#555 A Couple of Regular Dads

October 6, 2021Scott Benner

Michael is the father of a young type 1.

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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. Damn. I don't know what just happened. Hello friends. Hello friends and welcome to Episode 555 of the Juicebox Podcast, I might leave that in

one day a man named Michael sent me a message, I get a lot of messages. So there's nothing inherently new or different about that. But there was something about Michael's tone, even in writing that made me worried for him a little bit. So I did my best to help him I pointed him towards some episodes that I thought would help. And this is a conversation with that person who I've really grown to enjoy. And I think you're gonna like him too. Please remember while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. or becoming bold with insulin.

I saw last night like you're apprehensive or nervous. And I I was just really, I'm so excited to talk to you that I was. I was weirded out that you were nervous. Like, oh god, what do I do to make this guy feel uneasy about this? But are you okay? Oh, yeah. Oh, gum. Good. Good. Good. Now I'm super excited to talk to you for reasons that won't will, we'll get into as we're talking.

Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Absolutely. The best blood glucose meter I've ever held, touched or used, the honest, the whatever I'm raising my hand, the whatever you raise your hand to when you're swearing, Contour. Next One, calm forward slash juicebox. I love that meter, check it out. And today, we have a new advertiser. Drumroll, please. We don't have any drum roll sound effects. Trial net, Data, Data, Data, Data data, either you just imagine holding thing. Trial net is a sponsor trial net, you know, trial that they offer free Risk Screening. Oh, risk for what's got type one diabetes, free type one diabetes, Risk Screening, you can do it right from your home if you want to. I'm gonna tell you all about it later. But for now, just know this trial net.org forward slash juice box. Free type one diabetes, Risk Screening. There's some criteria for who's eligible, but it's a lot of people. And I'm gonna fill you in in the center I made even at the end, I'm like, overall through it, I haven't decided it's a lot of information. I don't want to like gum up the works. I might tell you a little more in the middle. While now I'm doing it here anyway. Anyway, you're gonna find out more in a little bit. Welcome. trialnet. I think you if you're listening from trial net, you just heard that you're super comfortable with where you've spent your ad dollars because that was clear as mud trial. that.org. forward slash juice box. I promise I'll make it clear later.

Michael 3:15
I'm Micah and I'm just a regular regular dad and my daughter. She's the one day warrior. She's 10 years old, and

Scott Benner 3:27
it's about how long ago was she diagnosed?

Unknown Speaker 3:32
January of 2020.

Scott Benner 3:34
Wow. Over a year. Yep. Yeah. When did you first speak about do you know?

Unknown Speaker 3:42
I want to say it was March of 2020.

Scott Benner 3:46
Okay, Jennifer, so about three months into her diagnosis. So not my brain is very simple, Mike. So things stick out to me for reasons like so we're not going to say your last name, but your name is different enough that it sticks out to me. Yeah, there are some people that send me notes and I'm just I don't know who they are. But you I'm always aware of who you are. And is it fair to say that by the time you thought to reach to me, you were in a panic?

Unknown Speaker 4:19
Oh, I was clueless. Okay. There's no other way about it. It's like, you know, they said they sent us home to take care of our daughter with a piece of paper and say, Oh, well, everything just changed. But here's this piece of paper you got to live by now. And that piece of paper wasn't working

Scott Benner 4:36
one very helpful. Not it's difficult sometimes to feel people through writing. But you felt like you were vibrating. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. And, and then and then you're not. So then then I How do I explain this. So I want to help when I hear from you. Right away. And then there's, there's this interesting thing that happens too, because men don't reach out nearly as much as women do. But the men that reached out are usually very, like caregiver oriented dads. Like I don't get, I don't get a lot of guys who were, you know, I get up in the morning before the sun, I go to work, I come home, I eat, I grew up, I go to bed, like I don't meet those men, you know what I mean? So I know you're gonna, you're gonna be a person who's really been involved in your kid's life, and, and has a lot that, you know, a lot going on at the moment. And I but I'm so much better at talking to women like so like i. So I. So I'm just like, Oh, I wonder how this will go. And I feel like, in present day, you guys are doing pretty well. Is that a fair assumption?

Unknown Speaker 5:55
Work? Yeah. Day Wednesday, we got our a one c two about a 6.1 as of right now. And we haven't been over 6.5 that this whole thing?

Scott Benner 6:05
Okay. What? What was the origin of the nervousness in the beginning? Like, what had you upset?

Unknown Speaker 6:15
Well, the only thing I knew about diabetes was there was an old man on a commercial that used to say, diabeetus. And that was the only thing I knew about diabetes, I had no clue. You know, I thought diabetes was just something that all people get. And, well, all of a sudden, that just got thrown out the window. And then it's just something about having to give your child a shot, when the most you know about any type of medical thing is rub some dirt in it. And you're gonna be alright. It was it was just life changing, total life changing? Yeah. I don't like change too much. And when that happened overnight,

Scott Benner 7:01
you got to do it. And you can't say no to it, or say, Well, let me give him give me a minute to think about it. It's, it's just here it is, and go do it. And that's it. How did you? How did how did you find me? Like, how did we end up talking?

Unknown Speaker 7:15
It went from, I'm going to, I'm going to Facebook group for auto blast, because that's what I do for a living. And I met a guy on there, who he's type one, and so was his daughter. And, you know, everybody's the same age, like I'm almost the same age as him, his daughter, same age as my daughter. And he was like, dude, you need therapy. He just flat out said you need therapy. You are stressing way too much about this. And I'm like, Well, I don't I don't do that. So I started finding like support groups on Facebook. Okay. And then the podcast got brought up a few times. I was like, I don't listen to podcasts. And we'll try this. And I think the first episode I actually listened to, was the one that I think was called a when you decided to share or something like that, right? It was like one of the first episodes Yeah. And I was like, Man, this dude gets it. And I just keep listening, man. And I learned so much from that.

Scott Benner 8:15
That's really cool. Because, you know, I think there's a lot to learn here for people because I would think that if you take diabetes out of the mix, you and I don't appear to have anything in common where we would, we would meet like, in a way where you were in a spot where somebody was telling you, hey, you might need therapy and you're like, no, I found a guy named Scott it's gonna be fine. Like I don't know. I just can't imagine that would happen and without this common denominator for us, and not because we come from different walks of life, but just because guys don't really this is not how we generally do things. Like Yeah, you know,

Unknown Speaker 8:56
it's like, you know, as a dad, you're like, Okay, well I can fix this you know, you can fix anything right? You know, you gotta you got a water pipe, busted, you fix it, you got his car broke down, you fix it, and you got problems at school, you go fix it. Well, then you get diabetes thrown into the mix. You can't fix that.

Scott Benner 9:14
And it'll make you crazy.

Unknown Speaker 9:16
Yes, but what I've learned is maybe I can't fix it. But I can manage it. And I could do the best I can to manage it. And that's relieving to know that I can manage it.

Scott Benner 9:31
I agree. Would you say that as a parent? This is the first thing that's come up that didn't have a finite answer. Something that yes, yeah. That's a horrible first thing to be in that situation with. Can I ask this is gonna sound disconnected for a second? Has there been much death in your life or did most of the people you know, are they still alive?

