Scott Benner 10/21/24 Scott Benner 10/21/24

#1337 T1 College Athletes from Dexcom U

Bri and Nicholas talk about playing in college with diabetes.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back, friends to another episode of The juicebox podcast.

I have two guests today, Brianna and Nicholas. They're both college athletes who are part of the Dexcom U program. Dexcom U remains the only nil program dedicated to supporting college athletes with diabetes. 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 when you place your first order for ag one, with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink. Ag one.com/juice, box. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juicebox at checkout. That's juicebox at checkout to save 40 percent@cozyearth.com if you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the juicebox podcast. Private, Facebook group, juicebox podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome. Type one, type two, gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me, if you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out juicebox podcast. Type one diabetes on Facebook. This episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the insulin pump that my daughter wears, OmniPod. Learn more and get started today with the OmniPod dash, or the OmniPod five. At my link, omnipod.com juicebox. The juicebox podcast is sponsored by touched by type one. This is my favorite diabetes organization, and I'm just asking you to check them out at touched by type one.org, on Facebook and Instagram. Today's episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom g7 and g6 continuous glucose monitoring systems, dexcom.com/juicebox,

Brie 2:15
hi. My name is Brie Carrasquillo. I'm a 22 year old female athlete in the women's lacrosse team at the University of Oregon. I'm originally from Long Island, New York. I currently live in Alberta, Georgia. I just finished up my last four years playing lacrosse at Yale University, and I've been living with T 1d for almost five years now, five

Scott Benner 2:33
years. And we have another person with us here today. Who else is here? Yeah,

Brie 2:37
we have a fellow Dexcom U athlete with us here today, Nikki. Nikki,

Scott Benner 2:41
tell me a little bit about yourself. Hi

Nicholas 2:42
everybody. Yeah. I am a 20 year old originally from Phoenix, Arizona. I'm now a student athlete, a cheerleader at the University of Notre Dame. I'm a junior and I'm a poli sci and finance double major, and I've been living with type one diabetes since the age of 10. Wow.

Scott Benner 2:59
And Bre, you went to Yale. What are you in grad school now?

Brie 3:03
Yes, yeah, I just finished at Yale. I got my Bachelor of political science, and now I'm taking my fifth year and doing a one year's Master Master program in journalism at organizations. How

Scott Benner 3:13
many jobs do your parents work? Four? Five jobs? Yeah, definitely a couple. All right, listen, Bria, if I start asking Nick too many, like cheering questions. You'll have to just run me over. But I I'm gonna I have some I want to know if he's ever dropped the person, if he's dropped the person on himself. I want to hear a lot of things, okay, but I want to know first about being an athlete with diabetes. Sabri, were you diagnosed right as college started? Is my math right there.

Brie 3:39
So I was actually diagnosed right after my first year at Yale. So that was we were about six games in my freshman season, and then covid kind of came out of nowhere. We all got sent home, and about a month or two after that, I started presenting like pretty textbook symptoms once I was home, and then I took a gap year from there to kind of manage it.

Scott Benner 3:59
Had you been sick before that? No, are there other people in your family with autoimmune issues like type one celiac hypothyroidism, stuff like that?

Brie 4:08
No, I have a brief history of celiac disease in my family. But apart from that, no one that I know has type one

Scott Benner 4:14
diabetes. Okay, and Nick, how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Unknown Speaker 4:17
Again, I was 10 years old.

Scott Benner 4:19
10. Oh, he's got you there. Bree, okay, do you have any other autoimmune issues?

Nicholas 4:23
I personally do not know, and I don't have any family history either. So crazy.

Scott Benner 4:27
Okay, my son was playing baseball during covid, and it pretty much ruined his college experience with sports. So Bree, what did you do for that year when they shut you down? How did you stay in shape? Yeah,

Brie 4:38
so at the beginning it looked like a lot of, you know, at home, YouTube video workouts, you know, just trying to, like, eat healthier and get in shape naturally. It's like, you know, I wasn't sure at the moment whether or not I was going to take a gap year. Ultimately, the Ivy League decided they weren't going to play in the 21 season. So I took a gap year. I was, I had a couple internships going, and then, you know, pretty quickly into that. About two months, and like I had mentioned, I started presenting symptoms with diabetes, so I had to take a little, you know, workout, hey, it is for a bit. So

Scott Benner 5:07
Nick, when you're diagnosed, I'm assuming your parents are very helpful and involved. Is that, right?

Nicholas 5:13
Oh yeah, yeah. My parents are my biggest supporters, and my mom actually works for JDRF now, and she's been by my side the whole time and helped me along the way.

Scott Benner 5:21
Wow, now, did you have a CGM when you were diagnosed? It was too long. Was it? I'm trying to do the math. My daughter got hers when she was maybe five or six, and she's 20 now. So so they would have existed when you were diagnosed, right?

Nicholas 5:35
Yes, I believe they did. My endo actually had the approach of like, let's start with the basics. So we started with, you know, with insulin and needles and CGM, or not CGM glucose pricks, you know, that with the meter. And so we started at the basics. And once I got comfortable with that, we moved on, you know, to the insulin pump and to the Dexcom CGM. Okay,

Scott Benner 5:56
so you had the experience of having your family help you, and then moving off to college, right? And Bree, you had the experience of being diagnosed during covid, then having to go back to college, and your parents probably didn't know very much about it when you left. So where I'm guessing, Nick got a lot of support in the way of having people who understood what he was going through. You probably didn't have that as that, right,

Brie 6:19
correct? Yeah, I was lucky. I was 18 at the time that I got diagnosed, so I still took my I still ended up going to the children's hospital anyway, just because I wanted my parents to, you know, be in the room while I was administering my first insulin shot. But, yeah, no, it was completely, you know, foreign to myself and my family. So it was kind of, we were all learning at the same time, but

Scott Benner 6:39
you were probably wearing a CGM when you left for school. The Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast, and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warm up time that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7 till the time you're getting readings. 30 minutes. That's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable and light. These things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7 a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this, up to 10 people can follow you. You can use it with type one, type two or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances. And this might be the best part. It might be the best part alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juicebox, links in the show notes, links at juicebox podcast.com, to Dexcom and all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful. My daughter is 20 years old. I can't even believe it. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was two, and she put her first insulin pump on when she was four. That insulin pump was an OmniPod, and it's been an OmniPod every day since then. That's 16 straight years of wearing OmniPod. It's been a friend to us, and I believe it could be a friend to you. Omnipod.com/juicebox, whether you get the OmniPod dash or the automation that's available with the OmniPod five, you are going to enjoy tubeless insulin pumping. You're going to be able to jump into a shower or a pool or a bathtub without taking off your pump. That's right, you will not have to disconnect to bathe with an OmniPod. You also won't have to disconnect to play a sport or to do anything where a regular tube pump has to come off. Arden has been wearing an OmniPod for 16 years. She knows other people that wear different pumps, and she has never once asked the question, should I be trying a different pump? Never once omnipod.com/juicebox get a pump that you'll be happy with forever.

Brie 9:00
Correct? Yeah, my endo in Atlanta, they were very big on getting me set up on the technology, so I spent a couple months doing the glucose finger pricks. And then we like, All right, let's transition you to the Dexcom. CGM now,

Scott Benner 9:12
do either of you, or both of you, share your Dexcom follow with anybody at school?

Nick go first. Yeah, I

Nicholas 9:22
do. I share my follow with both my parents at home, and I also share it with my athletic trainer slash coach. So just in case, you know, I'm on the sidelines and something's wrong, she's able to, you know, see it on her phone and be able to communicate what it is to me too, right?

Scott Benner 9:38
Okay, so she watches you while you're playing.

Nicholas 9:42
Yeah, you know, in case anything's like, majorly low or majorly high, she's not tracking it all the time, but she has her phone on her so, you know, if it beeps on her phone, she's able to tell me something important.

Scott Benner 9:52
Give me a second, is playing the right term when you're cheering, like, how do you think? Because it's a sport, right? But I didn't see what I mean. Bri, I didn't want to be. Like, while you're, like, doing the thing. So how do you refer to it?

Nicholas 10:03
I, you know, I get caught up saying plain, but I think it's technically supposed to be cheering. And like, you know, we're cheering all the time, if you see us on this island. So I like the word cheering. It's kind of like a, you know, a hype verb, you know, it's a great, you know, personality trait to have. So yeah, and

Scott Benner 10:20
Bri, how do you stop yourself from whacking people with that stick? Like, you know, like, when it get I'm being serious, when you when you get frustrated, and like, you're just a little behind them, like, half a step, how do you not reach out just go, like, ankles. Like, you know what I mean? Like, please tell me

Brie 10:33
about that. Yeah. I mean, I guess, you know, women's lacrosse is technically not a contact sport, so you have to keep that in mind when you're playing. You know, the men's game is entirely different. But, you know, I think just what I'm the rule has changed pretty much every spring. Oh my God, I didn't even know that rule existed now, you know, getting a green card or something. So you just have to be mindful of, you know, you have to meet there's a certain level of discipline that you have to, you know, maintain, to not aggravate your coaches or your other teammates around you.

Scott Benner 10:57
I hear you. I know neither of you play field hockey, but I always wonder why they don't make that stick longer. You know what I mean, like, because they're always like, but you know what I mean, like, then they wouldn't have to bend over. But that's not really neither here or there. Nick, would you consider what you're doing aerobic while you're cheering pretty? Is running around, right? She's not really lifting weights, but you're lifting things. But are you moving to like? Is one of you? I'm trying to decide if one of you is doing aerobic exercise running around, and one of you is doing anaerobic, like, lifting, and if that's impacting your blood sugar differently, yeah, that's

Nicholas 11:28
a great question. I actually grew up playing soccer, so I grew up running all around the field, and doing cardio is a main part of my sport, and that actually, I took my pump off, and that caused my blood sugar, you know, to, like, stabilize because I was doing so much cardio, but I also wasn't getting insulin, you know, every five minutes. But it's actually the opposite. With cheer I keep my pump on because, because I'm lifting so much and not, you know, running around the sideline as often, I actually have to keep my pump on for my blood sugar, not to to go higher during my sport. Was gonna say, Do you ever have to bolus while you're doing that? Yeah, I usually, usually, I'm able to maintain the basal, and the basal is able to keep my blood sugar low. But, you know, there's at times, normally, like during the halftime of a football game, we kind of get, like, a little bite to eat. And I definitely bull us both for the meal and for kind of my blood sugar too, if it ever goes high,

Scott Benner 12:17
okay, then, Bree, how about you? How do you manage while you're playing,

Brie 12:21
yeah, so I initially started out on the OmniPod pump that I would just have connected to my Dexcom, and then kind of, I think, you know, given that I'm, like, almost five years, not quite, I've still been kind of up and down, riding the honeymoon out. So I switched off of the OmniPod, and now I'm just like MDI whenever I need it. So whether it's like, you know, after practice and my glucose levels go high, just can give a quick shot between that and lift or something. But, yeah, I'm currently using MDI.

Scott Benner 12:50
Oh, wow. So you're, you don't think you've reached what might one day be your kind of like, natural need for insulin yet?

Brie 12:57
Yeah, not yet. I just recently met with my endocrinologist here at Oregon, and they were like, you're, you're in like, partial remission, is what they referred to it as. So I'm not my insulin requirements are very low at the moment, and I'm, you know, hoping they stay that way for for as long as I can ride that out. But yeah, for right now, it's MDI. I

Scott Benner 13:14
mean, I'll knock on wood for you on that one. That'd be cool. Thank you. Okay, so what about you Nick? What kind of pump do you

Nicholas 13:20
use? I use the T slim, and I use the closed loop system with the Dexcom CGM two, and it's wonderful control.

Scott Benner 13:26
IQ, yes, yes, sir. Okay, I didn't ask Bri, all right, is anybody at school following you?

Brie 13:34
Yes, yeah. So I have my athletic trainer, my dietitian, a couple of my teammates, and then my family and my sister from home as well. They're all following me. I think it's been huge, from what I've noticed, just being the distance. I don't have a ton of family out here, so they're able to track and follow. And that just gives me peace of mind as well, whether it's like overnight or in practice or something, my daughter

Scott Benner 13:55
gave her roommates, just like the 55 the low alarm in case there's like a real problem, but didn't want to bother them with everything else. But she just transferred. So my daughter just left Georgia, and she's at, I'm not sure if she wants me to say where she's at now, she's at a different university now, and she no longer has a classic roommate, so she's in a dorm situation. But they have apartments inside the dorms, and their doors lock when they close every time, and she's in a single so I was wondering if you guys were sleeping with another person in your room. Have you talked to your friends about glucagon? How do you guys handle all that at

Nicholas 14:30
school? Yeah, absolutely. I so my sophomore year. Last year, I was in a quad, so I had three other roommates, and at the beginning of the year, I showed them, you know, the glucagon, and I told them, If there was ever an emergency, that they would have to use this type of, like I called it, kind of like a pen, but, you know, there's instructions on the box, and I show them how to do it. And I have to be honest, you know, if I I'm a heavy sleeper, so I would be beeping throughout the night, and some of them. Were light sleepers, and they'd wake up before me, and they'd like, shake me awake. Or I have a really obnoxious ringtone for my mom, so in case of an emergency, when she calls, it's like, danger, danger. And so that wakes them up too. And if I don't wake up, they wake up and they help me out. So they my roommates have been incredibly helpful throughout this whole process. Do

Scott Benner 15:21
you have GVO, kypo pen? Is that the glucagon you use?

Nicholas 15:24
I'm not quite sure. The technical name, it's the one in the yellow box. Oh, do you have, yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 15:29
don't know. Is it this one?

Nicholas 15:31
No, I think it's another design, different

Scott Benner 15:33
one. Okay, and how about you? What do you have?

Brie 15:36
So I use the vaccine, the nasal, yes, yeah, the inhalable, yeah, which, luckily, I haven't, you know, had any type of scares like that come up yet. Knock on wood. But yeah, I've educated, like my parents know about the bepsimee, you know, close friends, whether that Yale or out here, I've introduced my roommates to it. And I guess I'm the same way with Nick. Like I'm a very heavy sleeper. So I will sleep through the lows in the high like, I just don't hear on my alarm. But my roommates will sometimes, and they can like, I'm right next door to them, and they can knock me like, wake me up and be like, Avery, like, I think your alarms going off. Yes, they're aware of my actually, one of my housemates, her stepdad is, is a type one diabetic, and he's also, like, very athletic, into the Ironmans and stuff. So she kind of knows. I didn't have to introduce her to that whole spiel. So yeah, that's been very comforting.

Scott Benner 16:24
She probably thinks you're following her. You know what? She's like everywhere I go. So I want to switch gears, but I'm going to come back to being at school. So Dexcom University, like, how do you get involved in that? And what is it you do for it? I'll Can I start with Brianna?

Brie 16:39
Sure. So with the Dexcom you Athlete Program. I had originally reached out to Dexcom, I think, via DM Like, it wasn't even, like, nio related. I just kind of was like, Hey, I was just diagnosed. I This was, like, at the start of covid. So I was like, this is very isolating. Like, I know no one. Do you have any resources? Or, like, is there any like, can you take me somewhere on your website that I can, like, connect with other people? Because at the time, it was just like, so new and forwards, like my whole family. And I was just like, this is, you know, this kind of sucks. And they got back to me pretty quickly, and they were like, Oh my gosh. Like, it's, you know, it's great that you're a college athlete. Like, we'd love to help you. Would you want to join this program that we're thinking of, like, it's called Dexcom you, you get to be a Dexcom warrior. And, yeah. And then from there, we set up a couple of zoom calls. I met with the team, and just kind of ran through what that process was going to look like with them. And it's been, I'm going into my third year with them, so that process has been going great. So

Scott Benner 17:31
is that, is it like a social media thing? Are you actually meeting other athletes? What do you do?

Brie 17:37
Yeah, it's a little bit of both. You know, there, it's a couple of social posts here and there, like, we just recently launched season three of Dexcom news. So we all, like reposted that video I've done like a media day, quote, unquote, with some other Dexcom you athletes a couple summers ago, and we all went out to Chicago, and we did, you know your like, standard media day shoot with, like, the smoke and lights, and that was really cool. And then I've gone out by myself. Most recently, I was out at Disney and Coronado Springs at the children with diabetes convention, and that was cool. I was able to just hang out at the Dexcom vendor share my story to like younger children with T 1d and parents, and, you know, friends of kids with T 1d so yeah, and then it, you know, also looks like interviews as well, just kind of hearing that, yeah, wherever I'm able to promote awareness or education around T 1d

Scott Benner 18:28
would you say that you're pretty open with your diabetes away from Dexcom you as well? You hide your devices? Or are you pretty comfortable than being

Brie 18:38
out? Initially, I used to, just because I kind of fell victim to that stereotype of it being like a shameful diagnosis. And then I think working with Dexcom has definitely helped me, like, put myself out there, especially like on Instagram saying, you know, to say, hey, like, this doesn't have to be something that you're you could be afraid of or that you have to hide. So I, like, even in my, like, graduation photos. I had it like, right on the back of my house, because I was like, this is a part of me now. So people, people should know that that's like, my identity and Nick,

Scott Benner 19:06
when you're dropping people and they're reaching for to save their lives, do they ever grab your devices and tear them off? That's a great question. Nick, I love it when you tell me I've asked a great question. By the way, feeds my ego in a way that you just can't imagine. I'm like, is a great question. I feel so good about myself invalidating it. Go ahead.

Nicholas 19:26
Yeah, so I there's been on occasion that, you know, stunt doesn't go the way you want to. And, yeah, I've had my CGM knocked off a couple times. Dexcom is great at, you know, replacing it pretty, pretty instantly. But to answer your question, it does happen sometimes. I gotcha, you're

Scott Benner 19:41
not telling me if you've ever dropped a human being, have you ever dropped a human

Nicholas 19:46
being? I, you know, I don't know what to consider a drop. You know, stunts don't always go as successful

Scott Benner 19:51
as ends with a girl in a dress. Cursing is what I'm assuming a drop means like, is that about what it is like?

Nicholas 19:58
Nope, nope. Cursing. But. Maybe the silent treatment. Like, what did you just do? Yeah, how

Scott Benner 20:03
do you play like and what do you like? What's the difference between your fault and their fault? Like, you know what I mean, like, how and who tells like, I have so many ques. Did you wait stop? I'm just asking you too many questions. But did you do like, now, pretty look, my kid played college baseball. I know you guys have probably been doing what you do since you were little, and your parents are hundreds of 1000s of dollars in the debt for travel, lacrosse and every other thing, but, but, so you went to Bri you played in tournaments, right? Yeah, like constantly. When did you know you were going to play in college? Two questions. When did you decide you wanted to play in college? When did you know it was actually going to work

Brie 20:42
out? So growing up on Long Island, like La Crosse in the northeast, was just like, I mean, that's like a hot bed. I was playing travel with the Long Island yellow jackets, and that's like, a huge name for colleges. And so it was pretty evident by like, the end of like, middle school, I was like, okay, yes, I want to play in college. Like, this is something I'm gonna, you know, put basketball for, you know, run winter track for, but use it, kind of, for trading purposes. So I had made that verbal commitment spring of my freshman year, which, like, essentially meant nothing, but, you know, other than, like, bragging rights, but yeah, that's got it was, it was early on. I was, like, probably 14 at the time.

Scott Benner 21:19
Were you tall at that point?

Brie 21:21
Like I was, I was growing. Yeah, I was definitely one of the taller ones.

Scott Benner 21:25
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out, because, I mean, as a freshman, they don't like, why would in Yale said yes, when you were a freshman, are you super smart? Bri, let's not make Nick feel bad, but, but go ahead. I

Brie 21:36
like, like, I'm average. I don't

Scott Benner 21:39
know, so Nick, I'm gonna ask you a question that I'm gonna bounce back to breathe in. Do you think that I don't know how to put this? Did shearing get you into a better college than you would have gotten into? Like, I because, I mean, it works that way, right? Like, you know, you get a little extra bump for being an athlete. So did that work out for you? So

Nicholas 21:58
my, my journey's a little bit different. I had mentioned earlier I played soccer all throughout my childhood, and I actually did not come into college knowing that I was going to cheer. So I, like, came into if you told me, like, when I stepped on campus that I was going to be a college cheerleader, like, within the semester, I would have told you, you're crazy. But I got recruited, kind of three weeks into August, and was handed a QR code by like, a upperclassmen who'd come from my high school at Notre Dame. I'm like, This sounds cool. I looked more into it and started stunting, which is, you know, when you throw your partner in the air. And I thought, you know, once I started stunting, I'm like, This is even more awesome. And all the, you know, amenities and things that comes with the student athlete was, uh, was great as well. So I'm like, I should really try this. And I did, and I've, you know, never looked back since, but I actually didn't, it didn't help me at all in the admissions process. I wish it would have, but I

Scott Benner 22:52
was gonna say, you're getting shaken down. Hear this break. You're making out way better than he is. My goddaughter was a flyer at Louisville. Oh, very cool, yeah. And until she was there, I didn't realize how competitive it was.

Nicholas 23:04
Yeah, was she, was she co Ed, or was she all girl?

Scott Benner 23:08
I think she started out on the team, like at the I don't know how to I don't know all the words so. And then I think eventually she got hurt, and she had to stop doing it. Okay, yeah. I think throwing a pound of person is probably dangerous. But wait, wait now. Bri, did you do you know Nick, have you ever bumped like, Were you with him at Chicago during smoke day or anything like

Brie 23:27
that? No, no, actually, this is, like, our first time meeting. Okay, yeah. So

Scott Benner 23:31
isn't it bizarre that he learned to do this in college? Can you imagine if you showed up at Yale and you were like, all right, I got the stick. Where's the ball? Tell me what to do. That's Nick. How quickly did it take you to be like, proficient at it?

Nicholas 23:43
Yeah, that's a great question. See, good

Scott Benner 23:46
job. Yeah. Bri hasn't done it, but it's fine.

Nicholas 23:52
It's it's taken, it's taken a bit of time where, as a team, you know males, you know kind of cheering in high school isn't as popular as, let's say, some other sports, so we actually really it's an investment for our team to kind of recruit guys as they're in college and get them up to speed and proficient with the sport. But I like to think our team's great at doing it, and they coached me really, really well. And you know, by my sophomore year, I was traveling, like to away games with the football team and and doing everything that I could with Notre Dame cheer squad. So Bree What's

Scott Benner 24:25
it feel like when that ball hits you? Like it happens sometimes, right? Like it comes across. It's yeah,

Brie 24:32
it's yeah, it's happened more than once, unfortunately, but yeah, no, I I've been in practice like I've gotten hit with shots in the head, and luckily, no concussions, at least yet I have, I've never had a concussion, but, you know, it's not fun. It's, I mean, the ball is like,

Scott Benner 24:45
this big cruising pain right when it hits you. It is, yeah,

Brie 24:49
I can't imagine what it's like for goalies who are getting pelted like every other

Scott Benner 24:53
shot. I don't even understand. Do you wear much protection? Because you guys really don't wear, you wear, like, shin pads, and, no, yeah. We

Brie 25:00
just have, we have a mouth guarding goggles and, I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've seen, like, nose. I've had teammates, like, break their like, fracture their noses. Yeah, there's been a lot of, one too many entries next,

Scott Benner 25:12
but I've never been, yeah, helmet seems annoying, but, I mean, but Nick's got more protection than you do. I don't understand

Brie 25:19
what's going on. Yeah, I have no idea. I they're going to change those rules eventually, because, I mean, with it being non contact, it's, it seems quite the opposite. Yeah. What

Scott Benner 25:29
are you in grad school for?

