#793 Bumblebee On A Leash

Julie has ADHD and a child with type 1 diabetes.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 793 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast we'll be speaking with Julie she is the mother of a child with type one diabetes. And Julie has ADHD. This is most of the podcast episode. Besides us being delightful together and saying things that are incredibly entertaining and informative. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan are becoming bold with insulin. As Thanksgiving approaches, please remember that those other podcasts you listen to, they put on rerun, don't play episodes at all, or give you content that they've recorded months ago that they didn't like not Scottie, I don't do that great content all week. leading right up into the new year will will just explode again into 2023 with more of the Juicebox Podcast. If you're thankful for that. Go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box join the registry and fill out the survey. It'll take you about 10 minutes. It will support people living with type one diabetes. It moves diabetes research forward, you can do it from your sofa, and it supports the Juicebox Podcast T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is brought to you by ag one from athletic greens. With one scoop of delicious ag one you're absorbing 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, Whole Foods sourced ingredients probiotics and adaptogens to help start your day, right? This special blend of ingredients supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, and aging. All of these things in just one scoop. Learn more. It gets started today at athletic greens.com forward slash juicebox. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox.

Julie 2:15
I don't know. Okay,

Scott Benner 2:17
you don't know. Do you feel? Are you okay? Are you nervous?

Julie 2:21
I am so unbearably nervous that I just stared at that thing at the bottom of the email like reschedule for like an hour while chugging coffee and taking like just a half a Xanax. No, but I feel I'm good now.

Scott Benner 2:37
Okay. You're being recorded. Is that okay?

Julie 2:42
Yeah, it's fine. I know how your role. Tell me your name. We'll

Scott Benner 2:48
see what's going on.

Julie 2:49
Okay, so my name is Julie. I am a mother to my son, George, who is just about to turn 14, type one diabetes diagnosed January 31 2020. And he was 11 at the time. And I have ADHD, and so does my son. And that's about it. As far as the introduction.

Scott Benner 3:19
I'm making a Venn diagram over here, hold on one second. This one's gonna fill them out that way.

Julie 3:29
I'm sorry, it is also it is gonna go that way. I started to make a little like a thing where I'm like, oh, I should write some stuff down. And so far all I have is don't purse. So

Scott Benner 3:40
can I tell you something that I think might make you feel better? Under pressure of like penalty of death? I don't know that I can exactly describe what a Venn diagram is. I was just,

Julie 3:51
Oh, I know what one is because I've had to learn because like my kids were home for like, two years with the with the COVID.

Scott Benner 3:59
So I guess since you know, it's one of those things where I draw like three circles that kind of overlap a little bit.

Julie 4:06
Yeah, it's two circles. And then the middle is what it what's in common. And then on the one side, I don't even know why we're talking about this. On the one side is like, what's going on here and this circle, the other one is going on this circle and what's in the middle is like what's in common?

Scott Benner 4:22
Okay, we're talking about it because I brought it up and I'm in charge Julie? That's true. Yeah,

Julie 4:27
I said I like that. I like that. Okay, because my brain could go in any direction. You bring up

Scott Benner 4:32
obviously, I'm just trying to take the pressure off of you for a second. So okay, so tell me your son's name again.

Julie 4:38
Next time is George.

Scott Benner 4:40
Are there any other kids or is Georgia

Julie 4:42
are other? There are other kids there is my daughter who is now 11 And she does not have type one as of now.

Scott Benner 4:53
Okay. Are you married?

Julie 4:56
I am okay.

Scott Benner 4:58
You have ADHD? What else you got going on?

Julie 5:02
I have, like mentally I mean, there's a lot going on with me. But no.

Scott Benner 5:13
Because I feel like you started breaking yourself up into into like sections in your mind. You're like, oh,

Julie 5:18
there's there's a lot of sections, but we'll just go with ADHD. And we will go with definitely extreme anxiety. And as far as autoimmune I have vitiligo

Scott Benner 5:35
by the way before you had said anxiety had already written it down, just assuming

Julie 5:40
Yeah, I think in my description, I might have put that down, like at least four times.

Scott Benner 5:44
Yeah, I didn't. I didn't read that. But I was gonna look at it in a little bit. Yeah, don't bother. You're all listening to a podcast where the prep that was done for it was the guy's like, I'll probably read it at some point while she's talking. Okay, okay. Julie. How old are you? 47. George, how we'll search. He will be 14 in about seven days. Okay. How old? Was he? Seven. He was 11. Okay. Yeah. All right. Here we go. Are you ready?

Julie 6:22
Yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready. All right.

Scott Benner 6:25
Well, he was oh, did you just want to go? You have something?

Julie 6:29
No, no, no, I don't just want to go. Am I going to

Scott Benner 6:33
be fighting with the motor in your brain all day? Yes. Okay. That's okay. Don't worry.

Julie 6:39
I'll explain why later. I don't like explaining why, yeah,

Scott Benner 6:42
we'll get to it. Okay. I almost started with George now I'm gonna start with you. ADHD, how old are you when you realize, like a doctor says, you you have ADHD.

Julie 6:53
I was 25.

Scott Benner 6:56
Somebody that was you your whole life prior to that you just

Julie 6:59
my whole life. But as a girl, or a woman, you know, it presents differently. I think that I was raised at a time in the 70s into the 80s. That was probably they thought I just probably didn't care. I didn't have parents that really pushed me. It created a lot of anxiety. But so like ADHD can just create a lot of anxiety because you don't need to be the way you are. But you just are. And so I was never diagnosed, I really barely thought I was gonna graduate high school, to be totally honest with you. I think they were like, You know what, let's just give it to her. Like, let's just give it a four paragraph.

Scott Benner 7:38
One out, maybe someone will marry her and get her a house.

Julie 7:43
By the way, back in the day, I had had several teachers because you know how they were inappropriate back in the day. But you know, they were like, oh, MySite and because that's my maiden name. You better marry rich, like right in front of the class, or like my science teacher, like, hope you're gonna be able to keep that beautiful smile. Until, you know,

Scott Benner 8:06
give context. Was this the 80s?

Julie 8:10
This was the 80s. Yeah, I was born in 75. So I would say, like I said, all the way up to high school. It really was not, it wasn't a pretty scene.

Scott Benner 8:20
You see, I joke around, I joked around and said, like, you know, we'll let you out of high school. And hopefully some guy will buy your house. But I'm telling you right now, like, that's a joke based in how people thought back then,

Julie 8:31
for sure. Oh, totally. And like said it out loud and didn't get in trouble. No. You can't do that these days. But also, my, my sister is like three years younger than I am. And she was classified and you know, had some things going on. So it's like I just made that cut off before they started, like piecing things together, where they were like, oh, maybe this one needs a little help. I don't know, you know,

Scott Benner 9:00
oh, well, we failed. Julie. Next.

Julie 9:03
Yeah. All right. So let your sister go through but you were gonna give extra help to? Yeah. Okay. So then. So it wasn't until? Just to go back to the original question. My so around 25 My anxiety started, because I had my own apartment and then really add at that point is more like, you have the money but you don't pay the bill. Right? You have the video, old school to return to Blockbuster. And it sits there. But it doesn't get to Blockbuster. You know, I'm like banned from libraries and blockbusters like all over the place. Like this check does not make stuff back. That type of thing. And when I went in there with the anxiety to a psychiatrist, he was like, Hold on before we talk about the anxiety. He's like, just the way you talk. Like, have you ever been diagnosed with ADHD add no ADHD. I'm like now so I took the, you know, tests or whatever. And that was the first time you know,

Scott Benner 9:59
that was my My first experience with the way you talk just meaning wrapping circles jumping around rapidly

Julie 10:06
jumping around, my husband's like, What are you even trying to talk about right now? Like, I don't know, just follow along, it will come to a point at some point.

Scott Benner 10:13
What about keywording? Do you do that? Can you be talking about the Atlantic Ocean? And at some point during it, someone says blue, and then we're talking about the color of your bathroom? Yeah. Okay. All

Julie 10:27
right. Yeah, I do that. And I also just do it to myself. And I also do it when I'm having a like, you know, all start talking about that. And then I'll say a word. And that will trigger a different thought. And then I will go in a different direction. I can do it all by myself. I

Scott Benner 10:42
don't need the rest of us to get out of the earth.

Julie 10:45
Oh, no. And then when I get really real, real chatty, and I'm in a conversation. It's like, it's almost like the person. I think of it as like, maybe you might have said this, but I don't know if it was you, but as somebody, but it was very clever. But like, it's like a tennis serve. It's like they're only talking to like, serve me a ball. You know what I mean? Like, they're saying something like, oh, there it is. I got something to say.

Scott Benner 11:09
Yeah, I can do this with my sister in law. I can just throw out a couple of words, and then just watch her go. It's like, it's like winding up a toy, and then watching it walk into walls? Did that just make me sound girls really? By any chance? Did it?

Julie 11:23
No, it's like, funny. It's like funny, but not funny. Do you know what I mean? Like, it is funny.

Scott Benner 11:28
So now the funny thing when I using my sister in laws and examples, I do believe she knows she's doing it. She just sort of can't stop herself. Does that make you feel that? Like while you're doing it? Are you? Are you like Julie? In your mind? Like stay on topic? Or you're not making sense? Or stop jumping around? Or? Or is it in the moment not aware to you?

Julie 11:53
You know what, I'm not aware, I would say in the moment. But I also not to brag, but I find myself kind of funny. So like, people are going along with me like they're laughing. It's not like, I'm looking I can read body language like if I need to, you know, like I will. So you know what I

Scott Benner 12:14
mean? So you're saying that you think people are laughing with you? Not at you. And so oh my god. Yeah, you're entertaining on top of all that? I think so you believe so? Has anyone ever page.

Julie 12:26
They I have never gotten cash for that.

Scott Benner 12:27
Well, until somebody pays you. I don't know if I can trust your assessment. But I hear what you're saying. And I understand where we're going with this. I'm asking. I'm asking you because I'm also stopping myself from just throwing you up into the air like a sparkler and watching it pop all over the place. Because I'm because I feel like we have such a good time. And yet, the episode would go nowhere. So I tried to stay focused.

Julie 12:55
Don't worry, then just throw it up at the end and see what happens.

Scott Benner 12:57
We'll just lay it all on fire and see what what comes with my real like real question around. And I appreciate you explaining all that and allowing us to make light of it. Because it does seem kind of burdensome and serious. But how does that how does the ADHD first of all, what the hell is the difference between ADHD and ADD? I'll google.

Julie 13:18
Ah, no, no, you don't have to the the so Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That's more commonly commonly seen in boys. Not always. It's like a combined type sometimes. I don't have the hyperactivity, although, I tend to defer because then you could call hyperactivity in a verbal way, which is also how my son is. So maybe it is ADHD, you know, it's the hyperactive part. You know how some people with ADHD especially as children, they're, they're up, they gotta get out of the seat. They're all over the place. They're very, very impulsive, that kind of stuff. So at 25 That's not what the doctor was diagnosing me with.

Scott Benner 13:58
If I were to tell you right now that you didn't answer the question, do you know that? Oh, do you remember what the question was?

Julie 14:07
Yeah. What's the difference between ATD and ADHD? It's hyperactivity.

Scott Benner 14:11
And so you started when you when you started when you started to define them. You then related the one to it's more often than boys, but then you were like, but not really. And then somehow you got back to yourself. I think you thought about girls, and then you came back to yourself. And then you talked about the hyper part again, and then you related it to your son, but in no way

Julie 14:30
I just talk right out of my brain, and it says not ever really. Yeah, exactly. My husband's advice this morning, he goes, stick to the point, and then get up and let him talk. Like, yeah, well, you know, that's not gonna happen.

Scott Benner 14:43
I don't care. But let's try it again is a focus thing. Oh, tell me what ADHD stands for

Julie 14:51
attention deficit disorder.

Scott Benner 14:53
Okay, more broadly. What does that mean?

Julie 14:59
Difficult He attending to probably specific details in your life, or the way that you may learn or focus, like saying like reading or also sometimes hope hyper focusing. It's a deficit in attention.

Scott Benner 15:18
Okay? Hold on a second. First of all, I have to clear my throat, or this is never gonna go well. I'm just making up this definition. If this tea was any hotter, and it's still yummy, if you hear me yell out any point, it's from the tea, that I'm trying to clear. Webster's right there a reasonable organization that defines things, a developmental disorder that is marked especially by persistent symptoms of inattention, such as distractibility, forgetfulness, disorganization, or by symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity, such as fidgeting, speaking out of turn, or restlessness, or by symptoms of all three that is not caused by any serious underlying physical or mental disorder. Does this define you or no?

Julie 16:06
Oh, pretty much. Yeah.

Scott Benner 16:07
Okay. All right, now. Let's try to figure out what ADHD means. Okay. Do you feel like you know what it is? Or do you want me to check?

Julie 16:19
Um, I just think that there's more of an emphasis on the hyperactivity part. I don't know exactly how they define that. It could be like, physically, you know, like getting up. Like I've seen some children that I've worked with that are very hyperactive.

Scott Benner 16:39
psychiatry.org says, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common mental disorders affecting children. ADHD also affects many adults, symptoms of ADHD include inattentive, not being able to keep focused hyperactivity, excessive movement that is not fitting the setting, and impulsivity, hasty acts that occur in the moment without thought and estimated 8.4% of children and 2.5% of adults have ADHD? Well, that's an interesting thing. Because if you start,

Julie 17:08
that's a little bit, not like how I would be, I'm not as impulsive or the movement thing or any of that.

Scott Benner 17:16
Okay, it's more in your mind. Now, in the last three minutes, where we've been focused and serious, has it changed how you feel? No, no. Okay. Because your voice got very serious is that you're? Well, I'm just trying to focus, you're trying to focus. Okay, good. Now, I appreciate you explaining all this. Thank you. All right. So then the anxiety comes from what do you know, failure? How so?

Julie 17:48
You mean, well, you can be perfectly bright, extremely creative. But in a school environment. If you do not know that you have ADHD or ADD, you're going to fail in one way or another, you're going to be embarrassed, probably publicly, I would assume. You couldn't have the best intentions. And you can really think you're doing well. And then all of a sudden, they're like, cool. You did your report. And then you go in your backpack and you're like, Yeah, sure did leave that at home. You know, you've done it and you're just, you're just embarrassed, and it causes just such great. I used to think I had social anxiety. It turns out that's not really the case. I really just believe that it's caused by just repetitive failure without knowing why I say

Scott Benner 18:41
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It's actually interesting because I found myself the other day telling someone that I think that a lot of the pressure that comes from diabetes is because you don't know why things are happening. And so you're trying really hard and you're not getting anywhere close to the result you're looking for. And then there's just such pressure from knowing that you've put so much effort into something and yet it's paying off not at all. And then of course with diabetes, it has health implications. And with you it has personal growth implications. Is that right? Yes, you can't, you can't succeed get a job, people don't take you seriously, I would imagine,

Julie 22:45
I have always been able to get a job. I'm very personable. My jobs are, have been. Let's say they've kind of fallen into my lap. And I actually started working with kids with autism. That was basically handed to me, I didn't even graduate college. And they're like, it doesn't matter. Because four year college students come in here and they've never sat with a child with autism, and they just absolutely don't understand the positive reinforcement, the whole thing. So they're like, We'll train you, I ended up being very, very good at that. A very good with teaching children how to settle down, I think because probably I've experienced a lot of some of these things or how to be social and make eye contact and XYZ. So I also then ditch that whole thing, you know, and then I became an art teacher. I was doing like clay and pottery and teaching adults and children painting and glazing and whatnot.

Scott Benner 23:48
What made an artist I'm going to ask you what made you make that switch in a second. But first, let me just cover for you a little bit. Do you want to look for another adjective other than ditched referring to the autistic kids? Was that was a tough one, actually.

Julie 24:05
Oh my god, delete that. I love children with autism. Like, I fell out of it, I fell out of the I don't recall why. Like, Oh, I lost my I was doing it privately and the child had I was shadowing him and mainstreaming him into a private school. And I think it became too costly for them. They wanted to go back to public where of course you can get your services for you know, that's included. And I kind of was oh, so I was working at this school, this private school, but just for this one family. And then when he went back to his district, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna have to find a new case. That's fine. It's always word of mouth. That's how I got tons of clients and then the school calls one day and they're like, We know you're, you know, you're not working at the moment. Do you want to be a sub for the Montessori class because I also went to Montessori education for a little bit of time and Uh, I said, sure I'll come in, you know, I came in and then the the woman was like, oh my god, the other teacher quit. Would you please please, please work here part time? And I'm like, Well, fine, but I can't be here at 830. I'll come at nine. And then. So I started doing that and I was there for five years. Being a Montessori teacher,

Scott Benner 25:17
what did the kids do between 830 and nine while they were waiting for you?

Julie 25:21
Oh, no, there was three of us. We have three because the main teacher and then the other teacher were there. I just because I had to drop my daughter off at that time.

Scott Benner 25:29
Do you have any feelings for what your co workers how they see you? Have they ever told you? Or is it?

Julie 25:37
Yeah, they like they're both in a new school right now. They just have have really just, they're like, it's not the same without you hear like, positive, positive, all very positive. Even when I would shatter when I worked at a Catholic school for three years. Those teachers were so nervous to have me in their classroom. I'm like, I'm not here to judge you. I'm helping my students. It's all I'm doing. And then by the end of the day, they're like, I don't think that I don't know why teachers don't get someone like you in their classrooms all the time. Like I don't, I don't want to go into next year without having you on my class. I have very, very, very good relationships with everybody that I've worked with.

Scott Benner 26:15
Okay. Well, that's amazing. But you did not finish college. Is that right?

Julie 26:21
I didn't finish any of them.

Scott Benner 26:24
Any of them? Hold on. You graduated from high school. But you believe they passed you through? Because they were like, Oh, get this girl out of here. Right.

Julie 26:34
Let's just put it this way. I know. I didn't pass that last test. They can say what they want, but there's just no way. Yeah. Okay. That was history.

Scott Benner 26:45
Then, you did you try College?

Julie 26:49
Oh, yes. So first, well, first I. So for years, people were like, oh, you should be a model. And I'm like, huh, cool. You know what, that's a nice compliment, whatever. And then when it came to graduating, I was like, Maybe I will try that. So because I don't feel like going back to school yet. So I went to the city got on with an agency did that for like a year, it was a disaster, because you have to have a certain personality that just called like, self confidence. And I have the opposite of that. So that didn't work out. So then I went to where to go next. Then I went to a community college around me. And I was going for a child's like how early childhood education in child psychology, which is really if I thought I wasn't just done, that's what I would have wanted to be maybe a social worker or something like that. And I did that for like a year. And I'm like, I can't do this. You know, it's all the same thing because I hadn't been diagnosed. Yeah, and I just still didn't have any of the skills, honestly.

Scott Benner 27:48
Right. You know, I wondered this whole time how you got somebody to marry you and then you Loki like dropped in I thought about modeling. And I was like I see what's happening now. Okay, I gotcha. Is this what you digitally? Yeah,

Julie 27:59
I'm not I'm no prize, but like, you know, had to have the looks fill in for me back in the day.

Scott Benner 28:03
I am no price. I'm sure. I'm sure that's not true.

Julie 28:08
No, really. But well, organization of the home, let's just start there. That doesn't happen. But anyway. So then I went to Oh, so then I was like, You know what I am? I'm an artist. So but I want to make money. So I'm gonna go in for I went to Parsons School of Design for graphic design and advertising. I don't know why I came up with that. But I stayed there for like, let's say, one semester, you know, like, and then I was like, You know what the problem with this is, I hate computers and technology. So I gotta get out of here. Because I had to drive to the city. And I would get very anxious if I was late. And then I would just leave. If I was even one minute late for

Scott Benner 28:49
the class Parsons, the one in Manhattan or the one in Brooklyn. Manhattan. Okay. All right. The new school. Is that right? Part of that? It's a new school. It's part of that. Yeah, you stay there. How long?

Julie 29:02
Like, one semester, like I loved the color theory. I love the painting part, but

Scott Benner 29:08
you didn't like using the computers and you were there for graphic doesn't know. And

Julie 29:11
I was literally there for that like, because I was too scared. I'm like, how do you turn it on? Like, who could ask that? You know, like, why am I here?

Scott Benner 29:19
So like if you decided not to use it, like if you said to yourself one day I'm gonna go to school to be a pigeon trainer that you got there and said the only real problem with this is these freakin pigeons.

Julie 29:28
Right? Or like, I'm definitely allergic to pigeons or something like that.

Scott Benner 29:31
made me do this. So you so you love the

Julie 29:34
training part. But does it have to be pigeons? Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:37
So prior to that decision, you were not aware that you were not computer oriented.

Julie 29:44
I don't think I thought about that.

Scott Benner 29:45
Okay, okay. That's fine. I'm not judging you. By the way. I'm just these are interesting little tidbits that build the story for us. Total. Okay. So I think we're not going to say but we figured out how you got this. You know, you don't mean like you're not taking the house isn't even clean is what you're saying Julie?

Julie 30:00
Actually, it was clean. But yes, it's clean. It's just I need to I needed to do a lot of spring cleaning. I've done a lot since I started the medication, which is the reason that I think I've been on here right now. But yeah, it's just more of an organizational like a system, you know, people need system to do anything helps

Scott Benner 30:21
you out there. So at what point do you realize I need some medication for this? When does that start?

Julie 30:28
That started after George was diagnosed. I was, I was rocking it. But I started to see where you could lose control. You know, like, you know, some of the hormonal stuff, the middle of the night stuff that they weren't really teaching me. And I saw somebody, well, many people always talked about the juice boss, Fox podcast on all the groups. But, of course, God forbid, I could, like, look that up on my own. But then one day, somebody put it with the clip where you could just click on it and listen. And as soon as I heard that episode, I do not recall which one it was. I just put it down. I called a psychiatrist, it took like two weeks to get in. I said, I need to be put on medication. Because I have 600 525 hours worth of something that I'm going to listen to every word and learn every single bit of, but I'm going to need medication to do it. And so that is what I did I got on medication so that I can listen to your podcast and absorb it.