Unknown Speaker 9:52
No, there's been 2019 I went through like five different funerals. Oh, my You know, my dad died 10 years ago. Okay, so yeah. So when I hear diabetes the instant thing Oh, but she, she got this, we got long enough time to panic

Scott Benner 10:16
feels like panic. Yeah, I asked because until, until like the last couple of years of my life I just didn't know many people who had died it was the that's the most finite thing I can think of that you have to deal with because there's no, you know, there's no way you don't get the wish your way out of it, right? So diabetes is is like that in that it, you know, it's just not going to be 100% fixable. And then you have to make your peace with that. What do you think would have happened to you if you didn't make peace with it?

Unknown Speaker 10:47
Oh, well, I didn't sleep for I don't know, five months I was sleep 30 minutes at a time. And then up until recently, I started setting alarm clocks for over two hours. And then I just realized that I was standing up from in between and just watching the Dexcom numbers and that wasn't healthy. And I think I would have probably had a heart attack. At the rate I was going,

Scott Benner 11:13
Yeah, I know that feeling. I really do. I've said those words to my wife, I said, I have to figure something else out, or I'm gonna have a heart attack. There's a weird line, once the sleep is like once you get past tired, and you're just existing in like that zombie state. Everything like your chest feels tight, and your head feels light. And it's a it's a bad way to be half asleep. I you know, it's funny when I when I speak in public, you know, so when I'm, I'm kind of speaking in a in a set amount of time. It's so management oriented. But at the very end, I throw in these two things. I tell people, if your doctor says no, you should ask why. And you have to get sleep. And then those two little things might seem like they don't go in any way with the bigger conversation. But that's how important I think they are that if I have the opportunity to save anybody, I will I always will. Because I know what happens, may you you get on the wrong side of exhaustion, and it's too bad deal. Well, like I have to tell you, your notes are I was talking about this with my wife last night, I was telling her I was gonna do this with you today. And I said, this is gonna be super interesting. I said, because in the beginning, I couldn't read you in the beginning, you know, and because you're very direct, but then I realized that you're just you're just a guy communicating like if there's no like fluff to what you write. But in the but in the very beginning, I read it as in the first note or so I read it as demanding. And then I realized it wasn't and I just demanding meaning like, Hey, I have a question. You're now going to answer my question. But then I realized that's not I realized I was like, that's not what this is. It's just he's just, he's a guy. He's just he's, you know, he's not gonna there's no, there's no pretty words to go around this. Here's the question, what's the answer? Let's get out of this. Thank you. But I've come to really appreciate our correspondence now. Because it's, it's quick, and I like it that way.

Unknown Speaker 13:13
And it's like, I try not to bother you. It's like, I actually actually communicate with you more than I do. Our, our team of doctors. And, and they're good is because the Our team of doctors, they're awesome. They're amazing. I could not ask for anything better. Yeah. But they're, they're all women. And it's just weird to just ask for help. If you know what I mean. And with you, it's like for a while you're just like a faceless entity. So I don't really you know, I don't see you. I don't have to come in contact with you later. I could just ask you a question. And it's kind of like the man pride thing, you know, right? Nobody knows where I'm getting these answers from. I just got the answer. Like you're making any sense at

Scott Benner 14:01
all. Not only is it making sense, but you're making me think that if I developed a speaker, like a like a Amazon Echo Siri type speaker, that you can only ask diabetes questions I could I could be rich selling them. No, but I do understand and and I hope that people understand listening to because you're from, you're from the south, right? You're from Louisiana.

Unknown Speaker 14:27
No, I'm from Alabama. I'm in South Carolina, South Carolina.

Scott Benner 14:31
I'm sorry. You're not gonna get that bad weather today, are you?

Unknown Speaker 14:35
Uh, no, it's coming tomorrow, I think

Scott Benner 14:38
No, no kidding. It's just the tornadoes everywhere today. There's like tornado warnings everywhere. But anyway, but I think that that's, you know, I think that's a geographic idea. And probably generational too. How old are you?

Unknown Speaker 14:56
I am 3535. So

Scott Benner 14:59
you think it's more geographic the idea of like, it's hard to ask for help like you're saying it's hard to ask women for help for things is that right?

Unknown Speaker 15:08
Yeah, well, it's even hard to ask like, like, you know, I go to church all the time. I mean, I'm in search a lot now I find myself in searching more since diabetes then before that, okay? But it's even hard to ask some of my close friends that are males for help. It's like you know, I'm a man I can do this by myself. Okay.

Scott Benner 15:31
So it doesn't have as much to do with who you're asking just in fact that you have to ask it all

Unknown Speaker 15:36
that right. Yeah. I just learning learning that all the time. You can't be Superman is the biggest lesson diabetes has taught me

Scott Benner 15:46
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, it's funny, you're talking about if a pipe breaks, break a pipe, or a fixed a pipe, you know, how many people buy a house and then open a wall and go, the guy that fixed this did not know what he was doing? It's, it really is it's, I don't think it's appreciated by by my wife and maybe some other women either, but you do have that feeling as a guy, you're like, I'll just fix this anyway, I can figure out how to do it. And it's often not right and it just, it's not applicable with diabetes. You can't, like you can't MacGyver diabetes, you know what I mean? Like, you just you gotta have the right tools. And then once you have the right tools, I mean, it's easier you also are interesting, because you, you describe yourself like you're very quick to describe yourself as like a simple person, but you're type A personality, aren't you?

Unknown Speaker 16:37
I don't, I don't really know.

Scott Benner 16:39
You don't know. You're a perfectionist. Mike, you don't know that about yourself. Is it just that Oh, yeah, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 16:44
I am a perfectionist. Okay.

Scott Benner 16:46
All right, because I hear from two different kinds of people most frequently. And I want to I want to say before I before I say this, I got a note from a lady yesterday and I was answering her back and then I apologize that I'm sorry I dictated this there's a lot of spelling mistakes in here I'm driving and she's like oh, I I did not mean to bother you while you were driving and I said to her it's not a bother I would not have answered you if it was a bother like that's like you know like if you're hearing back from me I mean to like you're not pressuring me into into getting back to you is my point so but you're but so there's two kinds of people that we talk to either people are super lost they need help right? Or they get to a point where they're showing you graphs that look like like concrete sidewalks with one little dip and they're like, what do you think this problem is and I'm like whew, you might be the problem at this point. Because this because this is amazing and you're still worried about it and you've you've come a long way but you would send me stuff and I'd be like Wow, I can't believe he's this worried about this graph this graph looks pretty good. And so can you talk about the the desire to make it perfect

Unknown Speaker 18:01
it's like I seen this thing that was somebody sent me a picture about you know, how what high blood pressure high blood sugar does over a course of time. And you know, she's 10 she's got a long life ahead. So the flatter I could keep this line now. You know, the, the bigger my chances of you know, normal life stuff like having grandkids by her and and you know, walking her down the aisle. That's that. That's my that's my endgame. Did I want to see your be successful? As an adult?

