Scott Benner 8/9/23 Scott Benner 8/9/23

#972 Glass Half Full

Karen has type 1 diabetes and Hashimoto's.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 972 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's show I'll be speaking with Karen, she's an Air Force veteran, a doctor practicing family medicine she has type one diabetes, and Hashimotos. While you're listening today, 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. Interested in getting started with Dexcom dexcom.com forward slash juicebox want to save 40% off of comfortable sheets clothing and towels cozy earth.com Use the offer go juice box at checkout. If you're looking for a free year's supply of vitamin D, and five free travel packs with your first order, drink a G one.com. Forward slash juice box links to all of the sponsors are in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now. And at juicebox podcast.com. When you click on my links you are in fact supporting the show. And I cannot thank you enough for that. I do have some time left here. So let me remind you about the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes 40,000 members and climbing every day. There's a conversation happening right now that you would love

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod makers of the Omni pod dash and the Omni pod five, use my link to get started Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox Omni pod is tubeless and reliable and the insulin pump that my daughter has been using for 15 years Omni pod.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today by another device that I see around my house. That contour meters. Oh goodness me. Today's episode is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter, contour next.com For slash juicebox. A meter should be a couple of things. It should have a bright light, it should be accurate, it should be easy to hold and easy to read. If you agree, then you also want a contour meter contour next.com forward slash juicebox.

Karen 2:24
Hey, everyone. My name is Karen. I always say I'm the good guy, not the bad guy and I am 27 years old. I was diagnosed with type one diabetes when I was 23. I am currently in my second year of training in family medicine. So I'm basically in my specialty training. I'm a doctor. I'm also a Air Force veteran and married to an active duty Air Force officer who's currently stationed in Las Vegas. And yeah, that's me.

Scott Benner 2:58
All right. So you're okay, you're 27 you're an Air Force that you've had diabetes for about four years. You already have your MD But you're still working towards it or you are? Or like where are you at in that training? I'm sorry.

Karen 3:15
Yeah, so I went to four years of medical school, so I graduated two years ago. And then once you complete medical school, you generally do a couple years of specialty training, and a specific area of medicine. So some people will go into surgery, some people go into pediatrics, some people go into internal medicine, I My specialty is family medicine. So we like to say we take care of all age, basically from birth to grave, it's the whole age group that we take care of. So I have the pleasure of getting to take care of members of an entire family, which is just a really unique part of our specialty. So I am an MD But I'm in my second year of family medicine training.

Scott Benner 3:58
This seems brilliant to me. Almost like it's funny that the parallel I was about the choose, I need to pick a different one. Hold on. I was almost like, like an online model, like business model. Like if you ever, ever heard somebody say like, look, I don't need 20,000 customers, I just need 1500 People who are who come see me every month. And so like you you might end up with like a smaller group of people, but actually stay with them for their whole life is that about how that ends up going?

Karen 4:31
That is potentially how it can end up going if you stay in the same area for a long period of time. Some of my more senior like faculty members have taken care of families for like 40 or 50 years and you know, they take care of grandma, they take care of mom and then even you know moms babies and so it's you can literally take care of multiple generations of my family

Scott Benner 4:56
that can see the benefit in that too like just off the top of my Add if your grandmother has hyperthyroidism, and you come in and you show you're showing signs of it may, the doctor might like kind of like light up a bulb in their head faster than if you just came in. And they didn't know any of your family history like that. Central. Yeah. Interesting. What made you what made you choose that? What made you want to be a doctor? I guess first of all?

Karen 5:23
Yeah, so I think it's like a really long story. But coming out of high school, I always had more of a personality trait of caring for others, and really wanting to take care of others. And that just kind of slowly developed over my time when I was in college. And now it's just most more so like, I really do enjoy taking care of people from a health perspective and helping people live the happiest life that they can live through their health is what brings me a lot of pleasure and joy. And I think that's one of the reasons why I went into medicine because as we invited me, as we kind of get older, a lot of things that prevent us from really enjoying life to the fullest is our health. Unfortunately, you know, some people struggle with like, you know, chronic pain as they get older or chronic disease. And if I can help people live a better and healthier life so that they can have a happy, more functional life as they get older. That just brings me a lot of pleasure and happiness.

Scott Benner 6:23
But it's such a I mean, it was it's obviously the answer you're hoping for when you ask somebody that question, you know, not like, Well, Scott, I enjoy being in power. And and I know for sure, because I know a handful of doctors, they wouldn't tell anybody to become a doctor at this point. So it wasn't because people were telling you, it's great to get into right.

Karen 6:44
Yeah, I mean, we work a lot of hours, we obtain a lot of debt. Yes, that's true. But I'm lucky family medicine we actually don't get we don't have to deal with that very often. We're one of like the least the specialties that deal with that issue the least often.

Scott Benner 7:03
Oh, that's really interesting.

Karen 7:06
So I think, Oh, I'm

Scott Benner 7:07
sorry, I spoke every

Karen 7:10
Oh, no, I think it's just because we have a really good continuity of care with our patients. So they we know them, they know us. So it's, I feel like that is probably a contributing factor. So

Scott Benner 7:22
explain. Explain to me. You graduate from high school. Do you go right into the Air Force?

Karen 7:27
Yeah. So I went to one of the military academies. I went to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Are you familiar with the Naval Academy or West Point?

Scott Benner 7:38
I've seen a lot of movies and television shows where they talk about them. So yeah, familiar enough. So essentially,

Karen 7:45
that's where I went to, that's where I got my college degree from. I essentially went to a military college is kind of the way you can put it and one of the main officer training programs into the Air Force, okay. And it does tend to like ROTC. So that's where I went, and my college was paid for. I had to, like wear a uniform to class every day, we had to like March information. But I had lots of other really cool opportunities there that you just wouldn't get anywhere else in the world. Yeah, that's where I went and I got my commission there and graduated, got my degree in biology, got a scholarship to medical school, and kind of went from Air Force to medical school here in North Carolina.

Scott Benner 8:31
How long are you in the Air Force for? Are you are you still active or?

Karen 8:36
No, so that was at the diabetes is what ultimately, my Airforce journey? Yeah, what

Scott Benner 8:43
am I thinking they booted your ass right out of there. Okay.

Karen 8:49
So I made it into my second year of medical school. And that's when I kind of started noticing that something wasn't right. And that's when I was diagnosed. And I went through about a year and a half to two years of the medical evaluation board in the Air Force where, you know, if you something like this comes up, they like put you through a whole process where they see if you can, you know, even be in the military anymore. I think my process was prolonged because of COVID. Okay, yeah. And also, I was in a weird reserve status at the time. So there wasn't it wasn't as clean as a process. If I was on active duty,

Scott Benner 9:27
before the diabetes, was it your intention to stay in the reserves after you served your time?

Karen 9:32
I mean, it was my it was definitely my intention to be in the active duty Air Force as like a military doctor. That was my intention. So I would have graduated from medical school, gone from reserve status back to active, you know, done my residency in family medicine, but what I've done it through the air force,

Scott Benner 9:52
you know, Kevin, I've heard this story a number of times, and this is the first time it didn't make sense to me. Why the heck couldn't you be at Dr with type one diabetes, like just don't send your warzone. If they're that worried, do you know what I mean? Yeah. Did you make that argument?

Karen 10:09
I did make that. Unfortunately, the way the military views it is, I mean, what's an important part of, you know, our military is being prepared to go on deployments. And unfortunately, being on insulin makes you not deployable, because they out in the field can't safely keep insulin refrigerated. What happens if I hear the event?

Scott Benner 10:35
I want one of you has to stay back in Colorado and take care of people or whatever. I don't like this. Okay, that's fine. They'll Miss Yeah,

Karen 10:43
I, I think some things may change into the future. I think they recently, I heard that there was an Air Force Academy graduate, who got diagnosed with type one when he was at the academy who ended up commissioning. So I think things are changing. I was jealous. But I mean, he was in a different position than I was he had a lot more resources and leadership support to kind of help him get through that versus I kind of went through this entire process on my own. Because I was basically kind of a civilian at the time that this all happened, although, I was still considered a member of the Air Force.

Scott Benner 11:23
Okay, so you're, like halfway through medical school, when you get diagnosed? How does it present? And I'm dying to know how much of your, you know, education helped you, or if you were just as lost as everybody else when you were being diagnosed?

Karen 11:38
Yeah, so I will say I was completely lost. People think you're really smart of your medical school. But it's surprising, like how much you don't know. And I, you know, I'm still learning as much as I'm learning now. But so essentially, so I was diagnosed in August of 2018. So it's just at the kind of the beginning of my second year. And that's summer, I was like, I was thinking about it before I was talking to you. I just did not feel right that entire summer, prior to August, it first kind of notice just like some changes to my exercise tolerance, just seemed to be getting fatigued more quickly. And I was like, well, maybe I'm just like, really, really out of shape. Who knows. So I kind of was dealing with that for I'm not sure maybe about two months. And then I went into some training up in Ohio, for my Air Force stuff. So I was required to complete some training. And I did get a really, really bad viral cold there. I know, classic story. Got back from that training, went home to my parents house in California. And he came back and was, you know, getting medical school started back again, we kind of had a small break, and still having like, tiredness, then you know, it's started feeling more thirsty. And I was like, well, it's the fan in my room. It's July and

Scott Benner 13:04
the fans drying you out? Is that where you went to?

Karen 13:07
Yes. And of course, I started paying more because they're drinking so much water as the damn fan. Yeah. And then the hunger started, I was eating a lot. I was like, Well, this is so great. I'm hungry. I'm not gaining weight. Wonderful. And then in it was like two weeks into August, I noticed I stepped on the scale one day, I was like, wow, I've lost 15 pounds. That is not normal. And I all I've been doing is eating and continuing to my normal lifestyle. So that does not make any sense.

Scott Benner 13:45
Does that put your brain towards cancer? Once you finally say, Yeah, that's what happens. Right? You think I'm losing weight? And I shouldn't be Oh, God, I have cancer.

Karen 13:55
Exactly. And ironically, we're in the cancer unit of my medical school education. So I was terrified.

Scott Benner 14:05
Like, guess what, everybody gotta get some first aid experience off a Karen in a second. And so who exactly you go to the doctor, do you? This is interesting. You go to the doctor and you try to figure it out on your own.

Karen 14:15
So I did go to the doctor, I initially went so I went to my family medicine primary care doctor. And I thought it was my thyroid because I also have we didn't know until after I was diagnosed with type one that was Hashimotos. But I had hypothyroidism that I was diagnosed with when I was at Air Force. And so I was like, oh, maybe my thyroid is like really active. And that must have caused my 15 pound weight loss.

Scott Benner 14:42
Well, you know what, that's reasonable. I mean, I don't know about 15 pounds, but it's reasonable to think that your weight got knocked off course by thyroid. Okay.

Karen 14:50
All right. So I went and we checked my thyroid and that was, you know, that was fine. And then another two days went by and this by this time, it's a Friday. As something just wasn't sitting right with me. So I was at school and I was telling my friends about what was going on kind of had like a little bit of a breakdown because I was really scared. Sure. And we went, and we were calling a bunch of clinics around town trying to find a clinic that was open for me to go see somebody. And of course, I mean, I will, you know, agree with this Friday afternoon to get into a doctor's office very difficult. So we ended up talking to one of those school administrators or people who was one of the family doctors nearby. And I told her what was going on? And she's like, you know, does diabetes run in your family? I was like, No, it does not. And I hurt I sure hope that's not what's going on, because I'm gonna get kicked out of the Air Force. And she's like, Oh, okay. Like, I don't think that's what's going on. I think she was just trying to reassure me. And she ended up holding one of the residents at the family medicine clinic that I currently train at over for like a late afternoon appointment and sent me over there. And so I got into the office, they checked my blood sugar. It was like, in the four hundreds and my agency, I don't remember what it was, but it was definitely greater than 12. Oh, wow. When they checked it in the office?

Scott Benner 16:13
Well, okay. Well, that sucks. And so right away, I don't have cancer, but I'm out of the Air Force.

Karen 16:21
Yeah. And that was legitimately my first thought. And I said the F word. And I called my it was Max, my who's married to now but he was my boyfriend at the time, called him immediately. And I couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for him to be on the receiving end of that phone call. Because I was very upset and wasn't even thinking about what my health like was like that this was very serious. Because I frankly, I didn't know like, I was like, told my blood sugar was over 400. And I'm like, Well, what does that mean? Like, that's really high. But But yeah, is it was it?

Scott Benner 17:00
I don't know. You're probably so overwhelmed. This is gonna be a stupid question. But I mean, was there ever a moment when you thought, Jesus, I'm in medical school? And I didn't, I didn't know about any of this.

Karen 17:10
I think about that a lot. Now, I'm like, How did I not know about but not at the moment? Right. Right. And I will, I hadn't had my endocrinology block yet. I hadn't later. But yeah, I had no idea. Like, I had no idea what a high or low blood sugar was, like, the first year of medical school is much more like basic sciences based versus clinical based. So I just had no context for any of that information.

Scott Benner 17:39
Yeah, in fairness, Arden's going to fashion school. And she said, I don't think anything about fashion is happening in my first year of college. And not much. Not much different. Right. Like you're getting the basics down and, and the whole thing, and your was your boyfriend at that point.

Karen 17:55
Yes. Maybe we had been together, I think for about three years at that time.

Scott Benner 18:00
Okay. So he under so he very uniquely understands the loss of of the of the Air Force, whereas somebody else who's not serving wouldn't have, right and was there ever conversations like oh, well, like stay in the air force together. Like that, it kind of put a wrench in what you were thinking about doing. Beyond the obvious stuff.

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Karen 22:00
I think yeah, I think we did mention that we were both going to do our Air Force commitments I didn't. At this point. I don't know if we would ever thinking about doing a career. But that was definitely a part of our plan was for us to eventually I would complete my training, we would either I would continue with my commitment in the Air Force, and he would finish up his or we would do it together. So did it kind of change things. But ultimately, I think, you know, in the end, if you want to look at the big picture, everything kind of works out the way it's supposed to be. And I think it would have been very difficult for both of us to stay in the air force in the career fields that we are the Air Force, I mean does try their very best to keep spouses and families together. If you're you know, your both of your jobs can be placed at the same base, but knowing what his job is he he's a pilot and what my job would have been being a physician it would have been I think kind of very difficult for us to be at the same place. So I think you know, everything kind of works out for the way it's supposed to and this was not a great way to get out of the military but maybe it that that was the silver lining of it all is to me it makes our lives a little bit easier.

Scott Benner 23:13
Did it impact how you were paying for college though? It did. She's had cost diabetes cost you more than everybody else? Like everybody's like insulin is expensive here like yeah, plus medical school. Oh, wow.

Karen 23:27
Exactly.

Scott Benner 23:27
Oh my god. Oh, that's super sucks. Oh my god. Terrible. I would but you don't know. I'm so cheap. I would have been in the hospital people would have been like you have diabetes. My brain would have went oh my god, I'm out of the airforce. Oh my god, I gotta pay for medical school. Like I would have been like in 30 seconds to that thought like, Oh, no. Oh, that sucks. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Okay. Oh, it's not okay. What do you mean? It's okay. It's horrible. I mean, half of medical school. Can you tell me where you're enrolled?

Karen 24:02
I went to Wake Forest School of Medicine. Sounds expensive. It was very expensive, but I had a great aunt she she

Scott Benner 24:13
well, you're really hot. You're like a glass half full person. Huh? I am. Yeah, I would definitely be like this is both I am being screwed in every direction right now. Like you didn't you didn't have any. Oh, well, I'll ask you. You didn't have any feelings like that? Are you did?

Karen 24:31
Oh, I did. I I was very angry for a long time about about like, what happened the like how like, life is unfair. I had like my life planned out. I served my country. I was going into medicine. Like why did this happen to be? So I did go through that. Oh my god. I only really recently kind of I only went to two sessions but she was is very helpful. I saw a psychologist who specializes in managing adults with chronic illness, specifically cystic fibrosis and type one. And she was very helpful in kind of getting over those feelings. And like, coming to acceptance that my life has changed. This is my life now. We're not going backwards. All we can do is move forwards. And now I feel much more at peace. Yeah, what happened?

Scott Benner 25:29
Well, that that person must be a genius because I just Googled it. And we're talking mid 60s a year. Am I right? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Those people better get good and sick when you become their doctrine come every week.

Karen 25:44
Yes, please go to your appointment. Yeah,

Scott Benner 25:47
you might you might be the first doctor with a tip jar out front. Feel you've got an excellent service. Nothing wrong with putting its money in the jar in your way. Karen's got bills. Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry. Okay. To go backwards really far for a second. The idea of calling someone to Karen is only a few years old. Isn't that right? Yeah, right. Yeah. Did it kind of started around the time of the lady in the park? Right, where she acted scared of a guy and the guy was like, I'm not even talking to you. And then she like flipped.

Karen 26:21
I call the police. Yeah, like, it's

Scott Benner 26:22
right around that time. I think it's right around that time, like 2020 or so. Did that actually have an impact on your life?

Karen 26:30
Not really. So I always feel like Karen has been one of those names that people joke about a lot. Mostly if you think of mean girls. Oh, have you seen them?

Scott Benner 26:40
Listen, Karen, let's not make me admit on the podcast that I've seen Mean Girls. Okay. But yeah. Are you gonna admit it? I've definitely seen me girls. Yes.

Karen 26:50
So I always feel like Karen has always been one of those names. It's always kind of been on the route end of a joke. So it's been this way my entire life. But yeah, the Karen thing that happened back in the light would have Yeah, like you were saying 2020 Now I just kind of get out in front of it. And people think it's funny. I'm like, I'm carried on the go guide. So I get out in front of it before anybody else can own it. I just Oh, my name.

Scott Benner 27:13
Your Why are you so um, pleasant? I'm being serious, not being sarcastic upbringing, scared of Jesus. Somebody, like Did something happen? Like, seriously, you're a really pleasant person. But tell me how that happened to you? No, no, no. Yeah. First of all, you're welcome. It's it's, I think it's a hell of a compliment. And I mean it. But I mean, like, I'm not as pleasant as you. But why not? Like, if I grew up in your house? Would I have been? Is it just your disposition? Like, I'm serious? You don't know Do you

Karen 27:44
probably get mixed up. I mean, I think it's like a mix of like the environment. And like, what I've experienced in life kind of up to this point, I feel like I've experienced a lot of different things. And for 27 year old upbringing, for sure. I don't come from a religious background at all. But my, my mom always taught me to kill people with kindness. So

Scott Benner 28:06
you're not acting when you're talking though? This is who you are.

Karen 28:09
No, this is who I am. Like, I really like I prefer to treat people nicely and kindly and give people the benefit of the doubt, I feel much more happy about life, if I think positively about it. I mean, there are times that I get into a place where I'm just upset and angry and mad. And that's where Max comes in. He's very helpful. But I just find that you know, things generally work better if you come at something with a positive attitude and try and work the problem. That's something my dad always said to me. He's like, Well, you know, here's what's in front of you find a way to work the problem like this didn't work. But what else might work?

Scott Benner 28:51
If I met a person that was that suck days, a person who truly sucks? You've met somebody like that? Yeah. Could I say I'm positive that this person sucks, or that doesn't count as being positive? I think you could say that. I don't think I'm not by the way. I don't think I'm not a lot of the things that you mentioned, too. I just, I don't know. There's like a cynical side of me that, that looks for that stuff. And it just it's fascinating to me when people don't do that. Like I actually think I'm good at like a number of things. Because I'm always wondering, on some level, like who's trying to get over here, who's screwing us like, like, what, you know, what's the angle? Why are they saying that and you don't have you're not encumbered by any of those thoughts?

Karen 29:40
So much, but I will say there's a disadvantage to that. Okay. Well, you know, there's always I think there's always good I think there's goods and Bad's to all personality types, but at least you have some level of suspicion and questioning, or sometimes I might just look something over and be like all as well. So I think it's, you know, less than Maybe something I guess sometimes I don't always. Yeah, question and have a critical mind all the time when maybe I should. And so I might miss something that you might pick up on. Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:10
Like, you're having a great time in a group and then when you leave, you're like somebody stole your shoes. And you're like, how that happened. And

Karen 30:16
exactly, where's my money go?

Scott Benner 30:19
That's crazy. Nobody's told my buddy, we were just hanging out that guy over there was smoking crack, and I don't understand what happened. Yeah, he was lovely. Alright, so Okay, I'm getting all this. I understand you. The the, you have Hashimotos? You said, is that correct? Yes. Okay. And is there any other autoimmune in your family?

Karen 30:41
So none that we know of. So I also had psoriasis when I was very little. So that was the first kind of autoimmune issue that may have been like a warning sign. So I had that when I was two, but no one else in my family that we know of has any autoimmune disorders other than myself, okay. I'm a fraternal twin. She's completely fine. I also have an older sister who, only two years older, who has no issues at all that we know of

Scott Benner 31:14
on curse can on believable. Are you serious? Right, I'm trying so hard to get you upset, and it's not working. But that does that. Does that hurt a little bit? Ah, you know, Karen, I married the wrong girl. You are so pleasant. She. I mean, you're way too young, and everything. But still, if I could get into a time machine, I go try to find you like 17 I'd be like, Hey, what's up? We should be friends. Because you're gonna grow up to be a lovely person. And I want to be around this. Oh, my God. That's no kidding. So how about for years? I'm sorry, twins as a sister or brother?

Karen 32:01
I forget. Yes, sir. Certainly half sister. Yeah.

Scott Benner 32:05
And so do you think they feel bad?

Karen 32:08
I think they do. Really, especially because a lot of these health things didn't come up until I was in college, and we were all separated. So I think part of them feels they do feel bad. You know, my family would always make jokes to kind of, I think, lighten up the situation, they always say, Well, we're so glad it's you. Because we couldn't, we couldn't do this, like we couldn't handle the things that you have to do. You're a strong person. And, you know, like, that's all well and good. But I do that I honestly do think they feel for my situation, and all the things that I've gone through. And I think they hope that it doesn't happen to them. I hope it doesn't happen to them. But I just, you know, I kept them on alert. I'm like it, you know, I have these things going on. They might show up later in your life, you know, just be aware that are related. And you know, if something could happen, who knows Karen

Scott Benner 33:00
behind your back, they think of you as the Ghost of Christmas Future. They're like, keep keep her out of here with those stories about what might by the way, it's a lovely thing you're doing by keeping them abreast of what's going on. And and because then they might have a chance if they do see something to see it sooner. Or you the right, let's be honest here. Are you the smartest of the siblings? Where's that doctor thing doesn't necessarily make you smart.

