Scott Benner 9/16/25 Scott Benner 9/16/25

#1629 Jump Kick

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Brian’s adopted son Lucas, almost eight, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just a year after joining their family.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Brian 0:15
My name is Brian. I'm a dad to an aspiring athlete who happens to have type one diabetes and He's seven years old.

Scott Benner 0:27
If this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcast or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. The episode you're about to enjoy was brought to you by Dexcom, the Dexcom g7 the same CGM that my daughter wears. You can learn more and get started today at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox us med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well us med.com/juicebox or call 888-721-1514, use the link or the number. Get your free benefits. Check and get started today with us. Med, the episode you're about to listen to is sponsored by tandem Moby, the impressively small insulin pump. Tandem. Moby features tandems newest algorithm control iq plus technology. It's designed for greater discretion, more freedom and improved time and range. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox,

Brian 2:12
my name is Brian. I'm a dad to an aspiring athlete who happens to have type one diabetes, and He's seven years old.

Scott Benner 2:23
Are all of our sons and daughters aspiring athletes? Do you think?

Brian 2:27
I think so. I think so, especially after, after we get into they have high hopes and dreams. I

Scott Benner 2:36
guess you could say, Yeah, no kidding. Do you have other children? I

Brian 2:40
don't, I don't, he's, he's our only. He's actually adopted too, which, you know, we adopted him when he was, like, four months old. So for all intents and purposes, he's ours. So it's pretty, pretty interesting kind of his backstory and stuff like that. But Brian, I'm adopted as well. Oh, nice. Nice. What led to you adopting? So my wife and I, we had been kind of struggling with having children of our own for a while, and we decided to kind of go down the route of like in vitro and all those things, which wasn't very successful. It was funny. It was like Thanksgiving, I guess 2017 and because he was born on October 2017 and somebody, a friend of mine, is like, hey, he texts me. He's like, are you interested in taking care of a child? I'm like, what? So it happened to be his his girlfriend's daughter that had a child, and she couldn't keep the child for various reasons and things like that. So we ended up fostering him through state of Florida for geez, it took about two years going through court, court and things like that, until we finally were able to adopt him. So

Scott Benner 4:00
you fostered him as a newborn,

Brian 4:03
yeah, four months, yeah, yeah, it's

Scott Benner 4:06
interesting. So he never went into the system. It's because somebody knew somebody, and they were able to, like, settle up that way, exactly, exactly. So your buddy knew you had been trying to have kids. Yes, had you ever, like wondered out loud about adoption in front of your friend, or is this just happenstance?

Brian 4:24
You know, I think it was just happenstance. He kind of, he was in, he was actually in a church group of mine, and he kind of saw our struggles and things like that. And, you know, he just, he said, You guys were the first on my mind When this happened, and coincidentally, I think two months prior to Lucas, who's who's our son, prior to him being born, we actually miscarried. So it was kind of like everything all happened at once, and we're like, Okay, well, here's the emotions. We were actually in the Detroit airport eating lunch when he called me, and we're like, bawling our eyes out at. Dinner. And here it is, you know, like people are kind of looking at us a little bit strange and stuff like that. But yeah, it was, it was really interesting.

Scott Benner 5:07
Well, they didn't know how much you spent on in vitro. So, right, yeah,

Brian 5:11
right. I mean, jeez, yeah. How old is Lucas now? He's seven. He'll be eight in October. Awesome. So,

Scott Benner 5:19
well, that's awesome. So what do you know about his background? Like, I imagine a fair amount, is there type one diabetes or other autoimmune issues in his family?

Brian 5:28
So we do, we do stay in touch with his maternal grandmother, just kind of, she's kind of on the outside looking in, you know, sending pictures and stuff like that every once in a while. But what we did here is his grandfather's half brother actually had type one diabetes. So, I mean, could it be genetic, probably, but, you know, we're not, we're not sure, right? Yeah, so it's, it's really interesting,

Scott Benner 5:57
when was he diagnosed? How old?

Brian 6:00
So it was July, July of last year. So it was July 1, right before the Fourth of July. We had just come home from vacation. And, you know, typical, I mean, typical. Now I can say that I didn't know what the heck it was, you know, going into it, but, you know, he was extremely thirsty, he was tired all these things, and when we got home the next day, on Monday, my wife took him to a kid's Pool Party, and he collapsed at the pool. Thankfully, one of her really good dear friends of ours is a pediatric ER doc, and she kind of went into the, you know, emergency mode and said, hey, well, you know, what are some of his symptoms? And she's like, Yeah, you know he, he was thirsty. He wet the bed. He hasn't done that since he was, like, six months old, yeah. So she, she called up the hospital in Tampa and said, hey, you know the this family is going to come visit you guys, and I think he has diabetes. So that's, I don't know if we were ahead of the game, because, you know, I've listened to your podcast and we've had things on there about, you know, having bad medical experiences. But for the most part, it was really, really like, despite all the chaos and emotions and stuff like that, I mean, they took really, really good care of us, like, immediately, yeah,

Scott Benner 7:27
listen, if everybody had a pediatric ER doc with them when something happened, then they'd be doing, they'd be doing awesome. I know. I know, right? So when you got to the hospital, how far along was he in the process? Like, was he in DKA? Or, you know, where was, yeah,

Brian 7:44
yeah. So he was, he was in DKA, he read, I think his sugar rose, like, right around 807 8800, somewhere around there, he walked inside the hospital, and the doctors were like, I don't know how he did it, but I guess, you know, kids are resilient, but, you know, I guess that's a cliche thing to say, but, but when the docs kind of told me, you know, a couple hours later that, you know, we were within hours of him going into a coma, that's when kind of things kind of sunk in there, right? Yeah. So,

Scott Benner 8:15
so how does this all Brian intersect with, like, because your notes are interesting. Like, how does this all intersect with your journey and what's been happening to you? Can you kind of give me a little bit of that and we can blend them

Brian 8:26
together? Yeah, yeah. For sure, for sure. So, you know, I am a Army veteran. Served over in Germany, Bosnia. I did counterintelligence. It was fun times, but I like to tell people it was just like a Jason Bourne movie, except for less explosions and more paperwork involved. So, you know, it wasn't as exciting as the movies, but it was. It was kind of interesting, you know. But I was, you know, 1920 21 years of age, didn't really think much of it until, you know, later on life. It's opened a lot of doors and things like that as well, right? So one of the things, you know, per my notes, is, you know, we, I enjoy doing martial arts with Lucas, and I taught some of the classes with his class and all this stuff. And we were doing a warm up exercise. And part of the warm up exercise was doing these jump front kicks to bring the cardio up, right? I landed absolutely wrong way or the right way, depending on how you look at it, and I tore both my ACLs at the same time. Oh, so, yeah, yeah. How did that feel? Like I'm being serious, like, what's the level of pain there? It was kind of a shock, like I remember thinking, you know, time slowed down, obviously, but I felt like that can't be good. It was a strange feeling. Another instructor in the class, he said it sounded like two gunshots going off, and I just kind of like shuffled myself to the to the side of the wall. All, I tried to stand up. I couldn't stand and I remember calling my wife. I said, Hey, you got to come pick Lucas. And I up. She's like, why? What happened to your car? I'm like, well, it wasn't my car. It was my knees, and I don't know what's going on. So, yeah, it was a lot of pain. It was somewhat embarrassing too, because, you know, there was anywhere from seven year olds to teenagers in the room, and

Scott Benner 10:24
you suddenly, yeah, like the old man. The old man tried to jump up in there and look what happened to him.

Brian 10:29
Yeah, how were you at that point? Yeah, I was old enough to know better, but yeah, I'm 51 now. So yeah, 50 at the time. So doing, yeah, doing 20 year old moves at a 50 year old. Yeah, Brian,

Scott Benner 10:43
let me tell you something. There's a video making the rounds today on the online, and it's a light, like, like a lightweight plane crash landing on a golf course. I think it's an it's an Australia so, you know, from this one perspective, people are filming, and this plane comes in, and it's startling, you know, comes in at like, he doesn't quite get it down smoothly. It kind of, kind of plops down a little bit. And this guy, who, you know, I'm gonna guess, somewhere between 50 and 60 years old, up on this rise, uh, happened to be next to the person holding the camera. So the camera continues on to the plane, while this man is like, I'm gonna go help. He jumps over like a curb, goes across a little bit of grass, starts heading down an embankment. You know, he takes four or five steps going down the hill, and his momentum gets ahead of how quickly his old ass can keep up with the momentum, and his hat flies off. He goes over, tumbling down the hill. And I'm like, I don't know where the bigger tragedy was here today, because I think the people on the plane are okay. This man probably broke every bone in his body, like falling down this hill, you know? Like it was just horrible. But what struck me as I kind of like walked away from the video, is about what you just talked about, which is, in his mind, he could do that. You know what I mean? Like, it wasn't like, there wasn't some horribly steep hill, you know, it's probably a thing he's run down a million times in his life, but just not at his age. And the last time he did it, he probably doesn't remember anyway, I imagine you in that same situation, like, jump, kick, no problem. Oh, bang, what the hell. And but then that tumbles you into a medical

Brian 12:22
issue, right, right, right. So we went to the ER and of course, they're like, Okay, well, let's do X rays. Nothing's broken. They brace me up. And they said, Okay, see a orthopedic surgeon in the morning. I'm like, awesome. Okay, yeah. Like, thanks. So I had, I had some crutches. I've never had to walk on crutches in my life. So it was like, you know, usually you have like, one good leg and one bad leg, but when you have two bad ones, it's kind of like, yeah, what do you do, right? Yeah, yeah. I had no idea. So, yeah. So fast forward a couple of weeks. I did some PT to kind of reduce swelling, all those things. Saw the orthopedic doctor. He said, Okay, well, we have to do the surgery if you want any sort of mobility back. I'm like, yes. I'm like, go ahead, do them both. And he's like, Well, actually, we don't do them both at the same time. I'm like, okay, so what does that look like? So it was just a lot of PT, getting me at least some strength back up and things like that. And then in April, I had my first surgery. Fast forward the whole summer, so going through, and we'll get to that too. But you know, going through all the diabetes journey, and then in August, having to have the second surgery, it was a load of fun, I

Scott Benner 13:39
tell you, surgery, diabetes, second surgery. That's kind of how it went. Yep, exactly. She's exactly. And you're not, like, first of all, they ever explained you why? Because you hear this all the time. Like, even when you go to the dentist, you're like, hey, I have a cavity on this side and on that side, yeah, there's two different visits. I'm like, why? Like, oh, what? You get so numb you'll bite your tongue. I was like, what if I promise not to? Like, you know what I mean? Like, can't wait, but so, but I understand, like, there's, there's reasons behind it that I'm not jiving with, I don't understand with the surgery though, like, you're laid up one way or the other. Like, what's one non surgical still bum leg good for I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies. I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years, though, because we began using us Med, you can too us med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, to get your free benefits, check us med has served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996 they carry everything you need, from CGM to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and more. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites, libre three, Dexcom g7 and pumps like Omnipod five, Omnipod dash tandem and most recently, the eyelet pump from. To bionics, the stuff you're looking for, they have it at us. Med, 888-721-1514, or go to us. Med, comm slash juice box to get started now use my link to support the podcast that's usmed.com/juice, box. Or call 888-721-1514, this episode is sponsored by tandem Diabetes Care, and today I'm going to tell you about tandems, newest pump and algorithm, the tandem mobi system with control iq plus technology features auto Bolus, which can cover missed meal boluses and help prevent hyperglycemia. It has a dedicated sleep activity setting and is controlled from your personal iPhone. Tandem will help you to check your benefits today through my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, this is going to help you to get started with tandem, smallest pump yet that's powered by its best algorithm ever control iq plus technology helps to keep blood sugars in range by predicting glucose levels 30 minutes ahead, and it adjusts insulin accordingly. You can wear the tandem Moby in a number of ways. Wear it on body with a patch like adhesive sleeve that is sold separately. Clip it discreetly to your clothing or slip it into your pocket head now to my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, to check out your benefits and get started today.

Brian 16:24
I don't know, you know, looking back, I'm like, because it's interesting, the first surgery on the left knee is still the knee that bothers me the most. The right one was like, Okay, well, that was surgery. Went through it. It feels pretty good now, okay, but yeah, the left one's still giving me issues. You know, a year and a half later, I don't know the reasoning, but yeah,

Scott Benner 16:46
you do the surgery, then there's the recovery, then there's the gap of time, and then another surgery and a recovery. What keeping the diabetes at it for? For a second? How long are you laid up for? And what's the impact on you being laid up that long?

Brian 16:59
Yeah, so the first surgery, you know, I really didn't know what to expect. I never really had any surgeries in my life, except for maybe, like, ear tubes as a kid or something like that. So I didn't know. I mean, I thought I was gonna die in anesthesia. So I'm, like, telling my wife, hey, if I don't wake up, you know, do this and that it was a good, like, two weeks, and you go from, like, being laid up in bed to,

Scott Benner 17:29
I mean,

Brian 17:31
not being able to use the bathroom on your own. My wife had to, like, help me shower. Got this strange bag you put on the surgical leg so that you could kind of take a shower and feel somewhat human like but that was like four or five days after the surgery. So, I mean, you can imagine it was, it wasn't very pleasant. But that being said, probably after a week, the doctor really wanted me to at least start putting weight on it and start moving and things like that. So he was an athletic orthopedic surgeon. I mean, he had many, many years of experience. In fact, he said, out of his 28 years of experience, I'm like, one of less than five that have done both at the same time. So I'm like, Hey, does that make me an elite athlete or something? He's like, No.

Scott Benner 18:20
Makes you elite at falling, is what it makes you. Yeah, makes it makes you the guy tumbling down the hill at the at the golf course,

Brian 18:28
exactly, exactly. So it was, it was a lot of fun. And I'm using finger quotes. So I had a walker. I started using a walker for a little bit, which actually the Walker was better than the crutches. I felt like I could maneuver a little bit better on a walker. So if you can imagine, like grandma with the tennis balls, well, here's this 50 year old guy. I have two broken legs pretty much on a walker trying to get his coffee in the kitchen.

