#1655 Bain’s Mom Marlee (TikTok) - Part 1

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Crystal, 33, T1D since 12, recounts DKA, insulin restriction for weight, congenital health challenges, and her turnaround—prebolusing, diet tweaks, and pursuing an insulin pump—with community support and hope.

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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
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Marley 0:14
Hey, my name is Marley. I have a type one diabetic, one year old son named Bane, and you may have seen us on Tiktok or Instagram and now even Facebook, we just post our life as a family handling type one diabetes and our toddler son, and just go with the flow and do whatever.

Scott Benner 0:36
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 at Juicebox podcast.com in the menu, nothing you hear on The Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Summertime is right around the corner, and Omnipod five is the only tube free automated insulin delivery system in the United States, because it's tube free, it's also waterproof, and it goes wherever you go. Learn more at my link, omnipod.com/juicebox That's right. Omnipod is sponsoring this episode of the podcast, and at my link, you can get a free starter kit. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox 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, the show you're about to listen to is sponsored by the ever since 365 the ever since. 365 has exceptional accuracy over one year and is the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get ever since cgm.com/juicebox

Marley 2:33
Hey, my name is Marley. I have a type one diabetic one year old son named Bane, and you may have seen us on Tiktok or Instagram and now even Facebook, but we just post our life as a family handling type one diabetes and our toddler son, and just go with the flow and do whatever. All right,

Scott Benner 2:57
let's talk about that. How old was Bane? Also with Bane. Like, is that a Batman reference?

Marley 3:03
Actually, not. My husband does love Batman, and he actually told me that was a character in Batman, like, probably three months after we decided we were going to name him that, and it's not spelled the same as Batman's. I don't believe gotcha, but it's just a name that I heard and I liked it, and I thought it would be a strong name because of our last name, and it's just, I don't know we love it,

Scott Benner 3:27
yeah? No, I do too. Actually, it's different. Yeah, it is. It's very cool. So Benner is your first

Marley 3:34
he is my first child, which is kind of traumatic that this happened as a first time mom. He was diagnosed at 12 months old. He had his first birthday, and then five days later, we were in DKA in the hospital to being told that he has diabetes, and it was a whole thing.

Scott Benner 3:51
Well, five days after his first birthday, yeah, it was horrible. I imagine my daughter was a week or two after her second birthday, and that was also crazy. So prior to that first birthday, did anything stick out to you as being sketchy, weird, anything medical,

Marley 4:08
really, no, like in hindsight, now that I know the symptoms and the characteristics of type one diabetes, yes, but at that point, no, he's always been a very healthy child. He never really got sick. He's only gotten sick twice in his life. He had an anaphylactic reaction to eggs when he was nine months, going on 10 months old. And then, other than that, no, we had never nothing stuck. Noticed anything now, what made us take him to the ER, he was started having, like that, lethargic, heavy breathing. Then he then it started the vomiting, and it just kind of really started to snowball within a few hours, and it got really bad. Where we were, my husband was like, we have to take him to the hospital. And we went, and I. Thinking they would tell us like he has the flu, or he has RSV, or, you know, normal things that normal babies have. He was in DKA though, yeah, he was in DKA and in a diabetic coma, and they were like, your son has type one diabetes. And you just never expect anybody to be told that, especially your infant son, and it was just, it hit home. It was horrible, like it truly was, No,

Scott Benner 5:25
it's not one of the things you plan for when you're thinking about having a family, that's for sure. No. So he had the Coos, small respirations. He was breathing really heavily. And then was that just for, like, the day, and then the vomiting, and then the hospital was, did it all come like in a very close time period?

Marley 5:43
It did like leading up, like I would say that week, three days before he got diagnosed. He was being grumpier than usual, kind of really tired. He always drank a lot. He was a big breast feeder. He was big on water. He always was drinking. He's been like that. Since he was a newborn, he was just one of those type of babies, and then he also was always peeing out of his diapers. And people just were like, That's what boys do. They just do that. So being a first time mom, you just don't think,

Scott Benner 6:16
tell me, Marley, how long was the peeing out of the diapers going on for?

Marley 6:20
Probably I would say at least a month or two.

Scott Benner 6:23
Okay, truly, I'm gonna guess that's your time frame of like on set to Yeah, to diabetes, truly,

Marley 6:29
now that I know things, now that I understand what the characteristics and the symptoms of type one are, yeah, he was doing all of them. He was excessive thirst. He was excessive ping. Then the vomiting came, the weight loss was there, all that stuff. But I feel like a lot of those symptoms go hand in hand with babies. And they want babies to have wet diapers. They want babies to start losing that chunky baby weight and transitioning to toddlers when they're moving. They want you to be eating all the time like they want that so you don't look at that as like, my baby's weird. He's doing something he's not supposed to do because you want them to be growing. You wanting them to be doing that type of stuff. So now that I know, yeah, he had all of them like he truly did, but until it became horrible, like that day, I would say eight hours, he went from like a grumpy, cutting teeth toddler, to like, he can't keep his eyes open,

Scott Benner 7:26
right? And was he actually in a coma by the time you got to the hospital?