Scott Benner 31:35
I can't tell you and I hope you can shut up long enough for me to say this, but i You must. On this made me cry. I took me by surprise. I'm Misty as they say. So So let's unpack this for a second. Because it feels like I'm going to be a hero at the end of the story. So I want to take a second. But so first of all, you're not living with meds from the time you're born. Even through the real real problems that started around in your mid 20s. Up to 44. Just not. And then

Julie 32:12
just No, not 44 Yeah, like 40 I started. When I started. I think it was last June. I started listening to your podcast. Maybe it was before that. I'll never know.

Scott Benner 32:22
So 45 Are you breaking my balls over one year here, Julius, this what's going on right now? Two years, two years? Okay, good. I'll shut up.

Julie 32:32
No, it's alright. It doesn't really matter. No. So when I was 25, and I was diagnosed, I was in the middle of like a complete breakdown. And hearing about the EDD and stuff, they did start me on medication. But like, I didn't stick with it, because it had a lot of side effects. I didn't really know what was going on. And honestly, the job I had at that time, which was I believe, like the pottery place and teaching the art and stuff. I was like, oh my god, like nobody needs to cope with this much like I've already made a life that doesn't need focused, you know what I'm saying? So, I don't know, it just felt like a bit much. And I just never I did it for like, like a few weeks. I'm like, it's not for me. And that was alright, not until the podcast part.

Scott Benner 33:21
You are you are you are, you are taxing my ability to focus. But I appreciate it. It's much better today. Because the The really interesting thing that just happened was is that I wanted to move to I was trying to move to an idea. And I was just giving timeline context saying that you hadn't had meds your entire life right up until George was diagnosed, I took the fact that it looks like he's had diabetes since he was 11. But he's 14 now. And then I subtracted three from your age. And then you got super focused on a completely an important part of what I was saying. And then we and then we literally jumped off on a tangent. That's No, I have not finished my thought yet. It's really no, don't be sorry, I'm endlessly fascinated by this. You should not be sorry, you're doing an amazing job of letting people see what this is. So I'm being serious. So. So my point is, is that at that point, your son becomes diagnosed with the type one this thing is difficult. It takes focus, you clearly have set up a whole life for yourself where you don't have to focus, which is probably a brilliant strategy for you know, for self preservation. And then you get into a situation where you care more about George and his health than you do about your comfort. But realize there's no way you can help him while you're in this situation. And you so when you listen to the podcast, it isn't that you heard an episode where somebody was like, I have ADHD and medication helped me. You heard Oh, no, it had nothing to do with that. Right? You heard this might help my son but I don't have the capacity to listen to it.

Julie 34:59
I heard it. And I said, crap. All the answers are here. I can tell. And look at how many episodes. It's like going to college. Yeah. Okay. And you saw how that went. So, yeah, I was like, nope, nope. I need medication. Wow. And I need it to work. And I need it to be good.

Scott Benner 35:23
So Julie, you, you ended up in a in a different way than has ever been described to me in the past, doing what I see so many people doing over and over again, which is they don't help themselves until helping themselves helps a loved one. Fantastic. Yes, yes.

Julie 35:40
And I also was kind of spinning at that time. Because if you think about everything other than management of diabetes, which I was actually doing quite well at. If you think about everything else, it's all my worst things like I do not make phone calls. I cannot make a freakin appointment to save my life. I let every medication run out for like, at least a week before I get it. I mean, you can't do that with diabetes. I've got like three different pharmacies. I think my people and I always have from the beginning on the pod the people that filled up for me, right? Yeah, they call me. It's time do you want to still deliver? Yes. Thank you. And Thank you always for calling me. And doing this for me. And I say the same thing to the Dexcom. Rep. Yeah, like, thank you. Because it's there's no way there's no way.

Scott Benner 36:33
Yeah, Julie's never calling us we need to call her.

Julie 36:37
Yeah. And I think that's just it's that's just what they do. Because they just to get the approval of the copay or, you know, just to let you know that they're sending it out. But I have I go above and beyond.

Scott Benner 36:45
Yeah. Because, yeah, because yeah, because you're super nice is that way. Excellent. No one that was not in question. Ever. Joy. We never thought you weren't super nice. Okay, so how long do you have to be with the psychiatrist? So, are you seeing the psychiatrist just to get the script? Or are you actually going to? Do you actually start talking to them?

Julie 37:08
Well, a psychiatrist, you don't really, I mean, I spoke with him. You have to speak with them to get the medication. I also in addition, started seeing a therapist. So that's like, that's different. They don't prescribe medication. That's more of a talk therapy type of

Scott Benner 37:25
situation. Yeah. And the therapy was about George's diagnosis or about yourself, or what ended up happening.

Julie 37:31
No, it was like, it was about me. But then it was about George and then we just started becoming like, friends. So then she was like, should we like, do this? Like once a month instead? I'm like, Yeah, sure. And then just stop

Scott Benner 37:43
it. Stop. Okay, yeah. Jesus, was this person to this person? I have a degree of any kind. It is just, yeah, she's

Julie 37:50
a psychologist. Alright.

Scott Benner 37:52
I don't know. I gotta be honest with you, Julie. There are days when I think I'm like four classes away from being a psychologist and an admin. Totally. Yeah. But you know, the funny thing

Julie 38:00
to me too. I'm like, you know, I tell my friend, I'm like, if, if, if I had first of all podcasts, never heard of them. Never did a book on tape. never did anything like that. I'm like, do you understand? I probably could have graduated college if it was all on a podcast, really? And I could like do laundry, and like, walk around or do keep my physical body, you know, doing one thing so I can really focus.

Scott Benner 38:27
Okay, so this format works for you because you can busy yourself and hear it at the same time.

Julie 38:33
Yeah, interesting. I don't have to. It's not like I don't I'm not like oh, okay, like I'm gonna listen. Let me go like, I don't know move my body. It's just I like to multitask. You know? Yeah. I sitting down to read is first of all, I can't read. I was in the hospital. I read that. One of those things. The things like a pancreas, which is obviously great. I'm sure. I read the whole thing. I don't know what was what happened there. Wait a minute. Oh,

Scott Benner 39:05
I'm sure think like a pancreas is great. I'm sure meaning I read it, but I don't remember reading it.

Julie 39:11
But I remember reading it and being like, I don't know right now. I'm just trying to think about why when somebody is low, they don't need insulin. Okay, like I just couldn't in the very beginning. I was like, Wait, so when he's low, he needs insulin. They're like, Oh my God, no, they need the sugar when they're low. They need the insulin for the

Scott Benner 39:36
15 years and my mother in law brings art and food when her blood sugar is high. Yeah, yeah. I don't even know about that. I'm fascinated that the format works so well for you because I believe very strongly that I wasn't doing much different when I was writing a blog than I'm doing now. And yet, it just never reach people in the way that this does. And it helped people but very specific people. And, and now, I hear from I hear from so many listeners, and their backgrounds and their learning styles and their education levels are all so incredibly varied. And yet they almost all take the exact same thing away from the podcast. Yeah, amazing. It's crazy. I was telling someone the other day, I standing at a baseball game, at my son's college, pitchers father comes up to me, and we hadn't met before. And we're talking and he's telling me what he does for a living. And then he asks me what I do. And then there's this moment where I'm 50 years old. I'm clearly my son's in college, I must be paying for it somehow, right. And I'm now going to tell another human being another adult, that I'm a podcaster. And yeah, it's weird to say out loud, and so I, you know, you, I ended up explaining it first, before I even say the words. And then I, I kind of got over that part. And then explained to him how it helps people and how I'm really feel blessed. And it's not a word I use lightly because I have no real religious background or affiliation. But I really do feel blessed that I do something that pays my bills that I enjoy. And that helps people. It's a trifecta. I could not have imagined for myself, or I think most people are hard pressed to get those three things in their work life. But then,

Julie 41:34
don't you feel like it's your personality? And the way that you think that got you here?

Scott Benner 41:38
Well, I'm probably the worst person to ask why the podcast works. Because I'm certain that it works because of me. But I'm just being myself. So it's not like I sat down, you know, when you see people now and that you can see them plotting out their social media ideas about how they're going to dominate the world and be like, you know, click mavens and win everything. And I didn't, I didn't start this podcast for to be popular. I started I started it because I wanted to expand on what I was doing. And I knew that the blog helped people. I didn't want to lose the ability to help people and people weren't reading anymore. So this was just the thing I did next, to try to keep this train rolling, basically.

Julie 42:25
Yeah, you're going with the times. And it's kind of probably like, the blog was getting a little less popular. And podcasts were maybe getting more popular. And so you're like, Let me transfer over there.

Scott Benner 42:35
I didn't even know here's what I knew for sure. People read less than they used to. And I liked listening to audio, I like to listen to people speak. So I would prefer to be in the car listening to someone speak than someone saying, when I'm walking around the house, I prefer to hear somebody talking than not I like hearing new things, and ideas and things like that. And I don't know that, you know, I could go listen to a three hour podcast by somebody else. And I don't know that when it's over, you could give me a test on it. But I do feel enriched when it's over. And I do remember the things that I need to remember from it. And so I thought like maybe this would work for that. But the thing I didn't finish thing was the the gentleman at the baseball field. What I told him was it's so incredible to touch this many people's lives with technology that did not exist when I was in high school. And I mean, all of it. I mean, the computers, the internet access, the bandwidth, it's available cell phones, headphones, that, you know, pair easily and people can pop in and out when they're jumping out their car and things like that. Like everything that makes podcasts accessible. Like, literally didn't exist when I was thinking to myself, I wonder what I'll do with my life. And, and he asked me, What did you do back then? And I said I worked in a sheetmetal shop. Right? You know, it's just it's so crazy. I mean, I was the entertaining person at the sheetmetal shop, but a lot of good. That was good. I mean,

Julie 44:05
Sam, would you ever have you? Did you ever have like a nine to five or a desk job or any of that kind of stuff?

Scott Benner 44:12
I graduated from high school and the next day I started working in my uncle sheetmetal shop. I did that I did that for a number of years, until one day. Oh my god, am I going to tell the story? Let's do it. Sure. Until one day, there was a guy that worked in the shop who was my least favorite person is just sort of pompous and hard on people. I'm sure he grew up poorly and there would have been a way for him to anyway, I'm sure there's a reason why but he was a jerk. And it was the early 90s. And I and he would go home every day and his wife would make him lunch. And there was something about that that I found this tasteful for some reason I can't even begin to tell you why just that he she had a job to but that she'd run home to make him lunch at Just it always seems strange to me.

Julie 45:02
And I would definitely rubbed me the wrong way. And I

Scott Benner 45:05
I hung a sign on his back because he left it said his wife's name, comma and it said hold the dog. I'm horny. I don't know why I did that. And I was fired the very next day.

Julie 45:18
Oh my god.

Scott Benner 45:21
Rightfully so. I bounced that

Julie 45:25
a given you one chance? Well, I don't think it was a little bit funny.

Scott Benner 45:29
I'm sure everyone thought it was funny. But I don't think he thought it was funny. And they were you know, defending, hey, which makes sense to me. Even at that. I have to tell you, I was standing at the time clock at six o'clock in the morning punching in and they grabbed me pulled me in the office fired me. And I thought that's fair. And I left. I didn't even Yeah, I didn't even argue. Okay.

Julie 45:50
And also, you're like, I don't have the perks today.

Scott Benner 45:54
And I don't understand why it's 23. I thought that like that humor was funny, but I thought it was hilarious. Anyway. So I don't know what I went from there and went worked for a landscaper for a while I worked at a 711 for six or eight months. I did all kinds of little weird things like that. And then one day, my, my uncle called me back and they had trouble filling my position. And he brought me back. Like a couple years later, I worked there for a while again.

Julie 46:25
I got to sign like an agreement. Like we're not going to do the back sticker thing anymore. Oh, with

Scott Benner 46:30
that guy was still there.

We didn't really ever get along, girl. Great. But that's not the point. So from there, I think I finally realized that I needed to do something else. And a friend of mine, Julie, she was working in a credit card company collecting debts. And she's like, you can talk really well you could do this. And so I started collecting credit card debts. And it was it was great training for speaking to people without knowing anything about them. Because back then what would happen? I'm calling this thing a computer. But that's, I mean, if you could see it, the way I see it, in my mind, it's not the way you're imagining your computer right now. I don't have a computer. But yeah, so I'd be on a headset, and a person's voice would just pop up in front of me somebody be like, hello. And as they were saying hello, and I was orienting myself on the call, their information had not yet popped up in front of me. So you see, you had to kind of you had to kind of like engage them while the information was populating on the screen. And then get them to make a low level credit card payment, which I was incredibly good at. I was so bad at that. I think I moved on to a credit union, where I did it there in a more private setting, which was excuse me, that was like boutique collections. Because these people had the money they just wouldn't send it you know. And one day, one day at that job, the the This is so crazy, you're gonna laugh and it's like the graphic designer up and quit. And I hated collecting debts. It made me feel bad about myself. Yeah, so I ran downstairs in the building to the HR person, I said, I can do the I can do that I can make your like your your stuff, I can do the graphic design. And she said you went to school for that. And I was like, No, not at all I said, but just take me to the computer that the girl used I can show you. And I sat down, knock something out. And then I ran off and took a weekend long course on Photoshop and another Adobe product. I came back Yeah, yep, I came back three days later, I started designing their stuff for them.

Julie 48:51
So you basically did the same thing I did. Which is just went with the flow things came your way you took the opportunity, you use the skills that you've had, you know, instead of any deficits that you may have in trivial housing. Yeah. And until it all like put together and became awesome,

Scott Benner 49:11
right? Yeah, I just I got pushed into it. Like you got pushed into I think through your add and I got pushed into it through my just very poor upbringing and nobody ever thought to send me to college. And I just I was in a broke family and that was what that was, I mean, if you want context, that first job and that sheetmetal shop paid me $4.50 an hour so and I did more damage to my physical self in the five years that I was there than any money they gave me will ever make up for. But but but the point good, please.

Julie 49:43
I was just gonna say so. Yeah, you didn't have the opportunity and nobody like was really pushing you to go to college. So did you do you did well in school? No. You feel like with the opportunity you had the opportunity to be in high school did you do well with like schoolwork and stuff like that, like you think college would have done?

Scott Benner 50:00
Oh, no, I can't imagine I, I put no effort into high school whatsoever. Oh, yeah, I don't know if this, I can try it. I feel like I told somebody this recently, but the first day of my senior year of high school, my English teacher said, you're going to have to do a report. It's not due until the last week of the year, and I raised my hand and said, I'm not going to be able to get that done. And he's like, you have a year and I said, I got a job, man, I can't do that.

Julie 50:31
Oh, you had a real reason. Mine was like, You're gonna have to do this. And it's gonna be an oral report. And then I waited till about a week before it was due. And I just said, Listen. Yeah, I can give it to you written, but I'm not doing an oral report. And she's like, Well, you'll have to take zero and like, I'll take zero. That is so much better than getting up in front of this class.

Scott Benner 50:52
I would I get by in all kinds of weird ways. So there used to be a check system in my middle school, where if you answered a question, the teacher could throw you a check. And you could, you know, kind of pile up the checks and trade them for grades. And every one and every once in a while, a teacher would get like cocky and say something out loud. Like, I once passed a science class and entire year of a science class. Because one day, the science teacher said, hey, 100 checks, which was enough like to just buy your grades to anybody to anybody who knows the name of the first Mickey Mouse movie, and my hand went right up, and I was like Steamboat Willie. And I thought he was gonna say off. Like, he was really like, upset with himself that he put himself in that position, I walked up to his desk and watched him put every one of those 100 checks in there. And I said, Thank you, I'm gonna be using all of them. And he goes, Okay, he walked away, and I passed an entire year of science off off of that one moment.

Julie 51:54
So bring back that system.

Scott Benner 51:57
It was great. We had a the follow up maybe two years later. So funny that I said, I'm just now because the teacher said, anybody who can come up in front of the class and speak for I forget how long it was two or three minutes about anything without saying, um, gets 300 checks. Oh, boy, it was the easiest thing I ever did in my life. I watched I watch people get up there. I'll never forget this one person, this girl, she stands up there, and the teacher goes, go ahead and start and the girl goes. So they're doing it over and over again. And I, I got up there. And I spoke for three, two or three minutes straight, and made sense and never said on. And they a woman gave me the 300 checks. And then I didn't do another thing in her class again that year. So yeah, every time I failed a test or didn't turn into homework, I would just trade it for the checks. And I just kept working off them. That would

Julie 53:00
be like, take it out of my credit. Take

Scott Benner 53:02
it out of credit, baby. I'm all good. Scott, no need to do this. You know, when kids when kids were running around in high school, I have to take the SATs. So I went to work the day I actually looked at it, I thought, oh, I should probably take the LSAT. And then I looked and I was like, Well, I work then. And I just didn't do it. So I didn't I didn't go to college, I would have been terrible in college.

Julie 53:24
Really? Oh, same. Yeah, I was.

Scott Benner 53:28
That's it. I don't think I have ADHD or ADD. I just was a bad student. Nobody was pushing me from home to do better. The expectation,

Julie 53:36
you're like very smart, and you just have a certain personality.

Scott Benner 53:39
The expectation was, you'd go to work, we were all really blue collar. And that was the idea. So I didn't need to go to college to work in my uncle sheetmetal shop and I had no expectations of a better life. Like whatsoever. Right now, the only thing that saved me. I would. I mean, honestly, it's that my wife was able to see through my circumstances and see me when we were dating. Otherwise, I'd be in a I'd be in a I'd live a blue collar lifestyle right now. It wouldn't be anything wrong with it. But I mean, it was just that one person who, like a college person who had bigger hopes for themselves and more desire and somebody behind them telling them you're going to college like that kind of thing. It's just she saw me for who I was and not who you know, and not the life I was leading, I guess. Yeah, that's it. I don't know how we got here, Julie.

Julie 54:37
Sorry. I'm always gonna apologize. It's me.

Scott Benner 54:40
Don't be sorry. 20 minutes later brought you here. I want to ask you about it. So when you when you see your oh my god, I can't believe we're this far away from it. Your son's diagnosed and you go to the psychiatrist you get the medication you start listening to the podcast. What do you figure out for yourself then?

Julie 54:59
Ah, As far as diabetes,

Scott Benner 55:01
yeah, yeah. How did you get like, because you're doing like he's doing well? Am I right?

Julie 55:06
Oh, we were doing great. And I'm not in the same position that I was six months ago when I booked this.

Scott Benner 55:13
Okay, tell me about it, then how did you What did you learn? Where did it take you? And what's happened since?

Julie 55:20
Okay, oh, well, I learned, we were doing very well, we did very well, MDI, you know, he was diagnosed, he was like, 14.3. And then by the next, it wasn't three months, it was four months, actually. appointment, he was 5.6. And we've kind of rocked between 5.6 and 6.1, all the way until our last agency, and, but I learned a lot of what I thought must be the case, which is this thing where I send my numbers to them, and they're gonna make adjustments. Like, I'm gonna have to surpass this, this is not like, oh, it's gonna be, you know, like, I'm gonna need to understand and understand and being like, the bold with insulin, and like, you know, it doesn't always matter why. You just need more insulin, and I'm just hearing everybody's stories. And every, every single, every single thing to be learned, I learned from it from the podcast. You know, but now, George, is the teen year, right? It hit him hard. About like, three years ago, I know, three months ago, and we both kind of were suffering a little bit of burnout. We're both kind of like, whatever. And, I mean, I'm just like, wow, it's like, I learned all of that stuff. And I didn't realize how much his compliance really helped. And so right now, we're in a situation where I'm just like, oh my gosh, like, I know how to do this. I've never ever wanted to do low carb or any of that. I just wanted him to just eat regularly. And that was another thing, learning to know that you didn't have to change your diet was like, Oh, thank God, you know, like, this is amazing. And just listening to all of that. All the pro tips and everything was just so great. And we did I mean, it's not I mean, he had a he had a 520. And he had Burger King. Like, I mean, he did he had it like once every other week, or, you know, and he has pizza lunch at school. You know, he was the master of pizza lunch, two slices, and a big huge deli chocolate chip cookie. Didn't go over 140 Beautiful, we had it all everything was going well. And then, you know, now we're having a little bit more of a battle of wills, if you will. There's like some sneaking of food, which is not sneaking. But I'm like, you know, and he wants independence. And so we're just in like a hard place right now. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 58:03
he got a little older, a little more testosterone. That's all Yeah. And now he isn't as good about Pre-Bolus seeing or listening when you text them or something like that.

Julie 58:14
Yeah. And he's like, you know, there's some lying and I'm like, dude, like, oh, I don't care what you ate. You think I care what you eat? I don't? I don't, you know, but, like, I have to know why your 300 at 4am? Like, just be honest. Because then I know how to treat it. Like, am I really? Am I readjusting? Is this, like, every night thing? Like, are you eating after I go to bed? You know, because now it's like, he's on spring break. And, you know, it's just kind of stuff like that. And he's like, like, I'll text and I'm like, what's with this number? Like, are you? You know, like, can we take care of this? And he's like, I don't know. I'm like, you don't know. Like, I think you know,

Scott Benner 58:52
oh, it's just a stone wall. It's not even like, Hey, I ate something. But I didn't Bolus for it.

Julie 58:58
No, I read it. We'll get there after like a 20 minute conversation. But I mean, he knows the deal. Like he knows, I'm like, I said, I didn't set this, like, learn all of this so that you could have freedom. You know what I mean? We have always Pre-Bolus it doesn't mean like when I stepped foot out of the house to run to the store, you don't have to Pre-Bolus You know what I'm saying? It's kind of like that kind of stuff. And I feel bad because I don't want to be mad. Like, he's the one that lives with this. This is his diabetes. You know what I'm saying? And so, all I can do is teach him what I know and try to be patient. But it's really hard to be really patient when you know that there are long term effects. I mean, I'll tell you, honestly, his three months ago, his agency was 5.8. We went last week. 7.1

Scott Benner 59:50
Wow. Yeah, that's a significant change. That's a clear indication that he's just not doing the basic things that yeah, that you know, Keep his agency down.

