#1601 Kitchen Triple Threat

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Valerie, 44, horticulturist and “triple threat” cook, juggles life with four kids, including a 10-year-old recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juicebox podcast.

Valerie 0:14
My name is Valerie, and I am a mother to a type one diabetic.

Scott Benner 0:24
I am here to tell you about juice cruise 2026 we will be departing from Miami on June 21 2026 for a seven night trip going to the Caribbean. That's right. We're going to leave Miami and then stop at Coco k in the Bahamas. After that, it's on to St Kitts, St Thomas and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands. The first juice Cruise was awesome. The second one's going to be bigger, better and bolder. This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type one diabetes, expand your community and your knowledge on juice cruise, 2026 learn more right now at Juicebox podcast.com/juice. Cruise. At that link, you'll also find photographs from the first cruise. 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 healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the twist AI D system powered by tidepool that features the twist loop algorithm, which you can target to a glucose level as low as 87 Learn more at twist.com/juicebox. That's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. Get precision insulin delivery with a target range that you choose at twist.com/juicebox. That's t, w, i, i s t.com/juice. Box, you today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate, and waiting for you at contour next.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes and their mini med 780 G system designed to help ease the burden of diabetes management, imagine fewer worries about missed boluses or miscalculated carbs thanks to meal detection technology and automatic correction doses. Learn more and get started today at Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox

Valerie 2:44
My name is Valerie, and I am a mother to a type one diabetic, and that's that's who I am. I call myself a triple threat in the kitchen because I have a horticulture degree and I have a background in nutrition, and I cook by default.

Scott Benner 3:05
Wait, what does horticulture have to do with a triple threat in the

Valerie 3:09
kitchen? Because you grow food,

Scott Benner 3:13
look at me. I'm like, Duh. You're like, I have a garden, idiot.

Valerie 3:16
That stuff that comes out of the ground, you can eat it. Friends, I thought you were

Scott Benner 3:21
talking about flowers for some reason.

Valerie 3:23
Yeah. Well, flowers are edible broccoli. Broccoli is a flower bud. Please don't

Scott Benner 3:26
start me on broccoli. I don't like it. There's a reason when I reach for food that I think people start eating when they want to be healthy. I say broccoli all the time because, right, I just, I don't understand. Nevertheless, you have just one child.

Valerie 3:40
I have four children. Wow, yeah, okay. The oldest is in college. She is applying for grad school. And the middle children are identical twins. They are going into the sixth grade, the major leagues, as I like to call it. And then there's Thomas, my youngest, and he was, he's going into fourth grade, and we were diagnosed a year ago. How old are you? How old am I? I am 44 Wait,

Scott Benner 4:11
all right, hold on a second. All these kids were the same boy. No, that's a good question. Yeah, definitely not. You could have three men in this but definitely two, right,

Valerie 4:21
right, for sure. So I didn't meet my husband now until the oldest was 10. Okay? So I had really accepted that it was just going to be her and I, and then here comes this stud just strolling along, and I just can see the rest of my life. So I go for

Scott Benner 4:41
it. It's like, you know what I need? I need to pay for somebody else's kid. It's gonna be awesome. Okay, so how old were you when you had your first? I was 21 okay? And then 10 years later,

Valerie 4:53
10 years later, I got pregnant with two babies at the same time on purpose. Yes, it was. Yes, it was intentional. Yeah, we had been married for about, Gosh, was it three months. And I joke with my husband now, because, like, every maybe three months, I'll wake up and I'll look over to him and I'm, I'll say, hey, let's get married by a farm and have a bunch of kids. And he's like, What are you fucking crazy? And I'm like, You got it, buddy? Because that's literally what we did. We did it like all in one year. And it was like, we went from one child who was 10, so she was very independent, yeah, and then it was just like, you know, we had goats and pigs and chickens and rabbits, and we, we really didn't know what we were doing with all of it. So it I'm sure, from afar, it looked chaotic. Oh my gosh, but in our mind, we were like, we're living the American

Scott Benner 5:51
dream. I sincerely apologize to my wife. Two weeks ago, there was a bunch of stuff going on in the house. One of the kids has something sad happening. One of the kids is sick. My wife's, like, gotta go somewhere for work. She doesn't want to go, like, just like, everything is upside down right. Like, as much could be possibly wrong is possibly wrong. And it's, I don't know. It's hitting you psychologically and physically in every other way. You know how it goes right, right? Oh, yeah. And I turned to her, and I was like, I'm so sorry. And she goes for what? And I said, asking you out, I apologize. I like, I feel like this is my fault.

Valerie 6:29
Yeah, I should probably tell my husband, and I'm more often as well. I did charm and Ben to all this, yeah.

Scott Benner 6:37
And I thought she was gonna be like, you're an idiot. She's like, I hear it, and I was like, no, no, no, I this is my fault. I should have left you alone. Is, you know, you looked pretty. I don't know. I should have just said, walked away, sure I didn't know all this was gonna I actually said I didn't know all this was gonna happen, right? Or I definitely would have left you alone, and I'm so sorry. And then we went and, you know, did something very important, like cleaned up something or, you know,

Valerie 7:02
right, dishes, put something away. Okay,

Scott Benner 7:05
so other autoimmune in your family, besides your son's type one,

Valerie 7:09
I have psoriasis, and then there's touches of thyroid on both sides of the family, lots of allergies, especially on my husband's side, like severe allergies like his his sister is only not allergic to oatmeal, so her throat is literally constantly, you know, inflamed.

Scott Benner 7:33
Wait, wait, his sister can only eat oatmeal and nothing else. Well, it's

Valerie 7:37
not that she can only eat that, it's that everything else that's not oatmeal is causing some type of an allergic reaction. So she's building, yeah, so it's, can you hear the diabetes alarm? It just No. Well, okay, because I it was super loud on my phone, and so I was like, Oh my gosh,

Scott Benner 7:57
that's gonna keep happening. I'm sorry. So she eats other things, but everything right inflames her throat

Valerie 8:03
Exactly. So she's having, like, oh gosh, acid reflux and all this other stuff happen now, and it's, gosh, yeah, I know

Scott Benner 8:11
I hate oatmeal. Does she like it at least? I mean, not anymore.

Valerie 8:15
I don't even know if she eats oatmeal, you know, it's just like, that's the only thing that didn't cause an allergic reaction on her, on her

Scott Benner 8:23
test, I like her resistance. She's like, I'm not. Oh, my God. Well, that's great saying your husband has what bad, like seasonal allergies, things like

Valerie 8:30
that. Seasonal allergies. Recently, I see it was about five years ago he had an allergic reaction to a bee sting. He experienced anaphylaxis. But, yeah, I know. And we, we thought maybe it was just a fluke. We'll just be more careful, because he had the whole bee suit on and everything, and he, you know, of course, got stung, like, right in the jugular. You guys keep bees. Well, not anymore, because we, we almost died. We had a few, a few more incidents after the first one, and we were like, You know what? This probably is just not a good idea. And so we sold them. And then the lady that we sold them to contacted me just after the pandemic, and she was like, two people now that she knows of have experienced anaphylaxis from the bees that we were keeping, and so they had, like, these beekeepers come out and study them, and they're like this pure strand of St Clair County honeybees, and they're great, you know, honey producers, but, but they'll kill you. Pack a punch. Valerie, how much of your

Scott Benner 9:41
life did you get off a tick tock? Do you also, do you also live in a converted school bus? What else is happening?

Valerie 9:47
No, no, that's next. That's next year. We're we're working up to that.

Scott Benner 9:51
We've got goats and bees. And I was like, Oh, she's going to convert a school bus into a living situation.

Valerie 9:58
We got out of the goat game. We are all. All done with goats. We are about to be all done with pot belly pigs. Those were an adventure. They're about 10 years old, and they're a couple of thugs. I'm just done. I'm done with the pot bellies. So the

Scott Benner 10:15
kid gets the diabetes. Sorry, trying to get back on track. How does it present,

Valerie 10:22
Thomas was going to the bathroom a lot and drinking a lot of water, and the teacher said something, I think, on a Tuesday, and she said, he's going to the bathroom twice as much as the other kids. I just wanted to let you know I was picking him up from school. I was in the playground, and I looked over at the other mom, and I said, Oh my God, what if it's type one diabetes? That was like my very first thought, jeez, Val, where'd that come from? Well, my sister, her youngest, was diagnosed when he was in fifth or sixth grade, and so I remembered what she had told me. You know, he was so thirsty, he was going to the bathroom a lot. He was having accidents. And so, yeah, I think I just had my my antennas were so your nephew has type one as well. Yes, I forgot to tell you about that. Okay, he does. What else? You forget to tell me? Anybody else? Oh, gosh, it'll it'll surface. It'll surface through the hour, trust me.

Scott Benner 11:20
Okay, okay, all right. Oh, so, okay. So you had enough background, yeah, so you said that the other person out there, and they were like, stop it, dummy, that's not what it is, right,

Valerie 11:28
right? And I was like, Well, of course it could be a bladder infection. I was like, I think don't girls get bladder infections more than boys? And I was like, Oh, well, I'll just call the doctor. We'll get them in. The nurse that answered the phone said, you know, they didn't have an opening until next week, and so I got off the phone thinking, Oh, I just being paranoid. She doesn't even think it's diabetes, so I'm just gonna I did all the steps. I made the appointment. It's for next week. Saturday, I woke up and I just knew something wasn't right. He was having accidents all throughout the night and the thirst. I mean, when you talk about that, and I hear other people saying that, it's like, just unbelievable. It really is. I mean, you just, you cannot imagine how much water they're drinking. It's

Scott Benner 12:20
like zombies with brains.

Valerie 12:22
Oh my gosh. So that Saturday, he had a basketball game, and I just started crying. And my husband was like, Well, do you not want him to do the game? And I was like, No, I want him to go to the game. And I, I think at that point I did for sure. No, like, I didn't need anybody to tell me anymore. So now it was more like, once somebody tells you that he has it, you can undo it now. And so I was kind of like, that's what was holding me back. I didn't want it to be confirmed just

Scott Benner 12:51
yet. Okay? And now the girl that one of the pot belly bigs is crying at the basketball game, and your husband's like, Oh, awesome.

Valerie 12:59
Right, right.

Scott Benner 13:01
Great. I bought the pigs. I mean, leave me alone.

Valerie 13:06
So the have you heard a pig cry? It's awful. I mean, it's like,

Scott Benner 13:10
can I tell you something very bad. Sound, yes. Would you be insulted if this episode was, have you heard a pig cry? Oh, nice.

Valerie 13:19
That's awesome. He's gonna love that.

Scott Benner 13:21
I'll tell you what. I haven't heard a pig cry, but I have very more recently heard a fox. Oh, wow. It's also very loud.

Valerie 13:29
I've been hearing people post stuff like that, like they thought it was a coyote or something, and I wonder if it was a fox.

Scott Benner 13:37
Wow. This segment's brought to you by Dr Seuss,

Valerie 13:40
that's funny. That is very funny. My God, that

Scott Benner 13:44
sounded like a dirty Dr Seuss book to me just

Valerie 13:48
now, that's another good time. Oh,

Scott Benner 13:50
dirty Dr Seuss, yes. Oh, that's even better. Valerie, you're producing good job. Keep going. All right. So do we go to basketball? We do?

Valerie 14:00
Yeah, we did. So the compromise was, Tom's dad is a type one diabetic. So he said, I'll just have my dad bring the kit. We'll test him.

Scott Benner 14:09
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Valerie 16:29
There you go. There you go. We got what? We got 40 more minutes.

Scott Benner 16:34
Does the fire department guy have it too? And the guy like, how many people in this story are gonna have right? Okay,

Valerie 16:40
right. All right. Go ahead. She Oh, my dad has type one diabetes. There you go. That's it. Valerie, your father has type one. No, actually, it's type two. Okay, type two. Both grandfathers

Scott Benner 16:53
have diabetes. One, type two, one, type one.

Valerie 16:55
No, well, I mean, he's the third stage of type two is type one, right? So that's why are you saying type one,

Scott Benner 17:01
okay, Tom's dad uses insulin, but has type two diabetes. No, no. Tom's grandfather.

Valerie 17:07
Tom's dad just checks his blood sugar every once while he's type two, he's well in control, okay, fit as a fiddle. My dad is type two, but is insulin dependent at this

point. Okay, got it all right. I'm sorry, and I'm

I'm like, constantly, like, on him, and he's like, you know, I'm just been sitting around, and someone was, oh, you might want to, you know, up your insulin if you've been sitting for more than three hours. And he's like, what? I'm like, Just a thought. I'm just gonna throw it out there. Awesome. Yeah, I think that's everybody. Okay, okay, so sorry. Okay, back to the basketball game. Back to the basketball game. So we have the kit there, and it's after the game. And he was very lethargic throughout the game, so I was quick to test him, and it it just registered as high. And so I I just looked at my husband, I said, Okay, are are we calling 911? Are we taking him to the hospital? Like, those are the options now. And we decided to take him across the river to the Children's Hospital. And I got a ride home. And then Tom called us, you know, right when he got to the emergency room, because then we're Googling and stuff, and they're like, if it tests high, then it's above 500 so then I'm calling our primary care physician, I'm calling the ER and letting them know that we're on our way. Because I'm just like, I'm just full of guilt already, like I could have done more, and why didn't I do more? Why didn't I listen to myself?

Scott Benner 18:43
Wait, wait, how long is it between the basketball game and standing on the playground telling the mom

Valerie 18:47
four it was four days. Oh, okay, yeah, so I guess Yeah, that wasn't that bad. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, five days.

Scott Benner 18:54
That's not bad. Sounds like it didn't take you that long to get it together. True, true. Was he Okay? Was he in? DK,

Valerie 19:00
no, he was not. He was actually ended up being 950 when we checked him into the

Scott Benner 19:06
hospital. It's very high. How long did they keep him over the river?

Valerie 19:08
We stayed four days. It ended up being four days. But three of the days were training. So those were the only reason why they said that they were keeping us was we had to complete our training, okay, and then we would get discharged

Scott Benner 19:24
on the way home. Did you have to go through the woods? No, because I really want you to say over the river and through the woods. At some point that didn't happen. No,

Valerie 19:35
a boy was trying on a boat. I did not have a coat. A

Scott Benner 19:40
couple more sentences we can make our own poem. Is what

Valerie 19:44
I'm saying. We're close. We're close. How old was he at

Scott Benner 19:46
that point? Again, I'm sorry, the contour next gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than your. Paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right. If you go to my link, contour, next.com/juicebox, you're going to find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite, aid, Kroger and Meijer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips in meter, then you would pay through my link for the contour next gen and contour next test strips in cash. What am I saying? My link may be cheaper out of your pocket than you're paying right now, even with your insurance, and I don't know what meter you have right now. I can't say that, but what I can say for sure is that the contour next gen meter is accurate. It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years. Contour next.com/juicebox and if you already have a contour meter and you're buying test strips, doing so through the Juicebox podcast link will help to support the show.

Valerie 21:00
Thomas was nine, and what was his reaction? He didn't really ask a whole lot of questions. And I don't think, I don't think we really talked about what was happening until the last day we were at the hospital. Now, Thomas is on the autism spectrum, okay, so he's, I mean, you would never know by talking to him or anything now, but when he was three years old, it was very obvious his speech was very delayed and he was just a wild thing, is the best way that I could describe it. I honestly think the pandemic was the best thing that ever happened to us, because we reset our schedule, and it just so happened to align with wherever he was developmentally, and so we just completely focused on his speech and understanding the behaviors. And yeah, I mean, he caught up so quick. He literally wasn't talking until he was like five more than seven words.

Scott Benner 22:01
How did having more time help? What did you do during that time? We would

Valerie 22:05
get a lot of behaviors during like transitional time. So like, going from the house, going to the car, leaving the grocery, going back to the car, and there would be, like a fit, and we weren't going anywhere. So that was all removed. It was very beneficial, which is crazy, because a lot of the behavioral plans implement, you know, how to work through those situations, because it's not realistic to take all that away and to just stay home, right? But then we slowly got back out there, and that was, that was the he kind of re emerged differently. Oh my gosh. Like a completely different person. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't get him in to private school before the pandemic, so we pulled the other two boys out of private school, signed everybody up for just regular public school, and then the public school was like, he doesn't even need an IEP. And I'm just like, I don't understand what's happened. Like he has an autism diagnosis and he doesn't even have an IEP, like, we have no goals here. Like he's they were just like, He's average. There's nothing this. He's good. We'll keep, you know, 504 open, just in case. But he's doing great. Okay, so,

Scott Benner 23:18
yeah, then you think something about who he is colored the first three days in the hospital, like, where you guys didn't really

Valerie 23:25
talk about he was watching just a lot of TV, and he was able to eat, you know, hamburgers and french fries and jerky. He was eating his favorite foods. So when we actually, I think we talked about it, like, maybe six months after it all happened, and he was like, remember that vacation that we took? And I was like, what vacation? He was like, the one where I got all the Legos and I got to eat the hamburgers and the French fries. I was like, are you talking about being in the hospital? And that's, that's how he remembers that had a good time.

Scott Benner 23:57
I was sick over the weekend, and besides being horribly disfigured by the fever and the shaking, oh gosh, I did enjoy sitting on the couch for a couple of days. I actually found myself thinking, I should try this once or twice when I'm not sick, right? It's interesting, at his age, that he thought of it that way. Is like a little break from life, and he got some toys, anything

Valerie 24:17
that he said he wanted. It was like, there within 15 minutes. So I'm sure that that was, that was a nice treat. I mean, it was, like an early Christmas. Pretty much, we just continuously were buying stuff and looking on Amazon. It was like, What do you want now? Oh, what can we get you? Oh, okay, that looks fun, because it was just my husband and I were really struggling. I wasn't eating or sleeping. I was just, I was beside myself. I stayed by his bedside the whole time. I didn't leave leave aside. I was just, I just remember this terror and just so much fear and the fact that no matter how bad I wanted it to go away, it just was never. Things were never going to change. I really struggled with that. For that would that was a hard one. It was a really hard one for me. How

Scott Benner 25:06
do you handle that? Do you speak with somebody, or is it family? Or what do you do?

Valerie 25:10
I journaled. I started a diabetes log or a book, and I just started, like, pouring all the information onto these pages. And then was, you know, talking about how I was feeling. I was literally grafting, you know, his insulin, the time of day, the activity, writing it all down, like when the insulin was peaking, what we were doing before, during and after. And it gave me so much peace of mind. I guess I was having such a hard time with processing how everything overlapped and affected each other, I just kept thinking I was going to get upside down or something, or drop off a little bit of information and Miss dose. And

Scott Benner 25:58
I always worried about everything you were doing and how the double checks. When you said you were graphing, yeah, I thought you said grafting, and I and then my mind jumped at the horticulture, and I was like, she was hybridizing plants,

Valerie 26:10
yes, yes, I was fusing, yes, fusing it together. I waited a little

Scott Benner 26:19
longer, got more context clues, and then I figured out what I was doing. Did it help? Did it help? The journaling helped you?

Valerie 26:24
It did help? It helped a lot. And then I, like, had this idea that I was going to try to, you know, publish the journal to help somebody. And then as I sat with it, I was just like, I don't know, it's so personal. It's, it's hard to know what to do with it. Yeah, I know it, but if I could just help one person, I would feel. I mean, that would be enough, right? I hear,

Scott Benner 26:46
did you end up doing anything with it? Is that what you're talking about? You were thinking about getting on Facebook?

Valerie 26:51
Yeah, it's sitting right here in front of me. I haven't opened it up, and in a really long time, it's, it's a lot. I mean, I three meals a day. I wrote down every food, every carb, every activity. I mean, it's a little crazy. I think that's what maybe that's what's holding me back from letting the world see this is because I went so extreme with it. Oh, you think you look nutty. I definitely not gonna look normal. It's a little concerning. Just because I did it that way doesn't make it the right way. It was just I knew that I couldn't control Thomas as a little boy, because it's not healthy. But if I obsessed about this notebook and how I wanted it done, then that that was a better choice, right? So

Scott Benner 27:42
I'm a little not confused, but I want to clarify, did the act of writing it down just make you psychologically feel better, or did it, did it actually functionally give you ideas about how to manage or both?

Valerie 27:54
It was very functional. So I'm a I'm a visual learner, and so when I would see it, it was, you know, permanent. And I, I did get peace of mind with, like, okay, I can let that go. I don't have to keep saying, has it been 15 minutes? I just open up the page. Oh, look, it was an hour ago. Okay, we're

Scott Benner 28:12
good. Yeah, it's interesting, because people's minds work differently. Sure, I had to rejigger the ad calendar the other day for the podcast. I mean, I'm sitting in front of like a color coded, you know, graph of like, days and episodes and, you know, advertisers and stuff like that. I found myself thinking, I'm like, I wonder how, like a person who doesn't think like me would do this, because there must be, like, a functionally correct way to handle this, but I just stared at it until I went, I'm gonna move this over here and that there, and put that there. I'm gonna do this and that, and that'll all work. And I was like, and done, right? And then I looked at it and I went, that it won't work. And then I did it again, and I was like, and now it's done. But I felt dumb while I was doing it, it, you know, like, just because I thought, like, I don't know what I thought, like the people, somebody's brain is better suited for this than mine. Yeah, it sounds stupid. I have a certain number of names and a certain number of times and a certain number of places they have to go, and you would, but I don't have any. I think it's why I'm bad at algebra. I didn't know the steps and, like, I didn't know if there were steps or if I should learn steps. It just sounds like you just didn't know what was happening, right? Like, so you just, like, I'll just keep putting it down in front of me exactly. And then when stuff happens, I'll refer back to the list I wrote, and I'll go, Oh, I did this. And then that happened, right? Yeah, right. And that happens a few times, and you think, Okay, I got a rule now, right? Yeah. And then

Valerie 29:41
just follow it, yeah. And then it was just like, I wonder, what else I don't know. I'll just write down everything.

Scott Benner 29:49
Oh, I see. And then did you find new ideas through that?

Valerie 29:52
Yes, and no, I can't remember. When I came across your podcast, somebody had forward it to the. They sent me a link or something, I can honestly say that your podcast changed everything for me. I was feeling so I don't know, alone, like, just completely alone, like there was just this. This was how it was going to be. Nobody was going to understand every time it was, like, every conversation that I had with somebody, it was the same it was the same conversation. It would take 45 minutes to explain. There would be like, 15 minute questions, and then that was our conversation. And it was exhausting to a point where I just didn't even want to really bring it up anymore, or I didn't want to talk to people about it. And then when I started listening to the episodes, I could relate to everything I mean, every single interview I can find something in the interview where it's like, wow, that I get that. Oh, I'm glad that's awesome. I like completely. I just found it so healing. It really made me feel better, like they're doing it, I can do it, it's going to be okay.

Scott Benner 31:11
Oh, that's, that's awesome. I'm glad that worked for that way. And I feel bad about making funny about the pigs, really, yeah. I mean, honestly, why would you buy a pig? What are you thinking when you do that?

Valerie 31:21
They were so dang cute. I mean, this little pig fit into dune. Do you know the American girl like stuff?

Scott Benner 31:28
No, I don't know anything about American girl. Stop it. No, I've been to that store. Go

Valerie 31:33
ahead. My daughter had an American girl sleeping bag, and this little pig would just like, go right inside of it and sleep. It was the tiniest little thing, and it was the run. It was like some Charlotte Webb story when we went and it was at an auction, they're like, it's the run, and it had a few bites on it from its brothers and sisters. And I just was like, oh, we gotta take this little pig and gonna be so much fun. We named him Timothy.

Scott Benner 31:58
And how much drywall did Timothy eat Exactly?

Valerie 32:01
Oh, he did not stay in the house. We knew. We knew after a month you've got to be outside this and yeah, it would, he would rip the binding off of a book, like, just like he was ripping a piece of paper into two pieces. It just was nothing.

Scott Benner 32:17
Maybe the bite marks were from the people who owned him. They were just like, bite that pig, see if it'll stop by eating the

Valerie 32:22
book. You're like, does he taste good? Let's try. Yeah. Let's eat the pig.

Scott Benner 32:28
Seriously, all right. Well, how long ago is this now? His diagnosis? Couple

Valerie 32:33
of years. It's just been a year, just a year a little over. Do you feel differently

Scott Benner 32:37
today? I do. And how do you manage? Like, is it like mdivi pump? What do you do? We

Valerie 32:44
have the Omnipod five, and we're on the g6 we were on the g7 and then that wasn't compatible with the iPhone, so we had to downgrade, okay,

Scott Benner 32:56
and then you'll wait for the next thing to happen. You'll keep moving, and you running in automation. Yeah? Awesome. Yep, yep. How's it working for you?

Valerie 33:07
We love it. We absolutely love it. For a little while, we were 80% in range, and then every once in a while, it'll go back to 50. But I still, I still do my timers, and I'm pretty religious about watching the trends and checking the numbers, and so we catch when we need to up our insulin. So Pre-Bolus

Scott Benner 33:28
your meals. Oh yeah, oh yeah, okay.

Valerie 33:33
And, I mean, thanks to the podcast. I know you know, not all foods were created equally, and you'll find that, you know, you can Pre-Bolus more so on certain things, and just, yeah, roll with it, right? That's

Scott Benner 33:47
what I've been trying to do. Yeah, I haven't died yet so, and she seems good, so, right, yeah, I mean, the roll with it thing, and I don't, I don't know if you can't put it better than just, you know, stay flexible, and it's just not static, you know? And you can't, yeah, you can't bend it to your will. Sometimes, sometimes you just have to,

Valerie 34:07
gotta go with it, you know, there's no perfect number. I've held on to that that was in my training. And, yeah, there is no perfect number.

Scott Benner 34:15
Okay, all right, so would you call yourself better in your mind, or is there still?

Valerie 34:22
Yeah, I do feel better about things. I still worry about Thomas being on his own a little bit. He's starting to wanna put in his carbs and dose himself. And when we left the hospital, they said, you know, when you can drive a car, you can give yourself insulin. And so we've held on to that rule. I didn't realize that at school that they were letting him put in his numbers. Hence,

Scott Benner 34:51
you got me for a second. Here, I cut you off. I apologize. No, the hospital told you that he can't give himself insulin till he's 1816,

Valerie 34:59
until. I can drive a car. Do you think that's right? I'm wondering now, because

Scott Benner 35:03
that sounds sorry. I know we're not all using that word again, but just the word popped the bite. I was like, that don't sound right, right? Is it possible you misunderstood them? No. Do you live on the side of a mountain?

Valerie 35:19
No, sure. On the side of a river,

Scott Benner 35:21
okay, does the river anywhere near like a city or people or anything like

Valerie 35:25
that, right outside of St Louis? Okay? Yeah, our Children's Hospital was

Scott Benner 35:28
an encampment or something like that somewhere. No, no, no. I in my life have never heard anyone say that really, yes, not once, ever has anyone said that to me. Oh, wow. Arden was giving herself insulin when she was in third grade. Wow, yeah. Like, I would be like, hey, that's 30 carbs. And she'd be like, right on, and then roll it up on the pump and do it okay.

Valerie 35:51
So back to what I was saying. Cool. So he was eating a Blow Pop, and it was 17 carbs, and he entered it as 71 Yeah, and nobody double checked him.

Scott Benner 36:04
We don't want that, that's for sure, right? Yeah, I'm not saying, like, why? Just give it to him now, let him get going. But I'm like, I don't know that you can't work towards it sooner than that. He doesn't have any developmental reasons why he couldn't handle it, right? I mean, autism, but I mean, you said you also told me I wouldn't notice. Yeah, he doesn't have an IEP, right? You said about his autism specifically, if I didn't tell you at autism, you wouldn't notice exactly so does it impede his ability to understand

Valerie 36:28
numbers or, I mean, he processes information differently. My husband's probably better at explaining this. My husband is a BCBA. We have our own practice, so he's a board certified behavior analyst, and he specializes with autistic clients. So there's a little bit of irony

Scott Benner 36:52
there. I'm an analyst, I'm not board certified. I just have a podcast.

Valerie 36:57
I mean, I've said it a million times. I don't know why the best type one diabetes training is a podcast, and it's you that I'm referring to. I don't I don't understand it. I don't know why, but there it is. Because I've had, like, the school nurse and stuff when I'm, like, referring to the podcast or something, and they're like, you can't just, you know, ask somebody to listen to a podcast, and I'm like, the hell I can't I'm telling you this. This is the information. It's all right here. Just let me send you the link. It'll be great. School

Scott Benner 37:26
nurse. Not interested. Not interested. A lot of school nurses do listen, though, I have a nice contingent of school nurses in the Facebook group. They believe it for everyone and who don't have kids with type one and come and listen to podcasts. So the truth is, is that, you know, if they wanted to, they would, and you know, they don't want

Valerie 37:41
to, right? I think it says something more about me also, is that when, you know, when I was so emotional when we first got diagnosed, I think that the school got to know me as that person. And that's not, that's not who I am. That was the situation that I was in, right? And that was awful, little nutty. Wow, gosh, it was, it was really rough. I mean, I was just like, I could just start crying, and I would just try to just talk right through it like it wasn't happening. Because I'm not really a crier. So that was how I would deal with it, like, oh, I don't know, it's like water coming from my eyes, and I'll just keep talking. I don't know,

Scott Benner 38:20
consider yourself stable before this happened. I just want to check,

Valerie 38:23
I mean, I'm flighty. Is that a

Scott Benner 38:27
thing your dad told you, wait, what the hell? I

Valerie 38:29
guess I've heard people joke like that. I have ADHD because I'm high energy and I thrive on, you know, solving problems and creative thinking and stuff like that. But

Scott Benner 38:43
well, when do you think your son would be able to handle this? Like, I think that's maybe a more appropriate question. Or what, forget the age. Like, what do you think he would need to be able to accomplish for this to work out for him?

Valerie 38:55
I think he's just waiting for me to say, you can do it, because that's just the type of person he is. So if I say, you know, we're he does like rules, and he likes things done a certain way. And for that reason, diabetes is probably going to be a slam dunk for him, because that's his personality, following the rules. So I think he is just waiting for us to be like, you can do this, Thomas, here's the plan. Let's

Scott Benner 39:20
start. Is there any reason you don't do it together? It together?

Valerie 39:23
I guess, just because we haven't sat down and talked about starting? Maybe

Scott Benner 39:28
what that would look like, because I think maybe, like, start slow, start volleys at the house.

Valerie 39:33
Yeah. I mean, it's summertime, so this would be the best time to and don't start before

Scott Benner 39:37
you think he's ready, but like, like, you know, listen, I don't know him. I'm I'm judging him based on what you're talking about, but he's definitely old enough to understand numbers, yeah, yeah, and push buttons and understand why being right is important about, you know, carb counts and stuff like that. And if you see an and you could also, you said earlier, he entered a 71 instead of a 17. Or somebody did, you could set the pump up so it won't give them that many carbs. Like, you can, you know, like, like, put in a safety of, like, Look, if you know, a Bolus is over this many carbs, you know, it won't take exactly, and that way that should, you know, be, I mean, valuable there, but yeah, I like the like, are you home during the day? Or no,

Valerie 40:19
I've pretty much dedicated the past year to type one diabetes. So we, you know, we pretty much let our farm slide a lot. And I just was like, This is what I'm going to focus on. I'm going to master this. And

Scott Benner 40:36
how are you doing? What does anyone say?

Valerie 40:38
I don't even know. What Is anyone C is? It's so crazy that I am sure that they're checking it every time. They never really say at our appointments.

Scott Benner 40:47
Well, you now making me think that might be the oddest thing anyone's ever said to me. You said in concurring sentences I've made my life about diabetes. I don't say 1c I know, I

Valerie 40:57
know I'm a contradiction. So humiliated.

Scott Benner 41:03
So wait. How about in his like Dexcom clarity app, can you not see what his GMI is? Can I? Yeah, you

Valerie 41:09
can. Should I put you on speakerphone and look, is it possible you're smoking

Scott Benner 41:13
crack during the day and not paying attention to diabetes? What are you doing? Yeah, you can these timers, his phone, not in yours. Oh, yeah. Oh, wait, you have a, you have a follow. Of the follow, yeah, hell. I don't even remember.

Valerie 41:27
I mean, it's, there's the new, what is that new app, the glue co I don't

Scott Benner 41:33
know. Yeah, if I told you the number of apps that have come and gone since I've been around all this that I don't pay attention,

Valerie 41:40
that makes my heart hurt to hear you say that, because that's the it is very annoying, all of the passwords, all of the accounts, I

Scott Benner 41:47
just mean the third party companies are like, this is gonna help with that, and this is gonna I'm like, Okay, we'll see, right? Let's find out real quick, though. Like Dexcom follow

Valerie 41:59
GM, I

Scott Benner 42:02
check my Google foo here to see your glucose management indicator and Dexcom g7 Nope. Dexcom g6 Do you think people at home were like, g6 like, yelling as I was typing, yeah, yeah. Allows user to share the glucose data when we know that. I don't know if your follow. Oh, why am I looking mine? Sorry, if only I knew were to get one of those damn Dexcom follow upset. I definitely don't think you can see it and follow. That makes me feel a lot better. Yeah, awesome. I mean, how often you think I'm looking at this thing?

Valerie 42:37
So I have, like, all these questions ready every appointment. And I think I focus on my questions too much. I do. Sorry. I paused because my diabetes alarm was beeping high.

Scott Benner 42:54
What's the alarm set up for? High i is above 150 Okay, and he's, yeah, he's at school. Now, what happens that you just wait for the algorithm that takes take care of it. I

Valerie 43:05
mean, if he's at home, I'll give him a blood correction, if it's after an hour from the Bolus. And then if he's at school, the nurse, it's not in his plan. And I've, I've talked to her about giving them a correction, but it's they're having a hard time with taking him off exercise mode. So like most of the day at school, he's on exercise mode. And I'm like, Was he really at recess for four hours? And why are they that's not true. Is he getting low? There was a period of time where they were forgetting to put him on exercise mode, and he would go low, especially because, you know, they have lunch and then they go straight to recess. The temperatures, you know, getting warmer. Well, now they can get him on exercise mode, but they can't get him remember to get him off. So it's like, if I push for them to turn it off, are they gonna forget to turn it on. Like, it's just, like, where, what's wrong? What's going on here? Like, why?

Scott Benner 44:06
Valerie, listen to me. You okay?

Valerie 44:09
I mean, most days, yeah, I can't tell if you're okay

Scott Benner 44:12
or not, really. Oh, 45 minutes, I can't figure it out. Oh,

Valerie 44:17
that scares me. That's not good, Scott, that's really bad.

Scott Benner 44:21
There's like, I stopped myself from asking you, were bipolar 10 minutes ago, because I don't think you are. But like, oh god, that's really bad. You feel like somebody put you in a box and shook you up. Yeah, yeah. I don't think you need to feel that way, so I'm trying to figure out how to get you through it. But you really knocked me over when you said you don't have any idea. What does anyone say? Is like, Yeah, I'm confused by that, in a way that I'm having trouble putting into words,

Valerie 44:47
yeah. I don't really even have a good, good answer for that.

Scott Benner 44:50
I spending your day doing

Valerie 44:52
I think I feel good about seeing that we're 80% in range, and so if we're 80% in range. Range, then the A, 1c, is where it should be at, right? No, I guess that. No, what's the range? The range is 70 to 160

Scott Benner 45:08
Okay, that's awesome. And being that 80% of time is fantastic. Like, I don't know how often you're low or high or anything, or if high means 400 and low means 30, then this isn't great, just being right. Get in range 80% of the time, right? I'm trying to resolve the idea that you told me that your whole life is diabetes and that you don't work and you're at home because you're taking care of it, but you don't have that information like so what are your goals? Are you just shooting time in range that what you're worried about? No,

Valerie 45:38
I spend a lot of time cooking. I'm preparing all of the meals. I'm out in the garden, you know, planting and getting things ready. I make my own sourdough. We do our own yogurt. I just started brewing kombucha for gut health.

Scott Benner 46:01
Valerie, when I asked you how much of your life is from tick tock, how come you didn't say most of it when I tick tock, is it really like you're doing a lot of social media, things like making sourdough? Like, not that you can't make sourdough and not be on social media, but if you knew what social I guess if you're not on these things, you don't realize this,

Valerie 46:18
but I don't know. So I'm like a, what do they call caricature?

Scott Benner 46:22
It feels like you're a caricature of a person on Tiktok, but I don't think you are, though, no, I'm not on Tiktok. Yeah, you're not. Like, where did you get the idea to do sourdough from? I think it was,

Valerie 46:33
that was about 10 years ago I started doing sourdough. And so

Scott Benner 46:38
Val, is it possible that Tiktok is a caricature of somebody living your life.

Valerie 46:42
Oh, thank God, am I an algorithm? Oh, geez,

Scott Benner 46:45
maybe they're watching you and you're what's feeding the algorithm. They're like, what's Val doing now, kombucha, we can make a video about that. You know,

Valerie 46:53
that's really funny that you said that because I live next to one of the largest you pick farms in the country, or at least it was 15 years ago, every time I was doing so I would, like start hosting, like a DIY stuff. And then months later, this farm, this big, like Walmart of a farm, would start doing the same type of thing. And I was like, Am I really that close to being successful? Like,

Scott Benner 47:23
Valerie, your chat. GPT, am I missing? Am

Valerie 47:27
I Am I really a day late and $1 short? Is it that close for me,

Scott Benner 47:33
your ideas are being stolen. Two of you, first of all, we're gonna have to make a hat for you out of tin foil. Right now, they're watching you, and they're taking all your ideas.

Valerie 47:41
They are not. Tell me that's not true. God, yeah,

Scott Benner 47:48
sorry. I'll start.

Valerie 47:49
I'll post to my friends, like, oh, let's have a seed exchange. And then all of a sudden, like, it's happening all around me. And I'm like, How did, how did that happen?

Scott Benner 47:58
I tell you a story. Yeah, one summer night, it was so hot we were dying, like, we didn't have air conditioning. I don't know about you people who grew up rich, but back then, you had to be rich to have air conditioning. Like, so we didn't have air conditioning. It was like, ungodly hot outside, and my buddy and I went to the toy store and bought a baby pool and filled it up outside, drug A television outside, with a extension cord, and we just laid in a baby pool trying to, like, not die and watching TV. We were watching Seinfeld first run because I'm old. There's this bit on Seinfeld, and I promise you, I don't remember the bit anymore. It was so reminiscent of, like, a running joke I had like that I would do like, I don't know, like, I don't want to say that I was out there doing bits when I was 20. But like, you know, like, sometimes you got stuff that works. You use it a lot. I always thought it was very unique and different. Made people laugh and everything, and it's happening right on screen in front of me. And I turned to my friend, I was like, Are you selling my fcking ideas to people, and he laughed, and he goes, that was oddly similar to what you said. I was like similar. And he goes, no word for word. We couldn't go back and check, of course, because it was before time shifting or nothing was re you would never see that episode of our game, but it just flew by in front of us. And now I want to point out that I did not think he was selling my ideas to people, but I do think maybe the internet is chasing you around. Oh my god. You said, I make my own yogurt. You said, beekeeping. You said, kombucha. You said, Pop belly pig. You said, so many sourdough you did. Yeah, your husband is does what for

Valerie 49:38
a living. Is this gonna help? Is this gonna help your views and your likes. I mean, I'm sorry,

Scott Benner 49:42
all the right words is, apparently everything people care about

Valerie 49:46
now we have to say puppies and pizza and we're done. It's all stick a fork in it. We did it exactly. We have arrived. Oh

Scott Benner 49:55
my gosh. I want to get back to this. I hear you're busy, like, obviously you're doing a lot. Of stuff, right? Yeah, yeah. And you're jamming that diabetes stuff into any little bit of free time you have, and right? And so it feels like the day is overwhelmed with diabetes.

Valerie 50:09
It's timers, yeah, the time. And I've tried to, I've tried to take a step back, and I've tried, I mean, it was really hard to stop doing the logging after 100 days. And I told myself, you're going to do it for 100 days, and then you're going to stop, because this is it's this isn't the way. This is it's okay for right now and for this amount of time, but then you will be done. Because what I have noticed is like with with the sourdough and with the yogurt, is I jump in and I go deep. I like, want to know, like, everything there is about it. I don't want to do it, like, six times a day, and then I'll burn myself out. And it's like, oh, I need something else. Let's start, you know, crocheting. What are we going to make? Or soaping? Oh, that's another thing. There you go. Can't believe you just said that. I'm a soaper.

Scott Benner 50:59
You did not know to keep that to yourself when it was started coming out of your

Valerie 51:05
mouth. I am also a hooker, but only at night. It's rug hooking.

Scott Benner 51:10
Yeah, wait, you're doing hook rugs. Oh, my dad

Valerie 51:14
used to do this. Oh, yeah. Those are fun. Those are a lot of fun. Is there any chance you're autistic? Oh, gosh. I mean, how could I not be and I and I always have told, you know, all the kids that you know, if Thomas is diabetic, then we're a diabetic family. If one of us is autistic, then we're an autistic family. It's just who we are. And you guys come from me, and so how could I not have that somewhere in my body? Because that's, you know you're the byproduct.

Scott Benner 51:41
Well, I want you to be calmer, like, and not feel like you're like, running towards timers all the time for sure, right, right? And your time is difficult to know. Like, I'm not telling you a 1c is everything, but I just it would have been a launching in place for the conversation. Like, if you understand that, you know, he can't be low all the time and then high all the time, and then say, like, you know, oh, is a 1c is good, because it averages out. Like, if you understand that, that's true, and you're pre bolusing meals, and he's, how often do you think he's low? Like, how many times do you find yourself stopping a low blood sugar? What do you call low?

Valerie 52:16
I call double arrows down and like the 150 range that I just call that a low that it's happening, it will be low within 15 minutes. That usually happens about twice a week. You see

Scott Benner 52:30
double arrows, twice a week. Yeah, is that during activity, or after a meal, or after a meal, and then activity like, do you see a pattern how that happens

Valerie 52:40
so, and I think that it is maybe part of the autism. Maybe I have downplayed that a little bit, Thomas will spontaneously, like, do like these spurts of jumping. And so, yeah, that can trigger, that can trigger a quick low, quick low. If he gets, like, really excited, he could start like jumping. It's less noticeable, though, because I, I mean, he's coping so well with the autism, so he's masking it a little bit better. Or, you know, if we just didn't get the timing right on exercise and the last meal, I do like to do the sports with no insulin on board, but it doesn't always work out like that, because, you know, with school in session, everything's around dinner time, right? So it's like, you Yeah, yes, I have cucumbers and string cheese to hold them over before. And sometimes I'm like, You know what? We'll just, we'll roll with it, and I'll just keep, keep carbon you up to keep you afloat.

Scott Benner 53:41
You don't see the double hours after certain meals or a certain size boluses.

Valerie 53:47
Not anymore, okay. Well, it does feel kind of random

Scott Benner 53:51
activity with insulin on board gets you a low. Oh, yeah. And so if you see 150 double hours down, you give them something. How low does the CGM ever say, before you

Valerie 54:01
stop it, I'll usually catch it in the 90s. Okay,

Scott Benner 54:05
that's awesome. Good for you. Yeah, yeah. So he doesn't get the or does he get feelings of being low? Then,

Valerie 54:10
yeah, we've had two scary lows in a year. What were the numbers, 43 and then almost to 40,

Scott Benner 54:19
okay? And how did he feel? Then, did he? Did he verbalize it?

Valerie 54:23
Yeah, he his eyes got really red. He said he was tired. And then the other time, he got very nauseous

Scott Benner 54:33
and but you haven't seen that recently. Actually, last month, we had a really scary low. You know, where it came from? Could you put your finger on it, yeah,

Valerie 54:41
he was sick for a week. Was sick for a week, and he went so he wasn't eating very much at all, and his blood sugar was like, just beautiful. I was like, Oh, I like, Thomas sick. This is amazing. He's just a straight arrow buddy. And then he started. To get his appetite back. And it was about on day five. And so I was like, Okay, well, you want to eat this donut? Well, you only eat half of it. And I was like, Okay, it's cool. Don't worry, because it's still gonna, it's still gonna hit. We'll just give you something when it's when the insulin starts pulling harder than the carbs, right? That's how I'm always looking at it as like a tug of war. Yeah, you know, you just don't want the insulin to pull harder than the carbs. So he, all of a sudden, just started to feel nauseous, and we were like, oh, no, let's just start sipping some juice. And then we tested his blood, and it was like, 60s. And then it's his CGM started reading double arrows down, and I was like, Oh my gosh. And he got all the way down to the 40s, and then we couldn't get him to go above 60 for like, almost an hour. And then I couldn't get him above 90 for almost three hours,

Scott Benner 56:00
because you Bolus for a whole donut, he had a half a donut, yes? And he hadn't had much food recently, right? Sick, use a little lower to begin with.

Valerie 56:08
It just like, it just blew my mind. Like, I was just, like, I can't believe that was so hard to correct when juice is, like, you know, usually the magic, oh my gosh, yeah. I mean, it's gonna, just the littlest bit will send you to the moon.

Scott Benner 56:22
Yeah, the illness can make you really insulin sensitive sometimes,

Valerie 56:26
oh my gosh, yeah. I mean, I was, I felt sick. I was even to the point where I was thinking about, like, putting, like, honey on his gums and stuff, because he was just so low and not going up. And I kept thinking, what if he slips further down and we're already so low? And then we tried to call the on call doctor, and their system was down. Of course. It was just, it was rough, right? It was, it was Yeah. And then when we did get the doctor on the phone, she was like, You should have given him his emergency medicine, the nasal

Scott Benner 57:04
glucagon. Yes. Well, did you feel like that was necessary? It sounds like you managed

Valerie 57:08
it. I'm very hesitant to give it to him while he's conscious, but then when I say that if he goes unconscious, that's even scarier, and that's what you're trying to prevent, right? When Thomas throws up, the vomit usually comes out of his nose, and it's just so painful for him, he gets very upset, as anyone would, right? Yeah, to give him medicine in his nose and to know that that's how he feels with like the burning sensation in his nose, I just know he's gonna be so unhappy, and I know it's gonna happen. I haven't talked to him about this is what this medicine is. This is how it's gonna feel. And I don't even know if I should

Scott Benner 57:53
you're afraid he wouldn't use it if he needed it. I

Valerie 57:56
mean, we would make sure that it happened regardless. But yeah, if it were up to him, would he, would he pass on it? Yeah, yeah. That's

Scott Benner 58:03
a tough one. And I don't know that he needs to know that it, it might burn in his nose afterwards. You know what? I mean, like, right? I don't know it's tough. They're going to be people listening to this and say, you have to tell them. And there's going to be people are like, Oh, God, don't like so, I mean, that's a personal decision. I think, you know, right? You're going to know him better than anybody

Valerie 58:22
else. Yeah, he's, I mean, he's the sweetest. He really is just the sweetest boy every all of his teachers are. You know, he's just an amazing kid. And he's,

Scott Benner 58:33
how did the other sisters, brothers handle the diabetes stuff?

Valerie 58:37
Well, right or wrong? I like, shut down the kitchen, because we were pretty much free range, like anybody could come into the kitchen and get anything they wanted. I had snacks all prepped. And then once we were diagnosed, it was more like, Hi, how can I help you? Can I get you something to eat? And you know, I was turning people away. We weren't allowed to just eat anywhere we wanted in the house. I didn't realize at the time that Thomas was feeling guilty because he felt like he had done that to the whole family, like changed food for everyone. We have just started talking about that, and we've we're seeing a psychiatrist here in town just to make sure that we're talking about our feelings a little bit more because it's with food. I mean, gosh, it. There's not a single thing in your life that it doesn't touch, right? Yeah. So I just want to make sure that we're staying checked in, and that we're having the conversations, and that we continue, continue to talk about what's bothering us and what we can do better. You

Scott Benner 59:42
said you're in the kitchen all the time. Are you the security? Are you standing there making sure nobody has food or, like, what do you how do you managing it?

Valerie 59:48
I mean, I was, I was then, like, the first three months that we got diagnosed, and then I started labeling everything and saying, you know, okay, just let me know what you want, and I can get it for you. Or the timer with the pre bullet saying, so it's like, he goes in there and he wants it. I'm like, Okay, let's set a timer for 15 minutes. And he, like, looks at me, like, Well, I'm not going to be hungry in 15 minutes. And I'm like, Yeah, you will, don't worry, buddy. I'll just set it real quick. Just go play a game or whatever. That's been really hard,

Scott Benner 1:00:16
the weight, it's hard for everybody, not just him, like, Yeah,

Valerie 1:00:20
what a liberty to just be able to throw food in your mouth and not

Scott Benner 1:00:23
think about it, right? And what happens if you do that? He gets high, yeah,

Valerie 1:00:28
oh, yeah, for sure. And just two days ago, he was sitting on the couch and he was eating some pretzels, and I was like, Oh, I didn't realize you were, you were having a snack. I could have given you some insulin. Do you need? You know, do you need me to take a look at your numbers, and I was trying to be, like, casual about it and not guilt him. I didn't really understand if he forgot or if he just didn't want to care in the moment. But that has been happening more often, yeah, where he's just eating something and not saying anything, and I'm I'm trying to handle it the best I can and just

Scott Benner 1:01:01
listen. Only been at it for a year, first of all, and it sounds like you have a handle on a lot of it, and you're getting a handle on the rest of it, like it's not going to be see. Listen, I teased you a little bit earlier. It's a year. Yeah, you know what I mean, you're doing great, and you're going to do more, and you're going to learn more, and you're going to build on top of your grade, and it's going to get better and better, and you'll be less flustered, you'll be less focused on, like, constantly looking at it. You'll probably get to a point where you realize you can't, like, safeguard the kitchen, and that everybody gets to eat and stuff like that. Like you'll get it's just a process, right? It'd be easy for anybody to listen to, like, one section of anybody's, you know, interview, forget you and go, oh, like, they can't do that. Like, you know, I'm not telling you that there's not an argument for the other side. Like, I don't think you should have shut your kitchen down because eating disorders come weirdly from stuff like that too. You don't want that, right, for sure, but I see what you're doing. You're like, I gotta figure something out before we just, like, for like, like, something's gotta slow down a little bit so I can get a handle on this, like, firmly. So just keep doing that, keep learning, having experiences, adapt and expand your understanding, and keep going. You know what? I mean, like, I think you're getting there. It sounds to me like you're doing well, honestly, like, after, yeah, you know,

Valerie 1:02:23
I feel better. I have to keep reminding myself, too, though, that this isn't really happening to me. This is happening to Thomas. You

Scott Benner 1:02:30
have said a couple of things that I know that a like an adult living with diabetes would, like, cringe at, right? Yeah. It felt like you were looping yourself in with his experience. Yeah, yeah, and, but it must feel like that to you, right? I want to carry it. Oh, you're still stuck on that. Yeah, that has to go. I know. I know. Strap it to one of the pigs and let it go. Never abandon your animals. I'm sorry. I was just, gosh, those pigs, I don't know what you're doing there. You've made a couple of hinky decisions. The pigs is one of them. Although the soap thing sounds nice,

Valerie 1:03:08
oh, the soap is amazing. Which I started doing that because of my psoriasis. So that's been, you know, 20 years, 20 years making soap because it, you know, the fragrance isn't regulated as a lot of things aren't in a country that's quote, unquote free. So yeah, I was trying to eliminate those byproducts that were drying my skin out. But is

Scott Benner 1:03:31
it possible your psoriasis is autoimmune?

Valerie 1:03:34
Yes, yeah, psoriasis is autoimmune, right?

Scott Benner 1:03:37
So you have that going too. Gotcha. Yeah? Listen, here's what I think. I think you got to find out. What does anyone say is that's first he's got blood work done, right?

Valerie 1:03:48
Yeah. And I'm sure that they've said it, and I've been like, Oh, that's good. And then I just disregard the number, because there was nothing to worry about. So if I'm sure that that's what happened, I wonder if my husband knows. I mean,

Scott Benner 1:04:01
somebody said you it's good, and you were in, oh, they said, it's good. That's fine. I don't want you to do that, if that's what's happening. Like, I want you to know, yeah, I don't want you to obsess about it, but I want you to have that information, because I don't know how else you're supposed to begin to gage how things are going. You know, timing, like I said, timing range is great, but I can't see the rest of the range. I don't know what the other 20%

Valerie 1:04:21
look like. So okay, so maybe I don't understand what a 1c is.

Scott Benner 1:04:25
Is he going to the doctor, like quarterly and having a blood draw? Yes, and they're checking his a 1c Yes. Okay, that's the first step of every appointment. Okay? And then that number comes back and someone says to you, the number, or they say to you, it looks good. How do they handle it?

Valerie 1:04:42
Yeah, I don't. They're not really, like, focused on it

Scott Benner 1:04:46
at all. Okay? And you've never asked.

Valerie 1:04:49
I've never had to ask, yeah, because I think that they are just saying it, and I'm maybe I'm distracted when they're going over it. I

Scott Benner 1:04:57
hear you find out next time, like, next time something. See what's the A 1c i got my 80% time and range here, but I want to just make sure that, you know, correlating to what we're seeing. And you know, like, like as an example, right? Like, if your blood sugar went all day long, say it went from 50 to 450 to 400 it just did that. Like mountain peaks all day long. Oh, gosh, if that happened, your a 1c wouldn't look that bad, because it would do an average. It would show you an average between 50 and 40, which would put you somewhere in the middle. And you'd be like, Oh my one sees not bad. It's seven or something like that, right? That's not the right way to come by a lower a 1c but you're looking for stability, which I think your time and range is showing is pretty damn steady. You know what I mean, 80% between 70 and 160 is awesome. But are we jumping up and down in there? Are we having big excursions and leaving 150 or 160 and going to 400 or 300 and staying there for an hour and coming back down? If so, then this is not what you're shooting for. You're looking for more rolling, you know, gentle rolling hills on that graph. Like I said, again, anyone sees not everything. But I'm not asking so much because of the number. I'm just asking because it's a weird thing that nobody's made. It's so strange to me that somebody hasn't told you the value in knowing what it is. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. And you've been to how many appointments now since he's been 230, 230,

Valerie 1:06:22
gosh, like five or six, yeah, because there were special appointments when we got our pump.

Scott Benner 1:06:27
But I mean, like, the actual, like, quarterly appointment where you go in and they, they pretend to look at all your stuff and ask you how you're doing, and take the blood,

Valerie 1:06:35
yeah, like four. And I think our next one is, like, in a couple of weeks. So this is, this is going to be at the top of my list.

Scott Benner 1:06:42
I'm super interested, okay?

Valerie 1:06:44
And then I bet. And so they have a log of all of it. Obviously, find

Scott Benner 1:06:48
it if you put, I'm not asking to do that now, but you would have access to that, right? Yeah, once you take a look and see, like it's just good for you to know where you're at. And you know for goal setting, too. If you, you know, some people don't like to think about the number, but like, I'm doing this, and this is the outcome I'm getting, you know. So if I want a different outcome, I can maybe change how we're using the insulin and how activity is being done, how eating is happening, like, a number of different things that can, you know, help you manage that idea. So I don't know. I just think you just have all that information. So

Valerie 1:07:22
I'm trying to apply the information that you did give me. So let me just double check that I understand if we are having, like, the the lows and then the high, and then the lows and the high, and our a, 1c, is like, at seven. Well, the graph with the number says that things could be better. But if the graph is showing, oh, you know, you're these rolling hills, and you're getting stuck every once in a while at 200 but then you come right back down with a good a, 1c, it's like a double check system, because

Scott Benner 1:07:53
it's like, yeah, you want to stay in range, and you want that range to be tighter. Like some some people will be like, Oh, I'm in range 100% of the time. And you look in their range is like 50 to 400

Valerie 1:08:01
and, oh, my god, yeah, I did listen to that episode, I remember. But if you're

Scott Benner 1:08:05
at 70 to 150 or 160 I mean, that's a pretty tight that's a pretty tight range, that's awesome. Yeah, you don't even mean all this a 1c is doing is measuring time and range. It's glucose on your red blood cells. I just think that's a thing you should understand, because then it'll lead you understanding other things Gotcha. And not only that, I just honestly, Valerie, like you stunned me, because I just No one's ever said that before. No, I swear to God, are you being serious? I've been stunned three times in the last three months. One of them was somebody telling me about their porn addiction. And the other one is, you telling me about this a 1c thing people have said, Oh, I don't know what my 1c is right now, no one's not been able to after a year of getting a 1c tell me about what their a 1c is that's interesting to me, like, and I don't know if that's incredibly healthy or disconnected. I can't figure out.

Valerie 1:08:54
I mean, I'm I'm asking myself the same question. I'm like, wow, I thought I was ninja level. And now I'm questioning, I'm questioning my process.

Scott Benner 1:09:02
I don't know, like I would, I mean, don't question yourself too much, because it really is a process. Just roll through and keep, keep adding to yourself. Like, I'm not saying, like, feel badly about any of

Valerie 1:09:11
this. No, I'm not. And, yeah, I get what you're saying. You talk to a lot of people. And yeah, people know the number, and I didn't. And, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:09:19
have you ever heard this sound effect that went off in my head when you said that? I was like, I was like, because you literally, you were like, Mom is on this I spend my whole day with this thing. I was like, What's your 1c he was like, I don't know. I don't

Valerie 1:09:35
know, whatever. What's your a 1c? What's a two? Yeah, you got a problem with my a 1c

Scott Benner 1:09:42
I definitely don't have a problem with it. I mean, I don't. I never get an A 1c done, and I can tell you my last day 1c

Valerie 1:09:52
Wow, I wonder, yeah. I mean, I know it's not above seven. I know that it's coming back to me now. I think that they did. Say, I want to say that it was like six, because it was the first one that's, this is what it is, okay. So the first appointment, they were like, well, this isn't going to be very accurate, because you guys just got diagnosed, right? And so then the second one was a little bit closer, but still not really accurate, I guess. And maybe that's why I've just been writing it off ever since

Scott Benner 1:10:22
they keep telling you it's not accurate. So why pay attention to it?

Valerie 1:10:26
I don't think that they told me that. I think that I just was kind of under the impression that, oh, we're still kind of that there's not enough data to really give us a solid number yet, but now that we're at a year, that's that's a lot of a one CS now we've got four. That's a good average. You're

Scott Benner 1:10:43
not going to average all four of them together. I would just look at the most recent one and take that as what's going on. Don't average all four of them together. If you because, like, one of them's during, like, diagnosis, right, right? You don't want to average them together. That's meaningless to average for a one CS together in this scenario. Like, if you want to look back over 10 years and go, Hey, like, on average over the last 10 years, my 1c has been six and a half and go, like, Oh, that's pretty great. Over the last four a one CS, one of them being a diagnosis one, there's no reason to like, in my opinion, to combine those four numbers and try to come up with and try to read anything into it. I would look at whatever the most recent one is the next time you get it and say, this is a good example of how we've been doing over the last three months. That's all you know. What have we done? And how is it? What are the outcomes? And this is about it interesting. Yeah, you got to keep going. Like, for only being at this for a year, you were doing awesome, yeah, right. Like, just awesome. But you're also probably not doing what you think you're doing, either. But that just happens to everybody. Like, everybody gets that, like, if you're lucky, you get to a point where you feel like, this is rolling. I'm doing this. You know what I mean, like, and I think you're, you're there now, which is, it's like, it's awesome, but you don't know everything. And, yeah, there is an exception. You're gonna keep learning along the way. You know what I mean? Like, I swear to you, a year from now, you'll be like, Oh my god. A year ago, I was on a podcast, and I thought I knew what I was talking about. That's insane. Yeah. And you'll feel like that, you know, over and over again. As this goes on, I find at least, like, I look back all the time and I'm like, Oh, that was weird. I thought that. But that's life in general, isn't it? Sure, yeah, absolutely. Have you ever considered jettisoning a few hobbies? Maybe you're not really busy.

Valerie 1:12:27
Mean, I so the way I justify everything is, like the focal point is like farm and like crafting and so I mean that just making money? No. I mean, I'm a hobbyist, so I try to cover my costs of the hobby, sure. So sometimes I'll, like, rope a few friends, and I'm like, hey, you know, I did the price breakdown. Let's do this this weekend, or whatever. And so, yeah, usually, you know, pays off or or not, but, and I think before, before diabetes, I I was thinking that I was gonna, like, open up a shop, or I managed a farmer's market for about 10 years, and so, yeah, a lot of my craft came from that. So, like, if we didn't have an enough soap, then I would start soaping and fill that void in the market. And the same thing with the bees and stuff. So there's just been ways that I've tried to apply my degree and be able to stay home. And, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:13:33
I mean, it sounds like you're doing it actually, I just don't know. Like, if you're like, you said I'm so busy. And I was like, Maybe you should just stop doing a couple of things. You wouldn't

Valerie 1:13:41
be as busy. Yeah, I have, I have thought about, yeah, dropping a few things off. I mean, hitting the easy button. It's exhausting more often than not. Yeah, it is really exhausting. And there's, you know, now that I am getting older, it's, it's not as easy physically on my body. And so I'm starting to, like, understand, like, Hmm, like, how, how long am I going to be able to manage five acres? Like, how long is that realistic? And I'm like, Well, I got all these kids cracking the whip on these kids

Scott Benner 1:14:14
tie yourself to the pig and just hold your arms out while it runs around the

Valerie 1:14:18
field. Boys are so different than girls, I tell you what? Yeah. I mean, I had just Ava for ever, and, you know, she potty trained herself for Pete sake. And then I have these three wild things, and they're just the opposite. I used to have to remind my sixth grader to tie his shoes.

Scott Benner 1:14:38
It's Where the Wild Things Are, that's for sure. Sounds like they're at your house. Yes, well, I appreciate you doing this with me greatly. I really do being so transparent and and just sharing how you feel and what's happening to you is such a big deal for people. Thank you. Yeah, I don't want you to walk away feeling like, Oh no. I can't believe I didn't know that thing. Like I thought it was like, No, I thought it was AWESOME. That you said that, because it made me wonder, how many people are going to hear that and go, I don't know my kids. They won't say either. Like, I'm interested now. Like, so take a poll. Let's find out. I don't I won't put you in charge of it. You have no time, but I'll do it all right. Hold on one second for me. And thanks again. I really appreciate

Valerie 1:15:15
it. Yeah, thank you. You foreign

Scott Benner 1:15:23
thanks for tuning in today, and thanks to Medtronic diabetes for sponsoring this episode. We've been talking about Medtronic mini med 780 G system today, an automated insulin delivery system that helps make diabetes management easier day and night. Whether it's their meal detection technology or the Medtronic extended infusion set. It all comes together to simplify life with diabetes. Go find out more at my link, Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox

the episode you just enjoyed was sponsored by the twist a ID system powered by tide pool if you want a commercially available insulin pump with twist loop that offers unmatched personalization and precision or peace of mind. You want twist, twist.com/juicebox, I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter, the my daughter carries the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour, next.com/juicebox and don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have then you would pay for the contour next gen in cash. There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now and links at Juicebox podcast.com to contour and all of the sponsors. 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. You foreign if you or a loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're seeking a clear, practical perspective, check out the bold beginning series on the Juicebox podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal insight into type one. Our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions. You'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juicebox podcast, the bold beginning series and all of the collections in the Juicebox podcast are available in your audio app and@juiceboxpodcast.com in the menu, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong wayrecording.com,

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#1600 Into The Woods

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

Ten-year-old Emma shares life with type 1 diabetes, from gymnastics to MMA, carb counting at school, and spotting her cousin’s diagnosis before anyone else.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Emma 0:14
I'm Emma. I'm 10 years old, and I have type one diabetes. I was diagnosed October 23 2018 I was three, almost four. If

Scott Benner 0:26
this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. The show you're about to listen to is sponsored by the ever since 365 the ever since 365 has exceptional accuracy over one year, and is the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get ever since cgm.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Omnipod five, and at My link, omnipod.com/juicebox you can get yourself a free, what I just say, a free Omnipod five starter kit, free. Get out of here. Go click on that link, omnipod.com/juicebox check it out, terms and conditions. Apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox links in the show notes. Links@juiceboxpodcast.com the episode you're about to listen to was sponsored by touched by type one. Go check them out right now on Facebook, Instagram, and, of course, at touched by type one.org check out that Programs tab when you get to the website to see all the great things that they're doing for people living with type one diabetes, touched by type one.org

Emma 2:26
I'm Emma. I'm 10 years old, and I have type one diabetes. I was diagnosed October 23 2018 I was

Scott Benner 2:35
three, almost four, almost four, and you're how old now I'm 1010, wow. You've had it for six years. Yeah, wow. Okay, that's longer. So you've had diabetes for longer than you haven't had diabetes? Yes, yes. Do you remember anything about being diagnosed? I don't, really, literally, nothing. Yes, nothing. So do you have? I don't know. I don't know how that I don't I'm old, so I don't know how this works for younger people. But What's your earliest memory of diabetes? Do you have like, one that sticks in your

Emma 3:04
head? Not really, but the only memory I remember was we were at a campsite. This is what, like triggered my diabetes. I was playing tag with another friend. I was the three, and we were running. I had tripped and I'd fallen into a bee's nest, and then a few days later, I got diagnosed. That was the only one. Wait, did the bee sting you? Yeah, the bees, I fell into the hive because it was on the grounds. Oh, my God, how bad was that? It was pretty bad. I got stung by like 20 ish, it was pretty bad. Did you have to go to the hospital? Thankfully, no, the other people at the camp had, like, Benadryl and stuff that they gave me.

Scott Benner 3:46
Oh, wow, did you yell the bees, the bees when it was happening, or anything like that. Do you remember, I

Emma 3:50
think I screamed and, like, because I was little, I cried and we had to go in the camper for a

Scott Benner 3:56
while. Are you telling me that if you fell into a bee's nest today, you wouldn't cry because you're not little anymore. I don't know, oh, because I would cry. I'm trying to figure out why you're so tough. You're like, I only cried because I was young. Okay, so you fell at the campground, got stung by 20 B's. And then how does that lead to the diabetes?

Emma 4:17
I think that either, like, triggered it, because a few days later, my dad was at a huge work meeting. My mom was calling him, like, shaking like, I don't know what to do. She has diabetes. My dad had to, like, cancel his work meeting at the place and drive back, and on the way back, he actually listened to your podcast.

Scott Benner 4:38
No kidding, he found my podcast while he was driving to meet you for the first time with diabetes. Yes, that's crazy. Oh, Emma, yeah, I'm wearing white socks today, yeah, and I have my feet up while we're talking, and my chameleon is freaking out because my socks are white. Oh, my God. This is so upsetting, because I really want to put my feet up. I. Hold on a second. Oh, I'm sorry, buddy. You should see him. Do you know what a chameleon is? Yes. Okay, so he is right now, bent in half, leaning away from me. His colors have completely changed to like defensive colors, and he is staring me in the face, like, Why did you bring those in here? But he just doesn't like certain colors. Oh, my God, I'm gonna take the socks off. He's eyeballing the socks. Hold on a second and take the socks off and I'm gonna throw them where he can't see them. This would be nice. A, B testing. All right, socks are gone, buddy. Okay, now, can I put my feet back up, although I am white, so I don't know like but I'm not as white as a sock. So yeah, all right, let's see what happens here. I'll look away from him for a second and we'll get back to it. Sorry. I just looked up and he was like, Oh, this is going to be okay. He's okay, okay, good. That's crazy, isn't it? You imagine being afraid of socks,

Emma 5:55
but only if they were white, only if they were white. That

Scott Benner 5:59
phobia you would have, I know. So you're in the hospital, you're young, you're only four. You don't really, you don't have any hospital memories, yeah, not really. I don't remember. Okay, that's fine. And then, do you recall, Mom? Let's, let's ask it this way, how much of your diabetes is in your control day to day?

Emma 6:18
A lot, sometimes, if the nurse, like, isn't there in time for snack, I just text my parents and what I'm having and, yeah, mostly

Scott Benner 6:27
that. So the school wants you to do it with the nurse, but if the nurse is there, you text your mom. You're like, Hey, I don't see a nurse. You know, it's snack time or whatever. Like, what do I do? Yes, could you do it without them? Yes, I'm pretty sure I could, yeah. And so are you good at counting carbs? I think so, yeah. Well, yeah. What's the highest your blood sugar gets in the in the course of a general day, a general day,

Emma 6:54
the highest it gets is like 130 but if it's like a bad day, like 200

Scott Benner 6:58
okay, how do you manage? Are you MDI? Do you have a pump? Do you have a CGM?

Emma 7:04
I started with MDI and finger poke, and I got the Omnipod and Dexcom three months later.

Scott Benner 7:10
Okay, so you're using just regular Omnipod dash.

Emma 7:12
Oh, yes, okay, because I have loop. Oh, you're looping. Okay, yeah. How

Scott Benner 7:16
long have you been doing that? A few years. Okay, you like that, yeah, it's the best thing for me. Awesome, awesome. Oh, look at you. You're like, you're like, out of a commercial. You're like, it's the, oh, who's calling me a spam risk. Hold on. It's

Emma 7:30
like, go away.

Scott Benner 7:32
Oh, sorry, don't they know, I make a podcast. So you've been looping for how long do you think? A few years. You said, Yeah, a few years. Okay, you've been looping for a few years. You go to counting carbs. You think of a high blood sugar as 130

Emma 7:46
kind of, yeah. When I'm 200 I do get pretty nervous.

Scott Benner 7:50
It changes how you feel internally, yeah, yeah. Explain that to me a little bit like how it feels.

Emma 7:56
I don't know why I get, like, so scared, but whenever I'm high, I get just really nervous, shaky, sweaty. I, like, get afraid it won't come down for some reason. Okay,

Scott Benner 8:06
so do you think you are having a physical reaction to the high blood sugar, or do you think you're having like, an anxiety reaction about seeing the high number?

Emma 8:14
I think anxiety because, um, whenever I look at it, I get even, like, really scared. Or what

Scott Benner 8:19
do you think is going to happen if it stays at 200

Emma 8:21
for a while? I don't know, I think, like I feel really sick, and that's mostly the reason,

Scott Benner 8:27
has that happened in the past that you felt sick with high blood sugar? Uh, yes, yeah, okay. I am not a professional therapist, okay, but I think that's the thing that you you could talk to your parents about working on like I do, yeah? I talk to them. What do they do for you? Like, try to make it better.

Emma 8:45
Tell me, like, it's gonna be okay. Blood sugar always comes down. We have insulin. We're all good.

Scott Benner 8:50
So they just give you reinforcing calming ideas, yeah, does that help you? Yeah, it does a lot awesome. What kind of activities are you involved in

Emma 9:00
I do a lot of sports. My biggest one is gymnastics. I started softball a few months ago. I do soccer, basketball and yeah,

Scott Benner 9:09
so you're trying a little bit of everything. What do you like? You have something that you prefer?

Emma 9:13
Gymnastics is my favorite so far. How come? What do you love about it? I just like being able to like work out and have fun with all my friends that are there

Scott Benner 9:22
and there's a dirt stuck in your socks when it's over. Yeah, that you're gonna get with softball. Oh yeah. Let's rank your activities as how good you are at them. Like gymnastics is first, or do you just love it?

Emma 9:34
I love it, and I think I'm way better than my dad at it. You're way better than what my dad, but

Scott Benner 9:40
your dad, he's so good, but your dad's in gymnastics too. Nobody

Emma 9:44
tries to copy me and watches me and he thinks he's so much better than me. Now,

Scott Benner 9:49
when that happens, what do you think in your head that you don't say out loud?

Emma 9:52
I think that he's so bad that he will never get it. Well, I really think that he could get it, but

Scott Benner 9:59
not. Gonna happen? He's busy, yeah, working and doing the things your mom tells him to do, right? Yeah, yeah, it takes a lot of time. Yeah, right. Okay. Then what else do you basketball? What's next on your list that you prefer? Like, if you couldn't play, if you couldn't do gymnastics anymore, what would

Emma 10:14
you do? And love soccer, softball, okay, all right,

Scott Benner 10:17
awesome. Like, I don't understand soccer at all. So, like, you just all running around crazy, right? And there's a

Emma 10:21
ball. Oh yeah, you kick the ball in the goal, and yeah, it gets pretty intense when you get older, though.

Scott Benner 10:26
Oh yeah. Is it intense now? Or you think it's going to get intense later?

Emma 10:30
I think it's going to get more intense. But people have been getting more hurt in soccer once we've been getting older.

Scott Benner 10:37
Have you identified the angry girls that run people over? Yes. Are you one of them?

Emma 10:44
No, I don't think so. Don't think so. No, I don't I don't try and kick people over. Awesome. Good for you. That's very nice. Do you have any brothers or sisters? Uh, yes, I have two brothers. Are they older or younger? They're older than me. I'm the youngest. Oh, do you not prefer that? I mean, I like being the youngest, but I also don't, because I don't get to drive and that type of stuff. Oh, they're already driving. My oldest is graduating soon, the middle, middle my brother, he is doing Driver's Ed right now.

Scott Benner 11:16
Hold on, Emma, have you ever thought this through like you're a lot younger than them? Yeah, I'm really I'm a lot younger. Either of your parents are you like a second marriage, baby. Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. Did you know that the majority of Omnipod five users pay less than $30 per month at the pharmacy? That's less than $1 a day for tube free automated insulin delivery, and a third of Omnipod five users pay $0 per month. You heard that right? Zero? That's less than your daily coffee for all of the benefits of tubeless, waterproof, automated insulin delivery. My daughter has been wearing an Omnipod every day since she was four years old, and she's about to be 21 my family relies on Omnipod, and I think you'll love it, and you can try it for free right now by requesting your free Starter Kit today at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox Omnipod has been an advertiser for a decade. But even if they weren't, I would tell you proudly, my daughter wears an Omnipod. Omnipod.com/juicebox Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Why don't you get yourself that free starter kit, full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 get 365 days of comfortable wear without having to change a sensor. When you think of a continuous glucose monitor, you think of a CGM that lasts 10 or 14 days, but the Eversense 365 it lives up to its name, lasting 365 days. That's one year without having to change your CGM with the Eversense 365 you can count on comfort and consistency. 365 days a year, because the ever sense, silicon based adhesive is designed for your skin to be gentle and to allow you to take the transmitter on and off, to enjoy your shower, a trip to the pool or an activity where you don't want your CGM on your body, if you're looking for comfort, accuracy and a one year wear you are looking for ever since 365 go to ever since cgm.com/juicebox To learn more, I

Emma 13:34
think so. I was technically an accident.

Scott Benner 13:39
Oh, you're, you're an oops baby, yeah, I gotcha. How much of life do you understand? Do you know what that means? Yeah, I think so. Would you please tell me your best explanation of what that means? Like,

Emma 13:53
they weren't planning on having any more babies. But then I came like,

Scott Benner 13:58
yeah, I gotcha. Okay, all right, that's what I could tell. Because usually, what happens when the youngest is that far off of the older ones, either, like, the parents have been divorced and remarried and you're like, the baby of a second marriage, or, you know, something happened that they weren't expecting. Yeah,

Emma 14:16
did they tell you that? Yeah, they told me that. How did that Do you remember how that made you feel? Yeah, I didn't really care, honestly, as long as you're here, right? Yeah, Jackson was technically an oops baby, too. Oh, your

Scott Benner 14:29
parents were trying to say, your parents are not very good at not having babies.

Emma 14:33
Yeah, my middle was the only one that was planned. What do you enjoy doing in school? I like math gym and art, those are my top math

Scott Benner 14:43
gym and art. And your dad has kind of a math based job too, right?

Emma 14:47
Yeah, but he's horrible at math. He didn't graduate college, didn't

Scott Benner 14:51
graduate from college. He tried to go to college and couldn't do it,

Emma 14:55
yeah? Like he couldn't, so he just dropped out. Your

Scott Benner 14:58
dad's a college dropout, yeah? Yeah, if you want to say it out loud, just so you can get it on the

Emma 15:02
recording, yeah, my dad's a big college drop out. There you go, awesome.

Scott Benner 15:06
How about your mom? What does she do? She

Emma 15:09
doesn't usually work, but she sometimes substitutes for kids in school.

Scott Benner 15:15
Yeah, hey, your pod's about to expire, yeah? What do you got four hours?

Emma 15:19
Oh, no, I have low reserve of insulin. I have four hours left. Oh, I do have four

Scott Benner 15:24
hours. Oh, look at me. How much insulin Do you have? A 25 more units. Oh, how much do you know? How much you use in a day,

Emma 15:30
in a day, I honestly don't know.

Scott Benner 15:33
Okay, what do you know? What your a 1c is right now about

Emma 15:36
it's about either like six or five point like nine or eight.

Scott Benner 15:43
Okay, so let me ask you a couple of diabetes questions, right? Are you good at answering diabetes questions? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm pretty good. We'll find out together. So you're 10 years old, you've had diabetes for six years. You're looping, but you, you know you, you have your parents help, right? But you can do it by yourself. You feel pretty confident. So that's kind of the setup of who you are around diabetes. Yes. Now, how do you eat? Are you like a trash baby? When you eat, you eat pretty well. Like, what's a go through your day? For me, what did I have? What do you have for breakfast, lunch, dinner?

Emma 16:13
Okay, so I always have the same thing for breakfast. It's this protein bar I have. It's like 12 grams, 12 minute timer every morning, and I know how to bolster that really well now.

Scott Benner 16:24
Okay, and then is that, do you eat that way because you have diabetes, or that's how you prefer to eat? Both? Okay, all right, so you wouldn't eat like a bowl of Apple Jacks?

Emma 16:33
I don't think so. I would. Have you ever had an Apple Jack? Never had an Apple

Scott Benner 16:38
Jack? Let me tell you something. They're not good. Okay, yeah, but if I could put you in a time machine and take you to 1977 they were awesome. Do you understand they were awesome back then? But now I don't know what they are, garbage, Styrofoam, okay, now, okay, so you have a nice protein bar. In the morning, you get up. They tell me how you set take me through it. You wake up in the morning. Where's your blood sugar? Usually when

Emma 17:01
you wake up, usually when I wake up, it's like 100 to 80s, like 80.

Scott Benner 17:07
Okay? And then you get in the shower, you give yourself insulin. How's your day go?

Emma 17:11
So then after that, I either ask dad to Bolus because I'm too tired, or I Bolus myself. Is it

Scott Benner 17:19
difficult for you getting up in the morning? Yeah, I don't, I don't

Emma 17:23
like mornings. Has it always been that way? Pretty sure.

Scott Benner 17:26
Do you have hypothyroidism or any other autoimmune issues? Uh, no, I don't think so. Okay, you don't think so. Do you take a pill for anything? No, I don't take a pill. Okay, all right, so your dad comes in and wakes you up, or you wake yourself up.

Emma 17:38
Sometimes He wakes me up. Sometimes I just wake up.

Scott Benner 17:42
There's no way that Arden would let me share this online, but I have a video of me trying to wake Arden up when she was, like, young and in high school or middle school or something, and I'm literally, like, picking her limbs up off the bed and dropping them and just like, and she's not like, I'm like, I'm yelling, Arden, Arden. I'm banging on things, like I'm making my phone make noises, holding it up to her ear, dropping her limbs, like she looks like a dead body. Okay, so now we've had our protein bar. Yeah, you are you finally awake? Are you a problem in the morning? Do you know what I mean? Do you give your parents trouble? Not really, not usually. Okay. Now, do you spike from the protein bar? Or you're good,

Emma 18:20
because we've had it for a long time, I'm pretty good with it.

Scott Benner 18:24
It took you a while, though to figure it out. Yeah, okay. And then you get your energy. You feel good. You're off to school. Yeah, all right, now, when's the first time you eat at school? School

Emma 18:33
starts at like you get on the playground at 810 you have to be inside by 830

Scott Benner 18:40
Okay, so you get a playground, you mess around a little bit. You say hi to people. It's like a, like a, like a meet and greet in the morning, right? You find your friends, blah, blah, blah. Head inside and you eat lunch. Then do you have a snack in the morning? Do they let you snack? Still? Are you too old for that?

Emma 18:55
If we're, like, really hungry, we didn't eat breakfast, you could go down to the cafeteria where we're having recess. To go grab a breakfast.

Scott Benner 19:02
Okay, you don't do that? No. Okay, so lunch comes. You go visit the nurse.

Emma 19:06
No. So I usually just, if I get hot lunch, I go grab it and sit down. If I'm out of the cold lunch, I just go straight to the table and sit down. When do you? When do you? Bolus, usually when I start eating, or it's either eyeball us or the nurse comes. The nurse comes either a little after or a little before I'm

Scott Benner 19:26
there. She comes to you in

Emma 19:28
the lunch room. Yes, and one of my other friends that has diabetes,

Scott Benner 19:32
they call that concierge service. That's lovely. You don't have to go to the nurse room, the nurse room, sorry, the nurse's office, and she comes to you. Yes. Do you ever tip her? Give her a couple bucks? You know what I mean? Not really. No. How funny would that be one time if you turned to her with a couple dollars folded in between your forefinger and your pointer finger, or your middle finger and your pointer finger, and you just reached out with you said, Hey, I appreciate it. Please do that one day and tell me how that goes. Yes, I will. That would be hilarious. You just you turned her to go, Hey, and you get her in real close. Just reach out with the dollar, and you go, you're doing a good job. All right, sorry. Okay, so she boluses for you. Do you spike at lunch?

Emma 20:13
If it's like hot lunch and we're having, like, french toast sticks, usually I spike a little bit. But if it's like my normal lunch, no, you

Scott Benner 20:21
know, it's funny, when you said that you have a protein bar for breakfast, I thought, oh, like, you're a little Jenny in training. Do you know who Jenny is from the podcast? Like, she's in, like, the pro tip stuff and stuff. Oh, yeah, okay. I thought, like, Oh, that's it. But no, you're, you get the school and you're, you're like, I'll have some french toast sticks with everybody else, right? Okay, all right. So it's so that's carb heavier, harder to deal with. But what is it your parents have figured out how to Bolus for that usually, yes, okay, because I mean a 596, a, 1c, is really awesome. You know that, right?

Emma 20:51
Yeah, a few times ago when we had went to, oh, my nurses are like, Corey and Tori at, like, not school. What

Scott Benner 21:01
are you in a Disney Channel show

Emma 21:06
we go to there for, like, when I need to get my diabetes check up. And a few times ago, one of the nurses came in with her, like, jaw dropped, and they gave me a squishy my a 1c, was 5.6 or 5.50

Scott Benner 21:18
wait, your nurse in the school, or your nurse at the like, the endos office, the endos office. Oh, you got a doll for having a good a one say,

Emma 21:25
well, it's like this little, like, squishy panda. I got awesome. You should

Scott Benner 21:29
hand it back to him and say, I prefer cash poor Bitcoin. Tell them that next time go, oh, yeah, give me some bitcoin. Yeah, I prefer cash or Bitcoin. And then just hand it back to them. And then don't and look away, like, as if it doesn't bother you at all. What kind of squishy did you get? Squishy

Emma 21:43
did you get? Um, it was just, like, rubber, squishy type of thing. What's it like? Though, it's a kind of, like a panda, um, it's, it's in like a plastic bag, but you open it, you get, like, the squishies from like, Dollar Tree or something. Yeah,

Scott Benner 21:56
you should, you should have said, thanks. This is gonna end up in the ocean. Give them like, a real black bummer feeling. Well, that's nice. So they, they incentivized you. They with, with plastic tchotchkes. Do you know tchotchke means, uh, no. What does it mean? It's a Yiddish word. It just means a thing that sits and you look at it. Did they say stuff to you like, Oh, my God, you're the best person we have here. Or, like, what is like, what are their names, Millie and Jilly. What are their

Emma 22:23
names? Again, Corey and Tory. Corey and Tory. Gotcha so. Corey is like, he's a boy. He's like, the one of the head people there that I do for he said I was one of the best because he right before this, he saw someone with like, like a point 11 or 1111,

Scott Benner 22:40
yeah, yeah. Corey, pitting you all against each other. Do you eat again in the afternoon at school or not? Till you get

Emma 22:47
home, we have a snack like right before we leave, kind of like we have snack special, and then pack up and go home. When do you learn anything? Oh, so when we get there, we usually have morning meeting, math, social studies, lunch, recess, social studies, reading, writing, and then snack, and then special.

Scott Benner 23:08
Did you have to do school and covid? You know you were like six during covid, right? Six? Yeah. Did you have to do, like, school online, a little bit? Yeah. Do you prefer going there or doing it online? Oh, I prefer going there, okay, because is it the people or just, do you like it now the house? What is it you like about

Emma 23:26
it? Getting to see my friends, yeah, yeah,

Scott Benner 23:29
seeing people, right? Okay, well, that makes sense. And

Emma 23:31
something crazy happened last Thanksgiving. Actually, what? He's one of my cousins, peeing and drinking a lot, blah, blah. They come over for Thanksgiving. We had a big party and jokingly tested blood sugar. It was 700

Scott Benner 23:44
Wait, hold on. Cousin has diabetes.

Emma 23:48
Yes, he has diabetes now. Or she

Scott Benner 23:50
just like making fun of him. Or did she know could be something?

Emma 23:54
She knew it could be something because talks about like me a lot in my diabetes, that some of the symptoms were that, because I tell her about some of this stuff sometimes,

Scott Benner 24:04
wow. Okay, so notices peeing a lot, mentions it to who

Emma 24:08
to my parents, because we have, like, a tester, and after we found out he did had diabetes, because we tested a bunch of other people with different needles, the meter was right, and we actually gave him some insulin, so we technically diagnosed him. Oh,

Scott Benner 24:24
look at you take an event. Also, I don't think it's legal to do that, but don't that's okay. No big deal to what you do. Go around the room and test everybody you turn into a party. Well,

Emma 24:32
everyone wanted to because,

Scott Benner 24:36
yeah, all right, let's figure out how. Oh, gosh, okay. Is somebody's kid? Is it your father or mother's brother or sister? It's my mom's sister? Your mom's sister's son has type one diabetes too?

Emma 24:51
Yes, he's had it for like, about either six months or a year. Does your

Scott Benner 24:55
mom have anything like, like, thyroid or any. Me like that, yeah,

Emma 25:00
she has all of thyroid and a few other things. I don't know lupus

Scott Benner 25:04
really, your mom, yeah, she has some more. Oh, she's collecting them, like squishies. Yeah, I got you. Okay, so your mom has thyroid, lupus. How about on your dad's side? Anything over there? Just bandage gymnastics,

Emma 25:16
yeah? But also, he has ADHD on his side,

Scott Benner 25:20
oh, yeah, he has ADHD, or it's in his family. It's in his family, and

Emma 25:24
he has ADHD. It's both. Do you notice that, yes, he has to take meds for it, and my brothers do too.

Scott Benner 25:32
From your perspective, what does ADHD look like on your dad? Pretty

Emma 25:35
like, getting more mad at us sometimes. And he was like, just he was like, it looks like he was going crazy a little bit.

Scott Benner 25:45
Oh, awesome. I think he's gonna love hearing that so but with the medicine, he's less crazy, or not crazy.

Emma 25:53
Oh, he's not as crazy, but he's when he doesn't take it. It makes him feel like, I don't know if it's like, depressed is the word. It makes it feels like sadder and like, madder. Yeah,

Scott Benner 26:05
crazy. That's interesting, huh? And you don't have any of that, no, but you don't think so. You don't think so. I

Emma 26:13
don't think I do.

Scott Benner 26:13
But like, Have you ever had a moment you're like, Oh, I just acted crazy.

Emma 26:17
Not really. I don't think unless, like, I was like, really mad. Gotcha. What would make you mad? Kind of if someone's like, I love we all love animals. We have a lot of cats, chickens and dogs. If someone was like, abusing or hurting an animal or like hurting

Scott Benner 26:33
someone else, the chickens and the cats can't be together, though, right? Oh no. The cats are inside. The chickens are outside, right? You eat the chickens or eat the eggs. We eat the eggs,

Emma 26:43
and sometimes we have to call the chickens, like, kill the roosters. Why? Because they get because we have too many and like, oh yeah, we have too many of them. The eggs are mixing and like, the roosters are getting too mean to each other, I

Scott Benner 26:58
see, so yeah, so you can stop them from being mean by eating them.

Emma 27:02
Whoa, kinda, yeah. Oh, I've watched them be been killed before by my dad. I

Scott Benner 27:07
don't wanna know exactly where you live, but, like, What state do you live in? Maine, you live in Maine,

Emma 27:13
yeah, I live we live in Maine. We're like, at the end of the road. So we could technically have

Scott Benner 27:18
chickens. The end of the road makes a chicken available? Well,

Emma 27:22
kinda, it's like everyone else, like, down the road, except for one person can't have chickens, really? Yeah, I don't know why. Our house where it is, we can,

Scott Benner 27:32
that's interesting. Okay, we have, yeah, it's incredibly cold there in the winter. Yes, yes, very cold. Do you wish that your parents would move somewhere warmer? Kinda, yeah. Where have you been on vacation that you enjoyed?

Emma 27:44
I liked Cape Cod a lot. And I don't remember this one, but I would like to try and go to Florida, because it's really warm.

Scott Benner 27:52
It is really warm. Yeah, it'll definitely be warm and humid. You know what humidity is, I think. So you think so? Yeah, does it get sticky in the summertime there?

Emma 28:02
Uh, yeah, like, inside right now, I don't know if it's the heat or, like, they have the crank the heat cranks. I'm sweating right now,

Scott Benner 28:10
are you or you're in a room, and they close the door too, right? Oh, yeah, and the windows not open. I'm hot when I make this podcast, too, because I turn the air conditioner down so it doesn't make noise. I, like, close the door, and then eventually someone will come in here after I'm done and be like, Oh my god, it's so hot. And I'm like, yeah, no, I know you're welcome. I that's what I say. I'm like, You're welcome for working. You know what? I mean? I know this is weird. Isn't this weird that this is my job talking to you, yeah, don't get full of yourself and think you're gonna get a job like this one day. No, it doesn't work that way. All right. You got to go do a real job. Do you have anything you really enjoy doing? I either want to be a chef or a veterinarian. Why not be a chef for dogs? Perfect. Combine your loves, you know what I mean? Yeah, then you gotta, just gotta find one rich pop star and talk them into letting you cook for their dog, which I'm sure you could do chapel Ronan, looks like she'd go for that in two seconds, doesn't she? Yeah, you could trick one of those. Do you like cooking? Do you get to cook?

Emma 29:09
Yeah, sometimes I cook dinner, not, not a lot, because I don't want to. But sometimes, if it's something I like, Yeah, I do

Scott Benner 29:16
Emma, let me tell you a secret, no one wants to make dinner. Do you have that thing in your house when you go out to eat and nobody can decide where to go? Yeah. Do you guys fight when that happens? Not.

Emma 29:28
Usually. We just have to, like, choose one place. We have to, like, all put in a like, either we use this, like, spinny wheel that we have on our phones, okay, that sometimes, or we just choose a random place. That's not a bad idea, but I do. I don't like McDonald's.

Scott Benner 29:44
No, no, we don't want to go to McDonald's. Yeah, I know this sounds crazy, but we're out of school. They give you a snack at the end of the day you go home, are you very hungry when you get home from school? Usually, yes, all right. Do you eat something? Yes, and your mom's there, because as we went. Over earlier she doesn't work. Is that, right? Yes, you like that. Your mom's at home when she gets when you get home,

Emma 30:06
yeah? Because I get to, like, play with her a little

Scott Benner 30:10
bit. Yeah, she messes around with you guys for a while before she sends you off to do your homework.

Emma 30:13
Yeah? Or she helps me with my homework. Sometimes look at her and she's

Scott Benner 30:17
probably bored, you know what I mean? Yeah. What do you think she does all day when no one's there.

Emma 30:21
I either, like, clean the house a little bit, or like, chillax, because I really don't know, because she had broken her back a while ago, and we had to, I don't know where it was. I forgot where it was. We had to fly somewhere. We had to fix her back. And then when we went back to the airport, and my mom had to walk through, they wouldn't let her go through with the wheelchair, so she had to use a cane. But her back was

Scott Benner 30:45
really she should have been in the wheelchair. Yes, wow, but she gets around. Okay. Now, yes, she can walk a lot better. Now, awesome, like when you leave for school in the morning. You ever go, Hey, why don't you do some laundry or clean this place

Emma 30:58
up a little bit? Sometimes she does do the laundry. My dad doesn't.

Scott Benner 31:02
Oh, really, yeah, I do the laundry almost exclusively here. You know, I wrote a book one time

Emma 31:09
we oh yeah, my, my dad has a bunch of books from you on his toilet.

Scott Benner 31:15
Wait, my, the one with the picture of the guy like holding the laundry is on your toilet.

Emma 31:22
I don't know if it's that one, but we have a bunch of your your books on like the toilet, so we could just read them.

Scott Benner 31:27
No, no, I think you're thinking about me. I only have one book. Oh,

Emma 31:31
my I asked my dad. He said, too. It must be that one. Who's your dad cheating on me with?

Scott Benner 31:38
We'll find out. Yeah. Anyway, I was gonna say the book is called Life is short. Laundry is eternal, because I constantly am doing laundry. Like, yesterday, I was up here programming something for any I can't say what it's for yet, but I was doing something for the podcast, and in the middle of it, like, in the middle of like, Oh, I gotta put laundry in. Like, I ran to put in laundry that it's like, beeping and like, I'm like, Oh, I gotta put the dryer now, okay, now, I gotta fold it so you're at home. Your mom's there. You guys mess around, which is nice. You like that she's there. Yes, somebody's gonna make dinner. It's not you, because you like to cook, but not that much. And you, Bolus again, do you have a snack in the evenings before you go to bed or, like, or is that I'm trying to go through your whole day eating

Emma 32:22
sometimes I have it before bed. Usually we have, like, sugar free ice cream, kind of, like vanilla ice cream. I usually either have, like, a little bit that or just nothing before bed, sugar free ice cream. It's not, like, completely sugar free, is it good? But it's, yeah, it's pretty good. It's vanilla, all

Scott Benner 32:39
right. You like it, so you're not just eating it. Like, oh, I guess this is okay for sugar free, but you actually enjoy it, okay? Yeah,

Emma 32:46
it's not as good as, like, we have a ice cream shop down the street, and it's, yeah,

Scott Benner 32:52
awesome. I wonder if the ice cream shop has a refrigerator, if they just use main to keep their ice cream cold, yeah? I mean, because very cold. Are you near the ocean,

Emma 33:01
we have a river in our backyard, kind of like, if you walk down, we have a campsite, and then if you keep going down, we have a huge

Scott Benner 33:09
river. You know what's so funny when I was young, I remember there being this pretty, like, big creek that ran through my apartment complex. Sorry, I'm not fancy, like you people with the house, but it ran through my apartment complex. We used to play in it and cross it and all this stuff. And in my mind, it was, it's huge, you know? And as an adult, I went back there one time, and it is a trickle of garbage water, barely like, I couldn't believe how small it was compared to my memory. Oh, my God, you know, like, you'll also one day have this experience where you go back to your elementary school and realize that, like, you're you'll feel huge, yeah, in there anyway. Like, it made me wonder, like, Do you have a river in your backyard? Or is it like, or is it just like, this small trickling of water that one day you'll be like, Oh, that was not a river, because a river is, like, pretty specific, is why? Like, you know what I

Emma 34:06
mean, if you go down, there's a bunch of like, huge rocks, like you can walk on them. There's a river in across the rivers, a street with like, more rocks on that side. If you keep going down the rocks, we have that. We call it a cove. It's like a sandy

Scott Benner 34:20
beach. Oh, nice. Yeah, huh, this is fancy. Yeah. You like it? Do you like living there?

Emma 34:27
I do like living here, but the trees, because this place, I don't know how much we got it for. It was like 100 I have no idea.

Scott Benner 34:35
Yeah, you don't need to make up a number. But go ahead, it was

Emma 34:39
less than we expected that it would be now, but why it was, like, so cheap is because there's so many trees here,

Scott Benner 34:45
so a lot of the ground, you have a lot of land, but a lot of it's covered in, like, woods, and there's not a lot you can

Emma 34:50
do with it, yeah, there's, like, a lot of leaves. There is a lot we can do with it, because my dad cut down the tree, a lot of trees to make, like, a

Scott Benner 34:58
pathway down to the river. Yeah. Is your dad? Like a big, strong guy. He

Emma 35:02
looks pretty skinny and weak, but he um, actually lifted 100 something pounds the other

Scott Benner 35:07
day. Wow. He lifted up 100 pounds even though he's skinny and weak. Well, he looks weak,

Emma 35:12
but he um, not what? Yeah, what he says is, um, the muscles are made in the kitchen. That's what he always says. Do you have

Scott Benner 35:21
any idea what he means when he says that,

Emma 35:23
like, eat healthy and that type of stuff? Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:26
that's a good idea. Are

Emma 35:28
there animals in the woods? Sometimes, we see deer a lot, but no bears, not usually we see turkeys in our yard. Sometimes, yeah,

Scott Benner 35:38
turkeys are fun. They're loud, though, aren't they? Yeah, so, so you're not afraid to play in the woods, is what I'm saying. Sometimes,

Emma 35:45
like, I get nervous. If I see like a big footprint, or like, the trees are

Scott Benner 35:52
shaking, I get scared. Yeah, what do you what do you think the footprints from? I

Emma 35:55
honestly don't know. But the other day I was looking it was, I wasn't the other day. It was in winter. I It looked like a moose footprint, like a big moose, yeah, but I think it was just a huge deer, because the footprint was huge and it looked like, um, it wasn't like a human footprint. I

Scott Benner 36:14
hear what you're saying. Do you want me to find out if they're bears where you live? Uh, sure. Honestly, bears in I remember the name of your town, although I'm going to ask Rob to take the name of your town out, but I remember it. So hold on a second. Asking chat. GPT, are you using that,

Emma 36:32
by the way, yeah, I use that sometimes. What important things are you asking it sometimes i i usually just mess around with it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 36:41
just ask it, like, stuff. Do you think it's going to take over for Google, for kids?

Emma 36:47
Oh, yes, yeah. I also asked, like, how many carbs are in like, say, I'm having to see pop as how many grams are in a Tootsie Pop? And,

Scott Benner 36:56
yeah, it knows that, yeah,

Emma 37:00
oh, I actually have a joke for you. Go ahead, tell me the joke. Okay, it's a pretty long one, but so there's 500 bricks on a plane one falls off. How many are left?

Scott Benner 37:09
500 bricks on a plane one falls off. How many are left? 499,

Emma 37:14
yep. And then, how do you put an elephant in a fridge? How

Scott Benner 37:18
do you put an elephant in a fridge? Yes, one piece at a time,

Emma 37:22
you open the door, put the elephant in, and close the door. How do you put a giraffe in a fridge?

Scott Benner 37:28
Maybe you open the door, you put the giraffe in the fridge and you close the door.

Emma 37:32
No, you open the door, take the elephant out, put the giraffe in, close the door.

Scott Benner 37:36
Oh, really. Okay, now the giraffe in the refrigerator. Now what

Emma 37:40
so the lion kings having a birthday party. Every single animal is there except for one animal. Which animal is it? Lion

Scott Benner 37:47
kings, having a birthday party, every single animal is there except for one animal. Which is it? Is it Mufasa? Because he died?

Emma 37:55
No, it's a giraffe because he's in the fridge. Oh, how come? I didn't put that together. Do you think? And then Susie's crossing the alligator like, um, but she survives. How does she survive?

Scott Benner 38:06
Susie's crossing the alligator Lake, and she survives. How does she survive? I don't know,

Emma 38:11
because all the alligators at the birthday party, but she still somehow dies. How does she die? Does she drown? No, the brick from the plane.

Scott Benner 38:21
Oh, it answered that. This is one big joke you're telling me. Yeah, that was the whole joke. That's awesome. Jeez, hey, there are bears in Maine. Oh, yeah. Maine supports 24,000 to 36,000 black bears, the largest population east of the Mississippi River. What that means for where you are, it's prime bear habitat urban edges don't stop bears that follow river corridors and green belts looking for food. Bears are active from early April through November. Residents start reporting sightings each spring. As soon as natural food is become scarce, you're growing up in a world where anything you can ask will get given back to you immediately. Yeah, right. Now, when I grew up, when I was 10, it was 1981 when I was 10, Oh, right. It's crazy, right? Yeah. And back then, there were five stations on my television, right? So you don't even think of it as stations. You think of it as like, apps or, yeah, like, right, YouTube, right? So there was ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, those were the stations I had. They were on one dial of my I know you don't even understand this, but there was a thing you turned on the like a dial, you turned on the television to change the channels, and then there was another dial at the bottom that was UHF, and that had, like, channel 48 channel 29 like, there were, like, they were kind of like junky channels, yeah, right. If you wanted to watch a football game, for example, yeah, you had to sit down when the football game started, and you had to stay sitting there and watch it the whole time because it only played once. You could not record it. You couldn't pause it. Like you. Had to sit there and watch it like that was. How insane is that? Right? Phones hung on the wall. They didn't go in your pocket. They had long cords on them so you could walk around while you're talking on them, but all they did was make phone calls. You couldn't do anything else with them. Oh, there were no computers in your house. Some people didn't have microwaves at that point. What right, how old I am, right? And so then and so, like, a day in my life was like, get up watch cartoons on UHF channels. This is my Saturday, okay? I'd get up really super early. I had to be up at 6am to watch Mighty Mouse. Do you know what Mighty Mouse is? I have no idea. It's a cartoon. Okay, I had to be up at 6am to watch Mighty Mouse, and then I had to sit through some other garbage, religious based cartoons until seven o'clock and then, and then I could watch like super friends and Tom and Jerry and stuff like that. Okay, oh my God. Then it was 8am cartoons were over now, like they would come to an end, and you could feel your soul die because you were like, Oh no, the cartoons are done until next week at 6am oh my god, and then I had to live for the next 12 hours. But what would I do? Think about it. Now, what do I do? I'm dumb. I don't read that already takes out a whole thing. Now, I got to go outside and pull weeds and cut the lawn and like, right, right, right. There's nothing to do. I talked to my grandmother a little bit on a Saturday, maybe my mom, my brothers, we go outside, we play. Our parents would just kick us out of the house. Oh, my God, get outside. Come back later.

Emma 41:50
Okay, all right. My dad had a way different childhood than

Scott Benner 41:54
that. I imagine he did. And I know, hold on, we're gonna find out about your dad's in a second. Okay, all right. And so then eventually I got a computer like, let me tell you. When did the first Radio Shack computer? My god, that's all become available for retail. This is when I bought my first computer. Now keep in mind, I've just asked a prompt on one of my two computers sitting on my on my screen right now. Oh, the TRS 80, which is what I got. Oh, my God, this historically released in 77 but that is not, certainly when I got it originally, like it was available for a long time before people actually use them. Oh, I bought it, I think when I was like, maybe 13 or 14. So this thing's gonna get it, yeah, so it was out already for a few years. When I bought it, I bought it in like, 84 maybe, I don't remember exactly anymore. Now, it didn't do anything. So I returned it like it was literally just you could code on it or program on it for back then, but I didn't know. But I didn't know how to do that, and so I bought it. I was like, oh, man, this thing's gonna be amazing. And then it wasn't, and I returned it. Okay? I saved for how many years to buy the computer? A lot, yeah, four years of saving my money to go buy the computer that when I got it home, I typed from a book. I took a book that had code in it, and I sat down, I typed out that code for days, and then I hit Enter, and it said error. Then I went back to the book, re went through all the code, found the like one place. I made a typo, fixed it. Hit enter and tell me what you think popped up on screen. It didn't work. No, it worked. What did I get? What did you get? It was a stick figure, man. He did one Jumping Jack. Oh, my God, that's right, that's right. And when it did that Jumping Jack, I unplugged that thing, put it back in the box and took it right back to the store. It's like, this ain't ready for prime time. Then my next one was a Commodore 64 and that only really played games and did like, little like, it didn't really do anything. Yeah, right. But even that, like, that was my whole like, day. Like, that, was it like nothing happened. Do you understand? We'd go to school, we'd come home, we'd argue, fight, eat a little food, go to bed. There was nothing to do. You are going to grow up in a world that not only has the internet right, which I know you don't know, is important, but it's super important. You have the internet and you have AI, your life is going to be so incredibly different from mine in ways that we can't even figure out yet. Yeah, like, what do you think you'll like, really, you're like, oh, I want to be a chef or, like, work with animals or something like that. But, like, I mean, will that even exist?

Emma 44:55
Good? I don't

Scott Benner 44:57
even know, right? Like, your dad's job. Didn't exist 20 years ago. Yeah, right. My job didn't, like, think about my job, right? You and I don't know each other. We're talking we're recording it. Yeah, people are gonna listen to it, like, on their phones and their computers all over the world, like somebody right now is listening to this in Australia, England, China, India, Canada, Mexico. Like, like, seriously, like, this conversation, right, right, right, right. It's crazy, right? And so, like, yeah, they can only do that because the internet exists and phones exist, yeah, right. And so before that, if you would have gone back to before the internet, which, you know, or before cell phones, and said, One day people are going to talk about diabetes in their house, record it, and people all around the world are going to listen to it. Nobody would have even understood what you were saying, yeah, right, because they would have said, Wait, they're going to be on the radio. That's what they would have said, Oh, my God. And you would have said, no, no, not on the radio. And then they would not have context for that. So Don't you wonder, what is it you don't have context for right now that's going to happen in your lifetime. Oh, my God. What do you think it could be? Make up. Make a

Emma 46:09
guess, a levitated car or something. Maybe I have no idea. They used

Scott Benner 46:14
to say that when I was a kid. They used to say, like, when you grow up, cars will fly.

Emma 46:17
Oh, my God, they don't fly.

Scott Benner 46:21
Maybe that's not a thing that could happen. Like, it's going to be stuff you don't think of. Yeah, right, oh my god. Like, I imagine one day that you will just sit down at a computer and tell it, like, Hey, here's my charts and my graphs from my blood sugar from this week. Like, what should I change? And it'll just give you, like, oh, like, turn this setting here, do that there. But then one day, what I imagine is that your pump will just do that. Your pump, your pump will just go, you know, okay, like, here's a week's worth of data. Me, because your pump knows where food went in. It knows how many carbs went in, right? It knows what insulin happened. It knows what happened afterwards. If it keeps that information and just goes over it can't it just make adjustments. I mean, it could right like, so maybe one day, that won't even be a thing, you'll have to think about very much. That would be so cool. Yeah, tell me why that would be cool. It would be cool because I wouldn't have to worry about it. Is like, Yeah, and you do think about it. I think about it a lot now, yeah, yeah. Tell me what that means. Like, what does think about it a lot. Mean, let's

Emma 47:32
say in class, if we're right in the middle of something, and I feel I always have to, like, immediately check, let check it. Or else, like, I get nervous and I, I feel like that's one of the things that I depend on, is diabetes and like my pods, is it because

Scott Benner 47:47
you don't want to be different than the other kids, or you just don't want the hassle?

Emma 47:50
I think I just don't want the hassle because I'm fine with being different that

Scott Benner 47:54
you have no trouble with. You don't care about people knowing you have diabetes or anything like that. Nope. And does anybody give you about it?

Emma 48:01
Not really, but a lot of little kids come over say, What's that on your arm? What's it on your leg? And I have to, like, explain it to them.

Scott Benner 48:08
Anybody who would send me an email to complain to me about the way you and I are talking? What should I say? Back to them,

Emma 48:14
shut up. Shut up. Ish, just anything like that. Awesome. Do you think about boys? Yeah, yeah. So

Scott Benner 48:23
are you like, like, lining up, which ones, like, do you guys all have, like, boyfriends at school, kind of thing

Emma 48:28
I did, but I don't anymore. I have a crush. Oh, yeah, yeah. I can't say his name, though he's coming over today. Oh, does he know that you have a crush on him? I don't think so, but I pretty sure he might have a crush on me. Yeah. Why do you think that? Because, um, like, I play Four Square recess, and whenever we're playing four square, even if I know, like, I'm definitely out, he always is like, Oh no, she's not out because blah, blah, blah, but he has a girlfriend, but I don't think like he doesn't seem to like his girlfriend.

Scott Benner 49:00
That goes around sometimes, and vice versa, vice versa. So right now, you're, you're lining up to be a home wrecker. You're trying to, you're trying to get her out so that you can get in. Is that

Emma 49:10
right kind of well, I'm friends with her, so how are we going to handle that? I don't know. I'm just not going to tell them. I'm not going to tell them. So you until,

Scott Benner 49:20
yeah, you keep it to yourself. You let them break up naturally, yeah. And then you, then you come in,

Emma 49:26
yeah. I come take my shot,

Scott Benner 49:27
yeah, take your shot. And where do you think this will go, like, when, when you're 10 and you're dating? What does that mean? I don't know.

Emma 49:34
But a lot of people in like, fourth grade, in fifth grade are dating for I don't even know why. I just like like

Scott Benner 49:41
people, yeah. So what does that really mean? Like you like you walk next to each other in the hall a little

Emma 49:46
bit. You hold hands. I used to kiss my boyfriend. Oh

Scott Benner 49:49
my gosh. When did that? Did it stop for a reason? Did you get in

Emma 49:54
trouble? I just didn't want to, well, I didn't do it at school a lot. I just didn't want to date them anymore. I was just. Done.

Scott Benner 50:01
What did a boy do that made you be done? Well,

Emma 50:04
one of them just, like, just like, didn't care, kind of, like, pushed me a little bit like, so I just, I didn't like him, and the next one, um, like, forced him and yelled at me. So, yeah, I didn't you had a boy yell at you? Yeah, I've had a boy yell at me.

Scott Benner 50:21
Why? Why did he do that?

Emma 50:23
I don't know. I was grumpy from a sleepover and he was mad at me for being grumpy. My

Scott Benner 50:29
wife gets grumpy sometimes. Yeah, I don't push her, though, although I'm sure she would push me. So yeah, like, do a lot of kids date. Uh, yes, and it's like that. That's the level of how it works. Yes, okay, are there any kids your age doing stuff that you're like, Oh God, I don't think they should be doing that. Tongue Kissing, like French kissing, oh my god. Really? Yep, yep, yeah. You know how you can stop that hell. Get married. Yep, yeah. That'll put an end to that real quick. Get rid but we don't want 10 year olds getting married, just so they don't French kiss. Yeah, that would be going too far, probably, yeah, yeah. So like, that gets around, like, somebody French kisses, and then it, like, gets all over the school, and everybody knows about it, yeah, yeah. Is there anything you wanted to talk about? It's been an hour. I didn't ask. Oh,

Emma 51:22
yeah, kind of go ahead. So, um, I have a best friend. Uh, can I say a friend name? I don't care if you're okay with it, I'm okay with it. Yeah, she Oh, she's gonna listen to this, but she's completely fine with it. I asked her before it okay. Her name's Emmy, and her brother's name is Bennett. Bennett was diagnosed September 22 with diabetes. Oh, okay,

Scott Benner 51:42
how old is he? He's four. Oh, how old is she? She's your age.

Emma 51:47
Emmy is 10. Yep, she's a little younger. So I'm pretty sure it's

Scott Benner 51:51
Emma and Emmy. Yeah, and then the doctor's office is Corey and Tori. Corey and Tori. Does everybody's name rhyme with someone else's name and where you live,

Emma 52:02
kind of but, oh, something crazy with that is the Bennet was diagnosed September, like, I don't know what day, but, and then Emmy was diagnosed October, 22 2022 the day before my diversity.

Scott Benner 52:17
Wait, your friend also has type one diabetes, and she was diagnosed and her brother, oh my gosh, yeah. I wonder how that's happening. Maybe the bears are giving it to people. What do you think of that? That'd be, I mean, the bears, the bears eat the honey from the beehives. Oh, yeah, and you fell on a beehive and then got diabetes. Yeah. I mean, science, right? It is, yeah, right, right, right. Well, that Do you know a lot of people who have type one?

Emma 52:45
I'm pretty sure, yeah, oh, this girl named BJ, she's an MMA fighter with diabetes.

Scott Benner 52:50
Wait, she lives locally to you?

Emma 52:53
Yeah, she does MMA, and I'm actually starting it this weekend with her. Wait, you're gonna start doing MMA? Yes, and it's free for me, because I have diabetes.

Scott Benner 53:03
Wait, diabetes makes MMA free. How does that work?

Emma 53:07
She does like a program with all these adults and kids can, but no kids have so far, and she made it so like people with that kids, or like adults with diabetes, can go in for free. I'm gonna be the only kid

Scott Benner 53:20
there? Okay, is she? BJ, Garcia,

Emma 53:25
I don't know. She does pea pods.

Scott Benner 53:28
She does pea pods. What the hell does pea pods mean? Pea

Emma 53:31
pods is, like, it's an event we get to go to for summer and, like, they do pumpkin carving, ice skating events. Okay,

Scott Benner 53:38
got a news report about her, so she's given you, like, free lessons.

Emma 53:42
Yeah, I'm gonna start this Saturday. It's at seven. Are you looking forward to hitting people? Yes, very much. How come tell me about it. I'm really excited for that, because I've technically been practicing with my dad every

Scott Benner 53:55
day. You and your dad fight every day,

Emma 53:59
at night, what we do is I start, we start in the bedroom, and he has to get me to the bathroom, and I'm not allowed to bite, sometimes I'm not allowed to scratch, and he's not allowed to tickle or cover me with a blanket. That seems like good rules. Yeah, we just fight. We just fight to the bathroom. I usually win.

Scott Benner 54:17
Yeah, you think he lets you win? Or do you think you were actually

Emma 54:21
wanting he, most of the time, tries his hardest. And dad, when you listed this,

Scott Benner 54:25
you Oh, there you go. Awesome. I wish I could leave that in for you. Well, I mean, he's so weak. How could he stop you? I know, yeah, he should eat more good food.

Emma 54:35
Yeah. I usually grab the lamps though. You wait, you fight him with lamps. Well, no, when he tries to drag me, I grab onto the lamp, and he has to let go.

Scott Benner 54:46
Oh, I see, I see, because he doesn't want the lamp to fall over,

Emma 54:49
yeah, well, the lamp usually does fall over, so you're cheating. Well, kind of have

Scott Benner 54:56
you ever shot a gun? No, but I really want to really. Yeah, do people around you target shoot or anything like that?

Emma 55:03
My brothers, once in a while, do is my dad and we actually got a place in levant we're gonna get because there was this old man that was my dad's friend for a while, then he died. Yeah, he died, and he had a wife named Carol.

Scott Benner 55:19
So you guys are buying their place. Is that what you're

Emma 55:21
doing? So it's actually 100 acres. And we're, we're in their will, so when Carol dies, we're gonna get the place, and they actually have a shooting range there.

Scott Benner 55:31
Wow. 100 acres in the woods, the 100 Acre Wood, kind

Emma 55:35
of, but it's also, it's like, in the middle of nowhere, kind of, I mean, that's how you get 100 acres, yeah, but it's in LA van. He actually got it for like, a really cheap price. The husband, yeah, and yeah.

Scott Benner 55:48
So listen, I want to tell people something, you know, Emma's dad reaches out and says, like, my daughter could be on the podcast. And people do that once in a while. They're like, my kids, you know, you know, could be on the podcast. And I go, how old? And he says, 10. And I go, Sure, because often kids can't, like, hold up a conversation. They don't know what they think they're you know, they sometimes they lack self confidence. But every once in a while, you meet one who just, like, can really talk like, I'm talking to you right now. I know you're 10, but you are doing such a good job of of representing yourself and holding up your side of the conversation, like, is that something all of your friends are good at at this age now?

Emma 56:26
No, I don't think so. But most people say I talk like an adult and when my dad talks to me, he does like real adult conversations. He's like, I feel like I'm talking to like an A 20 year old. I'm talking to

Scott Benner 56:38
you No kidding, like you really are. Like, you're very easy to say, I don't know. If you don't know, you know you're not, like, cursing, just the curse. Like, you know what I mean. Like, you everything you're doing is very, like, purposeful. It makes me this all makes me very hopeful for the world. Yeah, yeah, no kidding. Like, I am super interested in, like, how, and you're too young to ask, because you don't know. Like, I know I kind of went over it, but you can't grasp yet how much the world's going to look different, like, in the next five or, like, even, maybe by the time you go to college. I have no idea. Are kids cheating with chat GPT now on homework? Yes, right. Like, so that's not going to stop they're gonna have to find a way to fold that into education.

Emma 57:23
Yeah, I don't cheat with, like, any program thing. Yeah, you're

Scott Benner 57:29
already hearing them talk about it, right? Yes, yeah. I mean, that's, I don't believe that's going to stop. Like, you could Google stuff in the past, but when you get you get the return back, you still have to read it, make sense of it, or you had to, like, plagiarize it, like, copy and paste it, which, you know, they quickly made software to catch plagiarism. You know what plagiarism is, right? Yes, yeah, okay. Like, so, like, they quickly made software that's not plagiarism. So people would turn in plagiarized stuff in college and high school. They'd run it through a computer real quick, and they'd say, No, this isn't your work, right? And there's really bad like you, you get kicked out of school for it. So yes, that stopped people from doing that, but chatgpt and other AIS, I don't think that's going to be distinguishable at some point. And just understanding people in general, like I think instead of having to see this as a problem, I think we need to see this as what they would call an inflection point, or as a moment where life changes a little bit, because I don't think you're going backwards from this. Yeah, you know what I mean, like. So I super, I'm super interested in what like school is going to look like for you, like for the next, you know, eight years till you graduate, yeah, it's gonna be something. I mean, I hope I can stay alive long enough to find out what happens, you know you mean, but I'm like, maybe I can come back in a few years. Oh, you were already gonna get invited back. Don't worry about that. That's awesome. I think you should probably come back, like every 24 months till I stop making the podcast, because I see you again at 1212. Is a real interesting time. Yeah, you know you're gonna get your lady time at some point. You know what that is?

Emma 59:08
Yeah, period. I don't want to get my period. Of course not. Who would want that?

Scott Benner 59:11
That's going to change your blood sugar a little bit. You know about that?

Emma 59:14
Yeah, yeah, I'm scared for that. That's one of the things I'm scared of. And my dad's like, I'm just gonna, like, just watch you with their beard, not, not creepily. Just, I want to I'm interested with your

Scott Benner 59:25
blood sugar. Yeah, I say, are you what are you reading a book? What's that noise?

Emma 59:29
I have no idea. Oh, am I boring? You? No, are you sure? Yes, I like talking with you.

Scott Benner 59:36
Awesome. So, like, okay, so you told me about your friend Emma and Bennett, who also have type one diabetes. Me, Emmy, excuse me, you're MX. We always get our names confused. I mean, absolutely, they're in the same class too. Oh, awesome. Do you always think you're hearing your name when it's somebody else's? Yeah,

Emma 59:53
sometimes, like, the teacher calls on me and she's like, Emmy, I was like, That's not my name.

Scott Benner 59:59
That's. Still went over there gotcha Okay, so is there anything else that you wanted to talk

Emma 1:00:04
about that we haven't talked Oh, I do have this other condition. Okay, it's a lung disease, really. Yeah, it's like a lung disease. It's, it's a really hard word to say. It's a really long word. It's nominal, ultra microscopic, so called volcanoconiosis. Have you heard of

Scott Benner 1:00:22
that? Well, I don't even know what you just said. So numeo,

Emma 1:00:26
numeno, ultra microscopic, silico, volcano coniosis, and also that I'm just with you,

Scott Benner 1:00:38
that's something you had planned for today.

Emma 1:00:40
Yes, because it is, it is a real lung disease, but I don't have

Scott Benner 1:00:45
it. You don't have it. No. Oh, what does it do to people? Do you know?

Emma 1:00:50
Um, I know it's a lung disease. I have no idea. I think it's like short of breath or something. Oh, it

Scott Benner 1:00:54
means short of breath. I have no idea. How long have you been planning to tell me

Emma 1:00:59
that? What? Right when my dad said I will be on the podcast.

Scott Benner 1:01:04
So you've been sitting on this for that

Emma 1:01:06
long? Yes, it's been so hard to keep it in.

Scott Benner 1:01:10
Have you been lying to me about anything else today? No. How will I know that for sure now that I know that you've lied about this lung disease? Well, I guess you'll never know it's true. That's very, very true. Oh my gosh. Are you gonna be tall or short? Like, how are your parents?

Emma 1:01:24
They're both very short, but my brothers are both very tall. Like, my 14 year old brother is a lot taller than my 18 year old brother 15. Do you know how tall your tall brother is? No but I know he's taller than my dad and mom, and my dad's really short.

Scott Benner 1:01:40
What else? Let's see, oh yeah, please drive with your seat belt on, yeah, okay, okay, and don't like and when you start driving, be careful. It's gonna be fun to drive fast, but don't do that. Okay, yeah, all right, make sure boys are nice to you, yeah, nobody gets to push you or yell at you. Okay, yep, even if you're grumpy, yeah, all right, anything else you want to talk about?

Emma 1:02:03
Oh, I wrote this one down because my dad wanted to know kind of or I wanted to know, but wait, do you get your eyebrows started? That's what my dad said.

Scott Benner 1:02:13
I do get my eyebrows threaded. Yes. Does it hurt? Okay, so, yeah, I mean, but it's fleeting, but like, you know, like, it's not like it hurts afterwards, but while it's happening, it's feels like someone's pulling like a shard of metal out of your face, like it's just like, it's like, plink, they come out, and you're like, oh, but it really does. It really is, all right, I want to be clear. Okay, I do a couple of things because it's stuff Arden and I do together. Yeah, if Arden didn't say, Hey, I'm gonna go get my eyebrow started. Would you drive me? I would never have done this. Okay, but once I got there and she's like, You should do it, I was like, I'll do it. Like, you know? I was just like, I get did it now it's kind of a thing we do together. And if I'm being honest, it does look a little nicer for me, because my eyebrows have a way of, like, curling down the side of my head, like, like, sad faces. So they do a good job of cleaning them up. So whenever Arden goes, I just go with her and we do it together. Well, that's cool. Exactly same goes for sometimes, every once in a while, in the wintertime, we go, like, to a tanning salon. But that's the thing Arden wants to do. And it started out with me just driving her over there. And then I was like, I'll do it too. So it's like a thing we do together. Like, if, if Arden left, like she moved across the country, I'd never go tanning again, and I'd never get my eyebrows threaded again. It's the thing I do with my daughter. You know what? I mean? Well, yeah, so that's that's it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I once shaved my legs, but that was different one time when we were like, God, were we, like, 19 or, I don't know what we were, but it was summertime, and we were all this week. We were so bored. And everybody, like, everyone was talking about how bored we were because, like, I'm telling you, the world was just different. Like, there was not a lot to do. Okay? We all got around one day and we all said something like, like, let's do something stupid, like, and we all came up with different stupid stuff to do. And I was like, I'll shave my legs. So, like, anyway, it was very itchy when it came back. Oh, my God. I don't remember what my other friends did. We once shaved. We once gave my brother, I think he was maybe like, 13 at the time. We collected money up from a bunch of people. Gave my brother $20 so we could shave his head bald. Oh, my God. And so for $20 my brother let his head get shaved completely bald.

Emma 1:04:49
My dad did it for free. My mom

Scott Benner 1:04:52
was so mad. Oh, my God. She was so incredibly. Be angry, and my brother didn't care. Like, he was just like, he was like, I have $20 like, can you imagine? Can you imagine nowadays? Like, how much if I said to you, am I going to shave your head bald, but you're going to get money for it? How much money would you want

Emma 1:05:14
if it's more than 50 because I am, I am not shaving my head,

Scott Benner 1:05:20
right? It would have to be, to you, would be a lot of money. And to you, $50 is a lot of money.

Emma 1:05:26
Yes, 100 is, like, I've only had ever $100 bill that I've earned. And how did you make the money? I worked six hours with my dad for a whole day. Okay? Would you cleaning the chicken coop and cleaning up the leaves. Very unpleasant. It was disgusting. What'd you do with the money? I think I saved it for a bit, and did I bought some stuff? I should have saved her an Apple Watch, but I was too dumb at the time to know.

Scott Benner 1:05:51
So you kind of like you spent it before you could build up. Yeah, I got you

Emma 1:05:56
that place we're getting we have to mow in last summer. My brother, the younger brother, he earned $1,000 for doing it. So I'm gonna try and plan to mow the summer. Is it a push mower or a rider? Oh, you ride it. I did that last year for a little bit.

Scott Benner 1:06:14
Oh, so you, so you would cut this lawn for the whole summer to make like, $1,000

Emma 1:06:18
Oh, yeah, no, definitely. Yeah. That's not a bad deal. Yeah, you don't have to buy the gas, do you? Oh no. My dad

Scott Benner 1:06:25
does. Oh, awesome. Well, then I would do that. If I was you, they'll let you do that when you're 10.

Emma 1:06:30
Oh yeah, my brothers do? I mean, my dad does. The lady that's there, she gets very, like, scared when I'm out, and my mom is, like, holding her breath. Like, why is she going, Oh,

Scott Benner 1:06:41
I see I say because you're because you're young, right?

Emma 1:06:44
Yeah, but I don't, I don't, I don't feel like I'm young. I feel like I'm older than that.

Scott Benner 1:06:49
You do? You feel like it's safe for you to be doing it?

Emma 1:06:51
Yeah? And a lot of people said I look a lot older because I just, I had really long hair down to like, I don't know how long it was it, but I finally got it so I could put it like over my shoulder and have it there. I cut it all off, not like shaved. Why'd you cut it off? Because I did not like having to take care of it. So now I have this really short haircut. Gotcha? You like that better? Oh, way better. I hated taking care of my head there. Do

Scott Benner 1:07:16
you think? Have you ever thought about, will there become a time where you're get tired of diabetes and you just don't want to do it. Has that ever happened

Emma 1:07:23
to you? I mean, I get like, upset that I haven't but no, I don't think I'd never, I don't think I'd ever, like, not take care of myself for it. What's upset? What do you mean? You get upset like I sometimes when I have to change my podcast, just like, I'm not having a good day, I get really mad about

Scott Benner 1:07:39
it. Yeah, you ever get mad at your parents for trying to help you? No, I don't do that, though. That's good. It doesn't bother you when people are trying to help you, uh, not really. Okay. If that ever, if that ever happens, try hard to fight that feeling. Yeah, okay.

Emma 1:07:54
But sometimes when I, like, uh, let's say I played this new video game the other day, because we're all big gamers, except for my mom. We were playing this game, and I was a new game, and my dad was like, Oh, I can help because I played him for I was like, No, I like doing this stuff by myself. Yeah, you

Scott Benner 1:08:10
like to have something for yourself, right? Yeah, gotcha. How come you're not at

Emma 1:08:14
school today? Oh, I'm skipping it until we're done.

Scott Benner 1:08:18
Oh, okay, yeah, nice. So you'll go to school and say I was on a podcast today, so I couldn't be here on time. Or are you gonna lie and say something else?

Emma 1:08:26
I'm gonna say that, Oh, only one of my friends really cares about this podcast, and it's the one with diabetes me,

Scott Benner 1:08:32
of course. Yeah, nobody else, yes. So I have a last question for you. Said your dad found the podcast the day you were diagnosed, yes, right? And do you guys talk about it, or does he bring ideas to you from the show? Because that's like, six years ago, so he's been listening for a long time. Like, so it's kind of, he's listened to almost all the episodes. Yeah. So it's kind of a part of your like, of your life, a little bit. So like, how does it impact you? Like, does your dad come to you with stuff? Or do you think that doesn't happen?

Emma 1:08:59
He sometimes does that? Yeah, okay. Do you know things

Scott Benner 1:09:03
because of the podcast or no, you know things because your parents? I also listened

Emma 1:09:07
to the school nurse one. Okay, I've listened to a few of them that I really liked, like it was someone in the motorcycle. Oh, Shay. Shay in the motorcycle. Yeah. I just listened to that one. I finished it with my dad. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:09:20
yeah, so. But do you think, like, some of the ways you manage your diabetes come from this podcast?

Emma 1:09:26
Yes, it definitely does. Like, how my algorithm

Scott Benner 1:09:30
is, okay, all right, well, that's cool. That's really awesome. So, you know what, you have a couple friends with diabetes, which I think will be like, I think that's gonna be great while you're growing up. Yeah, yeah. Do you guys have, like, kind of, like an unspoken kind of club thing. Like, do you, you know what I mean? Like, you feel like you guys are closer than other people,

Emma 1:09:48
kinda like, with Emmy, I'm best friends with her, like, all the way, but with some other people, I have different best friends than

Scott Benner 1:09:57
them. I know what you mean. Like, yeah, like. People are, like, you have like, different relationships with Yes, I gotcha. Okay, all right, listen, I think we're done, but, yeah, but I would, but, but I want you to go to school and try to learn something. You know what I mean? Yeah. What do you think you'll learn today?

Emma 1:10:12
Well, we just finished a new we had test, so a bunch of math, and we're learning in social studies about

Scott Benner 1:10:20
waves, like sound waves or waves,

Emma 1:10:23
sound waves, like actual waves, that type of stuff.

Scott Benner 1:10:27
Yeah, okay. Are you enjoying that? Yes, awesome. Okay, all right. Well, Emma, this was awesome. I really appreciate you doing this with me. Maybe, like I said, couple years from now, you come back and do it again. Okay, yeah, definitely awesome. Can I talk to you? Dad first? Oh, you're very welcome. Let me go grab my dad. Yeah, let me talk to your dad

Emma 1:10:44
for a second. Be right back. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:10:55
The conversation you just heard was sponsored by touched by type one. Check them out please. At touched by type one.org, on Instagram and Facebook, you're gonna love them. I love them. They're helping so many people. At touched by type one.org, this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Omnipod five, and at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox you can get yourself a free, what I just say, a free Omnipod five starter kit, free. Get out of here. Go click on that link, omnipod.com/juicebox check it out. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com Are you tired of getting a rash from your CGM adhesive? Give the ever since 365 a try, ever since cgm.com/juicebox beautiful silicon that they use. It changes every day. Keeps it fresh. Not only that, you only have to change the sensor once a year. So I mean, that's better. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend, and if you leave a five star review, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? I am here to tell you about juice cruise 2026 we will be departing from Miami on June 21 2026 for a seven night trip going to the Caribbean. That's right, we're going to leave Miami and then stop at Coco k in the Bahamas. After that, it's on to Saint Kitts, Saint Thomas and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands. The first juice Cruise was awesome. The second one is going to be bigger, better and bolder. This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type one diabetes. Expand your community and your knowledge on juice cruise 2026 learn more right now at Juicebox podcast.com/juice cruise at that link, you'll also find photographs from the first cruise. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong wayrecording.com, you.

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Terri, a 62-year type 1 veteran shares life before tech, college challenges, and 20 years helping others through her work in the diabetes supply world.

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

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

Terri 0:16
Hi, I'm Terry. I was diagnosed in 1963 with type one diabetes back in the old days,

Scott Benner 0:28
I am here to tell you about juice cruise 2026 we will be departing from Miami on June 21 2026 for a seven night trip going to the Caribbean. That's right. We're going to leave Miami and then stop at Coco k in the Bahamas. After that, it's on to st, Kitts, St Thomas and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands. The first juice Cruise was awesome. The second one's going to be bigger, better and bolder. This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type one diabetes, expand your community and your knowledge on juice cruise 2026 learn more right now at Juicebox podcast.com/juice. Cruise. At that link, you'll also find photographs from the first cruise. 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. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by us Med, US med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, 887211514, get your supplies the same way we do from us. Med, the episode you're about to listen to is sponsored by tandem Moby, the impressively small insulin pump. Tandem Moby features tandems newest algorithm control, IQ, plus technology. It's designed for greater discretion, more freedom and improve time and range. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox.

Terri 2:07
Hi, I'm Terry. I was diagnosed in 1963 with type one diabetes back in the old days, 63

Scott Benner 2:17
wait if I'm 53 now, and I was born in 71 then you were diagnosed, 61

Terri 2:23
years ago. Yeah, 60 Yeah, 62 years ago. Wow. How old are you now? Well, at the moment, I'm 76

Scott Benner 2:31
Oh, that's awesome. So you were 14 when you were diagnosed.

Terri 2:35
I was 15 years old. Geez, I was 15 years old and taking Driver's Ed. How did you figure out you had type one? Well, between the driving teacher and me, every time I would get in the car, I'd say, Could you stop at the stop and go 711 I need to get a drink. And we had, I had a partner that was driving with me. We would switch, and he would stop, and I would buy a sprite, and I would guzzle the sprite down. And then 15 minutes later, I'd say, Could you stop again? I have to go the bathroom. And he would stop again. And this, you know, went on and on for and he said, You think that there's something wrong with you. And I said, Well, I'm just thirsty. Apparently, this is what I remember about the whole thing, because it's, you know, it's hard to remember, especially when you're old and moldy like me. My mother saw me getting out of the bathtub. She turned around and she went, Oh my God, you're so skinny. What's the matter with you? And I said, Well, I don't know. I've been going to the bathroom a lot lately. You know, I've been really, really thirsty. It did not dawn on her. She had no earthly idea what was going on, and neither did I. So she said, Well, I think maybe you have a kidney infection. We went to the doctor that day or the next day, and I just remember him listening to everything, and he said, Okay, this is what I want you to do now. This was a general practitioner, you know, my doctor that I had seen since I got out of the pediatrician. I want you to get up in the morning and I want you to eat a really hearty breakfast, like pancakes and syrup and milk and eggs and everything, and then come to the doctor so that that's basically, was my glucose tolerance. Yeah, right, my blood sugar was well into the 400 it's almost 500 I guess. And he told my mother, and, you know, yada yada, she cried. And basically he prescribed a bottle of insulin, a glass syringe, a stainless steel needle, and said, Take 42 units of this medicine every day. I just remember 42 and I. Don't eat sweets, does it was that beef and pork? It was mph,

Scott Benner 5:05
mph, it was okay. It was okay. And so, wow, how about that? That's simple. That was the sum of the diabetes education. What about other people in your family? Like, did you guys know about diabetes?

Terri 5:16
My paternal grandmother had type two diabetes, but she was taking insulin, because I remember the insulin bottle stacked up in her refrigerator. She had many, and when she died, they asked me if I wanted them all. And I went, No, I don't think so. I

Scott Benner 5:32
got my own thanks, though, that's the the extent of the direction that you got. And you're 50, you're 15, you're, I mean, that's young

Terri 5:41
15. That was right in the middle, you know, teenage years, people were going out. We, the group that I was with had a place to go. It was a hamburger place, big boy hamburgers. It was right across the street from the temple, and we would go there, you know, on Friday, Saturday and Saturday nights, basically, after whatever we did, and everybody would have hamburgers and milkshakes. And I remember one kid saying, my mother told me that the milkshakes here were low calorie. And I said, really low calorie, maybe I can eat them. And so I started ordering the milkshakes,

Scott Benner 6:24
but you're not testing your blood sugar. Terry, right? Like you're just giving yourself that big shot in the morning, and that's it. There

Terri 6:30
was no testing, except for the urine testing. And because every time I tested my urine, it turned orange, I just decided not to test anymore. What did orange mean? Orange was high, you know, four plus sugars in your urine or whatever. Occasionally, it would be a different color, but that was if I tested in the morning, right?

