#1189 Pee in a Tree

Sari's daughter had type 1 diabetes and today we talk about camp, pilonidal cysts, fighting with nurses at school and the Omnipod 5.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 1189 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today I'm having a completely delightful conversation with salary. She is the mother of Jolie who is 15 now, and has had type one diabetes for a few years. 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. If you're interested in helping with type one diabetes research, but you don't have a lot of time, you can still help AT T one D exchange.org/juicebox. All they need you to do if you're a US resident who has type one diabetes, or is the caregiver of someone with type one diabetes, all they need you to do is complete the short survey T one D exchange.org/juicebox. Your answers to simple questions will help to move type one diabetes forward for you, for your child. And for everyone. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout that's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com.

This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn Find out more at G voc glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing together people who are redefining what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Mark, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 28. He's 47. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then at the very end of the episode, you can hear my entire mini interview with Mark to hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story. Visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box and check out the Medtronic champion hashtag on social media. US med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well. Us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or the number get your free benefits. Check it get started today with us med. I

Speaker 1 2:42
am sorry. And I have a daughter Jolie who is almost 15 years old. She was diagnosed three years ago, we just celebrated her diversity on Wednesday. She got home three years ago from the ICU on Halloween. Oh, how

Scott Benner 3:02
did you swing that? Right? So

Speaker 1 3:04
I was laughing last night because so on Halloween three years ago, she was sitting in the basement collecting candy or you know sorting candy with her best friend as her friends eating all the candy and we were cooking hotdogs and feeding them to Jolie cutting them up in small pieces. So it felt like candy because we didn't know what else to do. Really. Like we're like hot dogs, hot hot dogs you could eat we don't we don't have to give you a shot, you know, we knew knew nothing even you know after four days of learning or learning in the ICU while you're exhausted. So last night when her blood sugar was out of control because we were like it's Halloween, do whatever you want. I was like you know what, maybe we should have gone back to the hotdogs would have been better. Maybe

Scott Benner 3:45
a ballpark franc would have been the right way to go. Right? Right. So that's you a handful of days, removed from being diagnosed three years ago, saying, I want you to have the experience of eating something in this scenario, but we can't let you eat this cake. We don't know. We have no idea what we're doing. Yeah. Crazy. And how did she respond to that? Not Well, I imagine the

Speaker 1 4:05
hotdogs back then. Yeah. Oh, she was fine. I mean, I think she was terrified to write. So that was so early on that she was I think she was like, oh, yeah, hotdogs are good, because then I don't need a shot.

Scott Benner 4:15
Oh, yeah. Oh, by the way, she was horse trading to get out of the shots probably at that point. Yeah.

Speaker 1 4:20
I mean, so, so new and so clueless. And yeah,

Scott Benner 4:24
it's funny how quickly that goes away. Where we're caring about like the injections or changing a pump. Isn't it something when you watch people online, they're like, Well, I don't want to get a pump because you have to put it on let's and I always think to myself, like Yeah, like one time every few days you do something for three minutes, versus what it is, but they don't. Everyone's scared of everything. No, at that point. Makes sense. Yep. What kind of thoughts were they do you know? I

Speaker 1 4:48
don't even remember I do. So I'm responding to a text from Jolie. Sorry, which was something we could talk about. I don't I don't recall what kind of hotdogs they were.

Scott Benner 4:59
That's okay. I was just looking for a title early on but it's no big deal.

Speaker 1 5:02
I don't know they weren't what is the one of the I can't even think like the all natural ones that are just not as good as the others the apple gate or something like that. Yeah.

Scott Benner 5:12
Okay. Yeah it's all garbage by the way if you talk to anyone are all horrible.

Speaker 1 5:16
Yeah, so I was a vegetarian for a very short time. Very short time. But my rule was I was a vegetarian but hotdogs didn't count.

Scott Benner 5:24
How did you become a vegetarian for a short time? Well, I

Speaker 1 5:28
just decided it wasn't healthy. It wasn't I have nothing against and I'm you know where the leather and eat the eat the animals but I don't know. I decided it wasn't healthy. It was college. But hotdogs. Hotdogs didn't count. Because hot dogs to me were like, a delicacy and weren't real meat anyway, so hot dogs are okay. I

Scott Benner 5:43
believe it's the scraps from the pig. Or cow if you get beef hot dogs. Yeah, a lot of something. There's a lot of something in it besides salt like phosphate. I don't want to guess because I don't remember. I'm getting too old to pull factoids out of my head about hot dogs. Anyway, okay, so she's home, your hot dog and you're on Halloween. What led up to you figuring out she had type one was it in the family or something you saw?

Speaker 1 6:07
So she has an interesting diagnosis story, or maybe not so interesting. And this is you know, kind of one of the reasons why I was like, I finally want to come on the podcast because I have this story, which is similar to so many others, but you know, just interesting. So March 2020. home from school, Jolie is in a mood crying a lot. I was like Wow, all the kids are crying a lot they're home they're not seeing their friends are trying to do school online. It was horrible. And little by little we were like this is crying the moods getting to be a little bit too much. Summer 2020 We would do a lot of hiking or attempt to to do a lot of hiking because what else are you doing when there's not a whole lot to do but we couldn't go anywhere because every time we said we were gonna go somewhere, Jolie said Is there a bathroom there? We were like get over it. There's if you need a tree, there's a tree like there's not bathrooms aren't open places. And she wouldn't go places because there weren't bathrooms and we couldn't figure out like what her obsession was was bath with bathrooms. And she was crying constantly to the point where we started talking to the doctors about some medication for depression, just figuring out what was going on. So through the summer is still going on. I mean, she was we were going to the doctor so many times her ears hurt her her legs hurt her she felt like she couldn't walk up the steps. Nothing finally we went to the doctor I want to say like the end of the summer and she had lost a lot of weight. And our pediatrician said you know go ahead when on the way home go and buy some ensure because we need to bulk her up a little bit left I stopped at the supermarket because I stupidly then listened to pediatricians and bought the Insure I got home so my husband who is the one who has to buy the Applegate hotdogs saw the insurer and said absolutely not. We will not give her that poison, which Little did I know it really would have been tough on her for sure. It would have been poison to her so we threw out the insurer didn't give it to her we're like okay, so what do we do? We've got a pucker up Why is she losing weight?

Scott Benner 8:02
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Speaker 1 10:38
Yeah, I finally said to Peter Hirsch, and we need to do something else. We were about to have an appointment to talk about medication for depression, because I was not sleeping at all. She was just crying all the time. She was it was so much stress. So we I think it was like a Friday we had the appointment with the pediatrician on Wednesday, I called the pediatrician and I said, Can we just do a full blood workup? This was Wednesday, October 27. And this is again, oh, whoa, timeout. Rewind big rewind. So in April of 2020 Do you remember all those articles and stuff that they would talk about COVID toes

Scott Benner 11:11
COVID toes?

Speaker 1 11:13
Do you remember? COVID toes remember? COVID COVID toes? So it was like a kid thing? So April 2020, we had a virtual visit with a pediatrician because Jolie had blisters covering her toes. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was a thing. So blisters covering her toes. But we did that virtual visit showing the pediatrician, you know, through our phone, the blisters on her toes, which she could not see.

Scott Benner 11:35
I had a phone doctor's appointment where they're like, hold it closer. Hold it closer, right? Ridiculous.

Speaker 1 11:39
The COVID toes were were a thing and the doctors like yeah, that's the thing like she might have COVID She might not but we weren't testing for COVID then so who knows. So that was that was kind of an aside that, put it in the back of

Scott Benner 11:49
your mind. By the way, American Academy of Dermatology along with the swelling and discoloration. COVID toes can also cause blisters, itch or pain. Some people develop pain raised bumps or areas of rough skin, right.

Speaker 1 11:59
So that was on top of everything else. And Jolie has always been like the boy who cried wolf. So we're like Get over yourself, like stop with the complaining every single thing was a complaint. Now back to October 27. I said to the doctor before we have this appointment about medication, can we please do a full blood workup? And the doctor said that is not necessary. We do not need to do that. And I finally said I'm not asking you. I'm telling you we're gonna do full blood workup before we decide to put my child on medication for depression fullblood workup

Scott Benner 12:27
was this a situation where I have a daughter so no wife was this the situation where it was like, Oh, this is a lady problem. She sad or something like that was it was leaning like that? No, no,