Brie 25:30
I'm studying journalism right now. Journalism. So

Scott Benner 25:32
you started with like, polysign. You went to journalism?

Brie 25:35
Yes, yeah, they had. The University of Oregon has a pretty solid school of journalism and communications, and it was one year, and I was like, that's perfect. Like, I plan on going to law school after so I was like, I can do something in the meantime. Have some like, I've always loved, like creative writing, but I've never learned, like journalistic type of writing, and like reporting is, like, kind of outside of my comfort zone. So I thought that doing something different would be super helpful.

Scott Benner 26:02
I was joking earlier, but breeze that does have three jobs. I didn't know you're going to law school, so when you guys are studying, let me ask you first Nick when you're studying, when you show up a class for a test, something like that. Something gets your kind of adrenaline going. How quickly do you stay on your Dexcom? Like, when does like? Is it walking to class? Is that when you sit down and realize I'm not prepared for not that you guys wouldn't be prepared. But you know what I mean, like when you're like, a little panicked about the test, do you see rises from adrenaline for schoolwork?

Nicholas 26:29
I do? Yeah, I usually see it about 15 minutes to 20 minutes like, into a test. We have accommodations here at Notre Dame through Sarah Bay program. So I actually usually test in my own separate room, and if I ever fall low or fall high, and I can't really think clearly, I can always ask them to, you know, stop the clock and for me to treat my blood sugar, and then, like, resume the test later. So they're really helpful with that, and I'm able to test like an environment that suits me. What's the

Scott Benner 26:57
number? Right? There's got to be a number where you get like, a little cloudy and and do you notice it in academics? And do you notice it in sports? And I'll give you my example. While my son played in college, my daughter stopped playing sports when she was like, I don't know, 14 or 15, maybe. But when she was 12, she was playing in a Little League World Series semi round. Her blood sugar would like, you know, they get jacked up, and the adrenaline would come. Her blood sugar would go up, and then I would notice that her foot speed would decrease over about 180 to 200 and I was wondering if you guys saw any deficits like that with higher blood sugars. I was gonna ask Brianna first, because she's running. Oh, yeah, but she's running. But you also might not be getting high because of that as well.

Brie 27:41
Yeah, yeah, I've had different encounters. It varies. Also, I know that the weather impacts, like, the time of the year that I'm playing, like, for example, when I'm playing with Team Puerto Rico, we're typically playing in the summers, because that's just how our like, tournaments will work. And I'll notice, like, there's been events where it's the style of play is also different. At the national level, it's very it's like, straight conditioning, so you're just running back and forth. And I normally play attack, I'm not running the length of the field, but in sixes, you are. And so when you're playing at that speed, I noticed that my I'm a lot more insulin resistant, and I'll I've never, I've never had to come off the field and, like, inject, but during those times when I'm playing, I'm like, way more cognizant of that, because there has been instances where I'm like, I've no, I'm like, I genuinely have no idea what's going on. Like, I feel dizzy, I have a headache, like, I gotta take myself off, um, I don't notice that it makes me physically slower, like, in terms of, like, my feet, and maybe it does. I think I'm just so in my head, and I get really cerebral in that moment. But, yeah, definitely in the warmer weather, I noticed that when I'm running around, but electrical will go a lot higher than

Scott Benner 28:41
two then do you feel foggy at all when you get higher or nauseous, or anything like that?

Nicholas 28:46
I do. I feel like I get foggy in the head, kind of around the, like, upper two hundreds, if I ever go to like lower 300 so I, you know, try and prevent that. I definitely feel that with cheer to just like your ability to focus when you're kind of in the air, like with your partner stunting. It gets a little foggy, but it's, it's something, you know, I always keep my pump on me, so I always try and not be as high, and I, like, prefer low or like, I attack the high, right? You know, on occasion,

Scott Benner 29:15
I always say I'd rather stop a lower falling blood sugar than fight with a high one. It just seems easier. So Nick and I'm going to translate this to Brien a second, but I'm assuming your mom had, your mom and dad had, you know, eight good years of deciding what healthy looked like for you right before you left for college. So you left with probably a fairly stable a 1c goal that you guys were meeting. And then you get to college, how do you decide what your new goal is? Like, it did it change? Was it hard for you to maintain what was going on when you had more help? Like, how did you navigate all of that?

Nicholas 29:52
Yeah, absolutely it so our goal never changed. It was hard to navigate at the beginning of my freshman year, just because, like, I stopped soccer. And picked up cheer, which is, like a different type of sport. I was living on my own, you know, we had access to the dining hall and all different types of foods. It wasn't the normal, you know, my mom's cooking at home, and so it was, it was a big transition, for sure, but I was able to, like, you know, get accustomed and comfortable to it towards the end of my spring in my freshman year, and now I feel very comfortable as a junior. You know, I know what to expect, and it's always been, you know, the same goal, but now it's more realistic for me to accomplish that you

Scott Benner 30:29
actually do it. Let's talk about the food for a second. Briano, it's just not great at college, right? Like hits you harder than when you're eating cleaner at home, greasy or fattier, the high stick to you longer to use more insulin at school than you do when you're at home. Yeah, that

Brie 30:44
was one thing I noticed, especially when I returned to my sophomore year at Yale, navigating the dining hall was incredibly difficult. I actually ended up going briefly. I was on like, a low FODMAP diet, so I worked really closely with the dining hall at Yale, and they would just be able to prepare me with, like, the correct because sometimes the menus, you know, the ingredients, some ingredients are missing, or, like, the carb counts are wrong for the servings, like the little nutritional Info Cards weren't necessarily super accurate. So I'd work really closely with the dining hall staff to be like, you know, I just want, like, plain chicken with, like sweet potatoes and like rice, or, like, whatever it is. And I'm like, just, like, if you give me X amount, like, one cup of this, one cup of this, like, I can calculate the carbs, because at that at that time, initially, like, I was so sensitive to, like, my insulin requirements and, like, being resistant and stuff. So I just was, like, very granular on my approach to carb counting. And then my senior year at Yale, and now my my year here. I'm living off off campus right now, I'm in a house, so that's been nice just to be able to, like, buy the food that I want prepare, the prepare the meals that I want to prepare, and now everything is kind of like, planned ahead and a little bit more scripted that way. So it makes managing a lot easier.

Scott Benner 31:56
Yeah, my daughter's freshman year, she ate in the dining hall, and it was hard. There was one time she texted me in the first couple of weeks, and she's like, I promise you, I am bolusing. And I was like, Okay, I said, What are you eating? And she goes, it's broccoli. I don't understand what's happening it. Just then you realize it's cooked in oil. And like, there's a reason it tastes good. And it's also got more processed food at school than you might ready. You know, used to at home, then her sophomore year, we got her, speaking of accommodations, we made them give her a room that had its own little like kitchen in it, and that made such a big difference in her blood sugars. Was really awesome, actually. I want to know. I'll start with you, Nick. I want to understand because you know, both ways, you know, using a Dexcom, you know, not using it like, can you tell me some of the places where not having a Dexcom would impact you, like, what do you think of when you think of losing it?

Nicholas 32:46
Of course, the first thing I think of is my sleep at night. I think that's the biggest thing for me, because when I have a Dexcom, CGM and my you know, all my parents are following it, like people in my dorm are following it, I feel a lot more comfortable being able to sleep at night, knowing that if something were to go wrong, Dexcom would alert me if I'm low or high, or maybe, like, my pumps malfunctioning, something of that sort, where, you know, if I didn't have the Dexcom CGM at night, like what my parents and I did when I was a lot younger, was we would test like Every hour to maybe every like two hours. And you know, that's such a tired, sleepless night to do that, even if it's only for two minutes, it's definitely a real challenge. So I've definitely caught up on hours of sleep with Dexcom, and that's the first thing to come to my mind. Yeah,

Scott Benner 33:35
I'll tell you that sleep for me, when my daughter got a CGM, like, it just changed. It changed my life. I was, I didn't realize how bad off I was actually, because sleep's that sort of thing that you don't notice it at first, and it gets slowly worse and worse and worse, and then you're exhausted. Don't realize you're exhausted. You know that kind of thing happens. Bri How about you? What like when you think, no. CGM, what do you think? Oh, no. That would mean,

Brie 33:56
yeah. I think for me, it's been part of my diabetes identity. Pretty much ever since I was diagnosed, like, having the Dexcom CGM has just, like, helped, even just from like, a confidence perspective. So I think the days were like, you know, if it falls off and I'm not able to get a replacement, or, you know, it expires, I don't have a backup of my bag, I'm like, Oh my God. Like, sometimes I'm like, Oh my gosh, what do I do? Like, I'm like, I'm, like, super reliant on the Dexcom, which is, which is helpful, and it's awesome. I mean, I of course, always make sure I have like, the meter and the like, strips and stuff in my backpack, just in case. But I think just from a peace of mind perspective, it's also like, you know, my mom will be like, Why don't I get your readings? And I'm like, I don't, I don't know, like, my bluetooth is off right now or something. So it's just like, it's nice to have, like, a comfortability standpoint, and even to, like, Nick was saying for for sleep, like, I would have it connected to this app that will, like, call you. So it's like, lasting a ringtone. It's like, in the middle of the night and I'm low or something. So yeah, it's definitely like, part of I would say it's like, plays a huge role in, like, my identity and who I am is, like an athlete with diabetes. Do. Either

Scott Benner 35:00
of you ever have moments when you just wish your parents couldn't see it? How do you handle that Nick's laughing? Let him go first. Yeah,

Nicholas 35:08
there's definitely times where you know, like, maybe you're sick, or maybe, like, your pumps not working properly. I I feel like shame when my blood sugar's like, high for too long. And like, you know, my mom definitely sees it, and I have to be like, Mom, I promise like, I'm I'm bulletin like, we have a, we have a fast acting insulin now, and times where that happens too. So, but yeah, you know, you just have to deal with it. And honestly, it's a type of accountability, like the next time you're just that much more persuaded, I guess, or influenced, to do better for for your parents. Nick, are you telling

Scott Benner 35:39
me that the overwhelming feeling is that you feel like you're letting like you're letting somebody down, or yourself down like you do? You feel like you're letting your mom down because she's had ashamed, right? Like, what's that feeling?

Nicholas 35:49
Yeah, no, it's I, you know. It's not like she's gonna be like, mad or disappointed in me. It's just that, like, I, you know, you know you can do better, and with your parents doing so much for you, it's just kind of like you feel a little disappointed in yourself that you weren't able to deliver the same thing. Have either

Scott Benner 36:06
of your parents ever sent the Find Your iPhone sound when they when you didn't answer their text? Have you ever had that experience smiling and laughing? Yeah, okay,

Brie 36:16
yes, no, I have had that experience. Have you ever

Scott Benner 36:20
gotten a text that says, Please don't make me send to find your iPhone sound to you, because I think I've sent that text

Brie 36:26
once or twice. Do

Scott Benner 36:28
you guys, either of you know the podcast

Brie 36:32
Brianna? You do? Yeah, yes, yeah. I'm actually juicebox. Podcast was like one of the first, like one of my first resources that I looked into for my mom's co worker, Heather. She's like, she's also type one, and she's like, it live. Think she listens to your podcast, like, religiously. But I just remember because my mom was trying to help me navigate the process too, and she was like, Oh my gosh. Like, Heather recommends juicebox, and so I have listened to a couple of your episodes. So I was like, I was super excited. So I'm like, somewhat familiar with it, but, yeah,

Scott Benner 37:03
let's say hi to Heather. Nick. Do you know it too? That's not possible. Like, you guys are young. Like, listen, I made this podcast for my daughter. Like, I'm not gonna lie to you, I basically, I was like, if I make a podcast where everything's explained that one day when I'm gone, she can go back and listen to it, and she'll like, like, right? She never listens to it. She's on episodes. She won't listen to those episodes. So, like, have you,

Nicholas 37:24
Nick, heard it? So kudos to the Dexcom marketing team, because they gave us, like, a cool briefing doc about your podcast. But also, I called my mom saying, okay, you know I'm doing well, like, I'm going to be on this podcast. I think it's called the juicebox podcast. She's like, What? Like, I've been listening to that since day one. She's like, most of my advice to you comes from that, oh. I'm like, oh. So she's like, Uncle Scott,

Scott Benner 37:49
here, Nick you understand, there we go. Yeah, all your success, I'm not gonna take credit for it, but, I mean, I will later tell other people how I saved your life. How do you talk to other people? Like, if I brought you right now a couple of seniors in high school who were gonna go, you know, off to school and play a sport. What do you think you would tell them? Like, I'm not gonna say, like, Give me three things, but like, anything that you can rattle off your head that, like, really seems like knowledge, because a lot of parents listen to this and their kids are playing sports and hoping to play in school too. And yes, like, with some of these devices, I don't know if you noticed, like, some professional, like, field goal kicker last weekend stepped up to kick a field goal, and he had like, an OmniPod on one arm and a g7 on the other arm. And I was like, Look at this guy. Go. And so I'm just wondering, like, what? What would you tell somebody if they asked you for advice? Nick, you want to go first?

Nicholas 38:36
Yeah, absolutely. I think the first advice I would give them is the best thing to do is communicate with everyone around you. I've always had a really positive experience with my coaches. I'm communicating to them both in soccer and in cheerleading, and so that's my first bit of advice. Like, communicate with your teammates, let them know what's going on. Communicate with your coach, because sometimes in a game, you know, you may have to be like, subbed out quickly, or like, grab, you know, grab the fruit snacks and Skittles to treat a low, you know, that's, that's probably my first bit of advice. The second is, you know, I think it's, I think it's a great challenge to have, because I think you're that just that much more prepared. You know, when you're going into your sport, like, for cheerleading, like, I'm not so worried about, like the starts I'm hitting, as I'm worried about my blood sugar, whereas, like, my teammates are worried about, you know, if they brought, like, the proper tape, right? And so I feel like I'm that much prepared, like in soccer, like my teammates, like, would be forgetting their shin guards and, like, bringing them to games, whereas, like, I can't forget like, my, you know, glucagon or Skittles or or glucose meter. And so I'm definitely not going to forget my shin guards at that point, you know. So, so I just feel like it's, you're just that much more prepared. And we actually, with Dexcom u we were able to go to this really cool sports camp over the summer in San Diego where there was both, like, professional athletes there, and then college athletes part of Dexcom, you and then even younger kids, just, you know, kind of you. Trying out every sport, and everybody had diabetes there. And so it was a really cool experience, just to kind of see people from all levels. And I even got advice from the professional athletes there in terms of, like, how to interact, like, with the athletic trainers and really take your sport to the next level with type one diabetes. So it's, you know, I can give advice, but I can also, I'm taking advice all the time. It's

Scott Benner 40:20
a great answer. Nick, and I'm not just saying that because you earlier said I asked a good question. Brando, how about you?

Brie 40:27
Yeah, I'd say my biggest thing is probably to practice patience. That's something that I'm like, historically, a very immaculate person, just beyond the context of diabetes, just like school, lacrosse, whatever it is. I think being able to practice patients has been so helpful for me, but also for the people around me that are managing my diabetes. Like, they understand, you know, if my mom's looking at my glucose levels and like, I'm slightly higher than normal, like, she knows now not to probe and be like, are your levels high? And I'm like, you know, clearly I'm not in a good mood. Clearly I'm not in a good mood. Like, give me, like, a couple minutes to, like, refocus and get my mental state back, you know, yeah, and check. And then I think also, just like learning to embrace the struggle that's like dealing with it in right, basically, right at the start of my collegiate career, I was, like, so bogged down, like it took a really big mental toll on me. And I was like, I don't know how I know I can still play lacrosse, but, like, I don't even know what that transition back to the field is going to look like. And everyone around me was just so supportive, being like, You're so strong, like you put up with, like, being an athlete, playing pretty much every sport, growing up that like this is just, you know, another, like, minor piece of adversity that you can 100% overcome. And so I think learning to embrace the struggle and kind of, like Nick said, I think it it holds you more accountable, like you see, you hold yourself to a higher standard. You know, there's like that natural set of discipline that just kind of grows with you as an athlete, but also as someone managing a chronic illness. And so I think when you're able to use that discipline and accountability, you can actually apply it to your sport, but also know that, like, you still have those attributes from playing sports and being an athlete that you can apply to your

Scott Benner 42:07
diabetes. Yeah, I was gonna that's another great answer, actually, but I was gonna use the word lucky, because I can't find a better word, but you guys are lucky and you don't realize it. And I've had the experience of interviewing 1000s of people, right? And when I find people who are in their late 20s who didn't have a lot of success with their management in college, the statements usually run in two different ways, like either I was diagnosed really early, and my parents took care of everything, so I didn't even know what I was doing when I got to college, and I was scared to tell my parents I didn't know enough, I went C went up. My variability got worse before I knew it. My health was an issue. It took me a long time to get it back together again. Or you hear people who are were in brief situation like, look, I was diagnosed in college. No one was even there to help me. I didn't know what I was doing, and I had these same problems. And then it can take them years and years and years to get through life and graduate and do all the things they want to do to make the space to actually come back and and look at diabetes again and put it into a position where it can be a healthy existence for you. And both of you guys seem to have, like been able to avoid that, and good for you, by the way, but I think it probably has a lot to do with playing sports, like, right? Because you can't do what you guys do with vacillating blood sugars, with super highs, with being low all the time. So yes, it puts it on your plate of things that you need to understand if you want to keep doing the thing you're doing. But my last question, then, for both of you is, and how do you make the space for that? Like, how do you not in the middle of, like, a three hour study session, just mute your phone and be like, I can't, I can't do this right now. Like, how do you make space for diabetes in a life that's already would have been over full if you were just college students, but now is over full plus a sport. And I'm speaking from a position of understanding. Like, I know what my son's schedule is like playing baseball. So like, how do you, how did you get it to fit in without making you crazy?

Nicholas 44:03
Yeah, absolutely that. That's a great question. Nick and I

Scott Benner 44:08
are going to be friends after this. Go ahead.

Nicholas 44:11
So I think it's really like, you know, it's another like, I'm sure breeze used to this too, with being at such a great like, academic university, and then being a student athlete, and then, you know, wanting to have a social life on top of that, and like, just interacting with different clubs. And you know, there's, there's a million things you want to do here, and you have to be if you want to accomplish your dreams, or if you're so, you know, inspired and motivated to do one thing, you have to take care of your diabetes, or it's going to get the best of you, you know what I mean, and you have to be on top of it. And so I think, you know, I, like, came into University of Notre Dame, like, knowing that I wanted to do great academically and do this club, and I joined cheerleading. And so I got so inspired. And so, like, happy to do what I was doing every single day that, you know, managing my diabetes. 90s was just like, a goal and something I became proud of because my great, like, my blood sugar's great, like, I'm gonna go do what I love to do. It is another, like, roadblock or challenge, but in that way, like, it prepares you even more. But it's also like, you know, like, if you're really motivated about accomplishing a goal, like, you know, you can go through 20 roadblocks to get to that goal, and you'll always keep doing it, because it's, it's something that you want to do. So I think, like, my main message is, like, if you know, like what you want to do, and and you love what you do, and you love your sport, and you want to do well at it, like, control your diabetes, because that's your goal, and nothing should stop you from doing that. Do you

Scott Benner 45:36
think Nick a follow up question is, do you think that playing sports your whole life gives you that ability to do that thing, because it's, it's for a person who doesn't do it. I mean, and there's one thing to like, play for fun, right? But like, when you really are digging down and you're thinking, like, I'm gonna go in college and do this, I don't know if everyone understands the amount of time and effort you put into something. So even as a kid, you're managing your time much differently. Like, do you think you think you were predisposed to be able to do well at this because of that? Absolutely,

Nicholas 46:04
I think sports serve you so well in life, and, you know, and being able to have, like, a competitive drive and and competing for something that you want to achieve, and that's, you know, the same thing with diabetes, right? Like, if you're training, you know, to be a college athlete, and you're doing more than the average person's doing in your sport. It's kind of the same with diabetes, right? Like you need to you're doing more to be great at your sport, but it's just that much higher of a person that you have to be in order to do that. So I think sports are a great way to, like, really enhance that competitive drive and allow you to achieve that goal. And I've, you know, played sports my whole life, and, you know, I think that's aided me and having that drive,

Scott Benner 46:45
right? Brianna, how about you?

Brie 46:47
Yeah, I mean, I feel pretty much the same way. I think, you know, you know, coming into college, there's that there's going to be that balance, if you want to make it as even as you can, between the sports, between the academics, between, you know, having a balanced social life. And I think for me, you know, coming in and having, like, a almost a full year under me in college, I was like, okay, I can do this. I'm acclimated, you know, and then you get hit with the diabetes diagnosis, and, you know, your next three years look entirely different. But I think with that, like, it's a learning process, but it's the same way that, you know, you pick up a stick for the first time and you're like, my gosh, I'm awful at this. Like, I can't catch and throw. This is so embarrassing. Yeah, and then you, you know, takes you a couple months, it takes you a year, and then you're like, oh, wow, this is actually so fun, because I put in the work behind it, and I'm seeing the results. And I think, you know, it's the same way when you step onto the field, like, exactly what Nick was saying. Like, as a lacrosse player, you're treated it's a spring sport, but you're training full year round. You know, with your diabetes, like, there's, there's no you can't just take a day off. Like, you can't just be like, I'm just not going to look at, you know, my CGM not going to look at my glucose numbers today. Like, that's just not an option. And it's the same way, like, you want to be successful on the field, you have to do the things that will translate to those outcomes, being able to be confident in, like, having a structure routine every day. I think being able to have, like, I think the biggest thing coming from sport is having, like, a strong mental psyche. I think that's really, really bolstered my ability to be like, okay, like, all I have to do is control the controllables and understand also and be mindful that, like, my numbers aren't going to be perfect every day. You know, I'm not going to go out and have the perfect game. I'm not going to I might go three for five on my shots or something like, I'm not not everything is not going to fall into place exactly how you want it. And so being mindful in that sense, has definitely helped me. But I think for sure, being an athlete has allowed me that level of discipline that I can apply to my diabetes. And, you know, just trusting myself in managing it, I

Scott Benner 48:36
think just showing up on campus probably having been the best, whatever player you were before, and then getting to another place where that's not true anymore, if you can get there, absorb that and keep going, it's a big deal at a young age, like I, I watched my son go through it, and it's a it helps you as you become an adult, too. It really does, like you can have thick skin, you know,

Unknown Speaker 49:00
absolutely? Yeah,

Scott Benner 49:01
I wish we had more time. If we did, I would ask you about dating with diabetes, because I am interested in whether or not that makes things difficult, of how people treat you and etc. But maybe we'll have to have you guys back some time and do it another time. Sounds good. We'd

Nicholas 49:14
love to be back.

