you get, you know, four units of our and 15 units of NPH. And it was a breakfast and dinner kind of thing. And that was years and years and years. And then finally human log came out. And I got switched over to that which I'm still on today. But NPH was a slower kind of, I guess, weaned off. And I did Lantis for a while. But now because I'm on a pump, it's straight human log.

Scott Benner 7:31
So is this prior to like in home real portable, blood glucose meters, your diagnosis, or did you have one?

Unknown Speaker 7:40
No, I had one but it was it was probably oof, I don't know the size of a television remote. Like it wasn't I mean, they say portable loosely, but it was more like this is it is huge. You can't carry it in your pocket. Right? So my mom was carrying it around in her purse because it was just too big. Right? And it's interesting because all the kids were so curious, because I was so young. Oh my God, what do you what are you doing over there? Like, why? Why do you get to do this? Can you do this to me? And you know, like, it was actually kind of helped because it was I was the cool kid like look at all this stuff. But we didn't realize it Ryan you can eat sugar. This is a very fickle disease. You don't know what's going on inside your body, that sort of thing. Right? So I was eating peanut butter. I always played organized sports, I was eating peanut butter sandwiches and drinking Gatorade is on on the hockey bench or the in the baseball dugout and other kids are got water and like why did he get that and nobody really understood?

Scott Benner 8:33
Yeah, I was gonna ask if before I go forward, I want to tell you that in my attempt to Google kilojoule, all I came up with was a DJ named DJ kilojoule. So that's not going anywhere. For me.

Unknown Speaker 8:46
It was it was very short lived, that's for sure. And then I had this big poster board that I had to hang on the fridge and it's like, Okay, Ryan for breakfast, you get, you know, two fats and four starches and six vegetables and one milk. So it's like, okay, if you had a bowl of cereal, you had to match up the picture, I get a quarter of a bowl of Cheerios with half a cup of milk and that's my my starch and my milk. It was really It worked. But now looking back at what we know now I'm like, what a disastrous way to treat something, right? It's it's just, you know, insulin twice a day where, you know, well, the insulin eventually wears off. Well, what am I doing in between that and I'm eating a whole lunch in a whole meal in between that so it's interesting how under how we've progressed Yeah,

Scott Benner 9:34
I actually not to take another diversion but I was pretty sure but I wanted to double check most of the research that went on around insulin initially Banting and Best and, and all that stuff that happened University of Toronto, so I'm guessing that was probably a pretty, pretty big source of pride in Canada.

Unknown Speaker 9:55
And 100 years. This year,

Scott Benner 9:59
yeah. What's coming up is really excited actually have the coins here, somebody was very kind, Canadian listener sent me the commemorative coins about insulin

Unknown Speaker 10:07
all Well, thanks for supporting because that's a, that's a great and I'm a volunteer for diabetes Canada and I just did their lace up event. So I ran 10 kilometers, and then I ran over 100 in the month of September, because we raised money, and it was kind of, we can't wait 100 more years for a cure, right? Like, we're treating a disease and for lack of a better term, we're not really getting anywhere, right? There's still complications, there's still this, there's unfortunately, still people, you know, passing away, and there's kids getting in, and I hate to see kids get diabetes. And you know, what, I'm hoping that we, you know, even $1 can get us a little bit of a foot forward.

Scott Benner 10:46
Well, excellent. Listen, I'll tell you that I think the the real problem at the moment is the disparity between care, right, like, there are people who are diagnosed today and 2021, that still receive regular an MPH and that, you know, kind of very old fashioned, you know, care plan. There are other people who have access to amazing technology, and you look at their agency and their variability and their time and range. And you might not even know they had diabetes. And the difference between those people can be, you know, financial, sometimes it can be just the luck of having a doctor who understands it well enough to explain it to you or to introduce you to the tools. It's, you're right, it's it's, you don't you don't think about it as much. But there's just such a chasm between understanding and not understanding. And there are a lot of problems in between how people come to that information or never find it.

Unknown Speaker 11:45
You're absolutely right. And you know what the big thing even within countries, it almost depends on where you live. Right? And it's, it's, it's sort of, even within Canada, there are certain provinces that I can live in and get exceptional care. And then there's other provinces where things are only partially covered or not covered at all. And it's like, well, you're almost in a sense, and I'm being facetious. You're telling me where I can and can't live, in a sense within Canada, right within my own country that I'm a citizen of it's like, if I live in Ontario, I get this. But if you live in Manitoba, you don't get this. So it's like, Why, I mean, facetious question here, but why would I ever move there? If I'm getting the coverage? I'm getting in Ontario? Kind of thing. Right? Yeah. So it's, it's, it's, it's very, it's a very interesting thing. And I know, diabetes, Canada, and I hate to mention them, again, has done a really great thing. And they brought the scene Ibn, and they're doing a care plan for called diabetes. 360. Right. So it's like, hey, let's get a national framework within Canada. So that if you live in Vancouver, or if you live in Halifax, you get the same care, and everywhere in between. So it's like, this is covered. There's no gray area, it's black and white kind of thing. And I think that's what we really need and what needs to be adopted not just within one country, but worldwide, right? Because even I'm actually you know, to go back to your previous question, I'm actually a dual citizen of Canada and the US. So it's interesting because my mom lives over in the US and, and she's a diabetic, she's type two, but some of her medication is that when she tells me what it costs, I can't believe what what she has to pay just to essentially stay alive and to be able to eat food every day. It's it's mind blowing.

Scott Benner 13:34
Listen, Canadians have enough trouble as we heard a minute ago from that loud bang, you just had to defend yourself from a beaver riding a moose. So why should you also have to fight about what insulin costs? It's not fair. Honestly, you live in a Tundra? It's a wasteland. Am I right? Just frozen? Like, you probably live in a city. So just, I don't.

Unknown Speaker 13:53
I'm actually I know, I'm actually in the Big Smoke, as we call it here. I'm in Toronto today. So that's, you know what? It's not my usual dwelling. But you know what, it's the biggest city in Canada. So there's, it's quite a change. And if you hear the clicking, that's actually my guide dog who has a mind of his own cniv trained Joe walking around and clap and everywhere kind of thing. Cool.

Scott Benner 14:15
So there's looser, more gentrified. That's excellent.

Unknown Speaker 14:18
Yes, we've trained them to live at home. Lovely.

Scott Benner 14:21
I really wish you would have just said that you had a seeing I don't know anything else that was like, you know, indigenous to Canada, but I will accept that it's a dog. So is it fair to say that by today's standards, and let's think about for you what you're using an insulin pump, you have a glucose monitor.

Unknown Speaker 14:40
I do I use the libre. So it's a the continuous blood glucose monitor but it only tests when I scan my arm. So it's like Flash looks like a couple of quarters. Yeah, a couple of quarters on the back of my arm and I scan my phone over it and then my phone reads it out loud to me because the meter that is produced with it will display the the The sugar level but it won't. It doesn't audio, the audio like telling me what sound kind of thing? Right?

Scott Benner 15:06
Yeah, that's amazing. But But my point is that your care now is more in line with what I would consider top of the line care now. And can we? Is it fair to look back and say that if you had the care you have now back then would your vision be different? Or have they given you any indication of why it happened to you so quickly? Because it's my guessing. And I obviously don't know. But that people listening are thinking that, that there must have been those years must have been really hard on you. And, and But where's that not the case? Can you explain that part to us?

Unknown Speaker 15:40
I'm really lucky, because of the people that support me around, I wouldn't be where I'm at with without them. Whether it's a diabetes nurse, whether it's my endocrinologist, my family, even my friends, they really support me and help me out when when they can, right. So that's first and foremost, like I'd like I said, I wouldn't be where I am today. But it's interesting, when you use the word top of the line, I do believe I receive really good care. But there's still some things that are lacking. Like I I know, going back to like I played scholarship baseball in the States, right? So it's not that I was unhealthy, like yeah, maybe I drink a couple of extra Gatorade here and there, you know, got some sugar in me. But for the most part, my diabetes care was pretty good. My sugars in a once these were all in check. And it's just like I said, I don't know, something caught up to me. And I finally did my vision just went right. There's no rhyme or reason. But I'm kind of I don't want to look back on it. Not that I'm gonna answer questions. But it's like, let's, let's see how we can move forward, right? Like I tell people, and this is very just out there. But I'm blind, I'm not dead. Like I still can walk around my legs, my arms, my mind still works. And I really like what we're doing here. But the thing that I talked about, when you say top of the line care, my insulin pump is 10s of 1000s of dollars, right to purchase it. But I only use 11% of the functions, because I can't see the screen. So like, I can't count carbs with it. I like put this into perspective, I can't even tell you what my battery level is on my insulin pump. Because I can't see the screen. So there are some services that are lacking, right. And that's kind of what brought us together, right? Where you know, what the cniv and with diabetes Canada and all the pump manufacturers, you know, your Medtronic, your if so pump, tandem, all of those, we're looking into how can we create something, whether it's an app, or whether it's a fully accessible pump, just just to get it out on the market? Because, you know, just not even with me just with diabetes, retinopathy in general, like there's vision issues or potential vision issues for every single diabetic out there.

Scott Benner 17:51
I think that even beyond more catastrophic problems, just just age in general, for people, I think your fight could end up in, you know, inadvertently maybe but but very directly being the flight of every person who eventually needs glasses, just to see something in front of them. I think all the time. I mean, my daughter is only 17. But I think all the time about like, what's going to happen to her? Like, what if she gets lucky, right? And she just lives into her 70s She's still gonna have type one diabetes. And I watched my mom tried to, you know, mute her television. And I think what if my mom had to check her blood sugar or change a CGM, or put on a new insulin pump? I don't know that she could do that. And I think that your your issue is, puts a real spotlight on it because of your age, because we're talking about it in a time prior to when we expect to talk about it. Like if I said to somebody, oh, like my 75 year old mother can't blah, blah, blah, they think, Oh, that makes sense. But when it's you, you go guys, a 35 year old guy that can't? What are we going to do for him? But I think it's what are we going to do for everybody? Like everybody, at some point, they're like, I had perfect vision my entire life. I mean, really, like, just I never imagined that my vision would be an issue for me. And a few years ago, I just suddenly couldn't see the things in front of me without glasses on. And that's not going to I mean, it might get better. It might it's not gonna get better. I'm sorry. It might get, you know, more severe. I don't know. But what if I had to do those things? And that was part of my struggle. Or their answers like what do you find it's helpful to you.

Unknown Speaker 19:29
Again, just a lot of you're asking for a lot of help. And a lot of memorization at this point. And it's interesting, you bring up you know, my age, right? Because I'm in that weird middle age where I remember before the internet when your telephone hung on the wall and had a cord. And now I also remember where hey, I got this computer that fits in my pocket and does pretty much whatever you ask it to write. And they I think back and what if you handed a 12 year old diabetic, the meter I had to use 20 years ago. Like they'd laugh at it right output. And then on contrast, what if you handed someone like your mother if they have to test a blood sugar? What if I hand them my, my blood glucose monitor? And they're like, What is this? There's no screen? What do I do with it? You know, it's interesting how we have to sort of cater to and take into account, everybody, like you said, and I think that's the the thing that everybody is missing. It's not, hey, let's make a specific thing for one group of people, let's make it accessible for everybody. I mean, because even somebody that has their vision, might prefer not to take their pump out of their pocket, right? Like, let's do let's use the sounds, I can use the sounds and it makes it easier, right? And you might not be visually impaired, but like things, audio, things make things easier. Or let's reverse the contrast. If it's, you know, light background and dark print. Let's make it a dark background and light print. Let's make there's some options out there, right? Because, again, I don't work for Apple, I don't, I don't. But I can take an iPhone or any of their products out of the box and start it up and immediately with no help set it all up and use it. Like why can't we do that with other things, right? Where it's like, I have to FaceTime somebody, or I have to have my diabetes educator or somebody was site, even to just change a battery on my pump or, you know, daylight savings is coming up. So it's for someone to change, I can't change the time. And yeah, it might not make a difference. If, you know, one hour but like, let's say I traveled to Europe or Hawaii, where there's like a six hour time difference? Well, that's going to make a big difference on when my insulin is getting dispersed and how much is supposed to write if I'm sleeping, not sleeping, but I can't change that on my own. So there's a lot of different things that I guess people just take for granted. And I understand that but you know, it's people like the cniv and everybody that's helping out with this project, you know, we need to get that universal design into the pump and thinking about how can this help everybody not just you know, visually impaired perspective.

Scott Benner 21:57
Let me ask you to put context to your so I'm going to try to understand what it is you're seeing or not seeing in your view through your eyes. So when you're when you have this issue at first and you just wake up one day and this is happening, your retinas have detached is that was that what ended up happening is that from what does that I guess

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so much bass. Alright, let's get back to Ronnie.