Karen 33:26
I don't think I'm like intellectually, the smartest, I think I maybe I think my older sister is like, the smartest. But I think I have I think I understand people and can really hear people out in a unique way, maybe. And that might be why I was drawn to family medicine. Because it's a lot more social and talking with people and hearing like their views about medicine and trying just to meet them where they're at. But I think I'm very good at picking up new skills and I'm very committed to what I do. I just think you're all qualities that make a good physician. I mean, people will tell you, you don't have to be the smartest person in the room to be a good doctor. You really have to care and and obviously know the medicine and other things. But I don't think I'm like the intellectually the most like the smartest person in my family. Although my family members might disagree just because of the academic stuff I've completed thus far.

Scott Benner 34:24
Are you a little worried that you're going to spend the rest of your natural life fielding fielding questions from your friends and family about their elements? Oh, I'm

Karen 34:31
already doing it. I find people ask you all the time where people feel like they have to come and explain their health to you. Oh, really? Oh, it's weird that like, oh, I have this going on. And they just like want to like share everything with you.

Scott Benner 34:48
Like if you were a mechanic and the their carburetor was dirty, you feel like they would be like, Oh, the cars running rough. Like that kind of thing. Like that. You think they're telling Oh, no kidding. I have. One of my close friends is that As a physician, and anytime I asked him about, I start, my first sentence is just like, hey, I'm really sorry. And I realized that not everyone does this to you. And we talked about it sometimes. And he's like, everybody, everybody does it. Like, it's like everyone I know who has a question. It's like, Hey, I'm coughing, what's going around? Or can you look at a picture of this? You know, like, that kind of stuff. And I'll tell you when you're friends with a physician, you have to really stop yourself. You know what I mean? Because it feels easy. Like, oh, well, you know, Karen on I'll just text are real quick. I saved them for really like, like moments. Gig if I'm asking something's something's wrong anyway. It's gonna be your whole life. You might as well just get it. Yeah, you guys will get a burner phone right now and just give it to your to your husband. Although you're not going to care, you're the nicest person I've met in the last six months. So you never killed anybody? Nothing? No, nothing big like that. You're hiding?

Karen 36:03
No. Oh, I wouldn't try going hunting, though. I think at least once just to try it is to try it. I've never done that.

Scott Benner 36:10
Now. I have to know. I know. We haven't talked about your diabetes yet. I'm assuming we will soon. Honestly, I don't know. But what was it like? Being in the Air Force? Because you're commingle right men and women? And and you are? You're just incredibly pleasant. And you're kind of are you a small person? Like stature? Wise, are no, Are you tall? No.

Karen 36:32
You're tall? About 510? Okay,

Scott Benner 36:34
so you're taller. Okay. But what's it like? Well, I mean, what's that whole thing? Like do is there is I mean, obviously, there's got to be a boys club is to try to get into it, or you don't care about it, or they crass and you have to be crass and return or like how did that whole thing go?

Karen 36:50
I hear the boys club thing. I think that's definitely I don't know, if that's all related to the military feel like that's present in a lot of organizations. I'm sure. Even in medicine, I will say that you will come across that. But trying to think it's been so long since I was there. But I always felt very promoted by my leadership to pursue leadership within my squadron. You know, they, I feel like the Air Force does a particularly better job at I think elevating women than maybe some of the other forces. I don't know if that's true, generally, a more female friendly force for my understanding compared to the other ones in terms of like percentages if you look at it, but I don't know if it's just because the academies are a place of like leadership development, that they do try and promote, like, equal opportunity between everybody. But I never felt like I had to, like, act differently. Okay, I think we all learn ways to kind of blend in, to blend in and work how to how to work best with people, and how to, you know, if I'm trying to achieve the means how can they communicate in such a way that will get my vision across? But I think you learned that with working within a lot of different organizations, as well as how do you best communicate with people that may be different from you?

Scott Benner 38:17
Does does the fact that you're dating somebody in the Air Force? Does that put like a force field around you? That keeps the creepy away? Maybe does the guys know? Like, is that something? You might not? Yeah,

Karen 38:31
I mean, I don't I didn't have a serious Max was actually my first like, mostly big serious relationship. And we didn't start dating until we were juniors in college. And we were best friends for three years before then. I think honestly, just being kind of like a taller like person like you're taller female. Or maybe just pushed away a lot of people for a while. I'm not quite sure. Hey,

Scott Benner 38:54
that's, that's no kidding. Right. Like guys are intimidated by taller women? Yeah, I think so. They don't hit on you as much. They don't think of you like, like, I'm not wrong about that. Right.

Karen 39:06
I would agree with you. And also, like when you're stuck in a military, like you're in a military uniform all the time, your hair is up all the time. People don't always see you outside of that. Yeah, model where you're kind of everyone's like, you know, you're doing your duties throughout the day look like it's hard to see people outside of that. Sometimes I see. Yeah.

Scott Benner 39:29
Interesting. You play. Did you play any sports in high school?

Karen 39:34
I did. I played basketball, which I think was another thing that might have kept people away just because that's a little bit more of an aggressive sport. So I don't know if people thought of me is Karen's the basketball player.

Scott Benner 39:46
That's it. I mean, my my wife's five, nine. And yeah, and I mean, they're obviously taller people than her but generally speaking throughout the day, she's the tallest woman I see anywhere. And she would say that through high school. Cool, like everybody was sort of a little like, you know, it was hard to find a guy that was taller than her. And they did seem kind of like, you know, a little scared to talk to her. And that stuff, I luckily have like, no filter whatsoever. So I'm not tall, and I was able to just like, just ignore that fact. But I mean, it's, it's not lost on me that, and I'll tell you where I was, I was somewhere giving a talk. And I was trying to move from room to room. And a bunch of people kind of descended on me as they were like, you know, carrying in a diabetes setting. I'm like The Beatles, if I walk outside, nobody knows who I am. But in that thing, like people were kind of flocking, and we were taking a lot of pictures. And at one point, I kind of had like, grown women on either side of me, and I thought I should have married someone shorter. I feel so tall right now. And I feel so like, it's a bizarre thing, and not something I normally think of it, but I felt more masculine. I felt like doing it like seriously. Anyway, I don't know, it just it just occurred to me, we are so far away from the fact that you have diabetes. So this is your fault for being delightful. You're a unicorn. As far as your attitude goes, You're a doctor. And we're in the Air Force. So there was too much to talk about this. Let's go. So I'll bring it back to diabetes, because we should probably talk about a little bit diagnosed it was out of nowhere. Do you start with MDI? Do they give you a pen? Do they give you a pump? Do you? Does anybody talk to you about CGM or sensing technology? Anything like that?

Karen 41:33
Yeah, so I was really lucky. So one of my clinical skills instructors in medical school was an endocrinologist. So she was one of the people that like taught me like about the physical exam, like how do we like talk about patients and think about clinical judgment. She was kind of like, one of those types of teachers. She was an endocrinologist. And I texted her basically, immediately once I found out what was going on. And while it was in the hospital, said go in the hospital eventually, because I was in DKA, when they diagnosed me, she got me hooked up with an endocrinologist almost immediately, and a diabetes educator. So I had that was, I had, like, immediate follow up coming out of the hospital, did MDI while I was at the hospital. So they started me on, you know, long acting, I was on core genes and basically on Lantis, you know, the short acting with meals with way too much coming out of the hospital. But that's okay. The only reason why I knew was my roommate at the time, her boyfriend was also a type one. So he had just been transitioning, I can't remember if it was from G four to G five or G five to G six.

Scott Benner 42:48
It was three years ago.

Karen 42:50
It was yes, it

Scott Benner 42:51
was the G G five to G six. Probably.

Karen 42:55
Yeah, I remember I had to wear them for you know, you had to what was it? Yeah, it was changing it every seven days.

Scott Benner 43:02
Yeah. Yeah. I think the five was every seven days for sure.

Karen 43:07
Yeah, I mean, I think that sounds right. So I was really lucky because he found out immediately what was going on. And he's like, I have all these extra decks cones, because I'm on the new decks calm. Take them, here's how to put it on. Here's how to make it work. So I got out of the hospital and basically was on Dexcom homeless immediately, which helped me find out that my baby's hole, my insulin was way too much. I didn't eat like, like two pieces of toast, like in peanut butter before bedtime in order to avoid going low. Okay. And then I had immediate follow up, basically right out of the hospital, which was helpful. And I think I got the Omni pod within at like, gosh, I had it been like, less than three months. So I got a really quick

Scott Benner 43:53
Wow, yeah, that is fast. So you were in the very beginning, though too much basil, you were feeding, you're feeding the insulin basically trying to keep up. The CGM helps you see it. And so you have a CGM pretty early on. Yeah, you'll see you get to see the impacts of your, your insulin of your carbs and everything and make good decisions from there. Do you take to it well, or did you struggle with it? Are you still struggling with it? Are you doing great? Like, how did that part go?

Karen 44:22
I think I took to it Well, I think I was kind of in a state of mind where I was like, I was in this fight. And I was like, I'm gonna figure this out. I was having my fighter brain. And I think I took to the technology well, in terms of kind of, like, okay, I can see what this all is. I think I learned how to figure out the Omni pod really well. I think my medical knowledge definitely helped. Because I could understand, you know, like, I needed to take insulin. I could see the effects on my blood sugars. I didn't really start getting, I think understanding like Pre-Bolus and things like that. Until a couple of months later, but my first initial agency, after I started everything and kind of got going, we got it. I mean, we kicked we got it down really? Immediately. I think my first day went see back in the office was a 5.3. So whether that was from Lowe's or whatever, but I also found your podcast very quickly. Oh, I did. Yeah. I just Googled around and somebody had mentioned, oh, you should look up outcasts. And I was like, okay, so I like went on the internet and eventually found your podcasts and I started listening to it. I was like, oh, like, Omni pod. I'm like, I have an omni pod. And that I learned to Pre-Bolus for you. And then my endocrinologist is like, Yeah, you should Pre-Bolus Like that will help and avoid some, like post meal spikes. And so I think, with all of that, I think I got a really good understanding of, you know, how to use insulin, you know, make feel competent to make adjustments to the system on my own. In learning what like the insulin to carb ratio was, what does sensitivity factor mean? I think I'll talk to that pretty quickly. I think it was just based on my personality that I was, you know, this is your this is my life. I have to figure this out. I'm going to figure this out. I can figure this out. And I feel like I did. I did that

Scott Benner 46:30
sounds like it for sure. Also, there must be a little bit of professional pressure to write because you can't, like how are you going to be a doctor who can't take care of their diabetes?

Karen 46:39
Right? Yeah, nobody can ever put that pressure on me. But I can definitely, I don't think

Scott Benner 46:45
anybody put it on you. You had to think about it, right? Like you're gonna be a fraud if you can't do that.

Karen 46:50
Right. Like, I'm a perfectionist to, which doesn't help.

Scott Benner 46:55
Now that I know, but I would have guessed that way if you would have asked me, so. I don't I don't know why exactly. It just what does that mean, though perfectionist? Does it mean? Everything in your house is exactly where it's supposed to be. And we take our shoes off at the door, or when you get into a project, you finish it, you finish it? Well, you do it right. Like where does that touch your life.

Karen 47:16
So I think it definitely, when I do something I want to do to the best of my ability sometimes. And ultimately, if I do end up finishing something, it's a very good product. But sometimes it can prevent me from starting things, when I anticipate that it's not going to be a successful outcome. So that's that side of it. My house isn't perfect, but when I go and complete a task, I've always wanted to be at that, like the prot end product to always be at the highest that it possibly could be. And if it's not, then sometimes in my mind, I'm like, Well, you know, oh, it could have been better. Even though it was good.

Scott Benner 47:56
You're not gonna treat your patients that way. Are you caring like Oh, no. Too late for you? Forget it.

Karen 48:00
We care. For myself. I'm like, Oh, I didn't do a good enough job. But sometimes good enough is good enough. Like perfect isn't, you know, always like you don't need to achieve perfection to to be good enough. You

Scott Benner 48:14
don't have to explain that to me. I have. Yeah, if you set the bar low enough. You'll never trip over. And everything seems like a success. I put my socks on. Yay. i Yeah, let's keep it simple. Okay, so you get a CGM. I mean, eventually you ran out of free CGM. You had to get it yourself. And, and you've got a pump. Are you still using Omni pod?

Karen 48:44
I am. So I'm actually about to start Omni pod five here in a couple of weeks

Scott Benner 48:50
looking. Nice. So you're gonna go automated, which is, I think a great decision, especially for me. So where you're at right now in your training? Are you actually you're in the hospital now? Right working, aren't you?

Karen 49:06
Yeah, I do. I do a mix of things. So where I'm training in my family medicine program. We do a mix of inpatient medicine, so hospital medicine, and then outpatient office medicine. So my first year of my training, I did a lot more inpatient hospital medicine. So I did all my rotations in the hospital. On like a normal medicine. Floor I rotated through the pediatric emergency room and pediatric inpatient team. I did adult emergency room, adult medicine to intensive care units. What else did we do? Those are the big rotations I've done that I did during my first year and now that I'm in my second year, I think about half my time is in the hospital. half my time is in the office doing like my continuity Club. Next,

Scott Benner 50:01
do you have any trouble being on your feet all day? Or are you pretty good at handling that

Karen 50:06
sometimes if it's like a really more active day, and this is where I'm hoping the automated part can help, you know, struggling, if you're, for some reason, the day becomes more active, having to deal with some low lower blood sugar. So we've been on our feet for a long period of time, like on rounds, or something that can be a struggle from, from time to time, I haven't had as much as us during clinic because I feel like I have a little bit more control of things. But it can't be that way. When they're, you know, you go a longer time without eating, because you're rounding with your attending, or, you know, for some reason, the day becomes a little bit more active than you were anticipating. But I just generally try and carry like glucose tablets with me in that type of instance. And really, if it comes to the point where I'm like, I'm Whoa, I need to sit down, I always have people who can, who are willing and more than able to step in to help to allow me to do what I need to do to fix something. If that was ever the case. It's excellent.

Scott Benner 51:05
What made you want to come on the show?

Karen 51:09
I really love this show. And I feel like I kind of have a unique story. So I wanted to share my story. And I just hear so many people come on here. And I know I've found what other people say I always might hear a phrase that I pick up and I find that personally helpful in my life. And I really just wanted to come on to like, share my story to give back to the community. Talk with you and just, I don't know,

Scott Benner 51:34
I'm delighted. I'm delighted that you like me, because you've 100% feel like somebody when I was younger would not have liked me. So I feel like I'm growing as a person. Or at the very least, so I've always

Karen 51:49
liked to I've always, I've never I know some people I've heard I like when I listen to your podcast. You don't have comments and

Scott Benner 51:59
too bad, but I don't think so. And so you hear my sarcasm? Yes. Yeah. Even though you do you employ sarcasm in your life at all?

Karen 52:08
I don't think I have the gift of sarcasm. Unfortunately.

Scott Benner 52:12
It is a gift card. It really is. Yeah. Just so much intent and tone and phrasing. I don't know.

Karen 52:20
It's funny to like, sometimes it is really funny. I wish I could be funny like that. But,

Scott Benner 52:25
you know, my family doesn't think I'm funny at all. Well, can I tell you something too bad. I'm gonna say something that happened the other day to me. And I don't know if this was this is gonna sound like, like, it's like in a salad bowl or not to people. But for my entire life, like the first time I remember this happening as an adult. I was maybe 18 or 19. It was during a heatwave. And we didn't have any air conditioning. So my friend and I, Mike, Mike and I, we bought a baby pool at the at the Kitty City. Does anybody remember toy stores, there was a toy store near us called Kitty City went down there, we bought this plastic plastic baby pool. We brought it home. I think we took it to my house, filled it with water brought out like a TV tray, like drug A television outside, put it on it. And we just sat in the damn pool all night to stay cool. And watch TV. And we're watching Seinfeld first run. And I don't know if you know, do you know a lot of people who like are like, like, honestly funny. And once you know them for a while you'll realize like they run lines on people or they'll use stuff over and over again or like their stuff. They say like I have things I say sometimes. And if you don't know me, you wouldn't know that I would have said it 50 times in the last 10 years or something like that. My wife like I can see the look on my wife's face. Like she's like, Oh, he's gonna launch into this one. You don't I mean, and so we're watching Seinfeld. And this thing that I've been saying forever, just is happening in front of me on television. And I turn to Mike and I go, I swear to God, if I find out you're selling my ideas to people, I'm going to be pissed. And he's and we launched in very quiet, and he turned to me and he goes, You gotta try to get into this somehow. He goes, that's literally your bid. He's like that. He's like you like, you know, you, you. That's how you that's how you tell it. It's Tony's like that whole thing. Anyway, two nights ago, I'm scrolling on the I don't know, you know, whatever, one of those things. And I land on a Louie CK bit. And he and Louise telling us this thing. And it's like word for word, a joke. I tell like for years and I thought, am I as funny as Louie CK. And I was like, because that guy obviously makes questionable decisions with his penis, but it's really really funny. And so do you know what Louie CK did? I don't want to say it in front of you, Karen. I feel like it won't go well. Do you know? Oh my god. Alright, it turns out Karen, that if you knew Louis, and you were hanging out like in his dressing room after Have I don't know, something Louis might announce to the room that it is his intention to take himself out of his pants and handle himself and you should leave if you want to. Apparently, that was. Go ahead. laugh again, Karen. I didn't realize you were gonna laugh that was so nice. Do it again. Well, I'll get you up again. Don't worry about. And so anyway, that's a horror, obviously. And but the guys know, he's a really funny comedian. And so anyway, so he's running this like bit on stage and this little thing, I'm just walking past and it's like, word for word. I'm like, I do this, like, I do this thing. And I'm like, so my idea that I had like, a few years ago, and Louie's idea are very similar. Like, am I could I be a professional comedian? I was like, I gotta quit this podcast and find out. You didn't mean? Like, this party has taken up way too much of my time. So I could like, although I probably probably make more money than than a starting comedian. Maybe I can't afford to do that. But anyway, the point is, I don't know what the point is. Karen, I think the point is, I think my parents are like, Well, my parents didn't have Jesus character. You have no idea. My parents really did not think I was funny. And my family like, like our dad, I laugh together, we have the same. We have the same sense of humor, basically. But once somebody says, I'm funny, she goes, No, he's not. It's so interesting. Like, she won't give me credit for it. Anyway. Yeah, I think my point is, is that I think there are people getting away with being professional comedians, and they're just, they're funny, but they're not like, like, you don't I mean, like, they're not all Dave Chappelle. You don't have to like chapels humor to know that as far as a person who can deliver a story, in a funny way, the man's like a. He's like at the top of a class. You know what I mean? Anyway? Do you like stand up at all?

Karen 56:50
I don't listen to a lot of stand up. No. Have you ever been to a

Scott Benner 56:53
live show? No, not at all. You should try that. I should even like we just did one. Who did we just do? It? Why can't I remember what we just did? I had the COVID Recently, Karen. Oh, no. I'm coming back out of it. You know what I mean? But it took it took its toll on me. Anyways, the worst part? The vacillating fevers. Okay, like, oh my god, I'm dying. I'm so hot. Oh, my God, I'm so cold. And they would happen in the middle of the night you couldn't sleep. So like 11pm that would start at like 6am you could fall asleep. And by that you were just laying in a pile of your own white human sweat. And just like going like, Oh, God, I can't believe it. But I'm actually going to go to sleep now that I'd sleep till like 9am Wake up and make the podcast. And then like live a whole day. And then just, it would all it just went over and over again. And then every time we think it's over, it's not over. And then it turned into bronchitis. Nice. Yeah. So we literally watched sick for two months here.

Karen 58:04
And just like I feel like it bounces back and forth.

Scott Benner 58:06
Oh, yeah, we gave it to each other. And oh my god, we gave it to each other. Like we needed antibiotics to get out of it. Like it was just like, a horror. And I think it is I think it's messed with. I mean, I'm okay now, I think. But I do think that six months from now, when people are hearing the podcasts come out. If they really pay attention, you might hear where I was sick while I was interviewing people a couple of times. Because I was just a little like a, like a maybe an hour or something like that. Anyway, you could be funny. Do you ever say anything? That's funny? Are you ever funny by mistake?

Karen 58:43
Maybe from time to time, I can't think of anything funny to say like off the top of my head. But I think maybe within my group of friends, like, amongst my like friends that are also doctors. I mean, we have things that we say that we think are funny. But if anybody was listening to our conversation, they'd be like, What the heck are they talking about? Or they might think we're super dirty or lame? Or gross? I don't know.