Scott Benner 49:15
You guys got class today. You got to go, like, do

Brie 49:17
stuff. Where are you headed? Bert, I have no I actually don't start until the 30th with classes, but I have my first lacrosse meeting later today, so that I'm writing for newspapers. So I've got some some training meetings and stuff here and there. But, yeah, just gearing up for the start of the

Scott Benner 49:34
fall. Good luck. That's awesome. How about you,

Nicholas 49:36
Nick? We are gearing up for a really cool game day against Notre Dame versus Louisville this weekend. You know, we have a couple alumni tailgates, and we've got a few like run through practices. So it's going to be, it's going to be rainy tomorrow, actually, here in South Bend, so that'll be fun, but, yeah, preparing for a game day. So that's the rest of my day. All right. Well, good

Scott Benner 49:54
luck to both of you. It's awesome. You guys are really your parents. Must be incredibly proud of you. You know, I'm proud of you, and I've. And you're for like, 45 minutes. You guys are really doing it. It's harder than people would give you credit for. I don't think, I don't think anybody should try to say how difficult it is to be a college athlete with type one diabetes, but there's no doubt in my mind that it isn't easy. So good job, both of you. I'm really, really think it's awesome what you're doing. Thank you.

Nicholas 50:18
Thanks, Scott. Yep.

Brie 50:19
Thank you so much, Scott, for your time. Appreciate it.

Nicholas 50:21
Yeah, thanks for having us on. Oh,

Scott Benner 50:23
it's my pleasure. You guys were great.

This episode was sponsored by touched by type one. I want you to go find them on Facebook, Instagram, and give them a follow, and then head to touched by type one.org where you're going to learn all about their programs and resources for people with type one diabetes. Today's episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 which now integrates with the tandem T slim x2 system. Learn more and get started today at dexcom.com/juicebox, dexcom.com/juice, box. If you'd like to wear the same insulin pump that Arden does, all you have to do is go to omnipod.com/juice box. That's it. Head over now and get started today, and you'll be wearing the same tubeless insulin pump that Arden has been wearing since she was four years old. If you or a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective. The bold beginning series from the juicebox podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CD CES, a registered dietitian and a type one for over 35 years, and in the bold beginnings series, Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698, in your podcast player. Or you can go to juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu. When you support the juicebox podcast by clicking on the advertisers links you are helping to keep the show free and plentiful. I am certainly not asking you to buy something that you don't want, but if you're going to buy something or use a device from one of the advertisers, getting your purchases set up through my links is incredibly helpful. So if you have the desire or the need, please consider using juicebox podcast links to make your purchases. Okay, well, here we are at the end of the episode. You're still with me. Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Uh, why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me, or Instagram. Tiktok. Oh gosh, here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page you don't want to miss. Please do not know about the private group. You have to join the private group as of this recording, it has 51,000 members in it. They're active, talking about diabetes, whatever you need to know, there's a conversation happening in there right now, and I'm there all the time. Tag me. I'll say hi. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongwaverecording.com. You.

#1336 Best of Juicebox: After Dark: Diabetes Complications

Today's guest is an adult type 1 living with significant complications. Originally released on August 25, 2021.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Today we're going to revisit Episode 531, after dark, diabetes complications. It originally aired on August 25 2001 and I consider to be a seminal episode of the podcast. This is Mike, a long time type one, who is going to thoughtfully and honestly walk you through his life and explain some of the complications that he's had. After you finish with this episode and end up loving Mike, which I believe you will go find his latest episode. 1221 it's called condo shopping. Mike and his wife come on to give an update on his life, and it's very, very interesting. Please don't forget 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, to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code Juicebox at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com if you're looking for community around type one diabetes. Check out the Juicebox podcast. Private Facebook group, Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 the only one year where CGM, that's one insertion and one CGM a year, one CGM one year, not every 10 or 14 days ever since cgm.com/juicebox the Juicebox podcast is full of so many series that you want and need after dark, ask Scott and Jenny, algorithm, pumping bold beginnings, defining diabetes, defining thyroid, the diabetes Pro Tip series for type one, the diabetes variable series, mental wellness, type two diabetes pro tip, how we eat? Oh, my goodness, there so much at Juicebox podcast.com head up into that menu and pick around. And if you're in the private Facebook group, just go to the feature tab for lists upon lists of all of the series. Always free, always helpful.

Mike Green 2:32
My name is Mike. I live in San Diego. I've been type one, whoa, over 45 years now. And

Scott Benner 2:43
yeah, how old are you? Mike?

Mike Green 2:46
I just turned 55 today. Oh, really,

Scott Benner 2:49
congratulations.

Mike Green 2:50
Thank you. So I can now eat off the Denny's 55 plus menu.

Scott Benner 2:53
Things are really heading in your direction. Finally,

Mike Green 2:56
you got to take the positives in this world of all the negatives. I

Scott Benner 3:00
didn't know our birthdays were so close to each other's. I

Mike Green 3:03
know happy late birthday. My, uh, my replacement service dog trainer, my replacement service dog the trainer was here working, and we were pretty tied up, so I didn't get to wish you happy birthday. Happy belated birthday.

Scott Benner 3:13
Thank you very much. And happy birthday to you. We are, uh, five years apart and two days. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So Mike, you were on a how we episode for keto, 409-490-6496, there you go. Some of the similar numbers, 496, and I would have to say months had gone by after that, after we recorded it maybe, and I got a really, I thought, passionate email from you, saying that you needed to come back on the show and talk about complications and your and your life in general. So I think that's very brave, and I appreciate you want to do that. Sure.

Mike Green 3:59
I'm I'm happy to do it. I'm happy to, you know, explain to people. It's kind of emotional for me when I start talking about so

Scott Benner 4:10
bear with me. I brought tissues to this one. Do you not have tissues?

Mike Green 4:14
I have? I have short sleeves in the whole bottom of my shirt.

Scott Benner 4:20
I guess, I guess, for people who didn't hear you on how, we just give them a couple of minutes, you know, when about your diagnosis and how things were back then,

Mike Green 4:29
sure. So back in the 70s, when I was diagnosed, there was no meters, no good insulins. There was, well, the I need to back up just a hair there for a quick second. So I was misdiagnosed by a general practitioner for over a year with an ulcer because I had the symptoms of the doubling over stomach cramps. I guess that's when my body. Was attacking the beta cells, or the pancreas, from my understanding. So he diagnosed me with an ulcer, and he diagnosed my mom with being so mentally hard on me, just as a kid in general, in life, that it stressed me out so much that caused me to have an ulcer, which was farthest from the truth. I had a great, loving mom, loving family. The as the as the time progressed, I was getting, obviously losing more and more weight, and they finally took me to the hospital, because I was just skin and bones. They just they couldn't figure it out. Yeah, wasn't a DKA at that point, but I was close. They said I probably had a few more months, and I would have been in DK at that point, but, and it was funny, well, I don't know if it's funny, but we were walking down the hall in the emergency room, and the doctor that was walking the other way looked at me, pointed to me, and told my parents that kid's a type one diabetic. And turns out that's the doctor that came into the exam room and properly diagnosed me so and at that time, things were pretty primitive. Again, like I said, there was no meters, no good insulins. We had beef and pork and in, and you would take the beef or pork insulin until you started getting resistant to it. Then you would switch over to the other that you either or beef or pork until you resistant to that. And you kind of swap back and forth. If you got resistant to both of them, you're pretty much screwed at that point. So I was probably 500 the whole time I was a kid, because at that point they viewed it, if you weren't falling over, you were doing pretty good, right? And you did one shot a day. You'd mix the insulin, then you had exchange rates at that time. Example, breakfast, two starches, a dairy, a fat, and then lunch, to be kind of the same thing, you know, two or three starches, four proteins, and that's how they kind of managed it. So I did. I was on one shot a day for till I was a teenager, and I went to a type one backpacking camp at the doctors there finally switched me over to two shots a day, and again, no meters, no no way to really monitor how much insulin you need. But I just, I can remember it at that point, when they switched me to two shots a day, how much better I felt. So maybe I was what? I came down from 500 to 400 I don't know. We will never know. I

Scott Benner 7:47
wonder. Do you know why they somebody thought to introduce it? Was it just the new way to do it? And you were the old one? Yeah, I

Mike Green 7:54
think there was doctors at the camp. There were younger doctors, and at at the time, from my understanding. Now, of you know doctors and how they treated diabetics, they just, they kept you, they basically kept you from not dying. And they they wouldn't, they couldn't, they wouldn't adjust. But that was their goal, to keep you from dying immediately from a low, but not long term, from complications. They there was just no, there was no way to tell but, but as a teenager, the doctors at that point saw it was pretty antiquated for one shot a day, so they broke it up, so at least you had some more regular to cover dinner instead of just covering dinner with whatever basal might be left over from the in which I don't know if they really know what the peak on that was, whether it was 12 hours, six hours, 24 hours, I don't know. I've looked back on that. I can't find any good, solid documentation that kind of gives the duration of that like linte Now, or, you know, a trashI via that's 48 act down. I couldn't find any data in that, and at this point, doesn't matter. That's that's over. Yeah,

Scott Benner 9:11
it's gone. So what part of the 70s were you diagnosed

Mike Green 9:17
mid 70s, right around 7677 I remember the Freedom Train coming through, and it was like the summer before I was misdiagnosed, and then went through that school year and the summer after, when I was properly diagnosed. And like I said, I've seen pictures from our vacations. We went on family vacation. We were fortunate enough to go for a few weeks every summer. And again, I just, it was just skin and bones, man, my, my, my shirt was just literally hanging off my skeleton, right? And it that's, it was pretty sad. That's

Scott Benner 9:52
over five decades after someone figured out insulin that was, that was still the the same. Situation,

Mike Green 10:00
they had no there was really no way to to there was no home monitoring. I mean, I know hospitals at that time had glucometers, but they're the only ones that really had them. And the reason they had them was, if somebody came in passed out, were you a drunk or were you a type one diabetic?

Scott Benner 10:20
You know, passed out, and they needed this thing to figure that out. Yeah,

Mike Green 10:24
they needed some way to quickly figure that out, so they weren't putting type one diabetes in the drunk tank and then them dying, right? Wow.

Scott Benner 10:32
So you live a long time with a really high blood sugar, correct? And I'm gonna kind of break your life up into segments, I think Sure so in the moment, do you know what's happening, or is it just your life and there's no way to feel it or like, did you know you felt bad when you were on one shot a day? Um,

Mike Green 10:57
I didn't know at the time, because I really had nothing to judge it with, because you I was never in a lower range to feel like, for instance, you know, 120 versus a 500 and your body kind of gets used to it. And then I also remember, as a teenager in high school, originally, I have nothing wrong with private schools, but it wasn't my, let's say, cup of tea, and I wanted to go back to the public school, where all my friends were from growing up elementary school. So my mom agreed to let me go back to the public school, but I had to take up extracurricular activity, so I chose cross country and track

Scott Benner 11:39
perfect. Yeah. And

Mike Green 11:41
I never had a low, I never passed out. So that validates all the doctors of today's that, yeah, you must have been 500 the whole time because we were running, you know, 1050, miles a day. We got up to and here's the wacky noodles part of this. My mom read in a runners magazine that you should carbohydrate load the day before a race. So she'd make me, not knowing this was a problem at the time. Again, loving mother, she'd make me a whole box of mac and cheese that I would eat for dinner the night before, a whole box of pasta. So I was carb loading without covering for insulin, because there was no knowledge of covering it for insulin. Right

Scott Benner 12:21
on top of all that, how did you run like, I guess you really so. So for, I guess, for people listening, who are managing in today's world, the idea that you could be 500 and living for days and days and days, or 400 or whatever, like that, high, high, like that, yeah, is, is probably confusing to them. It's inconceivable, right, right? But really, you're it then, in that moment and for those years, your body's in an advanced state of aging, basically Correct. You're using up your life cycles faster than you should be, correct, and your body had a way of making itself feel normal enough that you could function Correct.

Mike Green 13:05
Yeah. The other thing the doctor that diagnosed me when I was a kid, which I found out later in life, um, that he told my mom that exercise equated to insulin, um, and anywhere I wanted to go, like my friend's house that was several miles away, an arcade at you know, when I asked her, Hey, can you run me over here? Well, ever since my diagnosis, she conveniently could never take me anywhere. She made me ride my bike, which that probably at that time, was one of the best things for me, so which helped me in cross country and track, and I still hold the record for the 100 at Christian junior high to this day. So I was in, I was in top shape. I was just riding everywhere. So go figure i Yeah, we, we talk about that now with some of the like the the therapists they see, you know, Sports Therapy and stuff. And it's just, yeah, I think, I think that her conveniently, but making me go ride for that exercise is insulin thing was probably extended at that time. A lot of things, yeah,

Scott Benner 14:17
bought you more time because she was driving your blood sugar down a little bit with the with the exercise, and with you, with all the running and everything, yeah, which would take you right back to prior to insulin. When they started figuring out what was happening, they would just starve people and move them around. That's yeah, that's how they would that's how they try to elongate your life. If you had type one before, instantly, you know, don't eat anything, and then just keep active. And you're really just doing those things to stay alive. And so you were getting some function from that correct when what happens next? You go away to college. You. No, I

Mike Green 15:00
went to automotive trade school at that time. So first part of my life, I was a ASC certified auto mechanic. And again, just, you know, whatever insulin, single dose they gave me on the day and at night, I was just taken and eaten any and everything, and there was no thought process behind it, because there was still no, no monitoring, no right, I think there was a, I believe there was a meter at that time, but it took, like, two or five minutes to read. And what do you do with the information? Yeah, and at that point, if,

Scott Benner 15:42
if I'm remembering correctly, from our our other conversation is this the point in your life where you get fairly unhealthy in other ways? Yeah, okay. Can you tell people about that?

Mike Green 15:52
Yeah, so, moved to Florida for with a girlfriend and and her family. We love sailing, and it was warm water there. So, you know, we're, we're drinking and, you know, eating whatever, because there's really, I've never been told not to, and there's been no great information to, hey, you need to do these things to take care of yourself. So the doctor I saw at that time because I knew I needed insulin, insulin was life. You could buy syringes over the counter. So I was basically seeing him for the prescription for insulin. And I was really overweight. I'm five 511 I was like, 245 ish, 250 overweight. And he finally, one day, going in to get my prescription, said that you really need to do better in your life. And I'm like, okay, like, you know, get a desk job or something. Cars, yeah. So he said, No, diabetes wise. He said, I'm going to send you to see this person who I'm still lifelong friends with. Today, see this person, and if I get back good information from this person that you're will start taking care of yourself. I will keep prescribing you insulin. We'll check in the hospital. If you, if I get bad information from this person, no doctor in South Florida will see you. I will, I will ban you from seeing any doctor in South Florida through the medical profession or however rewarded it at that time. So I'm thinking, insulin, life and no insulin, not life.

Scott Benner 17:41
This next guy is going to get to tell me whatever he

Mike Green 17:43
wants. Yeah, so, so I went saw the person was at diabetes treatment centers they had at the hospitals at that time, and she scared the beje out of me. If you want to put any other explicit word in there, you could go ahead and do that and bleep it out. So I, I checked. I got checked in the hospital. At that point. They checked in for like, seven days to regulate you, quote, unquote. I'm doing air quotes as you can see, regulate you as best they can. And got my first meter, and I took it serious. I was on multiple injections at that time. MDI insulin pumps were considered experimental. So after that week in the hospital, I continued to strive. I, you know, hung out the diabetes treatment center, the support groups got within at that time in the community, which made me feel really good about things. Started eating healthier, and the next thing was I needed to lose weight. And he said, you know, you gotta start doing some exercise. And I was working for an accurate dealership at the time, and the parts manager raced amateur bicycles, and he invited me to come out and cycle with him, you know, to try to help some lose weight. And so I bought a my first bike that month, uh, rode over, little over 1000 miles and lost like 45 pounds plus that first month. So, jeez, uh, I'm an, I'm an all or nothing guy, in case you anybody that you know I I don't just dabble in anything. Well,

Scott Benner 19:27
let me, let me ask you a couple questions. So you basically are living in your Well, tell me. Tell me how old you are when you met. This the second doctor. I

Mike Green 19:40
was in my early 20s. Okay,

Scott Benner 19:42
so early 20s is you're young, you're a mechanic, you're living, you're sailing, you're screwing around with your girlfriend and eating whatever you want and drinking. You said drinking, I'm assuming you meant beer and stuff like that. Yeah? So, just

Mike Green 19:56
beer. Yeah, just beer. At that point I. I

Scott Benner 20:00
was it a rapid weight gain for you, or no happening through high school? Weight

Mike Green 20:06
gain was at, well, when I was in high school running cross country and track, I was, you know, just a rail and I got in a really bad car crash. I was in the back seat of a little, little, little Honda Civic, I think it was. And we have these mountains out here, and one of the cool thing is to do, which is really not cool, is to go on the mountain, turn your lights out, and scare the crap out everybody in the car, you know, and try to anticipate the curve you made. So this girl was driving, and she wasn't a good driver, but I'm in the back seat, you know, I should have said something. I didn't, because I'm with my friend, trying to protect her. We grew up as as neighbor kids, and we went off the mountain, airborne into a tree, and luckily, the tree, the tree branches. As we landed about mid tree. I went back and looked at it afterwards, and it was probably the tree was taller than a two story, not a two story, but a one story house, so, but between that, so landed in that. The impact lifted me up and, of course, no seat belts at the time, so I broke both my ankles, shattered my shoulder as the car fell down. It was pretty gentle fall through the limbs until we hit the ground. It was in front of somebody's house. You think so we hobbled, hobbled in there and

Scott Benner 21:34
help Mike. Is it possible that Steven Spielberg has stolen a portion of your life story for Jurassic Park and you're owed money?

Mike Green 21:41
I didn't think of that. But anyways, after I healed, I went out, did six miles with the because at that point the the guys team was running 10 to 15, and I was trying to get back into it. I did six mile loop, and I hurt so bad, I never ran after that again. And it was from that progression through my early 20s I started gaining the weight because I was just, you know, right? You know, I could eat a whole large, extra large, deep dish pizza and a setting myself. So when we go to pizzas, we'd get three or four pizzas with the family.

Scott Benner 22:17
Well, okay, so take me into that room in your 20s, what does that doctor who scares you? What is What do they say to

Mike Green 22:24
you? Well, basically, the the doctor, the doctor or the diabetes treatment center, the

Scott Benner 22:29
treatment center, I'm

Mike Green 22:31
sorry. Oh, so she will cut to the quick. Her first statement was, you got a girlfriend. Yeah, you like having sex? Yeah. Well, if you want to keep having sex, you better start taking care of yourself, because that's the first thing is probably going to go, no, not. Probably will go that grabs a young man's attention really quick, like, literally by the short hairs. Like, I

Scott Benner 22:58
did not recognize that erectile dysfunction is going to be what you started with today?

Mike Green 23:04
No. I mean, she just flat out, and it was just, I think I turned 50 shades of white, right? Because it was just like, oh my god, yeah. No, we No, what? No, let's

Scott Benner 23:15
fix this quickly. Yeah,

Mike Green 23:17
that was when can we tuck me into the hospital? Well, we have to have the doctor's note first. Can we call him now?

Scott Benner 23:22
My ankles are fine. Can I go for a walk? So she hit you with that as a side effect of unregulated blood sugars, correct. Okay.

Mike Green 23:34
And she said at that point, it had no age limit. It was just it could happen to you tomorrow. Or, you know, the better care you take of yourself. Let's just say it could never happen, but

Scott Benner 23:46
at your rate, it will in that moment, five seconds before that, did you think of yourself as a person with unregulated blood sugars?

Mike Green 23:55
No, not at all. Matter of fact, I there was you could go through the drive throughs there. I won't say the name of the place, but you could get and I got fried the fried shrimp platter with two cores lights to go through the drive through window on your

Scott Benner 24:09
way to the diabetes treatment center. Yeah.

Mike Green 24:14
So I got fried shrimp, french fries, couple of beer. I didn't drink them while I was driving, but I drank them in the parking lot. And that

Scott Benner 24:20
wasn't a goodbye to health, because you didn't think that's what was happening. This is just a common way you would have eaten,

Mike Green 24:26
yeah, yeah, yeah, not on a work day, but yeah,

Scott Benner 24:28
I have, I have a question or to jump ahead for half a second because I know you now. Yeah, no. I mean, we're not, I don't know you well, but I know you, yeah, we communicate, yeah, right. You don't seem like that person. Was it youth? Was it the high blood sugars? That was just how it lived. It's just how you live. It's just what, how things occurred to you, and that's what you did, yeah,

Mike Green 24:53
because, you know, we take the sailboat out for the weekend, you know, couple of 12 packs of beers. You know, maybe after. So after work, we take the sailboat out, or the motor boat, and, you know, beer was always involved. You know, go out for a pizza, have a couple beers. I will preface this. I never drink and drive drunk. You know, a couple of three beers was about it. But when we be out on the water, we get pretty sloshed, but, yeah, you know, sailboat only goes so fast,

Scott Benner 25:26
so you gotta find your excitement somewhere else. Okay, all right, so she hits you with Ed. Anything else

Mike Green 25:35
that was, that was the opening closing statement. That's all it needed.

Scott Benner 25:39
She started. She's like, there's other stuff. You're like, No, I'm good. I'm gonna do it. So she so they we're good. You want to hear about the heart disease? Nope, don't care. Not gonna make it that far.

Mike Green 25:52
Yeah, no, there was heart disease involved at that point. Learn that later.

Scott Benner 25:56
So they check you in, and they get you basically, it's a blood sugar detox, I guess, for the lack of a better term, did they teach you about food? What happens in that time? So

Mike Green 26:07
they didn't really teach about foods. They were still using the exchange rate at that point. So, you know, starch is, you know, slice of bread. It's, uh, mashed potatoes. That's about the size the palm of your hand, a dinner roll, and you kind of went on that. And so I tried, I diligently again, as I say, I'm all or nothing, if I know better. So I went into it with, you know, eyes wide open, and really focused on doing the best I could. Had a meter. So I was, you know, test before breakfast, lunch and dinner. So, you know, that's what the doctor told me to do. That's what I did.

Scott Benner 26:48
Do? You remember any of those early blood sugar tests?

Mike Green 26:54
Yeah, you know, you know, in the high one hundreds, low two hundreds was not uncommon, and was praised. You know, you're doing great. And then, like I said, I didn't do the two hour test. I didn't I wasn't told to. So I was told I was doing good. I was now in control. I do not remember my a one CS at the time, but they're not what I've got now. They were probably, you know, under 12, maybe 11, I can't remember, but at that time, whatever the ADA recommendation was, I was considered compliant.