Marley 7:30
Yeah, he was. So what happened is, we took him to the urgent clinic, because it was like five o'clock. His pediatrician's office was closed. We took him to the urgent clinic. They were like, he has a double ear infection. We're gonna give him a rosefin shot. So they gave him a shot. They made us sit there. It was his first ear infection he had ever had. They gave him the infection or the rosefin shot, and they were like, sit here, and we're gonna monitor him to make sure, you know, nothing happens from the shot. So we sit there. He starts vomiting on me, which was weird, because I had never seen him throw up before, other than the egg allergy prior. And so everything got good. He kind of got a little bit more perky, so he wasn't as lethargic at that point. And then we drove home from the point where we got into the car and got home, he probably threw up six times, and when we got home, he was, like, grabbing water. He was trying to grab anything. And he's 12 months old. He can't even walk at this point. Yeah, he's just grabbing it, guzzling it down, then projectile vomiting. That's when my husband was like, we're taking him to the ER, like, we're going right now. And we finally went in and, yeah,

Scott Benner 8:37
I interviewed an adult once that the story in their family was that she was diagnosed as a toddler, and when they finally figured out something was going on, they caught her drinking out of the toilet.

Marley 8:49
And I think Bane truly would have done that, because, sure, I've never seen it was like a crack addict trying to get their drug like, that's literally what it looked like. No, I imagine it was rabid. He needed

Scott Benner 9:01
it. Tell me something when he's in when they tell you he's comatose. Like, what do they explain to you about the process and the outcomes they're hoping for and what might go wrong? Like, how do they explain all that to you?

Marley 9:14
So we live in a pretty small town in Mississippi. We do have a hospital. We have an emergency room. So we took him to that small hospital, and we probably were there. It felt like forever, but we were probably there 45 minutes, and the doctor, literally, they swabbed him, they chest x rayed him, whatever they the doctor walked in, and he literally, honestly, it was kind of hurtful to me. He walked in, he was like, your son's got diabetes. Like, that's exactly how he said it, and your mouth just drops. You look at him, like, Are you freaking kidding me? Like, are you serious? He has diabetes? What went through my head was, like, how does my son get diabetes? I knew what type one was. I had a friend growing up in high school that had type one. My husband has relatives with type one. But I feel like my mind automatically went to type two and like, How does my infant son have diabetes? He's only eating organic food. He's breastfed. Like, I've tried to be the perfect mom. How does this happen, right? So when he walked in, he was like, I didn't realize, you know how serious it was.

Scott Benner 10:18
Yeah, your head didn't jump to type one, no. Yeah, right.

Marley 10:21
And he was like, He's in DKA. And told me what DKA was. He was like, we're calling an ambulance. He's getting on an ambulance, and the first bed that opens up in an ICU, you're going. So they called Le Bonner in Memphis, they called our hospital in Jackson. They called all the children's hospitals that were within four hours from us. And the first one that got a bed, we went to it, and the doctor came in. He was like, actually, your son is so bad, basically, that he's getting on a helicopter and we're airlifting him to the

Scott Benner 10:51
bats they life flighted him. How to where? Where do you go to? We went to

Marley 10:55
children's of Mississippi, or also known as batson's Children's Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, and praise God, they let me get on the air or the helicopter with him, because I don't think I would have made it, driving three hours from where we are to him. But yeah, it was a whole thing.

Scott Benner 11:11
No kidding. Hey, do you have any autoimmune issues, hypothyroidism, celiac, you got any eczema, vitiligo,

Marley 11:19
nothing. Don't I do think my hut, we have went to every type of specialist known to man. For my husband, he gets chronic mouth ulcers, like 12 at a time. He's had everything under the moon done. He's seen every kind of doctor possible. He's been tested for autoimmune it never rings up that he has any audio autoimmune disorders, but I truly do think he probably does, and they just can't figure out what it is the

Scott Benner 11:45
type one's in his family line, though, so this is what type one yeah, that I'm gonna tell you. I don't, it doesn't matter if they're destined or not, like it's autoimmune runs in his side of the family as type one diabetes. I don't think it's crazy that your that your son has it.

Marley 12:01
So, yeah, I definitely think it was a genetic thing. It's all of the cousins he has on his grandmother's side. I think it's his second, third, and now some of his fourth cousins are all getting type one diabetes. Wow, how about that, which is insane, but

Scott Benner 12:15
it's the bane of their existence. Yeah, literally, yeah. By the way, there's so many titles just with your name, Scott. We could easily call this pain in my existence. We could easily call this Marley and Me, because you and I are talking. Oh yeah, there's, there's 1000 ways to go here, but we'll figure it out as we as we head through. Okay, so you're, can I ask how old you are when this happens?

