#1951 Addy Taylor Has Nothing to Teach You - Part 1
Addy Tayler Has Nothing to Teach You (Part 1)
Addy Tayler posts about diabetes to 85,000 followers around a full-time job and a toddler, and spent years ducking Scott's invitations because podcasts scare her. Part one: diagnosis at 24, a baby a year later, and vitiligo.
Jump to a moment
- She said no for years. Addy posts about diabetes and reads all her messages — she just found podcasts intimidating and, in her words, mostly annoying. Her stated reason for declining was that she had nothing to teach anybody. Scott's answer is the thesis of the whole show: guests aren't there to teach, they're there to tell what happened, and people take what they need from it.
- How the Pro Tip series was actually built. Prompted by her assumption that it was formally designed, Scott explains the real version — 200 episodes in, people online were telling each other to just listen and their A1c would come down, so he sat down and worked out what the structure inside it had been. He wrote ten touchstone topics, sent Jenny Smith one-line prompts, and she told him they weren't in order. She put them in order.
- Diagnosed at 24, pregnant about a year later. Addy is 27 and will hit four years with type 1 in November. She got pregnant deliberately just over a year after diagnosis, having found a statistic online about the odds of passing it on that changed at age 25 — she has no idea whether it's true, but she waited anyway. Her son is nearly two.
- Vitiligo came along with it. Scott had noticed it before they ever spoke and didn't raise it; she brings it up herself. It's a common autoimmune traveling companion to type 1, and it's part of what she is visibly living with in public every time she posts.
- She learned diabetes as an adult, on her own. Diagnosed as a working adult rather than as a child with a family built around it, she describes assembling her understanding from the internet and the podcast's educational series — which is also why she assumed she had nothing to contribute. Nothing here is medical advice.
- Addy Tayler on TikTok — @addytayler — Where Addy posts about life with type 1 — 85,000+ followers.
- Addy on Instagram — @addytayler_t1d — Her type 1 account on Instagram. Note the _t1d — her plain handle there is a separate personal account.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — Episodes 1000-1025 — the series Addy names as what she actually listened to.
- Bold Beginnings series — Scott and Jenny Smith for the newly diagnosed.
- Juicebox Podcast Facebook group — The private community, free to join.
Every word of the conversation
Cold open & sponsors0:08
Hello, friends, and welcome back to the juice box podcast. If you don't love today's episode, you can have your money back. You should not, in any way, shape, or form, take anything you hear on the juice box podcast. As medical advice, I'm talking about medical advice, regular advice, any kind of advice. This is a podcast.
Nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. I cannot stress that enough. Today, we've got a great podcast, and it's sponsored by great advertisers, US Med, the Eversense three sixty five, and Twist. You know about Twist?
It's an insulin pump. I'll tell you all about in a second. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by the Eversense three sixty five, the only one year wear CGM. That is one insertion and one CGM a year.
One CGM, one year, not every ten or fourteen days. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by the Twist AID system powered by Tidepool that features the Twist loop algorithm, which you can target to a glucose level as low as 87. Wanna learn more? Go to visit .twist.com/juicebox.
That's visit.twist.com/juicebox, and twist has two i's. Understand? Twiist.com. Visit .twist.com/juicebox. Hey.
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Use the link or the number. Get your free benefits check today and get started with US Med. What's up, everybody? I am here with Addie Taylor. Addie, say hello.
Years of unanswered messages2:22
Hello.
How did I get you to do this? This is insane. I have been messaging you for years, have I not?
You have.
And do you even answer my messages?
No. No. I see them.
Tell me. So that hurts my feelings. I feel I feel like people don't like me when this happens. But tell me why have you not returned my messages, my overtures?
I feel like something that I actually do pride myself on with social media is I do read, and I attempt to respond to all of my messages. Sometimes it's, you know, a little bit late, maybe years late in your case.
“Podcasts just scare me”3:01
But no. But you but tell me what you told me when we met in person about being on a podcast.
They just scare me. I have never I have never been into podcasts. My husband is, like, a podcast guru. He has them playing in the background constantly. And for the most part, I think they're annoying.
I'm like, I don't want to listen to someone's banter. I don't care. But that's one of, like, the things where it's I just I don't listen to them, and I'm sure if I did, I would be like, this is fantastic. And
But did you
I just never gave it a chance.
And what but did you think did you think, oh, that's a thing I don't like, so why would I wanna be a part of it, or did you think I won't be good on it because I don't listen to them? Wait. Did you have nerves about it?
I I felt like more so I listened of your podcast. I mostly listened to the ones that are very educational. Mhmm. And they teach you a lot, and I I learned so much from I can't remember what it's called. Some series that you have.
Pro tips? Bold beginnings?
I think it's the pro tips
one. Okay.
I have a screenshot of it. I could find it. But and I just I felt like there's nothing that I can there's no information that I can give, and there would be no reason for me to be on there because I have nothing to teach anybody.
I see. This is a common misconception of people who come on the podcast. So, yes, the podcast has series that are structured and structured of of really a two if you knew how that pro tip series was made, you would laugh. So I started making the podcast in 2015, and it got to the point where people would just say, like, not me, but people online would say, if you just listen to that podcast, your a one c comes down into the sixes. They wouldn't point to anything specific other than you should just listen.
How the Pro Tip series actually got made4:44
And then one day, I got up to, like, 200 episodes, and I thought, like, it's weird to say to people, just listen to these 200 episodes and your a one c will come down apparently. And so I started thinking about it because my brain doesn't work the way probably yours does or others people's do. Like, I didn't actually know there was a structure inside of it. And so I stopped and I real I sat down one day and I really focused, and I was like, there's a structure in here. I know there's things I do.
When you do those things, the outcomes go the way I expect. And I wrote out a list of these 10 kind of, like, touchstone things that I thought were bedrock. And then I reached to and then I thought about how to record it, and I thought, oh, if I just talking headed, it'll be super boring and nobody will wanna watch that or listen. So I had had Jenny Smith on the podcast once before as a guest, and I really I dug her. I like the way she talked about diabetes.
So I reached out to her and I said, will you help me make this 10 part series? And I and I sent her the topic just I I I know you think that I sent her, like, some long written out. I just sent her one line topics for each of the things. And she's like, these are not in order. And I said, you think there's an order to this?
And she goes, you don't think there's an order to this? And I was like, I don't know. You you know? Like so she's like, can I put them in order? And I was like, sure.
So we put them in order, and then she would pop I don't pay her. Like, she just did it as a favor. She'd pop on. We'd say hello like you and I did, and I'd say, okay, Jenny. Why don't we talk about MDI today?
Why don't we talk about CGMs today? And then we'd just started talking. It was not structured at all. When we got to the end, she was like, we left out some stuff. We should add a couple more things.
So she made a couple suggestions. And then as time went on, people would come and say, hey. I love this series, but you know what it didn't have? It didn't have this. And now I think it has, like, 25 or 27 episodes to it.
But, anyway, that's how that was built, and it's how a lot of people think of the podcast. But the problem is that I think you know about better than anybody is that if I just put that pro tip series in a feed somewhere, it'll it'll it'll wither and it'll die. Like, I have to keep I mean, this is your life. Right? Like, I have to keep the the irons hot to keep people attracted to it so they know it's here.
And I don't just want it to be foofy, so I try to talk to people who don't get a chance to talk about their diabetes ever. But the last thing I'll say about that is at the end of most of those episodes, when I shut the mic off, people go, if you wanna delete that, that's fine. And I go, what do you mean? And they go, I I didn't say anything. And I was like, does the podcast help you?
Like, do you like the other episodes you hear? And they say, yeah. And I'm like, everyone feels the same way when it's over. They all say I didn't add anything. This is useless.
It's okay if you get rid of it. So I understand how you feel. But trust me, you're gonna say some really awesome stuff today, and people are gonna really get something out of it. I promise.
That's nice because that's exactly how I feel. This morning, I was watching a few of the ones you have posted on your Instagram just to see what ones outside of the pro tip series look like, and it was fun. I watched the one with Arnie, and I know him. I ran the marathon with him, but, like, I didn't know his history. I didn't know his story.
And, like, the fact that he didn't get a CGM till 2018, I'm like, this guy's crazy.
See? This is what's gonna happen for you. Alright. Look. And and by the way, you've already done more prep for the podcast today than I've done for it in twelve years.
So so you're way ahead of us.
I do my homework.
Diagnosed at twenty-four8:10
How old were you when you were diagnosed?
I was freshly 24. It was, like, three weeks after my 20 birthday. How old are you now? I'm 27.
Okay. I was gonna say because you still look like you're 18. So
Oh, thanks. Yeah.
It's hard it's hard. You're one of those people, like, I can't discern your age. But I know you had a baby, so I'm like, she could be 30. She could be 18. She could be I don't know how old she is.
So okay. So you you've only had diabetes for, like, three years?
Correct. Okay. It'll be four in November.
How old's your baby?
He'll be two in October.
A baby, a year after diagnosis8:41
Oh, you got pregnant on purpose after you had type one?
I did. It was, like, almost just over a year after diagnosis.
So you did the whole, like, ain't nothing gonna break in my stride thing? I was gonna have a baby. I'm doing it. Is that it?
Pretty much. I mean, when I was first diagnosed, I had looked up what are the odds of giving it to my child, and there's this super random statistic online, no idea if it's true, and it says your your odds are, like, one in twenty five if you're the mom who has it. But if you're over 25 years old, your odds are one in one hundred. Okay. Which not sure how that works.
So I was like, okay. Well, we can't have a baby at least until I'm 25.
We'll just wait till I'm 25 to up our odds.
Yeah. Exactly. I'm like random
thing I saw online is true.
Right? Who knows if it's true? But I was I was gonna go for it.
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Go to eversensecgm.com/juicebox to learn more. So you were planning on having a family prior to the to your diagnosis? Okay. Mhmm. Anybody else in your extended family have any autoimmune issues?
Planning a family around a statistic11:58
I'm talking about, like, celiac or hypothyroidism, vitiligo, anything at all.
So no type one, but my mom has vitiligo, and I do as well. I've actually had it since I was five. So it came, you know, twenty years before type one.
And do you have any other autoimmunes besides the vitiligo and the type one?
Nope. No. Just those two.
And it's funny to prove to you how unprepared I am and how flighty my brain is. I met you in person just a couple weeks ago at Friends for Life. And while you didn't tell me and I didn't say it to you, I did look up and think, oh, Addy has vitiligo. Like, I I noticed. Right?
The vitiligo nobody mentioned12:37
And I and I did I did clock it on the day, but I was not able to hold on to that information for ten days to talk to you now. So I apologize.
It happens.
No. But but isn't that interesting now? Does your husband have any autoimmune on his side of the family?
Nope. Okay. Nothing.
Alright. And you're you planning on having more little babies?
Yes. We actually had to start fertility treatment this week, which is annoying, but something something we're doing.
Oh, okay. Did you need to do that the first time as well? No. No. Endometriosis, PCOS, anything like that?
Nothing. Everything looks totally normal. And then, you know, doing a lot of research online, asking the this nice community that I have, and there's something some other autoimmune condition where, like, your egg reserve is depleted. And so I was like, that's that's what happened to me probably. I'm just convincing myself.
I have all these other autoimmune problems. That's gotta be what it is. And, thankfully, blood work confirmed that's not the problem. There's there's no problem, so we don't really know what's going on.
So what do you do to motivate things to work out? I don't understand how this works.
Right now, I'm just on, like, a fertility drug, so it's just a pill for five days is
all. Okay. Well, good luck. And Yeah. Thank you.
Tell your husband I said, have fun. It sounds like it sounds like there's gonna be a whole stretch of time in there where That's right. It's a big party. So tell him not to do it too fast, you know, because it'll it'll ruin it, for him. You'll be like, oh, it worked, and he'll be like, ugh.
Thought we were doing this for a whole week. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me how you were diagnosed. What did you notice first, and how did it end up, progressing to the the point when you made it to a a physician?
So I got diagnosed November 19. So backtrack to September, like, early, early September. We were living in Arizona, and we drove up to Idaho. It's about a fourteen hour drive for my brother in law's wedding, my husband's brother. And I remember on our drive home, I was like, I am so thirsty.
And when we're in Idaho, my mother-in-law is a great cook. She makes lots of desserts and stuff, and so I just I ate really bad. It was a party. It was a wedding. You know?
So I look it up, and it's like, you might have high blood sugar. And I was like, well, I've just been eating really bad. Like, that that makes sense. It'll go away. And then couple weeks later, I vividly remember my sister and I were walking into the mall, and I was like, I think I have diabetes.
And us being ignorant, having absolutely no diabetes in our life, She's like, what? No. Like, you know, diabetes is for, like, old people. And I'm like, yeah. You're right.
Totally blew it off. Fast forward to the second week of November, we drive back up to Idaho for Thanksgiving because it's the year with man laws. And I remember making it two hours without having to stop, and I was, like, proud of myself, and I made it two hours.
And
then I, like, really thought that, you know, that's not super normal for an adult to only be able to go two hours without going pee. So we finally got to my in laws house. It's been, like, fourteen hours that we've been driving, and I'm like, we need to go buy a glucometer, glucometer, however you say it. And my husband's like, I'm not getting back in the car. Like, we just got we just got out of the car after fourteen hours.
Like, I'm not getting in the car. And I was like, we're going right now. Like, get in the car, which I can drive. I don't know why I didn't just go by myself, but I made him go with me. So we go to our local Walgreens in this little town in Idaho, and I buy one.
And I remember the worker said, good luck with this, as I paid and left. And I'm like, what does that even mean? And I'm like, what horrible foreshadowing that was looking back on it. And so we get back to the house, and we pricked my finger, and it said 486. And my mother-in-law is a nurse, and she she was just like, oh oh my gosh.
Like, that is bad. That is, like, horrible. And I was like, it's gotta be wrong. So we we checked everybody's. We checked my mother in law's, father in law's, my husband.
Everybody's in, like, the seventies. They, like their whole family just is, like, perfect health riding solo. And I was like, let's check it again. And it's at, you know, same thing, high four hundreds. And she was like, well, I think you should probably go to the ER right now.
And I grew up like, we didn't go to the doctor. It was, like, hit or miss if we even had health insurance or not.
Okay.
Like, the doctor was not something we did. And so I was like, no. I'm not doing that. Like, I'm not gonna go I'm not gonna pay for that, you know, being the cheapskate that
I am. I'm not giving those people my money for them to tell me I'm okay.
Right. Exactly. I was like, no. So that was on a Saturday. Come Monday, I had an appointment at we had made an appointment at this, like, just family doctor office.
And so I saw this PA, and she, ran my blood work. And I don't remember what my c peptide was, but it was it was not in the normal range. Like, it was low. My a one c was, like, almost 14. I can't remember exactly what it was.
And they're like, yeah. Like, you gotta be, like, type two. Here's some Mounjaro. Take it once a week. You should be good.
And I was like, wow. Okay. I don't know anything about diabetes. I've never given myself a shot, but, like, whatever. Yeah.
And I'm like, honestly, like, thinking back, this is terrible, but I'm like, I just felt so embarrassed. Like, I didn't wanna tell anybody. I'm like, I just ruined my body because in my head, type two is always caused by your diet and your lack of exercise, which now I know that's not that's not the case. Yeah. But, you know, that was the extent of my knowledge of diabetes.
And I was like, well, that's super weird. Like, I run every single day. I'm, you know, I'm 24 years old. I'm a hundred and twenty pounds. Like, this this isn't adding up.
But
Well, so even though even though you took good care of yourself and Mhmm. Were active, you still Mhmm. You just assumed, I guess, I'm not doing a good enough job if this happened to me. Is that the feeling?
Yeah. I mean, I didn't even know type one diabetes was a thing.
But when you thought when you thought it was type two, though, you just thought, like, I guess I didn't do enough running or because do know what I mean? Like, you you don't fit
the Yeah.
The bill even though the bill wasn't yours, and but it was the one you were imagining.
That's interesting, isn't it? I mean, I I drink soda. I've drank soda my whole life, and I was like, it's the soda. I gave myself diabetes from drinking soda, which I had recently converted to somewhat diet soda. Mhmm.
You know, that's just what you do is you become an adult because why would you waste calories on
soda? Soda And you were like
even if you don't have diabetes.
You're like, I shifted away from Fanta too late. I knew No.
Literally. Literally. I'm like, it's all about Doctor Pepper. It gave me diabetes. That was my thought.
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Learning it as an adult20:26
If you'd like to learn more, go to visit.twist.com/juicebox. That's visit.twist.com/juicebox. Don't forget, Twist has two i's. So how long does it take for them to realize you're not type one? I mean, do you have to get home and go see another doctor?