Scott Benner 27:35
Okay, and so how long does this phase of your life with blood sugars last

Mike Green 27:42
well. So, because I was riding exercising, and I was no Lance Armstrong, or, you know, Tour de France qualifier, but I held my own, and there was a group there that was out of the mike cycle. Your bicycle store just happened to be and they call themselves the mics group, and it wasn't for me. Those were the hardcore local guys, and they met early, like five in the morning to go train. And they would, you know, you'd get a 40, 5060, mile hardcore workout before work and on the MDI, I'd get up at set my alarm, get up at two, Bolus or inject, go to sleep for an hour, wake up at three. I would eat and then wake up at five, and depending on my blood sugar, I would either go work out, or, you know, I couldn't, because it was kind of out of whack, being either too high or what I thought at that point wasn't high enough to go do the strenuous workout. And by by default of doing the same thing seven days a week, every morning I was able to get my breakfast dialed in so I could do those workouts and then, and this is where I progressed to. I wanted to get an insulin pump because I was taking so many injections throughout the day, because I ride do the hard workout before work. I'd ride my bike to work. I'd go ride, you know, an hour at lunch, hard I'd ride home. So I was doing more and more and more exercises and picking up more and more these little group kind of heavy workouts. And the MDI was getting to be too hard, so I wanted to get on an insulin pump, asking my doctor, and he said, No, no, no, they're just, there's, there's too high risk for, you know, DKA infection and hospitalization, and they're experimental. I don't have anybody on one, so I did. It took me about six months begging and pleading him, and I found the. Only type one diabetes at that time who did the Iron Man in Ohio or Ohio Hawaii that was on an insulin pump, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back of his Okay, I'll let you try this, and it worked out really good. Yeah, um, you know, I still didn't have stellar, you know, anyone sees that we have today, but in that time, that worked out really good, because I didn't have the long acting floating around in there, right? You know, just had the basal, and then kind of make some adjustments. And I ate a lot of Fig Newtons at that time because they're 11 grams of carb beach. I could figure out what that was going to be for the next two hours of, you know, either strenuous or non strenuous workout. I had, matter of fact, I had charts and graphs at that time of just about every food the grocery store sold, what the carbs were, how much insulin it needed. Again, the all or nothing guy.

Scott Benner 30:58
It's funny, you say say that, but I keep thinking, nobody told you and maybe nobody knew. But, I mean, I think you would have done it if you would have known. Oh,

Mike Green 31:08
yeah, had 100% had I known, I would have been doing it. But again, he just, I get my prescription, see Doc, see him, you know, three months, whatever, and until he finally just said, This is insane. This is you're just killing yourself

Scott Benner 31:22
well, so now you're riding your bike and you're in you lost, I mean, it sounds like you lost a lot of weight in one swing, right? Yeah, yeah, okay. And now you're living like this higher a one season than we would think of now as being okay, but it was way better than what was happening. It's a huge improvement. Etc, in your mind, you're out of the woods, right?

Mike Green 31:42
Oh yeah, my mind, I'm golden. I'm I'm going to avoid any complications, any long term effects. And really, at that point, nobody really talked about it. It was, I don't want to say it was the unspoken, but if I look back, it was kind of the unspoken. Nobody talked about it, unless you were, you know, anybody had the amputation. You say what you're, you know, diabetic. You know, my uncle lost his leg. And you can hear that story from everybody. Oh, thanks, great. But you know, being type one at that time, you were considered able to control it. You were the lucky diabetic, because if you wanted to take care of it, you could, which is further from the truth. But

Scott Benner 32:22
so, you know, from your diagnosis to this time, where you're you've got the, I mean, from your diagnosis, from one shot a day to two shots a day to, you know, the weight gain, to the intervention I'll call it to, you know, getting on a pump and having stability at eight. What do you think those a one, CS, back then, were on that first pump, nine, eight.

Mike Green 32:46
I don't think it was eight. It was probably nine, between nine and 11, I would imagine, because, you know, you go out to do a time trial, and you know you might, you know, Jack yourself up to 300 before you go out to do the rot, the the event. Same thing with a mountain bike race. You know, you're not going to start a mountain bike race at that time, at 150 you're, you're, you're going to crash. Okay, so I had a camel back that I had Go ahead. I just

Scott Benner 33:12
wonder how much time it was from your diagnosis to this time in your life, like today time or then to that time, would that pump, those 11, A, one, CS from your diagnosis?

Mike Green 33:24
Oh, I was probably it was pretty quick. So once, even with the multi, the MDI, that time, when I the intervention period, I pretty quickly came down to that it was probably months, once I started exercising and that that, you know, getting into the local amateur bike racing, amateur mountain bike racing, and the weekend group rides. Okay, so, I mean, really physical I could, I was doing 300 plus a week,

Scott Benner 33:54
easily. And you're in your mid 20s by then, or No, still early.

Mike Green 33:59
I remember my late, early, starting on my mid okay,

Scott Benner 34:03
and you're diagnosed again at how old

Mike Green 34:10
it's like eight or nine or between nine and 10, okay,

Scott Benner 34:13
so fair to say, about 15 years of your life is spent at least over an 11, A, 1c, And and going this whole process that you just described. Just described, yes, right now, from that point into I'm sorry, I feel like I'm I feel like the bad guy in this story, for some reason. But from that point until your first complication, how long is it and what is that first one?

Mike Green 34:40
So my first noticeable complication, and I was, I've been a type one diabetic test, test monkey for new drugs and and apparatuses for Oh, 2530 years. And. This has to be, I'm trying to think of numbers here. I'm not so this is before my trophy wife now after I moved back to so this is around there, right around 2000 maybe. One of the studies I was signed up for was people, people with or without neuropathy of known degree. There was a, excuse me, a pill that they were going to give you for a year, or whatever it was to see if, once they measured your neuropathy and your lower, like your ulnar, between your foot and like your calf, they did a measurement. And whatever that was, there was a there was a your IN or OUT parameter, um, kind of go, no go. And they would measure that over the year to see what the improvement was. So they had an electrode on my calf, like it was, what do they call it, acupuncture needle? It's how they had the probe in there on your nerve, and they would fire that nerve, and they measured it somewhere in the bottom of your foot. And I'm not looking at what, you know, because I'm laying on a table, you know, on my belly, and this guy's doing this measurement feet, you know, straight out, you know, knee bent up, and he's doing this and doing this, and spend a little bit time, and he's, you know, he kept asking me, Are you okay? Yeah, yeah, man, I'm fine. And okay. Are you sure you're okay. He said, Yeah, why? And he goes,

Scott Benner 36:45
when you think of a CGM and all the good that it brings in your life, it's the first thing you think about. I love that I have to change it all the time. I love the warm up period every time I have to change it. I love that when I bump into a door frame, sometimes it gets ripped off. I love that the adhesive kind of gets mushy sometimes when I sweat and falls off. No, these are not the things that you love about a CGM. Today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Eversense 365 the only CGM that you only have to put on once a year, and the only CGM that won't give you any of those problems the Eversense 365 is the only one year CGM designed to minimize device frustration. It has exceptional accuracy for one year with almost no false alarms from compression lows while you're sleeping, you can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the ever since 365 learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juicebox, one year, one CGM, you

Mike Green 37:46
kept asking me, Are you okay? I've got this thing cranked up and I cannot get a response. Well, what does that mean? He goes, you've got serious, serious, serious, lower neuropathy and like that can't be true. I can feel heat, cold, fuzzy carpet. And he goes, No. So my nurse practitioner at that time, who I saw as my doctor, quote, unquote, she also did research with the use the UCSD VA, where a lot of the research was performed, and she kind of just got the result we're talking about. She goes, Man, I'm sorry I didn't know this. Things were that bad. I'm like, What do you mean that bad? And I didn't, the levity of it didn't hit me, because I'm thinking, that's wrong. I can feel, you know, again, hot, cold water, you know, I still, I could feel everything. So I I dismissed it as, you know, kind of whatever. But looking back on that now is, yeah, I guess that was kind of harder to take when I look back at it, but I just, I blocked

Unknown Speaker 39:01
it. Sorry, you're fine.

Mike Green 39:03
I guess I just blocked it out of my mind, thinking this, this is this can't be true. So that was the first. That was the first on record. I guess you could say, Yeah, we results of a test, and that was all because I was, you know, going to do uh, studies.

Scott Benner 39:29
So that's about 25 years into your life with type one, and literally over 20 years ago now. Yeah, yeah. Do the does that progress in a way that's measurable? Or do you just notice one day that it's worse? Or how does that go?

Mike Green 39:48
I It's hard to say. Again, I still dismissed it, thinking that they were wrong. I. But again, it was a machine. They measured it. So, yeah, I don't know. I still did a bunch, you know, dozens of more studies on different drugs and different things, but, but that, that was the first one that had a measurement that couldn't do the study. And then I noticed there was a you know something was going down.

Scott Benner 40:26
Well, okay, what's the next thing that happens?

Mike Green 40:31
Next noticeable, which I didn't know. And in the in the meantime, I've had, do you know what the duplicate contractures are? No so duplicate contracture, a lot of people call it trigger finger, but it's not trigger finger. Trigger Finger is you're using your finger, and it locks. Okay, it's painful. Then, then it, at some point, it straightens up. A duplicate contracture. It's really common in type one diabetes. They don't know why, other than they believe it's something to do with the synthetic insulin, but it's basically a growth of collagen weed that goes around your tendons, nerves and starts pulling your fingers down in a locked so that they won't extend past a certain point. Okay? And I've had several on my left hand and my left pinky. The last one I did I had by done by a hand specialist who turned out to be a butcher, and you can see I don't have a pinky, right? Um, he did the repair, cut the nerve, did it right. It in hand therapy, and the nerve repair popped, and My finger got stuck at an angle, like that, and it would get caught in places, wow. And for the record, for those of you who can't see me, it was bent over more than halfway toward my palm, but it would flex to my palm, but it wouldn't flex past. So as I'm working on a car or something, you squeeze it in somewhere, and your finger can't pull out. Oh my gosh. So now you got to get a screwdriver, something in there, pack the crap out of your finger, trying to get it bit down your palm of pull out. So that's why they ended up amputating that one at the so they took two thirds off. So I got the nub,

Scott Benner 42:28
so you have two thirds of your left hand. Pinky is gone, correct, right? Okay, there it is. Yeah. No, no, I know. I just want to make sure people understand, yeah,

Mike Green 42:38
I believe that's the distal phalange. I think they call it, no, I don't know, but it's one of those phalanges. It's, I can only count to uh, four and a third on my left hand,

Scott Benner 42:52
but if you hold up both of your fingers, you can get the eight and a half. Yeah, yes, because I recently

Mike Green 42:57
lost my other one. But one of the things, the complications I felt next after the feet the finger, is I started getting really bad, frozen shoulder on my right side to start with. So you throw a frisbee or something and be like, you know, just be that thing at different times. Is

Scott Benner 43:24
there anything they can do for that

Mike Green 43:27
when it gets so bad? Well, they can inject steroids. But you know what steroids does to a type one, so they can go in there when it gets to a point you can't move it and clean it out. I went to the shoulder doctor and he said, Oh, also my right bicep, the the part the neuropathy, whatever you want to call it, it crystallizes the muscles, tendons and nerves. So when that happens, and you move your arm out real quick. That rips, and that ripping of that crystallization is just painful. Wow, that that's a problem. And I'm trying to think of, I'm trying to think of the progression of the other complications. So I work with my hands. I'm no longer a auto mechanic, but I'm a piano and instrument repair technician. So I'm still working with my hands, and it was several years ago, my my as I'm working with my hands, my fingers would just lock up in these contorted positions and at any given time, and I would drop the tool I'm working with, um, I'd ask my my hand therapist or not hand my hand doctor, specialist, what? What's causing it? Do I have arthritis? And he says, No, you don't have arthritis. Why is they locking up? He's I have no idea why they're locking up, but that that would get worse. And worse and worse, and then recently diagnosed as severe neuropathy. Yeah, um,

Scott Benner 45:11
when did the brain fog come?

Mike Green 45:13
Oh, gosh. So the brain fog, so here's what, uh, most of my type one buddies my age. We, we call it diabetic dropout. You're talking and, and you, you've, you forget where you were talking about, or the word, or whatever. And that was, that was happened over the years, but that was also, it's basically awesome timers you

Scott Benner 45:56
want to take a break.

Mike Green 45:58
Not all right, it's the the crystallization of your fine blood cells in your in your brain, which they've recently basically, it's, it's, it's basically Alzheimer's. There's nothing you could alright, that's the one that really gets good. I think about that one. They uh. I still haven't had the MRI yet, because I don't. I don't want to know the the I don't want to know the results about what, what the measurement of it is. You can't take Alzheimer's meds because the side effects are harder on you, then what the benefit might be, but that's just years and years of, you know, out of control blood sugars. But there was nothing, nothing we could do. We didn't know about it. They didn't know about it. You know, 2030, years ago, this is something there's there puppies and kittens, puppies and kittens, puppies and kittens.

Scott Benner 47:12
Can I ask you why you wanted to do this?

Mike Green 47:15
Yeah, I hear it so often from from people who are newly diagnosed in the past few years. If there was ever a time to be diagnosed, now is the time, um, sorry, both my sleeves are out wet.

Scott Benner 47:41
Should have went with a long sleeve shirt, but

Mike Green 47:44
hot out, but yeah, so. And it really, what really tied this all together is I used to say, you know, it's pretty good time to be diagnosed with diabetes. I volunteered a lot of kids ski camps. I can't do any more because of my neuropathy, but just letting people know that it's a pretty good time. Now, fast forward, back, forward a little bit. As you know, I started listening to you when COVID hit, and I started, I first off, employed bump and nudge, and I got down to the the high, low six high fives. Just with that regular diet, I was figuring out stuff. And then that's when I decided to go keto, not because of the Juicebox method, but it just seemed like something to do, easier to do. I love barbecue. And then when we did our first recording back in October, I was at, I believe it was five seven. Since then, I've been rocking a solid five five, wow. And then that's when it tied in to to myself and why I wanted to do this so the parents of kids nowadays to give them some relief that by once you learn how to use insulin, and I will say, until I listen to your podcasts, your gift to the world, whatever you want to call it. I never really knew how to use insulin if you really want to take it, because the doctors are, oh yeah, you're seven, you're 8085. You know, it's just right. It's that's still not healthy. That's long term, no good, but by keeping good anyone sees, and keeping in the low fives, even at a low six, my heart of hearts, my belief and talking with my neurologists, you're going to avoid all that. You're not going to have this. This stuff happens to you. You know, when you think about your sand blaster, you know, vision, that's just that just hits home and feeling the salt, the sugar crystals, it's like, Duh. But I really wanted to give some comfort to these new parents. And I see it all the time on the on the Facebook group, you know, diagnosed. You know, four months ago, a 1c, was five, seven. You know, it's like, you can get it, you can grasp it. You can live a life without complications, and there's no doctor in the world that'll tell you that, and that's what's bullshit.

Scott Benner 50:52
Sorry that just No, you're fine, please. You're kidding me. You can say whatever you want,

Mike Green 50:59
but it's it. It took a non diabetic and a non doctor to figure this out and share this with the world. To You know, you can do this without the complications. If you you know, do the ADAs recommendations, seven to eights, you're gonna have something happen to you. Man, yeah. And as of now, 55 years old, I'm having to go out on disability because I I can't work through my shoulders, my hands, so I had to have my my right hand, my right pinky, amputated a few months back, they had fixed that dupe trend several times, and within a year, it kept coming back. The blood supply on the outer finger was compromised, so there was just no way to do another surgery, right? It just it wouldn't live. So now I'm double dubbed, but in that hand therapy, so you do a grip test, and I've always been in the 90 fives, and that's an average, average male between 9095 100 and this last grip test I did, which proves my point, I can't even open a Gatorade bottle. It was 20.

Scott Benner 52:28
Wow. How quickly did that drop off happen?

Mike Green 52:32
It happened over the last couple of years. It started getting really bad, but it was just a progression from all the years gone by, they did a upper and lower neuropathy test where they do the same thing with the acupuncture needle, and they electrically. They start at your hip and they go down. It's on this little speaker. I don't know the name of the procedure, but it's as they're working their way down when the nerves are firing, you hear this noise on the on the speaker, and the closer they got to my knee, the the quieter it got. Once they got below my knee, it was dead silent, right? You know, I used to, we used to walk miles and miles and hike I I can do about two miles, maybe on a walk. I walk with a walking stick now, and that's on hard pavement.

You know, we don't hike anymore. I just can't. Yeah, it hurts too much,

Scott Benner 53:41
is the issues you're having relegated to your extremities, or have you willfully not been looking internally at yourself, or what is the rest of it like? Mean physically or mentally?

Unknown Speaker 53:54
I was gonna

Scott Benner 53:54
get to mentally in a second. I meant physically first, yeah,

Mike Green 53:58
physically, yeah. It's just the neuropathy is so bad at this point. You know, I can step on a it's like the Princess and the Pea, like, step on a little pebble with bare feet. Man, it's just excruciating. Wow.

Scott Benner 54:16
Yeah, I guess, I mean, I feel compelled to ask you about, like, how, how do you manage seeing because, I mean, what's really happening is you're seeing aging happening happen at an accelerated rate.

Mike Green 54:33
Yeah, I thought the wheels wouldn't fall off till my late 60s, early 70s. That happened a whole lot quicker. I had jet fuel to me, I guess.

Scott Benner 54:44
Well, it mean, it even really. I mean, I hate to talk about it like this, but it must be frustrating for you, because now looking back and understanding where your blood sugars are, your body really was resilient, honestly, to get you this far. And. Yeah. I mean, am I wrong? But it can't I hate, I hate asking this, but ask anything, I'm an open book. Do you appear to

Mike Green 55:08
tell all? Be all, whatever people need to hear this. They need to it was hushed and shushed and everything was behind. You know, don't talk about that. So people need to hear the truth and why it is so crucial to live the way you have Arden living and these other people that are in their fives. Yeah, you're going to get to 160 but you're not hanging out there for four or five hours. Not the excursion. It's okay to be 300 for seven hours. No, no, it's not.

Scott Benner 55:41
But do you play what if ever? Do you ever think about like, what if you learned it sooner? Oh,

Mike Green 55:48
100, yeah, every 24 hours a day,

Scott Benner 55:53
you can't avoid it. I imagine, right? You can't.

Mike Green 55:55
Well, it was really bad there. Man, I was, I was so spun out, especially after I lost my but right finger that, Oh, my God, what if, you know what am I going to do? And you know what am I going to do? You know, my wife, what are you going to do when I die? And if, what if I die, it's like I was just such a bad mental place. And you know what's going to happen tomorrow? And God, if this doctor would have told me 20 years and, yeah, I I, I have sought mental help, yeah,

Scott Benner 56:25
I mean, you have to right to, do you see a therapist? Yeah, yeah, so

Mike Green 56:29
I knew I knew after my right amputation. I mean, I just, I spun out, man, I just I spun out because it was it? It threw me off the cliff, and I got so spawned out of, you know, what if? What next? You know, right, if I'm this way now, what's tomorrow? What's next you're gonna bring Yeah, and I just it was so bad. My trophy wife said, If you keep this up, I'm not living this life. That's not what I signed up for. I was, I was always known as the it's all good man, rule number one, rule number two, see rule number one. And I was, I was in a dark, dark, really dark valley that I just the moon wasn't even shining in.

Scott Benner 57:20
So your wife didn't have any trouble with your your health issues. She had trouble with how you were facing them. Correct, yeah, okay, correct,

Mike Green 57:28
yeah. And even when you're dating. So I was in my I wasn't quite 40 yet when we started dating. And you know, you're diabetic and you think you're 40, who's going to want You? You? And so I met her, we kind of the from the first date we went on. We haven't been separated, other than a business trip or something like that. We've never really fought until, I won't say we fought recently. Really recently is when she said, I can't this is not what I signed up for. And this is the funny thing. She has a really close relative who is a nurse, who is type one, who had 911 called on her dozens of times, and knowing that, and she got with me as a diabetic, I'm thinking, what? But, you know, we fell in love, and she's like, it doesn't matter. You know, things happen. Things are going to happen. And thank God I haven't had to have 911 called on me, but, and then, after five or six years later, she asked me why, and I, you know why? Yeah, I test my blood sugars, but I was always higher than lower, because I developed really bad hypoglycemic gun awareness, now, it's paranoid, going low, right?

Scott Benner 58:43
Well, like you're you're shining a light on something. But I contend constantly. I don't say it as out loud, as much as maybe I think it. But everyone who's come into this life, you know, in the in the past handful of years, and seeing technology like it exists. Now, I don't think that a vast majority of them will see the issues that you're having, and I wonder if they don't want to pretend like they don't exist, so they don't have to think about it. And that I understand, but my responsibility becomes such that as the as the podcast grew, and it started reaching more and more people. I thought, I'm not just talking to, you know, moms with good insurance or, you know, you know, kids who grew up well and have dexcoms Like anymore, like I realize now that I'm I realized that then, but as it grew, I'm reaching more people, and my contention is, is that there are way more people like you living in the world right now with type one diabetes than there are the average parent of a child who's got good insurance and found the podcast. You know what I mean. And like, so I don't want to be a boutique show. And I, I mean, I was really grateful that you reached out and wanted to talk about all this. And I have to admit, when you asked, I didn't know how you were going to do it. I have to admit that personally, for me, it, it's Listen, I don't have any of your health issues, you know. And when this is over, I don't have to do whatever you have to do today, but your name being Mike, is hard for me. That's the weirdest thing. But at the same time, Mike, I feel like I missed my friend Mike, and I feel like I missed you too, you know what I mean. So it's a weird thing. It's obviously not, it's, it's not all of your health is not my responsibility, but it's, it's a real it turns up stuff for me, because when I start thinking about my friend Mike, I don't believe that by the time Arden was diagnosed, and I figured this, and by the time I figured this stuff out, it was likely too late for him to begin with, but it would have been cool to see him feel hopeful once, or to hear him talk about his five, five, a, 1c, or something like that. And it's just, it's, it's tough for me to just to hear you describing what's happening to you, because I feel like I I feel like I can see your future already, and I think you feel like you can see it too.