Marley 12:36
I was 27 Okay, first child,

Scott Benner 12:40
young yourself. How long have you been married? We've been married for five years. Wow. Okay, so yeah, I mean, you're still your young person starting a family. It's not what you're expecting. Obviously. No, no for sure once. Well, I guess my question should be, how long did that Tacoma State last

Marley 12:59
so once we got airlifted to Batson, they do triage different, like, they bring you to the, er, that's where it's so it's also a learning hospital, because it's our state's Children's Hospital, so it's all residents and doctors and nurses. Like, it's, yeah, hundreds of people. So when we got there, hundreds of people start coming in. They're talking to me like, Oh, my God, we never see 12 month olds in DKA. We never see babies with diabetes. Like, so I'm feeling like, awesome, a unicorn that has a horrible thing on it. Like, I just felt I was like, What did I do? Like, what did I do to deserve this?

Scott Benner 13:38
Help me? Marley, did it feel, you know, you mentioned Jesus already, so, like, Did it feel like something got given to you or done to you? Or did you feel like you did something wrong? Like, I'm trying to figure out what the feelings were that you were fighting with, right then,

Marley 13:51
I think the feelings I was fighting for, besides, like, Is my child gonna stay alive? Is how does this happen when I'm such a type, a perfectionist type person, and I tried to do everything perfect, and then that something like this tries to take his life. It was just, it was horrible, yeah, like it really was, did

Scott Benner 14:15
it give you that, that kind of lost feeling, like it doesn't seem to matter what I do, like this. How did this horrible thing happen? There's nothing you can do about it. Yeah, I know how you feel. I hope you're having luck giving that away. You're not carrying that around with you. Are you?

Marley 14:30
Oh, no, we're good now. Good, good, good. How long ago was this? So he was diagnosed on August the 16th, so he's coming up on his one year of we've been dealing with

Scott Benner 14:39
this. Yeah, very recently, no kidding, shit show for sure. You know, obviously pulls through, and he's doing well and like, how long is he in the hospital for? And when they send you home, try to go back to that time and tell me about the understanding you have of your new responsibilities when you think of a CGM and all the good that it brings. In your life, it's the first thing you think about. I love that I have to change it all the time. I love the warm up period every time I have to change it. I love that when I bump into a door frame, sometimes it gets ripped off. I love that the adhesive kind of gets mushy sometimes when I sweat and falls off. No, these are not the things that you love about a CGM. Today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the ever since 365 the only CGM that you only have to put on once a year, and the only CGM that won't give you any of those problems. The ever since 365 is the only one year CGM designed to minimize the vice frustration. It has exceptional accuracy for one year with almost no false alarms from compression lows while you're sleeping, you can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the ever since 365 learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juicebox one year, one CGM. Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. It might sound crazy to say, but Summertime is right around the corner. That means more swimming, sports activities, vacations, and you know what's a great feeling, being able to stay connected to automated insulin delivery while doing it all. Omnipod five is the only tube free automated insulin delivery system in the US, and because it's tube free and waterproof, it goes everywhere you do in the pool, in the ocean or on the soccer field. Unlike traditional insulin pumps, you never have to disconnect from Omnipod five for daily activities, which means you never have to take a break from automated insulin delivery. Ready to go. Tube free. Request your free Omnipod five Starter Kit today at omnipod.com/juicebox Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox type that link into your browser or go to Juicebox podcast.com and click on the image of Omnipod right at the bottom, there is also a link right in the show notes of your podcast player.

Marley 17:03
So he was in the pediatric ICU for about three ish days. I would say they checked his blood every hour, took two vials of blood every four hours, and basically, I would say he was like in the coma type state for at least two days, didn't wake up, wasn't eating, woke up the third day, and you know, they don't allow you to eat until they're ready for your sugar, like your sugars have to be down for them to see how. I guess it's working. I don't know. I was so confused at that point, but he finally was allowed to eat on the third day, and then that's when his sugars were finally better, his bicarb, or whatever those words are, they use the blood gasses they were checking his gap was closed, and all that stuff. And they moved us to like, they call it their education floor, which it was like going from the nicest hotel to the crappiest hotel on the block. It was horrible. And that's where they taught us, around the clock, how to give insulin, how to dose for carbs. And like, I felt so lost, and I asked that nurse probably a million times, like, Okay, show me this math again. Like, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to draw this insulin? He's getting one unit of Lantis, like, I can't even find one unit on this insulin pen. Like they're having to give us half unit syringes. And the nurses were so they're like, we don't see this in infants. Let me go try to find a half unit syringe, because we don't ever use those.

Scott Benner 18:35
And, yeah, now you're talking about, you're telling me a lot of things that happened to us too. Like, I'm hearing a lot of similarities,

Marley 18:41
even the doctor, like his endocrinologist, she's wonderful. We still use her. She was with us when he was there, when he got diagnosed. We still use her. She's wonderful. She's like the head of the teaching medical university at that hospital. And she honestly was my lifesaver. Like every time she would come in, she would let me know, like, he's gonna be okay. He's gonna if he wants to be a pro football player, he'll still be a pro football player. If he wants to climb mountains, like he'll still do that, like it's okay. You can do whatever you want with him. He's gonna be fine. He's just in a

Scott Benner 19:18
horrible state right now. Yeah, Was that helpful to you, to make you feel better, for sure, especially