And, also, Mounjaro, you you at a hundred and twenty pounds, like, that must have been a weird impact on you as well.
Yeah. I mean, so they started me on, like, the very lowest dose, but I took it. And it's Thanksgiving week, you know, but I'm I'm not eating anything because anytime I eat, my blood sugar goes from the constant 300 that it's sitting at up to, you know, 500 plus. I don't know what it was getting to because the meters only read up to 500.
Right.
And so I went, like, an entire week and did not eat a single thing. I had on Thanksgiving, I had, like, one bite of turkey, only turkey. And my brother also got married in Idaho that week. So it was, like, I went to this wedding. I didn't get to, like, eat anything.
I didn't have anything on Thanksgiving. It was just, like, a rough week of I was withering away, having not eating for a week, and, you know, everybody's so skinny when they're first diagnosed because their body's been dying. So then we go the following Saturday. We're only up there for a week. We drive back to Arizona, and, my mother-in-law had told me, she's like, I have a friend who's a diabetes educator.
She thinks this isn't right. Like, she thinks you should go see an endocrinologist. So then I saw an endocrinologist who did the actual testing, tested antibodies off the charts. Mhmm. And then that's when I actually got type one diagnosis.
In that week, would you consider yourself more confused or sad?
I think I was really just, like, more embarrassed Embarrassed. Than anything
Okay.
Which is horrible. And, also, I'm an accountant, so numbers are something that's very important to me. And I remember I just felt horrible for my husband that he was gonna have to, like, bear this financial burden of me. Oh, hell. Because I'm like, diabetes is expensive.
I'm like and my insurance didn't cover the Mounjaro. And I didn't know that that's how insurance works where they cover some medications and some don't. And so I was like, I'm gonna have to pay $500 a month for this Mounjaro for the rest of my life. Mhmm.
How long had you been married at that point?
We got married in 2018, and that was 2023. So we've been married for, like, five years.
Alright. So at 24, you've been married for five years. You've mentioned Arizona and the mill military?
No. LDS or Mormon.
Ah, I got it. Okay. It was one of the other. I was I'm I'm just like, I'm gonna figure it out. It's one of the other.
Yep. Do you this might delight you. I'm huge in the Mormon community. Do you not know this?
I do not know about it.
Oh my god. I am the Mormon community's favorite diabetes podcast. They haven't sent me a T shirt yet, but I expect it any day now. I I don't know why that is. It's just over the years, I've always, like I've actually asked, a number of people, trust me more than you can imagine, and they just talk about, like, community and how they're very they share inside of their community.
That's probably how it moved around But there was, like, a long stretch where, like, every week, somebody would come on there, like and I'd be like, are you are you, like, in the church? They're like, yeah. I'm like, how come so many of you keep coming on the podcast? And they're like,
I'm Maybe this is your sign. This is your sign. You need to go check it out. Oh, really good book.
I'm too late to make, 15 kids. So I I can't I I I can't I could barely the ones I have are trying to kill me. The the one with diabetes text me this morning at 05:30. My pod expired. And I'm like, okay.
I'm sleeping. So I'm like, I'll get it for you. So I went because she's gotta get to work early this morning. And I went and got her a pod. I brought it in and and whatnot.
Like, you know, she put it on and bolus because it had shut off, like, an hour before blood sugar was starting to go up. And bolus gets all set. I get back in bed. Can't go back to sleep. So I've been up since, like, 05:20.
You know? And and so if there were eight more of them I'm just saying, I don't think I could make it. I've I'm I don't know what you're gonna do. Good luck. But
Hopefully, none of them have diabetes. That's that's my hope.
I crossed my fingers for you for sure there. Okay. So the, your the the your mother in law's friend knows somebody who says, blah blah blah, you find out you have type one. Does that shift the embarrassment off of you?
Well, I didn't know anything about type one. You know? I'd I've never known anybody who had it, which now that I know what it is, I do know quite a few people who had it. There's just, like, so many girls from high school that I went to high school with that have it, and I had no idea. And now I feel horrible not knowing Yeah.
That. You know? Because it's a big deal.
You have guilt that other people are going through something you weren't aware of?
Yes. Yes. And I think about that now all the time, like, how many things like, how many other conditions or diseases are out there that I know nothing about?
Yeah.
And it just makes me feel so guilty.
You're not the first person that said that. I hope that's thing a that you can get away from because that's not a thing that you need to be carrying. So pumps, CGMs, this is a thing you jump right into. Do you do MDI? I just got yelled at online recently for, I'm a pump pusher.
Apparently, if I ask somebody who's MDI if they're MDI, and I ask them later, do you ever consider getting a pump? I guess I'm pushing a pump on them.
Oh, heaven forbid.
Yes. I'm sorry. I I'm sorry for asking the follow-up question to your MDI.
Right.
But but how did you start out?
Yeah. So I saw the endo. This is, like, a week after I got my type two diagnosis. And, he prescribes me short acting insulin and long acting insulin and a CGM. And so I was like, okay.
Well, I'm not gonna take the insulin until I have a CGM on. You know, that's crazy. This doctor that I saw so at the time, I lived in Surprise, Arizona, which neighbors Sun City, Arizona, which is a retirement community. So this endocrinologist I saw worked in the retirement community. I was his only type one patient.
I don't think he's ever treated type one before. I don't think he knew how to treat type one. So he just tells me to take fifteen units of long acting and five units of short acting three times a day when I eat. I'm like, okay. You know?
Easy enough. Whatever. So my first meal that I have, I had a salad. K? Mistake number one and took five units, which even to this day, five units is still a lot of insulin for me.
Yeah. And I take it and, you know, going about my day, which I didn't know anything about prevolous things, I take it, and my blood sugar's at 200. And I'm like, well, that's annoying. Like, whatever. I don't know what's going on still.
And I go to Bunco. My mom has, like, a Bunco group with her friends.
Mhmm.
And I'm, like, subbing in for somebody. So I'm playing Bunco with, you know, a bunch of 50 year old ladies. And all of a sudden, my, like, phone starts beeping at me, and I'm like, I feel like I'm dying. Like, what is this? Like, I didn't know what a low blood sugar was.
My doctor didn't warn me about it. I'd never heard about it. Like and my blood sugar is, like, at 40, straight down arrow. And, thankfully, one of the ladies there was a nurse, and she was like, you need some sugar. And I was like
I do? Okay.
Yeah. Okay. Are you are you sure? I have diabetes. Like
I don't know.
But Right. So she gets me this plate of, like you know, now looking back on it also, I'm like, homegirl just loaded me up with, like, 50 grams of carbs to correct this low, which I'm like, that's insane. I would never do that now. So I eat it all, which obviously saved my life. Rebounds again to 200.
What she posts, and why28:09
Still don't know what to do. But to this day, I'm just like, if I would've been at home, I probably would've died. Like, I wouldn't have known what was happening.
I think it's so interesting that the description of, like like, out of nowhere, my phone's making noise, and I feel like I'm dying, but you're context you're contextually unaware of what's happening. Yeah. That's so then there's no way to know what to do next. Right? Because now you're loopy and your blood sugar's falling and you've no no one ever once has even put, like, a an emergency thought into your head.
You know, the good news is is that one day, if you get gout, that doctor will be very valuable to you. True.
Yeah. No. I would never go back to him. I left a nasty Google review on this guy for later problems that occurred.
Tried to kill me with a salad.
No. Literally. So I guess it was, like I I saw him, like, late November, and then I got on Omnipod, like, very early January.
Mhmm.
So I, like, had an appointment, and then I had, like, a follow-up appointment with him. And I was like, hey. I want a pump. Like, I'd seen them on on TikTok because that's that's where I turned to as, you know, a youth does when they have a problem. You go straight to TikTok to learn anything.
My daughter's friend said to me yesterday, she's like, I so she calls me, and she's like, I'm at the store. I've decided to regrow out my tub. I need dad advice. And I was like, okay. So she so I'm walking her through everything, and she had some of the words and everything.
I said, where'd you learn this? And she goes, I TikTok ed it. And I said, I wish you wouldn't use it that way. And she goes, what? I'm like, don't say TikTok ed.
I don't I don't like that.
Like, I googled it, but I TikTok
ed it. Yeah. And I was like and then I and then I realized that I'm I'm also a twenty year two year old girl in my head because I was like, actually, there's a girl on TikTok that does home renovations. I'll send you I'll send her to you. And I and I was like, I'll send this over to you because I was proud of her because she had, like, a lot of she's like, you know what?
My tub is grout is moldy. I'm gonna fix this. I'm tired of it, but she didn't have context for what to do next. So I I don't know. I I'm old.
It's odd to me that you went to TikTok. But you went to TikTok, and you found out about Omnipod there?
Just pumps in general. I remember I saw there was two girls that I saw, like, most of their videos. They were, like, the ones that popped up, and they actually both used tandem, which I remember sitting on the Basement Floor at my in law's house. This was, like, right after I was diagnosed, like, sobbing looking at this. I was like, I cannot have those things on my body the rest of my life.
Like, that's the most miserable looking thing I've ever seen. And, you know, here I am now years later, and you really don't even notice them for the most part.
Yeah.
But just the thought of it just freaked me out so bad, but I could not figure out what the heck was going on with shots. And I was like, everybody says a pump is just like the solution. It does everything for you. I just I gotta get one of these, which I've learned that that's not necessarily the case, but it definitely does help.
So you were you were floundering with with MDI. Things were not going well?
Not not going well. Okay. Every meal, I would hit 200 and then 50 every single meal, and I just I didn't know anything. I didn't know that timing of insulin mattered. Nothing.
You couldn't TikTok that? I guess I'm not big on TikTok.
So No. That was the problem.
We're gonna talk about that later. I I I I I see you out there making these now that I saw it in person at Friends for Life, I was like, I don't know how to I should first of all, I should not be doing that. I don't know how to do it. This seems ridiculous. I know I'm gonna look old from every angle I put that camera at me at.
I don't know how you get in front of a camera without a ring light. I need a ring light just so I look alive. So but but but that's interesting. So you so your MDI, obviously, you don't have great help from health care. Do you think being diagnosed somewhere else and then going home was a problem?
Like, do you think had you been diagnosed at home, you would have gotten a firmer footing, or do you just think that you would have ended up with somebody who just didn't do a good job explaining it to you?
I think maybe if I went to a doctor that knew about type one, not just type two, I probably would have gotten some more information. You know?
How does that not happen? Like, putting yourself I'm not blaming you. I'm asking, like, back in that situation, how do you not end up with a doctor who's functionally ready to help you?
Probably not going to a doctor in a retirement city. That probably wouldn't have been a good start. But, you know, I I didn't know. I've never used my insurance. I didn't even know where to start to find a provider.
I just searched endocrinologist, and it was the first one that popped up, and it said it took my insurance. And in the world of health care is so incredibly foreign to me at that point, and I was like, okay. We'll just we'll start there. You know? They all got they all have to be the same, which I have come to learn is not the case.
Right. There's good endos, and there is bad endos.
Yeah. There's good and bad everything. Yeah. But that's that's super interesting too because my son's 26, and he just had to like, he had to leave our insurance and get his own through his through his work. And so he just all he's trying to do is, like, he has hypothyroidism.
He's trying to switch his his thyroid meds. And, like, on our insurance, you just get a script and they fill it. On his, they need a prior authorization. He doesn't have quite as good insurance as we do. And he's like, what do I do about that?
And I was like, well, he goes, the pharmacy said they'll call my doctor. And I went, oh
That won't happen.
That's not gonna work. He's like, why would the pharmacy say that? I was like, I don't know why they say that. I was like, but do your your doctor's gonna get a fax in '20 you know, 2026 for some reason, and they're that's not gonna be a thing they do anything with. Then you're gonna be out of pills, And then you're gonna go, wait.
Where are my pills? And then you're gonna call the pharmacy, and the pharmacy is gonna go, I don't know. We contacted your doctor. And then you're gonna go, do I have to contact my doc? I'm just like, you're gonna go through this whole I'm like, just call your doctor now.
As I'm explaining it to him, he's making the face I imagine you were making when you when you tried to find an endocrinologist, which is what the hell is going on?
Yep.
Right? Right. Oh, it sucks. Yep. So so you're just shoot what are you doing?
Are you eating then shooting insulin?
I think I was just taking it, like, right as I ate. As I, you know, sit down to eat. I'm like, well, that's what they say. Take it with your meal. You know?
And were you counting carbs? Or you were you still doing the just do this amount of insulin at a meal thing?
Still just this amount. My the Endo never even mentioned he didn't mention the sliding scale. He didn't mention a carb ratio. It was just five units with the meal. Okay.
Was like, cool.
So how do you eventually figure out what to do? Is it is it is it do you figure something out, or do you switch to a pump and then have slightly better outcomes?
It was a mixture of switching to the pump. I feel like I've learned that it's not a lot of people do switch to a pump almost immediately because some doctors think that you need to learn how to do MDI ahead of time, which I think is crazy, but that's just my own thoughts. But, it was also a lot of Facebook. I joined it's called, like, the type one the one and only support group or something like that.
It's got
thousands of members. And I credit like, I learned probably most everything from that Facebook group. I spent hours every day just reading.
Yeah.
Just trying to get, like, learn anything anything I could. Like, I remember not knowing like, I kept seeing people say MDI, and I'm like, what the heck is MDI? What does this mean? Mhmm.
That's why I made a whole series called defining diabetes because I thought because a person said to me one time when I was on the podcast, they were like, I said, so you were MDI? And they go, what's that? And I was like, multiple daily injections. You're injecting your insulin? They go, yeah.
The parts she keeps private36:05
I inject my insulin. And they've been injecting for years. I'm like, you've never heard that term? I thought, wonder what other terms people don't know. Mhmm.
So then we just kinda, like, ran through them all. We should actually just do that again. That's a good idea. Okay. So you are you deciding at that moment no one's coming to help me?
Like, what like, because why because some people just go back to the doctor and go, hey. I don't feel like I understand what's going on. And then the doctor goes, no. You're doing great. And then nothing happens.
Right? So
Yeah.
Are you, like, a dig down, get it done person? Is this the accountant part of your brain jumping in here? Like, what do you think happened?
I am, like, a chronically independent person, like, very much to a fault. I do not like to get help. I don't like to ask for help. And I feel like I'm also, like, very stubborn in that way where I'm like, well, I'm gonna figure this out. Like, if I wanna do something, I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna find any way to do it.
And so also maybe, like, a little bit of a competitive side where I was like, I can do this. Like, I'm gonna have a good a one c. I'm gonna stay in range. Like, I have been a straight a student, and that's gonna apply to this as well.
Wow. Aside of the ace, student thing, that's exactly what happened to me when Arden was diagnosed. I was like, I I I finally, like, looked up and thought, we are not having reasonable outcomes. But the doctors kept telling me we were doing okay. And because we were already going to a really good children's hospital, I thought, well, if this place isn't helping, then there is no help.
And then the Internet wasn't the Internet at that point. There was no podcast about it. There was definitely no TikTok. And so I just, like, turned her, like, in my head into, like, a lab experiment till I could figure everything out. And then I got it figured out, and then I started writing it down, like, in a blog.
And Mhmm. And then I started seeing other people having good outcomes based off of what I was saying. And I was like, oh, it's working for them too. That's gotta be meaningful. And then I just went through this whole process.
And, also, I am incredibly competitive. Like, that's that's I I just I'm like, I'll beat this. Like, I and and I would never ask another person for help. Yeah. But why why not?
I don't may I just be clear? Oddly, as this is what I do now as a job, it it'll sound strange, but I don't trust other people. Like Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, what are
you Same.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, what if you tell me something and you're wrong, but you act like you're right, how am I gonna know? Which is by the way, everyone listening should just just listen to me. But
That's right.
But I would never listen to you.
So I feel exactly the same way.
Okay. Alright. Oh, we're very much alike. Okay. So you so you and I kinda took a similar path, and you you dug in.
You got your answers. And then and then how does it proceed from there?
So I use social media so much just to, you know, learn. Mhmm. But I couldn't find on TikTok, like, what I ex was, like, looking for exactly, like, which I know what I was looking for, and I still, like, don't really make content in that direction because it's hard to make. But I'm like, I wanna I wanna see, like, how someone is bolus ing. I wanna know how much insulin they're taking, when, and why.
Mhmm. And, like, people just don't really post that, and now I I know why because, number one, it's a lot of work to to film that kind of stuff. And two, you get some crazy comments. Like, people are like, oh my gosh. You take so much insulin or, like, oh, you know, you take nothing.