Unknown Speaker 26:24
I described this to people a lot. So this is sort of you have millions and billions of blood vessels in your eyes. And they're when they're fresh, they're like green leaves on a tree. But as you know, usually with diabetes, the you know your blood sugar's are up down, it's a roller coaster ride. So those blood vessels begin to almost in a sense will say die. So picture the leaves in autumn on the tree, they're starting to turn red and orange, and then they get kind of crusty and then fall off the tree, right. So my blood vessels did that overnight. And they pretty much all died and then fell on my retina and detached it. So it was like pretty much a big weight falling on my retina while I was sleeping and it detached it. And to put it into perspective, your retina is the consistency of an elastic band, but like you're taking it between both of your hands and stretching it as as far as you can. That's sort of the consistency of your retina. So right now I have oil around my retinas. And it's holding them together. So it's kind of like liquid handsoap. But it stays in my eyes and keeps the retina attached. But I'm not gaining any vision back from that. What and

Scott Benner 27:33
I'm sorry, what is your level of vision? Like? How do you describe it to people,

Unknown Speaker 27:37
I have what's called light perception. So in my right eye, I can't see anything my right eye might as well be closed. In my left eye, I can tell you the TV's on. But I can't tell you what's on it. I can say there's a light on on the ceiling. Or oh, there's a screen door over there, I can see a door or window depending on the light that's coming in. But that's about it for what's called light perception, right? Like if your fingers are maybe two inches in front of my eyes and you're wiggling two or three fingers, I might be able to tell you on a good day. What what what you're doing. I find that in the morning, this is interesting. I can tell if my blood sugars are normal or a little bit on the higher side based on looking out the screen door and what I can see, because my blood sugar actually still affects what vision I have or don't have

Scott Benner 28:21
better blood sugars you see better? Higher blood sugars you see? Less less well.

Unknown Speaker 28:28
Yeah, loosely defined. Right? We'll say yeah, but yeah, of course, that's that's sort of what what I can see. And you know what, in the summer, if we're standing outside next to each other, I might be able to see you but you'd be like a blob, you wouldn't look like a person, you'd just be like a cloudy blob. And I might be able to say, Oh, you're wearing a blue shirt, but you might say oh, it's black, but I can see dark, dark clothing, right? Okay, kind of thing works better, especially with the contrast of the light concrete. So but I mean, I don't like to depend on that. That's why I got the guide dog. And that's why I got all kinds of training to kind of get me around kind of thing. So I'd love

Scott Benner 29:03
to understand your day then, specifically around eating and, and giving yourself insulin, those sorts of things. So you wake up in the morning, can you walk me through it? What do you do?

Unknown Speaker 29:15
Yeah, of course. So right away, I test my blood sugar. I take my smartphone and I open the app and then I scan it over the the tester on my arm and it tells me my blood sugar then I you know for breakfast, I tend to stick to a lot of the same sorts of foods. And it's a little bit more expensive. But I buy prepackaged food for instance, oatmeal, I don't buy the gigantic 10 pound bag, I buy the box of 12 packages, because it's measured for me so it's easier to count the carbs. Technology plays a huge role in what I do. So I have apps like seeing AI. There's a couple of other apps out there that will actually read I hold my phone camera up to the box and it'll say this is Quaker Oats original oatmeal, and then I can hold it up to the back Can I say, Oh, here's 1010 grams of carb per pouch, it's this much sugar, this much sodium, that sort of thing, right? So I actually use technology quite a bit. But I, I tend to stick to the foods that I know that are prepackaged that are you know, like, I'll eat a fruit cup of peaches rather than a peach. And I know that sounds crazy, but at least it's measured for me, because the peach could be so big. And you know, I could say, hey, that's 10 carbs, really, it's 22. But I know in the cup of peaches, it's, you know, nine carbs. And that's that's what it is because they've measured it kind of thing.

Scott Benner 30:35
That doesn't sound Hey, that app, I'm looking at it right now it does a lot of crazy stuff, like not just reading things, you can teach it your friends faces, and it'll tell you like facial gestures that people are making, and

Unknown Speaker 30:46
it'll read money. So like if I go to China or to Europe, and I don't know, if they have Braille on their money or not, or even the US it will, it'll tell me that's a $10. Bill us or that's a $5 bill, Canadian kind of thing. So it's actually really cool. The app, is it perfect? Probably not. But you know what, it's the best we got. And it's really changed a lot of visually impaired users lives for sure.

Scott Benner 31:09
That's what you're talking about. It's it's somebody to step up and do something that really, because that's an impactful thing for you that app I imagine.

Unknown Speaker 31:16
I tend to you I'd say I use it 50 times a day. Yeah. Because even like reading my mail, I can it reads out my mail. To me. It's, it's funny, you can even if if something pops up on my computer screen that you know, my accessible technology doesn't read because it happens from time to time, I can hold it up to the computer screen. And sometimes it'll read that for me. And it does, from time to time catch things on my pump, but I don't know why it doesn't like the writing on my pump for some reason. So it'll it'll say it says something, but it won't tell me what it is. It's like I recognize the text. But I don't know what it says kind of thing. Right?

Scott Benner 31:50
So okay, so you stay on a pretty regimented diet, stuff that you know how to manage? What are your goals for blood sugars? Like, what are you trying to accomplish? At a meal? Are you are you trying to stop a spike? Are you just trying to keep it under a certain number without going low? Like I'm trying to imagine that getting low is probably not a great thing for you. So like, what's your? I mean, I guess like, what would you consider your style? Like, what's it you're going for?

Unknown Speaker 32:16
I try to keep it more of a straight line than a roller coaster ride. So when I'm eating, I tried to keep it. And this is Canadian, right? Because I know you have listeners across the world. So we use the the millimoles system. So like, in range sugar is anywhere from let's say 4.5 to, we'll say 8.5 is where you want to be, you know, it's getting a little bit higher, but you know, you're not going to it's not going to be that's not a bad sugar, right? I want to keep it under like let's say 11 When I'm eating even if I go for chicken wings with threatens right kind of thing. But you know what, that's not always the case. I would much rather and this I please I'm not a medical professional, but I would much rather go highs and low 100% There's no no question about it just because of the treatment. I get very sweaty when I'm low. I feel it pretty hard. I run a lot on the treadmill and stuff. And so I always make sure I have stuff with me. And it's usually liquid. And that's why I love the Juicebox Podcast because my fridge is full of juice boxes all the time.

Scott Benner 33:21
You know, my daughter doesn't want them cold. She hates them cold. She'll drink a juice box if she's low, but she wants it to be room temperature.

Unknown Speaker 33:29
You know what I think I can I can I'm good either way, but I think it's that insatiable hunger, like nothing's ever going to satisfy the low so she wants to get it in as quickly as possible. But drinking a cold juice box can hurt your teeth. I think that might be why her whole life.

Scott Benner 33:45
She just never wanted them cold. Well, okay, so you're describing a world like for people living in America? Like, are you shooting for 80 to 150 ish, but you're trying not to go over 200 at a meal. And, and you're thinking that because not only do you I'm guessing here and I want I want to hear more from you about this. Not only do you not feel well when you're low. But does does your site impact that moment? Like I'm trying to imagine how much of what I do in a panic situation is very annoying. I don't have to think about it because because of the information that's coming in through my eyes, like like, you know, my daughter needed a juice box the other night and we just didn't have them upstairs anymore. In the middle of the night. I had to walk downstairs to get it loose or something that I'm taking you for granted that I could just traverse the house in the dark, grab it walk back upstairs. So just everything you do take more time and is that time part of your consideration why you don't want to be fighting with a lower what are the other implications?

Unknown Speaker 34:45
Yes and no. So like obviously things will just take me a little bit more time in general in life to do but you know what I tend to sort of as a blessing like my I don't want to say my memories gotten better, but I think I learned to depend on it more just like I learned to depend And on my hearing and my touch a little more. If you think about like, your home, I bet you, you could walk around your house if you I don't recommend trying this. But if you close your eyes, I bet you'd still know where the coffee tables are where the doors are in general, right? So that's kind of what I do, I do what's called the zombie walk, I have my arms out in front of me, if I'm not having Joe, my guide dog lead me, and I'm touching everything. I'm sure my walls are pretty dirty. But you know what, it's, it's a price you pay for not having banged up shins and stuff, I lose all of my vision when I get low or when I get too high. And that's sort of, I don't want to say the first indicator, because at that point, it's, it's too late. But that's sort of how you kind of know, right? And, you know, many diabetics, I get agitated when I'm when I'm higher or even lower, right. And it's just the you want to treat it as quickly as possible. But I have to stay out of the kitchen. Because if I'm in the kitchen, I'll go crazy. When I'm low. I mean, all of that box of Oreos, like I tend not to keep that stuff in the house. But if it's there and readily accessible, it's gone. You're because you just have that insatiable hunger. And after that you look down, you're like, oh, now I'm 15. And it's like, Oh, what did I do? Now? I gotta correct that, you know, you go from extremely low to extremely high. And that's where you get into your, your body trying to to adjust and things right. And that's where you might get into some trouble with complications, right? Do you live and again, not a medical professional. But

Scott Benner 36:29
listen, right at the beginning of this episode, I'm going to say a very long sentence that makes everybody 100% certain that you and I are basically morons, and you shouldn't listen to us. So that way, there's nothing here except for the stuff you really know about nothing's medical advice. We're just chatting, having a conversation. But trying to understand how things impact you, which I think is the is definitely the goal of this conversation. You live alone, we're not always or how does that work?

Unknown Speaker 36:55
No, I do. I do have a two year old daughter. But she's not old enough to help me out yet though. So it just adds I guess, I don't want to say more a little bit of a ripple. But it adds a little bit of a ripple because I don't want to be going low when she's there. Kind of thing. So you just you know what, it's, it's great. But I do live alone for the most part. And I you know, I like I said, I got Joe but he can't help me. He just helps me get around kind of thing. So it's it's mostly myself. And like I said, I have a really great diabetes educator, Team endocrinologist and a lot of my friends will help me all I'll FaceTime them and be like, hey, my technology isn't reading this. What can you see what this is what this says? That sort of thing. And they're more than willing to help out which is great, because I know not everyone has that opportunity. That's amazing.

Scott Benner 37:42
It really is. And your daughter's with you. Not not full time. Correct? Yeah. Yeah. What's it like having a baby? When your visions the way yours is?

Unknown Speaker 37:54
You know, what the loves there and the parenting it, nobody's perfect. But you know, and I think she's starting to realize that dad's a little bit different because you plank point to things and she'll be trying to tell me what she wants. And sometimes I'll get it, but we sort of get there in a roundabout way. So I think she's starting to learn, but she's very helpful. She wants to put her own clothes in the laundry basket, she wants to, you know, bath herself. And I'm like, You're not old enough for that. But you know, that'll be there watching and I'm terrified when I feed her. So I'm a little bit on the slower end doing that. And her mom's able to give her a little bit more freedom when she's over at her mom's place. Because she can obviously see right where I'm all over her. I'm right up in her face. And I can tell she gets annoyed but hopefully when she's a little bit older, she'll understand why it was I was doing I wasn't doing that to annoy her. I was more doing it to Yeah, it'll make sure you don't choke on the blueberries kind of thing. Yeah,

Scott Benner 38:49
it'll be completely No, I'm imagining you're like taking like a spoonful of something and stick it in her eye or something like that. But I don't know. I have how much do we i This is the different row but how you mentioned at the beginning for a second but how much latitude do you have for for just being light hearted around your sight issue? Like is it like if I if I like you and I don't know each other, but if I would have just in the middle of that conversation now just blurted out like you don't want to put cereal in her eye? Like would you find that amusing? Would you find that irritating stuff like that rub you

Unknown Speaker 39:28
know, I just you know what, I got pretty sick skin. It's really good. Like I said, I just I do funny things right? And there's some things that you know, like I've locked myself in elevators looking for the braille to get to floor three. Just the other night I thought I was on the 15th floor but I was on the 19th floor. So I was essentially trying to break into someone's apartment that wasn't that I wasn't supposed to you know what I mean? Like, yeah, and people are pretty good. They'll come up and see the dog or the cane. They'll be like, Oh, can I help you? You know, and that's sort of you look to the kind So people and you got to trust a little bit more when you're visually impaired because it's just the way things are right? I mean, yeah, there's so many funny things. I have tons of stories. It's just really, really funny. I've even, you know what, I can't eat and not get food all over me. And I'm like, it could be like, just chips, but I'll have like, Chip dust in my hair. And it's like, how did you? How did you get chipped us to do that? You know, it's, it's just, it's really funny, where there's times where I'm walking around, and there's food in my teeth, or there's something on my face, or even at times my shirt on inside out. And nobody has told me it's like, I've been walking around for four hours at work, and nobody thought to say, Hey, Ryan, your shirts on and you know what I mean? Like, it's, that's

Scott Benner 40:41
why yes, that if I may like, that's why I asked because, is that, like, I'm sure I imagined. Like, I want to imagine you in the elevator. you've pushed the wrong button. You've locked yourself in the elevator at this point. I want to imagine you just in a personal private moment, laughing out loud and being like, son of a bitch. I'm stuck in a goddamn elevator. And like seeing that is amusing. But I don't know, I think people would want to see you as that being a sad thing. But I'm what I'm trying to get as you don't see yourself that way. And you don't want other people to either. Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 41:14
No, I don't get me wrong. I have my sad days where like, let's, let's say for instance, and I'm not throwing a pity party here. But I've never seen my daughter. Yeah, show me to I don't know what she looks like. I mean, people can describe her to me, but I mean, I've never seen her. Right. So like, that makes me sad. There's there but I know with the way technology is going, I will see again in life, whether it's walking her down the aisle or whatever, you know, the technology is going to be there, maybe there's a surgery, stem cells, something, there'll be something out there that will be able to help me out. But no, I tend to just laugh it off. And there's things there's times where I get frustrated, certainly where it's like, oh, I used to be able to hop in my car and drive to the store. But now it's like, I gotta hop on three buses, and it takes me you know, 25 minutes to go, you know, three kilometers down the street, right? Sorry, three miles down the street. But it's, it's interesting, because you just, it's all about how you look at yourself. And I just think I got a lot left to give instead of, you know, being angry, and people always express and, and take their vision loss or vision, just differently, right. And I tend to tell people, because I do work in the come to work department with the cniv. So we prepare people for employment as visually impaired people. I think the first step is not being ashamed of your vision loss. And I'm not, it's you know, what, it's a part of me, like I said, my brain still works, my feet, my legs still work my arms, it's just you do things just in a different way, right? Like three people might be going to the mall, the end goal is to get to the mall, I might walk, someone might drive and other person takes the bus. But we all get there, it's just we got there in a different way. And that's how I sort of look at where we're getting, you know, even if it's working, you can still do what you got to do. It's just you might have to do it differently if you're deaf, or if you're visually impaired, or if you use a wheelchair, or if you have none of those needs, you know, you just tend to do things a little bit differently.

