#1133 Put me in Coach

Troy has type 1 diabetes and was a college athlete. 

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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, welcome to episode 1133 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Troy is 27 years old he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at age 13. He played baseball in college, some basketball, but eventually hurt his knee tore his ACL. We're going to talk all about that talk about rehabbing the difficulties of rehabbing injuries, and I share some remembrances of what it's like to have a child who's a college athlete. While you're listening today. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin. 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. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes, and you're looking for support, comfort or community check out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ag one drink ag one.com/juice box. When you use my link and place your first order you're gonna get a welcome kit, a year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs. 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 My name

Troy 2:00
is Troy Tucci. I am 27 years old and I have been a diabetic since I was 13 years old. So 2009

Scott Benner 2:07
Thank God you said your last name. Here's why. All last night Arden goes any chance you're talking to a relative of Stanley Stanley Tucci. And I said, if the person doesn't say their last name, I won't be able to ask them while we're recording.

Troy 2:20
I get that quite a bit. Let's because he's delightful. Yeah, he's great. I mean, I wish there was relation, then I would probably be able to afford a lot more medicine than I can currently. But you know, that's

Scott Benner 2:31
right. Yeah, I would. I mean, hope so. Although he did that CNN show. To me, it felt like a money grab. But

Troy 2:38
whatever. That's how it usually is with with Hollywood, in my opinion. But hey, people

Scott Benner 2:42
still like it. Listen, you get an opportunity to do something. I guess what the hell go to a couple places to eat a couple of meals make some money? I mean, would you turn it down?

Troy 2:52
No, not at all. I would love to eat food for free and make money off at the same time.

Scott Benner 2:56
So all right. So fair enough. Let's see. 2027 I was so excited. You said to chi out loud. I didn't hear how long you've had diabetes.

Troy 3:09
I have had it since I was 13 years old. So working another son 14 years so a little bit longer living with it than I have been with.

Scott Benner 3:18
Without it. You said a weird thing.

Troy 3:21
What are your living people say that along with it?

Scott Benner 3:24
Yeah, without it? Yeah.

Troy 3:26
It's not really a weird thing. I would say it's just different because I don't really know life before it. You don't remember? Not really. I mean, I my girlfriend likes to think I have a terrible memory in general. But I like to think that I couldn't really remember much other than being able to eat what I wanted. But I could still do that now. So

Scott Benner 3:44
yeah, listen, I have to tell you, I think it's a boy thing too. Like my son's just like, I don't know, do you remember any of that? Like, like, even like I said something really kind of, like, heartfelt to my son. I don't know, six months ago. And something happened the other day. And I brought it up and he goes, I don't remember you saying that. I was like, okay.

Troy 4:06
Yeah, it's it can be that way. Sometimes. I don't know. It could be a guy thing.

Scott Benner 4:10
It's also why boys don't seem to hold grudges. Yeah, that's true.

Troy 4:14
I would say that. That's very true. Because that that has happened and experience. I can't really hold a grudge or if I'm mad at somebody for something. It doesn't last long. It can be like terrible, too. I mean,

Scott Benner 4:25
Oh, for sure. No, no, I just one of my favorite things is the watchmen. Like, almost beat each other to death. And then like three days later, they're like out together. Yeah, of course,

Troy 4:35
or I've seen it in cases where people will fight each other and then they'll like pick each other back up and be like, Alright, man, good stuff. Yeah,

Scott Benner 4:41
sorry. Sorry, that had to happen. Right? Yeah. Anyway, so you do not remember much about being diagnosed.

Troy 4:51
Oh, I remember being diagnosed like I that's probably like the most vivid, you know, good memory that I have. So I was I it's Pretty weird thing. So my parents divorced right before this too. So it was kind of like bang, bang, like, right one after the other. My I was having symptoms, I was drinking a lot of fluids, I was probably going through a 24 case of Gatorade in a couple days. And I was also playing sports at the time, too. So like, my parents just thought it was nothing at first than they thought it was a UTI. You know, and obviously, I was having issues wetting the bed at 13 years old, and that's pretty uncommon. So I was having that issue. And they were like, alright, well, we're gonna go schedule you for a doctor's appointment. And they were like, I think it's UTI. And I was like, I'm 13 I don't even know what the hell that is. Anyways, so I go there, and I don't go with my parents. So I have a, like a housekeeper slash nanny at the time, because I had a younger sister as well, that needed to be tended to Yeah. And so she took me to the appointment. And I go and the, you know, the doctor is like, Alright, we're gonna have you just, you know, do a urine sample. Did a urine sample he comes in, he's like, alright, well, Troy, you have you have diabetes. And I'm like, okay, like, what is that? And how do I get rid of it? Yeah. And then he like pulls, it pulls up a seat, and he's like, alright, well, here's what you're gonna need to do. He's like, I don't want to give you too much information now. But I want you to go home, gather your stuff. I already talked to your parents. They're already both on their way home. And you know, you're gonna go check into the hospital. And I was like, okay, to get rid of diabetes. And obviously, I'm freaking out. No idea what's going on Toronto,

Scott Benner 6:19
I got to stop. You're here for a second. I just had surgery on my foot. And I realized I need to put it up, or I'm not going to be able to do this. So there's going to be some noise. Hold on a second. Do your thing.

Troy 6:29
I know all about surgeries. You'll hear too. I

Scott Benner 6:30
apologize. Give me a second here. We're gonna move the mic. It throbs a little Troy. Okay. So that heartbeat Oh, it's just I thought it'll be fine today. And I'm sitting there, you're talking. I'm like, Oh, this isn't gonna work. So two things I love. You're like, I don't know what a UTI is. And I don't know what diabetes is. So what do we do? Because all of your illnesses prior to this have been something you go to a doctor for. They clear it up somehow. Interesting. Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh,

Troy 7:00
you're good. What happened by the way, we're having your foot

Scott Benner 7:03
Troy. So I'm old. You won't know about this for another 15 years or so. But I woke up one day, and my big toe on my right foot hurt terribly. And my wife, of course, says What did you do to it? I have no recollection of injuring my toe. And I thought it'll go away. And then a few days went by and it was getting, like no better. I thought, I mean, did I break my toe? Maybe? And I thought, Well, if that happened, what are they gonna do? I go to a doctor, they're gonna say your toes broken, and they're gonna say it'll heal. So I didn't do anything. And then a couple of weeks, turned into a couple of months. And it got worse. And, you know, I started limping. I was like, oh, man, there's something really wrong with my toe. I should do something about that. But my mom was sick. And I, you know, I didn't do like gets in the way. Yeah. And then every once in a while, it didn't hurt. I was like, hey, that hurt today. I'm good. But then when it hurt, it hurt really terribly, and I couldn't walk, it wouldn't bend up, etc. So finally, a couple of months ago, I got it in my head. I was like, I have to do something about this. But then my mom got sicker and sicker. And eventually she passed away. And I appreciate you're very nice. And so I'm out visiting with her towards the end of her life, and I slipped in a hotel. It's the soft water. It Do you have soft or hard water? Where you live? Do you? Would you even know? I'm not really sure what you mean. I know you don't. Right. It's meant that there's only one time here a couple of times water, right. But you'd also didn't know what a UTI was. So I have to explain. So there's minerals in water different in different Oh, it's like water softener types. Yes. Okay. In some places, people don't know probably don't even realize it if they live there. But if you come into a place that has softer water, and now I'm just saying water a lot for the people who enjoy hearing me say it incorrectly. Me included. Yeah. So if you when you get in the shower, it actually you feel soapy, or slimy when it's on, and it's slippery. And I guess people who live there don't even know anyway, I'm in a hotel shower. I'm literally making peace with the fact that I'm not going to see my mom again. I'm getting a shower getting ready to go to the airport. And my foot slips. Like I wasn't falling like Bugs Bunny or something like it just slipped forward a little bit. And it smacked into the side of this tub. And lightning and fireworks went off in my foot that shot up my leg into my brain. And I was in a massive bad way. I had to take a handful of painkillers to get through the airport to get on the plane to get home. And so I'm basically I can't walk. My brother is in the airport just laughing at me. He's like, look at how slow you're moving. And I'm like, I know he's like, we wouldn't need a nice scooter for you and I'm like, I'll be okay. Anyway, I get home my mom passed away a couple days later. That throws me off again for a few more weeks and I finally go to a doctor's appointment. But I go to urgent care first because I'm a boy and I'm still thinking maybe it's not that bad. And you know, and she does an x ray. So you just have a little bone chip here. And I was like, oh, cool, she because I think it's just free floating. It's sitting in the joint probably causing you pain. I'm like, This is excellent. I'm gonna go to a doctor, they're gonna pull up this little bone joint chip out and be fine. So I get there. And the real doctor, not that well. Yeah, I mean, that the real doctor. I mean, if you if you're working in urgent care, I know you're a doctor calm down. But, but um, you know, he, he's like, manipulating my toe. And he goes, this doesn't hurt, right? And he bends it a certain way. I go, No, that doesn't hurt at all. That way squeezes us doesn't hurt here does it? And it was almost like he knew where it wasn't going to hurt. I wasn't. I wasn't catching on quickly enough, though, is waiting for it. Yeah, just tell me if this hurts, and he bends my toe up. And then the rockets red glare happened again. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, man. Stop. Like, What? What? What? He goes, Yeah, I thought that was horrible. What did we do it for that? Yeah, like, so. He goes, you have arthritis. We need an X ray. And I said, Dude, I brought you an x ray. And he goes out again another x ray. I'm like,

Troy 11:04
Yeah, we don't trust other doctors X rays. And he

Scott Benner 11:07
wants to charge me for an x ray. But that's fine. Whatever. So does an x ray. I have a delightful back and forth with the X ray tech that is not politically correct. So I can't tell you about on the podcast. And it was one his side not mine, by the way for all you listen to think Oh, Scott said something horrible, wasn't me. And anyway, so I go back in and he and he sets up a surgery for me like boom in a week. And they give me the Jackson juice and put me out and I want to shout out to the anesthesiologist who I said last time I had, you know, Jackson juice, the propofol just turned you off. You know how Michael Jackson died? Yeah, okay. So I'm getting that. And it burns like, crazy. I'm just cursed. That's how much it burns. They put it like in the top of your hand, you can feel it like hot lava going up your arm into your chest and you pass out and you wake up and everything's fine. So I say to this to the anesthesiologist, this happened to me last time, and he goes, I know how to stop that from happening. I'm not it's not going to happen. So I was like, God bless you. So he did that didn't burn really cool. For people wondering he put lidocaine in first to kind of like, I guess numb the pathway that the medication was gonna go on. And then he squeezed my shoulder at my forearm and like at my, at my bicep, and held the lidocaine in my arm for a couple of minutes before we put in the propofol, but pretty cool. So I wake up, I feel fine. I'm like, This is it. Everything's fine. And the guy says to me, calls me later that night, he goes, how you feel? And I go, it hurts. And I got my foot up. And he goes, Okay, cool. Listen, wasn't really arthritis. And I went, why did he go see me? There's a little bit your joint because I cleaned it out and all it goes, but you have like torn cartilage in your toe. And I was like, what? And he goes, Yeah, it's not good. I had to give you a microfracture procedure. And I'm like, wait, what?