Like, that wouldn't do anything to my blood sugar. And so I I do see why people steer clear of it, but that's what I was looking for. I'm like, I just need a baseline. Mhmm. Like, I feel like people are very afraid to post their numbers because they don't want the comments, which is understandable.
But I'm like, as a numbers person, that's what I wanna see. I wanna see, like, why. I just, you know, just a sliver of information so I have a starting point.
Do you think they don't make it solely because it's difficult to make, or do you think also the algorithm wouldn't it wouldn't push it anyway? So, like, once stuff gets too, I don't know, like, thoughtful and long Mhmm. Right, the algorithm is not gonna push it up, and then you're you're doing all this and nobody's seeing it then.
For sure. That is that is a tough balance, I feel like, where, obviously, the very clickbaity videos do better. They reach more people, which is, like it's fun when that happens. You know? It's exciting.
Like, oh, I worked hard on this video, and it's getting views. But, also, it's really sad when you make, like, a really good educational video that you're like, this could really benefit people, and then it gets no views. It's just like, no. Like, that's the one that I want people to see because that's what's helpful. And so I've been you know, it's this never ending battle of, like, how can I make it clickbaity where people will actually still watch, but also it's going to actually benefit them?
Without burning yourself out and Mhmm. Knocking yourself out of the game at the same time.
Yes.
Lend me your, the benefit of your knowledge about about social media for a second. Okay. If you're like, we'll see. But but that you've been at this. Listen.
You've been doing it. When did you start making your TikToks?
2024. I think it was maybe, like, March 2024. I was like, I'm just gonna post every day. I'm gonna post at least once a day, and I've posted at least once a day since then.
Yeah. Tell me, how many people follow you on TikTok now?
I'm at a 102,000 on TikTok.
And Instagram?
Like, 58, I think, maybe.
Okay. When you put up a a post on TikTok that you feel like does well, how many views does that mean?
They if it doesn't get at least 10,000, I feel like I'm like, it flopped. But, like, a good video, I feel like I feel like it's good if it hits a 100,000. When she think, oh, you have a 100,000 followers, it should always hit a 100,000 views, but that is definitely not the case.
Yeah. Half of those people probably aren't even on TikTok anymore. It's true. Yeah. Of, how long are the videos normally?
So I tried to post twice a day. One, that is just, like, a short trending sound, you know, and then another one that's a minute.
Okay. And do people make it through the minute? Like, do you have, like,
this Not very often.
No. You do you have that data?
You can. I try not to look at it. I try not to look at any of my analytics because it just makes me a little bit sad.
I I, I saw something recently where the average watch time on an Instagram Reel is three to six seconds. Oh my gosh. And I don't mean on mine. I mean, on Instagram Reels. And I thought Yeah.
If Instagram just shut off, would anyone notice? Is what I is what I was wondering. But so you're so I feel like we're highlighting a pretty interesting thing, which which is your the people your age, whether you're Nadia, who I don't think I've ever used her name on the podcast, trying to recalk her tub. And by the way, Nadia couldn't say cock. It was very uncomfortable when we were on the phone.
She kept going. Anyway, I was like, no. Cock. And she's like and I'm like, nope. You're not getting it right.
So, like or it's or it's I've noticed that she was a little girl. I'm like, stop saying that. We're gonna fix your tub. I was
like, stop. Without the word.
Yeah. Without the word. Okay. So whether it's her and her tub or you and your diabetes, you guys are going to go to TikTok or to Instagram reels or something like that. Like, it's not you're not gonna go, I wonder if there's an old man with everything I need to know making a podcast somewhere.
Right? Like, I'd so, like, dear Google, you don't even know what Google is. You don't Google anything. Stop it. Right?
Management, and what works44:00
Like, there's no you haven't used Google.
Not anymore. No. Very often.
I don't use Google anymore. Now I'm just like, while I'm talking to AI, I ask it another thing while I'm talking to it. Right? So Mhmm. So that that's all gone.
I very luckily, AI has decided that my podcast is valuable, or I think I'd Clutch. I think I'd be screwed going forward. I was like, but I but I think I'm gonna be okay there with that. But I am a person who has you have a job still. You're an accountant.
And I don't Yes. Know how much money you make from TikTok. I don't care. It's not my mom. I don't I don't care.
But it's a thing you put a lot of effort into. I put a lot of effort into this. I know that if this wasn't my job, you would not be getting the Juice Box podcast. It's just too much. Right?
Like, I worked last night until 09:30. I started at 8AM, and the last thing that happened to me last night is someone called me a clown. And I was like, I have been trying to help you all day. And I was like, and I'm exhausted. I missed my family.
I didn't eat dinner. I know you didn't ask me to, but at the very least, why not not call me a clown when it's over? Okay? For sure. Yeah.
On the same day that someone said, I I you saved I got yesterday, I got you saved my life. You're an idiot. You're a clown. This is such a great resource. I was like.
Balance. All things need balance.
I said to my wife, I was like, can both of these things be true at the same time? Could I have saved that person's life and be an idiot? I I mean, I don't feel like that could be true, but maybe. And so but but but, nevertheless, like, I get up every day, and I think, how do I help people? And I have the luxury to think that way because the podcast makes a living for me.
And I I'm doing fine. I'm not I'm not complaining. This podcast has 22,000,000 lifetime downloads. It has been in the top 30 of its category for eight years. It charts in, like, 45 countries every day.
It's doing great. But there are a lot of people that I don't reach, and I and I do feel bad about that. Or I have people who come to me and go, well, I don't wanna listen to a whole podcast to get the answer. And I'm like, well, I don't know what to tell you. That's how my brain works.
The answer is in there. If you want it, you this is what you have to do. And so I I pivot a couple of years ago, and I make them short content. Right? I basically turn the pro tip series into something called small sips.
It's more like ten minutes. And then and then people go, this isn't really comprehensive enough. I'm like, you sons of. And I was like, I was like
Like, I can't help you anymore this point.
Yeah. So is the answer that the algorithm and the and the platform really doesn't lend itself to this? Because I feel like I'm seeing a lot of people trying to adapt these platforms to diabetes and aside of, like, an entertainment value or a to get I which is not nothing. Or, we're in this together. I have this too, which also I think is a big deal.
I just don't think it's a place where you're gonna teach people to pre pre ball us or something like that.
Like Right.
Do you agree with that, or what is your finding?
I do to a point. I feel like there's there's a lot of us, like, type one creators. There's quite a few. I don't even like to call myself that. I feel like it's an embarrassing thing to say.
It's not, but I'm like, it's it's not my job. You know? It's more of, like, a passion project. Like, I do make money online, but not nearly enough to ever, like, do it as a full time job.
Mhmm.
It's just it's just for fun more than anything. Like, if I paid myself per hour that I spend doing this, pennies, probably. Yeah. But it's almost more of, like, like a like therapy for me. You know?
It's like a journal, this online journal that I get to have. But I feel like there is different us different creators, we have, like, different paths. Like, some of us are, like, pure entertainment. Like, there's some out there that are hilarious. Like, I love them.
I don't like to scroll diabetes content. I have enough diabetes in my life. I don't like to consume it myself, but there's some that are funny. And then there's some that are, like, strictly educational. And I feel like I'm, like, kind of in this, like, odd spot where I want to be educational because I wanna provide value to people, but I'm I'm not a doctor.
You know? I'm not an Yeah. Diabetes educator. Like, I don't have the formal training, and you can technically get in trouble for, you know, giving advice, which I do all the time. I give you know, I'm like, hey.
This is not medical advice. You can all come for me, but, like, this is what I would do. You know? Because that's what I wanted when I was first diagnosed. I'm like, I just need some advice.
I need some help. I need somewhere to start, but I didn't even know that there was, like, these training programs out there that you can buy. You know? Mhmm. Now I do, which I've still never bought one because I I can't stomach spending thousands of dollars for them to probably, at this point, teach me something that I already know.
But I do feel like they could be valuable for some people.
A couple of them will teach you stuff with my words. So Oh. Yeah. That'll be fun for you when you're paying for my when you're paying for somebody else to read you my free podcast. Yes.
So but I listen. I take your point. I just I feel like I see a lot of organizational types or, like, proper adults who think, oh, we're gonna co op this platform and make it work. And as I watched it, I go, oh, that's not gonna work. You shouldn't don't do that.
Like like, you you're 60. It stop. Know, like like, that's and that's why when you said to me, like, why don't you make more stuff on TikTok? I was like, I no one wants me on TikTok. And you said no.
I do.
Yeah. Well, that's you're being polite, I thought, when you said that. No. So so I'm I'm frustrated. And and I'll tell you what, like, you said something earlier.
There's no way you know that you said this and that it's gonna, like it'll it'll ripple through every PR department at every Oh, no. At every device manufacturer that hears it. Right? Because you said I was served a TikTok of a certain pump and then ended up with a different one, that would blow their minds are like, no. No.
We're we want you to see our pump so you get our pump. What do you mean you saw our pump? It got a different pump. Like, that is gonna flip. And by the way, that's no shade on tandem because you easily could have seen an Omnipod the first time and thought, I don't want that thing stuck to me, and you could have gone to something else.
Right? And so, like, even them, they're out there, like, trying to put out imagery or, like, blah blah blah, like or or support people who are doing it. And to think that they might find a way to get to your eyeballs through everything that we just talked about, and then that would make you go, oh, no. Thank you. Yeah.
Well, I like, it it's wishful thinking, I think, when people are like, I just got diagnosed. Which pump should I go on? I'm like, unfortunately, it's not up to you. It is up to your insurance 99 percent of the time. It could easily work.
That's how I ended up on Omnipod. It was the only one that they covered.
Really? Isn't that interesting?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it it just happened this year that I can actually even get a different one if I wanted to Mhmm. Because they moved to pharmacy.
Sometimes children have more options because their parents have good insurance. But often, those people don't have good insurance either or insurance that covers more than one thing. It is it is just really fascinating. Okay. So tell me for a second.
You did eventually find the podcast, like, pro tip series. Was it helpful to you, or had you heard it by then?
No. I found it, like, really early on. It was always suggested in the comments on Facebook, which is where I was, you know, trying to find any anything. I I wish now that I had, like, saved some of those posts that I read and, like, what it was because it's, like, actually terrifying how much I didn't know. I was looking back.
Being seen, and being useful52:00
I remember Mary. She's one of the content creators I found. I remember she posted on her Instagram story that she was going for a high blood sugar walk. And I messaged her, and I said, well, did you take insulin? Like, I didn't understand.
Like, do you need to take insulin and then walk, or will walking just bring your blood sugar down on its own? Mhmm. And I think about that all the time. And I'm like, even when I make videos and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna walk on my walking pad to bring my blood sugar down. Some people actually don't know.
Like, I was one of those people that you still need to take insulin and then you walk.
Mhmm. Yeah. Just any the tiniest little ideas are completely lost on you. You have no context for it whatsoever.
Yes. And even that's, like, something that you don't learn when you're diagnosed even if you are, like, kept in a hospital and a diabetes educator comes and talks to you. You know? Most people think, oh, you can't exercise when your blood sugar is high. You'll get ketones and and die, you know, which I have a lot of strong opinions on that.
But Oh, yes. You your blood sugar's high, don't move?
No. Literally. Way. People tell me that all the time, or they're like, you can't be running. You need to be walking.
I'm like, okay.
There's a so so there's a lot of stuff about type one that gets carried over from earlier. The the easiest one to think about is 15 carbs, fifteen minutes. Right? Oh, yeah. We've actually like, I sat down with Jenny one time.
We broke that down, and she's Jenny, I don't know how well you know of Jenny, but, like, she's had diabetes for, like, I think thirty six years now. Like, a Mhmm. A really long time. And she's like, yeah. Well, back in the day, like, we didn't have CGMs, and testing wasn't all that accurate.
So you fifteen was, like, a hopeful amount, and then fifteen minutes was enough time to, like, get a reasonable understanding of this if it worked or not. And okay. So in the moment back then, that was a good thing to do, but then the doctor practices for thirty years and says it for thirty years and tells for thirty years thirty years worth of people 15 carbs, fifteen minutes. Then they go out in the world and they repeat it to people. Then someone like you comes along or someone like me comes along, and I go, look.
I would just correct with the amount of carbs you need. And Right. You know, and then people are yelling at me. You're gonna kill somebody. And I'm like, you're operating off of a 40 year old idea.
Yep. Yeah. But that doesn't stop them from yelling at you.
Yep. So No. Yeah. There's all kinds of things like that that are just I think people forget that diabetes is so personalized, and you you really do, like, unfortunately, just have to figure out what works for you. But the hard part is it's like, well, that works for you in that situation.
You know? Not to say that's gonna work for you your next low three hours from now.
I'm thrilled that honestly, I love that people do what you do because it's I just think you re you reach a section of people I'm not gonna reach. I think I reach a section of people you're not gonna reach, and there are other people out there Totally. You know, filling in those gaps. And, hopefully, hopefully, between everybody, there's enough coverage that nobody is out there shooting five units of insulin for their salad and going, oh, I think I'm gonna die. Because to to your point and I I listen.
I I'll I'll caveat it and say there are some really great endos and CDEs and and nurse practitioners out there, but it is a crapshoot whether you get one or not. And Totally. You do not know if you're getting one or not. So when you went to the doctor, you're like, this is the doctor. The doctor knows, and then you almost killed yourself trying to eat a salad.
Right?
Mhmm.
You didn't think, oh, this doctor might not know what he's talking about. Why would you think that?
Right.
I think we just have to paper the world with this information. And Yeah. Hopefully, it hits as many people as possible. And I honestly would like, like, look. I mean, there's an argument to be made that anybody who's sharing is giving advice, but, mean, I I do the same thing.
You know, it's gonna be at the end the beginning of this episode. Like, nothing you hear on this podcast is advice, blah blah blah. I am sharing what I do for my daughter or what I've done in the past or what other people have said. I I think of that as a positive thing, honestly.
I I agree. It's what I wanted to see. And, like, those are my favorite my favorite videos that I make. It's like the what I eat in a day or, like, how I bolus for a certain meal Mhmm. Which 99% of the time, they end up, like, failing where I'm high or I'm low.
But people like to see that, And I feel like it's helpful because that's what I wanted to have seen. Like, I learned about split bolusing from a video. I don't even remember who, but I'd never even thought of the concept of, like, oh, yeah. A regular body probably gives insulin in, you know, a few squirts when you eat, not just, like, all up front.
Yeah. And it's amazing to to share like that because the number of times that I've seen someone else's content, and I'm like, oh, those are my words. Like, the and I and I don't think of that as a bad thing. If you're charging somebody for it, I think of the I I'm talking to you. I know you hear me.
If you're charging somebody for it, I think that's wrong. Okay? But if you're out there sharing something you learned that worked for you, I'm saying when I hear it in my cadence, in my words, I think, oh, that's awesome. Like, it made it all the way to that person, and that person's gonna get it to somebody I would never be able to get it to. Like, that this is fantastic.
You
know? Yeah.
Alright. So tell me why why do you think I should make TikTok videos?
I think that mine and many people's brains have been ruined to have an attention span of, like you said, three seconds.
Mhmm.
And I'm I'm one of those people that I'm like, I would not listen to a podcast. Like, I'm not gonna sit here through twenty minutes with somebody talking.
Twenty minutes. You and I have been talking for fifty minutes, by the way. You're, like, twenty minutes. I'm not nearly done talking to you yet, by the way.
Well, I'm talking. You know? I like to talk, but listening, that's another story. But even even when you said you do, like, the short ones that are, like, ten minutes, I'm like, okay. I could probably stomach, like, ten minutes.
But that's too late.
I know that that's a problem. I I'm an adult. You know, I got a DI Pad kid myself before my kid's old enough to to be in that phase himself. Mhmm. But I just think with TikToks, it's like you have one minute, and you can get people to stay for one minute if it's, you know, good stuff.
Where she’s headed58:10
And I feel like you have good stuff that people would stay for one minute for.
Well, I so I I think I have good stuff, and I think I've got it distilled enough that it will fit into a minute. But I just think that I'm not the right person to do shouldn't I just hire, like, a, like, a 24 year old person to do it? Like, it and then I'll just say, like, just say this. And then I'll what what if I walked on camera and I said, hey. Pretend this is me.
And then somebody, like, attractive came on and said
You know, with with AI these days, I'm sure you could probably find a way to do it. But, I mean, to me, it's like, no. Your voice is the Juicebox podcast. It needs to be from you.
Okay. Alright. I okay. I will here's what I'm committing to right now.
Alright.
After my so my studio is almost done. I built a studio in my basement. It's almost finished. If some things hadn't gone wrong this summer, I'd be in it by now. One because right now, you're talking to me in a spare room of my house.