Julie 1:00:03
I even got to the point where I told a friend I'm like, you know, I don't think we're ever going to, it's not going to matter, I kind of got to a point where I felt almost like how you would know, you know, ordens not really going to have like a seven a one see it, she's just not you guys know what you're doing. You get it, you give more when you need more, but you, but if one of those people drops out of the race, and especially the diabetic one, it can get control. Like, we're, it's like I told my endo the other day. I'm like, if it was my, my diabetes, it would be different. But it's his you know, and I know things can go up and down. And I don't want to look down on it. But it's just

Scott Benner 1:00:46
does your does your husband get involved in this at all? No, because it occurs to me. And I don't, I could be 100% Wrong, Julie. But you are. So you're scattered like a time. So like, even through conversations and everything. So I wonder if a different voice that comes out in a different way, might not help snap them into back to where he needs to be?

Julie 1:01:13
You know what, like, when my husband does say something, like, What I meant is he doesn't do management. To be honest with you. The man does not even know how to use the poem. He has to wake me up with the sign. I don't hear the alarm. Yeah, and so which is fine. I've come to terms with that it is better if one person is really managing it. But when he says to so his thing is like, Well, why is he even eating carbs in the first place? I'm like, Oh, my God, like what are you talking about? And then my son so he'll say to George, he's like, it's unacceptable as long term health Baba Baba and George looks at me looks at him and goes, you don't get it. With the diabetes dad. Only mom does. That's not how we do it. And I'm like,

Scott Benner 1:01:58
well, well, so I wasn't I wasn't thinking so much about your husband coming in with diabetes advice. I was thinking your husband coming in like it was 1982 and saying, listen to me. I'm going to tell you something right now. It's the only thing that's important. Listen to your mom. Like, do

Julie 1:02:13
you know, you'll say that?

Scott Benner 1:02:15
I know. It's a it's a sexist, though. Older idea. But I don't

Julie 1:02:19
listen, I use it to my son. I said, That's it. That's it. I'm gonna give I'm given dad the reins for a week. And he's like, don't even I'm like,

Scott Benner 1:02:28
Yeah, again, not about the diabetes, just like hey, don't worry, even if it's just a more pleasant conversation where you say, Look, you know, I need you to be respectful. Your mother, I don't care if you don't want to do this. It's not, that doesn't matter to me, you're gonna do it. Yeah. And when she talks to you, we're going to respond, we're not going to drag out conversations and jerk around and make her feel like, like, like, she's like, she's spinning our wheels. You know, this is the least you can do for her. Is be respectful of her. It's got nothing to do with diabetes. Really it? Yeah, you know, it has to mean just deal with, like, the communication that the two of you have back and forth. Like, I get that the kids trying to find his way. And he's probably trying to separate you from him a little bit. And take, that's fine, like you said, but then do it. Like, don't tell me you want control and then get control. And what you do with the control is nothing. You know what I mean? Like if, if you want to be in charge, be in charge and do it. And if you and if you can't, if you can't, then right on, then I'd be happy to continue to help you. But there's no world where we're going to let your agency jump up two points in three months.

Julie 1:03:34
Well, these are the conversations I have within my husband has had conversations with him. Yes, more about just listening to me and trying to work with me because we have a good system, you know, obviously working just that. It's just that he's not doing it. So anyway, I just recently reached out I gotta get him like a therapist, just to because he has had a lot. He's like, I'm very overwhelmed. You know, he's 13. But the kids like six one.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:03
He's just a little does he have any of the anxiety heartbreaker?

Julie 1:04:06
You know? Yeah, he's had a couple panic attacks this year. He's had a couple situations. It's a lot. You know. It's a lot on him, which is why I say I'm like, This is why I just text you at the time to Bolus at school not to annoy you to take it off your plate. The way I look at it is I'm trying to take it off your plate

Unknown Speaker 1:04:29
in my hand. Yeah. Right.

Julie 1:04:31
You know, for as long as I can, and I'm willing to do it. My alarm just went off at 1130 it goes off it's I have I usually text him what his you know, if I ordered lunch or whatever, your lunch is this probably around this many carbs, whatever. Don't forget to Pre-Bolus then he won't answer and then I emphasize it. You know, it's like this whole thing, you know, and I don't mind doing that. I know he's been he's like I'm doing stuff. Busy doing school and like I understand but you don't have to go to the nurse. You don't have to you Don't I'm saying like, I've taken away all of the things that we did when we first started to where you'd have to go to the nurse 20 minutes before, which means you miss part of your recess and this and that. You don't I mean, like, we've come so far. And now we're just dropping the ball all over the place. And it's just, it's like difficult, just really hoping that we can like get past that part.

Scott Benner 1:05:17
I have found all that's come up with Arden and I've just found that perseverance eventually gets you to it. I, the I've gone to in the past, I've gone to saying say, okay, at the end of a text meeting, if you don't respond to me, I'm going to keep assuming you haven't seen this. So say, oh,

Julie 1:05:35
that's exactly what I tell him. I say I emphasize once meaning like just Hola, you know, gives another vibration to the text and then I set and then I'm like, if you're not going to respond, I'm going to call if I call his phone, I have my phone number on override. Just actually ring, okay, okay. Yeah. Even if he has it on silence is my point and he can silence his phone, but he cannot silence my ring. That's interesting. You can do that. Yeah, you can go to emergency override under your name in their contacts. Okay. And I know someone told me that I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. So I get up in the morning, and he has the most annoying thing under my name. It's like Dunkin Donuts. It's so loud. He can't stand it.

Scott Benner 1:06:23
Yeah, he knows the answer. Yeah.

Julie 1:06:25
Well, now he won't. But then I'm like, Hey, calling in five. Like for three. He's like, hey, you know? Like, we're in that it's like a team thing. I just didn't think it was gonna happen so drastically and so fast.

Scott Benner 1:06:42
Oh, yeah. Boys or something. The way they shift.

Julie 1:06:45
Oh my gosh. Oh my god. It's like a moustache involved. I don't know what's happening.

Scott Benner 1:06:49
exactly what's happening. I wish you luck. That sounds terrible. So what do you think? What do you think the first steps are to bring the seven back to the fives.

Julie 1:07:03
Ah. Well, I'm when he starts doing any of the things that we know how to do. That's going to be really helpful. Like, you know, last night he was at a beautiful number. We had a huge like feast of my husband made homemade fajitas and all my everything was so good. Great Bolus didn't really have a lot of rice. So there wasn't a really big situation going on. But I could hear him like, tiptoeing around at like midnight. And I'm like, Oh, my God, don't do it. Like, what are you gonna do? You know? And then I wake up, and I even tell him, like, if you're heading to the kitchen, please Pre-Bolus for whatever it is that you're having, you know, please just do it. And I go to sleep because like, I need sleep at some point. And then the alarms going off. I look like we're like 325 And like, 325

Scott Benner 1:07:57
So you didn't even ever

Julie 1:08:01
he didn't Bolus he didn't Pre-Bolus at all. And whatever he ate must have been sweet. I didn't find it out with him this morning. I was too nervous. Like I didn't want to be like, what was it a

Scott Benner 1:08:15
rocket fuel in it for his blood sugar.

Julie 1:08:18
Something was not good. You know something and it wasn't cereal because I don't have any but it was something along those lines, maybe these muffins or something, I don't know. Just something were like, Okay. And I've even explained to him like I said, George, I have learned even so much that if you really feel that you cannot Pre-Bolus I will over Bolus you. Like there is a way I don't want to get into a habit of it. But I will. I will take into account what this is about to do to you. And we will put it all in there.

Scott Benner 1:08:47
Or just as you're walking downstairs just choose 15 carbs and Bolus for it until you fit because I think that's what happens is they don't know they know they're going to eat they don't know what they're going to eat.

Julie 1:08:59
Right and so I'm always Bolus something you know, I mean, get some

Scott Benner 1:09:03
insulin go until you figure it out, then put the rest of it in. Right that's to me is that's the that's common sense. And, and

Julie 1:09:12
that's what I say a lot of it is it's not I mean, I do know what to think dread because like who the hell wants to have tech wants to have

Scott Benner 1:09:22
Well, you gotta get past that. You got you have to get diabetes like fighting that. That's a different situation. You know, I mean, like you if you're if you're fighting the idea that you have type one that's not the same as ignoring what you're supposed to do. You know, those are two different yeah, those are two different issues.

Julie 1:09:40
Yeah, like a few months ago, I hate when he's gonna be he's in private school right now. Catholic school and I'm not even Catholic, but whatever. And then he and then but he's going back to public for high school. Okay, next year, okay. And he He literally says he's like, it's gonna be so great. He's like, I'm just like, 19. He's like, my whole school knows his whole school. His whole grade is like, 40 kids, it's like nothing. And he was like, I'm not gonna tell anybody I have diabetes. I'm like, oh, please listen to me, you have got to accept this thing, because this is like crazy that that cannot be your plan. You know what I mean? Like, I think in his mind, I don't know, I don't know. It's almost like a delayed denial thing, right? Maybe, I don't know, this is why I'm getting a therapist,

Scott Benner 1:10:31
I just think that you know, an 11, it's different than when you're 14. That's all. You know, your child when you're 11. And what happens happens, you just, you just keep going and keep going. You don't have a ton of at least external feelings, that start impacting stuff where you let your parents the pressure of what your parents want, get you to do it, and then you just at some point, get a little testosterone and you're like, I'm going to push back. And this is pushing back looks like,

Julie 1:10:59
Yeah, I told him, he's got a couple of months with the push back. But once the high school starts, like, well, we're gonna really need to get back to what we're doing. I mean, we're already doing it. So I'm never gonna give up. I'm never gonna be like, this is fine. But

Scott Benner 1:11:11
I would. I would I'm not disagreeing with you. But I think the idea that a break from diabetes means a break in your health is a is a weird precedence to set.

Julie 1:11:24
Oh, no. I don't know that like a break. That's why I said, No, I'm not going to just allow it. But I just meant, like, you don't have much more like, you don't want to go into high school having to like, check in to the nurse. Like, I'm never gonna let it go is my point. So like, if you want to hash it out, we'll hash it out over the summer. I'm not I don't mean by like, I'm not I'm still going to be, you know, having up Bolus and asking you this and that and that. I'm just trying to be a fair and if they're

Scott Benner 1:11:51
difficult to work, it's not nearly as fun as you think it's going to be when you're like, oh, we'll have a baby. This will be fun. Yeah, not really. I mean, it's fun of the beginning when they're little and

Julie 1:12:01
I was even Okay, with the diabetes. I was like, doing all right. And then, and then I think the team thing that's hard. Yeah, he's a sweetheart too. So and we're like, buddies. He's a mama's boy. So I just think I don't know why I was in denial, I didn't think that it was going to hit him. I don't think he was going to be like this.

Scott Benner 1:12:20
If I can do if I can make one public service announcement, I'm going to tell any mom who's listening that your relationship with your son is going to change as they start to mature. So it takes a pretty big shift. And I I mean, it looked shocking to my wife. And as I was trying to, like, kind of coach her through it and be like, Hey, here's what you should be doing right here. Because this is what he's thinking. She just kept seeing him like he was eight. And I'm like, that's not what that what you think is happening is not happening anymore. Right? Yeah. It's it's not it's not difficult to understand boys. But it is difficult, I think, for moms to want to see their boys as men. That's, that's

Julie 1:12:58
well, I'm trying to listen, he actually have to be honest with you. Just can't shares a lot with me. Like he had a girlfriend and then like he went to the mall. I think he has like, he's like, just before the question start. I will just tell you, but don't tell anybody had a kiss. You know? Brian, he tells me the thing

Scott Benner 1:13:23
that's bragging. That's not sharing. Oh, right. Yeah, that might have been bragging. But remember earlier, when you said, you know, I tried modeling for a while they call that? They call that a low key? Brag. So you know, it's

Julie 1:13:36
a low key brag, but I mean, I'm aware of it. So yeah.

Scott Benner 1:13:39
I'm just telling you, it's gonna get worse, like boys aren't. I'm 50 my thoughts aren't much different now than they were when I was 14. So, good luck.

Julie 1:13:53
So I wanted to I don't know how long we're into this right now. But I wanted to say something that was really interesting and how everybody has, it's not interesting. It's interesting to me. You know, everybody has like, oh, their kid got sick, or they think. I mean, the auto immune is already there. He would have done it anyway. But George was on medication for ADHD for three years. And then I took him off June, end of fifth grade. He because you don't really eat it suppresses your appetite a lot. The medication. So when I took him off, he started eating like a maniac, right, like so much. It was unbelievable. And he started gaining weight and everything and he was always really thin. Even my husband I really looked at that stuff is getting a little pudgy. Well, you know, funny, he's really eating a lot. And then that was like a couple months. And then at the end of the summer, let's say it's late August, September, is when he started continuing the eating and then the drinking. Right and I really think that was like, what his trigger. It's like, I really think it like, triggered it like it was so much on his pancreas. Like, he would have gotten it anyway. But like, you know, everybody gets it through this or people say like, Oh, I think it was the this vaccine or this and you know, or they got COVID or they got, you know that he would have gotten it anyway, I just think that was like his trigger was coming off of that and just eating like a maniac. Mania, I'm

Scott Benner 1:15:26
gonna tell you that I am not a doctor, nor am I a scientist, but that doesn't make any sense to me. But you don't think I don't think at all? No,

Julie 1:15:34
I don't think just eating so much high carb. So like, so like I'm saying he already was gonna get it.

Scott Benner 1:15:40
I hear ya, I hear what you're saying. But how family? How would How would? How would calling for more insulin trigger him into type one, it doesn't make sense. Because type ones and auto immune disease. So there's an auto immune response in your body that kills the beta cells, blah, blah, blah, etcetera. Or, you know, whatever word you want to use for what happens to the beta cells. But it's not it's not an overuse situation, where you're asking for too much insulin, and suddenly you've taxed the pancreas that those two things are not

Julie 1:16:10
like you don't think it would speed it up. If you were like eating me like just like a mania. I think it would not speed up a process that was already like maybe slowly coming into action.

Scott Benner 1:16:19
I think if you made me bet $100 of my own money on what you just said, I would bet against what you said being true. But I don't know for sure. That's all it just doesn't see it doesn't it doesn't shake out to me is all I can see that it like cause and effect way. You might have seen it happen. And anecdotally, it feels like that. But I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't know, it looks and I can

Julie 1:16:39
I get what you're saying I get what you're saying. That's all in my head. I'm thinking all right. Well, his body was probably already slowly maybe doing this like because who knows? I mean, I don't know. But then I'm like, oh, and then I took them off that medication. Therefore he's like eating like everything under the sun. So in my mind, I guess I was thinking like he was really taxing the pancreas that was already probably starting to struggle. But it could be wrong. I mean, obviously, maybe that does not make any sense. I am not a doctor. Clearly.

Scott Benner 1:17:06
It just felt like you were mixing apples and oranges there and that the apples were type two diabetes and the oranges were type one diabetes. That's all right. That's all Hey, I just I think it's just interesting after everything we've talked about, about George and what is going on with him in the in the moment, and that he has ADHD. It's fascinating, a little bit to hear you talk about yourself and, and have such clarity about why you can and can't do the things that you can and can't do. But when you talked about George, it feels like to you that he's just ignoring you.

Julie 1:17:42
Yeah, well, I have a lot of understanding when it comes to any of that stuff. Regarding school. I have a lot of meetings saying like, listen, he has an IEP, he has ADHD. That means yes, he Yeah, he's gonna, you know, it's Catholic school. They're like crazy. It's like, you know, oh, he keeps not having a pencil. I'm like, well then just provide the pencil like, I don't care. It's he's never going to have a pencil. You know, like, that's how this is gonna work. I just need them to learn. Like, I don't really we're not going to mark off for like, an uncapped like notebook.

Scott Benner 1:18:15
Why is it's just gonna be doodles. Well, why is it different than when he forgets the Bolus?

Julie 1:18:20
Well, I don't, because I'm almost feeling like he's not forgetting to Bolus. I feel like he's not bolusing. So you think that I don't, I don't think he does. Because he's got like, a little bit of a tude he's got he's like, I don't know. Okay, maybe I can't remember. So, like, it's not the same as when he's like, forgetting the pencil. Like, there's been a couple of times at school where I'm like, Oh, buddy, did you forget to Bolus he's like, Oh my God, you know, they'll say like, Oh, I didn't even Bolus like it's alright, just Bolus now. You know, fine. No big deal. This is a little different. Okay. Feels a little more behavioral. Is, is the vibe. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:19:02
I mean, only only you would know. I was just trying to, like I was thinking through at the moment, cuz we are finishing up. And I was thinking, like, if I was listening to this, what questions would I still have one? That was the one I had. So that's it. Really? I didn't know we not talked about anything that you want to talk about. You didn't have a list. All it said was Don't curse and you curse twice. So other than that, we're all good. Did I curse twice? I believe so. Oh, wait, maybe that was me. At 4750. I don't know. I'll figure it out. Oh, my gosh, it might even be the first one to you. The first one's not a big deal. All right. Is there anything you think we should do?

Julie 1:19:38
No, that's it. I just really appreciate the podcast and everything you do. And, you know, I just hope it just continues and continues. I love everybody's stories. Hope this is even any remotely normal type of podcast. I'm not sure.

Scott Benner 1:19:56
Are you kidding? I love that. No, I'm

Julie 1:19:59
not kidding.

Scott Benner 1:20:00
Every one winner on Jesus joy. Every one of these recordings ends and people are like, I hope you use this. And I'm like, what delusion? Are you under that I record a bunch of podcasts that I don't use?

Julie 1:20:12
Well, I know I've heard you say you use them all unless someone were to be like, Listen, you definitely can't do that. Right? I just mean, it's like I blacked out. When I think back. I'm like, I don't recall what we just talked about.

Scott Benner 1:20:22
But that's okay. I'm okay. Trust me if I didn't like what you were saying. I would have redirected you. Okay, cool. Yeah, that's all I just, you know, it to me in this last hour. I don't know. Like, I'm like a lion tamer, like I've got the whip and the chair. And you're like a, like a bumblebee on a leash. And I'm just trying to just trying to keep you're flying in the right direction. That's all. That's all I was doing. I thought you were terrific. I think here's what I think. I think you very succinctly described what it was like to have ADHD. You didn't describe it, because I couldn't get you to describe it. But you showed you showed us an example of it. And I think it's very clear. And it's a it's a great teaching tool for anybody who doesn't know what it is for a DD or ADHD. I think that I think that you gave great examples of pathways that it led you to, I think I told him delightful story in the middle. We heard about a kid who, whose mom jumped into the podcast learned how to do everything, put his a onesie in the fives, then he got a little older and he's rebelling a little bit and it's a once he jumped up, I think it's a an honest thing to say, I think it's going to be good for people to hear. I think that what you do next is, you know, is most important, right? And that everybody gets the feeling that even if I get it perfect, it might not always be perfect.

Julie 1:21:46
That's where I'm trying to. That's where I'm trying to be mentally like, okay, it's a bump in the road. I didn't think we were gonna have it just because we started out real strong for quite a while now. But that's okay. It's still okay. Right. This is what this is what could happen. And we know, we have the tools. That's the thing. We have the tools. We have the podcasts, I can't wait until he's open to listening to the podcast.

Scott Benner 1:22:09
Oh, well, I'm just saying. So you've got off track there that I thought it really, I thought the conversation was really valuable for people and some of the reasons why. So okay, great. I am going to go now and say goodbye. Because I have a phone call for my personal life. And I already have things I need to do. I have a whole life of

Julie 1:22:29
ask you why Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Scott Benner 1:22:33
I really appreciate it. Hold on one second. I'd like to thank ag one from Athletic Greens remind you that if you're looking for a green drink, that doesn't taste like crap, go to athletic greens.com forward slash juice box, use my link please. It's in the show notes of this podcast app you're listening in right now at juicebox podcast.com or by typing it into a browser athletic greens.com forward slash juice box. And don't forget to find touched by type one at touched by type one.org. And lastly, a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. You spell that g v o OKEGLUC. Ag o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. Thanks so much to Julie for coming on the show and sharing the honesty of her story with her son and herself. I can't thank her enough. And especially at this time of year, I want to say how thankful I am for all of you for subscribing, following listening sharing the Juicebox Podcast it's a huge success and it is completely because of you. Everything that the podcast accomplishes comes directly from you listening, supporting and sharing. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast

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#792 Owner of a Useless Pancreas

Your pancreas isn't dead. It actually still does some important stuff. Today Jenny and Scott explain what your pancreas does and what it may be struggling with that isn't insulin related.

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

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 792 of the Juicebox Podcast. Do you want to know what it's about? I'll tell you in just a second

it is likely that you've seen a t shirt that says owner of a dead pancreas owner of a useless pancreas. my pancreas quit on me or, you know, any number of variations of that theme? Well, yeah, I hear what you're saying feels like that write won't make you any insulin. But maybe you didn't know that the pancreas does more than that. So even if it's not making insulin for you, it's still helping you with something else. That's very important. But for some people, it doesn't do that thing perfectly. Just listen, we're gonna go over the whole thing. It's very important that you understand what your pancreas does, and what it might not be doing. And if you're seeing symptoms of that, how you can help yourself, you're gonna love it. And of course, Jenny's here, so, I mean, even if I suck, Jenny's amazing, nothing new here on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. That's pretty much it. Except hey, don't forget to go to the TYT exchange and take the survey, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box. Today's episode of the podcast is sponsored by two longtime advertisers Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor, and Omni pod, the insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing since she was four years old. To learn more about the Dexcom G six and to get started today, go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. And if you're interested in the Omni pod five, or the Omni pod dash, you can find out about both of them at Omni pod.com Ford slash juice box. Now we'll get to the show. And Jenny who by the way, works at integrated diabetes.com. Hey, hold on. Yeah, what's up? How are you feeling? My head's a little swimming. But I can breathe.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:27
Good. I was going to actually see if you want to do if you were okay to do this this morning. Or he wanted to sleep until noon.

Scott Benner 2:34
What I thought was if I could do this, then I can do the thing later. Because if this doesn't go well, I gotta make a phone call. Gotcha. But hey, I was cold all night. Like that kind of like grind can't get more like insert with God my well my warm up then you but I don't know. It's it's super strange. I have no restriction in my lungs whatsoever. But if I start to cough on purpose, then it feels like something's happening. So hopefully that won't get worse today. You have no idea. I am sorry. Don't get sick.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:09
I know. You told me that the last time we talked, you're like I'm fine. I don't get sick. Or whatever happens to be cough on me.