Troy 12:55
He goes, Wait till the whole night to tell you what he even did do. Probably

Scott Benner 13:00
after dinner. I mean, you probably went out in the afternoon, right? Had an ash went home. Yeah, he loved his wife. I don't know what he does in the day. You know, they mean and then he gets home he makes his calls is and by the way seems like a lovely man. I don't assume he's cheating on you. So basically, they poked holes in the bone to try to spur cartilage growth, but it's not the cartilage that I lost. It'll be something called like fibrous cartilage. And if that doesn't work, I have to go back to talk to him about having the bones in my toe fused together. Geez, yeah, Troy?

Troy 13:34
Is it your Are you a righty or lefty. If you

Scott Benner 13:38
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Troy 14:50
Well I'm right handed Are you is that you're right you're right big toe

Scott Benner 14:54
it is does that matter? What do you know?

Troy 14:57
Do we just know I mean I just know for My experience of playing sports and like my injuries like I had a big toe issue in my back right foot from swinging so like from like taking like such hard hacks and like, however the case it was I like sprained my toe and ended up obviously not doing anything for it because I'm a guy. Yeah. And yeah, so that's that's just why I asked. I was just curious just because I can kind of see some correlation that or if you're just dominant in that regard, like I, I do a lot of things with my right foot over my left foot. Like I, that's like the first step I take, and I'm not really conscious of it. But

Scott Benner 15:30
how about that ice? I haven't thought about that. I can tell you that. I'm walking oddly, it's making my knee hurt. You know, it sucks. It's outside of your knee that's bothering you. It's the inside but insides where I just had my knee cleaned out like six months ago. So I'm a little light on cartilage in there, too. Yeah,

Troy 15:48
try not to compensate. That's the biggest thing. And I can tell you because I've been there done that. It just cause a different problem, right? Yep, exactly. Yeah. Just moving around the other side. All right. So anyway, this

Scott Benner 15:59
is what happened to me. I mean, obviously, this is my mom's fault. So now, it's I don't know what happened. It's just terrible. Now I hear Yeah, yeah, it is terrible. Anyway, it's such a it seems like such a small thing, but it messes you. Like a toe really messes you up. So

Troy 16:16
Oh, yeah. They say you can't walk without your big toe. Yeah,

Scott Benner 16:20
I don't need that problem. I'm losing weight. Now. Troy, here you

Troy 16:23
go. So then it should be easier than this, then you're putting less stress on the body while

Scott Benner 16:27
so you're thinking like that. I'm just thinking I'm about to be like, you know, I'm gonna have a coming out party soon. I don't want to be lengthened.

Troy 16:35
Anyway, coming out party can be perceived in a couple of different ways. Can

Scott Benner 16:38
I have a weight loss? Kingson Tara, can I would that be? That'd be is a cultural appropriation. I just wanna have a big party where I wear or something pretty good people can see. I

Troy 16:50
think that people do that all the time. I don't see why you couldn't. Yeah. All right. I'm gonna just make sure you invite me since I'm we're planning it together right now. Yeah,

Scott Benner 16:58
I'm almost down. 30 pounds. Wow, that's actually very impressive. Pretty cool. Excellent.

Troy 17:03
Are you taking anything for that? Or Oh, hell

Scott Benner 17:05
yeah. Yeah, I'm doing cocaine. And I'm using we go V. Which is a club we go V, which is ozempic rebranded for weight loss. Okay. Yeah. So it's a once weekly injectable. And I've been on it for 16 or 17 weeks. Okay. It's insane how well it works. I lost two more pounds this week.

Troy 17:28
So I wish I had that problem, I have the problem of losing weight and fluctuating weight and not being able to gain it. I had my entire playing career in sports to was hard

Scott Benner 17:37
for you to put on weight. It was impossible. So So tell me so you're diagnosed when you're 13 or so. And you're a baseball player, even as I listen, you played in college, so you must have been playing your whole life. Right?

Troy 17:48
So that's a funny story. So I played baseball and basketball, my whole life growing up for as long as I can remember, both baseball and basketball it you know, I don't know if they can consider being four years old and playing sports. I don't know if that's organized enough to be considered. But I played my whole life. But I actually took off six years of baseball. So I stopped playing my sophomore year in high school, had a bunch of injuries. And then my dad kind of sat me down and was like, Hey, you got to make a decision here. Do you want to keep playing basketball? Or do you want to keep playing baseball, and then obviously, I'm gonna listen to my father. And he's like, play basketball, play basketball. So I'm like, okay, the fact that he told me to do that, and then I took six years off just strictly playing basketball, and then tore both my ACL is playing basketball. Oh, you're a year apart from one another. So the first one was 2014, literally the day before my regional finals game in high school, and then crossed the stage, then got surgery in the summer, rehabbed for nine months, went to a school in Minnesota, turned my other ACL on the first captain's practice. And then went home and got surgery and then kind of started over went to junior college. And then that's when I picked up playing baseball once again, after six years.

Scott Benner 18:53
Can you talk a little bit about what it's like to put so much effort into something and then have a mechanical problem? Stop it? Oh, it's

Troy 19:01
really hits really tough. That's what I experienced the most. Just like, you know, the darkest days, I would say, the first time was really hard, but obviously doing it again, and having to go through that rehab of nine months was just draining physically, mentally, emotionally. That's fine when I fell into like, the deepest depression of my life, but obviously, you know, I wouldn't change it for the world because I ended up playing baseball again, and meeting tons of great people. And, you know, that sort of thing. Obviously, I didn't want to change my path at all. Yeah.

Scott Benner 19:32
I think that one of the most difficult parenting moments I've ever had, was sitting next to my son in a surgeon's office. When the guy was reading his report his report from his elbow, and he said, this is there's a partial tear in there. And that word, yeah. And I like I have to tell I'm being serious like not crying. was one of the hardest things I've ever done as a parent. Like, I didn't want him to see me.

Troy 20:05
Yeah, you have to show it, you have to make it seem like it's kind of nothing. And I

Scott Benner 20:09
don't know what my face read. But it was one of the hardest things I've ever done was to like compete myself composed. And it's not because of people listening who don't play sports or whatever might think like, that's silly. Like he's fine. You know, like, he just can't throw a ball anymore. But that kid started playing baseball, like organized baseball when he was four. And he did it. He did it constantly and forever. And it meant a lot to him. And he was in college playing baseball COVID had already happened and screwed everything up. And he didn't even let COVID mess up. He just went and train privately somewhere else and kept going. And at the moment this happened to him. He was throwing a fairly consistent 93 mile an hour fastball. Yeah, and then this happened. And you have to shut it down. And they tell you, you're going to rehab it and the rehabs like six months, and it's very specific. And he did it, like he did it dutifully. He did come back from it. But he just like, there was a couple miles an hour off. And while he was still like in the 90s, but it was more like 91. And he's trying to work through it. But as he's trying to work through it times ticking away too. And schools ending and his opportunities to play baseball are are getting shorter and shorter. And he's also playing in the field and like, yeah, he's trying to do these things. It just was like, I don't know that anything ever would have come of it. Generally, I'm saying like it just Yeah, it's not the point. Like I think people think oh, like you think you're going to be a professional baseball. It has nothing to do with that. It really doesn't. Yeah, it's about for some people. My son is one of them. You might be too. It's about goal setting and achieving. And then resetting goals and re achieve. Yeah, exactly. That's just how he got to where he was. He was always just setting goals and trying to get to them. Yeah.

Troy 22:02
And you can't take that drive away from people like that's just like someone, for example. Like I mean, to put it out of the context of sports like that's like someone growing up just absolutely loving reading or loving screen player, or acting or whatever. And then 1015 years later, after doing it your entire life and only knowing that you're told you can't do it anymore.

Scott Benner 22:22
Yeah. And it's got nothing to do with your intention or your desire or your workout. Right. Right. Yeah, it's really it's, I mean, not that it's not a thing everybody understands or doesn't understand. It's just, I mean, it's not specific to people who play sports. But I mean, it wouldn't have been any different. If I was in a room and somebody would have said to Arden, you can't follow the stream, you know, whatever it is. And I would have, I would have had the same like reaction. It was really terrible. And he Well, let me ask you like, so you go, should you switch back? I mean, you mess up both your legs. That's crazy. And so basketball, the beating of basketball that's over. So is that what makes you go back to baseball?