The reason it's blurred out behind me is because that is a parson's chameleon living in a giant tank, and I thought it would freak you out if you knew that I kept reptiles. And so, like, there's nothing visual in here that I can do. But eventually, I'll have a space that'll be it'll be a little more cozy to make the podcast in. I can turn the small sip series into a series of one minute videos.
There you go.
Alright. But now when no one watches them and they and they get 43 views and I feel terrible, you have to call me and make me feel better. Okay?
You know what? That's 43 people that might not have listened to the podcast.
You know it's not really 43 people. It's 43 people who are like, oh, that person is so old and swiped before the word old even came into their head because you would do the same thing. So how do I get around the that? It like, why can't, like, why can't we beat the algorithm?
I would love to know. I have zero years of posting across all the platforms. I still have no understanding. And somehow, the videos do well on different platforms. Different videos do well on different platforms Yeah.
Which I I just don't understand. I I am convinced that there's somebody out there who knows how this algorithm works, and they just won't spill the secret.
Don't you think they changed it? So I've been so okay. So I'll I'll share some stuff with you. To learn more and see if you might be able to get Twist from the pharmacy and try it for free, head to visit.twist.com/juicebox. That's visit.twist.com/juicebox, or give them a call at 18774.
That's +1 (877) 489-4478, and tell them Scott sent you. Twist requires prescription and is indicated for people with type one diabetes six and older. Arden has been getting her diabetes supplies from US Med for years. You can as well. Usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514.
Many thanks to US Med for sponsoring this episode and for being and for being longtime sponsors of the Juice Box podcast. There are links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to US Med, Twist, and today's other awesome sponsor, the Eversense CGM. They make, of course, the Eversense three sixty five, and that thing lasts an entire year. One insertion every year. Come on.
You probably feel like I'm messing with you, but I'm not. Eversensecgm.com/juicebox. Check it out. Let's face it. Diabetes is tough, but it's easier when you have a community around you.
So if you're looking for a great community around type one diabetes, check out the juice box podcast private Facebook group. Juice box podcast type one diabetes, but everyone's welcome. Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out the Juice Box Podcast private Facebook group. Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook.
I promise you it is the most unfacebook like experience that you'll ever ever find. What a great group of people. I don't like saying this usually because it dates the ad, but right now there are 86,000 active members. 86,000 people in there who might have your experience, know what to say, or just be a great shoulder to lean on. Don't be too proud to find a community.
It really does help. And it's completely free. Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. I just wanna say thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
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#1950 Name a Rule You Break
Name a Rule You Break
A Facebook post asked people to name a diabetes rule they break. Hundreds answered. Scott and Jenny Smith go through the list and plan a series around every one of them.
Jump to a moment
- The series came from one line in the Facebook group. A member named Andy posted: name a diabetes rule that you break. Hundreds of people answered, and Scott sorted the replies by how often each came up — eleven main rules. Each will become its own short episode with Jenny.
- What people mean by “bad diabetic.” Scott's read after going through the responses is that it isn't about numbers at all — it's about the sense of breaking an expectation someone was handed. Jenny's counterpoint is instructive: she has never felt like a bad person for not doing it by the book, because she knows the clinical rules and she knows the Jenny rules, and she does the ones that work.
- The top of the list is lancets. Twenty-two people named not changing the lancet. Jenny guessed it first, along with reusing needle caps and syringes, which Scott had folded into the same category. Skipping alcohol swabs was her second guess and also on the list.
- Some “rules” are worth breaking and some are not. Jenny draws a clear line: swagging carbs, skipping calibration, and stretching a site are one kind of thing, but rotating injection sites, priming a pen, and clearing air from a line have real consequences if you skip them. She is also pro-calibration when a CGM is being wonky, rather than never.
- The rest of the list. Doctor's authority, stretching supplies past their dates, finger sticks and hand-washing, logging and writing down data, running out of supplies, and going through TSA scanners wearing devices — which both of them do, and which Jenny notes is technically against manufacturer guidance. Scott adds one the list missed: how badly people pack supplies when they travel.
- Juicebox Podcast Facebook group — Where the original post came from — the private community, free to join.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — Episodes 1000-1025 with Jenny Smith — the management foundation.
- Jenny Smith — Integrated Diabetes — Jenny is a dietitian and diabetes educator who has lived with type 1 for over 35 years.
Every word of the conversation
Cold open & sponsors0:06
Friends, we're all back together for another episode of the juice box podcast. Hey. Nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. T1dexchange.org/juicebox.
Over 18, type one diabetes US resident, go take the survey. T1dexchange.org/juicebox, and go take my survey too, juiceboxpodcast.com/survey if you're in a survey kind of mood. It will not tell you what Harry Potter house you're in, but it will help people living with type one diabetes. It'll help me. It'll help you.
And isn't it nice to be needed? This episode of the podcast is sponsored by MiniMed and the Kontoor NextGen blood glucose meter. MiniMed, of course, the innovators behind the MiniMed Flex system, a small, sleek, and discreet insulin automated delivery system controlled from an app. Nothing comes close to freedom you can feel. To learn more, visit minimed.com/juicebox.
There is one blood glucose meter in this house, the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter. That meter is on my daughter's person right now and at all times. It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at kontoornext.com/juicebox. Jenny, this is the first time we are recording with my new setup. You don't know about this, but I have a new, can I tell you something embarrassing real quickly, then we'll jump into this?
A new setup, and a consultant1:49
Sure. I've been making this podcast for fifteen years, I think. Mhmm. And I hired a consultant to come look at my setup, and he looked at it and said, I can't believe this works.
Oh, no. Well, you put it all together, and clearly it works because what you got is a good product.
I I made it so long ago. He's like, what is this cable for? I was like, well, that's how the audio gets from here to there. And he goes, that's not how that's supposed to happen. And I went, really?
And he goes, nope. And he, like, he's like, pull that out, do this, do that. And we did a bunch of stuff, and I was he's like, do you hear how much clearer it is already? And I was like, I do. And I was like, oh my god.
And then I felt silly. And he was trying to tell me, no. You figured this out. Like, he's like, you MacGyver this whole thing together. And and he's like, it's it's I can't believe how good your podcast sounded, he told me.
So, anyway
Well, good job for doing what you had done. There's getting it.
There's boxes here that I don't need anymore. He's like, I don't know what that is. You don't need that. And I was like, oh, okay. So I'm just I've decided to just be happy and move forward.
But Awesome. But, anyway, this is the new setup. Hopefully, going forward, I would think probably somebody might hear this sooner. But in, I guess, mid to late August this year, you should notice the podcast sound different consistently after that. Oh.
So anyway
I will have to pay attention then.
Jenny's like, maybe I'll listen to this dumb podcast once. Oh, I listen. I listen with
I listen to grab on on topics, honestly, that I can draw something from. And there are a number of them, so thank you.
The Facebook post behind the series3:29
Thank you. Oh, no, please. So I wanna do something based on a Facebook post. I actually wanna make a series based on a Facebook post. And the post was it was super simple, and I I wanna give Andy credit for it, one of the group members.
He just said, name a diabetes rule, and I think rule is in quotes, that you break. And then a lot of people responded. A lot of people responded.
Oh, I can think of lots of things.
So I wanna so it's funny because it gave me some reflective time as a person who does not have type one
Sure.
To really think about the idea that, gosh, are people walking around feeling like they're breaking rules? And I could tell from a lot of the responses that they did that I think that's where the you know when some people call themselves bad diabetics? Sure. I think they're referring to, I know there's a thing I'm supposed to be doing and I don't do it. I'm a bad diabetic.
I think after having those conversations, that's what I'm hearing them say.
“Bad diabetic” means broken expectations4:34
So that it's not you you have a sense that it's not all tied to the numbers, that it's actually some of the habits and the things that they've been taught or we've been taught that they're not doing the way that, you know, the book says to do it.
Expectations. I feel like they think they're breaking expectations. So, anyway, so we're gonna make a series, called I don't know what.
Can I tell you something funny
I guess so? Please.
I never really feel like I'm break like, I'm never like, I'm a bad person because I'm not doing it the way I just I'm like, screw that. I just wanna do it the way I do it because it works. And, you know, I know the rules clearly. I know the clinical rules. Mhmm.
And then I know the Jenny rules.
Clinical rules, and Jenny rules5:18
You know, the ones that work. Well, listen. There's some rules on here. There's no way you're not following. But so I have it broken down into a list by how many times somebody mentioned it that they break Okay.
They break I every time I say break the rule, please just assume my quotes around it. Okay. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11 main rules that that people brought up. And so I first wanna hear what you think the rules are. Like, what comes to mind when you think of diabetes rules?
Then I'm gonna tell you what this list is, and then we're gonna make little episodes around each one.
Guess the list: lancets first6:01
I would hope that one of them is to change your lancet.
That is one of
The little pokey thing that you poke your finger with. Right? The lancet. Change the lancet every time you poke your finger. It's gotta be one of them.
Right?
22 people mentioned not changing their lens sets. Okay.
Oh, yes.
And that so that's one of them. Alright. You got that. Oh, this is fun. Let's see if you can get the rest of them off the list.
I'll make a list of when you get right. Go ahead.
Another one has to be similar changing the needle cap or even the syringe that you use for an injection.
All of those are blended into the
They're all together.
Lancet category. I bet you're I bet there's gonna you're not gonna get some of these.
I'm sure I'm not.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I typically tell people not to use this, and I think you have as well, but using alcohol to clean a slight a site.
Very good, Jenny. That's one too. I skip alcohol swabs is Mhmm. One of them. I don't skip them.
I just don't use them, but that's Just don't use them. Right. I have a rule too around alcohol.
Yes. I think one applies to something I do even though you're not supposed to technically do it because I'm still using g six. Oh. I've not switched. So I restart my g six.
Restart your CGM.
Because you know what? Then I get, like, three weeks out of one sensor most of the time.
This is just gonna make people sad and upset because I the g six is done already. Right?
It is. I as of July 1, you technically, they're not supporting or sending supplies from what I understood it to be. Now I have
A stack?
A good a good back stack of them.
Can you imagine all the people listening right now that are like, wait. I could have restarted the g six. Oh, yes.
And there are so many YouTube videos about how to restart it. Each of them a little bit different. I found the way that it works for me. So anyway, that but that I think is a breaking the rule.
Alcohol swabs8:09
Well, that wasn't on here, but I like that one. That was good. So we'll use that as, like, we'll call it again, assume the the air quotes, misusing tech. Maybe we'll make that our own
Or miss yeah. That would be a good one. Right. I think another one and this it kind of only applies to those who may be using a steel needle cannula for an insulin pump, and it might go along with the lancet idea. But because the steel needle, it's kind of like a thumbtack, and you can pop it right back under if you needed to and you're really short on supplies.
Now this is not medical advice. Please do not do this. I'm just saying that I know that some people do reuse that set and pop it in and just apply an extra little tacky around it to put it back in.
Jenny, you have found one of the things that people suggested. They stretch sites, use use things longer than they should, put stuff where that it's not supposed to be put. They don't rotate. Yep. That's all under one too.
So That's
all on because I was gonna say rotation of sites to locations that are not what are approved technical sites.
That's one of the things people say the rules they break are that. The Kontoor next gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast, and it is entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you are paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right. If you go to my link, contournext.com/juicebox, You're gonna find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Kroger, Meijer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips and meter than you would pay through my link for the Contour Next Gen and Contour Next Test strips in cash.
What am I saying? My link may be cheaper out of your pocket than you are paying right now even with your insurance. And I don't know which meter you have on you right now. I can't say that. But what I can say for sure is that the Contour Next Gen meter is accurate.
It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years. Contournext.com/juicebox. And if you already have a Contour meter and you're buying test strips, doing so through my link will help support the podcast. Let's be honest. Most of us would love to spend less time thinking about diabetes.
That's exactly what MiniMed had in mind with the new MiniMed Flex system. It's small and sleek, you can control it from an app, and it uses the trusted smart guard technology that automatically adjusts insulin every five minutes. Less juggling, less micromanaging, more freedom. That's the MiniMed Flex system available now at minimed.com/juicebox. There are links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Contour, MiniMed, and to all the sponsors.
When you click on my links, you're supporting the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful.
I don't know if some of the breaking rules is getting lab tests as frequently as their provider recommends. Is that in there?
Yeah. Let's see. Doctor authority. I skip endo appointments. I don't do what the doctor says just because they're a doctor.
I learned on my own. I yeah, I guess that's right there, like, not listening to medical advice.
Right. Okay. And, again, what I've experienced with that is you could be correct in not listening to that medical advice, especially if you are seeking assistance outside of your medical practice because they're not serving you well.
More from the list12:00
Mhmm.
Then remember that that's not necessarily breaking a rule. It's just that you've learned beyond what your clinician has told you, and it's working better the way that you are doing something. So that's not a it's not a breaking the rule, but you could see it as Yeah. That.
I wonder where you stand on this one. I'm gonna give you one. So Oh. I don't think if I'm being really thoughtful about it, I don't think I've checked Arden's ketones a half a dozen times in twenty years.
Could that be rule breaking? I guess.
Right? Well, when you're when you're guy is to have right? They tell you a high blood sugar for not long, you should be checking ketones.
Anything over two fifty. In fact, I think you most meters, if they don't still do it, used to when your blood sugar was at least two forty Mhmm. Would or, you know, like, 13 something if you're a millimole user, you got a reminder on your blood glucose meter to check ketones.
Really? Oh, that's interesting. Yes. Yeah.
But I I do think that if you are somebody who can skirt around illnesses, that you don't get sick very frequently or that you don't have high blood sugars like that
Mhmm.
You may not check ketones regularly. And so doing it I always think that doing it at least to get an idea of where do your ketones typically sit, especially in a fasting state, like you wake up in the morning, and do a ketone check.
Yeah.
See where you typically sit because then it gives you a ground, at least a baseline for here and now. Where are my fasting ketones typically? Because then if you do it in the future, you kind of have a base to go off of. Right? Especially if you're sick or you've taken your insulin doses down considerably because you're ill.
It at least gave you a guideline of, well, my ketones are usually point one or they're usually point two, and gosh, now they're two point something. Clearly, I have ketones I
have Okay. Do something Alright.
Right.
That's good.
But that is interesting that, I mean, I I infrequently test my ketones. I don't
Yeah. I mean, there's been times where I realized she hasn't had insulin by mistake. You know, like, we had a bad sight one time, got knocked off during swimming. We didn't realize it. Check them then.
I mean, in the beginning, if she got sick, I would check them, but I think it's after the third or fourth time that you check and there's no ketones, you think, okay. Well, it got higher, but I'll get it back down pretty quickly and, you know, that kind of thing. Not that I'm blase about it. Okay. What are the the big ones?
This is interesting because there's no way you wouldn't do this, and it's the number one mentioned thing.
So it's something that I wouldn't do?
There's no way you
That I would definitely follow the rules in doing this?
Yeah.
Not bolusing for food.
Prebolusing. Prebolusing. Prebolusing
is the one Same category.
Everybody was like, I see, isn't that interesting? You just think of prebolusing as bolusing for food. They I do. They think of it as an extra step they have to take, and it's overwhelmingly listed by people.
That's interesting.
Yeah. People it's I it's my takeaway from doing the podcast that it is one of the things that people with type one diabetes struggle with maybe more than anything else is prebolising.
I think because it's defined by a time in which let me back up. It's not really an extra step because in either case, whether you're bolusing ahead of time or you're bolusing at the meal, you're just you're bolus thing. It's a thought
it's a thought process.
Working through the middle16:00
But it's an ahead of time thought process to what is coming. And that means there's planning that you have to do for knowing what are you going to eat. Right?
I heard a kid tell me recently, I don't know I'm gonna be hungry twenty minutes before I'm hungry.
And I thought
I thought that's fair. You know? Mhmm. I've had other people explain to me, like, it feels like a loss of control or an an unfair step, like, that kind of thing. Like, why should I have to do that when other people don't have to?
So there's a a couple things around there. So prebolism My Yeah.
My counter to that thought is always if I pre bolus, I'm less likely to have to interact later, which means I don't have as many steps. Yep. I don't have as much frustration. I've taken a piece of anxiety, worry, more, you know, poking buttons and looking at things. Like, if I pre bolus then the aftermath.
Yeah. I wait if my alarms go off, and if they don't, then woo hoo.
I mean, listen. That's how I see it, but I also don't have to do it. So True. Yeah. This one has the word rule right in it, which it's funny because then it because this is also mentioned a lot.
This one threw me off because it's so not a rule, but, obviously, it's beaten in everybody's head, the fifteen fifteen rule.
Fifteen fifteen.