Mike Green 1:01:31
I do, and I I know what you're talking about. I've heard you talk about Mike and it who knows, but I, I truly believe in my heart of hearts now that I'm not going to get better, per se, but hopefully I won't get worse, right? And I will say this, I've always worn glasses to drive at night since I was 18 and since I've been doing, you know, your technique strategies, not medical advice, I know, but employing how to use insulin and how to bump a nudge and pre Bolus and all those, I no longer wear glasses. Oh, that's

Scott Benner 1:02:20
cool. I wish I could do something to get myself to stop wearing glasses. I'll tell you, what, if anybody wants to start a podcast that gets me away from these reading glasses, I'd be really, really grateful. Well, it's

Mike Green 1:02:30
and I talked to my doctor about that, and the eye doctor, and it's because my eyes aren't, you know, shrinking, swelling, shrinking, swelling, shrinking, swelling, shrinking, swelling, the the blood sugars, my my mom wears pretty heavy glasses, my dad, my granddad, nobody else did. So for what that's worth, well, I'm

Scott Benner 1:02:51
Thank you. I know it's a weird I'm sorry that I turned this into you, making me feel better, but I appreciate knowing that I was just Charlie. Give context, really? Yeah, yeah. Like, I know we're in a weird setup right now where I don't have a camera on and you do, but I There are times I've had to look away from you because I'm like, Oh my God, I need to be able to keep this moving and and put a podcast together. We can't both start crying because I don't think anybody would listen to it. Well,

Mike Green 1:03:19
it's the other reason why I was happy to do it, and I knew I was going to break down. But it's, it's, you know, it's sad, it's, it's, it's, you look back and you think, you know what I used to do and what I where I'm at now, but you know what I honestly believe my heart of hearts. How much worse it would have gotten so much faster the other issues had I not found the podcast and been able to employ those tools to hopefully stop the future, you know, and carry on where I'm at. And I, I believe that I'm glad I do, and it's and that was, Well, part of it. Go ahead. I

Scott Benner 1:04:14
didn't mean to cut you off. I'm sorry. No, I, it's all, you know, I was part of what I was trying to say, and what I've been trying to say about why this all needs to be kind of bulletproof and easy to understand. Because, in my mind, what if the podcast finds you, but it's too convoluted or too difficult, and then you're like, ah, and then you walk away from it, you know, like, it needs to be like, there was, there's a person online last night who put up some graphs, and people were, you know, pretty much it's interesting to watch people from the podcast talk, because they they're like, there's two factions. One of them's right? Okay, this person's this. This person's basal is either not strong enough or they're bad at Bolus thing for their meals, right? It's one of these two things. I saw that post right, right? But the the point is, is that it is definitely going to be one of those two things. But you're talking to a parent of a child, it's a fairly new diagnosis. They don't know what they're talking about yet. They're trying to figure it out. And I think that if I can give myself credit for anything, I can give myself credit for coming up with the idea, the very simple idea, that you first make sure your basal is right, then you learn to pre Bolus, then you learn the glycemic load and index of your different foods and stay flexible. And it's a four step idea that is doable. And no matter whether you're a person whose basal is too weak or you don't know how to bullish your food, if you go through those four steps, you're going to come out on the other side with an answer that's valuable for yourself. And while these people were talking to this person, I realized that the one difference between all of those people, who all had rock solid advice and me, was that I have a concept of what it's like to talk to a person without having all of their information, without really understanding and and knowing that if you go back to get your basal right, make sure you're pre Bolus, etc, etc, that no matter what problem ask what, what problem perspective you're coming from with using your insulin, that will get you to the answer, like, maybe this woman's basal is right for her kid, it could be but, and maybe it's not that far off, but understanding that you can't just look and tell somebody something, because if somebody so somebody to swoop in, in that moment, on that person in that post, and say, Hey, your boluses are way off, which they probably are, but they don't, they don't address the basal first, then these people are going to be making these aggressive Bolus is forever, and they're going to have these lingering highs. And so I came in and I said, Look, your Bolus looks, looks weak to me. People are like, no, no, no, look how stable our blood sugars are. These blood sugars are. It's just high because they're missing on the meals. I'm like, Well, that could be it. But I know enough to say, Well, yeah, maybe where everyone else, where everyone else is like, no, no, this is it. This is it. But they only think that's it because it's what happened to them. And, you know, and so understanding how to deliver this information in a way where everybody comes in, ends up at the same place if they kind of go through the steps, that's the part that's super important, because you miss people. You don't catch them all, if you don't have something that everybody can work out. And I don't know, I just think that it means a lot to me that you found the podcast. It struck you, and it worked, yeah,

Mike Green 1:08:01
and part of it white work. I I understood what you were saying, but you gotta remember, I've never changed my own basal rates or adjusted those. Yeah, I've, I've obviously fluctuated my boluses from what I'm eating, and it was always, never enough. And then the two or three hours later, you're covering for 252, 75 300 and that was just the way of life. So I when, when I first started doing this, I needed somebody there in my corner to agree with what I was seeing and saying and adjusting. So I hired Jenny from Integrated Diabetes as my coach, my my person in my corner, my, yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. That's the right thing to do, right? And by having that, that person as my crutch, I got it dialed in, you know, you know, we got it dialed in, you know, because she was there with me too. But it validated everything that I understood to make those adjustments. You know, I could have done on my own, but I was terrified because I again, I'd never made my adjustments. I go see my doctor twice a year, and she had my CDM, and there

Scott Benner 1:09:19
you go, Okay, well, we should make sure people definitely understand what you're saying. So you listen to the podcast, you're like, Oh, that makes sense. Now, how do I pull this trigger on this? Like that, then that's a really difficult thing to do. Whether you're a person who's been living with diabetes for decades or person who's only had it for few weeks. Like the the idea that you could move that number, turn that dial, like, flip that switch is it's it freezes people. And I'm telling you, the only I'm like, give me one more second. The only reason I had the nerve to do it was because in the back of my dark mind, I was imagining things that have happened to you, happening. My daughter and I thought we got to do something like we can't just look at it, you know, but a lot of people get stuck looking at it. Well,

Mike Green 1:10:07
you got to remember that I have 20 some years of a habit in me of never making an adjustment to now, make this adjustment, versus somebody that's a year or two in it, six months in it, you know, oh, yeah, okay, you don't have that, don't touch that, don't touch that, don't touch that, don't touch that, don't touch that, don't touch that, yeah, just looming over you, you know. And I'm not saying we're, we're, you know, sitting in a great place, but you know, I could afford to hire, as you know, that help, and I know she's a big help to the show, and I knew from listening to her and you that that was going to be what I needed, that help, and anybody that needs it. I mean, it's just, it's such a great ability to have that resource. I mean, you're only one man, you've only got so much time in the data. I know you'll help people, and you do all the time, but I didn't need to bog you down at that point. I could afford to. Does that make sense?

Scott Benner 1:11:15
Yeah. Well, not only that, but Jenny has something that I don't know how much it comes through when she's talking on the podcast, but I know Jenny more personally, and the anger, I think that might be the right word that came out of you earlier when you talked about doctors not helping. Like Jenny has that, like she has that inside she does a good job of masking it, and it might not come out a lot, but she's driven by the desire, in my opinion, to thwart bad information. 100%

Mike Green 1:11:48
Yeah, I, I 100% see that. And after work with her, listening to you, and yeah, 100% and she does a really good job putting the makeup

Scott Benner 1:11:59
over it, right. And she and she really cares about people too, which I there's as soon as I met her and we started to get to know each other, I just thought, like, you know, I joke on the like, you'll hear me joke on the podcast. I'll say I want to have Jenny back on because she agreed with me, but that's just me trying to be funny. I don't know if it works or not, but I guess I like when people agree with me, but that's for a different reason. But what I liked about Jenny was her desire, like I just spoke about. I like her knowledge. I like the practicality of how she thinks about it. And I think the first time I said to her, I don't believe that your diabetes may vary. I believe that everybody's diabetes, at its core, works the same way. And if you had your settings right, knew how to use insulin, it would work out mostly the same for everybody. And she's like, I agree with you. And when she said that, I was like, Yeah, okay, fine, finally, and she validates me. I don't think I don't, I don't know that she ever has thought about it. I've definitely never said it to her, but her being on the show helps me reach more people, because there's a validation that that she agrees, yeah. And when she doesn't agree, she just says so. And when I don't understand, I just say I don't understand that, you know, like, it's it. You gotta have no it's crazy. I'm gonna say this because people will laugh, but you have to have no ego about it. And then once you know you're right, you have to steadfastly defend the fact that you're right, and because other people will come in and say, No, I think it's the basal. I think it's this. So, you know, the this story online that I told earlier, it's not over yet. It's still happening right now. And this person came back and showed a basal rate overnight that held this. This kid's blood sugar super steady, like it was great. And everybody's like, Oh, see. And she, I think she moved the basal from point five to point five, five or something like that. And everybody's like, yeah, the basal is great. And I still was like, well, what's the number? Yeah. And the number was, like, 141, 3140, I'm like, Okay, so the basal is great. It could still take a little more. Like, you could still put a little more maybe point six is the answer. Like, I don't know, I'm not there, but if that basal was right overnight, your blood sugar would be lower. And maybe you're not comfortable there. Maybe she loves one for you, and then, God bless like, right? But if, but if, if not. I mean, Argus blood sugar last night was like 85 all night. Yeah. So you can say that's not a big of a deal. That's 50 points, 50 points every every minute you're alive. That's 50 points less blood sugar, like sugar, like coursing through your blood

Mike Green 1:14:27
is, yeah, it's that sand blasters just trickling. Yeah, it's

Scott Benner 1:14:31
a big deal. And I'm not saying, like, Listen, if your kids blood sugar is 140 for a week while you're figuring out, or, honestly, for three months while you're figuring it out, Oh, absolutely, you're gonna be okay. Like, right, but, but what Mike's telling you is, it can't be 10 years, it can't be 11 years. It can't be 20 years. It's no, it's not going to be okay, no, and

Mike Green 1:14:49
it's going to happen. You're going to have sick days, sick weeks, six months, or sick months. You know that that little time periods is not going to do. Uh, you know, long term damage. I and I believe that my heart of hearts, because the body does repair damaged cells, but there's a point where it can't repair it anymore, right?

Scott Benner 1:15:09
You're hoping to hang just to stay stable where you're at, yeah? And you've given yourself the best chance possible. Honestly, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. You're doing an amazing job. Look, man, for people who don't understand what we're talking about still, I mean, if you've listened to Mike and you still don't understand my friend Mike, who was diagnosed in the mid to late 80s, passed a couple of years ago, and I would say that his care mimics yours, but he never, really, until the very last couple years of his life, made it to modern insulin, and he was discussing what to eat for dinner when he stood up and ceased to exist, and that he did not know that was coming. No,

Mike Green 1:15:54
you know. And I've, I've heard from my doctor, it was, it was a was couple years a couple couple years ago, you know, we were making some adjustments, or whatever. And it might have, I don't, it was several years ago. But she goes, Yeah, you know, right now, everybody's dropping down heart attacks. I'm like, like, what? 6070, she goes, No, 40s and 50s and all these long term type ones there that were just, you know, doing their habit, doing their thing, so it but, and I want to preface for everybody's listening by doing right now you're going to avoid that later. Yeah, it

Scott Benner 1:16:34
is very likely not going to be the outcome for most people, 40, no, five years from now. And

Mike Green 1:16:39
I want to stress to these teenagers out there that you think you're invincible. You're not. You know, if you're in college and you go to the mess hall and you come out of that with a 300 for 456, hours, and think it's funny, it's not, you're gonna, more than likely, have problems. And I know the teenage years are tough. I know they're tough. I know the early 20s are tough. You think you're that war, you're brave, you're invincible, you can be take care of yourself. If I can't get any anything across, you gotta do that in those years, because I know when mom and dad's taking care of you. But when you go off to teenage and you want to not be on insulin for a while because you're tired of being a diabetic, trust me, I know what it's like, been there, done that, got the shirt, hat sticker, but you just can't do that. And if I can get any message across, you can't do that, do what's right, you're gonna be fine. Anecdotally,

Scott Benner 1:17:40
I've spoken to enough people now where I have to agree with what you're saying, because you know, you're diagnosed when you're younger, and if you're lucky, you have parents who are on top of it, right? If you're not lucky, I've talked to every, I think I feel like I've talked to almost every version of a person who's out there, right? And by the way, every time I say that, someone sends me kneel down, I was like, I bet you haven't heard this story before. Like, Oh, I haven't. But, you know, say, say you're diagnosed when you're young and you're and you get me, and I'm your dad, and so you're okay. And then you get to college, and you let it go, and a night turns into and these aren't my This isn't me making it up. These are the stories people tell on the podcast. The night turns into a week. A week turns into a year, your turns into grad school. The next thing you know, you're 27 years old, and some girl or guy is telling you, listen. I mean, I want to have kids one day. Are you sure you can do that? And then you go, Oh no, no, no. Jeez, you're right. And then you whip it back into shape. And these are the stories people tell. But in that time, you lose 1819, 2021 2223 24 I don't know what your blood sugars were during there. You don't know either. And as much as it sucks, you don't know what's going to happen and what's going to happen from that isn't going to happen until you're in your 40s. Maybe you know and and if something doesn't, luckily, snap you back into it, which is what I hear from most people. It's usually, it's usually not. It's not usually like a come to Jesus moment, like you just realized, though I should take better care of myself. It ends up being for other people. I hear a lot of women say I wanted to get pregnant, so I got my blood sugar together. Or I got pregnant, I didn't realize I was gonna get pregnant, and I had to pull my blood sugar together. Or I met a guy and I realized I wanted to have a life. Or I met a woman and I realized I wanted to have a life, or vice versa, or whatever, whoever meets whoever the point is, it seems to be the trigger. Seems to be when you suddenly care about somebody else. You realize how much you weren't concerned about yourself, yeah, and then suddenly that love or that connection makes you feel like you want to do better for yourself, almost for other people. Yeah, if 50 people haven't said that to me in the last three years, I'm lying. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's been that many

Mike Green 1:20:02
circle back to the pregnancy thing. When, when they diabetes, wants to get pregnant, the doctors make them get their a one CS below six, and then once they had the baby, they go back to wherever they were. Like, why did you do that? Oh, that's just so exhausting. But I gotta honestly tell you, I've recently taken on a new primary doctor because of my insurance, who is a type one. And when they look at your your AOC, five, five, that's too low. Why is it too low? Well, that, you know, I told him I'm doing the juice box. Well, that's too stressful. Why is it stressful? Well, is aren't you? Are you being stressed? I'm like, honestly, Scott, I think so much less about diabetes every day that I did before I started doing the method, because you'd eat lunch, two hours, three hours, two, seven. Gosh, son of O, that you so now you're fighting that and trying to get that down to what you know should be a good number, yeah, um, my high alarm is at 120 and I told the doctor that he goes, You need to raise that like, why? Because it's too stressful. I go, why is it stressful? I'm pre Bolus saying, Look at my graph if I'm off a little bit. Because, you know, stress, happiness, sadness, a car pulled out in front of the adrenaline. All those things happen every day in life, so that same turkey sandwich is going to be a little different day to day because of those factors. If I hit 120 and Dexcom, if you're listening, I love you, but please put a delta in there. So I gotta go to sugar mate at 120 look at the Delta. If it's plus four, I'll give a couple of tenths a unit. If it's 120 plus zero, I'll watch it. And it usually goes right back down. Um, Jake's

Scott Benner 1:21:47
coming on next week from Dexcom, and he's gonna, please, beg him to put a delta. I think he's gonna tell me what the what the new apps look like. So I'm hoping that that's something. If not, I'll just, I'll have to bring it up again. But please do, yeah, Delta. They have to, they have to realize, and for anybody listening doesn't understand, Mike's talking about rate of change, like, he wants to know if his blood sugar is, like, not just an arrow, like diagonal up. He really wants to know it changed, you know, four points in the last time since the last reading, or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Confirmation. I look at

Mike Green 1:22:19
that religion, it could be 120 minus three, I'm definitely not going to do nothing. But even if the Dexcom says it's a straight arrow, it's a good reference, yeah, but I want to see that delta to know, do I need to be aggressive? Like, is that at two tenths, four tenths of a unit?

Scott Benner 1:22:35
No, I completely agree. It's incredibly important. If I was making an app, it would have it on there. Yeah, don't go high. You won't go low. Maybe we'll maybe there'll be a Juicebox podcast app one day. You can just imagine, I started the app game that's branching out.

Mike Green 1:22:54
I use it well,

Scott Benner 1:22:56
I mean, I do want to ask if there's anything else you want to talk about before we we start to wrap up. I don't, I don't want to leave you without having said the things you want to say. But, well,

Mike Green 1:23:09
I said pretty much everything I wanted to say. If you know, if anybody wants to talk, I'm open. I'm, I'm in the in the Facebook group, I'm, I'm an open book. I don't hide any from anybody, anything from anybody. I talk about, I see a therapist. I'm not mentally and, you know, people think you're seeing a therapist, you're mentally saying, No, I needed help to try to figure this out. I didn't have the tools. So it's not shameful. And I talk about that to anybody, because maybe, and I've had a couple of my friends say, hey, I really appreciate you talking about that. You know what? I need to see somebody because of this that the other and so I talk about it, and they see that what normal is normal, you know, they can equate to that. So I, I'm an big advocate of that. Re educate, re education to keep up with the times, the new technologies I heard you talk about, excuse me, why you don't write a book, Why you don't write a quick notes? Because things are fluid. Things change. The technology changes. You need to re educate yourself with what's new. Don't rely on your doctor. You know. Do your research. You know. You know, look at these drug companies. Go online on form, on the Facebook group, and you know what's new, what? What's the newest and latest and greatest. I got a buddy in Arizona who I've recently met. You'll he's, I'm not going to say his name, just for his privacy, but because I don't know if he'd want me to talk about him, but he's on regular and mph. MDI, it's like there's way better insulin, really. I mean, he just didn't know, because he had it, he didn't know who to talk to reach out. He and I connected to another friend. We texted. Day, and you know he's going to he's doing better. I'm so proud of him. So you Tucson chef, you hear me saying this, man, my heart goes out to you. I'm so proud of how, how hard you working on this. Did you get sorry? Man that didn't think I was going to break down for that one. It just fills my heart with joy that he's getting the help he needs, and he's finding these tools, which it's so sad because so many people are just diagnosed from the doctor that graduated in 1986 and that's a technology they know. Get a new doctor. Ask, what's the latest from your new Doctor? Don't take their word that this old insulin is great. Just go to Walmart. Do that $25 viral insulin. You know, just re educate. Re educate, re educate us. I just, I can't hammer that enough, and after finding the podcast, as I said, I didn't realize. I didn't know how insulin worked. Nobody ever taught me. I never ask anybody, because my doctor got it. So why would you ask? And without the RE education and these better insulins we have, I just, I can't push that enough,

Scott Benner 1:26:14
and you don't want to be the lobster in the pot man, where you're just like, this is all right. It's fine. Everything's good. This feels nice. Actually. I like, not worried about it. And then, yeah, it just, I mean, the way I usually say it on the podcast, right, is you don't want to look back one day and see that you're doing something the way people used to do it.

Mike Green 1:26:33
No, no. And part of my therapy, my therapist, I just want to put this out there. I was so focused on yesterday, what happened 20 years ago, and so worried about what's going to happen in 10 years. The best thing that broke through to me, and I think anybody can relate to this, is you gotta be in The Now. You gotta be in the present. Throw away yesterday. Focus on today and have some concern about tomorrow, but tomorrow, that's when you be the president. Present president, not president, and by to help you set yourself up. But here's the easiest tool that anybody can use, wake up in the morning, get your coffee and focus just on three things you're grateful for that day. And like and what I do, for instance, you know, I teach barbecue, and I got a barbecue store I work with. I volunteer there. I work for product, which I was unaware of this, but when I my first dog, I had to retire because of this, had to have his kidney removed, and she knew I didn't have the dog there to look out for me. She looked out for me. We were at one barbecue competition one time, and I was overheating, so I popped slept in the motor or, you know, kind of, you know, went in the motor home, I took a shower, and I came out, and she says, where'd you go? I go. What do you mean? She goes, You need to tell me if you're going to be out of sight. I got you. I'm watching you. So one of my days of being grateful, I thought about that. So I physically call that person. This is something I do. And I explained her about my Three Things I'm gratitude, grateful for that day. And if it's a particular person, a friend, you know, I want them to know that I'm thinking about them that day and focus on three things. So since I've been doing that, and that buddy of mine in Tucson, he and I will text our three for the day, just to kind of, you know, see how we're doing and checking in. And there's several days that I've been practicing this. What am I grateful today I'm in the present. There's some days I can't think of three. I just feel such gratitude that it's just I can't focus on three, and that has helped me huge and that I got directly from my therapist to as an easy tool to work on. It is so effective. Be in now. Don't worry about 20 years from now, because the asteroid could hit tomorrow and we could all be gone,

Scott Benner 1:29:12
right? Yeah, worry is a waste of imagination, that's for sure. It is. But I

Mike Green 1:29:17
got so spun up in that I couldn't I couldn't pull myself out.

Scott Benner 1:29:20
Yeah, no, I understand happens to people. I don't generally worry a lot. But two days ago, I woke up and I was I was literally worried about the thing I went to sleep, worried about just like it felt like it just started over again. Yeah, I have to say that being positive for other people too, is really valuable, like not just seeing like I talked about when I was talking to the doctor the other day, which I heard you referenced earlier. But I think you you, if you're having success and you want to show your work, that's really great, because someone is going to see it. It and feel hopeful about it. I think it's really important to remember that as we share online, the people you're intersecting with, who you can physically see commenting or liking, there are very small portion of the people who are seeing it. And you know, as you're, I mean, listen, if you're if you're in a if you're in a room with four people and you're talking, you're impacting four people. But I can tell you from my personal experience, I don't even at this point know how many people I'm talking to. I just have to imagine that they're there and and I've now heard from so many different people in so many different walks of life, I understand that they're there. I know they're there, whether I can see them or not, and being positive, not falsely, but but in a tangible way, is very valuable for people, and I'm glad to see that I'm not hearing from so many people anymore that you don't show people when You're doing well, because it makes them feel badly. I think, I think that they'd much rather know that better exists, and even get the idea that reaching for it might be valuable, rather than just to make them feel like this is horrible, and this is what it's always going to be. And look, everybody else agrees with me, so I'm just gonna sit here in this pot and boil. That's all. I don't know why you made me think of a lobster

Mike Green 1:31:24
today. Well, that's like, that's a great analogy. It's like putting the frog in cold water and turning it on, and he doesn't feel the difference, so he doesn't

Scott Benner 1:31:31
know. He's just like, yeah, it's happening, but I don't know it. Yeah, you don't you just, you got to try. You just, I mean, the point really, is that you have a finite amount of time, and even if it all goes perfectly, it's not enough time. So when things start, you know, creeping up, and I think everyone's going to have roadblocks. I think a lot of them are going to be health, even if you don't have type one. And, you know, sometimes you only get stretches of time, stretches of time where you don't have to think about something, but if you don't pay attention to what you're doing and try to address it, those stretches are going to get shorter and shorter and shorter, and they're going to disappear one

Mike Green 1:32:08
day. Yeah, I think when you reference road block, and I'm you look at some of these, like military leaders, or these lieutenants and stuff and and the way they look at things and right there's a roadblock. What's the solution? Don't focus on the roadblock. You sit there and keep looking at the roadblock. That's all you're going to stare at. Yeah, you get caught. What's the solution? Whatever it is, whether it's diabetes, whether it's whatever it is. But that's a, that's what that's a real, valuable message I've got out of, you know, some of these discussions and talks. It's like, don't just and you get these negative numbers that keep focused. What happened? That's like being in yesterday. Why didn't somebody tell me to do better 20 years from now? But that that's gone, right? What's the solution now?

