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Podcast Episodes

The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

Filtering by Category: Pre Bolus

#341 From Russia with Insulin

Scott Benner

Daria is in University and has type 1

From Russia to the UK with a lot in between. Daria has a passion for fitness and living well with type 1.

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Daria’s blog - https://www.t1levelfitness.co.uk/

DAFNE -  http://www.dafne.uk.com/

Daria on IG - https://www.instagram.com/t1level_daria/

Check out the Diabetes Pro Tip episodes and Juicebox Docs

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


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, everybody. Welcome to Episode 341 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by touched by type one, and the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. You can find out more at touched by type on.org. And Contour Next one.com.

Today's show is with Daria. She's a young woman living with Type One Diabetes, who's a far away from home going to college. Oh, I mean University. Now you'll figure it out. Daria is a big fan of the show. She's heard every episode and I know that right now she is giggling somewhere listening to her name being said at the beginning of an episode, but she gave an incredible interview that is very informative, and entertaining. And I thought a lot of fun. While you're listening, you need to remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, please always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan. or becoming bold with insulin. I'd also like you to remember that juice box docs.com exists. So if you have a great diabetes practitioner, Doctor, endocrinologist, nurse practitioner, a place where you go where they really get you a place that you would want other people who listen to this podcast and know about go to juice box docs.com and send in that information. It's a beautiful, ever growing list of doctors who get what you want.

Daria 1:47
Hi, I'm Daria, I've been a type one diabetic for 15 years. I a student in the UK. And I'm also a personal trainer.

Scott Benner 1:58
Alright, students in Wait, wait, let me get this right in university.

Daria 2:04
Yes, exactly. I am in university and I'm in my placement year. So we do two years of studying then we go on to like a work year basically. So when you're working, and then you come back and do your last year and your dissertation.

Scott Benner 2:19
Interesting. So the last year includes the dissertation.

Unknown Speaker 2:23
Yes, it does. Unfortunately.

Scott Benner 2:27
Yeah, you're gonna have to do it eventually. So at least it's at the end. Yeah. What's your, um, your focus?

Daria 2:35
focus in terms of what I study? Yeah. So I do management with marketing. I was hoping it would be mostly marketing, but it's mostly management.

Yeah. So that's it really business kind of degree.

Scott Benner 2:49
How does it How did it shift from what you were hoping it would be? You had an idea that that the that the sessions at the school would go one way, and they've kind of gone the other way? Or you've moved in that direction?

Daria 2:59
No, it's basically more or less a set degree. So we have only a few modules that we choose. And it was just the way it's structured. There's not a lot of marketing in the in the whole kind of syllabus.

Unknown Speaker 3:15
Yeah, I gotcha.

Scott Benner 3:16
Not a lot of marketing in that marketing.

Daria 3:18
Well, yeah, but you know, you study like on your own and do things on your own. So

Scott Benner 3:22
still learn a lot. I would say to that your third year, probably, you can sort of choose the course of what you want to go out into the world with.

Unknown Speaker 3:30
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That's excellent.

Scott Benner 3:32
Okay. So, because I got all caught up in my excitement about remembering to call it university and college, I forget how long you've had diabetes and how old you are. So could you tell me real quick?

Daria 3:44
Yeah, I'm 20. Now, I was diagnosed, diagnosed at four, four. So it's been like 1516 years now. Okay.

Scott Benner 3:52
And when you were diagnosed, were you still in Russia?

Daria 3:56
Um, I was in Russia. But when I got diagnosed, my parents got all panicky, and we went to Finland, because apparently Finland has the best type one diabetic care well, or had at the time. Yeah, so we went,

Scott Benner 4:10
Yeah, go ahead. Well, dairy. I was gonna say, that's really, that's good for the people in America who are like, I can't believe I have to drive an hour to a good endocrinologist, your parents left Russia and went to Finland to find good care.

Daria 4:24
Yeah, I think it was a good decision, because Russia is. Yeah, and it's not the best and it's good medical care. But you will, you will always trust it. So a lot of people who can do it, they go either to Germany for their different medical conditions or whatever. or elsewhere.

Scott Benner 4:44
Russia is good. A lot of things. I mean, they're running Facebook. Great. So you know, it's going

Daria 4:50
Yeah, well, they've got their own weapon. It's called telegram. If you know that one. No kidding. And it's apparently Yeah, apparently they can't track you from it.

Scott Benner 4:59
Oh, Are you saying we're being tracked right now? Because I feel so I'm

Unknown Speaker 5:03
always being tracked.

Scott Benner 5:06
I swear, I don't want anyone to know what I'm doing. And at the same time, if they knew what I was doing, I feel like they'd be so incredibly bored. they'd stop paying attention.

Daria 5:14
Well, I don't I don't think so. Scott, you're not doing yourself enough, just as you do.

Scott Benner 5:20
I don't know how you didn't see me this morning doing the dishes and watering plants.

Unknown Speaker 5:24
So how do you know I haven't?

Scott Benner 5:27
True enough. True enough. So there you go. So you were born in Are you a Russian citizen? Or how does that work when you move?

Daria 5:34
I am a Russian citizen. But I was born in the UK. I lived here for four years, then my parents moved because of work back to Russia. So I did move with them when I was a when I was I think

I lied to you. Actually. I was diagnosed when I was five. And

yeah, I moved when I was four. That's what happened.

Scott Benner 5:58
You'll see that I I stopped myself from calling the age of your diagnosis, fake news. I just stopped myself right there. And we were gonna stick out. So you were diagnosed? You were diagnosed at five? Yeah, okay. So your parents born in Russia moved to the UK for work. You're born in the UK move back to Russia for work, you get diagnosed, you guys go to Finland, you're not living in Finland.

Daria 6:18
But we didn't go. We went there for like a week or two just to get things sorted. Kind of gotcha. So yeah, it was just literally, I, I got admitted into hospital there. And we stayed there sort of to learn the whole

what diabetes was basically excellent.

Scott Benner 6:35
Your accent is, is brilliantly blended between the two places that you've lived. It's really interesting. Really,

Daria 6:41
it's very interesting, because English don't hear Russian in it at all. They hear American or Canadian. And the Americans hear Russian and English.

Scott Benner 6:51
Yeah, I hear I hear the I hear the end of the word feels Russian to me. But a lot of your phrasing is, is from the UK. So okay, I'm enjoying myself. Alright. So here you are five years old. I'm just going to in my head, you know, build a picture of you freezing to death. And in the tundra of Russia. I'm sure you look right in the middle of the city, but that's okay. For my for my purposes, you live on the side of a slight embankment, in a lean to. And in your blue, I

Unknown Speaker 7:22
do actually live in a side of an embankment.

Scott Benner 7:26
How do you know him? You know how I know that right?

Daria 7:28
Well, of course, it's Facebook,

Scott Benner 7:30
through Facebook, I can see. Anyway, so you're growing up growing up in Russia with diabetes, I'm dying to know like, what is it like you hear people talking about on the podcast and everyone? Dario has a real insight. She's heard every episode of the podcast. So I'm interested to see if there's a first of all, why you don't why you have so much free time and when you're in university. And secondly, if you see any huge differences or similarities between SORT OF THE AMERICAN STORIES you hear and your your experience,

Daria 8:00
oh, well, in terms of how you get medication, guys, it's insane. Because in UK, I you probably know this from people you've spoken to in UK, we are on the national Harris health care system. So we get all our medications free. I've got the continuous flash glucose monitor the libri thing, and I get it free as well, which is absolutely amazing. I get my insulin for free. And it's just, I'm super grateful for it. There's nothing I'm more grateful for than that. But in Russia, we had to buy it all. So we don't even need a prescription there really to buy it. So we can just sort of go to a drug store and get insulin needles and yeah, there you go. Okay, use it as you please. So you

Scott Benner 8:55
realize that from growing up watching American television, my imagination was that three guys all named Sergei pulled up in a dark sedan and your parents traded them toilet paper for insulin or something you're telling it? None of it went like that at all. Is that what you're saying? Nope. Yeah, see, I think we may misunderstand the rest of the world here in America. Anyway. I got you. That's pretty So cash buy in Russia? No, no prescription needed. You just walk in and say, Hey, I need

Unknown Speaker 9:22
insulin.

Daria 9:23
Yeah, and you can still do that. So I literally, I think, okay, remember when we tried to schedule this cool. I went back to Russia for that weekend. Yes. And I was running out of my Navara pad back then. I'm on CS right now. And we just went to the drugstore and got it. That was fine. Yeah,

Scott Benner 9:43
that's amazing. So what's your What is your what's your expectations for when you finish up with school? Do you feel like you'll stay in the UK or do you have an idea of where you want to go?

Daria 9:53
Well, I've always wanted to do a gap year so year will I just go and travel travel I've got two places where I really want to goes Australia and Canada. So I'm hoping to do that for at least a few months after I finish uni. But then I'm kind of planning to go and do Personal Training, really, because I really enjoy that. And I actually specialize in type one diabetic personal training. Nice. So yeah, I work. I do online programming and yeah,

Scott Benner 10:26
that's cool. I did you know that Australia and Canada are at the moment fighting for the number two position for downloads for the podcast. It's America obviously has those. But Australia in Canada, always going back and forth. At the moment, Australia has a slight edge. So well, Canadians really should pick it up and listen to some old

Daria 10:44
Oh, go one, definitely promote the podcast there for you. You're rolling 100%? I'll hand out flyers and stuff. So don't worry about that.

Scott Benner 10:53
So let's kind of dig into your your growing up with the diabetes. did you how did you find it to be how involved with your parents? You know, what kind of technology did you have? What was that whole process like through like, when do you start thinking of yourself in your memory as having diabetes?

Daria 11:12
Um, well, I remember I was really well controlled, always from the very start. So I had all my meals measured, like I never ate school meals, nothing like that I had a special lady that took care of me during the day because my parents are investment bankers. So they basically, I didn't see them really. And I don't even know when my first memory of diabetes is to be honest. I just remember my, oh, well, my good memory is my grandmother used to do my long acting insulin for me. And I remember her doing my short acting instead of long acting. And it happened like several times. And that probably is like the most

the biggest highlight of my childhood.

Scott Benner 12:04
It's panicky, right? And you will see you remember people like running around yelling, you know, she's got to eat a bunch of food, or is that what you did? After she you

Daria 12:11
know what it was? It was actually no, it was just, it was panicky, but then it kind of came down and was like, oh, I've got so much food to eat now. It's how wonderful You know, when you're like six years old, you did really care. You're just very happy that you've got a ton of chocolate to eat now,

Scott Benner 12:29
please. Six years old. There are times when I'll look at art. And I'll be like, Hey, you know, we messed up. So pretty much anything you want in the kitchen right now is yours and her face lights up and our eyes get very big. And she's like, ooh, let me think about it. I don't want to waste this moment.

Daria 12:45
How old is Arjun now? 15. Oh, yes, girl now

Scott Benner 12:51
chugging along. So everything is going going really well. I'm trying to imagine also what what would get a woman your grandmother's age, I'm assuming who grew up in Russia? Like what would actually make her upset? She's probably like, Listen, this is nothing. And we'll persevere this like we persevere these winners and everything's gonna be fine. And that's that I swear to you, I am having the hardest time not making ham fisted like references about almost like, everything you say. And I realize it's because I just watched so much American television and whenever like a bad guy would come in in the 80s. Like, you know what I mean? Like he he was always like slightly of rush does that bother you? Like when you watch old television? Do you see that? and think like, why are we the bad guys? I need you guys to head over to touched by type one.org to see what their mission is find out about their programs, learn what they're doing to build awareness, and even get involved in helping people living with Type One Diabetes. I first became aware of touched by type one back when they were dancing for diabetes. And I attended they're touched by type one event. Of course now, they've rebranded to touched by type one, I wonder what the event will be called. Something that started such a long time ago, in one little girl's mind, if I remember the story correctly in her driveway, trying to raise money for people with type one diabetes, became dancing for diabetes. And now today it is touched by type one.org. You have to see what they're doing. I make a point every year, no matter what's going on to travel to their event, and speak with the people who are supporting them locally in Florida. But you can support them worldwide. Touch by type one has a wonderful program where they send information now to newly diagnosed people with help from people like you. So go check out their website, learn about the conference that I'm sure I'll be at their awareness campaigns, their local things that they have going on their international stuff that's happening and that beautiful dance program. take a couple of minutes to learn more about touched by type I'd like to announce how you about the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. This is the meter that Arden has been using for about a year now maybe a little longer. But it is, in fact, the best blood glucose meter she has ever used. And Arden has had diabetes, since she was two, she'll be 16 in just a month. That's a big statement. There's a long time and a lot of meters. But none of them have stacked up to the Contour. Next One. And I'm not just saying that because they're a sponsor, they are a sponsor, because I'm able to say that don't think they were the only meter company trying to buy an ad on the Juicebox Podcast, okay, I went with the one that I trust. And that I know that I can tell you simply off the top of my head about I don't need copy, right, like, I need to tell you to go to Contour Next one.com to see if you're eligible for a free meter. But beyond that, they don't make me say anything in this ad, I can do whatever I want. And I'm gonna keep repeating what I think is most important, the Contour Next One meter is accurate. It's accurate, accurate, accurate, I don't just mean to, you know, the wall, I mean to what your blood sugar is not another meter, it matches reality. That's the information you need when you're making decisions. And we all know test strips are a commodity. So we don't want to waste them. You know how many times you've touched a blood drop, it's a little too small and it doesn't register. But with the Contour Next One, you can just squeeze out a little more blood and do it again, you still get an accurate reading, invaluable. Beyond that great bright light for nighttime, easy to read display. Not too big, not too small, fits in my hand nicely. I'm not always fumbling with it, you know what I mean? It just it works. It's a meter that does what it's exactly supposed to do. And that's why I love it. It's easy for Arden to carry. That's it Contour Next one.com just a little button at the top, you'll be able to find out if you're eligible for a free meter. And if you're not, ask your doctor to prescribe one for you. There's no reason for you to be walking around with an old busted up meter. Whose accuracy you're not even sure of when you could have Contour Next One. Contour Next one.com There are also links to all the advertisers in the show notes of your podcast player and at Juicebox podcast.com. Check them out today. Get yourself a great meter support touched by type one. You can do it get gone. Use the links

does that bother you? Like when you watch old television? Do you see that think like why are we the bad guys?

Daria 17:46
It just makes it really funny. It's just very funny, especially the how they do the Russian accents. And if they have any Russian words in there, you can straightaway tell that they're not Russian actors. Or have never speaking Russian spoken Russian story. That's my Russian coming out. See?

Scott Benner 18:03
Yeah, just guys from Orange County and Ventura trying to put on a Russian accent that they only heard on television when they were growing up probably. That's great.

Daria 18:12
Um, I was gonna say, you know, I just grew up with my diabetes being something that wouldn't bother me. So my parents kind of always told me you can still do everything. Diabetes is just another thing you sort of need to take care of and it shouldn't stop you ever in your life. And I kind of grew up grew up with it. And I still think that way

Scott Benner 18:34
Yeah, I think it's excellent. It really did your parents I mean, you said they were investment bankers and again I imagined you making like quotes air quotes when you say that's completely unfair. I'm sure your parents do investment but but it was like it was like a scene out of the sopranos I imagined you over there going my parents are quote, investment bankers but it because

Daria 18:56
yeah, you know, they actually worked in American banks, quite a big chunk of their careers. So maybe their actual investment bankers, but you know, you're hoping you don't really know.

Scott Benner 19:08
Yeah, that's great. That's what they say. And I didn't

Unknown Speaker 19:12
know we didn't speak about business in our family. So yeah, I wouldn't know.

Scott Benner 19:20
Was there ever like a shovel you couldn't decide where it came from in the trunk of the car or anything like that or No, nothing like that.

Daria 19:26
Oh, we just keep one there. Like all the time. There.

Scott Benner 19:30
You're my favorite. This is joking, but of course you but I don't know if you're not I can't tell exactly.

Unknown Speaker 19:39
But it's the part of the lore.

Scott Benner 19:44
For you mentioned in your note to me that you had kind of had trouble with eating disorders. At some point. Can you describe to me when that started?

Daria 19:54
So I moved to UK when I was 13. I went straight into boarding school. I didn't know anyone. I absolutely hated it, it was probably the worst four years of my entire life. And I remember I just when I moved there, I cried like every single day, there wasn't a day when I didn't cry, it was very bad. And then it just sort of turned into kind of a restriction situation. So where I was kind of punishing myself by starving myself, because I thought I wasn't doing good enough, I didn't have any social connections, I wasn't performing socially well. So that's kind of how it started. But it was nothing along the lines of Dr. bulimia, or whatever it's called. And I think it's only because I didn't know that insulin had the effect. Like, if you don't inject it, he wouldn't gain weight. Like, I had no idea about that.

And I'm quite happy. I didn't really,

Scott Benner 20:57
yeah, yeah, it's, it's interesting. When I, when I talk about it, I do think like, Is it better to just, you know, I mean, it's like one of those moments like, should you in, you know, educate people? So they understand, or is it dangerous to let people know, who maybe would never find out? But um, you know, I'm, I'm glad to that you didn't know? How so do you think this was? depression thing, being away from home? was the place just a bad place? Or what,

Daria 21:25
um, I mean, it was an old girls school, and I was used to a mixed environment. And then Russia, it's very uncommon to have like, separate sex education. And then because it was a boarding school as well, we weren't really let out of there much. So it was basically like, you can leave, I think it was once a week, and you could only leave with a friend. I did have like a Russian friend there, who we're still great friends with. And we can we went out like once a week, but like, it's really you feel blocked? Yeah. And there is not much to do. So.

Scott Benner 22:01
Was there I guess, was there a big mix of backgrounds there? Were you like an out, you know, an outlier as being from Russia weathers or was there a real good mix?

Daria 22:12
No, there was an okay mix there. Really? It would there were a few people from like Saudi Arabia, there were like Chinese looking people like Asian looking people. Few people from India? No, there were quiet. It was quite a good mix. We had Russian people there as well. And we To be honest, in boarding Russian people, we all struggled there. Quite a lot. Yeah, so my best friend had like a very bad psychological event there, which I'm not sure if she'll be happy. Happy for me to speak about but it was like very life threatening. So yeah, we all didn't really do too well, there. How was

Scott Benner 22:55
the education, which is, you know, brilliant.

Daria 22:59
I'm gonna tell you, the school was amazing. The education was great. Probably the boarding support wasn't that great. By the way, the medical support wasn't amazing, either. Because when I was at that school, I was really with non diabetic care whatsoever. So I sort of wanted to keep it in Russia. But then I couldn't really because I didn't go there very often. So I didn't really talk to an endo for quite a few years.

Which is not very good. But yeah. How did

Scott Benner 23:35
you do during that time? Were you like, how did you measure your successes? Or was it just with meter like finger sticks? Are you still getting a one sees? Or did you even or,

Daria 23:46
oh, I, I don't remember about my onesies. I probably was getting them because my mom must have push for them. But because I was with eating disorder at the time, I had very low insulin requirements. Like very, very low. And I was super active. So I did loads of cardio. And then I started to dance up while I was in my last year. there so I didn't need much insulin. And I was sometimes around the twelves Oh, sorry. I'm caught. I need to find a conversion table for you. I'll pop

Scott Benner 24:25
one up to give me a second.

Daria 24:26
Yeah. I've got it because I because I listened to the podcast. I always need it.

Scott Benner 24:31
Yeah, I am. To be honest, I needed to. When it starts happening, I'm like, oh, that means this.

Daria 24:37
Yeah, so it was around 216.

Like averaging I but when I did activity, it went like straight down. Okay, straight down. Like, literally 236

Scott Benner 24:51
Are you saying you weren't taking in a lot of food or were you vomiting or why? Why now, what you're needing Well,

Daria 25:01
I wasn't vomiting, thank god again. I was just, it was kind of more of a binge restrict situation. So when I went home for the weekends, if my parents were there, I would sort of just eat like, tons of tons of food, like without any limit. And then, during when I was at school, I literally like, I didn't know 20 grams of carbs in the morning. And that was more or less it. And then I just corrected with juice for exercise if I had to. And that was it for five days in a row. And then if I go

Scott Benner 25:38
ahead, no, no, I'm sorry.