Speaker 1 12:40
no, no. I'm female pediatrician. No. It's just like, Oh, she's going through going through things. She's you know, she's lost weight because she's depressed. She's sad because she's depressed. Everything was like diabetes, never on my radar. So that was never something I even thought to ask about. But luckily we did the bloodwork up Wednesday afternoon, we took her into the pediatrician, I mean, into the to the hospital for blood workup as a reward for doing so well during the blood workup because I think she was really ahead of it at that point. We went to McDonald's and got her a sprite and whatever other junk because we were like, thank you so much. You did such a good job doing blood. And then at 1130 at night, and that that, you know, back in the day, I didn't sleep with my phone anywhere near me 1130 At night, apparently the doctor had been trying to call every phone in our house finally got through to my husband cell phone. And at that point, Julie was actually sleeping, which she was not doing a lot of probably because she was so out of it. And the doctor said to Jim, you need to rush her to the children's hospital emergency room. Jim turned to me and said we don't need to go to the emergency room. Her blood sugar's at 750. And I was like, just tell them that she's sleeping. And ask them if we could wait till the morning. Because again, I had no idea what you're talking about. Yeah, I had no idea what I meant. And she was like, no, no, no, we're, we're not waiting to the morning. She needs to be taken now. jumped up, packed enough bags. I had enough wherewithal to like, pack some blankets and her stuffed animals. I was like, if they're calling us at 1130 at night, we maybe we're going to be sleeping there for a night. I didn't know it was gonna be weeknights. Yeah. So off, we go to the emergency room. And at that time, you know, nothing was open. And it was crazy, because we got to the Children's Hospital in Boston emergency room pretty quickly. They took her immediately. You know, they obviously the doctor said we're calling to let them know that you're on your way. They took her right away. And I mean, I want to say within like three minutes. They had an IV in her arm. And I was like, what's what's happening? Is this serious? I still had no idea what was going on. I was like, this seems kind of serious. Somebody I know from the town we live in was actually the ER doctor on call then random coincidence. And I was like, he said something about diabetes. I was like, Are you telling me she has diabetes? And he said, Well, I can't tell you that yet, but it seems pretty likely. And I still didn't understand why. You know, I didn't know that 750 blood sugar would mean that right? They said so again. Originally we yes she was, has diabetes she was in DKA. which to this day, I still don't really know how you determine if somebody is in

Scott Benner 15:06
DKA what gases other things like acidity

Speaker 1 15:10
of blood, you know that i They were talking things that again, I was so delirious at that point, I don't even know half of it. I was writing notes that I look back at my notes. I don't even can't even read them. So yeah, so straight to the ICU. And there we were about

Scott Benner 15:24
that. Well, you really did. You actually saved her by demanding the blood tests though. Yeah, but you were demanding it because you didn't want to put it on a on an SSRI if she didn't need it.

Speaker 1 15:34
I just wanted to see if there was something were missing. Yeah, I just didn't know. And then, you know, they think the pediatrician called us the second day in the hospital. And I said to her good thing. Good thing I asked you for the bloodwork. And she said, Oh, we would have gotten to that. And I said maybe when she was in a coma, like what when we've gotten to that we would

Scott Benner 15:50
have tried the medicine for a month. And then when it didn't make her happy, then I might have wondered what was going on there. She covered her ask that she that's nice.

Unknown Speaker 15:59
Yeah, she's not she's on our pediatrician anymore.

Scott Benner 16:01
I watched the doctor tried to cover their butt in, er two weekends ago when I, by the way when I had to fly across the country. So because Arden wasn't feeling well, and not diabetes related. Maybe similar to you and your husband's like, get up we have to go to the hospital. I was like making a plane reservation at two in the morning thinking we didn't have to have kids. Like what are we doing? On a plane at 7am? I had been awake for like some 30 hours by the time the plane because I wasn't planning on going anywhere, you know, and at midnight, she's like, Hey, I don't think I'm okay. And we started talking and like I assessed her over the phone, send her to the ER. And then I'm like, Well, I gotta go. I gotta jump on a plane because this isn't getting fixed. She she had just left the ER, like a day before and they didn't help her. So like, young girl in the ER, pain they couldn't like, they couldn't like put their finger on. So they started telling her like this could be in your head. That's why I asked about the girl thing. Like, like, like, yeah, like, it's, it sucks. But even even when you talk to like, I was talking to Arden's OBGYN the other day because that's the route we're gonna go next looking for what her issue was. This is a board certified woman, you know, like, who deals with women's issues. And she even said sometimes with girls, it just goes away.

Speaker 1 17:21
Oh, no, no, it was like, okay, so it wasn't her appendix was

Scott Benner 17:25
not her appendix. Oh, goodness, wasn't her gallbladder wasn't anything they could find. But you had to beat them over the head the entire way to get them to look. So we're not gonna give her that test. Like why not? I said everything points to that being a sincere possibility. Yes. Well, yeah, but we're not gonna test for that. said it's an ultrasound. What do you mean? Just right? Check her gallbladder while we're here. You know, like that kind of stuff. Anyway, I had a terrible experience that I've ranted about in other episodes, so I won't bother telling you about it. But okay, so you got rid of your pediatrician? Was she younger? or older? The pediatrician or not middle aged? Mother even. It's interesting. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 18:06
I mean, people love her people love her. Well, yeah,

Scott Benner 18:09
their kids haven't actually been sick. Right.

Speaker 1 18:10
And, you know, I will say that we kept her for a while until she did something else that we didn't like to my other daughter, actually. And I kept her on because I said, You know what, she's a bridge. We're not using her for any medical advice. We're not using her for any direct help. She's my bridge to every other doctor. So that was that was kind of how I was using her as the bridge, I would call her and I think she was almost scared of me at that point. And I'd say I need a referral here, or you're going to send me to this doctor and she would say, okay, yeah, so we got whatever we wanted from her until finally I said and not dealing with her anymore.

Scott Benner 18:41
Do you mind? And you don't have to, of course, but like, can you give me a brief overview of what happened with your other child that made you finally leave?

Speaker 1 18:49
I think the I don't I don't think this is an exaggeration, but she violated HIPAA rules. She told me she spoke to somebody who I didn't want her to speak to about my daughter. Oh,

Scott Benner 18:59
lovely. Yeah, I had a school nurse who on their own called Arden's doctor one time. Yeah, I bet you that person's never done that ever again to anybody. Yeah, I didn't need the phone. I was yelling so loud at her. Like she could have hurt me across town. Maybe

Speaker 1 19:17
my yelling was through the portal and all caps was like you didn't just talk to her. Did you? Yeah,

Scott Benner 19:21
I think I started that conversation. What do you think you're doing? And it degraded from there? Yes. Yeah. Well, I was just wondering, I was like, Oh, where are you?

Unknown Speaker 19:36
What you thought I was helping? No, you are not helping.

Scott Benner 19:38
Maybe you don't think so much. That might be your problem. I was so I was so upset. Anyway. Okay, so Well, that's a tough experience new new pediatrician better.

Speaker 1 19:49
You know what the funny thing is I actually haven't met the new pediatrician yet. My husband's met her once. We've got a well visit for Jolie coming up in next week. So I'll meet her for the first time. Cool.

Scott Benner 20:00
Okay, so Julie's home, she's got diabetes, you're tossing hotdogs at her like she's the seal at the circus. And what happens next? Like Where does it all go from there? And

Speaker 1 20:11
well, the funny thing is because of the timing, so now in the school district that we were in, so this is, you know, now November 2020. They were in school every other week. So one week was virtual one week was in person. And they did that because they had kind of like two cohorts.

Scott Benner 20:27
Got your scholarship figured out which we COVID was a problem, but okay, I got it.

Speaker 1 20:32
Right. So they split, they split the grade in half. So there weren't as many kids in school at one time. She was diagnosed during the home week. So when she was in the hospital, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, she was actually on her iPad, attempting to do some work. And then on Monday, you know, Halloween was on a Saturday, that year, Monday, I was like, You're going back to school? What are you gonna do? So like, this is this is your life, you need to push forward and do it. So you know, it's funny. I hear some people say like, they kept their kids home for three weeks to figure it all out. I was not in that school. I was like, You're, yeah, you're going you're going back. You're getting back to life. So she went back on Monday and amazingly, Jamish did not miss any school.

Scott Benner 21:12
Once she's through the DA, do you have hindsight, you look back and go, Oh, the sadness, the crying the paying like the you put it all together? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 21:22
Yeah. I was like, no wonder why she was sad and all out of sorts, and her legs wouldn't move.

Scott Benner 21:27
How long was that going on? For?

Speaker 1 21:29
I mean, it was definitely since the beginning of the summer. Okay. diagnosed in October. Okay.

Scott Benner 21:34
He is a very slow onset. Four months, maybe? Does she have any clarity about it looking back? Like, do you know what I mean? Did she say, Oh, she ever said something like, oh, I should have said this to you differently? Or you weren't listening to me? Was she mad at you? Or?

Speaker 1 21:51
I don't think so. I don't know what No, no, I don't I haven't asked her about that. But I don't

Scott Benner 21:57
think so. I was just wondering if it came up. That's all because it's, you know, how would you know, first of all right, but at the same time, you know, if you're that young, you might be like, Look, I came to you and said I didn't feel well. And you know what I mean? Yeah, the why the why gets lost all the time. Your doctor missed the why? You know, like, I don't want to go anywhere without a bathroom. I mean, that's a pretty weird change for a person who hasn't had that issue for 12 years. Right. So you didn't say why you just said Don't be silly. Like that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 22:29
Get over it. Get over it and pee in the tree or something. But um, yeah, I mean, she still is kind of the boy who cried wolf. But now we take everything seriously. And we have since discovered so many other things that she's got going on whether they're connected or not, who knows? But um, I just

Scott Benner 22:45
jotted down Pina tree, but tell me about those other things. Just in case

Speaker 1 22:49
she ended up in the emergency room. I don't even remember when it was last the end of last year with pilonidal with a pilonidal cyst. Yeah. So now she she was diagnosed with pilonidal disease.