Scott Benner 1:32:53
You got today and forward, and that's it. So, yeah, yeah, right, Mike, I really appreciate this. I can't thank you enough. I I imagined that it wasn't going to be easy for you, and I appreciate what it must have taken to tell everybody all this stuff. Yeah,

Mike Green 1:33:11
I knew it was going to be hard. Like I said, I'm I'm reachable, I'm not I don't know what I can do for anybody, but if somebody's in a dark place or having the same issues or worried about it, you know, I don't know what I can do for money. I'm not Superman. I'm just a a normal guy, but I understand sometimes you need to be able to associate that or talk with that. Or, you know, I'm saying,

Scott Benner 1:33:35
yeah. I'm saying, find somebody who's in a similar situation as you see, if they know how to get out of the hole. Yeah, I have to tell you that I thought early on, when you were describing I was so tickled I knew how serious everything was going to be today, so I didn't make this joke at the time, but it stuck with me through an hour and a half, the image of you walking through a hospital just on death's door as a child, and this doctor kind of like sashay and passed you, and being like, that kid has type one diabetes. I pictured John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. I don't think he's like, swinging his hips with like, his like fancy white suit. He was just like, Hey, kid, handover, yeah. He just kind of like made like finger guns at you. And was like, type one diabetes, and how proud he must have been at himself later, like, you know, there was, like a moment where he was like, I knew that kid had diabetes.

Mike Green 1:34:28
Yeah, oh yeah. It Yeah. You said that. I just had that, that poster image of of the movie poster, it

Scott Benner 1:34:37
might show my age, but you said that, and that's exactly I got. I had a guy strutting down a hallway in my head, and he was like, That kid's got the rickets. That kid's got type one. I can just tell.

Mike Green 1:34:49
Can I say one other thing from a reference from please, the podcast with the doctor, when you were asking her, what's the answer? And she said, 42 and you said, no, no, we're not going there. Her, that was a reference from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the universe.

Unknown Speaker 1:35:03
Oh, no, kidding. I

Mike Green 1:35:05
don't know that one. You've got to watch that movie, because as soon as she said that, I said, Oh, that was a, what a timely reference.

Scott Benner 1:35:13
I wish I would have known that I You see, my level of understanding is just 37 from clerks, which is not appropriate for here, but does turn out to be, like I said to her, when you ask people for a random number between one and 100 more frequently than not, people will say 37 for some reason. Yeah. So, yeah. Anyway, all right, Mike, I really appreciate you doing this. I am going to, I'm going to think about this a lot, and I hope everybody else does too.

Mike Green 1:35:46
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I'm I'm like I said, I'm happy to spread the story that for people now do due diligence. It's not doom and gloom.

Scott Benner 1:35:56
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, when this goes up, I will put a post on the private Facebook group that talk that announces this episode, and I will tag you in it so people can find you

Mike Green 1:36:07
sure you got to do the John Travolta decided not live movie poster is the picture?

Scott Benner 1:36:14
Oh, for the episode, I have to do the Yeah. All right, damn it. I will. All right, man, thanks so much. Hold on, Scott,

Mike Green 1:36:22
thank you. I really appreciate you and all you doing. And thank you, man,

Scott Benner 1:36:27
it really is my pleasure. I mean, stuff like this makes this not that it's hard to do to begin with, but if it was, this makes it much easier. You said something earlier that. You know, I don't think I'll ever forget, and I know I've said it a number of times, but when somebody who has type one references that I don't have it, but in a positive way, like I can't believe somebody who doesn't have type one was able to talk to me about this. I mean, I'm very touched by that. It's the only real world I have. It means a lot to me that that I don't come off as, uh, as false to you. No, no. So thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:10
Thank you, Scott.

Scott Benner 1:37:18
I want to thank the ever since 365 CGM, and remind you that you may be eligible to experience the ever since 365 CGM system for as low as $199 for a full year, you can visit ever since cgm.com/juice box to find out more details and learn about the eligibility if you're living with type One diabetes, the after dark collection from the Juicebox podcast is the only place to hear the stories that no one else talks about, from drugs to depression, self harm, trauma, addiction and so much more. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and click on after dark there, you'll see a full list of all of the after dark episodes, when or if you need something that is represented by one of the sponsors. It would help the podcast immensely if you would use my links to look into it or to make a purchase. Those links are available in the show notes of the podcast or audio player you're listening in right now end at Juicebox podcast.com it's a simple and easy way to support the podcast. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed, you're following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. You.

#1335 Five D’s of Dodgeball

Nicole is anxious and very overwhelmed by diabetes.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
We are all together again friends for the next episode of The juicebox podcast.

Nicole is the mother of a 13 year old type one, and she feels anxious and bad about diabetes. Nicole is overwhelmed, and I'm going to talk to her today about it. Please don't forget 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. I know that Facebook has a bad reputation, but please give the private Facebook group for the juicebox podcast, a healthy once over juicebox podcast, type one diabetes. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juicebox at checkout. That's juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com. When you place your first order for ag one, with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink. Ag one.com/juice, box. Don't forget, if you're a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of someone with type one, visit T, 1d exchange.org/juicebox right now and complete that survey. Us. Med is sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well usmed.com/juice box, or call 888-721-1514, use the link or the number get your free benefits. Check and get started today with us med. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries, gvoke hypopen. Find out more at gvoke, glucagon.com, forward slash juicebox. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's dressing hyperglycemia head on, a topic that often gets overshadowed by the focus on hypoglycemia. Learn more at Medtronic diabetes.com/hyper.

Nicole 2:22
I'm Nicole. I'm 36 and I have three daughters, two of them are from my current marriage, my younger two, and then my oldest daughter is from my first marriage, and she's my type one, so I am her primary care provider. And she's 13. She was diagnosed almost two years ago, exactly so at 11. Okay,

Scott Benner 2:46
the other two girls are no autoimmune at all.

Speaker 1 2:51
Not that I'm aware of their dad, my current husband, has ankylosing spondylitis, and that goes through the males in his family. I know he's got at least two cousins that have that, but they're male, so we're hoping we're in the clear for that.

Scott Benner 3:09
Nicole, do you have like a tattoo on your belly that says, now accepting autoimmune suitors?

Unknown Speaker 3:14
No,

Scott Benner 3:16
did your ex have anything his

Speaker 1 3:19
I think his grandpa had neuropathy later in life, but really, I don't know that that there was anything in that family. The type one definitely comes from my family, and we can get into that as deep as you want to get, but Well, tell me now. Well, it's four generations deep, and I don't want to be deceiving, because I don't know that's like, it's not a direct four generation thing. My grandma had type one, right? I have aunts that are type one, have cousins that are type one, and then my daughter, she's the first great grandchild in this line to get it.

Scott Benner 3:59
And do you know? Do you have any autoimmune

Speaker 1 4:01
I don't not. I don't know of anything. I did try on that on myself, just because I wanted to know if I had I don't know. I don't have anything. Okay, no, nothing.

Scott Benner 4:14
Well, it's interesting that you're like, I don't know what the connection is here, that you're steeped in D over there, like the diabetes is every which way it is. Yeah, no kidding. Gosh, well, I wouldn't be surprised by it. I'm interested though, to see, I'm sorry that I'm speaking about your life like it's a science experiment, but I'm interested to see if the other two girls have any kind of implications. Are they younger right now,

Speaker 1 4:40
me too, and it is on my mind constantly. Yeah, I actually just tested the blood sugar of my youngest daughter two days ago because she was acting funny. And so I am definitely the type of person that is going to do try on that, because I gotta know or else I'll just lose my mind. Yeah? But. Yes, the youngest is four, the other one's eight. I'm just waiting for a good time to do it. I did the at home test on myself, and it was, it was kind of hard to get that much blood out of myself, and so I don't want it to be too dramatic, traumatic for them, but I think in the next year, working with the pediatrician or calling in a blood draw, I'm going to get them tested, because I really, I want to know,

Scott Benner 5:25
yeah, when you get the at home kits, listen, I'm all for testing. I think it's, I think it's a good thing to do. But when you get the at home kits, and the phrase milking is involved, when it's talking about getting blood out of your finger, you're like, Oh, what am I getting involved in here? So I would go to a lab and get a ton if it was, yeah,

Speaker 1 5:45
I think that's, that's where I'm gonna go. It's just scheduling it and getting it all lined up. And I understand, not not fun, but I need to get it done for my sanity.

Scott Benner 5:55
Oh, we'll go back. I was just gonna say, let's go back to your sanity. What do you mean? You think about it all of the time.

Speaker 1 6:01
Well, I don't want to get emotional, and I knew I was going to, because I do this has taken over my life. And I think there's a lot of people that listen to your show that feel the same way,

Scott Benner 6:13
sorry. No, don't be sorry. Just You're gonna make me cry, which is fine, but just, well, if I get quiet, then I'm wiping tears away, but, but what do you mean? It's taken over your life.

Speaker 1 6:24
So I'm her primary care person. She's 13, so she's taken over some of it on on her own. She has a different dad, so she's she's in her household most of the time. Occasionally, she'll go over to his house, and the management over there is very different, and not in a great way. My husband, he's supportive, but he was never really trained to take care of her, because with the diagnosis, they just limited how many people could could do it. So he's pretty hands off, too in the home. So I just feel kind of alone, if you will. In this I have a support system, but when it comes to the nitty gritty of dosing and watching, even just monitoring, it's heavy. It's a lot. So when I say it's taken over my life, I think it's just because I'm the person that's been available to take care of her. Yeah? So it's, it's all on me, yeah?

Scott Benner 7:24
Nicole, I got sick last night. Out of nowhere, people who listen, no, I don't get sick often, but when I do, it hits me fast. And I was actually on the phone last night with Isabel, talking about the possibility of a juice box cruise, which I think is a thing that's actually gonna happen.

Speaker 1 7:41
Stop. I saw it on Facebook. And I don't get on Facebook very often, and I'm so hoping that I can go, oh,

Scott Benner 7:49
I actually think, like, Listen, I'm hoping I can figure it out, but I actually think it's gonna happen. And anyway, between you and I don't go out in the world and say this yet, because I'm still trying to figure it all out. But I mean, I put up a Facebook post that got 500 responses, so I figured, I mean, a lot of them won't end up doing it, but geez, what if a portion of them did? That'd be pretty great. You know,

Unknown Speaker 8:09
it would be amazing.

Scott Benner 8:10
I'm working with a coordinator right now to try to figure out a time in June of 2025, when that'll happen. I guess I should say this, I have not planned for this, but because you and I are talking about it, and this will go into the podcast eventually. If you go to juicebox podcast.com/juice, cruise, and there's actually a website there, you can come with us, but at the moment, that website doesn't exist, but it will by the time this comes out, I guess, well, I'll

Speaker 1 8:39
be watching because I love cruises, and that would be so great for me and my daughter,

Scott Benner 8:45
just to, like, meet other people, right, and to chill out a little bit, yes, yeah, yes.

Speaker 1 8:49
And just really, that's why I love your show so much, and kind of why I wanted to come on is, just like I said, I have a support crew, but just not really to do much, if you know what I mean. And the people that listen to this show understand that, because there's a way to manage your diabetes and be a caregiver, or there's a way just to live like and that's kind of how it is at her dad's house, is he doesn't die. But that's that's different. I do. I call it the juice box way, I'm going to ask you to manage her the juice box. Way, yeah, give

Scott Benner 9:29
me a second. I'm going to say something. I'll ask you about that. And now we're going to hear from Medtronic champion, Terry.

Speaker 2 9:36
How long have you had diabetes? June 2025 it'll be 50 years. I'm very much involved in the diabetic community in a lot of areas, and I helped start the walk here in Lincoln Nebraska, when you were first diagnosed, what was management like? I started out on beef pork insulin, and I tell people jokingly that I used to smell like a bacon cheese. Burger tell me about the impact of Medtronic technology. Finger stick is only a point in time, and that first 20 years for me was extremely difficult because I had high blood sugars all over the place. The CGM, to me, was the lifesaver.

Scott Benner 10:17
Prolonged hyperglycemia can lead to serious health problems and long term complications. Early, inconsistent management of hyperglycemia is critical. Learn more at Medtronic diabetes.com/hyper so I said I was I got sick last night because it overwhelmed me. I was on the phone with Isabelle, and I was like, I gotta get off the phone. I'm dizzy. I felt bad even the way I said it. I'm like, I gotta go, like, and I got off the phone, and I went and sat down next to my wife, and I was like, Are my hands shaking? And she's like, Yeah. And I was like, I said, I don't feel right. I'm like, I was just, I was outside talking to her, like I was cleaning up and doing things. And I said, I took a step forward outside, and I went backwards, and I was like, and my head's swimming, and my hands are shaking, and I'm really hungry. This feels like what people discuss when they say their blood sugar's low, but I mean, I ate something today no differently than the other day. I'm like, That would be weird, but I sat down and basically took like, a fistful of crackers, I over salted them, and I ate because I was like, I felt like I needed salt. I took in a bunch of salt and like and these crackers, and I felt a little better, and then my stomach kind of turned over, and I was like, man, what is happening? But anyway, I'm still a little woozy this morning, like my head's a little floaty, and you said, I'm alone, and I I almost started to cry. So I think it's because I don't feel well. You have me at an advantage today, Nicole, you're gonna, like, this is basically like two ladies who are getting ready to have their period talking and because I'm like, I'm very unstable today. And I don't mean to say women are unstable. Oh my God, here come the Euro misogynist reviews. But you know what I mean? I feel overwhelmed with this at the moment. Okay,

Speaker 1 11:59
I'm unstable. There's no doubt about that. There you go, Nicole,

Scott Benner 12:03
thank you for sticking up with me, for me, with the woke ladies who are gonna yell at me later. And by the way, I don't mind woke it's cool, but like, you don't have to leave a review every time you don't like something. I say it's a

Unknown Speaker 12:17
Yeah.

Scott Benner 12:20
Cruise by. Go, yo. You know what? You might be kidding. I'm a little woozy today, so I'm gonna ask you these questions, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna cry while we're doing it. So just be

Speaker 1 12:28
clear. That means I'm gonna cry too, because I cry when other people cry perfect for no reason. Go for it. Let's What do we got here?

Scott Benner 12:37
We're a worse match than you and your first husband. All right. So good one. Thank you. Because, by the way, the thing you've said so far, that's the funniest, is you called your husband now your current husband, which, in my mind, makes it feel like you're not 100% sure if he's going to be your last husband. Well,

Speaker 1 12:54
I didn't want to say I wanted to definitely differentiate that I've been married twice and that I have three kids from two different guys. But I didn't want to jump in and make you think that I've been married and divorced twice. I have three kids from two different guys. I'm married, I'm happy. I just didn't know how to describe it.

Scott Benner 13:14
No, no, you were absolutely fine. I'm just being silly. Okay, you have a way you're managing your daughter and what are the outcomes like, and how long have you been doing it?

Speaker 1 13:23
So far, we're doing okay. The last six to eight months have been a little rough, which he was diagnosed her ANC was 11.7 and we've gone from five, nine to six, four to five, nine to six, six, and in February it was seven, eight. And I know exactly why she's growing. And some it's crazy. I think, like six, like I said, six to eight months ago, she suddenly needed so much insulin, I was just baffled. We've tripled the insulin use from that. Like, I don't know what's going on with her body. So with that, it's also been kind of sporadic. And so that's kind of where we're at. I know she's doing a little bit better now, and also she she started middle school in the fall, and so with that, she's kind of taken the reins a little bit more as far as figuring out what to dose and which is good, because I like I say I'm losing it. I need more help, and so that means I need her to step up a little bit. So she's been doing pretty good, but just navigating a lot of the changes, and like the insulin use at first was freaking me out. You say, meet meet the need. And so we finally met the need, but you know, I didn't feel comfortable increasing it too quickly, and so I'm hoping. Next appointment, it's, I know it's definitely going to be lower. I hope we we're below seven again.

Scott Benner 15:05
So am I right to say, well, first, let me ask one question, was there a honeymoon period that, looking back, you can see, I

Speaker 1 15:12
don't think so. But again, I don't know, because from what I understand, honeymoon is, is at some point you don't need any insulin. Is that correct? I

Scott Benner 15:20
mean, not necessarily, but it would be, and probably not in most cases. Just like honeymoon would be, you're using a certain amount of insulin, then the next day you notice, geez, my body must be helping, because that was way too much insulin. And then that goes on for a little bit, or it does, and it goes back and forth. It's kind of like, how do I say this? Like if you were driving your car and you were using the accelerator to move the car forward, but every once in a while, an unseen force in front of you started pulling you ahead faster, and you were, like, still pushing on the accelerator. He's like, Oh, now we're going way too fast, because the thing's pulling me and I'm accelerating. So you're bolusing and your pancreas is using, yeah,

Speaker 1 16:00
I get that. You know, it was pretty I don't think so, because

Scott Benner 16:04
you've probably heard me talk about us Med and how simple it is to reorder with us Med, using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works? And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, US med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying? It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your order's ready. You want us to send it. Push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait. I think it lets you put it off, like a couple of weeks, or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it us. Med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get your free benefits checked now and get started with us, med, Dexcom, OmniPod, tandem, freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new islet pump. Check them out now at usmed.com/juice, box, or by calling 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at juicebox podcast.com to us Med and all the sponsors. If you take insulin or sofanylurias, you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most, be ready with G Vogue hypopen. My daughter carries gevok hypopen everywhere she goes, because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar in people with diabetes ages two and above that. I trust low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily, jivo hypopin can be administered in two simple steps, even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you store GEVO kypo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use jivo kypo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why GEVO kypo Pen is in ardent diabetes toolkit at gvoke, glucagon.com/juicebox, dot com, slash, juicebox gvoke shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma, or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulinoma, visit gvoke. Glucagon.com/risk, for safety information.

Speaker 1 18:40
It was pretty consistent for the first while. Now, the last month or two, she's had a couple days where we're on this higher, you know, insulin profile, and there'll be a day where she just is low constantly. So no, I don't think that's honeymoon. It's just, it's just weird.

Scott Benner 19:01
So no honeymoon, as far as you can tell. So you're you're working in the beginning, and you're taking care of all the bolusing and everything. And she's also younger, so I would imagine, when she was diagnosed at 11, no period yet, right?

Speaker 1 19:14
Yeah, and still no okay, so that could be part of this whole thing too, yeah.

Scott Benner 19:19
So she's been growing the last couple of years, so you've seen that. And then with the fluctuation A, 1c like, I'm doing the I'm doing the same thing. It's five eight. I'm doing the same thing. It's six four. So there's other needs somewhere that maybe your settings or your your style aren't covering. And now probably, if I had to guess, like, you're gonna see menstruation come at some point here, and maybe then you're gonna, I mean, then it's gonna turn into a different game too. It's gonna probably be, she's almost gonna be like, she's two or three different people every month as far as her insulin needs go. I can't wait, super fun for you. You'll be dead by then. He's just run out into traffic and yell, I give up. I. How old are you again? Tell me 36

Unknown Speaker 20:03
I'm 36 Yeah, okay. How

Scott Benner 20:05
old were you when you got married the first time? Were you young I

Speaker 1 20:08
was, and that was, I mean, looking back, that was the problem. But I was 20 when I married him, but I dated him when I was in high school, so I really didn't date anybody else from the time I was 17 through that. So I was young. Yes,

Scott Benner 20:24
you live in the middle of a field. Why'd you get married when you were 20? Were you pregnant?

Speaker 1 20:28
Well, let me tell you, because I no, I wasn't pregnant. I guess I liked being in a relationship. But my mom, I love her to death, she got married when she was 17 years old. She graduated high school and got married to my dad. They're still married. So as I was dating him, my first husband, I didn't have anybody saying, I think you should date other people. Larry, you know, you're so young, my mom had lived it, and so she was kind of cheering on the relationship. And so I think a lot of that played into it. And if she listens to this, I don't want her to feel like it's her fault by any means, but me, I look at what I've been through, and if my kids did that, I wouldn't be dying, because I'm just I don't know, I wouldn't be cheering them on for your mom, that

Scott Benner 21:21
was the family. Business. Like, that's how we do it, right? Yeah, look, I already and, yeah, it's good, right?

Speaker 1 21:28
And I don't want to go too much into this, because, sure, well, let me just say that I live in Utah, and people around here are Mormon, and you don't have sex till you get married, or at least you're not supposed to. And so I think a lot of that, too came into play. Of we were in this relationship. I had dated this guy for so long, and my mom just was like, Well, why don't you just get married? There's no difference, because at the time, we were living together. And so I think that played into it also.

Scott Benner 21:58
Are you Mormon? Are you just saying that? It kind of rubs off, because it's the attitude. Well,

Speaker 1 22:02
I grew up that way. I'm no longer, but I with our family. I think that was part of it too. Is interesting. How to explain it? No,

Scott Benner 22:13
you explained it. You actually did. Don't worry, there's no more. I was at the point where you were stretching for words, and I thought, she can stop talking about this. I got it so perfect. Was Was he in the church? The first husband? Uh, kind

Speaker 1 22:27
of soon he's grew up in it. But, I mean, I was, I started being inactive when I was about 1415, my parents also about the same time, quit going also. So yeah. I mean, everyone around here is familiar with it. It's hard to explain. No, it's

Scott Benner 22:43
not. I've heard other people talk about it also. I'm huge. I want to say this, and I say this with a lot of I'm endeared by it. I'm huge in the Mormon community. My podcast,

Unknown Speaker 22:52
I've heard you say that, and I think it's true.

Scott Benner 22:55
Well, I didn't make it up. I think I just was like, Hey, here's here's a flex I'm gonna make my podcast is huge with a warm with Mormons. I mean, we've gone through it a couple of times with different people who are in the church, and I think they just, they're very they're very open and sharing what's working for them with each other. And I think it kind of it just super friendly people

Speaker 1 23:20
care about other people, even if they don't know. I'm, I mean, it's, it's a really great place to live,

Scott Benner 23:25
yeah, all right, so why did I ask you that? Holy crap. Oh, because I wanted to know how young you were when you started forming that relationship. Because I'm wondering if your emotional response right now is rooted back there. So did you have, like, your first big trauma in your 1718, 1920, age, and are you maybe stuck there a little bit, like, because this sucks, but you shouldn't be. You shouldn't be this run over by it. Like, you know what I mean by that? I'm sure you feel that too, right? Like you feel like you should have a different handle on this.

Speaker 1 23:59
Yeah, there wasn't really any trauma. I just feel like with diagnosis, he was there the whole time, and he comes to all of her appointments. He just, it just doesn't seem like he cares. And I hope he listens to this. I've been begging him to start listening to this podcast, because it would do wonders for her to have him on board. But, and I don't want to badmouth him by any means, we get along fine. It's just when I say things aren't great over there, we're talking three, 400 plus range,

Scott Benner 24:36
and when you say he doesn't care. Do you really think he doesn't care? Like no,

Speaker 1 24:40
but I think it is it. I know it's heavy and it's hard, and I think a lot of times situations like that, he just kind of ignores the problem because it's easier just to pretend it's not happening. And and I feel honest in saying that, because when she's low, nobody wakes up a. Over there to help her. I am the one calling from my house to wake her up to make sure she's okay. It's just really frustrating. So I just I'm so involved in her life and her care, it's hard for me to see her own father not even show like he's trying. I don't know, is

Scott Benner 25:19
it more that, or is it more that you feel helpless when she's with him?