Scott Benner 18:40
Okay, you feel like you're buying time. Exactly. Okay, so now you are, and at the same time, you aren't, and Jenny reminds me of this when I talked to her sometimes. And I'm glad she does, that you could manage your daughter's blood sugar perfectly for a decade. And if she goes off at 20 years old, and doesn't match that management, if it gets lesser, the damage that will come from that time will not be bolstered by the good job you did the first 10 years. So a big part of your job, all of our jobs really as parents is going to be to figure it out and then figure out how to explain it in a way that makes it doable for them not just doable, functionally, but in a way that makes it so that they want to do it so that it's easy enough to do that. It doesn't feel burdensome, which is I think maybe the bigger challenge

Unknown Speaker 19:34
Yeah, and most of my micromanaging that, uh, because I understand I micromanage it too. Extreme, we'll put it that way. But most of my micromanaging She doesn't even know what's taking place because you know, with with the Omnipod and the Dexcom. I can just look at her numbers and take her PDM and make any adjustment I need to do real quick and she'll even know what I'm doing. All right. And she's just now starting to be carb conscious. Like a friend of mine, he loves those Monster Energy drinks. And she grabbed his cat and looked at the carbs and like look how many carbs in this and actually went on a whole tirade about that. Which was awesome because at least he that was the first time that I've seen her actually look at a label. Okay, oh, she's picking up. She's just picking up really slowly.

Scott Benner 20:31
Yeah, it takes time. I just last night. Arden came to me kinda late. And she's like, I'm thinking about a snack. And I was like, Alright, I said, well, what's Bolus now and, and she was like, 120. So we're at the end of a pump. So she's like, a little, little higher than I wanted to be. So we're trying to get through the end of the pump. I said, Well, let's Bolus now he's gonna take a little longer. And then she went to get food. And I said, I'm gonna put 45 carbs in here, you know, cuz she was talking about grapes and something else. And, but then she waited a little long. And thought, well, since I'm lower than I mean, to be now I'm going to grab chocolate milk instead. And so the carb count was the same, but the impact was different. And I didn't, like I wasn't with her. And she didn't think to say to me, Hey, I took this instead of that. And I do think that that's a disconnect for her. Like, I don't think she, she, I don't think she was considering the, like, the glycemic load of the food. And, you know, I guess I don't really want to wander around worrying about that all the time. But it would have been nice last night, because then it created a situation where we had to Bolus again and they got out of, you know, got out of where we wanted it to be and turn into a little fight that lasted like, you know, 45 minutes, fight with the insulin and the food, I mean, but it just, it made me feel like it's gonna take time. So all I did this morning, was when I saw her, I said, Hey, last night, when you swap this out for that, that put us in a situation where we actually needed more insulin. You know, this hits you harder than these though. And she was like, okay, and I left like I didn't, I didn't make an issue of it or anything like that, because it's a long fight. You know, I mean,

Unknown Speaker 22:12
that's right. And I know I kind of sounded a little sexist in the beginning of this. But I do want to say that, you know, my wife, she is an absolute Rockstar at this. Like, I could not do what she does. Like I handled most of the technology end of it, and I handle the doctor's appointments. And I come up with a coach I coached literally football for a while coaching my son still as he's in high school, even though I'm not on the field with him, I'm still coaching him as far as weight training and all this good stuff. So I come up with a game plan, and she executes it and she executes it perfectly. She does all the meal prep, she does the dosing and all this good stuff. But I handle you know, the I do the research, I do. I do the technology change and outside Do you know all the emergency Oh, well, we got a we got a low blood sugar. What do we do here? And, and my wife is a rock star at

Scott Benner 23:19
this. Yeah, no, I you know, it's funny. two things. First, I didn't think if it sounded sexist, I felt like you sounded a little like, traditional is is just kind of how it felt to me, like my father would have had trouble asking a woman for help. But he just would have. And I don't know why. And I'm not saying it's right. But he would have a it didn't come off as sexist to me just felt like it might have been your truth. So are you saying with your wife, like you have the worry, and she does the work? Is that good? Right? That's the division.

Unknown Speaker 23:48
That's right.

Scott Benner 23:49
Did you do that? Because that's where you fit naturally? Or were you protecting your wife,

Unknown Speaker 23:56
protecting my wife from having to deal with any other stress?

Scott Benner 23:59
Yeah. Now I feel that I feel like that a lot here too. Like, I don't want this to fall to anybody else. They were very similar, Mike, in a in a number of ways. You have that feeling that you just like, well, I'll just, I'll do it. All right, I get like, let the bad stuff fall on my shoulders. And then I'll filter it and give it to them.

Unknown Speaker 24:21
That's right. Yeah,

Scott Benner 24:23
I hear you. You feel like you're gonna be dead sooner, because I do sometimes.

Unknown Speaker 24:27
Sometimes I think about that. But I just recently I started actually going back to the gym and finding time to take care of myself.

Scott Benner 24:35
Good. It's incredibly important because that now you've become and you will, as time goes, I mean, your daughter's only 10 you have a lot of heat a lot of time in this even before she even talks about moving out or going to college or something like that. So you're going to be a repository of information in the next decade. She can't lose you now. Like you just became you're gonna you're just gonna become valuable. You know what I mean? You're gonna be like a set of encyclopedia. As for but how do you but but you're so early in it I think about it more now but like how do you set up a situation where she'll feel comfortable asking you 21 years old sitting in a dorm room somewhere wondering about a Bolus, like, like, how do you make it so it's so comfortable that she just sends you a text and says, Hey, I'm about to have this I don't know how to Bolus for you know, do you have any idea? And, and it'd be that easy. Just a couple seconds. And on your way again, like I get texts from my son while he's at school, about things he doesn't understand all the time. You know, they're just not about health.

Unknown Speaker 25:40
I got a two part answer. One, you know, when I've been so open with all of my kids, about every aspect of my life, and there was some pretty dark years before kid and I've been so open with it. And we don't we don't try to. I've never sugar coated anything. Anything to it. I just use it. You see the word? I just want to the point. Yeah. And that's the way I've always talked to almost, you know, this is this because of this and there's there's no way around it. Or the two I'm learning with her. If I make it a joke, if I if I make her laugh during a question to come ask me another one.

Scott Benner 26:31
Because the interactions pleasant for Yep, yeah, that's smart. That's really smart. Didn't didn't imagine diabetes is gonna make you a better father digit.

Unknown Speaker 26:41
I had no clue, man, I thought I thought it was gonna make me a neurotic mess for a long time.

Scott Benner 26:46
I gotta tell you, six, eight months ago, I would have put $50 on you fall apart. It's It's interesting, though, because you had you had the one thing that that people need. It was desire. Like, really, you had the desire and the focus to figure it out. And I find that that to be very important. When I'm speaking to people, there are some people who are as lost as lost could be, but you can tell. It doesn't matter. They're not giving up.

Unknown Speaker 27:21
And it's like part, part of the reason why that i i was just, I'm so determined to get diabetes, right? Or right as I possibly can, was the year before my daughter got diagnosed, my sister donated a kidney to a random stranger. And he ended up with kidney problems because of the lack of taking care of his diabetes. And so this is fresh in my mind that this just happened. And then my daughter gets diagnosed. And, you know, just the father side of me says I can not let that happen.