Scott Benner 18:54
So yeah, are you able to work during that a

Brian 18:58
little bit? So I work from home most days. But thankfully, I work for a really good company that's got a great culture, and they totally understood, like, this is a life changing type of thing you're going through. And I was able to take a good amount of time off and then kind of weave work in there as I could. Yeah, the first surgery, it was a good three weeks before I could kind of get my mind back to things and stuff, because, I mean, you're on narcotics and all sorts of fun stuff, right? So

Scott Benner 19:29
my daughter is on like, day 11 of her, like, tonsil surgery. She's 21 and I have to admit, in the beginning they were like, look, you're, you know, she's gonna be laid up for two weeks. And some people don't go back to work for two or three weeks afterwards. Even I was like, Listen, I'm like, kind of baby can't get back to work after having their tonsils taken out, but now I'm watching it happen to her. My God, it's hard on you. And, oh yeah, not just difficult and incredibly painful, but then, like you said, you're taking the meds to deal with the pain, and you're kind of half out of it to. Begin with. And I was like, Oh, this is why people can't do this and go to work at the same time. Kind of obvious in hindsight, but it was one of those things, like, they're like, we're just going to take our tonsils out. And I was like, okay, like, that doesn't sound like on its face. Is like, terrible. And even, like, going through surgery for an ACL like, as we're talking about, I'm thinking, like, maybe you can't do two of them because, like, maybe your body just can't, like, rebound from something like that. You can manage diabetes confidently with the powerfully simple Dexcom g7 dexcom.com/juicebox, the Dexcom g7 is the CGM that my daughter is wearing. The g7 is a simple CGM system that delivers real time glucose numbers to your smartphone or smart watch. The g7 is made for all types of diabetes, type one and type two, but also people experiencing gestational diabetes. The Dexcom g7 can help you spend more time in range, which is proven to lower a 1c The more time you spend in range, the better and healthier you feel. And with the Dexcom clarity app, you can track your glucose trends, and the app will also provide you with a projected a 1c in as little as two weeks. If you're looking for clarity around your diabetes, you're looking for Dexcom, dexcom.com/juicebox, when you use my link, you're supporting the podcast, dexcom.com/juicebox,

Brian 21:25
head over there. Now, yeah, yeah, that's probably what it is. Because, I mean, there's a very structured PT thing that they do. I mean, they start with the basics of like, raising your leg. And if you can't do that, then they do, like electro stem on it. And thankfully, I did have the ability to raise my leg, like, literally, the day after surgery. So, I mean, I didn't feel good by any means, but I was able to still use my muscles, which was good a lot of people those type of injuries, the muscles just totally shut off. And there's a lot more extensive stuff they have to do with PT. So

Scott Benner 22:05
before we started recording, you kind of alluded to this for a second. But did this put weight on you?

Brian 22:11
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, a lot. So I was always been fairly active. I mean, I was in military, ups and downs like any, anybody, right? But just the, you know, feeling sorry for myself and a lazy boy that, or actually was like one of those lift chairs that we got from Amazon. You know, you feel sorry for yourself. You start eating bad, all that stuff. So I put on a good, like, 50 pounds through that whole thing, up until probably last November, when my doctor is like, well, you know, your cholesterol is up and you're all that. I'm like, yeah, no, no, crap. I mean, I've been in a lazy boy this whole time. Yeah, he suggested the GLP meds to to help with that, because he's like, you know, you're otherwise healthy, your knees aren't going to do any good with all this extra weight. And, you know, I think some of that weight gain and stuff like that was, it was hard to recover from a lot of that stuff, because I gained so much

Scott Benner 23:13
weight, so there's a lack of mobility. You're not eating well, you're a little bummed out about, I mean, it's got to be a bummer. Just just not be able to walk around and be using a walker for months and months at a time, and then in the middle of it, your kid gets diabetes too, right?

Brian 23:26
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, you could understand, probably, the mental gymnastics that that places on people and right based off of people that you've talked to. And you add, you know, another medical complication in the mix, and it's, it becomes more

Scott Benner 23:41
than you can kind of overwhelm on your own. So Exactly, yeah, tell me your How tall are you?

Brian 23:47
So I'm 510 okay, I was pushing 250 injury, I was right around 200 and now I'm actually back down to like 180 which is, I haven't been 180 since probably the military. So it's, it's felt really, really good, yeah,

Scott Benner 24:03
I was gonna say 510, two, hundreds, even a little extra. So, yeah, yeah. So wow, you were, you were probably 70 pounds overweight. Then, yeah, yeah, easily, easily. And how long has this process been since you started the GLP till now?

Brian 24:17
So I think early November. So, yeah, not even a year. Yeah, not even a year. And I, I don't know what it is, I think it's sometimes. I think it's like, the the military kicks in and be like, Okay, well, they're giving me this medicine. I just, I gotta do it, and I gotta stick to the plan and go, go, go. And, I mean, between that I was doing PT twice a week, and then going to the gym all that stuff, it just started coming off like crazy, which is amazing, but, yeah, so

Scott Benner 24:49
it is odd how quickly can happen. I'm down just 70 pounds too. It took me two years, though. Yeah, yeah. So you have your first surgery, then the story we heard about your. Child being diagnosed, is there? Like, talk to me about the layering of the diabetes on top of your life. Like, what, what did you find to be the biggest adjustment for you personally, and how did your son handle

Brian 25:14
it? You know, it was, it was definitely, you know, at first it was a shock. Like, why is this happening to us right now, you know, like, can it, you know, if it's going to happen, why can't it happen a year from now? You know, but you know, it doesn't, you know, diabetes doesn't really have any say in when it, when it gets to somebody, right? So, so I think it's the shock, and I think a lot of it, too, is kind of a, it's almost like a grieving process, right? Like, you're like, Okay, I had all these aspirations for my son, and now he's got diabetes. What does that mean? And, you know, you go down rabbit holes of internet. I had no idea, really what type one diabetes was. And I'm like, you know, like everybody else, I was like, Hey, he's fit, you know, He's skinny. How? How did he get it? You know? Was it the Chick fil A milkshake he had the day before, you know? And, and obviously it wasn't right,

Scott Benner 26:08
but it was, but it doesn't stop your mind from racing through all that, right, right, right?

Brian 26:13
So, you know, we get through the first three days at the hospital, which, again, awesome. Care. In fact, he didn't want to leave because he was like, excited about picking his own meals on the on the screen, and then they had, like, an Xbox in the children's hospital. So he's like, Yeah, I just want to sit here and play NFL. I'm like, No, dude, you we got to go home now. Okay. Well, this is this bag of stuff you guys get to take home now. And now you have to give injections, and now you have to do these, you know, mental calculations and correction factors and all this stuff. And, you know, I'm a it nerd, right? Like, I'm like, Okay, well, this is an engineering problem. I can solve it. And, you know, I still, I mean, he's on, he's on a pump. Now he's on the Omnipod five, and I think I've got it tweaked about as good as I can at this point. But, you know, like yesterday, he was, you know, 90% in range. Today, he's 60% in range, you know, it's, it just depends, right? So, yeah, in the hospital, doing all this stuff, you know. And I'm walking into the hospital at this point, like, in a cane and, you know. And here I'm like, I, you know, I'm kind of a humorous person. I'm trying to joke. And I'm like, Well, you know, I'm in the hospital too, because I just tore both my ACLs. And of course, you know, you're talking to doctors that are not orthopedic people, and I don't think they appreciated, you know, my medical stuff going on at the same time, but I don't know. I was trying to make light of the situation, which was a very difficult situation. So no,

Scott Benner 27:52
I mean, it's got to be a lot, right? So do you and your wife kind of split the diabetes care, or does one? Does it kind of lend towards one of you more than the other?

Brian 28:02
Yeah, so it's interesting. Now it's, it's both of us. I mean, we have to, otherwise it's overwhelming. You know, we equate it to, like, if you know, when he was a newborn and he woke up in the middle of the night screaming, Well, right now, that's the sugar pixel going off, and now it's time to get up and give him some juice or something, because he's 45 going straight down, right? Yeah, you know. So there's that, and we kind of tag team the alerts, and we kind of have a general understanding, like, if it's a work week for me, she'll try to get up. But, you know, I can't help not getting up. Like, I'm not gonna, like, lay in bed and be like, Oh no, you go get him, right? So a lot of times it's both of us getting up interrupted sleep, checking the sugar, making sure it's good. For the weirdest period of time, I think it was earlier on in the year with the Dexcom. The Dexcom was like 100 points off, so he'd be low. But actually it was, like, 125 and we're like, okay, that's weird. You just got a 125 blood sugar high, yeah? Like, I'm like, he's perfect. But can you imagine, like, all right, I didn't if I didn't do a finger stick, like, Okay, now he's in the 300

Scott Benner 29:16
to drive it up. Yeah. Listen, I have Arden. We've been making adjustments to ardent insulin, as she's done with the surgery, and, you know, and things are getting different. And like last night, I said to her when she went to bed, I'm like, I think we're good now. I'm like, but you still might get low overnight, I'm not sure. And then, yeah, two o'clock, you know, the low alarm went off. And you know, she's still whacked on the pain meds. So I went in to help her, and and she's looking at me, and she's kind of going slowly because her throat hurts, so she's eating slowly. And there's part of me that's like, well, I'll stand here with her make sure she's okay. And then there's the other part of me wanted to go, like, Hey, you're all right, right. Like, can I I gotta go lay back down. So she just she looked at me, and even in the dark, she's like, are you all right? I said. I think I'm getting too old for this. I really do. And that's me and my 21 year old. You have a seven year old, right? You're not that much younger than me. You

Brian 30:08
know? Yeah, it's, it's definitely interesting. There's the mental gymnastics too, because, like, if he's low, we've discovered he gets like, really, really, like, angry, right? And, you know, who wouldn't I mean, people react differently to low and the high blood sugars, right? But I mean, it took us a while to realize that, though we're like, why is he flipping out? Like, what? What's going on? And, oh, well, he's 55 right now. Okay, so get some sugar in on all that stuff, and he's, he's back to his normal Lucas self, right? It took us a while and still, like my wife said to me the other day, she's like, Oh, I think, I think he hates me. I'm like, No, he doesn't hate you. He's having a you know, but, I mean, you're, you're a dad, you know how it is, right? It's just it stops and the downs, that is really a struggle, right?

Scott Benner 30:58
Also, the the low blood sugars and the balancing blood sugars are hard on you. We haven't happened an episode called altered minds that discusses how you know just your blood sugar being low changes your personality. Yeah, yeah. I try very hard not to judge anything that's happening during a low blood sugar, that's for sure. And you got to learn how to not take it with you when it's over too, which is not always as easy as it sounds. Yeah, when he comes out of the hospital, is it injections? Are you? MDI, are there CGM? So there are not. How did they start you through the process?

Brian 31:29
So, yeah. So they started us with the insulin pens, long term insulin, with the, you know, regular insulin, carb ratios, all that stuff. But he didn't come out of the hospital with a CGM, which that made it a little weird, but I kind of understand, like, I think their philosophy, or his original endocrinologist, you know, her philosophy, was essentially, you know, let's, let's get him the basics so they understand exactly how to do it. Should the technology not be there? And then, after about two, three weeks, then he was on the Dexcom g7 and even with that and injections, it made it a lot easier to manage. Oh, sure, yeah, absolutely. But, yeah, it took him about, or I think it was about three months. We got prescribed the the Omnipod, which is it's been, you know, he got on the Omnipod right as he was entering first grade. And that's, that's another story to the first grade nurse at the time, she actually had type one diabetes, which was awesome, right

Scott Benner 32:35
for you, not for her, but, yeah, yeah.

Brian 32:40
But you know, we love her dearly, like, if she listens to this podcast, like, Hey, we love you. You know all that stuff, but you know his low blood sugars weren't like yours. He doesn't need 30 carbs, you know? I mean, he would take maybe, and still, if he's 55 or 45 we can give him 10 carbs and he's back to where he needs to be, but he's little, she would get scared, and she'd give him a juice and, like, Ritz crackers and gummies and all this stuff, and all of a sudden he's back up to, like, 275 and it's like, Ah, come on, you know? But you know, I think her thing was like, Hey, I don't want him to, like, go into a seizure in the school so, plus school nurses, I have realized aren't, you know, personal care for my son, right? She's got other students to take care of as well. So, right? So, yeah, it's, it's interesting.

Scott Benner 33:32
Yeah, you start to get it, you know what I mean? Like you have these expectations every time something happens, and then you see how it really is, and you go, Okay, this is a good person trying their hardest. And exactly, yeah, exactly, she got other things to do too. But when on day one, you think, Oh, it's great. There's a nurse there, like, just for him, and it's going to be awesome. Yeah, exactly, everything's a learning curve. It really, just genuinely is as much as you want. You know, things to be one way doesn't always work that way, you know, like everything's not perfect,

Brian 34:03
not at all, not at all, yeah, so he's actually on his as of this year. He just started second grade. It's his third school in two years. And that was an interesting thing too, because last talking about things stacking up, you know, when it rains, it pours literally. So hurricane Milton, you know, I'm in Florida, Tampa area, you know, we had some home damage, and then we had to move. So that was one of those other fun moments as well. And it wasn't like our house got swept away by the water, but it was, you know, it came through the roof. We had mold issues, all this stuff. And I'm just like, Okay, well, it's time to move to a better place that doesn't get impacted as hurricanes do. I mean, we're in Florida, we're gonna get impacted, but it's we're way more inland right now than we were. So time

Scott Benner 34:57
to get out of there. Well, in your note. You talk about the resilience that you had to find in yourself, and I was wondering if you could kind of go into what led you to start thinking about that and how you made your way through it. Yeah, I think,

Brian 35:12
you know, you go back to, there's a quote I read from somebody the other day like, and it essentially goes like, hey, you know, you can choose to think your situation sucks, or you can choose to have your situation be awesome. And it's really a choice, right? And, you know, looking back, it's like, Okay, we have this diagnosis. You know, we could sit here and post all about, you know, the bad parts on on Instagram and and have everybody, you know, I guess, what do they call that? People? I don't know. It's a term, right? Or we could say, hey, you know, let's make the best of it. And it sucks. It's a crappy thing that can happen, especially to kids, but as a dad, you know, I have to be the one that kind of like leads the family, or lead by example, right? If I'm down on my on myself, which, I mean, I had plenty of reasons to be, but then that kind of trickles down to the rest of the family, right? So, guys, we always like to try to fix things, and, you know, I guess you just try to try to get through it and fix what you can and realize that, you know, you got to lean on your doctors. You got to lean on your community, you know, people around you, and stuff like that. So

Scott Benner 36:37
would you say that prior to your your jump kick, which, by the way, is that what you call it a front kick, what you call it

Brian 36:44
front jump so if you imagine the original Karate Kid, where he's doing the Crane Kick, and he, like, jumps up and down. So it's just like that, although I didn't do the arms and the air type of thing. So it's just, you know, well, thank God you had jumped

Scott Benner 36:57
up on your head. So prior to that, things just went right for you, right? Like you, you weren't having you and your wife didn't have medical issues until the you couldn't conceive. You didn't have any issues at all, even the the issue with the conception, the miscarriage, you get, the you know, the adoption, even that kind of turns out well, because there's Lucas, everything's great again. Like, so like, is that the idea that, like, you get to that, that injury, that it's not just, like, it's not a 10 day illness, right? It's not the flu or something like that. Like, this is a long haul. It brings you down. It makes you question yourself. And then in the middle of it, this thing happens, the Lucas, with the diabetes, and then you get the next surgery, and it's just, is it like a weight? Like, do you do you feel depressed? Is it like, you know, can you explain to me how you felt in that time?