Daria 25:39
And then if I was like, back, back up boarding, or during the weekend, I wouldn't eat much either. Okay, so it's basically starving yourself.

Scott Benner 25:48
Yeah. Were you depressed? Do you think?

Daria 25:51
Oh, yeah, I definitely was. Yeah,

Scott Benner 25:52
for sure. Sounds like it. When you would go home. That's air travel, right.

Daria 25:58
Oh, no, no, so sorry, I didn't explain myself well enough. My parents own a property in in England as well. So it was not so far from my school, but just because I was so young. I couldn't stay there. All by myself. I see. Yeah. Wow.

Scott Benner 26:14
That's a that's a rather grown up way for a young person to live. You know what I mean? Like that's a really it's a lot of alone time and a lot of decisions for yourself.

Daria 26:25
It is Yeah, and actually, when I turned 15 I think I moved out of boarding because I just hated it so much. And then I just lived in a house by by myself like without my parents. Oh my god. Which I'm actually not sure as legal legally allowed, but

Scott Benner 26:43
it's over now.

Daria 26:44
You know, we're Russian so I think it's okay.

Scott Benner 26:47
They were afraid to say anything. They're like Hey, where did she go? And they're like, nevermind It doesn't matter. She shows up on Monday and comes to class we're gonna let it mean

Daria 26:54
yeah if we've got a shovel shovel in our like back of a cars

Scott Benner 27:01
no one's gonna mess with that. I like this. Yeah. I just I'm still in the back of my head. My only like frame of reference for my joking is the Russian characters in the sopranos.

Unknown Speaker 27:13
If a while go ahead use them if you feel so drained. I

Scott Benner 27:16
tried to remember them and they're escaping me at the moment. It just all felt so comical now that I look back on it. My my memory. Okay, well, that's really crazy. Because when you're 15 you're just I'm assuming using needles and a meter, right?

Daria 27:32
Yeah, yeah, I was in needles and a meter from the point when I got diagnosed to until I actually went to Union finally sorted my diabetic care. So it was only two years ago that they gave me this the flash, the flash monitor.

Scott Benner 27:48
So is that when you you know, kind of turned around what you were doing and how you were thinking about yourself is when you left for university?

Daria 27:56
Um, yes and no, because it was in the in the second year of university. It really struck me how bad the situation was. I was just feeling really drained all the time. And because I had like, super high blood sugar's I was feeling terrible. I'm not gonna lie in the first year of university, I did go out quite a lot. I never drank much. But even if you're up all night dancing, your blood sugars will be like, quite low. Yeah. And I was still really active. I was always at the gym and then running and doing different stuff. And I was always somewhere. So my blood sugar's weren't, like, extremely bad. Right? But they were up and down all the time.

Scott Benner 28:41
Gotcha. Hey, give me give me one second here. And we did do Arden's lunch bolus while we're talking. So

Unknown Speaker 28:46
yeah, this is exciting. And

Scott Benner 28:48
so Arden's having lunch, and we she's hungry. We're not how do I say this? I don't we're not conventionally pumping at the moment. So Oh, my direction to her is going to be in a sound a little foreign. Maybe.

Daria 29:06
How much was she having a Niger park?

Scott Benner 29:10
Okay. Hmm, What's in there? Grapes. I remember grapes. There's a half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich it's on.

Daria 29:19
So that's fats as well, which might prolong digestion I have.

Scott Benner 29:25
Huh? It's interesting now that you asked me, Oh, these little sort of thin corn chips about 15 carbs of them. And I've decided this morning when I was thinking it all in the bag. There was something else in there. I remember thinking this is going to be 70 carbs.

Daria 29:46
Well, I think the grapes are gonna struck her and it was a bagel or sandwich was it?

Scott Benner 29:53
No, half a sandwich. Okay, no high fructose corn syrup in the bread. Peanut butter. The jelly is made with Splenda. I got that in my, in my head that's around 30 carbs. Because I know the breads 25 and then the grapes and a Clementine, I remember thinking I remember putting them in and going, that's like 10 so now we were at 35 then the chips, the little corn chips. I have had 15 so right, so what are we getting out? 2535 40 like 55 and then there was a cookie of some Oh, no, two little tiny chocolate doughnuts, but they're really Carvey. So there's, like, 30 carbs in those. So now I'm realizing I need 540 odd. I gave her 60 here, and I should have done it. 80. So I'm gonna just add a little more.

I'm going to tell her we just I just under bolused

Unknown Speaker 30:57
do 20

Unknown Speaker 30:59
more carbs?

Daria 31:03
high carb counting. It does help sometimes.

Scott Benner 31:06
yet? Well, one hour.

Unknown Speaker 31:08
Yeah. Well, I agree. I agree with the Well, yeah. Sounds like a

Scott Benner 31:11
we'll see what happens here. Now I got to see if she if she saw that last one or not. Yeah, so we'll see. So yeah, so it's my so my goal here with this is I'm trying to drag this, this insulin out over this timeline. And I'm trying to think, uh huh. I think it's going to hit her. I think this one's gonna hit her two different ways. I think this meal was gonna hit fast. And it's going to hit long. So I think it's gonna hit I'm

Daria 31:40
doubting the long bit, because I'm assuming you didn't put too much peanut butter in there. And then the bread is not too long. Like, I never find it, like octane too long for me, which I don't know might be different. Yeah, it's 10:30am.

Scott Benner 31:53
Now, and I'm thinking that the impact of this food is gonna run over the next like three hours. Also, we are completely landless use the bed word we are we're completely upside down at the moment. Because we missed her Pre-Bolus time. It's the first. Yeah, it's the first couple weeks of school. And she goes, it's such a weird system. But you know, today, she'll have lunch at 10:30am. Tomorrow, she'll have lunch at like five after 12. Then the next day 1030. Then the next day, fine. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 32:27
that's a bit annoying. And

Scott Benner 32:28
you and I remember sitting down here today thinking, oh, we're not going to get to do our lunch bowls. Because during the recording because her lunches at noon today, except I was wrong about that. And so I lose track when it bounces back and forth. And the other problem is it's not like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday thing. So wherever they leave off on Monday, it rolls around a Friday. It just keeps rolling. And you just miss it.

Daria 32:49
Yeah. So I guess you'll get used to it. It's just the first few years now. Oh, God years weeks.

Scott Benner 32:57
Yeah, please. Uh huh. Now see, and now I'm gonna say Did you see the second Bolus? But she's walking through the halls I would imagine right now. So I'll keep my eye on this and see if she

Daria 33:13
was Yeah, like what number?

Scott Benner 33:15
Oh, 123. For you?

Daria 33:19
I'm looking at it. It's 6.7. Okay, she might need Yeah, she would have needed a bit of a Pre-Bolus

Scott Benner 33:27
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely gonna be a little

Daria 33:31
probably gonna spike with it. But yeah,

Scott Benner 33:33
my my, my texts are hilarious. Now. I just got a message from somebody. They're like, Hey, I just literally got a message popped up in front of me. Hey, Scott, can you please do a short podcast with Jenny Smith about the dawn phenomena?

Daria 33:44
Oh, Dawn phenomena. I suffer from that. So so much, you won't believe it. So yeah, I don't

Scott Benner 33:49
know how to do a podcast about that. Because Do you? I mean, you know,

Daria 33:53
no, I know what I do. Right? I'm on level mirror. And I wake up decently early. But regardless what time I wake up, this The moment I open my eyes, my blood sugar rises by like, three points, which is 30 ish points. 20 points, maybe say,

Scott Benner 34:14
say one from six, seven to like nine four. That'd be 120 to 170.

Daria 34:19
Yeah, so that happens, basically, but what I do I have to Pre-Bolus my my morning meal, which is my breakfast, like 40 minutes. That way I counteract the dome phenomenon and also cover my breakfast. Yeah, you're

Scott Benner 34:34
really bolusing the phenomenon and Pre-Bolus in at the same time.

Daria 34:39
Yeah, but I'm gonna tell you it's insane. So what I used to do 40 minutes is a lot. And I wake up at let's say, I wake up really early, so like 550, maybe five. If I wake up at 540. I then put Pre-Bolus at that point, and then I go to sleep for another 10 minutes. So I wake up at 550. Get ready, get my breakfast, sorted and eat then that's how it worked for me. But then one time I slept through that second alarm. Yeah, I stopped doing that. But then they moved me too fast. So I now need 35 minutes instead of 40.

Scott Benner 35:19
Yeah, well listen to what you're describing. It's interesting, right? We'll talk about messing with insulin a little bit here, what you're describing. A lot of times, I'll hear people say, I don't know what to do, like, my blood sugar is 170. So like nine and a half, right? And I'm eating in an hour dinners in and our wonderful Pre-Bolus. And I'm like, Yeah, like, go hard at it now. Like, I'll say, correct the 190. Right. And you can't get a 190 to go to, you know, 100 in 45 minutes, if you just put them if you just put in the correction. So put in the correction plus a piece of the meal and get that no,

Daria 35:56
I you know, why should I just wait maybe another? Well, because I'm on injections. I don't want to be injecting like a million times. Sure. I still do. But I don't want to be injection another time, I'd wait another 20 minutes. And like 40 minutes before he and just inject the whole thing, throw at it.

Scott Benner 36:11
Yeah. And you see, it's interesting, right? There's a good breakdown, I'm saying because in a pumping scenario, let's say your blood sugar is 190, or it's 10.5. And you'd really like it to be 100, or 5.5, when you eat. So when you if you have a pump, you can correct the 190 and put in some of the Pre-Bolus to try to like speed up the drop in that 45 minute window. And then and then while you're dropping when the food starts putting the rest of the meal, but in your scenario, because you're trying not to inject yourself 1000 times, you're saying put in one good push, and then wait about 20 minutes, about half of the time till the meal starts then putting in all the insulin for the meal. And so it's like it's like to Pre-Bolus is to conquer the high number. And to get you at a point where you're sort of trending down at a better number when the food starts hitting you.

Daria 37:04
Yeah, well, that's my other problem with eating disorders. So I know, I do that myself as well. But sometimes 40 minutes before the meal, I won't be hungry. And then I might think, Oh, I actually do want to eat, but now I need to Pre-Bolus and I'm like, okay, maybe I shouldn't eat now. But then it's restricting again. So it might cause like, it might be a trigger event, then bingi again, right, which is a bit, it's getting a bit more complicated. But I've like I've just managed to kind of ignore that. And I still Pre-Bolus and then still eat, because I'm pretty active, like being a personal trainer, and just training all the time. And doesn't really bother me that much anymore. But well, at the worst parts, I know I have a friend as well who he can't eat, if he doesn't want to eat and he won't Pre-Bolus at all, like he'll only do the meal. Insulin if he sees it because he knows if he's going to eat it or not. So it's a bit hard to Pre-Bolus in that kind of situation.

Scott Benner 38:10
I have no real life information, you know, to to inform what I'm about to say it's just kind of how it's striking me in the moment. But I feel like, you know, you're in your second year of college, my son's in his second year of college are probably similarly aged. If this was, if you were my son talking about this, I think I would be looking into, like therapy for you to try to figure this out. Or you think you

Daria 38:40
know, well, I've thought about this quite a lot of times. I've actually tried it. And it's never helped. So I've kind of been like, well, I've tried, like three or four times now and yeah, just just not helping Well, they say you never actually properly recover from an eating disorder. So I'm not saying I have that now. Yeah, but I'm saying a few years ago, when I did think that way. It would have been a trouble for me. Pre-Bolus I see. And that is probably part of the reason why I didn't do that.

Scott Benner 39:18
Now I understand. Okay,

Daria 39:19
yet to be honest, doctors never spoke to me about Pre-Bolus anyway.

Scott Benner 39:24
No, I I can't tell you, I must get three messages every other day there. That's just from some putty who incredulously says How could nobody have ever told me about this? And yet it's completely changing my life. And, you know, that's simple. That's simple. I do.

Daria 39:40
I know. Yeah. So um, I, when I started listening to your podcast, I was about an A, A one c like 7.3 or something. And no, I'm 5.7 and that is from Pre-Bolus.

Scott Benner 39:54
That's tremendous. I you know, you hear me say it, but you know when people are talking and they're not goes a lot of ideas like what do I do first? And you know, I always talk about getting Basal correct first. But the next idea is start Pre-Bolus saying take a point off your one say, you know, like, it's like, it's like a free point every Wednesday, if you just begin to Pre-Bolus been doing it.

Daria 40:16
I remember just coming to my doctors and saying, oh, I've got these like spikes to 20 after breakfast. Well, you see I Pre-Bolus 40 minutes. Now, of course, I would have had a spike. And they were like, Oh, you probably should look into changing what you eat for breakfast. I was like, No, I'm not changing my left because of diabetes. Diabetes to change for me. I'm not going to do that.

Scott Benner 40:40
Yeah. Hey, listen, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to do this for you. I just got an ad from Martin who said, Hey, I'm completely lost on this Bolus. Can you just tell me again? Okay, so I'm going to do again, 25, two hours. And then I'm going to do I actually have a drifting. So I'm going to do 45.

Unknown Speaker 41:04
Three hours. I'm looking for Bolus around 11. That's what

Scott Benner 41:20
all right, let's see what happens, right? It's just, this never happened before. It's very, it's very honest and mature. I said, Hey, did you see the second bolus? And she goes, I'm doing it now. Wait, then she goes, do I Bolus both of them? Oh,

Unknown Speaker 41:35
yeah.

Unknown Speaker 41:38
And don't don't love her. And then

Scott Benner 41:45
for our HR, so this is called. So this is slowly get it? So this is Oh, why am I two hours and don't deliver and then 45. Three hours and Bolus. So I was trying to talk around it, but I guess I can't. So no big deal. Just gonna keep going. So let's just talk it through. So looping, looping, boluses are impactful. And more purposeful, when the loop understands 9.85 units, just gonna say do it, we'll see what happens. So when the loop understands the the idea of how long you think the food is going to impact you, it's called absorption time in the loop, right. So the problem is, if I say, hey, do 25 carbs that that absorption time of two hours, that's really just me trying to get four units going, right, because I know ardens carb ratios now is like, like six point something for a unit. So if I say 25, I'm looking for 612 1824 looking for about four units to go in. And you give the loop the idea that that absorption time is two hours. That's me trying to kind of front load more of the insulin, I'm trying to trick the loop into keeping the bazelon. And so because normally normally the way the loop acts is you put all the insulin in and the first thing it does is shut off the Basal to wait and see what the Bolus does. But I know that the glycemic impact of these carbs is big. And I need the Bolus and the Basal. So the now the next problem is if you put in these 25 carbs to two hours and push you know Bolus, the Bolus takes five minutes or so to go in. Yeah, like it takes forever to go in. So I can't have Arden standing around waiting to put in the other half of the bolus at the three hour mark. So if you tell it, this is for people bolusing it's a little trick. If you tell it 25 carbs, two hours, and then it gives you the delivery, don't deliver the insulin you put in zero for the delivery and then hit OK. And then go back and tell it end. You know, the rest of it 40 carbs, whatever, three hours, then that next insulin suggestion it gives you includes the two hour and the three hour window. And then you can put in one Bolus, but the algorithm remembers that 25 of the carbs should impact over two hours while the balance of them should impact over three hours. So it's sort of a it's an it's not an easy way, but it's the way that the app works. So that you only

Daria 44:30
I'm not gonna lie my brain.

Scott Benner 44:32
My brain right now. I swear. Yeah, I don't know how. So the book so for people looping, the text says 25 carbs, two hours don't deliver 45 carbs three hours, then deliver. I'm trying to get around 11 units, it ended up being around 10 units. I'm just doing it now to see what happens. The reason I'm just going with it is because about 20 minutes before you and I started talking we did a little bump of insulin so that 130 that you saw actually is like one six Now, so I'm thinking I'll split the difference on that last unit and see what happens. I'm sorry, because that is really, this is really just crazy. Oh, and it is confusing. So here's something a jdrf chapters gonna have me out to do a talk, where it's just me, which is really lovely. But I can't do their date.

Unknown Speaker 45:27
Oh, no.

Scott Benner 45:29
I have to call them and see if we can work a different data.

Daria 45:32
Know what I'm actually fundraising for jdrf. UK, I am doing a challenge when I'm going to be doing six spin classes in one day. No kidding. So I'm gonna go Yeah, I know, I don't even know how I'm gonna do that. But, yeah, I'm pretty excited, actually. So I'm just I've contacted a number of London spin studios, and I want to go to all of them, while six of them, and just do six in a day, and I'm fundraising for that through jdrf. And the reason for that being is I want people to actually be able to get on to diabetic management tools. Because it's very, very hard to get onto a Libra here, the flash glucose monitor or an omni pod, really. And I'm not like, kid my life, but it's so so useful for a diabetic.

Scott Benner 46:25
Oh, my God, I Are you kidding? It's fantastic. There's no CGM is

Daria 46:30
it's just it's just, you know, it's a difference between living and surviving. And it's just so bad that people can't actually get on to it.

Scott Benner 46:41
Yeah. Yeah, I am. I would love to come to the UK someday and do one of these talks. Actually. I'm trying to I tried working with the jdrf in the UK to get you know, the young man who played at the Royal Wedding, he played the cello. I can't think of his name, mate. And I guess I'm asleep. No, I think his last name is Mason. He has type one diabetes. So he was trying to get the jdrf. UK to get him on the show. And they they didn't seem like they had as much contact with them as they needed to make it happen. But I yesterday, it was a really exciting day for me, I I pretty sure I booked the type one nation event in Georgia. I'm going to be in Kansas City. I think I just booked Central Pennsylvania. And I had a really good conversation yesterday with Wisconsin with Arizona, I think it's possible to do about six of them in the next six months. So I'm excited because you get to go to places where some people just don't know about the podcast, they don't know about the internet, they know that they know about the internet, they just don't know, they don't have it as accessibly as they need it. And you know, I love being able to get out in the real world talk to people. So it sounds like you're gonna get to do the same thing. So, so tell me a little bit about how you how you talk to people about like, so how do you find your way into what you're doing? Like you said, you you do you know, personal training? Is that something that you personal train, from your own experience? Like if you have such good experience with it, that you're like, I can show this to other people? Like how do you get started with that?

Daria 48:17
Well, that's a very complicated question, because there is no qualification as such in the UK, to actually be able to coach people with type one. So I basically I say, I offer support with glucose management, and I do offer support and people will go as far as they want, with my help. Sure. Because I can't directly advertise it, the only qualification that there is, is in the US. So I'm hoping to go to us and actually get that qualification to be able to properly do it. So

Scott Benner 48:58
if you had that you could go back to the UK and say, I'm certified in the US for this.

Unknown Speaker 49:02
Well, pretty much. Yes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 49:04
That's excellent. I mean, listen, there's a very good reason that the first thing you hear on this podcast is the statement that nothing you hear on this podcast is advice because it's, it's a weird line to walk, like, you know, if you know something, and you want to share it, but you're not even if you are a doctor, it's you know, talking about stuff like this is difficult, but it's necessary. And so, like, how do you, you know, you gotta walk the line, you need to do it correctly, and you do it safely and like appropriately, but at the same time, can you imagine if this is gonna please I don't mean this like this, but what if I just never started this podcast?

Unknown Speaker 49:41
You

Scott Benner 49:42
know, and so, I can't live with that. You know, I mean, like, I can't, I can't get all of your notes every day and see you online talking about your less, you know, variability, your control, you know, I'm back to my life, you know, you know, how do you just look at people and say, Oh, well, too bad, you know, because I don't, you know, I, I'm not, you know, not supposed to tell you what to do. And I'm, and I'm not but you know, like it's just a weird line to watch.

Daria 50:10
You know, like even in UK and US, I hear you always saying that doctors just don't really give you proper medical advice. Well, that's not what I meant. They didn't give you life advice. Yes. They give you what they were taught by books, because most of them are not type one diabetics, right? Oh, sure. And they have no idea what they're dealing with. Like, sorry, guys. But that's, that's what it is. And some do.