Marley 19:23
hearing it from somebody that you hear is like a diabetic guru. And she, this is her job. She understands this. So you feel like her telling you that is like, kind of like reassuring, in a way, sure,

Scott Benner 19:37
hey, I mean, and this is only I would imagine, like, a handful of hours or days removed from you thinking he might not live right? Like, yeah, yeah. I'm not putting words in your mouth, right? You guys weren't sure. You guys weren't sure he was gonna live right, yeah. Can I ask a little bit about the interpersonal during the hospital stay between you and your husband? Because you're young, you've been married. Quite a long time, so you've got a little rhythm going, but you haven't been married 20 years. Did you ever have time to assess him or him you about how you guys were dealing with this, or did you feel like because I'm trying to say that, like when, when this was happening between me, my wife, my daughter, and my my son, who was older and not in the hospital with us at the time, I don't know how to explain that I felt like I was insulated inside of a bubble, and I wasn't really connecting with my wife or my daughter like a lot. Felt like it was happening to me, while it felt like a lot was happening to my daughter, and I could look over at my wife and see that she was in trouble, and I didn't have the ability to worry about my wife and, like, and I don't feel like she had the ability to worry about me. So it felt like we all insulated ourselves into our own bubbles. Like Arden was just in a dead stare, basically, you know, just, and I was just digging in on what was happening. What was my responsibility? You start thinking about how it's going to change your life, her life, like you said, like, what are you going to be able to do? And then I looked at my wife, and I felt like she was going through the same thing. Like, the last thing you could do was, like, almost worry about another person in that situation. I was wondering if you had a similar experience. 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 beta bionics, the stuff you're looking for, they have it at us. Med, 888-721-1514, or go to us. Med.com/juicebox, to get started now use my link to support the podcast. That's us. Med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514,

Marley 22:19
yeah. So we definitely had a similar experience like I was worried about myself. I was worried about our family in a hole. I was worried about Bane, obviously, continuing to live and fight through this and then also being poked and prodded, and it was horrible. I was worried about breastfeeding him and what that what this hospital stay would do so many I'm a very Control Freak type of person. I like to have control. I like to kind of just be on top of my honestly. And I just like to be a leader. That's just how I am. That's the personality I have. And so I was worried about Chandler, and I was worried about his feelings, and obviously he was worried about mine, but I felt like we were both so broken at that point, like we just had to put our head on and learn what they were teaching us.

Scott Benner 23:08
Honestly. Yeah, I think the first time I grew up pretty broke and, like, my dad left pretty early and stuff like that, and I felt like it was the first time as an adult, or the first time since my father and mother got divorced, where I understood that, like, concept of like, you just put your head down and go, Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, there's not a lot of time to, like, sit around and think about how you feel. There's something that's so, like, shocking happening in front of you that needs handling, and you just like you. I don't know if it's conscious, but I think it's a decision you make. Like, is this gonna knock me over, or am I gonna keep going?

Marley 23:43
Yeah, and it's something you will not know how it feels until you experience that. Like, it's the most horrible, gut wrenching feeling. But you don't have time to sit there and sulk and worry, and you just don't have time. Like, do you want your child to be alive? Do you want to learn how to keep them alive, then you just got to keep going.

Scott Benner 24:03
Yeah. Since then, I haven't felt like that. Since then, up until the day I realized my mom was gonna die. Oh, man, I'm sorry. No, no, those are the two times that I felt like whatever that is, yeah, yeah, like that. How would I describe it? It felt like all the fibers inside of me were being torn apart, yeah?

Marley 24:23
Like you're just numb to it. Yeah? It was really crazy.

Scott Benner 24:27
Okay, so you're a self confessed control freak, so that's nice. I'm assuming, I'm assuming you're looking for ways to give that away right now. Yeah? But so your home, you were syringes, like half unit syringes. That's how they sent you home.

Marley 24:42
They didn't send us home on a pump, which I'm now in, that Facebook group called like diapers and diabetes. That's where I learned everything about caring for an infant with diabetes. It's not from the

Scott Benner 24:53
hospital at all. Lot of people speak well about that Facebook group, that

Marley 24:57
Facebook group saved me like truly. But what? Left on Humalog Jr insulin pins with like a correction factor and a carb ratio. That was horrible. And then we left on Atlantis and vows because insurance issues, they wouldn't pay for pins for some reason, because nothing is cleared for infants with diabetes, apparently,

Scott Benner 25:21
yeah, no, no, there's, yeah, nothing's available for them.

Marley 25:24
It was horrible, like, you get home from this horrible hospital stay, and now you're, like, traumatized by even giving your kid food, and then you're fighting insurance on the phone for Dexcom, because they're not FDA cleared for one year olds. But I can't help, my one year old has a diabetes.

Scott Benner 25:42
Yeah, right, that's not my fault, yeah? Like, I didn't ask for this. But is that, when you learned about that, the doctor can write the prescription off label and you can just use that stuff?

Marley 25:51
Yeah? So our doctor, she's like, she'll do a PA in a heartbeat, and she'll fight with those in like, she's gotten everything, everything approved for him. That's awesome. Praise the Lord. Because, yeah, between me and her, they didn't have a chance.