Scott Benner 43:04
I appreciate your sharing that i do i i can see how that attitude could just apply to so many different things in life. And, and i i Of course, I didn't mean to say that you're just running around not impacted by your life. Everyone's impacted by their life. I just, I don't want people to feel scared when they're listening. Like it's not okay to, to laugh along with you. Or it's good. I mean, like you don't I'm saying right, you shouldn't be treating people differently, because their lives are different than yours or your expert. Well.

Unknown Speaker 43:33
And you know what, more often than not, a person with any sort of disability just wants to be talked to, like, even just if I'm standing in line and you say hello to me, it's like, I'm not that, that that'd be great. I'm not looking for, you know, a whole conversation or anything, but thank you, it's great to just know that Oh, Hi, how's it going? Good morning, you know, something like that, like, what were people to? And we're just looking, you know, as you would say hi to someone else, you just might have to say it a little differently. It's like, Oh, hello. And you know, don't don't be afraid to say hello, guy with the guide dog. Like, yeah, that's my identifier. You know, like, I wouldn't know you could be talking to one of the other 50 people in the Starbucks rather than me. I would just wouldn't know right kind of thing. But it's that sort of, and I get it from both ends of the table. You can be you're just as scared to approach me as I'm probably scared to approach you right kind of thing. So 100%

Scott Benner 44:21
Yeah. Let me ask you a question. Give me an example of something that you wanted to do in your life that you can't do because of your vision and give me an example of something that you're doing that you find really valuable and wonderful that you never would have done without this happening too.

Unknown Speaker 44:37
Interesting. So this kind of answers both of them. So for ever, ever since I was a little kid, my grandfather was, you know, a firefighter. I wanted to be a five firefighter. But think about it, your house is on fire, and heaven forbid, but your family's inside and Ryan rolls up in the fire truck and I get out with my guide dog and I'm like, Hey, we're here to save your family and you know, stop the fire like probably not realistic, right? Like, how would you feel you'd be like, what? What's going on? Right? But I'm helping people, I'm helping those with a visual impairment, with advocacy issues with come to work issues with employment issues. So I'm still helping people. It's just in a different way. Yeah. And truth be told, I don't know that I'd ever be working for the cniv. If I didn't lose my vision, I don't think I'd ever be fighting for an accessible pump fighting for these things. But you know, what life throws you curveballs. And like I said, I played baseball, and you just life is full of adjustments. Just as an athlete, they're, you know, your careers full of adjustments. So you just got to make them and kind of roll with the punches. And I know, that's very cliche, but it's very, very true.

Scott Benner 45:41
It's a cliche, because if you don't do that, then you get very inflexible and things start going wrong pretty quickly. You keep saying it quickly, because you're so accustomed to it, but you work at the sea and IB Foundation, what's that stands for?

Unknown Speaker 45:56
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Nice.

Scott Benner 45:59
And how long have you been with them?

Unknown Speaker 46:01
Just over four years, and I've been in a couple of different roles there. And it's, it's really great. We're a national organization, and we do, we're changing what it means to be blind, one live at a time. And that's what I really, really like. We're, you know, what, we've a lot of people have suffered through COVID. But we've actually sort of flourished in a way because we've actually been able to become the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. So now we're, we're getting people together through zoom, and through the wonders of technology that, you know, live in Vancouver, and Halifax, they're meeting each other. Whereas before, if you lived in Halifax, you pretty much only met the blind people that lived in Halifax kind of thing. So it's really great to see everybody sort of get out and learn from people, right? And we're just looking to empower people to do whatever they want to do. Like, yeah, you might have to change a little bit of it. But you know, as long as you're realistic, you can can dare I say, do anything, as long as you're realistic, right? Kind of thing.

Scott Benner 46:59
Right? See? And ib.ca, correct. Yes, that's online. Excellent. I just have people that shows listen to pretty heavily in Canada. So I just want to make sure people know how to get to it, even at other places, so you can see what they're doing. How does it work in Canada, like here? You'd be like a nonprofit? Is that the same thing? There?

Unknown Speaker 47:18
We are. Yes. Yeah. We're just a really big one. That's been around for over 100 years.

Scott Benner 47:25
Okay. Well, do you find that? I guess let me start with this as the question, what's the incidence of blindness in the population? Do you know that?

Unknown Speaker 47:39
I don't want to give you bad numbers. I, I can't speak to that.

Scott Benner 47:44
Can I say, I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 47:47
How to moderate I don't even I don't even know how to answer that. Unfortunately. Just because there's so many different eye conditions. And blindness is a spectrum. Right? So it's not like, oh, Ryan can't see. And that's, that's blindness, right? There's a lot of people between your vision and my vision that might consider themselves visually impaired, maybe not blind, but visually impaired. So it's, it's kind of, I don't want to say misrepresented, but I, there's a lot of in between that, you know, maybe accounted for maybe not, it's, you know, we do we do service a lot of people, we help them out, and we provide support for tons of people all around the country.

Scott Benner 48:26
So yeah, I've had people on who have all levels of site. And, you know, I've had those. There's a gentleman on at one point who drives but you know, like, it's technically is at, like you said at some version of their site is restricted to some degree. And I don't know whether or not that continues to, or if they find that, but these new treatments now are really good at like, holding people site where they are, is that right?

Unknown Speaker 48:53
Yeah, even some of the stuff that they, my my doctors and ophthalmologists were telling me like, oh, we wish this was kind of around back then. Because we would have liked to see how it worked on you. There's there's a lot of different treatments out there. And they're only getting better. Which is which is really great.

Scott Benner 49:09
Wow, is there any? Are there any sight issues in your family line? Like is this is the first time this has happened? Or is this happened to somebody in the past?

Unknown Speaker 49:20
No, I like to be the trailblazer. It's just me. So I mean, my my father, and you know, everybody kind of wears glasses as they you know, get a little bit older in life, a little more seasoned. But for the most part, everybody is will say I don't like this word, but air quotes normal vision. So it's just kind of me so it was I'm the guinea pig.

Scott Benner 49:41
Wow, how how much of the day are you ever away from your dog? Are you never away from your guide dog?

Unknown Speaker 49:51
So interesting question, but so a guide dog. He picture a police officer, right so you're when you're in uniform. You're a police officer, but when you're at home and you're not in uniform, you're just a regular man or woman, right. And that's how it is with a guide dog. So he's here right now, but he's really a just a well trained pet. Because he's not invest. So he knows the difference. And that's a kudos to all the guide dog trainers out there, right that they're able to teach this brilliant animals that right? So he's usually nearby. But when I leave my house, I pretty much just only he He leads me everywhere. So he'll be invest, that's the thing.

Scott Benner 50:29
But inside the house, you just, he's a pet to you and you don't like is there a task in the house? Were you ever like thinking like, I gotta get the vest on him and get them helping me? Or does that not usually happen like that?

Unknown Speaker 50:40
Actually, so we had a scare a few months ago, the fire alarm went on, and I actually had my daughter. So it's like, Okay, I gotta get my daughter strapped to my chest, I gotta and then I gotta get him prepared, because he needs to leave me. Like if I put his leash on him, and he doesn't have his best. He's like, Oh, good, we're going for a walk, I can sniff things I can, I can do things. But like, No, this is an emergency. Right? So it's kind of lesson learned, right? Keep things by the door, you need to be prepared. But you know, for the most part, it's, I always leave within with extra time, that sort of thing. Because I know that typically I do things a little bit slower, right, we have to stop at every corner, because he's trained to, because he can't, he doesn't know if the lights green or red. Or if it's are turned across, I have to make that decision. So it's a, it's very interesting, and you go through a lot of training, and the animals have gone through a ton of training as well. So if you work as a team, you learn to I've had him for just about just about a year now. And we're sort of hitting our stride. So we're kind of in each other's head, and he kind of knows what I want him to do. And he knows I know what he wants me to do, because he sends me little signals as well.

Scott Benner 51:45
Do you ever finish something and just think to yourself, God, that was just a hell of a accomplishment? I mean, just Are you ever proud of yourself? Like, a fire alarm goes off? You've got a two year old with you. And you've got to strap up your guide dog and get out of a building like did you get outside and think to yourself? I'm amazing. Like, because like, or does that not strike you that way?

Unknown Speaker 52:06
I was very proud of myself in that moment. But I didn't put shoes on her. So she was strapped and I'm like, Oh my goodness. Now like you're hurting my back. She's She's She's big. She's getting bigger, right? So it's like, oh, I can't even put you on the ground now because we're outside. Luckily, it was, you know, July, it's not the middle of February where she would have been freezing. But again, lesson learned. Like what if that happens now? It's getting colder out? No, I actually. It took me all day. But I built a bedframe. And obviously, I can't read the instructions. It was like, Okay, I gotta feel this piece. I think this piece is this. And you know what, there was some trial and error where I had to take parts of it apart and be like, Well, I did that backwards or whatever. But you know what, I set the extra time aside and I did it. Even with my pump back to the diabetes. Sometimes when I have to rewrite and change my reservoir set it sometimes it takes me four minutes because I have days other time it takes me half an hour to change it because I screw up and I gotta wait for the pump to reset itself. But you know what I am proud of myself every day I do that too.

Scott Benner 53:09
I'm telling you, if if I was you, I would have put that bedframe together, it would have stood up and pounded on my chest and then like I've got damn Superman, I'm just gonna tell you all right now without being able to see this bed, I put it together. i And then by the way later at night, when I went to sit on it, I would for a minute think I better be careful. A blind guy put this bed together. Like I would have that.

Unknown Speaker 53:27
That that was my thoughts. So I was laying in it that night. I'm like, am I gonna be crumpled up in the morning and in just a disaster of a pile of metal and wood here, just

Scott Benner 53:39
stomp on the floor? And you're like, Yeah, that was predictable. But no, I mean, it's obviously it's not. It's just like to me, like, I'm amazed by what you're telling me. And not amazed, like, you know, like, I don't know what the word is. I'm not pitting I

Unknown Speaker 53:56
promise, I promise. I'm just the guy. I put my pants on one leg at a time in the morning just like everybody else. It's just you know what, I just might not know if they match my shirt. So it's really, you know, you just learn to do things differently in life. And that's how I'm navigating through my diabetes journey to you just really learned to do things differently. And you know what, it's, it's more what blindness has taught me. It's more about the journey, not the end product, right? It was always like we're so concentrated on the end and how quickly we get there. I sort of take my time and smell the roses and hey, let's let's let's do it. But it's about the journey. How am I going to do it now?

Scott Benner 54:37
Do you ever consider sending your daughter to like trial net, for example, to see if she has genetic markers for type one? Something

Unknown Speaker 54:45
it scares it scares the life out of me all the time. I haven't thought about it, but I'm just hoping that there's some sort of like cure or something. Knock on wood. I hope she never ever gets it. But if she does, I'm hoping that There's something out there that will help. Yeah, that's that's one thing I don't want for her.

Scott Benner 55:05
No, no, I wouldn't imagine it's just there's ways to see if they if people have genetic markers, and those markers can tell you you're, you know, within reason, your percentage of chance. And I just didn't know if that would be something you'd want to know about so that you could pre plan for it. Or if you would prefer not to know about and just kind of live on the side of hope. But if you haven't thought about it, you're not gonna have an answer to that question. So yeah, good.

Unknown Speaker 55:27
That's a really good question. I'm probably going to be thinking about it all day now. But no, I, it's something to consider. Definitely, no,

Scott Benner 55:35
it's just very, I mean, everybody feels the same. I've never asked that question of anybody who hasn't had a very similar answer. You know, just like, I don't know what that sounds scary. And, and the other side of it, I can see the adult part of it where you'd want to know and be prepared. And, like, I can see everyone's argument for either side of that. And I just didn't know if it was something you'd ever considered are not. Parents alive? Yes, they are. How often are you with them? And I'm wondering how that even if you're not like, together together, I guess my question is, is that if has your has your blindness created a scenario where they feel overly responsible for you still in a way that you might not have a 35 year old? That's really my question.

Unknown Speaker 56:26
Yes, and no, I don't see my mom often because she lives across the border. She lives in Michigan. So it's been closed for 19 months, she hasn't been able to kind of come across right. And I do feel bad for her because she's missing out on little Abby's life, she hasn't really seen you know, her and she hasn't got to see her grow up except for FaceTime, right? My dad lives in Windsor with me. He comes to over I'd say, let's say once a week or something, but it's interesting. At times he'll see 21 year old sighted scholarship athlete Ryan and then other times you'll see poor helpless blind guy, right. And I say that loosely, but it's, you know, it's so it's interesting, that he will want to do things for me. And, you know, Hey, Dad, if you're listening, I'm sorry, you're not getting any younger. You gotta let me lift those heavy things. But he always wants to help, right. But you know what I tried to I have to tell him like my legs and arms work. I mean, if I'm carrying groceries, and I run into the wall, that's on me, that's not on you. It's but you know, what a lesson learned. So he does. He does it comes it comes and goes, because other times he's like, Oh, you can do that by yourself. And I'm like, thank goodness, thank you. Yes, I can. But other times, it's oh, let me do that for you. Hey, let me let me oh, I'll get this all open this pop for you. It's like you open a pop can or whatever kind of thing. Right? So it's in love, and I love them so much for all the help and you know, I don't think I want to stop helping me dad. But it's, it's just interesting, right? Because it's, I get it. I'm this kid and he wants to help out. And he's still he does quite a bit. But it's, you know, I'm good. I promise I'm good. I just might take longer or do things differently.