Scott Benner 28:07
That's how I feel about it. So I'm with you. And the younger, you know, it's funny, there's this trade off, like you say, like, oh, Scott's daughter was diagnosed when she was two, it's great. She doesn't know another way. But, you know, the other side of it is when Arden was diagnosed, back when she was two, which is now going to be I mean, we're coming up on Jesus, 15 years ago, maybe she was two, and she's gonna be 17 this summer. So we're coming up on that, right. And, you know, back then one of the things a doctor said to me to comfort me was, don't worry, complications from diabetes, don't start for 30 years. And I thought, So when she's 32.

Unknown Speaker 28:49
Like, that's exactly what I thought.

Scott Benner 28:53
That doesn't feel like a upbeat thing to say to me right now. But that was the that was the vibe that I was left with, which was, Hey, don't worry, your daughter's not gonna have real health problems till she's 32. And I thought to myself, I didn't even know which way was up until I was 29. You know, like, she got to get three good years, you're telling me it was like, I was like, wait, what's going on here? And that was part of what pushed me to try to figure it out more. But I think too, that's an interesting conversation with you. Because I think too, that putting myself in the position of being the one who was who, even if it's not true, even if my wife was working just as hard and worried just as much as I was, which I believe she was. I still told myself This was on me. And so I almost had to figure it out because I didn't think I'd be able to hold it forever.

Unknown Speaker 29:48
And see I took a lot of weight of this for a long time for a good five months. It was my fault. No But he could tell me different because, you know, we ended up in ICU with her and DK. The night before that, you know, she's laying on the couch, and she just started, you know, her her cycle. So, you know, I think that's what's wrong with it. And then they, they had just started putting out a Valentine's Day candy on the shelves. So I'm at the store at the end, we'll get to some chocolate she'll feel better. That's one thing I did learn from my wife chocolate makes everything but but uh, so I gave a child who I don't know at this point is in decay a box of chocolate. And the next day when when we had to go to the hospital, and we found out it was diabetes, just the guilt of that dollar box of chocolate was almost enough to push me over the edge

Scott Benner 31:01
in that moment, right, because without any context, you um, you'd feel every ounce of that as being the worst thing you could have possibly done.

Unknown Speaker 31:10
Yep, yeah, it took a while to swallow that. They really did.

Scott Benner 31:15
Meanwhile, like how many stories have you heard on the podcast? Or people are like, I was on my way to the hospital. I was like one more go. Or there was a lady recently. It hasn't been on yet. She said that. She's a younger girl. Actually. She called a friend who had diabetes and her friend was like, get a big soda on the way. It's the last one you ever gonna have?

Unknown Speaker 31:33
Yeah, I heard I heard one word where somebody took their kid to a ballgame and then went out to dinner. I was like, okay, maybe that's not as bad as Okay, maybe I'm good.

Scott Benner 31:42
Maybe you did. All right, right? Well, no, isn't it interesting? Like you didn't do it on purpose, but other people who see it coming. They're literally like, I just want one more day. Without this being an issue, which is listen, academically foolish and emotionally I understand it. So yeah, but it just uh, yeah, I mean, you didn't do anything now you know your past that you but I'll tell you the guilts hard to let go of for a lot. I don't know if you heard that episode a number of weeks ago. With Francisco Leone, he was on talking about to please a mob. And I always just thought like, you know, Arden had hand foot mouth. coxsackievirus prior to getting diagnosed, which he talked about, is like he believes he actually said he believes that coming up with a vaccine for coxsackievirus will go a long way towards getting rid of type one diabetes. And that nothing I could have done would have stopped her from getting coxsackie because there was a long time in there. I just felt like I told him like, Did I not wash my hands one time before I made dinner? Was I taking her to the wrong place? You know, I mean, like, I had that whole feeling like we were very, like we take our kids places, like when they're little like, you know, you know, I think we had the whole colon a movie theater. He was you know, breastfeeding. It was a couple weeks old. And you know, I've take Arden to the zoo, and she was six months old and Walker like should I have not have done that? Like, that's always how it feels. And he just he absolved me. I felt like I was in confession. And he was like, it's okay.

People I don't know how many different ways I can say this to you. But you need and you deserve an accurate blood glucose meter. That's it. I know when the age of CGM is right you got a Dexcom You think I don't need a meter like you? Do you still need a meter? And if you're gonna have one anyway, and we know you're going to have one why would you not have a good one. And I don't just mean like a good one like not middle of the road. Gets yourself a great blood glucose meter, it's not that hard, and they're not that expensive. The Contour Next One blood glucose meter is that glucose meter for me, Arden uses it, we love it. It is super simple to hold and handle. It has Second Chance test strips, a bright light for nighttime testing. You know, sometimes you need to need you know, you need to bide last my word, you know, sometimes you need to test your blood sugar in the dark. We're not bad. So we're gonna need a light right on the front of the meter being like, nice and bright lights up the whole area. Also the screen, easy to read. Also, I find I like the like when the screen lights up. I use it for some ambient lighting at night when I'm testing the big word ambient. Probably you're probably pretty impressed right now. But don't worry about me and my great grasp of the language. That's not what you should be excited about. You should be excited about having a great meter. A meter that by the way, may be cheaper in cash than you're paying right now through your insurance. Or you can just run it through your insurance so it really doesn't matter but you have options and those options are awesome. thought out at Contour Next one.com, forward slash juicebox. But all that rigmarole aside, I want you to have a good accurate meter that's easy to use and easy to carry. And that's why I'm glad happy, actually thrilled that the Contour Next One blood glucose meter is a sponsor of the podcast. So for those of you who don't know what trial net is, again, it is a free, I want to stress free because there are other options out there that cost money. But trial net is free is a free type one diabetes risk screening. Now at the very end of the episode, I'm going to go through probably a solid minute of information. So you can really understand the nuts and bolts here. But here it is. brass tacks trialnet.org, forward slash juicebox. That's it go there to answer the questions. And if you're eligible, boom, Here comes your free Risk Screening, you can do it in your house, I mean, you could go do it a lab if you wanted to. But you can actually do it here. It's just it's super simple. And if you want to know, if you have the genetic markers for type one diabetes, or if some loved one of yours has them, this is the way to find out. And there's a ton of good reasons to want to know, I'm going to tell you about them at the end, as well as the steps you can take. So for the show for the podcast, just asking for the kit doesn't give me credit, okay, so all of you out there that want to help me, please don't just do that, okay, don't just order the kit and not do anything with it. You have to follow through, you actually have to send it back in. And that's when the podcast gets credit for you using the kit. So I just want to mention that because I know you guys love me, and I know you want to help, but just don't order them because you think you're helping Scott, okay, only order them if you can complete them and send them back in. I do want to add here that when you use my link, there's going to be a drop down box to ask you where you heard about it. If you don't choose Juicebox Podcast, they're not going to know you came through me even though you came through my link. So use the podcast trialnet.org forward slash juice box. But then when they asked you where you heard about it, please choose Juicebox Podcast, I'm going to give you all the other details at the end of the episode.