Scott Benner 26:05
What do you guys do for a living? Like, did somebody have to change jobs or do like, I mean, it's a lot of work raising an infant with type one.

Marley 26:12
So, so before all of this, my husband has always worked from home. He is a server engineer. He works on computers. I couldn't tell you what he does, because I don't really understand it, but that's his thing. He loves it, and he's always worked from home. I am a speech language pathologist. I worked in a pediatric private practice seeing kids with all types of disabilities, but also just normal kids with speech issues or whatever. I worked there full time Monday through Thursday, and then the day he got diagnosed. Well before he got diagnosed, my husband was at home, and his mom would keep Bain at our house, okay, his first year of life, and they kept calling me like, something's wrong with Benner, like, you need to come see him. He's sick. We're gonna take him to the doctor. I'm like, maybe he's just tired of y'all like he probably just wants his mom, so I'm just gonna leave work and come so I went home, and that's when all came loose, and we took him to the hospital or whatever, and that day, I never went back to

Scott Benner 27:11
work. No kidding. Has that hurt your family? It did hurt our

Marley 27:15
family for a little bit. I feel like more mentally, because it's hard when you're going from a two income home to now, you don't know what the future holds, because that's what we didn't know what the future holds. Probably two months after he got diagnosed, I did transition from in person speech therapist job to now a teletherapy speech therapy job. So I do work a part time speech therapy. Awesome.

Scott Benner 27:41
That's awesome. Yeah. So tell me about what you've learned about taking care of type one and an infant. Over the last year,

Marley 27:47
I've learned that it is so unpredictable, it is unknown, and no one understands it, unless you have dealt with it, including the doctors. That's what I've learned.

Scott Benner 28:01
I remember. So I don't know how much Bain weighed when, before he was diagnosed, big boy, oh, how much do you

Marley 28:08
remember? I think he weighed like 25 or 26

Scott Benner 28:11
pounds. Oh, that's crazy. So Arden was two, she weighed 19 pounds. And when we came out of the hospital, I think she weighed 17, yeah, my head lost a lot of weight too, yeah. And then in that coming time i I'm telling you, because you don't know this, but, like, I think people who listen might know this already, but I realized, like, you know, like you said, like, a unit, I can't use these unit syringes. And we only had three, this was 2006 so they only had, we had a syringe and vials and we got a meter. Those are the things that we got, right, right? So unit that's not working, and doctor's like, well, here's half a unit needles. Like, all right, great. They didn't work either. Like, they were too much. So I didn't know what to do. I was a stay at home dad at the time, by the way, so I was me, like, 24/7 trying to take care of it, pretty much. And I kept thinking, like, you know, in the beginning you're like, well, the measurements are in half, so that's how it works. But then one day, you're like, This is bullshit. Like, I don't need a half a unit here. And I couldn't figure out how to, like, get a system going, so I took some insulin, and I squirted it into like a dish, and then I put food coloring in it. Oh, my God, all right. And then I sat, and I practiced, with my eyes closed, pulling on the plunger like so slightly that when I pushed it back out, a big drop would come out like so I was trying to teach myself how to pull in a drop of insulin, and you couldn't read it on the syringe, so it was all about feel that's why I would just do it with my eyes closed. I'd pull it and then I'd try to remember how I did it. I'd squirt it back out, and I put the food coloring in so I could see it better. And I was like, okay, and I got them to the point where I was really consistent. Then, of course, I. Threw away the insulin that had the food coloring in it, and, you know, and then the next time I Bolus, I did it like that, with, like a drop of insulin,

Marley 30:08
yeah, that's how it was for Benner. Like it was, it felt like it was a tear

Scott Benner 30:12
drop, yeah, it was just an insane moment where I was, like, even this half a units, way, way too much,

Marley 30:19
yeah? Like it was either, I felt like I was either not giving him enough, or it was too much, and I was having to carve him up to deal with the insulin in his

Scott Benner 30:29
body, yeah, but you have a CGM now, right? Yeah. So we left the hospital

Marley 30:33
with the Dexcom and on insulin pens and whatever, and then he got on a tandem movie in April, yeah. And it's a game changer. I imagine it is.

Scott Benner 30:45
I don't think we got our first CGM. I mean, if she was two and she was diagnosed, like, maybe for four years, I cannot imagine I was out of my mind by then. I was struggling to keep his or keep her a 1c in the like, mid to high eights, yeah, and nobody was telling me what to do. Like, it was all just, it just all felt random. It really just like, maybe the worst part of my life, like, you know, if I was sure, yeah, if I was a control freak, I would have been out of my mind, because I didn't. I was like, I didn't feel like I was controlling

Marley 31:17
anything, yeah, I'm sure, especially like having to poke her constantly. Like, I still poke Benner a lot, and we have a Dexcom,

Scott Benner 31:25
yeah, no, I think Arden probably finger pricks and needles in those first years, like, up until when she got a pump, which was and she got a pump when she was like, we got an Omnipod when she was like, four something. It was a couple years in, but counting finger pokes and, you know, and injections, I must have stuck her 10,000 times, yeah, bless her, yeah. Just really crazy. And to this day, like it's, she's not good with needles, yeah?