Scott Benner 23:01
Interesting to me. Sir, hold on one second. Why is that interesting to me? Oh, oh. My sister in law had one of those horrible. Oh, but that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying My wife has hypothyroid probably Hashimotos My daughter has type one of my son has Hashimotos and my sister in law had a pilonidal cyst. Interesting. I mean, coming together, right, the cyst, they remove it. So it was interesting.

Speaker 1 23:28
That was another one. I was like, did you fall down? Did you hurt yourself? She's a volleyball player. I was like, you must have fallen playing volleyball. You know, you just have a bruise on the bottom of your tailbone. Get over it, get over it. Finally, she was in so much pain that we took her to the ER and they were like, oh, you know, all the nurses were like, Oh my God, those are the most painful things ever. So yes, they didn't. They drained it, I guess which relieved the pain right away after more pain. And then now there's a pilonidal clinic at Children's Hospital Boston amazingly enough. So now she has that patient at the pilonidal clinic. So they need to so many weird terms there's they do pick picking. So I guess a pilonidal cyst is forms from dirt getting into the follicle hair follicles around your butt area. So they have to pick the pits, which means they kind of dig out the hair follicle and then stitch them up.

Scott Benner 24:25
cyst is an unusual pocket in the skin that usually contains hair and skin debris. The cyst is almost always near the tailbone at the top of the buttocks pilonidal cyst that usually occurs when hair punctures the skin and then becomes embedded.

Speaker 1 24:37
Right so in order to avoid more pilonidal cysts, they need to pop

Scott Benner 24:41
them out yet close these pits, or pick pick pick the pits I

Speaker 1 24:45
don't even know. So they still have a whole bunch of stitches in her butt crack. And now she gets laser hair removal covered by insurance. I was like you were the luckiest teenage girl around you can't laser hair removal. So then on top of that, then they discovered that she had an affair gonna say this on hydrogen, hydrogen Titus

Scott Benner 25:03
hydro lead. Gen Titus that

Unknown Speaker 25:06
hydro den Titus.

Scott Benner 25:07
I got it supportive. Have you ever heard that? Yes,

Speaker 1 25:11
yes, that's what it is. Yeah, because the doctors call it HS also called acne

Scott Benner 25:14
inverse is a chronic inflammatory skin condition with lesions including deep seated nodules and abscesses, draining tracks and fibrotic scars. These lesions mostly commonly occur in the in inter regional skinny line and armpits Thank you areas and areas rich in African glands. So now

Speaker 1 25:32
she could get her bikini line and her armpits lasered by Boston Children's Hospital just covered by insurance. I'm like, You are really the luckiest teenage girl around so

Scott Benner 25:42
read my eyebrows for me. While you're there, really? Hey, listen, what's your background? Like? I don't know where you guys from?

Unknown Speaker 25:51
I am a New Yorker. No,

Scott Benner 25:54
I mean, like, you know, like originally.

Speaker 1 25:55
Nothing exciting. More Jewish or Eastern European or

Scott Benner 26:00
nothing. Yeah. I mean, I just wanted to know if there was something there that, like they see this and I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if you were hairier, or something like that. I didn't know what to say.

Speaker 1 26:11
I mean, I mean, I've had laser hair removal. You know, more than most so maybe, but it's just I don't, I don't know. So that's yeah, so I've asked a couple of times, you know, are they any of that considered autoimmune? I think you know, there's been questions about pilonidal and hydrogen Titus if I'm saying it right. Being connected to autoimmune, some say yes, some say no. But um, but yeah, Lucky her all this stuff.

Scott Benner 26:35
Well, that's crazy. You mentioned anything else autoimmune. What's your one other thing or? No? That it? Withdrawal? Yeah, no, no. Okay. How about in the family? Are there other autoimmune issues? So

Speaker 1 26:47
my father has MS. I know that's kind of questionable being autoimmune or not. My husband's mother, we think have lupus. Okay. I have been told I have rainouts you've been told because your hands are cold? Well, because I've gone to doctors, and I mean, I don't they don't really do much about it. It's not extreme. But yeah. You saw I want to have my scarf on and welcome cold all the time. Your thyroids? Okay.

Scott Benner 27:13
My thyroid is okay. Your TSH is like under two.

Speaker 1 27:17
I don't you know, I never paid attention to that. I guess next time I get bloodwork done. I will, Joey's thyroid at her endo appointment just a couple of months ago was 3.4. And they don't want to do anything about it. Had some back and forth conversations with them. And they said with zero symptoms, they don't want to look further and we'll keep an eye on it. I guess

Scott Benner 27:37
that's interesting. Okay. So you went to the doctor, and you said what, I'm cold all the time. And they said, Oh, that's Raynaud's, and then go away? Well, I've

Speaker 1 27:45
had I had some like lesion type things on my feet that they had to check out. And then yeah, then they sent me to the rheumatologist and they were like, Yeah, you probably every now and then there's really not much to do about it now wear gloves that other gloves and socks.

Scott Benner 28:00
I heard him was. She was somewhere one day. And we were talking about maybe how she's kind of like a little flex that like too flexible. And I forget now I'm forgetting the name of the autoimmune disease that it's around that. And that doctor goes all into what it is. And he's talking about like, she's like, like, it's a science experiments like, Oh, that's interesting. That can be blah, blah, blah. And, and then he goes, Don't worry about it, though. There's nothing they can do about that. Like, thank you. Lovely. Yeah. Okay. So, in your notes, you say that after her diagnosis, you found the podcast pretty quickly. How did that happen? Right now we're going to hear from a member of the Medtronic champion community. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes. And this is Mark.

David 28:44
I use injections for about six months. And then my endocrinologist in the Navy recommended a pump. How

Scott Benner 28:50
long had you been in the Navy? Eight years up to that point? I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service and most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

David 29:00
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 29:04
Was it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life? Your career? It was? Yeah,

David 29:08
yeah. In fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we made the decision despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we loved the most.

Scott Benner 29:21
Was the Navy, like a lifetime goal of yours.

David 29:25
lifetime goal. I mean, as my earliest childhood memories were flying, being a fighter pilot,

Scott Benner 29:30
how did your diagnosis impact your lifelong dream?

David 29:34
It was devastating. Everything I had done in life, everything I'd worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant. I was not prepared for that at all. What does your support system look like? friends, your family caregivers, you know, for me to Medtronic champions committee, you know, all those resources that are out there to help guide the way but then help keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pike and to give you hope for eventually that we can find a cure

Scott Benner 29:59
stick around at the end of this episode to hear my entire conversation with Mark, and you can hear more stories from Medtronic champions and share your own story at Medtronic diabetes.com/juice. Box.

Speaker 1 30:13
So I did, I might have actually been in the hospital. So I was I'm a, I'm a podcast fan. I've been a podcast fan for a while. And in 2020, I had podcasts that I listened to regularly just to have like, learning about what's going on in the world. So I think when I was in the hospital, I was like, there's gotta be podcasts about diabetes. So yeah, I listened to the podcast for a while before I even got on to the Facebook group. And I think the time that I was listening to the podcast, you were, I mean, maybe now you're too I just don't listen, I don't hear that as much. But there was a lot of you know, don't forget to join our Facebook group. And I was like, oh, have enough Facebook stuff. I don't need to be on social media more. And then finally, I was like, I should probably join that Facebook group. And I think, probably around January,

Scott Benner 30:52
I got on the Facebook group, okay, you find it valuable.

Speaker 1 30:55
I do, you know, early on, I definitely used it as like a, help me, help me help me started maybe feeling a little bit self conscious about how many times I was saying, Help me, help me help me. And then then it just felt like more of a support group and people who understand

Scott Benner 31:11
it modifies itself as you use it. And I do mention it, it's funny. There is there's a person I know who does. They professionally help people drive more traffic to websites, they do these, like these kinds of things. And she tells me privately all the time, you have this podcast, it's so many people listen to, and you never talk about the things you want people to do. Like the Facebook group, you never tell them about your website, like she's like, it's just like, you know, your ads work for everybody. They'd work for you too. And I was like, Oh, yeah. And then I make a note to myself on this whiteboard in front of me. And then inevitably, a week from now, I'll scrub it off. And then I'll be putting bumpers on the podcast, and I'll completely forget to do you there is a Facebook group, it's terrific. And you should go find it.

Speaker 1 31:58
It is I mean, it's funny, because I feel like I have friends on the Facebook group who I don't know, at all, but I just feel connected to them. And you know, just people who you communicate with on a regular basis or see their posts and get excited about, you know, their things that are happening, or their weight loss journeys, or their you know, new things that are happening, you know, it's exciting to feel that kind of connection to somebody,

Scott Benner 32:19
I did an in person thing last weekend. And I spent like the first 20 minutes hugging people like, I was there with Jenny. And we, I don't know what got into our head, I was like, let's walk outside and talk about what we're gonna do. Because I don't want to like ruin it for anybody. But we hadn't really, we don't really need to plan for when you know, something that's well, you don't need to plan to do it. You know what I mean? But we were going to talk about like kind of how we were going to start into it. And for some reason, we walked outside of the hall. And it turned into a receiving line it away. And I said I just leaned over to Jenny at one point, I was like, we made a mistake coming out here. And she's like, I'm like, we're never gonna get to talk about what we want to talk about. But you see the people, and then you can picture them in like this little picture on your phone. You're like, Oh, my God, I know you. And then you know, people are hugging and it's really lovely. Anyway, I'm sure some people hear that and think that sounds horrible. I do not want to be a part of that. But it really is unlike most experiences on Facebook. I feel Yeah. Anyway.

Speaker 1 33:20
Yeah. I mean, I think that the summer after jewel is diagnosis, I think I mentioned she went to sleepaway camp, she's always gone to an overnight camp, and she was very set on going to the same camp that she's always gotten to, you know, and we had heard diabetes camp is great, you need to do this. And she was like, no, why do I want to go to camp where my friends don't go, which is I'm going back to the camp that I've always gone to. So we spoke to camp, they were wonderful about it. And it was that summer that I think I got really much more involved in learning, learning more from the podcast, learning more from the Facebook group, because, you know, she was away for me. And she was living at like 300 for a very long time at camp and, you know, trying to manage her from afar and talking to other people about how to manage her. And that's when I was like, No, 300 is not okay, we can't we can't do that. And you know, that's when I started learning that a lot of people think like, well, as long as she's that low, that's okay. 300 is fine, as long as she's not low. And, you know, so I just started learning, learning, learning and teaching myself and figuring out how we could make things work a little bit better for her. Was

Scott Benner 34:23
that a full year of you living like that before she went away to camp?

Speaker 1 34:27
I mean, no, she wasn't living at 300 But like with

Scott Benner 34:31
the, with the knowledge you had, that was from October to the summertime. Right? Okay. Yep. And that was there something about being away from her for a little while that gave you the maybe the air to look into it.

Speaker 1 34:44
I think that was when her finally I realized that was when her numbers were high for too long, you know, and I realized it was that she was high for too long and and unfortunately that's kind of what happens at camp when she you know, she's gone back to camp a lot more and that it happens. But now we know how to bring her back down. and deal with it. You know, canned food is not healthy food, probably similar to college dorm food. It's not, it's not pretty, you know, you could say you're gonna have a salad with chickpeas and for some reason that hit says if she's had a full pizza, but um, and also, you know, as you know, I don't really know what she's eating when she's not with me. It's just very easy to control when she's home. But when she's away, I don't really know all the details. And she doesn't always want to share all the details.

Scott Benner 35:26
It's possible she has a cupcake in her hand and she's going it's a salad with chickpeas. Absolutely,

Speaker 1 35:30
absolutely. So yeah, so that was when I first realized like, Okay, what's happening now is not okay. And we need to figure this out. And I need to teach other people that this is not okay. And, you know, a little bit more learning across

Scott Benner 35:41
the board. Is your husband involved in all this with the diabetes? He's

Speaker 1 35:45
involved in a like, what can I do? can I how can I support but he does not have the the knowledge that I have. He he does not listen to the podcast. He does not know the details.

Scott Benner 35:59
This is apropos of nothing but you didn't meet a Jewish guy named Jim so right. That's not that doesn't happen, does it? I did meet a Jewish guy named John. That's amazing. Good for you. I don't know where you get that off. Like immediately. I was like, to be Jewish. His name's Jim. different questions, parents?

Unknown Speaker 36:20
Yeah. Yeah. For a lot of things, yes.

Scott Benner 36:28
I don't think most people would have picked up on that. But I have a special palette. So anyway, I was like, that doesn't make any sense at all. No, it doesn't matter. Brad and Adam nothing.

Unknown Speaker 36:39
Eric David, right.

Scott Benner 36:41
I mean, there's a lot of options. Nevertheless. Okay. So a boy named Jim. I wish this was about him, because I think that's the title, but we can't go that direction.

Speaker 1 36:52
Well, so when I was introduced to Jim, the friend that introduced us totally has nothing to do with anything. I said to her, you, we went on, I might, I don't know if it's our first date or so I somehow I ended up at his house for some reason. He was making dinner, whatever. And he had a Christmas tree up. And I called my friend and I said, you just introduced me to a guy who has a dog and a Christmas tree. You know, I hate dogs. I'm not interested in the guy with the Christmas tree. And she's like, Don't Don't worry, no, he just likes Christmas trees. But he's actually Jewish. And I was like, well, that doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. One stream, and I you know, established a relationship. I was like, so the Christmas tree is gonna go and I guess the dog he was like, now the dogs are gonna, like learn to live with the dog

Scott Benner 37:36
is watching the Grinch next year? If that's what you're wondering, right? Podcast, helpful management stuff, mostly in the beginning? Or did you just dive in with everything?

Speaker 1 37:48
I think the management stuff was probably the most helpful at the beginning. And again, I you know, three years ago now, I don't remember how I started. But I remember, definitely, when I was at camp, it was all about the pro tips and all that I'm like, Okay, how do we how do we figure this all out? You know, and working with the school nurses who actually don't work with at all, especially now, Julie has nothing to do with the nurses, which was a little bit of a point of contention with her going into high school this year. But just you know, just trying to, to make sure that I know what I'm doing. It's best for her to try and teach her what's best for her. Yeah.

Scott Benner 38:23
So you tried to separate her from the, the nursing staff at the school and they push back?

Speaker 1 38:30
Yeah. So in middle school, the nurses followed her Dexcom. And that was pretty much all they did. I told them, they were not to reach out to her for any reason. They were not to call her down to the office or anything. There was a couple of times where they would reach out to me and say, is everything okay? And I said, Yeah, we're, we're taking care of it. Because Julie and I text all day long. So finally, I said to them, do you still need to follow her? And they said, Well, yeah, we we want to follow her. And it was, I didn't want to get into it. But it was I think even on the Facebook group I asked somebody about and they were like, well, if she didn't have a Dexcom, they wouldn't be following her. But I let them follow her through middle school. And then going into high school. When I met the nurses in they said, you know, so we're gonna want to follow her Dexcom. And I said, but you're not going to? And they said, Oh, well, we really require that we can, you know, insist that we follow the Dexcom of all of our kids with diabetes. And I said, but you're not going to follow Jolie. And I said, because you know, and I use that I said, if she didn't have a Dexcom, you wouldn't be able to follow her. She's fine. And they said, Oh, well, then if we're not following her, we, you know, we do need to know that for the first two weeks of school. So keep in mind this, a new school, she's a freshman. The first two weeks of school, she needs to come to the nurse's office, a huge, huge school. Our school has over 1600 kids in it. For the first two weeks of school, she needs to come to the nurse's office every day before lunch to check in with us. And I said, No, you're not gonna do that. And they said, Well, you know, it's something that we ask of all of our kids and I said, but she's not going to do that. I said the reason she's not doing that is because she wants a normal high school career. There's no reason that she needs to go and check in with you. You're not following her You're not going to ask her anything. There's nothing for you to do.

Scott Benner 40:02
Yeah, what will happen when she gets there? You guys gonna wave at each other? And then right? Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 40:05
So it worked, the push back worked. So they don't follow her. She does not stop and to see them. Funny thing is this year she's actually visited the nurse more than she ever did in middle school because one day her high school has been challenged with diabetes and food, I call it I say that high school is a candy culture. She has been high a lot, or at least been using a ton of insulin a lot. So one day her pug ran out of insulin. So she was like, What do I do? And I said, you go to the nurse, and you change your pie that you know, I brought them bucket of stuff. So she has supplies there. And she said, No, no, I'll just be fine. I won't eat all day. It doesn't, doesn't work that way. And she said, No, no, it doesn't. And then she had a volleyball game at night. And she said, Just bring me my bring me a pin. When I when you come to the volleyball game, I said, again, doesn't work that way. You need to have your Basal running. You need to have other things happening. You know, we can't just bring you a pen for if you're gonna give yourself a shot with a pen, which she doesn't even know how to do. Yeah. I said, you could just change your pod. You could do that quicker. Long story short, she ended up going to the nurse and changing her pod. I think she got scared enough that she just did it. But I

Scott Benner 41:06
just finished a recording with a young girl. Young she's like 20 fives, just type one. She was having a perfect pregnancy. It was going perfectly. And at 33 weeks, she got the flu. And couple days into the flu. She changed her. I think a T slim pump. And her cannula got kinked and not seven or eight hours after that happened. She was in emergency surgery. They were trying to save her baby. Oh my god. Yeah, because she didn't have insulin for seven hours. Like and probably had some but not enough for seven hours. She went to decay that quickly. And the baby was indicato oh my god, really? Oh, that's scary. Yeah. So babies, okay. But really, like she said, one of the last thing she remembers is the doctor saying I'm sorry, this is gonna hurt. We're trying to save you in the baby. And that was like, that's like one of the last thing she remembers happening before the surgery. Anyway, point is you can't go hours and hours and hours without and you

Speaker 1 42:07
can't. So she's going to change her pod. So she was like, Alright, I went to the nurse. Now I know where my stuff is. I was like saying they're not that scary. I didn't want her to think that. I don't want her to feel like she has to use a nurse. But I also don't want her to think the nurses

Scott Benner 42:18
understand. It's also super interesting that you're fighting against the thing that most people can't get their schools to do and they desperately want them to do, like, just follow them on Dexcom most schools are like, we don't want to be responsible for that. Right? You had a school was like, we have to follow your it's so I mean, I

Speaker 1 42:35
think for me because I follow her so closely and because I communicate with her so regularly. I do feel like it's a bit of an invasion of privacy. And I it's funny because I wonder I don't know if Joelle has gotten to that point yet for me like sometimes I wonder Does she think it's an invasion of her privacy that I know everything that's going on with her? I feel like she will eventually Don't worry. I very often get the text of I got it. You know that's that's the standard text. I got it. Leave me alone. I've got it. I know what I'm doing. I've got it. So I knew that she'd annoyed by by my reaching out. I just don't know if she feels like it's an invasion of privacy yet.

Scott Benner 43:07
I would remind her that she thought it was okay to go from one o'clock till seven o'clock without insulin then maybe she doesn't got it. As much as you think she

Speaker 1 43:14
doesn't ever got it. She doesn't ever got it. But she thinks she's got it. Yeah. Yep. High School has been challenging. It definitely has been challenging. Good luck.

Scott Benner 43:24
I don't think it gets any better. So I was gonna say something about my wife, but I don't think that's okay. Anyway, I don't think it ever gets better is what I was gonna say. And I'm sure I'm the same pain in the ass that I was when I was 16 as well. Not to say otherwise. I don't know what you do other than teach them, remind them repeat it. Wait for it to sink in and just hope you don't hope that learning doesn't have to come through. Like a horrible problem. Like that's, that's a really, yeah, hopefully that was, I

Speaker 1 43:57
mean, to your point of what we we don't want what most people do want to interesting story. Last year, Jolie was going on a field trip to some amusement park. And the field trip was divided by the clusters that they're in in middle school, they were going by cluster and each bus had a cluster or something like that. And Jolie came home from school one day crying that she got put on a different bus because she needed to be on the bus with the nurse. Yeah, I didn't go over well with me that did not I mean, I call I pulled like pulled over called the nurse called the assistant principal. I was like, what joint soulmate? She's on a different bus. Why is she not on the bus with everybody else did her cost her and she said she needs to be on the bus with the other diabetics. And I know there's different thoughts and in the diabetes community about terminology, but I was very quickly to say we don't label our children, please. Are you talking about the children with diabetes? I mean, I was just on fire at that point. I was like, Don't tell me she needs to be on the bus with the other diabetics. and for what reason? They said, Well, if there's an issue I said, if there's an issue that nurses doing now thing that were What are you talking about? They pull over just like the pull over bus without a nurse. It didn't go up? Well, but yeah, I mean, I appreciate their attention to wanting to take care of their children with diabetes. But you know, I feel like there's a point where, well,

Scott Benner 45:15
I take your point. So a couple of them actually about the about the, you know, this is private. I think that as well, like, you know, artisans. At that point, when Arden went to high school, high school was not our problem. The high school nurses, we had them pretty, we had them pretty beat down by that, like the nursing staff was was pretty amenable by that. For her. It was the middle school situation with a nurse who was like, This is what has to happen. This is what I do with all the kids, she and I are going to become friends. Artem looked across a meeting table me like, I'm not gonna become friends with this lady. Right? Like, she just wasn't interested in it. And I just said to her, I'm like, Look, you know, however old you are going into middle school. I was like art into diabetes for you know, a decade at this point. And she's like, Uh huh. And I said, we haven't known you the whole time. And she's fine. So we're gonna be

Speaker 1 46:08
okay, I appreciated the up for now. And she's not gonna be friends with Yeah, I

Scott Benner 46:12
said, I said, I'm so sorry. The worst thing I can think of is that my daughter spends an inordinate amount of time in the nurse's office, befriending a 50 year old lady. I think I don't think that's actually a good thing. And so, you know, I was like, No, thank you really appreciate it, like, seriously. But here's what we're gonna do. Arne and I are going to handle this through texting. And the good news is, is that if she drops that it's my fault, not yours. And you should have seen the legal person in the room lit up like it was Christmas Day. And you could see her go, oh, that's a good point. We're out of this. If he if we just do it this way. Like they literally once they realized they were giving away legal responsibility. They were thrilled to do it. And and that was it. So I think Arden had been in that nurse's office, maybe four times but always for like a pump change or like something like that.

Speaker 1 47:08
I mean, I appreciate the nurses, I appreciate that they are there. I appreciate they seem to be on top of things. Her school has 10 kids with diabetes right now. So you know, they seem to be somewhat knowledgeable, but I don't need them to manage her at all. Like they don't need to call her classroom and say your blood sugar's high, or your blood sugar's low. She she knows that, you know, so I just, I feel much better without them.

Scott Benner 47:27
I had one tell me once a lot of our kids get their best diabetes care here. And I thought, well, that's a different problem. That's not that's not a good thing about you. That's a Yeah, that's a, that's a different issue. Issue. You because you've got the kids running around in the height, like to hundreds go and like at least they're not low. And you know, like, and that's the best care. They're getting, like, you've set the bar pretty low, if that's what you want to like, put on your CV is what I was thinking. So anyway, yeah, I take your point. And I like I like that you stick up for it, and you're consistent about it. And you know, everything else did she get on the regular bus for the trip back? No,

Speaker 1 48:08
she had to be on that. That bus was the diabetic children. Yep. The diabetes bus? No, just that the diabetic children? Yes. But

Scott Benner 48:17
if we say diabetes boss, I can make that the title. So you can

Speaker 1 48:20
you can choose on the diabetes bus. So I feel like for so many things. I'm like on my soapbox, and I have to Yeah, I'm always like calling people and sticking up for what should be happening. And then and then I feel like I always step back and be like, Oh, my God, everybody hates me. Everybody hates me. Like I you know, I get so confident. And then I'm like, Oh, I'm not that confident. But do

Scott Benner 48:38
you dig back into whether or not you think Julie's upset with you being involved? Do you think she's good with you doing this stuff? Yeah,

Speaker 1 48:45
she is, you know, and there were some things I still do behind the scenes without her necessarily knowing like, you know, I send I have like a one pager information that I send to all of her coaches, I send a one pager that I send to, you know, all the camp nurses and in one pager if the school wants to send it, give it to her teachers. And I don't know that she knows that. I do that for all of those things. You know, she knows that I have conversations with people. But I think she appreciates appreciates it. She said I don't remember what it was. It was something recently maybe it was tryouts for something where she said you're going to you're going to tell Oh, she she's getting her lifeguarding certification soon. And she said, Well, you're going to tell them that I am going to need a break sometimes, you know, if I felt like I need a break, and I said, Yeah, of course. So I think she's also gotten to the point where she knows I'm gonna go and tell people that what's going on? I don't know if she knows what I give them or how much I tell them. But yeah, yeah, I think she does appreciate it.

Scott Benner 49:35
Hopefully she won't need a break while Someone's drowning. Hopefully not. I'll be right with you. I'm going to drink this juice box about a couple of minutes. Time need a little time and get right in there and help you. You should just paddle paddle paddle your feet, your feet. Oh my god, let's cool. She does a lot of stuff. She plays a bunch of sports.

Speaker 1 49:56
She plays volleyball. I mean, that's her. That's her main sport now. And she's she's always been a swimmer. She actually, when she was diagnosed, she was on the swim team. And literally like, four days after diagnosis, she went back to swim team again, because I was very much like you're doing what you're doing. So yeah, she but then swim team wasn't her thing anymore. And it didn't it was swim team was hard for management. And that wasn't why we left it. But she just wasn't interested in swimming anymore. Gotcha. But lifeguarding makes a lot of money. And she has discovered that she wants to have nice things. So she wants to be a lifeguard so she can make money.

Scott Benner 50:27
That's, that's and she's 15. She knows she's settled in on like, doing some work. That's really great. Well,

Speaker 1 50:35
she's settled in on me and not buying her everything that she wants. So she needs to figure out a way to deliver like, I'm

Scott Benner 50:39
not paying for that. Right, exactly. Oh, my son's been at his first job out of college for 10 months now. And a package arrived here yesterday. And he goes, Hey, he facetimes me, he goes, where are you at? I was like I was in the car. By the way. I don't know why kids don't call like, I don't know why everything has to be a FaceTime, like driving. He's looking at the ceiling of my car while I'm driving. And he's like, where are you at? I said, I'm out picking up something for mom. And he goes, Well, when you get home, call me back. And I'm like, okay, so I get home and I do a couple things. And I'm actually thinking, I'm gonna call call back and hit him. He calls me back. I'm like, What is this? And so he's like, go to the front door. There's a package there. And I'm like, okay, so I go to the front door, and there's two packages, and they seem very similar. And like, there's clothing inside of them. And I said, I have them It feels like clothing. I said they're addressed to you. He goes, Yeah, one of them's for you. One of them's for me. And I was like, okay, and he I opened it up, and he bought me a like an Eagles jersey. Oh, he's never bought me anything ever. And I was like, I tried. I was, I was very grateful. And I expressed that to him. But at the same time, I tried not to make a big deal out of it. But I was thinking I'm like, Oh my God, you used your money. And you taught me something. I was like, this is a lovely moment. He's never bought me any. I think he was proud to like, a US proud to be able to pay for it himself. Yeah, you know, really, really cool. So anyway, that's what it made me think of when I hear Julie's out there hustling to make her to make her money. Yeah, let's say let's say she needs what shoes. That's what Arden would buy. Shoes.

Speaker 1 52:16
No bags, shoes, headphones, decided that there's like a $600 pair of headphones that she wants that I'm like,

Scott Benner 52:23
no. Go for little kids out of the pool.

Speaker 1 52:27
Yeah, she she made she put together a Google slideshow of what she wants for her birthday. Which is next week. It was like, no

Scott Benner 52:36
orden de stresses at college by online shopping. And she wasn't buying anything. She just goes online and shops. She said it's very relaxing. And I'm like 10 shops. Okay. And your notes here. You talk about Omnipod five. Can we talk about that?

Speaker 1 52:50
Yeah, we so you know, as I said, I'm a ORM maybe I didn't say but as you maybe can tell I'm a bit of a fierce advocate and don't hold back so yeah, we got her the five Jun Jun 22 very quickly. So yeah, it was not easy was not easy, but I wanted her to have it before she went to camp. So she started she was on the dash starting December after diagnosis. So two months post diagnosis. We got her on the dash. So that was December 2020. And then she got the five in June right after it came

Scott Benner 53:21
out felt important to you because she was going away you thought well, maybe this will alleviate some of the spikes if she misses. Yeah, I

Speaker 1 53:26
thought it could help out with some camp management, which I mean, I think it does a little bit but I mean,

Scott Benner 53:31
it's just off the Bolus, but I still Ardennes at college, her biggest Arden's biggest problems with diabetes still are. It's her time. It's her time and attention, which I think is true for everybody. She's not Pre-Bolus thing long enough. And if she sees a spike, she doesn't jump on it. Those are her two issues. If she did that Arden would be back with like a high five a one se but she just like,

Speaker 1 53:58
and I will say I think it was just a couple of days ago Jolie was like, way higher than I wanted her to be when she came home. And she said, But I Bolus everything correctly. And I looked back in her history, which that's where that's her privacy thing. She's like, don't look at my history, because then I think you know what I do? I'm like, What are you had 100 carbs between nine and 11? What on earth were you? That was even before school lunch, right? So that's what she was want me to look at it. But I looked at it. And I said, Well, you counted for something at 230 50 carbs. But you were at 160. And you didn't do a correction with that. Oh, I forgot that. She does a really good job with most of it. But then I'm like, well, that's why you're even because that's that's the whole three units that you left out there.

Scott Benner 54:40
I think that's a good solid base, though. Like that. She's counting the carbs and giving herself insulin. Like hopefully she'll figure the rest of it out. But really she's doing it. You don't I mean,

Speaker 1 54:50
she is and I will say this morning I woke up and I said to her totally one day, not today, probably not in the next five years. But one day you're gonna thank me because last night I was up at midnight. I, too, am 4am 6am I did corrections every two hours last night, which is not the norm, especially now with Omnipod. Five, but after Halloween and it was a pump change last night and you know, everything went on Yeah, every two hours, I was giving her correction. And my, our high alarm is set at 140 at night. So every time she went over one more day I was back in I go to do a correction. I said, and one day, you're gonna have to do this yourself. And she said, Well, how am I going to do that? And I was like, I don't know when and I will say that scares me doesn't have on any alarm. She doesn't have on anything. She doesn't pay attention to any of it. But I'm like, at some point, at some point, you're going to do it. But for now, just just please know that I was up and free two hours last night.

Scott Benner 55:40
Maybe you can get her to set the alarms up on the on the during the summer, you know, and like get herself accustomed to like saying, Oh, I'm 140 or something I should maybe pay attention to this, like that kind of an idea. Who knows, I guess you're gonna have to do it incrementally. Otherwise, you're going to be in that situation where you're branching out or one day and you're like, you can't turn this alarm sign like, you know, it's not gonna go well, last night. I must have been the night. So we're Arden. I think poor Arden every time I say this, but Arden got her period yesterday. So she was like, she was wiped out. And she came back from her classes. And she's like, I'm gonna she told me, we were texting in the morning. And boy that she really knows how to cut her clothes. She had like, I think four units of insulin left in her pump. And she was like, class, and I texted her and I was like, hey, when is class over? And she goes, I'll be back in my room and a half an hour. And I was like, Okay, I'm like, you know that you need a pump, right? She's Yeah. Now I was like, okay, she goes, I'm either going to take a nap, or do my homework when I get back. And I said, Okay, well, for sure. Change the pump. That's the first thing no matter

Speaker 1 56:47
what you do, and you have the ability to see how much he has onboard with your system.

Scott Benner 56:51
It's Nightscout I can see how much insulin pump on Nightscout. So, so she's like, okay, like I will and she did like I could see that the pump suddenly had more insulin and and again, and she like she was a little higher. She was like 140 And I was like, you know Bolus, like because it's a new pump and and right now the algorithm thinks it gave you enough. So like, put in some extra insulin before you go do whatever you get into it. She was cool. She was good all that. But last night, I couldn't tell if she was asleep or not like I could see the last time she ate. And her blood sugar was good. And I texted her. And I was like, Hey, I lost your data. Like, I don't see your Dexcom. And she doesn't answer. And I'm like, Now am I bothering her? Or Is she asleep? Because it's like 1230. And I'm like, Arden? Nothing. I'm like, let me wait a little while to probably just come back on. Because I have to be honest. Like we never have problems like that. Like, like no data and like stuff like that never happens. And so an hour into it. I'm like, Hey, ARDS. I texted her again, she didn't answer I wait a little longer. So it's now been like 90 minutes, but no data. And it eludes me for some reason that even though I can't see her number I could see in Nightscout if she was still getting basil, because if she was getting basil, then that means the algorithm sees her CGM number, and I just I was so tired. I forgot that. So I called her. She doesn't answer she texts back what? And I said, Hey, I don't have any data from your Dexcom and she goes, okay. And then I'm like, Are you gonna take care of it? Then I didn't hear from her again. Anyway, at three o'clock in the morning, I finally like lost my nerve about like, just waiting for it to come back. And I called her and I woke her up. And I was like, Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were up doing homework. Like it's a weird thing when your kids are in college like three o'clock doing homeworks not crazy. And she goes no, I am asleep. And I was like, Okay, I'm like I don't have any data. And she goes Thank you hear her phone click open and she was I have it. And I said I said as long as your phone as that I'm sorry I woke you up go back to sleep. And then she just like was gone. And you know two seconds later because something happened like I got her to open her phone I guess and it popped right back again. And all I could think when that was over was I really wanted to go to sleep three hours ago and then I'm setting an alarm like to talk to you this morning. And I'm just like, oh god like am I gonna be okay in the morning cuz I got like five hours of sleep. And and I feel fine, but it's it's tomorrow that will hit me now because I'm getting older. Like when I was younger it wouldn't have I would have been like, Oh, this is fine. I could have stayed up for nights with that with diabetes in the past but now it catches me like it really

Speaker 1 59:48
done no, my problem is I work nights, not like overnight, but I work at in the evening and that's when I start feeling like I'd rather be in bed and in my pajamas because I got three hours of sleep last night. But now I have to Yeah. function and talk to people. But how old are you? I am 40. I'm going to be 48 next week.

Scott Benner 1:00:08
What do you see in the next handful of years? Like it won't be like I should sleep. It'll be like, I'm going to sleep now. Goodbye.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:16
Oh, I wish I wish I could fall asleep.

Scott Benner 1:00:17
Do you have trouble sleeping? I do. I have a lot of trouble sleeping happens your mind races?

Speaker 1 1:00:23
Yeah, my mind races I spend staring at this friggin sugar pixel, you know, all different things. I get up every two hours to do a correction. I think my body's just trained to be getting up so much now that I just don't sleep. Well.

Scott Benner 1:00:35
I have to admit, the one thing people ask a lot about, that I'm still shocked by is, you know, we you were helping lard and you were helping her especially overnight, because I wasn't very involved in her diabetes for you know, the last maybe year and a half of high school. Like we were really letting her practice on herself basically before college, but overnight, it was still me. And when she left there was part of me. I was like, she'll be home in a week. Like, I don't know how this is going to work. And then I don't she set it on here. I asked her about it. And she goes, Well, you know, once I was gone, like, you know, it was like a don't die thing. So it seemed pretty important. So I take care of it myself now. And I was like, how do you do that? And she goes, I don't think I sleep as soundly as I used to. And I was like, oh, so sad. Okay, but she's probably right. You know? Probably right. Yeah. Anyway, did we miss anything? Oh, you fired your doctor Jocelyn. Oh,

Speaker 1 1:01:27
so that was interesting. So we went on the Omnipod. Five. And I love Jocelyn I love we have a fantastic, fantastic nurse. That was great. And a doctor who we liked. And she went on the Omnipod five. And it's funny, I feel like I sometimes go to doctor's appointments and ask them questions, because I think it's what you're supposed to do, even though I already know the answers. So And oftentimes, I feel like I just no more than them. Thanks. Thanks to you. We went to the doctor. And I was like, I don't understand. And I feel like this still happens sometimes. If she's only Omnipod. Five. Why is she stuck at 140? Like, why does she like a very straight smooth line at 140? All night long? I don't understand why it's not still working to bring her down. And then the doctor was like, Oh, do you put her on? What's called Sleep Sleep mode. She said you put her on sleep mode. And I was like Omnipod five doesn't have sleep mode. She was like, oh, right, right, right away. Right. Then she was like, I was asking her some other questions. And she said, Well, do you use Basal IQ? And I said,

Scott Benner 1:02:23
that's different paths, different paths.

Speaker 1 1:02:29
And, and I mean, this is like our once a year doctor's appointment that we have with this doctor, I feel like we should get some attention and have her at least know what hump we use. And I like that was kind of the that was it. I was like, no, no, not not using a doctor who doesn't even know what our

Scott Benner 1:02:43
pump. I think if I had an endocrinologist who I said, I'm using Omnipod, five, and they started asking me about control like you or vice versa or anything else like that. And I said, No, no, you're thinking of the wrong pump, like giving them a shot to go, Oh, you're right, I'm sorry. And then they still don't know about the system I'm using. I gotta wonder like, they don't have a half an hour to learn about something they're talking about all day long.

Speaker 1 1:03:05
You know, she might she was like, Oh, I've been dealing with TCM patients all day. I'm like, but that's fine. I'm not one of them. Like we are not at the same patient. So I so I went back to Jocelyn and you know, our nurse, I said who's what endo Should we go to? Who has more knowledge on Omnipod? Five? So we are now using an amazing doctor who was part of the trial also.

Scott Benner 1:03:21
Sorry, the the bigger problem isn't that, in my opinion, the bigger problem is there's an answer for why you get a 140 stuff blood sugar on an algorithm. There's a way to like to handle that. And the answer isn't like did you try flipping the switch? Some people use the sleep mode, like you know, like, the answer is you've miscalculated something, the impact of food most likely, because the pump believes it has enough insulin, it's not giving you more or it's taking away your Basal, because it believes it's covered it it doesn't want to make you low, it's not going to just decide none of them are just going to decide, Oh, screw it, I'll ignore how much they told me they ate. And I'll give more insulin. They'll it'll do it slowly. But it's not going to do it aggressively. You have to look back and say, hey, you know what, this turns out this might have been 65 carbs. And we said it was 55 carbs, or what if

Speaker 1 1:04:13
it's during the night and we're so far past like this morning at four o'clock in the morning? Why was she still at 140 Even though she had already come down and then like drifted back up. I

Scott Benner 1:04:21
just don't understand that. Something's pushing her blood sugar up.

Speaker 1 1:04:24
I mean, so the past couple of weeks have been so tricky. She was really sick two weeks ago. And I've been hesitant to change settings. She was really sick. So she was running higher. And then I was like, well, maybe at some point, we'll have to change settings. But then I was like, let's wait till she's not sick anymore and see if she goes back

Scott Benner 1:04:38
illness hormones, like like, well,

Speaker 1 1:04:41
and now she's got her period. She's starting her period today or tomorrow. So I was like, well, we have to wait but now I don't know if the illness has has pushed her to need more insulin overall. So we might need to change her settings.

Scott Benner 1:04:52
The whole only point five two is an example like if you're having less of a need Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then all of a sudden on Friday that needs greater. It's kind of considering Wednesday, Thursday. And that could be another issue too, like so there's there's a reason. But wouldn't it be interesting to hear the doctor talk through those reasons? So yeah, Dr. Woods? Yeah, not not have to wait for me. It's ridiculous. Anyway, to all you doctors out there that don't know what you're doing. Thank you, I have a very successful podcast because of your ineptitude. And I appreciate it. Thank you. It's fascinating. I literally, if they knew what they were doing wouldn't have a job right now, and not that some of them aren't fantastic. Because a lot of them are, you know, probably, let's be honest, overwhelmingly, they're probably great. But there's enough sprinkled through there that people end up having issues like this, and they have to go other places to look for information. And

Speaker 1 1:05:45
there's something to be said, for the doctors who do the work all day long, and know so much and learn so much, but still don't live with it. You know, it just, it's just different. It's just different when you're living with it.

Scott Benner 1:05:59
I had this, uh, this kind of epiphany on Sunday. So I went to Austin, and did this talk for the JDRF in Austin. And it was Jenny and I, and instead of Jenny, and I idea was like, you know, at these events, people show up for 30 minutes. Usually they stand behind a lectern, they put a slideshow behind them, and they say, some crap that you're just like, as boring and I'm not paying attention any of us and like, it sucks. And we said, well, if we're, if we're in control of what we're doing, like, you know, we don't want to do that. So we just kind of like almost like smartlace on the road style. Put like, two, you said, you were a podcast person. So I figured you knew that reference. So we've put two chairs on the on the stage, put a table in between us, sat down two hours, we just talked about stuff, and then sent everyone to lunch, by the way for people who have put on events and know the pain that no one comes back after lunch. Everyone returned after lunch. And then we did 1pm till 4pm. Three straight solid hours, we did q&a stuff. And like not like little bull crap stuff. Like we did long, deep conversations about everybody's questions. And what struck me, the epiphany I had at the end was, we could have sat there and done that for 10 hours. You know, when you have somebody who actually knows what they're talking about, it's interesting how easy it is to disseminate the information. It's when it's when you have a doctor who's like, I'm a doctor, I know what I'm talking about, then you realize they don't know the difference between two different pumps. Those are the people you're having stand up at these events, and read slideshows to people. And that's why no one's getting anywhere. I guarantee you, the people and that actually one woman left that room. And these people were listeners too, by the way, they were podcast listeners already. And a person got online and said, just being in the room and hearing the conversations, look at this graph for my daughter, we were already doing well. But look how much better this went just because I had a refresher and ideas were in my head and stuff like that. So anyway, it's doable. You just have to find people who are willing to let those kinds of events happen. I don't think you're gonna see it mostly, although, between you and I, because this isn't going to come out for a long time. I'll slip this in here. Come to Boston. I think one of the companies I do business with is going to do like a live event tour with me next year. I think we might go to a bunch of different cities and stuff like that. So fingers crossed that that makes it through the marketing meetings, and everybody thinks it's a good idea and that you come to Boston, Boston will be great. I think Chicago is on the list. Probably Philly DC like gonna try to keep me so I'm not like I don't die flying all over the country. But we'll probably pick a West Coast location and you got an empty nester what else you're doing. Well, every time I leave the house, my wife gets sick. I was gone for two days and I get this text. I have pneumonia. I'm like pneumonia. What are we 90 I was like what's going on? So she has long some long COVID symptoms, and then got around a person with a with a chest infection and didn't realize it and so now she's in the other room sleeping off pneumonia, along with a bunch of medication. So anyway, if I leave it she's gonna get dip theory next or something.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:18
Take her with you take her with him.

Scott Benner 1:09:19
I tried to get her to come back to work. Yeah, yeah, well, no, but somebody's got to get these. I got a kid in college. I was like it was like you get in there and make money. Anyway, anything we didn't go over or anything you've that we missed?

Speaker 1 1:09:33
I don't think so. I think we covered everything, plus more.

Scott Benner 1:09:36
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you were terrific.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:39
Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:09:40
Yeah, hold on one second. Great. Oh, did you have a good time?

Speaker 1 1:09:42
It was it was great. I was nervous. But um, I'm glad we did it. I'm glad I was able to see you and chat with you and in in real face to face you'll be nervous about oh, I don't know just saying saying dumb things or not sounding good. Although I won't. I won't know that until I hear it. You know, you didn't

Scott Benner 1:09:59
say anything dumb. Don't worry about that you gave a really good example of being direct with people and not apologizing for how you feel or what you need. And I think a lot of people could use that lesson once in a while so I think that was really terrific. Plus, you know, we'll get to find out one day about Julie and if she's actually answering your if she she actually having a cupcake but she's telling you it's a salad that's all I thought that point. Okay, hold on. Was that good for me?

A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. Mark is an incredible example of what so many experience living with diabetes, you show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes define you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong. And together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. Don't forget, we still have marks conversation at the very end. It's a terrific kind of mini episode about 10 minutes long, that goes deeper into some of the things that you heard Mark talking about earlier in the show. A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice box, this is where we get our diabetes supplies from you can as well use the link or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. And now my full conversation with Medtronic champion, Mark. Mark. How old were you when you were diagnosed with type one diabetes? I was 2828. How old are you now? 4747. So just about 20 years?

David 1:12:17
Yeah, 19 years?

Scott Benner 1:12:18
What was your management style when you were diagnosed?

David 1:12:20
I use injections for about six months. And then my endocrinologist at a navy recommended a pump.

Scott Benner 1:12:27
How long had you been in the Navy?

David 1:12:28
See eight years up to that point?

Scott Benner 1:12:30
Eight years? Yeah, I've interviewed a number of people who have been diagnosed during service and most of the time they're discharged. What happened to you?

David 1:12:38
I was medically discharged. Yeah, six months after my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 1:12:42
I don't understand the whole system. Is that like honorable? Yeah. I

David 1:12:45
mean, essentially, if you get a medical discharge, you get a commensurate honorable discharge. I guess there could be cases where something other than that, but that's that's really how it happens. So it's an honorably discharged with but because of medical reasons,

Scott Benner 1:12:57
and that still gives you access to the VA for the rest of your life. Right?

David 1:13:00
Correct. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 1:13:02
Do you use the VA for your management? No, I

David 1:13:04
used to up until a few years ago, when we moved to North Carolina, it just became untenable, just rigmarole and process to kind of get all the things I needed. You know, for diabetes management, it was far easier just to go through a private practice.

Scott Benner 1:13:17
Was it your goal to stay in the Navy for your whole life, your career? It was? Yeah,

David 1:13:21
yeah. In fact, I think a few months before my diagnosis, my wife and I had that discussion about, you know, staying in for the long term. And, you know, we've made the decision despite all the hardships and time away from home, that was what we love the most. So that's what made it that much more difficult was

Scott Benner 1:13:37
the Navy a, like a lifetime goal of yours or something you came to as an adult?

David 1:13:41
lifetime goal. I mean, as my earliest childhood memories were flying being a fighter pilot and specifically being, you know, flying on and off aircraft carriers. So, you know, watching Top Gun in the 80s certainly was the catalyst for that

Scott Benner 1:13:56
you've taken off and landed a jet on an aircraft carrier 100 times is there anything in life as exhilarating as that? No,

David 1:14:03
but there there's a roller coaster I rode at. I think it was at Cedar Rapids up in Cleveland Sandusky, and they've got this roller coaster rotation from zero to like, it's like 80 or something. You go up the big hill and you come right back down. So the acceleration is pretty similar. I would say to catapult shot.

Scott Benner 1:14:21
I'm gonna guess you own a Tesla.

David 1:14:24
I don't I I'm a boring guy. I got a hybrid rav4 I get made fun of I get called. You know, my my wife says I drive like a grandpa. I'm a five miles per hour over the speed limit person. No more than that. So yeah, in the car. I'm boring Scott. So

Scott Benner 1:14:39
you've never felt a need to try to replace that with something else.

David 1:14:42
You can't replace it. It's a replaceable,

Scott Benner 1:14:44
that's what I thought. So

David 1:14:45
up until the point where someone you know, buys me an F 18 or allows me to get inside a two seater and fly it you can't replace it.

Scott Benner 1:14:53
How did it make you feel when you saw or maybe you haven't seen? gentleman named Pietro has his large aircraft license. He's flying For a major carrier, now he has type one diabetes. Does that feel hopeful to you?

David 1:15:03
Yeah, it does. You know, when I, when I was diagnosed, that wasn't a possibility the FAA prohibited commercial pilots who had type one diabetes, but I think it was 2017 when they changed their rules to allow type one diabetics to be commercial pilots. And part of the reason I did that was because of the technology advancements, specifically in pump therapy, and pump management. So I don't have any aspirations of going to the commercial airlines. But one of my sons who has type one diabetes very much wants to be a commercial pilot. So, you know, in that respect, I'm very hopeful and thankful. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:15:36
Do you fly privately now for pleasure?

David 1:15:39
I do. Yeah. One of my favorite things to do is fly my kids to the different soccer tournaments they have all over the southeast us. So last week, my wife and I and two of our boys flipped to Richmond for their soccer tournaments up there, and Charlie, who's my middle child has type one diabetes. So you know if I can combine flying family and football and one weekend to me that's I think I've just achieved Valhalla. So

Scott Benner 1:16:02
then it sounds to me like this diagnosis was a significant course correction for you. Can you tell me how it affected your dream?

David 1:16:09
Well, I you know, if I guess three words come to mind first, it was devastating. Everything I had done in life, everything I'd worked up to up to that point was just taken away in an instant. And I was not prepared for that at all. The second emotion was, it was scary. I hadn't thought much about life outside the Navy, certainly not life as anything else, but a fighter pilot. And Heather and I were getting ready to move to France, I was going to do an exchange tour with with the French naval air force. So we're taking French classes. So pretty quickly, I had to reinvent myself. And then probably the most important thing at the same time that all that was going on, I had to learn how to deal with type one diabetes, and how to manage it effectively. The third thing that pops into my mind, I guess, is challenging. You know, new daily routines I had to establish first was injections, and then eventually, you know, through pump management, and then learning how to count carbs and recognize highs and lows, how my body reacts to blood sugar trends based on exercise and stress and those types of things. And my goal at that time, and it still is today is to leverage technology and make sure my habit patterns are effective so that I take diabetes management from the forefront to the background.

Scott Benner 1:17:16
Have you had success with that? Do you feel like you've made the transition? Well, I

David 1:17:21
have I mean, I believe in continuous improvement. So there's always more to do. I will say the technology since I was diagnosed specifically with pump management, it's just, it's just incredible. It takes less of me intervening. And it's really done by the pump itself, and by the algorithms, through the CGM EMS. And to me again, that that should be the goal for everybody is to not have to focus so much on the daily aspects of type one, diabetes management, you know, we should let technology do that for us. What

Scott Benner 1:17:50
else have you found valuable? I've spoken to 1000s of people with type one diabetes, the one thing that took me by surprise, because I don't have type one, myself, and my daughter was very young when she was diagnosed. I didn't really understand until I launched this podcast, and then it grew into this kind of big Facebook presence. I heard people say, I don't know anybody else who has type one diabetes. I wish I knew more people. But until I saw them come together, I didn't recognize how important it was.

David 1:18:18
Yeah, I think similarly, I didn't know anyone with type one diabetes growing up as an adult up until when I was diagnosed. And then all of a sudden, people just came out of the woodwork, and when CGM first hit the market, certainly within the last five years. It's amazing to me and my family, how many people we've noticed with type one diabetes simply because you can see the CGM on their arm. I mean, I would say, a month does not go by where we don't run into someone at a restaurant or an amusement park or a sporting event or somewhere where we see somebody else with type one diabetes. And the other surprising aspect of that is just how quickly you make friends. And I'll give you an example. We're at a soccer tournament up in Raleigh, this past Saturday and Sunday. And the referee came over to my son Charlie at the end of the game and said, Hey, I noticed you're wearing pomp. And he lifted up a shirt and showed his pump as well and said, I've had type one diabetes since I was nine years old. I played soccer in college, I'm sure that's your aspiration. And I just want to tell you don't let type one diabetes ever stop you from achieving your dreams of what you want to do. And this gentleman was probably in his late 50s or 60s. So just having that connection and seeing, you know, the outreach and people's willingness to share their experiences. It just means the world to us and just makes us feel like we're part of a strong community.

Scott Benner 1:19:38
So would you say that the most important things are strong technology tools, understanding how to manage yourself and a connection to others? Yeah,

David 1:19:48
technology for sure. And knowing how to leverage it and then the community and that community is your friends, your family caregivers, you know, for me, the Medtronic champions community, you know, all those resources that are out there. or to, you know, help guide away, but then help help you keep abreast on you know, the new things that are coming down the pike. And to give you hope for eventually, you know that we can find a cure. You mentioned

Scott Benner 1:20:10
that your son wanted to be a pilot, he also has type one diabetes, how old was he when he was diagnosed,

David 1:20:15
so Henry was diagnosed when he was 12 years old. That was just at the start at COVID, we were actually visiting my in laws in Tennessee, we woke up in the morning and he had his bed. And several years before that, we had all four of our boys tested for TrialNet. So you know, predictor of whether or not they're going to develop type one diabetes, and whether or Henry and one of his brothers tested positive for a lot of the indicators. So we always kind of had an inclination that there was a high degree of possibility he would develop it. But we always had at the back of our mind as well. And so when that event happened, at the beginning of COVID, we had him take his blood sugar on Michael commoner, and it was over 400. And so right away, we knew that without even being diagnosed properly, by endocrinologist that he was a type one diabetic, so we hurried home, to get him properly diagnosed in Charlottesville. And then we just started the process, first grieving, but then acceptance and, you know, his eventual, becoming part of the team that nobody wants to join,

Scott Benner 1:21:18
how old is he now?

David 1:21:19
He's 15 years old. Now,

Scott Benner 1:21:21
when's the first time he came to you? And said, Is this going to stop me from flying

David 1:21:27
almost immediately. So like me, he always had aspirations of flying. In fact, he out of all four boys wanted to be in the military, that was a difficult part of the conversation, and maybe something that we don't talk about as a community. But there are some things you cannot do as a type one diabetic, and that's a hard fact of life. And unfortunately, joining the military is one of those hard and fast things you cannot be, you cannot join the military as a type one diabetic. So it was very difficult for him and for me and my wife to get over. Then we also started talking about being a commercial pilot. And so I saw that same excitement in his eyes because like me, you know, he can be an NFA teen or a 737 or a Cirrus SR 20 That I fly, be just as happy. So he still has that passion today and still very much plans to eventually become a commercial pilot.

Scott Benner 1:22:13
I appreciate your sharing that with me. Thank you. You have four children do any others have type one?

David 1:22:18
They do? My oldest twin Henry has type one diabetes, and my middle son Charlie has type one diabetes as well. The boys are twins. The oldest two are twins. One has type one diabetes. My middle son, who is not a twin has type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 1:22:31
I see. Is there any other autoimmune in your family? There isn't I'm really the only

David 1:22:35
person in my family or my wife's family that we know of with any sort of autoimmune disease, certainly type one diabetes. So unfortunately, I was the first to strike it rich, and unfortunately, pass it along to to my sons with celiac

Scott Benner 1:22:50
thyroid, anything like that. Not about

David 1:22:53
nothing. We're really a pretty healthy family. So this came out of nowhere for myself and for my two sons.

Scott Benner 1:22:59
That's really something. I appreciate your time very much. I know I appreciate your sharing this with me. Thank you very much. Anytime Scott, learn more about the Medtronic champion community at Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box or by searching the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform. If you're not already subscribed, or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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