Speaker 1 25:24
Oh, because she is taking some of this on her own, but she's still too young. She's really reliant on me, yeah, and I've been trying to, you know, give her a little more here and there. I mean, still she she can put her on her own Dexcom, but she doesn't, and her pump site, she doesn't do her own and for a lot of people, that's really weird, because most of the time, once you're, you know, a teenager, it's like, I don't want my mom to have to do everything for me, but she kind of does.

Scott Benner 25:57
Yeah, Arden does her own stuff, obviously now, and has for a number of years, but we did it together for a long time. It wasn't, it wasn't strange here. I also was a stay at home dad her whole life, so I don't know that it was as weird for her to like, you know, pull her pants down and, like, be standing there in her underwear or something like that, like, while I put something on her hip or something back back then she she was never in the least bit uncomfortable about it. I also, can I stick up for men for a second? Go for it. Yes. Part of that thing that makes us look like we don't care about things that head down, go forward attitude. It's very valuable in other parts of life. I just want to say, well,

Speaker 1 26:36
let me Yeah, I agree totally, because that's how my husband is right. He's great, and he works hard and he provides, and he does some so many things, but he doesn't really help manage the diabetes, and a lot of it is because my daughter that's not really how their relationship is. My daughter doesn't want to go to him to say, hey, stepdad, will you put this pump site on my butt, you know? Like, yeah, sure, he's their connections different, and so I totally get what you're saying, because he's very much put your head down and grind, and he does so much for us. So I don't want to, like, say that he's verbal by any means. I'll

Scott Benner 27:16
put I'll shine it on me for a second, right? Like, I think if you listen to this podcast, you would think of me as a fairly connected, emotionally mature man, right? Yeah, okay, fair statement. My wife doesn't think of me that way. She thinks I'm an idiot that puts my head down and goes forward and I don't pay attention to a goddamn thing. I just go, go, go, go, go. And I'm like, oh, we'll just knock it over, kill it, or go around it. That's the pressure that comes, I don't know, innately, maybe even with being a man like I feel like this is all on me, which is ridiculous, because my wife makes a decent living, and we are a 5050, you know, split here, as far as you know, responsibilities and all that stuff. But I still, if you, if you got me into a quiet room and asked me to answer and said, Who's this on? I'd tell you, it's on me. And the way, and the way that manifests through me is by not giving up, killing what's in front of me, winning, like that whole thing. Now, if you went and found my wife and said, Hey, who's this on? She'd be like, listen, it's all on me. That guy's a idiot, okay? And so, like, like, if I fall apart, we're dead. I don't know what he could accomplish on his own. And so she'll think that, but her response is different. She feels it is stress, right? And she feels it as pressure, and she feels it as a responsibility, and I know all that, but it's not how I feel it. I feel it like a challenge.

Unknown Speaker 28:47
Okay, you know,

Scott Benner 28:49
okay, right? And now I've had a ton of these conversations where ex husbands don't do a good job managing their kids diabetes. And I always think that if you contextualize guys a little bit, I'm generalizing, obviously, but unless you get those more connected men, I guess, or, god, I'm trying not to say this in an insulting way, because I don't think of it as an insulting way. But how would they have said it 10 years ago? More metasexual, like, like, a little more blended, like, you know, with your feelings and things like that. Like, if you've got one of those guys, you'll probably be all right, but they're still guys, and they still think, I don't know what I'm doing. I can't learn this, and I'm gonna screw it up, and if I screw it up, I'm gonna hurt her, and maybe better, I keep my hands off of that. Now, that's not everybody, but I think that's a fairly common response from men, and then you put the divorce in there, and it gets a little worse, even, you know what I mean, because, like, I don't want to mess it up, because she'll yell at me, like, like and like, that kind of feeling like, you know, yeah, Nicole, I'm not saying anything that's crazy. Yeah, right, yeah. Having said that, I he should buck up and. It like, like, I think

Speaker 1 30:01
so. I mean, if you don't wake up to your alarms, I know that's a problem for a lot of people, but I just ordered one of those sugar Pixel THINGs and set it up in our kitchen to test it out. And that thing is so annoying and so loud, he ought to get one of those so he can wake up in the night when she's at his house and help her, so I don't have to be the one doing it. You know what I mean,

Scott Benner 30:24
did you happen to buy that sugar pixel with my link?

Speaker 1 30:28
I'm sure I did, because very much, a few weeks ago, I was, I was bitten to my husband, like, the same thing, I need help. This is so annoying and so hard and like, I don't sleep, none of my sleep. So I he's like, there's got to be something. And in my head, I think, oh, you know there might be. So I hopped on the next day and I just ordered it, thinking I'm desperate. I got to get something, yeah, but maybe, maybe I'll give it to

Scott Benner 30:54
him. Well, you know what for? What is it? $99

Unknown Speaker 30:58
yeah,

Scott Benner 30:59
maybe it's maybe, would he use it, or would he see it as the thing is, I don't know, yeah, see it as an insult, or is he not that he seems like a decent guy from your explanation,

Speaker 1 31:09
I think he would see it as an insult. But he is a decent guy. I just we're different, and we think different, and I think I don't know this, but I think it bothers him when I'm constantly texting them and telling them what to do and and I really try to stay out of their business when she's over there. Like, I'm not talking if she goes over 150 I'm calling saying, Hey, you got to do something. It's okay. You're over 250 and you've been over 250 for three hours. Like, come on, guys, this isn't good. Or the Dexcom clearly the readings are looking funny, and it's eight, 910, at night, and they still haven't changed it. It's like, okay, guys, it's the two hour warm up. Don't you want to figure this out before you go to bed? Or, you know, those lows. So that's, that's where it is. It's not just little things. Is

Scott Benner 32:06
she not in a position to say to him, Hey, what are we doing here? Or do you think she likes the break?

Speaker 1 32:12
I think both. I think she likes the break because it's definitely more fun over there. They do whatever they want, and they stay up late and they go out to eat, and mean, they do a lot of things that we don't do in my house, we're definitely more structured. But at the same time, her and I are pretty connected, because we do this all day long. Yeah, and I think in the back of her mind she knows, like we got to do something, but there is something there that she doesn't really want to tell her dad what to do or bring it up, or she may be nervous to say something. I definitely see both of those things. Have

Scott Benner 32:54
you tried having this conversation with her to see if she can help move it along? Over there, at

Speaker 1 32:59
first, I would contact your dad when she was over there and say, Hey, this is what you need to do. Now I just text her directly and say, Hey, give yourself a couple units, or I'll tell her or ask her, are you guys planning to change your Dexcom tonight? Or, you know, that's

Scott Benner 33:18
right out of the boy playbook. That was good. That's well done by him. He just ignored you, do you just left him alone about it? Well, now we do that just

Speaker 1 33:26
after so long of nothing happening, and honestly, it's got to the point where he just ignores a lot of the things I say. So I just, I just go to her directly.

Scott Benner 33:38
I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing because I once said to a another woman in my life was like, that's a lot of demands from a lady who doesn't have sex with

Speaker 1 33:48
me well, and I, you know, if I put myself in his shoes, honestly, he has a new wife and a stepson, and here's the ex wife always hounding in telling him what to do. I get it? Yeah, it's just, I just wish they'd try a little harder, and I don't know that they know any better. Oh,

Scott Benner 34:07
okay, so that's a good question, like, and by the way, I want to say I'm not discounting that, like he's also hearing from his wife about the things they need to do together, and then suddenly he's probably got pressure to be like, listening to her, and he's only got so many hours in the day. But the thing about not wanting to understand the diabetes, that's the part you're never going to explain to me, because it doesn't take that much to figure out, especially in this situation. And he could easily do it. The three of you could easily be in a chain, a text chain, right? And you wouldn't think it would take many experiences for him to realize what he should be doing. So if you, if you won't take the time to realize it, that's one thing. If he understands it and he won't do it, that's another thing. So which is it, or is it all? I

Speaker 1 34:54
think it's a combination of all of it. He is, like, I don't. Know if you were recording when we said this, but when she goes over there, she doesn't die. She, you know, she's alive, but it's just like, not healthy,

Scott Benner 35:10
right? Yeah, high blood sugar.

Speaker 1 35:13
The doctor taught him that's, that's all he knows. Is, what the doctor taught him is, you dose for carps and, yeah.

Scott Benner 35:19
So in fairness, Nicole, does he think that you're doing some hocus pocus thing from a podcast, and he's following the doctor? I

Speaker 1 35:25
wish I knew. I wish he would just tell me, because I've sent him specific episodes like the tug of war. That's genius. It just makes so much sense. And it's a small, short episode. I'm like, just listen to this, because it, you know, it's the insulin timing or bumping edge, or, you know, just even the fact, like, if he could hear what you've done with Arden and insulin timing, understanding insulin, it's not that hard. I I don't even remember what you asked me.

Scott Benner 36:00
I wondered if there's a world in which he thinks he's doing the right thing and you're doing something crazy you learned on the internet. Oh

Speaker 1 36:06
yeah, it could be. And, like I said, if he would just say that, then that's that's one thing. But I feel like I'm just being ignored. Also,

Scott Benner 36:16
you could come off as and I don't mean this in the way that everyone listening is going to take it, but I feel like I have a good vibe with you, Nicole, so I could say this. I feel like it's possible you come off a little crazy to him. Oh, sure, okay, because I've been in your position, so I know how it can look from the other side. Like I told that story about, like, going into Arden's elementary school before she started kindergarten, like I would in like, six months before she was there to start explaining diabetes to them, and they, 1,000,000% looked at me like I was out of my mind.

Speaker 1 36:49
Okay, let me say this, I am forever grateful that I found your show. But sometimes I wonder, if I didn't find your show, would I be this crazy? Probably not, because seeing the spikes go up and down, I wouldn't know any better finding your show. I know there's a better way, and I know that that way is is honestly not that hard, right? Yeah, I've

Scott Benner 37:12
been making ladies crazy since I was younger, even if you ask Kelly, everything is wrong with her is my fault. So I think there's that I take your point like, you know, you can bury your head and, you know, the nice way to say this is, right, you can stick your head in the sand, and then you just don't know. And that's maybe what he's doing to some degree. I think that's what most people are doing to some degree, because, yeah,

Speaker 1 37:36
and she doesn't go over there often. I mean, we're talking every other weekend, and every once in a while they go to dinner. So it's, it's not a ton, yeah.

Scott Benner 37:45
Like, it's fun to blame me, and I don't mean blame in that way, but you can't tell me that people who have never heard this podcast don't see a 300 blood sugar test for it. See it for three hours in a row, and don't think, Huh, there's got to be a better way to do this. Like, there has to be some degree of blissful, willful ignorance involved at some point, like, not, maybe not on day one or something. But I mean, a couple of years into it, you got to start asking yourself some tough questions. And if you're not asking those questions, are you not asking them on purpose? You know?

Speaker 1 38:16
Yep, I think that's what it is. I really do. I think sometimes, if hard things come up, like I said, it's just easier to turn the other cheek and just not the attention duck

Scott Benner 38:27
dodge, dive and

Speaker 1 38:28
and the crazy ex wife is there to wake her up in the middle of night. So yeah, Dino di I'm always watching Nicole. I'm

Scott Benner 38:38
definitely calling your episode. What does that duck, dodge. What is that from that that movie? Hold on a second. Does

Speaker 1 38:44
everyone ask me, I am my brain is right.

Scott Benner 38:50
What do you do to to relax?

Unknown Speaker 38:52
I don't know. Garden.

Scott Benner 38:54
Hold on a second. It's dodge, duck, dip, dive, and it's from the movie, dodgeball, the 5d

Speaker 1 39:02
Okay, we're gonna have to watch that. All right. I've seen it, but I'm gonna have to watch it.

Scott Benner 39:07
All right. So the five DS, I'm either gonna call your episode the five DS, or I'm gonna call it dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. That might be it,

Speaker 1 39:14
and I'm the crazy person checking the ball that the ex husband or what? No, that's

Scott Benner 39:18
your husband avoiding diabetes. Your ex husband avoiding diabetes? Oh, okay, okay, yeah, because my other option was crazy ex wife, and I don't think that the ladies would treat me well if I call so I don't want to beat the crazy. You're also not crazy. You're in a you're in a very unique and difficult situation. So going all the way back, yes,

Speaker 1 39:37
it's a unique spot, and I knew that's kind of why I wanted to come on the show is because there's very few people that understand what I'm going through, and those people listen to your show.

Scott Benner 39:47
Oh, for sure, yeah, we're a hell of a group over here. People just inundated. But now, how do we so first of all, you garden to relax. I

Speaker 1 40:00
don't know. I just was trying to think of something because I honestly don't do much for myself. So that is something that I enjoy, but to relax, yeah, I don't know. I like my coffee in the morning. And,

Scott Benner 40:12
no, that's not what we're talking about, Nicole. I'm talking about, like, weed or whacking it or something like that. Like, what are you really doing to, like, lose some stress? You know what? I mean, I

Unknown Speaker 40:19
don't know. That's something I gotta figure out. A

Scott Benner 40:21
lot of that stuff is free, by the way, yeah, well,

Speaker 1 40:28
I also have little kids at home, so maybe once my youngest gets in school and I have a little bit more time to focus on myself, I think I need a hobby. I gotta find something.

Scott Benner 40:39
No Weed. You wouldn't do the weed.

Speaker 1 40:42
I wouldn't say no to it. I mean, it's obviously illegal here and in my community, not really looked upon. Now i i know if i wanted some, I know I could get it right away. I don't know. I don't really want to smoke anything I'd love, like, maybe a gummy or something, but I've never tried that, that that might be my thing, Scott, this is the thing you've considered. I've definitely considered it because I love, like, a glass or two of wine, not necessarily the wine, but how it makes me feel. So that's definitely a chill out for sure.

Scott Benner 41:20
Okay, yeah, no. I mean, listen, no, I'm being funny. But like, there's got to be something that you can put your people are like, do you think you're really being funny? Because I guarantee if my son does this to be like, You're not funny the way you think you are. But I'm just trying to be like, lighthearted and say, like, you gotta find something that just, like, takes it away for a little bit. And I don't want you to turn into like, a, like, a day drinker. So, right,

Speaker 1 41:39
yeah, like, You're preaching to the choir. Like, I know I'm definitely missing something, and it's something I gotta figure out, for sure, the idea

Scott Benner 41:48
of like, I don't not understand the idea of, like, well, when this one gets old, or when this happens, or something like that, but that's the quick way to be in 45 and having like, you know, angina. So like,

Speaker 1 41:59
I know there's a lot of things that I enjoy, but oftentimes, if I do leave, then I'm always thinking about the kids back at home. Like, I love to travel and I love to hike and ski, and I mean, where we live, there's so many great outdoor outdoor activities and and things, but it's just breaking away in my mind, mentally to be like, okay, the kids are okay, like, you can go have fun.

Scott Benner 42:22
The problem is trying to get lost in one of those things. Like, it's not really exactly the thing you're doing, it's the ability to lose yourself in it. Yeah, that's why you go. That's why people go to things where you can't stop, but to lose yourself in it. Like, that kind of an idea, right? So

Speaker 1 42:37
my daughter does play volleyball. My oldest the diabetic, and so I kind of we, we travel all over the place, and that's become a good thing for me, because I do kind of lose myself in it, and I'm there to help her. And is it something I would just do for fun? No, but, I mean, I really do enjoy it, so I think right now that would be one of the things that is it's good for me to escape,

Scott Benner 43:04
is there a way to build a support system around yourself, so much so that you could take a weekend or an overnight, yeah?

Speaker 1 43:11
Oh, yeah. I mean, and we have before I've left, who's

Scott Benner 43:15
who's we you taking your husband with you? I mean, my husband. I meant by yourself. I meant by yourself,

Speaker 1 43:21
all by myself. Yeah, I could, but I don't know if I'd want it. I don't I don't love being by myself. I don't know if I'd want to do something like

Scott Benner 43:28
that, no, but yeah, I equally enjoy being with people and being by myself. Like, I can see the value in both of those things. Like, I like solitude, and I like to be able to, like, disappear into my own head and do things, and I very much like to be around people and talk and I and it's funny, because I have a son and a wife who are not as into chatting, and then Arden, who talks all the time, like, like, more like me. And so like, I don't have as much opportunity. Like, I have three people around me, but two of them are kind of like, Oh, he's talking, you know what? I mean, you know? Then they'll say things like, I don't understand how people listen to your podcast. And I'm like, a lot of people really like it. And I'm like, You guys are obviously not one of them. Like, I said to my wife the other day, like, have you ever heard the podcast? She's like, No,

Unknown Speaker 44:19
that's crazy to me, but

Unknown Speaker 44:23
whatever she's, like, I've heard enough of you

Unknown Speaker 44:27
that's funny,

Scott Benner 44:28
I imagine. But yeah, like she's, I mean, once or twice I've been like, Hey, listen to this. For this like thing she would just not like, I was telling her about something I did with Erica the other day, and I actually said to her, I'm like, I think you'd be proud of me. I think there's a version of me you don't even know that you'd hear if you listen to this episode. And she's like, I am not doing that. That's funny. But anyway, like, I like the idea of you. I mean, if you don't like being alone, Fair's fair, right? But I was counting on the new, not the new. Husband, but your husband to like to take care of the kids so that you could feel truly comfortable and let it go.

Unknown Speaker 45:08
Oh yeah, it could happen. Yeah.

Scott Benner 45:10
But why not do that? Then explain to me, Nicole, why that hasn't happened. It's because you've, you've, you have self identified as either crazy or overwhelmed 10 times since we've been talking both, both. So why don't you do something to alleviate that? I

Speaker 1 45:25
think it's just binding, finding what it is that I want, just leaving and being alone. That doesn't sound like any fun of me.

Scott Benner 45:34
Why? What would happen?

Speaker 1 45:35
I think I'd just be bored. Like, I just don't really like being alone,

Scott Benner 45:39
but I'm gonna paint you. I

Unknown Speaker 45:40
like, Okay, go for

Scott Benner 45:41
it. You head off to a little like a hotel, a hotel that has like a walking trail, a little hiking trail to you go, you unpack, you go for a hike, you come back, you take a shower, you go down to the spa. You have a sit in the in the hot and then they give you a little rub, maybe you get your nails done, and you go sit and have a nice dinner. You put your headphones on, you listen to some music while you sit at dinner, or you read something by yourself. You eat slowly, and then you go out again and take a nice nighttime stroll. You go to bed early, and then you wake up in the morning and you take a nice shower, you head out for a breakfast, and then you head back home. Like, how would that not be nice?

Speaker 1 46:24
That would be good. That would be nice. Yeah, do that. Then. Okay, maybe I should try it. Do

Scott Benner 46:29
it. I mean, what the hell do I have to set this up for you? I mean, I'm not, I'm

Unknown Speaker 46:33
not pretty crazy.

Scott Benner 46:35
Your life's pretty what?

Speaker 1 46:37
We're just busy. And I hate to even say that, because everybody's busy, but yeah, I can do that. I could take a night and do that.

Scott Benner 46:44
Do you think you're more busy than I am? I don't know. It's interesting when you think about other people's lives, isn't it like and you wonder, and

Speaker 1 46:53
I hate to complain about diabetes, and I really don't, because I know everybody has their thing. You know, this is just mine.

Scott Benner 47:01
I have a list of things in front of me on my giant whiteboard that I'm considering doing for the podcast. And one of the things I'm considering doing is short episodes where I just let people come on and just bitch for 20 minutes.

Speaker 1 47:14
That would be pretty entertaining. I think you should try a few.

Scott Benner 47:17
Yeah, no, I might. I might. That's one of my that's one of my ideas. I can't tell you the rest of them, because I know you people are listening and you'll rip me off. I actually saw someone rip me off the other day, and I was like, Oh, it's so blatant. And then I went and checked their stats, and nobody listens to the thing. And I was like, Huh. But anyway, that sorry that sounded so how did that sounds small, whatever. Okay, so we could give you, like, a day, like just the like, 24 hours, I think is a big deal. I think it's restorative. And you come home, you're relaxed, you hear some stories about how things went well, you know, you leave absolute direction with the husband and the kids. You go, Look, do not call me if you do not text me nothing, I am going to assume everything is perfect, and if it's not, you better figure it out for yourself, like that thing, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, please have you. Does your husband know where you're at? Yes,

Speaker 1 48:13
very much, because I'm pretty vocal about it, especially when my daughter's gone and and we see these crazy numbers, or he hears the alarms on my phone, and he's like, Oh, is she high or low?

Scott Benner 48:26
Is he helpful? Like, with you and how you feel? Like, is it? Has he said anything useful or valuable, or anything he's

Speaker 1 48:34
he sees he's willing to help. But I just think it takes too much time to be where I'm at. And I look at it this way too. She's 13, almost 14. She's going to be out of the house sooner than later. And so it's like, Well, okay, well, let me just say, if this happened, if she was diagnosed, I don't even know younger, I would be going to the court system and getting something set up to change the divorce decree for the visitation and things just to say, if he can't show that he can manage her diabetes in a help healthy way, she can't go she can't stay overnight, you know, things like that, because of her age. I just, I don't know if it's worth he, he's really busy. He has multiple companies, and what you're always working, and he No my current he, and he's just kind of overwhelmed with working. And he's the provider. He does so much for us. And so to have him, you know, take a step back and to help me. I just, I don't, I don't see it.

Scott Benner 49:46
I mean, I only meant, like, has he ever said to you, Hey, Nicole, maybe you should try this or that, or seriously, like, just an idea. Has he ever just said like, hey, let's play Jenga tonight? Or like, no, no. He just

Speaker 1 49:59
stayed. The obvious, obvious. He just says you should chill out about my ex. He just says he's got, he's got to find a way to figure that out. Or with my daughter, she's got to find a way to wake wake up on her own. And it's like, Duh, like, I get that. I wish

Scott Benner 50:13
find a way to wake up on your own. Yeah? When you're 13, that ain't happening. Okay? So boys now, they're always the problem at some way or another, yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, I'm one. I know I'm not that helpful in my own life, and I try really hard to be, but it's taken me decades to figure it out. Like, I really I'm being serious. Like, it's easy for me to philosophize and talk about it, but then, like, putting it into practice is, is always challenging. Would you consider yourself anxious? Oh, yes,

Speaker 1 50:44
that's the other thing is, I should be medicated. I really need to.

Speaker 1 50:54
I have been on and off of prescription for a lot of my life. I am not on it right now. I know it would help, so that's probably step one. I gotta do that again, just

Scott Benner 51:07
for anxiety or for depression, or what are we talking about? Um, I think

Speaker 1 51:11
it's an antidepressant, but it helps with my anxiety. It, I don't know how to it just kind of gives me an extra couple seconds to breathe before I react. I think it would help me clear my my thoughts a little bit. It's hard to explain, but I've been on and off of it for all half of my life.

Scott Benner 51:33
Let me ask you, or is what you're saying? Is that that like that adrenaline doesn't hit you right away, so you don't freak out before you can actually think,

Speaker 1 51:42
yeah, like, I've got a real angry person. Like, I'm probably the opposite, but road rage, there'll be times like, if somebody does something stupid, I'm like, Oh, what an idiot. You know, if I'm on my medicine, I don't, I just don't even think about it.