Scott Benner 58:05
Not that this has anything to do with your situation. But my wife was telling me about the story the other day where a 90 year old woman who was still living on her own, voluntarily moved into a nursing facility to help take care of her 70 year old child. And I was just like, Yeah, see, that's the thing about being a parent right there. You don't I mean, like, look, it just never leaves you. It's it that I found that fascinating.

Unknown Speaker 58:31
But I feel and I worry, I worry, I'm like, oh my goodness, am I gonna get like this was Abby is this is this is what I have to look forward to. And she's gonna, you know, not say hate me, but you know, hate me for wanting to help or doing so it's it's it's very interesting.

Scott Benner 58:45
Yeah, they don't hate you. They just they'll act annoyed by it. But then, you know, if it goes away, right away, they're like, oh, where? Where were you on this? You know?

Unknown Speaker 58:54
Exactly. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah,

Scott Benner 58:56
I have kids 17 and 21. So, I've seen it. Like I've seen it both ways. I've seen them kind of push away help. And I've seen them say no, no, I really need this. You know, it always happens in weird places. And yeah, it's gonna happen to you so happens to everybody. You know, just I just I don't know, I was like, stunned. I was like, I'm 90 and I'm living on my own. And I'm like, no, no, I'll go into a home to help my to help my child. That's like, that's really crazy. All right. Well, Brian, listen, I want to ask you, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to that I didn't get to?

Unknown Speaker 59:34
know I've had a great time. This has been a great chat and no, thank you just. Yeah, no, honestly, the

Scott Benner 59:43
wonderful I'm not pushing you away. I just want to make sure that we didn't like, like, you know, because sometimes I get, I don't know. I get distracted and I started asking questions about things that I think most people don't give a crap about. But I just find interesting as we're talking, how did you who reached out To me, and said, I think you should be on the show, I'm forgetting the pathway that you got here.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:07
So we diabetes, Canada had a lot of interaction and a lot of data I'm sure they all listened to, or most of them, listen to your podcast. And then they are working on with the cniv on an accessible insulin pump project. And my coworker, Kat Hamilton, my colleague, she said, Ryan, I think you should go on this. And I did some research. And I'm like, I'd love to go on this. And so she actually reached out to you and said, I think you should have Ryan on the show. And it kind of just spiraled from there. And here we are.

Scott Benner 1:00:34
That's excellent. So let me let me finish up by asking you this, like in your perfect world? What should Innit let's start with an insulin pump? What should an insulin pump do? Or have? Or offer that would be valuable to you?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:51
I think that the marketers, the design teams and the engineers should think about making it accessible from the get go not just for a visually impaired but like, hey, what about an elderly person that wears glasses and can't see the small print? I think that the universal design concept should really be kind of in there, right? Hey, take it out of the box. And with a few adjustments, let's let's whoever can choose whatever kind of options you need, then you can use them, right? Because it's like, just think of it in terms of an elevator. Right? So an elevator was originally designed for people that can't use stairs to get to the second floor. But now on a pre COVID world, if you lived in an office built or if you lived in office, if you worked in an office building, I bet you you took an elevator every day not even thinking about it, they've just come second place. And second nature, I would love for all medical devices, but especially an insulin pump to be like that. Let's not even think about it. It's just there. I know there's I know, that's, you know, a very simplistic approach. There's approvals. There's Health Canada, there's this there's that there's all kinds of different things that it has to go through. But don't, I guess Don't be worried about the money that you put forth, like do it because it's expensive. And it takes a long time. But just think about me with the bed, I made the bed. It was difficult. But look, it's it's working. So I think there's a lot of people that would come out of the woodwork and say like, there's tons of people that I know, in Canada, that won't go and use a pump, because they know it's not accessible. And they're worried about their vision and their health and going low going high in the middle of the night. And then not to be dire, but not waking up the next morning. So it's you know what, even for me to tell how much battery life isn't my pump, or what time it is with my pump, right? Pretty much my pump is a fancy insulin pen. It that just pumps insulin to me all the time, but I can't use the really cool functions. And that's what I would like to be able to do whether or not I tend to use all of them, you know, I would like to be the gatekeeper of that decision, not someone else that designed the pumps thinking, Oh, here, this is going to be great for everybody. But it's only great for, you know, what, eight out of 10 people. So

Scott Benner 1:03:11
would it be helpful to you if manage if if the device is moved into, solely into a cell phone, because then text to speech would be more easy like that. Like I'm imagining if you could run your insulin pump from your cell phone, and you can run your CGM from your cell phone, then it wouldn't be difficult for these companies to build coding that would allow you to say like, Hey, you know, my phone, what's my blood sugar? And have it tell you that or?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:40
Absolutely, no, that's that's where it goes. And you know, there's a lot of security purposes, a lot of security concerns and things like that, right. But I mean, we can do all of our banking on our phone, and we can do all of our other things on our phones. So why can't we do this? Yeah, you look at it, and we're working there. And some of the pump companies have even reached out and said, like, hey, like, we're going to be able to do this, right? We're looking into apps, and they're in trial, and this and that, and it's really, really awesome. That's, that's what I would love is just to, and when you look at it, Apple and Android have done the hard work for you. They have talkback and voiceover that really I can almost do anything. I can serve Facebook, I can send text messages, I can send emails, I can dial phone numbers, I'm on my smartphone right now. I'm on a zoom call with you. And it's completely accessible, right? So it's they've done the hard work by integrating the voice for you. So let's let's look at this and say how can we move forward from your end on just making buttons like, oh, I want to give myself four units of insulin? How does that look on a pump? Or sorry, not a pump on a smartphone app? Or, Hey, your your average agency is this like how can we do that? Right like I understand graphs are probably never going to be accessible for me, just based on my state. I'm not speaking for everybody visually impaired but it's it's there's got to be a Other ways? Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:05:00
Well couldn't sit. Well, let me ask you a question if if the graph was not even in Braille, but just so that you can if it was raised, wouldn't you be able to kind of feel like, here's where the insulin went? And here's where I started going up. Wouldn't that be valuable to you?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:19
Like a tactile graph? Yes. It would like even giving me the option to print one, right? Because I think that would be great. Like, I don't think there's a way to do that with the phone screen. But yeah, for sure. Like, I think that would, that's a great idea. Yeah, one I hadn't even considered before

Scott Benner 1:05:35
you have do you have a printer that prints raised?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:39
I'm lucky because I work for the Institute for the Blind. So I could do it at work. They're very expensive. At this point, it's kind of I don't want to say new technology, but making them smaller and Bluetooth. And so like, there are braille embossers. But traditionally, they were big and bulky and cost 1000s of dollars. And they still do but now they're desktop models. So I could see it becoming a little bit more reasonable and affordable in the future. But yeah, to be told, not a lot. One of the major myths is that everybody that's blind uses Braille. And that's not the case. I learned braille to read Abbey books. And the people in my scenario, usually don't learn braille, because you have your voice, you have your audio books, you have those things, but I think the the the missed key messaging is that no matter how technologically savvy we get, are we you know, we use Braille is our version of print, and just for you, like a print documents, never going to lose its value, there's always going to be a signature required on it, or something different right mail delivered in your mailbox, that sort of thing. And I think that's the equivalent for a visually impaired person is the Braille.

Scott Benner 1:06:49
And I was just really imagining, I mean, I know what I've learned from looking at the Dexcom graphs for my daughter, and there's so much to be inferred from them. And you start to understand how to use the insulin differently. And, you know, I'm gonna say better by seeing the impacts visually, it's just, it really is. But you could, I mean, if you had that graph, I'm imagining you would like, like the last three hours of your blood sugars, and the knowledge of where did I put the insulin? Where did the food go in and being able just to feel that rise? And kind of imagine in your mind, I would imagine you could do a better job with your insulin after having those experiences over and over again. So my, my point

Unknown Speaker 1:07:30
and just think of it even in a simpler terms, I'm not trying to be nosy here, but does your daughter use the CGM? She does.

Scott Benner 1:07:36
She uses a girl you're lovely. You're not trying to be nosy. You can ask me whatever you want, right? She's using the Dexcom G six right now.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:43
So when she, when she tests her sugar, I don't know if she ever gives you a look. But there's always arrows next to it, right? So there's either like three going up, which means your blood sugar is going up a lot, or there's like, one going down, you're starting to get low, maybe you should, you know, eat something like there's those arrows. Up until recently, I had no idea those arrows were there because it didn't read anything out to me. But even that information would be so awesome to know. And it's changed. Like even with the libre now it'll say, Oh, you're 8.1 and your blood sugar is rising rapidly. So at least now I know. It's like, oh, I should correct this. Right? Whereas before it was just the arrows were there for the sighted world to see. But not for Ryan to us.

Scott Benner 1:08:26
There's a lot. There's a lot of low hanging fruit here for you. If people would get on board and work towards that. It sounds like to me. Agreed. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Wow. All right. I'm gonna ask you one silly question before we get done. Because you have to wait for something to be read to you when you're looking at Facebook. Do you ever get halfway through somebody's thought and think, Oh, what a waste of time I can't believe I put much effort and if you don't I'll

Unknown Speaker 1:08:50
do you one. I'll do you one better. I don't know if you use Twitter but like you can put emojis in your name and Twitter and some people go crazy where it's so the my screen reader will read out emojis it'll be like, Oh, smiling face and kissy face and heart. Heart shaped eyes face like it reads out all of them. And they all have different descriptors. But it's funny because some people use them wrong. They're like, oh, like for one of my friends. She kept sending me a distressed face. I'm like, are you okay? She's like, Yeah, I'm sending you smiley faces and like they're described to me as distressed face like I was seriously worried for you. But back on Twitter, if you put more than like three emojis in front of your name I won't even read what you're writing because it goes I don't get to skip over. It's like this emoji that emoji this emoji that emoji this emoji that emoji. Ryan who he wrote and then you get into it, but legitimately you could be waiting there for like, and this doesn't seem long, but 16 seconds as it goes through emojis and I'm like no, skip.

Scott Benner 1:09:47
It definitely seems longer than that tweet is just not valuable at all. You're like, oh my god, I sat through I sat through eggplant poop blah, blah, blah so that I could get exactly I can't get this crap out. I just I don't know, I couldn't find my I pictured myself being like, oh my god just so weird. I know, when you start reading some things that people write and you get halfway through, like, ah, there's time, I'm never gonna get back. And I noticed that I'm reading it now. So that's amazing.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:14
There's those Facebook posts where it's just a picture, like there's something called alternate texts. So I put them in all of my pictures. So it'll describe loosely what's in the picture. Ryan sitting with Abigail on her lap, that's pretty much all you need to know. And then I have visually impaired friends, they love it because they can enjoy the picture. They can enjoy it like you would, but it's a different way, right? But then there's some people that just post a picture. And it's nine times out of 10. Because people just don't know. They're like, Oh, blind, people don't use Facebook or whatever, right? So it's that they don't put anything. So it's just a picture of their kids on their first day of school. But all they do is post a picture. And I just scroll through it, because it's like, oh, this is a photo and it might have trees in it. And in that, so it kind of describes it to me, but it's interesting.

Scott Benner 1:10:56
Yeah, that really is something. All right, man, listen, this was terrific. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:02
Anytime. Hopefully, you'll have me back at some point. Well, I

Scott Benner 1:11:05
haven't I don't normally have people background, but I maybe I will. Oh, that's because people aren't great. It's good. Just like, you run, uh, you know, tell people for a second you have a podcast to write. That's, that's not about like, what else do you do?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:21
Yeah, so it's an it's an internet radio show. And it's every Friday at 315. Eastern, and it's all about audiobooks. It's called it's a 15 minute segment on a bigger show that every day during the week. And it's through Accessible Media Incorporated, and they're out of Toronto. And they're a television and an audio kind of channel. And what they do is all their programming is in described definition for the blind and closed caption for the Deaf. Yeah, on screen so and we do different lifestyle tips and tricks and hacks and that sort of stuff for the blind world. And so one is mine, the fun one, I get audiobooks every Friday afternoon, hey, here's what you should be reading. Here's some cool news. Here's, you know, where you can get the books, that sort of thing. So we do it every, every Friday at 315. And you can catch it at ami audio.ca. Listen Live.

Scott Benner 1:12:11
And I bring that up, because you'll have an appreciation for the fact that it is October 18 right now. And if you contacted me today, and you weren't you you don't I mean, like I have you on I have like a couple of VIP days held aside so I can always slide stuff in. But if you're just a regular person trying to come on the show, I think the next availability is in May of 2022. Right now to record.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:34
So that's a good situation to be in. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:12:37
So I'm good. Listen, that's amazing. But that's why I never ended up having people back again. Because I don't even know when to like slide them in, like, you know, like, what am I going to do this?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:46
Of course, while you're very busy, but let's keep in touch. We'll keep it at that for

Scott Benner 1:12:49
you, though I say differently, because I want to I want to hear about you getting locked in an elevator again, I have to be honest, I want us to get very close, right? So that we can have very, I want to have a conversation with you one day, that would be a conversation that you might have amongst three people who are in your situation, do you not? I mean, like I really want to see behind how your life works in a way where we're not you know, I don't what am I saying? Like we're everyone is understandably careful about talking about things because you don't want to insult people. You don't want to assume your situation on somebody else's, like I get all that. But there's I feel like there's a backroom to your life. That's hilarious, and I'm not hearing about it. So I think maybe if we learn each know more about each other, it might come out as we're talking, or am I wrong? Sounds great.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:34
Am I wrong? It sounds great. I got tons of stories. There's all kinds. Yeah, absolutely. And it's just the even if the everyday Ryan just does silly things right? There's there's been times where you and I thought I was going to eat an apple but it was an onion note. Like just simple things like that. Right? And I know that sounds strange, but now I've kind of got my got my bearings underneath me. But you know what best laid plans always go to waste. So absolutely. I'm more than willing to talk about those.