Brian 37:47
Oh, yeah. I mean, obviously there's, there's depression involved and things like that. But you know, if you can't get out of that, or you start feeling sorry for yourself, then what kind of example are you setting for your kids too, right? So I think that was the key. And then also, like, with my wife, I was like, you know, we've gone through stuff like this before. I mean, not diabetes, but like, we've miscarried, we've lost children, you know, we've

Scott Benner 38:16
you've been through hard things in the past. You know how to do it, right? Yeah, right, right. Were you saying to me earlier that, like, there's an ability, because of the internet, to get like, like you can, I don't know, find a bunch of people in a similar situation, and get in like, some sort of a misery loop, or, like a victim bonding thing, or and let yourself go into that direction, and you willfully and meaningfully avoided it.

Brian 38:44
Yeah, yeah. In fact, my wife joined, like, a moms of type one diabetes group, and she was like, I just, I just can't keep looking at this stuff. She's like, I feel so bad for all these people, but you know, and rightfully so, right? I mean, I'm not discounting the role of motherhood by any means, or the ability to grieve for the disease or anything like that, but I think if you quit yourself in that situation, then you start to find reasons to also get into that loop as well. Yeah,

Scott Benner 39:18
it becomes, there's a word for it. I don't know what it is when people get in a group and they start kind of just like, describing what happened to themselves and reliving it over and over again, and the rehashing happens over and over without, like, without moving forward, without, without their it just it turns into a pity party for the lack of like, a better term. And you can get caught in it's almost like, Oh, what's that movie that my kids are always telling me, like, it's some movie where the characters end up in a nightclub, and the nightclub, like, slows down time and keeps you captured there, because you're happy forever and like, it's almost like the the the opposite of that, like, You're so sad, you just kind of it. It's like quicksand, like you can't get out of it then, right? And then the more people that come in, you feel like you have a community. But it's not really as much of a community as it is. You all just become like, I don't know, you all become like each other's anchors, and you're and you're you end up holding yourself in there. And then the opposite happens. So are you in my group, have you tried that one? I haven't yet. No, that one's not like that. If you're looking forward, still point your wife towards that one. There's, there's people in there trying to find answers, not trying to stay stuck. You know

Brian 40:33
what? I mean? Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. And that's, I think that's what draw me to your podcast, too, is it was, you know, more educational, informative type of stuff, rather than, you know, pity party. I guess you could say,

Scott Benner 40:48
yeah, maybe whatever. I don't even mean to, like, I'm not trying to undervalue the sadness or the real burden of type one, or for yourself or for a loved one. But there's a moment I feel like this is what I heard you saying. Like, there's a moment where you got to just, like, pick yourself up and be like, All right, we got to get the moving here. Like, that's yes, it's enough, absolutely, yeah, right, absolutely, yeah. So you were able to do that for yourself. But why? Like, that's my last question around this. Is that, where did you draw your strength from? Like, there's the reason I asked Brian is it occurs to me, as I'm talking to so many people, that people have a much easier time doing stuff for other people than for themselves. Oh, yeah, so I'm looking for like, what your motivation was to say, Hey, I'm getting out of this nightclub, out of this tar pit, and I'm gonna get moving again.

Brian 41:37
Who are you doing it for? Definitely the family. Being in the the military, I have PTSD and all that fun stuff. And I think some of that, like tools that I use to get through that I think sometimes translates to, hey, you know, I've got this going on in my brain right now. I don't, I don't want them to kind of go through the same type of thing that I am right now. So I think it's, I don't know exactly, like, a two, yeah,

Scott Benner 42:07
you have experience or training with being in a terrible situation and realizing I can't stand here anymore, I gotta move exactly. Yeah, exactly, yep, when you train for the military, is that, like, quite literally, like live fire training, right? Like you did. You have to go through that.

Brian 42:23
Yeah, there was, there was some of that. I actually was, I did, essentially counter intelligence, anti terrorism stuff. And I guess the short story is, you know, we dealt with war crimes and seeing some of those things. And then after the military, I was actually working for a state police agency doing I was on a federal task force doing crimes against children, and I think, you know, PTSD definitely from the military, but also, you know, seeing the worst of human behavior on two sides of the spectrum. You know, the military and civilian life, I think really kind of makes it like, hey, I want something, something better for for my kids. I want them to not experience those things, some deep stuff, I guess so.

Scott Benner 43:15
No. I mean, you have a blend of interesting experiences, like you've gotten to see people willfully trying to hurt other people? Yep, yeah. And you know that there's often just a group of other people who are willfully trying to stop them. It's the only thing between, you know, between them and reaching their goals. And then you see it like on that state police level with kids, that's even, I mean, I mean, it's less shocking to hear that, you know, politically and you know, around money, people are trying to do what they're trying to do what they're trying to do, but when they're trying to hurt kids, then, I mean, all common sense, like anybody who's reasonable is, like, I don't this shouldn't be happening, right? Like, right. But it's not just happening once. It's happening constantly. I know, yeah, you're faced with it over and over again and and then, I guess then you start seeing your kids. I'm trying to put this all together, but I guess you start guess you start seeing your kid put into a situation where you think, like, wow, you know, could his life be less than what he deserves? I got to do everything I can, like, the world's already a bad enough place, or it can be like, we can't have this on top of the rest of that. Is that what you're trying to tell me,

Brian 44:18
yeah, yeah. I think, I think you nailed it there. I think it's, you know, you want the best for your for your kids, or most rational parents, too, right? Yeah. And when you see the worst of people, I think it makes it maybe easier to get to a place where you can make it better for somebody I don't

Scott Benner 44:38
know, you know. So, I mean, I would think for most rational people who don't have feelings like that, or don't involve themselves in hurting other people or taking advantage of, you know, large groups of citizens, you know, or anything in between, it just all sounds crazy. It's like the news comes on and you're like, you're hearing about a war here and a war there. And you're like, No, Can we all just stop? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Take the. 12 year old inside of you comes out, like, and you're just like, hey, I think if we all just stop hitting each other, this would be better. Oh, yeah, 100% right? And then, but then you realize, like, that's not going to happen, right, right? And now guys like you and women like you are out there trying to get in between that and the rest and trying to slow it down a little break your job is not even to stop it, right? It's just to slow it down a little bit. Yeah. And I think that's the feeding, right, right?

Brian 45:26
And, you know, innocence is lost in children so easily that you go through something like that, and then all of a sudden, you know, type one diabetes pops up. And you're like, Man, this kid's got to grow up super, super fast now. And thankfully, he's good at math, but my goodness, you know, I I can't imagine what a seven year old brain is doing right now, like thinking about all this

Scott Benner 45:49
stuff, no, it's until you really understand your entire like backstory and everything, that it didn't quite make sense to me, until I put it all together like that, like you've, you've seen what the world can be, and you think at some point that kid's gonna have to deal with this world? I need to put that off for as long as possible. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So you get up and get yourself moving, and pull yourself out of wherever you are and start figuring all this out, and put him in the best case scenario, like you even moved him out of the house and poured took him somewhere. Oh, oh yeah, yeah, you're on, like, a whole little reclamation thing, Brian, it's nice.

Brian 46:22
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Look at you. And then, and then there's little league. Oh my goodness, yeah.

Scott Benner 46:29
So go ahead, tell me, by the way, because those people, they exist in Little League too. And Brian, I don't know if you know this about my family, but my son played baseball from the time he was four until the day graduated from college, and Arden, had she not gotten hurt when she was about 14, was probably on her way to playing in college too. As a matter of fact, I've watched Arden. She was two games shy of reaching the Little League World Series in softball, so about nine years ago. So I have a ton of background in this. I can't wait to hear what you're experiencing.

Brian 47:00
Yeah, so it's so before diabetes, he was on a team in our in our old town, near Tampa, and he was doing well, extremely supportive people and all that. So we moved and I'm like, Hey, I gotta find the closest Little League to us. So I did, you know, and you know, met with a coach and all this stuff. And you know, from the beginning, I just didn't get the right, like, the right vibes, you know, just my my senses just went off, you know. And I said, Well, you know, he really loves baseball, so let's put him in there. And I said, you know, he does have type one diabetes, but you know that shouldn't limit him and all that. And then I just started seeing the, okay, well, he was last on the roster to go up for bat. He'd be sitting on the bench. Because, you know, well, we can only put, what is it, 10 players on the field at a time, and he was player number 11, and then, okay, well, he can go in a catcher, because I don't want his blood sugars to go bad. And I'm like, Okay, well, let me deal with that part of things, you know, if he goes low or if he goes high, you know, we can handle that, but we never really were able to kind of communicate with that individual about, like, hey, you know, let him just play. He's a kid. But then there was also, like, the they were taking it way too serious for like seven year olds and and it was just it was terrible. So hindsight,

Scott Benner 48:26
they were worried about the diabetes without any actual background, kind of helping, in quotes, the wrong way. And then on top of that, you realized you were the bunch of people who thought all their kids were like the next

Brian 48:40
coming of Derek Jeter, exactly. And I think, you know, I even said to this individual, I said, I don't think they really appreciated it when I did, but I said, Hey, none of these kids are going to be these kids are going to make the major so just let them

Scott Benner 48:57
have fun. They don't want to hear that. Oh, wait a second. I don't want to hear that for sure. Listen, I've said this a number of times. I'm happy to say it again, that if you would have gone to when my son was 12, and maybe even till when he was 14, and assessed his entire team and said, I want you to pick the kid on this team that's going to play college baseball for four years. In a million years, you would not have picked my son. There was always a kid that was bigger or appeared stronger or appeared faster or something, and you thought like, oh, it's going to be that one. It's going to be that one. It was and it was none of those, the primordial goo that has to come together to turn you into a college athlete. It also has something to do with like your your mental makeup, right? I watched a kid make it to a school as a pitcher, and couldn't have felt better for the kid, you know what I mean. And one day you hear like he's pitching, like you can watch it on ESPN. I was like, This is crazy, and I flipped it. TV on, and I was like, Oh, my God, good for him. Look at him there. And five minutes later, I watched a ball leave that stadium that he pitched, and it went so far that, I think it knocked him right out of the school and took him right home again. You know what I mean? Like he was in over his head. He took a spot that, like he wasn't going to be able to compete in, but thought he was lucky and everything. And instead of just saying, like, oh, I don't fit here. I should have gone somewhere where I fit better. He shot the moon. He threw a half. I mean, one half of an inning where they shelled him so hard they literally, like, kicked him off the team. Wow. Like, that was another person who, at four years old, started playing baseball and made it all the way to the thing, and then one day it was just like, Now, get out of here. And, wow. So that's the one kid that made it. My son made it. Played the whole four years, and then, by the way, covid happened in the middle of it, and just a horror for kids playing school sports and in college at that point. The bigger issue is that it's unless you're just a giant and you're and you're just gifted in a way that literally just feels like it's handed down to you. You You know what I mean? Like, like, God, decided you're going to be a baseball player. If you're not one of those people, and very few people are, then the things that have to come together for, and you still have to love it, you have to not get hurt and, like, all this stuff has to happen. It just, it's not something you can plan for, right? Right? If I had five seconds to talk to those people, those people you tried to speak to, who, by the way, probably just thought you were, you know, a loser for saying that not everybody, of course, they're all going to make it, yeah, you know, like, like, if I had five seconds to talk to them, I'd say, Listen, you know, I watch professional baseball. You know, every day there's 30 some teams on each one of those teams. There's five middle reliever pitchers that suck, which means that there's like, 150 guys in the league who suck, but they're still the best that's going Yeah, exactly. And you think your kid, there are these two people. I wish I don't know them. There's no way they're listening to this. But I've never met two shorter people in my entire life and the entire time through Little League. They were a little younger than my son, so you kind of got to watch them, like, through the rear view mirror a little bit. And they acted like that kid was just the second coming of anything. And I kept thinking, like, he's going to be very tiny. Like, you're tiny people, he's going to be tiny too. Like, this doesn't work. Like, go turn your television on, you know. Do you see a lot of five, four guys playing professional baseball anywhere, you know, but they still, like, they burdened that kid and tortured him, like, and everything that could have been fun about that experience was a horror for that child. So, yeah, you know, he could have just had a great time playing baseball while he was a kid, and instead, yeah, he got told that he had a job to do, and he failed at it. I'm like, Yeah, you guys are misunderstanding parenting, that's for

Brian 52:51
sure. But so, yeah, it's so now we're doing basketball tryouts are in a week from now, and that was a interesting story how that all came about, too. That actually happened at friends for life. Really, it was, yeah, it was the last day there's a organization that was working with Medtronic called diabetes, doing things. Oh,

Scott Benner 53:16
Rob, yeah, of course, yeah.

Brian 53:19
So it's Rob and Gary Forbes. And then there was a female WNBA player as well, and I can't remember her name off the top of my head, but Lauren Cox, Lauren, yes, yes.

Scott Benner 53:33
Well, that was right off of my memory. Hey, I'm taking a victory lap on there. Like I'm so bad with names, I'm so impressed with myself. Okay, so go ahead.

Brian 53:40
Yeah. So, so we went through Lucas. And I went through this like, hey, you know these professional athletes, they have type one diabetes phase, and he's got cards from, you know, all the famous people. Like, now, of course, none of the names are coming at the top of my head, but yeah. And so I signed him up for this basketball thing, and Gary, it's amazing, like, so Lucas goes right up to Gary, and he's like, Hey, Gary, you're my favorite basketball player of all time. And he's like, he's like, Oh, well, well, thanks. And I think Lucas was like, on his Instagram and stuff like that. And it was, it was really cool. But Gary actually came talk to me, and I kind of told him the baseball story and all that. He's like, get him that F out of that and put him into something that he enjoys. I'm like, okay,

Scott Benner 54:34
but did your son not enjoy baseball? Or did he not enjoy what came with it?