Troy 23:03
Actually, I decided when I was getting my surgery, like I could have kept my scholarship was and it was an academic scholarship and a small school in Minnesota, but I decided to give it back and come back home and get my surgery because everyone, I'd only been there eight days. And I didn't know anybody. I was already depressed as all hell, you know, wanted to go home and be around my family. So got surgery, and then rehabbed again for nine more months and decided that I was just going to start over from square one and play basketball at a junior college. So I went to the local junior college near my home at the time and play basketball again and played a season. I just didn't it wasn't the same, I couldn't move the same. I was a very like quick, witty, like fast assist first point guard. And it just didn't work out anymore. For me, I was scared to drive the lane, because that's how it happened twice. One of them came from non contact, the other one was contact coming down from a rebound. So I just wanted nothing to do with the paint. So after that I started you know, that was actually in 2015. When the cubs were kind of making a run in the playoffs the first year before they ended up winning it the following year. And that just kind of brought back a lot of emotion with baseball. And so I was like, You know what, I'm at a junior college can't get much lower than this. I heard that the baseball coach really takes anybody who doesn't cut players you just might not play but you can be part of the team you know. So I decided to do that I sucked for a year and then ended up just sticking with baseball playing the whole entire summer and just trying to get back into that and then earn a starting spot in my junior college team the following season. actually played a couple of games for pet for the basketball coach because he he needed some extra players and he was my teacher for one of my classes so I played a couple games basketball and then strictly played baseball after that and then ended up going to a division three school kind of an hour away or so from my house.

Scott Benner 24:47
Good for you. That's that's really that's hard work. And then a lot of not giving up. Are you like that and other parts of your life that not giving apart?

Troy 24:56
Yeah, I would say that I am I mean, I don't really know I mean up until A couple of years ago, when I graduated, I didn't really know anything else besides sports. But academic wise, I mean, I was never a kid that really cared about grades or school in high school, and then went full circle when I got to college. But Coach kind of told me, Hey, to earn a spot on the field, you got to be good. But also you need to have your grades up, otherwise, you won't see the field the court anywhere. Yeah. And that's when I really honed in and I ended up finishing, I think I finished for like a 394 GPA. I went to school for exercise science, because of having so many injuries and torn ligaments and muscles and surgeries, and you name it, I just want to understand the body a little bit more and kind of being a diabetic kind of helps that because you learned about a little bit with the body and the endocrine system and all the other systems of the body throughout that too.

Scott Benner 25:44
Are you doing that for a living now?

Troy 25:46
I'm not No, not even close. Wow. Well,

Scott Benner 25:48
so you ended up with that degree. But what did you end up doing?

Troy 25:51
So I did after I graduated, I ended up starting my own LLC and doing baseball lessons, softball lessons, strengthing auditioning classes, that sort of thing. And I really loved it. But I did that to make ends, you know, I and I started to kind of drain from that just just within a year. You know, I love the kids. And I love giving back because I had coaches that kind of did the same for me. But I just didn't want to do it for the dollar. I wanted to do it because I, you know, really enjoyed working with kids. And you know, trying to help them grow and see them succeed is just just kind of made me happy. Okay. And so I was working in a couple of facilities had my own thing I was doing kind of bouncing around renting out fields and that sort of thing. And then my girlfriend and I actually decided to get away from our hometown in Illinois, and moved out to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in December of last year. So just kind of came out here. I was doing customer service for like a sporting goods company that I was at before, right. And I was able to do that remote and kind of keep that job throughout the move. But now I actually found a job doing in home sales out here. So it gets me out of the house gets me to meet people. And I'm driving around and exploring and getting to know the

Scott Benner 27:02
area. Yeah, hustler a little bit. You're moving truck trying to Yeah. What is what is she doing your girlfriend? She

Troy 27:09
does. So she was a financial advisor for a company called doesn't really matter what your company is called. But so she was a financial advisor back home. And then we moved out here and she was able to move like home offices, if you will, I guess. So she's out here now. But she's not a financial adviser. She just working underneath a financial advisor now. Because I mean that I couldn't even tell you that that job just sounds so difficult and hard. And I mean, she's good at it. She's good at what she does. But she went to school for like actuarial math, and like she's really good with numbers. So she's kind of just helping them out over there. Now. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:43
my son played baseball with a guy in college who got out and sort of did what you did. And he decided he was going to be an agent. And he, like, found this one guy that he thought like nobody cared about. And he's like, I think this guy can do it. And that guy is pitching on a professional baseball team now. That's awesome. That's amazing. He's his agent. And he was able to go to a bigger agency and say, Look, I represent this guy, if you bring me in as a partner, I'll bring him with me. And he actually built that thing for himself like that. See, that's really cool. And that crazy. I just I thought that was such an amazing story. Honestly, it really is. Yeah. Well, appreciate you tell me about this. I want to talk a little more about before we move on. So I watched my son go through a transition when he realized that he was hurt. And that decision of like, am I going to like try to push through this and rehab it, and like, then go back and keep doing it. And he did it like he was six. I mean, honestly, the way he did the rehab was really, I was amazed by it. I took a lot of effort. Every day, it was difficult and painful at times, and there was no clear win in sight. Like just keep doing this thing. So that hopefully six months from now, when you go back to the doctor, they'll say, yeah, it's okay. Like, you know, and then you still don't know if it's going to explode five seconds later, one way or the other. That was really something like to watch him put that work in on something he didn't know could pay him back or not, I thought was really interesting. But

Troy 29:19
yeah, it's really just like the not like you don't really know, kind of, like the fear of the unknown or like, you don't know what's next, or what can possibly be you just kind of keep working towards one thing and hoping that it's going to Yeah,

Scott Benner 29:28
yeah, yeah. I mean, like, Listen, if you if you decide to put the effort in to build a house, you know, at the end, you'll live in the house. This whole thing was just like, I mean, it's hard to put into words like the amount of rehab that went into it, and specific exercises and specific care and all this stuff that he had to do every day. And then it was, you know, you weren't sure that it was going to pay you at all like, like, it was just really it was it was an arduous thing to go through. And then he went back and played his senior year and had a great year and it was it was wonderful like it all All that hard work paid off. He had that. Yeah, like the time of his life for a couple of months in his senior year during the season, right, like a great time. But he still was like, well, wants to apply it again and again and keep moving. And so he starts resetting his goals, but they've just been had been so much of you didn't live through COVID. But like these kids last, like a season for COVID. All

Troy 30:21
I did was to see yes, so I so I graduated at 25. I, my, my college career was very, oh, later because now Yeah, because of my surgery. So I was under the impression. Now, I don't know if this is true or not, don't quote me on this. But I was told that, you know, once I went to school full time, when once I took full 12 hours of credits, that my eligibility clock would start with the NCAA. So I was scared of that. So I was taking only part time classes, I was taking like 910 11 hours per semester while I was rehabbing so that I didn't start my clock. So I don't know if that helped or hurt me. But I was able to play I got a year back because of COVID. My that was probably my best season, which is unfortunate because I was doing so well. And I, you know, didn't meet my girlfriend at the time. So I was really trying to pursue playing professional baseball still. And 12 games into the season, we were having the best season that we could have had in our season actually ended in Florida on our spring trip in our last game and in our coach kind of brought us into a hotel like conference room and we all all 40 of us cried together like little kids that are teasing with over

Scott Benner 31:26
that's where colts ended in the same in Florida, that on a spring trip. It's possible we were at the same place. So yeah. And I remember the same thing. I remember the seniors Cole was a sophomore. I remember the seniors. The game ended, and the coach went out. I think it I think it was like partway through the game. They decided this was the last game. And and then and then we're going home. And the school had said they're going to cancel the season. And I watched like it's tough, like seniors in college. That look, I mean, especially athletes, they look like men, you know what I mean? And they're standing out in the field, hugging each other crying. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, my God, like, this is terrible. And then, you know, that whole season was gone. And then the following season, they did this abbreviated like, I don't know, 14 games season. So my son did the same thing you did. He didn't go back to preserve his eligibility. Okay. Yeah, he trained. Like he just trained in baseball, and went to classes remotely. And that he was able to do a similar thing, where he just like kind of took a little bit of a break. And that break kept him from his clock running for his NCAA clock. And yeah, then then he went back and had all this eligibility left and had like a really great, like, senior year. But then there was such a gap in his playing time that when he was trying to like keep playing people were like, well, you beat him play for a year. Now. He's like, nobody played for a year and a half. And they're like, Yeah, but you don't have stats, and we don't know you for that year and a half. And that ended up being an issue for him. So yeah, it was really upsetting. Honestly, it was terrible. But it really is. Yeah. But what I wanted to get to was, when you finally decide, I'm not doing this anymore. Were you able to make a clean cut with it? Or was that a process as well?

Troy 33:16
You know what, it's really funny that I was able to make such a clean cut, I played my whole life, my whole life was dedicated to basketball. Obviously, I had baseball in there from a lot of the time, you know, I played travel ball from like eight to 14 whenever it was in high school and did all that. But basketball is the main part of my life. And I actually transferred a couple different high schools sort of due to that, but also other reasons with my parents divorcing and that sort of thing. But mainly basketball, like I switched, I went to a whole new high school my senior year just to play basketball. So like to have that and then just choke totally, like, wipe it away and kind of be done with it. I think the hardest part for me was my dad not being accepting that I wanted to play baseball again. Like, he just knew that, you know, he had the feeling that he was, you know that I was a great basketball player and that he wanted me to keep playing. But he just couldn't accept the fact that I was done with basketball. And I think that was the hardest, the hardest, like, cut to have.