Scott Benner 1:14:03
Listen, right? You don't know me well enough. But I stopped from asking you about having sex while you were blind. I stopped myself for an hour and eight minutes. So I'm super proud of myself right now. And I'm just gonna say goodbye. Okay. All right. That's really what I wanted to ask you pretty much the entire time and yet I was an adult, and I did not do it. But seriously, though, I really appreciate you doing this. I really do. It's really just a different conversation for me. So

Unknown Speaker 1:14:30
I'm gonna you wouldn't be the first person to ask me those questions. So it's no it's duh. Yeah, absolutely. Well, we'll touch base.

Scott Benner 1:14:36
Yeah. All right, hold on one second. Thanks

Unknown Speaker 1:14:37
so much for having me.

Scott Benner 1:14:47
Hey, huge thanks to Ryan for coming on the show and sharing his story with us. I also want to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and remind you to go to contour next one.com forward slash juice box. And of course Are us med get that white glove treatment at us med.com forward slash juicebox or by calling 888-721-1514. Get your free benefits check today. Don't delay today and don't delay they ride. If you want to check out the place where Ryan works, it's C n i b.ca not.com. It's from the Canada, it's different. Thank you so much for listening. I'm going to be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. In the meantime, you should check out the podcast, Facebook page Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, it's a private Facebook page with 24 25,000 people in it. Those people are just like you they use insulin or love someone who uses insulin. And they're just trying to figure things out. And they're in there helping each other. And I stopped by quite a little bit. I'm like the, like the neighbor in a sitcom who's you know, comes by once or twice every episode. I'll just like stick my head in the door. I'm like, Hey, what's up everybody. And then, like I says, I'm funny, or I help with something or I'm even a sounding board sometimes then I'm gone. Poof. And then it's back to the regulars to people who really, you know, are the heart and soul of the show, which are in this case, the people in that Facebook group, really a special group of people check it out. Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes. On Facebook, it's a private group. So you'll have to answer a couple of questions coming in to make sure that you're a real person when it asks you where you heard about it. For just for people who heard about it here, let's put a code word in. And I'll know you guys heard about it here. And then I will just let you in immediately. I'll be like these people heard about this in Episode 667. A code word. How about just 667? That'd be easy. Where did you hear about it? Episode 667. Boom, you're right through. Alright, thanks so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#666 Half a Century

Christine has lived with type 1 diabetes for over fifty years.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
fair to say that everyone listening today is not superstitious, as I welcome you to Episode 666 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Christine's on the show today she has had type one for many, many, many, many decades. And she's going to tell us her story. If you play this next bit in reverse, it will reveal who killed President Kennedy. Please remember today that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. Now try to figure out how to play a podcast backwards, you're never gonna do it. Keeping this theme going for episode 666 I compel you to go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And take the T one D exchange survey. When you do you'll be helping people with type one diabetes and supporting the show. All you have to be is a type one who is a US resident or a US resident who is the caregiver of a type one. After that T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox fewer than 10 minutes and you're done. It can tell the this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. today's podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one visit touched by type one.org. Or find them on Instagram and Facebook. I mean honestly, you could probably do all three of those things, find them on Instagram, Facebook, and visit touched by type one.org.

Christine 2:04
Hi there. I'm Christine and I'm recording from Oregon. Oregon. I grew up in Wisconsin. And I've been out here though most of my life.

Scott Benner 2:19
You went from Wisconsin to Oregon when you were younger.

Christine 2:22
After college, I went to school at the University of Wisconsin at Madison,

Scott Benner 2:28
if I will avoid Oregon or something. I'm

Christine 2:31
a girl. I'm kind of kind of a boy, I heard that Oregon was a beautiful place to be and I had done some internships out in the west and just headed out this way. And as soon as I got here, I knew it was where I needed to set my routes down. But I came out here by myself basically.

Scott Benner 2:54
Okay, that's excellent. All right. Let's let me remind you, as we go, zippers, banging anything like that is gonna come through pretty loud. You have a really good microphone, so Okay, try not to fit. Are you nervous?

Christine 3:11
Um, I'd be lying if I said that. I didn't have a few butterflies, but generally, I don't get nervous. Um, I'm excited.

Scott Benner 3:24
Good, good. It's gonna say, Christine, you're a grown person. There's nothing to be nervous about. I think it kind of it fits into your story. So how old are you?

Christine 3:34
I just turned 65. Yeah, happy birthday in September 14. Congratulations. Yeah, it's getting diabeetus at age 13. On my birthday, basically, was, was quite the present.

Scott Benner 3:52
Do you recall any of that?

Christine 3:54
I do. How did it happen? Um, I recall standing at the kitchen sink, all summer long drinking gallons of cold water. And my mother would say that I would sit down at the table before anybody got there. And I'd start eating. And I was still there after everybody left. And I was pretty little I was, you know, that was seventh grade. Going into seventh grade. I was 7075 pounds. And I was just eating like a horse. And it was mostly my mother was watching that scenario go on. And when school started, it was in the days. I don't know that they still do this but the nurse we'd get weighed, and I had lost six pounds from the year before. During a period of time where you're supposed to be growing Right. So Mom took a urine sample into the doctor. And bingo, there it was. So I wasn't sick. I think it was caught pretty early. My recollection is maybe my blood sugar was in the four hundreds.

Scott Benner 5:19
I have a question. Did the doctor asked for a urine sample? Or was your mom just the kind of lady that when you didn't feel good, you had to pee in a cup?

Christine 5:25
I know, I think I think she had a doctor's appointment for herself. And then she called in and talked about what was going on with me that I had lost the weight and she was watching the water drinking. And they said, just bring a urine sample in. So and that was the weekend of my 13th birthday. And he wanted me to go to the hospital right away. And she said, Well, we're having a birthday party this weekend. And he says, Okay, you can wait till Monday, but don't let her eat too much birthday cake.

Scott Benner 6:02
Oh, you didn't get a cake?

Christine 6:05
I think she let me have a little bit.

Scott Benner 6:08
And then from there, what is the policy? I usually ask what the beginning of your management life is like, but it's gonna be a big chunk of it for you, right?

Christine 6:18
Yeah, well, it was 52 years ago. And if that was in the days of you pee in a cup, you check an eyedropper and put in, I don't know, five drops of urine 10 drops of water and then this little tablet in it fizzed up and turned color. And usually, you know, to have no sugar in your urine. It was blue. But by the time you're dumping sugar into your urine, you're already way too high. So it was pretty rudimentary tools that we had at that time, and I was mortified that I would have to do this at school, you know, lock myself in the bathroom and pee in a cup. And you know how the day

Scott Benner 7:17
is how often did you do that? Well,

Christine 7:22
I do remember doing it at school a couple of times. And then probably going to the doctor and crying about it. And he said I didn't have to do it at school anymore. So no, we probably did it in the morning and in the evening. You know, we we boiled the glass insulin syringe and put a new needle on it every morning. But it's pretty long time ago it was beef and pork insulin and and probably on some sort of mixture. I don't remember we certainly didn't have fast acting insulin.

Scott Benner 8:03
No, no. This is 1969. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. You know, if your birthday was a month sooner, I could call this episode summer of 69. But fall of 69 it's not going to make anybody go Oh, I wonder what this is about?

Christine 8:18
I think I think something else will come up.

Scott Benner 8:21
Yeah, you've exceeded your to say something insane in the next hour. Okay, well, let's get to that part, then. I do want to like dig through a little like contextually, like you say it's so offhandedly like we boiled the syringes and, and but you had a set right? They were glass syringes with metal needles, and then every time you use them, they had to be sterilized.

Christine 8:46
Right? You know, I don't remember boiling the needle. I think there were disposable needles that you just clipped on the top of that class syringe? Sure. Um, but with you know, that went on, because I was in seventh grade. And I just kind of remember that class syringe for a long time before they came out with the disposable needles. Show. Yeah, the doctor didn't say I had to keep doing that urine test at school, but I was doing it at home. Um,

Scott Benner 9:20
what? What was the goal of the test?

Christine 9:24
The goal of the test was to have it be blue, that meant you didn't have sugar in your urine. But again, my recollection was that by the time it turned a different color was that you had already dumped a lot of you know, from your blood, filtering out the sugar into your kidneys. Your blood sugar is already pretty high. So that was the best that we had at that time.

Scott Benner 9:55
But I mean, if it wasn't blue, you didn't get more insulin right? No, what did you say? up eating or running around, or what was the plan, then

Christine 10:04
you just kept taking your insulin dose. You know, there really wasn't much strategy that I remember. It was I was on one of those diets that they called the exchange diet. So, for breakfast, I had two starches a protein, you know, a fruit, a milk, lunch, you know, kind of the same sort of thing. And my mom was pretty good at sticking to that exchange diet and what that all meant. It was harder on her than it was on me. She had a hard time giving me shots. I mean, she would just fall apart every time she had to give me a shot. And I would just say, Mom, just give me the needle. And I would, and I would take over it. That was it. It just hurt her to feel like she was hurting me.

Scott Benner 11:07
How many? How many kids? Did your mom have?

Christine 11:10
Um, there are four of us. We were all really stretched out my I had an older sister who is eight years older than I was. And then I came along, and then a younger sister who is almost four years younger. And then another brother, who is you know, there was almost eight years between him and I

Scott Benner 11:31
wow. So was your mom only fertile every eight years or?

Christine 11:34
I know, I didn't get to ask her. Before she died. What was that family? What the heck was going on in between? I know there was one miscarriage. I think between me and my younger sister. So yeah, who knows?

Scott Benner 11:54
Maybe your dad was only nice every seven years or so?

Christine 11:58
My dad, my dad wasn't around very much. So that may have been part of it. I don't know.

Scott Benner 12:04
No, it's interesting. That's all yes. How would you know, but I don't know. I'm interested. I love that. So okay, so you do this for ever and ever. And there's not a ton of impact on you, right? Like, you don't remember your life as being difficult.

Christine 12:21
I don't I, I have never in 52 years been hospitalized for DKA. I remember never skipping an insulin dose. I do remember screwing around with my diet, though, that as time went along, and you started to push the envelope a little bit and go, Oh, I really want a piece of cake. And you'd eat the piece of cake and nothing really bad happened. You just kept pushing it. And I think I was pretty good in high school, you know, just kind of telling the mark, I was a good girl. And um, but then when I went to college, I went through some rebellious years, and maybe a little bit of light depression, about about living with this disease and kind of using it a little bit to be in denial. I mean, I remember going down for the vending machine in the college dormitory and getting not one Snicker bar, but five, I'd eat five Snickers. And then I'd get really tired and take a long nap. But I never got it never got so bad that I ever was hospitalized. So I'm patting myself on the back for that for all these years that I never really got into serious trouble,

Scott Benner 14:04
even in college that there is no meter right.

Christine 14:07
So, in college, I finally got to see an endocrinologist. Up until that time. I was still being seen by a family doctor, and I didn't know about endocrinologist. And for some reason, you know, we must have had a health plan at at the school, and I got into at the University of Wisconsin to see this Scottish physician. And there's a couple of things that I remember very distinctly about him and that really helped to form how I carried on with this disease and so So he, I don't know if we I don't I don't think because that was in the late 70s. I don't think we still had the a one C test. I don't know, you might know when that test was developed. But um, I remember him saying to me, he actually called me at home one night maybe to give me some lab work. And he basically laid it on the line and said, you know, you really got to get your act together here. And he used

Scott Benner 15:44
you froze? Hold on a second. Christine, hold on. You are frozen frozen? Is Oregon internet is dodgy. Something happened to the tree you live in? What happened?

Christine 15:57
I don't know. I don't know. I checked my internet connection. It looks okay.

Scott Benner 16:01
It's okay. Don't worry about it. You were talking about the doctor. And

Christine 16:05
so he called me and he said in his little Scottish accent, Gather ye rosebuds. While he may. And I remember that. And I guess it hit home. And there were a couple of other things that hit home right at that time it was I was in my early 20s. I did have a cousin, a second cousin who developed diabeetus, we were the same age. And but he developed it five years earlier than me. And when he was 21, he lost his sight due to diabeetus. So I had this doctor telling me this, I had my cousin who had just gone blind. And I was like, Oh, my God, this stuff is real, I better start paying attention here. And I got on the bandwagon. And I and I also was studying to be in a health occupation was vacillating between two different fields. And being in a Health Occupation, you you know, I was exposed to people who had complications I was exposed to, you know, stuff that was going on in the medical field. And I really think it helped me to get on board. Okay, quickly. Yeah, he was

Scott Benner 17:40
telling you, by the way, Gather ye rosebuds. While ye may, proverb act, and it may, it means enjoy yourself now, before your situation is changed.