Brian 54:39
I think it was what came with it, right? Like he enjoyed being out there. He was proud to wear his hat. You know, he would wear the baseball hat to school every day, all this stuff. But I think it was the he had a hard time hitting the ball. Like we went from machine pitch to coach pitch, and, you know, he had the timing right on the machine. But then. The coach, who knows, you know, how they pitch, right? And I think it was just a lot of variables, plus then you add the type one on top of it as well, and, you know, he's up and down depending on, you know, the day. So I think there was a lot of that. If

Scott Benner 55:17
you're not very naturally inclined to baseball, it's a lot of work, and it doesn't pay you back right away. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And there's a couple of people who, when you really stop and look at it, at that age, the kids that are are excelling are just physically, usually larger or stronger, and then they can overwhelm the pitching, and that's why they end up being successful when they're younger. There's always some kid who grows to like their full size by the time they're 10, and they just are dominating the whole thing. And then you look up three years later and they can't play, yeah, because then everybody grew past them, and now they're dominating them. So if your son's a little smaller, or a little, you know, or hasn't just been doing it every second of his life, you know, it's, it's just difficult to do, man, like, there's nothing harder than hitting that little ball. Like, it really, it really, it really, is hard. So, so why not do something that lends itself to some, you know, a more immediate enjoyment and success, and, you know, I mean, lets him Have fun. Because that's really what it's about, is having fun.

Brian 56:19
Yeah, absolutely. And he's, he's very tall for his age, too. And, I mean, just the other day he was practicing, and he's drilling like normal free throws, like, like a mad man. I'm like, wow, this is really good. So hopefully he keeps up with it, right, but enjoys it. You know, the the arcades where they have the basketball hoops that you play those, I mean, Chuck E Cheese, or any one of those places, right? He'll be drilling those like all the time. So I think he's got a natural ability, at least as a seven year old. But you know, like I said earlier, an aspiring athlete is probably a good definition, not necessarily, I guess. You know, time will tell.

Scott Benner 56:58
That'd be fun. Every year I'd say to my son in the off season, I'm like, Look, you don't have to do this. Like, if you're not enjoying this, tell me if you're like, This isn't for me. It's for you. If you don't, if you want to keep doing it, keep doing it, if you don't say something, like, you know, it's a lot of work. You know, especially baseball, there's a lot of failure in baseball. And you know, you can make this simple, like, statement that, like, Oh, it's good for you. Like, it builds character and stuff like that doesn't not for everybody. Some people just feel like they're failing, right, right? Do you really need to make a seven year old feel like they're failing? Like, it's just, it's just supposed to be fun, you know what? I mean? Yeah, like, it, trust me, if your son grows into a collegiate basketball player, or if he grew into a professional baseball player, like, you're not going to know that right now. Like, it just anybody who thinks they know where these kids are going, like, they're going to be sadly mistaken, like, at some point, and they're going to realize how much time they gave away to something that, in the end, didn't, you know, maybe do much more for them than it could have done if they would have just taken it less, not seriously, but just, you know, not treated it like it was life or death, and just let people have a good time. So, yeah,

Brian 58:07
yeah, I think you hit, hit the nail on the head, I guess there, because I think it's, you know, you want them to have fun. And look, I mean, being a kid is hard enough, right? And then you throw diabetes on top of it, and then the pressure to perform. You know that some some parents put on their kids and look, I want them to do well, right? And I'll probably be yelling at him if he misses a shot or something. But, you know, at the end of the day, if he's not having fun, like, Let's do something else, right? So

Scott Benner 58:37
I could endlessly tell you story I watched the one boy be just chastised, like, screamed at in his car every day after practice, like, I mean, like you could see from a distance the screaming that was going on in the car from the Father. And, you know now this many years later, that kid is 26 years old, and you know what he does for a living. He's not a professional baseball player, I can tell you that much, right, all right. And I could tell you that on the last day my son played college baseball, he was a center fielder who has been who had been told by numerous professional scouts that he graded out defensively as a professional baseball player, who also pitched sometimes, and had a 93 mile an hour fastball. And you know what my son does for a living now, he's 25 he is not a professional baseball player. In case you're wondering, if I said to you right now, Hey, your seven year old will one day be 21 and have a 93 mile an hour fastball, you'd say, Oh, they're going to play professional baseball. It's not necessarily the case, and it's not because he wouldn't have wanted to, or he didn't know how to work at it. It's this idea of best way I've ever been able to explain it to anybody trying to play baseball and probably any sport, really, if you aspire to college. And you know is that it's like a pyramid. So if you can imagine the fattest part of the pyramid at the bottom, the most people fit around the edge of the pyramid. And so like, you know that year, my. Kid starts playing Little League. I The number, I think, is 4 million American boys started playing Little League baseball that same summer. Yeah, and they all fit around the bottom of that pyramid. And then you take a step up, and there's a little less pyramid, and you take another step up and there's a little less and a little less, and one day, there's so little room that you and your amazing talent and your 93 mile an hour fastball and your ability to play both ways is literally not as good as the people who are left over next to you, and then they all step up and there's nowhere for you to hold on to, and just slide down and you slide off. Yeah, and it doesn't make you not good. It just makes you trying to do something that only a few 1000 people in the world do like. So, you know, at some point you have to be a giant freak of nature who also has all those same skills. Yeah, that's when you realize, like you're you've got yourself involved in something, that there's no way that when your kid was seven or eight years old, you would have known how it was going to end. Right, right? I as I look at it in the rear view mirror of my life and all I saw with other people's children, like so many kids would have benefited if everyone would have just said, like, this is just fun. Like, let this just be fun. You know, instead, you go find those kids now, and their memories are not positive, generally speaking, of their time playing sports, and that's a shame, but anyway, I'm sorry. Ron, good, no, no,

Brian 1:01:24
no, that's That's exactly right. I think, you know, I've even watched it when I was growing up, I was on the swim team, and there was a swimmer on the team that could have made the he went to the Olympic trials, and he actually told us he purposely tanked his trial because his parents pressured him so much to be this athlete like his. I mean, it was, what, 17 years old at the time, right? And the pressure, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So has every record, you know, in the city, probably still to this day. But you know, when it came to the Olympic trials, he just blew it because you didn't want to do it anymore.

Scott Benner 1:02:02
Yeah, so just wanted to get away from it. Arden tells me, she's like, I She's like, I'm not happy I got hurt. But she's like, I am glad that. Like, she's like, I don't think I would have enjoyed playing softball in college. And I was like, right? She said, but she could have. And I think that becomes, like, one of those things, like, you get to the point where you're like, Oh, I guess if I could have done it, I would have done it. And, like, would I have done it because I wanted to do it or because it's the thing I do? Because I spent so many years being the person who does this, you know? Like, that's the one worry I always have about my son. Like, I don't know. Like, did he? Did he just think that that's who he was at that point. You know what I mean? Like, of course I'm doing this because I mean, there's arguments to be made. He got into a good college because of of it. He got a better education because of it. He didn't pay as much for that education. Before I do it, I will tell you that that money we saved on his education just got spent somewhere else learning how to play baseball, right? That's, that's a wash, really. Yeah, you know, you just always kind of wonder if it's, you know, if we don't get a little too caught up in the whole thing, and and then once you you see other people taking it that seriously, you feel like, well, if I don't take it this seriously too, then I'll be on the outside, and that'll be it, like, I'll be on the bench, or they won't ask me back on the team, or, you know, whatever people end up thinking. And I don't know, I just tell people always the same thing, like, there's so much travel sports now, if you're not starting and playing, you're the one keeping the financial part of it afloat. You're either the check or you're a player. And if you don't know which you are, you're the check. Yeah, the most important thing about your kids playing sports is that it's fun, it's close to your home, and it's not expensive, exactly, not really, exactly. That's what I would tell you, is the best thing to do. Yeah, y'all are gonna not listen to me or Brian. You all think your kid is, uh, is the next coming of something, and God bless you. Have a good time. But I've lived through it. I just hope they

Brian 1:03:56
get in a good college, because that's a lot of money, travel ball and all that stuff. So

Scott Benner 1:04:01
no idea, like, the, I mean, listen, some of it was fun, like, I'm not gonna lie to you, and some of it was a great experience. And just being together with my son and doing that stuff and with Arden and doing that stuff was awesome. But, like, it didn't need to be to the level it was. He was always gonna grow into the player he was. He didn't need to go to Atlanta and play one summer. He didn't need to go to Florida and play. He didn't need to go to tournaments. And, you know, like, you know, everybody's like, Oh, you got to play better teams so that you can get better. Never once made them any better. To do that. Like, it's, you know, you got to have a certain amount of skill, and you got to want to play. And that's what makes you better. Just, it's repetition. I mean, you people are listening now, like, well, you know, if you're hitting bad pitching, how do you know if you know if you can play I'm like, I mean, take your point. But there's not pitching that much better in Florida, and when it is that much better, right? Nobody can hit him anyway, right? Right? Because you're down there playing against some kid who is going to be playing minor league baseball in 18 months, and you know, you're 15, and he's throwing nine. 91 and you're just like, yeah, like, I'm not getting better doing this thing. We this, this one situation where Cole's team went to Florida and they were told, like, you know, like, look the team you're playing on the first day. Yeah, there's going to be some scouts out there looking at their pitcher. And man, I'm going to tell you right now, there were 25 scouts there. The backstop was lined with guys with, like, guns, like measuring, this kid's pitching. And my son was like, I've never seen anything like this, like at the time, I think he was like, 15, and this kid's like throwing, like, 92 miles an hour already, like we're talking before the game. And he goes, What am I supposed to do? And I just, I gave him what I thought was good advice. I gave him what I think ends up being good life advice. I said he throws way harder than you're accustomed to. You're probably not going to hit it. I was like, but don't change who you are. Like, get in there, use your swing and put it on the ball and just try to compete with him. And if he, you know, and I said, and look at the strike zone and swing at the strikes, that's pretty much it. And he went in there. He didn't change his approach. He didn't try to speed up. There were kids who tried to speed up. There were kids who tried to, like, do little things to touch the ball, you know. And instead, he took three swings, he fouled off a ball, he struck out. Eventually, he came over to me after the game, and he's like, Hey, I fouled one off. And I was like, Yeah, that was awesome, like, and that ended up being a win for him, like he touched it, you know what I mean? And instead of putting the pressure on him that what he needed to do was go hit a 92 mile an hour fastball, which is not a thing that he had ever seen before in his entire life. And like, and putting that pressure on him, I just said, like, Just be true to yourself. And like, this will come along. And, you know, three years later, my son had hit a 92 mile an hour fastball, like, it's nothing, but like, yeah, there you go. That wasn't the day to teach him to do it. And but I saw other guys pulling their kids aside, and they were like, what they thought was, if you hit that ball off that kid, then these scouts are going to care about you too. And, yeah, that is not how any of that works. No, yeah. So anyway, I could bum you all out about youth sports for longer, if you needed me to, but we're out of time right now. Oh, my goodness, Ryan, is there anything that we didn't talk about that we should

Brian 1:07:22
have? No, I think you know, if I were to say anything to the dads out there, you know, just hang in there, right? And find other like minded dads. I know there was a great group at friends for life that all got together over some drinks and stuff like that. Take care of your family. Unfortunately, we can't figure everything out, but, you know, do the best you can. So,

Scott Benner 1:07:46
yeah, hey, man, listen, just in the end, like, you know, maybe not much different than what I just said is, like, you know, be consistent. Be yourself. Go out there and try to help other people, and that's your kid or your wife or your other kids in your family, like, just put other people first and and make decisions that you think are going to help them. And I think remember that this is going to get easier as it goes, that you're going to get better and better at it, that, you know, child or your life is not going to be some terrible failure or, you know, horrible let down because this happened. There are plenty of people out there living perfectly lovely lives with type one diabetes. Yeah, I think to Brian's point earlier, like you can choose to sit and wallow in it, or you can choose to get going. And, you know, so it's that movie, son, again, we can get busy living or get busy dying, right? Like, I don't know what, I don't know a movie that's from, but you know, just choose motion, move forward, you know, as best you can, and it really does work out so absolutely. All right, man, thank you very much. No, thank you as a pleasure. Hold on one second for me. Okay, all right,

today's episode of The Juicebox podcast was sponsored by the new tandem Moby system and control iq plus technology. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox check it out. Arden has been getting her diabetes supplies from us med for three years. You can as well us, med.com/juicebox, or Paul, 888-721-1514, my thanks to us, med for sponsoring this episode and for being longtime sponsors of the Juicebox podcast. There are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com to us, med and all of the sponsors. Today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 and the Dexcom g7 warms up in just 30 minutes. Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox, I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app. I'll be back. Back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. I created the diabetes variables series because I know that in type one diabetes management, the little things aren't that little, and they really add up. In this series, we'll break down everyday factors like stress, sleep, exercise and those other variables that impact your day more than you might think Jenny Smith and I are going to get straight to the point with practical advice that you can trust. So check out the diabetes variable series in your podcast player or at Juicebox podcast.com if you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox podcast private Facebook group Juicebox podcast type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome type one type two, gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me, if you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com.

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Scott Benner 9/15/25 Scott Benner 9/15/25

#1628 A River in Egypt - Part 2

Patty, living with type 1 diabetes since 1987, reflects on denial, resilience, and decades of management—sharing how acceptance, support, and learning transformed her journey. Part 2 of 2.

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Patty 0:00
Juicebox podcast is good for you. Whether your diabetes is one or two, take some time to listen in. You'll gain so much knowledge, and that's a win.