Scott Benner 34:11
I watched the the end of it for Cole took a couple of months. And it was like this slow realization like, Oh, that's not working out, or this isn't gonna line up. Like that kind of stuff. And I'm not sure about my at the end, though he was his arm was fine. I don't know what would have happened if he would have gotten to the end. That's good that he ended up healthy though. Yeah, I think that too, because I don't know he could have gone back and gotten hurt again or something and you know, would have been another rehab just to rehab just to use your arm and not to play baseball and all that stuff. So yeah. So the interesting spot where he, from my perspective, where he just lets it go. He was starting to look for jobs. And he was trying to find a job in a certain place because he thought I'm gonna go to this city. And I'm going to I'm going to keep training Like, I'll keep training as a pitcher. But I'll work at the same time like he was trying to figure out a way to support himself. And so he was looking for. So Cole has a study like a, I don't know how to put it. My son's degree is in quantitative econ. So it's like data and statistics and things like that. Yeah. And data analytics. Yeah. And he wants to work in baseball, like, like, Cole wants to be the general manager of a baseball team. Like, that's what he wants to he wants to make the decisions about, you know, who they use and who they get and stuff like that. And that's, yeah, and that's his goal, right? It's a big goal. It's hard. But so he's applying for all these jobs with Major League Baseball teams. And he's in the middle of a, these, these job applications aren't like you don't fill out a piece of paper and then go talk to somebody they give you projects to do on your own, they give you a very limited amount of time, and you have to come back with your work. So he's in the middle of doing a project for the Tampa Bay Rays. And he has to choose a Rule five position player and a Rule five, pitcher for them to, to consider. I don't know if people know what the Rule five draft is, it's not really important. But they're these kind of players who are kind of on the outside, they're probably minor leaguers. They're getting passed around like they're good players, but nobody really wants to commit to them. They're kind of on the fringes. If you're a Phillies fan, Shane victory no was a Rule five draft. Like he's one of the guys that came out of the Rule five draft and moved from one team to another and ended up being you know, take up an all star on a World Series team. So Cole's doing the date going through the data. And he's poring through the data. And he just kind of says to me, look at all these guys these pictures. And I was like, right, and he goes up there my size. They're my weight. They throw as hard as I do. And I'm like, right, and he goes, they're three years, four years older than me. I'm like, Okay. And he goes, No one cares about them. And I went, right, he goes, I'm not doing this anymore. He just like, like it just the data was in front of him. And it was like, it made sense to him. Like, I don't want to spend the next three years throwing this baseball to be in a situation where I'm on some lists where people are like, Hey, can you find anything good on this list? And he's like, I don't I don't want to put that kind of effort. If there's no, like reasonable, you know, way to get through it. Yeah, he's being realistic. Yeah. And he just like, boom, like, I just watched him let go over. It was really interesting. I was very proud of him. Because, like I said, at that point, he's 22, maybe. And he's still young. He's still young. He's, I mean, I can't. For years, I can't have a catch with my kid anymore. at a close distance, like the Biden, y'all gonna break your hand, you don't even know. It, just my thumb, like, like the pad of my thumb and my thumb gets sore and swollen. The ball makes a noise when it's coming through the air that is unnerving.

Troy 38:15
Like, Hey, we got it, maybe we gotta teach you how to catch that glove. Or maybe we got to get you with two in the pink two fingers in the pinky

Scott Benner 38:21
pocket I was doing that I was doing. I'm an old man. I'm just you had the glove pad on there, too. So I used to put a towel on my hand in my palm just to try to create more padding like anything. Like we had like torn up towels that like and I'm not like, I'll say this thing. I look at my kids. And my assumption is that my mailman is very attractive and athletic. So because I'm not, I've never been nearly as athletic as my kids are. And so it's that way, though. Yeah, I know. So I'm not out there, like all schlubby but I'm not. I'm not him. You know what I mean? So like, I'm out there trying to do this thing with him. He was still at that point when he decided to stop. But other things happen a boy in our town got drafted. And that brings his his spirits of New Orleans once you see that that makes you want to stay with it. The kid quit in like three months of being drafted. He got drafted and he was out like I think he did one minute like low a season and he was like, that's it I'm done.

Troy 39:25
I was a young was he did a good job that a high school or college out of college, you would think that he would actually stick around longer. I mean, some guys will get shelled, though. And then they'll just be like, Nope, this isn't for me. And it's better to make that decision early than spend six to 10 years in the league and then beat yourself. And then you get that one who's that dude from the A's it just got like he was in the league for like, last 13 years or something like that. And he finally got called up for a game and then got brought back down and then he like kind of goes back and forth. It's just I mean, it's a lifestyle. Like there's no I mean, yeah, it's a it's an absolute grind. You know, I have nothing but cred I have friends that are playing pro ball right now, you know nothing but love for all them. Yeah, it's just you've got to be willing to do it. And you got to be willing to kind of put your family and your career and life to the side. Yeah, while you chase this dream. And it just wasn't working out for me I was 25. When I graduated to former torn ACLs, seven broken bones, I ended up tearing my labrum on my left side right before my COVID senior year. And that's when I had to make that decision to either get surgery and not play or just play around it to play with the pain. I did it for a year already. I did it during COVID. And I had my best season. So I was like screw and I'm not gonna go into the knife and then potentially have it not be the same. So I might as well just keep playing with it. And I don't really deal with the issue much I just can't do certain shoulder exercises at the gym. But other than that, I'm good and I'm golfing a lot now.

Scott Benner 40:47
Were you able to go from swinging a bat this way a golf club?

Troy 40:50
I was but I didn't. I didn't touch a golf club until, like, the end end of my career. Like I didn't, I was so against it. And I know I know why. Because I ended up playing a season of softball over here with some friends. And it's just totally different. Like I can't even I can't even justify the

Scott Benner 41:09
two. Do you miss playing? Or do you miss camaraderie? Is there anything about it that you wish still existed for you? Oh, I

Troy 41:17
missed it all. I mean, I it took me a lot. You said it was easier. Like you asked about the clean cut with basketball, it was so much easier to cut basketball because I moved to baseball. But if I went just cold turkey kinda, you know, I think it would have been much tougher. Now after my playing career, I was still that's kind of why I think I started to dive into giving lessons because I didn't want to let go. I really haven't watched MLB baseball much that's I have an issue with the, you know, the emotions of umpires these days, and just kind of everything where the games going. And I think that some of the rules are good. But I just don't watch it as much as I used to. And as much as I would have liked to. I mean, I'm out in South Carolina, there's a de lo a Cubs team out here. That's the only only baseball there is. And I've gone to a couple games, but I just am not. I'm not into it as much as I was. But it definitely took a lot longer for me to get over it. As far as compared to basketball.

Scott Benner 42:08
Yeah. When my son was playing, he didn't. He didn't go to professional baseball games. He said he didn't he didn't like to watch people play baseball. He wanted to play baseball. Exactly.

Troy 42:17
Because I would just be itching out there. Yeah. And chances are I'm just chirping the guys out there and I have no room to talk.

Scott Benner 42:24
So how did you manage your diabetes through all of this the basketball, the baseball being away at college having injuries like how's that been for you?

Troy 42:34
It was a struggle for sure. But I mean, I was actually just having a conversation with my mom this morning, because I kind of wanted to know, kind of how it was like, did she like obviously I remember everything, but I just wanted to know from a different perspective. And she was like, Yeah, I never helped you with any of that. That was always all you you were very controlled with that I the only time she ever actually gave me an injection was in the hospital when they told her to. And they like were like training us. So I've always given myself my own shots and everything. But basically what happened was I was they didn't give me a pump for the first three, three and a half years of me being a diabetic. It was all just MDI injections and a meter, I was checking five to 10 times a day and taking up to 10 shots a day.

Scott Benner 43:19
And where's your like, a one CF during that time?

Troy 43:23
Oh, that was it was high. I was dying. When I was diagnosed, it was 12. And then I, it really hasn't been much. It was like around the 1011 Nine during that time. And then I got on Medtronic when I was in high school. And that was just brutal. I didn't like being connected like that, and just had so many issues. That was I think that was more when Medtronic was a little bit newer, at least I hope so because there was a lot of issues that I was having with them, whether the battery cap would come off and it wouldn't stay on or whatever the case was. And then I actually when I was in, like early in college, when I switched over to to baseball, I actually kept the pump on at times. And then there was one time in particular during summer ball when I kept it on and I hit a I ended up hitting like a triple that I stretched out. And then I kept my pump on I didn't even know I had my pump on until I was at third base. And I was like, I'll be fine. You know, I want it to slide into home. And I slid into home and I broke my pump. And it was just beeping at me like uncontrollably for like 15 minutes and I'm sitting. Luckily it's summer ball. So I was able to sit on the bench and let someone sub in for me while I was on the phone with Medtronic customer service trying to figure out how to turn off but during basketball, I would just take off the pump and that was I would run high a lot. So that was kind of an issue. And then after the Medtronic issue that I had, I just decided to go back to injections. So I was on the in pen for a while throughout college actually throughout like a lot of my playing career. And then I didn't get on the Omnipod dash until I finished playing baseball.

Scott Benner 44:58
Okay,

Troy 44:58
all right towards the end And I mean,

Scott Benner 45:00
higher a one sees and that kind of stuff like, is that a thing you learned after time? Like, did you again because I'm also hearing your parents got divorced as you're being diagnosed, right? So your mom's? Are you living with your mom? I

Troy 45:15
was living with my mom at the time. And then sort of like halfway through high school is startling with my dad. Okay,

Scott Benner 45:22
so that so that's there's some unstability there. So neither of them really are on top of the diabetes. They're letting it up to you. You're not doing a terrific job, obviously, because you're a kid. Correct. But you're keeping yourself moving. Where is it now, like, what have you learned over the years, taking care of your health isn't always easy, but it should at least be simple. That's why for the last three years, I've been drinking ag one every day, no exceptions. It's just one scoop mixed in water once a day every day, and it makes me feel energized and focused. That's because each serving of ag one delivers my daily dose of vitamins, minerals, pre and probiotics, and more. It's a powerful, healthy habit that's also powerfully simple. Before I was taking ag one, I would get that brain fog in the middle of the day, and I just couldn't seem to get on top of it. But now that doesn't happen anymore. By starting my day with ag one I found focus, and a renewed ability to perform at my highest level all day long. Drink ag one.com/juice box, when you use that link, you're supporting the production of the Juicebox Podcast, I drink age you want in the morning, but you could use it as a coffee replacement before a workout or in your smoothie. If there's one product, I had to recommend to elevate your health, it's ag one and that's why I've partnered with them for so long. So if you want to take ownership of your health, start with ag one, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D 3k. two and five, three ag one travel packs with your first purchase exclusively at drink ag one.com/juice box. That's drink ag one.com/juice box, check it out.