You didn't It's not your fault. And it was a big deal for me, even 15 years later, I still wondered if I didn't just take her to the wrong place at the wrong time or do something that you know, even indirectly that could have impacted this, but I think Arden was getting diabetes one way or the other eventually.

Unknown Speaker 37:45
I think it all happens for a reason. And that's that's, you know, you knew how stressed out I was about coming on to this podcast. And that's that's one of the reasons why I was like, You know what, I just gotta get over it, we got to do it. Because you know, I don't know if there's some other 35 year old redneck, sitting in his pickup truck somewhere, you know, beating the steering wheel trying to figure out how to deal with this and if something I say can inspire him to you know, stay in the game a little longer. You know, I think that's the you know that that's why my daughter got this disease you know,

Scott Benner 38:25
well not only will your conversation help somebody and it might be a person like you, but I know it's going to help people who have not one thing in common with you too because you're going to have a perspective that they just never jumped up before and and that's going to be interesting I mean, listen right now I would imagine there's a female doctor listening to this who never once thought I bet you guys might have trouble asking me for help. I wonder how I wonder how that impacts what I do? Because it's all true like you can sit around and be judgey about it like Mike Mike shouldn't feel weird about asking women or nobody should have good okay perfect world 100% but that doesn't mean that's not how that works you know some guys have trouble listening to authority at all so to some women there's been plenty of stubborn women on here you know who are like I don't listen to people all right, you know okay yeah got nothing I could do about it but maybe you should maybe you'll hear something that might be valuable for you. No, I like this a lot. I really do i'm not just because your messages just now they cracked me up because it not because you're funny but because I remember thinking like What's up with this guy and now I don't feel like that anymore. So now when I get a message from you, I'm like, Oh, it's Mike. But uh, but so what did you figure out? That's been most valuable for your daughter so far. Through all this like me. You went through all this consternation, your hand wringing and upset and guilt ridden, but what came out of it

Unknown Speaker 39:57
that if I Don't stress about the small stuff. The big stuff don't seem so big. And if I'm okay, if I'm calm, she's gonna be all right. And the time it is, you know, with stress, you know, we, you can't hide from the stress, the stress is going to be there. So I might, I might go take a shower and cry in the shower, come back out. She never knows that anything's wrong. And as long as you don't feel like nothing's wrong, she's fine.

Scott Benner 40:35
That's where I used to like to cry like that was my spot. Hey, it's 530 I need to shower Kelly's like weird time take a shower. I'm like, Dad just need a shower, just but yeah, it was just it basically what it was, is I had been up all night, and then, you know, six, seven o'clock in the morning with a with a two year old who had diabetes. And I had made it about as far as I could, without screaming, throwing something or crying and I just thought, you know, crying is probably better than punching a wall. So I'll go do that now. And, and I agree, like you've have to find a place to, to reset your emotions where you can't see I mean, listen, I you know, there's plenty of people who have cried in a hospital room at a diagnosis and stuff like that. That's not the same thing. Like that's a that's in that moment. It's upsetting. But you're saying a year later, five years later, if you know you're upset. It all it does is show the other person that you don't understand this. You know, it's not comforting for a 10 year old that she best, right? Yeah, she's got a number more years where she gets to believe that you're Superman, you know?

Unknown Speaker 41:48
That's right. That's right. And you know, keep it a smile on your face while you're dealing with a blood sugar over 200 is a hard thing to do. And if you got to do it, you got to do it. Because you know, once once these things, you lose your emotions. her emotions, just gonna make the blood sugar go higher anyway.

Scott Benner 42:12
I fail at that more often than I'd like to think I do. And I think it's possible. I was just honest about it here. So that one day if I had never listened back to this whole thing, she'll know, I know. But yeah, there are times where sometimes it's not even, like, it's not even anxiety. It's like you kind of go into your head to figure it out. And I know for me, like, I lose all the tone in my face, and my face looks upset. While I'm thinking like, well, the food went here and the insulin went there. And it's day two of the palm like and you're kind of like doing all that math in your head. And, you know, and you're disappointed like sometimes and it's not ever in the blood sugar. Really. I'm always just disappointed in either myself or, you know, a decision I made earlier that messed me up now that that kind of stuff and, and I should even say it's not disappointment. Like I'm not beating myself up about it. It's just momentary. You know what?

Unknown Speaker 43:12
No, you know, you could have done that better. You did?

Scott Benner 43:15
Yeah, you being honest with yourself for a second. Like I'm not I'm not self flagellating. It's not i'm not you know, I'm not gonna spend the next 20 minutes beating myself up about it, but in that moment, you're just like, Oh, I shouldn't have done that. And you know, I don't know if anybody's ever played baseball and you get caught off a bass and as you're diving back and you know, you're gonna get picked off like there's a there's a lifetime worth of regret while your hands reaching for the back can just like I screwed this up. And and then it's over, you stand up and it's over, you know, but when

Unknown Speaker 43:52
we hit like a battle with ketones, our first one and it ended up being something wrong with the pump and we, we got over that, but ever since then, I go into my notepad and my phone. If she has to get insulin if you eat something I write down every detail and, or why it worked or why it didn't work. Because the kids love tacos. tacos, I think were made by the devil, because they hit so crazy. But we almost got it to where it ain't going over 180 accuracy tacos, like three hours later.

Scott Benner 44:32
And that feels like a hell of a win, doesn't it? Yes, it does. You don't want to forget how you did it.

Unknown Speaker 44:38
That's right, because it's just so not all carbs are created equal. And, you know, coming from a bodybuilding type atmosphere to you know, all I need to know with the protein content to Well, now all these carbs and others the day, it fruit, carbs. The bakery car. I mean, they all hit different.

Scott Benner 45:05
Yeah, there's a, I guess it's a Mexican like chain restaurant around here called Moe's. And oh yeah, like, oh, and it's one thing like I've asked, and I was like, please don't eat the nachos from Moe's like, if you could just like so she'll, if she gets something from there, she'll bring them home and parent with like a storebought chip that is, I know how to handle. But the most chips are just, I can't. I mean, they're there feels like there's not enough insulin to get it right. And there's still times where I'm like, you know, go ahead and grab them if you want. But she's even like, not sorry, I won't, like she knows. And I'm hoping that that's a lesson for her down the line that there are some things it's just better to, you know, you don't need those most chips to live, you know what I mean? Like, I'm hoping she gets that in her head too, there are going to be a couple things she's going to avoid, because it's just going to make more trouble than it's worth.

Unknown Speaker 46:01
That's right. And like in in the beginning, you know, they sent us out of the hospital, we got this piece of paper, and it also kept carbs and divided and that's how much insulin you get. Well, then I read the side effects than the possible complications from insulin. And I was like, Okay, well, this is an easy fix. We're not going to eat any carbs. And I almost died two weeks and because of lack of carbs, I could not physically go another day. So we started with like, 30 carbs. And he just not happy not even that many carbs when you're used to eating pretty much whatever you want it to. We don't, we're not carb crazy. We don't. And if people are, that's fine, but we don't work for us. Right? And I don't really say hey, you can't eat that. You can't do this. You can't do that. But I limit what she can have. But like stuff like cereal, cereal is just impossible. I have not figured out theory yet.