Scott Benner 0:14
Welcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juicebox podcast. You

This is part two of a two part episode. Go look at the title if you don't recognize it. You haven't heard part one yet. It's probably the episode right before this in your podcast player, you check out my algorithm pumping series to help you make sense of automated insulin delivery systems like Omnipod five loop, Medtronic, 780, G twist tandem control IQ and much more. Each episode will dive into the setup features and real world usage tips that can transform your daily type one diabetes management. We cut through the jargon, share personal experiences and show you how these algorithms can simplify and streamline your care. If you're curious about automated insulin pumping, go find the algorithm pumping series in the Juicebox podcast, easiest way. Juicebox podcast.com, and go up into the menu, click on series and it'll be right there. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin you

I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 the only one year where CGM that's one insertion and one CGM a year, one CGM one year, not every 10 or 14 days ever since cgm.com/juicebox the episode you're about to listen to is sponsored by tandem Moby, the impressively small insulin pump. Tandem Moby features tandems newest algorithm control, iq plus technology. It's designed for greater discretion, more freedom and improve time and range. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox today's podcast is sponsored by us, med, us, med.com/juicebox, you can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do. And I'm talking about Dexcom, libre, Omnipod, tandem and so much more. Usmed.com/juicebox, or call, 888-721-1514, and I said, So my feeling about this person is, is that they they're just here for the money, and that was my expectation and but I said, again, never spoke to them. Don't know them. Haven't written to them. I don't know. I couldn't say for sure, it's my vibe. And the person said, I appreciate you sharing that with me. It's also my vibe. And then told me a number of kind of things that they had been dealing with that were not pleasant and underhanded and etc, and that they had just come out of a meeting where they said, Hey, we think this person does not have the best interest of people with diabetes in their heart. We think that they just see it as fish in a barrel. They have a skill. They know how

Patty 3:37
to do it, yeah, as a money maker. And that's, you know, in fairness,

Scott Benner 3:41
the next thing the person said was, like, Listen, what they do is good. Like, it works, and people like it, et cetera, but we've decided we don't want to be a party to it. And so I was like, Okay, great. Like, it was weird conversation to be in, but it reminded me, because then afterwards, this person said, Scott, we know you're out there trying to help people, and that makes this feel better for us. Like, yes, it's a business, and yes, we're trying to get people to look at our thing, but we like that they're finding our thing and being supported by you and that community that you've built on Facebook and and and and, you know, and they the end of that conversation was, we think you've taken a number of valuable things and brought them together for people, and we're watching people be better off for it. And if we're going to spend money in this space to try to get people to see our thing, we'd like it to be in places like this. Not that I'm the only one doing it with people who are well intentioned, you know, at the start, and I was like, oh, yeah, that's good. I'm glad you're, you're thinking of putting your money there, so it was pretty much it, yeah,

Patty 4:48
yeah. I'm glad, I'm glad that you know, yeah, because you know, and it's, you've talked about it, and people have talked about it on the podcast, about. You know the insurance companies, and you know the bottom line for them is the money. And you know, these are people's lives that they're playing with. And, no, it's

Scott Benner 5:15
always been my, I'm going to ask you about your about your life, obviously, in a second, but it's always been my intention that, like, Look, somebody is out there trying to they're marketing right for pumps and CGM and insulin, all the things they're trying to sell. And that's going to happen one way or the other, if I can take some of that money that they're planning on spending to reach people's ears and use it, and the way I used it ends with you coming on and saying what you said about finding the podcast and helping yourself, then I found a way to make something good out of a thing that was going to happen one way or the other. And, you know, some, you know, high minded people might be well, just do it for free. And, you know, that's sweet, but you don't know what it takes to do this. There's a small army of of time and ideas and that, you know, effort. Oh,

Patty 6:01
no, you have to value what you're doing. And you know, money is the way that. You know the world works.

Scott Benner 6:10
If you could pay me in food and heat and gasoline, I'd be fine too. Yeah, I don't care how it happens. I just

Patty 6:16
right food, especially, yeah, nowadays, and I gotta stay

Scott Benner 6:19
alive too. And my kids got diabetes, which, by the way, like, when you, if you think it like, I get anything for free, I don't like, that's not how this works, you know, yeah. So no, anyway, so you Yeah, I appreciate it. So here you are. You're growing up. We went a long way around. But, oh my, yeah, you are, like, in your 30s, 40s, and then you've had diabetes for like 10 years, then you get cancer, yeah. What happened

Patty 6:46
there? Crazy? Huh? Yeah, oh, that. That was really crazy. I actually, I had just gone to my first education with a Medtronic pump, and that was back in 99 and I was going to start pumping, and then I go to the doctor because I had a little bump on my left breast. And I was like, Ah, it's, here's the denial again. It's a mosquito bite, honey. Like, well, you know, it's not really, it's not going away. I think I'm going to go and, well, sure enough, yes, it was a breast cancer. I was 42 I went back to my Endo, and I'm like, I had the pump, you know, I paid a lot, even though we had good insurance. And I said, I can't do this. I I just have to stay with what I know, you know, MDI. And in a way, I think it worked out well for me, because with the treatments and the steroids that were given, you know, to me, You know what steroids do to people with, well, to everybody, but especially people with type one, because I was on long acting and I wasn't eating anything because I was so nauseous from the poison that was put inside My body to kill that little, tiny mosquito bite was killing everything else. My blood sugars kind of

Scott Benner 8:27
were okay, yeah, the MDI helped you get through it. You think? I think

Patty 8:31
it did. You know, because I couldn't eat after my treatments, I would go home, I would take some Ativan and sleep for two days, and by the second day, I would wake up and kind of get myself going again. So because I was on the long acting I think, you know, in my crazy mind, it kind of kept me from, you know, going too low or going too high because I wasn't eating well, I just was,

Scott Benner 9:05
yeah. I mean, that would have been your first pump, yeah. So, I mean, probably not a great time to be learning, like you knew how to do it. You knew how to do it with MDI at that point. So, yeah, right, right, right. Maybe not a great time to start something slap it on, yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be like, if you slapped on a new Omnipod five and then ended up in the hospital later that day for two weeks, which is just, which is, by the way, it's just a message to one person who's listening, and it actually ended up working out really well for them. But in the moment, you're like, oh no. Like, you know, gosh, I just, I, this is the day I'm switching. And then, you know, 12 hours later, you don't realize it, and here you go into another at least. Yeah, listen, I wouldn't made a big switch at that point. Did you eventually get a pump or you still?

Patty 9:50
MDI, no, no, no, I'm on tea. Slim, no, I What happened was, I had that point. I'm sorry, yeah, after, you know, I was like, Okay. Pump. I had this pump brand new that I had gotten just before my breast cancer diagnosis, and it was in the box, and I just kept looking at it and going, now, you know, I'm just going to keep doing MDI, MDI. But then I was getting a lot of lows at night, the endo said, you know, I think if you start on the pump, it might even things out just a little bit better. So by then, that pump had gone out of warranty. So it was, like, four years later, and I still hadn't, because I am kind of stubborn, like I said,

Scott Benner 10:38
we've mentioned it, yeah, yes,

Patty 10:42
and so then I put in and I got a Medtronic pump, which I was on Medtronic for, gosh, probably 18 years different Medtronic pumps. And then I was so disgusted with the CGM and everything, I decided with in my endos office, he brought up I was getting ready to leave my endo after a long time, because I was the patient who, you know, my a one, Cs were pretty Good, like, you know, seven, maybe I got a 6972, so I didn't have I didn't give him much trouble. And so after all those years, he was like, Hello, how are you? Here's your graph. You're looking good. And I'd have questions, but he'd be walking them backwards out the door. And I was like, this isn't cool. Wait a minute. I got a, you know, got a question. I was looking to change, and I really was going to change, but he brought on an amazing nurse practitioner who really listens, oh, my God, and you're a good listener. And she listened to me, and I was so happy that he brought her on, and she said, Why don't you try this tandem pump? You know, it's, I think it, I think you might like it. And so I did, but again, I strapped it on. You know, I got the basic education at the office. I, I didn't do my own due diligence, okay? Because here again, you know, it's like, oh, life goes on. I I'm busy, you know what? I guess I'm not a detail person, you know, until it smacks me really hard upside the head, and just like to get going. Yeah, and my my husband, was like, I don't think you should have tried. You should have changed to this pump, because I didn't know all the good things about it. I was just thinking it was like, you know the pump, I had the Medtronic, and it wasn't so anyway, through listening to you and doing, you know, a lot of my own homework now, you know, I really like it, except that, as I said, the infusion sites are becoming less and less viable for me after all these years, and, you know, I'm just wondering, like, do you when you hear that from other people, what do other people, you know, go off the pump and then, you know, start doing, you know, different things, like a Pres.

Scott Benner 13:39
Well, yeah, I mean, what do you what are you talking about, about your sites? Or, like, are they just not working any longer, or you just all beat up? Or, yeah,

Patty 13:46
you know, like, it takes a couple of tries. I'm on the true steel. The other day, I had to take it out and put it which I love, that feature, you know, take it out, put it in a couple of different spots until I could see that it was working, that I was getting the insulin that I needed. And so it is, I think, you know that I have a lot of scar tissue, and you know,

Scott Benner 14:15
and you're, you're lean too, right? Diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember. So it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate. Us. Med has done that for us. When it's time for Arden supplies to be refreshed, we get an email rolls up and in your inbox says, Hi, Arden, this is your friendly reorder email from us. Med. You open up the email, it's a big button that says, Click here to reorder, and you're done. Finally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US med has done that for us. An email arrives, we click on a link, and the next thing you know, your products are at the front door. That simple. Us med.com/juicebox, or call eight. 887211514, I never have to wonder if Arden has enough supplies. I click on one link, I open up a box, I put the stuff in the drawer, and we're done. Us. Med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and the Dexcom g7 they accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers, and all you have to do to get started is call 888-721-1514. Or go to my link, usmed.com/juicebox, using that number or my link helps to support the production of the Juicebox podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by a long term CGM that's going to help you to stay on top of your glucose readings the ever since 365 I'm talking, of course, about the world's first and only CGM that lasts for one year, one year, one CGM. Are you tired of those other CGM the ones that give you all those problems that you didn't expect, knocking them off, false alerts not lasting as long as they're supposed to. If you're tired of those constant frustrations, use my link ever since cgm.com/juicebox, to learn more about the ever since 365 some of you may be able to experience the ever since 365 for as low as $199 for a full year. At my link, you'll find those details and can learn about eligibility ever since cgm.com/juicebox check it out.

Patty 16:35
Yeah, exactly. And it's like, okay, well, I tried my arms. My arms are so skinny, you know, that's where I put my Dexcom. I'm still on the g6 which I love. I know the g7 smaller, but, you know, I'm stubborn. I don't want to change. Like, where the hell I have really small boobs and and, like, I see women that put the infusion sets in their boobs, and I'm like, Oh, that would not work at all. And especially, having had breast cancer,

Speaker 1 17:04
I'm running out of spaces,

Patty 17:08
you know. And I'm thinking, you know, as I'm hearing about a pres and, you know, I don't know it sounds, sounds good. So

Scott Benner 17:20
Well, there's plenty of people who use it to love it. And, yeah, I don't know if it's in in concert with their other insulin, that they think of it as, as really well, or if people are using it just with a, you know, a basal injection and and then a pres for meals and for highs, I don't know. Like, I've, I've talked to people have used it, really enjoy it. Still use it. I've talked to people used it. One guy just told me last week I got that cough, and I was like, oh, no, I'm good. I need to stop, you know. Like, so I talked to somebody who said that, you know, I know how to inhale it with, you know. So it kind of goes in in a way that, you know, that won't happen. A lot of people have theories about it and everything. I mean, could it hurt to try or to talk to somebody about it, just to but, I mean, the point is, is you're not going to stop putting your pump in anyway, right? Like you're going to use it in concert with it. So that's not going to really make up a difference with

Patty 18:15
maybe not, yeah, maybe not. Maybe I would just, you know, get off the pump take a little break, which kind of thinking, you know, I

Scott Benner 18:24
wonder if that would help, or if the scar tissues, if it's too far along, or if a break would help. Yeah, I don't know. Have you ever tried giving one place a break to see if it got better? Like, you know what I mean? Just like, I know you're already low on spot, yeah?

Patty 18:39
Like, I haven't used my stomach in years and years, and I've, you know, I've tried, and it just doesn't seem to work. It absorbs for like a day, you know, with the true steel, which, you know, you got to change it out every two days. And here, you know, it's exhaust this. So back. Okay, I'm, I'm sorry I'm going all over the place, but what you were saying about Arden and you know, yeah, you've got all the the managerial art down the amount of time and energy that some days it takes to just get the insulin going in and absorbing finding the right spot. When I hit a right spot, I'm like, yeah. Finally, I also do a lot of yoga. And my husband's theory is, you know, I'm stretching the areas and the the infusion sets getting moved around in my body, and, you know, all these things I don't know, but you're tired of thinking about it just seems to take a lot more work now than it did. You know? I. Years ago, you know, when I, when I was working full time running the school, you know, it was like,

Scott Benner 20:07
oh, you know, you were younger, and your body hadn't been abused as much.

Patty 20:12
That's the other thing, right? Yeah, yeah, being younger and having more energy and being able to tolerate like, now when, when my blood sugar is over, like, 161 70, ah, yeah, it just makes, makes me upset. You know, it's like, Oh, I gotta get that down. You feel bad

Scott Benner 20:35
physically, too, or you just, is it emotional? Let's talk about the tandem mobi insulin pump from today's sponsor, tandem diabetes care, their newest algorithm control iq plus technology and the new tandem mobi pump offer you unique opportunities to have better control. It's the only system with auto Bolus that helps with missed meals and preventing hyperglycemia, the only system with a dedicated sleep setting and the only system with off or on body wear options. Tandem Moby gives you more discretion, freedom and options for how to manage your diabetes. This is their best algorithm ever, and they'd like you to check it out at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox when you get to my link, you're going to see integrations with Dexcom sensors and a ton of other information that's going to help you learn about tandems, tiny pump that's big on control tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, the tandem mobi system is available for people ages two and up who want an automated delivery system to help them sleep better, wake up in range and address high blood sugars with auto Bolus,

Patty 21:45
yeah, it just makes, makes me tired, you know, and I'd much rather treat a low than chase a high. That's you in quotes, because that was also another thing I think I I also was afraid of giving myself too much insulin, and now I'm not, you know, and I don't overdo it. You give yourself what you need. Yeah, here's the other thing, listening to you, getting my knowledge up to date on the device that I'm using my last day 1c, and I know it's just a number, and my everything, my variable is low,

Scott Benner 22:32
six. Oh, no, that's wonderful. Good for you. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah,

Patty 22:36
I'm, you know, I'm real happy about it, if it goes a few points up above, but, but I don't think I'll ever, and I hope I won't, you know, go back up to seven, you know, just with this technology, which also can prove to be anxiety ridden. How so? Oh, how So, all the alarms I have everything shut to vibrate. I I don't even my phone. I don't like having dings going off. So I have turned so many alarms off because I have developed anxiety over the years, you know, with managing this, I have been depressed. I been to see therapist, you know, to kind of help. I all okay. Here's the other thing. I was also my mother's caregiver in our home for five years. My mom just passed at the age of 97 and a half. I'm sorry, thank you, but she was ready, and she She was a beautiful mama, but just having that also, you know, extra, it was a lot, and it was a lot. I was in a real bad place, like seven months, seven months ago, eight months ago, and I was like, you know, I'm going to enroll in that blue circle health, because I need to talk to other people that have diabetes, you know, and and again, such a fabulous resource, awesome. Oh, I'm glad it helped. And, yeah, and unfortunately, I I missed a lot of opportunities because of the care that I had to be involved with towards the end. But the other thing is, you can sign up again after a year, okay, if you want to go through the program again. I mean, come on, can

Scott Benner 24:54
I ask you, at your age, was losing a parent any different than you imagined it was? Have been at a different age, like, did it matter that she lived that long and that you're in your 70s? Was it just as sad as it would have been if you were 3040, 50? Do you think I

Patty 25:09
think it was sadder? I believe that, my gosh, not many 70 year olds still have their mommy around. Yeah, all her grandchildren had her, you know, they're all in their 30s. They had their grandma, okay, and my dad lived to almost 102

Scott Benner 25:28
Jesus, yeah. Did you still utilize them like parents? Like, did you like, even in your later years? Can you think of a time in your 60s that you went to your parents for advice, or did it change the relationship?