Troy 47:02
Omni pod is a lifesaver. That's what I've learned. Dexcom is also a lifesaver. I just it's just easier once I like once I stopped playing honestly, I hate to say it, my numbers got way better. But that's because I didn't have such a gruesome schedule. And you know, I'm I played Division Three baseball, I didn't play D one baseball where we're getting all this delicious, more healthy food delivered to us or made for us. We're stopping at gas stations on the way to and from games or McDonald's and I'm refusing to eat that. So that's really where it came from. But the the AutoSum, the automated system on the five is, is just next level. And it's just much easier. And because I think that my biggest problem was I usually don't eat early in the mornings, I'll usually fast till anywhere from like noon to two, three o'clock. And then I'll eat later at night. And I'm kind of more of a snack or later at night, if anything. And that's kind of when I would be running higher is later at night. And then throughout the middle the night I'm not awake, obviously to give myself insulin or to see where my levels are heading. And then that's where the five kind of nip to that and it's been great since.

Scott Benner 48:07
Wow. So how long have you been doing it? Part Five?

Troy 48:09
I started in June of 22. So June of last year, I think it was actually a little earlier than that because it came out. I think it was cleared by the FDA in like February or something. And I was waiting and waiting and waiting for that

Scott Benner 48:23
prior using dash, is that right? Okay, and then you go to the automated system. And how did you learn to settle

Troy 48:30
I had an endo that kind of set it up for me, based off of my dash settings a little bit like I don't think it was like correlated at all. I think she just kind of used what I had from my other settings and that sort of thing and kind of mess with it a little bit. And then actually, I saw that was around. Yeah, so it was last year. So then I ended up the last time I saw that doctor was in October last year. So I don't really I actually just got an agency yesterday out here, but I did it in urgent care. So it takes three days for it to come in. gotta send it out to a lab or whatever. So I don't have a current agency. But it was the lowest it's ever been rate when I jumped on it in June and it was 6.80. Man good for ya. I expect to be way lower. I mean, I'm not wanting to settle for anything, let alone that. But

Scott Benner 49:19
I mean, listen, that it's a long time for a little kid who's got all this other stuff going on that you've been gone over to try to like, you know, grow up, become an adult, realize that this needs more care and concern, figure out what that means. Actually put that stuff into practice. And to get to a six eight is really terrific. And you and are you thinking there's nothing and

Troy 49:42
it's lower already, but even I mean, I've had issues with insurance, so I haven't steadily been using Omnipod five like I wish I can. Now hopefully now that my insurance has kicked in with this new job. Hopefully it'll be fine and smooth sailing from here on out. Obviously that's not usually how it goes in the case of our diseases here. But, you know, I'm hoping for that. And I'm hoping that I can stick with him you had five and stay with the Dexcom. I don't really know about the G seven, obviously, because it doesn't have that set up with the five yet, but I'm cool with the G six now and you had five until the wheels fall off. You know

Scott Benner 50:17
what, when you don't have insurance coverage, what do you do? I'm

Troy 50:20
just going back to, you know, injections, which is tough because I haven't had really an endo since October. So I'm kind of just doing it. I'm just, you know, you're my endo at this point you in the Juicebox Podcast has been my Endo. And so it was myself just trial and error. It's just really that and I've just been doing injections. And then actually I've been kind of contacting Omnipod and Dexcom and getting replacements for ones that I've had in the past that I've never called in on and stuff like that. So I'm kind of sort of milking it a little bit,

Scott Benner 50:46
I guess. Okay. Well, Troy, when we're done, hold on for a second. Okay. Yeah, I might have a couple of things here I can send. I just I appreciate the conversation very much. Because I have this, you know, this personal connection to watching like, Forget sports, like it's not baseball, like, it's, it's watching kids move and transition through parts of their life. Like, that's the part that I'm I'm really amazed by, and I can see where the pitfalls could be. You know, where that stuff could go wrong? Where you could like, you know, you talked about feeling depressed for a while, around your injuries. I was worried about my son when he you know, I was like, what's going to happen? Like, I'm not saying he did something, or that I saw something that made me think, Oh, God, is he going to be okay? But you put so much effort into something. And for it to just like disappear. Right? And I don't know that that's any, you know, that that's that much different than I don't know, like waking up one day when you're 23. And having diabetes. Like, you know, like, there's this thing you've been doing an expectation you have is a path you're moving on. And then suddenly somebody just steps up and goes no over. You can't can't argue you can't fight you can't, you know, can't send in a form to try to get us to change our mind. This is just happening. Yeah. And you know, and it's, I mean, it's tough, man. Do you have brothers

Troy 52:19
and sisters? Yeah, I have an older brother. He's four years older than me and older sister who's two years older than me and a younger sister, who's five years younger than me.

Scott Benner 52:25
Were they any help through all this? Like, just comfort or?

Troy 52:30
Yeah, a little bit. I mean, my, my older sister is now a PA, she played basketball in college, she was actually one of the best national shooters I've ever seen. And I tell everybody that, but she, she kind of was a big role model for me for sports. And then she's a PA now, like I said, so she's, she knows she has a little bit of a grasp of kind of diabetes more than anybody else in my family. So that kind of helps a little bit. But other than that, I mean, even my mom says, she's like, Hey, listen, like even she told me this years ago to I remember, like, vividly. But her her and my dad both said like, hey, you know, obviously, we're really sorry that you got this. But if if it was going to be anybody in the family, we're glad it's you because you're able to handle it. And we know you can handle it and kind of do your thing. So

Scott Benner 53:14
is it funny, like that? The VA onesies? You talked about having earlier? We're talking about like it's being handled? Yeah. Like, do you know what I mean? Like it's, um, this is not uncommon. Hold on, I have to sit up, I have to move that the legs are falling asleep up there. So yeah. Sorry about that. Up there too long. This is not uncommon in these conversations, right? The idea that you're alive, and you're doing your insulin, so you're handling it. But your agencies, whatever it is, and it's not really being handled well. It's being I mean, handled. But how everyone is so comfortable saying, Oh, you had it, but you didn't happen. Exactly. And then they tell you, you can handle it. But did you know you couldn't handle it? Or did you think you were doing a good job? No,

Troy 54:07
I didn't think I could handle it at all. But I think that I was also that young kid that kind of was annoyed with my parents getting on my case about stuff and kind of would tell them that it's okay. Or tell them that it's good. And then they obviously just stopped kind of putting that effort forth.

Scott Benner 54:25
Yeah, I don't trust anybody. They told me it's good. Whether it's on this podcast or in my real life. I'm

Troy 54:30
like, Well, what's new and what's good, you know, it can be different from everybody but honestly, I think that I had a I had a really hard time with my Windows after I was diagnosed and even at like my, my pediatric endo was so mean to me that I would literally be so scared to go to the appointments and like, how did that happen? I don't know. I just like she would just like really, like lay into me. And it was like, she wouldn't put any like, blame or like kind of like get upset with my parents. at all, she would just get upset with me and like, she would just like, get really angry with me. And like, I was obviously an emotional kid at the time, my parents had just divorced, I didn't really have much, you know, parental supervision, and that and that sort of thing, or anyone kind of like helping me in a, in a sense of like, Hey, Troy, you should probably do this, you should check this, like, my mom was great at counting my carbs for me, and like cooking the meals and like making sure that I had the right numbers down and stuff like that for the most part. Or like, she would help me with like my low blood sugars and stuff like that. So it's not like they were like unfit parents in that regard. But obviously, diabetes is a different beast that you need to tame head on. And we just really didn't. So just butted heads with her and like, she would see my agencies and she would just think that I wasn't trying or wasn't doing anything. And obviously, I had the honeymoon phase, and I had all these different things going on. And she just didn't really give me the proper care. In my opinion, I wasn't getting changes in my numbers like I should have been. She was kind of just they were letting me coast. Like they didn't put me they refused to put me on a pump until my sugars got better, which I didn't think made any sense at all. But I was also 13 and thought that I knew everything at that time.

Scott Benner 56:09
Well, I agree with you. I mean, I don't if if it's a thing, you can't first of all, she's got to know your parents just got divorced, right? And you're young, and you're not doing well. And her answer to that is to say, well keep doing this till you figure it out. And you were scared to be exactly. Well, what the hell, man? That's not

Troy 56:30
good. Yeah. So I had some, some PTSD with with Endo, so bounced around to a couple I actually had, when I was younger, I was a very short kid, very, very short kid. So when I was diagnosed, my dad spoke to somebody, one of his friends or whatever, I guess, who was a basketball coach. And he was like, Hey, you should check out this foundation, down at Rush and Chicago. It's called the magic Foundation. And they basically will test you for like hormones and that sort of thing. So I ended up getting tests on my pituitary glands. And they it was like this whole nine hour test that they had to do with a bunch of bloodwork every few hours. And they found out that I wasn't producing enough like by any means, like I was very below the amount that I needed. So I started to take growth hormone therapy, and do that for a couple years too. So that was also affecting my sugar's a lot too. And they had, they were also acting as my Endo, too. And that lady was just even worse, it was just like, brutal, so bad.

Scott Benner 57:25
I wonder if I'm stretching you out. Lead

Troy 57:28
ACLs. I got I've had that same thought pounding in my head for years, because I was thinking that my dad was being a little greedy, trying to get me an extra couple inches in my height. And that's how I ended up tearing my ACL and having these injuries all over because of my body growing out of or my bones going too fast or growing more than they should have, or obviously, it's abnormal growing and that sort of thing. So I've definitely thought that myself, I just haven't confirmed it. Or, you know, I don't even know if I want to know if it's for sure. True or not, because I don't know how I feel.

Scott Benner 58:01
Yeah. Oh, you'd be? How tall were you before the procedure? So

Troy 58:05
I was, let's see, diagnose diagnosis, I was four foot nine. And I was 79 pounds. And I was at 13. And then going into high school, I was I was 411. going into my senior year, my freshman year high school. And I was and that was where I was five at graduation.