Yeah. I get low blood sugar. I take 15 carbs. I wait fifteen minutes. I retest.
I can't believe that persists. It's really interesting.
It persists because it's still taught.
Wow.
That is a 100% a rule that is still taught that needs to not be taught, but meaning don't take it out completely in what to do, but give context to how how you should treat it. What should you treat it with? What time frame should you look at? How can you use your technology? Like, there's a whole bunch more information than just a simplified rip off page that says fifteen fifteen.
This is what you need, and that gets ingrained in your head, especially at diagnosis where everything is brand new and you just want the set of five things that's gonna contain this.
The, the next thing is I find interesting because this was overwhelmingly brought up. It's kind of a a little conglomeration of ideas, but rage bolusing, waiting to correct, stacking insulin. But that's another one that I think of as poor education that leads to that feeling. Right? Because when people say stacking, I hear bolusing.
When people say rage bolusing, I hear correcting. And when people say I didn't wait long enough to correct, I hear they didn't do a good enough job counting their carbs the first time.
Or pre bolus ing.
Yeah. Or pre bolus ing. Right? It's it's and it's to me, it's all in the way you couch it when you explain it to somebody. Like, it's funny that, like, education has come down to three pejoratives around what could be three, I don't know, three statements that make you feel empowered.
Right.
It's it's interesting to me. It's all that's all bad communication is what that is. Yeah.
What bad communication, more really education that needs to be updated.
Yeah. No. Right. It's just a different way to talk about it. Yeah.
Alright. Listen. We're gonna we'll we'll run through all these, and then Jenny and I are gonna do little, like we'll do, like, vind like, small sip kind of episodes on each of the ideas. Yeah. Because the Internet, it needs the Internet wants us to do shorter content once in a while, Jenny.
We have to give the Internet what it wants.
Is is oh, I know. I'm sorry about that. Is one of the things on the list I'm curious if it is remembering to refill your prescriptions in time?
Running out of supplies20:09
I have expired supplies of this and and so using expired supplies, which I think if you understood how those dates work, you wouldn't think of them necessarily as expired.
I was Yeah. Tell people, like, your supplies are not cheese. Yeah. Really. Right?
They're not cheese. They're not salami. They're not something
that Will this work? And I go, there's one definite way to find out. Put it on and see if it works. Put it
on and use it, honestly.
Because you were gonna throw it out anyway, so give it a whirl. Yeah. And this one that I find to be overwhelmingly debated online, insulin storage. Oh. So my insulin has to be refrigerated.
It cannot get warm to the people who are like, I have not refrigerated my insulin in decades.
I will tell you that that's the rule that I adhere to. Again, having been diagnosed thirty eight plus years ago, I think it's fear, I think, is the wrong word, but I wanna know that it has been at a stable temperature. What is the most stable? It's in my refrigerator. Mhmm.
I can't guarantee the temperature of the shelf in my house being up and down, whether I've got the air conditioning on the same as I did yesterday or it's a nice day and I don't turn it on or, you know, whatever. It's in the fridge. That's where I keep it. Whether you don't or not is entirely up to you because the manufacturing companies have obviously placed out there the rule that once in use, you have up to what? Twenty eight, thirty days to actually make use of it.
And then where the breaking comes in, this is where I break the rule. Like, my bottle of insulin is definitely like, I use it beyond a month. Come on. There's insulin left in the darn bottle, and I have plenty insulin. I'm not at a deficit, but there are some people who are.
I will
Please don't throw your bottle away just because it's twenty eight days.
When we talk about this, I'll share how I feel about it. So Cool. Because I have I'm fairly specific about it in a couple of places and then much more laxed about it. Other I'll I'll give my thing later. Cool.
But but your question about not filling scripts, not on here. I think that's Oh. Yeah. Like, so so not keeping up not keeping up with supply orders. Is that a thing you see happening to people a lot?
Somewhat. They run out
a lot?
They run out or they run out because not necessarily by their fault. Right? But they used up more or it's a time of year that they're going through things more. And then that reminder kind of comes through, and it might be a text message that gets delayed in them responding to and right now, in today's world, everything can be reordered by a click of a button. I mean, that's what I do.
Right? I get the text message, hey. Your refills are ready. And I click the button, and there it goes. It's sent off, and I get my supplies.
But you do have to pay attention, and we're busy people. And it might be forgotten. Mhmm. And then you might say, well, gosh. I used up three when I usually only use up one, and now I'm down to only one in my box.
So
Yeah. That's a good one. I think that I see online, again, a lot of people, like, I I ran out. I need help. Or Right.
I think the one that that isn't on here is that it it's fascinating how poorly some people pack when they travel with diabetes. Yes. I don't know. I brought one. You brought one.
What if that's the one
that goes for ten days.
Also, what if that's the one that goes bad? Like, I I wherever Arden goes, if she's more than thirty minutes from the house, she has two pumps, two CGMs. Like, because one might go bad, and then what do you do if the next one you put on goes bad? That Right. It ruins your day then.
Anyway, I'll get to that later. Nope. Let's roll through we'll roll through a couple of these. Carb counting and swagging, they people see that as breaking rules by swagging their carbs. It's how it's literally the whole way I do it.
Carb counting and swagging24:33
We got this one. We got that one. Okay. Sorry. Doctor's authority, stretching sites out, expired supplies.
Oh, finger sticks and calibrations. I don't do finger sticks as at all. I don't wash my hands before I do finger sticks. I desperately wish I was a person who would calibrate my CGM, but I'm not. Like, that was all that right there.
I'm a fan of calibrating CGMs, I just wanna say. Mhmm.
Using When needed, I think it has Not constantly.
But when if it's being wonky, you know Yeah. Give it a whirl. See what happens. Yep. Here's the rest.
Rotating injection sites and spots, priming your pen, or clearing air from a line. Oh.
Mhmm. Now those are those are a breaking. Let's say it's a breaking the rule, but it can have big consequences if you aren't doing those steps.
Right.
So just FYI.
Finger sticks and calibration25:41
This one I found interesting. Log, it's still being brought up logging or writing down my data. I mean, is any I have never done that once in my life. I'm sure you have. You probably have books.
Oh.
Yeah. Of numbers. My mom saves everything. She still has my books. She still has all of the logs, all the meals, and the units of insulin, and where my blood sugar was, and whether I went out and threw the ball in the yard with my dad, like, notebook after notebook.
She was trying to figure it out. Yeah.
She was. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, making records to actually spot some trends that she could then go to the doctor and say, what do we do with this information? And to her credit, honestly, it's one of the reasons that she pretty quickly after diagnosis got my doctor to rewrite the prescription for test strips for finger sticks.
Because she was like, I don't I don't know what's going on here. Like, they told me to check my my blood sugar about four or five times a day at the most.
Yeah.
She's like, I don't I don't know what to do with this.
Awesome. Thanks. Here's one that I find. I I this is another big con online conversation all the time. I go through TSA with like, I go through the scanners with my my stuff on, but I I can't ever decide if I've Arden does that sometimes.
Rotating sites, priming, logging27:04
She doesn't always get wandered. But then I've heard people say I went through, and then my my, I don't know, my CGM, you know, stopped working. So I don't I don't I honestly will have to figure out when we talk about it what what the real
Yeah. That would be a good one to I usually say we should technically follow what's recommended by the, manufacturer. Right? I too follow I guess, I'm a little breaker. Like, I wear my products on my body.
I wear Omnipod and Dexcom. They stay on my body. I clearly can't take them off. I go through the big old scanner. I don't ask to be hand wandered or look at my supplies.
If they see stuff in my supplies they wanna take a peek at, have at it. You can swab my hands. I promise there's nothing funky there.
Yeah. Do you know the greatest thing that's happened since I've lost weight is now when I go in the scanner and I hold my hands up and I do the thing, I'm thin enough that it leaves a gap of of, under my arm, and they have to pat me down to make sure there's nothing there when I'm wearing a sweatshirt because my because my fat is not filling the space. It looks weird on the scanner. I'm every they're like, we're sorry. Have to pat you down.
TSA and the scanner28:12
I go, no. No. It's fine. It's the best part of my day.
It's all good.
Here we go. I'm happy to be patted down. I don't follow the rigid meal schedule I was given. So there's people that are, I guess, still being given, you know, eat at a certain time, eat a certain thing. This one breaks this is the last one.
I and this one, I don't know why. Like, I think this one breaks my heart for some reason. It's so simple, but I don't carry fast acting insulin and supplies with me when I leave the house. I don't understand traveling without your diabetes stuff.
I don't. Yeah.
Yeah. That's a hard one for me. And maybe it's because I'm a parent. I don't know.
Yeah. And I wonder if it's more that nobody's really given this person or the people who commented within it what should go in. I always talk to people about it, like, a t one d to go bag. Right?
Yeah.
It should be packed next to the door. It might not have insulin in because, obviously, however you keep it, store it, but it should go in as soon as you're going to leave the house. And I adhere to a similar rule as you. If I'm gonna be a minimum of thirty minutes away from home, usually, means I'm going to something I want to be at. Yeah.
And I don't want to have to interrupt that when my pod dies.
I I had to make it was a long time ago, but I had to make a decision in a movie theater. Am I gonna leave in the middle of this movie, or am I gonna let her blood sugar rocket up so she can stay and watch this movie? And both of those this both of those ideas made me equally upset, and so I bring stuff. And a movie is one of the things. Like, we don't bring it in even.
It stays in the car, but I am not gonna walk out of a movie and drive home because something goes wrong. I don't want a a vent to be ruined. I don't want that Right. It's not even the time. It's the feeling.
It's the Yeah. It's the psychological, like, oh my god. I have diabetes, and then this stupid thing doesn't work anymore. And now I have to leave here. And I and I don't I just don't.
I'm trying to avoid that feeling. Now Right. Addendum to that, most people are not carrying glucagon with them.
That's true. Yeah. And You're right.
I know it can be expensive if you don't have the right insurance, and it is hard to spend money on something that you will very likely throw away. But I don't know. That one that one gets me a little bit too. Anyway Yeah. Jenny, we are gonna come back, and then we're gonna do, like, little vignettes on all of these.
And, we'll pick through them one at a time and see see what we figure out. I appreciate it. That sounds like fun. It's been nice talking to you. Thank you so much.
You as well.
I'll see you soon.
Okay.
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#1949 Diabetes Overload
Diabetes Overload
Ashley was working as a diabetes educator when her own son was diagnosed. She talks about the burnout she had already watched up close, and what she does differently because of it.
Jump to a moment
- She was a diabetes educator when her own son was diagnosed. Ashley is an RN and a family practice clinic supervisor who was working as a diabetic educator and care manager the week Braden was diagnosed at eight. Her clinical knowledge meant she read his lab results before anyone called — and it also meant she had spent years watching adults who could not keep it up.
- Burnout is why she changed jobs. As a care manager she worked with a man in his twenties who was too burned out to dose at work, and he died. She describes going home from that to look at her freshly diagnosed child and being unable to hold both. Her read on the people she saw struggling: some started managing alone too young, and most simply did not have good resources or help.
- She insisted on a CGM immediately. At the training day the morning after discharge, she was told there were requirements — weeks of finger sticks first. She said send the prescription anyway and offered to pay cash. They left the pharmacy with a Dexcom that day. Getting an eight-year-old to wear it cost a fishing pole and a Fortnite account leveled to 100.
- Sports make his numbers unpredictable in both directions. Wrestling can send him to 400 on adrenaline or drop him to the 40s mid-match with no warning, and there is no practical way to check during a match. He is now on a DIY closed loop he found through the podcast, and she programs around a school lunch and recess pattern that was reliably dropping him.
- He forgets to pre-bolus, and she has made peace with that. Braden rates his own diabetes care a two because he starts eating before he doses. Both Ashley and Scott think that is ordinary for a preteen. Her position is that she would rather he be a happy kid thinking about his friends — so she lets the algorithm carry his school lunch and covers what she can from work. Not medical advice; that arrangement is between them and their care team.
- Diabetes Pro Tip series — Episodes 1000-1025 — settings, insulin timing, and food impact.
- Listener survey — The five-minute survey discussed in this episode; results at juiceboxpodcast.com/surveyresults.
- Touched By Type 1 — Programs, the annual conference, and Dancing for Diabetes.
Every word of the conversation
Cold open & sponsors0:07
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A nurse, an educator, and a mom2:29
Hi. My name is Ashley. I'm a mom to four. My third one, he passed away shortly after birth due to a birth defect, and my fourth one is my son who has type one. He's 11, turning 12 on Saturday.
I'm also an RN. I'm a supervisor of a family practice clinic, and I used to be a diabetic educator.
Wow.
I was actually a diabetic educator when Braden was diagnosed.
Well, that's odd. Yeah. Okay. There's a lot to pick through there already. How you're married?
Yes.
You have to be or I mean, what would you do with all those So Right. Can you imagine three kids by yourself? I'm sorry for people who are doing it. I can't imagine that. I
I can't imagine, especially if you had children who are diabetic. I mean, it's so much work and then to try to coordinate between two people, especially if you're, like, the main caregiver, which sounds terrible, but, like, I feel like it has to kind of default slightly to one parent more than the other, otherwise, you'd be going against each other every day.
So what happened to us? We we we early on decided, like, it was gonna be one of us more, like, mainly because it was very difficult back then even just to pass it off, because you'd be like what what I found us doing, keeping in mind there were no CGMs, and we weren't using a pump because it was so long ago. But you'd find yourself going like, okay. Well, here she is. She ate two and a half hours ago.
It was this many carbs. I gave her this much insulin. We tested forty five minutes ago, and her blood sugar was this. She seems a little and you were like, it was too it was just too much information to pass back and forth to people. And then, you know, somebody wouldn't get the vibe of what the first person was doing and something would go wrong and it just kinda was a mess, honestly.
So I
can't imagine doing it how you guys had to do it in the beginning compared to now.
My god. Am I an old head now? Like, am I, like, a am I am I, like
Just like diabetes has grown so exponentially even just the last two, three years.
Yeah. I guess I hadn't thought about that. I guess I'm the modern version of, like, regular and Miles per hour. You just had a meter?
Right. Like, that's terrifying.
Yeah. Why why? Tell me why.
Well, so Braden's in, like, a bunch of sports. So he goes super high sometimes due to the adrenaline, but it's not predictable. He's like, if he wrestles, sometimes he'll shoot up to 400. Other times, he'll just stay at, like, 70. I don't know that.
He doesn't act differently. But then sometimes mid match, he's down to, like, 40 for no apparent reason. You can't just I mean, I guess you could stop a wrestling match and pick their finger and see where they're at. But
That'd be crazy.
That would he would lose his mind if that's what I started asking him to do it during every wrestling match.
I I can't imagine you looking at the ref and saying, hey. We just need to hold up one second. Right. Yeah. He's gonna he's he's gonna change.
Check his blood sugar just real quickly. Oh my god. Right. Yeah. I mean, I
think not go well.
Wrestling, and numbers you can’t see5:47
I take your point. It's it really is I don't know how to put it exactly. I I guess it's just a different time. And I didn't think anything of it back then because what you described going to 400 or, you know, dropping, falling, blah blah blah, we just didn't know unless somebody felt dizzy or you happened to test at the right time.
Right. Yeah. I had a friend when I was in high school who was diabetic, and she was the first person I was ever really exposed to it. And I just like, I didn't understand it, but I know she ate every day and took insulin every day. But let me tell you, not one time did I ever see her check her blood sugar.
How is she today? Do you still know her?
Yeah. She's good. She's on a pump and CGM now. Omnipod and Dexcom.
Cool.
Doing great. That's good. So weird to think back. Like, I know you didn't do that. That terrifies me too.
Like Well
My son is already not great at taking insulin. So
Is is he does he having trouble?
He so, like, yesterday, I asked him, like, what if what would you rate your diabetes care at? Like, he's like, a two. Like, why? He's like, because I always forget to put insulin in until after I start eating.
He can't remember to pre bolus? I think that I don't think that's a two. I think that's pretty common.
Yeah. That's what I thought too, but that was his his answer.
Why do you think he feels that way about it?
I think he just like, he knows he's supposed to pre bolus. That's a thing. We talk about it. But he just I don't know. He can't get it in his head, which I think part of that I'm kind of happy about.
Like, he's thinking about life and hanging out with his friends as a little preteen boy. Yeah. Not only that about diabetes, so that it's kind of a win, life first. I mean, I want him to have his life, so I need him to take the insulin. But I also want him to be a happy boy that doesn't get depressed.
And
Why she left the job7:48
Yeah. There's there's there's too much to think about, isn't there, Ashley?