Scott Benner 59:03
I would love to know if you're actually funny. If you all just have the same bad sense of humor. I would love. I'd love to be a fly on a wall in that room. Yeah, to hear what we're talking about. You want to see a funny television show. Somebody should pay Arden and I to watch other people just see if they're funny or not because we would be funny and horrible to them as we were judging them. Anyway, John Mulaney I just popped into my head I saw John Mulaney live recently. And I'm telling you, like, I think stand up like recorded like on Netflix can be like it's I think it's a little dollar on television that it is alive. So anyway,

Karen 59:42
I mean, I feel like that's the same thing with music. It's always better live. Oh, yes, you're there and you're in the moment you're with the energy with the people like it's just better

Scott Benner 59:50
see in the movies the same way right? Like you just like yeah, a bunch of people you can feel that you feel like you can feel each other in the room, you know? So anyway, Mulaney was funny But I don't know. I don't know where we got how we got here. What do you, I appreciate you wanting to come on. And I want to like highlight what you said a moment ago about just picking up tidbits from other people's conversations. I think that's a super important part of why the podcast helps people are why they like it or whatever, that you can't just like, he just can't expect to interview like 10 people and get all of the information out that someone needs, you're always going to be missing something like Jenny and I recorded a show the other day that just went off. And it was we did a we did. ketones. Thank you, Jesus, I am the worst person to tell you what's going on in this podcast. But I'm just I'm so far like ahead of where you guys are sometimes, like, my head's not there. But it was Isabel, she came through the through the community. And she's does such a great job of seeing what people like where people's gaps are, and coming to me and saying You really should do an episode on like this topic. And she's, I mean, as far as I can tell, she hasn't been wrong yet. So she came to me and she said, look, there's plenty of information about illness, ketones, like spread through the protests, and a couple of other places. She's like, but put it all in one place. And let's make it part of the bowl beginning series. And when she said that I was like, but I already finished the bowl beginning series. And at the end of it, I told everybody, that's the end of the bowl beginning series, and she goes, you're gonna have to tell them that you were wrong. And I was like, alright, so but just that kind of stuff is super valuable to like, like targeted stuff, where you just like, I'll listen for 45 minutes and understand how to clear my ketones out when it's over. Yeah, I still think that picking stuff out of conversations is a big part of why I tried to have so many of them. And why I hope that this is entertaining on some level, because it's diabetes. And if you just came on and droned on about diabetes, I can't imagine anybody would listen to it, you know, like, even if it was rock, rock solid information. How do you find just as interesting? You're still learning about medicine, and you're still formulating your ideas about how to talk to people about it? How do you find the pro tips and those other targeted series? Where are they valuable for you? Did you get anything out of it even about how I talked to people about their medical stuff,

Karen 1:02:20
I think it's things that I probably maybe have gotten out of it. I mean, it's just always being open minded to your like hearing what people say and knowing that you know, when people come in, and they may be pushing back on you trying to explore where that comes from, knowing that everyone kind of has like a story behind like, you know, like where they're at with their health or something like that, in terms of like medical knowledge or like diabetes, because it's a very type one focus, I mostly deal with type twos that are on oral or like once weekly injectable medications. I wouldn't say from like that standpoint, it's necessarily been helpful. But I think definitely, from the perspective of just like understanding people, and where they're coming from, it's definitely helpful to hear like people's stories and the experiences that they have, that have colored their experience with the medical system, to having a better understanding that people come from different places. And most of the time, there's some level of like fear and misunderstanding and just wanting to hear where people are coming from so that I can understand them. And maybe we can find a place where we can meet in the middle ground, where like there are things that are definitely medically indicated. And I will let you know what those things are, but also noticing that things are working in progress, and you can ultimately get to the same place with time.

Scott Benner 1:03:46
I think we it's funny, you're not asking, but if you asked me, Scott, you've spoken to 800 people have a medical condition, maybe more. And what do you think I would tell you not to try really hard not to assume you know, where how somebody got to where they are, what they know, or what they are, what what their expectations are, and you shouldn't ever apply medical expectations to them because they might have different expectations for themselves. Yeah. And that I think that will end up being really helpful for you because I've done a handful of interviews with type twos, and over whelming Lee the story is I got type two diabetes, somebody pushed a protocol on me. I didn't know what was happening to me. I didn't know why I was doing what I was doing what was supposed to be happening, what I was looking for. I didn't even know what outcomes were. Were hopeful what how outcomes were acceptable, like, you know, what should I be shooting for? And then the doctor just looks at me and if my agency falls into some sort of a range, they go, everything's fine. And if it doesn't, they say, you know, try hard or, or lose weight or exercise or something that's, that's vague, and maybe doesn't take into account what, what their situation is like, it's easy to say to people, like just lose weight, or just do this or whatever the thing you're gonna say to them is, but it might not be easy to them. And it's very difficult for those people to speak up in that moment. Yeah. Like, that's kind of what I've learned talking to people.

Karen 1:05:24
Yeah, I think what's hard, too, is our appointments are, are they're just so short now. So it's like, almost like, for me, like, there's so many things that go into the management of chronic health conditions. It's not just, you know, it's like, it's lifestyle in medicine, and all these other things, that, you know, it could take a whole 1530 minutes appointment just to talk about lifestyle. And there are certain, like, more like lifestyle medicine doctors who can, who may be able to focus a little bit more on that. But I think we all would love to have more of that time, especially in like primary care, to talk to patients about, you know, those types of things in their lives, that, you know, what, what is impeding them from being able to achieve the outcomes that they want. But it's so you know, we only have so much time, and I think that that's a, that's something we all kind of deal with a lot as health care providers is that if you can only start on medication at something, but sometimes the things that, you know, the best way to deal with anything is to put the two together.

Scott Benner 1:06:26
I think, too, that I understand that the visits are short. But I think that that gets met sometimes by physicians with like, look, I have X number of minutes of information to to deliver, but I have this many minutes to do it in, there's not enough time. So it's not going to work out. But But think about that, think about it like this, like you listen to the podcast, right? Like I Why? Why do people listen to this and then do well with their diabetes? It's because I figured out and made the assumption that that and then tried it with my daughter and then came forward and said, Okay, look, these are the T shirts, slogans you need to know, to manage your diabetes is there more to it definitely is. But you need to Pre-Bolus you have to understand the impacts of your food glycemic index and load, you have to be fluid, you have to Bolus for fat and protein. You shouldn't look at a high blood sugar and just go I hope this comes down. You know, like, you know, I'd rather stop a lower falling blood sugar then fight with a high win, like these sorts of like, I hate to say it, but their T shirts slogans that in the moment are like, oh, yeah, I my blood sugar's 300. I should want this to be down. And or like, Well, how do I make that decision? Well, you have to learn to trust that what you know is going to happen is gonna happen, like, I went to great lengths to take something really complicated and make it simple enough that you can get a good launch into it. And then you start seeing some progress and some success. And it makes you want to learn more about it. And it makes you want to fine tune it more. And I think I can't I'm I'm betting on you. I think there's a way to get people into that room in that limited amount of time. And you are smart enough to figure out what your T shirt slogan should be to get them moving in the right direction. I'm putting I'm hanging this on you. You said people didn't pressure you about some people. I'm pressuring you. I want this. You're my you're my emissary in this field. And I get going. Get out there. Does that make sense to you?

Karen 1:08:31
Yeah. And it makes me wonder how can we do the same for other things that people deal with? How and and I think there's something unique with this might with this podcast kind of maybe reminds me of are we do have these like things called like group medical visits, where it's like a group of people with the same thing who come together. And it's like a normal doctor's office done with a group. So I wonder if there's something unique to the fact that this is almost like a group experience of people who have, they have the same thing as you talking about what they do. And people just I think as humans we are, you know, we're connected. Individuals, we live in societies, and maybe there's just something uniquely different about being in a group and our ability to receive and accept information, as opposed to when you're singing in a doctor's office, which is a can often be a power relationship where you are maybe feeling like the prey and the Predator, you know, or like,

Scott Benner 1:09:38
Mom and Dad, there's a hierarchy and you're at the bottom of

Karen 1:09:41
it. There's a hierarchy. Yeah. And I wonder if there's just some thing uniquely different about being in a community of people who deal with what you deal with and our ability to receive and understand and implement information pitch

Scott Benner 1:09:57
that idea to a hospital a few years ago, I It's like, instead of bringing everybody in for 20 minutes, once you bring everybody in for two hours and put 20 people in the room, I said, Well, HIPAA violations and like they argued with me, I was like, it's a great idea. It sounds like you guys might be doing something like that, which is smart. I do think the last piece of it, which is privacy, like you want to have a group, you want to have a group experience, but you went private that a lot of people want privacy through. I think that's why the podcast is helpful. Because you feel like you're talking to everybody who's listening to everybody, but you are in your ears, and you're by yourself, and nobody knows what you're listening to. And, but I think you can do it. Karen, I'm so sorry, I have to jump are you I would I don't put you off, though, make sure that you told me everything you want to tell me.

Karen 1:10:40
I think we did. I do want to one person I want. I want to thank somebody, I do want to thank my husband for being so wonderful. I think he's a really big reason why I've been able to do all the things that I want to do. We don't get to live together. Because of his because he's in the Air Force and stationed a different place. But I think a lot of my calm and ability to be who I am today is because he's very much my personality type two. So whenever he hears those, I'm gonna make him listen to it. I just want to say thank you to him, because he could have just gotten up and left me when all this stuff happened. And he's always been my best friend. And he didn't. And he helped me a lot.

Scott Benner 1:11:23
I don't usually do personal shout out to the podcast, but that was touching. Very nice. Well, yeah. Way to be a good guy, man. And like, not be a deck and not be scared. And you know what I mean? A little bit, because I take your point, I asked people a lot actually. People have died dating age. I was like, Do you worry that this would would kind of push people away from you or scare them or whatever? It does happen. There are plenty of people who are like, Oh, you have one? Look over there. And then they're gone. And you turn back around, you know? And yeah, that's that's good stuff. Well, you obviously must really love you.

Karen 1:11:58
Yes. And I love him too. He's my best friend. And I think a lot of what he does for me and for a lot of people, you know, goes without being faint. And I just want to put that out there.

Scott Benner 1:12:11
Hey, listen, let's give him a little ego boost to super sexy. He flies a plane.

Karen 1:12:17
Yeah. He points to drones. Oh, wait, wait, he's not up in the thing. No, but he still wears a flight suit. So that's,

Scott Benner 1:12:26
I didn't know. Is he a pilot? Like, I know he's a pilot if he flies to Trump, and is he a pilot? Like you guys like, like pleasure flying together like us? Does he have a?

Karen 1:12:37
No, he doesn't have his private pilot's license. And I think kind of a little terrified to go up in the small planes are the ones that always

Scott Benner 1:12:45
well, there's the answer. She loves you but not that much. She and I get in a plane. Carrying this was really, really a treat. I appreciate you doing this. And I'm so sorry. I know. We moved the time around a bunch of times. And but you were really flexible. And I appreciate it.

Karen 1:13:00
Yeah, well, I just, this was really great. I've been I've been looking forward to this and thank you so much for letting me come on the podcast

Scott Benner 1:13:07
pleasure. Seriously, get out there and find a different way to help people. Okay, and then and then call me back. Especially then tell me what it is later. Like,

Karen 1:13:15
I will try I'll try and figure it try like

Scott Benner 1:13:18
Listen, buddy. I just need to build some people. I gotta buy a house leave me alone. Actually, I don't I gotta pay off my Yeah, like listen, after we pay the 125 i Oh, Wake Forest, then we'll talk about it. Wake Forest couldn't cut nevermind, they could have cut you a break. All right, hold on one second for me.

I of course want to thank Karen for coming on the show and sharing her story. And I'd also like to thank the contour next gen blood glucose meter for sponsoring this episode. You know who else sponsored the episode? Omni pod, go to Omni pod.com forward slash juice box to get started today. And don't forget contour next one.com forward slash juice box links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. Honestly, that the show was sponsored by these two companies, that's why the recording exists. That's how the editing got paid for. It's how the hosting for the show exists. It's It's why you get the podcast. It's why it's free. So I really appreciate it when you support the sponsors. If you have type two or pre diabetes, that type two diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast is exactly what you're looking for. Do you have a friend or a family member who is struggling to understand their type two and how to manage it? This series is for them seven episodes to get you on track and up to speed episode 860 series intro 864 guilt and shame episode Oh 869 medical team 874 fuelling plan, Episode 880 diabetes technology episode 85 GLP ones metformin and insulin, and an episode 889 We talk about movement. This episode is with me and Jenny Smith. Of course, you know Jenny is a Certified diabetes Care and Education Specialist. She's a registered and licensed dietitian, and Jenny has had type one diabetes for over 30 years. Too many people don't understand their type two diabetes, and this series aims to fix that. Share it with a friend or get started today. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

#971 Chutes and Ladders

Jared's daughter has type 1 diabetes.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 971 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's podcast I'll be speaking with Jared he is the father of a fairly newly diagnosed child with type one diabetes. And Jared and I spend our hour chit chatting away as we do. 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. And don't forget, if you have the need use the links that the show provides when you're buying on the pod Dexcom going to us med contour meters G voc hypo pen if you're going to drink a G one, if you're gonna buy sheets from cozy Earth, get better Help or visit touched by type one.org. When you click on my links, you're supporting the production of the show and keeping it plentiful and free. And for that, I want to say thank you. Those links are in the show notes of your podcast player. And they exist at juicebox podcast.com. But you'll also hear me say them during the ad so you can just type them into a browser too. There's not enough time left for me to say anything else. So I'll see you on the other side of this

this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by cozy Earth cozy earth.com That's the place you go. You get the comfortable sheets, the incredibly absorbent towels, the luxurious clothing, it's all at cozy earth.com. And don't forget to use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 40% off your entire purchase. today's podcast is also sponsored by ag one drink ag one.com forward slash juice box, you can start your day the same way I do with a delicious drink of ag one, take ownership of your health. Try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Once again, my link is drink ag one.com forward slash juice box.

Jared 2:21
My name is Jared I live in northern Colorado. I am the dad and caregiver of an 11 year old diabetic. She was diagnosed a year ago yesterday. So we are right on her diversity outside of diabetes. I I have been a wedding photographer for 10 years. That is has been my main focus in the last year. So I've been working as well, with my wife, we own two businesses, we own a small law firm as well. And we're expanding that law firm. So I've stepped in to a role there as well to help on the business side of things. So that's what I do for work. For fun. I'm a you know, pretty authentic Colorado and I like to cycle and hike and mountain bike and do a lot of things outdoors. That's that's what I do for fun.

Scott Benner 3:10
I was gonna say you don't live there if you don't want to do those things. Yeah,

Jared 3:13
that's true. That's true. I'm born and raised in Florida. So I'm not native color. I didn't grow up in this area. I came to the west some cheese let's see here 2020 ish years ago, and I lived in Utah for a short period of time. And then after college, my wife and I said we wanted to stay in the mountains. But we didn't necessarily want to stay in Utah and kind of where we were we decided to go

Scott Benner 3:33
where to where did the two of you meet?

Jared 3:35
We met Believe it or not in middle school. We've been together forever. So we we met in seventh grade English class doing a Shakespeare play. And and didn't date until high school and then starting our junior in high school we dated exclusively and we've been together ever since

Scott Benner 3:57
amazing. And for people listening. You're a handsome man, this isn't like a situation where like, I hooked one early Scott and I didn't have any other options. I just had to keep going.

Jared 4:11
While when when I found that, you know, to be honest, I've only had to use my second girlfriend my entire life, which is kind of unusual to find someone that you work so well with. So early on. But I kind of have a theory here I believe that we we kind of raced each other. So we kind of you know a lot of the thoughts in the in the way that we arrive at those thoughts. We learn that together in a lot of ways. So it's a really good, good relationship.

Scott Benner 4:38
It's interesting because a therapist will tell you that it will go one of two ways. And my wife and I have had a similar situation like our lives were such disasters, when we met each other and we grew up in in households where neither of our personalities was the norm, I think is I think that's a very nice way of saying that and And so you kind of meet a person who's in your mind. Reasonable. And you know, and you get together. And then you realize all of the things that no one taught you when you were a child, and you do start to almost, I don't know, assist each other, like as you figure the things out, and then when you get older like this, I don't know, there's a comfort level, that's just like, I mean, I know when she's gonna sit before she does, you know what I mean? And, like, she knows little things about me, like, I would never figure it like, she's like, sometimes when you get irritated, you stomp your foot. And she's like, it's not like, cartoonish, like, you don't pick your knee up your face and go damn it, you know, like she has, it's just this very light, like, you pick your foot up on the election, you tap it when you're, and I was like, for years, I'm like, You're out of your mind. I don't do that. And then one day, I caught myself doing and I was like, Oh, my God. And then I started thinking about all the little things about her that I know. And I was like, Oh, God, I can't even let her out of this house. If she if she turns on me, Jared, what am I gonna do?

Jared 6:03
That sounds familiar. For sure. She has

Scott Benner 6:05
the whole playbook. Amazing and actually made me the most amazing thing is that apparently, you had a girlfriend before her? That's true. When did you? When did you start macking on the ladies when you were six?

Jared 6:16
Oh, my goodness. You probably think I'm younger than I am. To be honest. I look, I look pretty young. But um, let's see here. We did get married very young. I am about I turned 38 year pretty soon. And we started dating when we were 16 and 17.

Scott Benner 6:32
Wow, that's something years ago. Well, congratulations. How many kids? Yeah, we have two kids two. Okay. And you're one with type ones. How old? I'm sorry. She is 1111. And the reason that I leave in the story about my illness in the beginning is because we were going to we were going to record yesterday on the anniversary of her diagnosis. And then I moved it so that Arden could do something that she didn't end up doing. So now I'm recording 19 Times today to make up for that. I think I will be taking a I'll be taking a shower and a bucket between the recordings today.

Jared 7:10
How many how many interviews are you doing today? I

Scott Benner 7:12
have to do three today now because of because I was like I squished everything onto this day. Don't worry. You'll never notice if I got through the G voc thing. I'll be okay with this.

Jared 7:22
I'm guessing I'm your first year the first Yeah, yeah, I

Scott Benner 7:25
tried to sneak in some sleep. Late sleep this morning because Arden was up late with illness. And so we were up helping her anyway.

Jared 7:34
It's art an art at home for a holiday break. She in between semesters. Got some Yeah,

Scott Benner 7:38
her school does quarters instead of semesters. So one of the breaks the one at Thanksgiving, actually last two months. Nice. Yeah. So she came home right before Thanksgiving. And she won't go back until it's not quite too much. We'll go back like January 6, I think I have to drive her back.

Jared 7:56
So I think this whole two week, this whole two weeks, going back after Thanksgiving before Christmas break is pretty useless anyway, so it probably should just extend the breaks.

Scott Benner 8:05
It's the college equivalent of high school when they give you off for days and make you come back Friday. And they're like we need the day for the like, just let me figure it out better than that. Right. But okay, so was there anything about your daughter's diagnosis that was expected as are autoimmune and your family or any other type one or anything like that?

Jared 8:24
No, absolutely not. I mean, at least as far as we know, I would say since the diagnosis, you know, we've dived into the history a little bit more, and a few things have stood out on my wife's side. Her mom and one or two of her sisters have some thyroid issues. But But no, nothing that is ever severe. Nothing that was ever really discussed. It definitely took us by surprise. We We honestly thought that she was just about to enter period, her her puberty and starter period or cycle and, and she had lost a little bit of weight and was emotional. But But again, I don't think that's all that unusual for an 11 year old. And so we did not expect it at all. The first sign that stood out to us was her just falling asleep a random times during the day essentially like she was just utterly exhausted. And she was having a hard time. A hard time staying awake at school. And she had gone into the nurse's office a couple of times. And they had just let her sleep like on the on the bed. They're in the nurse's office. And then they'd call us and say hey, we we think you really need to take better care of your take care better. You're up all night what's going on type of thing. Yeah. And in the first time I didn't pick her up the second time that happened. I wouldn't picked her up and I was like, Hey, what's going on? She's like, I don't know. I'm just just completely tired. I can't keep my eyes open type of thing. And but after she took that power nap, she was fine. She was likely again and So it wasn't super clear. But then we, we were, we had picked her up earlier that day, we were doing a little bit of shopping. And we were just at a hardware store at Lowe's. And we're sitting there looking at rugs of all things. And anyways, I look back and she's like preparing herself to take a nap on the floor in the aisle at the hardware store, like she's sitting on the ground, starting to like slowly slouched down, and, and thank goodness, it wasn't just me there because I probably would just kicked her under the bed get up, you know, and we thought much of it. But my wife her, I don't know motherly instincts, or whatever you call it. She was like, something's definitely going on here. And I didn't recognize that first. And, you know, so we went back home and got the kids ready for bed. And as they were taking their baths and showers, my wife noticed that my daughter's skin looked great. Just had some Yeah, just looked off. And I think it was just from the dehydration is what I would imagine it was mostly from and we have a we have a pretty good relationship with our, with our doctor. And so we just sent him a text message saying, hey, you know what, you have any thoughts about this? And he was immediately concerned and said, Yeah, I'd recommend taking her into er and have that look at that's, that's something's going on. Something's off. And, and so we took her into the ER, I stayed home with our son, my wife took her in. And just like a lot of ers took, you know, two hours for them to be able to see her. But then as soon as they did see her they they did a they did some labs, I think they did a urine and blood test, and immediately came back. And actually when they came back with those lab results, they came back letting us know, we got a helicopter on its way we got to take her we can't we can't help her right now in our current state. So as they came back to tell us that she was not in good shape. The helicopter was on its way. My wife then called me I hopped in the car and ran to the ER and I got there right there strapping her down to a gurney to put her on her helicopter. Wow.

Scott Benner 11:54
She's and somebody tells you here's we figured out what's wrong with you. And we've called for air support. You think we're in trouble? Like that's not Yeah, that's not a that's a panic situation. For sure.

Jared 12:08
It was terrifying. And like I said if it if it wasn't for my wife, I think I would have just said hey, let's let's let her sleep through this the night and see. See how she's doing the next morning?