Christine 17:50
Exactly the rest of the poem goes. Gather ye rosebuds, while ye may old time is a flying, and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be a dying. So that really stuck in my head. And and, you know, I'm grateful to him for that i He, I got involved in a couple of research studies. In college. He did one he asked me if I would volunteer to be hospitalized for a week. And I was all about trying to do the right thing. And the hospitalization was going to be about seeing if you could get a faster reaction from your insulin. And by that time regular insulin was out, I believe. And to see if you could get a faster reaction if you didn't, I am injection inner muscular injection. And I said, Okay, I'll do it. And admitted myself to the hospital. I was probably in for five days. And they were starting to do blood tests, then at that point where you put a drop of blood on a strip and the strip turned color. It was still pretty wide ranges, but it was better than the urine testing. And so I had to agree to using a one inch needle that you'd go straight in usually to your quad Big Muscle on your thigh and see if having muscle uptake was faster than subcutaneous. So the I don't know what they used to measure. I don't know how long I did it for But it was an interesting theory. And it didn't go on very long. And it was it's painful to do an I am injection sounds like it. Yeah, yeah. And the cost, the benefit wasn't real clear. And, you know, he said I didn't need to keep doing it, but showed there was that study. And then there was also a study going on that just started at the University Wisconsin called the The Wisconsin epidemiological study for diabetes, retinopathy, that did W E, S, D, R. And they were looking at, you know, control how well your control was, and they were going to do a 20 year study. And I was followed in that study for probably not quite 20 years, they stopped the study, because the results were so obvious that if you had good control, that you could slow down I disease, and they measured a bunch of things. And every year, I'd go in and have my eyes photographed, and just go through a series long series of questions. And it was usually a two hour appointment that I had. But they they did stop that study before 20 years, because the evidence was obvious that could control was

Scott Benner 21:39
read good outcome,

Christine 21:41
and had good outcomes. Yes. So and but we still didn't have good tools, right to measure. And,

Scott Benner 21:51
well, you know, you mentioned the a one t test with the best I can find is that in the 80s, the A one C test came up. Okay. And it doesn't say exactly when but that's also the decade of meters, test strips requiring less blood, like all that stuff sort of picked up a little bit in the early right. Through the 1980s.

Christine 22:11
Yeah, yeah. And I graduated from there in 1981. And I, I'm an occupational therapist, so I worked in hospitals and clinics. And I, I worked with a lot of people who had diabeetus, because in their complications, so as an occupational therapist, you help people to deal with their disease process or injury. And I got to see what happens when you don't take care of yourself.

Scott Benner 22:48
So, so those people you were working with could maybe act as the Ghost of Christmas Future for you. And it did keep you in line a little bit.

Christine 22:55
Oh, I'm sure that it all influenced. Yeah. You know. And then, you know, I was constantly, you know, in the field where I had good access to health care. And, um, yeah, I mean, all of it helped. I'm really glad that I chose that occupation. And I had that sense of, and I don't know which doctor along the way, said, You know, this isn't a death sentence, getting diabeetus there's a lot worse things out there. And I looked at, you know, our family history, and there was, there were things in our family history, like depression, developmental disabilities, muscular dystrophy, alcoholism. And I thought, you know, maybe diabetes isn't so bad, you know, we all get somehow struck down with something in our lives and diabetes teaches you how to live balanced and healthfully exercise eat right, all those things. And I took on that attitude of this isn't horrible. It college. I did. I think it was probably through going into that university health clinics. Somebody told me about a support group. And from college on up until even now, I've always been involved in some sort of support group around diabeetus. And I remember clearly that we had a nurse in our support group, and he was talking about how and again, this is late 70s, early 80s. How he says, Well, you know, if I wanted to eat I'm a little bit more I would just take some more insulin. And we all the rest of the people in the group we just guessed, like, oh my god, you can't do that. You can't just take more insulin. And he said, why not? You know, and it was that first sign of, yes, you could take more insulin to cover more carbohydrates or, you know, yeah. And so, of course, you know, that's where we are now.

Scott Benner 25:33
Well, I want to ask you a couple questions before we keep going. So there was like, muscular dystrophy in your background? That's autoimmune, I think, right?

Christine 25:42
Um, yeah, maybe it was on my dad's side. diabeetus was more on my mom's side. If if, in fact, you're right, I don't know that. But how about that would be the main autoimmune thing.

Scott Benner 25:59
How about thyroid, any thyroid, celiac? That kind of stuff?

Christine 26:07
Kind of surprisingly. You know, thyroid disease is pretty prevalent, but I don't remember anybody.

Scott Benner 26:15
Maybe, maybe, um, maybe Muscular Dystrophy is not it's the best I have here is a hyperactive immune system can lead to inflammation and autoimmune disorders. Muscular Dystrophy is a group of inherited diseases that lead to progressive muscle weakness. Yeah, it's not it's not making an indication there. Okay. Yeah. Depression, though, huh?

Christine 26:38
Yeah, I think my mom suffered from depression, my sister. There's alcoholism in my family. So when I looked at all those things, I thought, okay, maybe diabetes so bad. I mean, at least, I mean, I found a way to embrace it. Which I think it's a healthy way to

Unknown Speaker 27:01
live with it. Yeah. So I mean, I

Christine 27:03
would I would I rather not have diabetes, of course, right?

Scott Benner 27:07
Where did you find support groups back then.

Christine 27:11
So that one was, through college, there was some sort of thing on campus that we'd meet. And then as I was taking jobs in hospitals, or kind of working with my doctor, you know, it was often suggested, oh, there's a support group that meets, you know, once a month, that's such in such a place, and they would have guest speakers come in, or we would all just get together and bitch, you know, about having this disease or help each other to, you know, deal with certain things like how do you? How do you function with this. And I also, I just, we kind of know, in research that support groups help people to, to function better to live longer. You know, they say that women who are involved who get breast cancer who are involved with support groups often live longer with their disease. So we know it's a healthy concept. And I've been fortunate. Now up until COVID. Those last support group that I've been in was at a pump, users support group. So when I was vacillating about going out a pump, and I really pushed it away for a long time. It had been suggested by my doctor, you know, try a pump, dry pump. And I was like, you know, I do pretty good without it, and I wasn't ready for that attachment. And it wasn't until I get I was in my 40s. Show. I went along. I wrote jotted down some notes last night about I probably went along about 30 plus years, on MDI. And I've been on a pump now for 20 plus years. And what pushed me to finally go on a pump was that I couldn't remember. Like, when did I take that shot? How much did I take? You know, and when was my insulin gonna peak? I just couldn't remember, you know, it's just loose, you know, start to lose your mind in your 40s and 50s. And I was like, Okay, I should come. And I was the first pump that I went on was that Cosmo pump and I love After that little pump, I was very sad when the company went out of business and I think I went through two Cosmo pumps. And then I went through two animus pumps. Those are the ones that

Scott Benner 30:14
you hear people. They're very romantic about the Cosmo and and the ping Right. Was that yeah,

Christine 30:20
I liked the Cosmo. I did not like the ping, though. The endless scrolling just started to get to me. And so when they came out with the touchscreen, on that tandem, I couldn't wait to get that. So Should I've been on I've had to tandems now and I'm gonna be up for my next hand. And next year,

Scott Benner 30:45
can we? Can we talk for a little bit about what it's like to get older when you have to remember all this stuff? Because I'm I'm 50. And I searched for words. Sometimes, I have a fairly decent vocabulary. I don't whip it out all the time on the podcast. But there are times I couldn't tell you where to go to look for it. But I'll talk around not remembering a word. And I'm pretty good at it. So you might not hear it. But I'll feel as I'm speaking when I get going. I know what I'm saying before I say it. So I'm five words ahead. And I'm like, oh, gosh, it's almost like looking up the road and seeing a tree falling across the road. And I'm like, Oh no, there's a tree across the road, meaning I don't remember the word I want. And then I will speak an entire sentence to avoid needing that word. Like I'll explain the word instead of doing that. That's one of the things I've noticed as I get older. But I don't have to remember that I gave myself insulin and is there fat and what I ate and stuff like that. I really do want to know what that's like?

Christine 31:45
Well, I would say that right now at 65 If I have any fear that I have about MIT continuing to manage this as I get older.

Scott Benner 32:05
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Gonna get back to Christine in just a moment. But before we do, I'd like to remind you to go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. And take the survey also to get a touched by type one.org. And find out what they're up to over there helping people with type one diabetes as they do find them on Instagram, Facebook, and on their website touched by type one.org. I'll remind you that the links to the sponsors and all of the sponsors can be found in the found can be found in the show notes of your podcast player. And at juicebox podcast.com. No kidding. When you click on the links and support the sponsors, you are keeping the show frequent and free. So I appreciate your support very much. That's it you're ready. Here comes Christine.

Christine 33:35
Continuing to manage this as I get older, so certainly going out a pump helped immediately with oh, all the history is right there. I can just go and look and find it. Okay. But you're right. As I'm aging, I'm noticing that I can't walk from room to room without going oh my God, what did I what am I doing here I there was something I was going to get and I have to retrace my steps and, and it does impact well impacts everything but particularly, you know, diabeetus and I heard a statistic once about that as a diabetic. I'm I am thinking and having to make at least 200 Or maybe 300 I don't know what it is extra decisions in a day about what I'm putting in my mouth counting, you know, doing the numbers. You know, the pump does numbers for me, but all those little things that as a diabetic, you are thinking about that. Nobody, you know people don't have diabeetus don't have to think about and when you think of 200 extra little pieces of detail in a day. That's a lot you And so it is a fear that I have about what am I going to do? And I, what if I forget the steps of, you know, filling my pump? And I have to be, I've noticed now that when I'm loading my pump, I need to shut the door. Don't let anybody interrupt me. Because I might lose track. And I might skip a step or you know, or have to go back and start over. But yes, I am noticing the impact of just ah, just a yes, exactly.

Scott Benner 35:39
I mean, as a person who worries about a person who has diabetes, you know, I think the, the way I always thought of it is the first thing that concerns me greatly was, of course, Arden was diagnosed so young. And so when they're telling you stuff, like don't worry, you know, side side effects from diabetes and those impacts, they don't come for 30 years. And I was like, Oh, well, she'll be 32 then when she started having problems, like, that's not comforting, you know, were you trying to comfort me, because that didn't do it. Then there's the thinking about being on your own. And that whole process that you spoke about, about kind of, you know, just rebelling against life and going through that late adolescent period, getting, you know, getting out of your 20s alive, basically, that feeling. And then, you know, having to build a family being concerned that if you make a baby, is your baby going to have autoimmune issues as well? Is that something you want to give to someone else? And is it a burden you want to add to yourself? Because now you're not, you know, I think about how difficult it is to be the parent of a child of type one, but I don't have type on. So if you add that, is that an extra thing. And then I think about the getting older parts that we just spoke about. And then the part that scares me the most that if I talk about too long, I will just cry is what about when dexterity gold goes when you get older, like with your hands and grabbing and twisting and being able to manipulate small things and buttons. And then I feel like oh, God, like there'll be a day, if she lives that long, she'll have to go back to injections. And she won't know what the hell she's doing with that. And I won't be there. And you know, like, that's that that kind of like tidal wave of how I think about all that stuff?

Christine 37:20
Yeah. So I did make some decisions in my life based on just what some of the things you just talked about, I did not have children. And I remember my doctor at the time, who is a, he, he was an endocrinologist saying, okay, now's the time, I didn't get married till I was like 30, he says, but if you want to have a baby, you should do it sooner rather than later. And pumps were just coming out. And he said, we can put you on a pump during your pregnancy, which would help. And I just, I was sitting on the fence. And the one thing that probably multiple things, but a big thing that stuck out was I can probably get through this pregnancy successfully. I will be a good mother. But I will probably not take as good care of myself. Because I'll be taking care of a kid. I knew that my own my energy would go to taking care of the kid instead of taking care of myself. And you know, I have moments right now where I feel like I really wished that I had a kid. Just one would have been nice. But I didn't. I made the best decision that I could at that time. And I probably wouldn't be as in good health as I am right now. I think I could be wrong. But definitely pregnancy is hard on your body, anybody's body. And when you're diabetic, it's going to be a little bit harder. So, you know, I did that. That was a pretty large part of my decision not to have children.

Scott Benner 39:26
How was your husband with that?

Christine 39:28
I'm sure he was okay. Um, he I think he sat on the fence as much as I did. And so

Scott Benner 39:40
are you guys together? No, we

Christine 39:43
were no longer together. So, um, but,

Scott Benner 39:48
but at that time, it felt like he was in on it.

Christine 39:51
Yeah, he was supportive. And so, like, it wasn't like, it wasn't like, you know, he really felt like he went I have a kid and he was disappointed by the fact that I wasn't going to lean in that direction.

Scott Benner 40:05
Is that one of the more difficult decisions you've made?

Christine 40:10
I suppose, you know, none of the kids and my siblings, nobody had children. So there's, there's really no, yeah, a four out of four of us. Nobody had children

Scott Benner 40:24
purposely for the other three.

Christine 40:27
Um, you know, I think because my dad was not around very much. I don't think we had a really great role model of good family, what what a good family looks like. And that may have been part of it. My I think my youngest brother may have wanted to have children and his wife didn't. My older sister had some stepchildren, and then I have a younger sister who might have but she died of alcoholism. And at a young, pretty young age. And so yeah. Probably lots of different reasons. But it is unusual to have four kids. And there's no, there were no offspring.

Scott Benner 41:21
I need to ask you just so I don't wonder the whole time your father not being around. Was that alcoholism?

Christine 41:27
I think so. Yes. Hidden, hidden alcoholism. And I really, I didn't realize that until he was almost dead, you know, there was like, Oh, my God. That's why he was never around. He had his own business. And I think he was drinking over there. And I asked my mother about it. One day, they were both ill in their 80s. And I said, Was Dad drinking over there in his welding shop and and she changed the subject and said, No, so fast, I got whiplash.