Scott Benner 3:17
This thing I texted my buddy yesterday. He's a doctor. And I said what's going on around that isn't COVID and see? Is that what it is? Yeah, cuz he's I've had

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:27
so many kids. So many parents. Like, I'm home with my kids. I hope you don't mind. They're screaming in the backyard. They all have are in the background while we talk. They all have RSV. One lady actually, their whole daycare shut down because three quarters of the daycare had Rs. RSV, so yeah, you know,

Scott Benner 3:44
yeah, he's like, it's gonna be head, chest. Tired could last 10 days or more. He said, I was like, Oh, good. So as I'm asking him that my son comes home from a place he went, he's like, I'm not okay. And I was like, Oh, all right. I was like getting bed, loaded him up with some Advil cold and sinus which seems to clear the head thing. So anyway, we just need to be better because I'm gonna find a way to go to the World Series. You are I mean, if I can, I'm gonna figure it out. If I can.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:15
Or you know, plenty of people. I'm quite sure that somebody would probably be very happy to give you tickets.

Scott Benner 4:22
I've already floated that on the internet to see what I was like I said, How would you like your kid to have amazing blood sugar?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:32
Yes. Kind of like runs with Jenny.

Scott Benner 4:36
Jenny So tell me we'll leave this all in. Tell me what happened yesterday.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:44
Oh, yeah, it was it's just I it's just funny. I call it diabetes in the wild right where you like, you find people or you see their tubing or you see something on someone you know, whatever. So yeah, I had a half marathon yesterday. Running Running, running, it was like mile five ish, I think. And I hear like, I always run with only one year bud in, because I, I don't like complete, like not being able to pay attention. So anyway, I hear this like, really stompy feed coming up, and somebody who's like breathing heavy to the point that I knew that they were running quickly. And this woman like speeds up next to me. And she's like, I was trying to catch you. I saw your Dexcom on your arm. And I was like, oh, yeah, she's like, I have a little girl who is had type one a long time. And she did. Yes, it was like a two day sort of event yesterday was like, the 5k, the 5k dog jog and that kind of stuff. And then the day yesterday was the half marathon. And then the kids like fun run. So her daughter had done the 5k the day before on Saturday. And she's like, I thought we were we're all good. And then she's like, double arrowing down at the end of the day. And she's like, I just wanted to know, how do you prevent low blood sugars while you're running? She said, and this is a half marathon, not a 5k. So we got to talking and you know, it was just, it's always fun to like, be able to share and whatnot. And I said, Well, I said, to be honest, I've been doing this a long time. And two, I'm a diabetes educator. And three, you should really listen to this super awesome podcast. But yeah, we got to talking and just like some ideas, she's her daughter is also just a couple of days into Omnipod. Five. So like, lots of variables in the picture there for this race. That, you know, she's like, we've been doing this a number i and her daughter had had type one already for six years. So they're not like newbies by any means. But just new technology and everything in the picture and just trying to figure things out

Scott Benner 7:02
new algorithms. And three days later on a marathon. Yeah. Let you out there in the world.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:11
It's always it's always fun. Excellent, you know?

Scott Benner 7:14
Alright, cool. So here's what we're gonna do today. Because just in case I don't leave in the explanation. I have the illness upon me. And I'm going to see I'm going to keep the one topic today because I think jumping around might get me I'm gonna stick to one thing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:31
So now people are gonna think well, what kind of illness to Scott head because all you said was the ill. It could be a random whatever's going around right here

Scott Benner 7:40
it is. It's I was sleeping in bed on my side. And as I woke up, and I'm like, Oh, I'm very tired. I should text Jenny and tell her no. I'm like, No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna get up. I'm gonna take a shower. I'll take the dogs out. I can do this. My voice is there. I'm gonna be okay. And I caught up and I was like, Oh, I'm freezing. Get back in bed. All my clothes on. I had my hood up to take the dogs outside. I came back upstairs. I am not a person who prepares before a shower. That might be a thing that women don't understand. But I usually get out of the shower and then look for my clothes. But this time, I got all my clothes together because I'm like, I'm not getting out being cold. Right. I finished my shower. I open the shower curtain. And I did not get a towel. Oh, no. I was like, dammit, dammit. I got a towel. And now I'm freezing and through the clothes on. And then I just did something I never do. I had 15 minutes till we had to do this. I just sat down. I was like, I'm just, I'm just gonna sit here. So I'm wearing a sweatshirt right now. By the time we're done, I can be in a tank top. I have no idea how this is gonna go. But what we're going to do today, you're going to debunk the classic diabetes phrase. Owner of Go ahead Johnny finishing a dead Pangkor Yeah, that's right. It is time to debunk owner of a dead pancreas. And there's so I've got my Google foo is all done because I don't want to be wrong. And I but I have a lot of anecdotal information about this. Oh, good. So let's start here. The Cleveland Clinic a reputable organization. Yeah, the pancreas a reputable you would think I mean, it would, I was gonna say would have to be great to be in Cleveland. But let's not do that the pancreas The pancreas is an organ in the back of your abdomen. It is part of your digestive system. Oh, the pancreas is an organ and a gland glands are organs that produce and release substances in the body. The pancreas performs two main functions, an exocrine function, which produces substances, enzymes that help with digestion.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:48
You just had lots and lots of enzymes, talking about Arden and her supplements. So yes,

Scott Benner 9:56
and so I'm gonna there's one more thing here. Let me finish this and says the endocrine function Sian sends out hormones that control the amount of sugar in your bloodstream. So let's tell people what's in the exocrine system. Oh jesus tear glands, mammary glands, mucous membranes, your prostate, your salivary glands. I don't know this one see Bacchus glands? sebaceous sebaceous oil, sweet glands. And then what is in the endocrine system? Adrenal glands, oh, hypothalamus, ovaries and testes, parathyroid and thyroid gland, pineal gland, pituitary gland, thymus. Well, I did really well with the pronunciations didn't lie.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:40
Except you called them sweet glands instead of sweat glands. I was totally chuckling like, yeah, like, yeah, you have a fever? I think,

Scott Benner 10:52
first of all I do. And But for a person who's you know, trying to sit up and keep his head still? I thought I did. Okay, you did Perfect. All right. Now. The extent that I've seen this in the diabetes community, is just this, people have t shirts. It's a proud owner of a useless pancreas, proud owner of a dead pancreas. And then someone else will come up to them and say, your pancreas does more than make insulin. And then it never goes anywhere from there. Right. But I've heard that conversation for the better part of the entire time that Ardens had diabetes. And yet, when Arden had problems with digestion, we looked at every other possibility in the world about why her stomach might hurt, except for digestion. And she suffered for a couple of years.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:40
Yeah, yeah. You looked at her digestive system, without looking at the pieces that help digestion. Right? It's It's like looking at just the part, or giving, which is very common, I have to say it. Oftentimes you go in with a symptom, and you get a medication to take care of the symptom. But the problem is never addressed.

Scott Benner 12:02
Yes, right. And I can for sure, say that because by the time we broke down, and I want to give my wife credit, my wife tried to get me to take her for a endoscopy for like a year. And I was so certain because of the joint pain, and all that other stuff. I was so certain it can't be that. But now I'm here to tell you that I am. I am fully down the hippie rabbit hole about your gut health. And we're going to talk about that now. So I want to Don't you think it's one of those things most people hear and they're like, Yeah, my problem is what is yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:37
it's very it is I mean, you say hippie, it's kind of earthy, crunchy, sort of whatever. But truly, I mean, your digestive system is an enormous part of your immune system. It's an enormous part of you think, you think digestion and you think about poop? Well, at least my boys do. Like their little kids. So whatever. But if you think about what your digestive system is really supposed to be doing, it's breaking down the food that you've eaten into macronutrients, fats, proteins, carbs, and then it helps to absorb them the right way and put them back into the body, at least the ones that you hope go back into your body. Yeah, right. So if the breakdown isn't happening the right way, you're going to end up with a lot of digestive issues, possibly first or later on. And you're also going to have a lot of other things in your body that aren't functioning the way that they're supposed to be functioning. But there again, it comes off as a symptom. You may feel the joint pain, you may have an off monthly cycle, or you might have this or that but it never comes back to well gosh, is it an absorptive issue? Is it another problem with another like, you know, the pancreas? Is it something else?

Scott Benner 13:54
Oh, also, while your stomach is basically acting as I'm gonna just say something terrible here a cesspool for food, because it is not going through you quickly enough, right? It just stuff is sitting there and it's festering, it is not a healthy environment, the bad bacteria overwhelms the good bacteria. And then you slide down on like a, it's just an endless shoot. But the problem is, this is crazy. If you look back over the 700, and some episodes of this podcast, we've hit every idea around this except the idea of digestion. We have episodes 263 fat and protein 471 bolusing insulin for fat. And there you go, like right what do most people see a spike after a meal? And it's probably because their digestion has slowed down. Right? The insulin I don't know. That's how I started thinking about it. Like if you if it takes longer to digest fat, then your insulin gets in and it's gone while the fat still remains behind and the carbs holding up your blood sugar. And then we attack act that from a bolusing standpoint, which makes sense. And then low carb people come in yelling, it's cuz you eat bad food, and they're probably not wrong. But it doesn't get us to the answer.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:14
It doesn't and, and it also doesn't get to the main point which you know, you have long. And we've emphasized when we've talked together, it is about a timing thing and understanding insulin, right. So if you it's, it's a multi piece thing that you have to put together, right, you have to understand and that's why we've talked about Bolus strategizing for fats and proteins versus carbohydrates and the timing of it and what it should look like. But if you've got some other things that are going on digestive Lee that are based on how your enzymes are working with the food, some of that may also be playing in and I mean, again, it sort of leads you into this rabbit hole of consideration. Yeah,

Scott Benner 15:59
well, here's the rabbit hole. We aren't in goes finally to get an end. What am I saying? endoscopy and the doctor. First, I'm going to read you. First I'm going to read you a definition then we're going to talk Okay? gastroparesis is a condition that affects the normal spontaneous movement of the muscles or motility in your stomach. Ordinarily strong muscular contractions propel food through your digestive tract. You'll notice that the definition for gastroparesis never mentions the word diabetes. Because in a normal person who doesn't have diabetes, if you had slow digestion, they would say to you, oh, you are digesting your food slowly. It's called gastroparesis. When we hear the word gastroparesis, we think oh my god, here it comes. Right. diabetes has gotten us and inheritance. So we do the we go to the we go to the doctor, he doesn't know art and we tell him her blood sugar's are very well controlled. Here's the range it's in. And then I realized he probably doesn't believe us, didn't ask to see it. And then he goes and looks on her stomach and finds food from the night before. He's like there's lettuce in our stomach from 12 hours ago. She has gastroparesis. So my wife and I are like whoa, whoa, like it hit you like a ton of bricks, you know? Yeah. And I was like, what what? And then my wife started saying I think he's just It's and we're just doing that going back and forth and back and forth. And we talked about it I talked about on it did a standalone episode 767 called Arden supplements, but just for 30 seconds here. We went home I called Jenny we talked about how to get Arden on a on a what is it a gastroparesis diet right? That's what they call it?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:51
That's yeah, for lack of a better word. Yes. Right. Yeah.

Scott Benner 17:55
And all of a sudden Arden couldn't eat anything with skin on it. She couldn't you know had to avoid proteins yet even it was difficult to digest. Well, and

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:03
and even I said, and now I am not a gastroenterologist. I don't claim to be one. But I even told you I was like, she doesn't have gastroparesis. I said she's got something else going on that's causing this and it's been a long term thing that she's mean you guys have been dealing with this or had been dealing with this for for a while knowing something was not right. She was constantly complaining of stomach aches and you know, whatever. Like this, this isn't classic gastroparesis. This doesn't even sound like gastroparesis. But again, I am not a gastroenterologist and

Scott Benner 18:38
I'm her father and for the year so prior to that every time somebody would be like, is it this? I think I've talked to so many people who have gastroparesis and artists boluses don't mimic what gastroparesis does. So anyway, because of that kind of anecdotal information, we kept ignoring it. And I want to make sure I say this in case my wife ever hears this, I kept ignoring it. I kept saying, no, no, no, it's got to be something else. And even Arden started, you know, with her kung fu Googling and she's like, I've got fibromyalgia. I've got this, like, my knees hurt like everything, right. So anyway. So we go home and Arjun starts eating this incredibly restrictive diet, which by the way, does not make her stomach feel any better. And about a week into it, she says, I would rather my stomach just hurt. And it was just the saddest thing. You know, like I thought, oh God, her stomach is gonna hurt for her whole life. You know, she's been constipated since she was a little kid. She would have I look back now she'd do this thing where like she wouldn't go for days then diarrhea and then not go for days and diarrhea and pain up in the top of her stomach to the point where she had us like that No lie like pushing down with all of our might at the top of her stomach. And when you got pushed down hard enough, the pain would go away for a minute. And she was like, just almost like reflux. Sorry, Jenny. We would do it for hours sometimes getting No, like she'd lay on the floor and have you put your hurt your heel in her stomach, like stuff like that. And so this week's going on, I'm watching her, the diet is not doing anything. And she says to me out of nowhere, I want you to realize that at this point, I still don't think digestion, okay, right. She says, I want to go to five guys. I'm getting a cheeseburger, I'm getting fries. And I'm getting a milkshake. And I don't care what happens next. And I was like, okay, like, I don't know what to do. Right? So I said, well, first do this thing with me. I'll take you to Five Guys. You. I'm going to stop first, at a health food store. I heard somebody say something about a digestive enzyme. That's it. I don't know where I heard it online. I saw it written down somewhere through googling. I have no idea. I'm like, we're gonna get those. You take them while you eat. She was like, I'm gonna be honest with you. She was like, whatever. Like she was she I'll do it. But I don't believe in this. I don't believe in anything. It had been long enough. She had given up on the idea. So we get them. And I we get home. I'm like, Here, take two of them. Because the lovely crunchy lady at the health food store said take two if it's a high fat meal she takes to her blood sugar never spikes the way it would it didn't need nearly the insulin it would have needed. And it stayed really flat. And I was like, oh my god, we did it. Except then the next day, I was like, have you pooped? Since you ate the cheeseburger? And she goes, No.

There are two things that I would tell you to look at first, if you have diabetes. First one I'm going to tell you about is the Dexcom G six continuous glucose monitor. This little device shows you on the receiver that comes with it or on your cell phone. Your blood sugar's number, direction and speed constantly. Like it's always there when you look at it. And you can set alarms. So like you say, you don't want your blood sugar to go over. I don't know 150 You make an alarm at 150. And when it gets to 150 Go say BB baby. We're at 150 It doesn't say it exactly like that. But there's beeping, then you look and see the 150 and say, oh I might have missed on my Bolus. Let me do what I'm gonna do. Or you set an alarm for a lower number. Say you don't want to know. Let's say you want to know when your blood sugar's at five. Beep beep beep I'm at five. Oh, I hear BBB I take a little 85 and then I take a little I do what I'm gonna do whatever you're gonna do you do it then you can keep in this range. Seriously, when you when you're aware of the range, your blood sugar's then it's easier to stay in it. It's easier not to ping pong all over the place, roller coaster. I mean, listen, we talked about all the time in the podcast, you can check the podcast out later. But this Dexcom G six is at the core, right? I mean for that for that management stuff 100% needed, but also for safety, security, convenience, how about that up to 10 people can follow someone so say your kids at school, you can see their blood sugar on your phone. And so could nine other people of your choosing, we're not whatever you want to do, Dex comm.com, forward slash juice box, please head over there today. And check it out. You may be eligible for a free 10 day trial that XCOM G six, you'll only find that out on my site. So hit the link. Guys, you're also going to want to get yourself that. And guys, you're also going to want to get yourself the Omni pod. It's a tubeless insulin pump. It's really terrific. Tiny little device filled up with insulin, put it on, no tubing, you understand you're not connected to anything, you just wear it. And then there's a handheld controller that you say like I'm having 12 grams of carbs and then it tells you because you put in settings it tells you well this is how much insulin you'll need for those 12 grams, push the button, whole thing happens wirelessly. You're not connected to the controller, there's no tubing, you have an insulin pump that you can swim with, that you can bathe with that you can play your sports with, and sleep comfortably with no tubing no controller attached to you. Now that's for the on the pod five, which is an automated insulin pump system or for the AMI pod dash. Both of them are tubeless. Both of them give you that freedom. Now the AMI pod five is the only tubeless automated insulin delivery system that integrates with the Dexcom G six CGM and it uses smart adjust technology to automatically adjust your insulin delivery every five minutes helping to protect against highs and lows without multiple daily injections. That's the only part five tubeless and automated on the VA dash tubeless not automated still an amazing system. So whether you want an automated system, or a system that you kind of take the reins on one way or the other. You want tubeless you want the Omni pod Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox for full safety risk information and free trial terms and conditions. You can also visit on the pod.com forward slash juice box. And I know what you're just that free trial terms and conditions you didn't mention a free trial. Well, how about this, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash, go find out at my link on the pod.com forward slash juice box

Have you pooped? Since you ate the cheeseburger? And she goes, No. So now it's days that go by. She's taking them under duress because we're making her but her stomach still hurts and all this stuff. And finally I said to my wife, I'm seeing something with her insulin. I know this is working. But there's got to be another component to it. I go back to the health food store. Explain it to the crunchy lady. And by the way, the crunchy lady has a Russian accent. So the whole thing is a ton of fun, right? She's like, it's like, I'm telling you. It's out of like a Rocky and Bullwinkle movie. She's like moose and squirrel. You know what I mean? Like, just like that, right? And it's so I tell her what goes on. She, uh, she walks across the room grabs this big jug. She says, magnesium oxide, this will make her go. And I was like right now. And she goes here and take this probiotic too. So I went home, Arden had noticed that enough improvement that she took the other stuff. And like, for three days, I'm like, Have you booked a you poop she actually wants said to me, please stop asking me if I've gone to the bathroom. I don't want to tell you. And I kept asking I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:32
am at home dad, please don't ask if I have.

Scott Benner 26:36
One day I asked her and she smiled. And she goes, Oh, you idiot. I went days ago. And I was like, why are you doing this to me? So then hers, that cycle started happening with frequency. Then I shared it in Episode 767, where I go over the supplements that artists taking But Kelly and Arden were leaving to go to a restaurant one day, they left the house. I thought they were gone. Arden came back in the house, I forgot something she says goes in the kitchen, and she grabbed the digestive enzymes. And I was like holy hell it worked. Because there's no way she would have come back for it if not, like just the way you know. So it's such a cheap and easy attempt, right? Like if you have digestion issues, or you're not pooping, these are two very safe, very simple supplements that you could give a shot to. Am I wrong?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:30
Could no you, you certainly could give a shot to them. And again, in terms of like, long term effect the build, especially if the digestive enzymes, if you truly do have some type of digestive enzyme issue, whether it's an absorption issue with them, or it is a release of them in the right way in your body. You should notice some definite benefit from using them. But if you don't clearly it's not something you just keep taking to see if it's going to work.

Scott Benner 28:04
No are in solid improvement really quickly. Right? Like a week. And I and you were like okay, well, this is working. Yeah, something else is wrong. Something else is wrong. But now as the weeks have gone by, and she's building up what I'm assuming is the healthier gut because there's no like rotted foods sitting in her stomach for days. Right now the probiotics are having a chance to work. I have not now she's college and Fair's fair, she could be down there right now going God My knee hurts. But she has not said anything. And she's on

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:36
she's pretty honest with you about things, it seems well.

Scott Benner 28:41
There's also this, um, there's this look that goes over her once the medical stuff has, like, beaten her down. And you can see it, like you can see the like, I give up on her face. And now she's walking to classes. She's, you know, getting on buses going somewhere walking up and down stairs more than usual. I've not heard a word from her about it. And I don't know, I mean, hopefully it keeps working. But your pancreas does more than make insulin. So this makes sense. So does it do anything else? Or just those? It just has basically those two functions?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:21
It has those two, right? I mean, essentially, the exocrine the endocrine, I mean, if you think about you go to an endocrinologist, an endocrinologist, especially by people with diabetes are specifically thought of as being like the diabetes doctor, but there are some endos who don't even do diabetes at all. Like they are specifically thyroid endocrine physicians, right. Some are very much just the you know, the ones that deal with like the ovaries and those kinds of things. That aspect and they may not know very much at all about diabetes because that's not Really what they've gone into. So that, you know, again, those are the primary functions. But again, it would be better for the T shirts to actually say, proud owner of like dead islet cells or dead beta cells. And even that isn't 100% the truth because we still know that betas still have some little, little bit of action, even if it doesn't really look like they're doing much of anything. People have had diabetes for a number of years can still have minor output from some of the betas that are still left. So nothing's technically dead.

Scott Benner 30:41
So the idea I've heard in the past is that those cells are so overwhelmed with inflammation that they can't move and fun. Yes, right. And that's the other part of like, you're still like, if you're listening, like Scott, I understand why they're nice, stop hurting because you fixed her stomach. Inflammation, your stomach is, is, again, it's a cesspool, nothing's flowing through you. It's rotten in there. And it is, and the bacteria is now off balance. So even throwing in a probiotic, which by the way, we tried, like a year and a half before that, when people are like, Oh, what's your stomach? Here? Give her all these probiotics and stuff like that. She kept taking them. And she's like, these are not doing anything because we were throwing them into a pit of vileness. That's why it's like throwing an air freshener into a cesspool. That's what we were doing here. Like, yeah. So once you get the food moving through it, and this is how it went in my head, I'll get the food moving. And then I'll address the bacteria in your stomach. And, I mean,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:40
the seems to be a good combination.

Scott Benner 31:43
Yeah, I mean, so far, I should knock on all the wood in the house. But yeah, I mean, you know, I don't jump on the podcasts and say stuff, I've seen it work for a while. You know what,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 31:52
and to be true, you know, and we're talking about the comparison of the supplement that she takes, or these digestive enzyme supplements, the majority of the kind of ingredients in them are to supplement what should be some of the enzymes that are being put out by the pancreas to again, deal with your macronutrients, being fats and proteins and carbohydrates, right? Even the saliva in your mouth does contain some of a carbohydrate based digestive enzyme. So you know, digestion to some degree starts in your mouth, mainly of carbohydrates, as you move further down the digestive system, those other enzymes that are supposed to be coming from your pancreas, like lipase and amylase, and pro protease, yes, to think of the third one, you'll look on the digestive enzyme label for the ingredients. And those should be within there if you're getting a true digestive enzyme. Because what you're, what you're doing is replacing them into the body for whatever reason, your pancreas isn't doing enough of the job or your body is just not using it right, whatever.

Scott Benner 33:01
So here's a Google search. What can poor gut health leads to when your body doesn't have enough good bacteria bad bacteria can thrive the following can be signs of gut bacteria imbalance, autoimmune problems, such as thyroid issues, rheumatoid arthritis, that type one diabetes, digestive issues, such as irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, or bloating. Now, I'm going to tell you this. After I watched this work with Arden for a week or two, I thought, you know, I have most of the problems Arden has. I've, like powered through it my whole life. But I have right, and I've got checked for celiac and I don't have celiac. But even as a child, I can remember my uncle and aunt used to like to take us to a pizza joint near where they worked on Friday nights. And we'd eat at the pizza place and have a 15 minute ride home. And I would have to make them stop at the business. They don't halfway through so I could go to the bathroom or the bathroom. Yeah. And even when I was like six or eight years old, and I can remember being in the bathroom and people like why Scott in the bathroom for so long. And I wanted to yell because I'm in agonizing pain. Thank you. Because I ate the pizza was like 1979 and nobody doesn't like the pizza. Picking me for pizza, please. So I said to Kelly, I'm like, I'm gonna take these enzymes, you know, because I've been doing fiber supplements for years to get ahead of the problem. But it always felt like what you talked about before, it was like a band aid. It was helping, but it wasn't nothing was stopping. You know what I mean? Like everything got through easier. But it's still like if I would forget the fiber one day, I'd wake up in the morning and think, Oh, God, I didn't take the fiber yesterday. Oh, here it was my day, you know. So I start taking the enzymes and the magnesium and the probiotic. And while I don't need the fiber anymore. I get up every morning just like the rest of you and take a nice puppy and then live my life. did not use to happen for me. So I don't mind sharing it here where, really more people are gonna hear it than I'd like to imagine right now. But But I want you all to know, because when I went into the Facebook group and I said, here's the episode about Ardens supplements, the amount of people who came in and were like, hey, my kids stomach hurts all the time, my kids always constipated. This is since diabetes, blah, blah, blah, adults. But like, I got a note from a woman in her 50s. She's like, you should like you save me. So I just want to tell people, that's all. And I'm trying to draw them in with the title, proud owner of a dead pancreas. I think, yeah, I think I can get them into the episode.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 35:43
I could be Well, I think there are a lot of I mean, even if you look at some of the research that's been done on the digestive system, in terms of and I absolutely I hate the term, like leaky gut, I think it's too, it's too broadly used. And it's not, it doesn't give any definition to what might actually be going on. But for people that are more predisposed to autoimmune conditions, the potential that they're got may be sort of like, let's call it, you know, like Swiss cheese, if you will. And there are more holes that allow things to get back into the body that should have been being held in the digestive system and then passed out, right. So if some of these things that are your attempts, if you will get back into the body, they can create enough problem that your immune system sort of goes haywire, right? autoimmune disorder, and whether it's thyroid or celiac or type one or the other autoimmune disorders, the gut is heavily studied in terms of autoimmune conditions. So if you can keep a healthy gut, while you know that you already have an autoimmune condition, you may be able to potentially hold down or prevent other autoimmune conditions as well.

Scott Benner 37:05
Why is this not a mainstream idea? Why did that doctor give Arden a medication for pain, a medication for something else? He gave her three meds and a diet that a 90 year old person would be like, I don't want to eat this, like it was it was a it was a restrictive diet? Why didn't you just say, hey, go to the health food store and buy a handful of digestive enzymes. Let's give that a whirl and see what happens. Like how does he not know that I didn't go to medical school? Jimmy, it took me two years, but I figured it out. Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:37
He really you want to really dive into that big hot topic, in terms of what get again, I think the best thing to say is that there are a lot of band aids that are being given. Yeah, instead of and instead of, let's really, let's really study and figure out let me listen to all of your symptoms. And let's figure this out from the standpoint of actually attacking the true problem. And I've encountered that in terms of, you know, like my own health stuff. I was amazed when I first started seeing a naturopathic physician, someone who had gone to medical school, and then had gone back after getting her MD to focus on women's health, and many of the things that are very specific to females versus males. And, you know, she's like, well, all these things, you know, why? Why wasn't this tried? Or why wasn't this looked at, or let's get a check to make sure that all of these types of things in your body are actually at the right level. And there were a number of things. I mean, even just vitamin D, she's the she's the one that got my vitamin D level backup by simply telling me to take a drop that went under my tongue, instead of a supplemental tablet that went into my just my digestive system and it didn't get absorbed.

Scott Benner 38:57
Some people can absorb it, some people can't. And now, let us let us go back. Everyone knows that I have trouble absorbing iron. Oh, isn't that interesting? So you know, I can't so even if I take an iron supplement, it doesn't move my iron level up. I have to take it with a sorbic acid or vitamin like vitamin C. I don't know why that makes the gut lining pull it up better, but it does. And it's it's a similar thing. And when you start putting the pieces together and drawing lines from A to B, Arden has diabetes. And you know, she was she We thought she was fine, but she was young, who knows maybe Her stomach's been hurting forever, and she just didn't notice anything. My stomach hurt when I was a kid. And so even that, like when that happens, you think Oh, maybe it's just genetic. Like my stomach hurts. Her stomach hurts. I guess this is what we get. And then you just start putting everything together. Now one of the other things that made this difficult to figure out was Arden's hormonal issues. So incredibly long period 11 to 14 days. It would restart after two or three days, go back to 11 or 14 days, like it just was she was constantly bleeding. She would get a vicious nosebleed once a month, like on like clockwork, her acne a couple of years ago, just out of nowhere, just it was really terrible. Like she's tried everything that you can think of the fixture acting right. And we had gone through so many things. And Dr. BENITO who did the thyroid episode with me. She said, Well, I think Arden is going to need Metformin. And I was like, okay, and she goes, I think it's going to be an insulin resistant thing. I think she's going to need Metformin. But before we try that, would you go buy this supplement called of acetone? And when I said that to Jenny to kind of check things, Jenny's like, oh, yeah, people use that all the time. And I was like, oh, hell, so of acetone, a little powder, you melt it in the water. You've only drink it, you can't taste it. And I don't know how long it took. Not long, a month or two. And our period started regulating the nosebleed stopped her acne started going away. I mean, she Yes, you know, girl, poor girls, you guys, it's and then you got a little bit boys

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:11
who have no clue too much. So sorry, to all you boys. But really like, I think it's right. I

Scott Benner 41:18
think it's too much all this happens. And then there are boys there who are like Sunday, I'm watching football. Right? Yes. Or whatever they do. So anyway, so that's it. So are we missing anything around gut health? What the pancreas does, or any of the issues that you know, Arden went through? Did I miss anything?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:38
I don't think so. I mean, if you really wanted to dig deeper into each of those little pieces or enzymes, you certainly could but you know, that's what Google's

Scott Benner 41:49
not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to tell you, yeah, you can figure it out. Right, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 41:53
but to let people know that clearly your your pancreas has a lot of other definitely good things that it should be doing. And if you're noticing anything digestive Lee, it could be a piece of maybe some of that, quote unquote, dead pancreas that isn't quite working the way that it's supposed

Scott Benner 42:10
to. I'll tell you this is interesting, because I don't think many people, I think a lot of people who have like constipation problems will be like I heard to take magnesium. But they're like three different kinds of magnesium, maybe more, I have no idea. And I remember somebody telling us to give Arden magnesium, and we gave her the wrong kind. So a year and a half ago, we could have had this right. But instead of magnesium oxide, we gave her hold on a second, I'll tell you what it was.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:37
And I'm like, I don't know what her supplement magnesium citrate,

Scott Benner 42:40
we gave her magnesium citrate or glycinate. So no kidding. There's glycinate, citrate and oxide, we tried glycinate and citrate. And when it didn't work out, it's like, I'm not taking these things anymore. Well, one more to go.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:55
When many people actually with diabetes are low and a number of different things, magnesium being one of them. Sometimes zinc is also on the lower end. I always recommend if you're considering some symptoms, and some of the things that again, I mean, Google is great, but it is a rabbit hole of information that you can really get into and not quite, you end up coming out thinking you got 50 more things than you've thought you had. Right. So a simple I mean, blood test will tell you where these levels are, to be able to start at the right place. Because obviously, if you're not low in something or whatnot, there's really not a need for you to go crazy on supplement.

Scott Benner 43:37
What about though, in the case of like when Addy came on and talked about thyroid, she also talked about ferritin levels. And she said, she said, I don't care what those tests say, if you're a woman of menstruating age, your heart needs to be above 70. But the but the test won't say that. But this is from her own practice and anecdotal, you know, experiences. So that's the other problem because we see it happen with thyroid all the time. They're like I have all these thyroid systems and I got your labs are in range. And then no and then that's it. Right but

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:08
the labs is a good example is vitamin D for a second one. Mean labs typically have you in target as long as you're between 30 and 100 an optimal truly I got this from my naturopathic doctor, she's like, optimal is much tighter. It's actually 50 to 70 that's where you want to sit. So I mean, when I started out mine was 18 my doctor thought that had to completely be wrong. He's like let's do the test again. Oh, no, it came back at at it and I was like, Oh, look at that.

Scott Benner 44:38
What did you experience when you got the level up?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 44:42
Um, when I got the level up, I can definitely say that insulin and this was years ago, but I can definitely say that my insulin sensitivity I guess for lack of a better word was more stable. Because of course vitamin D work It's on a cellular level in terms of how it responds to glucose as well as insulin. So I just know that if I keep in target if I keep in range, I noticed more consistency just in overall, like glucose and insulin sensitivity. That's, so that's a big thing that I noticed.

Scott Benner 45:22
Alright, so I want to say this at the end because we are finished. I want to tell people notice here at the end, I'm not trying to sell you something Jenny's not telling you to go to a link to get more information. There are no clickable links when you buy magnesium oxide that I make money, nothing like that. I'm just here to tell you what happened to Artem because it was it was it was really horrible. And it was daily. And she was held down by it. It I think emotionally, and I was too I started feeling like I'm definitely failing around this because there must be some sort of an answer. And, and then when I see everybody talking about it online, I can't believe how many people jumped up and said, What What's that magnesium? What? What's the what's the enzyme Tell me about that? I don't digest food. Well, I'm constipated. By it all the time. Like and sometimes. Sometimes I hear people say it almost like it's a badge of honor. I poop once a week. Like it's like it's almost like it's dainty. Do you know what I mean? Right? Not dainty. How many times we want to poop Jenny?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 46:23
Daily. Yeah, absolutely daily. In fact, I thought it was the weirdest question when I first started taking my, my first child to the to the pediatrician who was like, Well, how many times a week because he goes into the bathroom and like, my kid goes to the bathroom every day. People are supposed to poop every day your body is supposed to transit things in and move on out. That's the end at least I mean, honestly, good. Good. Digestion is at least twice a day. And if you go even further to the more earthy, crunchy, you should be pooping after every single meal.

Scott Benner 46:57
As the new food comes in and pushes the old stuff out.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:00
That's right. You gotta clean bacteria. It's moving it in. It's getting it out. It's doing what it's supposed to be doing. That's a

Scott Benner 47:07
health so that's the thing we make fun of people for by the way. Oh, absolutely. Yes.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:11
I mean, this should be well formed poop. I mean, if you want to get in depth about it, right? It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be disgusting. It shouldn't be like liquidy whatever. This good poop. Couple times a day should be well formed. It should come out easily. You should not have the strain to go to the bathroom.

Scott Benner 47:30
Yeah, shouldn't be stuck under the toilet seat when you're over.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:32
No, it should not.

Scott Benner 47:36
Those are moments reserved for days of drinking and then what happens at the end or illness. When you really think about having a virus or something like that. What happens is you're getting better from the virus you like evacuate because your body's like there's a lot of badness in here. Let's throw it out.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:52
Let's move it on out. That's exactly right.

Scott Benner 47:55
Yeah, right. We've done it gently. We've saved lives here. I'm not sure call this

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:59
like the pooping episode.

Scott Benner 48:05
proud owner of a dead pancreas. That, though I don't know there's nothing there. There's nothing there. No. Anyway, I, I have to say. I almost feel like I want to apologize to the people listening for not figuring it out sooner. Like that. That terrible feeling I had watching Arden's struggle. When you start getting the emails and the notes online, I actually for a second thought, like I let all those people down to they really felt like that for a minute. You know?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 48:36
Well, I think this goes a level further in terms of I mean, you shouldn't have to apologize, and I don't think anybody obviously, I mean, they've probably listening thinking, Oh, my gosh, like, please don't apologize for something that you should you've had nothing to do with right. I think it goes again to a deeper level of overall medical evaluation. And, I mean, it truly takes it into the you mentioned Metformin before, right. As a potential thing that a doctor was recommending for Arden. Well, I've even worked with a number of women who actually, I knew from all of their issues that they probably had PCOS, right polycystic ovarian syndrome. I could I knew insulin resistance, all the things that they were having, as they just get a prescription for Metformin. Just get one. And I had a couple of doctors tell them, there's no reason for you to use this. I don't know why this would have been recommended. So you know, I think from an overall sometimes you end up having to be your best you do end up having to be your best advocate. But you also have to have an idea of where to start. And when you can say like you did, but this medicine is just a bandaid. It's something that's going to cover up a symptom. I want to know why the symptom is here. Let's dig deeper. I want to find the reason that I'm having this or these symptoms and take care of the reason. So I don't have to take six other things.

Scott Benner 50:09
Yeah. Well, I still don't know where Arden's path is going to lead on this. Like maybe she'll end up on Metformin because maybe she has PCOS, because that's one of the things that we vet. I mean, we looked into a PCOS clinic down south, where they do they do a like a surgery to try to correct it. And oh, wow, how bad things were like they go in there and like, just it's crazy. You know what I mean? And but that's how far down the rabbit hole we were. We were like, This pain is not stopping like what she does. So maybe maybe, I have to say Dr. BENITO still said we want to give the old acetone more time on Arden's acne. But if it doesn't clear up the entire way, I don't think we're done yet. So we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, anyway, because

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:53
her insulin, since the enzymes especially has her have her insulin needs gone down. And I know you just

Scott Benner 51:02
did, and then she went to college. And now she's now she's eating I think Styrofoam sprinkled with high fructose corn syrup. So all the little things that we adjusted out of our diet like dreamfields Pasta instead of regular pasta or low fat, you know, I don't know sauce that goes on something. It's it's everything's frozen pizza and french fries. And so I have no idea. It took us weeks to like, get on top of it, because she kept saying, I can do this. Like I can do it. But her blood sugar's were going to 20 after meals, they weren't coming down. So finally a little while ago, I called her up and I said, Hey, Arden, listen, we need to talk for a minute. And she's like, okay, so we got on FaceTime. And I said, I know you're trying. I don't think you're not trying. But bolusing for this food is, it's hard. So why don't you let me help you a little bit. So we did Jenny's post date with loop, which worked really well. So big, big Bolus up front for this design, whatever this disaster is, they're feeding her. And then about 60 To know that an hour to hour and a half later, about a 15 or 20 carb Bolus that the jury to give the loop some autonomy to make harsher. Yeah, adjust options. Yeah, I don't think that's not something you can do with any other algorithm, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 52:22
It is not? No, the easiest I think is, uh, you can't, you can't forward stamp anything in any other in any other system. I think the closest would be knowing that something's coming. The ability to potentially start an extended Bolus with control like you to hit out further. But even with that, it's only a two hour extension. And there's no visual to absorption of food, right? That's where, you know, the looping types of systems are very unique in that they truly do allow the system to still pay attention to why is this blood sugar where it is, there's still food in the system. Let's take care of this completely, not just attack a blood sugar because the blood sugar is here. There's a reason behind it.

Scott Benner 53:14
Can you see her graph? This is 24 hours. So we're back to it now. Right? But before oh my god, like I was like, We don't know. It's It's the food. It took me a couple of days to figure it out. Because our settings because she had because of all these adjustments. She was using significantly less insulin all of a sudden, then she started eating there. And then I was like, Oh my God, we've got to move everything back again. But I wasn't with her. And it seemed like a lot to move it. Because what if it goes wrong? Like you don't you mean? So we moved it really slowly over a couple of weeks, which I I'll tell you, I don't think back in the day. I could have done it like that. But now I have a little more of a like a long view. I'm like, it sucks that our blood sugar's high, but I'm not going to write I'm not gonna ever pass out Welcome to class because we're we moved things too quickly.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:03
No, not at all. I mean, I you know, college, I had none of the technology. I mean, I was on injections in college, and I had a glucometer that I carried around with me. So I didn't have any of the information. But even I found out really quickly what the difference between going to like the burger joint, which wasn't it was a veggie burger. So what's really real a burger, but the burger joint on campus versus going just to the cafeteria. I figured out pretty quickly that I just ended up living mostly on salads at school a lot of the time because they seem to work out better from a standpoint of what I was finding on my next finger sticks.

Scott Benner 54:43
Well, as I google the words freshman 15 college students have been warned about the dreaded freshman 15 The extra 15 pounds that so often accompany the first year of college. It turns out from our experience, it's because the food is terrible. Oh, you're all making enough money to give the kids real Food shouldn't be that hard. Right? And it's presented so nicely, Jenny. Oh, yeah, you go through like, Arden looks like she's getting lunch at, you know, at the Taj Mahal. Yeah, who plays Yeah. Then she sits down. She's like, this food is terrible. I'm like, Okay. And then, you know, finally I'm like, send me pictures so I can help you with the thing. And I think at first I think she was eating a lot of French fries when she was like, like when she first got there. I think she was a little. She had problems that I don't want to talk about on here with it with a roommate. Yeah. But there was a lot of anxiety in the first couple of weeks. And I think she was I think she was treating the anxiety with the French fries with food. Yeah. And then when I told her, I'm like, I need to see what you're eating. She wouldn't answer me. That's the first time that's ever happened. Arden show me your plate? Like not? No, she just didn't answer.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:47
She just didn't answer. Yeah,

Scott Benner 55:49
I was like, Okay, what's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 55:51
this? Did she do a lot? I mean, the food on campus? I'm curious if anyone has any nutrition facts? Or is she mostly estimating?

Scott Benner 56:00
Well, she's estimating, but she just, she realized just a lot is the measurement she needs. So we so far have not given have not found a way to give her too much insulin for a meal? Or a

Jennifer Smith, CDE 56:11
meal. Yeah, I wonder if I mean, you know, whether she use it or not depends on the person. But there are some really good visual apps like the fig we app is really nice, from a visual standpoint, because you can adjust, like you type french fries in, for example, it shows you like a portion of French fries on a plate. And then you can adjust the portion, there's little slide rule below the picture, you can make the portion on the plate look smaller, or you can make the pile of fries look larger. And right below it are all the nutrition facts, carbs, proteins, fats, salt, everything. What's it called? Fig, we fit G W E. It's a great app, it's really sweet. Because instead of looking through, like Calorie King is the long term used one, but it's just a list. And it might tell you three ounces, or four pieces or whatever. And a lot of people, they don't know what three ounces looks like or even what a half a cup looks like anymore. So if you're looking through a list, you're gonna get annoyed and irritated. And most teens and college students are not going to use that. But this being a visual, it's, it's really kind of sweet.

Scott Benner 57:16
I'm looking. It's pretty cool. All right, we have no connection to that unless Jenny's know me. And I don't

Jennifer Smith, CDE 57:21
know. No, absolutely not. No, I've used it for a number of years. Actually, I found it at a conference probably five or six years ago.

Scott Benner 57:30
Well, I'm gonna say one last thing. Here on the podcast, I am an on the Facebook group. And anywhere you've ever heard me talk about diabetes, I say I don't care what you eat. It's not my business. I just want you to know how to Bolus for it. But if you don't think that every once in a while, I don't go. You guys like what are you doing? Like Like, he can't. He can't eat every terrible thing and then say, I don't know what's happening. Like Like, right, you know, if you can't put a cupcake on a piece of pizza and wash it down with a soda and go, can you believe my blood sugar went up i Bolus like it's there are times when I when I want to just say Come on, like please. And this happened. That feeling ended up being how we sort of figured out Arden's thing, right, like fats are sitting in are too long stuff like this is happening, blah, blah, blah. She's not digesting it. And keeping in mind that the doctor wanted to give her a pill that he said would numb her stomach so it wouldn't hurt anymore.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:31
See, again, covering a symptom. Yeah, he didn't want to cover up a symptom.

Scott Benner 58:34
He didn't want to help her. He just and by the way, on our first visit before the the look down or stomach, he handed us samples in the room. Of course, I was like, this sucks. You know what I mean? And that

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:47
that could be a whole episode about

Scott Benner 58:51
you know, their recommended by a number of physicians that I know in the area. That's how we ended up there. So anyway, sorry, Jenny, thank you so much for doing this with me. Absolutely. Yes, always.

I'm gonna thank Dexcom makers, the Dexcom G six and remind you that you may be eligible for a free 10 day trial, find out more@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. And of course, maybe you'll want a 30 day free trial, the dash and you're eligible could be maybe you're gonna want to find out about the Omni pod five automated system. Either way, the link you want is Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. I know it's the end of the year and people like it's the holidays. I'll wait. Don't wait. Just don't wait. Just jump in. Get going if it's what you want. There's no time like the president. Not the president, the president. There's no time like the present on the pod.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. I'd like to thank you so much for listening remind you that the private face Facebook group is an amazing place to be Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, completely free Facebook group. Everything about the podcast is free. Thank you to the sponsors. That's why That's why I'm off the charger for episodes and stuff not behind paywalls or how come I don't do like a 15 minute episode where I kind of tickle your ass with a feather but don't give you all the information then drive you back to my website where I'm like, sign up for coaching. I don't do that crap. I'm not up for that. I don't like it. Everything, everything I offers free, go, go use the Facebook page, meet the people build a community for yourself. I'll make sure it's there for you. And it's it's a nice place to be. You go ahead and take advantage of it. Same with the podcast all the episodes absolutely free. i My pleasure to make them seriously. Anyway. What am I supposed to say here? Thanks so much for listening. Come back soon. There'll be more episodes the Juicebox Podcast please subscribe or follow in your podcast app. If you're not listening in a podcast app or an audio app. Please check them out. Spotify, Apple podcast, Amazon music are some of the most popular ones. They work great. They're free. I think that's it, my friends. Alright, I'll talk to you soon.

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#791 What Matters

Danielle's son has type 1 diabetes and celiac.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 791 of the Juicebox Podcast. I put too much emphasis on of but I don't feel like re recording it. So here we go

on today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast I'll be speaking with Danielle, Daniel has some children, one of them has type one diabetes, and celiac. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. We're becoming bold with insulin. If you happen to have type one diabetes, and are a US resident, or you are the caregiver of a US resident, please go to T one D exchange.org. Ford slash juicebox. Join the registry complete the survey. It all just takes a few moments. When you do this, you're helping yourself helping other people with type one diabetes, you're helping research move forward, you're supporting the podcast, you're doing so many good things that at the end of that 10 minutes, you'll think I'm such a good person, like I've done so much today, I could probably take the rest of the day off T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Take the survey, give yourself the day off

this installment of the Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by in pen from Medtronic diabetes. You're getting your insulin through a pen right now. But your pen doesn't do anything except Sticky, sticky, bulky, bulky. Well, the M pen does a lot more because it actually pairs to an app on your phone. That gives you much of the functionality of an insulin pump. Whew, you're intrigued, aren't you in pen today.com To find out more. today's podcast is also sponsored by my favorite blood glucose meter, the Contour Next One, head over now to contour next one.com forward slash juice box to learn all about my favorite meter. And whatever else that page has to offer, which is a bounty there is a bounty of information at contour next one.com Ford slash juice box. It's like the test trips might be cheaper in cash and they are through your insurance and you can buy them right online as well as that is too much for me to say here. I like this setup a lot. Okay, I do want you to push the microphone back up a little bit. Sorry. Back up. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 2:43
Okay. Hold on. Let me take a deep breath because I'm a little

Scott Benner 2:45
Are you getting like, no, you're fine. Don't worry. Everything's going fine. Well, it's

Unknown Speaker 2:49
mostly because I ran up and down the steps. It didn't catch my breath. That's how out of shape I am.

Scott Benner 2:53
I would have never run up and down the steps in this situation like this.

Unknown Speaker 2:56
Well, it's Scott Benner day. This is a big deal in my house right now.

Scott Benner 3:00
send everybody out. Are they like outside sitting in the lawn waiting for you to tell them they can come back in?

Unknown Speaker 3:05
Well, no. School, they went off to school and then my husband. I'm sorry about who you are like his man crush. Oh, you're a full on man crush. This is a big ordeal. Like, do you want me to stay just in case you like me? And I was like, I don't need you.

Scott Benner 3:23
Why am I not speaking to him? Do you think do you think you'd get flustered? They wouldn't be able to talk?

Unknown Speaker 3:30
No, he would be he wouldn't be able to do it. I'll get flustered. I might cry today. Full disclosure.

Unknown Speaker 3:36
Well, let's get go.

Unknown Speaker 3:40
But he, you're definitely his man crush that is for sure. Alright, well,

Scott Benner 3:44
we'll introduce yourself and then explain that to me.

Unknown Speaker 3:49
My name is Danielle. I am a wife and mom, I have got two sons. One is five and then my 13 year old is our t one D and celiac.

Scott Benner 4:04
I like the way you said that I'm making I don't

Unknown Speaker 4:06
like the way I said it either. And it's because I get choked up just saying it.

Scott Benner 4:10
Not that part. You said what you said I have two sons, right? One is five. And the other one has an I thought you said that you said that. Is it? 13.

Unknown Speaker 4:20
Yep. Hello. He'll be 13 next week. Okay. So we do

Scott Benner 4:24
know you're doing great. I'm just I was interested how your listen, if we cut out the interesting parts, then this will be boring. I just, this has nothing to do with anything. But it was interesting how your brain flipped that around. You're like I have two kids. One is five. Right? And then I can't even decide everyone go back and listen, it was interesting. Then your brain decided to say the second one a different way. It's interesting. So 13 year old has type one. How for how long?

Unknown Speaker 4:51
Two years, so he was diagnosed. Sorry, this is a lot for me to even talk about real He He was diagnosed one one week before the COVID. Shutdown.

Scott Benner 5:07
What a big week for you guys. It was a very big week. So his pancreas stopped working. And seven days later society stopped working.

Unknown Speaker 5:16
Pretty much. That's how that's how it worked for us. But if I've got to be honest, it was a slight relief that we were shut down. You know, week after.

Scott Benner 5:25
I've heard that from a lot of people, I've heard that from a lot of people who were diagnosed during the during COVID. They're like, at least we were home and we had time to figure it out and everything exactly. Did you walk around in a panic after the COVID thing thinking like, what could possibly keep next?

Unknown Speaker 5:43
Yeah, it was like nonstop panic. That's a lot of like, you know, we we've, the mental part of all of this was a lot for us at that time. Sure. And we've really have worked our way, you know, through that, and are in a much better place now. But it was a lot.

Scott Benner 6:00
younger, I didn't believe you at first and you said you were gonna cry. But you

Unknown Speaker 6:04
know, like, so here, let me be honest, though, we've got, I've done a lot of work for this. I've done a lot of to be able to be on this podcast, it started out just kind of being a joke between me and my husband. And then really, it was, I was realizing that I can't even say the words that my son is a type one without breaking down.

Scott Benner 6:28
That's okay, Daniel, we're gonna work it out today. I'm not gonna charge you a copay, and you're gonna feel better when this is over, I promise?

Unknown Speaker 6:35
Well, I have done a lot of work for it. I do feel like better about it. I feel like our entire our entire house is in a much better place for it. But I think, I don't know if it would have been as hard for us. There were good things and bad things about being, you know, during COVID. And what that meant for us in our, in our mental health for our family. So

Scott Benner 6:58
well first, tell me when you say you've done a lot of work, what does that mean?

Unknown Speaker 7:03
So it took us a long time to find any help, because of COVID shut down and can't get like in front of anybody can't get the help that we need. I was begging and begging anybody to get a hold of local groups to us of, you know, I just needed my son to meet another type one. I needed him to know that he wasn't alone. And you know, camps were shut down. So those were virtual, which is kind of weird for at the time, he was 11. So that was a little odd. You know, he didn't really want to get on those virtual camps. It wasn't it wasn't his thing at that time. So I was trying to get him any help I possibly could try reaching out to therapists, things like that. And it was a six month to one year backlog of waiting. Because they're the mental health in this in our sight is just you know, during that time was so severe and still so it was we took a lot of time waiting. Before we could get any help.

Scott Benner 8:09
Yeah. Okay. And so, I mean, I I'm sorry, I feel like you're gonna be upset, but I think we should talk about it. So, yeah, what were the feelings? Like? I mean, I guess I'm assuming there's no other type one in your family. Where you, you'd have some context. You guys personally, the four of you have any autoimmune issues besides type one? No. How about extended family? Is your mom ever tired? Somebody have celiac?

Unknown Speaker 8:37
Not that we know of. Nobody has celiac. Nobody has type one except for our son

Scott Benner 8:43
thyroid. Nope, I'm gonna keep picking ready. Any bipolar people in the family like an uncle?

Unknown Speaker 8:51
I mean, that I don't know.

Scott Benner 8:53
Maybe? Well, trust me, you'd know. And,

Unknown Speaker 8:56
I mean, there's Alzheimer's and our family. I know that but like, I don't know that

Scott Benner 9:00
Alzheimer's inflammation. Okay, I'm just I realized, by the way for people listening that some of these things are not strictly considered autoimmune. There's just, there's things I hear from people over and over again, that that makes me think about stuff like Okay, so the point is, it comes out of the blue. He's, like, almost 11 years old ish, or 11. When it happened.

Unknown Speaker 9:24
Yeah, it was a month before his birthday. Hey, about so.

Scott Benner 9:28
COVID Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:29
it happens a lot around birthdays. It seems like from all the scores that I've been hearing, so I don't know why

Scott Benner 9:34
your son has the classic COVID diabetes birthday. There's cards up and down the aisle for it.

Unknown Speaker 9:43
Yeah. And you know, we were in shock we were at. I can remember being at his doctor's office and thinking that it was just, you know, we knew something was going on with him. We thought that either. You know, my son might be a headcase in general, and needs a lot of therapy like we got that was just what it was because of the emotions were so crazy at the time. Or, but I was kind of thinking this might be something bigger than that, you know? Okay, and so usually my husband and I, we don't go to the to every doctor's appointment together. But something was on sad that morning that we both just knew we were both going to this appointment.

Scott Benner 10:23
Oh, I see. I say, to go backwards for a second. Your son may be a headcase. What does that mean?

Unknown Speaker 10:29
Well, I don't you know, before diagnosis, it was like, extreme, extreme emotional, like, you know, just changes in him. But it was like, What is going on? I was noticing that he was kind of separating himself from friends. And now I understand. It's just he doesn't he didn't feel well, you know? Yeah, I noticed that, you know, the emotions were running high there was crying for kind of felt like no reason to us. And just emotional outbursts.

Scott Benner 10:56
So how long do you think the the type one was affecting him before you figured it out?

Unknown Speaker 11:03
I think I think that probably six months prior, we had maybe a little note of it. And then his probably pancreas kicked into gear and just kind of go back to normal for a few more months. And then we are about he a stomach bug went through our house. And after that stomach bug, he was just never recuperating from it. He was never felt like he wasn't getting better when the rest of us had. And it would like ebb and flow where it was like once or twice a week, he was just not himself.

Scott Benner 11:32
Okay? How to present. I mean, what, what sent you to that doctor's office with so much confidence that there was a problem.

Unknown Speaker 11:40
Um, so one, the emotions were just, he just wasn't my kid anymore. Like, I mean, he was obviously my kid, but he just wasn't acting like himself. And he's usually like super outgoing. He was becoming very introverted. He was complaining of like, stomach aches and headaches and things like that. But, you know, I mean, you're not running a fever, go to school, you're not throwing up, you're not running, running a fever, you're going to school, like, and I feel so bad. And there's so much guilt now, because I put him through that. You know, when he really really wasn't feeling well, but we are the family that like, both mom and dad work. We can't like, you're not you're not running a fever, and you're not really, you know, that sick. And it just seems like you're tired or you stayed up too late last night or something like that. You're you're going to school?

Scott Benner 12:27
Well, why does that make you feel guilty? Because I mean, he was suffering? Well, how was he now? He's great. He's thriving. That's fine. If you if you got into a little time machine and went and found some parents from 1974, and said, Hey, would you feel bad if you sent your kid to school with a stomachache when he didn't feel good? Because he was about to get diagnosed with diabetes, they wouldn't even know what you're talking about. Yeah, so I hear you. I mean, listen, I had guilt myself. I've seen my wife habit. But at some point, the truth is, that part's over now. You know, like, you'll never make that mistake. Again. If you have 73 kids and 73 kids get type one diabetes, you're gonna you're gonna know it every time. And it's a learning experience, for sure. And he's fine. So I don't know. Onward, we are

Unknown Speaker 13:21
on high alert. Now with the five year old anytime that he's saying that he doesn't feel alone or something like that we are we are on high alert. So

Scott Benner 13:28
Well, would you prefer to get him TrialNet test and just

Unknown Speaker 13:33
have really, really thought about it. And we've been like, right on the brink of doing it. And then we're there's something that like, holds us back and that we don't do it like? I don't know if it's because I don't know why. I mean, I'm not completely against it. But I also feel like we at least know the signs now. You know, so I feel like we might be in a better position. You know, but I don't know, let me keep going back and forth.

Scott Benner 13:59
I understand. And I have no preference on this. Just let me ask you questions. Better to feel the way you feel now or just know that he's got the markers for the antibodies.

Unknown Speaker 14:09
That's what we that's what we're debating right now. And that's why we can't make up our mind because we're like, what's going to make us feel better about this, like that we are just on high alert when he doesn't feel well, or that we know that he has those markers. And when he doesn't feel well, we're will we end up just taking him all the time to the doctor or pricking his finger constantly. Because, you know, we're just making assumptions.

Scott Benner 14:31
So my question is, are you is this self flagellation? are you torturing yourself on purpose?

Unknown Speaker 14:38
Oh, yeah, I definitely torture myself on purpose. That is for sure.

Scott Benner 14:43
I know everyone thinking, listening now for how 14 minutes in Scott already understands what's happening. I know it's It's my gift. It's only it's the only thing I'm good at. Thank God that Apple came up with cell phones and these microphones are really everything I'm good at in the world would have just been wasted on Kelly. Call. Arden? Yeah, yeah. My wife, my wife once told me, You should be a human resources director. And she's like, she's like, you've you figure people out so quickly. And I was like, Oh, it's just because I'm willing to generalize. The rest of society gave up on it. I think it's terrific.

Unknown Speaker 15:18
But we can't have you doing that. Because the podcast needs you business. A lot of T ones that need you. You can't have a backup plan. Sorry.

Scott Benner 15:27
You're right, Daniel, I'm done. I gotta make these I gotta make this podcast. But okay, so I would say, I mean, let's say the obvious things. therapists make you come back week after week after week until you come to a conclusion. Stop torturing yourself. That would be one thing. There's no reason to feel guilty. You didn't do anything wrong. And sounds like your kids doing great now.

Unknown Speaker 15:46
Yeah, right. Yeah. But it's hard. You know, that's really is what my therapist tells me, like, Stop torturing yourself, like, you know, but hearing it and feeling it are two different things. And of course, why now, and there's a constant conflict. So

Scott Benner 16:01
why is it hard? To not just to just let it go?

Unknown Speaker 16:06
I don't know. I don't know if it's because we're just at that two years. But like, I feel there's something in within me that if I feel all the things for him, he won't have to hurt. You don't have to suffer. And that's not the truth. Right. This is his journey. Right? I was able to do this. But there's something in me that that's what I take on.

Scott Benner 16:31
I understand, I believe to that might be I'm not real.

Unknown Speaker 16:36
No, I know that it's not real. So you're I know that it's not real. It's just I can't keep that from from building up.

Scott Benner 16:43
Let's ask a couple more questions. Any chance? You're Catholic?

Unknown Speaker 16:46
I am. There's the Catholic guilt. Thank you.

Scott Benner 16:50
Yeah. You're murdering yourself right now. You know that? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, that's all I don't know what to tell you.

Unknown Speaker 17:00
It's just something. It's something I got to work through. It's something I've got to move forward with. And, I mean, this is where we're at. And, you know, I'm seeing we were suffering a lot for a long time. And now I'm seeing our family is in such a better place. And I know, I do know, he's going to thrive, he will do great with this. He is already taking on so much of his own management that, you know, well, I can't say I mean, he's at a five point a one C, and we're MDI, like, I feel like we're crushing it, right. So

Scott Benner 17:36
Well, listen, I don't want to, I'm not looking to make you think about things that aren't gonna happen. But I would say this, let's say just things keep going wrong. I don't know, every three years on, on this kid's birthday, you get something else, right. You know, when Arden was the baby, she would say what matters when she meant that doesn't matter. Yeah, so it doesn't matter. I mean, it's not, I think it doesn't match these things don't match expectations, or hopes and dreams. But I don't know that. I mean, giving up whether it's in the physical space or in your, or in your psyche. I mean, you're gonna be alive one way or the other. Yeah, you know, so I say, don't give up. I say fight. And I say, Don't torture yourself. Because there are, I don't know how old you are. Would you tell me?

Unknown Speaker 18:32
I'm 40. And I'm loving it. I'm so excited for my 40th birthday.

Scott Benner 18:36
You're, you're quite literally than 10 years younger than I am. And I'm going to tell you now, as silly as it may sound to people who are younger, I'm already imagining like, This is it for me, a guy like I'm in the last third of my life, statistically, right, like, maybe I'll live past 75. But I, you know, I've raised the kid with type one diabetes, I probably had a lot more stress than most people do. I have a job where I sit still, you know. And even if I make it to at my mom's ad, it doesn't look like a whole bunch of fun. Danielle is near as I could tell. So what my point is, is like this is it right here like I'm I have 25 years left, that I can really probably enjoy the last 10 are not going to be super exciting as far as moving around and everything, hey, 15 years of my life left to really do something. And I look back on the time that I spent feeling upset or worried or burdening myself. And I think I wish I could go back and smack that guy in the head and tell him that when he was 50 Is that he was going to hurt all the time. And that, you know, you really should enjoy this time right now because you're giving it away. And even if psychologically, you can't bridge that gap, I understand And but I don't know like it's just seems like a shame because look at you guys came out of this the other side the kids doing terrific. And you should be enjoying this right now. I mean he's he's a 13 I'm going to tell you right now, you won't believe this. And maybe people said it in the past. He's 13 that testosterone is gonna start hitting him really soon and he's gonna become such a dick. And just

Unknown Speaker 20:24
like, well, this is kind of

Scott Benner 20:27
it already started.

Unknown Speaker 20:31
Sometimes he's a super super, super sweet kid. But there are times where I'm like, Chief

Scott Benner 20:37
Whateley rolls pasty and doesn't give you that huggy used to give you for no reason your

Unknown Speaker 20:41
Oh, that has already started. Not all the time there are so if nobody's looking, he's definitely like very loving. But if we're around other people, stay away from me, Mom.

Scott Benner 20:52
I'm telling you enjoy your boy at last. So also give me a second here. For some reason, someone in my home turned the air conditioner on up here. And so I mean, I don't know. But I'm sitting here. I do not want the air conditioner running. I'm just adjusting it right now. All right. I'm sitting here. Am I getting cold? Like what's going on? I'm the only one up here. I get to decide how warm or cold it is. It's not up to other people. All right.

Unknown Speaker 21:25
It's like the typical.

Scott Benner 21:27
I'm in charge of

Unknown Speaker 21:29
service. You have your new balances onto Scott. Well,

Scott Benner 21:33
first of all, are they wait? And I actually wear another type of sneaker that are embarrassing because my feet hurt and they're not new balances.

Unknown Speaker 21:43
Or they let me guess. Are they the

Scott Benner 21:49
same over here? You trust me? I don't know. Are they the hookahs? No. Oh, all right. No, I don't know what they're called. All I know is they're more expensive than sneakers that look nice. And my feet don't hurt when I wear them. Okay. All right. So okay, so we we notice all the changes, take him to the doctor, take them to a doctor's office not to a hospital right?

Why oh, why? Oh, why? Oh, why? Don't you take the time to get yourself an accurate blood glucose meter? Why didn't you just take the one they gave you? No. Okay, you might not have known back then. But now here you are talking to your pal Scott. And he's telling you contour next one.com forward slash juice box. Check out the Contour. Next One blood glucose meter. Easy to use, easy to hold. Easy to transport. Easy to see with Ignite. Great screen. Simple, simple screen. No, like, little it's not like a ton of little What am i but like icons and things you don't I mean, like you don't look at it and go, What the hell is happening, just the number right there. Done, I know what I need, you can actually set the meter up with your range. And I'll give you like a color code. So I mean, I don't want to go into it. Now go to the website contour next one.com forward slash juice box, check out what it does. If you like it, you hit the buy now button right there on the site. And you can buy the thing online, a bunch of places walmart.com, Amazon, Walgreens CVS, Meijer, Kroger, target Rite Aid. What I like about that I wouldn't the buttons right there on the website, you go over and check it out. All kinds of things you're gonna learn when you get there, what customers are saying about the device, how you might be able to get the device and the test trips, cheaper cash than you're paying now, through your insurance. These are all things you should investigate. But in the end, you want to be using an accurate blood glucose meter. And the Contour Next One is our choice. Arden has been using it for a number of years now. And it really is like honest, the best meter I've ever used. It's my favorite by far. Contour next one.com forward slash juice box, the links in the show notes, links at juicebox podcast.com. When you use my link, type it into a browser, you're supporting the podcast. And you have my eternal things that don't go just yet. Because we still have to talk about the in pen from Medtronic diabetes. If you don't want an insulin pump, right, aren't you do you but don't just use the pen. Don't just use a regular old like turn the thing say three units push the button pen that's all it does. Get yourself an in pen from Medtronic diabetes because this in pen pairs with an app that shows you a dosing calculator active insulin remaining glucose history reports activity logs, dose history meal history and your current glucose. I know I've blown your mind. But this is all it's all real. You can get some of the functionality Be that you expect from an insulin pump with the in pen. And that ain't nothing in Penn today.com. Once you're there, you can fill out some information to get more information sent to you, you can watch some videos to see how things work. You can even even even find out about their 24 hour Technical Support hands on product training, and online educational resources. And oh, by the way, you may pay as little as hold on to yourself here for like, if you're driving, really focus on what you're doing, because when I say this next bit, you could just go right off the road, pay as little as $35 for an infant, Medtronic diabetes doesn't want the cost to be a roadblock to you. So with the in pen access program, you could pay as little as $35 to offers available to people to commercial insurance Terms Conditions apply, of course, but it could be you go find out baby in Penn today.com in Penn requires a prescription and settings from your healthcare provider, you must use proper settings and follow the instructions as directed, or you could experience high or low glucose levels for more safety information, once again, visit in Penn today.com.

Unknown Speaker 26:18
Yeah, we took him to the pediatrician. And, you know, he goes in and we're there for a total of five minutes before the doctor comes in tells us you know, I'm not the one who technically can diagnose this. However, you know, blood glucose is higher than what we can test for in this office, you're looking at a at a type one. Diagnosis and you know, I, I sat there thinking, Danielle, hold it together, hold it together. Your kids right there, he's gonna see you, he's gonna see you. And I like, couldn't take it. So my son saw me kind of start to tear up. We've got the doctor telling him, you know, you're going to live a long life, this is not going to stop you from doing anything. You're going to be fine. We're gonna get you the help that you need. me tells me I'm going to let Peyton Manning's know that, that you'll be coming. And I said, Okay. Like, do we just set up an appointment with them? Like, I'm still in shock. I don't understand, like, how big this is. And he looks at me like I have two heads. And he said, No, you're going now you leave this office, you go straight to the er, er, and letting them know you're you'll be there. So you know, we have so we we go to the hospital, were there for literally just one night, he was at 13 A onesie. And it was like a whirlwind of maybe? I don't know, not not. It was maybe like around 36 hours, probably that we were there. But by the time that we were kind of checking out he was already doing his own injections. He wanted to get out of there. I wanted to get out of there. It was really weird in the hospital because it was, again, COVID situation. And it was at the very beginning of it all. And so you're hearing a lot of the COVID discussions, but not really knowing what it meant. We're asking questions about it. And not getting a lot of answers around

Scott Benner 28:30
it because they didn't know. Yeah, they didn't know either. Hey, I have to say this Peyton Manning, he's got his name on a children's hospital.

Unknown Speaker 28:37
He does and I have to tell you that they are absolutely phenomenal. That are endos there. The whole whole group. They are awesome. So

Scott Benner 28:48
I have a new five a new goal. Now I want to put my name on Children's Hospital. That sounds amazing.

Unknown Speaker 28:54
That sounds like a Brenner Children's Hospital. It

Scott Benner 28:57
seems like a vanity thing of all vanity things putting your name on a hospital. Do you think I mean, I feel like you deserve it at this point. Right. I mean, I've never thrown a football to somebody. But yeah,

Unknown Speaker 29:07
but like, look at this podcast, right? That's like equal, right?

Scott Benner 29:10
Yeah. Oh, trust me. I was being sarcastic. I definitely deserve it before Peyton Manning by the way, so to about 1000 other people. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 29:21
Oh, come on. Okay, where we're from Peyton Manning is God so?

Scott Benner 29:27
He deserves this. He deserves this.

Unknown Speaker 29:29
He has done so much for this community though. Like I he does deserve it. He has done a like an amazing job with our community.

Scott Benner 29:38
All right. Listen, I'm just saying if I was a professional athlete, and I was pulling 10s of millions of dollars out of a place I'd give a little back to I think that seems reasonable. Fair enough. I just use struck me you're like we have to go to Peyton Manning and I was like the football player. How is that going to help?

Unknown Speaker 29:53
I just call them up real quick. over to his house. He knows what

Scott Benner 29:58
to do. He knows what to do. Do Oh, I could be the title of the episode. Yeah. Okay. So you're in and out of there pretty quickly because they're basically pushing everybody out of the hospital who doesn't have you know, who doesn't have COVID? At that point? Exactly. So what exactly how do they? How do you stay in contact with people? Because they imagine you don't know what you're doing on day. Three. So you're managing from home over the phone.

Unknown Speaker 30:24
I mean, we we didn't even do that. We just managed from home. I wasn't even calling at that point. I was, you know, we went through like the full like, T one D school and four hours while we were there. And then we left.

Scott Benner 30:37
That was that you're gone? What was this blood? Do you remember his blood sugar?

Unknown Speaker 30:42
I don't remember his blood sugar, I want to say so when we were at the peds it was higher than what the pediatrician can actually check for four or five. I want to say when we got there. I want to say I have no no idea. I don't recall him. I just know that he was at a 13 a one C

Scott Benner 31:02
but he they they put him on a drip. Right? They brought him down for everything and then got him going again. What was his reaction? Like you're sitting there crying? Is he confused?

Unknown Speaker 31:14
Yeah, very confused. very confused. You know, he thought he was going back to school that day. We had, we had left school to take him to his pediatrician appointment, thinking he was going to go back. And so you know, he thinks he's going out to lunch before he goes back to school. Like, you know, I'm getting Taco Bell today before I go back to school. He's thinking like, he's loving life. That was not the case. Yeah, I think we still had to get Taco Bell all the way. But because he was hungry, but I think that was my weirdest point of leaving the pediatrician and going to the ER, was that it was over lunchtime, and my kid was hungry. And he's like, Mom, I'm like, I haven't eaten lunch and my, like, I don't know what you're allowed to eat and what you're not allowed to eat. If that has anything to do with this. I don't know what to do. And my husband looks at me and he's like, Danielle, it's going to take five minutes to go through the Taco Bell drive thru. Stopping at this kid some food we don't know, once we get to the hospital, how long it's going to be until he does get to eat. So feed the kid. Just, we're on our way. It's five minutes, he's going to be fine. We're gonna get there feed them.

Scott Benner 32:15
Like it's interesting, though. Because REM was basically luggage when she was diagnosed, not only was she to you know, but yeah, you know, she was a she was she was on her way to a coma as well. So she was a little little spacey by the end, which you didn't really notice until you noticed. But okay, so he gets to the hospital, you do all that you get home, what and your your MDI now two years later, so pens they sent you with I imagine?

Unknown Speaker 32:41
Yep, they sent us home with pens. He was back. So this was on a Friday, he was back at school on Monday. So getting his own injections. And that was the most bizarre thing we had heard over the weekend. You know, rumors about schools shutting down and things like that. And my husband was like, one, I work for a small company My husband works for for a small company, it's hard sometimes to get get abrupt time off. I know it's not as stupid as that sounds. It's hard to rearrange things in order to get that time off. And at that point, like, look, what are you going to do send him to school? He's doing fine. Ish. You know? Like, do we take this time off? And my husband's like he has one week, and then we may be shutting down when he needs to go to school.

Scott Benner 33:26
When you say, Fine. Is that is that he's doing fine. Or you don't understand all the reasons why you might not have wanted to do that.

Unknown Speaker 33:34
Yeah, we just didn't understand. We didn't understand. We didn't understand anything that we were doing at that time. That was the most bizarre thing. Like luckily, his teacher had reached out to us over the over the weekend to say, Hey, is he okay didn't come back to school and we let him know he set up a 504 meeting with our nurse and our school counselor for that meet morning on Monday. And we're going to that morning meeting and dropping my kid off at school. And that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I don't know how to take care of them. Right. How do you guys know how to take care of them?

Scott Benner 34:06
I almost couldn't let Arden get on a bus. Yeah, I had like all that feeling. Any love. Can you add years of experience at that point? Yeah. But looking back, it stemmed from I didn't have any confidence even in what I was doing. So I mean, I couldn't imagine that someone else who didn't care about her would do better than I was doing. And I was trying really hard and not doing particularly well. So yeah, yeah, I get that. I really do. Alright, so he heads back everything's, I mean, he's given himself his own shots in three days.

Unknown Speaker 34:39
Yeah, he was giving himself his own shots by the time we left the hospital on Saturday.

Scott Benner 34:43
That's pretty cool. I'm going to talk about along here at some point with Arden but Arden just gave herself her own shot for the first time like,

Unknown Speaker 34:52
Well, was it here's, here's what I think is the difference. Was it with like a needle that she's pulling and then or is it was With an actual pen, that was the needle. I think it's very different when it is a pen.

Scott Benner 35:06
Because it looks like physically appears different.

Unknown Speaker 35:09
It's just it's an easy little teeny tiny push is the year to mean it's a teeny tiny needle. It's a you don't I mean, like, I just feel like it looks different. It feel less, like sterile or less like, medical. You don't I mean, there's something about it, there's just feels like a little bit easier. I think I'll get her

Scott Benner 35:26
on here and let her explain it. So I'm interested because she, she, I don't want to give it away, but it might have taken her hours to do it. So it was just she just never done it before. But she did it. Anyway. Okay, so who oversees his care moving forward? Is it both you and your husband? One of you just him? How does that all work?

Unknown Speaker 35:51
We are. We are a 5050 household and pretty much almost everything that we do. So it's when it comes to his management. We're still 5050 Okay, so would you say at this, so we text diabetes, we are all on the same text string so that we are not. I'm not sending him a text that my husband setting up a text we all know exactly what's happening at the same time, okay, so that it doesn't feel like mom's nagging and dad's nagging. We know when one person has already talked to him about it.

Scott Benner 36:20
Okay. Okay. So you guys are in a text string together three of you. Yeah. All right. He sees let's make something up here. He leaves school today he's walking home. A he sees something on the side of the road that he wants to buy, he buys it for food, he texts you and says, Hey, how many carbs you think this is? Or does it on his own?

Unknown Speaker 36:44
Depends. If it's something that it's not normal for him. He'll do it. He'll text us. And we'll talk about like, Hey, where are you at? Like, which that's a weird thing we say all the time is where are you at? And other families around us are like he's right there. What are you talking about? I'm like, No, the number like that. That's a weird thing that our family is always saying is where's he at? Where are you at? But we need? Yeah. But so we'll kind of talk through it or be like, Oh, well, you also have practice. So maybe think about doing this much instead, you know this many units or you know,

Scott Benner 37:21
all right. Well, that'll make sense. Is he using a CGM?

Unknown Speaker 37:25
He is he's on Dexcom. We. So while we are in the hospital, I'm learning about the Dexcom. Our two week checkup? Of course, because we thought this shutdown was only gonna last two weeks. I'm telling his endo at that point. Like, we need this. I want this CGM Mike. He's a very active kid. He plays trouble sports. He's in trouble baseball. I cannot imagine him being out in the field for an entire inning. with out knowing where he's at, like, I can't, I can't do this like, and he's not coming in every inning and picking his finger like we're, you know, we gotta get something figured out. I need more than this. We need. You know, you ever hear we we had it within a week.

Scott Benner 38:08
Did you ever hear? Do you ever hear Sam fold on the show? SAMSA. He's a former major league baseball player. He's the general manager, the Philadelphia Phillies now, but he's been on a couple of times. At one point, he said, you know, he's older, you know. And he said that, if you ever see me on TV, playing baseball, and I'm chewing seeds, my blood sugars, okay, and if I'm chewing gum, I'm low. And that was the extent of his diabetes management while playing for the I think the raise the A's. Maybe I forget, he was on three or four teams. And he played for eight, eight or nine years. So I get how you feel. And I wonder how much but I also I also know that a lot of people have been okay, for a long time. And I struggle I in the past, I'm getting better at it now, with the balance between those things. Like I don't know what Sam's blood sugar was when he was playing major league baseball, right? Like maybe he was out there. And it was 200. And that's just what he felt like he had to do the CGM don't exist at that point, etc. Right. But, and would I want my daughter to be 200 for four hours in the afternoon, I wouldn't, and I would actively do something about it. But if it were to happen once or twice, I've also learn not to freak out about it. So it used to be there's a difference between being upset and being okay with it. And here's what I mean by that. I used to see a blood sugar 150 It's a little sticky. I can't get it down. And it bothered me. You know, I was the entire time it was up. I was concerned about it. It was in the forefront of my mind. And now I've done this for so long. I know Okay, put this insulin in here. And in an hour and a half, this is going to be lower again. And it's okay. And I do not think about it in that hour and a half anymore. So as long as it's not going up, meaning that what I think is happening isn't happening, as long as I'm seeing steadiness and a decline, I don't think about it again. And I made that decision consciously because I was pretty sure I was going to, I was gonna burn myself out a lot faster, be you know, because her blood sugar is gonna go to 140. It's gonna go to 180. It's just things are going to happen. What I do next seems important. And I draw a little bit from those older type ones that I've spoken to about that because Okay, Arden's blood sugar can't be 200 forever. It can't be 180 forever, it can't be 140 forever, that is going to longterm be a problem. But for three hours, if it's not impacting or in any other way. Me, you don't I mean, like, yeah, not that it's not a problem, but I can't, I can't torture myself about it. Yeah, that's,

Unknown Speaker 41:05
well, I'm a lot, we're a lot better about it now. And, you know, through listening to the podcast, we're a lot better about, you know, just dealing with it in the moment and then moving on. But I at that time at right at diagnosis, I was so scared of those lows, and so scared that, you know, my my kid was gonna have a seizure out on the field. Right that I was, I needed to know, I needed to know where he was at. So I could help guide this and I would sit there and just look at the Dexcom the whole game, the whole game for that first season. It was a delayed start because of COVID. To the seasons, we didn't have near as many games, but I sat there and I would just stare at it nonstop. Just know where he was at. How'd you find we'll say though, I do know if he's going to fall out fell off. He's going to strike out or if he's going to, like get a hit. Judging by his numbers. Now you

Scott Benner 42:00
can tell by his blood sugar. Yeah. What do you think, is hot hand eye coordination?

Unknown Speaker 42:05
I do. I think it's hand eye coordination. I think there's, I think there's like different levels of kind of anxiety that go along with it too.

Scott Benner 42:17
It's interesting, so I don't discount your what you're saying. Arden's foot speed would drop significantly over a certain blood sugar when she was playing softball. I also wonder what you're seeing with that in general because baseball I mean, softball but similar game. I did not see a ton of impact from playing softball on blood sugar's like Arden could stay pretty steady during a game and not drop. Like afterwards.

Unknown Speaker 42:44
Well, we were honeymoon or we've had a really long honeymoon. Okay, a really long one. So we were about a year and a half. And before we noticed that we went through two baseball seasons of honeymooning where we didn't really worry about the highs. We didn't get highest, like, highs at that time for us anything over 180 We weren't getting Oh, we were only getting quick drops and lows.

Scott Benner 43:08
That makes sense. Wow. So long honeymoon.

Unknown Speaker 43:13
Well, and so we've actually randomly We found your podcast right as we were having troubles because we were coming out of honeymoon and didn't know how to do this anymore. Because it was a whole other ballgame is when we found the podcast but had our last endo probably three weeks ago. They said that they think that he might still be honeymooning from time to time, like his fingers may still be kicking in judging by what they see is happening on his graphs and things like that. So I don't know. I don't believe it. I think that he's past that. When we were honeymooning, we didn't have the protein and fat races. We didn't have that. We didn't have you know, crazy high numbers and things like that. We didn't have to do corrections ever.

Scott Benner 43:57
Okay, yeah. You were getting home from somewhere. I mean, especially if you're stopping at Taco Bell still. Yeah, so is there ever talk about a pump or is he really liked the pens

Unknown Speaker 44:10
he'll be my I will push that he will be on a pump. By his freshman year of high school. I would like for him to have a minimum of four years kind of training on it before he leaves to go to college or leaves to go to out into the world.

Scott Benner 44:27
Okay, so why is it not important now but it's important in high school.

Unknown Speaker 44:33
We are doing really well maintaining now. But that's with still we're texting diabetes. I can't be texting him diabetes when he's 19 years old. I mean, I guess I can, but like I would like that training on this pump together as a family when he like for a few years before he leaves.

Scott Benner 44:52
Well, I am Hold on a second. I get where you're coming from. I'm pulling my texts up with art right now because I think there's One here from last night that says

how did we get so low? I don't know. Are you planning on doing something about it? Uh huh. Yeah. Uh huh. When that's leave me alone. That was that's

Unknown Speaker 45:26
all very similar. Yes, that sounds very familiar.

Scott Benner 45:30
She's, she's gonna be a theme a couple of months. So,

Unknown Speaker 45:33
yeah, but one day, I'm gonna have to let him just go. And I need to know for my own sake that I've done everything that I can possibly training to get him there. But like, right now, I know that it's, it's I'm, he's, he's a little bit more open to it now to get on a pump. Oh, yeah. What are we he has been kind of hesitant because he doesn't want to wear another device, like, things like that. So which I get, but I'm, and so I'm kind of like, you know what, we're fine right now. But if you start slipping, and our agency is gonna go, you know, above 6.3, which that's the highest, we've been on MDI, right, then you will be going on a pump. And when you get to high school, you will go on a pump as well. He's in seventh grade now, so

Scott Benner 46:17
So I don't see anything wrong with what you're saying. I think it's rock solid thoughts. I want to add to it, but not confused that I'm I'm not rebutting what you're saying by saying all of the things, almost all the things that I worried about, over the years about the future, now that the future is here, I'm not in any way concerned about them.

Unknown Speaker 46:41
I know I need to stop worrying so much. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 46:43
even like, so are chosen a college, she's gonna go really far away from here. Like the kind of far away where if somebody says, I need help, I can't drive to you. Like I can get to my son, if, if my son texted me right now, and he was like, you have to come here, two and a half hours from now I'd be standing in front of it. If art and texts from where she's going and says you have to come here, and I jumped in my car, about 13 hours later, I'd be tour. And the truth is, is that that might be quicker than an emergency flight that would, you know, get me there. But you know, unless I got lucky and like, showed up the airport, and there was a flight available, right? But she is going to be farther away than we can impact. Like, there's just not going to be any way for us to be a person that that's valuable for her in any kind of an emergent situation. And I don't even care a little bit. And I know that you would have told me that 10 years ago, I would have just maybe had a mini stroke. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So interesting. I don't know,

Unknown Speaker 47:46
I feel very confident that he will be successful in this and that he will be doing his own thing and managing this very well. Yeah, I have full confidence in that. It's just getting him there. I think it's being diagnosed at 11. And the timing is just kind of weird. You know what I mean? Like, not that any timing is great for being diagnosed or isn't weird. And people. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying that our situation is, you know, this isn't like a test to see who has the worst situation.

Scott Benner 48:21
are you apologizing to everybody for Well,

Unknown Speaker 48:23
yeah, because I don't want it to sound like oh, woe is me. We're so

Scott Benner 48:27
we don't everyone who listens to this understands you're not doing that. And if they don't listen a little longer, and they'll figure it out. So yeah, we're not gonna spend a bunch of time apologizing is a reasonable statement, it 11 years old. First of all, does sound like a tough time. Secondly, is your only experience and diabetes is hard. So you're going to think elevens hard trust me if he was diagnosed at nine or 13 or 15, you would have said, you know, nine years old was a tough time to resign.

Unknown Speaker 48:55
I think it's hard at bat like the preteen is like a social situation with of understanding being okay with it, like so. Like kids are so unsure of themselves at that age, that it's just you already mean? And then you're adding on this thing that now all of a sudden makes you different when you weren't different before?

Scott Benner 49:13
No. Would you describe yourself as an overthinker?

Unknown Speaker 49:16
100%?

Scott Benner 49:19
Because I could ascribe anything to anything if you wanted me to. Yeah, but I'm having fun talking to you. Okay, so a couple of things. 504 plan how did that go?

Unknown Speaker 49:33
Do we still don't have one to this day? Got?

Scott Benner 49:37
No, see that can't be true. Because the most exciting thing Can I be honest with you? I didn't bring it up in the moment. One of the things I was very warmed by in your story so far was that the school immediate was like, Hey, give yourself a 504 No, no,

Unknown Speaker 49:49
not the school. Oh, you got the school, the teacher. Oh, wasn't the school, our schools systems. I don't care how that sounds at this point. Go ahead. They are the worst about AI APs and 504. Plans for kids are our group or our school district is known in this area to be by far, they will push back, push back, push back as much as they possibly can. How long

Scott Benner 50:17
have you been trying to get a fiver for two years? Really?

Unknown Speaker 50:22
It started out we couldn't get it because it was everything shut down. Right. So that was March of 2020. Everything's shut down. So then we weren't in school. So then the counselor at that time was telling us well, let's wait and see. We don't really set these up until we know how they're gonna react when they're in school. Knowing what I know now that was a bunch of BS. Yeah.

Scott Benner 50:44
Hey, are you going to the Eli Manning Middle School? Is that the problem here? Because the only one that Super Bowl by mistake for any of you Giants fans listening, let me just say for a second, Eli Manning, you don't get to throw a ball that a guy pins to his helmet and call that on purpose. Okay, it doesn't count. Obviously. Peyton's the better quarterback. Well, yeah, I just, I assumed any school named after Eli would just,

Unknown Speaker 51:12
that's. So we also it's a very large school district, I will say that our school district is very large. So that's maybe part of it. Maybe its funding, maybe it's where they want their funds to go. I don't know, funding,

Scott Benner 51:25
how much is the cost of a fiver for me,

Unknown Speaker 51:27
I don't know. But it seems like it's a lot of paperwork that they don't want to do. And it seems like it's gonna cost them time and money. It's what it feels like,

Scott Benner 51:35
here's what I think. I think they don't want your kid to have a 504 plan. Because once you have a 504 plan, they are they're beholden to follow it. And they're concerned that if they don't follow it, you're gonna cause them trouble. I'm guessing that they're using this avoidance tactic with a lot of success. And so that's why they're doing it, I would call Ada, see if they could help you figure out how to push it through, or I would put a 504 plan together, hand it to her and say, you've got 24 hours to come back with things that you want to add or subtract to this. We're gonna have a meeting, and then this is going into effect if you don't like it. I know.

Unknown Speaker 52:16
Yeah. So we, we we went through like that, what that first counselor said to us. So here in this school district, they go through K through four is that one school, or elementary considered elementary schools, there's a lot of elementary schools in this district. Then they have Intermediate School, which is fifth and sixth. And there's a few intermediate schools and then seventh eighth junior high, and then you go on to high school. So you hit four schools before you even graduate in the school district. But you keep on getting tossed to different counselor. So at the time he was diagnosed, he was in sixth grade, he would have been, yeah, sixth grade, and then they went home. So then I had to go talk to another or no fifth grade. And then he changed to sixth grade I had to talk to he got a new counselor in sixth grade. I just talked to that counselor her the same exact, it is almost verbatim, that they have it, like fine tuned for what you say to a parent, if they're asking for this, you say this. So just fine tune because we heard verbatim, this same exact speech, the same exact feel, we went back in. And that school year, it was a 5050 split of being at first we started out at home than it was a 5050 in school, not in school. And then they didn't go back full time until like February that year.

Scott Benner 53:32
Yeah, I know, I'd be up to the point where I put my hand up or somebody's talking and say you don't need to finish the sentence. I know where this is going. I don't care. We have a 504 plan by the end of the week, or I'm going to bring it outside help to get it done. You guys can't seem to get it done. That's fine. I'm going to bring somebody here to compel you to get it finished, and then just be done with it. Because once they know you're serious, somebody that school has a 504 plan. You're letting you're letting them push you. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 53:59
we well, we wrote We ended up writing out the floor plan and to include also the celiac as well. And there's some things that kind of like overlay when it's celiac and T Wendy there are some of the same things. So we're overlaying that into one. Finally, this this year, this counselor has been a little bit more, a little bit better, but he's still not on one because we can't get it scheduled to have a meeting to discuss what we put into this 504 plan. I have been in at this point. I have requested with the nurse. We've had an really great nurses and then kind of nurses that were nurses are great. school nurses for nurses are awesome. But he's in junior high. It's a bigger school. I think she had a lot on her plate she was she had a different mentality when it came to tea one day we just kind of couldn't really connect that transitioned January of this year to a new nurse who has been phenomenal but the old nurse one and follow him on Dexcom. And that was one thing that we really, really wanted. That's literally the only thing that I care that the nurses do is that they follow him. He can manage everything else on his own dose wherever he feels like it whenever he needs to. Like, you know,

Scott Benner 55:16
you just made me laugh because I remember being in a in a meeting with a nurse at the high school. And she said, Well, that's not how I do it. And I said, I don't really care how you do, it

Unknown Speaker 55:27
doesn't really matter how you do it.

Scott Benner 55:29
This is how we do it. She stared back at me. And I was like, I'm not asking your permission, like, this is how it's gonna happen. You facilitate it and your opinions really unimportant to me. Thank you. Yeah, they don't think they liked me. But whatever. It worked out for Arden. And in the end, that's what mattered. They're so accustomed to not to dealing with people who don't know what they're doing. And then they take this, they, I'm gonna generalize here again, but they take this tiny bit of knowledge they have and try to lay it across everybody's situation. And that's just not okay. Yeah, I told her I was like, You got kids walking around the school, I know who they are. Their blood sugar's are 220 all day, and you're happy with it, because they don't get low. I said, when they leave here, and their head falls off and 20 years, or whatever the hell is going to happen to them. I said, you'll you'll think you did a good job. And my daughter is going to live forever with health issues. I said, I would prefer actually believe I said, if that's what you're planning on doing, then I'm going to withdrawal Arden from school and send her to a tropical island to live her life because she needs to be healthy more than she needs to be educated. And yeah, you know, if we're boiling it down your things not as important as her not being sick. So that this is what we're going to do. And this is how you're going to do it. And if you don't like it, I'd appreciate it if you just smiled through your teeth and did it anyway because they really don't care. I said I this kids had diabetes, and she was to her a one C is in the mid fives. Your opinion is just not valid. I probably you know, whatever. You don't know what you're talking about. So and you ruin my surprise that your son has celiac. I was gonna say

Unknown Speaker 57:07
that. Oh, sorry. I feel like I said at the very beginning, my tears I

Scott Benner 57:11
don't know, I don't pay. I'm just teasing. I pay attention. I just don't. When did the celiac diagnosis come?

Unknown Speaker 57:18
Um, so his two week checkup after being diagnosed, you know, they were in all the tests for it. And it came up as positive for celiac. But then we were told, you know, to get the actual confirmation he needs to have a

Unknown Speaker 57:32
biopsy or whatever they do there. Yeah, whatever it is.

Unknown Speaker 57:35
This copy. Endoscopy

Scott Benner 57:36
isn't good. That's your mouth. Right? Not your butt.

Unknown Speaker 57:39
Yeah, correct.

Scott Benner 57:41
That's better. I mean, I mean, which is

Unknown Speaker 57:44
even more disgusting if you think about because the endoscopy is like down through your intestines and then back up. I don't know, I don't like to break back up. Thank you. No, thank you.

Scott Benner 57:52
I'm more worried about where it goes. Initially. I think we're all seeing what kind of date I would be. I had to pick. If I had to pick I choose my Mac.

Unknown Speaker 58:07
Okay, well, you know, the aftermath of that. Who knows? I don't know

Scott Benner 58:11
who Daniel. I don't know what you're trying to tell me about your life but okay. So, look at you. You're not that Catholic. You were okay with that?

Unknown Speaker 58:20
Oh, no, I'm not that. I mean, I'm Catholic. I'm pretty Catholic, but I'm not that I'm, I'm I mean, I'm one of those fun Catholics.

Scott Benner 58:30
Daniel, I grew up around a lot of Catholic girls and I know what they were okay with and what they weren't okay with.

Unknown Speaker 58:36
No, no, no. Okay. No, moving on.

Scott Benner 58:42
Okay. Hold on a second. I can't wait for the note. I'll get words. It'll be it'll be I don't like the way you talk to women about sex. I was talking about myself. If you go back and listen, I said, I'd rather go in my mouth than my butt. All right, that was me talking about me. Now. By the way, I've only ever gotten one note like that. And I thought it was really misguided. I I thought it was more about the person's comfortability hearing about people talking about sex because then a ton of other people came into this thread, and said, I love the way Scott deals with with that stuff on the podcast. So anyway, I think it might have just been an older person who was uncomfortable with hearing a man talk to a woman about sex. Honestly,

Unknown Speaker 59:33
you can't be a part of this group with having without having some sense of humor. So yeah, I mean, you can't it's not allowed.

Scott Benner 59:42
Daniel, we are not going to rename the episode something about you and your mouth. Don't worry. It's going to be fun. Thank

Unknown Speaker 59:48
you. Thank you for that one.

Scott Benner 59:52
Celiac, I'm assuming he went gluten free after this.

Unknown Speaker 59:58
So after before the endoscopy he did not we had to remain a gluten but he wasn't having. Here's the thing. They call it a silent celiac where he wasn't having any of the symptoms. It wasn't until recently that he's had symptoms from celiac when he's been glutened. Okay, so no real celiac symptoms, so then it puts it in our head, he doesn't really have this as just a fluke, he doesn't really have this endoscopy comes out. He does have it and we wait like two weeks after the endoscopy to find out the results or whatever. And that was the part where, you know, we're on a virtual call with the doctor for that one. And he was the one that broke down.

Scott Benner 1:00:37
The boy your son, yeah, yeah. By the way, you broke

Unknown Speaker 1:00:41
down, and then that broke my heart. You know, saying that?

Scott Benner 1:00:44
him go through that. Yeah, that another thing happened. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:48
because it's not just another thing. If you're told that, look, T one D Yes. This is going to be hard. But you don't have to change anything that you eat. You can eat anything you want, as long as you dose for it. And then that's taken away. He's been really, he's been eating anything you want anymore.

Scott Benner 1:01:07
Yeah, I'm sorry. He's been glutened is a it's an interesting sentence. Yeah, I felt like it was. I don't know. I just I just think that's really interesting. So okay, so he doesn't deal with that well, because they start telling him the things he can't eat in the office, great.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:23
Well, and he's seeing all these things. And at this point, we're going through our cabinets, we're going through our food, like, we're going taking him to the grocery store with us to see like, read labels, this is what you can do. This is what you can't do. And it was too much for him like it was it was young, but he has to do it. Because it's that's our reality now, right? You know?

Scott Benner 1:01:43
Yeah. What are his? What are his physical outward symptoms if he it gets gluten.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:49
So Now, granted, it's still not severe. Now he'll have like a stomach ache or just kind of, I don't know, stomach issues. We'll be going to the bathroom a little bit more for probably a day or two. But he is still like, no, no, it wasn't because that had gluten. And I'm like, Yeah, I think that it was at that restaurant that you really, really love. Sorry, that restaurant is probably off of our our list. Now. You know what I mean? So things are still kind of being taken away from him now that he's getting glutened but or that he's having reactions to it. But the other thing that we noticed is his blood sugar's are like go crazy, too.

Scott Benner 1:02:24
Yeah, you know, I am. Arden. Arden is. Today's Wednesday, Arden has been gluten free for six days now as part of a thing we're trying to trying to figure some stuff out. And we all did it with her just to, you know, out of like, solidarity. And I think I might be like losing some bloating, actually

Unknown Speaker 1:02:46
know for sure. So we are probably my husband and I are probably I'd say 85 to 90% gluten free. Our household is pretty much gluten free. There are some things like we don't the five year old has his things that have gluten in them. And that's, that's fine. But for the most part, we eat pretty clean ish. And we kind of already had before this as well. So but we I noticed now when I have pasta that is a gluten pasta, like it's full on, it's far worse than just like a normal pasta dinner like,

Scott Benner 1:03:23
Yeah, I'm already noticing for a few days, like, I haven't really cut that many things out of my bag. I was like I might have been eating almost gluten free to begin with. It's it's interesting. It really is. So I mean, I don't know, we're going to we're going to do it for a solid month to see if she gets any positive impact from it, then we'll decide moving forward from there. Yeah. But anyway, it's, it's a it's a burden, right? Like, it's just another thing to have to

Unknown Speaker 1:03:53
it's another thing and it's another like, it's already hard enough sometimes going to restaurants. And now there's another layer on that. And, again, we're in travel sports, where restaurants are a full on thing. There are times when we can't always take our food with us. You know, we've got to find a restaurant that he can have. It's not always we're not always going to a restaurant as a team where there's a lot that he can have on the menu besides a salad, you know. Also and

Scott Benner 1:04:21
I hope this doesn't sound pejorative but you live in a part of the country to where cuisines not exactly. I apologize. I've been there a couple of times the food's not great. And you know, it's not your fault. I once had a bagel in

Unknown Speaker 1:04:35
getting better Scott, come back and visit again. It's getting better it's getting it really is. I promise.

Scott Benner 1:04:41
I had a bagel in Indianapolis to 15 years later. I

Unknown Speaker 1:04:43
know you can't get cab, an Indianapolis bagel and think that you're gonna get an East Coast bagel Scott.

Scott Benner 1:04:49
Come on trying to get on a plane. Okay, and then not gonna

Unknown Speaker 1:04:52
be the same. You can't expect to have the same thing. Well, I'm not gonna go out to the east coast and exact and expect to get a great tenderloin. I was gonna

Scott Benner 1:05:01
say, what is it? You're about to say? What do they have?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:05
Yeah. It's like the pork tenderloins. Like that's what any, they are dang good. Don't worry about there aren't any gluten free ones. So

Scott Benner 1:05:12
I get smokey some pork, you would think it was good?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:15
Well that I'm into that like that, I'll do that we I will say our family actually does eat a lot healthier than most families. And

Scott Benner 1:05:23
I'm gonna go smoke a steak after, after you and I are done. That's actually what I'm going to do. I'm going to smoke a steak for myself. That sounds wonderful. I'm gonna put it on and then try not to forget that it's there when I run back upstairs and start editing because I have been known to forget about my food. But okay, so we're at the point now where I want to ask you if there's anything that we haven't talked about that you wanted to talk about

Unknown Speaker 1:05:48
the fact that you're my husband's man crush, Scott, we didn't get to that that is important. And I started crying and then it was all hell broke loose. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:05:55
Does he have pictures of me? Does he quote me?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:59
No. Well, so when I we were coming out of what we thought we were coming out of honeymoon, we were having a lot of struggles. And just by chance and a local T one D group. Somebody mentioned the podcast so that I started following the Facebook group took me a couple of weeks before I started listening to podcasts because I that's not, I don't usually do that, like, podcasts aren't normally my thing. And then I started telling my husband like, you should listen to these. And it was taking him a while and he was like, okay, okay, and I kept pushing on him pushing on and pushing on him. And then all of a sudden, one day. He's talking to me, and he was like, Well, Scott said that we should do this. Scott said this. Who the eff is Scott? I'm like, What are you talking about? It's like, he's like the guy from the podcast. And I was like, Oh, okay. All right. So then I think it was a couple of weeks later, you had put something on the Facebook group of like, hey, reach out to me, if you think there's an interesting part to your diagnosis story, like, I want to hear it. And so I did. And right before he saw that he saw didn't see that I had reached out. But he saw that you would post that. And he mentioned he's like, Oh, you want to reach out to him? And I was like, Yeah, I will. Like, I'd love to. And he's like, he's not going to have you on. I'm like, telling me I can't do something and I'm going to do it. Like, why would you? So I reached out. You responded immediately, like within five minutes. And I turned and looked at him and like, showed him my phone. I was like, see this? I'm gonna do that. He's like, What

Scott Benner 1:07:29
are you did? You mentioned celiac? And I? I was trying to get more people to talk about that. So it was an easy one. Does he ever asked you to call him Scott during sexy time? No, okay, no, no, if it gets to that, please send me an email. I'd like to know.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:48
I'll let you know if it does get to that point. I don't think that it will. But

Scott Benner 1:07:52
you've changed me completely. I used to think like, I want somebody to name a baby after me. And now I'm like, oh, maybe that would be better.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:58
No, I think like, he was asking me this morning. He's like, do you like need me to stay in case because he knows that I was gonna cry and probably break down at one point. He was like, in case I need to take over and I was like, Get out of here. There's my podcast.

Scott Benner 1:08:11
Well, I, first of all, I'm very happy that the podcast helps you. That's terrific.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:16
It I can't tell you how much it does. Like no words can describe how much it has helped us. Like, once we got a therapist for our family. That was a huge marker for us. Once my son was able to go actually physically go to camp. That was a huge point for him. And once we found the podcast that was I know this is probably gonna sound funny now at this point, but like, that was a huge moment in our marriage in our, our relationship with us. So

Scott Benner 1:08:46
it's been good. I'm glad I saved you some money on this journey. Is that what you're saying? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:08:51
I mean, maybe it was getting I mean, we were all the whole house got very heated for a while. Plus we were dealing with like, everybody's home. Everybody's working from home. Everybody's doing school from home we had our celiac led to a finding out a mold situation because as we were cleaning out our kitchen, we realized that there was mold, we had to do a full renovation. So it was just a lot of chaos happening within like a four month stint. That was like, This is too much. We're on each other's throats now. So we found help along the way. It took us a while to get us there but we have found help around along the way and it is we are in a much better spot.

Scott Benner 1:09:29
I really got that's a wonderful review of the show. Much better than the one I received recently which like to hear it. So I don't know this one's hilarious. It just made me think of it while you were talking. I am so fascinated by this. It's it was a three star review. But then I read it brilliant information and great tips offered on the podcast. I've gained insight on management which has resulted in better control of my type one. Jenny Smith adds credibility to the material provided and I'm Mike, my God, this is a great what a wonderful review of the podcast. Probably just clicked on three stars by mistake meant to make it five stars. Last sentence, the host, Scott talks too much and cuts people off. Oh, no. But I thought the person who wrote this, here's this. I thought still a terrific blog i What a great review. The thing I don't get is How do I lose two stars for that little bit when the rest of it is brilliant information, great tips. I'm better, like my health is better. I've gained insight, big words, two, three stars. And then, and then months later, after the review had been left, I think they went back and altered it and took away another star.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:48
You know what, Scott? That's called a hug and a punch. That's a hug and a punch right there.

Scott Benner 1:10:54
I think she's gonna take away another one. Like, a couple of months. I think she must be. First of all, I say she, I could be wrong. But well, you could be

Unknown Speaker 1:11:03
the the males seem to be very silent. They all listen, but they're very silent.

Scott Benner 1:11:08
Nobody, nobody speaks up too much. But that's fine. So anyway, the person, not she. But I think they're gonna take away another one in a couple more months. I think they listen intently. And then I cut somebody off and they're like,

Unknown Speaker 1:11:21
What did you hear more from that person?

Scott Benner 1:11:23
I would love. I would love for the person to contact me. Because I wonder if I mean, it's just a very east coast way of speaking. I don't sit quietly until you get every last word out of your mouth. And I don't I don't believe I cut people off. I see it as a spirited back and forth. Like it is actually how I think about conversations. I think that monologuing followed by a monologue followed by a monologue is kind of boring. So and not for nothing. Sometimes people say something that make you think of something that kind of has to come out in the moment. And sometimes they're going on and on. And it's getting boring. And I'm the only one that I'm the arbiter of what's boring. So yeah, if you don't like it, go find another podcast. Listen to that one. But I don't know how you write four incredible sentences followed up by one where it's just like, Hey, guy talk, by the way, he talks too much. I'm gonna curse. It's fucking podcast. What should I do? What should I do? Exactly? Should I not totally

Unknown Speaker 1:12:21
appreciate the F bomb? Scott, thank you so much.

Scott Benner 1:12:24
Should I do? Should I not talk? Why? I'll just go. Here's what I'll do for now. What's what's the point here? Anyway? It just popped up in my face the other day. So I just,

Unknown Speaker 1:12:38
you know, I'm a bit of a talker too. And I know there have been a few times within this conversation that I've cut you off. I thought, you know, immediately, should I just cut them off. And I don't care. Because I have something to say. And this is what I was saying. Now,

Scott Benner 1:12:49
there's nothing wrong with that. Also, you're completely missing. There were a couple of times I had to run you over because you wouldn't shut up.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:56
I'm a talker, man. It's like, I'll tell you all the things. I'm an open book, and I will spew it all out there. It's for anybody to hear absolutely

Scott Benner 1:13:03
perfect. I just would love to know, does this person see it as rude? Or does it impact their ability to follow the conversation? I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:11
Exactly. But I would I think you're spending too much time thinking about this random person. Well, I

Scott Benner 1:13:15
mean, we just did it now. Because I'm talking about on the pocket. Yeah, you gotta you gotta like, let that one go. But other than that, I've not thought about it. I just what you said made it pop into my head. Like, I thought when you said what you said about the podcast, I was like, Oh, that's a lovely review of the podcast, which made me think, oh, last night, I saw this thing happen. So anyway, I don't want you to think that I've thought about it before I you know, after I saw her that I will again after we stopped talking about it just I found it amusing. Anyway, as we move on, so your husband has a crush on me. The kids is the pocket. It's actually helpful for like management stuff, or did you get more community out of it? Because you did talk earlier about how concerned you worry that your son wouldn't know another person with diabetes. We

Unknown Speaker 1:13:57
got both. So at the beginning, I was very concerned about him. And like him having somebody and what I've realized is that we also needed needed people. That was parents like we needed a support group we needed the podcast and the Facebook group. And I don't really follow a lot on Facebook. I don't post a lot I posted a lot during November for diabetes Awareness Month, but then like, it was almost cringy because I'm like guys that's posting too much like am I doing you know too much with this? I don't know. But that's not we don't post a lot on on Facebook. We don't get that involved and things like that. But how like, I wouldn't have Facebook anymore. Probably if it wasn't for the podcast, the the juice box group.

Scott Benner 1:14:46
Can I be honest with you? I wouldn't either. Yeah, yeah. It's just it's it's such a good group. And I really, yeah, but I don't, I don't know. I don't know if I've aged out of it or what I've done exactly, but there Just not many times in my life that I think, oh, I should share this with other people who will virtually see it. And I'll never know if they even saw it or not like it just, I haven't thought about it in a while like that. As a matter of fact, sometimes I don't ever log, like so I see Facebook through an account that is the owner of the Juicebox Podcast group. And I have a private account, but I haven't switched back to it and so long that sometimes when I do, I'm inundated by things so much so that I'm just like, Yeah, I'm not going back there. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway,

Unknown Speaker 1:15:30
I mean, I think at the beginning of all that, we were so concerned with his mental health in this, and what he was gonna get, and making sure he had support and had others that he could reach out to, that we put ourselves on the back burner for it, you know, yeah. But, you know, I would say like him going to camp was the best thing that could have happened to him. Like, meeting the other kids. Was everything we noticed immediate shift with him, like, great shift after going to see a therapist for the family. And then great shift after going to camp and then also we connected with a local T one D athlete who's in high school at our, in our district, who kind of is a little bit of a mentor towards him. Okay,

Scott Benner 1:16:20
at Archie Manning High School. Yeah, exactly. All right. Excellent. Okay. Are we done? I feel good about this.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:33
I feel good about it. All right.

Scott Benner 1:16:35
Yeah, we've done it. Awesome. I feel very good. Oh, no, don't don't thank me. Thank you. What's your let me ask you like one question going out the door. What? Like, gluten free thing. Have you found that is an absolute must have. I'm not a shining endorsement. Okay. There's no, I know,

Unknown Speaker 1:17:01
there's like a couple things here. One, there's a particular brand of like, because it's hard for baking, right? Baking gets? Yeah, it's not the same. And that everybody has such an emotional tie to food sometimes, especially when it comes to like those traditional or traditional family traditions of baking and things like that, like, and then when it's not quite the same. It's still, you know, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:17:24
I agree. I actually last night, Arden said to me, hey, those sugar cookies I make, they have gluten in them, right? And I said, Yeah. And she's like, alright, and I said, You never eat them anyway, she just makes them for other people. This is so interesting. You brought this up. She just makes them and she gives them to people. And I said, You really never even eat them. She was but I can't even like stick my finger in the ball while I'm doing it. And I was like, probably not. And I said I made cookies for cold the other day, and I didn't touch them. You know, because I'm doing this with you. And I said it wasn't bad. And she's like it, but I think you're right about that. There's something about the I was going to pageantry, but there's something about the process of of just baking for people. It's nice, you know, and you get done and you eat one and see how it is and and you know, then you give the rest of them to somebody else. But I take that as a point and people to get these like almond flour or something like that. That's gotta be terrible, right? I mean, almonds. Is that right? Um, if you're gone. Hold on a second. No audio from you. super interesting. Your your you can hear me right, Daniel. Now you're gone. Interesting. It's not me. How about now? There you are. What do you do? Well, I unplugged it. I'm back to where we were at the beginning. Now you're just talking to me through the laptop. Okay. All right, well, then, then we're done. It's an official ending of the podcast.

First, a huge thanks to Danielle for coming on the show and sharing her story. And of course, we want to thank Ian pen from Medtronic diabetes and remind you to go to Impend today.com. To find out more and get started today. Let's also thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Go get yourself an accurate meter. Get the Contour Next One at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening. For supporting the sponsors. Please use my links. If you've enjoyed the Juicebox Podcast tell somebody else about it. Tell them how to subscribe and follow you where my heart when you do these things

if you're looking for community around diabetes, please check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group. It's called Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes Do you have to answer a couple of questions to get in? That's how you know you're in the right place. Once you're in there 30,000 members, all using insulin loving somebody who does having great conversations about management life. Everything you can think of is there Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. Seriously, go check it out. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

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