Scott Benner 47:11
It's uh, took me a long time to get that right. Like it's significantly long time and in the end, the answer ended up being it's just for Arden, it was just way more insulin than I could have imagined that ended up just being the whole thing for her. It's you know, she needs a Pre-Bolus Don't get me wrong, you need starting with a lower numbers incredibly helpful, but it's just way more than you think. So and it might be different for other people. And it took me a long time to figure that out because of something that you mentioned earlier is because at some point, there's an amount of insulin insulin really like well, if I mess this up the wrong way. This is a lot of insulin. And you know I don't want to make that mistake going the other way. So I just did it incrementally just had a bowl cereal went wrong corrected it, move the correction into the Bolus just kept going until all the insulin was there when it needed to be and ended up working and but but having said that, Arden's older now and you know she might have a bowl of cereal like a month you know, not like she was back then just day after day, you know when she was little and oh my god, I messed it up so many times.

Unknown Speaker 48:23
It's like I think you you actually talked me through it was her birthday. And you actually talked me through the biggest carb meals he had ever ate. And it went perfectly.

Scott Benner 48:34
That's cool. I'm glad 100 carbs

Unknown Speaker 48:37
and I was had a heart attack given her the shot because I wasn't we was on just the insulin pins. Yeah. scariest day of my life. It was I just knew something bad was gonna happen but nothing did.

Scott Benner 48:52
It all worked out. I Well, I'm sorry. It was a scary day for you. I have to tell you like you got right to like you figured me out because I was like little girl's birthday. All right. I'll help like some little girl lavish birthday because I wouldn't I go ahead and text with her dad for a couple of minutes. I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah, you knew how to get me Mike. That was easy. Was was in then. I'm so happy that it went well for you. And in the end, it was just put the insulin in the right place and use enough of it.

Unknown Speaker 49:25
That's right. And wait, wait. Wait, we were we were originally told to give insulin after she ate. Oh, because I don't know why. But that's just what they told us to do. And I would notice her sugar would be like 200 before it even started to come down.

Unknown Speaker 49:50
And then I kept hearing this word Bolus. I didn't know what a Bolus was.

Unknown Speaker 49:56
And then Pre-Bolus got added to what is a Pre-Bolus. So I started Google is my friend. So I look all this up. And I'm like, oh, and I think it came. I ended up seeing something about 15 minutes before or something like that. And we started doing that. And that has worked amazing.

Scott Benner 50:19
Yep, getting the insulin in the right places is incredibly important. I tell you, I say it all the time, right? It's still kind of fascinates me every time. But doing those defining diabetes episodes or shorter episodes, we just take one term and talk them through. I, you know, I didn't realize how valuable those would be. It was it really I say it over and over again. But it wasn't till somebody told me I didn't know I used MDI until someone told me I did. And I thought, wow, people need to understand the terms because they're trying to employ these tools. They don't even know what they are. Like, it's I mean, how much easier would it be if somebody just laid out for you like, hey, guess what, this is what hypoglycemia is, let's not assume that people understand anything. And, you know, let's, let's just define everything and not turn it into some classroom lesson. That's boring, and nobody wants to listen to like, people don't understand you can put information in the world. But if it's not accessible and accessible, doesn't just mean that I can find it. But if it's not accessible intellectually, or emotionally, people don't bother with it. Like they have to want to listen to it, then they have to actually listen to it. And it has to be in a way that it sticks with you when it's over. And then you have to realize that you put something into the world. And it's red hot, because it's new. And six months later, there's someone new doesn't know what it's what it is, I just last night, someone asked me online, they're like, I wish I understood why my kids blood sugar goes up in the morning. And my first thought, as I guess, as a content creator, is I went over this, like, like, it's in the thing, go find it, right? But I can't expect that. So I'm just like, okay, hey, well, I would try this episode. In this episode, there's two defining diabetes episodes about, you know, one of them's called feet on the floor. And one of them's called, you know, this and go listen to those. And then you hear back from the person that was great. That's exactly what was happening to me. So you have to also, you have to also realize that if you're going to be putting this information out, that you're going to be doing it over and over again. And you can't feel like oh, I've already said this, because it's um, helping people with diabetes is a lot like being a parent, in my mind, in that you have to say the same thing over and over again, a million times, and never say at once, like you're irritated or bothered by it. And if you can do that, then you can help a lot of people. But if you get all like I already said this, then, you know, you put a nice thing out into the world that nobody can find anymore.

Unknown Speaker 52:58
Like, I've gotten comfortable enough now to go on some of these Facebook groups. And when somebody has a question I paid I'm comfortable enough now, to put my two cents into it. And always make sure to tell them you know, they're doing great, no matter what the situation is, I tell them they're doing great. And that's what I'm learning. People will listen to you a little bit more. You know, when you're not scolding and wagging your finger at them, we know.

Scott Benner 53:26
Yeah, you listen when you're looking down at a 20 foot hole, and there's a person in the bottom of it that fell into it leading with how did you not see that? It's probably not a good way to make them feel good. That's right. I can't believe you fell down there. That was asinine. I mean, it's a big hole there's a sign NZ design. Thanks. No, I didn't I'm in the hole. So now you just yeah, you need to because I, I do my best online to just say Good job that people I mean, it's it's becoming, you know, it's a self perpetuating problem. The more populated, the more popular the podcast gets, the more people that are artists a good job to, which is delightful. But it's hard to keep up with. And, and sometimes I think, Oh, I hope I know, I missed people. And I hope they understand that I just thought I don't see everything, you know, but every time Great Job well done. This is amazing, because it is and somebody should say so especially.

Unknown Speaker 54:22
especially seeing so many parents trying. They're trying and that's all it does. This is all diabetes takes is the effort. You're willing to put the effort in, you're going to get good results.

Scott Benner 54:35
Yeah, as long as you know which way to put the effort. I mean, because there's nothing there's nothing worse right than putting in all that effort. Doing It Wrong. You still put the effort out and you get nothing in return. You still have the same problem when it's over. It's it's like trying to dig a hole with a keyboard. You just you know you're killing yourself and you're not getting anywhere so I just like to make sure they're holding a shovel when they're digging a hole. That's all that's right. You know It's a it seems simple hate your job has become, if I'm understanding what your job is, I'm fascinated by your job because I am a person who things seem to hit my windshield every when you're selling. But it's turned into like a real home job. Like it used to have to go to a guy and take it to a place and drop it off. And now like somebody just rolls up to your house, and an hour later is like, Can I get a check? And they leave. It's amazing. It's

Unknown Speaker 55:25
Yeah, I still do everything in shop. I'm still very old school. Just because I can control the climate. But there's, there's 1000s of guys out there now doing it, and you're doing it. And you know, there's some really great technicians that still do it on the road like that. Yeah,

Scott Benner 55:43
I've got a guy. I've got a guy that's so good at it. But he's one of those people. It's funny when you talk about how how people seem to other people. He's a guy that if I pulled him out of the world and said, Here, talk to this man for 10 minutes, would you let him replace the windshield in your car? I don't think so. But he's so good at it. Like it's just that it's

Unknown Speaker 56:03
every single autoglass technician, I promise you, we're all the same.