Patty 25:44
Yeah, no, just the cover, no more of a comfort, no, but, but here's the kind of crazy thing. We moved in 1989 from New York to Florida to be close to my parents, who were like in their late 50s, early, you know, late 60s, we wanted to make sure we could be close by when they needed our help, right? They were very vibrant up until their 80s. 90s, both my parents, I get cancer. Oh, yeah, they move into my house to help you, to help me with our two sons, my husband, you know, everything and so, you know, looking back, yes, we we had made so many great memories with them, and our Kids had them for, you know, so long. And I believe that having them for as long as we did made it even harder, you know. I mean, she is so close to us, in in our hearts and in, you know, every memory you know, I understand, yeah, gosh, I'm sorry. Well, it's okay. She lived a good, long life. She did and she was ready. She kept telling us the last month, I'm done.

Scott Benner 27:18
I've seen the prices, right enough, this is over.

Patty 27:20
Yeah, Turner, classic, that was her favorite classic movies. Yeah,

Scott Benner 27:25
that's something, yeah. Well, God bless her. Okay, that's really lovely. And I mean, here you are probably thinking, I got 30 more years.

Patty 27:33
Oh, no, I do not want to live. No, I No, no, no, no,

Scott Benner 27:40
tell me, if you could put a time on it, where's the sweet spot? I'm okay,

Patty 27:45
you know. Well, maybe another year or two, hey, I'm okay, you know? I mean, I say it, you know, I am a very faithful person. I'm have a very strong relationship with God, with Jesus and but I'm also a realist, and practically speaking, you know, I don't want to be suffering. I work really hard to to keep myself healthy. I don't want to go. I don't want to have some okay, my husband, he he don't know. I mean, he does know a bit about my care with the pump, and

Scott Benner 28:29
he doesn't really understand what it's like. No,

Patty 28:33
no. You know it's like. It takes a lot to keep this body going.

Scott Benner 28:39
So you're saying when your health wanes, you think that's the end of life, like for you, like you. You're not looking to suffer to stay alive. Oh,

Patty 28:48
I'm not. I'm not. It's no, no, there's not. No, there's wouldn't be a quality. I don't want somebody having to to take care of me and change the diaper or whatever. God forbid. Yeah. So I am practical about that even, you know, like some people say, might say, oh, that's awful. You know how you know that's how you feel, yeah, it's how, it's how I feel, and it's okay, it's okay. I've lived a good life. I have beautiful family, most amazing friends. I love my yoga. I love teaching yoga. It has, it has also really helped with my manage, management of all the, yeah, the mental, emotional stuff, okay, comes up with the diabetes, you know, being able to meditate come back to your breathing, to move. And, you know, move with your breath. And you know, I'm not saying I stand on my head, but especially at 70. But the practice. Is a very deeply spiritual practice, and it's very helpful for people with chronic illnesses to be able to just kind of set that aside for half an hour and just be present in your body and learn how to use your breath to bring down the anxiety that comes with having to, you know, having this on you, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the rest of your life, to try to be a major organ. You know, it's like, oh, today, I wasn't I didn't really act that good as a pancreas. I missed that, or I did, you know, I was tired, or whatever. I mean. What other organ Are you in charge of? Okay, yeah, and have to be in charge of for the rest of your life. I Is there one like, you know, the heart they took hook you up to a heart monitor, but you're not going to go in there and start pumping your own heart. Or, you know,

Scott Benner 31:09
you know, I used to say to people that try to imagine that breathing was a thing you had to think about in, out, in, or your heart pumping, that it was your job to that's what it felt like raising Arden, that it was my job to say, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. And if I didn't, if I, if I wasn't focused on it like that, that it might not happen. That was kind of one of the early that's

Patty 31:33
overwhelming, yeah, for Oh my god. When I was running the preschool, a woman came in frantic. She had had her two year old at another school, and he had been diagnosed with type one. He almost died this poor kid. Oh my gosh. And the people at the preschool, they we can't, we can't, you know, help him. You know, we've got 20 other three year olds, you know, it's going to take too much, yeah, and somehow or other, she found us. And I was, like, so thankful that she did. I mean it, he was newly diagnosed. He was all set up with his Omnipod is, you know, he had everything hooked up, and she was right there, you know, like sharing from afar. And I just said to her, we got this, don't worry. Yeah, he's in good hands. And he was, and I

Scott Benner 32:41
didn't ask you a question earlier. I'm sorry, yeah, you said you adopted, right? Yes, your heads are one

Patty 32:50
two boys, men now from South Korea back in 1986 and 1988

Scott Benner 33:01
was that a reason? Could you not have children? Or did you just want to adopt? Or I

Patty 33:05
couldn't. No, I couldn't. We had been trying, you know, which was fun, for seven years. And then I had a procedure done, and, and the doctor said, Well, you'll have a 30% chance, you know, of getting pregnant and and my husband and I, you know, we both come from fairly large families. I'm the oldest of five, he's the sixth of seven. We and we love kids, and we wanted kids, and we were like, I can't wait any longer. Let's just take this into our own hands. And we adopted two beautiful babies from South Korea who are now almost 39 and 37 years old.

Scott Benner 33:51
Wow, that's That's wonderful. Did you keep trying and it just never happened?

Patty 33:56
Yeah, yeah. Kept trying. Never happened. Oh, yeah. Do

Scott Benner 33:59
you think you have is it? Do you do you have any idea where the problem lies? Do you have PCOS?

Patty 34:05
I had a lot of endometriosis. My fallopian tubes were blocked, you know, all sorts of scar tissue and there. So, yeah, you know, it just it. I mean, it just wasn't going to happen, right? So, and that's fine, because we lucked out two brilliant men, you know, hard working, yeah, good, good parts, you know. And we're very proud of them.

Scott Benner 34:35
That's lovely. Are they, yeah, are they local? Do you get to see them? Or are they

Patty 34:40
spreading? Well, actually, our younger son just stopped by Monday. He, he lives in Gainesville. They, they both graduated from University of Central Florida in Orlando. Our oldest son, he still lives in Orlando and works in. Orlando and our younger son moved from Orlando to Gainesville, which is in the middle of the state, and he's been there about 11 years. And he was in he was up in Jupiter, Florida, and he came down to visit us in Point Beach. Did they have their own families? Not yet, not yet, not yet, no. So we'll see.

Scott Benner 35:30
Yeah, that's something else. Well, your your life's been something it's really, really great story.

Patty 35:36
Everybody has a story, right? Scott, I believe you've heard a lot of them,

Scott Benner 35:40
I'd like to hear some more. I'd like to hear some more, because I think the more I hear, the more I understand about myself and everybody else. And

Patty 35:49
that's so true. Yeah, that is so so true.

Scott Benner 35:53
You guys are helping me a lot, so I appreciate it. You know, it's a weird journey that we're that we're all on together. Interesting, how new people come in and out of it all the time. Like, would you say you started listening a couple

Patty 36:07
years ago? Yeah, probably just like two years ago. Wow,

Scott Benner 36:11
it's had that much impact on you already. And I was making it for nine years before that,

Patty 36:15
right? Imagine, and I know, no, I mean, and I, and it's so funny when I, when I listen to the older ones, it's like, wow, he has really, you know, you just get good at get better and better. I mean, you were good at it when you started, you know, because you were coming from that place of really wanting to help other people. So everybody gets that. But then the longer you've been doing it, just like any you know, just like a yoga practice, people think they're gonna, you know, start they never did anything. I can't touch my toes, you know. And they think the first time they go to a class, they're going to do that. I'm like, No, it's a practice. You got to do it every day.

Speaker 1 36:56
A lot of lessons in that about patients, yeah, yeah, you know. So I

Scott Benner 37:00
even wonder, if I went back, how well I do listening to myself. I've never, I've never really, I've never tried it, but

Patty 37:07
you don't have enough time. I would imagine

Scott Benner 37:09
also again, talking about being insane, if I started listening to my own podcast, that'd be crazy as well. But no, I wonder how annoyed I'd be by things I used to do or didn't do or, you know, right kind of stuff, yeah, yeah. Also, I'm always worried that I'll look back and think I was better at it back then. So anyway, Oh, that's funny, yeah. So Patty, I just want to thank you. This was really terrific. I appreciate you taking the time it can I ask you the last question, what made you want to do this?

Patty 37:42
I wanted to share my story because I love listening to you interview the professionals in the field. You know the Pro Tip series, you know the bold beginnings, all of that. But when I hear other people's stories, and, you know, they just inspire me. And I, I always learn something. And so I thought, well, I'll give it a try. I was really excited. In fact, my blood sugar is a little bit higher because I, I just have been excited to meet you and talk to you, so that's why. But I also, you know, I've been a preschool teacher for many, many years, and I, I love to sing, and I love to make up songs, so we're of the same kind of peer group. Did you used to watch Saturday Night Live? Of course, yeah. So one of the comedians on there, I forget what his name is, but he used to come on and say, I wrote a song about it. Want to hear it. Here go. So here's my song for you.

Scott Benner 38:57
You have a song for me? Oh, hold on a second. I thought you. I thought you were gonna say I was a preschool teacher, so I was ready to handle you, Scott, but this is different.

Patty 39:05
Well, that too kind of but this is, it's a very short song. It's very short. And here it goes. Juicebox podcast is good for you, whether your diabetes is one or two. Take some time to listen in. You'll gain so much knowledge, and that's a win.

Scott Benner 39:30
Oh, my God, that's wonderful. Thank you. Listen, Rob. You got to pluck that out and play it at the beginning of the episode, like before, before anything happens before I even say hey, like, Hello friends and welcome back to the Juicebox podcast. Play, play. Patty song first.

Patty 39:48
Oh, wow, thank you. I tell you, I wrote a song about it. Just last night. I was like, I gotta write him a little song.

Scott Benner 39:56
Awesome. Great patty. You could have been on Lawrence wealth back in. Day for sure.

Patty 40:03
Oh, my God, he's laughing. His grandmother loved Lawrence. We used to have to sit there every Saturday night and the one and the two,

Scott Benner 40:13
no kidding us too, like they drag his wife out. I was like, Oh, here we go. Yeah, no one knows what we're talking about right now, but, yeah, I suffered through that too. I just sit on my my grandmother's Davenport and shut my mouth and watch Lauren's walk. There he goes. A lot of old there's a lot of old words I'll throw right together for you. What else did she used to have? What she used to call the ottoman. She called it a passick. Maybe,

Patty 40:41
yes, a hastic, yes, we had one. Yeah, we had one.

Scott Benner 40:45
I know a lot of words, yeah, oh, that's true. How old are you? I turned 54 last weekend.

Patty 40:52
Oh, you're young. Come on, 54

Scott Benner 40:55
I just remember a lot of that stuff. That's all

Patty 40:58
Wow, when you were a baby, when you were watching that? Yeah,

Scott Benner 41:01
no kidding, I was, but I remember it because it was painful. And

Patty 41:05
so, Hey, Scott, can I just throw one more thing in there? I'm sorry. Go ahead, all this stuff. Jordan, the the nurse, head on, yeah, yeah. Ah, you like that. I I'm so glad that I listened to those episodes about the ER, because honestly, I I have, really, I haven't gone, and it's the one thing I like. I should have gone a couple of times. I know I was in DKA and but I'm so stubborn. I stayed home and I treated myself when I really should have gone to the ER, but I have such well, and also having, you know, gone through breast cancer. I really don't care for doctors and all of that stuff. But anyway, he just reassured me. You know it was, it was reassuring that, Okay, you go in there, and I do, I have all my settings and everything down and all and so it made me feel a whole lot better hearing what he had to say about, yeah, yeah, going to the hospital so, and I made my husband listen to that one too. So

Scott Benner 42:23
we're hoping to have Jordan back. He it's a little on him to come up with topics, yeah, stuff that he's passionate about, wanting to talk about, but when he has time, he just had his I don't think I'm, I think I'm, I think Jordan just had his fourth baby recently. He didn't, I believe,

Speaker 1 42:38
I believe his wife a lot of kids. I remember I was like, Wow. I believe his wife

Scott Benner 42:42
had the baby. But like, you know, yeah, he was, yeah, yeah. He might be busy at the moment, is what I'm

Patty 42:48
thinking. I think so, yeah, I think so, but, but he was good. And then you had another gal who, she's probably around my age, but she, she was in she was a psychologist, I think I can't, Sandy. Remember Sandy? Yeah, she was awesome as well. I really liked, I really liked listening to her, yeah, yeah, like I said, I, I really enjoy listening to I love hearing people's stories. And we I

Scott Benner 43:17
appreciate that. Let me tell you. I what I appreciate about it is that you in your 70s can hear somebody in their 60s or 50s, 40s, 30s, 20s, you know, down to little kids talk about diabetes and that it somehow is valuable for everybody. Like, I don't think, I can't think of another scenario where it would be valuable for a 70 year old to listen to a 20 year old. Do you know what I mean, like, or vice versa, or whatever, but there's certainly, I, there's certainly as much value in your story for somebody in their 30s as their 20s, 30s, 50s, etc. Like I, this is a very unique situation where it's really, really a good idea to listen to, yeah, all the different, you know, again, spectrums of people and ages who have had lived through type

Patty 44:04
one. So

Scott Benner 44:07
it's just really, yeah, it's great. Okay, well, I'll thank you very much for doing this, and thank

Patty 44:12
you was delightful. I'm so glad we got a chance to chat. You be well and enjoy your vacation.

Scott Benner 44:19
Thank you. And you beat me to calling you delightful. So thank you. Hold on one second for me. Okay, okay,

I'd like to thank the ever since 365 for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and remind you that if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year and not every 14 days. You want the ever since CGM, ever since cgm.com/juicebox one year, one CGM, the conversation you just enjoyed was brought to you by us. Med, us. Med comm slash juice box, or call, 888-721-1514, get started today and get your supplies from us. Med head now to tandem diabetes.com/juice box and check out today's sponsor tandem diabetes care. I think you're going to find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with the tandem Moby system.

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Scott Benner 9/12/25 Scott Benner 9/12/25

#1626 A River in Egypt - Part 1

Patty, living with type 1 diabetes since 1987, reflects on denial, resilience, and decades of management—sharing how acceptance, support, and learning transformed her journey. Part 1 of 2.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Patty 0:13
Hi Scott. My name is Patty D, and I have had type one diabetes since 1987 diagnosed in 87 but I think I'd had it before then. If

Scott Benner 0:31
this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast, and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts or Spotify, really, any audio app at all. Look for the Juicebox podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by us Med, US med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, get your supplies the same way we do from us. Med, this episode is sponsored by the tandem Moby system, which is powered by tandems, newest algorithm control iq plus technology. Tandem Moby has a predictive algorithm that helps prevent highs and lows, and is now available for ages two and up. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox Hi Scott.

Patty 1:52
My name is Patty D, and I have had type one diabetes since 1987 diagnosed in 87

but I think I'd had it before then. No kidding. Well, how old are you now?

I'm old. Well, I mean, in years, I'm going to be 71 next month,

Scott Benner 2:18
71 Well, listen, you're calling yourself old. I don't know if you heard today's episode where I was making a Tennessee tuxedo reference, making a cartoon reference from the 60s.

Patty 2:29
All right, all right. Well, we're, we're kind of on the same page. I would imagine I

Scott Benner 2:34
might have been there with you, yeah. Well, so you're, you've had diabetes since 87 diagnosed. But you do? You feel like it was before that? What do you mean by

Patty 2:44
that? Well, I there were signs like a year or so prior. I I remember specifically one New Year's Eve, we went out with some friends, and we're waiting way too long to get our meals. And I remember like I was seeing black spots in front of my eyes and and, you know, hey, I was, what, 3031, years old. And I just thought, ah, you know, it's late. And didn't give much more thought to it, but, but, you know, there were other things, but that one in particular, I was thinking last night. So I think, you know, it was starting. It was starting sooner, the year prior to when I finally took my stubborn self to the doctor, who my regular GP, and I had all the classic symptoms, you name them. I had them, peeing, constantly, drinking tons of water, really tired, oh yeah, and oh, I could eat everything, but I kept losing weight, and I've always been thin, and so in my crazy mind, I'm chalking it up to we had just adopted our first son, so, you know, a new mom. And I was like, Oh, it's just because I'm tired. I'm a new mom, but I'd be reading to him after lunch, and I'd fall asleep, and here's a baby, really, yeah, so I just kept ignoring it, ignoring it until I couldn't ignore it anymore. I had a raging infection. You know? Where down there? Yeah. And I was like, Okay, I can't live this way. I'm going to go to my GP. It's 1987 and I was thinking about this as well. He did a urine sample, and. And he comes back and he says, Did you just have like, a sugar donut and put your finger in the specimen? And I was like, No. He said, I'm going to do it again. And he did it again. And he he came back and he said, You have type one diabetes. Now I'm 30 what was I 32 then, I guess, yeah. And, you know, just that reference as well. Why? You know, I mean, here I'm an adult. Most doctors back then would say, Oh, you have type two, right?

He knew I hated him. I don't have type one.

I was so mad, angry. I was like, I'm not taking needle shots. Forget about it. So the poor guy, he was like, Oh well, you know, all right, we'll, we'll try, you know, oral medications,

Scott Benner 6:03
but your pushback made him change his diagnosis.

Patty 6:07
He was like, Well, if you don't want to take insulin, try this. I don't think he changed his diagnosis. He was like, hey, you know you have type one. You scared him. I Okay. I'm a very peaceable person. I'm a yoga teacher. I ran a preschool for 23 years, but I am stubborn, oh, and also denial. Think just a river. I think it's the strongest emotion I'd always been athletic. I ate well, I was like, How dare this guy tell me that I have type one diabetes, which, honestly I didn't know too much about. So

Scott Benner 6:53
you didn't have any backgrounds in it, or actual feelings about what that meant. You just didn't like that somebody told you had an issue. Do you think, yeah,

Patty 7:03
well, yeah, no, yes, and that I was gonna have to take insulin shots, okay, for the rest of my life,

Scott Benner 7:09
he would have told you had type one diabetes and had to take a pill. You think that would have been better for you? Think it was the injection part?

Patty 7:16
No, I think I was just pissed off that my body wasn't working, yeah, the way I thought it should be, yeah, the way, you know, I mean, I was grief stricken, and I gotta tell you, it carried through for many years, because I'm stubborn, you know. And fast forward a couple of months, and I'm, I mean, I looked like a skeleton, right? And my baby was getting chubbier and chubby. I thought I was gonna, yeah, I was gonna die. Where you weren't taking insulin then, right? I wasn't, no, I was still like, well,

Scott Benner 7:54
then Patty, you, you were gonna die. I was gonna

Patty 7:57
die. And, you know, really, it's remarkable that I didn't end up in the hospital, because that's how stubborn I am, you know, and tough time a tough I'm a tough Italian. My husband's job got trained, he got transferred to London, so we were moving to London, and he was already over in London, and we went about three months later. And as well, I went to the doctor before I left, and the same doctor who I scared and who still was like, you know, you really have type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 8:37
You're gonna die, lady, yeah,

Patty 8:41
stubborn idiot. He was probably thinking, probably wanted to smack me upside my head. He said, Listen, do me a favor when you get over to England, here's the card for the British Diabetes Association, and if you need, please get in touch with them. I got on the plane, we had a JFK, my cousins took my son and I to the airport, and they were really worried. Everybody was worried about me, sure, you know, but, but they're afraid of me, you know,

Scott Benner 9:15
like Skeletor,

Patty 9:17
yeah? Well, I mean, no, honestly, yeah, nobody like said the patty, you know, no, they were really kind of afraid. Because I was like, I'm gonna take care of this. Don't you worry.

Scott Benner 9:28
Yeah, Patty, stop for a second. Was that your vibe in general? Do you think people were scared of you in general? Not normally. So you weren't like a person who lured it around and and, Oh no, not, like, just on this

Patty 9:41
issue, on this particular Well, you gotta ask my husband on other issues, but this one, really, yeah,

Scott Benner 9:49
I take him out of it because I assume he has a different story. But I'm saying, like, generally speaking, throughout your life, you didn't see yourself as, like, bullish or or somebody that people kind of kept arms. Distance with Oh God no, no, no, okay.

Patty 10:03
The the opposite, really, is

Scott Benner 10:05
there any hindsight that tells you that the high blood sugar had you Cloudy and not thinking correctly?

Patty 10:11
Oh, sure, yeah, right. Well, absolutely, I was cuckoo, yeah, out of your mind at that point, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I didn't know, Scott, you know. I mean, what the hell did I know? I didn't know. I knew nothing. And but when we arrived in London, Heathrow Airport, we're getting off the plane, and I fell into my husband's arms and said, I gotta go. I gotta get me some insulin, or I'm gonna die. You know, it then I just, yeah, I mean, oh, so thank God. We went. They got us in, and he gave me a vial of long acting and a couple of syringes, he might have said, the doctor there, maybe you want to come back and, you know, we can do some more education or whatever. But hey, my life was going on. I was going to be all right, just giving myself this injection and going on my merry little way. And, I mean, it really is remarkable that I I never ended up in the hospital, because

I would,

well, you know, long acting back in those days, the peaks and the valleys and all that, I knew nothing about that either, but I get my son in his stroller and we'd go walking all through London. It was a beautiful spring, and I always had cookies for them, or biscuits, as they call them over there. And I'd be walking, and all of a sudden, oh, I'm starting to slow down. What the hell I got to pull over? I sat on a stoop and and Mark, my son, very peaceable. I said, Okay, Mark, we're gonna have our snack now. Here's one cookie for you, 23 for mommy.

Scott Benner 12:13
Eat your slow buddy, because Mommy's getting the rest. He talked about, you know, the denial and that it lasted for years, you said, so kind of explain that to me, like, how long did it last? And how did it impact you? How'd you find your way through

Patty 12:29
it? Oh, God, by the grace of God, I guess, you know, well, I never did go for education over in England. And I, you know, I was young, I was healthy. And so I guess that alone kind of carried me through, and I could ignore things. And then when we got back to the States, we were living on Long Island, and I went to Stony Brook hospital, and I, I found a good endo there, and he, I don't know, you know, did he tell me things that I didn't hear? Probably, but I guess my management got a little better on MDI, you know. So then, you know, I was doing long acting, which still was messed up as far as the peaks and the valleys and lows overnight, and then, you know, giving a Bolus of regular for each meals. And I did that for years and years. I didn't tell a lot of, you know, a lot of people, because, you know, it was my thing. My husband, he was scared of me, you know? And so he was like, Okay, you got it, it's okay. But, you know, everybody around me, like, when I'd go low or high, they'd be like, oh, boy, is

Scott Benner 13:51
it interesting that you've been very forward and you you completely know your story. Then I asked you to talk a little bit about the denial part of it. And you got, I don't I fighting for the right word, but you got wishy washy, like, once I asked you to kind of dig into the psychology of it. You You aren't as direct anymore, and you're you said, you must have said, you know, 15 times in the last three minutes. Like you, yeah, it's interesting. You didn't finish a thought. You just kind of were like, well, this, you know, and this you know, like, is it hard to talk about or do you not understand it? This episode is sponsored by tandem Diabetes Care, and today I'm going to tell you about tandems, newest pump and algorithm, the tandem mobi system with control iq plus technology features auto Bolus, which can cover missed meal boluses and help prevent hyperglycemia. It has a dedicated sleep activity setting and is controlled from your personal iPhone. Tandem will help you to check your benefits today through my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, this is going to help you to get started with tandem, smallest pump yet that's powered by its best out. Rhythm ever control iq plus technology helps to keep blood sugars in range by predicting glucose levels 30 minutes ahead, and it adjusts insulin accordingly. You can wear the tandem Moby in a number of ways. Wear it on body with a patch like adhesive sleeve that is sold separately. Clip it discreetly to your clothing or slip it into your pocket head now to my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, to check out your benefits and get started today. I used to hate ordering my daughter's diabetes supplies. I never had a good experience, and it was frustrating. But it hasn't been that way for a while, actually, for about three years now, because that's how long we've been using us Med, us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, us, med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omnipod, the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide, the number one rated distributor in Dexcom customer satisfaction surveys. They have served over 1 million people with diabetes since 1996 and they always provide 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping us med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and Dexcom g7 they accept Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers find out why us med has an A plus rating With a better business bureau at usmed.com/juicebox, or just call them at 888-721-1514, get started right now, and you'll be getting your supplies the same way we do

Patty 16:52
denial. I think I have a pretty good understanding about it. I think I was in denial that I had a really serious chronic illness, and kind of wanted to ignore things about it. Thank you for bringing me back, because I have so much in my head.

Scott Benner 17:18
I know you're doing wonderfully. Were you were you ashamed to have it? Were you embarrassed? Ah, you just, no, you just didn't want it to

Patty 17:27
be the case. I don't think I was ashamed. I don't think I was embarrassed. I think that I just was in denial, and it was something that came out of left field that I wasn't expecting. I never anticipated. You know, living with a chronic or prepared

Scott Benner 17:48
to do what you needed to do, yeah, I'm beginning to believe, Patty, over the years of doing this, that when people are like, it doesn't bother me. It's okay, blah, blah, blah. Like, I think that's partially denial too. Like, yeah, we can look at that and think of that as bravery, or they're so strong, or whatever. Or, like, you know, I mean, but yeah, as I'm, you know, listening to people talking to people watching hard and get older, like, as I'm doing all these things, I believe that there's a cycle here. I know it's going to be at your own pace, but you have to go through that entire cycle and get to the part that says, I think it's acceptance, like, I'm not a therapist, but like, I think you have to get, yeah, I think you have to get to that part where you just say, like, this is it, and it is what it is, and all of the T shirt slogans that go along with that, right? And I might have a seizure one day. I might pass out while I'm driving. This might happen. That might happen. None of these things may happen. All the possibilities exist. I'm aware of what they are, and I'm Zen about it. And and I think those are the people that I that when I speak to them, I think they found the closest thing to balance with diabetes and maybe auto autoimmune in general that I see right? Yeah, that's what it feels like to me at this point.

Patty 19:11
You You're so right, and what you just said made me think about

you as the parent you had no choice.

This was your child's life you were going to find out. And all parents, you know, they cannot be in denial. And my heart just goes out to all the parents parenting children with with any chronic illness, but because I have type one, I know all that it takes. And I was thinking for for parents of children with type one, it's a it's a different, a different way of approaching it. You. You cannot deny this. And you know also, most children get a week or five days in the hospital with this, with intensive, you know, care and education and blah, blah. But adults, they're like, Oh yeah, here's a vial of insulin. Some syringes go out there. You'll, you know, you won't die. I think you

Scott Benner 20:26
know to your your just your very recent point that it's different for caregivers. And I think you might have been talking about me specifically, like, even though, I mean, there's a good argument to be made that I have thrown myself into this in a different way and come up with a number of workarounds, you know, tips, tricks that we use every day that's kept my daughter's like, variability down, her a 1c, down, etc. Like, as she's getting older, it becomes more and more apparent to me

Patty 20:58
that none of that

Scott Benner 21:00
addresses the other part of it, like the management's great, but her journey, whatever her journey will be, is still going to happen. It doesn't get mitigated. I'm sorry for people who are hearing this for the first time, that psychological part of this whole thing is not mitigated by knowing how to Bolus or understanding, you know, the impacts of fat and protein. These things make your life better. They make your health easier. I think they make your day easier. It doesn't mean you don't have to at some point in the back of your mind, in a quiet place, in a dark room, come to grips with the fact that your body let you down, and it does every day, and it's going to continue to and you're going to fight against that until your last breath. It's not a thing that's going to go away. And how do you do that without making yourself angry, sad, lonely, sick, tired, all the other things that could possibly come from this, as much as I wanted it to be true, everything I figured out it didn't give Arden to get out of jail free card on all that other stuff, and I don't think it's going to do it for anybody else, either. That is the thing I hoped for earlier on as time goes past that. I just don't think that's I don't think that's how people work. There's no like you can't jump ahead through your feelings and and how your mind works. You have to, I don't know, I honestly don't know how to quantify it, but there's a thing you have to do, a process or a journey, or call where the hell you want. You don't do it. You get stuck where you are. And also, life happens, and life throws us a lot of

Patty 22:49
excuse me, stress. And for me, the longer I've had type one, and I have come to acceptance, I have I still get pissed off. I still have anxiety due to the fact that I'm running out of real estate or infusion sites. So every time I change it out the other day i i use true steel. I'm on a tandem tea slim, which I love, which also I had no clue when I switched from Medtronic to tea slim, all the intricacies. And I guess I was still like, oh, it's kind of like Medtronic. It's not. And here's where the Juicebox podcast came in, and your podcast has changed the way I can manage this disease better, and I'm so grateful. And I tell everybody who has type one or type, I tell everyone you know this, you gotta tune in. You're gonna learn so much. I mean, from pre bolusing to bumping and nudging to, I mean, all the tricks I may not I wasn't doing that up until, like I want to say I've been listening two years, and I kind of knew about the podcast, I guess, through Facebook, maybe. And then I was like, oh, that's just for, you know, parents with kids, Juicebox, I thought. And then I decided, you know, to start listening. And I was like, I was blown away. I've tuned in a lot. I love Jenny. I've had a session with integrative diabetes systems. I am finishing up the blue circle Health Program, which I found out from listening to your podcast. Me about blue circle health, and I just have to put in a big yoo hoo shout out. That program is another thing I tell everybody about a free program where you have endocrinologist, social workers, nutritionists, insurance, people that are there for you,

Scott Benner 25:26
it's a great idea. I hope they can get the word out wider about it, because that's always the biggest problem with anything, really is like, how do you, how do you make people aware of it? And so

Patty 25:37
word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools. I believe that I have found,

Scott Benner 25:42
I think that's the only reason the pop, the what you just said for the past three minutes, is the only reason why the podcast is popular. I can't really impact it on a marketing side, I've looked at things. I mean, I'm sure if there was, like, an unending amount of money here, I could just pour over top of something like that. Maybe you could force it, you know, but in the end, people need to hear it and think it's valuable enough to tell somebody else about. That's really how it works. It's the only way it works. Honestly, that's true. I want to thank you for your kind words, you know, over the last couple of minutes, and tell you that I've been having a rather emotional couple of weeks meeting a lot of people who have type one in person, who listen to the podcast. So touched me very deeply what you said, and I appreciate

Patty 26:28
it. I was thinking, you have a really, really tough job. I hope you're going to take a vacation and relax a little bit, because I know you did the cruise, right, and it sounds to me like you are an extrovert, and I think I am somewhat an extrovert, but I know I do need to have time to just kind of recharge my battery, especially when you're working so closely with so many people that have a lot of you know issues, yeah, you know health issues, families, all, all the issues. Well, then

Scott Benner 27:06
it will make you happy, Patty, to know that in nine days, I'm getting on an airplane with my family and I won't be back. Let's see I leave on Saturday and I won't be back till I won't be home until I think we land midnight the following Saturday when we come home. So there's a nice I know where I'm gonna be. I will be somewhere in a chair somewhere near an ocean, sitting very still and staring out into it and trying to comprehend everything I've learned over the last couple of weeks. And, you know, trying to relax and spend time with my kids and my wife and the four of us together, which, you know, those days are gonna get numbered as the kids get older and older. So yeah, I am gonna do that. I'll tell you that couple of things happened. So the cruise was awesome. We took about 100 people on a on a cruise, all listeners. We're gonna do it again next year. So if you're interested, there's links in the show notes that come with us in 2026 and six. And 2026 we're going to go out of Miami. I'm not going to get all these details right out of Miami through some like Coke Okay, Bay or something in the Bahamas. And then we're going to St, Thomas, st, Kitts, and then just the whole Caribbean cruise. It's going to be seven days this time. I don't want to say the cruise line, because I don't want to get it wrong, because they, there's two of them that begin with the C whichever one is the nicer one? Is it celebrity carnival? I guess now I have to, I'll figure it out.

Patty 28:30
Yeah, yeah. I forget, I forget which one's the nicer one. I guess it depends on who

Scott Benner 28:35
it's not the one where everybody's drunk on the on the and running around for seven days. Yeah, oh, that's

Patty 28:40
good family good. You wouldn't want to have a bunch of drunk diabetes running around. It's going to be

Scott Benner 28:45
family friendly. But also, you know, adult friendly as well. On this giant, newer ship, it's really awesome, like so we learned a lot running it the first time, but, but one of the things that I did that I don't know how well I'm going to be able to accomplish the next time, because I imagine it. I mean, with much luck, it'll be bigger than it was the first time. So this might end up being a one time experience for me, but I ate dinner with everybody that I went with. Wow. I basically ate dinner twice a night and sat at a table with 10 people. I didn't really eat the whole time I was picking and, you know, talking, right, just to hear people like face to face to, you know, they tell their stories and, you know, talk about how it's been valuable for them to show or, you know, you know, tell me other things that they wanted to tell me to really get to know people, look them in the eye and talk to them. I was exhausted while I was doing it, so hopefully I wasn't like a maniac, yeah, but I did basically a five o'clock dinner and then a 715 dinner, and then at nine, at nine o'clock, I was done five nights in a row, and yeah, I was so happy to meet everybody that way, because it just it was different, like I sat on the deck with a gentleman and his two kids, and we played a board game with a. Kids. I just sat there for an hour and we, I put and his, you know, his son has diabetes. We just sat there and just played a dumb board. You I beat those kids, by the way, they, they were no match for me. You didn't let them win. The first time, that was enough. The second time, I don't know, I caught a rhythm and, you know, listen, he was little. If I didn't beat him, what would it upset about me? You know, Kid beat me twice. He'd

Patty 30:25
say, Oh, he's not as smart as he thinks he is.

Scott Benner 30:30
But you know, between that and just like hearing from someone like we went out of a port in Galveston, there are people there that drove from Alabama, from South Carolina, that flew in from Toronto, from California, to get on that ship to, you know, some sun and fun and, you know, jump in the pool and stuff like that, and to meet other people with type one diabetes. But each and every one of them, I'm not lying, found a moment to come to me and say, I really appreciate that podcast. Thank you. And some people hugged by people. People told me they loved me, people I've never met before. Was really impactful. And then I was only home for a week before I went back out and went to friends for life in Orlando, Jeff Hitchcock's organization children with diabetes, and I did some work for tandem. While I was there, I interviewed a bunch of little kids, which you should probably be seeing on their social media already, and hopefully here on the podcast, we'll have audio from it at some point as well. And then I was a vendor, basically for three days. So on opening night, the vending tables open at I think it was 7pm and it went to 10 maybe. And for three solid hours, there were 5070, people in front of me, at times, waiting in line patiently to come up and say, Hey, this podcast really helped me. A new group of people, yeah. And then, and then a lovely guy named Rob Howe came over. And Rob has a podcast about diabetes too. He came over to me, and I, you know, I won't say his words here, but he was effusively kind about what I've done making this podcast, it to the point where, like, I can't, I couldn't quantify it the way he did, yeah, and what he thinks it's meant to him and to the people that hear it, and the community at Large. And I have to tell you, I was like speechless. I just said thank you. When I was done, I didn't know what to say, but it was one of the first times. I don't do a lot of industry things, right? So this is maybe the there's about 2000 people there, and I mean, they take up the entire convention center. As I walked around and experienced the space, and could see that like, no kidding, that every third person that walked by me looked at me like, that's the guy from the thing. I didn't know my place in the whole thing, you know what I mean. And then I got there and saw it, and I realized maybe all the nice things you guys come on and say to me, like, maybe they're like, real, you know, like,

Patty 33:07
yeah, they are real. They are real. And you know, you know, you do a podcast, and like you said, you don't, you don't look at the people. So you know people are saying it to you, but are you really getting, you know, the impact that you have made, and this, this legacy

that you've built for

yourself. I mean, you know when you didn't go into it saying, Oh, I'm sure you know you, you went into it to share your knowledge about what you have learned. And you know, I gotta say, I think you're really smart too to have all of that

come back at you and to

just let it wash over you, because I know people are mean, because I see some of the things I don't read them all, because people online or in Facebook that you know, people say things that are kind of ridiculous. We as human beings, what do we focus on? That's how our brains were set up way back in prehistoric times. The negative, you know, if a big monster bear is going to come and get you, you're going to be focused on that more. Then it takes 1000 good things to balance that out also.

Scott Benner 34:39
So I'm not a maniac. So, like, I was I so when, when, you know, yeah, but meaning, like, like, I am in a weird position where no lie daily, a couple of dozen people are going to tell me something really lovely. And if I sat there and read every one of those things and thought, That's right, I'm awesome. I'd be out of my mind. And I don't, so I don't, you know, you don't even allow yourself to do that,

Patty 35:04
really. That sounds like your wife keeps you home, seems to

Scott Benner 35:08
enjoy it. I don't want to take away her favorite thing to do. Yeah? I mean, every the whole life makes you humble, right? Like, yeah, and oh yeah, and at the same time, like, You're not wrong. I guess plenty of people like don't like me, and that's I would say that, you know, commiserate to the number of people listening. My ratio is pretty good, you know. And I think some people have legitimate, they make legitimate points, and some people are probably jealous, and some people are probably a little out of their mind, and some, there's a, you know, a spectrum of all that, just like, on the but, but again, you'd be a maniac. If, like, if you're gonna say, look, some people are crazy, you also have to say some people are overly enthusiastic, too. And like, so, you know, what's that saying is, like, you know, if I'm gonna believe the bad ones, I gotta, you know, you know, I gotta believe the, if I'm gonna believe the good ones, I gotta believe the bad ones and or, like, maybe, and so you just get to a point after you're doing it for a while, where you're just, like, I just don't care. Like, I, if I'm gonna keep making this, then none of you exist. Like, do you know you mean, like, I can't like, The Good, the Bad, that it doesn't matter anymore. Like, I'm a stream of consciousness. You'll take what you take from it, hopefully something valuable. And if not, I try, right? Yeah. So when you're in that mechanism, when you're doing this thing that I'm doing, and you're doing it to so many people, I mean, the podcast is about to hit 20 million downloads. Not a lot of podcasts do that. So like, when you're in that space,

Patty 36:38
I never listen to a podcast. It's possible I'm 70 years old, never was interested.

Scott Benner 36:45
May have drug A lot of new people into listening to podcasts. So, but the point being is that you just can't like to get through all these years of doing it. You have to do that. Well, listen, I'm just not going to listen to anybody because I don't think I'm the I don't think I'm Satan, and I don't think I'm Jesus, right? Like, so if people are saying stuff, I'm like, just, I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do. But I realized on that cruise, and I realized that friends for life, and I realized when I stood face to face to people by doing that I'm minimizing the stories and I'm overvaluing the clicks and the downloads as as my measurement for my value. And I promised myself last week that I'm, I mean, listen, I'm still going to do the business of the business right, like and I know what I need to do to make it popular enough that people buy ads and so that I can keep making it I'm not I'm not an idiot. I'm going to keep doing what needs to be done. But when I stop at the end of the day and value myself, I'm going to value myself based on people's stories, their outcomes, their health and their happiness, and that's just how I'm going to do this from now on. Because I think I stopped listening to all of your I didn't stop listening to all your it's a weird thing to say, like I've read everything that someone sent me a note about, right? And it means something to me, but after you hear the 1000s or the fifth, you know, or the 5001 it's, you know, you're like, oh yeah. Like, I mean, you're not like, Oh yeah, I saved your life. Awesome. Like, it's not like that, but it is. You do expect what you get when it starts coming back. I'm like, yeah, they the podcast does what it does and and for the people it helps, this is usually their outcome. And I don't want to be blase about that. I don't think I have been, but I want to make sure not to be. And moreover, when I value myself later, the currency I'm going to value myself in is not downloads and listen through rate and all the other stuff that podcasting is behind the scenes. My value is going to be people with a smile on their face, saying I figured out how to do something. I feel healthier. I'm doing better, like that. That's my currency. So that's what I learned. Going out

Patty 38:48
immediately. Thank you. That's good. How. How many years have you been doing the podcast I

Scott Benner 38:54
started in January of 2015 so this is 2025 this is the 11th I'm making the 11th year right now, yeah, and that'll be over, you know, at the end of and the other thing too is that I put out five episodes a week. You know, I probably put out more episodes in, I mean, in fairness to people like, probably in two months than most podcasts put out in a year.

Patty 39:24
You know? Yeah, it's intense. It's an it's an intense workload that that you have. I mean, you're, you're a worker, you know, and you know, I'm really glad that you've come to this place in your journey, and you've recognized that, you know, you, you might have been coming,

not blase, but, yeah, I think I just got you, I got accustomed to it.

Yeah, right, but, but that you've realized that, in the end, it's about the people sleep. Lives that you have impacted in such a real and valuable way that, as you said it just before that, that we can go on having this knowledge that we've learned from you and use it in our own lives to help ourselves to manage this disease.

Scott Benner 40:30
I found myself giving myself a little credit yesterday for something. It was something that was said to me. I'd like to be clear before I say anything else. Like, I'm always really clear about it, like I make a living from this. Like, it's not like, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's not. But you said it earlier, and I, I know my intention, my intention is to help people that it, that it became this popular, or that it made money, was not the intention. It's a variable that I didn't expect, right? But I was speaking to have to be very vague here, I guess I was speaking to somebody I do business with yesterday who was talking to me about another person in my space ish, that they do business with that they said, We're going to stop, we're going to stop associating with them. And I said, Oh, that, you know, okay, like, I didn't know where, where this was coming from, because people are, generally speaking, do not. The people I work with professionally are not talking behind other people's backs, you know what? I mean, gotcha, yeah, what it came to is that I have a very good relationship with this person and I and we've known each other a very long time. And I think they were asking me, like, do you know this person? Like, am I making an assessment that that's accurate? And on this third person? And I said, don't know them personally. I've never spoken to them, never corresponded with them. I have one story that was given to me third party, and it scared me about them. Here's my here's what I was told by another person that I, you know, I think, was looking out for me, and I believed, and was in a room with a lot of other people, and so I've heard corroborating stories, you know, subsequently that could tell me that I that I think what was said to me was accurate. And I said, So my feeling about this person is

this episode was too good to cut anything out of but too long to make just one episode. So this is part one. Make sure you go find part two. Right now it's going to be the next episode in your feet us. Med, sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Check them out at us. Med, Comm, slash Juicebox, or by calling 888-721-1514, get your free benefits check and get started today with us. Med, the podcast you just enjoyed was sponsored by tandem diabetes care. Learn more about tandems, newest automated insulin delivery system, tandem Moby, with control iq plus technology at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox there are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox podcast. Private Facebook group Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome type one type two, gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me, if you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out Juicebox podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook. If your loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're seeking a clear, practical perspective, check out the bold beginning series on the Juicebox podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal insight into type one our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions, you'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juicebox podcast, the bold beginning series, and all of the collections in the Juicebox podcast are available in your audio app and@juiceboxpodcast.com in the menu. Hey, what's up? Everybody? If you've noticed that the podcast sounds better and you're thinking like, how does that happen? What you're hearing is Rob at wrong way recording, doing his magic to these files. So if you want him to do his magic to you, wrong way recording.com, you got a podcast you want somebody to edit? It you want. Rob.

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