Scott Benner 12:21
All right, listen, I need to be honest. I've never seen a rib knit boyfriend sleep dress before. But I'm looking at one now on cozy earth.com And I have to admit if I was a lady, I think I'd be sleeping in this. It is made with viscose bamboo just like my sheets and I'm trying to imagine what would happen if I hid my sheets wrapped around me. Oh, I think it sounds wonderful. Okay, you should check it out cozy earth.com There's a ton of great women's wear at cozy Earth. There's a beautiful boardwalk breeze dress lounging T and sweat pants or shorts pajamas. And there's terrific stuff here for the men to shorts, pajamas, pullovers, and you guys know I love the joggers. I can't stress enough that you should check out the clothing. But the towels and the sheets are unmatched cozy earth.com use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 40% off your entire order. Cozy Earth also has socks, sleep masks, scrunchies and dryer balls, dryer balls. Nevermind, I actually use dryer balls. I don't want to make it into a joke but I use dryer balls on my dryer you could do because the earth.com use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 40% off your entire order. Seriously, go check it out. It's fantastically comfortable and luxurious stuff. And I think you're gonna love it. First thing this morning, I wandered downstairs, I took out my ag one cup, a cup. No, no, that's the thing. I put water in it when he wanted it. I shake it, shake it, shake it. I drink it out. Whatever you want to call that thing I grabbed that I put into nice cold water, a delicious scoop of ag one and I was on my way. At first I had to remind myself in the morning to drink at one. But after a while it just becomes a habit. That is a great part of my day. It's tasty. And it goes down really smooth. And I've told you in the past I've tried other drinks for my nutrition and my vitamins and they tasted horrible. Seriously, I've tried a number of them. They were garbage. I couldn't take them. I couldn't choke them down. Ag one. I just drink it and I'm done. It's easy drink a G one and you're done. Oh, they should have called me when they were looking for marketing. Nevermind they did drink ag one.com forward slash juice box. When you use my link, you're gonna get a free a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first order when you use my link drink ag one.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast There are links in the show notes of your audio player and links at juicebox podcast.com. To ag one cozy earth and all the sponsors, please, please click on my links, use the offer codes. It supports the show. All right, let's get you back to Jared. But first let me say this one more time. dryer balls

Jared 15:34
yeah, that's I'm very glad that, that we didn't do that because I don't know what would have happened to me. She may have made it she may not have you know,

Scott Benner 15:42
do you carry guilt about that? Or do you able to let go of it? Initially, I

Jared 15:45
carried a ton of guilt about it. I don't I don't know if I carry too much. Now. Maybe to some extent, but initially I was a mess. Because I kept having this. This reoccurring thought that man if I would have put her to bed, I would have come back to potentially a dead child the next morning. I went okay. And and, and I was were because both my wife and I are self employed. We don't have traditional insurance and so finances and insurance and hospitals and doctors and all that stuff. It's always just a giant pain in the ass to, to work through. And and so I'm always conscientious of that and conservative of that and trying to be like, well, let's, you know, let's let's give it a little bit of time before we before we jump into this. And again, I'm glad glad we did. And I'm glad that we had the insight to do that. That's something

Scott Benner 16:30
do you think about your other child now? Does it worry you? Or does it seem like a one off? And it's not in your head?

Jared 16:37
Yeah, no, we're definitely he's he's it's so interesting because Evelyn our daughter, the diabetic she she's never been had sweet tooth or anything like that. And but our son is always been the kid who finds a bag of candy is going to devour the whole thing in one sitting and stuff. And I know that has nothing to do with with type one, but and we actually have a family history of type two. And I always have thought about that with with Peter and with his sweet tooth, just being conscientious and careful with his health. But we've gone and had him tested and he doesn't show any of the markers. And so, you know, knock on wood, who knows what will happen with the future. But as of right now, it doesn't appear as though there's any concerns and we, the two of them are very close. And he just out of love and sympathy will have her check his blood sugar when she checks her sometimes. And like when she was first diagnosed, and she was struggling with giving herself the injections. He would do saline injections with her and stuff like that. So he's he's a good supporter.

Scott Benner 17:35
No kidding. It's interesting, because something like diabetes, it gives us one hair, it takes one or the other. Like you become more aware of your health. And I think to some degree, people can become resilient because of it. And there's a number of kinds of good things that come from it. But obviously, nothing you wouldn't trade away not to have it but the to me one of the one of the real things it takes away is that ability to live your life believing that you're going to be the 95 year old guy on the news smoking cigarettes for your birthday, like you know, Jared slid the 95 and I don't know if you know this, but he still gets high every day and blah blah blah and like they can they put them on the news. They're eating cake with a fork and

Jared 18:18
the random the random interviews with 101 year old lady Yes, chocolate cake and cigarettes is what did it for.

Scott Benner 18:24
We all think that's how we're we all think that's gonna be us when you know, in reality that ladies on the news because she's easy to find, because she's the only one. But like you have you lose that ability to just let your life unfold in front of you. And, and I am I hate I hate that. I hate that. I mean, like, don't get me wrong, like, I think I'm going to live longer. Because I pay more attention to things. I think I'm going to be healthier as I go. But there's part of me that's like, I can't believe I didn't just get to be one of those people who like, pops up in the morning that's like, going to work and everything's fine and doesn't think about stuff like this, you know,

Jared 19:03
it's definitely caused me to pause a little bit and think a bit more about mortality. There's definitely no doubt about that. I mean, being so close to, you know, to death, essentially with one of my kiddos and who literally that same day she went school and had, you know, took her nap in the nurse's office. We, you know, we obviously weren't concerned we were shopping at Lowe's just a few hours before they're taken away on a helicopter, you know? Yeah. So it definitely, definitely caused me to pause and think a little bit more about that for sure. The fact that I have family history with type two, my grandfather, my dad, and my brother who's only four years older than I am all have type two. i She's almost 10 ish years ago, made a conscientious effort to dive into understanding type two kind of as a preemptive to avoid it on my own and changed the way that I ate and changed the way that essentially I live in an effort to kind of avoid that as best as possible. And so in a in a roundabout way, our kids had been exposed to a lot of the adjustments that we chose to make with Evelyn they had already been exposed to because I had made some of those changes for myself. I tested my own blood sugars and ketones for geez, two or three years, almost daily, trying to be conscientious and aware of how certain foods affected me and things like that. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 20:20
guess when three people in your pretty immediate family start acquiring type two diabetes, you're like, oh, geez, it's gonna happen to me.

Jared 20:26
When it when it happened to my brother, and he's only a few years older than I am. Yeah, it was definitely a kind of a wake up call for me.

Scott Benner 20:32
Well, that's good. I mean, at least you were moving in that direction when this happened to Avalon? How did she handle it? So young age?

Jared 20:40
Yeah, I think kids are amazingly resilient. Like if I would have gotten this right now. I think it would destroy me a lot of ways. She has been amazingly resilient from the management of the actual blood sugar itself. She's amazing. She's truly incredible at it, she doesn't, she has the patience and understanding to do all the right things that she needs to be doing and really hurt her blood sugar's are just phenomenal. Emotionally, it's still a heavy burden and wait for her. And I think it will be forever. I don't imagine that that will ever stop. I actually this morning on our way to school, I was asked her how she was how she was feeling with that. And she was like, it's, it's good. And it just is what it is, you know, and it's, it's just shifted the way that she thinks about herself, I think, to some extent, so from an emotional standpoint, I think it's going to be a long road of recovery. From a actual management of the diabetes standpoint, I think she's well on her way, I would feel confident, taken off for a weekend and just let her be.

Scott Benner 21:45
Yeah. And there's a I mean, it's obvious, there are two important ideas there. But I take your point, it's, it's almost like, you're gonna watch like a documentary about a part of the world where they've been at war for so long, that they're walking to school. And there are people in the streets carrying rifles and rockets fly over their head. And they're just like, Oh, you mean like another one? Yeah, they're just a rocket. Whereas, you know, if you were wandering through downtown Colorado, and, you know, a Patriot missile went over your head, you'd be, you know, you'd be in the sewer hiding. And I think that about diabetes Sometimes, though, like, just because you seem calm, and you're like, oh, this thing is happening. It doesn't mean that it's not a terrible thing that's happening, it just means that you are, you are a survivor, and you are oddly adapted. Finding a way to live your life even though everything around you is kind of a disaster. You know,

Jared 22:41
I think I think the word zone is a phenomenal metaphor, because you really are on a daily basis. No 11 year old should be making decisions that could greatly affect their mortality. But a lot, you know, but she is, you know, she ignores this for a couple of days, she's going to be sick, she miss doses too much, or whatever, this is going to create some complications for her. And she's, she's very much aware of that

Scott Benner 23:02
watching with I mean, if this is the flu, which makes sense to me, if it is, you know, we're we last night like we all went to her room, and we were like, well watch TV with you are watching season two of only murders in the building something we had watched before she went away to college together, and we're like, well, we'll continue watching something together. And, you know, her blood sugar was just like, I don't know, it was just so difficult. Like over like, we I must have given her and she gave herself like, while we were sitting together. I don't know, we must have given her 15 units of insulin to try to move her blood sugar. 60 points, you know, and I was like, hey, Bolus again, she's like, okay, you can feel it. Like in the Okay, it's God, I'm sick. I can't believe I have to do this. But it never comes out. It doesn't show on her face. It's just this little pause and she just handles it. And it's something you know, I did a good job once of hiding my age. When you call close a, a hardware store. I could hear my grandmother in my head going. These stores are going to ruin this town. Because there was a hard when I when I was a kid, my grandmother went to a hardware store. It was just this little place old school. Yeah. And you call it a hardware store. And I didn't push back and I was so proud of myself.

Jared 24:20
Well, what would you call Lowe's? I think it's on the title, right? Lowe's hardware, something like that. But yeah,

Scott Benner 24:25
listen, it's a hardware store. But I am I am programmed not to give it that respect. Like seriously, like, that's the place that came and ruined the town. Like, I'll tell you that. When I was like, I don't even know 14. They were breaking ground in this town that my grandmother lived in on a 711. And she went on for 20 minutes when we drove past that how that was going to be the end of this place. And that, you know, on that land, there's a dairy farm. And I was like, I know and she's like, and you used to and I could remember like We used to as a kid, we would drive to this place is five minutes from where we lived. And a person would give you milk that I'm swear to you, they just brought out of the cow, like five seconds before they still warm milk and the cows, like enjoy it. And then they're putting the 711 there, she was just like this is it right here. This is the beginning. And I was like, Okay, so anyway, I can't think of going against my grandmother and her militants stance against I

Jared 25:31
don't think I've ever I've never lived in a small enough town that ever had that transition. Yeah, that feeling Yeah, that she

Scott Benner 25:38
lived in a place where there was a hardware store and a diner, and everybody drove a Ford car, because there was a Ford dealership on the edge of town. Like it was that simple, you know? Anyway, I don't know, that just made me think of something else that now slipped out of my head. But it'll it'll come back to me where I thought, Oh, God, I'm old. I forget exactly what it was. Anyway, so she's doing well with it. You guys. Okay, does did the under trying to understand diabetes thing? Was it a team effort between you and your wife? Or did you find it go into one person or the other.

Jared 26:11
So we've found so that, so the first month was miserable. And I think that is probably true for most, I felt like, you know, we went into the hospital, and they told us, Hey, your kid almost died. But no worries, we've stabilized or Now go home type of thing. Like, that's what it felt like. And, you know, the education was, you know, mid COVID. And so this is, you know, quick half day. Very, very basic training. And, and one of the challenges that kind of frustrated us a bit with the training, as well as we had four or five different instructors teaching us and they were all covering the exact same information. So one would leave next one come in for their their portion, and they would just cover the exact same thing, or they would contradict one another. It was just like, super frustrating. super frustrating. And so you know, going home with our paper, and pen, and meter and strips, and you know, that basically, you know, we didn't go home with a CGM, we didn't go home with any sort of pomp or any anything of that sort. And trying to be trying to be a good dad, you know, I, I initially was probably very type A trying to watch her numbers very closely. And it just felt initially hopeless in a lot of ways. I found myself getting down in the dumps. And I was trying to trying to be a good example and trying to not bring her down. She's the one having this experience. Why am I feeling like when she she's the one that should be. And I actually went up one night, middle of the night, which is on the computer, I don't know, just killing time. And on some dads helping dads Facebook page, I posted some, probably some depressing rant of sorts about how horrible things were. And another dad reached out to me privately and said, Hey, my son was diagnosed four months ago. You know, let me let me talk you through this, things will get better, you know, and, and that Dad and I have become really good friends. I mean, we've never had a chance to meet in person, but just Facebook friends where we chat back and forth regularly still to this day. And he is who introduced me to, to the podcast, to juice box and to some other resources. And once I was initially, given those resources, diving into them entirely, is what alleviated that depression. And that kind of anxiety that I was feeling at that time, it allowed me to feel a sense of, oh, I can do this look, this guy can do it, I can do it type of type of thing. It gave me a sense of not everything's out of control, you can actually legitimately control this if you follow these steps. And understanding and learning those steps became kind of my number one priority for a period of time there where I just dived in as much as I could and absorbed as much as I could. And that is really where the difficulty and challenges of diabetes, that's kind of where they were alleviated. And I just I felt like oh, cool, we can do this. Yeah, the

Scott Benner 29:09
diagnosis is, it's like Chutes and Ladders, right? Like you, you're living in this reality for as long as you are. And then in a split second, you're just on another part of the board. And it's completely foreign. It's not what you planned for. It literally is like, it's the first time that's ever occurred to me like that. It just, it feels like someone picked you up on Earth and put you down on Mars and said, just keep going. Like you don't We don't even have a second here, you know, so and

Jared 29:39
I honestly think a lot of at least from my observations, watching other parents who posted in the community and things like that. I often think that they are still living in that state that I felt like I was in for that first month, that state of hopelessness that we can't control this and that we're just throwing darts at the wall hoping that something sticks and I think a lot of people live there. For a long period of time, some probably their entire life, they probably never fully feel like they have a sense of control over it. And I don't want to give like the miss the Miss. Kind of the impression. I should say that, that diabetes is completely controllable. It's not there's days where you absolutely are doing, you know, chasing highs and lows and things are completely out of control. But but for the most part, I feel like if you follow these 10 or 15 Steps pretty closely, you're gonna see a massive improvement. Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:27
So I think that were, I think, why, why the reason why my thing spread the way it did, is because I was able to separate those two ideas. I people in the space would commingle them all the time, they'd say, Well, diabetes is unpredictable, so therefore, it's just going to be crazy. And I would look at it and think, yeah, that's true. But like you said, sometimes, not constantly. And honestly, if you do these couple of things, the crazy days are much fewer than the, than the reasonably stable days.

Jared 31:03
And, and the level of crazy changes greatly. Like for now, you know, a 200 is crazy for me if we get up in the 200. Okay, we got to really take some action here and get this all taken care of. I don't think she's been in the 300 since her diagnosis, because we've we've brought that down, you know, so the crazy changes, you're not seeing swings up into three, four hundreds, really ever

Scott Benner 31:24
instead of instead of, you're exactly right. When people like oh my god, we had a high blood sugar today. And they mean like 380 400, like it was their Dexcom is just like that flat dots across the top. go any higher. And yeah, I just I don't know what happened. I just, I'm glad it's resonating for you. But I don't know, I just I spent the time and I broke it down, like kept breaking it down. And I was like, well, it's gotta Pre-Bolus You got to understand the food, you have to be flexible. You can't stare at highs, like, you know, like, you can't over treat lows. And then I was like, Oh, God, I think that's it. But like, I think I used to joke all the time, like the podcast should be one episode long, 10 minutes. And but nobody would listen, they'd be like, that doesn't make sense. That would be the end of it. Like you have to kind of get, I don't know, you need a tour guide to just sort of walk you through it. You know,

Jared 32:17
I think I think the podcast for most people speaking for myself, and I would imagine this resonates for most people, it is just very comforting to know you're not alone. And you feel incredibly isolated when you first get this even even family who you know, is trying to care and show their love and support and stuff. They're not living it in and out on a daily basis. And so there's just still this feeling of isolation, I think, initially, and having someone you know, thank goodness, you know, the friend, his name's Kyle, thinking, as Kyle was there to reach out to me. And we could, anytime I came across anything, I just shot him a quick message. And he responded immediately. And we just had this constant ongoing thing. And he's only handful of months in front of me with his son. But I think the the, the podcast allows you to hear other people who are challenged in the same way and it just feels comforting to know that you're not completely it's the

Scott Benner 33:11
difference between being plopped down on Mars in the middle of a dust field and being popped down on Mars where six other people were plopped down who has built houses and somehow own a Tesla now, you know, and be I guess Elon Musk shot it there for them. But, but but but, uh, you mean like, you're like, oh, look, this isn't what I wanted. And it's not what I expected. But apparently, this works, you know, like, I just, there's something I don't know, I'll figure it out and move on and in to your earlier point. And how when people don't find that information, they can just get stuck in the loop. Because I mean, think of it like we're not You haven't said what hospital you went to. But if you're in Colorado, you're probably in a pretty good children's hospital. And, and to say that somebody came in the room and said one thing and the second person came in and contradicted them. If you're not of the mindset of I'll take this over. You can be stuck there forever. Hmm, it really is that simple. I've, I've been good.

Jared 34:08
I'm just gonna say I mean, with our initial diagnosis, we had 10 days worth of ongoing communication with the doctor nurse that was assigned to us. And on the 10th day, she gave us our new Basal rates, and she disappeared. And that was the end of it. Yeah, that was that was the whole thing. And in this year, we've only gone back twice. And it's really because we go back and it's like, we don't need to be here. This is kind of a waste of everyone's time. So can we do this remotely? Can we just can we just email back and forth and make sure we're on the same page and get the prescriptions we need to get? And luckily we found some an endo that's that is respectful of that. And it's like, yeah, you guys are doing great. Just yeah. What do you need essentially,

Scott Benner 34:48
I think that can be comforting to people to know that it can get to that point like I college food used more insulin than I expected it to. And so Arden was going to run out of insulin at college and like contacted the doctrines like I just need you to send a script to where artists at school. And she goes, I can't do that. You haven't been here in a year. And I'm like, wait, we haven't. And I didn't even know. I was like, Oh, I'm sorry, I made an appointment, you know? And I said, Okay, now, can you send a script on? And, but that's it. I mean, that's my, it's my fault. It's our fault for not scheduling something, but it was the, you know, not to explain it. But when you go into when you really just

Jared 35:26
need to send them clarity, and they're just gonna look at that. And that's the end of when you can do much in a visit.

Scott Benner 35:32
When you go into the office, the person at the desk on the way out, says, Hey, why don't you rebook your next one? I go, okay, because I'm a boy. And I'm like, Oh, that makes sense. And if the person wouldn't say that, as I was leaving, I gotta be honest, I don't think I'd book an appointment. So we were getting off these virtuals. And nobody was there to say, when do you want to come back? And that's it. I just was like, Yeah, but to know that could happen, I think is probably comforting for people as well. I have to tell you, I remembered the second time I made myself sound old.

Jared 36:04
You're acting like you're 75 or something.

Scott Benner 36:06
I'm a generation older than you stop it. I said Patriot missiles. Those are like, war tools from the 80s. I don't even imagine they make those anymore. And I know that's a weird thing. But when I said that, I was like, those exist anymore.

Jared 36:22
Anyway, well, I didn't know a patriot. I thought you were just being patriotic or something.

Scott Benner 36:28
was actually the were missiles during I think the I don't know, it's not the point. But when I was younger, if you turned on the news, people were shooting Patriot missiles at each other. And I and now I know it made me think I don't even care about warfare. But now when we're done talking, I'm gonna find out if that's a standard weapon or something, I don't even care. And I want to know, I just want to know how old I am. Anyway, so what, what, what gear has your daughter been using for this first year? Yeah, so

Jared 37:02
we started out just with a pen and and a meter, of course. And then after probably two or three months, we were able to get her on a Dexcom, which truly was a life changer. I mean, it really was I, I think that every single kid should be leaving their diagnosis with a Dexcom attached to them. And I'm also, as I mentioned, because we're both self employed, insurance and stuff is tricky, peeved that they charged $90 per finger prick. For every 30 minutes the entire time we were in the hospital instead of slapping a Dexcom on to her while she was in there. But it is what it is. Yeah, every single time they came in every single Yeah, if you I broke down our bill, because we had to based off of how we're paying for it. And every 30 minutes, they were required to take her blood sugar. And that was a $90 charge to come in and prick her finger and record that data. And I'm thinking to myself, Why? Why didn't you just throw a Dexcom on her the moment she came in, like, we need to watch this very closely. And we have a goal of of decreasing this anyway. So I could go off on that rant. Yeah,

Scott Benner 38:05
I think you have your answer from your description.

Jared 38:07
Of course, there's, there's $2,000 worth of fingerprints. And then the next day they say, okay, 11 year old, you're off on your own, you need to do this on your own. But, but so, so Dexcom after two or three months, once we got that sorted. Initially, we were having take care of that out of pocket, but then we were able to get her on some really solid insurance. And then probably six months into it, we got her on the on the button. And that's what she's been on ever since. And I we haven't started looping because I was really hoping to get her on the five. But if we can't get that approved, then I'll probably start looping on my own. Okay.

Scott Benner 38:46
Do you feel comfortable doing that if you have to? Yeah,

Jared 38:49
yeah. Yeah, I mean, I haven't I haven't dived into it. But I've, yeah, I'm not too concerned, to be honest.

Scott Benner 38:54
So I would if you're, it'll be too late by the time it comes out. But I still want to tell people what you did yesterday, which was so nice online, to celebrate your daughter's anniversary? Do you want to tell people how that occurred to you or, or what you wanted to do?

Jared 39:12
You know, we've been thinking of a handful of different ways we wanted to just, I don't know, give solace to this day, or to her one year diagnosis and just kind of pause and, and make sure that that we're doing something special for the community for our daughter. And just, I don't know, just a way to kind of think about this day because it really is a day that changed everyone's life in this home. And so, I am a wedding photographer, but I have done landscape photography for the photos for some time. And so I thought, hey, these photos don't really get much I don't sell any of these because I don't market myself as a landscape photographer, anything. These photos don't really get much traction with them. Let me see if people would enjoy this. So I posted in the community on my page on a handful of different pages, kind of a post sharing how awesome my kiddo is and celebrating this one year and then also letting people know if they would like to order These prints with the holidays coming around, they'd be great gifts, and that 100% of the proceeds would be going to touch by type one, which is a great organization that I feel like, helps a lot of people. And so that's why they posted in the community looks. And we've had, I've been watching it super closely, but a dozen or so purchases come through already. So once we're done with that will fulfill all those orders and all the all the proceeds will be donated.