Scott Benner 42:05
If you pardon me, Dad fight in the war.

Christine 42:10
He was in World War Two, he did not do combat. He had a desk job in the army, because of some sort of something I think he had, because he had a vision thing. They gave him a desk job. So

Scott Benner 42:28
I was just, I was trying to get out. I was wondering if he had PTSD or anything like that, before they understood what it was. So that's okay. I didn't mean to dig up your entire I just know.

Christine 42:39
I know. Okay. It's i It all relates. It relates. Yeah.

Scott Benner 42:44
No, I think it does, too. And I just sometimes I hope that people can see that that some of these details, make some of the bigger statements make more sense. And then they become valuable, not just you and I chatting for no reason. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. So now it's funny, you know, I've heard a little beeping. What What technology do you use right now?

Christine 43:10
I don't know what was beeping. I have a tandem pump. I have a duck's Trump. Oh, to just be Yeah, no heard that.

Scott Benner 43:19
Your blood sugar's whatever your high threshold is you hit it about 10 minutes ago. You're right. I know.

Christine 43:26
Meal. I ate oatmeal this morning for breakfast because I didn't want to. I wanted a little spike this morning. I can eat oatmeal without getting a spike. But when I when I'm getting too low. I start not to think clearly. And I wanted to be thinking very clearly this.

Scott Benner 43:47
So that's interesting. Are your are your goals based on on that? Really? Like were you? I mean, obviously your goals are where you feel good, but are yours different than like somebody else's? Perhaps.

Christine 44:02
So you mean you want to know what my targets? Yeah. And have they changed? She got older. Oh, they've changed as I've listened to your podcast, oh, they're getting tighter and tighter and lower and lower. I mean, I had my parameter set it between 70 and 150. And, you know, and I was on MDI, for 30 plus years, and they started doing a Wednesday tests. I always on MDI was hovering in the low sevens. Probably when they first came out with the A one C test, I might have been an eight ish, I don't remember being much more than an eight. And then that test really kind of made me hone in better and I always was in the mid sevens. And then once I got on a pump, I dropped down into the sixes and And my last a winsy. And I never ever thought this would happen even though I was listening to you, I was getting bolder with insulin, I was doing Pre-Bolus saying and working with my basals I thought there is no way I will ever get into the fives like some of these people are doing. I just thought that was phenomenal. That my last one was a 5.6 Wow,

Scott Benner 45:29
that is amazing. Good for you.

Christine 45:31
I know. And it was like, it seemed effortless. Show. So the the one thing that, you know you, we were talking about these aging issues. And the one thing I wanted to emphasize was, you know, the idea of complications that we all we've learned about if you know the complications of diabetes, if you aren't trying to stay in control, I kidney, vascular system and all that. But, and I've pretty much evaded those things, I have one thing going on with my eyes that I'm getting some treatment for. But I think that's that's the most wonderful thing right now that I mean, you can still have diabeetus and have none of this technology and do a bad job. But what I'm seeing and hearing is that people are getting onboard with the technology right away, they're doing such a great job. They're not even, you know, they get diagnosed with a a one C of 10. And then in three months, they're down in a normal level, it's like, we're gonna get to a period of time where we don't see those complications anymore. And that is so much, I think, for families, parents to hang on to, you know, the idea that, wow, I can pretty much a kid normally, you know, I have this attitude of this disease isn't as bad as a lot of other things could be. But now you can have this disease and really hone in with all the technology and hopefully not have to be looking at any complications down the road. Yeah,

Scott Benner 47:32
no, I mean, it's, it's only been a number of decades. It's funny when you talk about your life, and you say, I was MDI for 30 years, I'm over 20 years on a pump. Now, my first reaction is like, it's astounding, you know, it feels like you've lived lifetimes inside of a lifetime is how it makes me feel. And at the same time, when you really consider it, there's, you know, past the late 80s, diabetes started to, to move in a completely different direction. And if you even cut away the the 80s, and the 90s, from your, you know, from your analysis of the last 10 years, is astonishing, compared to the first, you know, decades. Exactly. And I think that some of some of the problem is holdover. It's people who live so long in the first part, or the second part, that when they are as doctors giving advice to people who live now, their advice is still just very rooted in 1985. Instead of instead of them just forgetting that, like, just forget what happened before. And look at what what's possible now. It's just it's it's a, it's what slows people down sometimes. Now, I'm not talking about people who don't want to pump. Like I understand if somebody doesn't want a pump attached to them. Like I couldn't argue with that, if that's not what you want. I'm talking about doctors who are saying things like, I just got a note from a lady this morning and her kids graph is ridiculous. And she's like, I don't know, like what happened. I went to my endo and told them that we were seeing drops after meals and they made his basil heavier. And now the drops are worse, and I'm feeding his insulin all day long. And I said, Look, I looked at it, I listened to what she had to say. And I said I would put the basil back to where it was and look at your meal ratios because our first problem was the kid was falling after food. But I think the doctor saw the big spike and added basil for some reason, but the spike was from her catching the fruit catching the drop with food. It's just like, How could someone misunderstand this so drastically? You know and to say that they are professionals at it. i That's the That's today's biggest hurdle is getting practitioners who can read those graphs quickly and make sense of them.

Christine 49:59
Yeah, show I've, I've I've my last two internists that I went to and I go to endocrinology person, the last two internist, who were looking at my A wincy at a 5.6. And a 6.0. Said, I'm a little worried about this. A won't see that this is too low. But I see that you're working with endocrinology, and I'll just leave it alone. And I said, that's a good idea. Because I said, technology today is all about. I don't, I don't have to have extreme lows anymore. That 5.6 does not. When I had sevens. I had more lows than I do now. Yeah.

Scott Benner 50:57
It's obvious to me, I don't know why it's like the if you don't get high, you don't have to correct and then you don't get low later. It's, uh, you said earlier that the five six felt effortless. And I mean, my heart just swelled. Because, I mean, if you've listened to the podcast, you know how I think about it, if you don't get high, you won't get high. If you don't get high, you don't have to crack, you know, like you, you put the effort into staying in that spot. And then all that other stuff that everybody struggles with, most for the most part doesn't happen anymore. Your your insulins not timed poorly. It's not working when there's no food in your system, etc. Like all the things you'll hear me say in the podcast. But I was just really, it's lovely that you that that struck you that way too. And I just because you had gone through so many iterations of diabetes, why were you able to hear what I was saying? And how long have you been listening? And how the hell did you find a PA, I have a lot of questions. I don't understand how you find a podcast at your age. How did you find yourself listening to a person who doesn't have diabetes? Like how did you get over that hurdle?

Christine 52:00
Well, I'm so in the pump users support group that I'm currently in. When I first got on the Dexcom, with my tandem pump, I was going to this support group, and people were starting to use the mostly continuous monitoring with their med tronics. And, and, and some Dexcom. fours and fives, you know, and I never wanted to go on a Dexcom earlier because it was like, well, you still have to calibrate it. I was like, I will go on. I'll go on continuous monitoring, when I don't have to calibrate it anymore. Why would I want to do that and still have to test my blood sugar. So I was kind of waiting for the perfect opportunity. But in that group, when I got on to G six, that was my first continuous and, and then I had the chance to pump. I said, Okay, I'm getting all this data. I don't quite know what to do with it all. You know, how do I work with it. And one of the dieticians who ran that group, she says, you might want to listen to the Juicebox Podcast. And so I I didn't even know what a podcast was. So I don't learn how to do that on my iPhone. And I started listening to you and we that was back in. It was in the low 200 episodes, okay. And what the very first day I thought, I don't know if I can listen to this guy.

Scott Benner 53:56
My wife would agree with you.

Christine 53:59
kind of fool yourself. It took me one day to get over it. And I thought, oh my god, this guy has something to say. I mean, stick with this. And I had a job where I worked out of my car, I traveled as a as a home occupational therapist. So I had that podcast going on all day long when I was in my car. And I'd listened to episode after episode and I just started to eat it up and start to make slow changes. Cool. And then I was telling the group I said, you all need to be listening to this. This is really helpful information. And it made sense to me. The idea about you know, the struggle to bring down a high versus the ease and bringing up a low you know, and don't don't do 15 grams of carbohydrate. All you need are eight grapes to bring up that low? And especially if it's a low that you're moving into slowly, which is what happens on a pump, you know, unless, I mean, it's very rare anymore that I overdose on a Bolus. And even if that would happen, like I just don't calculate it right. Then it's like, oh, okay, I get to have a little chocolate right now. This little snack to keep me from crashing. That's excellent. Yeah. So, um, yeah, it's just a whole lot easier. So and I, yes, I attribute my 5.6 to you.

Scott Benner 55:51
Oh, well, I'm very happy for you, sincerely. I, I know I, I know how I can probably come off in the beginning. But there's nothing. To me. There's nothing you can do about it also needs to be interesting. I, you know, so it's always been, it's always been in the back of my head, you know, that you can't just, you can't just pump out the information in the driveway, no one will listen to it, right?

Christine 56:17
Do you remember when I first wrote to you, like six or seven months ago, and I said, I think I have something to contribute to your program. And I said, you, you do such a great job of what we call in my occupation, of oath of occupational therapy. It's called therapeutic use of self. And you do that really well. And, and it allows you to connect with people. And it always allowed me to connect to my patients in a way that I did not see my co workers necessarily connecting. It's putting your whole self into it. It's putting your experiences to develop a connection and rapport between you and your listeners, between you and me, the person that you're interviewing, you just do that really well. You make you make people feel safe and respected. No, thank you. And that, and that is, I think, you know, that's kind of the fancy words to somebody who knows how, who knows how to do the gift of gab, and to be a really good schmoozer? You know, you've been told that by Who was it, Katie Couric that told you you have a good way with people? Was she the one?

Scott Benner 57:44
Yeah, she was the one she's, she's, she said, you don't know, I was doing her television show. And when it was over, she said, all those people, they were just, they were waiting for you to talk again. They didn't care what the other people were saying. And, you know, she's nice, like, I could feel it, like I have whatever that is, like, I don't know that anybody wouldn't have it. But when you're talking, and you can feel people moving, you can feel their emotions moving or their interest moving on your words, it's a, an electric feeling. And so I knew I knew that it was happening. But I didn't have the context for it that she had, because she had watched it so often, I guess, in the past,

Christine 58:22
and using humor, and storytelling, your personal experience, it's just all part of it. And it just makes people you know, believe in you. And connect. Difference between, you know, you as a really good podcaster and or me as an occupational therapist between somebody who's successful at it, and somebody who's just kind of doing their job, right.

Scott Benner 58:54
The way I the way I think about it, I mean, if we want to go behind the curtain, I guess is that I think there's something valuable about me not having diabetes, because of that sort of dispassionate breakdown that I can do of what's happening, you know, whereas if you talk to another type one, their emotions are going to get into it pretty immediately. I mean, I don't know what it's like to have a low blood sugar and think I'm going to pass out. It sounds really scary. And I hope I never have to understand what that's like. But I can stand as a third party and tell you what it was like to watch it happen, and where and what was important to do and when it was important to do to stop it or to slow it down more quickly, where to have it come back without a spike like that kind of stuff. I agree about the storytelling thing. I think people need to hear things slowly. I don't think having things shouted at you or bullet pointed is a valuable way to teach people things. And, you know, being comfortable is I can't even take credit for that. You know, I've got I won't say who and my family but we were sitting around one day speaking about something. And I started talking and being vulnerable about how I felt about the situation, which led to another person in the room doing the same thing. And those people were older, and it made their spouse uncomfortable. And then it started like a, an argument. And I remember at the end, I was not part of the argument. The person who opened up after I opened up looked at me and said, This is your fault. And I laughed, and I said, Hey, the two of you not knowing how to be honest with each other is not my fault. I was like, I don't know if you just saw what happened. But you were honest. It made your your your partner uncomfortable to feel that you were sad. And then you guys didn't know how to communicate after that. I said, that had nothing to do with me. But I take your point. There's something about I was honest. And then it made him want to be honest. And then it just it went on from there. So

Christine 1:01:05
instead of it being your fault, you could take credit for that.

Scott Benner 1:01:09
Oh, at the end, I was like, Yeah, I pulled you aside. I said, Well, you're welcome. You know, it's up to you guys. Now to third times, when I hear people complain to me, and in my head, I think, I think to myself, Oh, so what you mean here is Thank you. But you just don't know it yet. That's fine. And it really is. It's an odd pairing, right? Like, why? Why is it me? You know what I mean? But it all works, and I can't take credit for it working. It just works. And and then then that's the next step. If I pretend that's not the case, if I use false modesty, you're going to feel that. So I'd rather seem brash to you at first when you get to the podcast, and then you realize that maybe I deserve that feeling, then for me to pretend like oh, no, you know, that's not, you know, that kind of both, is. I think that that fake stuff would turn people off it, at least it would turn me off. So, you know, I don't do it, when you hear me get embarrassed about something. I'm really embarrassed. Like, when when people say nice things, it's, it is gotten easier for me to accept over time. But it's still strange. I mean, you're a person who over the last hour has painted an amazing picture of decades of living with diabetes. And to hear at the end of that story, for you to say that I'm in the fives because of a podcast I made is, it's difficult to absorb, from my perspective, you know, but I appreciate it. It just makes me a little uncomfortable. Maybe I'll be a full adult and other 10 years, and I'll be able to accept it better. I

Christine 1:02:46
don't know. Yeah. Well, I want you to know that with every episode I listened to, um, you know, some of the what do you call him the dark after dark? The after dark? Yeah. You know, somebody's talking about drug addiction and diabetes. And I think, Oh, well, that's, that's an interesting title. And, you know, I never did drugs, I'm probably not going to get anything out of this. But I've listened to all of them, you know, as they come up, and there's always some thread of information that I can get from even that episode. You know, um, you know, people talk about, you know, just the emotions behind having a chronic disease. And even though I don't suffer from depression, I remember some depressing times of, and I just can, every episode, it just brings me back to so much history that I just love, you know, kind of that that piece of it where I am constantly reliving some things or remembering some things that I totally forgot.