Scott Benner 51:58
I love complaining in the car. It's one of my favorite things to do. I don't get actually upset, but I love to complain about it. I think we all do. I think we all love pointing out what other people are doing wrong, and the car is the best place to do it because they can't see you or hear you. Yeah, no one knows you're being insane. Like, like, you know, so you're just like, Oh, why would they change lanes right there? Why? Explain to me why, like, just let it go, but you're actually upset when it's over, yeah?

Speaker 1 52:25
Or, like, I revisit it in my mind multiple times, like that was so annoying. They're so dumb. Or I do something dumb. Why do I can't just let it go. Later in

Scott Benner 52:36
the day, you'll be like that. Why did they change lanes like that? Oh yeah. Oh No kidding, oh yeah. Maybe,

Speaker 1 52:43
like, if I do something stupid, then I'm like, Oh man, that was still dumb of me, and I'll revisit it.

Scott Benner 52:48
Beat yourself up. Yeah, I have never thought about anything I've done wrong after. I mean the big stuff, yes, but not, like, not little things. I would never, I would just, I would, oh, my God. I would never treat myself that way, because that's how I would see it. I would see it as treating myself poorly. Also making mistakes is just part of being alive. Like I think of it as as practice or as an experience. I don't think of it as a failure or anything. I mean, I mean if I hit someone in my car and buried their body, I would think of it as a failure. Think of it as a failure, but, like, but like, but if I just did something, or had a weird thought, or, you know, did something, I don't look back on it and and beat myself up, yeah, I wouldn't do that. Yeah. Hmm, interesting. Is that a diagnosed thing through a doctor? No,

Speaker 1 53:41
I'm I do think it's something. I'm just not one to go to the doctor and just spend the time to do stuff like that. I I've heard you talk about ADHD, and could I have it, maybe. But it's like, is it self diagnosed or not? I just think it's just this constant overwhelm, and my brain is just so full of so much stuff, and there's so many moving parts, and it's just, I think being on the medicine would be good for me, just to chill out a little bit. And it doesn't make me like a bump on a log, but, you know, I gotta get back on it.

Scott Benner 54:15
It dulls you a little bit, and you don't like that. That's what I hear people say. You feel dull. Yeah,

Speaker 1 54:20
it can honestly, I just, I, I've been on and off of it. I tried not to be on it when I'd been pregnant. And so

Scott Benner 54:29
who are you getting to give you the prescription?

Speaker 1 54:32
Usually, I get it from my OB, really, yeah, he's the dealer. But I don't, I don't really see another doctor. Like, that's, that's kind of my doctor.

Scott Benner 54:42
I got one doctor. You understand I do. It's the truth. I make sort of hooch is okay, and nothing else I care about now. Like, wait and what is she? What she giving you, like, Zoloft or something like

Unknown Speaker 54:53
that. Um, this is called Beautiful,

Scott Benner 54:57
yeah, Lexapro, cetalopram. I got it. Like, my wife worked on that drug right out of college.

Speaker 1 55:02
My sister's on it, my mom's on it, my dad's on it. Like, oh, there's certainly things in my family. Like, yeah, we're, I need to be on it.

Scott Benner 55:14
You are. Can I say something lovely about you, please? Yeah, you're like, I wish someone would. I'm going to right now, Nicole, you're walking on both sides of that line. Like, usually when I talk to somebody who's really anxious, there's a frenetic value to them that you don't have, like you almost look like a person who's not anxious describing their twin who's anxious. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 55:38
Yeah, in a way, I think I'm just so used to it. It's interesting.

Scott Benner 55:43
It feels like you manage it well without managing it

Speaker 1 55:46
well, that's been my goal, honestly, is I didn't want to be on something forever my whole life. So I have been in therapy, and I have done things. So I have been trying actively to just be off of it and live and try to stay pretty steady. And I think I've, I've done a decent job, but this diagnosis in the last couple years has just thrown me. And it's probably, I probably got to try it again.

Scott Benner 56:15
Your daughter. Have any of this? Is there any concern this is going to land on her?

Speaker 1 56:18
Oh my gosh. She is so anxious. And, yeah, I just don't know. We've tried therapy. She's just not really, like, we'd go and she'd just sit there and not talk. And yeah, there's a lot I could say about that. She's She struggles, for sure, I'm

Scott Benner 56:38
not in therapy, but I would love it. You would well, because the conversations I get to have every day, I have to be worried about, like, if other people are enjoying them, and if they're answering other people's questions. But I think I would thrive in an environment where you were like, just tell me about you. For an hour. I'd be like, Oh, my God, finally. And I know people are like, buddy, I think that's what the podcast is, but I don't I would, I would love that. Oh my gosh, but I don't know if there's any value. I mean, I'm sure there is. I'm sure there'd be plenty of value. But also, I do those episodes with Erica, which she would be quick to point out, she's not my therapist, but I find them very helpful, actually?

Speaker 1 57:20
Yes, I bet. Well, and you get to talk to a lot of people like that, seems almost therapy in itself, I would think, but maybe, since it's work for you,

Scott Benner 57:30
no, I love that way. Even talking to you about this, I know there's value for me in this.

Speaker 1 57:37
Oh, there's huge value for me. I mean, connection is, it's important. I think it's therapeutic. What

Scott Benner 57:45
I'm saying is, I think I get something out of this conversation, and whatever I think I'm getting out of it. I imagine other people are getting out of it as well. Like, that's kind of how I approach it. I don't know like, and when I sit down here, I always like, when I talk about things, I always talk about things from a perspective of, like, I think this is something people listening to a diabetes podcast would want to know about. Like, I don't like, talk about some of my other thoughts that are outside of this space, you know what I mean. Like, I've never really, like, sat down and really discussed what I thought AI is gonna do for the world. Or, like, you know what I mean, or, or this crazy woman that I saw outside of a pet store recently, and how it's possible that I believe that her reaction to an everyday situation might be the reason why we won't move forward as a species like I don't get to have those conversations here, but I have those thoughts I just don't think people would. Can I tell you this one? We're kind of at the end. Let's make sure that I've covered everything you want, and then I'll tell you this weird story. So, so is there anything we haven't talked about that you wanted to talk

Speaker 1 58:47
about? Not really. I mean, I have my notes in front of me. I just talking about how, oh yeah, I have notes. Tell

Scott Benner 58:54
me about them. What? What didn't we What didn't we talk about? Well,

Speaker 1 58:58
I just had notes about growing up seeing my grandma always, you know, give herself shots before eating, and my aunt's having pump so like it's been in the family, and I I've seen it, and my daughter, when she was diagnosed, was in DKA, and it's just like you'd think that I would have known better, you know, but I didn't grow it up with it in my home, though, I think that's kind of the answer there is, I didn't have a mom or anyone in my home like that. It was just my grandma and a few times a year. But still I just, I don't beat myself up about it, but in my head, I'm like, I didn't, why didn't I see something sooner? That's one of my

Scott Benner 59:40
notes. That's just you beating yourself up about something, that's just me

Speaker 1 59:43
being a parent, going, how could it get so bad? I mean, she had to be lifelighted like it was just, it was a really bad situation. I just wish I could have caught it sooner.

Scott Benner 59:55
I understand you wish that, but Nicole, you've heard enough people talk that to realize that they're probably. Was no way for it to occur to you, right, right? Yeah, yep. Do you? Are you more pissed at your anxiety? Because for all the things that makes you think about it, how did it not help you with this? Well,

Speaker 1 1:00:09
when it happened, I really it was me like, I this was all going on, and nobody was like, You should take her to the hospital. You should have her checked out. Everyone was saying, Oh, she'll be fine, or call the director in the morning. And it was me that was like, no, like, something's really wrong. I gotta take her. And so I'm glad I did that at that point. But I don't know, is that anxiety?

Scott Benner 1:00:36
Oh, of course it is. And there's nothing wrong with a little bit of anxiety. It's when you get too much of it. Anxiety is that thing that makes you pay attention to stuff? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:00:46
yeah. Well, good thing. I paid attention because who knows what would have happened. Oh, no,

Scott Benner 1:00:51
it's great. I just, I was joking, almost saying, isn't it absolutely shitty that the anxiety makes you think about so many things, but it didn't help you enough with this one thing. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1 1:01:01
it probably did help me in some regard, because if I couldn't kick it, I would have gone to bed that night and woke up in the morning, and who knows what the situation was, the anxiety is what made me take her to the ER. So

Scott Benner 1:01:16
then the question is, why don't you give yourself credit for that instead of feeling badly about it?

Speaker 1 1:01:21
Well, I'm trying. I just think it needs to come down a little bit

Scott Benner 1:01:26
the try here, the trying angle baffles my little brain. Watch this. I'm giving you credit for it. Accept that and move on. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm gonna move on. Never think about it again. You saved your daughter's life. I did, yeah, but not you didn't ignore it until it was in a bad situation. You didn't know about it, and as soon as you knew she was in a bad situation, you followed your instincts and you saved her life, probably because if she had to be life flighted at that situation, then you're right, overnight might have done her in. She could have died in her sleep from DKA, right, right. Why are we not celebrating what you've done?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:02
Good question. Here's the tears again.

Scott Benner 1:02:05
Oh, cry. Oh, we're good. Cry. Feel good about it like it's there's that very what does it make me think of I've been talking a lot about women applying for jobs in our house recently, because my wife just switched jobs, and it brings up the topic, my son's looking for work, etc. And there's that stat that says that men will apply for jobs they know they're not qualified for, but women won't apply for jobs they know they're overqualified for. Yes, fascinating. That's fascinating. There's almost nothing you could say to me, Hey, Scott, can you do this that? I wouldn't go, Yeah, I'll figure it out. You know, I wrote a book. Yes,

Speaker 1 1:02:39
I do. And I'd like to find it. I would really like to read it.

Scott Benner 1:02:43
You can get like, you can get like, a digitally, no problem. But that's not the point. But the point is this, a publisher got on the phone with me and said, Hey, you want to write a book? And I said, Yes. And they said, well, great, we want you to write a book about diabetes. This is a long time ago, and I said, I don't want to write a book about diabetes. I want to write a book about being a stay at home parent. I parent. And they were like, give us an outline. So I gave them an outline, and then we got back on a call, and I went over the outline, and they said, that's great. We're gonna pay you. Oh, God, what was it back then, I paid $5,000 to turn in the manuscript. So I worked for six months for five grand. So if anybody thinks like I made a bunch of money, and I got all done, and I called my wife at work, and I said, I'm gonna write a book. And she's like, can you write a book? And I said, I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:32
I heard you talk about this.

Scott Benner 1:03:34
Yeah, if I can, I'll just give him the money back. And my wife was like, Uh, okay. Chuckles. Like, you know what I mean? Like, she never would have done that, but my wife's, oh yeah, fantastic technical writer, but she would have been like, I don't know how to write a book. And I was like, I don't know how to write a book, but Sure, I'll do it like and so, yeah, my point here is, is that, is that you did this thing. Just accept it and and celebrate it, and keep going like, Why are you beating yourself up about something that you didn't know anything about when you have when once you, I mean, you still didn't know anything about it, but you followed your instincts and you decided to do something, and it ended up being monumental for your daughter's life. And but when you described it to me, you described it as described it as a

Speaker 1 1:04:24
failure, yeah, yeah, interesting, right? Yeah, it's interesting. It's just my personality. I guess I don't like to boast. Your boast,

Scott Benner 1:04:33
you know, boast that's not boasting. That's just the facts. Lady, that's what you did. You're right, yeah, god damn right. I would celebrate much less than that. I once built an enclosure for my chameleon by myself, and I acted like I resurrected the Empire State Building. I was like, Look what I did. My wife's like, it's a box. And I'm like, I know, but I did it. Yeah, so anyway, all right, let me tell you this story about the lady who's gonna hold back the world. Sure. All right, I was coming out of a pet store, and I saw a Tesla owner use something so use something called the summon feature to have their car, pull itself out of its parking lot, parking spot, move through the parking lot and come up to the front of the building and park in front of them. And then they went and got into the car. And so I don't know if everybody knows that that's a thing, but you can, apparently, pull out an app on your phone, make sure the app knows where you're standing, and then hold down a button. Because I watched the person do this. I was asking questions and watching them do it at the same time they held down the button, the car lights came on. I watched the mirrors unfold. The car assessed the situation, pulled out, turned right, moved up, came to a stop, made a left turn, pulled up in front of the person. I was like, Holy hell, that was amazing, right? And there was, it was later at night. I want to be clear, it was like five of nine The place was closing. There was four or five cars in the lot. Not that any of this matters, but one lady who was in her car and her exiting her car and walking towards the store coincided with the car pulling out and driving itself up. So she's nowhere near the car. I want to be clear about that. She's probably 20 feet to the right of where the car is actually driving. The car pulls up, it makes the turn, it stops in front of the person. The person walks over to get into the car, and that is the first time that the lady is is aware of the car at all, like it's just prior to that. It was just a car that was driving. She paid no attention to it at all. But when she saw the person get into the driver's seat, you could see her face change as if to say, Oh, how did that car get up here? And as the person's getting into their car, she turns to them and says, That was scary. Nothing else, just that was scary. Lady was in her late 50s, early 60s. She looked like a regular person to me, you know, she got out of a car that indicated to me you would have to have a job to own it, like that kind of thing. And the person said, Excuse me. And she said, That was scary. And the person said, Oh, I'm sorry, the car does that. It, it actually, it can, you know, you can bring it to where you're at within a certain distance. And then the person offered up, I had to hold my finger on this button the whole time it was driving. If at any point I thought anything was going wrong, I could have taken my hand off the car immediately. Would have stopped. I you know, I'm sorry you were scared. And do you know what she said? What did she say? That was scary. And now I'm tallying on my fingers from a distance how many times this lady is repeating that was scary. She was up to three at this point, that person looked a little confused. Got into the car to leave, and while they were getting into the car, the one woman walked to the drive to the passenger side window and bent down as if to want to talk to the person more. They put their window down, and she said, and I'm not kidding you, Nicole, that was scary. And then the person says, Now I'm listening. And then, well, I was listening the whole time. It was goddamn fascinating. Okay, so and so now the person says to them, there are millions of these cars on the road. This is probably happening around you all the time. You did not even notice this until I went to get into the car, what was scary, and then she didn't answer. And there was just this frozen moment, and all I could think was, oh my god, is this the level of acceptance that lives in some people's minds? How are we ever going to move forward? Like she didn't say, oh my god, that was amazing. It's what I thought when I saw it. I was like, oh my god, yeah, that's amazing. She didn't think it was amazing. She didn't think it was different. She wasn't piqued her interest. Wasn't there to ask questions. She just was scared. But I don't think she was really scared. How could she be scared? The car wasn't moving when she realized what happened, and so she gets a little combative finally, and says, I was next to that while it was happening. And the person says, Well, you were pretty far away because I was watching, but you were completely safe. That was scary. She says again. And he goes, there are millions of cars on the road that have this as a matter of fact, he goes while you're driving on the highway, it's very possible that many cars around you are being driven by a computer and not by the person sitting in the driver's seat. And I'm talking about and he like the person I shouldn't said he, but the guy starts to get a little like animated, and says it is controlling the braking the. Hearing the accelerating, the changing of lanes. There are millions of cars on the road that literally drive themselves, and you have no idea. And I think he was trying to be comforting to her, yeah. And she goes, and I swear to God, Nicole, she says that was scary. And I'm like, is this woman a moron? Like, that's what I started thinking. Like, I was like, maybe she's a big dummy, you know what I mean. But I couldn't tell, is she stupid, or is she just that overwhelmed by what she saw?

Speaker 1 1:10:29
The person should have taken her for a text drive and a heart attack. I'll

Scott Benner 1:10:33
tell you right now. I don't know what would happen if she got in that car, because I think she wanted to murder him. He says, after that, after the last That was scary. He says, call your congressman. And she goes, What's that supposed to mean? And I am like, I am like, if I was younger, I would have been videotaping this, because this is what the kids do when they see like this. But I was just watching. I was just an onlooker. And he goes, call your congressman if there are laws you don't like these cars are legal. If it's a law you don't like, You should call your congressman and see if there's something you can't do about it. And then she just stared at him, and he wished her a good evening, and drove away. And then I acted like I wasn't watching so but I thought about that for an hour afterwards. I came home, I told my The reason I can retell it to you now is I told my wife that my son came home. I told my son because all I could think was, if that's people's level of acceptance or understanding or ability to like move and change, no wonder we can't change very quickly. Yeah, God if she didn't say that was scary 10 times. But after being like, like, given like, being spoken to, offered up reasons like comfort and never could articulate a conversation back only to get mad when he said, call your congressman, she didn't understand what that meant, and that made her angrier, and that's all I saw. Is a modulation of thinking from her in this I mean, what probably was just a minute and a half, like, you don't even it wasn't a long conversation anyway. Like, that's the kind of stuff I think about that I would actually talk about on a podcast. If my podcast wasn't about diabetes, I would spend hours discussing that minute and a half that I witnessed.

Speaker 1 1:12:19
Well, maybe once you have all of this with AI, you can do a spin off. You can do another podcast of what's in Scott's brain. Oh, my

Scott Benner 1:12:28
God, there's so many weird things in here. But no, I can't, because I also have all my other ideas on my whiteboard, some of them, yeah, I'm really excited about, actually,

Speaker 1 1:12:38
well, that's awesome. That's That's awesome. I'm excited to see what what comes out.

Scott Benner 1:12:43
Anyway, you're very nice to listen to my long story. One

Speaker 1 1:12:46
more thing I have to say, go ahead, you really need to go to Canada.

Scott Benner 1:12:50
What is wrong? You're not in Canada. Why are you pushing me into Canada? I'm not trying to get rid

Speaker 1 1:12:55
of into Canada. No, I just think it's funny how you talk about Canada or even Alaska or and I know you're doing it in good fun, but Canada is beautiful, and you would, you would really like it. And you may, you may, bought a moose. And you may, I don't know you just you had to go to Canada, go see Banff, go see like Louise. How would

Scott Benner 1:13:18
I be able to say, Don't you own a penguin, to people where live, where there are no penguins. If I went to camp,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:25
I don't know. I just think you ought to gotta try it.

Scott Benner 1:13:28
Don't you just live on a salt flat with a big rock pile in

Speaker 1 1:13:31
the middle of it? Yes, and everyone's in a pioneer dress and has one husband and lots of wives. And what else about Utah, we eat jello all the time. What

Scott Benner 1:13:42
kind of jello? Sugar free or sugar? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:13:46
that's funny, because growing up, every family party in this diabetic family, there was always one regular rainbow jello and sugar free rainbow jello. Because we had so many diabetics in the family, is jello a Mormon thing. I don't know. Maybe it's a Utah thing, and maybe I'm just off my rocker, but it seems like it's always been a joke that there's always jello at and Mormon something.

Scott Benner 1:14:09
Well, you know, they say there's always room for jello.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:11
I didn't know that.

Scott Benner 1:14:13
I think that's the is that not the tagline?

Speaker 1 1:14:15
Maybe it's a generational thing, because I feel like with both of my grandmas, if we had a nice, fancy mill, there was always jello. I haven't made jello ever, so

Scott Benner 1:14:30
I just Googled. There's always room for and the first thing in Google is jello. Okay, oh, it's a god, it's a black and white ad. How fcking old am I? Exactly Jesus Christ. This is upsetting. Give me a second. Ready? Yep, hold on. Let's find this video here. This is a retrospectacle. There's always room for jello. It's actually a Oh, was yours in a jello mold? Like a salad, like a jello salad. I. Oh, like a button pan. Yeah, that's what they're showing right now. It says a sensation for salads, imitation apple flavor on the packages. There was Apple jello. Now it's more like green apple, right? Oh, and you could cube it up and put it together like in a wine glass. Look how sexy this is. Oh, oh, my God. The woman's mixer is a hand mixer. It's the one where you hold it, you turn the dial on the side of it to, like, make it spin. Oh, and this kid that they put in the he's not attractive, the child, hey, I mean, they must have just took the first baby. Well, this goes back into, like, all right, I can't watch this. Apparently, there's more history about jello than I knew. Yeah, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 1:15:44
I just Googled Mormons in jello and nothing. Yeah, something. Oh, there is. I just, I don't need to take the time to read about all this. There's some stuff about jello.

Scott Benner 1:15:54
All right. Everybody get involved in that. Maybe Jerry Seinfeld will make a jello movie next now that he's done a pop tart film.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:02
Oh, dear.

Scott Benner 1:16:04
It's like a pop tart movie. What am I gonna do with that? All right, have we done it? Are we good? We've done

Speaker 1 1:16:09
it. We're good. All right, thank you. I really, I really appreciate this show. No,

Scott Benner 1:16:13
it's my pleasure, and I'm so happy the podcast is valuable for you. It's really touching, and I don't know another way to say it. I'm just really thrilled that you enjoy it and that it's that it's helpful for you. I don't know how you motivate somebody to learn about something that they don't want to learn about, but I would think like after listening to your whole conversation, I would think that if you had a conversation with your daughter and said, Look, you know, I'd love it if we could do some of the things when you're not with me that we do when we are, you know, these 300 blood sugars they you can't feel good when that's happening. I want you to feel good. I want you to be able to enjoy the time that you're spending with your dad and that kind of stuff. Here are some simple little things we could do that would help you, and then just kind of reinforce those things and be a, you know, be a teammate. Don't be like, don't be a, don't be a coach, you know, and that over time, maybe she'll, you know, incorporate those into her thinking, and then they'll just happen automatically. You won't need somebody to do it for you.

Speaker 1 1:17:19
Yeah, well, I've got to figure out how to sometimes they go out to dinner at like, 910, at night. That's just crazy to me. Wow. So one of those things will have to be figure out how to dose correctly when you go out to eat that late, yeah. And then how to work out, because I've tried the other thing of telling the dad, um, you know you're not with her very often, maybe when she's with you on these days, like, try to be done eating it. Like,

Scott Benner 1:17:50
do the things we know, do the things we know work maybe, or

Speaker 1 1:17:54
go out to eat somewhere where you know is like, or just cook at home. Like, yeah, I don't know. There's so many things that I I have done to help her, and it just seems like over there, it's whatever's convenient for them. Yeah. Well, anyways, yeah, great. Okay,

Scott Benner 1:18:11
all right, hold on one second for me, you were terrific. Thank you very much. You OmniPod. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, gevok, glucagon. Find out more about gvoke. Hypopen at gvoke glucagon.com, forward slash juicebox. You spell that, G, V, O, k, e, g, l, U, C, A, G, O n.com forward slash juicebox. This episode of The juicebox podcast was sponsored by us Med, usmed.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get started today with us. Med, links in the show notes. Links at juicebox podcast.com the episode you just enjoyed was sponsored by Medtronic diabetes. Learn more about hyperglycemia and what you can do about it at Medtronic diabetes.com/hyper. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The juicebox podcast. If you or a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're looking for some fresh perspective, the bold beginning series from the juicebox podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CD CES, a registered dietitian and a type one for over 35 years, and in the bowl beginning series, Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698, in your podcast player, or you can go to juicebox podcast. Dot com, and click on bold beginnings in the menu, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongwayrecording.com, you.