Scott Benner 56:06
Okay? I didn't. I didn't find that one guy he's awkward to text with is it's funny now that I'm talking about it. He's his age. I like talking to him in person. I hate talking to him on the phone. And he does an amazing job.

Unknown Speaker 56:22
I could promise you he hates talking on the phone as much as you do.

Scott Benner 56:25
So I'm just reading his desire to get the hell out of this phone call. That's hilarious. Yeah, but you got to have a guy that does a good job with that because something is gonna smack your windshield eventually. And then you know where I'll tell you. I've never felt so good about my life is that my auto policy has that $100 glass thing? Like no matter what piece of glass I break, you cost me $100 to get it fixed. And it is worth it to keep it up. I

Unknown Speaker 56:55
promise you.

Scott Benner 56:55
I'll tell you I'll trust me. I know. I know over and over and we've we once broke that we had a glass on the top of our car and we broke that. And I was like, oh god, this is gonna be expensive. Nope. $100 I was like, Yeah, fine. What There you go. Things go my way might

Unknown Speaker 57:12
say we're in South Carolina. You don't have to pay nothing.

Scott Benner 57:15
Really? Yep.

Unknown Speaker 57:19
Yeah, they know the road here so bad. You can't drive what I'm getting something broke.

Scott Benner 57:25
I once got a windshield broken at a spot on a highway. And five years later at what felt like the exact same spot on the highway, a windshield in a different car got broken. Oh, wow. And I thought, is that a coincidence? Or is there something about the pitch of this road like, like it's the whole world breaking windshields right here? Like, I don't know, I happened so long ago. I can't let go of it. Every time I drive through there, I'm liking your comms.

Unknown Speaker 57:51
You're watching your windshield.

Scott Benner 57:54
Just this close to rolling the window down and waving my hand in front of the car while I'm just checking in. And anyway, that's hilarious. So is there anything that we didn't talk about that you were hoping to? Or were you just hoping not to?

Unknown Speaker 58:10
I was hoping not to sound like a moron this whole time.

Scott Benner 58:13
He's hit small goals, but he didn't sound like a moron. So that's, that's, that's it? Yeah, mission accomplished. You're all set. Your daughter now is using an insulin pump.

Unknown Speaker 58:25
That's right, she's using Omnipod

Scott Benner 58:28
and the CGM Dexcom. That's right. And are you thinking of going to on the pod five? When the algorithm comes out?

Unknown Speaker 58:36
The horizon thing? Yeah, they

Scott Benner 58:38
changed the name of it. So yeah, horizon a really? Yeah, they call it they're calling it on the pod five now. But is that on your? Is that on your? Should I say is that on the horizon for you? Cuz that seems, but are you thinking about that?

Unknown Speaker 58:54
I am. But, you know, with any new technology, there's going to be some kinks in it. So I'm going to be kind of slow get into it. Because I'm comfortable with this Omnipod I understand how to use it. I understand all the little different things I could do with it. So I'm gonna wait and just read what people say about the new arm because when it comes up,

Scott Benner 59:17
okay, well, I think we're going to try it. So I should be able to tell you how it goes. Just trying to get a hold of it right now. So

Unknown Speaker 59:25
I was in one year, one of your episodes he said you don't you don't want to be the person that looks up one day and realizes that nobody treats diabetes this way. anymore. Yeah. And you know, so I really try to keep an eye out on what's what's coming down.

Scott Benner 59:40
Yeah, I just think don't jump for the sake of jumping. But don't get into a position where you're like, wait, no one doesn't like this. You know, like, you don't want to, you don't want to get so comfortable. Like in my opinion, like, you know, you don't want to be in your mid 30s saying, Hey, I got a 6.7 a one c it's great. Sure that kid over there has a five three But this is good, because, you know, it's situational for your, it's situational for the part of time when you come up because for that 35 year old person, you know, that you use the goal used to be eight. And they're 6.7. They're like, wow, I'm killing this. And I don't have to learn anything else to do this. But if there's not saying that one day that you know, you're gonna have an A one, everyone's gonna want a one C and the fours, but, I mean, maybe they will, like maybe the technology will get so good that that'll actually be possible. I have no idea. But would that be cool. And if that's happening, you know, you don't want to be the person who's like, ah, I just don't want to do it. Now. That feeling for me, comes from my buddy Mike. So but he came up in a regular and mph world. And he stayed with that for so much longer than he should have. And then once he tried to go to a faster acting insulin with Anna Basal, he was just like, he was just, he had been doing it for so long, he couldn't figure it out. And, you know, it just he waited too long. And I and I realized that coming from regular and mph going to novolog is not going to be the same as having a six, seven on a pump and being able to get a five with an algorithm. But you know, I mean, it's still, the idea is still there. It's just maybe not as harsh as my example. But I don't know that's, that's colored how I think of it.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:29
Yes, slow, slow, and steady change is better than a big jump, right? Yeah, yeah, you let me and that's what I'm learning. Diabetes was definitely a good teacher on that.

Scott Benner 1:01:42
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let somebody like me do that. And let Jenny figure that out, and then tell you which way is up and you can decide what you want to do for yourself. But yeah, everybody shouldn't be jumping. Like that. That freaks me out when people are like, I got a T slim. Now I have a Medtronic. I'm gonna get it on the pod. I thought I'm like, just like, wow, get a puppy. He needs some to do. Some board. I don't know. I have a friend who replaces televisions before they're done. And I'm like, why this one still works. He's like, that one's better. I'm like, but the one you have is still fine. Like, just use it a little longer sell it or do something like I don't know, I just added the jumping around too much. I get it like technology can feel like that. But it's when it's your health. It's a little weird. But I mean, I guess the issue is own What do I really care if you want to jump around in some pumps doesn't matter to me. So Mike, do you have any questions like it? I mean, you have plenty of questions when we're not on the podcast. Do you have any now?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:40
Oh, actually, not? Not? Not right now? Because I think I think I actually got a good handle on it now. Yeah, that's excellent. As I say that something is bound to happen in the next couple of days where I'm like, Oh, well, I got to pick Scott.

Scott Benner 1:02:55
you text me anything in the next couple of days. It's going in the end of this episode, but uh, read it. Read it into it at the end, when, uh, when I go to do editing on this? Well, I mean, listen, man, I, I really appreciate you doing this. I really do. Like you've our relationship has been very unique. And I just thought it would be strange not to document it like this at the end here. Because you are going to, you are going to ride off into the sunset, like you have that very, you have that feeling about you. Like you're, you're you're there and you know, you're fine tuning now. And it's been very interesting to watch, you figure the whole thing out. And, you know, I know you said you try to tell people, they're doing a good job. But if no one's told you let me be the let me be the first one to say it to you, because you started about as confused as I've ever seen anybody. And the person you are now just a year later, is um, it's fairly, it's impressive, what you what you've accomplished and the things you've kind of gotten through and climbed over to get to to the place you are now so great job.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:05
I appreciate that. I just want to say thank you for letting me come on here and and ramble on for a little while. And what you do is an amazing, amazing thing. I don't I don't know if you fully grasped how much you actually help people or not. But it's, it definitely is life changing what you do.