Scott Benner 40:23
Oh, that's really it was really nice. I got a poster size image of one of your flight time, I thought your nighttime photography was really exceptional. And I don't know, I had trouble picking. I started sort of going through and I'm like, I don't know, where I would put all these I'm at the give that one to somebody. And yeah, but I just thought that was that was really nice. You know, I know, it's probably not, um, it's not like a million people are gonna buy a photo, and it's gonna decimate you or something like that. But the idea of doing it, of not just saying, hey, here, I want to celebrate my daughter today. But I have a thing that I could I could maybe give back here with that I think you people might enjoy on top of that. Oh, it just struck me really well. And then it made me I almost didn't see it. And I started thinking like, I don't know what Facebook has to do to figure it out. But I run a I run out like a vibrant Facebook page, and how can I get tagged in something and not know it exists? Like there are people who send me messages and like, are you seeing this? Are you seeing that? I'm like, I don't see, I don't know what Facebook does? I don't see, I don't think I see 10% or I get tagged in. So anyway, I thought it was really nice. You're getting tagged

Jared 41:28
in 5060 things a day, probably. So it's probably not easy to follow. It's overwhelming

Scott Benner 41:34
at night before we go to sleep. My wife said what are you doing? I'm I'm just answering people online. It just you know, I've gotten it down to a shorthand at this point I used to when I first wrote my blog, like a person a month would send me an email and say something like, Oh, my God, things are so much better. I wanted to thank you is this usually if people sent the right to an email, it's, it's a it's a lovely thing. You don't want to skim it. You don't I mean? So you're, you're reading it closely. And, and then I'd take time and I'd answer back. But the podcast turned it into like, I started getting one a day. And then now it's, I don't know, 1015 people every day are reaching out to share what's going on with them. And I'm like, This is amazing. And I want to respond and I don't know how to

Jared 42:19
that celebrity status you picked up on for tickets. So yesterday.

Scott Benner 42:24
So this really, so I have a couple of people. I'm very particular about the way things get done, but not in the way that we're you'd be like Scott's a control freak. I'm not I would gladly give away a lot of the things I do every day. Absolutely. What if I had enough money, I'd hire people. But I don't have that money. So I'm, I only can be helped by the people who volunteer their time. And a lot of people have and some of them are, get me. And some of them don't like, like Isabel helps me with the Facebook group. But she's a person who reached out to me. And I was like, I did the same thing I always don't like I'm fine. You're very kind, thank you. But I don't know the rest of that voice in my head is I got this thing here because I do what I want to do when it makes sense to me. It's my vibe, it works if I start bringing in other people's vibes, and then she said just you talk to me and I'll and 20 minutes on the phone with her. And I was like this lady's in my head, like, knows what I'm doing, you know. And I'm like, alright, you can help, which was great, because the Facebook group, if I'm being if I'm being 100% honest, there's sort of like a little triumvirate here, right? Like, I made a podcast, it's great. The podcast, bought out the Facebook group, the Facebook group is huge. But people know it as a Facebook group. They are oftentimes there and don't understand that there's even though the Facebook group is called Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes, people don't recognize that it's for a podcast. So the goal is to take the people from the Facebook group and introduce them to the podcast. And the way I found to do that was to answer questions with links to episodes. And it works except it got so big, that there was a moment where I'm like, Well, I can't do this, you know. And then so Isabelle started helping with it. And it was like it was such a weight was lifted. I was like, This is great. And then it kept growing. And I said first of all, I'm not paying her. She's like, you know, just helping when she can I feel terrible. She calls me boss privately. And I'm like, I'm like And so like when you have something for to do I feel like I can't just say to her, hey, you know what you should be doing right now. Because I don't pay her and be you know, she has a life and everything. But she comes to me one day, and and I and we were talking and I said I wish there were more of you? And she said, Oh I think there are and I was like what and so she pointed out these three people. I mean, I can say their first names because it's Krysta and Nico and Stephanie and she's like these three people would be good at this. And so we reach to them and again with the same amazing offer. Hey for no money. See, if you'd like to help support this thing, and it got easier again, it was it was, it was really terrific. But I can't, like I can't keep up with it. So anyway, I get a note the other day from this person. And she's like, I just recently graduated from like a really impressive college. And I want to help any way I can. And so I had a nice call with a girl named Angela yesterday. She's young, she's like, a year or so older than my son. And she started talking about the podcast. And I swear to you, and she was explaining to me what she sees it as she's just got a master's, and she's getting a master's in public health, I think she wants to go on to become a doctor, like, this girl was an impressive person, you know. And she started talking about the podcast and calling me an innovator, and talking about how it was moving the space in a different direction. And I'll tell you, that was I was I didn't know how to

Jared 45:59
react, I think she's spot on. I think it takes someone who's not completely seeped into the the medical side of things. I don't think an endocrinologist could create a podcast, like what you've what you've done, they have so many rules and, and just guidelines that they have to kind of abide by that it really takes a parent who has lived this experience, to be able to speak to parents who are living that experience, I don't I think I think it'd be almost impossible for for a doctor to have the same level of success that that you've had with the podcast.

Scott Benner 46:33
When I first started, I thought like, Oh, it'll just be parents because I'm a parent. So that's all little care. Then when it went to adults, I was like, This is crazy. And then when type twos who use insulin started showing up, and they were like, hey, the podcast works for me too. And I mean, you have to imagine, I mean, you've listened to enough to know, like, I didn't do this on purpose. Like it was an idea. And I had a hope and a goal. But as it built and turned into what it turned into, it's not like I had some Machiavellian like whiteboard behind me where I was like, first of all, dominate this space. And then I'll do a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, and I'll take over Facebook, and like, you know, like, it wasn't like that. It just kind of worked the way it worked. But to hear her describe what she thought the podcast was, was, I don't know, it was good for me, because I thought even the things I knew, I don't think I can give them the correct way. Because I joke around, and I'm really sarcastic and everything, but I don't have a feeling that I've done some amazing thing. And you should all be walking around thanking me for like, like, I don't feel that way day to day. I'm aware of what it does. But to hear another person and an impressive person explained it back to me. I was like, Wow, I did do that. And then I just didn't I didn't know how to react. So it was this strange thing, you know? Yeah.

Jared 47:46
I think almost, if you were to watch, I think almost all great companies and and organizations, if they are able to create a community that will take them to the next level, you look at some of the greatest marketing companies out there. You look at Harley Davidson, for example, there is a community that they have created. Yeah, they great, great motorcycles as well, or whatever, however you feel about motorcycles, but but more so than the motorcycle more so than the info you're providing. The community that people are able to join and be part of, is really what sets

Scott Benner 48:18
it apart. It's a it's a lifestyle, the motorcycle is and as you're saying that it made me realize that the lifestyle around the podcast is just sort of being healthier and happier with as little effort as possible around diabetes. And, and to have what you talked about earlier. It's just strange to me, like, I mean, it's December right now you and I are talking, I'm winding down like the eighth year of the podcast. And I just hit 800 episodes. And it's odd to me to sit here with a person I don't know, and just hash out a conversation and recognize that I still don't know what this is completely. And a no it was when I was talking to this person yesterday. I don't know if she'd want her name on here. And she started talking about what any way I could fit into the organization. And I laughed and I was like the organization and she goes yeah, I'm like, It's me. And she goes, No, you have people that work for you. Behind the scenes. I was like, no, like, I mean, there's these lovely people that help with the Facebook group, but she was you don't have an editor. I was like, No, and she was you don't have this and I was like no, I was like it's it's all made, like I make the whole thing. And she goes oh, oh, and then she got very like, like, you know, like I'm still sitting there a little beat up for my illness and a sweatshirt like leaning into the camera like she's all upright like she's obviously been on some very professional calls. I'm just leaning over my desktop trying to hold my head up, you know, and I don't know it's just really it was a nice thing that happened yesterday.

Jared 49:43
Well you don't have an editor or whatever while it is may just be just you it doesn't have to be it you certainly could. It has grown to the I would imagine to the point where you know you could outsource some of your editing and whatnot. If you chose to if you wanted to. I had to see that with with my business itself. In a similar fashion, it grew to the point where I had, I was faced with the, essentially, the question is, where's my time most valued? And is that with my wedding photography? Is that camera in hand at a wedding, or is that sitting behind a computer processing these files, and while I can train someone to process these files in a very particular method, and, and, you know, we can work on that over a period of time, for me, that allowed me to then take on another 10 or so events a year, which is really how I make money. And so, for me with with the photography, editing, you know, I've had a full time editor for three years. And that has allowed me to double the amount of work that I take on because I'm not here at a computer.

Scott Benner 50:41
And so I completely agree with that. And I also think that that would allow me to record more. The problem is that me recording more doesn't lead to more income. At some point, there are only certain amount of days in the week, I can only put up a certain amount of episodes, I can only put a certain amount of I mean, I could sell more. I could I could I don't like thinking about this. I can sell more ads if I wanted to. I choose not to. Yeah, so

Jared 51:09
like, but rather than doing more recordings, you may be able to recapture more of your personal time and pursue personal endeavors. Oh, no, it would

Scott Benner 51:16
definitely help my life, don't get me wrong, I could go go for a walk and things

Jared 51:20
like that. So So for example, with me, since I've, since I've changed the way that my business runs, it's allowed me to enjoy summers, I take, you know, in the middle of wedding season, I take almost an entire month off because I don't want to work during that month. And financially, it doesn't impact me because I've made these adjustments. For the month of December, for example, I am doing literally zero bookings, I've done this for like five years, and I block out the entire month and I don't take a single booking and it allows me just to be present with my kids in the summer, when they're home from school, I get to take a month to hang with them. And in the winter Christmas break, I get to just be Mr. Dad, you know, and, and have a have a good time. This is

Scott Benner 51:57
the Colorado and you I bought, I bought out December at the beginning of 2022. And hold on a second 123.

Jared 52:07
And then you made a mistake on

Scott Benner 52:10
1314 1516 1718. Nine, and I'm gonna record 19 times before Christmas. And I somehow set up a recording for two days after Christmas. And that was and now I'm I'm in the position where people are contacting me and want to be on the show. And I'm saying to them like no why it's November, December. I'm telling people can you get back to me in June? Well, I

Jared 52:33
want to say so. I'm trying, I was trying to refresh my memory. When your reminder email came through. Hey, don't forget about our call. I was thinking holy cow. This is It's been a while since I scheduled that. I've tried to pause and remember exactly. When I reached out to you. I feel like it was about three months into her diagnosis four months into her diagnosis. Yeah, that I initially reached out to you. So some seven, eight months ago, maybe longer. I can't recall

Scott Benner 52:58
it. Don't worry, Jared six months from now this will come in. It's the one thing about me that's scheduled. The way you heard that I built the podcast is off of just like, I'm basically a canoe going downstream and there's a fork in the in the stream like every 20 feet, I go left, right left, just sort of how I like do things. But when I took an ad the first time I said to my wife, I sold an ad to these people. There needs to be an episode. They're like, I owe it to them. I'm going to start recording ahead of time. And she's like, can you do that? And I said, Yeah, most of my conversations are incredibly evergreen, and the ones that aren't, I'll just put in in real time. And now I and the other day, the list popped up in front of me. I actually got an email from Steven who's in a terrific episode. And he said, Hey, if you didn't like it, you know, it's cool. And I was like, I'm like, What's he talking about? So I pulled up the queue, my editing queue. And I saw it in front of me on the screen a list of of files. And I thought, oh, that doesn't look right. I don't think I have enough. And so I started counting. And when I got to 70 I was like, I guess I'm okay. Anyway, but part of that is why it's also because I wanted to treat the podcast, like a real podcast. Like, you know, I didn't want to give you an episode a month or one a week. Like it's content. If you there's four week if you want to listen to them, you should and if you don't want to. It's cool, you know, like, like, but it needs to be there. It just occurred to me one day I was I was doing it once a week. And I thought how mad would I be if Howard Stern was on once a week when I was in high school. You know,

Jared 54:38
like, I love I love that you compared yourself

Scott Benner 54:42
just because as a kid as a young person when I needed content he was on every day like it was there and I thought I should treat it like a real thing. Not like a hobby, you know. But anyway, the downside of that is is that I now see my schedule. I'm booked through October version of 2023 already, like every day,

Jared 55:03
yeah, and I mean, content is king in this in the world of entertainment. Fortunately, or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, those who tend to have great success tend to be great at putting out massive amounts of content. And for whatever reason, YouTube with the daily vlogs that certain people went out for for a period of time, they're the number one YouTube channels were the individuals that were somehow able to put out a daily vlog every single day, and create a community around that where people like, like when we were kids, and we'd watched, you know, TV, and we had to log in right after you sit down right at the right time at seven o'clock, my show comes on seven to 730. Don't bother me while I watch it. I think those that create a community that is similar in fashion in the sense that every day on my drive to work, I'm gonna pull up and find Scott's most recent podcasts and listen to it. That's, it's a good thing.

Scott Benner 55:58
I appreciate that. I was talking to the girl yesterday, I told her, I said, I can't believe I do something that I enjoy. That helps people and pays some of my bills. Like as a child, I just thought it was going to work in my uncle sheetmetal shop forever. Like, you know, I was like, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to, I'm going to I have a task, I'll do it. And then I'll build a life outside of that that thing will pay for the life outside of it. That's what I'm going to do. And so I told her, she's like, you're working too hard, she said. And I said, No, I don't think I'm working hard enough. I see. Because I'm 51. And I think you're right, I think I think I've I don't know if I'm moving the needle, but I redirected it in, you know, and people are thinking about things differently now. And it scares me speaking about how social media works, and how content works. Contents, like, think of it as a stone that you need to keep warm. And if you have a flame in your hand, and you can hold it to the stone, the stone stays warm. And the second you take the stone away from the flame. It's ice cold again. And she's like, why like somebody because somebody said to me the other day, why did you put out an extra episode the week of Thanksgiving? And I was said I said well, they needed it right there. I put out an episode about how to handle eating that day. Yeah. And and she's like, but as well as many people listen to it. And I said, I don't know, probably not. And then I but but I think that's where it's needed. And so I went back and looked at Thanksgiving, and they're not real by the way, Thanksgiving. For people who don't make content or use the internet for what they were. It's one of the deadliest weeks online. Like it just it just it man, people disappear that week. And I was only down a couple of 1000 downloads a day that week. So it held up and, and I and then so I said this the person in my life, I said see there is a desire for the content there. Everyone else stops doing it because they've been told don't bother that day. Nobody. Nobody's gonna listen. But I don't know. COVID told me the opposite. Like when I think

Jared 58:06
that was the only one I listened to last week, ironically. Right? Because it made it seem very, it was a very practical podcast, this is something we're all going to be dealing with this week. Right? Fresh, you know, having a refreshers. Great. I honestly think I may have, yeah, I think I listened. I've listened to it before because it was a repeat, right?

Scott Benner 58:25
It's 30 minutes. And it just it gets you're ready for a day of eating. And it just it's I don't know, I think of it as like when the coach gets everybody on the sideline before the game and gives you like, Let's go kill them talk. And very quietly, because they don't want the parents to hear that they're explaining to your children, how they should turn themselves into guided missiles and go try to hurt somebody. But But yeah, like, like, get out there. This is what we're going to do that way it's fresh in your head when it happens. You're not to stop and think you're like, Oh, the voice in my head told me this earlier this morning while I was ripping up stuff and or something like that. And, and I also sprinkled more Nishi stuff through that week too, because I thought, well, somebody wants this, they'll really want it. And if they don't, I'm not burdening them with content. Anyway, I have a whole theory around it. And it's working out pretty well. But I wanted to be there for people. I think what you talked about earlier around community and stuff like that. That's the part. That's the it's almost the most important. And it's the last thing you think of Right, right. That's very true. Yes. So you kind of have to what I explained to this, this person yesterday who is going to end up helping me with something I said I think that one of the biggest mistakes that content I don't think of myself as a content creator.

Jared 59:38
You're definitely a content creator.

Scott Benner 59:42
I think the biggest mistake that people make when they're creating content around health stuff, is that they deliver information that they believe people want. And I deliver information that I believe that people need. So I take them to some degree it take you guys out of the equation, because I'm assuming you talked about earlier you met a guy, Kyle. Right. Yeah. And he's only four months ahead of you on the path. But still, he's seen every broken branch and pothole and dark corner, and he knows how to turn it around to you and say, Hey, don't step there, step here. And if he was asking you what to do, you wouldn't know because you were behind him. And I, that's how I feel sometimes, like, don't get me wrong, I'll, I'll go online. Some of the best episodes of this podcast for our management are based off of like, people's, like feedback and like, Oh, I do this and this situation, or like how to travel or how to, you know, handle a sick day or something like that. I love going online and getting everybody's thoughts and kind of correlating them and talking about them. But if you just got diagnosed, I mean, flat out, I know more than you do. You're like, I shouldn't be asking you what to do. You know what I mean? So I think that's in a in a time in life where everybody is very, I don't know, careful not to offend anybody. And sometimes offending people can be as easy as telling them something they don't want to hear. I just think that, I mean, listen, between you who were just diagnosed that me, I put me at the head of the path. And so I don't know, I just throw I put out information the way I think it's needed. Yeah,

Jared 1:01:17
I think I think you're you're spot on, I think, with time, just being able to sit with someone who's experienced the same thing, even if it's not sharing specific ideas of how to improve but just sitting with someone who is experiencing the same thing is is hugely helpful. I think, Kyle, and I, you know, he's his sons on on the Omnipod. Five and Evelyn is not so we're a little bit different. But now at this point, what it what it has become as our friendship of just a show me your 24 hour Thanksgiving, your graph, you know, Heck, yeah, we both we we both did it, you know, we both stayed in range, great work, you know, and it's just a way of just keeping up with one another in that way and supporting one another in that way. Right.

Scott Benner 1:02:01
It's listen, I appreciate even for you. I mean, it's obviously not as many men come on as women. And generally speaking, when men come on, they're more conversations like this, because I don't know, you know, there trust me there have been guys on there as in touch with their, with their feelings as anyone's, I mean, Josh has all the feels is one of my favorite episodes. And it's it is a great one. Yeah. And Josh is just Josh is in touch with how he feels. And he's willing to just say it out loud, which is where a lot of guys fall short. Like they have thoughts and feelings, but they're not so open with them. It's hard for me to get men to come on who are just, I don't know,

Jared 1:02:41
I think my wife and I have divided our responsibilities with you asked us earlier and I actually didn't answer it all the way. I handle Evelyn's health 100% in the sense that I'm fully responsible for for making sure she's, you know, she's dosing when she needs to and, and taking care of her meals or whatever is associated with managing your health. And my wife is one 100% responsible for the insurance and dealing with the doctors. And we've split it in that way. I don't want to deal with any of that. I will wake up two or three times every night all year long. So at the end of the year, I don't have to read negotiate our insurance terms. I'm completely content to do that. And that's the way we've divided it. So while my wife I think could very easily step into this role and handle Evelyn's health we've chosen not to we've chosen, responsible don't Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:03:29
yeah. It makes a lot of sense to me. Is there anything we haven't talked about that we should?

Jared 1:03:35
Nothing specific, I think I think what I was really just wanting the impression I was really hoping just to pass on to the community. It's just a message of hope message that for those that are freshly diagnosed that things absolutely do get better that this horrible experience that they are going through with time will pass and the management of this just like anything else, the more you do it, the more proficient and accurate you're going to be. And just to be patient with yourself to give it time to recognize this isn't going away. So if you screwed up today on the pizza you got tomorrow and work on on figuring out how to dose for that tomorrow and, and slowly, every single day, hone in your process home and hone in your systems hone in whatever it is, until one day it becomes second nature to you. To the point you're not not thinking. It's not taking over all of your mental bandwidth. It is something that is happening and you're aware of it, but it's happening in the background of life. It's not happening in the forefront of life. And I think that that is that will happen quicker, the more that people are willing to dive in and to understand the actual logistics of how to manage this this disease and the sooner they can do that the better. But time heals a lot of a lot of this as well. And just naturally over time. I think a lot of those a lot of that will just become easier and it won't be The main thing that you're you're thinking about

Scott Benner 1:05:02
in the beginning, it's hard to believe that you'll be the line leader one day. Right? Where all the way in the back and you feel like I don't, where are we going? I hope someone knows. And then one day, you'll just, you'll be the person who's everybody's behind you. And it just works.

Jared 1:05:15
And I'd love just to remind people again, just keep it simple. And what I mean by that is, you know, get your basil honed in, if you get your basil really honed in your life is tons easier. And that was a huge thing for me. And it fluctuates, too. I mean, it's not, you know, my daughter can go anywhere from nine units a day to 18 units a day. And it fluctuates based on her health and you know, with, you know, your daughter getting the flu, she's probably going to require a little bit more, and you're going to be conscientious of that, as she's getting sick.

Scott Benner 1:05:44
arted had 200% of her Basal rate from 8pm Last night till six in the morning.

Jared 1:05:50
Yeah, I wish that Dexcom allowed you to go over the, or, excuse me, Omnipod allows you to go over 90% Temp Basal, because oftentimes, you want to experiment with that, but then just change your Basal profile, not not a huge issue, but get you get your Basal profile honed in. And, you know, we we try to be as bold while maintaining responsibility as we possibly can. And it's hugely helpful. And then the last thing is, we have you know, the Pre-Bolus is huge timing is almost as impactful as the quantity of insulin you're giving, it almost truly is. In our home, the rule that we've kind of put is 20 minutes, unless you hit 75. And then you can go ahead and eat. And that has worked really, really well for us.

Scott Benner 1:06:34
When I was a college. She's like, I'm Pre-Bolus. And I'm like It's not long enough. And she's like, yes, it is. And she got home. And for the first couple days, she's like, Oh, look at my blood sugar. I'll handle it. And one day I said to her, Look, you did a great job. She really did. I think you did a marvelous job at school for your first time. We just have to make a couple of like fine tunings here. And so she had this big meal once and I said, Why watch, let me Bolus for this meal. And then she didn't spike and I succeed, you just You're not Pre-Bolus and long enough. And she's like, Oh, okay. And then but it was kind of under her breath she was. So I take your point, I think it's, I think what you just said, is right. And also I feel like you're repeating something I've said, so it feels weird to agree with it. But

Jared 1:07:18
that's probably where I came up with the idea. But we're a big fan as well as eating our meals kind of in a particular way. This morning, her daughter wanted some Christmas candy she got from her Advent or whatever. And, and she ate it first before she ate her breakfast. And although she dosed for it, because of the order that she consumed it, we saw a spike that I don't think we would have saw if she would have eaten her normal breakfast first and then eating the chocolate on the tail end of it.

Scott Benner 1:07:42
Right. Also, when you come out of come out of sleep. There's a lot of impacts in the morning, too. But alright, I'm gonna let you go. But I have to ask you first Why do you have a nice microphone and headphones?

Jared 1:07:51
So I in the in the photography industry, I'll do podcasting and stuff as well. Yeah, I haven't done it as much in recent years. But years back, we had a large community where we create education, about 250,000. Members and and I was doing a weekly online livestream, where I was interviewing people in a similar fashion.

Scott Benner 1:08:13
Oh, that's cool. Sounds terrific. So more people should have podcasts that they sound good on my podcast. That's what I want. All right, Chad, hold on one second for me. Okay. Yeah.

A huge thanks to Jared for a a huge thanks to Jared for coming on the show today and telling us your story. I also want to thank cozy Earth and remind you to use the offer code juice box at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com. And don't forget, drink a G one.com. Forward slash juice box. When you make your first order at my link, you're also going to get five free travel packs and a year supply of vitamin D. And if you already use a G one, but you didn't sign up through my link, you can switch the mind and support the podcast. Do it, won't you? Please thank you. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.

Once there was a time when I just told people if you want a low and stable a one C just listen to the Juicebox Podcast. But as the years went on, and the podcast episodes grew, it became more and more difficult for people to listen to everyone. So I made the diabetes Pro Tip series. This series is with me and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a certified diabetes care and education specialist. She is also a registered and licensed dietitian and a type one herself for over 30 years and I of course am the father of a child who was diagnosed at age two in 2006. The Pro Tip series begins at episode 210 with an episode called newly diagnosed They're starting over and from they're all about MDI Pre-Bolus Singh insulin pumping, pumping and nudging variables exercise illness, injury surgeries glucagon long term health bumping and nudging how to explain type one to your family. Postpartum honeymoon transitioning all about insulin Temp, Basal. These are all different episodes setting your Basal insulin, fat and protein pregnancy, the glycemic index and load and so much more like female hormones and weight loss. Head now to juicebox podcast.com. Go up in the menu at the top and click on diabetes pro tip. Or if you're in the private Facebook group, there's a list of these episodes right in the feature tab. Find out how I helped keep my daughter's a one C between five two and six two for the last 10 years without diet restrictions juicebox podcast.com Start listening today. It's absolutely free.

#970 Call Me Boss

Stephanie has type 1 diabetes and a long story.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 970 of the Juicebox Podcast. My voice has extra timber tonight. Do you hear it? Do you hear it? Yes, sir. Let's go

today I'm speaking with Stephanie who has had type one diabetes for a very long time and her pathway to pumping, the insulin she used and for how long. So really fascinating story. I hope you hope you settle in and listen. 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 healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin. For those of you who do not live in the tri state area in the northeast, don't be scared Stephanie's not in the mob. She just lives in New York. Don't let her accent frighten you. If you're looking for community around your diabetes, check out the private Facebook group. It's absolutely free Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but you don't have to have type one you could have type two be a caregiver doesn't matter to me. Everybody's welcome. Get yourself five free travel packs, and a year supply of vitamin D with your first order of ag one when you use my link, drink a G one.com forward slash juice box. And you can say 40% off your entire order at cozy earth.com When you use the offer code juice box at checkout them them them them them them them them this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter, learn more and get started today at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. I had an opportunity overnight to use the contour twice last night. And it holds up. I'm saying like Arden has gone to college and she's coming back now. But boom, boom like riding a bike click like bang, bang, bang bang I got a number. Oh, easy. Contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. You want accuracy. You want a contour meter? Hey, for the first couple of minutes, Stephanie's using a different headset we fixed it started over so there's a cute little conversation with their daughter in there. A couple of quick words and then we start and it sounds better. I'm telling you it sounds better. Make a few the first couple of minutes. I think that's what I'm saying. Hey,

Stephanie 2:36
hello, how are you? I'm good. Let me just make the volume a little louder

Scott Benner 2:42
here. Okay. I don't mean to keep talking. So

Stephanie 2:45
no, it's fine. I can do it. My husband's a programmer. So he's got all fancy things. So I got it right on the keyboard. Very nice. He has fancy headphones too. So give me one second. Okay, there we go. That's the volume button.

Scott Benner 3:04
You feel good about it. Yeah, that's good. Great. Excellent. Thank you.

Stephanie 3:08
I just want to say I just turned around and my eight year old is staring at me right now. What you want to say hi, I'm sure you can say hi here and say hi.

Scott Benner 3:19
Hi. Hey, man. What's your name? Emma. Oh, Emma. Hey, Emma. I didn't know you were a girl. Or I wouldn't have said Hey, man. I would have been like, Hey, how are you? You're How old are you, Emma? Oh, eight. I used to be? It happened to me. Everyone's at a point. Yes. You know what point that is? When you're Yeah, that's exactly right. You're pretty. Okay, like that. Let's just Yeah, I guess let's they leave you back a bunch of times. Yeah. You know, any kids that didn't make it all the way to like, third grade yet? But we what was that? birtley. Is that a person? Yeah, yeah. What happened there? Do you think? I don't know. No. Does he seem Is it a boy? birtley? Yeah. Do you think they left them back? Because his name is birtley? No. Definitely not. Okay. All right. Do you have any things you love that you want to tell me about? Pizza? Pizza. Where do you live? Where do you live? New York. New York. New York. Oh Babylone. New York. Yeah, we're pretty close to each other then. Close. Yeah. Ever get out of New York. Your parents never let you go anywhere. We went to DC. Yeah, Washington DC. That's nice. I was just through there. The other like two weeks ago, I was picking my daughter up in college in Georgia. And we stopped in DC for him and on the way back. You know where Georgia is? No, no, it's because you're right when you're 10 years old now. All right. Do you give your parents a lot of trouble? Are you pretty good kid? You don't know. Does that mean you're a bad? Does that mean you do know? And you don't want to tell me? I don't think you're a good kid. Yeah, that's nice. Mom says that that is definitely true. All right. Well, it was nice meeting you. Okay. Have a good night. Bye. Bye bye. Okay, close the door, please. Sorry about that. They always think they have something to say. I get these notes every once in a while people like you should have more kids. And I'm like, you don't really mean that.

Stephanie 5:44
It might be interesting, though. She's she's very she would play off you very well.

Scott Benner 5:49
That would be every once in a while works out great. It's just that some people are like my kids really talkative. And then you start talking about I'm like, I don't know where you're from that you think this kids talk to the kid can say anything. No one's gonna listen. I have advertisers.

Stephanie 6:05
Like I have to, I have to like, keep this going.

Scott Benner 6:09
This can't be the last time I do it. And you got to hear your kid on the podcast. So exactly. Most of the time. It's the kids. There's like a young girl on my schedule right now. And yeah, I know. It's gonna be good. I've never spoken to her because she reached out to me by herself. Oh, wow. And then I was like, Look, you can come on, but your parents need to know. You know. So yeah. So they like loop their parents in during emails. And like they I really put it on them to handle it. And then you know, you eventually hear from the parents are like, listen, she's like, 40 in our heart, just leave her go.

Stephanie 6:44
It's like, it's fine. Don't worry,

Scott Benner 6:46
absolutely fine. Just let her be on the podcast I don't even want to hear it doesn't even matter. It's interesting. And every once in a while, it turns into like, that episode from Russia with sarcasm with like this 14 year old girl. And it was like stunning. She was diagnosed, got really shaky direction from the hospital, went home recognized the kid right by herself recognized like, this isn't okay. When on the internet, found the podcast, listen to the podcast, went back to her parents with a list of stuff she needed. That she's like, get me one of these. I wanted these and one of these. And then I can't and then put her a one seat in the low sixes

Stephanie 7:28
that I give her credit. I couldn't do that until I was in my 30s

Scott Benner 7:32
all by herself. I'm like, yeah. That's amazing. You know? Damn, no, yeah, that's really impressive. Do you have any questions or concerns before we start? Okay, so I know where we're at. But I'm just gonna have you start over. So all the audio matches up. Just introduce yourself. And I'll say something and we'll keep going. Okay,

Stephanie 7:52
no problem. Hi, this is Stephanie. I've been diabetic for 32 years.

Scott Benner 7:57
Hi, Stephanie. How are you? Thank you for helping me. Who is that? My CGM are yours? Yeah, no, it's

Stephanie 8:02
probably yours. It's not mine.

Scott Benner 8:04
I didn't I didn't mute my phone. Artists. Blood sugar just went up over 120 she's so sick. I can't believe we've kept at this low so far today. Well, that's good. Yeah. She was sick a college and we thought she was okay. We got her home. But when I picked her up a little bit of meatless, like I said, to order the car, I'm like, well, we should take you the doc when you get home. You shouldn't still be like coughing, you know? Yeah. And she's like, No, I'm alright. Okay. So she was all full of herself, because she got through 10 weeks at school, and she was still alive and everything. She's like, I'm doing great. Are you kidding me? And then now she's been home for a couple of weeks. And the other day, she had this great opportunity to go into the city for a fashion she was going to intern in a fashion thing. Oh, nice. And the night before, she's like, I'm really sick. Something's wrong. So that was like Wednesday night this week. By yesterday, by Friday, we were like scrambling to get her a telemedicine visit. And the guy Dr. Like, looked her over and had a long conversation with her and said yes, she has a sinus infection, probably from the illness, you know. So that's what

Stephanie 9:08
I got. I just got over that and my daughter to same thing, and we were still coughing two weeks later, so just keep that in mind. It seems to be it sticks around for a while. Listen,

Scott Benner 9:18
she's the last of us like, it's December 3, and we've cold Kelly and I have been sick to some degree or another since October 6. It's terrible this year. Yeah. Really. I used to say I was so like, full of myself. Like during COVID. I'd record the show. And I'd be like, listen, I mean, I'd like to go out but I haven't been sick in like three years. This is I didn't know. I didn't know we were gonna have to pay it all back. I didn't realize there was a ledger, you know. So,

Stephanie 9:45
I mean, I work in cardiology, I do medical records, nothing like patient facing or anything like that. And it's oh man, like the girls. Some girl was out with the flu and she was like, Oh my God, you had the flu. Like how was it she was it It was worse than COVID this year. Yeah. Well, like,

Scott Benner 10:02
oh, we had COVID. And then it turned into bronchitis. Oh, and then the antibiotics didn't work for Kelly the first time. So she went through an entire, like, 10 day round of something, and then still needed more. Yeah, at one point. I mean, it just, it was like, honestly, like I said to a buddy of mine, he's a doctor. He's like, How's everybody doing? We're gonna talk. And I said two weeks ago, if Kelly would have died, it wouldn't have surprised me. Like, that's where we were at. Like, I mean, I would have been like, don't get me wrong, like, I would have been shocked. But I wouldn't have been like, Oh, I didn't see that coming. Because she was really in trouble. And, and now she's, she's starting to do better. So

Stephanie 10:38
it took a while. I got COVID in July, and it took me I was sick for the full two weeks. And then I went back to work, because luckily enough, my office still offers the you get paid for being out. And I was like, okay, and they, what do you call, I went back and I was I was still, I think a month or two later, I was still like, off. I was coughing I was and they're like, you still I went to pulmonology I went to everything and they're like, it's just long lasting. COVID Welcome to the world.

Scott Benner 11:09
Yeah, it really it's just it's, it's unbelievable. Like, yeah, I've never been sick this long in my life. Yeah, me neither. Yeah. And I got through this. I have not missed a podcast recording a couple of them I was wrecked for and I'm proud. I am proud of how well I hid it while I was doing it. Anyway, Stephanie, you've had diabetes. Since how long? When were you diagnosed?

Stephanie 11:30
I was. APR. 91.

Scott Benner 11:34
APR 91. How old were you? Then? Seven? APR 91? Seven years old? 2001 2011 2021. You've had diabetes for 31 years? Yep. 91 was 31 years ago. Yeah, right.

Stephanie 11:52
Tell me that.

Scott Benner 11:55
That's the worst thing you've said so far. And you're gonna say more bad things as we move forward. And I still think 91 was 31 years ago, it's gonna be the worst part of it. So

Stephanie 12:04
the worst when you work in like the medical field, you look up people's date of birth, and I don't work in pediatrics. So you're like, oh, this person is too young to come in. Wait, this person is 20 years old.

Speaker 1 12:15
When you start scrolling, you know, when you put your your age into a website, and you get to your birth year, and you're like scrolling and scrolling, and you're like, What the hell? Yeah. Yeah, flick your finger a bunch of times before you find the 70s.

Scott Benner 12:30
Anyway, it's not great. You've had diabetes for quite some time. You're married. You have children. How many kids? Do you have?

Stephanie 12:37
One, one.

Scott Benner 12:38
Is there any diabetes in your immediate family besides, you

Stephanie 12:41
know, but my mom had thyroid, which I found out actually through your podcast that that's where my link probably was, was through my mother.

Scott Benner 12:49
She have Hashimotos or did she have

Stephanie 12:52
just I honestly don't know which one but I know she had. She was on thyroid medicine. She she never really told us. I think it was hyper but I could be wrong.

Scott Benner 13:01
Okay. You think she was she had Graves disease? Do you think?

Stephanie 13:05
Maybe maybe like, again, she said enough is my family doesn't talk about their health issues. I know my dad has type two. I found a meter. I was living with him for a little bit. And I found a meter in this house. And I was like, huh, and then I found out like a couple of years later that they told him he pre he was pre diabetic. And I'm like, huh,

Scott Benner 13:26
so your father was told he was pre diabetic? You have type one diabetes? He never mentioned it to you?

Stephanie 13:30
No, no. No.

Scott Benner 13:34
Okay, Italian. What's your back? Yeah.

Stephanie 13:37
He's actually the Greek part of my family. But yeah, Italian Greek, German, French. Fascinating. And I think that's it really is Irish somewhere. Somewhere in there. I'm Irish.

Scott Benner 13:49
Somewhere in there. I don't know I I mean, maybe I just talked too much. But if you came and told me something, I'd come home and I'd be like, Oh my God. Listen, everyone.

Stephanie 14:00
My dad's a very private man. He always has been always been

Scott Benner 14:04
Yeah, well his podcast will be terrible. Yeah. He'd welcome everybody to go on my telling you guys anything. I should try that one day and see if it works. If people would stay tuned in like I'm not going to share anything of substance at all today. That would be hilarious. Okay, so you've had diabetes for a really long time. So you started out regular mph or No, you did

Stephanie 14:30
a regular mph I had the one touch I called it the brick because it was like gray one that you had to put like a huge drop on that one. And that was it. That was pretty much it and you know, sliding scale all that fun jazz.

Scott Benner 14:45
How old were you when you went to like a fast acting and Basal insulin? Probably 12. I mean, you were probably younger still.

Stephanie 14:53
I was I was on the younger side. I didn't get off and then are probably until Well after I met my husband, to be honest, so we've been married over 13 years because he was the one that convinced me to go on an insulin pump.

Scott Benner 15:09
Wait a minute. Yep. You freaking me? No, I

Stephanie 15:13
was on nNr for quite a bit of time. Like, I don't I don't first time I remember going on any quick acting like Humalog or anything was when I went on insulin pump.

Scott Benner 15:24
So you were Wow, you were 18 years on it. Yep. And you're, you were 25 when you when your husband started pushing you towards other stuff.

Stephanie 15:34
Yeah, we got married when we were both I was 25. He's a couple years older than me. And so yeah, about 25 Because it was before we got married, he convinced me. So it was probably two years before then

Scott Benner 15:47
what made him have an interest in an opinion.

Stephanie 15:51
His supervisors son had type one. And I ended up I was at his house one day, and it was sitting there and it was laying on his couch and I go, I feel like crap. I just don't feel good. And he goes, Why don't you look into this pump thing. And I'm like, pump like what's what? And he goes, and he was explaining it to me. So I ended up starting working with him. And I talked to him, you know, his boss, and it was like, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. You need to do it. I was like, Oh, okay. And then my, I was still at my pediatrician pump therapist, which tells you, my pediatrician endocrinologist was tells you how long I was there. And she turned around, she goes, Well, we'll get you on the Medtronic CGM. She put me on that thing and then put me on the pump. And I never looked back. And I mean, don't get me wrong. I got off the Medtronic version very quickly. But you know, the Medtronic CGM like extremely quickly because it was terrible.

Scott Benner 16:52
I'm sorry, my truck.

Stephanie 16:54
Listen, you know, it didn't work. For me. It works for some people, like I'm all about, hey, do what works for you. But they definitely didn't work and back then it was like a harpoon. So, you know, yeah. It was terrifying to put in.

Scott Benner 17:06
It's a tough it's a tough road to hoe when you develop a thing. And the community developed the fort decides to call it a harpoon. Like that's

Stephanie 17:15
exactly right. Yeah, I was in my 20s. First time I was on in a sump pump. And what was interesting was, I went to diabetic camp, I went from I was, I think eight or nine, my mom found one. And I went and I went for two weeks, and I have a friend that actually lives right by me still, and she was on his pump. So the first time I saw it was in camp, but I never showed interest in it. So my mom never pushed me to go get it. And I just kept doing the nNr for as long as I did.

Scott Benner 17:55
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Right Wow, it's crazy. Okay, so I want to kind of get this part out of the way before we talk about the rest of your story of like when you signed up to come on the podcast. I'm going to read you what you wrote. You said I asked what you there's a question when people sign up it says what are some of the themes you hope to cover? Yeah, your says pregnancy with type one growing up with type one. And he said if you'd like I can have my mom on with us too. She's not up on the new wave to type ones taken care of. But I had, and then you talked about and I also had postpartum anxiety with my daughter. And then. So for context, I don't really, I haven't said this in a while on the podcast. As I'm setting up in the morning to talk to somebody. I look at the note they wrote, like, I don't look at it ahead of time. But the other day, my son said to me, why, why the hell are you recording on Saturday night? Yeah. And I was like, I hate to say this. It's definitely but I said, I don't know. Here's what I can tell you. I do a lot of like, I do everything on the podcast. So like the scheduling, like I what I said was, if I let somebody record on Saturday night, there was a good reason. I just don't remember right now. But because he asked me, I got in bed last night before I got bed. I thought, I wonder why I did say yes to this. And then I started looking at your emails. And right as we were getting ready to do this, your mom passed away? Yes, I'm so I'm so sorry. And I had, I felt bad about the way I said to my son like, I don't know.

Stephanie 21:07
Don't worry that listen, you can't remember anything other than a podcast you put out. I'm surprised you remember what day it is?

Scott Benner 21:15
Honestly, the, we just put up a post on the Facebook group, because we're trying to get passages from the podcasts that are memorable for people are particularly impactful for them. And I want to use them for like social media posts and stuff like that. Yeah. So I had to put up a post and say, Look, you know, if I ever said anything, or Jenny or guests said something that really helped you or stuck with you, or whatever, can you listed here? And someone put up something and said, I don't remember what episode that was Scott, do you remember? And I responded, I was like, Look, I'm really the wrong person to ask, you know, because I'm recorded six months in advance. I just realized this morning, while I was I was taking the dogs out. I was I was writing a US med add my head while I was outside with my dogs. And even that struck me as strange. And then I realized I have about 70 episodes ready to go. Like, like six months of the podcast is recorded already the next month. And I was like Jesus. So anyway, they asked me where they thought I said that it's a weird thing to have somebody say, Hey, you said this. Do you remember saying and I say oh, I do remember saying that? When I go I have no idea. Like, I couldn't begin to tell you anyway. I feel terrible. Was your mom's passing a surprise? I imagine. Yes.

Stephanie 22:34
Yeah, it wasn't. It was definitely she was pretty healthy. I mean, she she suffered with a lot of things in the sense of like, when she was 21, she got hit by a drunk driver. So she was on a good amount of pain medications and stuff. And I think we had a kind of tough year, wasn't it? We had three deaths in the last year and a half. So and one of them was her boyfriend. And he was like her lifeline and wonderful man. Like I loved him to death. And when he passed, I think it hit her harder than anyone kind of knew. And I think she was just lonely. I think she just she was done. You know, and I think she just kind of she they said they when they found her she was you know, she looked peaceful. And it was no, they figured it was natural. So it was just her time to go. I mean, it sucks to be honest. But, you know, you try to think you know, she's at peace now, you know, with whatever she was dealing with, you know, but it was very sudden. How old was she? 70? Yeah, she just turned send 70 In April, her her birthday. I was diagnosed on her birthday. Oh my god. Yeah. So we always we always made a joke. Every year when I was newly diagnosed, I would do something new on her birthday, like give a shot of my own or, or do something as a birthday gift. thar. So. You know?

Scott Benner 23:57
Well, I am very sorry for your loss. Can I ask you what you thought her addition to the podcast was? Why did you want her to come on?

Stephanie 24:05
Just it was amazing. Like one of the reasons why I went to like a JDRF event before COVID. And I brought her there and my like Dexcom goes off and she goes oh, what's that? You know, she knew what it was. But she's like, what does that mean? And I go well, it's I'm like 80 and she freaked out. Like she literally almost had a panic attack looking for a juice and I'm like, Mom, I'm okay. I'm 80 and stable. We can go in a little bit and get some fruit or something, I'll be fine. And she it's amazing. The differences because she was like well, are you're gonna I'm like, Mom, it's not like when I was a kid where I would hit 8085 and you'd have to rush somewhere because we know where I am. I'm not dropping, I'm not anything and she was oh, and it was amazing to see how disconnected from where the care was compared to the years ago. Oh, where and I mean, this was one of those women when I got diagnosed, she went to the library, and to get every single book that was diabetic and everything, and did research and was like, I mean, she I told her about the podcast a couple of years ago, I don't know if she ever picked it up to listen, because I mean, it wasn't she wasn't take, she wasn't my caretaker at the time. So I don't know if she decided to not listen to it or whatever. But she, she was all about researching it. And she was OCD about it and making sure I got the care I needed. And she had a binder, she, you know, the differences between now and give you an example. And I always love telling this story. So when I first got the Medtronic pump, and you could download it to the computer and send it to your doctor. I did that. And I called her and I go, I'm gonna send you an email. They sent it to her. She looks at and she goes, she goes, What is this? I don't know. I told my blood sugar's and she goes, Did you type these on? Because she used to do an Excel and make all the graphs and stuff through Excel. And she looks at it. And she goes, these have all the graphs. You just plugged your pump in and I go Yeah, like you plug it in, and it downloads. She goes, Sure bitch. died. I was like, What do you just, you know, hard to listen, I'm showing it to you because I want you to see, this is less of a burden on me that it was a kid she goes, I know, but I'm still gonna call you.

Scott Benner 26:28
But But this doesn't help me or the time I lost the doing this.

Stephanie 26:32
Exactly. That was the day. I mean, she would have had stories for you. like you wouldn't believe what I went through when I was a kid. Because she took care of all of it. I didn't never felt like I was a diabetic when I was a kid. And that's a lot coming from those days. Like, you know, I never I don't remember ever being told I couldn't do something.

Scott Benner 26:52
You know, what were your your goals, like health goals back then?

Stephanie 26:57
Honestly, I think my mom kept those all in her head. I think mine was just to stay alive. You know, I don't think I ever thought I never thought of diabetes, as you know, oh, I can't do this. I mean, I used to ride my bike all over the place. And it'd be I'd be at school when I ride my bike all the way to the bowling alley, which was miles away and she wouldn't chew and bat an eyelash. So it's like, it was the normal See, I think my mom wanted me to have because my sister also growing up had growth hormone problems. So she was seeing an endo prior to me. So I think there was some like, oh, well, I know what I have to do. I have to take care of her. So we're ready. Have you know an idea of Oh, you have to give because she was on shot. So my mom's like, Oh, I gotta give another kid shots. You know, but she is my my goals were just to stay healthy. And I mean, I think I'm trying to think and I never found when I was looking through the house. I was curious to see if she kept the book, which I don't think she did. But the binder had like all my A onesies and everything like that. And I don't think I ever I mean, now that I look at it a onesie of what I had back then was insane. But like I had a 7.3 on nNr which was insane. Yeah, like, so. You know, back then it was like unheard of

Scott Benner 28:20
you feel like you were low a lot or no?

Stephanie 28:23
Oh, no, I don't. I don't. I don't remember being like where I always had to had juice with me. I mean, my mom always did carry juice with her. But I don't remember, I did have when I was first diagnosed. Actually, it was like three instances. I remember having like, what I consider blackout lows, where I didn't remember anything or anything like that. And that was when I was first diagnosed. I was in the honeymoon period. And I went to school, and I got off the bus and I fell. And the principal there was like a long concrete walkway ran up and grabbed my head before I hit the concrete. And I woke up looking at my dad trying to give me juice because he had come to the school to take care of it. And I was like the they said that the vice principal saved me from cracking my head open because I would have fallen on the concrete. The lows I don't remember when I was a kid. I don't remember a lot of them.

Scott Benner 29:15
Do you remember what your imperatives were like, What? What day to day? What were you looking for and trying to make happen or trying to avoid?

Stephanie 29:22
I mean, I wasn't allowed to eat a lot of sugar back then. I mean nowadays is a lot different like growing up. I had an endo that was third in the nation. So he was very ahead of his time. And like when the thing is like I hear like stories from people that have had, oh, well you couldn't have cake on your your birthday at that age. God forbid you have like any sweets, right? And this doctor would say listen, let her have a cupcake. Just don't give her the icing. So what would happen was like we get a cake and I would eat the cake in the middle and my mom loved icing. She was an addict for icing. She would eat the icing So I would eat the cake and she would eat the icing. It was an always thing for us growing up, but that was the thing, like, I never had a non normal. And I don't know how she did it. I don't know how, especially with the technology that we didn't have back then now it's feasible, like if I want a cookie, or if I want this, you know, this, I definitely don't eat healthy now, which I should?

Scott Benner 30:22
Well, you know, I think as, as people talk about living through that time with diabetes, it seems to me that you just either got lucky either the doctor gave you some reasonably good settings, and you ate, reasonably speaking the way the doctor said you should. And those things worked. Or the opposite would happen is that people weren't taking enough insulin, and they were the food they ate wasn't covered. And they had high blood sugars, or some people but but also the lows. You just don't hear a lot of people from that time say I was constantly low, I think you probably learned how to eat to the insulin if you had to. Yes, right. Does that make sense?

Stephanie 31:02
And I do that sometimes. Now still. Yeah. Because that's the thing, like, especially when I was pregnant, I was like, Oh, well, she wants me to eat this amount. I'm gonna, okay, I'm not hungry. But I have to eat this amount of carbs during because when you have to eat more food when you're pregnant stuff, I would, okay, I'm taking 35 carbs. I want to make sure I eat that 35 carbs. And I would eat more. So I wouldn't go low. Right? Because I would always have a habit of going low, like, during my pregnancy no matter what time it was. But you know it. That was the thing, I think because too, if you think about it, we didn't have the Dexcom we didn't have that technology that was like, Oh, well, she's going low. Or I see that low. I mean, times did she do my test? I don't know. Like if she did it rigidly religiously, like the two hours after a meal. Like they said, maybe she would have saw a low or something like that. But I don't know. I don't remember ever suffering from terrible lows. And that was the thing. I mean, I know I ran higher because it 7.3. You know, you definitely can tell that it was my sugars that were higher than than normal.

Scott Benner 32:13
Yeah. When did you get different technology? Like when did you get us? I'm assuming you use this Dexcom next,

Stephanie 32:21
yes, I use the Dexcom. Next I went, so I left my pediatrician because I was talking about getting pregnant with my daughter. And I

Scott Benner 32:29
well, your pediatrician said, I don't have any experience with this whatsoever. Yeah, my

Stephanie 32:33
endo pediatrician was like, listen, he was fine seeing me the pomp therapist said absolutely not. She was like, No, she's like, I can't and I'm like, Okay. And I was 20. We actually it was when I got married before I got married, because I don't but I know like I was talking about it. So they said you should look for a new no then. And he was like, I really don't want to lose you. Because I mean, I knew that guy from pretty much my whole childhood. And he was like, okay, he's like, No, he goes, you know, just, you got to find one. So I found one. And I went in the pump therapists educator was wonderful. And I go to her and she goes, Oh, well, she you know, your old file says you have a Medtronic CGM. Why are you not wearing and I'm like, because it hurts and it's terrible. And she goes, Okay, she goes, we're gonna put you on index calm. But I'm like, What's the Dexcom. And then she showed me the Dexcom. And I would like it was night and day. It was, to me totally different with the technology and how it was applied. And everything like this is this is perfect. And that was before the automatic insert or it was when you have to insert yourself so but I was still I was like, Okay, let's, let's try this out. And we did that. And then eventually, I went from Medtronic to animus and I was on the Animus with her. She changed me. But the endo I got was terrible. I walked in. She looked at me said Are you okay? Get your way. A wincy lower and she walked out the

Scott Benner 34:05
room. And I was like, What? Are you in a rural area?

Stephanie 34:09
No, I'm in I'm in pretty. I'm in Long Island. So I you got stonybrook you got you got all the big hospitals, all the big doctors over here. I have like, I think in a matter of five miles. I have like six endos like, so it's not the object. I didn't have a choice. So I found another one. But this one was just she didn't. She was like, Oh, well, you haven't anyone see of pipe. So I think at that time, it was like 6.5 or seven. And she was like, Oh, you're good. Don't worry. I was like, okay, and you know, like we you've said numerous times you just kind of go like Oh, okay, I guess I'm okay.

Scott Benner 34:47
Right. Yeah, well, if they say so then why why not believe it? Well, I judge it. Yeah, so Okay, so you had a CGM they got you. You did you eventually you move to a pump. So you got a pump going now, when you get paid But right around that same time,

Stephanie 35:01
I got pregnant when I was in my 30s that when I turned 30 When Emma's eight, so that's, I'm 39. So I was like, so you

Scott Benner 35:13
pumped for a few years like that with Dexcom and other stuff before you got pregnant? Yes, yeah. Okay. Do When do you find the podcast?

Stephanie 35:22
I found the podcast right after I had my daughter. Oh, wow. I found probably around or right after I had her. And the reason was I said, Well, I got a one C of 6.0. Why can't I get it lower? And I forget, I probably was just searching for podcasts because I have a habit of just randomly doing searches. I'm like, Oh, let me see. And I saw it. And I was like, Let me listen to it. And then that's all I've been doing. And that's how I found the podcast was just searching. Yeah. And

Scott Benner 35:56
I guess I'd want to know, like, after this whole life of, you know, using regular and then trying different stuff and getting through and you're pretty old. By the time you, you know, figure out I could probably keep my onesie lower like this was the information in the podcast like new to you? What did

Stephanie 36:14
you one thing, the one thing that I thought was interesting, that was no and this this, I mean, not that this will come maybe to a shocker to anyone. The first time I heard about Pre-Bolus thing was from you. And then when I brought it up to my pump therapist, I'm like, Pre-Bolus. And she goes, you're not doing that yet. They said, No. She was no wonder you having the spikes. Thanks. Like, thanks. So then I was like, okay, so this guy knows what he's talking about. So I'm not like,

Scott Benner 36:43
well, isn't it interesting, though, that you could have, I mean, that you had diabetes for that long? heard me say Pre-Bolus Your meals. And you thought I don't even know if this is real or not. Like it's a it's a really, I don't know what the I don't know what the apples to apples thing is here. But it feels like you're watching football for 30 years. And then you're like, Who are these packers? That everyone? Yeah, you know, it's a strange thing to, to believe is can be true, but I think it's overwhelmingly true.

Stephanie 37:14
It is. Yeah, it's extremely overwhelming. And it's like, Wait, there's all this information that oh, wait, like, I mean, don't get me wrong, I never ate great. Like, I genuinely eat whatever I want to a point. But like, I never had great blood sugar. So I was like, Well, I was able to get a 6.0 How do I keep this Do I still have to eat the diet of being a pregnant woman and like, you know, eating, I had everyday peanut half a peanut butter, jelly sandwich, cucumbers, and something else are probably broccoli or something that was like, what they consider putting quotations up free foods, you know, and that's what I ate for nine months for lunch every day, because it didn't, it didn't do anything to my blood sugars. It didn't do anything. And that's what I was advised to eat. So I ate

Scott Benner 38:01
it right. So basically, even all that time into diabetes, you still don't really know what you're doing. But you get you get to be pregnant, and people say to you look, you have to keep your agency lowered, it's gonna hurt the baby. So instead of, there wasn't even a thought in your head, that there's a way to use this insulin where my agency will be lower. It's all about it was all about the food to you.

Stephanie 38:24
Yes, it was. And then I realized it wasn't like, it's,

Scott Benner 38:28
it's interesting. It's really interesting. I find it fascinating, honestly. So okay, so you start Pre-Bolus In your meals, and you know, doing things like that. And then you started expanding what you were eating and starting to learn that different foods needed different amounts of insulin. Yeah, didn't just mean the carbs. And you just grew from there. And you really you found the podcast, the very beginning to

Stephanie 38:49
Yeah, and I listened to I think, majority, I found it. And I was like, I'm gonna listen to it. And like, I think I listened from when I went. And then I went back and listened to the older ones. And it was like, because I think I take it from my mom. I'm like, I want research. I want information. I want to know, okay, this is something because health changes constantly. Like the health care little well, this is good for you. This is bad for you. And I'm like, You know what, let's let's try this, you know, and see what happens

Scott Benner 39:18
in my lifetime. I've heard news stories that completely contradict each other. Oh, yeah. Well, thanks. Like if you have to do this, and then like, 10 years later, they're like, Well, you know, half two was probably pretty strong. And then, you know, five years after that, they're like, you don't do that.

Stephanie 39:35
Like, wait, did you just tell me to do that?

Scott Benner 39:38
And but still, I believe it. Listen, as I'm listening to your story, a little bit has to be blamed on staying with a pediatric endo for so long.

Stephanie 39:47
I kind of agree with that, that I look back because I know they were very heavy on diet. Like, you can't be eating this. You can't be eating that like they were very heavy on making sure I didn't go out and have three cookies in a setting or you know, everything like that. But my endocrinologist wasn't like that. So my, like my pump therapist and the nutritionist, because I remember going to the pump therapist and her saying, because I was when I got the Medtronic, and I was like, I forget how much insulin I was taking. And it was higher than she felt was normal. And I said, she goes, you're gonna end up 300 pounds if you keep eating like this. And it was like, Well, is it the food? Or is it the object of the amount of insulin I'm taking? Because again, then you get in your head, old insulin is making me gain.

Scott Benner 40:38
That's fascinating how that perpetuates over and over and over again. Yep. But the idea that insulin makes you gain weight. It's just, it's silly. And Insulin helps you store what you've eaten. Right? You still have to eat it. So yeah, it's, it's just, it's fascinating to think that that perpetuates still. And to this day, I have to, on the Facebook group, I have to three times a month, jump, jump into a post and say, hi, insulin doesn't make you gain weight, calories, make you gain weight, I'm not comfortable with what you just said here. Like don't give people the idea that this is how you start eating disorders. Because people get into that idea of like, Why can't use insulin. So they start, they start modeling their, their intake around trying not to take any insulin law because they get confused, because then when the insulin number goes up, they go see more insulin, and I gained weight, well, no more food, more carbs, more calories, and then you had to use more insulin, then you gained weight, just like everybody else would have who ate, you know, five gallons of ice cream a day. So yeah, well,

Stephanie 41:43
exactly. That's the thing. I dated a gentleman for a while he struggled with his weight for a while. And he thought a diet was get fat free ice cream, but eat the whole thing. But it's fat free. It's but it's fat frightened. No, it doesn't work that you know, and I tried, my profession originally was going to be in colder. I went to culinary school, certificate course whatever. And then I came out of it. And I wanted to become a diabetic educator, because it was something I was interested in. So I went to school because you have to do this and that like all the different schooling. So I decided to be a dietetic tech first. So I went into nutrition. And it is so much in the nutrition background that you learn that it's insane. Not that I ever finished it because I had my daughter and I never went back until maybe when I'm older and she's able to care for herself. Yeah. But I learned so much in the sense of because this, I think was one of the reasons I found your podcast more quickly to is I was in the room. And I said we have to present one day. And I said to the teacher said, Hey, we're learning about diabetes, can I present my stuff? And she goes, What do you mean your stuff? And I go my pump my like, I'll bring in supplies. And I'll present it and answer questions to anyone. And they're like, Yeah, sure, like, whatever. So it was amazing. How many people didn't know anything.

Scott Benner 43:12
Not that amazing, Stephanie, because you've just described it for decades. You didn't know what you were doing? Yes, exactly. You know what I should do? I should be a diabetes educator. But you didn't even know what you were doing for yourself half the time.

Stephanie 43:27
Yeah, that's the thing. I thought I knew my point. And that's the difference. I thought I knew crap. And I knew

Scott Benner 43:35
everybody listening is gonna look at their next time they go to their CD, they're going to look in they're going to be like, Hmm, did you not know what you were talking about? Decided to become my CD. But now that's fascinating. Like, it really is. I mean, that's just something else. You don't I mean, like, like, you literally, you describe, like, look, I didn't really know what I was doing. And I was managing everything with food. I didn't understand how insulin work really at all. And that and then you know what I thought to do? I'll be a diabetes educator. Like holy.

Stephanie 44:04
Yeah, exactly. Because food foods, everything would literally be

Scott Benner 44:08
like, if right now. It was like I could probably build a rocket. I can't, by the way. Yeah. And I know. So. Oh, wow. That's really something else. Honestly, I find that story. Fascinating. Yeah, I'm kidding. So. So you find the podcast and you pull things together. Like were you able to accomplish the things you were hoping for?

Stephanie 44:29
I mean, I'm still definitely struggling with Lowe's, which I've noticed and I think it's just because now that I have the insulin and I'm like, Well, I don't need to be afraid of this. I think I jumped too quickly. So my thing just went off and I'm at 150 but I ate an hour ago. So I'm like, it was high fat. Do I cover Do I not like I but instead of just putting one unit in, I'm putting like three or four. I have to I think dial it back that I'm not so aggressive with it. Because I've had the and with everything going on with my mom, and this year and everything. I think the stress is starting to weigh on me because I've had at least three bed low episodes

Scott Benner 45:16
is because I actually eating and then using a lot of insulin.

Stephanie 45:20
Yeah, yeah, that's definitely I think what the issue is I'm like, Oh well, I'm eating all this these carbs and the sugars and these everything and I'm like I'll just cover for it. And then four hours later I'm dropping to the point where like it happened this afternoon, which I was like, Oh, great, what a day to have this happen. I had to because my daughter, I'm a big believer in her understanding what I have because it is genetic. So if she gets it, I want her to see that you will be okay. So there was a book I got it was why mommy beats. That's literally the name of the book. And it's about a woman that has an insulin pump and why it goes off. And this is why and it's very, it's for a very young audience. And so one of the parts is if, if Mommy needs to sit, sit and drink juice, you have to let her basically. And so when I was having this episode earlier, I turned her because my husband goes Stephanie, go downstairs and get a juice because I was getting to the point where he's like, you're getting crazy. Go Go get a juice. And I told her I said Emma, can you go get me a juice and she knows she goes runs gets me my juice. And you know, she doesn't get scared. She just brings it over. And he's here mommy drink it for me. So like, that's, that's the thing is like, one of the big things for me is that I have to learn that. If I'm 150 I'm not going to die. Because there's been a couple episodes recently that you did that you taught that, oh, if you go up to 141 50, you're okay, as long as you come back down. And that's the thing like in my head, I'm like, Well, I'm 150 Oh my God, I need to take six units to get my blood sugar down. But that's not always the case. And I

Scott Benner 47:05
share something with you. Yeah. This is the eighth like, I'm a few weeks away from the eighth full year of the podcast being over and also at the ninth year of the podcast. So in 2015 I didn't know what I was doing. I was just trying to make a podcast and I'm the one thing that was consistent has been consistent throughout the entire time as I named the podcast episodes very like it's not haphazardly, but I listened through the episode if I hear something that was funny, or that makes sense, or it has something to do with this. I'll make this episode title chicken thighs. You know, and then I know that

Stephanie 47:39
that was a good episode, by the way.

Scott Benner 47:42
Yes. And so I'm listening back to this episode in the beginning back when I did a lot of like single mic stuff where I would just talk about diabetes stuff. And I will listen through this one. And while I was talking, I said I guess I just learned how to be more bold with insulin. And I called the episode Bolus with insulin. And then I've told this story before, but years later, I started seeing people online say, Oh, I'm trying to be more bold with insulin. And I was like, That can't be like a coincidence, right? And then I started realizing it was a phrase that people kind of clung to, and they liked and they were sharing. But the problem is, is that I never got to say, you know, when I said I was trying to find a way to be more bold with insulin, I didn't mean like unsafe or not thoughtful with insulin. Yeah, I didn't mean just like willy nilly just throw a whole bunch in and see what happens. I do think that people understand that from listening. But at the same time when you're trying to find a way to be more aggressive because you think you're not using enough insulin. A lot of times people don't have context for how much more and they can just be more aggressive and they can start having that feeling that you that I think you're describing, which is that any any kind of arise after a meal, I must have done something wrong, but that's not that's not always the case either. You know, so,

Stephanie 49:00
because I know I had a high fat meal so I'm like, You know what, that's probably why it's hitting me now. And give myself two units instead of the the six or seven you know,

Scott Benner 49:11
we bump it down a little bit don't don't like you shouldn't be running at it like you're in a Hobbit movie with a hatchet or something like that, like just screaming and swinging a blade I'll get it like just be a little more bold, be a little bold, I don't know to people I know a bold means. Anyway, so you're figuring that part out so you're in a weird situation you're stressed out. You're eating just like you're eating does sound like you're having celery and then and you're being more aggressive you're seeing a spike being aggressive again, probably because the spikes making you feel like I don't want this to happen. And then you're getting low afterwards, which is gonna cause you to eat more food, which is going to Yeah, you're gonna have to figure that out. Yeah,

Stephanie 49:54
yeah. Well, that's that's that's always that's even before the podcast that was always an issue that I had When I first got on a CGM was and I mean, people I've heard on the podcast and other people that I've heard in diabetic groups that I'm a part of, have always said at first, when you get the technology, you're looking at these numbers and seeing a crap and going up to something and you're panicking. And I think in my head because of highs to me, scare me more than lows. And I don't know why. Like, I can deal with it. Okay, here's the juice box. Like literally, I have a juice box on the decks desk right now. So if I went slightly low, I could drink the juice box while I was on the podcast, I am very conscious of keeping things around me. But when you're high, it takes another two three hours to bring it down from a 200 You know, so I think that's where my problem is that I have to realize if I'm 151 60 Let's see what happens let it if it doesn't level out after the 160 then give yourself a couple units like don't let it but if it's two hours up that's Don't even get me started. I rage Bolus constantly.

Scott Benner 51:08
So what ends up happening are you miscalculating how much insulin you need for the meal? Are you not like covering it the way you should be? Is it a Pre-Bolus issue?

Stephanie 51:16
I probably am not covering it the way I should be because of the Hi Fi because I'm still the extended but because I'm on a T slim. So it's has that control IQ. Which when I first went on the control IQ I lost this last year on my my pump therapist, I felt so bad. Because I just lost it. I'm like I have an agency of 5.4 This thing is screwing me up. And she's like, What do you mean? And I'm like, It's making my sugar's high. And she's like, let me look at you know, we had to change a bunch of stuff when I changed over the control IQ. Because everything my levels weren't right, you know, my Basal and Bolus, all that it was all off. So no, it just it the highs. That's what scares me the most I can deal with a low. And I think what happens is when I had these hot, high fat meals, especially recently, it's usually eating out, which I mean, the the when the podcast you were talking about your daughter going to college and eating the food there. And it's similar. It's like eating out all the time. And that's what I've been doing, because I don't feel like cooking. You know?