Marley 31:53
Kind of how Benner was at first. Like he never really fought me because he was so small, and it was just, you know, we got to do this type of thing. He's always been pretty good with needles, but at first he would kind of like, whimper and, you know, like the normal, like, I'm scared of this type thing. But, yeah, it's horrible. It's a horrible feeling when you're a parent and you're feeling like you're hurting your child,

Scott Benner 32:15
yeah. Okay, so how long did you get the Moby, by the way, let me just say this tandem diabetes.com/juicebox. Dexcom.com/juicebox, use the links. They're in the show notes. You're gonna laugh because you're on tick tock you. Like, I know what he's doing. I'm Team tandem, all the way awesome. So how have things changed? I assume just him putting on weight probably has made things easier. Like, where are you today, with the with the management?

Marley 32:36
So his a 1c when he was diagnosed was like, 9.8 I want to say. And then in March, before starting the 10 of Moby, it had only went down to 8.9 and that was strictly on pins and bowels. And that's, I feel like I'm pretty on top of this stuff, but I feel like that's just because pins and bowels do not work for infants and toddlers, like just period the end, it just doesn't, unless you're doing diluted insulin.

Scott Benner 33:01
Okay? It was just such a little amount that it was never quite enough. I was having

Marley 33:06
to give him 13 shots a day. Oh, that's just too much,

Scott Benner 33:10
you know what? I mean, yes, you're giving these little little bits to hold down the higher blood sugars.

Marley 33:14
Yeah? Like he just, he needed those micro doses so that when we went to our six month think it was really seven month appointment to our Endo. I was about to tell her, like, okay, we're doing a pump. And she was like, Okay, you ready for a pump? And I was like, Yeah, we're ready for a pump. So we chose to do the tandem just from personal I just had talked to a bunch of different moms that I've met through Tiktok and socials and diapers and diabetes at Facebook group and seeing what works. And I was like, let's try the Moby. If, for some reason, the tubing doesn't work, we'll switch to the pods. But I want to try the Moby first. The algorithm, they say, is wonderful. It's lightweight. I love the ability that he can unclip it from his body. And you know, we'll just try it. So we started it in April. We go back to the end of, actually, at the end of this month. So I don't know is a 1c right now, but I think it's been a game changer. Like he's in range 90% of the day. He's doing really good with it. He's a he's a trooper. Like it doesn't phase him. Those site changes. He don't mind it. He don't care. He wants to help. And those micro doses are just everything, like they truly

Scott Benner 34:27
are. Those algorithms are awesome. Does he wear it on body, or does he clip it to his clothes? Or do you bounce back and forth?

Marley 34:33
So we kind of bounce back and forth. We'll use like, tandem pouches on his back. I do it on his belly, because his arms are so small, and then his legs, he's such a rough toddler, that every time I put it on his legs, it's falling off within 30 minutes. So we'll do those. And then we use the Spot belt a lot, and we clip it around his waist and put the spot belt either over his clothes or under his clothes. Nice. I kind. Of go between the two. Like, one week we'll do the pouches. One week we'll do the belt, just to give his body a little bring

Scott Benner 35:06
How do you divide the work? Your husband still works at home, right?

Marley 35:09
So, yeah, Chandler worked from home, and we just kind of tag team it. I feel like I control more of his treatments, his blood sugar treatments, like, if he's low, I'll kind of tell Chandler what to do, like, give him this many or give him this many carbs, or whatever. Chandler's really good about just helping. Like, if I need anything, if I need him to go change a Dexcom, he just kind of lets me kind of help him, lead him into whatever he needs to do. Or if I want to take control, he's like, go for it. Like you, do you? Do you?

Scott Benner 35:43
Has this year impacted your plans for your family? Are you considering more kids? Were you before

Marley 35:49
it definitely did. I feel like I definitely don't think I would have had another child by now, because I wasn't the kind of person that wanted to one or two or that toddler and infant. I didn't really want that, but it definitely hindered my mind and thinking that I want another kid, because there's so much that goes into diabetes, especially those first few months, you feel like you're drowning. But now that we're a year into this, and it just feels routine, I'm not saying it's not hard, because it's just as hard as it was day one, but it's more routine and we're more comfortable, and I don't feel as scared of insulin, and I don't feel as scared of trying new things, changing his pump settings. I think I could see myself in the future, having one more, only one.

Scott Benner 36:37
Now, if the reality became that a second child also got type one. I think I would die. I was gonna say it's not gonna change your reaction to it,

Marley 36:45
right? No, no, no, right. I could handle it, but I think I would like, want

Scott Benner 36:49
to be like, my guess there's got to be worse people on the planet, because something bad happened to one of them, please.

Marley 36:56
Yeah, I've seen kids, our families on Tiktok, and they have, like, multiple kids with diabetes. I'm like, Y'all are troopers. Like, I don't know how you do it.