Scott Benner 58:25
Is your list, highlight reel on your baseball thing? Are you five? I

Troy 58:29
like to think I'm 511 my girlfriend thinks I'm not she thinks I'm like five, nine. But I would say I'm like 510 510 and a half. So

Scott Benner 58:36
this is so interesting. My son never lied about his height. And it's so common in Oh,

Troy 58:44
it's common in basketball to I the only reason why I did it is because all my other teammates lied, and I was taller than him and I was like, I'm not putting that I'm shorter than your dude, I'm two inches taller than you like, that's gonna look bad for scouting. So I would. So that's when I started to lie is when all my other teammates did. So I had to look like I had to look the part. So I'd always be an inch taller than the kids that I was actually taller than

Scott Benner 59:05
so that that really is we've had this conversation because my son's like, I'm not lying. I'm 511 just say I'm 511 and he actually is 511. And so, but other people around him are like I'm six one and he's like, I'm taller than you. It's like it would happen like everyone would pick a number that they thought somebody would be interested in. It's It's so fascinating. But anyway, it ended up hurting call sometimes, because when he said he was 511 people assumed he was five nine. Yeah.

Troy 59:35
It's like, a secret like with that. It's just so weird how that works.

Scott Benner 59:40
Yeah, listen, here's the secret. I'm gonna tell all of you because I've been through the whole thing now. When they see you they know. Exactly. Exactly.

Troy 59:49
So it's like what does it matter? I'm 511 with cleats on? I'm definitely 511 So that's why I was like cool. I'm gonna be wearing cleats most of the time.

Scott Benner 59:57
Well, that and that is another thing too is the big holes like I'm like six one in my shoe.

Troy 1:00:01
That's when you should put six. I'm not going to take they're gonna tell you to take your shoes off and measure your height at a at a combine or maybe in a combine they would, but like, at, like a showcase or whatever, however they do that.

Scott Benner 1:00:14
Yeah, it's interesting how people's minds work. So I think Cole's natural position is centerfield. Yep. And he and he has an affinity. I mean, he's old. Now. He probably said, I can't do that anymore. But like, he had an affinity for where the ball was, like he was he was always where the mom was. And so if you put a ball off a wall, he'd be standing there,

Troy 1:00:37
he knows where it's gonna, like ricochet. He knows where it's gonna bounce

Scott Benner 1:00:40
that like it's not a catchable like, like, keep in mind, it's not a catchable ball. And most people that I watched, the entire time he was doing this and recruiting and everything, most people would have been 1015 feet away from where the ball landed. But cold would almost catch those balls. And then he'd have it like, immediately get it back in I to see to tell you how many singles many guys how many elbows were held to singles. Yeah, how many triples were held the doubles? Like that kind of stuff. Isn't it's insane. But it but people don't see it that way. They see Oh, you got really close to the ball. He didn't catch up though. Yeah, right. And and so the ones that were catchable. He made look easy. And and the ones that were uncatchable, he was there, and he would impact the game properly. But an untrained eye would see it as Oh, why were you so close, but didn't catch the ball? And that it's a real thing. Like it was hard to play for people who understood the nuances of it. Yeah, it was really interesting. And so anyway, my point was, that people who knew would say to me, Oh, my God, how fast is he? What is he must run like, and they would say some crazy 60 times. Yeah.

Troy 1:01:50
What is What do you like to see? Or what was his 60? It

Scott Benner 1:01:54
was never like insane. People thought he was running like a six, three or a six, two. But he was always more like a six, six, still just. But he knew where the ball was Troy. Like he knew where it was going. He would move when the bat was being swung. Like he had a real, he's probably

Troy 1:02:13
a really good quick twitch. But also, even if you're running a 60, like no one, I saw the 60 doesn't really make sense because no one's ever running 60 yards in a straight line. And yeah, with him being that fast for a 60 he's able to get to spots so much faster than other kids because he can he knows not only does he know where it's going, but he can move. So he's gonna get there a lot quicker than an average person would. And that's what that's what helps a lot out there. And people don't realize that though.

Scott Benner 1:02:39
Yeah, no, but what but when people are measuring things, what they see is there's one kid it's always one short kid who runs like a six to 16 like some in that he's out there and his bare feet. Like, yeah, like he grew up in the jungle or something like, you know, and he's like, he's like, I don't even need shoes. I can do this. Kid flies, can't catch a baseball, terrible outfielder, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But look at the 60 That kid gets people pay attention to the unfortunate part about scouting. Yeah. And then once in a while, you get somebody who really knows what they're talking about. And I was, listen, we were at a summer game during COVID, maybe, because like, like, you know, while schools were shutting down, like real baseball players, were still playing baseball places like my son played more better baseball, because it COVID than he would have played if he was in college. And so we're at this field 111 Summer, that summer, I think. And this guy with a clipboard, he comes around to our side of the field, and he goes, whose son is wearing this number. And I was like, is the father of this kid here. And I was like, God, it's my son. And he comes over to me, and he goes, Hey, I'm here for the pitcher today on the other team. And I'm like, right, he goes, and he told me what team he was there for is there for he was a pro scout. And he said, Your son, I've been watching him he's like He grades is a professional outfield. Wow. And and I said, I know. Thank you. What do we do about that? He goes, I keep playing. It's literally how it went, like, I had a man stand in front of me and use the words your son grades out as a professional outfielder. And then when you ask them what to do next, they're like, yeah, just keep getting Stassi ups. And yeah, and it's all it's not. It's not the system isn't

Troy 1:04:27
nice. That's why it's it's part of the reason why I decided on to play professional baseball, but I was also 25 and broke broken.

Scott Benner 1:04:37
What my point is, is that is that they, they take the things that they can do. So if you're taller, good. If you're bigger, good. If you're super fast, good. These are things that minds can like absorb quickly. Like there's no one standing there except one guy one day. Luckily says things like, man, your son takes perfect routes to things. His arm is turret like I think what happened was that day the they were just they were on a team that was so good that got they would just run out to it because they didn't even play the same position the whole game because they were just they were so good, it didn't matter, they could go anywhere and play anywhere. So in one inning, cold moved from center to right. And someone hit a ball down the line, right down the right field line. I think there was someone on second. And no, no, excuse me, there was someone on third. And Cole caught the ball down the line in foul territory, I'm going to tell you probably 250 feet down the line in that space, going into the fence and call through the kid out trying to tag from third to go he's and caught the ball. But you know, obviously, so like, that's the kind of stuff he could do. And in the end, what he would tell me is I'm not tall enough,

Troy 1:05:58
they don't care. You know, today, look at all the other guys though.

Scott Benner 1:06:02
But it's always one guy, you're gonna be every every. Every generation, there's a three foot tall guy that plays professional baseball, he was the what was the is the guy before LTV was something tool whiskey or something like it's always ROI. Is that who I'm thinking of like, right, like, so there's always one. And you know that it's out today, and then it'll be another one. But but the point is, is that I don't know that my son could or could not have been a professional baseball player. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that, based on his size. That was it for people, they were like, he's not that he's not tall. And then that would be kind of the end of it. And it was really it was, it's a hard way to live it really. And so I'm talking about this for people who are listening, because if your kids are going through this, my best advice at all, as Troy has in a second, my best advice is find a school where academically you fit really well. And that you could play baseball or your sport or whatever it is and go and have a good time. And if anything else comes of it, then that's a bonus. But if you're not a monster, or running like lightning, or something like that, you can't will yourself into the position you think you can will yourself into like it just doesn't have my son is a really skilled baseball player and it did not matter. Like in the end, it kind of didn't matter. You almost have to be lucky. Lucky, huge. No, yeah, it's

Troy 1:07:26
really about who you know, to honestly, I mean, I would say that the biggest thing is, don't waste your money on all these damn showcases, and all these different money grab events just to get you to think that your kid's gonna play somewhere. And I definitely agree with what you say. And to piggyback off that, go somewhere where you're gonna play. I don't know, I mean, unless you want to be that kid that to tell everyone Hey, I played at a division one university, or hey, I want I was on the baseball team in Division One University, I didn't play a single minute or a single inning or a single at bat. But I was there on the team. I just wasn't on the roster. You know, it's obviously personal preference and whatever kids want to do. But if you actually are pursuing college baseball in the next level, go somewhere you're going to play I was always trying to put off junior colleges and put off junior colleges because I thought that I was better than that. And I might have been sure but I it didn't end up panning out that way. And Junior College ended up saving my life and I think JUCO sports in general and just junior college in general, even if you're not playing sports is a great route because you're gonna save a ton of money and in the end.

Scott Benner 1:08:29
Yeah, so those things are very expensive. And it's like, it's like a slot machine. Like you're just putting in quarters and pulling, hoping that something happens right. And, and, and Cole had to moments, to moments like all this work that he put in and these things he go and play these showcases to make sure people can see him. So based on his baseball and his grades, he was approached by Penn. So Ivy League school, right? And the guy pulls me aside first to tell me oh my god, your son's amazing blah, blah, blah, he did this thing on. He was on an all purpose field. So they were playing this game on an all purpose field. So it didn't have a left field fence it had like a it had like a right field fence that kind of disappeared into nowhere. So this kid hit a homerun if the My point is that if the field had a fence, this was a homerun it would have been over the the centerfield fence but because there was no fence there to track down have to stop running. So he tracked it down and and caught the ball probably 425 feet into centerfield. And that was a bomb. Like it wasn't like a rocket like didn't me like it was up in the air for a while he was able to get to it. So he caught that ball. And then he threw a kid out at second trying to go from first to second. And Penn came over and he's talking to me. Tell me about your son's grades. What's he boom, he goes this kid's perfect for us. I'm gonna love him. and blah, blah, blah, like, you know, I'm going to talk to you guys after the game. Then cold like comes in pitches a couple of innings at the end of the game the guys like oh my god, you can pitch like ball ball like he's so it's super excited. And then cold walks in off the field and I say, Hey, this is I still remember the guy's name. And I was I'm not gonna say it here. But I was like, this is this guy thinks your you might be good for Penn and Cole, like lit up. He was like, Holy crap, like, I'm gonna get to go to school like close to my house and an Ivy League school and play baseball. And like, this is insane. And then the guy looks at him and goes, how tall are you? And my son goes, I'm 511. But I'm really 511. I swear I am. And he goes, Yeah, he goes, My guy is not going to put you out on the field at that height. And he was like, wait, what? And it just it stopped as quickly as it started. Yeah,