Scott Benner 52:26
Well, it sounds like you know what's happening? You just have this kind of Yeah, you know, figure it out. Yeah. I think you figured it out. I think you have to do it. Yeah. Well, that's that's the problem. It's like, well, well, it's it's I'm glad you know, at the very least I'm glad you see it you understand what's happening and how you could make adjustments to it. So it's tough. You said earlier you choked. But you have ADHD.

Stephanie 52:53
Yes, I have ADHD and anxiety. How does

Scott Benner 52:56
that play into your diabetes?

Stephanie 52:58
I don't think the ADHD I think growing up was more an issue. I think I have a little bit more control over it. Now. The issues that I find with it is if I'm doing something else, so if I'm making dinner, and I'm like, Okay, it's 15 minutes before, I have to take my insulin. But if I'm cooking, I totally forgot. Like I literally set it a timer sometimes because I have to make sure that if I'm cooking that I take my insulin the 15 minutes before dinner's ready. Because if I don't, then I have the high blood sugars. So that's the biggest factor. I think the ADHD en memory, the remembering to do things like oh, did I take my insulin and then I mean, luckily now with the pump, you can kind of look okay, I have I have stuff on board. And it's the amount I should have taken. But it's just remembering to Pre-Bolus That's the biggest issue and my endo gave me I forget which it which quicker acting quick acting insulin he gave me recently to try and the pump can't remember it for the life of me now.

Scott Benner 54:04
I should start a line of trivets or potholders that say it smells good, have you Pre-Bolus

Unknown Speaker 54:13
I would totally buy that.

Scott Benner 54:14
I joked around around the other day. And I have a place where it's a company that makes the merchandise that I sell for the podcast. And they they bring out new stuff once in a while. One of the things was a candle and I just put the word Pre-Bolus on a candle and I just did it to put it in the group to be like, Hey, everybody, don't forget to Pre-Bolus and so many people were like, I would buy that candle and I was like,

Stephanie 54:37
what would it smell like? What does Pre-Bolus thing smell like?

Scott Benner 54:40
It was a it was just a wax candle like but it was just the idea of like big people like I would I could use to sign for my refrigerator. I could. Yeah, and I take their point. Like it's I don't know that that's even ADHD to be perfectly honest with you.

Stephanie 54:56
Probably not it's you know, I mean and to there's been There's so much research into ADHD, and factors on like, people hear ADHD, and they think about a kid that's running around like a crazy person. But now they've sucked it into different. I'll email I can't remember the woman's name that I've listened to, I'll have to email it, you can put it in the link if you want or something. But she, she's ADHD herself. And there's so much more to it, that people don't realize. Because I mean, you could be extremely intelligent with it. But you're just, it's just your focus. It's not even your focus. It's, I don't know how to explain it. Like my, my issues are getting distracted in the sense of like, I'll drop my clothes on the floor, even if the hamper is next to me. And that kind of thing. Like, there's a disconnect from that into the hamper. So that's so my stuff. I think because I grew up with the diabetes, it doesn't the ADHD and the diabetes don't really affect each other too much. I don't usually have too many issues to the point

Scott Benner 56:04
where every time somebody tells me about ADHD, it sounds I started thinking like, that just sounds like being a person to me. Yeah,

Stephanie 56:11
well, this, I'll have to send you the link. Because that's what a lot of people are saying. But there's more to it than most people realize. Because it's not because people people forget things. And the difference is is it affecting your daily life? Is it affecting your every day, like where you're losing your keys every day or you're losing? You know,

Scott Benner 56:33
my glass window right now I haven't known for four days. So Well, there you go. Here's the here's the thing. I'm sick. Kelly sick. Arden sick, cold sick, right? There's four sick people in our house. There's, I have a job. Kelly has a job called looking for a job Arden's home from college just think she's trying to get done. And I obviously took my glasses off and put them down somewhere and can't find them anymore. Is it possible we're all just trying to do too much? Like, you know what he means? Like, I'm not saying at all. I'm just saying that at this at this point. Now, ADHD is like, it's like hair, everybody. I mean, it's like I have

Stephanie 57:11
that. That's very common. It's extremely common. Now. I'm

Scott Benner 57:15
wondering like, are we just diagnosing everybody that can't find their glasses? Or? Or? Or is there something we didn't know that we know now? Or? I mean, I don't know. I? It's just interesting to me.

Stephanie 57:26
Yeah, this this woman that I listen to on YouTube, she talks about it, and I wish I can. This is part of my ADHD brain. Short term memories are really terrible with remembering names. Like, it has to be a name. So I started a new job a year ago. There's four people at my job that I know their name Fair enough. And the only reason I know they're in and this is like, hospital setting, like there's hundreds of people I see daily. There's like four or five people that I know their name. And I know like, you know, whatever, and I deal with them daily. But the difference is their names I've heard before they absorb quicker. If I have a person that has an uncommon name for a year, I won't memorize your name. I'll be like, Hey, you.

Scott Benner 58:14
I don't know if this is a real thing. I feel I'm googling something. Yeah, I feel like I heard something one time. Yes. Okay. So there's something called Dunbar's number. Dunbar's number, is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people from whom one can maintain stable social relationships, relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to another person. This number was first proposed in 19 in the 1990s by a British anther, Robin Dunbar that shouldn't have been surprising to me, who found the correlation between primate brain size the average social group size by using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates. He proposed that humans can comfortably maintain about 150 stable relationships. There is some evidence that the brain structure predicts the number of friends one has, though causality remains to be seen Dunbar expanded it informally as the number of people, you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happen to bump into the middle bar. I don't know. I'm just saying. Maybe you took that maybe you already know. 150 people and you're like, oh, like I'm done. No way. I'm remembering your mother. Like no. happening. Sorry. Well, I mean, I don't know. Like, again, like I said, I have no idea and yeah, I'm all for people being okay. I just, I just had a private conversation with somebody the other day, and they said, well, the number of people who come on your show that say they have ADHD is staggering. And I was like, Is it a like I said, is it a thing? Or is it like a social contagion almost, you know? And by the way, if you have ADHD Don't get mad at me. I'm Not saying you don't have it. Calm down. But it's like, okay, I'm not saying you don't have ADHD, I'm saying it's interesting. I grew up. I didn't know anybody that ADHD. And now I can't turn one way or the other without somebody saying to me like, oh, I have anxiety or I have ADHD or I have this. Is it possible? We all have? Like, I don't know. Are we calling something? We already had something new? I have no idea. Yeah. So anyway. Yeah. Who knows? Me knows.

Stephanie 1:00:27
No, that's not my job. That's my

Scott Benner 1:00:32
question. I have absolutely no idea. No opinion. I seriously don't. By the way, there's sometimes or sometimes you listen to a podcast and like the personal say, like, Listen, I don't care about this one way or the other. But I think this like, Well, it seems like you do care.

Stephanie 1:00:45
It's like you have a

Scott Benner 1:00:47
quietly, I really don't have an opinion. I just, it's just interesting to me, you know. So anyway, it makes sense. It makes sense. You don't know you thought you'd be a good time? To take you seriously at all.

Stephanie 1:01:05
I didn't think that one. Oh, you know, I probably would have been shocked because I used to also say to like the professors would like because you have to take, you have to spend X amount of hours with diabetics before you can even sit for the test to be a diabetic educator. And then I said, I probably can sit for that test and pass it. And now I look back and I'm like, they were all sitting there and saying she's a moron.

Scott Benner 1:01:29
Okay, Stephanie. That's fine. Yeah, it's

Stephanie 1:01:32
like whatever pat you on the head. Listen,

Scott Benner 1:01:35
I'm imagining right now people are listening who are in college, or their kids are in college and thinking like, what did they major in? Like? Was it something they wanted to be good at, or something they were actually good at? And, you know, I think that's where you felt like you were obviously profoundly impacted, and really wanted to help people. You know, and you skipped over the part where, where you might not be able to, I don't know, like if LeBron James said he wanted to be an f1 driver. I don't make those cars big enough for you. I'm sorry, you can't do that.

Stephanie 1:02:07
It's like your you can't fit your cars. I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 1:02:11
It's super interesting. All right. What else did you want to talk about? I'm sorry.

Stephanie 1:02:14
One of the things. And I listen, like I said, the memory is terrible. And it got worse after I had my daughter. One of the things I was interested to see. And I don't know how many if there's episode, I know you had a couple episodes where there was couples. That would be something that's very interesting, because now that so one of my my really extreme lows. My mom was in the car, it was actually the last time she was down here. My husband didn't know what to do. We've been married 13 years, he just kept yelling at me, what do you need, and my mom turns around and goes, you need to stop at that 711 And get her another juice. That's what you because I happen to go through all my juices were out for the day. And she had to tell him because she I mean, how many years had he and it's not his first time I was with him for about a year and I had a major blackout. And I was at my mom's house. That was before I was on the insulin pump. That's what made him suggested more. And he didn't really know what to do. Like he was very confused, like, well, I'm telling her what does she need from me? And I said to him, like, you can't, you can't, you have to physically take something, put it in my hand and then I will drink it. Like you physically like and it's amazing. Because not that I'm secretive about my diabetes, I talked to everyone about because I like to, I don't care. Like if you know I have it. I never realized I never educated him along with myself on what to do you know what I mean?

Scott Benner 1:03:50
I have an episode right now that I don't think is out yet. And, okay. The woman has a seizure. And, and the and the and the fascinating, the uneducated way that her husband handles it is something like, like, as she was talking about the whole probably the whole scenario. I'm like, How's it possible that somebody you've been with that long has this little understanding about what they're doing? And I mean, I'm having the same thought. Now, while you're talking like you. I mean, you said this just happened? You've been with this guy for a pretty long time. And he's doing the equivalent of me being I don't know, passing a guy on the sidewalk who's having a heart attack, clasping that grass in her chest. And I'm saying to him, like, Hey, do you have any idea what I should do for you? Like, you mean like, it's, um, it is really, but to your point, I wonder if that's not the norm as well.

Stephanie 1:04:44
It's not, it's not it's been even my mother like after because we ended up going to dinner after I came, like, came up because I was conscious. Like, I wasn't like I understand. I was there but I wasn't there, you know? So she, she said I haven't seen knew that bad in years stuff. And I said No, I haven't been this bad in years. And I said to him, Well, Mike, I said to my mom, I said, You know what worries me the most. I said, Ken didn't know what to do. And she goes, Steph, how many have you had in front of him? I'd like to maybe. Because do you really expect when was the last one that you had like this? And I said, Well, not that bad. But, and I because he got up one morning, years ago, he got up he went to work. And he broke his MO was still in daycare because he brought her to school. He got up and I hadn't gotten out of bed yet. And he said stuff, get out of bed and I got out of bed. And he's like you were going really slow. And I ended up unconsciously because I was blacking in and out going to the fridge and getting myself a juice. He didn't have he didn't recognize it. And that was the thing like that was Emma was No, not even she was like less than a year old. Because we are we moved when Emma was your mom's?

Scott Benner 1:06:04
I think your mom's point was is that he didn't grow up with you with this. He's also not your parents. He doesn't care about you the way I do. Yes. And you know, and you haven't told him?

Stephanie 1:06:15
Yeah, yeah. So that's the thing. It's, it's the last couple of ones he's been around for. And this time, he was like stuff, something's wrong. You need to go get a juice. He's like, what's your sugars? And I'm like, and I just looked at me, he goes, go get a juice. And so then we walked downstairs. And that's when I said, I'm gonna get me juice, and she got me a juice, but he's getting better at least recognizing my signs. So I mean, not that I want it to keep happening, you know, at least at least,

Scott Benner 1:06:43
stopped and sat down and said to him, Hey, this is, you know, could end up being a problem one day, the maybe I should just explain this to

Stephanie 1:06:51
I did the one the last one. When my mom was here. I said, Listen, I need to talk to you. I say what happened today? Can't happen again. I said, if I am like that, you need to just get me juice. Or if I ended up collapsing, because I got one of those. The emergency kit because I hadn't carried one would with me in years. And then I heard the one your ads for the one that's like an

Scott Benner 1:07:18
Evoque hypo Pan.

Stephanie 1:07:19
Thank you. There you go.

Scott Benner 1:07:20
Thank you.com No, no, hold on, hold on. Calm. No. How do I not know this? Oh, my gosh, this isn't this is embarrassing.

Stephanie 1:07:35
Okay, I can't remember the name. No,

Scott Benner 1:07:37
I say these things, constantly. And then, but I say them in a specific time. And I guess that out of out of rhythm. I don't even know. I'm incredibly sorry. I'm sorry. If you vote glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. You have to say it that voice. Over voice changes. Voice for you keep talking. I just put out an episode about like when to use G voc because I had that conversation with the other person I was talking to. And I went back to G voc. And I said to them, like, Hey, are you interested in like, getting together with me and doing like a real informative half hour like me, Jenny? Because I really don't think people know what the hell they're doing. And I'm, and I'm wondering, you know

Stephanie 1:08:28
what, that was the thing like I got when the inhaled one came out. I got that one. Because my doctor is always big on me carrying one but I haven't for a while and he's like, listen, he was like the this inhaled one came out. Why don't you get it? And I said, Okay, so if I'm like, unconscious, you just sprained my nose. And he goes, No, this one's actually for if you're having one year a little blackouts, you can use it then for your nose right? Back. Yes. I mean, yeah. And then I never used it. Like, thank god knock on wood. Then I got these. And I have three of them. Because my insurance paid for three, so why not get three? And so I'm gonna throw one in my purse. Because as a doctor in my office that always she has a husband, that's type one and knows even totally less than, like, like, it's insane. And I'm like, try the Juicebox Podcast and she goes, what? I don't listen to podcasts and like, Just do it. I'm like, if you want give me your cell phone number, I'll send you like, please, you're making

Scott Benner 1:09:27
me feel like I'm the only one that cares about all of you. Well, you do you worried about themselves? Am I the only one

Stephanie 1:09:38
but this one was hilarious. She said something the other day. And I was like, because he's he's trying to get Omni pod. And I'm like, Well, I don't have that. I have the the tube one. But you know, then I explained to your daughter has she's like, Oh, yeah. And I'm like, Yeah, seriously, please just listen to it. And then I said to her that I got I got that and she's a Whatsapp. Like, well, it's like an epi pen. And she's like, What do you mean? I go, you know how like the emergency kits come in the red thing? She goes, yeah, she goes, I have no clue how to use it. I'm like, I'll get this one because it does everything for you, basically.

Scott Benner 1:10:11
Thank you. May I just say something right now, if the advertisers are listening, this is an example of where Stephanie's friend is gonna end up buying in this situation and on the pod and I'm not gonna get credit for it. Sorry. On the pod, okay. Yeah. All right. Take that into account. Next time I tell you, the price is going up all you not just I'm not just talking. I'm talking to all of you. Yeah. There are a few advertisers who really understand something that in advertising they call the halo effect. And then there are some who fight me on it. And I'm like, listen, okay, when someone's in their doctor's office, and they go, Hey, give me one of those in pens. That was me. But they didn't use my clicky Clicky. And then you're all like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. Anyway, that's all.

Stephanie 1:11:01
Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's the thing like now, now that I got this new toy, I like to call it, I have to show my husband and I have to be like, Listen, this is what you do. If I'm unconscious, but I'm gonna listen to that podcast episode.

Scott Benner 1:11:14
You let him listen to it? Like, yeah, that's

Stephanie 1:11:20
what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna send him a link. Because every once awhile if there's an episode that I find educating to me that he should listen to I send it to him. I don't know if he listens to it.

Scott Benner 1:11:29
But I mean, I'm not even making this up. For me. Everyone listening should send episode 789 to loved ones and be like, listen, whether I use this glucagon, or I use a different glucagon, everything about this is basically Apples to Apples except the, the actual tration of it. But no kidding, like, your conversation is making me so upset tonight. Because

Speaker 1 1:11:54
it's because I'm like, how, how are so many people wandering around don't know how to use their glucagon? Or how are there so many people wandering around married to people with diabetes, they don't even know how to handle a simple situation. Like, it's not just you're not just your guy. You mean like,

Stephanie 1:12:09
and I think what it is to is, in some cases, not mine, like you don't want to be a burden to that person. You don't want to be like, Oh, well, now it's your turn to take this burden on my theory with the whole thing. Why? And again, I guess I'm not giving him enough burden, because he has no clue how to take care of that. But he's gotten better the last couple of times. So I have to remember I have to talk to him about it. And I have to be like, Hey, listen, this is if I'm, this is what you have to do. If I'm low, you know, whatever. I think what the problem is, like, people get married, and it's not like, Oh, it's my parents, because like, I would have bad lows. And I would call my mom. And I'd be like, Hey, Mom, I had a bit low last night. And and, you know, she goes, Well, what did you do? And we would go down the list to figure out why I had low like, conversation. He's not involved in that conversation, because it's easy to talk to someone that understands it. And now that said enough that she's not around. He has to be educated in this because God forbid, and I've said this to him before. I said, What would happen if I got, I don't know, God forbid, hit by a car, or fell down the stairs and was paralyzed and couldn't change my own insulin pump? What would you do? Yeah, he doesn't know he has no clue what to do. And that's like, my pump therapist said like, a while ago, I am going to send this to my dad. But I do have to tell the story. When I first got the insulin pump. When I was in the pediatrician, endocrinologist, they said you need to bring the family members that you live with or you are with constantly. So I brought my husband, which was my boyfriend at the time. And my dad, and I was living with my dad. My dad turned to the pump therapist and asked if my blood sugar. So if blood sugar changes, I think he put it as would affect my mood. And I was like, we both looked at him. He's known as mono me my whole life and the pump divers like Yes. Like, yeah, she she'll be moody when she's high or when she's low, depending on how her body reacts. And like it was just, it's amazing. Someone even being in your life entirely. They're not involved in it. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. That's as simple as you know that and it's not a judgment on him. It's just my mom took, I think 90.9% of the care was on her. Because she was a stay at home mom, she was able to if I needed anything, but that's the thing.

Scott Benner 1:14:46
You just have to tell people that's like you have to and you have to find a way to impress upon them, that what you're talking about is not frivolous, that it's very serious that it could be life or death and that you know, just please commit Just a memory. You know, I mean, I have that episode in the Pro Tip series. I think it's, I can find it real quick. It's called explaining type one, it's Episode 371, that you can send it to somebody who doesn't have diabetes. And it's Jenny and I just kind of telling a person like, look, this is what it's like to have diabetes. And you know, I think that can be helpful. But again, like you said, you send things to people, you don't have to listen to them or not. It's all very Exactly. And

Stephanie 1:15:25
I think, you know, honestly, I think eventually he does listen to him. But does he say he listens to it? No. But you know, that's something I think that that as even anyone that's in a relationship, whether it be boyfriend, girlfriend, or whatever, any committed relationship, if you're spending more than a couple of days with this person a week, you need to let them know, Hey, this is what I have. And I know it's not easy. I know people have this stipulation on, you're a diabetic, and people are not going to want to be with you. But that person, I think you've said it before, if that person doesn't want to be with you, as a diabetic, they're not right for you. Because years down the road, they're not going to be a

Scott Benner 1:16:07
class, if you had red hair, and somebody didn't like redheads. That's not the right person for you. Exactly. It's just that easy.

Stephanie 1:16:13
Exactly. You know, and he, my husband is a wonderful man. He's a wonderful father to my daughter. I mean, during the postpartum depression, he helped me extremely with that. And I wouldn't give him up for life. But I need to myself my error was not educating him enough. Through the years that I've been with him, and that's where I think one of my issues was, okay,

Scott Benner 1:16:39
well, I appreciate you very much sharing this with me and for taking the time and for doing Saturday night and all that stuff. I actually found this really, like thought provoking. And, and I think it's important for people to think about what you're what you're explaining today. You can't just walk around being the only person who understands what's happening to you. So,

Stephanie 1:16:59
exactly, because you end up being unconscious on the street. Because as much as we live in a world that you have people in your life if they don't know how to handle it. Calling 911 Yes, will help but 911 will not be there. quick enough. If you are that gone.

Scott Benner 1:17:16
I I listened. This was perfect. Thank you very much. I were done. This was perfect. Leave it right here. Yeah, the tactic, just tell somebody, explain it to them. Make them understand if they don't want to understand, find somebody that does want understand, but don't just walk around, hoping that the guy or the girl or whoever standing next to you is going to like, magically pull some, you know, pull something out of their ass when you need it. You know what I mean? Like, be sure they know what it is, where it is and how to use it. Alright, great. All right, Stephanie. Thanks so much. Can you hold on for one second for me? Thanks, of course.

Hey, how about Stephanie coming through with a hell of a story. Thank you. Thank you much, much. I was gonna say Thank you much. What am I? My 12 Thank you so much. Definitely. Appreciate you. It wasn't gonna say what was I about to do? Thanks so much, definitely for telling your story. gotten off track here. I also want to thank the contour next gen blood glucose meter and remind you to go to contour next one.com forward slash juicebox. Get yourself an accurate meter, you deserve it. A diabetes diagnosis comes with a lot of new terminology. And that's why I've created the defining diabetes series. These are short episodes, where Jenny Smith and I go over all of the terms that you're going to hear living with diabetes, and some of them that you might not hear every day, from the very simple Bolus up to feed on the floor. Don't know the difference between hypo and hyper will explain it to you. These are short episodes, they are not boring. They're fun, and they're informative. It's not just us reading to you out of the dictionary, we take the time to chat about all of these different words. Maybe you don't know what a qu small respiration is, you will when you're done. Ever heard of glycemic index and load? Haven't doesn't matter, you will know after you listen to the defining diabetes series. Now, how do you find it, you go to juicebox podcast.com up top to the menu and click on defining diabetes. You'll be able to listen right there in your browser. Or you'll see the full list of the episodes and be able to go into an audio app like Apple podcasts or Spotify and listen to them at your pace. Download them into your phone and listen when you can. The defining diabetes series is made up of 51 short episodes that will fast forward your knowledge of diabetes terminology. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.