Scott Benner 37:06
When we were growing up, there was this, this old guy. I don't want to say where I knew him from, because I want to be very vague, right? There's this older man, and he was just beyond a curmudgeon. He was just a prick, you know? And he went on and on. Like, didn't matter how old he got, how sick he got, nothing ever happened to him. It felt like he was gonna live forever. And few of us used to say that, you know, all over the world there are terrible people doing terrible things yet, and I'll just, uh, I'll have my friend Rob bleep this out. So we used to say, all over the world there are terrible people doing terrible things, yet still walks the earth,

Marley 37:42
which is true. Like, how does my baby end up with diabetes? And there's like, killers on the

Scott Benner 37:47
street? Yeah, we're shooting missiles at people and, like, your kids getting type one and you but did that shake your faith at all?

Marley 37:55
No, it really didn't. I feel like it kind of made me lean into it, because when we were in that helicopter going to Batson and in the middle of the night, and all you have are your thoughts, because your baby's in the back of the helicopter with the medics. I felt like I was like, God, like, if you're real, which I know he is, but God, if You're real, you will save my baby, and I will do I will literally be anything you need me to be, like, I just need you to save my baby.

Scott Benner 38:28
Yeah, I'm glad he's okay. That's wonderful. Also, what a bummer, like, because how often are you going to take a $10,000 helicopter ride and not get to really enjoy it? So, right?

Marley 38:38
Like, I remember sitting in that helicopter, in the pilot. He was so nice, but he kept, like, trying to make small talk. And he was like, what do you do for a living? I'm like, I'm a speech therapist, speech therapy. And I'm like, I don't care. My kid is dying in the back. Like, stop talking to me.

Scott Benner 38:56
You should have said I'm married, and my kids back there dying. It's inappropriate for you to be hitting me on me like this, because

Marley 39:02
I stopped. On me like this, because he's like, when we got in the helicopter, he's like, Okay, I know this is just standard, but he's like, don't touch these buttons. Don't touch the door until I unless I tell you to, don't try to jump out. I'm like, I'm not gonna try to jump out, my babies.

Scott Benner 39:17
I'm not gonna try to jump Hey, you know what? Don't make fun of him. I have somebody in my house this week doing some work, and I literally put my finger in wet, like plaster. I looked at it, and I'm, I fairly intelligent person, and I reached out and I touched and I thought, Why the hell did I do that? Anyway? He's probably had somebody just like, reach out, and he's like, don't you're gonna kill us.

Marley 39:41
Yeah. I'm like, Honey, I'm not worried about your doors, your buttons. Like, just get me to the damn house.

Scott Benner 39:46
Let's just get going. So you did something, I mean, 20 years removed from me doing it, but you did something that I did, too. And I'm wondering, because I'm gonna I'm an older person now, like, I'm not that old. But I'm like, you know, I'm not 27 you know, the year after Arden was diagnosed. You know, pretty much exactly a year later, maybe not even maybe it's like six months later, if I'm thinking about it correctly, I started writing a blog before a blog was really a thing. I'm not saying I wrote the first blog in the world, but there were not a lot of them when I started doing it. And the technology just wasn't really there. I think WordPress was probably the only way that people knew about to put a blog up at that point. I did it initially because I had tried to raise money for a JDRF walk, and I remember just, like, raising, like, $1,000 and thinking like, Well, this was lame. Like, put a lot of effort into this. I wanted people to know more about it. I also wanted to try to help. I had that, that kind of overwhelming feeling, like, I'm not a doctor, but I want to do something. Yeah, you know. And then I didn't really raise much money, and I was like, Oh, this is a bummer. And I thought, well, maybe, maybe people didn't donate because they didn't understand it, and I'll, like, try to help them understand it more. And I started writing about it. And then I have to say, over the, I think over the next nine years, we did the walk for 10 years, we don't do it anymore, but I think we're doing our first one this year. Yeah, I raised $50,000 total in 10 years. That's awesome. Yeah, it was pretty, was pretty great using basically that blog to, like, try to educate people about what type one was like, Yeah, but then it became something I didn't expect it to be. It was almost like its own little community. And 2013 rolled around. So I had been writing the blog for six years, and I'm just gonna tell you, like, I got a book I got a book deal. I was writing a book blogging was kind of dying at the same time, like, people just weren't really reading the way they used to. I mean, the book took a year to write, it came out, etc, and then I was out, like, doing media for it, and I just started, you know, that led to me having an idea about making a podcast. And I think, again, I was maybe a little ahead of the curve, like, you know, making a diabetes podcast, and I launched that in, like, January, again, 2015, so now that's I've been doing it for 11 years now, and I feel like I've built a pretty kind of immense community of, you know, yeah, you definitely have for people. Thank you. I watch it help people all day long, every day, seven days a week, you know, 365, days a year. It's pretty massive and sometimes hard for me to even conceive of of all the people. It's touching, but at the same time, like, I didn't do any of that on purpose. Yeah, that's kind of how we were, yeah. And the technology wasn't, like, like, the blogging technology was not a thing. And there were podcasts going for, like, a couple of years, but I was pretty again, sort of at the edge of it, like, you know where it was going on. So you decided to, like, pick up your phone and start a Tiktok, and I'm wondering why you did it. Like, what was your goal and what has it become?