Troy 1:10:50
that's the only thing to showcase. It's just hard. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:10:54
by the way, this happened a second time. And I will call out that school to not call out but I'll name them. North Carolina. Can you imagine how excited I was the day that the Tarheels guy sat down next to me in a in a stadium and said, Hey, is that your son out and center? And I was like, yeah, he goes here. Your coach told me you are his father. He told me about his grades. And we sat there for 45 minutes talking about coal and his grades. And he's like, man, he's really good. And he's like, it's just very impressed. And blah, blah, blah. And he's, we're moving. And the game ends. I swear to you, same thing. Amen. My son comes over guy goes, Hey, how tall are you? Oh, holds like I'm 511. But I really am 511. Okay, gotta go see, yeah, my coaches are gonna let you play that,

Troy 1:11:36
right? See, that's just unbelievable. They're like, hey, what about a deal breaker? Like I do this better than your guy who's an inch taller than me. Nobody cares. Yep. It's unfortunate. That's what and that's what's tough. And that's why I say what I say about showcases, it's not knocking them at all, obviously, if there's some legit showcases going on, and great all power to you for helping these kids. But a lot of it is like the only way I'm sending my kid, I don't have any kids. The only way I'm sending my kid out there is if I know for sure that he's going to be one of the best there. And he's got this one thing that's gonna stand out as opposed to everybody else. He runs a six to 60 he hits the ball, however hard off the bat, he can throw the ball however far however hard, you know, I'm saying like, don't just send your kid to a showcase if he's not ready, either. Because once you show them to the world, that one time, it's there to stay and people are gonna judge him off of that one experience. That PVR report that showcase report that whatever it

Scott Benner 1:12:29
is, yeah. I think generally genuinely what we learned it was the North Carolina guy it did me in like, I was like, wait a minute, like, but why I'm pulling this pull in the slot machine. And cherries came up. And then the charities told me no, thank you. I was like, Wait, like, what? So he's he like literally, for all the time we spent together. As soon as he saw coal, and coal wasn't six, two, he like started to walk away from us. He's like, Oh, I'm sorry. And he started walking away. And I put my hand on his shoulder and I stopped him. And I go, Hey, man, I'm like, What do I do? I'm like, guys, like, you keep coming up to me and telling me that my son's a great baseball player. And then they're not interested because he's not tall enough. And he goes, Yeah, I would find like a school where you know that they do. So what we ended up doing as we started looking at like stat sheets for college. So we first pick colleges he wanted to go to, or that he fit really well in academically. And then we started looking at how tall were the players that started games in his position. And then we basically then targeted the teams that would put kids out there that were six feet tall ish. And then he would go to workouts where those coaches were. And as soon as called to that he had 18 offers to play college. I say that's really smart to call. Yeah, but that's how we ended up doing it. And then the bigger problem ended up being that during this, you know, this whole thing he kept growing. So by the time he was in college, he was 200 pounds and almost, you know, a little over 511. And like a real like adult like if Cole could have I think it was the extra weight. I think if he could have if he was 200 pounds and athletic, they would have ignored that he was 511. But he was back then he was like 171 65 He was still in high school. And then they looked at me and I was five, nine, I think they thought well, he's not going to get any bigger. And so yeah, it's just it's anyway, that's not my point. My point is not to tell you about my son's thing. My point is to tell you don't waste all your freakin time trying to jam your round peg into your square hole because it's going to cost you a lot of money and it's not going to end well. So for most of you that's all that's it. There's a lot of fun and I don't know that I even I'm not even I don't see it as wasted time. But, and I actually do think like to slice it all. way the disappointment. It makes you a resilient person or percent does. Yeah, yeah, if you can get through it, man, you are a resilient son of a bitch when you get out of this process, so great. So tell me a little bit about your goals, like you bounced, like, why are you not using your degree? That's my first question.

Troy 1:15:19
I honestly, I don't really know exactly what to do with it. I mean, I didn't I personally, when when you think about kinesiology and Exercise Science, you think, Oh, you want to be a physical therapist. And when I was in physical therapy, Scott, I just, that was just the lowest part of my life. And I just could see it in the, in my physical therapist, that it was just hard for him to get me. You know, it was hard for him to motivate me to do something for myself. And I just feel like when I was in college, I was like, You know what, I can't see myself doing this for other people, even though now I kind of can. I just don't know other careers that can make me a solid living with my degree without going and get my master's. And I've, my, my former coaches asked me to come back and be a GA and, you know, get my schooling paid for and that sort of thing. But I just, I don't know, I think the only way that I'm going back to school is if I'm playing sports, and I'm not good enough to play on the golf team right now.

Scott Benner 1:16:16
So, so you don't love school?

Troy 1:16:18
I don't I think it I love the, like the schedule of that. You know, I've had my whole life under a routine under scheduling, seeing the same people, you know, that sort of thing. I think I like that kind of community feeling. But I don't I don't love school. No.

Scott Benner 1:16:35
Okay, yeah, I My son doesn't love it either. Actually, there's I honestly think that if it wasn't for baseball, we would have had trouble getting him.

Troy 1:16:44
To codec. Yeah. by imagining both there. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:16:47
And, like, you know, I'm not bragging my son's degree is kind of impressive. And he's like, it's not a thing that he loves. He's just the thing he's good at math is a, it's the way his brain works. So he's good at it. But he doesn't love it. He wants to use it to do like I said, other than Yeah, it's fun to listen to him talk about baseball, he sees it for

Troy 1:17:11
how he sees it from an analytical standpoint. Does he like Moneyball?

Scott Benner 1:17:15
Oh, that movie? Yeah, he loves it. That's

Troy 1:17:16
where the game is nowadays. So like, when you're talking to me and telling me that like, oh, you know, they're they're writing you off because your son is an inch shorter than the average are this and that that's that's Moneyball in my head. I think that that's kind of where it's at is that, you know, it's all analytical now is that and there's not a lot of guys that can feel the game. And they're getting rid of a lot of scouts, that have actually been around the game for a while on that no baseball, and they know players. And it's going off of more of analytical now. Like,

Scott Benner 1:17:43
I think Cole believes that there's a blend that needs 100%.

Troy 1:17:47
Because I agree, I like the new wave of technology and that sort of thing. I think it's amazing. But it also is detrimental.

Scott Benner 1:17:55
Yeah, it's strange to watch a guy, like, stand on a baseball field that can't defensively play his position. But they've done a mathematical formula that tells them that he will prosper more at the plate than he'll fail in the field. And so his run differential will be okay, still,

Troy 1:18:13
like we're willing to take that risk. But we don't want to take a risk on a kid that's an inch shorter than we are used to.

Scott Benner 1:18:19
Yeah, and so I think there's part of like, I think that one of the things that Cole has going for him is that he does have that kind of math mind. But he literally is a baseball player. Like he he has a job now where he works in baseball. And I don't think I'm gonna say exactly where he works. But he said that the one of the things that stunned him when he got there was that he came in with a group of new hires. And he said, he goes, I'm the only athletic person out of all. And he was like, it was really weird. They all love sports. He's like, they, they love it. They know a ton about it, but none of them have played it ever. And he's like, in these are the people who are shaping the ideas. Like it's all theoretical to them. And I was like, that's really and he's actually moving up really quickly. And I do think it's because of the blend of his like, of his experience.

Troy 1:19:12
Yeah, and I hope so because that's I'd rather have someone like him moving up in the system than then someone that doesn't know you know, a quality at bat if it hit him in the face.

Scott Benner 1:19:23
What it takes, but it's it really is. I mean, I love it. Listen, I love watching baseball, but there are times I'm like, that's not a baseball player. That's a professional baseball player who's not a baseball player. Yeah, he's just a really athletic, there's

Troy 1:19:35
no the gamers, you can see the gamers and you can see the guys that have the IQ.

Scott Benner 1:19:40
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. It really is. Alright, well, Troy, what have we not talked?

Troy 1:19:43
I don't know. I mean, we've got I mean, there's a ton that we can talk about, but I got what else you got. I didn't really make notes for it. So I don't really I don't really well,

Scott Benner 1:19:52
I don't want to miss I can't I don't want to miss anything on your diabetes like like you're doing on the pod five now. You're letting it do its thing. thank you are you let me ask you a couple of questions about day to day on your one five stuff. Are you Pre-Bolus In your meals? Does that need to happen? Yes. Okay. Do you watch what you eat? Are you like a careful eater? Like a clean eater? What's your diet, like, I

Troy 1:20:17
would say I'm a clean eater. I was definitely a lot cleaner when I was in school and playing sports and, you know, on more of a diet, but with the help of my girlfriend, and she definitely wants me eating a lot better. She's kind of taken away a lot of the carbs that I'm used to eating, which isn't a problem good, bad or indifferent. I think you can do well with either, but I'd say I'm pretty standard. I eat maybe two solid meals a day, sometimes three. But like I said, I usually feel fast the most. The only thing that I'll really ever eat for breakfast is eggs. I won't really have any carbs or anything like that. Occasionally, I'll have some coffee. I, my girlfriend doesn't really like meat as much as I do. So I've been not eating as much red meat, as I'm used to. But a lot of chicken fish, a lot of greens, trying to at least eat a lot of greens.

Scott Benner 1:21:09
Oh, this girl is telling you what you like and getting you in healthy shape. Good for her.

Troy 1:21:12
She is great. Yeah, for sure. She should have she should be joining me on this podcast, because she would tell you, she'd probably put everything into her perspective, which is much worse in her eyes than in anyone else's eyes. I think she's a little dramatic. So

Scott Benner 1:21:25
I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you about that. But first, you know, your Minnesota came out for one of the only time she said oh, occasionally. Oh, occasionally.

Troy 1:21:31
I don't know from Minnesota though. No, no, no, no, it's all Midwest. So it's pretty close. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:21:38
it's all the same place for

Troy 1:21:42
everybody. And everybody out here knows that I'm not from here. So I don't even try to fake it. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 1:21:47
wait, you think she sees your health differently than you do it?