Scott Benner 1:04:25
That's very nice. I appreciate it. Listen, I tried to grasp it. But by the time I get downstairs and I mentioned it to anyone else, they beat it right back out of me again. So don't you worry. Hey, they must have a sensor. I don't know if it's an air sensor or if it's something on me, but that everyone must get a signal on their phones like oh, we starting to feel good. Let's get him back down to level Hold on a second. I I I interviewed three girls last night at the same time. My 13 year old girl a 15 year old girl and a 17 year old girl They all live on Grand Cayman Island together, which is apparently a place it's only about 29 miles across and only 60,000 people live on these three girls have type one diabetes and found each other. And it just was such an interesting thing to talk to them and, and to learn about them and see how they just, you know, they created this little, this little group that they they exist. And I mean, how many 17 year olds you know, are very good friends with a 13 year old. You don't I mean, and and these three girls are just they're just far enough in age that they don't kind of belong together. But then you talk to them, and they fit perfectly. And I'm having this conversation with them. It was really delightful. I loved it, and get done. My wife's like, how was it? And I started telling her she goes, Cole said, so Cole walks past it or heard me say something, and I don't know what I said, but he goes down to my wife and he goes, why do people listen to him? And he goes, I don't think he's like, he said this. And then he laughs I don't know why people listen to this. And my wife's like, it's, you know, a lot of people do, and he's like, I don't understand it. And so that's what I like, I'm going to hear from you that I helped a lot of people, and then I'm gonna walk out that door, and people are gonna be like, Oh, it's him. It's, I imagine it's the same as everyone else's home to between them and their children, etc. But I really appreciate your sentiment. And if it makes you happy to know, I am aware of what the podcast does, and trying very hard to not let it cloud how I do it. So I'm just trying to keep going and do it the way that I know that it works. I don't want to, I don't want to get to the end of this one day and look back and see that I've lost my mind at some point, because it's a heady thing for one person to tell you, hey, you did a thing that helped me this much, and it's health related. And when that turns into 10 people, it feels nice, but it's 100 people it's overwhelming when it becomes 1000s of people, it's you have to work to keep perspective about it. And I feel like I've done that I try I sat and answered emails last night and each one of them was really amazing and felt very important to me but if I told you that I probably had 20 emails that read exactly like that from last month from 20 different people like I'm not lying and so it's um it's an interesting exercise to answer everybody as a unique person and not feel like you're recycling your feelings. So I'm learning a lot about myself to doing this so I appreciate the opportunity from all you guys.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:46
seriously awesome.

Scott Benner 1:07:47
Yeah, listen, I appreciate you calling yourself a redneck to while you're on like I thought that was just the most delightful part of it. I don't think colloquially I'm allowed to put it in the title but it was very interesting to hear somebody just very casually be like, you know, it is what it is. I'll tell you what I've just say goodbye then I'm gonna tell you something I said on a recording recently that I'm struggling just to whether or not I can keep in so thank you very much. Hold on one second.

First, and First I'd like to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, and remind you to go to Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. Also, there are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox Podcast Comm. I also want to thank the new sponsor trial net trial net.org, forward slash juicebox. When you get there, and you're signing up for your free Type One Diabetes Risk Screening kit, don't forget to tell them when it asks you where'd you hear about this, you say Juicebox Podcast as a drop down box you choose Juicebox Podcast, you'll see it'll be right there. I'm gonna give you all the details after the music. But first I want to thank Michael for coming on the show. I really like I said enjoy Michael and I was thrilled to talk with him.

Okay, I'm looking at my email here with all of the pertinent information, expertly written by my friend at trial net. But first I want to give you a summary of trauma. It is available at no cost to relatives of people with type one diabetes. Trial net Risk Screening identifies T one D in its earliest stages, often years before symptoms appear. Early detection allows you to take steps to try to change the course of the disease. Trial net offers prevention studies, testing and ways to slow or stop the disease progression. For people who take part in clinical trials. The risk of diabetic ketoacidosis a serious and potential life threatening condition drops from 30% to less than 3%. And also when you're hearing all those stories People were diagnosed and DK you know, being in these trials from 30% to 3%. Okay, so here it is step one eligibility trialnet.org forward slash juicebox. immediate family members under the age of 45.

And second degree family members under the age of 20, you will qualify for Risk Screening if you are between the ages of two and a half and 45 years old and have a parent, brother, sister, or child with Type One Diabetes, you will qualify if you are between the ages of two and a half and 20 years old and have a non uncle, cousin, grandparent niece nephew or half brother or sister who has type one diabetes, you will also be eligible if you have tested positive for auto antibodies outside of trialnet. Okay, that's step one. That's eligibility. The signing up part is next visit trial net.org forward slash juicebox. answer a few quick questions to see if you're eligible. And then join 1000s of T one D families on the pathway to prevention. Don't forget when they ask you where you're heard about this, say Juicebox Podcast, or they will not know you came from me. So that's the part where you'll be able to help the podcast. And remember, it's not just asking for it that helps the podcast it's asking for it saying you heard from it through me completing the kit and returning it. That's a complete cycle without a complete cycle. It doesn't matter if you came through my link. Now after you do all that a kit is going to get delivered right to your door in home testing kit. Right? This free kit provides everything you need to collect a fingerstick blood sample from the safety of your own home. You can ship it back free using FedEx contactless at home pickup, right? Or you can ask for a lab test kit. And then you can take the free screening kit to any quest diagnostics, or lab core lab for a blood draw. That's it. Oh wait, that's not it. There's actually oh my goodness, look at this trial net locations near you. So you might even be able to do that. Alright, so let's go over that again. In Home test kit, where you collect it yourself, send it back free through FedEx, a lab test kit that you take the quest diagnostics or lab core, or you might be able to find a trial net location near you is pretty handy. Now step four are the results you will receive your screening results in four to six weeks. If your results show that you are in early stages of T one D trial net will schedule a follow up visit to see if you're eligible for a prevention study. Not cool. Now why would you want to do this? Here's some quick facts. t 1d family members are at a 15 times greater risk to develop Type One Diabetes than the general population. T one D Risk Screening will detect if you are in the early stages of type one. If you are identified as at risk trial net is then there for you. They have prevention trials. If your screening results show you are in early stages of type one, you may be eligible to join a prevention study and help test ways to slow or stop the disease progression. They also have ongoing monitoring by top Type One Diabetes researchers. And if you develop type one being monitored in a clinical research study like Tron that decreases your chances of decay again from 30% to 3%. And if that's not enough, you can help the greater good a future without Type One Diabetes could start with you. research can only advance with participants. The more participants who are involved in clinical research, the faster we will get answers, you're in a unique position to identify treatments that will slow or stop T one D from happening. In the last 20 years. Trial net has been the leading network in Type One Diabetes Prevention Research. In addition to being able to accurately predict who is going to develop Type One Diabetes trauma has now found a way to delay it by leading that to please a mob prevention trial to please them out is the first drug to delay T one D for a median of two years. This is an incredible advancement that gets us all one step closer to our ultimate goal. A future without type one. Trial net.org forward slash juicebox tellem, you came through me, get your kit. Get it back to them. Find out what's up. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast.