#1669 14 Months

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Stage-two type 1, nursing-school instincts, daycare roadblocks, and a family’s grit after a wrongful CPS nightmare—Hannah’s candid guide to catching signs early and advocating without apology.

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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.

Hannah 0:14
My name is Hannah Marion. I am a mom to a two year old who's currently in stage two of type one diabetes, and we discovered that with me being in nursing school and kind of picking up on the signs, if

Scott Benner 0:29
this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcast 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. Just in time for the holidays, cozy Earth is back with a great offer for Juicebox podcast listeners. That's right. Black Friday has come early at cozy earth.com and right now you can stack my code Juicebox on top of their site wide sale, giving you up to 40% off in savings. These deals will not last, so start your holiday shopping today by going to cozy earth.com and using the offer code Juicebox at checkout. A huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox

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Omnipod.com/juicebox Terms and Conditions apply. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 the same CGM that my daughter wears. Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox

Hannah 2:20
My name is Hannah Marion. I am a mom to a two year old who's currently in stage two of type one diabetes. And we discovered that with me being in nursing school and kind of picking up on the signs,

Scott Benner 2:35
wait a second. So you have just one, one kid, I have two, two. Okay, but this is my youngest. Okay, your two year old. Your youngest. She, right. He, he Sorry. Okay, so you're in nursing How old are you? I am 26 oh, what got you into nursing school? Now, you know,

Hannah 2:52
I have always wanted to. I went a whole different path for a while. Kind of got back to it because I said, How can I tell my kids to follow their dreams if I don't follow mine. So here I am following mine, but definitely kind of helped out

Scott Benner 3:06
very nice. So you wanted to be a nurse initially, but you decided on something else and then pivoted. Yes, exactly. You don't have to tell me what those things were, but like, did you do it because you thought it was going to be more like, stable or like, why did you pivot away from the thing you dreamt of to do something different?

Hannah 3:24
I had some health issues myself at the time. I was actually previously in nursing school for a couple of months doing just like pre requisite classes, and then started having some seizures. So I had to drop out of school because of that, because obviously I can't be seizing in nursing school. So once those cleared up, I kind of just jumped back into the work field with wherever I thought things would work out for me, and have bounced my way around to different fields and ended up back at nursing

Scott Benner 3:53
Did you ever figure out what the seizures were? The seizures were about?

Hannah 3:58
Yes, I have pots, and they were actually a form of syncope for me.

Speaker 1 4:01
Oh, okay, so you weren't. You were passing out, yes, but it presented as a seizure.

Scott Benner 4:07
Gotcha pods. How did they define that? How do you get a diagnosis? I

Hannah 4:12
had the basic symptoms standing up. My vision would go black. Oftentimes, I would lose my balance, end up on the ground. I did a tilt table test. Initially, it didn't show anything. However, I went back to a different cardiologist, and he said, Absolutely, you have pots, your heart rate and your blood pressure, all of that matches exactly along with pots. And he sent me to a different specialist who's actually a like specialist only in pots. So that was kind of how that all wrapped it up. But that's the formal diagnosis of that

Scott Benner 4:44
any other issues medically for you or in your extended family.

Hannah 4:50
So we have a genetic disorder called Ehlers Danlos. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it.

Scott Benner 4:56
That's an autoimmune issue where, like your your ligaments and all are. Super stretchy,

Hannah 5:00
yes, exactly and kind of matching. Along with that, I have Hashimotos hypothyroidism, and then I also have celiac, all the autoimmune things you have everything but type one, exactly. My son's endocrinologist was very surprised that there was no history of type one in our family, but there is not

Scott Benner 5:22
wait your son's endocrinologist didn't see your celiac Hashimotos and ears dandler as like an obvious connection to type one diabetes through autoimmune

Hannah 5:32
so I should clarify his first endocrinologist. No, they did not. We actually switched his endocrinologist to someone we now have to travel for. But that's okay, because they're really good, and they did kind of acknowledge that.

Scott Benner 5:45
How about on your or on I didn't You didn't say if you're married, but I assuming you're Yes, I am on your husband's side. Is there anything going on over there?

Hannah 5:55
Autoimmune? They don't have any autoimmune on his side that we know of. My husband doesn't even go see a doctor, he doesn't have a doctor. So he could have 15 different things, but we would never know.

Scott Benner 6:06
Is he similarly aged to you? Are you guys around the same age you are? Yes, How old's your oldest? Four, four. Okay, you get married pretty early.

Hannah 6:15
Yes, I did. Yeah. On We Got Married at 21

Scott Benner 6:19
wow, because you wanted to be married, or because you didn't want to have a baby when you weren't married,

Hannah 6:24
which one, honestly, it's a lot of formal paperwork if you have a baby not married. So that was a speeding along thing where, when we got pregnant, we did get married for the formality of the paperwork

Scott Benner 6:36
gotcha, but it's working out. Yeah? Awesome. I mean, you did it again, right? So, yeah, you're like, I guess we can do this on purpose the second time.

Hannah 6:45
Yeah, well, that's very different,

Scott Benner 6:50
not quite on purpose. Anna, I got, hey, listen, however it happens, you're in school for nursing. I think that's where we should pick it up. We're in nursing. You're in nursing school, and what are they teaching you when you start connecting the dots?

Hannah 7:04
So this was fairly early on in my journey through nursing school. It was really kind of the basic classes. But, you know, they teach us kind of the basic things, the 3p associated with type one, so the polydipsia. And I was just kind of like thinking about it. And we were talking about how, like, fatigue is a common symptom for early onset or new onset, as well as, like, the excessive thirst and sleeping while that goes the fatigue and then the peeing a lot. And I was like, Huh, that's really odd. That sounds exactly like my son, he had an appointment that next week, so with that, we took him to his pediatrician's office, and I said, Hey, I know these are some signs, and I'm seeing him doing this. Do you think? What's your thoughts? And he told us, he said, you know, these could be toddler things, just common things that toddlers do. I wouldn't worry about it. I bet a nickel. He said that everything will turn out just fine.

Scott Benner 8:08
To make him pay the nickel I should have,

Hannah 8:11
I keep meaning to go back and ask for my nickel.

Scott Benner 8:13
Also tell him in your in your vernacular, nickel is 500 that's how you were thinking of it. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Hannah 8:22
I mean, I think he could fork it out. It'd be fine. I mean, he's a great doctor. I just think that it was something that was a little bit overlooked, but they did do a glucose check in the office, and it was 153 hours after eating. So while it wasn't like go to the ER, he's in DKA. It was kind of suspicious that something was going

Scott Benner 8:44
on. Okay, can we stop for half a second so we can fill people in on the three P's? So I have to admit, when you said that, I thought, I don't really know what that means. So I checked into it, and we're looking at polyuria, which means frequent urination, polydipsia, excessive thirst, polyphagia, increased hunger. And if you're looking for a little more etymology, the poly part comes from the Greek meaning many or much. So, much urination, much thirst, much eating. And I guess those are just words you learned in nursing school, right? Yes, exactly. Okay, okay, sorry, you can keep going. So I bet you a nickel that this is nothing. Yes, yeah, that is. How do you lose that nickel? What did you start like? Did you say this? Don't seem right to me? And you moved on to another doctor, or you went back to that one

Hannah 9:35
well, so this was the pediatrician, and we've seen him for a while. I think he's a great pediatrician. Honestly, in this circumstance, he with the blood sugar of 153 hours after eating, he kind of popped his head back in and he was like, I mean, it's not what I like to see, but it's not horrible, but definitely, like, needs some more tests. Okay, so he actually. Sent us for an A 1c and I think some other testing, honestly, but I forgot which ones. But I know he did an A 1c because about a couple of days later, I got a phone call saying, hey, his a 1c is 5.8 or, I think it was 5.3 at that time. So that's normal. You're totally fine. He doesn't have type one. I was like, oh, okay, well, that's really odd, because I just finger poked him, and he's at 242 that was kind of another sign where we were like, yeah, no, there's something going on here. So I actually took it upon myself to do some research and got a hold of someone at the ask program, and we did the antibody testing through the Ask program, where he came back positive for three out of five at that point. And then the confirmation testing was four out of five.

Scott Benner 10:50
I have to say, the 150 blood sugar, the three and a half hours after, like, that should have been enough. Like, I get that he's a good pediatrician all but like, I want other people listening to know, like, you know, that's That's enough. If your blood sugar is 153 hours after you've eaten, you probably have type one diabetes, you know, or you're on your way to it, so. But your child's blood sugars were variable, because the A 1c was holding pretty low. But you saw a two, you know, a two and 250 kind of blood sugar. When did you, I guess, is ask were they introduced you the idea of, like, different stages of type one?

Hannah 11:26
Yes, they were. I had done a little bit of research on my own. I like to understand, kind of all of the information behind things. So I had done some research and kind of had a little bit of an idea, but they kind of formally went through it all and told me what this means, and gave me, they sent us out a Dexcom, and we put that on him to determine kind of what stage he was in. And we were able to take all of that data to the endocrinologist that they connected us with, okay?

Scott Benner 11:53
And they explained to you that three antibodies is a it's a slam dunk, right? Yes, yeah. So then, how long ago was this?

Hannah 12:02
This was actually October of last year. So we're about one year out from when that

Scott Benner 12:07
happened. About a year out, is he in stage two? Still now questionable?

Hannah 12:13
Um, he spikes up with meals to like, 370s, 378, I believe, is the highest that we've seen his. So that's pretty high where it's kind of thinking like we might be like in between stages, but he is able to still bring it down on his own, okay, just very slowly

Scott Benner 12:33
away from meals. Is he stable at in the 80s, the 90s, hundreds. Where does the stability sit?

Hannah 12:40
Some days he sits like 140s 150s other days, he sits like 115, 125

Scott Benner 12:47
What's your inclination now? Do you think he should be using insulin?

Hannah 12:50
Well, one thing that I find really interesting is they say that stage two does not have symptoms, but we are seeing symptoms with him, so when he spikes up that high, and when, oftentimes, when he gets up that high, he's very cranky, he You can tell he doesn't feel good, yeah, we want to be able to have a little bit more control to prevent that. While I know it's not completely preventable, he's going to spike up. We want to be able to control it, rather than sit back and watch my child like have the symptoms and feel yucky and not be able to do anything. How long do those spikes last for? Typically, hour and a half. I'd say, Okay.

Scott Benner 13:32
And have you approached doctors with this? Your endo with us?

Hannah 13:36
Yes, we sent them a message, and they were kind of following up on that. The one thing that's pretty unique about him specifically is he has some malabsorption issues also, so that kind of presents another issue for him, where, when he, like, has these malabsorption issues, his sugar either normalizes or goes low. So that's impacting his a, 1c, and it's impacting his Dexcom time and range. So it kind of complicates things on if it's time or not. So

Scott Benner 14:06
when he eats food, is it absorbed slowly, too quickly? What's the malabsorption?

Hannah 14:13
They're actually not quite sure exactly what's going on with him. The thought is, like he's allergic to dairy, but not severely. He's not really symptomatic with it, other than like they did some stool studies, and they are able to see that he does have carbohydrates still in his stool. You're not supposed to, and he's he's tested positive for it, not carbohydrates, sugars in his stool. That's what it was.

Scott Benner 14:39
Is this a lifelong issue, or did this start around the time of the diabetes

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Hannah 16:55
I feel like it started around the time that we would start of we would have started to see symptoms of the diabetes. Okay, he also had some issues where he'd get super pale. We always thought it was really odd, but it was ghostly pale. And now looking back, I know that that was low blood sugars.

Scott Benner 17:13
Okay. Well, I'm asking about the absorption, because, you know, your pancreas does more than just make insulin, so it also helps with digestion. And I'm wondering if maybe, I mean, people talk all the time about like my kid was diagnosed now their stomach hurts all the time, really common. Some of them end up using a digestive enzyme with a meal to see if that helps. And I'm wondering if, if that's maybe not the connection there for him, or if that's not worth asking a doctor about. Yeah,

Hannah 17:41
I'll definitely bring it up on that next one, next appointment with his GI. Thank you for that. Yeah,

Scott Benner 17:47
no, you're welcome. People around here have used them off and on. I use them sometimes when, if I'm having like, a particularly, like, high protein, or if I eat fat, I don't eat a lot of fat or grease. So when I do sometimes I'll throw a I'll throw an enzyme in there with it. But, you know, we ended up finding out about them because Arden had, like, stomach pain constantly, and you know, she wasn't going to the bathroom on a regular schedule. And then we just hit her with some enzymes for a while, a little bit of magnesium oxide to make her go the other way. It actually kind of like found a stasis. It's a little more balanced now. She doesn't use those all the time, or hardly ever, honestly, and that ended up being it. But there's a great episode of the podcast just called, uh, I think it's called, owner of a useless pancreas that talks about everything that the pancreas does not just, you know, in some production,

good, good to know. I don't want his belly to hurt. You know what? I mean,

Hannah 18:38
yeah, it's, it's a lot, it's difficult. There's a lot to it, and with that like it, it just further complicates the whole picture of like, what's actually going on, because we don't even know if he's absorbing on a normal day to day basis, right? Completely, fully. So maybe his spikes, maybe he is in stage three, but the absorption issues are kind of presenting and making it seem like stage two. It's just really a confusing picture

Scott Benner 19:05
well, so let me ask you, because I have my opinion after you've explained it to me, but, but if I put you in charge, and you didn't have to talk to a doctor, what do you want to be doing? So

Hannah 19:14
we actually switched his endocrinologist for a couple of different reasons, but one of them was the new endocrinologist uses diluted insulin. My perfect picture, we would do some diluted insulin, because I feel like that could just kind of stabilize him a little more than what we're currently dealing with. How old is he again? Now he's two. He'll be three in January. Oh, he's little. How much does he weigh? Yes, I'm about 28 pounds. So I

Scott Benner 19:40
gotcha. Okay, it sounds like you're on your way to figuring out. But, I mean, I'm very compassionate to the idea that his, you know, his blood sugar is high and he doesn't feel well. That's, you know, a number of times a day. It's not, that's not fair to him. You know what? I mean, it sounds to me like I vote insulin. So I think you're, yeah, I think you're there. Do you think that'll be. Happening soon.

Hannah 20:01
I we follow up with the endocrinologist in about two weeks, actually, but the further complicating part of the story, and I know many people have dealt with the same thing, but his daycare will not give insulin. We're not quite sure how that's going to work out, which in that case, we're not quite sure if that's what we want to push towards. But at the end of the day, I want what's best for my kids.

Scott Benner 20:24
So, oh, that's cause a ruckus. Well, you're, they're gonna have to do that or find another place. Because, I mean, you know, as much as, as much as it would be great if you know my daycare won't give insulin so you don't have diabetes, would be a nice way, a nice way to ignore it. Yeah, it's not gonna, not gonna be the case. And 350 blood sugars. I mean, are, I think that's too much in a situation where you have the ability to get the insulin, but your bigger problem is now, what did they say? They said they just won't do it. Perhaps the best gift that you can give to yourself or to a loved one is that of comfort. And this holiday season, if you use the offer code Juicebox at checkout at cozy earth.com you won't just be getting something that's comfortable. You'll also be doing it at quite a discount. We can talk about that in just a moment. Right now, I want to tell you that I use cozy Earth towels every day when I get out of the shower. I sleep on cozy Earth sheets. Every night when I get into bed, I'm recording right now in a pair of cozy Earth sweat pants. I love their joggers, their hoodies, their shirts, my wife has their pajamas. And I know you're thinking, oh yeah, Scott. Well, because they sent you a bunch of it for free, they did send me some for free, but I've also bought a lot on my own. So like I said earlier, Black Friday has come early at cozy Earth, and right now you can stack my code Juicebox on top of their site wide sale giving you up to 40% off in savings. These deals are definitely not going to last. Get your shopping done now or get yourself something terrific at cozy earth.com Do not forget to use that offer code Juicebox at checkout, you will not be sorry. Funny

Hannah 22:03
enough, I spoke to the director of the daycare again. We love them. It's just been this little hiccup. They said that they are not allowed to, and she said she checked with her licensing person, and the licensing person said, No, which, I know that they need to, and that they are required to. It's just one of those things that I'm not going to make that fuss. And the endocrinologist office said that they have someone who could potentially call and kind of explain those things to her.

Scott Benner 22:33
Okay, well, yeah, but they're scared. Is it a big company, or is it just like, you know, a nice lady who watches five kids. Or what's the setup?

Hannah 22:42
It's a fairly large place. They have, I would say probably 100 kids. Oh, roughly so it's kind of in between. It's only one location, so not a company, per se, but one in which she has kind of a well established daycare. I'd say,

Scott Benner 22:59
Okay, do you think you'll go to a pump When insulin starts? Or do you think you're going to go? MDI,

Hannah 23:05
my hopes is that we do a pump. So for me, I would, I would vote do that at the very get go. I know that's likely not going to happen. However, I think we're also in a little bit of a unique situation, because we were provided insulin when he was first diagnosed as Stage Two for corrections, so we've used it maybe 10 times over this past year, maybe a little more, but we're familiar with it, so it's not a foreign idea. Yeah, to do an injections, but I think we would benefit from a pump.

Scott Benner 23:37
Do you think you'd use some sort of an automated system. So the

Hannah 23:41
endocrinologist, when she brought it up, she said, likely an Omnipod with point 05 kind of as a basal.

Scott Benner 23:49
And then would that be Omnipod five? Though? Would it be automated? You know,

Hannah 23:53
I'm not quite sure. She didn't go into depth on that, but that's going to be something I'll ask.

Scott Benner 23:57
Yeah, no, it's interesting to talk to you, because you're, you're into this a year, but you're not really into it at all. You're an interesting mix of like your experiences and your knowledge about it and everything like that. I'm wondering, because if you put you, if you put him in daycare, and his blood sugar starts to drift up a little bit, an automated system is going to try to stop it, and then that would take away from them needing to give him insulin, maybe in some situations, and also, like, you know, for their concern, like you're really just asking them to push a button. And, I mean, I'm assuming you'd send carb counts with him and and help them get through all of it. It's, I do think you'll be able to work it out, but sometimes they get, I don't know, resistant, and they just fight, you know what I mean. So I'm wondering, I guess I'll never, I might never know, but I'm wondering what you're gonna what you're gonna run into, yeah,

Hannah 24:44
we're curious on that as well. We have a great relationship with them, so I think it's definitely something that we could approach that conversation and have that conversation with them, yeah, along with kind of the support of the endocrinology office. But I mean, like you said, I'd be more. Than happy to go in train them and kind of walk through that. I actually go in there a couple of days every now and then to help out and work there. So like I said, we have a great relationship. I would totally do that if they're open to it, but I think we would benefit more so from a pump for that specific circumstance as well,

Scott Benner 25:17
though, I think you'll make your way through this. I think it's probably just a feel through process. And I'm wondering too, as you're talking, I don't mean this in any certain way, but like, you're pretty young too. You know what I mean? Like, you're young. I mean your husband's younger. It's a it's a unique situation. I wonder how 36 year old you will take would have dealt with this, I guess is what I'm getting at. Like, I don't know if you're being too referential or not with people, like with a doctor, too, by the way, like I am wondering that as I'm talking to you,

Hannah 25:45
I tend to be a people pleaser. Yeah, I'm hearing that. So that would 100% match my personality, and it's something that I've had to kind of learn to balance that with advocating for my kids. Yeah, because I've, I've had to advocate really hard. Now I

Scott Benner 26:03
imagine you have any educators in your in your family, your mom or anybody, a teacher?

Hannah 26:07
No, I don't think there are any. I was trying to scroll through my family tree here, and I don't think so. Actually,

Scott Benner 26:14
I was gonna layer a couple things together, but I figured with you being in nursing school, it's your, I would imagine right now, especially it's your your leaning to to give deference to the doctors. And I mean, it would be weird for you to be in nursing school and feel like, No, I probably know better than them, so you know, like, there's that. And I was wondering if you're not pushing back at the daycare center, because maybe you knew somebody who was in education too, but that's just me fishing. I was fishing pretty hard there, but I do feel like I hear that from you a little bit, that you're being you maybe haven't found your full voice in this yet. Am I on to something there?

Hannah 26:50
Yes, and I would totally agree we actually, we've only had one appointment with the new endocrinologist, but I feel like they are definitely more supportive in that sense. His a 1c spiked up to six a couple of months ago when we were with the previous endocrinologist, and he was pretty symptomatic. He was having some pretty sustained ties, and I brought it up, and we saw a nurse practitioner at that appointment, and she was great, totally listened to me, but I think she had to get things approved by the physician, so she brought it to him, and he said no. So that's kind of where I felt that we were lacking that support, and ended up switching him. Yeah, so I'm hoping that this upcoming appointment will will get us somewhere.

Scott Benner 27:34
Do you look young, too? Hannah, yes, this is all important, right? Probably all leans into how this works. Yes, yeah, because you come in, you say something, and she's like, Oh, I'll go ask the doctor. I said, No, that's okay. We don't, we don't need to listen to Hannah. She's 12, and I know when I'm doing the thing. I like how you moved on so quickly, when somebody showed that they weren't going to be, you know, a partner in this with you. Yeah, when it comes

Hannah 27:57
to my kids, I will, I'll be tough, you know, I'll kind of make those decisions, but I may prolong them a little more than they need to be, but I'm still learning on that aspect of things. I'd say that this decision to move the endocrinologist was a really great one.

Scott Benner 28:13
Yeah, that's a big move for you too. I sincerely, it's just so interesting because at your age again, like, I imagine, you know, a year or so ago, like, if you had questions about things, you probably would go back to your parents still once in a while, but like, now that this is a thing they have no experience with. Do you find yourself wishing that you could go talk to your mom and dad or something and then realize they're not going to be valuable on this one?

Hannah 28:39
Yeah, and sometimes I voice things to my mom, and she is a very devil's advocate type person, but she has offered a lot of support in this journey and kind of learned things along the way as well. My step dad's a type two, I believe, but he's not very well controlled. That's okay. That's for another day. We work with him with that, like she has some basic knowledge, and she's really put in a lot of time to learn a lot of different things with it. Okay, it's a little odd in the sense that, like, I can't go to her because she's experienced this exact scenario.

Scott Benner 29:12
Yeah, yeah. That's what I was thinking. Like, if you had a money question, or like, hey, how do you run a thing or pay for this, or how do I get my driver's license renewed? Or she'd be valuable in all that those places. And then it comes to this, and you probably need your mom in this moment. And then she doesn't have any experience, but she is willing to learn. So that's awesome.

She's great. Did you have to ask her to get more involved? Or did she just

Hannah 29:37
launch into it? Oh, she just launched into it. She is the like, absolute best Nanna that my kids could have. She was there when I got the phone call that his antibodies were positive. So really, from the very beginning, she has been fully supportive and looking into it on her own and sending me like carb counts for Halloween treats and. If we end up going that route. So good for her. She's been great.

Scott Benner 30:03
That's very nice. You're lucky. Talk about, if you can a little bit about, I guess, the the pivot here, because you're young family, you're rolling along, things are okay. And then this comes up, I imagine this, this slow onset presents its own problems, right? There's probably a lot of, I'm guessing, psychological burden here. And I was wondering if you could explain a little bit what it's like to watch this happen in slow motion.

Hannah 30:29
It's really difficult. Honestly, I have found that finding other people kind of in the same situation is definitely helpful. But I did see someone the other day who said stage three is harder. And while I understand and I completely agree that there's definitely difficulties with stage three, I think stage two is really difficult in its own way. Because you know, you do truly sit back and watch your child just be miserable and like, yeah, you can hand over a pack of Smarties when they're low, but when they're high, you just kind of sit back and you're like, let's just watch the numbers and just kind of wait until that shoe drops, because one day we know it will, so we don't know, like, this stomach bug going around daycare, is that going to take them out? Is that going to be what's causing it, or what causes that shoe to drop for him, and really kind of just sitting back knowing that our lives will eventually kind of change pretty drastically with his diagnoses, but at the end of the day, it kind of has also allowed for us to get a little more time to educate ourselves and educate others and kind of learn like how we're going to do things, because there's a lot of decisions to be made, whether it be like, are we going to cut back on carbs? Are we going to, like, let him have daycare treats, or are we going to provide something special? So just kind of scenarios like that, we've we have had some extra time, which has been very valuable. And I definitely understand that it's like, not what everybody else gets. And this may come out kind of negatively, but I mean it in the best way possible. It also feels like we don't belong as diabetics or as a diet part of diabetes. So it's really tough sometimes, because I even had to ask his doctor, like, okay, like, what? What do you call him? Like, do I call him a type one diabetic? Like, it's just so unknown that it kind of takes away, like, a little bit of that, like, do we belong in that community?

Scott Benner 32:32
Is that something you're worried about, or something you're actually feeling from

Hannah 32:35
people? You know, I don't really know kind of where it stems from. I would say, with it like I if I say my son's a type one diabetic, and they go into talking about, oh, what's his pump settings? Oh, well, you know, he's kind of in between, and not really on pump all the time, or not on a pump, because he's not on insulin all the time. So it's kind of rare in that circumstance.

Scott Benner 33:01
Okay, okay. And how about online? Do people mind online? Because that's where you're learning about things. So you talked about finding people who have a similar situation, I just assumed. But is that what you're doing? Yeah, I

Hannah 33:12
was part of a bunch of the like type one Facebook groups, and that's been a great community. Honestly, I haven't received any negative feedback or any pushback from anybody. I actually personally created a like Stage Two Diabetes type one diabetic group, because I know that this is a little bit of a unique scenario for some so kind of offered for more of a support system for that specific circumstance.

Scott Benner 33:39
How many people were you able to get into that group with first stage?

Hannah 33:43
So let me check right now. I think it was. There's 90 members. Now, that's

Scott Benner 33:49
crazy. That's awesome. Yeah, and yeah, small group of people who all have a very specific experience. It is incredibly specific experience, obviously. Are you finding are they hanging on after their kids move to the next stage, or do you lose them out of the group?

Hannah 34:04
So at this point, I think only one has moved on. Oh, I take that back. I think there's two that have moved on now, but they're both still in the group, and they've been in great support. You know, it's, it's kind of weird too, because it's like, I don't know exactly what this is going to look like. Like one day, is he going to wake up and go up to 300 and never come down? Or is it going to be a slow progression where he'll just, he'll go up, he'll stay there for a couple of hours, he'll come down, and then the next day he'll go up, stay a little longer, come down. So it's been kind of interesting to see their perspective on that, because they have kind of seen that

Scott Benner 34:40
progression? Yeah, is it happening more one way than the other from what you're seeing in the group, like quick onset versus slower?

Hannah 34:47
I believe the one was kind of had a sickness and then spiked up never came down. Okay? The other, I think spiked with meals will come down, but they are doing. Insulin at mealtimes. Gotcha? Yeah?

Scott Benner 35:01
It's just a couple. Okay. Did you is my group valuable for you? Have you been in it? Absolutely. Oh, it is. I have been

Hannah 35:09
in it, and I think it's definitely valuable. There's a couple of stage, two people in there as

Scott Benner 35:12
well. Oh, no, kidding, that's awesome. I guess she's just you reading ahead, really, right? Is that how it feels?

Hannah 35:18
Yes, yeah. And I think that's a part of the like, education portion of it. Like, we've, we've had that time to kind of look into it and see what people are doing and really kind of understand a little more.

Scott Benner 35:29
I'm super interested to learn if this process of, like, the slow, you know, the slow onset, kind of a feeling, and you being able to read ahead and get more information if it's going to be valuable for you, if you know, two years from now, you'll look back on it and say, you know, those first couple years were really made much easier by being pre educated and knowing what to look for and how to react and what to expect.

Hannah 35:54
Yeah, I feel like it will, but I'll report back. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:57
thank you. Everything's so unknown for you at the moment, right? Yes, yeah, it is. Is that difficult, just like, personally or, I mean, how are you dealing with it with your husband? I mean, I was 26 and just married recently. Like, it's, it wasn't exactly the highlight of my ability to be emotionally intelligent, and think so. Like, is this been hard for you guys? It's been

Hannah 36:19
a little different in the sense that, at first he kind of was like, Well, you don't know that he has type one diabetes, kind of in between that waiting period of getting the antibody results back, okay, but once we got those back, I think he kind of accepted that this is reality, and we're gonna have to just learn and figure it out from here on out. And he's done great with kind of picking up on things, and like I mentioned earlier, He's not one to go to a doctor himself. He passes out when his blood's taken, but he has given insulin when we need it for a correction. So he's done really great in kind of supporting and it's actually, it's gone quite well for us, awesome.

Scott Benner 36:55
I see there's not a lot of arguing or worry. Hasn't ramped up like tension or anything like that.

Hannah 37:01
No, I think the only aspect of it that has kind of like presented any sort of little issue would be kind of the financial aspect of type one. And, you know, we do get a Dexcom, and we do need to buy, like, the ketone strips and all of those type of things. So that's kind of presented a little tiny bit, but

Scott Benner 37:20
not much at all. Yeah, well, you're in school, right? Do you work as well? I

Hannah 37:25
do, but it's very minimal. He does most of the working I school is quite tough. It's full time, so it's three days a week of a lot of hours. I'm not

Scott Benner 37:35
trying to say I think you should have a job at the same time that you're going to school. I'm just wondering if you do or not. And I take your point so your your expenses went off, but your income didn't change. Yes, exactly. And did you have? Do you have the kind of insurance through his work where you're like, I can't believe how lucky we are. Are you more like, oh geez, I wish this insurance was better.

Hannah 37:55
I think that we have it pretty good. The only pushback is they don't always approve things, and they love their prior authorizations. So that's kind of the only thing that's like a little annoying on that side of things. But I think that's just insurance in general. Yeah, he does. He has an HSA account as well. So that's kind of helped out with those type of things.

Scott Benner 38:15
No, they're really helpful. Well, you have diabetes, though, in the in your life, sometimes those things burn out pretty quickly as the years go on. Going, how much should we put into this HSA account? And just like, well, how much could we afford to because we should probably put in all that we can afford to. It gets used up pretty quickly. It's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. Yeah. How much longer do you have in school?

Hannah 38:35
Nine months. Oh, okay, I will very proudly say that you're excited

Scott Benner 38:39
to get done, huh? Yes. What happens when you're done? Do they help you place at a hospital? Or what's the process of looking for for work after

Hannah 38:47
that? So I kind of took on a unique position with my job right now, the hours that I work, I work 24 hours a month is my required hours. So that's 212 hour shifts, and that's on the unit that I like, I had to interview to be placed on that unit they selected for me to be there, but I with that will almost get a guaranteed spot, not as guaranteed, but I still have to work for it. Still have to earn it, but it definitely helps get my foot in the door.

Scott Benner 39:18
And how will that change your financial situation significantly? Oh, 100% okay, you think you have more kids? We

Hannah 39:27
do want more. Okay, that is something

Scott Benner 39:29
that you got some energy left over you'd like to use up

Hannah 39:33
as of now. We'll reevaluate in a year.

Scott Benner 39:36
Yeah, I was gonna say, How long do you think you would wait until you did it again. Like, would you want to would you want to see what diabetes life was like first? Would you like? What is it you're waiting to see? So

Hannah 39:48
one perspective that I've kind of really wanted to take with this, and I understand that it's it's difficult. I don't want diabetes to affect our life. Obviously it's going to affect our life. But I. Don't want it to, like, change any decisions that we would have made prior. So with that, like, we aren't gonna hold back carbs for him, some people might disagree, but I want him to kind of live a normal life as close as possible. We would still kind of have a kid regardless of what diabetes looks like for us at that point.

Scott Benner 40:17
Okay, why are you so what's the

word I'm looking for? Responsible. Why are you so mature? Did you get kicked out in the world early? Did something happen? Is your husband in the same situation? You know what I'm talking about,

Hannah 40:33
or no, yes, I do. I had to be my own lawyer at the age of 21 so I would say that that's a that's a good portion of it.

Scott Benner 40:44
Whoa, okay, can I? Can I ask why?

Hannah 40:48
Yeah, we were so with the earlier Stan lows, easy bruising is a very common symptom of that. And with our firstborn child, he had a bruise at one month old. They called CPS on us, and CPS took him from us, come to find out, he has earlier Stan lows, and he actually has a suspected bleeding disorder as well. So he will bruise easily, and he does still continue to bruise easily, but that was 14 months of court dates and kind of all of these different things that we had to go through and jump through all of these hoops to get our child back. So that definitely matured me. Hannah,

Scott Benner 41:24
I've been talking to you for 42 minutes. What crack head took your baby from you. How did you are? So obviously a decent person, like, yeah, they thought you hit that kid.

Hannah 41:35
They they did. And it was an absolutely horrific time. Yeah, it was, it was a lot of jaded systems that we saw at that point, I bet.

Scott Benner 41:48
And how long did it take you to get through all that,

Hannah 41:50
14 months from start to when he got to come home? And that was delayed because it was during covid. So court was on Zoom, but it was definitely

Scott Benner 42:00
cry. They had your baby for 14 months. Yes, holy, oh my god, I really like got flush with emotions when you said 14 months. How was the baby when they took it one month? Oh, my God, had you done anything illegal, immoral or otherwise questionable prior to that? No.

Hannah 42:19
And you know, we did hire an attorney, and he said that, had we done something, we would have gotten him back sooner, because we would have been able to, like, go through a rehab program, or go through some sort of program to show that we've put in the work. But because we maintained our innocence the entire time, we had to kind of go through a very long

Scott Benner 42:43
process. Can I ask what backwater state you live in? Please, Kentucky. Okay, all right. That's all I was wondering. What in everyone? Move immediately. Okay, just get out. Go somewhere else. I hear there's some desert available. Go West.

What in Jesus did you cry? I don't understand, like, how old were you when that happened? 21 Did you cry every day, all day long?

Hannah 43:08
So that was also a interesting aspect of it. Yes, we did cry a lot, but at the same time, we could not cry in front of certain people. Otherwise we would be looked at as though we were mentally unfit for our child, so we had to kind of remain as normal as possible.

Scott Benner 43:28
But wait, who was eyeballing you that you couldn't be emotional

Hannah 43:33
in front of the caseworker on our case was not the greatest. No, really. Go ahead and she was

Scott Benner 43:41
and she was on you all the time, watching you all the time. It took her 14 months to figure out you didn't and how did you, My God, how did you even figure out the the avenue to use the NOT use, but to bring up the disorder that caused the bruising? How did that like? How did you even put those puzzle pieces together?

Hannah 44:00
That's a lot of where I do a lot of my research. I was trying to figure out anything because obviously I knew we didn't do it, so something had to be wrong with my child to have caused a bruise. So did a lot of educating myself on things, and lot of looking stuff up. And that's when I kind of came across earlier stanless. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that fits everything that I've experienced. So I got diagnosed. My mom was diagnosed, my sister was diagnosed, and then he was assumed to have the diagnoses. And then as far as the bleeding disorder, it was something that we saw hematologist because I went back to the pediatrician and I said we didn't do anything. Something is wrong with my kid, and I need help. Yeah, and so he referred him to a hematologist, and the hematologist did a bunch of studies, and there were some abnormalities with it. He doesn't have an exact diagnosis just yet, but it's enough to say, like there's something with this kid that his bleeding is more. Than it should

Scott Benner 45:01
be. Hannah, I'm going to be unpleasant. You don't have to agree with me, but what nosy piece of went to the authorities about your baby? For you, they that person still in your life. Is there a way to forgive that person?

Hannah 45:11
So it was a doctor within the same pediatrician group that we still use, but we will never see that doctor again, and she just immediately, I had it, I had a question, a list of questions, in my notes app, and I went in, and he was undressed, and I asked her, What? What is this? And she said, that's a bruise. Would you do? And I mean, from there, it was just kind of snowball effect. And we were at the ER with him, because she sent us there, and she called CPS on as we were on the way, and they met us there

Scott Benner 45:43
as if you would hit the baby and then show it to the doctor.

Hannah 45:47
Yep, yeah. That was a question that everybody was like, how does this make

Scott Benner 45:51
sense? Gap of common sense there. How about that? What do you How are you 14? Is the baby in in in foster care for 14

Hannah 46:01
months. Thankfully, he was with my mom. Oh,

Speaker 2 46:04
okay, okay, go. Thank God. Yeah, we at least had

Hannah 46:07
that side of things that was very good. We had visitation that we could go see him at my mom's house.

Scott Benner 46:13
Oh, I thought not that this makes it any better, but I'm just thinking about your baby's off with some rando now for 14 months. But no, okay, thank God, Jesus. But, I mean, they

Hannah 46:25
did tell us. They said, You have 10 minutes to find someone who's going to take him, or else he goes to foster care.

Scott Benner 46:30
Jesus, can you imagine what just I mean, there's great people in the foster care system, but there's also not great people. No, I've heard both stories, by the way. I've heard I've had people go through foster care and they meet the most lovely people. And I've had people go through foster care and that's where they pretty much learned all of their problems in life. So, but that's not even what I was like initially thought of. I was thinking about like the baby just blindly being not in your sight or in your ability to know that they're safe,

Hannah 46:59
like that's really slept a lot of bonding issues with him.

Scott Benner 47:03
Yeah, I would imagine that any of the people who made this mistake, is there any penalty for them for being bad at their job and taking your baby from you? Or no, nope, not even a sorry. That's just over now, huh? Yes, awesome, which is a wild

Hannah 47:20
thing to me, although I have connected with our our attorney, I've seen him out and about a couple of times, and I do know that they talk about our case, so at least I know that they reflect on it and recognize that it went wrong.

Scott Benner 47:33
Think you might help other people like through what they saw go wrong 14 months. What were they? What took 14 months?

Hannah 47:40
Took six months for the actual report to come out, and then it took another, I believe, three months of gathering what they said was their evidence. And then we were supposed to go to court in the fall time, but they had, like a change of county attorneys, so then it got postponed, and there was some delay there. Then it was like getting everybody's witnesses, the schedules in time and all of that.

Scott Benner 48:10
So once you're in the system, you're at the mercy of the machine and how slow it moves, gotcha. And you call somebody say, Hey, you got my baby. And they go, we're getting to it.

Hannah 48:21
Funny enough, we had our own witness, and that witness was a little busy, so we had to delay about a month or two because of their schedule, which we knew it would benefit us to have him. So we allowed for that, but our attorney didn't put in the paperwork on time, so he wasn't actually even allowed on the actual like, the court date that was important. So, so you

Scott Benner 48:43
waited, and then you couldn't use them anyway, yep, and I had to speak

Hannah 48:47
on our defense for an hour and be berated and cross examined and all of the things lovely.

Scott Benner 48:56
Why are you not an like? That's that. Why? Why? I don't understand because you you listen, you're either really great at presenting yourself, or you're like a very kind person. I'm leaning towards believing you're just a kind hearted person. Why has this not damaged that about you?

Hannah 49:13
Truthfully, I don't know. I definitely suffer some consequences. I'm in therapy myself, but I think at the same time, like I see the joys that I have in my life now, when I didn't have them, I'm enjoying that now that I know that it can change in one day.

Scott Benner 49:31
Yeah, well, right now you have that perspective of like, it's easy to say, like, I might step out in the road and get hit by a bus. Once you experience something that actually comes out of nowhere, it means more to you now, my goodness, oh, you're really you guys are something good for you, like being so strong. Seriously, the boy you let marry you, he got through it as well. Or did he have his own struggles with it?

Hannah 49:56
He had his own struggles in the sense of like he. He felt that he had to, like, support me and be there for me, because I was pretty emotional, like while at home without, like, outside of our visitation times and all of that. So he felt he had to support me. And I truthfully feel like he could have taken a little more time to be emotional himself rather than supporting me, but that's what he did, and I appreciate him for it, but I also see that he needed to kind of reflect on his own emotions at that time as well.

Scott Benner 50:28
Yeah, we tend to do that. I think the world tells men, generally speaking, Don't be emotional, right? Take action, you know, be stoic, that kind of stuff. I don't know that it. I don't I don't know that the world's telling men, go, why don't you cry for a while? And then, you know, that kind of gets built up in you as anger, and there's no real where to put it. And then, you know, you could also make an argument that there are times when society tells men not to be men. So like, you know, when you're, yeah, you get all that anger built up. There's certain ways we get it out now, and now somebody's telling us those are wrong. So it's a, it can be difficult to unburden yourself and not hold all that in really tough for everybody, honestly, obviously, but, you know, it's why I was, I was wondering about him, because he's young and, you know, it's a that's, that's a hell of a thing also, is there any moment where he looks at you and thinks maybe she hurt the baby, or you look at him and think, God, maybe he hurt the baby. And I don't know, did you find distrust in each other during that?

Hannah 51:29
No, we never had a moment like that. And I know that there's been some circumstances where people have but we've really kind of been great at supporting each other through everything. And it's kind of continued even, like with our son and the stage two, like supporting me and my decisions. And if he if I speak up to a doctor and ask for something, he's going to back me up completely, because he trusts me. He trusts that I do the right things and know the right things. So we've been great in that aspect.

Scott Benner 51:58
Awesome. Do you have a body cam on whenever you go in public now,

Hannah 52:03
yeah, it's, it's really interesting kind of approaching that. Now, we literally were like, do we, do we need to have like, cameras everywhere, just for our sake? And, yeah, I mean, look

Scott Benner 52:13
what's happening. I'm not saying that the doctor that did this wasn't trying to be, like, protective of the baby. I'm sure she was like, but her misunderstanding, or jumping to a conclusion, or whatever, you know, like, whatever she did that got you in that position. How do you not worry that everybody that you intersect who has some sort of power over you, like that, if they want to exert it, could possibly decide to you up if they wanted to, and then just do it, or even if they, you know, wanted to, not wanted to, but just through bad decisions. Like, I don't know, I think, I think everyone I spoke to, I just be like, one of those people gets pulled over, and I'm like, officer, I just want to let you know I'm filming you. I don't know how you don't walk into every place going. I'm filming. I'm filming. Boy, that sucks. Man, I'm so sorry. Yeah,

Hannah 52:57
it's, it's been a lot, and I think kind of like approaching that subject. And I don't know if you're familiar with the like, taking care of Maya case, but that was a really big one that was more so about, like, oh, there's a word for it, and it can't, I can't think of it, but the mom was accused of, like, making medical decisions and medically kind of bringing things up for her child, rather than it actually happening. There's a word for

Scott Benner 53:22
that 1000s by proxy. Yes, yes, exactly. A great name for something, by the way.

Hannah 53:29
I'm fearful of that in the sense that now I understand like we're in a unique scenario where my child, he needs some help with his blood sugars, but I'm it does kind of take away of my ability to advocate for those sort of things, because I am fearful of that.

Scott Benner 53:43
Yeah, you don't want to put yourself out too much, right? Because you think maybe then somebody will misread it, or do, boy, that's crazy. I would never go anywhere alone. Like anymore, like this would make me crazy. Yeah, I don't want it to make you fine. Yeah, don't let it make you crazy. Okay, I'm just saying it would make me crazy, but I'm a little more reactionary than you are. Obviously. I think that's good for you and me. I mean, my goodness, like it reinforces every concern you have about society in the world in maybe the most impactful way I can imagine. Like they took your baby. They were like, No, you can't have your baby. How old? Tell me again, how old when they

Hannah 54:20
took he was one month old. I was 26

Scott Benner 54:22
one month old. They did. They were like, Hey, you can't have your baby anymore. You were 21 Yeah. Also, by the way, yeah, able to drink for the last three days and like, that young Yeah. And then they just, and you and we talked around a little bit, but you didn't get pregnant on purpose, right? You guys were dating, serious, got pregnant, got married, like, that whole thing, right? He was on purpose. Oh, he wasn't look at you.

Hannah 54:46
Yes, that one was,

Scott Benner 54:50
we did. The first one on purpose. The second one not on purpose. Oh, wow. But I'm just saying, like, you're that young, and like, all that's going on. And, my gosh, you know? Know, you I don't people have to do a better job. Like, you know, isn't it funny? Like, on the podcast, a lot we end up talking about people not doing a great job. And it's around, like, understanding, you know, that fat needs insulin sometimes, or that you have to pre bullish or something like that. But there are other people out in the world making other decisions that are consequential too. It would be nice if everybody was, I guess just trying a little harder might be nice. Anyway, no one's ever like they're not going to apologize because then it's an admission of guilt, right? Yeah, that's why no one's going to apologize to you.

Hannah 55:37
That's a big part of it, too for us, kind of looking back on it. Like I understand why she did it. I understand she has a duty to report. Do I think she jumped to conclusions before asking questions? Absolutely, but it's kind of also allowed for me to have the perspective of, okay, I can do better. So with me in nursing school, like I really want, one of the goals that I set out for myself is to be a nurse practitioner. I'd love to be in a pediatric office, and one of the things I would do is annual or for like, regular checkups, to be able to test blood sugar, because I think that's a really big thing that people should be doing and that should be done. Yeah, but that's something that I said that I would do differently. And there's a lot of things that I would do differently, and with me being in healthcare, I wouldn't, I wouldn't give that judgment.

Scott Benner 56:23
Yeah, well, attitude, but maybe don't listen to tomorrow's episode. It's gonna be called Lila's story, and it's a dad coming on, talking about how his young daughter was not diagnosed in time, and she she passed away from undiagnosed type one diabetes. But he's out there advocating for in the UK, for this kind of testing, simple testing, to be done. But yeah, to your other point, I guess it's a dual thing for me. First of all, everyone listening, and me included, take a page here from Hannah, like, like, she's, you know, she's had something bad happen, and she's putting her best foot forward and trying to make changes with it. But I like you being in the healthcare system with this experience, though, because I do think you will probably make different decisions than you would have had this not happen, and maybe that'll spread throughout your co workers and the institution you end up working at, it might have, like, some real benefits long term. So I hope you get out there and try to make those changes. I absolutely

Hannah 57:19
agree. We asked ourselves why this was happening to us the entire time, and I think now it's kind of coming full picture, and I'm seeing the why.

Scott Benner 57:28
Very nice. Okay, well, how did you have anything that we missed, anything we didn't talk about? How did I pick this out of you weren't going to tell me about this?

Hannah 57:34
Were you? No, it's something I tend to not mention and things, but that's okay. I think it's valuable for people to hear about as

Scott Benner 57:44
well, what led you to wanting to be on the podcast, just trying to share the story.

Hannah 57:48
You know, I think we have a very unique perspective being in stage two of type one. It'll offer kind of an option for people who are in stage two to kind of hear another story that's similar to theirs and just kind of share some likeness for them, yeah,

Scott Benner 58:04
okay, well, you did a really good job of not saying anything that would get you in trouble. But if you tell me right now you want me to take your name out of this or something, I can make it anonymous, but I don't think you said anything that puts you in jeopardy. I am the only one that said stuff like this, and we'll say again, like, oh my god, Kentucky. Like, do better that was just poorly. Do you think they just see so much bad stuff, it just all looks like it's bad after a while?

Hannah 58:27
Yeah, I would say so. And I think that that's part of kind of the medical system as a whole. They make kind of decisions based on what they've seen in the past. So yeah, I think that's another portion as to why my son's symptoms were like, oh, it's probably just the toddler thing. Well, isn't

Scott Benner 58:46
it funny, though, with the diabetes, it was odd, it's probably nothing, and with the bruise, it was either probably trying to kill that kid. Yeah, like every, everyone's all or nothing all the time. You ever noticed that about people? Like, there's no middle ever, just 100 miles an hour or absolute inertia, they're just like, whatever exactly. I swear to God, you are awesome. I can't thank you enough. Like, I just thought, I don't mean to, like, I'm not minimizing it, but I was like, Oh, I'm gonna have a conversation this afternoon. Somebody's kid is in stage two, type two, and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And it's really turned into a great conversation,

Hannah 59:22
so I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely thank you for having me on. That's

Scott Benner 59:26
a pleasure. Hold on one second for me. Okay, okay.

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🎃 #1668 Bolus 4 - Halloween 🎃

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.

Jenny and Scott talk about bolusing for the top ten most popular Halloween treats (plus a few others).

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

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

Jenny and I are going to go over the top 10 most popular Halloween candies and how to Bolus for them right now, just in time for you to go tricking and treating if your 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 at Juicebox podcast.com in the menu while you're listening. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. Like my like, what are you wearing? Is that? Oh, you don't know. Is that Young Frankenstein? No, well, it's the it's the bride of Frank The Bride of Frankenstein, because today is Halloween, because today is

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:41
Halloween, and if I could, I don't even know that I can, I paint my pod, because for Halloween,

Scott Benner 1:47
let me say I also have a bride. Oh, that's awesome, Jenny, you did that yourself. Yeah, it's lovely.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:54
It's like, paint markers. You know, they're easy to use. The paint markers, I didn't know you were a

Unknown Speaker 1:59
Halloween person. Oh, we love

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:01
Halloween. Our front yard is like, the boys can't wait as soon as October 1. They're like, it's time get the decorations out. Like, we've got, I mean, we have, we have, like, skeletons with like big swords through their bellies right now, and like, all,

Scott Benner 2:15
yeah, my wife is a huge decorations person, but we did some painting in the house this year, so it kind of didn't get done. So there's a mum and a pumpkin, sadly, out front of our house together, and I think that's a little bit of fall. So given this like I'm going to give people real time. Today is October 31 2025, it is 10am and you and I are going to do Bolus for popular Halloween candies.

Unknown Speaker 2:41
This was

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:42
actually, that's so funny that we were like, on the same brain wave, because you usually come up with the ideas.

Scott Benner 2:51
So I'm going to finish with you. Send it right to rob. He's going to edit it, pull it together, and we're going to get it out this afternoon, in time for Halloween. So here comes the pressure. You ready? I asked the chat GPT, what are the 10 most popular Halloween candies? It said the first one was, what do you think?

Unknown Speaker 3:11
Oh, gosh, candy corn.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:15
Ah, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Peanut Butter Cup. That would have been my next one.

Scott Benner 3:18
Yeah. We won't ask Jenny if she's ever had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but we will freak you all out by telling you that I've never had one because I don't like peanut butter. Oh, you don't like peanut butter. I don't like anything. You know. I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:32
know you're like tomatoes, although you tried one for me. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 3:37
Well, you know that's okay. I got a

Scott Benner 3:38
couple notes online the other day after that episode went up, and there's like, do you think Scott's had a tomato yet? I said I had salsa and it was a little chunky? Does that count? Because I'm counting it. Let's see two. I've given up in these, by the way, from going to the websites for the companies, I just go to amazon so that I can see the label right. Calories per serving, 160 serving, size two pieces, which it says is 31 grams. There's nine grams of fat, three saturated sodium is not bad at 118 carbs for two, but that's lower than I thought it was going to be, although the total sugars is 16

Speaker 2 4:22
grams for two Oh, wait a minute, yeah, two pieces, 31 grams

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:29
total carbs. Are these, the regular peanut butter or the mini peanut butter, my goodness, because they they do, you know, again, if you go to the fancy neighborhoods, they give you the real size candy.

Scott Benner 4:40
Then it's not just pantry pack. I mean, I can go back and look again. Hold on a second. We'll see if we can find another one. Here's one that looks a little more okay. Oh, Jenny, look at you. I. Am I right? Yeah, they're a little smaller than the than the average one. The average one is one package is 42 grams. So then that makes the fat, 12 carbohydrates, 24 total sugar is 22 which includes 21 grams of added sugar as a bit of sugar. So if the kid is rolling through the house and grabs this, and they're just going to have it as a snack.

Speaker 1 5:24
What are we going to do? Yeah, it's a great question, because it's a fair

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:29
portion of fat, right? I mean, my estimate is somewhere two of these is somewhere around 200 ish calories. 2:10am I 210 Okay, and if you consider how much fat? Did you say? 1312, grams, 1212, grams. And if you do the rough math, right, about nine grams, nine calories per gram of fat, really, that's like half of this product is from fat, okay, in terms of calories. And so it's not like sitting down to what I said candy corn, which is just immediate hit sugar. Yeah, this is going to definitely

Speaker 1 6:07
be slower, so still going to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:11
need somewhat of a Pre-Bolus. But if you're rocking and rolling with a really great looking blood sugar, nicely in target and pretty stable, you probably get away with maybe 10 minutes. Okay, all right.

Scott Benner 6:23
So if we're just eating, just the Reese's 10 Minute Pre-Bolus, stick to the carbs on the on the label, 24 go ahead and eat. You're gonna see a little bit. I mean, there's 12 grams. I mean, listen, there's 24 carbs, sugars, 2221 added. So there is a shot of sugar there, but you're sick, but the fat's gonna kind of tamp it down a little bit. Yeah, okay, and tell people why chocolate is not a good, good treatment for a fast dropping sugar

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:57
because of the fat, you know, naturally has fat in it. This obviously has very likely added fat as well, along with the peanut butter that has fat in it. So thus the higher fat content of this compared to just candy that's simple sugar, so it's not going to hit your bloodstream fast enough, from a digestive standpoint, to bring a low blood sugar back up. It also will not stop a really rapid drop. So, you know, blood sugar still in target. But gosh, it's like, arrow down. This is not what you would use on the opposite of that, if you're kind of coasting down nice and slow, and you really want to slow it down and have a treat at the same time. You could use a peanut butter cup to kind of slow that trend and stop it from getting too low. But it's not gonna be fast.

Scott Benner 7:52
I like the idea of every one of these that we do in this episode, which they're gonna get all of them together, that we talk about whether or not it's gonna be a good, low treat out of the bowl for the weeks to come. Yes. Okay, the next on the list, I won't ask you to guess it's something else that has peanuts in it. Peanuts, that would be Snickers, M, M's, peanut M, M's, really that's what chat G P T said. I mean, chat G P T is also not a person, so we'll do Snickers too at some point. Let's see peanut ms, about six servings per container, one ounce, 12 pieces. You know, how many times you've had 12 M M's, right? When you

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:32
is that? Is that a fun size pack? Is that the typical one that's in the Halloween mixes that

Scott Benner 8:38
you like? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, let's call let's so we have a way to measure it, 12 M M's that are peanut M M's, seven grams of fat, total carbs, 17 and total sugars, 15 includes 13 added sugar. So this is not the same fat content as the Reese's, but still some. So what do you also lower carbs and lower carbs too. So I mean is, Can M M's be a grab and go snack? Can you Bolus and eat couple months later,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:18
I would say you definitely need probably a good 15 minute Pre-Bolus for these. I mean, if, if you're looking at the fat, the fat is not terribly high in this, and it really is a heck of a lot more sugar coating in one, one peanut inside, where you getting, like, 12 peanuts, like,

Scott Benner 9:36
maybe, I don't know, I again, I've never had one of these in my life.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:40
So they do make chocolate covered almond. They make almond m&ms. Do you like almond?

Scott Benner 9:46
No, I have never

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:48
tried to get Scott to eat candy. I've never had

Scott Benner 9:50
an almond. Is that the one that looks like a teardrop like, yeah, and they're real hard, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:56
They're pretty crunchy, if you get them, you know, fresh. They roasted? Yeah, no, you're like, yep, nope. Won't be trying.

Scott Benner 10:02
That's okay. Thanks. Thanks. Anyway, when you say, when you say nuts, to me, I hear tree bark. I hear dry and, like, I don't know, really waxy. Sometimes, like, peanuts aren't peanuts waxy.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:16
They could be, depending on how they're made, peanuts could be a little bit waxy, so you don't eat any nuts at all. This is so funny, like walnuts, pecans, anything.

Scott Benner 10:27
Jenny, let me say this with a lot of pride, I've never had nuts in my mouth. Okay, so that's it.

Unknown Speaker 10:35
Oh, that was great for Halloween. Thank

Scott Benner 10:37
you. Yeah. Hey, listen, I'll pivot off of my list for a second because you brought it up chocolate covered almonds. Just so people have some context. This is just a, I mean, I don't know. It's like, called, I like chocolate covered almonds. Oh, looks like five pieces. Is 10 grams of fat, 17 carbs, 15 sugars, includes 14. So honestly, peanut, peanut, M and M, same idea, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:04
Comparable, yeah, absolutely, and again, this being,

Speaker 1 11:09
in a way, higher, truly, less fat, yes, less carb. But in

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:18
my experience, having had something like M M's with peanuts in I do know that they have a faster impact than something like a peanut butter cup does okay

Scott Benner 11:33
when we do number three here, which is Snickers, by the way. Do you want to do the fun size or the miniatures?

Speaker 1 11:41
Oh, I would say, Let's well, who eats one miniature really? I

Scott Benner 11:49
don't. Also never had a Snickers bar before in my

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:52
life. Let's do the fun size, because I think those are the more common from what I've seen in Halloween baskets as I take my kids trick or treating. Okay, the fun size tend to be more of the given out size now, so I think that might be more relevant to the crowd

Scott Benner 12:10
chocolate, which includes sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milk fat, soy lecithin, peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, palm oil, skim milk, lactose, salt, egg whites, artificial flavors. And what do you got? It is one bar, 17 grams, 80 calories. There is four grams of fat in this, and 10 car, 10 carbs, eight total sugars, nine includes eight added sugars. So this is the so this is the M M's with, I don't know if, I don't even know if I'm gonna call it less carbs, right? Because there's 17 grams there. How many grams are in 12 M M's? I wonder. This might be very similar Bolus. No,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:56
I would think that it is, quite honestly. Again, what does Snickers have? They've got that Carmeli carrot. They've got the nougat. I mean, that's just all sugar, the chocolate on the outside, sure. And the peanuts, they have fat, but it's not a lot of fat like the Reese's peanut butter cups have. So this is definitely going to have, I would say, similar to the M M's, same vibe, okay, same type of Bolus strategy,

Scott Benner 13:23
yes. Eminem Snickers. Bars. Not again, not good. Low treats if your blood sugar is falling very quickly. But if you're looking out on the horizon and you're seeing it 20 minutes from now, you think you might be drifting down through 80 into 70. It could be the perfect time for

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:37
a Snickers. Could be the perfect time for a fun size Snickers, yes, and you know, in in line with what we're talking about here, right? Halloween people are many people will go trick or treating. Not everybody does, but if you do, the enjoyment of walking around and moving your body while trick or treating can often be offset without even having to cover these right? You might be able to have your fun size Snickers, or your little peanut butter cup or something while you continue to traverse your neighborhood without any impact on blood sugar and no Bolus, because you're moving. And if you're a kid, are you moving? Oh, you're rapidly moving, like it's the gap. You are flying from house to house to house. You're running up the hill. And it is what it is. So you can very likely get away with sneaking this in and no coverage. Do

Scott Benner 14:31
the kids still love the Halloween the way they did when we were younger? Or has this, um, has the has the new society ruined it for people? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 14:38
my kids

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:40
love Halloween. They love that. I mean, we actually

Speaker 1 14:43
something fun that we do is we weigh the candy cakes for the hall,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:51
from the from the hall. Yeah, exactly, because it's fun to see, like, how much sugar they could pop. Possibly get in their their three hours, I tell you, man, we are out there for the entire amount of trick or treating time that's allowed Jen

Scott Benner 15:08
tell me something when you weigh the bag, if you were so listen, I don't want Jenny to sound like a Scrooge, but she she is a buyback program. She buys her candy back from her kids, right? Don't Yeah, she's laughing at herself now, in case you're wondering what's happening and so. But if you you know, you have knowledge of what they brought back in the past, yes, how many days or weeks would if they were going to eat all that candy, would you want it to be spread out over? You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Is it a year's worth of candy? Do you think in your mind,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:41
in my mind, it would be stale and hard by the time they could finish the pots of candy.

Scott Benner 15:46
If that didn't happen, though, like, what's like if you were giving nutrition information to somebody right now, and you said, Look, you got this haul. It's a ton of candy. I'd like you to eat it over six months, like in your mind, because it'd be gone in a week, right?

Unknown Speaker 16:01
Otherwise, it would

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:02
probably be gone in a week. Yeah. I mean, it's like, one of those big holiday events. It's like, well, we got the Halloween candy. Is a lot of parents are super awesome. They put the candy up. Kids have to ask for a piece of it, or one piece goes into lunch every couple of days, or something like that. Or in, again, the line of discussion, which could be used for lows and which could be used in another way, like a real treat, you may end up separating the piles the really, really quick, sugary, sugary kinds of things versus the not actually. One of the little friends that we go trick or treating with, what they end up doing is they save all the sugary stuff, you know, the Skittles and that kind of thing, the Twizzlers, they save all of that. And then at

Unknown Speaker 16:51
Christmas they use it to decorate their gingerbread

Scott Benner 16:54
houses. Oh, that's a nice idea, yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 16:57
So rather than eating it, they they actually use it for something else?

Scott Benner 17:01
Yeah, hey, listen, I'm just gonna tell you I grew up poorly and you didn't do Halloween. We did Halloween, but, I mean, I had two brothers, so there's three bowls of candy, and then it just turned into a swap meet. You'd be like, hey, I'll give you a malted milk bar for a Kit Kat, that kind of thing. And am I? I'm assuming my mom stole a fair amount of it from us. And also, I have to tell you, I'm a refrigerated candy person. Oh, so we finally hit one on the list that I enjoy, a Kit Kat, although I have to tell you, the GLP has completely ruined the Kit Kat for me, it does not taste the same anymore. So, Oh, that's interesting. I had a little one, like, a couple of weeks ago, and I ate it, and I was like, uh, never mind. So I'm a

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:44
curious, like, just side note question about it, because I've, I've heard that before, the taste preference, things kind of change, especially for those carby

Speaker 1 17:53
treat types of foods. I had somebody tell

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:57
me that something similar candy with chocolate, tasted like plastic, and she just didn't want it

Scott Benner 18:04
anymore. It can change the way food tastes. For sure, pizza is not as good any longer, either. You don't get the salty, oily feeling from it as much. And I'm a god. People probably hate the way I eat, but I'm a I'm an oil mopper, so when I get pizza, I take some paper towels and like, I soak all the oil out of it before I eat it. People are like you. You're such a pagan. They probably hate me. I without, I know you understand so. But pizza is not like I have to. I have to. I've just, I actually have to sprinkle a little salt on top of pizza to get the flavor to pop out of it. Now, Oh, interesting for people are like it ruined food for you. It also is going to keep me alive. So, and there's plenty of things that taste fine, I have to tell you, this is not the place for it, but the GLP turned food into fuel for me. So when I hear healthy people talking about Food is fuel, I was like, No, it's salt and fat and sugar. I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't taste it that way anymore. The only thing that I can still get like, a little jump from is, like, sorbet, oh, like, I can have like, a couple spoonfuls of sorbet, like, after a meal or something like that. I'm like, oh, that tastes sweet. Yeah. So anyway, Kit Kats, which I think are, are an awesome candy, or at least I used to believe that. I will

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:30
tell you something funny about Kit Kats. They're not Kit Kats, but Whoppers, right? You know the malted, the malted balls, which would be entirely a quick hit. I mean, it's like, right? We start, Oscar started reading my older and we went trick or treating, like, Mom, look, these are woopers. I was like, Oh, well, that's wrong, but it totally is hilarious the way that you said it.

Scott Benner 19:58
You're forgetting. You. A milk dud or a whopper that's actually a dud. Like, they're like, you know, Whoppers are like chocolate on the outside, crunchy on the inside. But every once in a while you get one, they're hard or or almost like gummy on the inside. Like something happened to it never had Jenny's like, I've had one Whopper in my life. I've had a fair amount of Whoppers in my life, and I can tell you that that pops up sometimes, and Milk Duds the same way, like sometimes Milk Duds are weird inside, like they don't get mixed, right, or something like that, yeah. But when it happens with a milk dud, it's weird. They get real chewy. And anyway, this is kind of gross. This is just between me and my friends who are out there and like, yeah, Fatty, I hear you. Let's see Kit Kats are next on the list. Serving size one package, 42 grams, 11 grams of fat, seven saturated total carbs. Oh, a KitKat got a lot of carbs in it. 28 grams of carbs. 20

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:53
is this for the two pack, like you get for Halloween, or is this the four pack?

Scott Benner 20:56
This is the, this is the like, classic, like, four pack, four pack, okay? And wow, 22 sugar or 23 sugars includes 22 grams of added sugar. So this is just, I mean, this is, this is the ones we talked about before. But just more, more, more carbs,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:17
more sugar and interest. Didn't you say 11 grams of fat. Yes, ma'am,

Unknown Speaker 21:23
that's interesting to me, isn't it? Does that

Scott Benner 21:25
feel low to you? No, it feels high because the wafers inside and there's no caramel or anything, right? Yeah, oh, I see your point. Well, maybe that's just where the flavor of this, by the way, most of this stuff is made by Hershey's, right? Like most of this stuff, Hershey's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:41
or Mars, I guess still, yeah, that is really, that's, that's the striking thing about this one. Is the fat content of a Kit Kat. I would never have guessed

Unknown Speaker 21:51
it to

Scott Benner 21:52
be that high. Okay, so similar to Reese's, but, but now, you know, because when you're bolusing for it, like, there's a there's a stretched out, you know, this is going to hit you for longer than you think. Because I think people don't think of chocolate like that. Like, I think they just see chocolate and they think, like, not, I don't know why, but chocolate, not carbs, I think is like a elite that happens in people's heads. I also see people treating loaves with chocolate all the time, and like, I'm just, like, Please, just please. That's not going to work as well.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:22
If you want the chocolate, eat the chocolate. Bolus for it, but don't use it for a low,

Scott Benner 22:26
yeah, also Kit Kat. I mean, in my opinion, has to go into the refrigerator. I don't know how you could Wow, yeah, I don't know how you could eat it warm.

Speaker 1 22:35
I know people like, as we said, initially, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the fridge or even the freezer,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:44
especially Reese's brand specifically, which tends to be a really soft milk chocolate type of chocolate compared to the dark chocolate type of peanut butter cups.

Scott Benner 22:56
So next on the list, Jenny is just a HERSHEY's Bar, so going full size bar, 13 grams of fat, 26 grams of carbs, 25 sugar, 21 added sugar. So just

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:12
similar to a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup,

Unknown Speaker 23:14
it's a lot of fat.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:17
I will tell you my side story about her or about Hershey bars

Speaker 1 23:23
when I was younger and working with my dietitian educator and we were transitioning to,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:32
rather than just the exchange system, we were moving to learning to read labels for

Speaker 1 23:37
portions and carbs, my dietitian asked me, she's like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:42
now that you know how to read a label and you know how this might match with insulin,

Speaker 1 23:49
what do you want to try? And my answer was

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:53
an almond Hershey bar. That's what I was. That's what I wanted. Yeah, I don't know why I really, I really don't

Scott Benner 23:59
classic. It's visually classic, a Hershey bar. It really

Unknown Speaker 24:02
is. Yeah, that was what I wanted.

Scott Benner 24:06
I didn't expect to do this. This isn't on the list of top candy, but in case some of your neighbors are out there a little drunky around the fire pit, making s'mores for kids, let me jump right. Let me jump over and tell you that jet puff s'mores, vanilla, marshmallows, 21 ounces, it is. Let's see serving size two pieces in these marshmallows, you got 27 carbs, 20 total sugars, includes 20 added sugars. So if you take that 27 carbs for the marshmallow and go back to the Hershey bar. And what is that there? That is 26 that's 53

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:51
and are you gonna eat a whole Hershey bar on top of, I don't know, unusually, you do. You probably do. Do a third of our Hershey bar on top. Or you'd probably do the fun size Hershey bars, which almost fit on top of the graham cracker.

Scott Benner 25:11
Okay, oh, God, we haven't even gotten to the graham cracker yet. Graham Crackers are the devil.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:18
They are high carb. They are like a saltine. A saltine cracker actually has a higher glycemic index than fruit juice. You know that to treat a low blood sugar, if you didn't have anything except a saltine, you are golden. Man. I

Scott Benner 25:33
didn't know this. That's crazy. Also. Now I can't put little crackers in my soup anymore. Thank you, Jenny. But one serving of I'm just gonna go with the honey made graham crackers. One serving, which is two full cracker sheets, is it says 24 carbs. I asked four squares. Yeah, yeah. And I want to just tell you right now the nothing hits Arden harder than a graham cracker. I mean, we used we we still have them in the house in case she gets low and doesn't want to eat a lot, because you can just take it anyway. Think about that before you look at us ruining s'mores for people happy Halloween.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:11
Everybody visit the house that's serving the smores in the middle of your trucking Yeah, not that you can really plan that, but maybe it's the like, we have a house in our neighborhood that has, like, it's an older couple, and what they do every year is they make home, make in their garage. It is a make and serve mini sugar coated donuts, really, and they serve apple cider at the same time, like mini cups of apple cider and four mini donuts in each little pack that goes to each kid that gets in line. Yes, it is like the best visited house in our neighborhood.

Scott Benner 26:50
Imagine, that's awesome. Jenny, Skittles are next? Oh, I just think of skittles is. Let's see how right I've been about this. I just think a Skittle is a carb. Oh, 100% Yep. And here it is. Oh, a serving size is 27 pieces. It has 26 carbs, 21 added sugar. I mean, I'm assuming most people are going to save the Skittles for low treats, right? But if you really wanted to enjoy a bag of Skittles, like, what are we doing? Like, I mean, this is a big Pre-Bolus, yeah, right. Long, maybe find a falling blood sugar before you start eating, because they're gonna hit you pretty immediately, right, correct, absolutely. Okay, all right, listen, I'm gonna do a couple more, then I'm gonna ask a bigger question about this. So, okay, next on the list, Sour Patch,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:38
kids. Oh, these are like, Skittles. I mean, not in terms of like, Skittles are nice because they're a gram of carb per Skittle, right? They're easy to count. They're portionable, etc. Sour Patch Kids, I can't remember what the carb count is. They might be like two grams per Sour Patch Kid, I'm looking

Speaker 1 27:58
but are going to be similar and hit Pre-Bolus, because otherwise it's gonna get you, yeah,

Scott Benner 28:05
Sour Patch, kids, I have it here as one bag, and let's see, there's 21 bag. I wish I had it differently than a bag, but she's one bag. 51 carbs, 44 total sugar. Like, this is just sugar. This is, I mean ingredients, in case you're wondering, ingredients, sugar, invert sugar, corn syrup. That is three different ways of saying sugar. So sugar, invert sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch. That's it. It's sugar and and the corn the corn starch to hold it together in a bunch of colors to make the things so things so you might as well go to the Sugar Bowl and take a spoonful of it. Correct? Yeah. Okay, long Same, same as the Skittles for Bolus thing. Now, I think in my mind, a Twix bar in the refrigerator is the way to go, and it and it. Why do you laugh at the refrigerated part? You have to refrigerate it. It's awesome that way.

Unknown Speaker 29:09
Am I the Am I crazy?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:12
No, you're not. The only thing I've ever stuck in the refrigerator, honestly, is our peanut butter cups. And when I was growing up, I was a Girl Scout,

Unknown Speaker 29:20
the thin mint cookies.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:24
Those went in the freezer, and that was the only way to eat a thin mint cookie from Girl

Scott Benner 29:29
Scout. Okay, I have to tell you, like, somebody brought home girl scout cookies last year, and they just like, I have done a good enough job of like, weeding crappy food out of my life, but they made me sick, and I was like, What's in these garbage things like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:43
so, actually purchase them for donation now, like, they don't, I'm happy to donate. I was a girl scout for eons, yeah? But I purchased them and then they have a donation. Like, sometimes they send them to the troops overseas. Or, you know, yeah, right, yeah. I know, I guess I just, I'm just putting money into something for somebody else, but,

Scott Benner 30:04
and he's like, I'm gonna live forever, but these people will be happy for a short time and then drop dead. So a full size Twix bar, one cookie bar, again, I feel like this is a, oh my god, 15 carbs, five grams of fat in one that means a package with two of them, and it is 30 and 10. Okay, so in one bar, five grams of fat. So a lot of this candy is the same, really, as far as Bolus and goes, right? Yeah, it's about, it's about how much sugar you're going to get hit with right away and how much fat is going to delay that hit

Jennifer Smith, CDE 30:41
right pretty much. And these, I would honestly go kind of along the lines of the peanut M M's and whatever. Yes, there are 10 grams of fat, but, Gosh, 30 grams of sugar. If you're going to eat both of them, that's a lot of that's a lot of carb. You think of the cookie and the caramel inside.

Scott Benner 30:58
Yeah, yeah. Starburst is next on the list. I'm just going to go original and sell tell you that six pieces, six star, I would never have six Starburst at once. But whatever I okay que sera, although I don't know if I'm the crazy one. Yeah, I'm starting to believe I am the longer we talk like this. But does anybody else match flavors up? Like, if do you take a red one and a yellow one, squish them together, squish them together, and then eat them like, see, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:30
I haven't done that since I was little. In fact, as you were talking before, about your brothers and you kind of doing a trade kind of system. My brother and I, we did do that when we were little, my favorite. They were the cherry ones, the red ones, they were my favorite. And then we would end up swapping and switching. But we did do the same thing. We'd see how mashed we could get it together, and then eat it almost like, almost like a twist and sandwich.

Scott Benner 31:57
Yeah. I mean, this makes sense to me. I haven't thought of that in a long time, Scott I like how you're like, I haven't done that since I was a kid. I did that with gummy bears three days ago, because gummy bears, Arden's low treats are those Albanese gummy bears. That's what we keep around the house. And I saw them the other day, and I was like, Scotty, gonna have a gummy bear? And so I, when I reached in, I grabbed like, four or five of them. And then I I found myself picking colors that I thought would match well with other ones. Anyway, six pieces of Starburst, two and a half grams of fat, 24 carbs, 16 from added sugar. This is just, this is sugar, just like everything else. Yeah, get way ahead. Maybe get the blood sugar moving on your side, moving down.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 32:41
I wanted to add one that it maybe it is on the list, but it has been a long term one that a friend of mine, she goes and she just buys the packs of them because they are her low treatment. Okay, it's the Gosh.

Unknown Speaker 32:57
What are they called? Now they're aspirin candy or that's actually

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:04
in a particular community of people. They call them aspirin candy or Winkies, but they're the Smarties. Okay?

Speaker 3 33:12
Smarties, yeah, very common because they look like little. Oh, they look like little, yeah, okay,

Scott Benner 33:17
well, we'll get to them. We'll do them right after classic candy corn. How's that sound? Oh, this was number 10 on the list. I'm just gonna go to branches, because it's the overall pick on Amazon, and I figured that's how people do it.

Speaker 2 33:31
Geez, let's see. Oh, it's by package. No, no, don't they can't they break it down for me by by corn. You know, that's

Unknown Speaker 33:39
the funny thing is that that's, it's a Halloween or a

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:47
sort of a, maybe, yeah, maybe things. But you don't really get candy corn in your treatment. Like there aren't individual wrapped packages of candy corn,

Scott Benner 33:57
no, but there's not a dish in your house somewhere. Is that just my wife, who thinks it looks nice and she won't eat it, but is killing me with it slowly.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:04
When I was younger. Yes, we did. We had a pumpkin that my mom put on the kitchen table that would have these and then the autumn mix,

Speaker 1 34:12
which no longer contains the brown, cocoa

Jennifer Smith, CDE 34:16
flavored autumn those were the only ones that I ever wanted as a kid.

Scott Benner 34:21
I don't this is a weird candy to me, because I can't eat more than two or three of them before. I'm like, these are horrible. But the first couple, I'm like, awesome. I don't like the chocolate tipped ones as much as the others. But have you seen the ones that are pumpkins now, those I like better than the candy corn. Anyway, this is not this is neither here. Have been around for a long time. I mean, I mean, I just found out about it a couple years ago. So 717 pieces of candy corn are 27 carbs. Holy Hell, that two is that two per almost, right? 22 sugar, no fat. So hit you like rocket fuel. Let me tell you what's in it. Sugar. Corn syrup. That's it? No, no, it's sugar. Corn syrup, and then contains less than 2% of the following, salt, glycerin, egg whites, confectioners, glaze, natural and artificial flavors. Mineral oil, honey, carnauba wax. I thought you put that on your car, but I guess you can eat it too. Vegetable oil, coconut oil, canola, artificial colors, sugar, it's sugar, okay. What did you say? Smarties? Smarties, yeah, these are definitely people put these aside for for low treats, for sure, right? Because they also they, they, what do I hear people say? They travel well in cars. They do okay in hot cars, right? Yeah, there's a lot of different reasons

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:45
they are. I mean, in terms of it, I mean, they're just all sugar, and unless they've changed, I think they're for the whole entire role of Smarties. I think they're like seven grams of carb for the whole

Scott Benner 35:56
role. I can't even find, it's so funny, I can't find the nutritionally there's no nutritional label on every one of these I click on, I'm assuming that what they think you think is like a dummy. It's sugar. But let me see here. This one's from the company. Maybe they It's sugar free, gluten free, peanut free, family owned since 1949 Smarties your way you can put them on a cupcake. Jenny, Oh, would you like to sweeten a moment at a graduation party or birthday or social gathering? Maybe by gifting Smarties who like what soulless person in their marketing department came up with that I do not, my goodness, I just want to see the nutritional label on it. They are not giving it to me about that. Let me see if I can find it somewhere

Unknown Speaker 36:44
else. Chat. GPT give it to you at all.

Scott Benner 36:48
It would. But then, you know, I get from people. I'm like, Hey, use it all the time. I don't need to hear from people constantly. A roll of Smarties. Six carbs, that sounds pretty close. Yep. Okay, 25 calories, no fat. But they and tell people, because we just, we haven't said it here. The reason, when you're low and use one of those gels and you rub it on the inside of your cheeks is because that's a quick uptake for that glucose, right? Like the lining of your cheeks, it is absolutely so these simpler sugars, I tell people I've mentioned it sometimes people I'm like, you know, don't just drink the juice. Like, sometimes put in your mouth and hold it in there for a second or two. Like, let it, like, absorb that way, really, what's the word for chewing? Mask, what? What's that mastication? Yeah, yeah. Like, chop the hell out of that sugar. Keep it in your mouth for a little while. If you're having gummy bears or something like me, throw them. You throw them in your stomach. Now you have to go through the more of a digestion process to uptake.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:47
And as you're talking about that, you know, I actually consider Smarties as close as you can probably get to the glucose tablets. Can you find the ingredients for glucose tablet, or for Smarties No, no, no for Smarties, because I can guarantee that one of the first two ingredients is dextrose.

Unknown Speaker 38:07
Okay, hold on

Scott Benner 38:12
a second, the ingredients in the original Smarties rolls are dextrose, citric acid, calcium steroid, natural and artificial flavors and colors. Isn't dextrose? What they put in the IV in the hospital to Jack your blood sugar off real fast

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:28
it is. I mean, they'll do a dextrose strip for a lot of reasons, right? But that's what glucose tablets are. They're dextrose. Dextrose is the simplest form of sugar, so your body really can absorb it in, as you're talking about absorption through the mouth, through the gums, right? It goes right in, and it gets into circulation, because your body doesn't have to chop that bigger, more complex carbohydrate up, unlike a Hershey bar or a Snickers even, where those are carbohydrates and they're sugars in there, but they're not dextrose.

Scott Benner 39:04
Okay, you're making me wonder about Neco wafers.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:08
Oh, Neco wafers. Do you know what the funny? Do you know where the Neco wafer, one of their

Scott Benner 39:12
facilities is, is it? Is it in Boston, Boston? Oh,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:17
you know, the only reason I know because we ended up somewhere on a business trip. We lived on the East Coast, and we went up to Boston for something, and we were driving, and we drove right past the Neco wafer there was like, there it was. And I took a picture, because I have a friend who,

Speaker 1 39:34
anywhere she can find Neco wafers, she will buy several

Jennifer Smith, CDE 39:39
Neco wafer packets, because she loves

Scott Benner 39:41
them. I grew up not far from the Nabisco factory. Oh, and when you got near it, you would just, you'd roll your windows down because the whole world smelled like warm cookies. It was really kind of thing. Yeah, it's not there anymore. Nico wafers, sugar, corn syrup gel. All right, listen. So here's the last bit. This, in my opinion, right? Let's wrap this up. Put a nice bow on it. You're going out there and you're worried, right? I see people constantly, always, newly diagnosed, people. My kid was just diagnosed. Halloween is coming. What am I going to do? And I think, I think you should treat the running around like, you know, the Pre-Bolus for picking out of the bag, right? And just make it through, yes. And if you're going to sit and hork, I don't know if this is a word, but if you're going to sit down later and work down a bunch of candy, you're going to have to take into account that there's a lot of carbs in it. There's fat in some of it. You're going to get a really hard hit from simple sugars, and you might get stretched out from the fat. I think if you can get through this night without a bad low or a protracted high, I think have a good time. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to see be 300 overnight. That's that's going to be you misunderstanding the carbs and some of this food and the fat and some of this food. And I don't want to see you like not doing anything and running around and getting low. So, I mean, I didn't have a podcast when my kid was little, and we took her out trick or treating, but it's what we did. We you know, we watched her blood sugar, and when it did something, we're like, hey, guess what? It's time for. You know, you can reach into your bag and grab something now. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:16
Right? And I mean, with the tools that we have now, comparative to what you had when Arden was really little, right? We now have all these algorithms. I mean, you were the algorithm, right?

Scott Benner 41:29
So staring her in the face to see if she looked low. I don't even know what the hell that means exactly.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:36
I mean. So you can make use of those tools. Do you know my funny little thing about Halloween is that, in my history of life with insulin and pumping, I moved to using a DIY system years ago, and my start day

Unknown Speaker 41:51
was Halloween. Oh, no kidding, yeah, I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:54
started, I started looping, essentially for my first DIY system. Yeah, on Halloween. On Halloween.

Scott Benner 42:00
You know, Halloween reminds me of the JDRF walks that we don't do them anymore, but we did them for the first 10 years of Arden's life with diabetes. And you know, the first one was October around here, she was diagnosed in August. So, I mean, she had had diabetes for less than maybe six or eight weeks. You get there and it's Philly, and there's a giant table of hot soft pretzels. And the first year, I was like, oh, soft pretzels. Then I understood. And then every year after that, I was like, Is this a cruel joke? Right? We take a bunch of newly diagnosed people who are not good at bolusing for anything, and give them a giant piece of dough. And then people just walked around with high blood sugars the whole time and though. And as the years went on and people had CGM, you just list it just be Beep, beep and soft breath, I was like, why is this happening?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:56
And I bet at that point there also wasn't the like. Now I just helped do the event here, which was really nice. It was in October. It was a lovely day. But the nice thing about the options that were there, they had multiple different options for multiple different choices for people, and they had all the carb counts and the nutrition information, so that as you pick things, I guarantee your soft pretzel that year probably had no nutrition facts. It was like, just

Scott Benner 43:23
enjoy the pretzel. Yeah, yeah. Meanwhile, and it's not for this episode, but if a soft pretzel doesn't have 75 carbs in it, I'm like, I'd be surprised. And they're awesome around I don't know where they are the rest of the world, but in Philly, they're good. They're good. Yeah? So anyway, happy Halloween to everybody. Have a great time. Please post your pictures in the Facebook group of your kids tricking and treating and let me know if any of this helped. Because we're gonna, well actually, I'm gonna text Rob right now and be like, Hey, would you edit a podcast for me today and get it right back? So let's see what he says. Fun. Thanks so much, Jenny. Yeah, you

Hey, kids, listen up. You've made it to the end of the podcast. You must have enjoyed it. You know what else you might enjoy? The private Facebook group for the Juicebox podcast. I know you're thinking, uh, Facebook, Scott, please. But no. Beautiful group, wonderful people, a fantastic community. Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook, of course, if you have type two, are you touched by diabetes in any way? You're absolutely welcome. It's a private group, so you'll have to answer a couple of questions before you come in. But make sure you're not a bot or an evildoer. Then you're on your way. You'll be part of the family. I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. You.

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#1667 After Dark: Persistence

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Curtis, a combat veteran and paramedic, recounts surviving catastrophic injury, memory loss, and misdiagnosis before finding clarity with LADA, resilience through family, and purpose training a service Chihuahua for his diabetes journey.

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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
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Curtis 0:14
Hello. My name is Curtis. I'm a newly diagnosed Lada went from type two to lotta just this past couple of weeks.

Scott Benner 0:25
This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by skin grip, durable skin, safe, adhesive that lasts your diabetes devices, they can fall off easily, sometimes, especially when you're bathing or very active. When those devices fall off, your life is disrupted, and it costs you money, but skin grip patches, they keep your devices secure. Skin grip was founded by a family directly impacted by type one, and it's trusted by hundreds of 1000s of individuals living with diabetes. Juicebox podcast listeners are going to get 20% off of their first order by visiting skin grip.com/juicebox you 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. Today's podcast is sponsored by us med. US med.com/juicebox you can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do. And I'm talking about Dexcom, libre, Omnipod, tandem, and so much more us, med.com/juicebox or call 888-721-1514, summertime is right around the corner, and Omnipod five is the only tube, free, automated insulin delivery system in the United in the United States, because it's tube free. It's also waterproof, and it goes wherever you go. Learn more at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox, that's right. Omnipod is sponsoring this episode of the podcast, and at my link, you can get a free starter kit. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox, hello.

Curtis 2:07
My name is Curtis. I'm a newly diagnosed lotta. Went from type two to lotta just this past couple weeks,

Scott Benner 2:16
past couple weeks. So how long ago did you get your initial diagnosis.

Curtis 2:21
The initial diagnosis, type two, was a year and a half ago, and before that, I was considered pre diabetic. And you know how they always say with pre diabetes, you know, exercise, lose weight, you'll be fine. That didn't happen.

Scott Benner 2:40
Did you exercise and lose weight and weren't fine? Or did none of it happen?

Curtis 2:44
So I went to kind of extreme. I went and did the whole low carb diet. You know, where I work is, I'm very active. I drive a brown truck that delivers packages. You know, everybody loves us, but so I'm constantly working and everything. And I lost, I was almost 300 pounds. I lost maybe about 30 pounds. Went back in and was told, Oh, well, you're not doing it, right? You're not doing you're not you're not exercising, you're not losing you know, you lost a little weight, but you're not eating right, and that's why you keep on creeping up. And it kept happening to where we ended up having me placed on Metformin and then another medication. And this was my outside doc, me and her didn't see eye to eye. And you know, I have her as a doc, but I also have my VA doc and my spouse. My wife is a nurse practitioner, and I trust her with a lot of the decisions. When it comes to, should I do something?

Scott Benner 3:58
Tell me, VA, Doc, you were you were in the military? Yes, no, just tell me. When did you go in, and how long are you with you?

Curtis 4:04
I was in from 1999 all the way till 2008

2006 was the second time I got injured. The first time I got injured I was our Humvee was hit by an IED, and I got knocked out, pretty good, nothing too tremendous, you know, then it got back and got deployed again, and the last injury, which took me out of being in the military, I was blown up three pieces of shrapnel and shot seven times Jesus. So I've gone through about 52 I believe, operations so far throughout the years. And actually that. When that injury happened, I had a traumatic brain injury to actually, where I don't remember my past. The only thing of that day that I truly remember is laying down on the ground, facing up, looking at it the most beautiful blue sky I've ever seen in my

Scott Benner 5:18
life. And do you think that's after you were you were hit.

Curtis 5:21
That was definitely after I was hit. Yeah, Chris, tell me, were you in a firefight? Yes, and no. So the IED was a I was told everything that happened. Yeah, remember, we had an IED roadside. It blew we were in a firefight, and that's when I got hit three times in the chest, and I was brought down, and unfortunately, my flight jacket was one of those ones that weren't up to spec, and it went through my Kevlar missed my heart barely. One went into my lung and one went into my abdomen. So then they we were because of the firefight and everything going on, it was the two hostile of an area to fly in and evac me, but I told us, going into the Humvee, they backtracked, and apparently I heard my buddy got blown up by an ID pretty close to us, and I wouldn't let them stop and take me. I made them go get them, and on our way back through the city, we were ambushed. And we were ambushed. I rolled on top of my buddy and I got hit four times in the back. Jeez. So then, of course, we, you know, got evacked out of there, went through a lot, a lot of hospital. I mean, I was in the hospital for two and a half years. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries.

Scott Benner 6:55
So I'm sorry, man, that's, that's something else. And you were in the hospital for over two years after that. Wow, yep. How old were you when that happened? That was in 2006

Curtis 7:08
and I'm 42 my early 20s. Okay, my gosh, so yeah,

Scott Benner 7:15
well, I'm glad you're okay. I mean, I don't know if you are not, but I'm glad you're alive, I guess. And, and let's find out about the rest of it. So you told me before we started talking the you wonder if what's happening to you now doesn't have something to do with then, but what's the connection that you're you think you might see there? Yes.

Curtis 7:35
So while all this was happening in the hospital and everything, you know, I died a couple times in different operating rooms. In the reason I'm thinking, I'm not sure. I don't know about the data, but I had multiple blood infusions because I throughout from when I got injured to getting to a safe area, I was given blood multiple times, and then throughout some of the operations because I was still bleeding out, until they were able to stop all the bleeding and everything. I think they said they went through almost 17 units of blood at that

Scott Benner 8:12
time, just keeping you alive, to get you to a place where they could address what happened to you. Yes, my gosh, because they could airlift you out. Correct?

Curtis 8:21
So, right. We got back behind the wire, and I was taken straight into the surgery surgical area, and where they stabilized me from the time I got injured to stabilize at that location to be airlifted out, I went through 17 units of blood,

Scott Benner 8:39
my gosh, so there's like a more mobile surgical center close to the line, back behind the wire. They get you as stable as they can, to get you off to a hospital where they can address things further

Curtis 8:50
Correct. Yeah, we were transferred from there over to Germany until we were completely stable and able to go back to the United

Scott Benner 9:00
States. Yeah. Did your buddy make it as far as Germany, or did he pass before then

Curtis 9:04
he actually made it all the way back over the US, with me, and then during one of his operations, there was complications, and he passed?

Scott Benner 9:11
No, I'm so sorry. You know, before we started to record, you said, I don't know if there's a connection, but I feel like there could be. So what do you think between all those surgeries and the damage and the infusions and everything like, what is it that you're wondering about

Curtis 9:26
when I finally got diagnosed correctly? You know, I'm lot of now, and I have, what was it? The i Two is crazy high where, currently, right now, my beta cells are being destroyed, just trying to figure out from the trauma to all the blood infusions and all the operations is something either might have got it from somebody else's blood to even was the trauma, the kind of the onset that kind of kicked whatever in gear

Scott Benner 9:58
I see your brains just. All over the place trying to figure out what might have happened to you. Is there autoimmune in your family? You know, beyond type one diabetes? Is there thyroid, celiac, other autoimmune issues, I don't know, even psoriasis or what's the one where your skin gets different colors that Michael Jackson had? Why can't I think of it

Curtis 10:18
all of a sudden? Oh, I know what you're talking about. But, yeah, yeah, anything like that, mom, dad, uncles, aunts, anything you know, I knew you're gonna ask that, so I contacted my family just to make sure every I was correct, and we have no autoimmune. Okay, my father does have type two diabetes, but other than that,

Scott Benner 10:38
yeah, tell him to get in line. Everybody's got that. Okay, so you're not seeing any other autoimmune throughout your family line, correct? Okay, listen, I'm nobody in this scenario, but, like, I don't think you can get type one through an infusion, like, just like somebody else's blood. Kind of a situation that doesn't sound right to me, the traumatic part doesn't not make sense, but it's it would be uncommon with the other stories that people have told me, If the trauma was 20 years before the diagnosis, can I ask you a bigger question around that, I guess, why do you want to know? Why do you care how you got it? Curiosity? Yeah, just to know.

Curtis 11:17
Yeah, that's it. Okay. Just a curiosity. And then, you know, right before I actually finally had to start going to see the doctor and getting told, Oh, well, you're type. Two out of the military. I did a lot of different things, including, I've been a paramedic forever, and during covid, I was a paramedic on the weekends, and during the week, I was doing my normal job, and I caught it once. It wasn't that bad. Caught it again when it really came about, and I was out of work for about a month trying to get over it. Had a real hard, hard time, and I'm considered a long covid patient now because of it. And then I started having to go see doctors again, and that's when I know was told, hey, you know, your sugar is elevated. You got your pre diabetic. You're going to become diabetic if you don't take care of it. And so I really started trying to get as healthy as I possibly could. And then the doctor that I had, she, you know, she was trying to help. She wasn't the nicest about everything, and didn't believe anything I said. And then when I went to the VA to do blood work and everything else, like I normally do, the blood work came back that I was very elevated with a 1c and I was started on ozempic to see if that would help, along with the pills. And I was on that for about a year, and when I went back to my primary care on the health side, my prime, the doctor that I had, she left the practice, so I was given to, I was given a nurse practitioner to look over my care. And when I was telling her everything was going going on, and I told her, this is my care team. This is how I like to operate, she looked at me and said, well, all y'all are stupid awesome. I was like, okay. So I was like, Well, this is gonna be the first and probably the last time I'm gonna see you, ain't you?

Scott Benner 13:16
Oh, give me a second, because there's a lot to unpack here. So let me go back to you in the military, you weren't 300 pounds. Would you weigh in the

Curtis 13:24
military? Because I was also a bodybuilder in the military. I was about 232

Scott Benner 13:30
40. So how tall

Curtis 13:34
Can I ask five eight? My wife says I'm 510 but you

Scott Benner 13:38
know, that's what she just tells her friends, you're not tall, you're not short, you're you're carrying a lot of muscle. It sounds like, yes, where does the weight come? Is it come sitting in the hospital? Does it come after that? Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. It might sound crazy to say, but Summertime is right around the corner. That means more swimming, sports activities, vacations, and you know what's a great feeling, being able to stay connected to automated insulin delivery while doing it all. Omnipod five is the only tube free automated insulin delivery system in the US, and because it's tube free and waterproof, it goes everywhere you do, in the pool, in the ocean or on the soccer field. Unlike traditional insulin pumps, you never have to disconnect from Omnipod five for daily activities, which means you never have to take a break from automated insulin delivery ready to go tube free. Request your free Omnipod five Starter Kit today at omnipod.com/juicebox Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary full Terms and Conditions. Can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox type that link into your browser, or go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on the image of Omnipod right at the bottom. There's also a link right in the show notes of your podcast player. You've probably heard me talk about us. Med. How simple it is to reorder with us med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email, because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email, and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works. And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, us. Med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your order's ready. You want us to send it? Push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait. I think it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks, or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it us. Med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, get your free benefits check now and get started with us. Med, Dexcom, Omnipod, tandem freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new eyelet pump. Check them out now at us, med.com/juicebox, or by calling 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at Juicebox podcast.com to us, med and all the sponsors.

Curtis 16:18
It just came after that. You know, being sedentary in the hospital. I did gain weight, and then it just kept on being an issue. And then, you know, I had the depression, real bad after everything, especially losing my buddy, so much so in when was it, I was released out of the military with a medical honorable discharge in 2008 I completely felt lost in everything I did because I didn't have that structure anymore. I led to drinking very heavily, and at one point at my lowest, I decided I didn't want to deal with this anymore. I attempted suicide. You made an attempt. I did okay. I was successful in the attempt, but what I used didn't work. So I to be honest with you, I put my handgun to my head and I pulled the trigger. The firing pin hit the blasting cap of the round. The round just never went off. When that happened, I realized how stupid I was, because I was going to end my life and I was just going to put a ton of burden on my family. After that, I decided I'm done with it. I stopped drinking, and I stopped taking all my payments, and I went through a horrible detox in the hospital for a little bit of time. Once I got detox, I came back out, I started becoming, I was a paramedic for a system here, again, working as a paramedic. There was a young lady that sparked my interest for some reason. You know, I was always, You don't ever play where you work. But there was a young lady at one of the hospitals that me and her became really good friends. It was great. She helped me through a lot, and she was the first person that I've ever let in to my bubble, ever since I left the military, especially with, you know, my scarring and everything, because I have skin grafts, and I have scars where I've had operations and everything, and it's not the easiest thing to look at. Okay, one time, she had to do something, and I told her to just come stay at my house, my apartment, because she would something was being done at her house, and I worked nights. She worked days. I was like, you can sleep in the bed. I'll take the couch, and we have opposite shifts. We won't see each other. Well, I think day two or three, she came in because she got off a little earlier, and I was I took a little bit later shift, and I was coming out of the shower, and she was coming into the apartment. I didn't hear her. She didn't hear me, and she walked into the bathroom, and that was the first time that I've ever seen a woman walking in on me at my most vulnerable time, and she saw the scars and the markings and everything, and she didn't look horrified. And that was in 2011 and I'm happy to say that that is my wife. Now, she completes me. I mean, she has helped me tremendously from the depression to the memory loss and everything else that I've I've had to deal with ever since my injury. Yeah, and

Scott Benner 19:40
yeah Curtis was that was the memory loss. Does it cover a segment? Or does it cover everything before the injury? Like, I mean, did you forget the day and the week, but not your 10th birthday? Or, do you know what I mean? Like, how much did you lose when

Curtis 19:55
I was injured and had that I did not have any memory? From anything prior. I didn't know who my parents were. I didn't know I was with somebody at that time. I didn't know who anybody was. All I know was something was going on, and I didn't know what what was going on, and it freaked me out. Yeah, still today, I have a heart. I have maybe a handful of memories from my past before the incident, just little spurts, because something happened and it brought up a memory, but yeah,

Scott Benner 20:27
did stuff return? Like did somebody have to tell you that's your mom and reintroduce you to her? Did that come back?

Curtis 20:32
I didn't know who my parents were, and they told me who they were, and I still was very reluctant to believe it. Wow. But one day, I was sitting at home at my place, and Phil Collins in the air, in the air, yeah, came on over the radio, and it sparked a memory. And I was like, it surprised me. It was of me and my father. When he used to own part of a towing business, he would always take me in the tow truck, and we go and do everything. And it sparked a memory of me and him riding in the truck, listening to in the air tonight, and then I saw his face, and that's when it clicked, that is truly

Scott Benner 21:21
my father. That's the first time you're able to believe it really was your dad.

Curtis 21:25
Yep, and that happened. Oh, probably 2010 2011

Scott Benner 21:31
Did you share that with him? Did you tell him? Yeah, good.

Curtis 21:34
That's awesome. Yeah, it was really rough on my parents, because, you know, they see me as injured as I was, and so confused and scared, and they just wanted help, but I was so scared that I didn't know who they were, and I didn't want anybody

Scott Benner 21:51
near me. No, I understand that from little things to big things. What if someone lied you about something about your personality and told them like, you love this but you didn't, or you don't. I mean, like, if you were married, somebody definitely would have said you love doing the laundry and vacuuming, right? How do you trust anything? Because you're hoping these people are being clear with you, but you have no way to, like, I mean, I'm assuming there's pictures and you know, stuff like that, but still you're saying it's, it's hard to swallow that pill. Yeah.

Curtis 22:18
So I've seen all sorts of pictures of my past and videos and everything. And then once my brothers and my sister found out truly what I did in the military, I now no longer have a relationship with one of my sisters and two of my brothers

Scott Benner 22:37
because of your job in the military. Yes, sir, they don't like what you were doing, correct? Would you tell would you tell me what your job was?

Curtis 22:46
Let's just put it this way, I was deployed to unalive targets or people.

Scott Benner 22:51
Okay, so you were moving through places, hitting targets?

Curtis 22:56
Yes, in a way, okay, I had a very small skill set that not many of us had. Unfortunately, I do have some of the memories of what I've done in the military ever since it's been so long and the faces haunt me on a daily basis. You

Scott Benner 23:15
stop me if I'm asking too much. Were you a sniper?

Curtis 23:19
I was a Scout Sniper, yes, yeah,

Scott Benner 23:21
God, yeah. That's the thing we talk about. This is me being academic about it. I obviously have no context for it, but having a big conversation here the other day about, like, what it must be like for these kids that are flying drones now too, you know, because you're controlling the thing, and the thing is shooting somebody and but with you, you're you're looking through a scope and you're seeing that person. Yes, there's no getting around it. Do you ever think maybe it's good you don't remember it?

Curtis 23:49
Yes, I do, because the little bits that I do remember and the constant reminders I do have and the nightmares they

Scott Benner 23:57
suck. Curtis, it occurs to me as you're telling me that like if you don't remember anything from your past, but you can picture, you know, some of the the engagements that you had, but you don't have the rest of who you are like the rest of who you were. Might have been trained to deal with that better. The new you doesn't have that training or that experience, right? You see, I'm saying like you maybe, maybe the old you was good at it, which I know is kind of a horrifying thing for people to hear or think, but, but maybe that person was better suited to be a sniper than the person who you are now. And now you're stuck with some of that person's memories but none of their coping

Curtis 24:35
skills. Well, I see what you're saying, but you know, one thing that has helped me is, you know, being a firefighter paramedic for as long as I have been while I was in the service and out of the service, and everything that we've seen on the different calls that I've been to, from shooting, stabbings to suicides, homicides, you name it, it is actually made it to where I was able to cope a whole lot better because of. Everything that I've been through and seeing, okay, but there's always going to be some of these images that I'll never get out of hand. Do you ever wonder if they're real? Sometimes? Yeah, yeah, Wow, gosh, man, but it's a lot. Unfortunately, I know it is real. That's the bad part. Yeah. Also, I'll

Scott Benner 25:20
be listening to Weird road to go down, and I understand that people could be morally outraged by the job, but is your sister and you mean, you're in the military, they give you a job. You do the job, right? Like, what would have happened if you said no? Thank you. Does that happen? Do you know what I mean?

Curtis 25:33
Like, if you were to say no in a time of war, yeah, that could be punishable up to including

Scott Benner 25:42
death. That's a tough thing to for your sister to hang on you. I think. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not in her situation. But maybe it's, you know, just hard for her to talk to you. Maybe it's just hard for her to make sense of all of it. I don't know. I'm so sorry. There's a lot in there. Man, you're young too. Still, you're, would you say you're 42 Yeah, it's been 42 you've been through a bunch. Let's figure out the diabetes part. Like so we heard the part about you, um, being diagnosed as a type two. They gave you Metformin. Ozempic. Ozempic, help you lose weight.

Curtis 26:11
Actually, believe it or not, ozempic. I was on the highest dose, and they did nothing for my weight.

Scott Benner 26:16
What were you taking? I can't think about the highest doses. Is it two?

Curtis 26:20
Point? Is it two, two or three, I can't never remember that's

Scott Benner 26:24
that's not enough to lose the weight, if it's not working for you. But okay, so you were on ozempic. Did it help your blood sugars? I mean, it might have helped a little bit back then, right?

Curtis 26:31
It did help the ozembic, the Metformin, and the other met. I was on the combination of them, I still ran kind of a higher blood sugar. But yeah, I was still staying in the pre diabetic range.

Scott Benner 26:46
For people who thought you had type two or pre diabetes, they were pretty happy with the care. They didn't realize that you were just in a very early stage of

Curtis 26:53
Lada, correct, right? And with how my job is very active, that helps while I'm at work, my sugars stay pretty dag I'm good. But anytime I'm not at work because I don't have the adrenaline going and I'm not going fast, that's when they kept on, my sugars would go up. Yeah. So I lost the one doctor because she moved, and so I got this new one that said I was stupid pretty much. And at that time, it was time for my interest to get a new pre authorization for Zimbabwe. She was like, Yeah, I'll fill it out, but I don't think they're going to give it to you because you're under what you

Scott Benner 27:30
need to be. Oh, for the A 1c she should have tried for Manjaro, or we go V for you for weight before.

Curtis 27:36
Well, she filled it out, and then it came back that, you know, they denied it. And I was like, Well, can you, you know, rebuttal this and get it figured out and see what we need to do? Because this was my a, 1c, and she was like, No, it's just, you know, that's what they're gonna say. And she was like, you're pretty much just gonna have to get sick worse than you are now.

Scott Benner 27:58
I gotta. I got a close friend this happened to recently, where they basically told her to get type two diabetes and then they'll give it to her. And she's like, Yeah, no. I mean, awesome, right? Like, what a message from I know it's insurance, and insurance isn't health care really, you know what? I mean, it's that's not your doctor. Your doctor wants you to have it, but can I ask a question? Like, it's gonna kind of bother me until I ask it to you, go for it. It's a hustle job, right? I see the guy that works on my street. He's running the whole day in and out of that truck. How are you 300 pounds hustling like that? I

Curtis 28:29
don't know, because we hustle, and when we hustle, and I'm in a state that stays very, very hot, I live down in Texas, you're sweating your ass off on top of everything else. Exactly, during the summer, the back of that truck can be anywhere from 120 to 150 degrees, easy.

Scott Benner 28:46
So for people listening, are you eating a lot of calories, and that's how you're maintaining the weight? Or do you think it's something more metabolic? Or do you you have any idea?

Curtis 28:56
We weren't sure because I was on a low carb honestly, for my breakfast, I was drinking a protein shake that I made at home. So it was all natural. You know, you knew what was. It wasn't just Exactly, yeah. So there was that. And then for lunch was chicken and broccoli every single day, Jesus,

Scott Benner 29:14
and you 300 pounds and you're in a sweat box and you're running around like a lunatic, yes, geez, at what point do you say to yourself, How is this not impacting my weight?

Curtis 29:24
When the referral or the pre authorization got denied at that point, I was at 270 okay? And I was like, well, let's see what's gonna happen now. And so I kept on doing the same thing I always did and and because the nurse practitioner, or was she a nurse practitioner or a PA, either one, but she didn't believe me. I was like, You know what? How about you get me a Dexcom? I was like, then I can prove that I'm not lying. Because you don't believe believe me. This the woman that called you stupid. Yes, yeah. Well, tell me again. Why? Did she call you stupid? What did you say that gave her that response because I told her how, with my VA doctor telling me that even though I'm on the pills and ozembic at that time, that if I couldn't get everything under control, my sugar was going to keep on elevating to where we were going to have to look at the possible use of

Scott Benner 30:22
insulin. To you said that, and she said, You're stupid. Yep, that's common, isn't it?

Curtis 30:27
And the thing that was funny was, my wife was at that appointment with me, but she will not open up her mouth unless I you know, yeah. And she was biting her tongue going she was looking at this woman as you're an absolute

Scott Benner 30:47
idiot. I don't understand sometimes, but

Curtis 30:51
she held her tongue so they agreed to do the Dexcom. And three months go by, and I go back to her, and at this time I am incredibly sick. I gained another this is the time now I'm about 300 pounds. I have no energy whatsoever. I feel like absolute my a 1c, is now skyrocketed. Oh, geez. And she was like, Huh, well, maybe you do have type two I was like, Well, I've got something because I don't

Scott Benner 31:24
feel right. Yeah, something's up. So she went from believing that you were pre diabetic, but now thinking maybe you definitely have type two diabetes, right?

Curtis 31:33
And, you know, I brought in the Dexcom reports, and I brought in a binder of everything, every single thing I ate, and at what time I ate it, every single day.

Scott Benner 31:45
Yeah, you're on a little bit of, a little bit of a mission to show her, huh? Oh,

Curtis 31:49
yeah, when you tell me I'm wrong, I'm gonna prove you I'm

Scott Benner 31:52
right. I mean, I don't know why people can't just hear what you're saying and go, Oh, that's pot because you didn't say anything that's not reasonable. Like, you know, could have just said, Hey, let's, let's look into that for you. But nevertheless, okay, so you brought up reports. I'm sorry. Then what

Curtis 32:05
happened? So then she was like, Okay, well, let's see if we can get you on ozembic insurance. Comes back that prioritization. They okayed it, but they're not going to cover that drug because that's not on their formulary. Now,

Scott Benner 32:17
awesome. I was like, Okay, great.

Curtis 32:19
So then I was got, I was put on monjuro, okay? And she was like, now that I'm putting you on mongero, you have to come see me every, every three months and whatnot, or I won't continue the prescription. Did the mangero help you lose weight? Well, after I started taking the monjuro, I started seeing my blood sugars coming down. Yeah. I ended up getting up to 12 and a half milligrams of monturo.

Scott Benner 32:49
That's the dose I'm on. By the way, 12 and a half. Yep, yep. With that,

Curtis 32:54
my diet, exercise, you know, still constantly doing everything I am now, currently, today, I'm at 210

Scott Benner 33:01
pounds. Hey, man, look at you. That's awesome. Congratulations. I appreciate it. Yeah, I wanted to let you tell the story, because I wasn't sure where it's gonna go, but I was just chomping at the bit myself to tell you, like, get off the ozempic. Go for the manjar, the Zepp bound, you know, because it's also got a G I P in it, and that'll definitely help with the weight loss. You've lost 90 pound,

Curtis 33:20
yeah, but during that time I, you know, I was slowly climbing each level that you had to and, you know, my blood sugars was still messing around. Just not, not something, it's not right. I went back to that Doc, and I was like, Look, something's not right. I still don't feel right. I think something more is going on. And she's like, No, you just need to lose more weight. You need to eat right? And then this will all go away. I was like, it's not going away. That's the problem, because now my sugars are starting to increase again,

Scott Benner 33:54
right? Also, you're now, you're 20 pounds under when you were running around Fallujah, wherever the hell you are. So, like, I don't know where you are. I'm not asking, but like, I mean, you're out in the let me make the assumption you're out in the desert, right? Yeah, yes, right, right. You're 20 pounds under the weight you were when you were operating there, and you're still seeing the blood sugars. And then she says, lose more weight. Did you say that doesn't make any I can't stand

Curtis 34:19
I looked at her, and I was like, you know, if you're not going to help? I was like, it's pretty sad that I'm asking you for help, because I'm trying to better myself and get my health back into where it needs to be, and you're hinder of it. Like, you know what I'm done, right? I was like, I'm gonna go find another doctor, because you're just not going anywhere. I then went to another provider that's actually works with my wife at the same clinic, and they overtook my care and with how everything was, they were like, you know, let's try a little bit of long acting insulin, just to see what happens. I was like, okay, because I have what is that the dawn for. Phenomenon, phenomenon where I would be high as can be in the morning. It was crazy, right? And so we titrated, and I was, I ended up going up to, I think, 22 units a night, okay? And it was kind of working. But then summer came and working outside, pardon my language, it was a crap shoot, because it was like, okay, am I gonna get too hot to where? Then during the day, I'm gonna be even worse off, because I took too much Lantus and and then it went from having Lantus to then I had ended up having to have short acting as well. And insurance covered Nova log, bless my provider, they put me on a sliding scale. And I looked at him, I was like, Okay, I'll try this for a week, and we'll see how it goes. But after a week, if it doesn't do what it should do, I'm going to do it my way. Okay? And they looked at me and was like,

Scott Benner 35:55
How'd you know that there was a different way when they tell you sliding scale, how do you know there's other ways to use insulin

Curtis 35:59
from your wife. When I was diagnosed, you know, my wife had a good knowledge, but when I want to know something, I researched and I researched the, you know, what out of everything, so much so that I saw a lot of type ones are carb counting, and I'm like, okay, yes, I'm a type two, but I'm on insulin. Type ones are on insulin. So why can't I do the same thing a type one does?

Scott Benner 36:27
Yeah? To see if that works. Yeah. Man, it's just, I mean, if you look into it, it makes sense immediately. So that's great. So at what point does someone realize you're not type two? Is that recent? That more recently,

Curtis 36:40
it was very recently, so at the beginning of this year, I told the provider. I was like, Look, I really think I need to be placed on a pump. Because with me working outside and taking the long acting, yeah, and taking the short acting, I swear that long acting messes with me throughout the day, if it gets too hot. I was like, something needs to change. And she was like, Well, I've never worked with a pump. I don't feel comfortable with a pump. Oh, okay. I was like, Okay. I was like, well, then the next step is I need to get somebody in my care team that's comfortable with a pump. I talked with my wife, and I told her, Hey, I'm really looking at a pump. I think that'll probably be the best thing for me with how everything is. She was like, Okay, how do you want to go about it? I was like, well, several years ago, I went to a dinner with my wife that had a speaker in our area talk about diabetes and ozempic, okay? And so I learned a lot from that, little meeting. Well, for Endo, she is huge on research when it comes to diabetes and everything, and she is very well known. And so I was like, well, then that's who I want my endo to be, and that's also the endo that my wife refers to, okay? And I was like, Well, I want the best. I don't want something mediocre. We had a consult put in because of how my schedule was and everything else, told it was going to be about a four or five month wait, and ended up being closer to six months. I went and saw her middle of August to prepare I you know, I asked my provider. I was like, hey, what I want done is, let's do labs. So when I walk in there, I have everything to give her, and there's no question about anything. I was like, so I want all my labs done that I do every three months. But I also want all my antibodies for type one

Scott Benner 38:36
done. Get that out of the way too. So yeah, just so I

Curtis 38:40
walk in a week before my appointment, you know, all my labs come back, and I look at my wife, and my wife has been saying, you know, there's something about you that's different. You're not type two and you're not type one. She was like, you're in between, because you have a lot of the traits of both of them. And that's why we went with the testing, and when we got the results back, before I went to the appointment, it showed that I had pretty much Lada. And my wife was like, I knew it. And I was like, well, you sounds like you're right. I'm not ever gonna say you're wrong, that's for sure. So I did my research, got it all figured out. And then I also put in a list of, hey, this is what how my progress has been. And because I knew, because I've had a fight with several providers to get anything done correctly, that needed to be done, yeah, so I was ready to go in there. I was going to listen to them, but I was ready to react if I need to, and say, Hey, here's the facts. This is what I want. This is how we're going to do it. I walked in and, you know, they were asking me some questions, and I had everything from them, from how much insulin I was taking at any given time, I told them, You know, I was doing the sliding scale, but I went and did the carb counting. I know my car. Ratio. I know my insulin resistance, I know it all. What do you want to know? And they looked at me and said, How do you know all this stuff? And I was like, Well, I researched a lot, and then I got tired of researching, and I was starting to look for podcasts. I said, I listened to five or six podcasts before I was like, You know what I'm done. None of them are helping. They were boring to me. And then I was like, then I of course, saw your podcast, and I was like, Huh, I guess I'll listen to his newest one, just see how it is. Okay. And during it you were talking about the Pro Series episode, 1000 1026 or something like that, yeah. And I was like, huh, now I'm really interested. So I listened to those, and that's what helped me with my carb ratio, insulin resistance and just getting my levels all figured out myself, I'm glad. And when I went into the Indo, I said, here's everything. And they're like, Well, what would you like to do today? And I was like, Well, honestly, I was coming in for help, and they were like, well, has anybody talked to you about a pump? Because she, she looked at my blood work, and she was like, Oh, you're Lada. And I was like, Oh, wow, I'm not even gonna have to fight for this. Yes, you just looked at I was like,

Scott Benner 41:13
Curtis is like, I'm so ready for this fight, and nobody gonna fight. But you know why there's no fight because you, because of all what you did, right? They were like, You're

Curtis 41:22
a very type A personality. And I'm like, No, I just want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row before I walk in, trying

Scott Benner 41:27
to stay alive. Thanks. Yeah. What do you think, Curtis, is it about you that makes that your reaction? Because I talk to people all the time, and they all have, you know, the same ability you do. And they could, they could make decisions like that and get out ahead and collect information. But some of them do, and some of them don't. You have any idea about why you're a person who does

Curtis 41:46
the big thing is, is, I'm tired of feeling sick. I just want to feel good again. I wanted to be better. You know, I've got my wife, I've got four kids, and I'm looking at this going, if I don't take care of myself, I'm gonna start being like my father, who's type two, that's not really good control, and you can see it. And I've tried helping him, but he's like, Oh, I'll listen to what the docs say. Okay. But I was like, I do. I'm not ready to leave this planet just yet because of my stupidity. Again, I got you and you know, instead of using a firearm. It's, it would be diabetes, taking care of myself. Yeah, so you'd be

Scott Benner 42:25
making the decision, yeah, it's so funny. You're talking about this Curtis. I made an episode earlier today with Erica. She's in a lot of the mental health stuff. I kind of drag her into an episode where I was like, Look, I want to talk about the trolley problem. And I think, and I don't know if you know that that's like a like a thought exercise, right? If there were five people as a runaway trolley, five people tied to the track, you have nothing to do with tying them there. And then there's a lever, and if you pull the lever, the trolley would divert onto another track, but there's a person tied up there, would you pull the lever divert the track so that the one person was killed instead of the five people. Pretty common, you know, thought exercise. It's, you know, people talk about all the time that bigger picture. You'll have to listen to the episode to hear kind of where my brain went with it. But it made me think about people's inaction and and how with health, you can see people make the decision that, like, I didn't do this to myself, there's a big bad wolf out there somewhere. They tied the people to this track, this health track that I'm on. It's got nothing to do with me. If I don't do anything and something goes wrong, it's not my fault. It's an unseen foe's fault. It's a bad guy somewhere that did something to me, but if I get involved in it, now suddenly the outcomes are on me. It's easier to do nothing and then get to blame a faceless thing later. And you're telling me that that's what your dad's

Curtis 43:48
doing, kind of but he's actually now starting to he's control of Look at him. Awesome. You getting through to him too. I am. And I actually have, I was telling my mom. I was like, hey, you need to get dad to get tested for type one. I was like, just because of how I've been watching his numbers, because they let me start looking at his numbers through his Dexcom. Yeah, I'm seeing how one, a pump will help him tremendously. So I'm not really trying to push it on him, but I'm saying, hey, a pump could really help to tell them, hey, try Pre-Bolus. Don't, don't do this sliding scale like you're told. Let's figure out your carb count. Let's figure out insulin resistant and everything else. And go from there. Yeah, I was like, once I did that, things turned

Scott Benner 44:35
around for me. Curtis, I gotta tell you, you've been talking for 50 minutes. You've said a lot of interesting things. But I just want to point out that what my ego heard was there are five other podcasts out there about diabetes that are boring. That's all I heard. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, but that's I pre I appreciate you being kind about mine.

Curtis 44:51
Oh, it's on. It's me being honest. And actually, once I went to the Endo, I will say that they were. On board with everything that I requested. And then they asked me about pumps. And I was like, yeah, it's easy. I want the tandem Moby. And they're like, but that's tubed. I was like, You got to understand, I work outside. It's hot. If it gets too hot, I can take that off, put it in my cooler to cool it down a little bit, and then put it back on.

Scott Benner 45:20
You. Like the idea of it being able to take it off? I would also imagine with the Moby being able to wear with one of those, what that on body kind of thing? Or you could clip it sleeve, yeah. So you have options there too.

Curtis 45:32
Actually, believe it or not, I wear boxer briefs and clip it. For some reason, they put pockets on them for some time on the boxer briefs, yeah, just a little, little, little pocket to put, like, your phone in it, or what, I just dropped the Moby in it, and that's where it sits. Curtis. You

Scott Benner 45:49
got to be careful. You lose a little more weight. Those briefs are going to slide right off you.

Curtis 45:53
I went from what a size 42 to a 34

Scott Benner 45:56
Isn't it crazy? I mean, you've lost 90. I've lost about 70. My brother and I were somewhere the other day, and he's getting, like, picking up like, a sweatshirt as a memory of the day somewhere. And I was in there with him, and you guys might know from listening to him, I'm very cheap, so I was walking around, and I'm like, Oh, these are expensive. Blah, blah, blah. And he's like, you can afford a sweatshirt. Oh, my God, I want to spend all the money on that. And then I saw a t shirt, and I was like, I do like that T shirt, though. And it was stylistically, not something that I would have bought prior to having lost weight, because there was an image on the front. I would never want somebody to be looking at the image, because then you could see the topography of my visage. You know what I mean? Like when you're wearing a solid color, it's a little harder to see your tits, I guess is what I'm saying here. I had no trouble buying the image with you on the shirt, and on top of that, I tried on a couple of different sizes, and I left with a medium, and I was a two XL. You know, what a great experience and be, you know, plus the way I feel, and, you know, how much better I feel and am and etc. Are you feeling like now that you've got your diabetes and check on top of your weight. Can you describe the change that's happened for you from 300 pounds not on insulin to on insulin to 20 or two

Curtis 47:11
Well, I will say having insulin is a little different. It was a big change to get used to, but I mean losing the weight and with me constantly exercising, I didn't have a lot of excess skin that some some people do, which is great, right? But because I've lost weight, I've got more energy, yeah, and I feel like I can do more, whereas there's some things that I couldn't do, because just walking, I get a little

Scott Benner 47:37
winded. You must have exhausted yourself. That work during the day, so I would imagine weren't worth anything. When you got home

Curtis 47:44
exactly, I was ready to go to bed. And then even right now, if my blood sugar goes anywhere over 135 I am worthless, like me and my wife can sit there, everything's fine. And once it hits over 135 I get, like, automatically sleepy. I'm ready to go to sleep,

Scott Benner 48:00
you've gotten your management to the point where sounds like your your blood sugars are lower your and your variability is very low too.

Curtis 48:08
So my last blood draw, my a 1c was a 5.2 or 5.1 and the standard deviation that I run with the Dexcom is anywhere from seven to

Scott Benner 48:23
12. Jesus, that's awesome. Do you think you're still honeymooning? Do you think the lot is still like, are you, I don't wanna say full blown, but like, are you still

Curtis 48:32
currently not converted all the way? I still have some of my beta cells. Okay, that's another thing. So I'm Lada, but if you look at my medical record, it doesn't say that. It says I'm type two insulin dependent. That's crazy, and the reason we had to keep that was we knew that if they were to switch mine to type one or Lata, you'd lose the Manjaro, I would lose manjuro, and they want me to stay on the mangero, because mongero is helping my insulin sensitivity, but it's also helping my heart, my kidneys and everything else. Yeah. So we're going to keep that going as long as we can, because there's studies going on right now about type ones with a GLP, oh yeah, and

Scott Benner 49:16
everything. Keep your head down, Curtis, and they'll be coverage for type ones sooner. Oh yeah, and

Curtis 49:20
so I'm just waiting for that, and then it'll get changed. The middle of August, I was seen by the Endo, and by the end of August, I had the Moby, and I started the Moby, and I went from taking anywhere from I had the 22 units of lannis, and then throughout the day, I was taken anywhere, including the lannis, anywhere from 40 to 80 units a day. Now I'm actually looking at my summary on tandem right now, and it says my average daily daily use of. Uh, insulin is

Scott Benner 50:01
23 units. 23 that's basal

Curtis 50:04
and Bolus together. That's basal and Bolus together.

Scott Benner 50:07
If you have insulin resistance, kids that GOP will help you. Well, I don't care what type you are, that's really awesome. Good for you. That's great. Yeah, you're making me feel through it's the end of the week. You're my last recording this week, and I'm sitting here feeling like, I feel like something I did help somebody, you know what? I mean, like, so I'm having a making me feel good. I appreciate that you share this with us.

Curtis 50:29
You definitely have helped. I mean, you know, after, after that indo appointment, I was like, You know what? I'm about to get put on a pump. I'm gonna listen to the Pro Series again. Started on the Pro Series, and I just started listening every episode after that, and I'm at episode, what was it? Almost 1300 Wow. It's like 1298 because with my job, since I don't really have a lot of interaction with a lot of people, I just listen to the podcast every day, all day long, and it's fun to listen to, because you hear everybody's different stories, and then someone will say something. It's like, Huh? I didn't think about that. Yeah. Well, let's look into

Scott Benner 51:11
that. That's the value, I think, of people, besides the entertainment of it is, is that if you just let people talk, they'll say something that's really valuable. You said something. I mean, it's half an hour ago now that I still feel like in my chest, like I still feel it like, you know, you talked about your attempting suicide. And, I mean, just like the dumb luck of that, of that firing pin, not, not doing its job, right, and, and, and what you took from it, like everything that came to you after that. It's really, I just think, really valuable, because you probably would have had that thought as that bullet was traveling through the chamber, and it would have been too late, yeah, you know what I mean, like that thought that hit you of like, I shouldn't be doing this, and you got, you know, whatever steps in and gives you an opportunity to make another decision, and then you took it, and then everything of your story after that is really just a masterful example of being an adult and taking care of yourself. You're really kicking ass,

Curtis 52:14
man, I appreciate it. I can't take all the credit, though. Now

Scott Benner 52:18
you got a wife, I'm sure she tells you when you're being dumb. That's probably helpful.

Curtis 52:21
And I do tell everybody at the time I married an Irish Red Headed ER nurse Okay, where she could kill me, bring me back to life and kill me again, just because I ticked her off. Well, she is now advanced, and now she's a nurse practitioner, so now she's got a slew of other things she

Scott Benner 52:42
can do to me. So yeah, and she make four babies for you. Well, we're actually a blended family, okay, okay,

Curtis 52:48
I have one son, and she has two sons and a daughter. I'll tell you straight up, they're all my kids. Yeah, I don't care what anybody says. Anytime anybody asked me if I How many kids I got, I always tell them for Yeah, look at you, because I've been with them since they were young. Yeah, our daughter, she's she's now a nurse. Our oldest son, he is an engineer. Our middle son, he is actually today, taking the test to become a to get into the police academy. So we're hoping he does well there. Good luck. Our youngest is finishing up high school. Wow.

Scott Benner 53:24
Man, look at you guys. That's awesome. You're a lovely person, too. Curtis, this is my first time really meeting. I've seen you online a little bit, but not to this level, obviously. Yes, sir, yeah, man, this is really wonderful view. What made you want to share this with everybody? Everybody's

Curtis 53:37
got a story, and you know you guys, right? My story might impact somebody to say, hey, you know, I've been there, and if I can pull through it, you can, yeah. I could tell you I still have my dark days. I always will. I

Scott Benner 53:54
wanted to ask you about depression. Is that something you still fight with

Curtis 53:58
every day? Yeah. But I can honestly tell you, I'll never, I'll never attempt on my life again, because now one I realized how stupid I was backed in and that was before I met my wife. Now I've got all my family, include my parents and brother. I've got four kids that look at me and if I was willing to do that and hurt myself again? How would that help them? And so everything I do is I do it for my family. I don't play that game anymore.

Scott Benner 54:28
Yeah, there's worse reasons to do things. That's for sure. That's a that's a that's a pretty good one. I really do appreciate you telling me this. I want to make sure. Is there anything? Like, I don't want to I'm not cutting you off, but like, if I just feel like you did such a good job of telling your story that if I keep talking, it's just gonna, it's gonna ruin what you did. But I want to make sure there's nothing that we missed.

Curtis 54:48
The biggest thing is is, you know, if somebody on the edge of, Do I need a pump? Do I not need a pump? Should I be on insulin? Do your research. I mean, honestly, do a little bit of research goes a long. Way, and with me doing the research and me presenting everything that I needed to at the doctor. But you know, I had it all in a binder, everything from my meds, my history, to everything about my diabetes to my lab work, and they just flipped through it and said, Wow, you are really organized. They didn't

Scott Benner 55:20
have a problem. Yeah, you did their job for them, really, right? I will

Curtis 55:24
say my indo did tell me they're like, Well, you know, you have a five two, which is really good. Just realize that these pumps, you might not keep it that low, because, you know, their target range is higher than what I've always kept my stuff at. I was like, I understand that, but it'll help keep me feeling better. Yeah, I mean, and instead of having to have two different insulins, I have one insulin. And, you know, I run the control IQ algorithm, I let it do its thing, and it keeps me in check really well. And the reason I went with tandem instead of the Omnipod one, if I was to pull the Omnipod off to cool it down, well, I just, you can't put it back on. I don't get it exactly. And with the Omnipod it, they tend to be less aggressive with their algorithm than the control

Scott Benner 56:19
IQ. Do you know Curtis that right now. I think Omnipod is in a they're doing a study right now. I think they're calling it just it's Omnipod. I don't know if it's five, 2.0 or something like that, but they're doing a study right now to make the algorithm. I'm going to use the word more aggressive. I don't know how they would characterize it, but one way or the other, that's not important. What's important is you find something that works for you and that's for everybody listening. Now, beyond that, what's important is finding something that works for you. But then, of course, once you find it, using my link to buy it, twist.com/juicebox omnipod.com/juicebox. Tandem diabetes.com. So Medtronic diabetes, you would just find the links at the web page. So we can keep making this podcast and hearing from people like Curtis, who has a fascinating you really have, somehow don't remember the first 22 years of your life, only the last 20, and still have four lives worth of stories to tell. Seriously. Oh yeah, no, man, that's that's incredible. Like, I mean, you talked about you're one person. You talked about being injured in battle and nearly dying. Did you get the Purple Heart? Yes. Did they give you a medal for covering your body? They requested it. I did. I didn't want it. You didn't want it. Okay? No, well, you deserve he was a brother. No, I hear you, man, but like you weren't wearing that vest anymore when you got on top of him, right? Nope, yeah. Okay, so that in itself is a story. Then there's everything that happened you with your memory loss and your recovery, that's a story in itself, fighting through this type two diabetes misdiagnosis thing. I mean, I don't know how many times I'm going to talk to somebody about it, but it's horrifying, and most people don't have the great outcome that you had. So like, I know how difficult that is. The subplot here of the story with your your sister judging you the way she does, and you've lost family, tried to take your own life. You're fighting with depression, and you're still living a really successful life out in the world, being a great part of it, being a dad to four people, a husband to somebody, and finding a way to take care of yourself, and then taking five minutes to come on here and tell everybody else about it. Yeah, seriously, man, if I had a medal, I'd give it to you. I do not. You're welcome. I don't have one. Just in case you're wondering, I could give you this Dexcom fidget spinner that I have here. I don't know where to send it. I got this at friends for life, guys, if you've been hearing this on the podcast, I apologize. Can you hear it?

Curtis 58:36
I hope not. Oh yeah, you can't hear this. Just heard something spin.

Speaker 1 58:39
I've been fidget spinning for like, weeks now, while I'm talking to people, and originally, probably right now, Rob's editing this and thinking like, is that what that noise is? I didn't know what that was. Usually it's a cricket gets loose in my room and I can't find it, and I'm trying to record and it's in the background, like making a bunch of noise. But that's a different story. If you don't listen to enough of the podcast, that's not going to make any sense

Curtis 59:00
to you. Just let one of your little guys run around. You know

Scott Benner 59:02
what? That's not though I'm getting right now. One of them is definitely looking at me like, let's do one more. One more Roach today. He's giving me the big eyes. So,

Curtis 59:10
so the cool thing is, just to add on to the story, because with my lows, I can't tell you when I get low until I hit about 30. Oh, once I hit 30, I got less than five minutes to do something about it, or I'm down.

Scott Benner 59:27
Yeah, we don't want you that low. How does that happen? I mean, you're on a seat, you're in a CGM, right?

Curtis 59:31
Sometimes it happens pretty quick, fast. It's just really weird. So because of it, that's one thing that my wife was very worried about, you know, us sleeping, and next thing we know it, she's not hearing the alarms. And I am very hypo to where, if you look at service dogs, and people have said stuff about it on the Facebook post, they're like, $30,000 yeah.

Scott Benner 59:54
I mean, I don't know who's supporting that. I actually, apparently got, got somebody one for free in a giveaway. I. Forgotten about it. I interviewed, I interviewed him, and she, she the kid, her kid, her kid, her son, won a trip to camp Sweeney through the podcast, and she's thanking me for it, and then she's like, also, I'm the one that won the service dog in your giveaway. And I was like, wait, what also? Well, listen, first of all, let's be clear. Do you have backsemi or G vogue at the house? So you have glucagon with you? I have g vote because of your podcast. Good, good, good. Let them hear that people know activity. A lot of times you'll see like, latent lows overnight when you have activity, but you have activity every day with your job. Yeah.

Curtis 1:00:33
So we actually end because I used to have a service dog in the past. Unfortunately, she died of cancer.

Scott Benner 1:00:40
Oh, my God, I'm sorry. Was that more for, like, just emotional support

Curtis 1:00:44
kind of Yeah, she actually was deployed several times over in the sandbox as well. She was actually a military working dog. She retired and got to come home and live with me. She was converted into a service dog to help me through the PTSD and all that Shepherd Curtis, she was a Belgian Malinois. Oh, wow, beautiful dog. Okay. Oh, she was, yeah. And I told my wife, you know, if we're gonna do this, we'll train the dog ourselves. One and two, I was like, I don't want a big dog again. I was like, I need something small, because I ride a Harley all the time, and so much so that I gave her something impossible to find, and leave it to a woman. She found it. So now I have a I'm not kidding you. She's less than two pounds, a little chihuahua.

Scott Benner 1:01:38
Are you telling me that it's you on a Harley with a chihuahua in a saddle bag.

Curtis 1:01:44
Yep, she's been trained for my lows. We still train daily by using saliva from when I was low and everything. But she she is jumped on that bandwagon, and that little dog can detect a low,

Scott Benner 1:02:01
really quick. Kidding, you trained your own service Chihuahua. Uh huh,

Curtis 1:02:05
yeah. So just think about a big, big guy jumping off a Harley with a chihuahua on his

Scott Benner 1:02:11
chest, honestly, Curtis, all I can think about is when I sit down three months from now and explain to chat GPT to make me an image of a of a burly guy on a Harley Davidson going through Texas with a chihuahua in a saddlebag to see what it comes up with. Oh,

Curtis 1:02:28
you're gonna have to send it to me, because in 20 or next year or 2028 I'm actually going to be doing a 10,000 mile motorcycle challenge. Good for you, and I've got to raise money for a charity, but I also have to get sponsors for it, because it's going to cost about $17,000 to do to go on the ride. And it's a ride where you can't use GPS. It's all secondary highways. It's not really any interstates. The directions that you're given are old maps go, but not maps go. Map Quest directions you have a tracker. If you go over 99 miles an hour, you get disqualified. If you get pulled over by a cop, you get disqualified. And whenever you stop to sleep, you have to sleep next to your motorcycle.

Scott Benner 1:03:20
Oh, you can only sleep where you can put the bike.

Curtis 1:03:23
No, last year they went from Daytona, Florida down to Key West, Key West to Homer, Alaska. A buddy of mine did it, and he actually finished first. It was awesome to watch him. Yeah, and I've decided that what I am going to do, because in my local area, there is actually a diabetic alert dog trainer. I'm talking with him, and what I'm going to try doing is getting enough raising enough money to where I can actually pay for two diabetic alert dogs to be given to diabetics in need, and I'm hoping that I can give at least one

Scott Benner 1:04:04
to a better Oh, I hope you can do that too. That'd be amazing, really. So yeah, Curtis, I had the opportunity last year to give a number of slots away to kids to go to camp, actually, a diabetes camp in Texas called Camp Sweeney, right? I can't tell you how, how good that ended up feeling. It wasn't even money out of my pocket. I was just doing it like from the podcast, you know what I mean? Like I was kind of the front face of it, and I felt terrific about it. I really did so much. So they reached out to me just recently, in September of 2025 they reached back out and they said, Hey, would you give some more away for next season? I said, Absolutely, that'd be great. And I've already reached out to a sponsor and asked them if they could cover the part that the camp Sweeney can't cover. And I'm hoping to give four away again next year, just because you'll see how good it'll make you feel if you're able to give someone that dog is what I'm saying. Oh yeah, definitely it'll be special for you. I wish you a ton of a ton of luck. I hope you can accomplish that. I. I know it's hard to get people to sponsor things and, you know, like that kind of stuff too, because they're going to be looking for, you know, what are they going to get out

Curtis 1:05:06
of it? Well, I'm even going to try getting tandem involved, Omnipod, anybody that I can, just to get awareness out. Yeah, the cool thing is, is my goal to do, it is to be one of the top, elite finishers. So if you finish in 10 to 14 days, you're an elite finisher. 14 to 21 days, you're a finisher. In anything over 21 days, you're a slow ass finisher. Well, I want to be the first one across

Scott Benner 1:05:35
Curtis coming in. Is this a company that tracks the riders? Or is there a

Curtis 1:05:38
website? There is a website. I'm not sure if they want me to let people know, but it's a very, very popular challenge for motorcycles.

Scott Benner 1:05:49
Can you just tell me what the challenge is called? Don't, don't worry about the website.

Curtis 1:05:53
Well, I guess, I mean, I don't think they'll kill me for it, but it's called the Hoka Hey, motorcycle challenge. Okay, and it's really cool how it's done, and it's a big challenge for a person to do, because to get done in 10 days, that means I'll be having to do 1000 miles a day.

Scott Benner 1:06:11
Yeah, it's, that's something else. 1000 miles of riding is dude, I've driven 700 miles in a day in a car, and it'll almost, it almost puts me out. You know what I mean. So being up upright on a bike, how would you have you thought already about how to manage your type one during that

Curtis 1:06:30
well, because of the insulin needs, and also I get back injections done because of my

Scott Benner 1:06:36
injury in the back. Yeah,

Curtis 1:06:38
I can't carry it all with me without it going bad. So I've already reached out to them about, you know, my wife meeting me at all the checkpoints to where I can swap out and get the equipment and everything that I need to take care of my diabetes for that stretch.

Scott Benner 1:06:57
Yeah. So you're just gonna have enough on you that if something emergent happens. You can deal with it, but that kind of big supplies are going to be from checkpoint to checkpoint, right? And

Curtis 1:07:07
that's the only place I can meet her, is at a checkpoint, which is fine with me. Pepper, my little chihuahua, she's actually going to take the ride with me, so she's got a little carrier that'll be right behind me in my seat.

Scott Benner 1:07:18
Yeah, well, it's awesome, man, I'm looking, I'm looking at the challenge online now it's great. I really hope you something you can get accomplished. All right. Well, listen, let me, let me say thank you and goodbye. This was absolutely awesome. Really want to just one more time tell you about I'm proud of you, like this is quite an accomplishment, that you're a person who really did a lot with their life in the face of a lot of challenges, and it's very commendable. So congratulations. I appreciate it absolutely. Thank you absolutely. Hold on one second for me.

Okay, us, med sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Check them out at us. Med.com/juicebox, or by calling 888-721-1514, get your free benefits check and get started today with us. Med,

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