Scott Benner 6:52
You have brothers and sisters.

Terri 6:55
I do. I have a sister who is three and a half years younger, and I have a brother who's 12 and a half years younger.

Scott Benner 7:05
And are there other like, does anybody have thyroid issues or celiac or anything like that?

Terri 7:09
Nobody does. Nobody on either side besides my paternal grandmother. Okay, that I know of, I don't know about uncles and aunts and things. Wait, I had an aunt who had rheumatoid arthritis, but I was always told that she got it because she had

Scott Benner 7:27
rheumatic fever. Okay, did you have any, like, big traumas or illnesses before you were diagnosed?

Terri 7:35
I have tried to think about that so many times. I don't remember. It could have been, you know, a cold or the flu or something like that. I did have chicken pox. I did have measles. Those were a lot younger.

Scott Benner 7:50
I just interviewed somebody the other day who had pancreatitis, like, really bad pancreatitis, and then got type one later, and I was like, I looked it up, and sure enough, that can happen. I was like, oh, it's interesting. Okay, so you said your mom cried, like you made a specific point of saying that, was she, like, an involved mom, or did she not? She

Terri 8:08
was very involved. She was okay, she was she Yeah, she was the ruler of the roost. Basically, my father was really laid back, and I never saw him get upset. My mother was the one who did all the discipline and everything. But the more I think about it, the more we didn't know what to do. Yeah, I mean, we didn't. She made healthy dinners, you know, I ate as much as I wanted to, if there was potatoes on the plate, and she served, you know, potatoes I ate, potatoes I ate. I just remember having meat, vegetables and a salad, okay, most of the evenings, and buying my lunch at school, sometimes taking my lunch to school. And as a teenager, mainly buying my lunch. There was no, not a lot of information,

Scott Benner 8:57
right? So not a lot to do. Then, really, you just inject. So you injected in the morning. She didn't help you with that. You with that. You did that

Terri 9:03
well for a long time. I could say, Mom, could you give me my shot today or but I do it too, and it was hard, you know, to learn. Oh, it's a little needle phobic, but I got over it. I mean, you got to get over it sometime. Yeah, I know your daughter is having a hard time? Yeah, it's tough, right? I would go, okay, 123, go.

Scott Benner 9:26
I choose. It's about how it ends up. Yeah. So when do you think it changes? Like, what's the first adjustment to that process of managing yourself? Like, because, I mean, you're saying, like, you do the urine test, it's not even worth doing, because your blood sugar is going to be high anyway. When's the first time that and does it come from you saying I need to do something different? Or is it a doctor making a suggestion?

Terri 9:47
Well, I will tell you as much as I can remember I went through all the way through the rest of high school and most of college with that same doctor and doing. Same thing. I remember going to college taking my insulin. Of course, I had had permission to boil my syringes. I had a little hot plate and, you know, in the dorm, and I could do that, but we didn't have refrigeration. So I would keep my insulin in the cafeteria, and I would go down, probably eat breakfast, get my insulin, put it on the tray, and then go up back upstairs and take my shot.

Scott Benner 10:30
You literally kept your insulin in the refrigerator in your college kitchen. I did. I did. Do you remember? Was there other insulin in there, or was it just yours? I don't

Terri 10:40
remember anybody in my girls dorm that had type one diabetes, and I didn't really look for them. My girlfriends knew what to do. My roommate and my girlfriends around you know, knew what to do. There was a time when we were playing softball. Our dorm was playing softball against another dorm. And I know, I remember walking in after the softball game, and it was hot. I'm in Texas. It's, you know, basically hot all year. I remember walking in and saying, I'm going to sit down here by the elevator. And I sat down, and the next thing I knew, I was in my room, and my girlfriends were stuffing Hershey bars in my mouth, and they had gone through two, and they were getting ready to open the third Hershey bar. You popped up when, when I got my senses and I went, let's don't do that. How often did that happen? Probably not that much, especially lows like that. I'm pretty aware of low blood sugars, even to this day, and which is lucky, because, you know, a lot of people can't feel their lows, but sometimes I can feel my low before the Dexcom tells me, or the Dexcom is a little higher, yeah, you know, and I'm a little lower. But that was one of those times that I really, you know, remembered

Scott Benner 12:03
passing out, yeah and not a seizure, just losing consciousness. Okay?

Terri 12:09
This went on pretty much through college. I remember drinking at fraternity parties. I remember not binging eating, but basically eating what I wanted. I knew about sweets. So, you know, I would have a few bites of desserts and let you know, allow myself that, but not knowing what my blood sugars were and not remembering what I had, you know, the carbs that I had eaten before. Yeah, and I don't think I was encouraged to take, you know, a big step and learn more about it, until the ADA came out with all the exchanges.

Scott Benner 12:51
So that's not even carb counting, really. It's like a certain amount of your plate. Is one thing, a certain amount your plates. The other thing is that how it was right?

Terri 12:58
In fact, I was going through some old papers today last night, and I came across some ADA exchange lists, which were really funny, but that's the way I still

Scott Benner 13:09
think, okay, so you start doing that. What in your early 20s,

Terri 13:13
pretty much. I got married right out of college. Okay? I moved from the Dallas area where I grew up. Went to school in Austin, and then I moved to Houston. The man that I married was from Houston, and I went to his GP, who told me, You are brittle. You are very brittle. You have brittle diabetes, brittle, brittle. That's how I spoke. He was from the old country, yes,

Scott Benner 13:39
through high school through college. Do you remember how you measured success? It was it just injecting every day, and you did a good job. And that's the end of our consideration as to whether or not this was done. Well, let's talk about the tandem mobi insulin pump from today's sponsor tandem diabetes care, their newest algorithm control, iq plus technology and the new tandem Moby pump offer you unique opportunities to have better control. It's the only system with auto Bolus that helps with missed meals and preventing hyperglycemia, the only system with a dedicated sleep setting, and the only system with off or on body wear options. Tandem Moby gives you more discretion, freedom and options for how to manage your diabetes. This is their best algorithm ever, and they'd like you to check it out at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox when you get to my link, you're going to see integrations with Dexcom sensors and a ton of other information that's going to help you learn about tandems, tiny pump that's big on control tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, the tandem mobi system is available for people ages two and up who want an automated delivery system to help them sleep better, wake up in range and address high blood sugars with auto Bolus. I used to hate ordering my daughter's diabetes supplies. I never had a good experience, and it was frustrating. But it hasn't been that way for a while, actually, for about three years now, because that's how long we've been using us Med, us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, us. Med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omnipod, the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide, the number one rated distributor in Dexcom customer satisfaction surveys, they have served over 1 million people with diabetes since 1996 and they always provide 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. US med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and Dexcom g7 they accept Medicare nationwide, and over 800 private insurers find out why us med has an A plus rating with a better business bureau at usmed.com/juicebox, or just call them at 888-721-1514, get started right now, and you'll be getting your supplies the same way we do.

Terri 16:26
Well, you know, when I went for blood tests, I started eating right a week before, you know, eating diet type menus,

Scott Benner 16:38
you thought it would make your blood work better,

Terri 16:41
right? Yeah. Okay, so I don't remember when I went on two injections, not quite sure when I went on two injections, but I think it may have been at that time, okay, I went on two injections, and then early on in Houston, I went to a meeting of people with type one diabetes at the time. It was before the 80s. It was called AIDS, adult Association, insulin dependent, something like that. Okay? And I met a doctor there who had a revolutionary idea. His idea was to take a long acting insulin and then take a short acting insulin before each meal. And I said, that sounds pretty reasonable. I could do that. And I was with him. He's great. He's still practicing. And that was basically in the mid 70s, okay, he also happened to own a diabetes supply company. He was his office was upstairs, and his store was downstairs.

Scott Benner 17:52
That revolutionary idea comes out. Was he ahead of the curve, like, was he taking a risk saying this out loud, being, you know, kind of a was he out on the edge of the sword? I guess I'm asking, like, you

Terri 18:04
think it was, I'm pretty sure it was. He said, This is something that we are trying now, okay? And he gave a speech about and I went up to him later, and I said, you know, I would like to do this. I'm taking two or three shots a day. I think I was on some regular insulin, or two shots a day. I said, you know, I'd like to try this. I'd like to come to you. I've never been to a specialist before, and I think I probably need some, you know, tuning. It was probably about 7273

okay, because in 1970 or maybe it was later than that, because in 1973

I got pregnant, and I went to a regular gynecologist, obstetrician, and about month seven, I started gaining lots and lots of weight every couple weeks, and he did an x ray and found that the baby was not viable. Oh, my and so that was at seven

Scott Benner 19:16
months. You lost that baby at that point.

Terri 19:20
Okay, I did. Now, fast forward 10 years. I did not know the reason for this, for this failed pre pregnancy, until I got pregnant 10 years later with my son and I went to a specialist, you know diabetes? What is it? Perinatologist, she said, Do you know the reason that you had this bad pregnancy? I said, No. She said it was because of high blood sugars. And I went, Oh, nobody ever told me that

Scott Benner 19:55
you had no idea when you got pregnant, the first time that your outcomes were. With your diabetes had any impact at all in the pregnancy.

Terri 20:03
Okay, I knew that I, you know, needed to eat better. You eat a little bit more for two or one and a half or whatever, like that, always hungry. But when a one CS came out, my first a 1c was 13, and I said, is that bad?

Scott Benner 20:21
Do you remember what they told you? They told

Terri 20:24
me it was 13. I said, Okay, is that bad? I

Scott Benner 20:29
said, Yes, it's very bad. What do you think you just weren't taking enough insulin? I mean, the long and the short of it is, you're doing that two or three shots a day, and then you move to so when you have the 13, a, 1c, you're now doing a slow and a long and a fast acting insulin at that point, right? Okay, and so the guy had the revolutionary idea to do a background insulin and a meal insulin, but he didn't talk about how to measure

Terri 20:54
it. I think we, you know, I think we worked on it. I was the type of person that I'm not fooling anybody but myself, but I would eat a little bit more, or have a little bit of dessert, or take a little bit of ice cream, or, you know, or all of these things didn't hurt until blood glucose monitoring came out, and you could see it every time you did it.

Scott Benner 21:20
Yeah, that changed things for you. It really did. Yeah, having a meter and so, so are you trying to tell me you knew you weren't optimally eating and using your insulin, but you just kind of told yourself you were, and you

Terri 21:33
kept going, right? And then when you, you know, when I had a blood test, my blood value would come out 130 and the doctor would say, well, you're doing well, you know, it's 130 it's good.

Scott Benner 21:45
Was that like your fasting number? That was my

Terri 21:47
fasting number. Yeah, right.

Scott Benner 21:49
So I got you all right. So you get a meter for the first time, and do you start using it? Or does the doctor kind of make

Terri 21:55
you I had one of those plug in dial, dial up type meters. I was excited to get a meter, and I could afford to get one of those ones that plugged into the wall, and you had to run water over it, and it took two minutes and so and then you had to dial it. You had to dial these two dials so that they would match. It took like forever to get a blood sugar. And, you know, once I saw the higher blood sugars, the thing to do was just to get on board. I, you know, then I started asking a lot of questions, how can I be better? What can I do to take you know, what can I do to eat better?

Scott Benner 22:39
Does your increased interest coincide with not just getting a meter, but also a second pregnancy? Or do those things kind of happen at the same time? I'm trying to figure out what motivated you to like ask more questions.

Terri 22:51
When I started going to this doctor, I started paying attention to the things in his office, the store that he had downstairs. This all culminated in my jobs for them, you know, for then and after, I started paying more attention to it, reading a lot of things, and kind of educating myself, since nobody else was going to do it for me, since I had, you know, left my family and my mother really didn't know enough to say, let's find out more about this. You know, let's try to help you, and let's see how you know, we can make you live for a long time, I really started doing a lot of these things myself, okay? And I was interested in his business enough to say, I want to work for you. You know, after my second child was born, I want to work for you. And I got involved in marketing and going to doctors offices and just, you know, trying to get people to come into the store. That was about the time. Fast forward to about 1989 when we moved to San Antonio, I opened a store for him here, a diabetes store, right? So I kind of got in the middle of things. I was running a store. I had diabetes books, I had all kinds of papers. I would go to the doctor's offices, I would see what the endocrinologists were doing. I mean, he was an endocrinologist. I got hooked up with a really good endocrinologist here in San Antonio, but I was working in the diabetes field. It made me learn things.

Scott Benner 24:36
Yeah, it just gave you more access to ideas, right?

Terri 24:39
Yeah. I would go to speakers. I would listen. I would go to the diabetes educators in all the hospitals. I would market them, as it turned out, that company, he finally sold the stores to another company who I don't know. I had six or eight name tags on my chest before i. He finally sold to a company who is still in business, a company that is very, very similar to the company that you advertise on on the radio,

Scott Benner 25:10
okay? Some like us, med, they sell devices and things like that. One of their competitors, right, right? And he eventually they bought up his business. Yes, they did. Did you continue to work for them, or was that the end

Terri 25:22
of it? For you, I did. I worked almost 20 years in the diabetes field,

Scott Benner 25:26
no kidding. And so like to go back a little bit. You have a lot of hindsight here, obviously. So in the time of your life, of diagnosis, into your 20s, even through your first pregnancy, there was no other information, right? It's not like it was out there and you didn't know it. It just until the ADA started talking about it. I've heard other people your age talk about this. You were just doing the thing they told you to do, and there was no it wasn't like there was more to learn, and you didn't know it, right? It just didn't exist,

Terri 25:54
pretty much, yeah,

Scott Benner 25:57
okay, then the ADA comes together, starts putting together guidelines for people, you know, there's magazines, and if you ever saw one of those old magazines or not, but like, Oh, see, my,

Terri 26:05
you know, the doctor that owned the business, he put ads in the ADA magazine. He wrote AD. He was, he was the first mail order diabetes supply company. No

Scott Benner 26:17
kidding, yeah, by point for people listening, who are more newly diagnosed, or just, you know, even just half your age, even that's it like there was nothing. Hey, you're lucky we have insulin now. Good luck. And that's the end of it until, until you can start testing your blood sugar in your home. Because people talk about it now like, Oh, I didn't have a CGM. But then i I finally could see how my blood sugars were moving, and it changed how I thought about it, like you test your blood sugar one day and you thought, oh, maybe I should be doing something about this. Let me learn more about this.

Terri 26:48
My daughter, who just turned 50, got here with no glucose monitoring.

Scott Benner 26:53
That's scary through that pregnancy, yeah,

Terri 26:58
you know, I finally got pregnant about six or seven months later, and that pregnancy was fine. By that time, another year and a half later, they figured out that they would take the baby, they would do some testing on their lung capacity, and take the child three weeks early through C section. So she was born three weeks early. She was seven pounds, one ounce at whatever that is, 36 weeks or something. She looks like a moose in the preemie nursery, because they had to keep her in there for a while.

Scott Benner 27:35
They took her early so that she wouldn't gain more weight in those last few weeks. What

Terri 27:39
they said was that babies of diabetic mothers in the last three weeks of pregnancies tend to have mysterious deaths. Okay, so they would take

Scott Benner 27:51
them. Gotcha? Does she have type two diabetes today as an adult?

Terri 27:55
She does not. Okay. She's very thin and very active. She's got psoriasis.

Scott Benner 28:01
She does have a little bit of an autoimmune thing. You said you had a son too, right?

Terri 28:08
My son is perfectly healthy. So far,

Scott Benner 28:11
so far, you said, Hello, so far. He

Terri 28:15
will be 40 on my birthday. He was born on my birthday.

Scott Benner 28:18
Wow. There's a world where you could have a 4050, and 60 year old child, or not 60, but like your kids would have been, if that first pregnancy goes to term, your kids would have been spread out, like, pretty significantly, huh,

Terri 28:31
right? Yeah. I mean, you know, I had a brother who was 12 and a half years younger, and then I did it myself, yeah, but that was due to really bad medical advice, really, because I had a doctor. Finally, when I did get to a specialist with my daughter, who said, Well, you know, you had it. You had one good child. I don't recommend you have any more. And I said, okay, but I will tell you a funny story. When I was working for the doctor. I went to a family practice convention. We had a booth there, and I was handing out all kinds of things to these family practice doctors, and in another booth, do you remember? Did you watch Seinfeld? Of course, yeah, okay. Do you remember the episode with the today's sponge.

Scott Benner 29:23
I mean vaguely, but I don't know if I have enough details, but go ahead, tell

Terri 29:27
me. Elaine, you know, got a whole closet full, you know, she, she bought out the, I don't know, the wholesaler of these today's sponges, and she would have dates with these men and decide if they were sponge worthy or not. It was really a funny show.

Scott Benner 29:47
She didn't want to use up a sponge on a bad guy. Yeah, I got you Okay,

Terri 29:51
right? As it turned out, I changed my contraceptive just because those things came out and sounded like. Those were a lot easier than what I was doing. And so I got pregnant, oops, at this family practice convention, I came by and they said, Oh, you know, how are you? And I'm talking to them. And I they said, Have you ever used our product? And I said, I have. Can you wait a minute? And I went back to the booth, and I got my purse and with my picture of my baby son, and I said, Yes, I've used your product, and here's the

Scott Benner 30:27
result. Yeah, here's how it worked out for me. I tried your contraceptive, and I have this kid.

Terri 30:33
And they looked at me and they said, You may leave this booth right now.

Scott Benner 30:37
Feel free to walk away. Yeah, I love that. So what did you name your son? Is he spongy or what do you call him? You guys ever call him SpongeBob? That'd be awesome.

Terri 30:47
My husband used to call him froggy because he would laugh like, like, froggy the Gremlin. You old enough to remember that the Gremlins movie no was before that? Oh, sorry, was on some, some old black and white TV show, and he would laugh

Scott Benner 31:07
like that. All I can tell you is, I referenced Rocky and Bullwinkle the other day, and I realized that I was watching a television show as a kid. A cartoon is a child that was made like 15 years before I was born. I thought it was brand new. It was already, you know, already you know, it's already 20 years old. When

Terri 31:22
I was watching it, I love that play. I love that show. It was good.

Scott Benner 31:26
Okay, so let's jump forward a little bit. Okay, because here you are. You're 76 years old. You somehow know who I am. That's ridiculous, and you've been through all this stuff. Like, is there a time when you think back and think, this is when my diabetes understanding knowledge and technology became more modern. Like, when do you think of as your you know as your modernization of your diabetes? I think there's two

Terri 31:50
times Well, a couple times once, when I got an insulin pump in 1997 endocrinologist I was doing well at the time, and he said, You're doing so well, you don't need a pump. Now, he was a big name here in the San Antonio area, very big name, I guess he pumps were just becoming the fashion with the type ones, and he didn't think that I needed the but I but I got one anyway. Okay, so I started with a Medtronic 506 or something like that, and I moved up from there with with Medtronic. I decided, after getting all of these electronic devices, that I had to have the newest and the best. Unfortunately, the insurance made you wait four years, of course, you know, to upgrade. I did not go on the pod because I thought it was too bulky at the time. I went on the tandem for a while. I loved the tandem, but I did not like the clip, and I couldn't put it anywhere.

Scott Benner 32:54
Can you imagine it right now? If you're listening in your tandem, you're like, oh, it's the clip we that's how we lost her.

Terri 33:02
The Omnipod, because, of course,

Scott Benner 33:05
probably like, damn it, you just couldn't find a place to comfortably wear the pump at that time. That's

Terri 33:10
great. Too much rolls around my I'm not fat, but I have a roll around my middle. And every time I'd stick it on my waistband and bend over around, it would either stick me or pop off, and it didn't have the right clip to clip it on my bra or in my bra, so I just couldn't find a place to put it. And I would get really frustrated. And then the Omnipod dash came out, and I thought I would try it, and I really liked it. I really liked it. In the last couple years, I would say in the last two and a half years, I decided to really get into the intricacies of learning diabetes. Okay, well, the first thing I did was pay exorbitant amount of money to a guy on the online I'm sure you know who it is, but and I took his class, and I paid half attention to it, I didn't dig deep enough when I finally decided that his method of Teaching was not the way that I wanted to learn. And I had been reading your the Facebook page, like a lot of women or a lot of adults, thinking, Oh, it's just for kids. It's it's parents with kids as asking a lot of questions. And then I would see some questions from adults and go, Well, you know, I'm learning from this. And then I started listening to your podcasts, and that's when I got really, really into it, you know, I'm finally, after 60 some odd years, finally understanding how insulin works.

Scott Benner 34:57
I'm glad that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's really great.

Terri 35:01
And I still get frustrated with things, because I think that all pumps need to be on extended Bolus, especially if you eat any protein,

Scott Benner 35:12
even the aid systems, you wish they still had an extended Bolus. The Omnipod

Terri 35:16
five has an extended Bolus, and a lot of times I'm in extended Bolus for at least breakfast and dinner, and then I switch back to auto, and I'll switch back to auto at night, which will be, you know, fine and perfect. Then if you want to eat something in the middle of this extended Bolus, you can't give yourself any more

Scott Benner 35:38
because it's because you just will it cancel the extended Bolus. If you make a new Bolus,

Terri 35:45
you could, okay, you know, I could figure out how much is left and then extend that, you know, take what I want to eat and then wait, and then, you know, and then eat it.

Scott Benner 35:59
Are you using it like automation for overnight and and you're running manual during the day. Do you do that every day? I

Terri 36:06
run manual part of the day. Okay, I try to get back on on auto mode. But then if I eat a lot of protein, I drink a smoothie in the morning. I drink the same smoothie that I've had for probably a year or more. It's got this, you know, the protein powder. It's got peanut butter, almond butter. It's a high calorie, high protein. It's got strawberries and bananas in it, cinnamon, all that stuff. Yeah, it's got about 54 grams of of carbs. Well,

Scott Benner 36:41
I mean, and that's important, right as your age specifically, right, to get that protein in and and to get enough fuel for you during the day. Is it harder to eat when you're older? Do I hear a lot of people say that, like, I'm not hungry anymore? Is that part of your issue?

Terri 36:55
Well, I don't know if that's because of age or the fact that a couple of years ago, I had a bacterial gut infection that just really messed me up. I mean, I lost a bunch of weight and I wasn't hungry for a long time. I bought lost a bunch of muscle, yeah, and I'm trying to get it back by going to Pilates and walking. And I think my face is a little fuller. I mean, put on a couple more pounds and I look, I don't look so gaunt anymore. I eat that because I know I can, I know exactly how many proteins and fats that I have, and I drink that, and I'm not hungry until about two o'clock in the afternoon.