Scott Benner 50:36
But how do you know which one you're getting? You know, exactly like, how do you how do you know which which one you're, and if you talk to a nurse that's trained in in the US, they'll tell you that they spent, you know, three pages in a book on type one diabetes. And that's it. You know,

Daria 50:51
yeah, I have a very funny story. So I came to my diabetic nurse. And I was quite like struggling a lot with my blood sugar's I was having a lot of hypose. And I showed you showed her my my graph, on my phone, the glucose monitor graph, and she struggled to interpret it. And I was like, excuse me, what are you even doing here? Why am I spending my appointment, which is only 15 minutes to explain you how to use the libri app,

Scott Benner 51:20
right? Man, it doesn't help me, I only have a very little bit of time. And the goal, by the way, is that I'm stuck. And I'm trying to show you something thinking you'll look at it and go, Oh, I see. Do this. And instead, you're telling me Oh, this is a fancy little thing. How does this work? I really do pride myself now on, on being able to look at a graph and get a really good feeling for what's needed pretty quickly. And it just comes from practice. And if that nurse practice the way I did, she'd see the graph that way too. I don't have a superpower. You know what I mean? Like you just, you just have to see it over and over again, before you go. I texted these words to a person that I know personally, that I was that I'm helping this week. This morning. I said this graph is asking for bazel.

Unknown Speaker 52:09
And,

Scott Benner 52:09
and she's like, how do you know I'm like, just really like, look at it. It's asking for basically, I can see it, you know, and and we made a small bazel adjustment from a 1.2 an hour to a 1.4 an hour. And I'm going to look right now. blood sugar. 92. Yeah, right. It's a fun, you know, amazing.

Daria 52:30
That's the problem with love America, because you can't adjust to our tower. And you never know what your blood sugar is going to do this day. I'm very, very insulin sensitive. So even half a unit makes a huge difference to me, right? I've the last two days, I've struggled with unbelievable hypose. Okay, like, it's just not coming up.

Scott Benner 52:52
And it sucks because in in a pumping situation, you would dial your your bazel back. And but you're stuck in a situation where for whatever reason for these days, you don't need as much insulin as you normally do. But it's in there. And you know,

Daria 53:04
and that's the thing. I'm asking for a pump. And they're saying I'm too good for it. Oh, that's amazing, guys, thanks a lot. That's just really helping.

Scott Benner 53:13
That's terrible. Is that the answer? Is that your blood? Your blood sugar's are doing well, like you don't need it.

Unknown Speaker 53:19
Yeah, that's nice,

Daria 53:20
because there is a criteria because it's all government funded. So there are quite strict criteria for pumps and sensors and things. I have

Scott Benner 53:29
a lot of hope for the United Kingdom and on the pod because I know that on the pod is over, they're working really hard on making the pump more accessible in the UK. So I hope it doesn't take forever to work out. I know the person who's one of the people who's spearheading It is a good person and a bright person. I think they can get it accomplished. So I'm hopeful. Well, yeah, no kidding, right? Because you shouldn't be told that you shouldn't be told, hey, you only get low once in a while. You know, just deal with it. Like what?

Daria 54:03
It's just the thing is, I don't get low once in a while. I do get low quite a lot, because I don't like seeing like a Yeah, a 162 or 160 even. So I correct it. But a half a unit drives me to like 245 which is not great. You know, that's how sensitive I am. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:24
isn't that stupid? So if you're a one C was higher, but you had a lot of lows. they'd let you have a pump. But if your agency is lower and you have a lot of lows, you don't need a pump. Exactly. There is no common sense in that thought whatsoever.

Unknown Speaker 54:37
Oh yeah.

Scott Benner 54:39
It's a line someone drew on a piece of paper and said how are we going to save money here? Well, we'll say if you're a one sees below this then you don't need a pump.

Daria 54:47
Yeah, well, because they consider us help you with the lower anyone sees. Yeah, no, doesn't really matter how we get there.

Scott Benner 54:54
Yeah, it does. And they should worry about the variability more so than the pump. You're more so than that, then The agency significantly more. Oh my gosh, yeah, you're making me upset because I thought the UK was a better place. And they're just screwing you in a different way. Yeah, but there is like fish and chips on every corner. So that must make up for something now,

Daria 55:14
he know was very funny. I've never had fish and chips. And I've never wanted to. I just don't i don't get the English cuisine. To be quite honest.

Scott Benner 55:23
I have a question for you. Me, you might know this. You've been there now. As has has the opening up that Brexit has allowed? Are there different? Is the cuisine in England expanding? Because are people allowed to work more freely? Like, are you seeing more restaurants and people with different cultures come in? Or do you

Daria 55:45
know, I'd say it's a bit the other way around. Now people are leaving the UK with Brexit. Gotcha. But however, there are plenty of Polish stores. Like the Indian community is huge here. There's an Asian community. There are tons of communities even in London. And I'm not gonna lie, I study in Leeds, which is not London. So it's not the capital, but the rest of the UK differs a lot from London, London is super, super International. Whereas the rest of the UK, still sort of international. But it's completely different in the vibe and everything in every aspect is more

Scott Benner 56:31
British when you get outside of London.

Unknown Speaker 56:33
Yes, exactly. Gotcha. Interesting. Well,

Scott Benner 56:37
I we are rolling up on the end. And I wanted to know if there's anything that we didn't talk about that you wish we would have, because I'd like to take the rest of that time with that if we do

Daria 56:45
you know what I'm I wanted to say that there's a very good course that is offered by the National Health health care system here called the Daphne course. And if anyone is in the UK, they should really, really consider doing it ask to get onto it. It's free of charge. It's a week long, but it helps you get your basals. Right, understand your carb counting, they teach you to carb count properly. And you will come out of there a completely different person.

Scott Benner 57:16
b. So b A f n e, right? Yes, yes, it's da f n e.uk.com.

Daria 57:25
It's not a website. It's just a course that's cold like that. So if you Google it, they will probably come up with the NHS website. But when you go to your next appointment, just ask for it and get onto it.

Scott Benner 57:38
Okay, and so it's a is it at home thing, you do it on your own? You do it online, you do it with a person, how does it work?

Daria 57:45
Well, so there are several options, they usually run at a hospital. So the way I did it, I it was just literally a nine to five hospital course where you are there with another like if 810 people, and they literally teach you just everything, it's with two or three nurses, and they talk about everything from complications to Bolus not Pre-Bolus thing but bolusing. They help you figure out your basals you do like a little diary for them. It might sound a bit weird, but it's super helpful. Like it's a good place to start. If you're really struggling with your agencies. And just your in general, your management.

Scott Benner 58:25
Thank you. I appreciate you telling me that. That's excellent. Yeah, I am, I will do my best to put something tough because I'm googling and it's bringing me to a bunch of different

Daria 58:34
I can send you a link to a few.

Scott Benner 58:37
Thank you. Yeah, I'll put it I'll put it with with the show comes.

Unknown Speaker 58:41
That's excellent.

Daria 58:43
Yeah. And another thing probably I wanted to say is guys, be careful with fats. Because every time I eat fats in my meals, it just spikes me so badly. Afterwards, you saw

Scott Benner 58:57
you get that rise that that kind of fat protein rise, just kind of dress up now. It's interesting. You say this, because your episode will go up, like months from now. But next week, in my life and in the real world here with you and I there'll be a pro tip episode between Jenny Smith and I that's all about fat and protein rise.

Unknown Speaker 59:17
Oh, that is very exciting. No one up on

Scott Benner 59:20
Tuesday. So hopefully that'll help you. But yeah, it's um, when Jenny was explaining to me and we were talking about what I see with art and sometimes it's fascinating because it's not what you expect that you think a piece of chicken, no carbs. This has no impact on my blood sugar. But it does. And I think that um, I think it's going to be interesting for people to hear so you'll you'll hear

Daria 59:44
Yeah, it's even worse with fats To be honest, because well, I don't know. You probably know. But the liver actually starts releasing glucose by itself. Yep. Which is awful. Like it's just horrible

Scott Benner 59:56
and the fat the fat gets in your stomach and it slows the entire digestion process down, which extends the life of the carbs and all this stuff Jenny and I are it. I like the conversation, I can't wait for it to go up and we're actually doing another thing. So for everyone listening, this is, you know, go back like six months, but But um, we're going to do I had a person who's a keto, but eats like a keto diet while they came on and explained how they bolus for their food. And then Jenny and I are taking her description, we're going to listen to it, then we're going to discuss it. So you're going to get to hear the description from the person who does it. And then Jenny and I are going to kind of break it down afterwards. So I'm excited for them. Yeah, I'm doing my best over if I had more time I do more fun things, but

Unknown Speaker 1:00:44
I'm doing my absolute.

Daria 1:00:45
Trust me if everyone had more time, we will be doing more fun things.

Scott Benner 1:00:49
It's true. Well, it sounds like you got a lot of dancing. And so I think it's, I didn't know. So is my as we go out, and I swear I have to cheat you for a couple minutes. So I can make my phone call but so So is that a is a person your age. That's a good thing to do, where you're like you go out hit clubs, like go dancing, that kind of thing.

Daria 1:01:10
You know, well, I did that for one year, and I I just stopped enjoying it. And I don't drink at all anymore. And I don't go out anymore. I just work a lot. You know,

Scott Benner 1:01:21
you're getting older.

Daria 1:01:23
I know. I feel like a grandma now. How old are you? I'm 20

Scott Benner 1:01:28
Yeah, you're a 20 year old grandma. That's exactly what you All right. Well, I really appreciate you coming on and doing this and taking all of my like I said ham fisted jokes at the beginning about Russia.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:39
Please come on. We love your jokes.

Scott Benner 1:01:41
I appreciate that. When you go home Please tell them to stop manipulating our elections because we would just like to pick for ourselves. I really just want to just pick myself and see what happens. You know, David,

Unknown Speaker 1:01:52
I'll try my best.

Scott Benner 1:01:52
Yeah, I mean, I don't know what kind of sway you have. But give it a try. Thank you so very much for doing this. I hope you have a great day. Yeah, I

Daria 1:01:59
hope you have a great day. Thank you for having me. Take care. Take care.

Scott Benner 1:02:05
Huge thanks to Darya for coming on the show and being so amazing. And I mean that she was really just light hearted and genuine. I loved having her on. Thanks also to the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, you can get that at Contour Next one.com or through the links in the show notes. And of course touch by type one is available touched by type one.org. And there are links again in the show notes of your podcast player. Or at Juicebox podcast.com. Check out the area on Instagram. She is T one level underscore Daria da ri a T one level underscore Daria on Instagram. I've also put some links on the episode page for this episode. 342 is the number at Juicebox podcast.com. There's some links to various blogs. Check her out.


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#340 Clashes with Pink

Scott Benner

Sixteen year old D'Arcy. has type 1

D'Arcy. is a singer/songwriter who has type 1 diabetes. 

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

Scott Benner 0:04
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Episode 340 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by touched by type one, and the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. You can find out right now if you're eligible for an absolutely free meter at Contour Next one.com. And of course to see the great works being done by touched by type one, all you have to do is go to touched by type one.org. You all are in for a treat today. Because Darcy is on the show. Darcy is 16 years old. She's had Type One Diabetes for a year, and she's more mature than 15 Have you all put together? Her story's crazy. She's really confident. And I really, really, really, and I know that they say the best way to communicate is just to say really a bunch of times. But I quite enjoyed this conversation with her. I hope you will, too. Please remember, while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan for becoming bold with insulin.

I wanted to remind you just briefly of a couple of links that I have set up to help you guys. One of them is diabetes pro tip.com. That's where all of the diabetes pro tip episodes that have Jenny and I have them are collected in one place so that it's easy for you to share and revisit. And juicebox docs.com juicebox d oc s.com. What this is, is a growing list of doctors recommended by listeners of the podcast. So endocrinologist, nurse practitioners, people who really get what you're trying to do, and will work with you not fight against you.

D'Arcy 2:08
Hi, I'm Darcy. I'm 16 I'm a junior in high school and I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes a little under a year ago.

Scott Benner 2:17
Darcy I love that you're here. Okay. All right. Now let's tell me Do you know why I'm so excited that you're on the show? Don't say it if you know why. But do you know why? No. Oh, okay. Excellent. It's even better. All right. Darcy, you are my You are my ambassador in the world. I have found out and I am super excited to find out about how you got to that point. You don't even realize it perhaps but we're gonna get to it. So let's start slow. I guess you're 16 and you were diagnosed like a year ago?

Unknown Speaker 2:49
A little under a year ago.

Scott Benner 2:50
How was that? Did that suck?

D'Arcy 2:52
Um, yeah. It kind of sucked.

Scott Benner 2:57
Were you in school? Or was it the summertime when

Unknown Speaker 3:00
I was in school, but it was the week of Thanksgiving. So I managed to spend my entire Thanksgiving week in the hospital.

Scott Benner 3:09
Did anybody come up to you and say Darcy, you should think of the things you're so thankful for.

D'Arcy 3:16
No, good for you. You don't have any

Scott Benner 3:19
morons in your life. That's excellent.

Unknown Speaker 3:21
Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 3:24
So were you a sophomore than Yes, as a sophomore? Well Arden's a sophomore right now. So and now you're a junior. Yes. Look at you. You're almost done. The High School thing. I don't like to think about it. But yeah, it goes by so quickly. How'd you do on your PSAT last year? Pretty well? did pretty well. Yeah. Good. Good. Is your mom making you take a class? Or are you just working on your own?

Unknown Speaker 3:50
She offered the class. And I think I think I'm going to take her up on that offer.

Scott Benner 3:57
What kind of Do you know what you want to do in college?

Unknown Speaker 4:00
Um, I don't know. But I've thought about becoming a dietitian, and getting a certificate and diabetes nurse education. However, I'm still kind of on the fence of whether or not I want to kind of completely delve into that realm of diabetes.

Scott Benner 4:25
So I know some people who have diabetes will also help people with diabetes. And they're very great at their job, like really wonderful, but sometimes in the in the background, they'll say, Wow, my whole day is Yeah, is diabetes. Like I don't get any break from it. So it's something to consider. And at the same time, if you're really passionate about helping people, you're going to have an insight that a lot of people wouldn't have. Right, let's go and by the way to Darcy, and I'm not your dad, you know that you probably have a father. But you shouldn't really know what you want to do for the rest of your life when you're 16. That's up. A weird idea. Yeah, it's not 1920 get out. I mean, you're right, you're right. I think I like Bill, and we're gonna buy a we're gonna get a house and I'm gonna make six babies, and then we'll probably die in our 40s. Like, it's not like that, right? Yeah, you don't really need to know, right today. Arden once said, um, she's like, She's like, you know, if it was a long time ago, I'd probably be married already. I was like, it was a long time ago, you'd probably have a baby already. And she's like, Oh, my God, really? And I was like, see? Is it better being alive now? And she's like, absolutely. So yeah. So I just think, you know, it's of course, unasked for advice. But I even my son's a sophomore in college right now. And I think he's just about to commit to a major. And, you know, we send them off to school. We're like, Look, there's things you're good at, and there's things you're not and go figure out what all those things are. And, you know, just don't wait too long and then pick a path but you don't need to. It's It's weird to think that you're gonna Yeah, exactly. Now, did I see before we turned off the off the camera, that you're a redhead? Is that natural? Yes. Okay. Yes, it is. Is ginger offensive term?

Unknown Speaker 6:10
I don't think so. I know a couple of gingers who get offended by the term. But I've never had a problem with it.

Scott Benner 6:18
Gotcha. I just don't know. Because I see people use it within their friend group. And it seems to be very friendly. And the red and the red head in the scenario always seems to take it well. But then I sometimes hear people say it, I think is this something people don't like? So I'm just I'm trying to find out for myself so that I don't misuse it and you're young. So you understand how the world works better than I do. So I just needed to get that.

D'Arcy 6:39
Yeah, definitely.

Scott Benner 6:40
There's nothing better. It's just like, well, Darcy's here, she can help me with some of my personal stuff. Okay, so when you're diagnosed do they give you? I mean, what kind of gear? What do you go home for leftovers? Do you have like injections or pens or pumps? or What did they give you?

Unknown Speaker 6:56
They gave me a box of syringes. A vial of humor log and a vial of lantis. They wanted me to use those vials before I started moving into the pens. But I definitely didn't do that. As soon as I started leaving the house and bolusing outside of my house, I was I was using the pens, because I thought that using the vials and syringes might look a little strange. So you were you were

Scott Benner 7:23
that's interesting to know. So you were a little put off by what we'll call the sketchy nature of those little plastic syringes. Right? visually, you were just like, I don't look, I don't want to do this. Right. Interesting. Interesting. I, I can't say I disagree. They are very, um, they feel like 1970s television while you're looking at them. And yes, and you've got to carry the vial with you. And then you've got to keep the vial safe. And so all that kind of came into play I got Yeah. So you went right to your pen?

D'Arcy 7:51
Yes. And what are you using right now? I use the Omni pod right now.

Scott Benner 7:56
Very nice. When did you make that switch?

Unknown Speaker 7:59
I made the switch. About five months after my diagnosis. I went to a pump training class made the decision to choose the Omni pod. And probably a month later, I was all ready to go. I was using the PDM to Bolus and it's really amazing how much easier managing your diabetes is with a pump.

Scott Benner 8:25
Yeah, no kidding. And and you found the transition from the pen to the pump not difficult.

Unknown Speaker 8:32
It was a little strange to get used to. But I think that by the time I was ready to transition to the pump I was so I was so ready to not give myself the shots four times a day five times a day. And I was ready to just deal with inserting a canula once every three days and then be done with it.

Scott Benner 8:54
Were you honeymooning in those first five months? Do you

D'Arcy 8:57
know? Yes, no. Are you still? Yes, I am. Yep. Very nice.

Scott Benner 9:03
And is it chiseling away or is it holding on?

Unknown Speaker 9:08
It's it's holding on. I've, I've haven't really experienced any symptoms of you know, leaving the honeymoon phase, I take about nine units of insulin of basal insulin a day. So I'm also trying to kind of prolong that honeymoon stage by keeping my numbers in range and staying

D'Arcy 9:32
within the Dexcom parameters. Gotcha. Where do you have them set up?

Unknown Speaker 9:36
I have them set at 70 and 130. Where did

D'Arcy 9:39
you get that idea from? I got your I got that idea from the Juicebox Podcast. Okay, we'll get you I like how you branded your answer you didn't have to.

Scott Benner 9:52
So is your honeymoon situation that that you just aren't using as much insulin as you feel like you would be or is it that some days, you just don't need any at all. What's the breakdown? How does that work?

Unknown Speaker 10:05
I, I've talked to a couple of my friends that are also type one, and I've asked them how much basal insulin they take. And they say that they take about 34 units of basal insulin a day, which I knew would probably kill me.

Unknown Speaker 10:23
Think if you're using nine, it would Yeah, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 10:27
I definitely there are definitely days where I need to use less insulin, or there are days where my blood sugar will just kind of stay, you know, really close to 70. But there are also days where my blood sugar will stay really close to 130. And so I'm trying to just, you know, predict as much as I can predict how my blood sugar is going to react that specific day. And I'll kind of base how much bazel and set up insulin, I'm going to take that day off of how my blood sugar's have been reacting, you

Scott Benner 10:58
haven't had any situations where like you make a bolus that you expect, and then suddenly, you're incredibly low or something like that.

Unknown Speaker 11:05
I have not had that happen yet. And I hope that it doesn't happen. But if it does, I will be ready for it. Good show. Why are you so

Scott Benner 11:16
smart? So let's figure that out for a second, right? You're 16 people are always like, Arden should come on the podcast. If Arden came on the podcast, she would sit here and be like, I don't want to talk about this. And So wouldn't it? Maybe that's just because it's my bad guess. But what, how did you pick this all up so quickly? Like that? Here are my guesses. Your parents are terrible people and you knew you were on your own? Is that one of the possibilities? Maybe but we're not sure we'll find out in a second. Your parents are really great people. And they've instilled a feeling of confidence in you as you grew up, and you're like, I can do this. Or you're like a weirdo type A, and you don't want anything to go wrong. Like I can't figure out which I'm dying to know which one it is. I'm assuming it very well could be none of what I've just said. But why is it that you? Like like you, you're managing this by yourself? Is that right?

Unknown Speaker 12:07
For the most part, yes. During the waking hours, I am pretty much independent. But my parents are amazing people. They that you didn't trust nothing like they're No, they're not de drinkers. No. So I, I was pretty much as soon as I was diagnosed, I didn't think of managing my diabetes in any other way than just facing it head on. And, you know, thinking to myself, well, this is something I'm going to have to deal with. And I'm not gonna, you know, let it take over my life. But I also want to make sure that I can live a long, happy, healthy life. Um, so

Scott Benner 12:52
so I'm sorry, but that was an immediate thought to you like i, this is got a lot to do with my my long term health success. You knew that right? You knew that right away. Right? Did someone tell you that? Did you Google it? Did you just didn't seem like common sense.

Unknown Speaker 13:11
It just kind of seemed like common sense to me. I mean, I didn't know what damage had already been done. My a one fee was 18 when I was diagnosed. So I wanted to kind of I wanted to keep my body in check at least as much as I could to kind of compensate for any damage that could have been done before my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 13:33
Prior to the diabetes. Were you like, was that a focus of yours? Or were you just kind of rolling along like a regular kitten?

Unknown Speaker 13:40
Oh, yeah, I didn't really give my health much thought until I was diagnosed just because I had never had to give my health much thought my body just kind of worked. Yeah. And then whenever it didn't, it became one of my top priorities.

Scott Benner 13:57
Yeah, I guess a computer user would say that before diabetes, you were like an apple computer. And now you're more like a Windows? Absolutely. I've just offended everyone who uses windows. That's really, that's really amazing that it hit you that quickly now? No. Did you have any depression anxiety? Like, did you like did you have any real like turmoil around the diagnosis at all, I

hope you can take time to go to touched by type one.org and look into their programs. They have annual conferences and awareness campaign, they do this great bowling event. There's of course, their dance program. They're huge dancing for diabetes show and the D box that they send out to newly diagnosed people. So head over to touch by type one.org find out about their story, maybe even consider supporting them. It's a great organization touched by type one.org And then of course, you need a blood glucose meter that is equal to your wonderfulness. Imagine you walking around just delightful. But you got a blood glucose meter that's only so so huh? Doesn't that's not okay. Go look in that bag of yours reach into your pocket. How long have you had that old tired meter using right now? Is it even anywhere near cutting edge? Is it giving you the best results that you possibly could get? I'll tell you right now if it's not the Contour Next One, I doubt that it's as good as it could be. And you can find out simple right Contour Next one.com you can hit the button right at the top of the page to see if you're eligible for a free meter. If you're not, you know what I'm saying? meters are not that expensive. Ask your endo say look, I'm walking around with this old busted down meter forever. I don't even know how accurate is I want to be I want to be doing the best I can do for myself. Why don't you get me one of those Contour Next One blood glucose meters and your doctor will be like, I like you, you know what you want. strong and confident I of course will do this. And that'll be that. That's how I imagined it going. I don't exactly know how it's gonna go. Your doctor might be like, leave me alone. But I mean, if that's the case, get a new doctor. Anyway, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter has an amazing app that goes along with it. You can use it if you want to, if you don't want to, you're not forced to. But it's amazing. Bluetooth enabled, you check your blood sugar shows write up on your app, you can keep good track of more than just your blood sugar, you really have to go check out the meter. And that to find out if it's something that you would really benefit from, but I think it I think it is that's available for Apple and Android. So again, go to Contour Next one.com learn all about it. There's this beautiful color coding system for your testing. I love the screen, I love the size, it feels good in my hand, right? It's not too small, not too big. I don't drop it. And the test trip is remarkable. The accuracy is nuts. But you can actually go in and hit a blood drop and miss it a little bit and go back again and not waste this trip. Right second chance. There is very interesting information at Contour Next one.com about the accuracy of the meter. But as I read it, I recognize that I am not smart enough to make sense of it and translate it here for you. So you really should go check it out for yourself. All right Contour Next one.com touched by type one.org. The links are in your show notes right there in your podcast player there at Juicebox podcast.com. You can just type them in yourself. But when you use my links, the advertisers know you came from here and that I appreciate extra monthly. Are you ready for Darcy Darcy isn't even going to tell you why she's on the show for like another 25 minutes. I just love this conversation. it unfolded gently. Any good story unfolds gently.

Unknown Speaker 17:57
My opinion

Scott Benner 18:06
you have any real like turmoil around the diagnosis at all.

Unknown Speaker 18:10
I did it. I didn't take it very well. The first couple of days I was in the hospital. I had many just kind of meltdowns where I would lock myself in our in the in the hospital rooms bathroom with my huge IV tower that I named Cletus and I would just sit on the floor and cry. But it didn't take me very long to adapt to the new lifestyle. Because I had a really good friend who was also type one who ended up visiting me in the hospital. And he he would just be like okay, Darcy, you're gonna you know, you're gonna sit down at this restaurant, you're going to check your blood sugar, you're going to give yourself that injection and it's going to be totally normal, because that's just something you have to do and it's not your fault. And having that probably made the whole situation a lot better. I would say

Scott Benner 19:12
a good friend. So you So you knew somebody with type one before you were diagnosed? Yes. Do you live in a hotbed of Type One Diabetes is like every other kid type one in your town? Or is it just a random thing that you knew somebody?

Unknown Speaker 19:24
Pretty much honestly there. I think there are 12 type one diabetics in my school last year. And my school is really tiny.

Scott Benner 19:33
Or you guys like real close to like an electric line or like I don't know, that does it? But like something like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, when you drive past those big electrical lines, there's a house next to it. You think? I don't think I would want to live right underneath of that giant tower of electricity. Yeah,

D'Arcy 19:46
right. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 19:48
I live in a reasonably small town too. And there are a number of kids in art in school prior to her being diagnosed. And that number is sort of trailed off of Little bit now, but there's still a couple that come every once in a while it does make you think like, you know, I mean, I'm not I don't know, but, but it's interesting the water. Yeah, exactly. It's simple water. Maybe he, maybe he dosed you with diabetes so he'd have, just do that to somebody. But that's very nice. Your age somebody you knew before a real friend, not like a not like a boyfriend prospect.

Unknown Speaker 20:27
Um, friendship kind of trailed into something else. But he's in college now. So that kind of trickled off. Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:37
Oh, well, that's nice and good. At the same time. Let me tell you the same thing. I told my son when he left for college, better not to go with a girlfriend. Just you know, for you as well. You don't need to be like, limiting your happiness to like when whenever this guy comes home every once a night. Yeah, it's not you.

D'Arcy 20:54
I agree. Absolutely.

Scott Benner 20:55
But so you found a real like, your bond, like your friendship bond really became deeper around the diabetes.

Unknown Speaker 21:01
Yeah. And I think the fact that we had already we already knew each other so it wasn't like, he was like, Oh, you have diabetes? Cool. Me too. Let's be friends. We had other we had other things in common before my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 21:15
Any chance this kid used your diagnosis with Type One Diabetes to hit on you? Yes or no? Because guy I really hope not guys are ruthless. He might have been Finally I can get with this Darcy girl. And like, I've got like an in she's probably sitting on the bathroom floor in a hospital goes. By the way. Did you never once when you're on the floor think there's a worst disease on this floor than the one I've just got got on my.

D'Arcy 21:40
Well, the floor I was on was specifically for kids who had been diagnosed with diabetes, if they clean that floor better.

Start a long pause. I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 21:54
I don't know that you

Scott Benner 21:56
were so much stronger. Of course, you were so distraught, you didn't consider that perhaps you shouldn't be sitting on the bathroom floor in a hostel. Next, next time you're in the hospital, please stay off the floor. I don't care what news they give you just you know, up on your feet. Okay, I went, I went to visit my mom in the hospital the other day. She's fine, by the way, don't worry about and I came home afterwards. And it was a long day. And I sat on the sofa and went to put my foot on the coffee table. And I stopped myself from that I was like, I don't know what is on the bottom of my shoe. And so I just got you down there and that like paper gown, like with a hole stuck in your arm crying on the floor. And then this kids like who have always wanted to go out with a ginger. And like, you know, maybe, maybe this is it. Anyway. It sounds like you're doing better now. But I think it's also important that, that you just had your feelings when it happened. Like your parents didn't try to like pull you out of that bathroom. They just kind of let you be.

Unknown Speaker 22:54
Yeah, yeah, they were. They were always they understood that I was going to be upset. But there was one point in time where my dad came in and he was like, You know what, it doesn't matter what we have to do. We're all willing to make the lifestyle changes to accommodate for you and your needs. Don't ever think that like this is something that you're going to have to deal with on your own. So they were they were really supportive. But there are definitely a couple of times where I just wanted to be alone because

Scott Benner 23:26
yeah, it's good. I think both sides of that sound really amazing if that sounds like a good guy. Do you have other brothers and sisters?

D'Arcy 23:33
Yes, I have an older brother.

Scott Benner 23:34
Okay. And is he still in the house? Where is he off of college? He's in college. Do you think it's possible that whatever's in the water causing everyone's Type One Diabetes is also making everybody in your town really nice. It's possible maybe it's a nice thing that's just a side effect of it anyway, I you know there's one conspiracy theorist listening to the show right now it's like I knew they could give you type one you really can't people just it's not how it works. But but so I like this now you out out of the hospital. You're bucking the system immediately right? Oh, homeless. Yep. What is art insane to me.

Unknown Speaker 24:11
Okay

Scott Benner 24:13
sorry, where she had a tiny low and I just asked her how long did you eat that candy and she responded with a very helpful when you told me since you told me I was looking for more of a time frame but you know I'm sure it's fine. Her blood sugar 74 I think she's gonna be okay. Is it gonna go up again? Darcy I wish you could see this you could help me because you're so good. able to tell me I'm gonna have her have two more of these little candy things. Anyway. So you're you're out of the hospital. I like immediately your attitude right? Like this is not this is what they told me to do. But this is what I want to do and and you went right to it. I think that's a really interesting look into your probably your personality. And probably an interesting look into why you're doing so well immediately because you are really kind of Following your nose on this right doing what you think yeah. Yeah, that's excellent. So when do you find the podcast? How do you How does a 16 a 15 or 16 year old person living like what part of the country and don't like tell me the town but like, in the Midwest, it was so you sound Midwestern. And so did you know that sounds like something?

Unknown Speaker 25:21
I've heard that it sounds like something but I don't believe it.

Scott Benner 25:27
It sounds American is what it sounds like. It sounds like, like an average accent. So. So you're in the Midwest somewhere. You're You're out. You're doing your thing you get on the pods really quickly. When do you find the podcast? Like how do you find it?

Unknown Speaker 25:41
We'll say that my mom is just a really good planner. And she's already you know, getting ready for me to go off to college. And she finds your, the, the interview you did with Maddie. And then she like hey, Darcy, I found this podcast. And in towards the beginning, I was kind of reluctant like, Oh, yeah, I definitely want to sit and listen to but like, listen to a podcast about diabetes for an hour and a half. But then I actually listen to it because my mom knows what she's talking about you trust your mom. Yeah. trust my mom. And I listened to your pro tips episode about the CGM. And I was like, Whoa, this makes a lot of sense. Because at that point in time, I had my dexcom alert set at 80 and 200. And I found myself going over 200 at least once every other day. And then I tightened them to 170 down to 151 4130. And it it's really made a difference. I don't I very, very rarely go over 200. Now, homecoming was this weekend, so that there was there's a bit of a slip up there. But we, we Yeah, we've just been able to manage everything 10 times better. It's it's so much easier now that we have not only you and Jenny, but you there are other people that you've interviewed that kind of give their two cents on how they manage their diabetes, and getting all of these different perspectives on how all of these people manage their diabetes has, has made it honestly, more fun to think about, oh, if I eat this food, how is this going to affect my blood sugar? If I eat this? How fast is my blood sugar gonna spike? How far in advance Do I need to Bolus before I eat this food?

Scott Benner 27:50
Darcy, I don't think I can use the Juicebox Podcast makes diabetes fun as a tagline. Because I think a lot of people and I wouldn't want to do it. But I'm really encouraged that you said it would not be a T shirt that no one would buy. Anyway. That's a really, that's really amazing. Like, I'm thrilled for you. It's very cool to think that I did something I had an idea for. And it actually kind of came to fruition halfway across the country for you. It's very cool. But I also can't imagine what it's like to be 16 years old, and have your mom come to you and say I found a podcast, you should listen to that alone. Before you figure out it's diabetes must have been horrifying. Like oh my god, my mom is gonna try to pick a podcast for me to listen to what could I possibly know about podcasts? And then it's about diabetes. I would have like, I would have run away if I was you. I would have like I didn't let my mom pick anything about my entertainment when I was 16. Why do you think it's entertaining? Is it because I'm terrific? or What is it? exactly do you? Well, I

Unknown Speaker 28:58
I definitely think that you are terrific. But I've always kind of at least once I got my Dexcom in my Omni pod and I had a better handle of what my numbers looked like, you know, and a 24 hour span. I I realized that I wanted to I wanted to not only take care of myself, but I wanted to understand why I was taking care of myself how I could take care of myself. And that was something that I was having a little bit harder time getting a handle on. But then I start listening to your pro tips about bumping nudge and Pre-Bolus saying and you know being bold with insulin, and it just made it a lot easier to grasp and understand this is this is what is going to happen if you do this and this is why it's going to happen. So you have a better you have a better shot at accurately predicting what is going to occur when you eat or when you exercise or when you have adrenaline running through you.

Scott Benner 30:06
It's definitely my finding. So it's very cool that you found it the same way. Have you been proselytizing to your other myriad of diabetes friends and your diabetes written town? Or do Is it weird to go to another 16 year old and go? Yo, do you want to hear about a podcast about diabetes? I think you would enjoy. I, I'm interested, like, would you tell somebody else? Or is it sort of like your own thing?

Unknown Speaker 30:29
It's, it's kind of right now, at least it's my own thing. But I recently did an interview with one of my, one of the other diabetics in my school, and I mentioned it, and my dad actually right into him on the golf course, and mentioned it. So I think he's now listening to it. And he said that his he's lowered his Dexcom alerts. And he's, you know, trying to do a better job of managing his numbers and all that kind of good stuff.

Scott Benner 31:05
Thank you, Father, for me, tell me they're telling there's no referral program. So might be sending him a check or anything like that, but I really do appreciate it. And no, I really was asking not because I'm expecting you to get off of this and run around town like Reno right now, like yelling, like, you know, bring out your type on diabetes. So I can tell you about a podcast. But but because I was interested in if it felt really private still, like if it was your thing, like or something that you just wouldn't want to tell someone about? I had a conversation yesterday with someone who told me that there's things about their diabetes, they don't share with anybody. And it surprised me to a certain degree. Like I really thought like, well, that's strange. Like even with the people that are closest with their stuff about diabetes, they just don't share with other people. And I understood while this person was telling me that I just for me, personally, it seems strange. And then I realized to them, it seems strange at how sort of open Arden is about it. And I'm always interested to know, like, where people fall in that category, because I think you're going to have a, a more successful psychological, like health. If you're not hiding things, like whatever, right? You don't I mean, like, if you were running around dyeing your hair black, because you don't want people to know you were a redhead. I think that would have, like, seriously, I think that would hurt your soul a little bit. And and if so, Oh, okay. I didn't know what I didn't really request you were in. But now I say. But you know what I mean, like that, like, I don't think it's, it's not healthy to hide who you are. And at the same time, I get it, if that's how you feel. So yeah, it was just interesting.

Unknown Speaker 32:43
I understand that to a certain degree. I mean, whenever I was first diagnosed, I was incredibly embarrassed to have my alarms go off in school. so embarrassed that it would get to the point where I would plug my headphones into my phone. So I wouldn't even hear my alarms go off. Because I didn't want people to think that I had maybe forgot to turn my ringer off or that I had forgot to put my phone on Do Not Disturb. I just didn't like the fact that my phone was constantly going off in class, because at that point, I was still kind of getting a handle on it. I was still on MDI, right whenever I first got my dexcom, so I had a lot less control over how much insulin was going into my body and at what point in time is going into my body. So getting the strange looks from from people who just don't know. They don't understand they don't understand how diabetes works and how sometimes you can't control what's going on with your blood. sugar's if you have an off day, or if you've eaten something that you didn't bolus correctly for, and you bought them out. And your your alarms go off. That was something that I was really, I was, I was embarrassed. And I didn't want people to think that I was, you know, and consider it because my phone was going off in class.

Scott Benner 34:05
But now it's kind of getting to the point where I'm like, well, yep, this is something I deal with. And you know what I kind of I have to live with this. You can deal with the alarms going off in class once a week. It's not the worst thing. You make me think about. I think last year going into Arden's like freshman year, we have a meeting with the teachers usually, where we just sort of explained to them like look, you know, Arden doesn't manage her diabetes the way a lot of other kids who may have known who have diabetes do and you know, we give them kind of a quick overview. And one of the teachers says, I have a strict no cell phone policy. Everybody comes into the room puts their cell phone into like a shoe tray on the door. And I see Arden can't do that she's gonna keep her phone. And she was What will I tell the other kids and I didn't miss a beat I said tell them that they want to get an incurable disease. They can keep their phone with them too. And yeah, like and if they don't like if they don't want to go to that part just to have their phone in their pocket. Then tell them to shut Shut up. And not saying it. Like, seriously when someone comes to you and says, This is not fair, literally just look at them and say, shut up and sit down. Like like, what? Yeah, what are you gonna tell them? Like? Where did How is the world turned into a place where everybody gets an explanation for everything all the time, like, this is the role except for her if you don't like it, I don't know what to tell you. And and, and, and meanwhile, that was never going to happen. Because everyone Arden has been in the school forever. Everyone knows she has diabetes, like no one's gonna begrudge her having her phone so that she can see what her blood sugar is. It was just as a concern that the teacher had that ended up not being an issue at all. And I don't know, I just think you should, you should always value your health over what anybody thinks. Absolutely. And you came to that on your own to you really are like a perfect kid. So, and we're gonna prove that as we continue to talk here, even with something I don't even think you yet understand why I'm so excited that you're on the podcast, though. Plus, by not talking about it up front. I'm teasing people out in the world, listen to the entire hour, right? You see what I'm doing my guess. Right? Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. People, do you think someone right now is like, oh, and just shut it off. Like, I'm not going to be manipulated like that I'm not. You just you don't want to, like, you know, you know, you don't want to just sell out in the first couple seconds. Plus, you have an interesting story, you have a really great perspective. And I'll tell you one thing that I really love about your perspective, and that I want to talk about now that I've already considered talking about before, the reason why I'm very excited that you're coming on is that you are of a generation that is sort of unlike any other in history, right? And I'll tell you, I'll tell you why. And I'm hoping your generation doesn't fall apart and let us all down when I'm really old. Because

Unknown Speaker 36:45
hopefully not

Scott Benner 36:46
well, trust me. You probably will. But I hope you don't. Because if you if you look at the baby boomers, right, the baby boomers are in charge right now. I don't know if you know what that means. Like, it's that Yeah, after the war, right? Like, you know,

D'Arcy 36:56
right? We're like, oh, you're still

Scott Benner 36:58
alive sex and then babies. And then boom, you understand how it goes? You met that guy? And so, right. Okay, so that happened, right? And, and now there is this, like, you know, generation of people who were all born around that time who came up the children of, you know, people who had lived through a World War. And right, they kind of came out a little differently, right, they came out a little more relaxed, the hippie, you know, the hippies were sort of in the 60s, part of those baby boomers. And, and, as an onlooker, you know, somebody who was born a number of generations behind them, I thought, these are the people who are going to change the world. Right, right. They're their hippies. They saw Hendrix at Woodstock. They're going to be the ones except now look what's going on in the world. They completely reverted back to being old fogies and just completely stopped. They forgot what they learned when they were growing up. Right. So I don't want that to happen to your generation. But your generation has something I think that no other one has had before you are treated. Like your thoughts are important at a young age. And I know that sounds crazy to you. But when I was 13, no one cared what I thought. Did you know what I mean? Like the teachers didn't care? Yeah, you know, nobody would have said to me, but Scott seems upset that he can't keep his cell phone when Arden gets sick, like no one would have had that thought, you know, right. And so you guys are better educated, you're more emotionally supported. Your your, your have a better feeling about your self worth. You're more free to be yourself, right? Like, we're not busy telling people anymore. If you're gay, don't tell anybody if like nobody says things like that anymore. And right. And so you guys are probably the most fully formed young people that the planet has ever seen. Yeah, right. Do you agree with that?

Unknown Speaker 38:49
I agree with that. I think that

Unknown Speaker 38:52
especially with having diabetes, I, whatever parts of me weren't as mature, were able to, we were able to mature a lot faster, just because now I have my own life in my hands. As does everyone else, but I think my, my life is a lot, a lot more shaky. But I also think that that's also it's also kind of sad that I mean, my mom talks about all of the things that she did when she was a kid and she talks about how, you know, in middle school, she would go out in the summers and she would ride her bike around town and she would hang out with all of her friends. And and like after, of course, after she did her paper routes because she was she was really she was a hard worker. Anyway. But, and I and I think that now a lot of teenagers are kind of expected to grow up a A lot faster. And maybe that's just my opinion. But that's just something I've noticed, at least among my friend group.

Scott Benner 40:08
I agree. And at the same time, by the way, we're doing well, I'm doing Arden's lunch while I was talking to I apologize, but I heard everything you said, at this podcast at this point, like I can literally do, and think about something completely different at the same time. Arden is buying lunch for the very first time in her life today. I that's weird. Laos has never bought lunch at school. So we did a, we did a 30. But we did a six, let me suddenly think 3612 eight, we did a five unit Pre-Bolus right now and then she's going to actually tell me what she got. And then I'm going to try to help her figure out how many carbs are there? Because she doesn't know what I don't know, either. Anyway, that'll be in a second. I agree with you. And I don't agree with you all at the same time. So yeah, I know, your mom had this, like laissez faire life, right? Where she was just like, I'm young, no one expects anything from me. And so if I have a paper route, and then go play with dolls for all day, or go to my friend's house and pet her dog for six hours, because we don't have a cell phone, and I don't know what else to do. Like, like, then hold on a second.

And, you know, if I'm just gonna have a little more, so that was the life right? Like, like, it was easy, you just your expectation was, don't draw on the walls, don't cause me any problems. Listen to me, when I talk to you, you know, like, Don't make me chase around the town. At the end of the night, when it gets dark like that, I get that like, but you didn't learn anything about the world, either. You just were out there, like, you know, figuring out how not to like, let the creepy guy up the street, see you on your bike. And you know, and stuff like that, like I get that there were lessons in there. But I also think that when you look back when you're 30, you don't really remember all of that in the same way that you think you do. Like, do you mean like memories are really interesting, they don't, you'll have a few that are really strong, you'll have a couple that are really enduring. That means something to you. And then the rest of those hours are just gone. You know, you don't you don't it's not like you're drawing on them every five seconds. You guys are doing stuff like you're learning things. And, you know, you're probably in a math. Right? What do you take? Right? And I don't even know if you're a good student or not. But what math class you Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 42:30
I'm in an honors algebra two class.

Scott Benner 42:34
Exactly. There are people listening right now who are like, I took that in college, you know, seriously, or I never took that till I was a senior or, you know, we're there are people listening right now that are laughing go, Scott, I never took algebra to once in my life, let alone anonymous class. So you guys are you're advanced in that way. There's no real way to know what that's going to provide for you 20 years from now, because we haven't really seen a number of generations do this yet. All right. I was sitting at lunch with someone this week, who hadn't seen in a while. And they said to me, you know, how's coal? And I was like, Oh, he's good. You know, blah, blah. He's a college and you know, that kind of stuff. And he goes, so what's he majoring in? And I said, Oh, he's quantitative economics major. And the guy looked at me like, what does that mean? And I had to say to him, I don't really know. I don't know. But he's really good at math. And he likes it. And so I don't think that if I would have raised coal 40 years ago, he'd be a quantitative economics major right now, I don't think that would even be something that might, you know, exist at a school. So I'm, I like, both sides of it. I also think that you're going to make better decisions moving forward, because you're a more fully formed person. Like I think someone like you is less likely to do something incredibly stupid like with recreational drugs when you're 19. Because you actually think about things. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, everything's not I mean, how you more from the girl crying on the dirty bathroom floor to who you are now. is astonishing. Like it really is. Thank you. You're very welcome. But, I mean, it's, it's an amazing thing. Like, I'm not hearing anything in you. That's like, Oh, she's pretending to be together. Or, you know, break right now. She's just looking at her heroin needle waiting to get off the podcast. Like, like, like, like, you really see him. Okay. You know what I mean? And so that is that's for me. You live in the Midwest, and you're not doing math. I don't know that. They tell me a miracle. Tell me in the news. That's a miracle. So I only know what I see on the news. Anyway. It accurate. You know what I really I have to stop joking around like this because sometimes people get upset. I don't think everybody in the Midwest is doing math. Please. I'm sorry. Just trying to joke around with a 16 year old I'm trying to keep up with a with a with a person who's got an advanced idea of the world. Do you know how many 62nd videos this girl's Washington her life, she knows more about the world than you ever will. Right? Isn't your life just like scrolling through Instagram watching everyone else live? 45 seconds at a time?

Unknown Speaker 45:12
Oh,

D'Arcy 45:14
that's a good chunk of it.

Scott Benner 45:20
Yes, a large chunk of my life actually. I've seen everybody who's ever jumped off a roof of their building into the swimming pool and hit their head. I know everybody who's ever danced awkwardly in front of someone. Every Russian traffic ham accident in the world? Is everyone in Russia have a traffic jam on their dashboard? What are they expecting that one? Maybe I don't want to know what they're expecting to have happen. But anyway, they're, they really think something bad's gonna go down and they want everything on video. But yeah, you're you're you see more, you know more, there's no real way to keep anything from you. But that's that's an interesting part about about parenting young people now is that you can say to yourself, I'm going to make sure they don't find out about this, you're not making sure anybody doesn't find out about anything.

Unknown Speaker 46:07
Right. And sometimes that's a good thing. And sometimes it's a horrible thing. Because I mean, there are definitely aspects of Twitter that I never want to be a part of. But it's so easy to come across, like all of these people who are either really hateful or just stupid. And so you're either you're either able to base your own opinions off of the information that you're obtaining from the media, or your, you know, being informed of things that either aren't even real or aren't 100% valid.

Scott Benner 46:43
Yeah, I mean, to your point, like somebody, I saw some posts the other day where a guy was just like, just remember, when you're judging yourself against somebody's Instagram picture, that was the 13th time they took it, they until they could get themselves looking just that right. You know, and don't judge yourself against what somebody throws up on Instagram. Or, you know, can I ask you how frequently as a 16 year old in your delightful, you seem like a really nice kid. So how often do you see something on your phone that you think Oh, I wish I hadn't saw that.

Unknown Speaker 47:14
Um, I'm pretty good at guarding myself from the things that I don't want to see. Um, but there there are definitely times where I'll see something about something that's going on in the world that I might not agree with. And I'll be like, Oh, I really wish that I didn't see that. Because now I'm upset about it.

Scott Benner 47:35
Yeah, it because it makes you feel like he can help right? Makes you feel right. I was thinking more about like, some sexy thing where you were like, Oh, I wanted to do that with another person. not see it on my phone. But I'm assuming that happens, too, right? Like, we don't know that your mom knows that you have a phone? It's okay, she understands. But I really didn't think about the fact that your mom's gonna listen to this when I when I asked you. Yeah, I apologize now. Okay, so the reason you're on the podcast, is because you did something that I really appreciated for a bigger reason than just you and me. So I really I say it here a lot. I don't know how much people believe me or not. But I have a goal, right? I don't know if it's pie in the sky. It's something I'm never really gonna attain, obtain. But I would like very much that when I die, I would like somebody who has diabetes, who I've never met before, to show up at my funeral and say, that guy helped me live a healthier life. Like that's like I want that to spread, right. And I don't think it's something that I can spread by myself, I'm doing a pretty good job. But I think it's going to take people telling people, and more importantly, it's going to take people going back to their health care providers, and being honest with them about what they're doing. And so I am really interested in your last appointment, where you went in and got your a one CD, would you share it with me?

Unknown Speaker 49:00
Yeah, um, so I went in for my quarterly appointment to my endocrinologist office. You know, they weighed me, and then they did the a one c test. And my mom and I are patiently waiting in the room thinking, Oh, is my agency going to go up? Is it gonna go down, it's going to stay the same, what's happening? And so my endocrinologist walks in, and he goes, Well, good news, my, your agency is 5.6. And so my mom or you know, throwing air high fives at each other, because I thought that it was going to go up, but it had stayed the same. So he then starts giving us what my mom and I like to call the low lecture, saying, you know, an A one sees a 5.6 is really good, just as long as we're not experiencing that many lows and we want to make sure that we're staying above 70 and that we're not, you know, dropping into any dangerous, you know, dangerous water where you know, glucagon might come into the picture or something like that. And I was like, Well, I don't think I'm really having that many lows. And he goes, Okay, how often do you think you're having lows? And I was like, oh, maybe I mean, maybe once every other day if that, but I mean, at that point, they were, like, maybe dropping as low as like 65. But that's, I would catch it by the time I would, I would drop that low. And I'd get back up to 7580. And then he looks down at my dexcom clarity. graph. And, and he he's like, Wait, you're only above 200, once last week? And I was like, Well, yeah, I mean, I, I typically, I don't I don't jump over 200. Very often, I wasn't really fazed by by it. And I didn't understand that he was shocked by it. I just kind of like, yeah, that's something that's, that's going on. And then he looks down again. And he notices that I hadn't been low, either, that I'd stayed right in between 70 and 130, pretty much consistently that week. And whether that was just a really good week, or that's what my numbers run consistently. I'm not 100% sure of, but he was just amazed by it. And he started to ask me how I did it. And I was like, well, I listen to this podcast

Unknown Speaker 51:25
that my mom found. And

Unknown Speaker 51:28
I started going into how I had learned about Pre-Bolus saying and temporary basals and adjusting my bazel rates and how fats affect your blood sugar, how it can prolong a high blood sugar and how adrenaline can affect your blood sugar because I had no idea that adrenaline adrenaline could affect your blood sugar. I didn't know that an extended bolus could help with you know, like bringing down a high after eating half a half a pizza by yourself. Like I, I didn't know about that kind of stuff until I listen to the podcast.

Unknown Speaker 52:10
And he starts going through my my Omni pod

Unknown Speaker 52:14
my Omni pod bazel Records and I have four or five different bazel options. And I have some kind of crazy complicated, different like, timed out schedule of when I'm getting point two units of insulin than when I switch to point three than point three, five, then point two, five. And he's like, well, I never really thought about making something this complicated. And I was like, well, this is just what works for me. And he's like, Yeah, no, absolutely. If this works for you go for it. Then he goes, what kind of marks Do you get in school? And I said, Well, I'm not too good at math. And of course, my mom backs me up because she's she's, she's, she's really encouraging me doctor. She goes, she goes, Well, she's in an accelerated math course. And he goes, What do you want to do when you're when you get older? And I said, Well, I I'd really like to be a musician. Because that's, that's what I do. I'm, I'm a musician. That's how I spend a lot of my time I write music and record music. And I have an EP that I just released. And I also said, I've also kind of looked at becoming a diabetes nurse educator, but that's not really something I'm 100% set on. And he goes, Well, what about pediatric endocrinology? I was like what, huh? You actually you actually think that I could do that. And then I remembered, if you want to become a pediatric endocrinologist, you have to take organic chemistry.

Unknown Speaker 53:57
So I won't be doing that,

Unknown Speaker 53:58
which is not a class that I have any desire to take. So I I pretty much shut that one down real quick. And he's like, well, you're a junior, right? Yeah, I'm a junior. So I've got what a year and a half to change your mind. And, and hearing that was was just really interesting and kind of shocking, because I never thought that someone would you know, who was whose, whose job was to, you know, learn more about how to manage diabetes, because he spends most of his time in the research, the research labs because, you know, learning all of these things and researching all of these ways to make diabetes easier to live with. And he is now complimenting me on how I take care of myself, and I've only had diabetes for 11 months. So that in and of itself was Kind of eye opening because I didn't realize how good I was at taking care of myself until he had said that.

Scott Benner 55:10
That's really cool. And it's also a good indication of how, what he must see with other people too. Right? Right that you were he was just like, Wait, do obviously I have to tell you about what happens when you get low. And, you know, your blood sugar bounces all over the place, and you get this false a one C and I have to tell you, it's good, even though it's not but and then he looks like oh my gosh, this is amazing. Well, you know, first of all, congratulations. It's very cool to feel you, you know, to have that feeling. I would imagine I remember the first time I felt that way in an endocrinologist office for art and and I was like, well, I did it. It took me took me years. But you know, like it was, it was an amazing feeling like I actually persevered and got to this your perseverance lasted a little less. But you know, you still have in you're going to see what I think is that there could be people listening right now they're like, Oh, yeah, but sure she's gonna need more insulin six months from now, and she'll say, but what they don't know is your tools will work at any level. Like you're, you're going to be able to put the same ideas in the practice. When you know, other things happen. Like you're 16 you know, you get your period, right? You're controlling it during that time to you're not like you're not like falling apart for like a week and then pulling it back together. Hold on one second. Arden says I got fries. I didn't see your last text. Hmm. All right. What do I ask her here? Darcy? Is it a lot of fries? A lot of fries? Question mark. Poor art. And she's just like, she does not know how to buy food from like school, she has tried so hard not to do this her whole life. And then today, we just left the house too late to get her lunch. And she's like, I'll just buy something and it's like, you're gonna buy like a real meal. And she's like, I'll take care of it that and I was like, Okay, I didn't realize that that meant, you know, like a large. Trying to like, think of a fry size that she's aware of from like, another place. Just to go right away. Are you gonna be okay, talking for a little bit?

D'Arcy 57:16
No, yeah, we're good. Why are you off? By

Scott Benner 57:18
the way today? Isn't it Tuesday?

Unknown Speaker 57:21
Yeah, it is Tuesday. Um, I have anatomy right now. And we're doing our endocrine unit.

Unknown Speaker 57:30
And so

Unknown Speaker 57:33
I managed to weasel my way out of that class with an excused absence. Because I was

Unknown Speaker 57:43
doing it properly.

D'Arcy 57:44
I was doing this and I was probably set on, I was probably set on all of the information that I was going to be taught that day for See, I

Scott Benner 57:52
feel like I'm a really big part of your life. I got you out of anatomy class. I it's it's a big part. I've never gotten anybody out of school before. But I'm very proud of myself. Just now that first time for everything's really good. So you know, your amazing experience at the doctor's office, which I love how like, impactful it was for you. But I also love that you just were like, Yo, I found a podcast. He didn't like lie to him or say, oh, what I've been eating, leave it out. Admit it, you know? Yeah. What did he say? Did he like gloss over that? Or? Was there any, like pushback that it was a podcast? I always try to imagine you guys in your, your doctor's offices telling somebody? Oh, yeah, I heard that on a podcast. Because it sounds ridiculous. It might not to you because you're young. Like but like, I guess it would sound more reasonable to if you're like, Oh, I saw it on YouTube. Like that might sound more like youthful than podcast even. But, but for most people, for most part, I just always I'm trying to imagine what that must be like for someone who says it in there. Like Did you swallow the words a little bit? Or were you just like, right out with it?

Unknown Speaker 59:01
Well, um, I was pretty straightforward. Because at that point, I felt like he was just kind of like, how did you do this? Not like he had never seen it before. But I think he just sees it so rarely that he was kind of surprised. I was like, well, I found this podcast and he was like, Okay, that was it. What a horrible. I mean, he did. He didn't, he didn't really, he didn't say anything like, Oh, you shouldn't be getting information from a podcast, but it was. I think he might have said something about it. If my numbers had been, you know, all out of whack.

Scott Benner 59:39
You're a Wednesday was 13. You're like how this

D'Arcy 59:45
guy's podcast told me the podcast. Oh. I feel like

Scott Benner 59:53
he said eat okra. It'll be fine. You don't need your insulin.

D'Arcy 59:57
Gentlemen, I'm telling you cinnamon. Exactly.

Scott Benner 1:00:00
So, first of all, I don't tell anybody to do anything Darcy, these are my own experiences and nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should ever be considered advice. But the point is, is that it, it's cool that you that you said something to them. And it's cool that you have the tools I mean, really seriously. This You are like a shining example, example of my assertion that if you get good information and get good, good tools early on, that there is no necessity for you to go through the horrible parts that you hear people going through

D'Arcy 1:00:32
when the right absolutely excellent.

Scott Benner 1:00:35
And you were open to hearing it right away. And so it got to you now, it's interesting, because I'm joking around taking credit, which, you know, I am kidding, you're doing all the work, you know, like you seriously, like you heard something, and you're putting it into practice. I'm not, I'm not there, making sure you do it, it's you. But you seem like you're the type of person who would want to be healthy. Then you've got this friend that comes in that kind of has your back early on, which is helpful, then your mom goes out and helps you. And you have a trust in your mom. So you listen to her when she helps you.

D'Arcy 1:01:09
Yes, all the time.

Scott Benner 1:01:12
I know that's not true. You're just saying this, but that's fine. Let her think that she listens to you all the time mom, she's really a probably the best daughter ever. And, but But seriously, like you've had all these little like, like, like helping hand moments along the way, even in this kind of short period of time that have all directed you to a good place. But you know, it's it's incredibly it's incredibly encouraging to hear you talk about it at the same time. You have to understand other people listening have to understand that there are plenty of people who didn't get that, like they didn't have a friend show up at the hospital and be like, it's okay. And right. They might have had a mom who was like, you should sprinkle cinnamon on that. I saw it on my website about my essential oils, like you don't even know Yeah, the wrong way for them. By the way, anybody who listens that uses essential oils, please don't be mad at me. I just it seems silly to me. But that's fine. And so, but I'm just saying like you, you got good information along good fence posts, like you know, every time you came across something somebody was there to kind of get your dad comes in and says, Hey, listen, we'll do whatever we have to do to make this right for you. And that's right. That's important to know that people have your back. Yeah, yeah, really cool. really is.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:26
Yeah, I'm really grateful for all of the help that everyone around me has given. It really means it means a lot more than they than they know it does.

D'Arcy 1:02:33
No,

Scott Benner 1:02:34
no, I trust me. They'll figure it out along the way, or you'll find a way to tell them if if that if that becomes an issue where they're like, I don't think she really appreciates us enough. Which I'm not thinking it's gonna happen. But did your I never did ask you Is there any diabetes in your family?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:52
Um, funny story. I didn't know that there is any any diabetes in my family until my diagnosis. I have a great uncle who died when my dad was like, seven, who apparently had type one, but I had no clue. And you know, it never really. You know, we never really thought about it, because we never knew like no one in my family really knew him.

Scott Benner 1:03:18
Yeah. So it was just it was an older man when your father was was very young. Right? Yeah. But he had type one. How about that? Mm hmm. So it's it's there. Did he have red hair too?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:30
I don't think he did. I think it was blonde.

Scott Benner 1:03:32
I don't I just it means nothing. I just this is like, yeah, it's like my conspiracy theory episode. Just like it's in the water.

D'Arcy 1:03:39
Well, I don't know where the red hair came from.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:42
Are you the only redhead?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:44
I have a couple cousins who are who have red hair. But I don't know if anyone in my family beyond that has red hair.

Scott Benner 1:03:51
What's the biggest impediment of having red hair is that you can't wear green? Which it What is it? Like what is like the one thing that you're like off? My hair wasn't right. I could

Unknown Speaker 1:03:59
I actually wear green all the time. I didn't know. I'm sorry. I look like a kind of it's kind of a Christmas. I don't know. I like Christmas

Unknown Speaker 1:04:07
theme.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:08
It's a Christmas themed Christmas in July. No, um,

Scott Benner 1:04:14
is there a downside? Or do you not think of it?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:17
I don't wear hot pink.

Scott Benner 1:04:19
Just too flashy.

D'Arcy 1:04:21
Too classy.

Scott Benner 1:04:22
So in a world where your hair was darker, you might have on a hot pink once or twice here. And this is right. And you're being held back by this?

D'Arcy 1:04:30
Right? Absolutely think this deserves its own movement.

Yeah, it

Scott Benner 1:04:34
really does. I think you could start up a nice thing on social media and get all other redheads behind you. And great really become a force in the world.

D'Arcy 1:04:42
So do you have I'll get right on that. Just to go back to school?

Uh, yeah, eventually.

Scott Benner 1:04:50
See, I painted you to be a good kid. And now you're acting like yeah, if I get there.

D'Arcy 1:04:55
It's fine.

Scott Benner 1:04:56
Your your mom shared this story about your your endo appointment on the private sort of Facebook page that I have for the podcasts where listeners get together and talk about, you know, it's all about management stuff and right, they talk to each other about that. Are you in there too?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:16
I'm not?

Scott Benner 1:05:18
Is that not something? And I don't know, I don't mean to say that you should be. I mean to say like, is that not how you need to talk about diabetes? Like or do you not need to talk about at all just the podcast provide you enough like community around or to the people, you know, privately? Or where do you get your community from it?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:35
I, um, I follow a couple of type one accounts on Instagram. And they give pretty good insight of how they deal with their things. It's not really, there's, it's, there's not as much discussion that goes on. But it's easy to look at, this is a certain person, this is what they did, this is what happened, this is what they're going to do in the future to fix it.

Scott Benner 1:06:01
You can kind of infer from what you see there.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:03
Right. And I've actually, I'm hoping to, to start acting as kind of an advocate for that. And not in the sense of social media, but I am at the endocrinologist appointment, he mentioned something called the patient advocate program, which is a newer program that's being started up, where families or individuals who are either recently diagnosed or just having a harder time managing their their diabetes can get in contact with the advocates.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:37
And hopefully,

Unknown Speaker 1:06:40
kind of learn how to manage their diabetes better, or learn different, you know, tricks as to how Pre-Bolus thing works, how to, you know, extend the Bolus how to how to catch a low how to correct a high. So that's something I'm really excited to be a part of, and that's through your your doctor's office, your hospital. Yes, it's true, it's through the hospital.

Scott Benner 1:07:06
That's nice. That's excellent. And so you can have your own private little podcast with people who you're on the phone, which is amazing. By the way, you're going to find that that helps you to because the podcast helps me. Like when I explain things. There are times when I say something, most of the time you're hearing me say something it's like tried and true and stuff I've been doing forever. But every once in a while, like I'll find a different way to say it. And as I'm saying it out loud, I think, Oh, that's good. And you're like, I've never heard that before in my life. And so you get to the idea I'm having right then and there in that moment. And that's very, that's a cool part about helping other people is that you can you'll learn stuff about your own diabetes as well. So I learned stuff for Arden all the time talking to other people. Which is, which is very cool. Cool. Yeah, it's actually where you actually excited to do this. Your mom said you weren't. I thought you were probably she was lying.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:59
Um, she actually, she walked into my room The day after my endocrinologist appointment was which was also two days after I had met, like my huge like, celebrity idol. So I was just really, I was really on a high from all of that. And then she walks in and she goes, Scott Benner just gave you an open invitation to be on the show. And I was like, What? Like, you can be on the Juicebox Podcast, and I was like, wait a minute, I'm gonna be on the Juicebox Podcast. And she was like, yeah. And I was just kind of like, Huh, this is. This is crazy, like,

Scott Benner 1:08:40
best week of my life. Kidding. I'm glad for you. I'm really glad that that's the case. who wish who's the famous person you met? That was your

D'Arcy 1:08:48
His name's Noah Khan. All right, hold on. He's a musician from Stratford, Vermont. Gotcha.

Scott Benner 1:08:54
All right, hold on a second. Noah Khan, like KHNKHN

I see him and what kind of music does he play? Um,

Unknown Speaker 1:09:07
that's a great question. I don't know if I could actually give you an exact genre without other musicians that listen to this podcast, yelling at me for being wrong.

D'Arcy 1:09:18
I'll check it but

and so and the other thing you just said was that you just released an EP. I did release an EP or when I find this out. I did not know this about you. You can find

Unknown Speaker 1:09:27
you can find it anywhere. You can find it on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Pandora,

Scott Benner 1:09:35
amazon music. Are you the singer, the songwriter and musician? Do you have a band? Is it just you?

Unknown Speaker 1:09:41
I right now, it's just me. I'm singer songwriter. My dad took me up to New York this winter. And I recorded the EP and a couple months later I released it

Scott Benner 1:09:59
well, so if I'm on Apple Music which I am I, I asked Darcy What?

D'Arcy 1:10:05
A fake the word fake.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:09
I've hit return.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:12
Why something happened? I've hit return again. Why does my computer not like me?

Scott Benner 1:10:18
Do you think it's for the same reason that people who leave nasty messages about me? Online don't like me? I know why Oh, cuz I'm not searching under music. I was like, somebody told me recently, a friend of mine who's does a lot of good work in the diabetes world, said I had someone come up to me and say, Have you ever heard of Scott from the Juicebox Podcast? And she's like, yeah, Scott's a good friend of mine. And she's like, I love that podcast. I don't like him that much, though. And

Unknown Speaker 1:10:45
so my friend said, she said, I'm glad you like it.

Scott Benner 1:10:51
And, and she says, Let me let me just say to you, I bet that I bet you do. Like Scott, you just don't know it. And I said to my wife later, I'm like, I think that's half of the people who know me. I think half the people like me and half the people think they don't like me. There's my narcissism coming. I think you all like me, even the ones that don't think you do. Why can I not search on Apple Music? Hold on. I'm getting upset. Alright, hold on a second. I see.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:20
I look at you.

D'Arcy 1:11:22
Yeah, it's me. It's amazing. Okay, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:11:25
people have reviewed this and they are much better than they've reviewed my podcast. This girl is so talented. Oh my god. Everyone should buy this album. Alright, so can I can you give me permission to play something on the podcast? Go for it. Which one should I play?

D'Arcy 1:11:45
You should play poison. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:11:48
Unplugged or the original. The original. Okay. So I I am gonna put it at the end of the podcast. So when people are done, they can listen. Not the whole thing. They gotta go by. They want

D'Arcy 1:12:01
the whole thing. They gotta go by it. Yeah, go stream it. Yeah, exactly. We'll give him a little a little taste.

Scott Benner 1:12:06
So thank you. No, that's was such a nice surprise. I had no idea. Right now there's cynical people going Hey, no, this is this is all set up. But it's not about Darcy knows. I don't plan anything. Right. Darcy?

D'Arcy 1:12:21
Right. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:12:23
All right. Listen, you're terrific. I think, you know, thank you. I'm glad your parents aren't de drinkers. That's a nice thing, too. And I I don't know why I thought that like when when when a kid says to me, I've taken control of my life really early. I think either Wow, really together kid or Wow, really don't trust their parents. Just like there's no way these people are gonna be able to help me. I've got to get on this right away. And I obviously that's neither of those things. You have a lovely family. And, and I think you're off to a really great start with diabetes, which is Thank you. No, no, no, it's really something that is unexpected and exciting. Like I can't wait to hear like I there's part of me that wants to say to you like, in like a year, like do this again, come back on again and tell me how it's going. Like maybe

Unknown Speaker 1:13:12
I would love to or something like that.

Scott Benner 1:13:14
Alright, listen, go back to school. You're a darling. Okay. Thank you so much for doing this. I can't thank Darcy enough for coming on the show or her mom for reaching out and saying, Would my daughter be allowed to come on the podcast. She was terrific. Thanks again to the and I also want to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter and touched by type one, you can go to touched by type one.org or Contour Next one.com To find out more about the advertisers, the people who brought you today's episode of the Juicebox Podcast. And now here's a few seconds of Darcy's EP. You can find it of course on Apple podcasts and everywhere that she mentioned

Unknown Speaker 1:14:41
just

Unknown Speaker 1:14:48
surviving


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#339 Badlands

Scott Benner

Dakota has complications

The path to understanding can be treacherous.

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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, everyone, welcome to Episode 339 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by Omni pod, and Dexcom Omni pod, of course, is the insulin pump, excuse me, the tubeless insulin pump that Arden has been wearing since she was four years old. And we love it. And Dexcom, the greatest continuous glucose monitor known to mankind, you can find out more my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box, and dexcom.com forward slash juice box. I'll tell you more about the sponsors in just a few minutes. But first I want to tell you about Dakota today's guest. Dakota is an adult with Type One Diabetes, who is experiencing a number of complications. But he's starting to get things together. And he's here today to share what he wished that he would have known when he was a younger person for type one diabetes. It's a great episode full of hope, and honesty, just like I like.

While I've got your attention, I hope you check out diabetes pro tip calm. It's my website where I've collected all the diabetes pro tip episodes from the Juicebox Podcast right in one place. You can of course still listen to them in your podcast player. But for those of you who are trying to share them more easily, or just want to find them quickly. Diabetes pro tip.com has also added juice box docs.com. It's juicebox D oc s.com. On that page, you'll find a growing collection of amazing doctors all submitted by listeners like you. If you think you have a great diabetes physician practitioner of any kind, someone who's really helped you who really gets it gets what we talked about here on the podcast doesn't hassle you, and you'd like to share that doctor with someone else. Go to juice box docs.com right there, you can send me an email, you'll be able to see all the information I'm looking for, because you'll see what other people have given. And you can add your fantastic doctor to an ever growing list of diabetes professionals who are forward thinking, thoughtful and conscious of what technology can do. My name is Dakota, I'm 30 years old. I have been diabetic for 25 years.

Five years old. That's a long time ago.

It was pretty much I don't know a life without diabetes. Yeah, were you. That's interesting. So it's five years old. 25 years ago, I have to orient myself with time all the time. And that messes me up. But it was at 9094. Four. Okay. Do you have siblings at that point? I had an older brother who was 15. And he was a half the half brother. That was the only other sibling other than my parents. And younger back then the technology was not what it is today, I would imagine. What's your first sort of recollection of living with diabetes? How old were you? I would say the year later, about six years old. I for some reason, this memory stands out going up the stairs and I couldn't make it past the landing. And by the time we waited the two and a half minutes for the glucometer to actually test the blood sugar. It popped up reading 23. That was my first experience with a hypo. That's crazy. So tell people a little more because that's something that I think a lot of people listening to that don't understand. So do you remember the process can you walk through what it was like to check your blood sugar 25 years ago, the meters aren't as compact as they are today. You know if you have a if you have an actual glucometer or if you have a CGM, they were about the size of your of your phone. They weighed about as much as a brick. And the test trip was the size of a ketone strip. And the amount of blood that it took was you pretty much had to poke every finger just to get enough blood

bleed into a puddle to

Dakota 4:15
exactly 60 seconds into it you actually had to wipe the blood off the strip before inserting it into the machine

Unknown Speaker 4:24
so probably dinosaur age

Scott Benner 4:26
that's interesting. So you the the blood goes on the strip but the strip's not in the machine at that point, correct the blood out to saturate that little pad on the strip that's like a ketone trip or you have to kind of wait and wait. So this is all happening to her while you're six and a unable to propel yourself up the stairs. So something's clearly wrong and apparent goes it's like well, we'll get the meter and then they drag this thing out and hack open a vein. Fill up this test strip, they're putting them the thing you said you felt faint probably because of the blood loss. Not even Because of the blood sugar being low,

Unknown Speaker 5:01
I think for the blood bought Yeah,

Scott Benner 5:04
that's really something else, man, that's a it's a good look into, Oh, you know what your life could be like, for people who are, you know, will say something like, my Dexcom lost its connection for five minutes and I very upset.

It's a different world, what do you use now for technology.

Unknown Speaker 5:22
So I was always on the side of I didn't want to support the industry at all figure I give them enough money, I'm not gonna support all this new technology, old school has always worked out, it doesn't work. And I have now on the desktop g six as well as the Omni pod. And that was all pre listening to the show.

Scott Benner 5:41
That's cool. That's so interesting.

And I like to dig into that for just a second to kind of figure that out. So at some point, as an adult, you have like a real adverse feeling like, you know, I've already lose enough money to this disease. I'm not spending any more I'm not giving anybody anymore. It did it feel like an adversarial relationship at that point, like there was you. And then these people that they that they told you, the hospital, your doctor that was supposed to be helping you but you didn't feel like you were being helped by them. It totally felt that way, you know, it's the insulin already cost enough. And then when they change the product that you're on, or they want you to try a new medicine that's actually more expensive, you know, when you're able to get a good deal on syringes, and then you look at the price of a pump, you're still buying the insulin put into the pub, and they just seem like extra expenditures that aren't necessarily needed at that moment.

Unknown Speaker 6:37
And was this a?

Scott Benner 6:40
Was this a financial decision to like, were you were you hurting for the money? Or any you need to put in other places? Or was this solely like, I'm gonna take a stand against this, this feeling you're having? At the time, it was a little bit of both? I definitely thought like, you know, what, if I keep doing this, they're gonna miss me, which obviously is not the case. Like,

I'm keeping my money, you'll come crawling.

Dakota 7:03
Exactly. And then the financial aspect, you know, that was a big part of it, you know, early 20s, trying to figure out what life is. And now you have to find a job that offers you good insurance. So you can even get the products in the first place. And then they tell you, it's going to be a couple hundred dollars a month. It's a big chunk of your your income course. No, I don't think we talked about it enough. We always speak about it and kind of sort of simple terms. Like I have insurance. I don't have insurance. You just think of people as in two camps, like the poor people with no insurance. Oh, that's a shame for them. And the people do have insurance. Oh, that must not cost them anything. It's not true. You could have insurance and it still cost you a fair amount of money every month. And you know, and it's worse if you don't have insurance. You haven't tried to pay cash for things. When did you lose your fight with the man? How old were you?

Unknown Speaker 7:50
Um, it was actually

Scott Benner 7:54
2017 I finally gave in and I didn't know which was which at the time I am done enough research. And I actually ordered the Omni pod first thinking it was the CGM. So I was on a pump for the CGM, by mistake thinking you were gonna be able to see jam first. Exactly. That's interesting. So when you didn't collapse the the medical device system in America and you're what what was it that made you feel like I'm giving up this fight like because I mean, I'm serious. I'm not joking with you. Like it's, it's obviously meant something to you. But at some point, you just were like, Alright, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to try to get these devices. What led you to, I mean, letting go of something that that you felt so strongly about for 20 some years? It actually I decided to finally jump on board when I lost my eyesight due to the diabetes. Okay, so you felt like? Well, let's, let's, I guess we should dig into that a little bit. So you are legally blind? I am legally blind. Yes. What does that mean? As far as is there? I mean, you had you were sighted for such a long time. Like Can you put into perspective for someone what it feels like? Like what? You know what that situation is like, what can you do? What do you struggle with? What What do you see in front of you?

One way you can tell that a company stands behind what it does is when it offers you a free trial with zero obligation to continue understand, I mean, they're willing to put the product in your hand before they've got your john Hancock anywhere.

Unknown Speaker 9:38
You've made

Scott Benner 9:39
zero promises. They've got all the risk. They're showing you right up front. This is who we are, like us or don't like being on a first date and just telling people all the creepy stuff you like and you think I'm gonna find the one guy who thinks this is right.

That's what the parties

are very honest first date. No What am I talking about? If you go to Miami pod.com forward slash juicebox Omni pod will send you a free, no obligation demo pod right here home. This allows you to try the pod on to see what it would be like to be an omni pod person, right? A Potter. That's what today's Potter. After your demo pod arrives, your free, no obligation demo bond. You can live with it like it's your new friend, take it in the bath with you go out for a run, lay in the sun.

Have some fun.

I can't think of anything else that simply rhymes to that word that you could do with an insulin pump on Oh, you could probably make a pun. And maybe be talking to somebody and say something funny to them while you're wearing your new Omni pod demo. And you'll think to yourself, you know, earlier today, when I made that pun, I didn't even notice I was running on Wi Fi. This is the insulin pump for me. A pump that's giving me my basal insulin and allows me to bolus do extended bolus is Temp Basal increases and decreases all that great stuff. And I don't know I'm wearing it. Even when I'm putting my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Get that free, no obligation demo today and use that link so that on the pod knows she came from the Juicebox Podcast.

Are you impressed that I did all that and then didn't make fun?

Unknown Speaker 11:30
I just couldn't think of one. All right.

Scott Benner 11:34
Next car, the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor is in fact, the greatest thing in the world. If you're using insulin, if you're a giraffe, the greatest thing in the world is tall trees with food on it. But if you're using insulin, the dexcom g six, the bee's knees. Now, where did the saying bee's knees come from? I don't know. But what I do know is that the dexcom g six shows you the speed and direction that your blood sugar's moving. And if you're the loved one, have a person with Type One Diabetes, it allows you to see their speed and direction remotely. remotely means anywhere. Apple or Android, through the internet, the web understanding even through cellular, cellular like I don't need Wi Fi exactly for this. That's right, Scott, your kid could be in his 10 volt. Have a blood sugar that starts falling. You could be in Madison, Wisconsin and see it happen. Huh? How about that? Then you text them you're like, Hey, I don't know why you're in Turkey. But your blood sugar is getting low. Why don't you have a juice dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Do it today. It can't possibly be understated. But I think it is an amazing idea. So we're talking about my omnipod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Get yourself the greatest insulin pump. Get yourself the most magnificent CGM. Let them know that you came from the Juicebox Podcast.

What do you struggle with? What What do you see in front of you?

Everything is essentially looking through a fog. There's I have no depth perception. My right eye has no vision. my left eye the vision is 2199 which now is technically one point out of being legally blind. But it's still essentially trying to look like a stack of Ziploc bags, everything you do. And my gosh, that's a kind of horrifying honestly. If you got to this, is this a Is this a side effect of your type one? Absolutely. It was a I suffered a diabetic hemorrhage in my right eye, even in 2017 but essentially filled my eye with blood. And too much later in August of 2017. The left eye followed suit did the same exact thing. Prior to this hemorrhage. Were you aware that your eyesight was in the midst of failing or did you not know right up until it happened? I had a prescription for glasses because I knew it was starting to diminish a little bit. And I could tell there's something else a little bit more serious happening. So I scheduled the appointment. That was on Wednesday. The doctor called me before the appointment said we need to push it till Monday. And the bleed happened on Sunday. Okay, when you and I were setting the call up I asked you to shut your camera off to save bandwidth and you I from what I could. I felt like I was seeing from this and were you using your phone as a magnifier to see the screen on your computer. What was that you were doing? I use my phone for everything. Yeah, even trying to type the reply to you before we started the call. It's have to get a picture of the keyboard. I've actually never used this laptop before, just to type the message back to I say, alright. How much has that? How does that I guess slow your day down? What does it mean? How does it change your life? I guess should be my question. What were you doing prior the things you were doing prior that you can't do any more? were you living the same life? How are you handling What's going on? Well, my past, I grew up racing, motorcycles, anything in the desert, it was an engine, that was my passion. And that is the biggest thing I've given up because I can no longer drive, even tried to pick up my daughter from daycare or going to help out my fiance's, I can't drive anymore. So it definitely takes a toll on you in the long run, you start to get this feeling like maybe you're not putting enough into the relationship because you know, the other partner is doing all the driving, as you'll always try to overcompensate in different aspects of a relationship. And that all comes from not being able to assist with tasks outside the home. Yeah, I can see that I it's a, you know, obviously not an apples to apples comparison. But I've been a stay at home dad for like 20 years. And in the beginning, you know, you do feel like I'm doing all these things, but it's not the money. And because it's not the money, it doesn't feel as important a little bit, you know what I mean? And, and you do, I found myself over doing other things trying to be like, Look, I'm valuable, you know, I mean, like, I'm, it's I'm trying my hardest, I'm in this 5050. And it's a weird feeling. It went away from me, I hope it I hope it doesn't stick with you. Because obviously your situation is it's not like you're just you know, you've made a decision not to be helpful. You know? Wow. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that, about the motocross racing. So I have very little knowledge of this other than I have this incredibly clear memory of when I was a kid and my parents took me, they had a friend who rode they called it enduro bike racing, I guess. And it was, it felt like it was in the woods and my memory. And you just kind of went and stood on this, you know, some part on this course in the woods, and every few minutes, these amazing like, motorcycles would just come flying by and jumping over hills and mud flying everywhere. And I think back on it now. And I'm like that could not have been safe for me to be standing there watching that. Because you're so close to the course, you know, absolutely not, especially in endurocross. They're jumping over rocks, you know, there are definitely mud pits that they have to try to plow through. There's logs in the path that they're trying to jump over, it could take one foot and you have a bite coming at your forehead. Oh god, I'm telling you, I look back on my life. Now I see a couple of times where I feel like the state could have come in and taken me you know, because decisions my parents were making. That was one of them. There was another one where you went to West Virginia. And there was this like, we were on like the top of like an overlook. And my parents put me right on the edge of it to take a photo and I look at that photo. And I think like what is wrong with you, like would not have looked just as good if I was, say 10 feet from the edge of it. Like Did I really have to be at the precipice of death? To get this photograph off the boy, I'll have to see if I can find it and put it up on the website that coincide with us. But it's all the experience. It's I guess when you're younger, you're just like, oh, stand there. We'll take a picture. I don't know. I'm making excuses for them. It was dumb.

Unknown Speaker 18:15
But you're fearless. But what

Scott Benner 18:18
I remember about being at that is it was exhilarating. And that the the smell of sort of that two stroke, like exhaust was in the air. You don't I mean, I can still hear the bikes. The smell of the race field is too short, you had to mix with oil. So you're burning oil as well as race fuel. And it's a it's a very, very nostalgic. Oh, yeah, I can't, I'm telling you. I did it one time. And I feel like I'm standing there telling you about it. So I can't imagine how for a person who was enjoying actually participating in it. I mean, it's got to be an incredible loss for you among other things, but But still, yeah, I actually stopped when I was sick with the my parents recognize the signs of the diabetes. They took me in and sure enough, I was diagnosed. And about an hour later, they diagnosed me with a heart condition also my racing career stopped on the same day. No kidding.

I'm sorry to hear that.

So it's one of those where I've always been involved with the industry My dad was really big in the racing scene in Southern California as well. So it's always been a part of my family all my friends race so it's we never quite lost that touch. It's just by the time I jumped back into it was against financial is so expensive that but either be a bystander or do it just for fun. Yeah, yeah. So do you do you still try to go to races to as a spectator. I still now go to now I go to Supercross. It's definitely lost its edge from what I'm used to it. I started going to has very little so it's a very family oriented event. Now I go to different sorts of offroad races. I'm out here in Arizona now so I'll catch the NASCAR races that come through. Now I try to go on behalf of my organization to raise awareness. So you do that you do like set up a table? Or do you just how do you how do you raise awareness at an event like that? You're working on the process of actually getting into these events, just because it is very corporate structured. You know, typically, they want their vendors to pay to be there to sell a product, as a nonprofit, they try to get it to where, you know, discounted, or if there's an opening. Yeah. Apparently, the only events I have scheduled are with a local chapter, the jdrf for their walks and things like that. So nice. What do you do when you interact with people? What do you talk about with them? More anything they want? if they have any questions about diabetes, any of the complications, signs? Honestly, sharing my story has helped more people than I can count. You know, I used to think, Okay, well, my blood sugar is in the low 200. That's fine. And Fast Forward 20 years, it wasn't fine. Now, there's neuropathy going on, there's the obviously the vision. There's a lot of other things that diabetes can affect. My is just when loss, vision loss, a lot of the internal stuff as well. So just sharing what the doctors have told me, I'm in timeout at the hospital. And I've even crashed cars, because I've had a hypo while driving. So again, there's a lot that can come with it that most people might not realize. No, I think you're 100%. Right. I think that a lot of our though, a lot of how we we sort of build our world around diabetes comes from the things we hear initially. And if what you heard initially was, hey, listen, just try to keep his blood sugar between 90 and 200. And didn't realize that that was supposed to be you know, for this month, and the next month, then you'll come back and we'll shoot for better and better. Except, it doesn't work that way. For a lot of people. A lot of people start thinking, well, that's my range. You don't I mean, I tried to stay there. Exactly. I know, from listening to your past episodes, even as artists growing up, you know, it's not just even within that range. It's everything's adjusting rules on a weekly basis. And you know, when there's only one endocrinologist near you, where you can go and start backtracking. During all this, my parents are also going through a divorce. So now it's separated parents while you're trying to figure out what this disease is, as if they're not on the same page or not on the same page. So it's you're trying to figure out everything all at once. And especially for a young child, it's very overwhelming. Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I, I can't even imagine being your situation. I don't want to lose track of this. So let me ask you, you said you were diagnosed with a heart condition. What was that? Um, I had a bicuspid heart valve. So my aortic valve is fused with a second valve. So that having three leaflets my heart only had two leaflets. How

is that impacted you and your life?

Unknown Speaker 22:59
I got very out of breath. as a as a youngster.

Unknown Speaker 23:05
It was over overworking itself.

Scott Benner 23:09
And then in the year 2000, I underwent open heart surgery had the aortic valve replaced. Geez, my gosh, that's a 17 year old Have you? what's the what's my question here? What's the is there maintenance to that surgery? Like you go see someone like yearly? Or how does that? How do you keep track of that surgery? I go see my cardiologist every two years. He does an EKG, perfect. 20 years. That's about as quick as the appointment goes. No kidding. That's excellent to hear. Okay, so Dakota, since you're trying to raise awareness, and you're being so honest, I want to give context to, you know, a little more context to where you got to with your vision, if that's okay with you. So, let's just start with the the easiest measurable for people to kind of understand, do you know what your a one C was? Through the years? Were you keeping track of it? Or did you were you going to an endocrinologist kind of talk to me about how you how you manage that side of diabetes, most of my life by agency was above 12. Okay, I don't know if you recall with the the glucometers how they used to come with a vial of testing solution to calibrate your machine. When I would be on my way to the appointment. I knew I hadn't tested and I would sit there in the back with piles of the solution because the longer it sat, the higher the reading. And I would sit there and I'd fake the numbers the entire way down to the doctor's office. Meanwhile, having to go through push the two buttons try to change the date and the time make it look like I've been testing on a regular basis. I would get down there they would see the readings. They check the agency they say something's not adding up here. That's right. I decided I needed to start throwing in some highs. So I fudged the numbers forever. Mainly because I knew the endocrinologist was a yell at me when I went down there, there was no compassion. It was always scolding. Was your mom? were you living with your mom? In this moment? I was actually living with my dad. My mom had moved out of state. Okay, so you're with your father? Is he aware you're doing this? And no, no, you just kind of in the backseat of the car. Just Yes, chugging along, making up numbers.

Unknown Speaker 25:29
For all he knows, I'm back there playing a game boy.

Scott Benner 25:31
Wow, that's really something and how old? Were you? When you started doing that, that you? Do you recall? I want to say I was around 11 or 12. So just going into middle school? Well, and you How many years did you do something like that for I would say, on and off for a couple years. And eventually just got to a point where I had that mentality of, I know how my body feels, I don't need to test. So leading up to the vision loss, I would say I had gone almost three years without testing my glucose. And you know, Now, obviously, I'm not telling you, I'm sort of telling everybody that your body tries to adapt to the higher blood sugars. So that, yeah, they start feeling normal to you whether, and I always, you know, ordinal kind of pull that out every once in a while, like, you know, she's so accustomed to not testing very often. That, um, that you know, when you have to test a couple of times a day, and actually, it's funny last night was one of those nights, and you mentioned staying fluid earlier Arden's out of she's in a period right now of the month where she needs less insulin, and I didn't see it, I didn't notice it happen right away. So there were these kind of like an evening of lows that I thought like, this is just a thing. And then the next night came up, and it started happening. Oh, geez, I have to dial over in some back. So you know, bazel, insulin back, everything kind of dialed back for the spot. But we ended up testing a number of times. And now she uses the Contour. Next One meter, which needs you know, it's a great meter, it needs like no blood. And still, we tested I don't know, three or four times yesterday. And by the fourth time I sent her a text, like, hey, just check your blood sugar real quick. I want to make sure this is the number because we're about to make a decision, you know? And she was like, ah, I feel fine. And I reminded her I was like, I know you feel fine. But that that's not an end. I said, if I didn't if I feel fine, was the right way to manage your blood sugar, then this meter company and Dexcom that these companies would exist because you just ask people, how do you feel? Yeah, I feel great. But when I would say I was feeling fine, because I finally realized something was wrong. I was 350. And I said, I feel fine.

And you probably did you actually feel fine.

I felt perfectly normal. And I was at work at the time, I was actually up on a scissor lift. And I looked at my manager. I'm like, I have to come down now or I'm going to faint. And I went in the cinema. Actually, I tested my budget in the breakroom. So I lied. It wasn't three years, it's probably about a year and a half prior. And it came back at 180. And I am sitting there sweating and shaking. Because I feel so low. Yeah. We touch it. The only sense of having a like a stable point or like a point of like, basis is to get back up to that point. So would you consider and I, you know, I have no real world experience with it. But it was it sort of like the idea of like when you hear a drug addict say they need a fix. So they feel better. Like were you trying to get your blood sugar higher to feel better? Not necessarily higher than it was just back up to that. I would say 300 Mark, where I didn't feel essentially like, like you were alone. I was going like, like, yeah, like I was going numb or going low. Yeah, yeah. When your tongue starts to tingle, and your fingers start to tingle in your hand, you're shaking, you're sweating. Because you feel so low. And you're actually on the higher side of the scale. Yeah. It's pretty big wake up call. It's fascinating. I mean, honestly, a 180 your, your blood sugar's doubled of what you know, somebody who doesn't have type one is and that's so. So to cut, it's probably a good time to stop for a second because people who listen to podcasts have heard me say, you know, if you're cutting your blood sugar being higher as you're bringing it down, you know, you could end up feeling low when you're not really low. It doesn't make the it doesn't make the feelings not real. You know, you still feel that way. And you got kind of sometimes people talk to me about having to sort of titrate down slowly, you know, when once they've kind of figured out the whole thing here with the podcast. They're like, Alright, I can bring my blood sugar down. Some people bring it down pretty quickly. And it stays stable. And you know, I've heard back from people are like, Oh, I felt low for a couple of days. When a woman told me once she felt a little shaky for a week at like 120 but we never speak about it in the number range that you just spoke about it in like feeling low at 180 is a is a sincere indication of just how long your blood sugar had been in the three hundreds or Exactly, yeah. Well, for most of my most of my life I was in is what I've seen around all the forums and everything is I was in to end burnout for most of my life. Where I knew I had the disease. I didn't know how to take care of it. Be nobody around me understood it. This is back before we had social media in these large networks to be part of. And you know, it was I would in high school, I would be at school and drink a coke every day, I would take a huge dose of 20 to 25 units of insulin and go about my day. At night, I would take my my long lasting. And that was it for the day. So you, you would do a basal insulin at night. And one big bolus at your at your lunchtime meal and just do nothing else. Right. Wow. What was the intention there? Like? What did you feel like you were accomplishing when you did that? I just knew I had to take insulin. I didn't quite understand why. Okay, but I just knew I had to do this. Because what my parents and doctors had told me. So to me, okay, well, I did it twice today. I'm good. Okay, I put a lot in it will last. And that is how that in that simplistic ways how you thought about it? Like I'll use a lot. And this will be it'll just stay in me and you felt like you were filling up a gas tank? Almost? Exactly. I'll fill up the tank. And when it when it hits again, I'll all fill up again. Wow. Well, I am in the situation where I want to offer some sort of like, I don't know, I don't know what to say like it feels so sad to hear someone say that they had such little direction and, and understanding for such a long period of time. And yet, you know, you don't need my No, you don't need my words, they don't help you. And they and I guess what you really want to do that is you want somebody else to hear this, who doesn't get to the part where you are.

Unknown Speaker 32:11
Exactly. And that's, that's the whole point why I got through all the hoops and started, you know, my organization is I don't want anybody else to have to reach the point that I'm at whether you're a fan of Motorsports or not or racing are not reach out to somebody and don't just sit there on your own. I had a young lady reach out to me from Florida, at the same thing where she had reached burnout, her parents couldn't afford her for helping her anymore. And just kind of talking her through it. He was able to go out of getting a job that insurance. That way she could get the medications that she needed. It's more just having that ear to listen to what you need to say. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 32:51
Can I ask you do you find?

Scott Benner 32:53
Do you find when you're looking online, and there are people who are kind of holding themselves up is, you know, like, look at me, I'm doing it as an example. I'm trying to be a part of a community Do you ever feel like coming from? I don't know how to ask you this exactly. But But you let me start with this. Would you consider yourself coming from a, like a financially depressed background? Like you? was money an issue? Most of the time? For myself, I guess, for my family, not so much. There's more just the complete?

Unknown Speaker 33:28
being unaware of what was going on.

Scott Benner 33:30
Okay. Okay.

So then my numbers were fine. They knew the ANC was off, but the numbers on the reading and the printout were fine. So until I was honest with them, they weren't going to know the whole truth of where, you know, necessarily to help. And then once you're, you know, 1617 years old, you're now a young adult, you're wanting to be out do your own things while you're getting good grades, they really don't question what you're doing. I see. I see. And so, interestingly enough, I guess they so they decided to trust you. And with what you were showing them with your meter over the test that was coming from the doctor. Right? And was it not so much of a trust issue is that they just were like, oh, that doesn't make sense. His meter says this, so that must be wrong, or I, I'm trying to figure out how you disregard the test at the doctor's office? Well, every time they get, give me a new glucometer is maybe there's something wrong with the meter. Then the next time it's like, Okay, I need to put some more highs in the meter. And then suddenly, they start to kind of balance themselves out like, okay, I can see all the numbers, you know, shows this agency. But you also have to figure those numbers are only when you test it, you could be Hi, brew, or in between each one of those testings and then come back down to a certain number right before doesn't mean that you've been perfect all day. You could have been at a high elevated number most of the day. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 34:56
yeah. variabilities

Scott Benner 34:58
is hard for them to figure out. I guess. They're just looking at meter readings. Exactly. And that's why now being on the Dexcom I panic in that two hour warm up window now. That's funny. Is that funny really to go? You went from like, 350. No problem, though I don't like not only my blood sugar. And now I have my highest at 150. And now it'll be about me for the 150. And I'll go and kind of tell it I know, influence in the system. Let's give it a minute to kick in. Five minutes later, it beeps at me again. I don't think I've ever told a piece of electronics set up so many times as when you are in a high higher than your limit on your CGM. Yeah. And you're like, I know, I know. I'm doing it. I'm working on it. Stop. I I know we talked about I've talked with Dexcom about whether or not they could add a snooze to that. to like, you know, could I get alerted that my blood sugar's over 150? And me say, Okay, I hear you. Please don't tell me this again, for like, a half an hour. Like, like, I've given myself insulin. I know how long it's gonna take for me to get back under my number. So, you know,

Unknown Speaker 36:04
let the bolus take effect.

Scott Benner 36:06
Yeah, right. Yeah, I Well, we've mentioned it. So maybe they'll maybe they'll do that sometime. It's a great idea, honestly. So let me wrap my head around all this for a second because I am in a weird position where I'm listening to you. And I'm trying to feel like what are the people hearing you thinking right now, because, you know, if you're newer diagnosed, you know, in the last five or six or eight years, even the story you're telling, is, it sounds insane. You know, I mean, but I know that your story is not nearly as insane, as some people might believe it is that your story is actually much more common. Just people like you don't really step up that often and tell this story. So I really appreciate you doing this, first of all, because there are he and I try to make the point all the time, you know, well over a million and I forget what the number is 1,000,008 or something people living with Type One Diabetes. And you know, just because the couple hundred people you see on Instagram are the few hundred people you talk to on Facebook are all really trying hard and doing a great job. And you know, so, you know, somebody like me says, I can't believe how badly today went like Arden's blood sugar went to 170. And I couldn't get it down for like three hours. You know, like, that's not most people's experience with Type One Diabetes. a much, much larger group of people have an experience that is much closer to yours and mine. Well, and it's funny, that's actually why I eventually reached out to you is observing on social media that the diabetics that are out there, yes, sir. They all have their blogs and are doing a great job of sharing their journey. And even the people that you interview. It's kind of, you know, painting this perfect picture of, you know, diabetes isn't bad, as long as you take care of it. As I, my hope is, what the real dangers and damages are from it, it will make them want to paint that picture in their own minds. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was just contacted by someone the other day who asked me like, you know, is there an episode you would show to a young kid and like an early teen situation? Somebody who's just not at all interested in in their type one care? And I thought, I don't know. Like, you don't want to say to me, scaring people doesn't seem like the right idea. You know, and I also don't know that, you know, a cheerleader helps for a person who's in that situation, like, you know what I mean? Like, when you're feeling down and depressed about something or just like it's, you know, not possible. You're, you know, you're explaining a situation where you didn't know what to do and nobody around you really know and doctors would kind of yell at you. So, you know, would somebody coming up to you and you were 15 going Hey, Dakota, you can do it? It's easy, buddy. Here's how like, would you have just been like away from me, you know, or would you have been excited to hear from them? What do you think would have benefited you in that situation is I did not know how to answer that question right away about how do you help somebody that age who's going through I I honestly I would have put the head up on my sweater walked away. Like Don't talk to me. In ager. I I know everything but I don't know anything. Leave me alone. Let me do my thing. I took my objection. I'm fine. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Actually. That's what I thought when I talked to my I eventually led them to an episode with a 15 year old boy who listened to the podcast and learn the podcast and takes care of himself really well. And I my only thought was like maybe show them this is that there are other tools that may be the ones people told them about. And they're not all that difficult to to use and maybe that would help but there is just part of me who believes that you know people are different, you know, and you had a different you know, a different reaction to that information then another person would have been and that you know, if you stop if you if you kind of stop and take a long look at everybody around you just you know pick 20 people that You know, and see how different they all are and the directions their lives went and how some of them take things super seriously. And some of them don't, or if some people are very detail oriented, and some people are sort of like, it'll all work out, like all that is just human nature, you know, different kinds of the way people think. But then you add this diabetes to it. Some of those personalities don't fit well with managing insulin. Right, right. And, and so that's what you're really talking about, like, how do you get to that personality? And you know, before they get into your situation, because, I mean, you can tell me, but I'd imagine you do almost anything to get into a time machine and make a different decision. Oh, absolutely. Like knowing what I know, today, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't even hesitate.

Unknown Speaker 40:48
As long as my family still comes into the picture in the future,

Scott Benner 40:52
I would absolutely go back. And kind of like you were saying was, you know, how do you reach these different people? I couldn't imagine somebody with severe anxiety, being diagnosed with diabetes. Because it's such a double edged sword, our breasts will cause your glucose to rise. And your glucose rises. What do you do? You stress? And if you give yourself insulin to come down, it's not coming down you stress for it's, it's such a unique double edged sword in that sense that how do you manage this? Without making it worse? Yeah. Yeah, how do you, you know, there's people in my life who are more, you know, prone to anxiety than not. And I'm sort of really relaxed. And you find sometimes saying to people, like, just you know, don't worry about it, or relax. And it's such an insulting thing for them to hear. Because they're not worrying about it on purpose. They're not, they don't want to be anxious about it. You know, it's just, it's how they react to that scenario. I do the same exact thing. I'm a fairly calm, very calm demeanor, especially with everything going on. And I see it as there's no point in freaking out about it. But when I see other people close to me, that do have anxiety in my work, what is your issue, like, take a step back, look what I'm going through, if I'm calm, you should be calm. I know, it's a really unfair way of trying to calm somebody down. And rather than being understanding, which is I know what I should be doing. A that's a good point, though, is that even the person like you who understands the scenario, when they're presented with that, that's how you feel you're like, Oh, just relax. So now put yourself in the shoes of a parent of you when you're 15. Knowing that anything they may say to you is going to pull your hoodie over your head and send you out the door. And now, you know what I mean? Now, these people are trying to put together the exact perfect seven words to get you to take your health more seriously. And even maybe you are taking it seriously, but you just didn't have the the right tools or the knowledge to deal with because I mean, you do you feel like you have those tools today.

Unknown Speaker 42:59
Absolutely.

Scott Benner 43:00
What's your agency right now?

Unknown Speaker 43:02
My last check was 6.2. My last draw was on Friday. And because of the holiday weekend, I have not gotten the results from that one. That's

Scott Benner 43:11
amazing. Congratulations is really something.

And the last time I had it checked prior to that it was still at 11. Wow, when did you make this decision? Like when did you have it? So let's I guess let's let's go to that, like you said 2017, you decided you're going to grab a CGM and you ended up with a pump by mistake and then you add CGM, right, in 2017. And everything first started. So through this vision loss, it was 10 times worse than it is today. At that point, the only difference in vision I could tell was that the sky was blue, the grass was green, and the ground was brown. And so everything was just stayed oriented. I had to I left my house, went and stayed with. With my dad at his new place, I'd only been to one. So I didn't know the house. And I had to feel the walls on how to get around the house. And in order to see what my reading was, it was essentially just poking, hoping there's enough blood and trying to get it to work. So I wasted hundreds of strips because they weren't filled on up all the way. I put the glucometer right up to my eye and move it slowly to the side and make out the shapes of the numbers that are on the screen. And it was finally once I went back to work at the beginning of 2018 my my insurance was reinstated that I immediately went on the on the pod and about a month later when all the Dexcom

kind of work do you do?

Unknown Speaker 44:41
I work at Costco

Scott Benner 44:43
and so when you were

so when your blood sugar is still incredibly high, your vision was actually worse than it is now so your vision is getting better as your blood sugar is more regulated and lower. I have also had seven Surgery. So a lot of these surgeries were actually reattaching the retina trying to repair the macula. A lot of these procedures, they do take time to reestablish the vision. Due to the disconnect for so long inside the eye. Do you expect more progress? Or do you think you're at where you're going to be? Or do you not know? By ophthalmologists? Has that built it take two years to even show? Okay, and my last surgery was in March, can I ask you are this I mean, the surgery sound painful, but are they, um, once they start to back the anesthesia off, it can be a little bit a little bit painful. But for the most part, it's just a quick outpatient. It's more, you're under local anesthesia. So you can see the tools moving inside your eye. And that's the part that can kind of make you freak out. Okay, that's, uh, that sounds worse than being able to hear the dentist's drill. Oh, exactly. Well, you hear him, and he puts this piece inside your eye. And then you start to see the bright flashes, and they're moving around. And you think to yourself, is he welding inside my eye. And then he calls for, I need, you know, two cc's of you know, a certain way, like when he's talking about oil, and then you see these little drops come into your eye and form into one big blob. And then suddenly, you see right through it. It's just it's a whole weird experience. It's really hard to explain. I, I can't I cannot imagine. I mean, I can imagine what you're saying. But I just can't imagine like sitting still Dorian, is do you have that? Do you have to stop yourself from that feeling of like, I need to get up and get away from this? Or, oh, when you're under the anesthesia? No, you can't. But like they when they start to back it off. On the second surgery I had, it was starting to get really painful during surgery. And I can start to feel everything as aware of everything. But I noticed my feet can move. And the anesthesiologist was sitting towards the end of the bed towards my feet. I just started clicking my feet together as fast as I could. And sure enough, he cranked it back up.

Unknown Speaker 47:10
Okay, I guess I'm awake. Yeah, thanks.

Scott Benner 47:13
There's something stuck in my head. And I'm about to run away. Just so you know. Exactly. Oh, my gosh. Wow. I it's hard to know what to say? Because it seems not just so life changing. But it just, it just seems I don't know what the word is. I don't want to just say sad, but it feels sad. You know, they mean, like I do, how do you deal with that part of it? I mean, are you? How do you how do you keep your chin up, I guess for the lack of a better term.

Unknown Speaker 47:41
Um,

Scott Benner 47:43
I mean, first thing, first, I look at my daughter, she's a year old. So backtrack. And when all this happened, December of 2017, we found out that we were having a baby. So through all of this, also a new dad trying to take care of a newborn with vision loss. So if you can imagine to give Arden when she's a month old, and do with your eyes closed? to code, I have to be honest, I can't imagine anything. You're perfectly honest. You don't need me like I'm sitting here trying to put my myself in your shoes just in my head. And I don't, you know, I it makes you feel like, you know, I should get done with you and shut my eyes and just try to even go to the next thing that I wanted to do. I don't know how I would accomplish that. Are there classes does? Does your doctor offer like direction for you? Like are you going to get better direction with your vision loss than you did with your diabetes,

Unknown Speaker 48:36
I actually meet with a low vision specialist.

Unknown Speaker 48:40
From the time this airs about four months, but next week, I meet with a low vision specialist and they work with different sorts of prisms, implanted into lenses. So the center part of my vision is what to damage the outside is still working. So these prisons will redirect the light to the outside of the eye and make it where the vision should increase for what the doctor say they have seen in the past.

Scott Benner 49:06
I hope that works for you. That sounds amazing.

But it's going to be a lot of almost rehabilitation teaching the outside of your eyes, you do all the seeing rather than the center part of your eyes. I understand that's a and that crystal helps that prism helps kind of retrain parts of your eye that aren't being used as actively I guess. That's what they say. I'm hoping that it's not so damaged in there that that's not an option. Mm hmm. What, um, what took you from, you know, see you, your vision goes the way it went. And you're at this agency that's incredibly elevated. Now you're at a six. Can you tell us what you did between that elevated eight, one C and the six like, how did you make that change so quickly? First, I knew that what you put into your body is probably the most important thing, whether it's insulin, food, hydration, anything. So post surgery, I knew that inflammation was a really big deal. And I went completely vegan for three months.

Unknown Speaker 50:15
I can't say I was happy about it,

Scott Benner 50:19
then I slowly just started to look at what I was eating. And, you know, try not to over saturate myself with processed foods, anything that, you know, I in carbs or sugars have just kept a really keen eye on what I was eating. And then once I got on the pump, it was a lot easier to say, you know, dial up or down when I needed it. And I was still doing carb counting at the time. And I noticed that I was still getting these big spikes in these low valleys. Yeah. And I was actually right around the time that I found your, your podcast. And just hearing how you kind of mentioned to, you know, you do your Pre-Bolus. And then you kind of work it after the meal until it's right where you want to be. So since I started listening to your podcast I have not carb counting is I will pre I will Pre-Bolus and then just go from there. Wow, that's amazing. Good for you. I hate counting carbs, I had to figure out a way not to do it. Because that's how that's why you know about it. Because I was just in my kitchen thinking like, I can't do this for the rest of my life. I had to figure out a way not to do this long book that you had to flip page to page and a page of fruits, a page of vegetables, a page of starches, actually gave you the portion size. And how many grams of carbs were in each one of those portions? Yeah. Yeah. Well, they came out every year from the nutritionist. Mm hmm.

Also a scale, I realized that, um,

I really did not like the idea of having to weigh and measure food. Yeah. And so I just, I don't know, I just, you know, it's a long time ago now. But I just started thinking, like, I got to figure out a way to do this, that that doesn't, doesn't cause me to, you know, need to scoop things with cup measuring cups all the time. Or you think you think to yourself, like there's already enough math involved. I don't want to be, you know, weighing out grams and ounces. And you know, all this different kind of stuff like this, just let me figure out how much insulin I need. And that's all the math I want to do right now. Yeah, yeah. And even like, just that even the math aside, I think it's just the taking something that's so frequent in your life breakfast, lunch, dinner snack, and turning it into a drudgery of any kind is, you know, I think is one of the ways that the diabetes ends up weighing on you get me like one of the one of the weights it has is, you know, it's scared of being alone, right? Scared of long term complications. I don't want to be the kid who passes out at school, you know, and I don't want to count and measure everything I put in my body for the rest of my life, I'm very proud to be able to give Arden you know, a couple of handfuls of a snack and not say, Hey, can you count 23 of those, please? You know what I mean? Like, that's, to me, that's a big deal. And it's important to make your life feel like it's not a weight on you, you know? Can you imagine if she's out at the lunch table, and she pulls out her baggie with 20 goldfish in it. That's all she's allowed. I can't give any of these away, I have all 20 of these bolts in

touch my damn goldfish.

And listen, there are times like, don't get me wrong, like, you know, if we're coming down from a high blood sugar or something and she gets high. I'm like, Yeah, no problem. I'm like, but we can't miss on these carbs. So, you know, take 15 of those. And I'll tell you, you can see, like, there's a sadness on her face. When that happens, like, Oh, no, I, you know, okay, you know, count them out. And, you know, what, if I'm still hungry or not hungry, when I get that, you know, what if I get to 11 of these, and I don't want anymore, I gotta eat the last four or, you know, vice versa. So I just I do my best for that not to, there's enough already coming from diabetes, that you should try to take things away wherever you can. And carb counting was just one of the things I really wanted to take away. Absolutely. It was an unnecessary headache on top of everything else. It's amazing how quickly you picked it up, and you're doing it so well. Like, I'm sure you guys did this, when you would go out to a restaurant and they would bring you a plate of food and you can't dig into your center. And to put Inspector Gadget on how many carbs are in everything on that plate. I do think if my if my if me looking at a plate was in a movie, you would see like a computer overlay fall over top of it and divide up into spots and numbers would pop up over top of AI over piles of food and everything. And

Unknown Speaker 54:36
you'd have the matrix going on behind you and you would have

Scott Benner 54:40
just like Einstein style equations above your head and it's no fun. Yeah, I look at it now. And I think like 710 you know, you count along and you're like alright is 63 and and then that one's you know, the glycemic load on that's gonna be heavy. So You know, we're gonna need insulin, at least in the four hour period, but that stuff's faster and you start, like, I wonder if I could just put some of this up front and the rest after and, you know, it's, it happens so quickly now, like, I hate I hate saying it to people almost because I feel like they think that this is like, you know, hours of their life spent. But I look at it, I'm like, all right, in 63 carbs 50%, up front, the other 50% over two and a half hours. And I think maybe we're gonna have to do you know, a bazel increase, you know, in here somewhere, probably in those last two and three and four hours. Well, and that's the crazy part that I'm still learning is, you know, that, you know, fats and proteins and oils, and you know, all this kind of stuff will make it where the sugar doesn't jive or the carbs won't digest as quickly in your system, but they will kick in on the back end. So, you know, a perfect example is there's a restaurant across the street that, you know, when I have a day off, I'll go over there, I'll grab a couple double margaritas that are made with the GAVI rounds, and all the sweet stuff. A burger sweet potato fries, and I go all out. I Pre-Bolus is 12 unit. I know it's a pretty hefty Pre-Bolus. And then I also increase my basal rate, the 45% for the next three hours. And for the first 30 minutes, I'm sitting there, I will sit right there at 90 and not budge. But then when I'm on my way home, it's 160. And then it's one cent I'm like, okay, obviously, there's not enough kicking in. And I'll give myself another four to five unit. As it gets, right. Yeah, this happened last week. It went straight up to 230. It flattened out. And then it went straight down. And once it hit 160, straight down. I just, I turned off the bazel increase. I turned off insulin delivery everything. And it look like a Boeing jet coming in for landing and sells it one on one.

Look at you.

Unknown Speaker 57:06
That was two hours.

Scott Benner 57:07
It's really amazing. How long

have you been at this? When do you start listening to the podcast? Number

December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, nine months ago. That's really great man congratulate seriously. I've been well done. Congratulations. I don't know what else to say that's a complete life turnaround in nine months. And no, I can't seem like the clarity report. I can't see everything that's on there. But I can't see the little snippet of a graph that you can see on your phone. I just like to see where it can come from and get it to settle down right at the bottom of that gray box. Without dipping into the red. I get some sort of enjoyment out of it. And essentially sharing that experience with with other people. There's you know, it's kind of do what you always say is being bold with influence. Use it where it works for you. You know, they say don't double up on insulin, it could be dangerous well, being highly dangerous to it that you're taking an educated guess. every three months. I'm saying there's the doctors Yeah, you're taking an educated guess every three months, and then adjusting it and then you'll see me again in three months. I'm adjusting it on the fly. Yeah, I hear you. Um, a couple of questions. So do they not make a meter that talks so that you can hear the number instead of have to see it?

Unknown Speaker 58:30
I'm sure they do

Unknown Speaker 58:33
that like that? Since I'm using the Dexcom.

Scott Benner 58:37
Guide? Hold on the phone. I can see that number just fine. On really as long as the bubbles gray. Don't freak out. Yeah. I What? What kind of cell phone? Do you have his iPhone or Android?

Unknown Speaker 58:49
iPad Android drives? gonna say because

Scott Benner 58:50
I think I think you can ask Siri what your blood sugar is on an iPhone. It'll just tell you. I do recall. Actually, I was on your podcast hearing something about that.

And it wasn't sure.

Unknown Speaker 59:02
I know through Android that there's times where when this all is first happening, I would have to use my tablet to take a picture of my phone to see what the glucose reading was. I don't know if it's this way on iPhone. But on the Android phone in the security settings. You cannot screenshot anything within the Dexcom app

Scott Benner 59:23
in the Android Yes.

Unknown Speaker 59:26
Because I do that all the time with iPhone that's interesting

Unknown Speaker 59:29
that you cannot screenshot anything within Dexcom to the privacy policy.

Scott Benner 59:35
I almost cursed okay.

I I'm sitting here thinking like is there not like some giant like with a magnifying glass help you like a big strong magnifying glass to see like your phone and stuff like that with not that I'm sure you haven't thought of these things already, but

Unknown Speaker 59:50
it definitely would.

Scott Benner 59:53
It's almost like the magnifying glasses that jewelers use where it has the lights built into it. There's like, if there's anything that I can't read from zooming in, I'll just take a screenshot of it that way I can zoom in on it. They said through the Dexcom. If I just screenshot the notification bar the reading in on it, then I can zoom in if I absolutely need to. And it's all more just finding ways to make your life work without being a complete nuisance to yourself or others. If you and I met face to face and we shook hands, and three days later, we met again, at that distance would you know, it was me visually. Um, if you didn't say anything, I would walk right by, okay. I do it at work all the time where this might sound kind of bad. But I start to figure out the build of the people that I work with, are you tall and skinny? Are you shorten heavy? And the beginning of the day, I'll make sure I walk right next to everybody. And I'll kind of make a mental note of what color shirt everybody's wearing, that depict colors. So, but from a distance, everybody's just a person until you're within 20 feet.

Dakota, why do you not sound bitter about all this?

I think it's an amazing story. If I can inspire people with it. That's my main goal. Yeah. Do you have private moments where you're just like, I can't believe this happened? He Yeah. You know, looking back on it, it's, I cannot blame anybody else. It's 100% by fall for my neglect. And I was raised with one of those where you know, you had be responsible for your decisions and your actions. And this was a decision that I made my whole life. And luckily, I caught it. The point where I'm not really blind. No, it didn't kill me. I have all my hands and feet for both my hands and feet. You know, it could have been so much worse.

That's an amazing attitude to have.

But there's definitely times where, you know, I used to work on cars and motorcycles and stuff all the time. Yeah, how hard it is to work on an engine when you can't see it. It's not easy. But it's actually easier than you think. Because you can't see it anyways, but Oh, really, you see your hands always up underneath something trying to unscrew a bolt that you've already loosened nine times out of 10 you can't see it. And since I do so many things through feel now you know, I, I live a quarter mile away from where I work. And the only thing that separates my house where I work is an alleyway. So doesn't take the pressure off my fiance, I went ahead bought a cute little beater just gave me to and from work. But I knew at night, I had to light up the road in front of me like it was daytime. So I ran complete wire harnesses underneath the floorboards through the engine compartment, and put light bars across the bottom of this thing so I can see to get from work at night. And surprisingly, it was probably the easiest wiring job I've ever done. Because I knew how to see the tip of my fingers better. We have a few more minutes left and I want to ask you has other parts of the world opened up to like do you find yourself listening to more like radio or music or like how does like your downtime change when your vision but when all of this first happened, it was I was trying to find anything on YouTube that I can just ask my phone to play. Because when this all started, I couldn't even read text message. So I had to ask my phone, you know, a Google read text message and it would read it to me and I would have to talk back to it to send the text message. And that was the only way I could keep in contact with anybody. I ended up watching a lot of market or listening to a lot of marketing like tutorials on YouTube. The Comedy station on Pandora was my go to and I was trying to find a diabetes podcast or listening to and I ended up finding one is a diabetes management. A couple guys based out of San Francisco and it was more just on Whole Foods diets rather than kind of like yours where you actually interviewing people who have these experiences. So a lot a lot more podcasts, a lot of comedy, stuff that could keep me in good spirits and laughing at home I'll listen to the news and to watch the news all put on your podcast I'm still on episode 240 but I have some catching up to do is a lot more audio based and visual based. Ours TV in our living room is quite large. So my spot on the couch, I can actually see what's going on. I can't see the fine details and in film, but I can kind of get the point of what's going on. Gotcha.

How um

how is your relationship been through all this is it I mean, if you don't mind It, what's the biggest change? I guess?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:04
Well,

Unknown Speaker 1:05:06
we actually, we have a long history, we were next door neighbors growing up. So it's not like we didn't know who we were. It's just I played baseball and she and raced motorcycles. He acted and did theater. So we were complete opposites, even though we live next door to each other. And when we reconnected, it was actually the day before my vision was lost. So our entire relationship, she only knows me as being visually deficient. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:35
So it's kind of like we're able to grow through this together.

Scott Benner 1:05:38
That's really That's sweet. Yeah, that's a fortuitous situation. And and especially at the beginning of a relationship, you know, I mean, I've seen people on a second date, you know, say they like a certain movie, and somebody else stopped going out with them. I've never, I've never heard a story where on my second date, I had to tell somebody, hey, I've lost the majority of my vision.

Oh, yeah, that's really sad.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:01
The thing is, we hadn't even gone on a date. And to top it off, we lived in separate cities. At this time. She was in LA, I was in San Diego. Okay, so it was it was more I just threw it out there. Hey, I come to a wedding in October. He said, yeah, we kept talking. And then suddenly, I'm driving home and realize something's not right.

Scott Benner 1:06:21
I want to end on that.

When when something's not right. Is it a light switch at that point to somebody? Is it just go off? Or does it dwindle down to nothing over hours or days? Or like, how does it go from everything I see everything okay to I don't know, with a diabetic hemorrhage, at least in my case, it was, it looks like a very streaky black waterfall in your field of vision. Okay, so it just looks like this constant, like rain or streaks come down within your vision. It's actually blood that's blocking the light from reaching your optic nerve. I see. And I know we didn't, we didn't touch on on this aspect of it. But leading up to that I was taking a different job, I had to get very physically fit for this job. So I was pushing myself extremely hard at the gym. As you know, more weight than I probably should have been trying to trying to push in on a leg press machine and my vision kept flashing crazy. I thought I was just getting a really good workout in. It turns out that it was like the beginning stages of these blood cells being overstressed starting to reverse. Gotcha. How long was that before you started seeing the black waterfall?

Unknown Speaker 1:07:41
About about a month?

Scott Benner 1:07:45
All right. Listen, tell me about what's your web address? And how can people find you? So through my website, or through Instagram, is pipe one motorsports.com is the number one type the number one motor sports calm? And then what are you on Instagram? What's your handle on Instagram is the same thing type the number one Motorsports alright. Dakota I really appreciate you coming on and telling this story. It's not. It's not something we get to hear that often. I really do appreciate there's, you know, other people who have come on and told similar stories, but I think they're all really impactful and important. I appreciate I always tell people I'm, you know, how happy and I am that they were so open and honest. But this is really a this really takes the cake I think for open and honest. So I really do appreciate this. Thank you so much for doing this

Unknown Speaker 1:08:41
facility. Thank you for having me on. About

Scott Benner 1:08:45
the code, everybody. And how about Dexcom and Omni pod for bringing you the show dexcom.com forward slash juice box, my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. Those links are available in the podcast player you're listening to right now on your phone, right in the notes or at Juicebox podcast.com if you can't remember them, but if you do remember them, and you use my link, that'll tell the companies that you came from the podcast I will very much appreciate that. And you will still get the same great technology one way or the other.

Before we go, I'm looking for someone to do an after dark episode with now this is a specific ask, be honest with yourself before you email me. I need someone who's divorced and parenting a child with Type One Diabetes, who will be completely honest about how to work through significant problems when one parent either has Certain management idea while the other one has another, or while one parent is doing a lot of the work, while the other one seems to be ignoring it. This is something that comes up a lot. But of course, it's difficult to get somebody that wants to speak about it. So what I'd like to say is you'll come on and be anonymous. But still, you have to really think about this. Make sure you're not going to get out at somehow, if you think you can tell that story. Be honest, and not vindictive, something that's gonna really help other people who are divorced and you won't get caught.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:35
drop me a line.


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