Yeah. I so as when I after he was diagnosed, I was taken care of when I was a diabetic educator, I was also a care manager there. And I was taking care of this guy who is type one, and he was in his twenties, and he just didn't he was too burnt out. He couldn't do it. He didn't want to take the insulin while he was at work and didn't want to do the stuff, and and then he died.
And that's when I left being a care care manager and diabetic educator because I couldn't see that negative of the burnout that happens and then go home and look at my freshly diagnosed child.
Oh, you you changed you changed professions or or at least focuses because of Yeah. Do you think it was in was it the experience with that one person, or was it an overall kind of collection of experiences?
I think being the care manager, I kind of saw the worst of the worst for care, like, the people who needed the most help, which is great. I helped a lot of people, but I also saw so many people struggling. And that's all I could think about every day. Then when I go home, it's like, I'd look at my little tiny child who lost all this weight from diagnosis or prior to diagnosis. Like, is that gonna be his future?
Is he gonna be 21 and he's so burned out that he won't take insulin? And
Can I ask you, did the burned out people have anything in common? Like, was there something about them that you could put your finger on?
I don't know that it was a specific thing. Like, I thought maybe they just started too young on their own for some of them. I think a lot of them just didn't have really good resources and help, which shouldn't be Braden's case. But
Still was a lot for you to consider.
Right.
Yeah. Every time.
Like, you're this fresh in this world that you like, I obviously knew about diabetes and how to treat it, and that was really lucky for us. We didn't even have to stay in the hospital when he went to DKA because of my position.
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One year, one CGM. No. I I think
The week before diagnosis11:55
A lot.
I think I understand. Plus you you lost a child too. Yeah. Yeah. So you have some built in anxiety around that, I would imagine.
Yep. Yeah. A little bit.
That makes sense.
A little bit of PTSD of already losing one child to finding out you have another child. And, like so I kind of thought maybe Braden was heading that way. We went to the doctor. They tested him. His blood sugar at that exact moment when he was feeling fine was 75.
So he's good. He doesn't have diabetes. He's just puking for no reason every couple weeks. And then, like, the week before he was diagnosed, he just started not feeling good. Like, he stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday from puking, which had been normal every couple weeks.
So I scheduled a new appointment on Friday. Like, we're gonna go see a different doctor. Whatever. And then Wednesday night, we went to his wrestling academy, and he drank so much. I mean, like, he drank probably four Gatorades in this two hour practice.
And
then we went to Dave and Buster's, and he started crying there because he was so thirsty. And then he's like, I really don't feel good, mom. It's okay. We're going to the doctor on Friday. Be good.
Thursday, I was the day that I saw my patients in the clinic, and, like, he didn't feel good that morning. He was gonna stay home from school again, go to my mom's, whatever. Then my husband called, and he's like, hey, Ash. Like, he's kind of lethargic. He's really not feeling well.
I'm like, okay. We'll just take him to urgent care and get him checked there, and then we'll go from there. Because I already work in the Endo office. And then his lab results came through, like, on our MyChart, and I'm like, oh, you got super high ketones. Yeah.
Did you Cool.
Cool. Did you think prior to the lab results, were you thinking diabetes?
So I thought, like, this could be diabetes. And then I also thought, like, no. I'm a diabetic educator. I am totally just pushing these symptoms on him because that's what I see every day.
No.
There's no way.
The Oh, there was
a way.
Yeah. There was a way. The in the family, any other autoimmune stuff?
So I have thyroid issues. I have Graves and Hashimoto's, and my husband's mom had RA and lupus.
Okay. That's that's for sure. Anybody else? How about the kids? They have anything besides the type one?
Nope.
No? Okay. How old were you when you got your thyroid problem?
19. I was pregnant with my oldest, and she I went hyperthyroid. Mhmm. And then when I got pregnant with my son who passed away, like, shortly after that, it must have happened that I went hypo. I had miscarriage after miscarriage, and that was what they determined is that I flipped, and that's why I couldn't have babies because it's hard to get pregnant when you're super, super hypothyroid.
Gotcha. Were you managing it? I I mean well, but, like, were your numbers okay? Or because if you knew when you were 19, you were taking medication. Right?
No. They didn't put me on meds. They just said it was pregnancy induced and to just watch it. Like, I was right on that edge kind of
Oh.
Where you're hyper, but you're okay.
Mhmm. And nobody did anything for it?
No. They completely blew me off everywhere I went to. Like, I saw three different doctors, and my OB doctor wanted me to do the iodine treatment. Like, I I'm not doing that right now, like, radiation. I just had a baby, and I'm not going to not hold my baby.
That's not good for bonding or mental health.
So you wanted to kinda hold off a little bit. Yeah. Were what were your other simp did you have other symptoms? And if so, what were they?
When I was hyper, I had, like, all of the symptoms. I was all energy super, super thin. Like, I'm five to eight, and I was probably, like, one ten. Oh. Then, like, the GI symptoms that kinda come with it and the hot flashes and the heart palpitations and all of
Everything.
All of it.
Like, you're all jacked up on something Yeah. Because you are. Like,
if I was a monster drinker, it'd be, like, a 12 pack a day. That's probably what it felt like.
What what are the GI symptoms with hyper?
You get more diarrhea.
Oh, more. Excellent. Fun. Yeah. Who doesn't want more diarrhea?
Oh, it's a blast. When you're already thin and don't eat because you're never hungry.
When you said it's a blast, were you trying to be funny? Yeah. Oh, my god. That's awesome. Okay.
So his he goes to the urgent care, gets the labs back. I I am interested if because of your job, do they just act like you know what to do and then they don't say anything to you, or how does the process go?
So I saw the results before he saw like, my husband saw the results. I'm like, he's diabetic. He's gonna go to the hospital. And then they came in and told him that, to go to the hospital. Mhmm.
And I'm like, okay. Go to the children's the HSHS Children's Hospital in Green Bay because that's, like, the clinic I'm attached to. Go to that one. Well, in Green Bay, there's two hospitals right next to each other, and he went to the wrong hospital. So I'm sitting in the emergency room, like, just waiting for him to come through.
I'm like, what are you doing? Like, this should not take that long. I left work to come here. You should be here.
Two hospitals, four hours, and home17:37
Your husband went to the wrong hospital?
Yeah. I'm like he's like, I'm in the emergency room. I'm like, no. You're not. I I am here.
I do not see you. He did. He went to the wrong hospital, so I had to come over. And so we get called back to the room, whatever. I explained the symptoms, and they're like, oh, so he's type one.
Like, you think he's going into DKA again or something? I'm like, well, he doesn't have a type one diagnosis or anything at this point, not officially. And she's like, oh, the way you presented that just sounded like he already has it. Like
yeah. That happened to us too. We went to the desk at the emergency room. We're like, she has type one diabetes. And then she started asking questions, and we were like, oh, wait.
We're sorry. We're diagnosing her with type one diabetes. Like, like, this is, like, a, like, a fresh thing. So you did the same thing. Yeah.
Yeah. And the doctor's like, oh, okay. So we'll we'll just give him some fluids and some insulin and try to bring him down. And then from there, we will work on this, and and we'll get him in order. And then if things are good, we'll determine, like, if he can go home and you can manage it or if he has to stay.
And, ultimately, his stuff came down enough that they let us go home. We caught it pretty early. I mean, his blood sugar was, like, six thirty, which I feel like in the grand scheme of diagnostic numbers for DKA is pretty probably on the lower end.
How long was he at the hospital?
Four hours maybe.
Oh, no kidding. Did they get him out of DKA that quickly?
Yeah. He was, I mean, barely there.
It just it started to happen. Oh, wow. Well, thanks. I'm glad you figured it out so quick.
Then we went to the pharmacy, and they, like, wouldn't give us any insulin. Like, pretty sure we need that.
Why didn't they wanna did you not have a script?
They sent the prescriptions in, but they didn't have the junior pen the Humalog junior pens in stock, so we had to find a new pharmacy for that. And then my insurance didn't cover Lantus. They wanted Basaglar. And I was like, right at the end of this pharmacy shift, just give me the medicine. I'll pay for it.
Just wanna go home.
Yeah. Jeez. What a terrible thing. How long ago was this?
He was diagnosed about four years ago.
Four years ago.
October '22.
And he was what? Was he seven now?
Eight.
Eight. Okay.
Just turned eight.
How long has it felt how long does it feel like it's been? I know it's been four years, but does it feel like a lifetime ago, or
does it Yeah. Like, it's hard to remember not being him not being diabetic.
Hard conversations with an eleven-year-old20:18
Yeah. And do you think it's had any impacts on him growing up either positive or negative?
So we kinda talk about this a lot because he had a friend who committed suicide recently.
Oh my gosh.
And so we we have a lot of in-depth talks. Like, how does this feel? Like, where are you at? He's like, I hate it. Like, he's like, I obviously don't like it, but it's not the end of the world.
Mhmm. It definitely affects him. He has to leave practices because his blood sugar goes low. Or in matches, sometimes he doesn't wrestle good because his blood sugar is too high, and I can't get it to come down too fast without crashing him and making him feel weak.
Yeah.
Like he definitely sees that. Like, it's it's part of his life, and his friends don't have to deal with that. But he feel like it's not the end of the world. He's like, I know this is what I have, so it is what it is.
So you think he has a a fairly positive attitude about it?
Yeah. As good as an 11 year old boy can.
Yeah. No. I mean, he's he's really young. Gosh.
I know my daughters wouldn't have that attitude. That would be way worse.
They they what why do you think that?
Well, one is absolutely terrified of needles, so she would be losing her mind every time. My son, like, he's like, whatever. Take the shot. Whatever. I'll do the finger poke.
Unless he is super low, then we don't can't do anything because he's a rage monster.
Hey. I didn't expect to talk about this, but how do you parent through an acquaintance or a friend committing suicide with with your kids?
That was hard. Like, I was the one who told him, like, hey. One of we lost one of your friends today. And, like, he he guessed a friend, which is not the friend it was. And it's hard to, like so he wears a bracelet every day, like, live live like that person, and we talk about, like, living life and the being grateful for life every day.
I think that has really brought a lot of that talk that maybe you don't always recognize until someone dies.
Yeah. Wow. It must have been shocking when he chose a different kid. Did you did you consider did you consider talking to that person's parents, or did you think it's none of my business?
I think the reason so the kid he picked is a very emotional child.
Oh, okay.
Like like, he cries a lot and lets all those feelings. And so that's why he thought. And I don't know that that actually would
Lead to the same situation.
To yeah.
Yeah. It might it might actually be beneficial.
Right. That's what I and talked to my husband because he's a teacher and administrator. Like, this is who he said. Do you think, like, this is someone who should be on a suicide watch? Or, like, is that a thing?
He's like, I would not suspect that he he doesn't hold those emotions. He lets them go.
That's crazy. Yeah. I mean, I that being an adult is is it's really terrible. Imagine having to, like, moderate that with a child, and it's gonna have, like, impacts throughout their, like you know, they're gonna remember that person for years. You know what I mean?
I'm I'm sure he'll remember him forever. Yeah. I mean, they were good friends. They did sports together. They show in the fair together.
Oh, that sucks. Well okay.
And it's a small school. I mean, there's only, like, a 100 kids in their high school, so it's it's small.
Yeah. Right. Right. So everybody knows everybody.
Everybody knows everybody. Yeah.
Friends, alarms, and a raging low24:14
What about the diabetes with friends? Is he good with it being exposed to others? Does he have trouble, like, sharing it?
No. He's super good about it, and I think it's kind of cool to see some of it. Like, one of his friends put a Dexcom on him one day, and he let him do that. Like, I don't know, little things that are just kind of cool. We were sitting at a wrestling dual team in Iowa, And his other friend is like, hey.
What's your number? Because his alarm was going off. And he's like, 67. And then they all, like, freaked out with the six seven thing. Like, the whole side of the mat is just, like, 67.
And I don't know. It's funny. They're like, what is a good number, and what are we looking for? So I don't know. That's really cool.
I mean, do his friends understand that when he is high, he is slow and doesn't think good and whatever? No. They understand that when he's low, that he can not be well fun to be around.
Yeah. He's he's agitated when he's low?
Agitated is a word. He is a raging monster when he gets really low. Not always, but, like, he can. You could tell him the sky is blue and the trees are green, and he would be like, no.
Really argumentative right away.
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, okay. We need to take this low treatment. He's like, I'm not taking that.
Don't like those. Okay. I mean, there are definitely times when he was first diagnosed when we were playing the roller coaster game. Like, okay. You gotta have a low treatment, and he would not eat, and he would not drink.
And he would fight it and fight it. And I'm like, I can try to force you, but at the end of the day, he if I try to put a drink in his mouth, he's probably gonna spit in my face in that moment.
How do you handle that?
Cry.
Does that work? Eventually,
she comes around, but I do very distinctly remember there was a couple times where I was like, we're gonna die. Like, we're gonna go to the hospital because you're gonna die.
So the crying from you is out of fear?
Yeah.
Yeah. When Art when Arden was really little, and I mean, like, super little, you know, two, three, four years old, if I couldn't get her to drink or eat something when she was really low, I would purposefully get in, like, little arguments with her because the the back and forth arguing would like, it hit her adrenaline. It would and it would pop her blood sugar a little bit.
I think that probably is part of it because when he's arguing, I mean, he he does he gets all raging. He does come up a little bit, so I'd feel less about it. Yeah. Especially now that he doesn't have shots, that seems a little easier to manage because he uses Trio now, and that works
Oh, nice.
Pretty well.
Yeah. I I have to say I've it's not a thing. Like, I it's not a tactic. It's just something that happened, you know, that I realized one day when she got mad and I got upset and we were being upset together that her blood sugar would start to go back up without her taking anything. And then there was a couple of times where I couldn't get her to drink or eat, and I just, like, kinda picked a fight with her to make it happen.
It's not like a not like a point of pride or anything like that. It's just a thing that happened. I shared that once on the podcast years ago, and then I took a lot of crap online for it. So I look forward to somebody being terrible to me again.
But You know, sometimes we just gotta do what you gotta do in the moment. If you can't get them to eat a drink, you're not physically harming them by making them agitated.
Yeah.
If that's what will raise their blood sugar enough to make them think clearly, like, maybe I should actually just drink the freaking juice Yeah. Then
Actually, I was there. I did I did what I had to do. You you you know what I mean? It's it's a little hard to judge fifteen years. By the way, she just turned 22 yesterday.
She's doing I know
I saw that. Her pictures are so beautiful.
Oh, yeah.
So beautiful.
Thank you. Thank you. I'll tell her. So does he get a CGM? I mean, it's only four years ago.
Demanding a CGM on day one28:21
Do they offer you CGMs right away? You obviously know what they are. So what's that whole process like?
So we left the hospital. The next morning, we went right to Children's at 07:30 for our hundred hour training day. And they're I'm like, I want a CGM today. I'm like, I don't care if it's a Dexcom or Libre. I'm like, I know Libre is $75 cash pay.
I will cash pay if that's what I need to do, but I want that today. And, like, we don't usually I'm like, no. I want this today. Mhmm. This is happening.
So I don't care. Send the prescription in. So I did. And they sent in the they're like, well, you're not gonna get it. You have to have too many weeks so many weeks of finger pokes and blah blah blah.
I'm like, I don't care. Just send it. We went to the pharmacy. We got it. I had to bribe him like heck to get this Dexcom g six on his arm.
And if you're wondering what a bribe to an eight year old is, we he wanted his dad to level up his Fortnite account to level a 100 because he wanted that skin, and he needed a new Googan Squad fishing pole.
Did it cost you a fishing pole and a level up on a video game?
Yep. That's where we were at.
It's not bad. Yeah. You would probably gotten the fishing pole anyway. So
Right. Like, it was probably coming. Maybe not that one because it was, like, $250, but whatever. He put the Dexcom on. He hated the g six, though.
The g seven was lifesaving to us because every time putting that g six on was a nightmare.
You know what I'm I'm heartened by? The fake outrage social media around the move to g seven is not working.
It's so weird to me because I think the g seven is so much more accurate for us, and it warms up faster. And it doesn't hurt going in like the g six did on him at least.
Oh, well, I'm glad it yeah. I mean, Arden's been using it for, like, since day one, g seven. And as soon as they went to fifteen day, I got them to write the prescription for fifteen days.
Sweet. I have had fifteen days because I talked to the reps in the clinic still, and they don't generally last the full fifteen on him. But I feel like part of that's probably because he's so active, and he's little. I mean, he's, like, five foot one, but he's a hundred or not a hundred. He's, like, I weighed yesterday.
He's eighty five pounds.
Yeah.
It's like he's skinny. He has no fat on him. Like, negative fat. So and maybe that's why pushing and pulling in wrestling practice or golf practice or baseball practice.
It makes as much sense as anything else. Yeah. I mean, listen. You're you're in health care. If I put a heart monitor on you and then told you to go out in the world and just live your life and one of the leads fell off, you wouldn't say this heart monitor sucks.
Right. Yeah.
No. I don't think it's the g, the fifteen days fault. I think it's just a
I I don't dismiss the fact that it doesn't work the same for everybody. That I know is a 100% true. And I'm I feel really grateful that Arden's last right out to the last second. It's just it's dumb luck that it works for her physiology. And by the way, she deserves some dumb luck.
Not everything goes her way. And Yeah. But but what I'm talking about is the the people who thought they were gonna get social media clout by complaining about being forced off of g six. And I'm seeing them try their posts, so they're not working. Meaning, they're getting, like, one or two likes.
On progress, and people who resist it31:46
The algorithm's not picking them up. So the the fake outrage I'm gonna get, like, diabetes in you know, influence cred off of complaining about the upgrade of a device from one to the next is not working, which I I don't know. I I felt good about because I thought we were gonna see for I thought for six months, we were just gonna see people complaining and that it was gonna pop off, but it doesn't seem to be going that way. So
No. I just don't understand it. There's just I mean, having the two pieces of the g six to me, while it's great at the time, better than the things before, is kind of inconvenient, especially if you have a child who's already afraid of the g six or it in general, and then you have to snap on another piece and push on the area that in their head thinks really hurts.
Yeah. You know, I mean, listen. I I have to be honest. This is I I don't know how much of a pivot this is is I don't understand most of people's upset at this with progress. Like, I I I think it's possible that if you were born in the last twenty years or you've lived with cell phones or computers and the Internet and everything that you can things have been pretty good for you.
And you when they make something new, it just feels different, and then different feels scary. Like, I get all that. But you you needed to grow you're not old enough, but you needed to grow up when I grew up. Like, I I think, like, even just, you know like, I get the arguments about AI making art, for example, that, you know, they're like, well, it just scanned the Internet and stole everybody's style. And I'm like, yeah.
That's definitely wrong. Those people should be compensated. I hope we could figure out a way to do that. But if you just kinda step back for a second, if you were me in 1976 at five years old, six, 07/08 through the end of the seventies, this is magical. Like, what's going on right now?
And there are so many great ways to use it or to enjoy it or to be creative with it. And instead, I see people just going like, it's wrong. It's bad. Ah. And I'm like, I don't know.
Like, don't we wanna move like, isn't progress, like, what we're shooting for? I don't I I don't I don't know how to make sense of it exactly, but, like, my brain looks at it and goes, oh my god. It does this. I have five ideas right now I'm gonna do. And then other people see it and go, it's slop.
It's do it yourself. Like, do it myself. You thought I would
Not everyone has the skills to do it themselves.
How the hell was I gonna do that myself? I'm I
know what you're talking about. It's not like I'm going to go pay someone to do it. So either, I have this option that can do it for me, and it's really cool.
Oh, that's the other thing that's that absolutely baffles me. That you you've taken a job from an artist. I'm like, no. I haven't. I I cannot afford to hire an artist.
I've I've made a thing that would otherwise not exist. But if you think that the all they seem to set up this false narrative where I I had $90,000 to pay a programmer to do something, but instead, I decided to use AI to do it. Like, no. It wasn't gonna get done the other way. I don't have that kind of money.
I don't have that kind of resources. I'm a guy making a podcast. I'm not Coca Cola. You know what I mean? And and to see and to see that out, it is really interesting, the false narrative that comes up.
Like, oh, well, you did this instead of that. I'm like, no. I did this instead of nothing. Yeah. Also magic.
Like, are you like, magic. I just I I took an idea in my head, and I moved my fingers on a keyboard, and something showed up in the physical world that works. And you're going and you're going boo. I'm like, I don't know. You you and I are seeing a different pathway through the world, I guess.
And then they you know, it's, you know, water and electricity. And I'm like, no. I get it. Like but it won't be like this forever. I mean, look what happened the other day.
I don't know how like, if people track this stuff. But when there there's kind of this thing that happened. Right? Like, like, American companies making AI said we need more power to get more compute to make this thing work. Like, they said, it'll work better if we if we power it more.
And then a bunch of other companies that couldn't afford the power said, well, we'll just have to rewrite the code and make it work better. And they went off and did that, and that's actually working now. So some Chinese company just put out a model called Kimi, and Kimi doesn't use the same power that, you know, ChatGPT does, for example. So somebody got pressed into a corner to figure out how to make it better without using all the electric, and they figured it out. And ten years from now, it won't be like this again.
Just like you know what I mean? Just like things change along the way. I I don't know. I I just I wish everybody had to grow up in the seventies and watch Yeah. You know, watch one of three channels.
And after school television was a guy with a puppet who you probably would call a pedophile now if you looked at him. And and there was nothing to do, and he had to get up at 06:00 in the morning to watch Mighty Mouse. And and that was on Saturday, and then it didn't happen again till Saturday next year. And there were no computers and no Internet. You were bored out of your freaking mind and blah blah blah blah blah.
And then live through that for a day and then come back and tell me this is this is bad.
Right. Like, kids don't get it. You there's so much instant gratification for everything.
Yeah. Everything just works.
And if it's not there, then it's, like, a tantrum. And then if it's not how you exactly want it, it's also a tantrum. It's funny.
Yeah. They grew up where everything just did the thing it's they said it was gonna do.
Right.
There's an expectation that everything just works. It just does it. It happens immediately. I saw something the other day that said the average watch on a TikTok reel is three seconds. Yeah.
I mean
That's crazy.
Yeah. What it's the I'm being pressed by by things to make shorter podcast episodes. And it not that people don't want longer podcast episodes, but, you know, just through the the the the fact that you're alive, you might start an hour long podcast or an hour and twenty minute long podcast and listen to an hour of it or an hour and five minutes of it or something like that and not watch not listen to the last ten minutes or something, which is fine. I don't care about that. But the algorithm then reads that as not completing the the view.
What the algorithm rewards38:19
And so then I and then I get hurt if you don't listen all the way through. So the pressure is to make shorter stuff, twenty, twenty five minutes. Now even if it doesn't have all the information or doesn't, like, expand the conversation or whatever, I'll get I'll get a different I I get different weight on a chart if you just finish the episode.
That's weird. I'll make sure I finish all my episodes.
You're very nice, but, like, that's not my that's not why I'm telling you. What I'm telling you is that the algorithm is pressuring me into making something that I don't think is the right thing.
Right.
You know what I mean? Because you you and I have been talking for forty minutes so far. Yep. And we've talked about so many, like, big ideas and going over things we didn't expect to go over. Hopefully, it's been interesting for people so far.
I still have other stuff I wanna ask you about, the diabetes piece of it. And, anyway, I just making stuff to these algorithms is a mistake. And Yeah. You know what I mean? It's and I don't know how to fix it either.
I I have
no idea. Weird because, like, there is more stuff. And then if you're only doing that, the short little episodes, I don't know. Like, I really like the short episodes too. Like, when you and Jenny talk or when you do the little ones that are, like, ten or twelve minutes, that's interesting too.
Nothing at all.
Can fit in more than one.
Yeah. Yeah. But, like Yeah. No. I don't
I'm also open to the super long episodes. I don't The the three learn stories.
Yeah. Yeah. I listen. I appreciate that. And I don't I there's been there are some reasons to make shorter episodes, but not because the algorithm will put me higher on the chart because of it.
And then I can and then I can show the chart to somebody and get an ad for it, and then they'll like, it's that's ridiculous. And Yeah. And it's leading to a three second reel. Like, so when when when Instagram first came out, you were like, oh, I can see people's photography. You could look at a picture and be like, oh, that's really great.
And now and then in short term, it just went to, like I used to talk about all the time, like, I the flick flick tap. Like, it's flick tap tap, flip tap tap, flip tap tap. And I would say to Arden, I'm like, are are you liking those pictures? She goes, yeah. They're my friend's pictures.
I was like, what are they of? She goes, I don't know. She's liking them to to support her friends. But support them in what? Taking a picture that nobody looks at?
I don't even understand what we're talking about. And it went from that to now, like, people are making, like, videos, and you're watching three seconds of it. Yeah. Like, you can't put anything meaningful in three seconds.
I totally get that because my son had a wrestling YouTube channel. And, like, people watch it, and you can, like, see, like, they only watch this much. I'm like, so you watch the introduction. Cool. Appreciate that you liked it.
That makes him super excited. It's just funny.
But to what end? Exactly. Right. And and now, you know listen. I I I I don't know if you've seen it or not.
Like, I I put out a a survey. I I hope everybody goes and takes it. It's juiceboxpodcast.com/survey. It's just about how the podcast has been for you. It's, like, literally a five minute survey.
Actually, I did take the survey.
Thank you. Oh, I really appreciate it. And, and the the feedback that's coming back says that the podcast, the way it works, is really valuable for people. But you put me in an ecosystem where it's it's flip, tap, tap, flip, tap, tap, not even that now. People don't even like anymore.
Now it's just flip, flip, flip, flip. Like like, I mean, you're living in a dystopian movie where your eye your eyes are peeled apart by clamps, and we're just running, like, fractions of videos past you all day long. Like and I and, like I mean,
in three seconds, you can't even say, like, hey. It's Scott. That that you're out in three seconds. You're done.
Do you pre oh.
Get to introduce yourself.
Yeah. Yeah. Pre bowl. No. Oh, darn.
Guess they You're done.
I guess they won't learn to pre bowl. And and so you don't bother making content for that. But the people who do it anyway that get that view, then they go out and sell that view for ad space. But it's not real. Like and you just made the point with the YouTube video.
Like, they nobody's watching your YouTube video. Podcasts are unique where you can pick them up, put them down, pick them up, put them down. Yeah. You don't pick up and put down a YouTube video. It's No.
Not generally. Yeah.
You have to be really invested if that's what you're gonna do.
Exactly. And so now there's people out there like, look. I have ten, twenty, 30,000 views on my YouTube video. I'm like, no. You don't.
You know, you've you've
We don't have that. We're in the thousands.
Yeah. But
Which is fine. I don't need a 100,000 kids looking at my child wrestling, but he thinks it's really cool.
Yeah. Listen. I don't understand how to I don't understand any of this. I'm I am officially too old to think that this is a good idea. And I but the funny thing is is I don't think anybody else thinks this is a good idea either.
No. I mean, it's proven. Like, medically, we know our attention spans are getting drastically shorter.
Yeah. It's it's
gonna be a problem. The ADHD is astronomical. No one has attention span anymore. Mhmm. No one can do anything.
So what does that say for our future generations that have zero attention span? Like, how are we gonna get through college?
How are we
gonna have careers?
Well, you're
gonna cannot sit for a forty minute class.
Attention spans, and what we lose43:49
Yeah. And I think you have to think out farther than just a generation. Like, you have to ask yourself, like, what is it gonna mean to be a human being at some point? Right? And how much of this will be progress and how much of this will be a loss of yourself?
And I I don't know any I don't have a my brain does not expand far enough to consider all those things. I'm just gonna tell you that it would be a great idea to not scroll. That'd be a big eye that would really help you. Yep. So we'll see.
I mean, there's a whole listen. There's a whole world full of people who don't do it. They're not represented online. They're out there living their lives every day. I see the guy, you know, across the street from my house cutting his lawn.
He's not on TikTok. You know? He's he's living his life. I don't know if one learns better. I don't I don't know.
I'm not even making a judgment about it. I just think it's I just think it's
There has to be
a at
at minimum a balance. Like, okay. You're gonna look at it, but, also, you have to get out and live your life and do stuff that doesn't that requires you to think more than three seconds.
Yeah. And and and look at what you're, you know, look at what you're propping up is this idea of, like, I say all the time. Like, I'm not I'm not gonna scream into into my cell phone. But that's what works. Like, there's actually phrases that that are, like, proven to stop your scroll.
So if you pay attention, the videos all start with that phrasing. And it's always big eyes, like big bug eyes staring into their phone, like, or big faces, like, to grab your attention for a split second. And then they're selling that view. Like, you stay for ten seconds before you go, I don't care about this, and you scroll forward. They cared about it.
They just want the ten seconds. They just want they want the view click. And then they'll go out in the world and tell people, like, look. You know, I, you know, I don't it's boring, but I I bumped into some people recently who do diabetes influencing, and they asked me for my advice. And I said, you should try to help people.
Like, they you must know something. Like, take that thing out there and try to try to help people. And don't just scream into the camera and look pretty and bounce around and giggle and dance. Like, if you can help them, like, they'll come back and watch it again, and they'll tell somebody else about it. Otherwise, you're just you're just you're just being an attention whore.
And Right. That's not building a thing for you or for them.
So there's no benefit in that?
Well, not no. Not at all. And I can't and and, really, you have to like, if if I gave you a phone right now and let you scroll somebody else's feed and came back in ten minutes and asked you what you saw, you'd have absolutely no idea what you saw. No. So the person who thinks, oh, I'm being seen, you're not being seen.
You're not being seen at all. You are just you're digital visual noise. So, I mean, that's not a great way to live your life.
No. I look at like, my son will he scrolls through the TikTok when we're in the car or whatever. Like, what in the actual hell are you watching? Do watch the most random I mean, there's a lot of sports things. I get that stuff.
But some of the videos, it's just like, tap tap tap tap tap tap, like, people typing on their phone. Like, why are you watching that? That's so dumb.
Don't
like, these random AI videos that are so stupid. Like, how did that get into
your face? Hijacked. Listen. Every once in a while, I'm gonna tell you my two favorite videos this week. Not that I don't have I mean, I have social media like everybody else.
Little kids swimming off of Malibu with a 10 foot great white. They have no idea the shark is swimming around them. It is horrifying. And I'm just gonna let you all know that the veteran that slapped the guy in the head at the Cubs game for not standing up during the national anthem, I was delighted by that.
I didn't see that, but I feel like I need to look that up now.
There's a there's a, you know, there's a a Vietnam Veteran. He's at the Cubs game. He's out in the bleachers. Kids sitting in front of him, I don't know, 18, 19, 20 in that range, by himself, seated in front of the of the vet. A couple of rows up into the right are some older guys, probably late twenties.
They look like they might have, like, a, you know, a computer job, and they're at the game today or something like that. And I you can't really hear them, but the national anthem's playing, and the old man bends forward and says something to him. Like, you know, telling him, like, you know, get it seems like he's telling him you gotta stand up. And the kid kinda dismisses him, and the old man tells him again. And I don't know what the kid says, but when he turns back around to stay seated, the the old man, like, takes his left hand and slaps him in the head.
And That's crazy. And that kid pops up and looks forward. And the part of me that grew up in the seventies was like, see? That worked. And Yeah.
And and I also know we got listen. I'm not I live in the same, you know, same era that the rest of us live. I know we can't go around hitting people. I wouldn't do it. But watching it from a distance, I was like, maybe we ought to smack more people in the head.
That worked pretty well. Right. And then the two guys, the reason I explained to you, there were two, like, slightly older guys ahead. They turned around to give the old man shit, and he was like, whatever he said back to them, they shut up and turned around. And I thought
That's great.
Maybe we need a little more of all this. Now the news got ahold of the old guy, and he and he he was thoughtful about it afterwards. He says, look. I wish I didn't hit him. You know, he goes, you know but you need to understand, like, I lost a lot of friends in Vietnam.
People were fighting for him to be able to sit at that ballgame in the middle of the afternoon and watch the watch the Cubs play, And it it hurt that he didn't stand up. It's not respectful. And then and then the rest of it is he said, but it's not lost on me that I fought for his right to sit there if he doesn't wanna stand up. So it was really interesting to see him conflicted. Now if you could
use The bodge sword.
Yeah. And if you could use social media to have that, like, experience that I had, which only took me a minute to experience the initial video and then the the gentleman, like, speaking to the news afterwards. Like, that was kind of a full moment. Like, I feel like I got something out of that. Right?
I don't know what I would have figured out in three seconds, but, anyway, I'm sorry. Let let's finish up strong here. Your, son's using Trio. Yeah. So what do you use?
Letting the pump take lunch50:22
An Omnipod dash with DIY Trio and g seven? Yeah. Yeah. How's that all going for you? How do you find it?
I found it through the podcast. Oh. And it's going great. My so, like, in school kids, they have lunch, and then they have recess, and he was going low every day. So I'm like, well, let's program this algorithm so we can just do this.
So he took insulin at lunch one time the whole school year. One. What wait. Last year.
He's forgetting to bolus it for
No. He's he's just not doing it. We're just we're not.
Oh, you're you're testing.