Scott Benner 37:39
Okay, so it's good, it's filling, and it's giving you the micro and macronutrients that you need,

Terri 37:44
right? I probably should add some of that green stuff that you advertise. I

Scott Benner 37:48
mean, listen, if you want to, it's, I think it's drink ag one slash Juicebox.

Terri 37:53
Does it taste funny? Does it taste like green? How does ag

Scott Benner 37:56
one taste I've heard some people describe it as like lemon, but I don't have that feeling about it. What I can tell you is that I tried a number of green drinks. This is the only one that I can actually drink that doesn't make me want to, like, dump it down the sink. It's not like a root beer float or anything like that, but it's it's pleasant, it's not objectionable, it's not gritty. You know, I like it. I think it's the one. It's funny. Because I think people think, well, they just, they buy an ad. So you say you drink it, but it's the one I landed on that I actually liked. So just kind of got lucky that they were interested in doing it. I don't know. You can give it a try, see what you think. If you don't like it, you know, stop doing it. Since I've been on a GLP medication. I use a protein powder too, you know, because sometimes it's just, I mean, I don't know if it's my it's my age or not, but there are days where I feel like, Oh, my God, I do have to eat again. Like, I mean, how long am I going to be alive? You know what? I mean, I don't want any of this anymore. I've eaten this stuff so many times. Like, I find myself wishing all the time it was the Jetsons and I could just take that pill and I'd be done. But, you know, sometimes you get hungry for something, but I don't know, generally speaking, I'm not like a real food person. I don't run around like thinking, oh God, you know, it would be awesome today if I had this or this.

Terri 39:07
Well, as an older person, you do see a lot of older people. I mean, I go out with a group of altar Cockers. Do you know what that is?

Scott Benner 39:16
I know a little Yiddish. I'm good. Go ahead.

Terri 39:19
Okay, that's old people who complain a lot, and most of them will share, you know, share meals, not because of cost, but because they just don't want that much food at night. Yeah,

Scott Benner 39:31
by the way, you're making me think that, if I can, I can keep podcasting another 20 years. I could just make a podcast where I just bitching about stuff constantly. I think that would be awesome, don't you just got on here and just made a list of grievances. One of them would be the kid in the green hat this morning who was texting with both hands while trying to make a right turn in front of me. I'd like to complain about him for about 20 minutes, if I could. Yeah, I'm gonna keep that in mind. I might, I might ditch this diabetes thing one day and just turn into an old guy bitching. That'd be a ghost. I might, I might actually get old guy bitching. Dot com right now, just so I can get, I can get ahead of this. You know, I love to complain. I can't wait to get older. It's going to be awesome. But you guys hate it when each other complains, though, right?

Terri 40:09
We, I know we do, and we and we all talk about, you know, the illness, or how good or bad the illness is at the moment, especially the husbands. A lot of the husbands are failing my my husband passed away 13 years ago, almost 13 years ago.

Scott Benner 40:27
Oh my gosh. And how old were you at that time? In your mid 60s,

Terri 40:30
I was 64 he was 65 he didn't feel good for the longest time. And I kept saying, call the doctor. Call the doctor. I finally, one day, handed him the telephone. I said, this is a telephone. I know you know a phone because you're an attorney and you're on the phone all the time, so, but this is a phone that calls the doctor. I'm leaving, call the doctor now, make an appointment. And the doctor didn't like what he heard when he met with him and said, I'm sending you for a CT scan, full body scan, right now. And he sent him over and came back with he had tumors in his Liver. Liver cancer doesn't come from the liver. It metastasizes to the liver. So they were kind of unsure, even until the day he died, where the cancer really started. But he lived for about 18 months, worked every day, up until two weeks before, called the family, you know, a couple weeks before, before he died, he didn't know he was gonna die, but and he said, Okay, here's the papers for this, and you take this, and I want you to do this. And you know, it's like everything was planned. I couldn't have asked for anything better, right? He was a cool guy. Bernie, the attorney,

Scott Benner 41:55
I'm sorry. Do you think going sooner to the doctor would have changed his outcome or not

Terri 42:00
necessary. It depends on how much sooner, you know, how much sooner, how badly? Because it was stage four at the time, he just kept saying, you know, I just close the door in the afternoon and take a nap in my office. I said, That's

Scott Benner 42:16
not you. Was he on chemo for those 18 months?

Terri 42:19
Yeah, he was, yeah, Geez, that sucks. I'm sorry. It was, did you try to date afterwards?

Scott Benner 42:28
Go ahead, Tara, tell me, how'd it go?

Terri 42:32
Yeah, I did. I had several boyfriends, one for about almost six years. We're still friends. And then a couple here and there I was on dating apps, and I have one who, right now is here. Is he in the

Scott Benner 42:50
house? Now? No, he's not here. But Terry, can I ask a very Listen, I know you're 76 and people are going to think this is indelicate, but I really have a serious question. You were with your husband your whole life, right? So you you age together. So you just, I don't know if people realize this or not, but like, I mean, if you stop every once in a while, you're like, God, I'm older. Like, you can see it, but you don't really feel it day to day, because you're aging together. But once Bernie is gone and the next guy shows up, the first time, all the clothes come off, you think I'm about to have sex with an old man. Does it feel that way? Please tell me, I really want to know, yes, but you don't feel like you should be right? You feel like you'd be like, Oh, I shouldn't be doing this. I'm downgraded. No, no.

Terri 43:32
I you know, nobody feels their age. I mean, some people do, you know, during, you know, it's like, Oh, I feel like I'm 99 today. It can't move in our brains. You know, we still have life and love and vitality, and we think that we're 40,

Scott Benner 43:53
yeah, fairness, Terry, I know what you look like. You don't look like you're 76 right? You know, lately there's been this trend on Tiktok. It's called, this is 50. And there are people are like, you know, they hold their camera. I'm like, Look, here it is. I'm not wearing any makeup. I'm 50 years old. This is what 50 looks like. And I'm looking at some of these people. I'm like, Y'all look like you're 70. I don't look like that. I held my phone up to myself. I was like, I couldn't even do this challenge. These people would get mad at me. They come after me. I've got nice dark hair still, you understand? And I wonder, like, I'm like, that's it's 50 for you. And like, right on, like, I'm glad you're proud and all that stuff. But like, I see people nowadays like you, you look like my dad would have been thrilled to look like you when he was 60. You're 16 years older than that, and you, you spent a half an hour telling me your your a 1c, was probably 13 most of the time, while you were growing up,

Terri 44:42
I was really lucky. I don't know what it was. I just went to the retinologist Yesterday. I have no you know, I had no retinopathy. He said, not only are you the best patient that I have seen today, he said, I haven't seen a patient like. You, I had another doctor say you're my most boring patient.

Scott Benner 45:03
That's awesome, but I said

Terri 45:05
I want to be boring. Yeah,

Scott Benner 45:07
no kidding, don't I don't want to be anybody stored at dinner. I don't

Terri 45:10
know what I did. Maybe I'm better than I thought I was. Maybe I did better at the times that there was no glucose monitoring, right? And the times that I did check that were, you know, that were so, quote, bad, out of control, maybe I should say out of control, were the times that got me depressed or sad and gone. Oh well, you know, there it is again. It's high, but maybe the rest of the time I was okay, or maybe I have good genes. I don't have any neuropathy or retinopathy

Scott Benner 45:45
or lucky, right? Like

Terri 45:46
I yeah, I think it's, you know, it's luck, because I had two friends in high school, Guy and his sister, and both of them are deceased for a long, a long time ago, one was kidney disease, and one, well, she kind of drank her way through college and went blind, but, and those are the things that nobody, you know, want wants to hear. And the parents who listen to this, you know, they don't want their kids to to know these things they want them to know. Like I went to a diabetes camp as a, you know, as a marketer from the from the store that I worked for, right? And we did the diabetes camps here in San Antonio. And one of the girls, you know, saw my pump, and she's, oh, you're on a pump. And I said, yeah, she's, can I ask you a question, do you have any children? And I said, Yeah, I have two children. Shit, you have two children. I can have children. So, you know, I want these parents to say, with all of these gizmos and gadgets now you can do anything,

Scott Benner 46:54
yeah, really, I have to say, Terry, i The longer I do this, the more I think that what people hope is that if you just do all the right things, you have, you know, outcomes that you want. But I'm more inclined to think that people are kind of who they are, of course, you know, if you run into troubles, that's you know, not you know, like diabetes is an example. That's not something you control, but it's probably got more to do with your personality, how you're wired your environment, about how you're going to end up handling those things and being impacted by them. I think that's the stuff that you you have more control over, that you don't realize, and that we always focus on. The other thing, like, well, just Bolus right, or do this right, or, you know, and everything's going to be fine. Like, I think some of your kids are no nicks, and they were gonna turn out poorly whether they got diabetes or not. Now they're having a problem, and they have diabetes, and people blame the diabetes, right? Not to say that diabetes is exciting to have and doesn't have a huge impact on your life, but I wonder sometimes if there wouldn't have been another thing that would've befell them if it wasn't this, because, like, I don't know another way to, like, explain people who just, you know, have type one and RA and hypothyroidism and are just skating through life like, like, there's some magic potion about who they are and how they were brought up and how they think and how they react to things, etc, and so on. That just leads them to a good place, no matter what happens to them before, you know what I mean, there's some people get sad and they're sad for 20 years, then I don't think that's the thing you can control. I don't think you can control any of that. Meaning, like, I don't think you should take the blame for being a depressed person any more than you should take a credit for a person who just skates through things. Like, it's just random almost

Terri 48:39
before all of the technology and even into and now, I never let diabetes be the focal point of me. You know, I was somebody else I was, and hopefully that's what the parents are teaching these kids, diabetes is not your focal point. You just happen to have that, just like somebody else happens to have a bump on their elbow or brown hair or anything like that. Yeah, you know, you are an artist, you are a musician, you are a creative person, you are a mathematician. You are, whatever you are, and you just happen to have diabetes, and you happen to be taking care of something that somebody else doesn't have to take care of. So that makes you even more special. Yeah, listen,

Scott Benner 49:34
if you're a welder or, you know, yeah, you get up during in the morning and you have a good day, or a landscaping job all day long, or, you know, you're standing at a cash register. I mean, whatever it is, like, I want to tell people like, I think you are who you are, and this is an addition to that, and it's not fair and it's not great. But if you think that it's as easy as other people are doing, well, because they don't have diabetes, and you're doing. Poorly, because you do. I mean, I'm not saying that doesn't have a big impact on a life. It certainly does, but there are some people who are getting through it, and I'm also not a person who says, like, so just do what they do, because I don't know that that's possible. I don't know that everybody can just do the things that work for one person then say they're going to just lay over top of another person to work. I'm trying to say that. I think it's more of like, sometimes things just go the way they go for people. Like, I know people who are, they barely pay attention in college. They're incredibly smart and incredibly successful, right? And I know people have a kid. You look at the kid when they're eight years old, you that's, that's a little Ted right there. Like, I can see that. And 10 years later, sure enough, Ted's in a bunch of trouble. And five years after that, Ted's in more trouble. And like I saw this coming 20 years ago now, was that a collection of nature, nurture, wiring, you know, things out of their control, probably. But what I'm trying to say is that I don't think diabetes puts you in a bad situation, like, I think it just ends up enhancing the situation you're in. It might be valuable to look at the big picture and not just blame the diabetes because something's going wrong. I mean, that's my only thought. I don't people be mad at me for saying that, but like, yeah, it's, I mean,

Terri 51:18
look, I didn't, I never had special compensation. I didn't have a 504 plan. I didn't have, you know, I there was nobody. I taught school for 10 years. There was nobody besides the person that was teaching next to me, who I could call on or followed me. I have nobody following me ever. I've never had anybody following me, and that's, you know, it's kind of scary. I've always thought I'm going to handle this myself and I'll deal with it. You know, if the time comes,

Scott Benner 51:52
I'll deal with it. I couldn't be happier for you, Terry, or how things are working out. I'm also saying, though, that you could take another random person, drop them into your life, and they'd have a poorer outcome than you did. Like I do, I do think a lot of it's just the randomness of your wiring and how your brain works and how your emotions work. Does that make sense? I don't know if I'm babbling or not. No,

Terri 52:16
it does, and it's about background and how you managed problems as a child. You know how, how your parents taught you how to manage things as a child? You know it will pass, or it's a big Magilla. It's a big thing.

Scott Benner 52:33
Yeah, a lot of life is the randomness of who you get as a mom and a dad. It really is. A lot of your direction comes from things you don't even you don't even realize, you know. So anyway, are you and I are going to meet? Is that correct?

Terri 52:47
We are in a couple days. That's awesome that

Scott Benner 52:52
you're coming on the cruise. It's going to be so cool.

Terri 52:55
I was so excited. I thought there was going to be, like, hundreds of people that we're gonna sign up, but I'm happy that, you know, it's gonna be a nice group of people. Yeah, we're gonna have an adult dinner.

Scott Benner 53:10
We are, I know I've been told that I have to eat, like, every half an hour, or something like that. Apparently, I'm having dinner with a lot of different people.

Terri 53:18
I was wondering, because, like, our dinner is at 845 and I have a roommate, and she says, I don't eat past seven o'clock. And I said, Well, why don't you eat a little early, and then you can drink the dinner and, you know, have a salad or something like that. And she said, but the food in the dining room is really good. I sent her a, you know, shrug emoji is like, what can I do about it early? Are you?

Scott Benner 53:46
Yeah, well, so we're doing it, and it's about 100 people that are getting together. It's going to be awesome, and we're going to make a decision pretty quickly after that. Like, if people have a good time and it goes off the way we expect it to, then we're probably going to announce another one for the following year, and hope, hope to make it a little bigger the next time. I mean, I think it's for an inaugural try. I'm thrilled with how many people are coming, and I get to drive, yeah, and you live in Texas, so you can just go to the port and jump on the boat. And then we think next time it's going to go out of Miami. I think that, oh, yeah, okay. So the next year, I think in June, end of June, we're going to go out of Miami and do one

Terri 54:23
by that time, I'll be in California. I'm moving to California. Are you my son and two babies and sister and her family? And the only person that's not there is my daughter, who lives in Dallas. I want to see my little grandsons grow up and flying out there is expensive. They call me honey,

Scott Benner 54:46
but that's your grandma. Name honey. That's my grand. My grand. My

Terri 54:49
grandmother was, was honey too, and I loved her so much, so I wanted to keep the name alive. That's lovely. It's funny, when they're in the store, they'll say, Hey, honey, I. Like, what people turn around and say, calling people honey, but that's my grandma name. Oh yeah. And I'm trying to take a very big house and get rid of all the crap. I

Scott Benner 55:14
tell my wife all the time, like, let's get rid of this stuff now. Like, let's get rid of it. Now I still point to something I go that, you know what that box is? That's a box that one day, one of our kids is going to carry out of the basement when we're dead and they're going to curse us all the way up the stairs. I was like, just throw it away. Now, I think I'm getting through to her, so I'm super excited about that. Yeah,

Terri 55:32
do it? Do it. You know, how many of these things do you need? I'm trying to consolidate my closet, because the closet that I'm going to have is like five by five, which is nothing.

Scott Benner 55:45
Do you think you should have moved sooner out of your bigger home? Or are you comfortable with the amount of time you spent

Terri 55:51
there? I like the time that I spent here. I'm just tired of the big expense, yeah, you know the big water bill and the big electric bill, and I have a swimming pool that is really pretty, and very few people get in it. If I, you know, if I get in two or three times a summer, that's a lot, but I have to keep it up,

Scott Benner 56:12
yeah, and pay right? It is one of those things, like, when your kids are younger and they're bringing over friends, it's the greatest thing, right? But then, right, yeah,

Terri 56:19
right. But then it's a lot of upkeep and repairs, and I just had a really big plumbing bill, like, really big, and it wasn't big enough to meet the deductible, but it was big enough to take a chunk out of my pocketbook. Yeah,

Scott Benner 56:34
sucks. So you're gonna go get a smaller place in California. Where is it? Southern, Northern, middle of the state, where you going? Well, my

Terri 56:41
son's in the LA area, okay, all right, so I will be there, and they're building this senior living place, and I think I'm going to move in and have a little place and be next door to somebody else who plays poker and mahjong and, you know, walks and, yeah, have a time, has a dog, has a dog, and all that kind of stuff. And my friends here are sad to see me go, but I think it'll be fun. I think it'll be fun. It'll be something

Scott Benner 57:10
new. You're taking your boy toy with you. You're gonna pick up a new one in LA he's not willing to go. Did you ask?

Terri 57:20
He's a Texan. He just doesn't want to go, and he's good company. I like him. I like him. We we travel and we have a good time, right?

Scott Benner 57:28
What is the um, this is my last question for you. You're married a long time to a guy. It sounds like you really liked 42 years. Yeah. So is it understood? Like no one's trying to like, replace that experience, obviously, and you're not young enough to have it again, like you're not gonna, even if you fell into a great love, right now, it's not gonna go 42 more years, right? So does it make everything feel a little more transactional? Like, hey, he's good company, or he likes the kind of movies I like, or I like the way he does that thing. Like, is that, is it that easy?

Terri 58:00
Pretty much. Yeah, it really, it's, it's, pretty much. I mean, you know, they've got to be fun, funny, funny. It's, is a big thing with me. They have to have a sense of humor and laugh and be fun and like, the same thing, movies, theater, you know, outdoor type activities, even the same TV shows or something like that, because we do sit and watch a lot of television. Yeah,

Scott Benner 58:28
is that freeing that you're not looking for a person to build a life with? It's just fun.

Terri 58:33
Yeah, I bet you know it is. And when I move, you know, I'm not even looking for that. I'm looking for companionship, whether it's male or female. You know, if three girls want to go on a trip, that would be fun. If I meet a guy and he says, you know, let's go to Las Vegas, that would be fun.

Scott Benner 58:56
Yeah, I hear it. That's awesome. I mean, that's really great. And it does. It just feels like a weight lifted, like he's you're not trying to build like a like. It's just different when you're younger, right? You're looking for somebody that you can build a life with, who you think will be good parents, stuff like that. Here, if this guy gets on your nerves, you'd be like, that's enough. We're good. And, yeah, it's not too bad, right? To just say,

Terri 59:17
because they have their own family, usually they'll have their own families. Might seem to have met a couple that don't speak to their families. Unfortunately, most of the men will have a family, and even the family of their deceased, if it's if, just if they are deceased, right? Wife, if they're divorced, they may not be friends with the family, but, but you know, they may have two different sides of the family if you know, if their wife died, if their spouse died, yeah, I see what you mean.

Scott Benner 59:51
Okay, I really appreciate you doing this. First of all, thank you so much. It's a lot of insight. Actually, you, there's no way anybody would think you were 76 listen. Into this just No, just no way. Yeah, it's awesome. Like, I'm happy for you that things are going so well. And you know, if this podcast added anything to your life, that's awesome. Like, I'm just super glad

Terri 1:00:12
I love to talk. I love to talk to people. My daughter tells me, I'll talk to a telephone pole if it say anything back to

Scott Benner 1:00:19
me, not back at you a little bit. I listen. I love talking to I'm not going to argue about that. I think it's, you're very you're very natural at this

Terri 1:00:25
really good. And I can't wait to meet you like in person,

Scott Benner 1:00:29
genuinely. I'm excited. Yeah. So, yeah, no. I mean, it's, it's literally, uh, let's see, one week I fly to Galveston in 11 days so, and then we're just gonna go out in the sun and have a nice time. And I already told the person who's coordinating all this like, I want to spend my entire time just meeting people and talking to people. I said, I'm going to accomplish that for sure. You're not going to do any tours. I think I have one excursion set up with I think most of the group experts from the Facebook page. We're going to go to a beach for one of the excursions. But I really do. I mean, I think you guys listen, it's a vacation for people, and that's awesome, but it was also not cheap, and I really want to spend time saying hello to everybody, and not just in passing, like, I'd really like to sit with people and get to know them and and, you know, I'd like to build my

Terri 1:01:20
question is Nico gonna be there? She's not, no, she's not.

Scott Benner 1:01:25
Who will be there?

Terri 1:01:27
Suzanne would not tell me who the speakers

Scott Benner 1:01:29
were, yeah. Oh, it's gonna be me. And then virtually, Jenny's gonna do a talk, and virtually and virtually Eric is gonna do a talk. Okay, that good. Yeah. It took us a little while to figure it out we were actually, we were genuinely trying to get both of them on the ship. One of them had a personal reason. They couldn't come, but wanted to come. And the other thing was, is that it was just expensive to get them there. And the truth is, is that this is a break even. So I don't know the exact accounting, but I don't think I'm going to make like, $1 on this, like, this is just going to be an event for me, like a thing to do and to meet people. I tell you what, I'll buy you a drink. That's lovely. I don't even drink, so you don't have to worry about it. I'll buy you a soda. Thank you. But, you know, no lie, the goal is that if we do it again the following year, that it attracts more people, and then the money that we make with that attraction, I would very much like to bring Jenny and Erica onto the ship too. So that's my goal. But we're gonna have some swag there from like Omnipod and some other companies, and it's gonna be a good time. We're just gonna have fun and meet people. That's my my real goal is to help people build a community. I hope people leave there with, like, personal relationships that they take home with them and keep going.

Terri 1:02:43
Well, you know, I've got this new roommate. We've been talking and I'm anxious to meet her and see how her life is going. I think she was newly diagnosed the right way as a type one, not too long ago, not the way you were. You mean, well, no, I mean as an adult, yeah, oh, yeah. And, you know, just a few months or years ago, the correct way, I think she went along being Lata for a long time.

Scott Benner 1:03:11
Oh, I see, okay, yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait to hear your everyone's story. I mean, I know most of yours now, but All right. Well, Terry, thank you so much for doing this with me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. Hold on one Oh, it's my pleasure. Hold on one second, okay?

The conversation you just enjoyed was brought to you by us, med, us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, get started today and get your supplies from us. Med head now to tandem diabetes.com/juice box and check out today's sponsor tandem diabetes care. I think you're going to find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with the tandem Moby system. 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'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. My diabetes Pro Tip series is about cutting through the clutter of diabetes management to give you the straightforward, practical insights that truly make a difference, this series is all about mastering the fundamentals, whether it's the basics of insulin dosing, adjustment. Strategies, or everyday management strategies that will empower you to take control. I'm joined by Jenny Smith, who is a diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal experience, and we break down complex concepts into simple, actionable tips. The Diabetes Pro Tip series runs between Episode 1001 1025 in your podcast player, or you can listen to it at Juicebox podcast.com by going up into the menu, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong wayrecording.com

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