Scott Benner 1:04:14
Well, there can be value in other people's perspectives. That's obvious, but there can also be value in you hearing somebody say something that's clearly wrong. And it can reinforce it. And you I mean, there. I don't agree with everything everybody says when they're on the show, but I don't stop to you know, I don't always stop to give my perspective that's, that's opposite sometimes. You know, sometimes the people who come on have to realize that by being so open and honest, there are going to they are going to reveal things about themselves that aren't maybe stuff that you would help other people to see. But by letting other people see those things, you end up helping those people. I just got a note about something like two days ago where a woman said hey, in this recent Episode when this person said, you know, XYZ, how come you didn't correct her? And I said, Oh, she seems really, you know, sure about that for herself. But what I hear is then the person who thought her right in about it, that helped them because it solidified a thought they had. And so there's this sort of, there's this bigger there's a bigger responsibility in bringing people's stories out than it might seem to just the casual listener. Right, there's, I'm, uh, I'm trying to accomplish more things. And it might seem like, I guess, it seems kind of high minded for a podcast, but it's actually true. So yeah, yeah. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. You enjoy it? I really do.

Christine 1:05:49
I do. I do. I'm not I'm retired, right before COVID. From the most, you know, the fullest part of my job, I still do a little two hour a week job as a part time employee, but I'm not in a car anymore, driving around. And all day. So I realized, Oh, my God, I'm not listening to as many podcasts, I have to create some other time, besides being in the car, to be listening to the podcasts,

Scott Benner 1:06:24
you know, and when COVID came, I was so worried that that is what was going to happen, you know, that, Oh, gosh, people are going to stop driving. And you know, this is it. Like, I actually, I was worried, like, you know, will the if the podcast, you know, could fold if people don't listen, advertisers won't be, you know, inclined to advertise. If that happens, you know, good luck, all of you with me explain to my wife that I'm now just making a podcast for all of you out of the goodness of my heart, because we have bills and children and college and things like that. And then the opposite happened. So it just it skyrocketed through COVID. And I was like, huh, that went backwards. But your experience was the experience that I expect it? And and I'm sure it happened to some people. But overwhelmingly, what happened is that people found themselves with more time.

Christine 1:07:14
Yeah, so that's good. That's good.

Scott Benner 1:07:17
It's good for me. Because because I want to make the podcast, I'm in a very weird position where I do a thing that helps people. And that is my main focus. But that thing takes so much time and effort that if I can't monetize it, I can't do it the way I want to do it. And then it becomes, you know, it could become difficult to maintain after that. I just feel lucky that I make money off of a thing that's actually valuable to people and that I enjoy doing. Like, I never thought I was gonna get all three of those things like enjoyment value and a living. I didn't I didn't think I could get all of them. So I feel very lucky about it. Yeah, yeah. Having said that, you need to listen more, Christine. Okay, I do.

Christine 1:08:03
I'm gonna have to learn how to like, turn on the podcast and sit, sit in my office hear that? And I I'm a quilter. So I can have it on while I'm sewing. And so, yeah, there's all kinds of ways. Anyway,

Scott Benner 1:08:24
are you enjoying yourself? Is this okay? Did you get out everything you want to talk about?

Christine 1:08:28
Um, yeah, I think there was one. This might give you a title. Today, I do. I am going through one. I call it a minor complication. You know, my cousin went blind when he was 21. And he's, he, he would have been 65 this year, but he died two or three years ago. From all of the complications of diabeetus. He the diabeetus was kind of from both of our mother's sides. And then his father had early heart disease. So he got the double whammy of having not only diabeetus but a cardiac condition as well. So over his lifetime of 62 years, he had three or four heart attacks he had bypass surgery. He was having kidney shut down he lost his sight he lost a leg and you know, he was pretty much heading into another surgery with it for another amputation and and he died. But I have always because I was involved in that I study in college knew right away to kind of make sure that my eyes are being checked every year and been faithful about that. And I remember, you know, the very first time having the physician tell me Well, we're seeing a little bit of background diabetic retinopathy. But it's kind of what we would expect to see in somebody's eyes who's had diabetes for 30 years, you know, you don't have anything to worry about right now, and but just maintain control. So it's another reason to maintain good control, I had a cousin who was blind and, and then I had a little bit of retinopathy. Well, so as the years went by, you know, that little bit has changed. And I'm undergoing treatments now. For it's called diabetic macular oedema, D and E. And they go in, it started out being every month, but now it's every other month for I call it my time to get the sharp stick in my eye. So I get an injection of, you know, a very fancy, expensive drug called eylea. I see advertisements for it on TV now. And it is something that I'm probably going to have the rest of my life, but it controls the edema that can, without the injections, the edema can get worse, and then it tugs at your retina or something like that, you lose your sight. And so, you know, had that been there, you know, when my cousin was in his 20s, he wouldn't have lost his sights. And now I'm at that place where, you know, at first was like, Oh, my God, I have to go have this treatment now. And instead of going down the rabbit hole of, oh, this is terrible and getting depressed, it's like, hey, we have a treatment for this, I am not going to lose my sight. I just have to go in and get a sharp stick in my eye every two months, you know. And so, again, I've heard you talk about with your daughter of how you know how much you know, you tell and make decisions, and you guys text and you tell her what to do. And at first I thought, wow, she's a teenager, she should be able to do all that because I, I, I right off the bat learned how to do all of that my mom was kind of incapable, she would just crumble. And so I had to learn how to do that at an early age. And then I could hear you talk about all the things that you did for Arden. And I thought, wow, she doesn't have to make those decisions. Isn't that? Wow, I wonder when she's going to learn that. And then I thought, hey, if somebody texted me and said, Hey, take five units of insulin, and you know, what are you going to eat? I thought that was pretty nice. Maybe I'd like that too.

And she, and then you talked about, hey, by the time she does have to start learning that by herself, there's going to be more technology out there. So that she may not have to be learning all the things that I do for her. Right, the technology is going to change again and again and again, because it is changing so rapidly. And so I guess the point being like with complications and like this eye disease, I decided not to get all bent out of shape about Yes, I've got this thing going on. But for God's sakes, I've had diabetes for 52 years. Because it's dead. I could be dead and I'm not. I'm doing very well. I have been on the same dosage of insulin from almost when I was a teenager that I am now. You know, I take care of myself, I exercise I stay slim. And I eat well. And we I have every reason to believe my doctor says, you know, you might make the 100 year club happy amazed and I and I know and I know. Some days I think yeah, that's possible. I've I feel like I've been lucky. And I've also worked very hard at it so it's hard to know how much is hard work and home He has some stroke of luck.

Scott Benner 1:15:02
Well, you gotta take what? You gotta take it. Right, right. It's a little, it's a little luck was coming your way. I mean, that's amazing. And maybe there's just something about your body that that did well through those early years and didn't feel the the impact as much, I have to tell you the two things. I was like, as soon as you talked about the injections for your eyes, I just thought, well, that's a miracle that somebody figured that out, you know, like that that exists is just, it's just wonderful. Yeah. And does it hurt? Does the needle hurt? What? How would you describe the injection?

Christine 1:15:37
Um, so the very first one I went in for I said, to the retina, RetinA, but he's a retina specialist. I said, you know, I'm a little I don't get anxious. But I said, I'm a little anxious right now, because you're going to put something really sharp in my eyeball. And I mean, nothing. There's nothing about that. That sounds good. And he said, Yeah, and I'm going to tell you right now that you having anxiety is not helpful. So he says, I'm going to help you breathe through this. And he really put me at ease. And he is very skilled, and very fast. So that, and they put these numbing drops in your eye. So I don't I feel something. But I'm sure not as much as it would be without the numbing drops. And it just goes so fast. And then he's done. And then they rinse your eyeball out. And then you go home. And he says, the best thing for you to do right now is to go home and take a nap. Keep your eyes closed for a couple hours. And because generally, what happens is I feel the prick. And then on the drive home, my eyes starts to feel really scratchy. And I go to sleep. There's something in it that makes me sleep for two hours, I could never take a two hour nap. But I sleep for about two hours. And I wake up and it's pretty much gone. Well, the it's just a slight irritation. And till the next day, I don't even know it. Yeah. So you just have to kind of get over that. Yeah, they're gonna poke your eye for the needle.

Scott Benner 1:17:30
And then the rest is cake. Yeah. And the other thing I want to tell you, and I do have to let you go in a minute, just because I'm running up on something. But the other thing I want to tell you is that I just got back from a wedding, my wife and I drove cross country to go to my god daughter's wedding. And I of course, didn't say this out loud before we left, but Arden stayed at home by herself. And we left Thursday afternoon and returned late Sunday night. So with the exception of one evening, where I'm gonna say we were between the end of a pot of a pump site, where I wish maybe she would have changed the pump a little sooner, and some hormonal things. You know, so there was a struggle, this one for about 112 hour period. And her her blood sugar was higher during that time. 100 ad 200. And but I let her keep going at it. And then once in a while I jumped in. I was like, Hey, you gotta do something here. You know, like, this isn't it's not going to break. You know, you have to do something I already Bolus. I was like, I know, but it's not working. Like, look at the line. It's not it's not working, you know, and then I nudged her towards, I think your pod should be changed. And she said, It's not the pod because I was it worked earlier, she said, and I was like, I know I'm like, but there's this entire experience that we're having right now says to me, we're seeing some resistance and the pump site's not fresh. So I said, I think if you go to a fresh pump site, we're going to start and we make a nice big Bolus, I think this is going to be okay. So she said, No, I want to, I'm gonna do it in the morning. I said, Okay, well, that's fine. But then we're going to make one more big correction. And I said I, because I think we can push enough through this bed site to keep you safe while we're asleep. And she guessed that how much insulin and if the site was working, right, she would have had the right number, but I knew to do much more. So I pushed six units through as a correction for like a 200 blood sugar. But that's based on everything I'd seen over many, many hours. And she got up in the morning, changed her pump and got everything back the way you know again so to me that's a learning experience like she gets to see that happen. And and, and I do believe what I say which is a oversee slowly over time. She's learning more than she thinks she knows. And I do think things are going to continue to get better. And it'll be a different situation for her in the Future.

Christine 1:20:00
Oh, she's gonna she's gonna figure it out as she leaves home and goes off to college that she's going to be on her own. So figure it out, and so she won't do. You know, she'll have some bumps along the way, but slowly

Scott Benner 1:20:13
expected. However, in the many years prior to that, I mean, I think we're up to seven or eight at this point, like, imagine how crazy it is. I've lost track of how long Ardens a onesies been in the fives, I don't even know. And because it feels effortless at this point. But But even at that, if she got eight years of a five point something, a one C, and she's learning how I did it. Slowly without it feeling like she's not pressured by I don't know if you heard the episode with her. Like she couldn't be more chilled out about it. So yeah. So you know, so there's no pressure. She's having good outcomes. She is learning more than she thinks she knows technology is going to get better and moving forward. I mean, I did my best to put her in a good position. So yeah, that's all. Christine, I have to tell you, this is really terrific. I could probably talk to you all day, I am going to go jump onto another call right now. My son has a doctor's appointment that I have to sit in on. Or else the report back we'll get from it. As Doctor said, it's fine. I mean, like he didn't say anything else. That's it. It's okay. How about if I have it if I'm there, too. I really appreciate this. Thank you so much.

Christine 1:21:28
It was it was great. Thank you for letting me come on. And yeah, wonderful.

Scott Benner 1:21:34
Yeah. Well, and hello to your support group, because I'm assuming they all listen to you. And you they listen to the podcast now. So

Christine 1:21:40
yes, I told them. I need to start listening to you. I tell everybody about it.

Scott Benner 1:21:45
So thank you. That's right. All right. Hold on one second, please. Okay, I'm just gonna

a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G voc glucagon.com. Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. I just want to take a moment to thank Christine for coming on the show today and sharing her story. I really really enjoyed our time together.

last bits, tea one day exchange.org Ford slash juice box. Take the survey Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook, join the private Facebook group. I'm just gonna non sequitur. All these enjoying the show. Tell a friend or a stranger doesn't matter to me. If you really love the show, try leaving a review and rating where you listen like say you listen to an apple podcast, open it up and say five stars. Click and then it says write a review that you click that and then write a nice thoughtful review that will make somebody else think you know this bill from Paris who wrote this review. He really seemed to like this podcast. I'm going to check it out to see what I'm saying about the reviews. That's what they're for. And last but not least, I didn't mean to connect these two things because I was supposed to non sequitur the whole thing. But last but not least, if you're listening in a podcast app or an audio app like Amazon music, Apple podcast Spotify, please subscribe and follow the show. Some apps ask you to subscribe to be a follower. Some apps ask you to follow to be a follower. Fancy words. Not really. But they mean the same thing depends on the app you're in Subscribe and follow. Subscribe and follow. You can pill the digit forget about the 666 thing already. There's only an hour ago. I am your master. You will do what I say. Subscribe and follow. leave a review make it five stars support to sponsor by a contour meter. You need a different glucagon. Your tubing is stinky. Don't you want to see your CGM numbers on your phone? Raha right it's enough just to purchase sponsors. I gotta keep this thing going. Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.