Troy 1:21:50
Yeah. Like she like, Okay, so just to put some perspective on it. Her father had pancreatic cancer and died a few years ago. So she obviously has, you know, that going on, but he was, you know, obviously, he had to check his blood sugar and do some things as if he were a diabetic because of his pancreas failing. So she knew kind of what his diet wasn't that sort of thing. And then she sees kind of how I eat, but she'll like tell me to, to not eat so much. But then she'll tell me that I'm skinny and I need to gain weight. So it's like kind of like a, you know, like a toss up. Really? I

Scott Benner 1:22:25
think they call that a double edged sword. Yeah, mixed. Yes. Yeah, I

Troy 1:22:28
guess there's a lot of mixed messages. I will say I won't say that. Like, she's like, super dramatic. But like, I like to eat popsicles every now and then. And they're sugar free popsicles, but they're still popsicles. You know what I'm saying? She's like, Troy, you don't need that. Like, just just don't eat those. And I'm like, but I want him. 27

Scott Benner 1:22:49
Just stop eating the popsicles, man. It's easy. I

Troy 1:22:50
know. Well, I've like made my own popsicles out of like, fruit and stuff like that. But it's still like, that's a ton of sugar. You know, I'm saying like, fruits got a ton of sugar.

Scott Benner 1:23:00
Yeah, I mean, I think it'd be alright, if you have a sugar free popsicle, right?

Troy 1:23:03
Yeah, but that's the thing is that, like, I can't eat just one sometimes. It's like, they're, they're just too easy to eat. I think that's the biggest thing.

Scott Benner 1:23:11
But she's looking out for it. Does she pay attention to the diabetes? Yeah,

Troy 1:23:15
she does. Like I share my, my numbers with her. And then when she sees something that she's like, Hey, are you correcting this? And like, yeah, it's already been taken care of. So like,

Scott Benner 1:23:25
you find that?

Troy 1:23:26
I do. Yeah, I think it's, it's helpful that she's kind of on my case, but not too much. Like she's not on me enough towards like, pushing me away. You know, I'm saying like, when I was a kid, and my parents did it, like, I'm not getting that type of feel. It's more of like a soft, softer, like, but still. It's like a firm love, I guess. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:23:46
I was gonna say that. Because earlier, even though you kind of you said your parents weren't very involved with your diabetes, but you still did bring up that you did not like being written about? Correct. And I was, I was wondering, like, do you think they were not involved? Because you push them away as a kid?

Troy 1:24:00
No, not really. I mean, I don't I really don't think that I like pushed them away that hard. I think that it was just like, I'm just thinking of a couple of instances where my mom would kind of be on me and I'm not in the best mood when my blood sugar's high. Anyways, so I think it's kind of like one of those things.

Scott Benner 1:24:15
Yeah, no, I know, I've I've that's a valuable lesson for anybody listening that, you know, it's that's not the time when some blood sugar is very low or very high to start, like philosophizing with them about their health. You're gonna get a lot of pushback. Yeah.

Troy 1:24:30
And I think I really started to understand that when I listened to one of your episodes when you were talking about how you kind of dealt with Arden when she was I don't know if she when she was at school, or whatever the case was, but you were like softer about it. You weren't like, Hey, your blood sugar's low, do something about it, or you might have been talking to the CDE about it. And you ready like, Yes, Jenny. I was gonna say, Kelly, I don't know what I was gonna say, Kelly. But yeah, it's my Well, I'm just throwing names out there. So I, I was close. So but just kind of how you're talking to her about like Hey, like, Hey, listen, like just be more soft spoken about it and not make it seem like, you know, it's your fault right now you need to correct this, like do this now or else you know?

Scott Benner 1:25:11
Yeah, no, there's definitely something to be said for

Troy 1:25:14
time, timing and tone, I would say yeah. Yeah, timing

Scott Benner 1:25:18
tone. When you're talking about like, if it's an emergency situation, then you, you're stuck with what you're stuck, right? But it just, it's not gonna go well, like we have those altered mind episodes because we were learning that there are a lot of people who don't even believe in that. Yeah, like there are a lot of people who have type one who say, well, the people my family think I'm making this up that I'm you know, I don't know, easier to get upset when my blood sugar is higher, or my my brain feels foggy or that kind of stuff. So it's bad enough, it's happening to you. But if the people around you don't even believe in it, geez. And at least you need somebody who loves you who's, who can step back and say Now's not the time for us, like even even though it feels very, like high pressure. We This isn't when we do this.

Troy 1:26:06
Yeah. And it's not like like if my blood sugar is 12 and my mom's like, Hey, Troy, you got to put something in your body right now. Like, I can't really I don't have time to, to get angry.

Scott Benner 1:26:17
Sorry, that's not Yeah, no, I

Troy 1:26:18
don't think I'm alive. I don't think I'm conscious at 12 either. But I've thankfully knock on wood I have never passed out. You never ever had to see anything like that. There was one time though when I was like, my blood sugar was like 24 It was right before dinner, I Pre-Bolus a little earlier than I than I should have. I was like 14 at the time. And I was feeling really like woozy and I like went up to go, I grabbed my plate for dinner, my dad just got home. You know, whatever we started eating. I was like, carrying my plate over the table. And I like was like, I don't feel so good. And then I started walking. And I like just lost control of my body. And like just like kind of like fell. And I guess I don't know, obviously, I looked and it wasn't actually 24. At that time, there was a separate time. And it was like 300. So it was really weird how I like felt like I was gonna pass out and I felt like my blood sugar was low. But my reading was pretty high. It's actually high. About that. Yeah, and I double check to because I was like, Alright, maybe it's just a weird check. But I checked it again. And it was still in like the high twos. So

Scott Benner 1:27:17
that's something else. I'll try. I appreciate you doing this with me very much. And I wish you a lot of luck. It's you're an interesting part in your life. Trying to find your way and get settled at the same time. It's a I'm a little jealous. Actually. It's pretty cool. I like that you didn't just run out of college and say I'm doing this thing, this exact thing like you're kind of free spirited about Yeah, don't

Troy 1:27:39
really have a plan just kind of winging in.

Scott Benner 1:27:43
mean, that's ballsy, good for you. I'm glad you got with your new job. Seriously, that's a big deal, man. Like I just saw somebody online today. She's, you know, in my Facebook group, and she's like, Hey, I lost my I lost my insurance saw that. Like I don't actually yeah, she's like, I don't know what to do.

Troy 1:28:01
I read all those. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I can I can relate to a lot of these people.

Scott Benner 1:28:06
Yeah. Now isn't that interesting? Like it's a? I don't know. It's just, it's something that we like people who have insurance don't think about, obviously, but people who are just trying to like you're not doing anything wrong, man. You're just young. You're trying to find your way through life. And it sucks that this is something you have to consider. Yeah. Yeah, I'm

Troy 1:28:25
glad it's working out. Yeah, most definitely. So yeah. And even if like, even just like, the podcast has helped a ton, so thank you for that. And the the Facebook group has been awesome. I've learned a ton on that. More than I have in the last. I mean, obviously, within the last couple of years, I've had a good endocrinologist, but before that, like you guys, everybody in the in the page, and everything has just taught me so much more than I would have known. And it's just crazy how under educated I was, and I've had it for 14 years now. So

Scott Benner 1:28:55
yeah, I appreciate knowing that very much. Makes me honestly just makes me happy to know that it's helping you. So yeah,

Troy 1:29:02
and even if like even if people that are listening want to you know, talk to me about my story, and whatever the case is, like I I'm very, I don't post on social media more than I should. And I don't know, I'm not really out there. But I do want to kind of be a sounding board and I do eventually want to get these camps going to where I can start having type one diabetic athletes across the world come out and kind of do something like that kind of how Sam Fuld has his going and just kind of piggybacking off that. So I'm always open to to talk to people about this.

Scott Benner 1:29:33
When this comes out, drape absolutely go on the page and share it and say hey, this is me and if you want to talk like I'm here Yeah, you know absolutely do that. There's a lot of people in there you'll find somebody Yeah, most

Troy 1:29:42
definitely even people near near here near South Carolina since I don't really know many people out here anyways as of yet.

Scott Benner 1:29:50
Tart, isn't it to move and not knowing Yeah, but I couldn't

Troy 1:29:53
recommend it enough. Honestly. I think that it's it's something it says something about getting out of your hometown, and I didn't I didn't do it for college. So it's better than I didn't know. Otherwise it would never happen. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:30:03
No, I'm watching my son had to go somewhere to take a job. And he's like, by himself. But the things that I see him doing with his free time, and he's like, you know, some days, he's like, man, what did people do after they were? You know, I said, I had kids, so I don't know. But like, just little things, like, he, like one day, like, called me, he's like, I'm gonna go to the park and play basketball. He's like, I'm just gonna try to find a game. And, and he, you know, he did, he went to a park found a bunch of like, some kids, some adults playing basketball made his way in through it. And, you know, it's, it's that I don't know, that, to me is the big deal. Like, just, you don't I mean, like growing to a bunch of strangers and saying, hey, I want to get this game,

Troy 1:30:47
especially nowadays, too, because I feel like everyone just not wants to, like hide behind their phones, but like, it's so much easier to text somebody than it is to call somebody and actually have a conversation. And I think that says a lot about him is as a person, and just people in general that are able to do that, or that are able to go out and eat by themselves and sit there and not necessarily sit on their phone the whole time and just kind of be where they are.

Scott Benner 1:31:09
It's been a really good experience for him like having to like, you know, like, he'll tell you like, I played baseball the whole time. Like there are things I did, he didn't ever had a job. Like, like my son's first job is his out of college job. He'd never worked anywhere once he would he was playing baseball or studying and and he was working hard at those things. There was no time for him to go like scoop ice cream and a local police or something like that. So he went from never having to get up and go to work to having like a real adult job just straight off the bat like Yeah, yeah, in a town by himself. And and it all happened quickly because he got the offer but the job started in like two weeks we had to move like across the country in total that's stressful. It was really something but but like I said, I said I'm seeing it really. Forum has a lot of benefits. Yeah, you do that kind of work. So alright, Troy Hold on one second for me. I appreciate you. Thanks.

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