The pump has officially taken over his lunch bowls at school. Not all the time because he eats way more outside of school than he does. But during school, like, he he doesn't take a lunch bowls. If he has some random snack during the day, then he has to bowl a sport.
Outcomes for that have been what? Good. Yeah. What what do you see usually?
Like, he'll go up a bit probably to, like, to 300 maybe. I try to catch it. I know he like, last year, he ate lunch at 11:50. So I give him some insulin from work, and and then he just goes about his day being a kid.
Where they are now51:38
Tell me why you were com tell me why you were comfortable with that.
Well, because one and if he isn't giving himself insulin or spotily giving himself insulin, it's easier to say, don't do it, and I will take care of it because then we're not double bolusing.
Okay. So why why are you so so he you you came to the conclusion that he was going to forget the bolus. Right?
Yes. Because he was doing that regular.
And you put him on the algorithm because you thought, well, this will be more aggressive and at least will hold him down, but he's still popping to, like, 300.
Not every day. That's, like, the highest days.
Okay. What's
the average? Say I'm on a phone call at work, so I also do triage and stuff, and I lose track of time a little bit. Mhmm. Then it's a late bolus. But it still catches it and brings them down pretty quick.
Like, it works pretty well. Most days, I would say he probably doesn't even go up to 200 on lunch. The bad days, he hits up to 300 and comes back down.
Is that
But we were having a lot of lows when he was giving himself insulin at lunch.
When he was giving himself insulin, he was having lows. Would you say that the three hundreds are more about the food that he eats or more about you not being able to jump in and throw some extra in when you see it go up?
Second. More when I'm just a little behind it.
So you're remote policing when you Yeah. So what happens? You get a little beep beep. He's going high, and you go, oh, this must have happened. You look at the suggested insulin and put the suggested insulin in?
So I start, like, all day. Like, at my work, I I have a double screen. One screen, I keep up mostly with his blood sugar stuff. Like, I have Nightscout open.
Mhmm.
And then I just kind of watch that and give him some insulin as needed to kind of keep him on track.
Okay.
So I think we're starting to hit puberty. Hate that. But our numbers are a little wonky right now as we're trying to adjust to turning into manhood.
Do you think there's a world where he will are you fearful how do I wanna ask you this? Are you fearful that by covering for him and not asking him to do it at all, he's never gonna do it, or do you think that he's about to get to an age where you can reassess and get him involved again?
So, like, when he goes to his friend's house or goes like, he went to the Dells with some of his friends once, he did his insulin. Or he like, at school, they went to Camp Unawala last year, and he did his insulin for that. So it was fine. Like, he can do it. Like, it's kind of one of the life balance.
Part of it, I'm sure, is a little bit of my history of the care manager and stuff that I don't want him to feel burned out. I want him to feel the burden of just being a 11, 12 year old boy with his friends and experience that and not have to be diabetic first.
Can I offer
I'd rather be his diabetes first?
Okay. Can I offer a tiny bit of perspective? Just my own personal?
Absolutely.
I would be careful not to overcompensate.
Like, when he's not in school, he mostly does it himself.
Okay.
Does he need some reminders? Like, hey. Did you take insulin for your snack
Yeah. Sure.
Or your drink?
Is
it going up?
I would But yeah.
I So it's like kind of a balance.
Oh, yeah. I mean, it sounds like you have it. I've just from just listening, I just thought, like, don't don't get so, like, defensive of one idea that you, like, let the other things, like, slide off a cliff is all.
Oh, absolutely not.
You're not doing that.
Pretty much the only one I do is lunch. Right. And like I said, if he has snacks at school, if he has when he has breakfast, lunch, dinner, Other days when he's not at school, he does it. It was just hard because we kept like, some days he would take his insulin, and then other days he wouldn't take his insulin. So then I'd give him insulin, and then he would also correct his insulin.
And then we're like, oh, crap. Now we have, like, way too much insulin, and he's super sensitive. So that extra unit is a big deal.
Yeah. No. I mean, listen. And just like we said earlier, you're gonna have to find the thing that works for you guys and and do what what, you know, what you gotta do.
I think as we move forward and he gets better, I think I'll probably each year try it and be like, hey. Are we gonna do our insulin at lunch? Like, this is on you, my little friend.
I mean, listen. At some point, I would imagine he he you said he knows when he's higher when he's wrestling. Right?
He doesn't feel highs. I can see it when he wrestles and he can't think through things that he would be able to think through.
I gotcha.
Or if even when you ask him questions when he's really high, like, it just takes longer. He's just like a a slow computer. Needs to be rebooted back down to where he should be.
Oh, no. Yeah. I know. And I know that Arden doesn't really notice it about herself in the moment. I don't I can't say that she doesn't know, but, you know, in that moment, I think it's you're not saying to yourself, oh, I'm probably answering slower now because, you know, it just kinda doesn't work that way.
Yeah. Yeah. I was He said he doesn't feel high at all. He feels lows, but not not high at all. He said he can't tell a difference.
Yeah. So, I mean, listen. Timers on the phone is I used that at school. Like, a timer would go off. She'd pre bolus then.
And, you know, she would text me and say, how much are we gonna do today? And I'd say, I'd, you know, I'd look at her blood sugar, and I'd say, well, your blood sugar is this. You know, you have this for lunch. I think let's put this much in now. And then when you sit down and you start eating, we'll do the rest.
I would say that sometimes. Sometimes we would send it up as, like I mean, I realize the systems are different now. Sometimes we would set up, like, extended boluses to put a bunch in upfront and then, like, dump the rest in over, like, thirty or sixty minutes to kinda so she wouldn't have to bolus a second time. There's a bunch of different ways I used to manipulate it to get it to work. The algorithms are I mean, obviously, to say that an 11 year old at school doesn't have to bolus a meal, his mom pops on remotely from her phone, throws some more insulin, and he'd only gets to 200 and doesn't generally get low afterwards.
Is that pretty awesome? You know? Yeah.
I mean, I'm very thankful for that. He's I mean, when he first got diagnosed, he was on the shots for a while despite my pressure to get on the pump right away.
Mhmm.
And, like, dad's a teacher in the same school, so he would just go down there at lunch. They'd figure it out, do a shot, have a 100 kids around them looking, and go on about their day.
Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I I listen. I think you're doing a great job.
You feel okay about it? Are you I mean, being a parent of a child with type one, is it a thing you're handling well? Are you in therapy? Are you crying still?
I'm pretty good about it. Like, there's days that I'm like, what is what is happening? Like, two weeks ago, he was just high. I mean, like, I he his total daily insulin is, like, 25 to 30. Mhmm.
And he was getting, like, sixty units a day and still just high. Like, what is what is going on? Change his pod. Change his insulin. Change his sites.
Like, why won't you come down? And then all of a sudden, the next week, just back to normal.
It's okay again.
Are you kidding me?
How do
blows my mind. Like so I have this perspective. Like, I see the family practice clinics, and I see these sliding scales prescribed and, like, oh, your blood sugar's 300. Take this much insulin. Like, how does that how can that functionally even work to people?
Because diabetes is so fluid. Like, one week, it's gonna be this, and the next week, it's gonna be wholly different. And we're just like, take the science scale for the rest of your life, and you'll be great.
I don't understand. I listen. Were you were you managing people who were doing that?
And it drove me insane because I'm not a prescriber, so I can't change it.
Does that happen in in
Take your insulin.
2021? How is that happening? Because that's, what, about four years ago. Right? So what what do you think the reasoning was behind the that that prescription from the doctor?
Some people just can't some people are not mentally there to do more. They won't do it, actually. They just straight refuse to do it, but they, okay, I'll take my insulin out my meals sometimes. Mhmm. But that's where they're at.
And, like, that's just that's what what they're gonna do.
So some some of it is just people's inability or or lack of desire?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah. It's heartbreaking. You see people with continuous 14 a one c's, and they just don't get it and don't care, and they feel fine, so they're fine until they aren't. And then they're like, oh my god. I need this gone now.
Like, well, it took a long time to get here. It's not going to go away overnight. It's gonna take some time.
Yeah. So do does everybody hit some level of horror that gets them turned around, or do some people just ride it straight into the abyss?
They just ride it straight to death.
Yeah. Jeez.
It's hard. I it's sad. I I just wanna be like, I'll come home with you. I used to make grids for people like, okay. You put your pen needles here, like, on this little map, and then you know you took your insulin for that meal.
And then, like, this is what we do. These are your meals. This is about what how many carbs are in that. So, like, this is what your insulin should be should you have this meal. Like, I tried to break it down to toddler level for some people.
And it's great because for some people, that really worked. Like, you have these standard meals like, oh, you're eating spaghetti. This is about how many carbs are in spaghetti. This is what your insulin should be. And then here's if your blood sugar is in these ranges, what you
do Yeah.
Which obviously is not a perfect system, but for some people, that was their perfect system.
Hey. I I not punitively, but just for understanding bigger picture. Intellect gets in the way sometimes?
Absolutely. Okay. Because you have to be able to under just to you have to be able to have a basic understanding of why you're doing this. Like, what's going on? Like, your body isn't making this insulin, and we have to have that for your food to get into your cells, and some people just can't comprehend that.
Yeah.
Why?
Explain it. It doesn't matter. It's fine
if you can explain it a 100 different ways, and you can use a teddy bear and the the same things that you would say to children to some of these adults, and they just I don't know if they just don't care or they just don't want to know maybe or just really don't have the mental capability to understand. And probably all of it for some of
them. Yeah.
But it is hard.
Sad. It sounds like it took a toll on you as well.
It did. And I won't like, I really enjoyed helping people. Like, the people that I could get some success to get their a one c from high to low even in just drawing pictures and telling them the basic things so they have something was great. Getting some of them to use the in pen so they could track stuff and get a recommendation, that worked pretty well.
Yeah.
Some of them are like I'm like, let's go on the Omnipod five because you don't have to know that much. And I mean, that sounds bad, but, like, you can give it some general ideas. Like, okay. For dinner, I usually eat about 40 carbs or at least that's what my nurse tells me. And as long as I'm sticking to my same normal meal sizes, it's giving me insulin, and it still has that ability to kind of help correct when I do it
wrong Mhmm.
Or I forget something.
Yeah. I always sort of I feel bad it's the wrong way, but to talk about it. But when pump companies are trying to make these pumps, there's, you know, there's levels of people looking for levels of help. And, you know, everybody's not you or me or, you know, or somebody else out there who's holding, like, 481 c. Like, some people are or more the way you described, and these pumps have to try to help everybody.
I'm I've always been, like, an advocate for like, I I I don't know if this is possible. It sounds possible to me, but, you know, I would I'd like a UI that, you know, has a switch in it that says, like, are you are you shooting for a five? Like, use this part. Yes. You know?
Are you are you having trouble remembering the bolus and you don't understand the math? And if I asked you what diabetes was, you wouldn't even be able to explain to me. You know what? Flip it over to this. It'll take care of that kind of stuff.
And Yeah. And instead of running around with a ten, eleven, 12 because you've probably seen people with up to 14 a one c's, I imagine,
Oh, yeah.
On the regular.
Yeah. On the regular. And Especially in family practice because that's where they get it.
And no one's helping them there for sure. So so Not the right way. If if you could slap even an algorithm on them that would drag drag them into the eights, that would be a massive, massive health benefit for them.
Yeah. That was my goals. I tried even when other educators are like, no. They can't handle this. They can't handle something.
Listen. All we have do is teach them how to start a pod. I mean, it's they're on their phones all day. It's not that hard to say, give me a meal. Like
Yeah. It can't handle what? Because the what's the alternative?
Right. They're not taking their stuff. They're going to die. I mean, that sounds harsh, but, like, eventually, you're going to have complications, and you're going to die.
It's not harsh. It's what's happening. I I I remind people all the time, if you're listening to this podcast and you're doing well, you are in the minority.
Absolutely. Yeah. I can't tell you the people that I see. And if you're seeing a family practice provider for your type one, you're probably doing bad for yourself.
Right.
And I love my job, and I love the providers I work with, but their knowledge of type one is none. Mhmm. Like, we have one type one patient who comes in, and he has a great a one c. And she's always like, you're going too low. You're going too low.
We need to adjust this. I'm like, first of all, it's not what you would adjust. Like, you're addressing the wrong thing here. But you do like, they don't have that knowledge.
Yeah. It's tough too because it's not really that difficult, is it, Ashley?
No. And I have to bite my tongue, though. I'm not a provider. I'm not overstepping, and I'm not losing my license. But I do make little comments.
Like, hey.
I hate the way the world works. I hate I hate that we see things that are wrong and then nobody says anything. Like, well, it's not my place or and not that you shouldn't have done that.
I I I understand. Tell her like, I don't change his prescriptions. I'm like, hey. Have you considered that maybe maybe the basal is off a little bit? And it's not that he his corrections are wrong, that maybe it's just the timing is slightly off, and that's
causing him to go low. Yeah.
Like, he's actually doing great, but lows. But lows. But lows. Like, but, like, you can treat they're not severe lows. They're minimal lows.
Like, you gotta look at the grand picture here, and and we want to be healthy. We want to live a life without complications the best we can. We don't want sandpaper going through our veins. So
yeah, I I don't know. I I just really I really can't wrap my head around why somebody can't figure out how to do this. I it's not it just isn't that difficult. Like, I I'm talking about a doctor, not the people.
Yeah. Like, doctors.
Yeah. How how they can't figure out how to explain this to somebody or or not to say something like, well, they can't handle a pump, but they're dying. Don't you think we should try? No.
I mean, they can't the end stage here. Why do we need something?
Why don't we just push them off a cliff then? I mean, what's the point exactly? Absolutely. I mean, it it it really is. It's it it is genuinely fascinating to me to to see, like, I don't know, to see a bull charging at you and to just close your eyes is how it feels.
Like, I don't know. Maybe it's gonna hit you anyway, but run,
die. Like, do something.
Do yell, hey. Look over there. I don't know. Like, shouldn't we try something? No?
Or just proactive. Yeah. We're just gonna shut our eyes and let it run us over because we don't think they could figure out how to put a pump on. Right. Yeah.
That's a lack of critical thinking.
Like, are you kidding me? You literally pull a sticker thing off and you stick it to your body. And then And people stick them everywhere on their body. I mean, there's not a whole lot of things you can do wrong there.
Yeah. Alright. Okay. Listen. We can't fix the world, Ashley.
Nope. And you gotta
get back to the Not today.
No. No. Not today. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that the packers aren't good. I just wanna kick that into the conversation at the end.
I'm not a big packer fan. I'm actually an eagles fan.
Oh, well, god bless you though. Everything's fine.
My son was a Chiefs fan forever, and then he met Jordan Love at Dick's one day. Okay. And now he's a diehard Packer fan. Let me tell you, Jordan Love is one of the coolest guys you could ever meet.
That'll do it. You meet meet one of those guys in person, and you'll you'll be a fan pretty quickly. At least a good
He even talked in a FaceTime group with all of his little 10 and 11 year old friends at that point. Oh, he's a cool guy.
Yeah. That's alright. Fine. Jordan
Jordan only only plus for the packers. Only push. Jordan was Eagles fan for life.
Yeah. How'd you get any how are you an Eagles fan?
I don't know. I started to be an Eagles fan when I was in high school. They must have been doing good and
Smart.
And then I jumped on that wagon and never let it go.
Smart of you. Very smart of you. Okay. Alright. Hold on
one second. Fan till death.
Well, you know, Brewers have that type one. Is he in center field? Garrett?
Garrett Mitchell? Yeah. Really cool. My we went to Vegas to see him, and he got to meet Garrett Mitchell. He got his he signed his glove.
He gave him a ball that said type one warrior on it autographed. Really cool guy.
I've been trying to get him on. He does not answer my, my DMs. So, I mean, if I was a if was a baseball player, I probably wouldn't answer my DMs either. But I'm just saying he he he's he's and he gets better and better. He's actually improving as a player as he goes along too.
His first year, like, not being unhealthy. So, yeah, it's it's really cool. It's a really cool guy. Yeah. Cool experience.
I'll see what we can figure out. Alright. Hold on one second for me, Ashley. I appreciate you doing this. Today's show was sponsored by Tandem Diabetes Care, the Eversense three sixty five, and Touched by Type one, who you can learn more about on Facebook, Instagram, and at touchedbytype1.org.
Head now to tandemdiabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor, Tandem Diabetes Care. Think you're gonna find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with a Tandem Mobi system. I'd like to thank the Eversense three sixty five for sponsoring this episode of the juice box podcast, And remind you, if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year and not every fourteen days, you want the Eversense CGM. Eversense CGM dot com slash juice box. One year, one CGM.
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