Marley 42:56
I've always been like, a Tiktok theme. I never posted, but I'm a doom scroller. Like, that's what my husband calls it. Like I will sit there and scroll on Tiktok and watch the dumbest videos all day, every day, and me and my best friends send videos to each other. So I've always had an account. Well, Bane had probably been diagnosed four months, five months, and I think he was, like, 15 months old. I took a video of me putting on a Dexcom for him, and I actually was sending it to my mom because she had never seen me put a Dexcom on him, and I was on Tiktok, and I was like, I'm just gonna post this to show my 50 friends. That's all that followed me. 50 had 50 followers. They were all my personal Facebook friends from, you know, high school, college, whatever. And I posted it, and the video went like, mega viral, like within I still had notifications on at that point. I started getting all these DMS and requests, nice comments, horrible comments. I mean, you know everything, sure. And I think the video now has like 3 million views, maybe 4 million something like that. But, I mean, it was crazy, yeah. And just from seeing all the comments on that video, it was very it showed me that no one understood diabetes and toddlers like, I mean, just, you know, the normal stuff, like, why you feeding your kid junk food? How to get diabetes? Or, I didn't know babies could get diabetes. How do babies get like, it was just, you know, the dumbest questions. But I understood, because people don't understand that. Yeah, you get why would they understand it? They've never been through it, yeah. So I think the next video I posted was, like, telling people how he got diagnosed, because people would be like, I'm glad you called it so early, or I'm glad you figured out. I'm like, we didn't catch it early, like he was in DKA, yeah, we called it the last the last second.

Scott Benner 44:54
This wasn't early. This was a day before he died, yeah, literally, like, we

Marley 44:58
called it the last second, just. Because he's 12 months old. He was he had, like, hours, probably, of his life left. So we started posting on Tiktok, and it grew so fast. And I think it continues to grow, because people now love Bain, and they see his language developing. They see him getting his own little personality, and him learning about, he's learning about diabetes, and he's learning the things you know, that we do on his day to day life. We change Dexcom, we change sites, we count carbs, we we get our Med, you know, like he's just understanding those things, and people like to follow along with that, because I'm not going to give myself props, but I am a speech therapist. So his language is like crazy. He talks in five word sentences, and he's not even to get so people just are like, how do you do like? How does he talk like this? How does he tell me about diabetes? How does he let you just put his Dexcom on? He don't fight you. So I just started kind of like posting little snippets, and it just grew so fast. I followed one other person on Tiktok that had diabetes at that point. Her name on Tiktok is called wonderful wells, and her son is, like three. He has diabetes, I think he was four at the time, but he got diagnosed when he was three. And she would post videos of putting sites on him or whatever, and just informing people. And I think she, at that point, she was raising money to get a diabetic alert dog. And so, you know, when you're in that hospital, the first thing I did was join diapers and diabetes Facebook group. I joined the Juicebox podcast group because everybody on diapers and diabetes told me to do that. And I ordered a sugar pixel, and then I looked up diabetes on Tiktok like that's just what I did.

Scott Benner 46:45
That was it just got going, How many followers do you have?

Marley 46:47
No, I think we have 127,000

Scott Benner 46:53
Can I let me? I'm gonna try to find it while I'm talking to you. So I'm oh my gosh, a person. I am not good at tick tock. I just want to say that

Marley 47:01
immediately I love I'm just the oh, we're have 128,000

Scott Benner 47:05
what's your what's your like? How do I

Marley 47:08
at Marley, M, A, R, L, E, E, Brandon and I, I feel like now I don't post as much diabetic stuff. I do post diabetic stuff, but I post a lot of him just acting crazy.

Scott Benner 47:20
Okay, it's, uh, are you in like a black and white striped top? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Well, now you have one more follower. Congrats. Thank you. Thank you. You have a follower of the guy that's not on tick tock very often. Wow. Yeah, you have almost 5 million likes total on your on your videos.

Marley 47:37
That's crazy. Yeah, people really love bang, like they really do. So when

Scott Benner 47:41
I started doing this, it was a, it's a blog, right, yeah, and there'd be one static picture. And to be truthful, after Arden hit a certain age, she came to me and she said, I don't like looking like a baby on the internet, yeah. And I was like, okay, so we removed every picture we could find from the blog and everything. And even, like, the mast head of the blog got changed so that it was used to be a photo of her, and then it became like a caricature. And then eventually the blog's not called Arden's day anymore. It's called Juicebox podcast.com now. Yeah, right. I mean, obviously he's very little right now, and the world's a different place, and kids are more accustomed to this. This is like a thing. But do you have you given thought to, like, how long would this go for? And at what point does he get an opportunity to say, like, I don't want people seeing this. Or like, I mean, it's got to go on through your head, right?

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. I'd like to thank the Eversense 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, 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 the sponsors. Summertime is right around the corner, and Omnipod five is the only tube free automated insulin delivery system in the United States, because it's tube free, it's also waterproof, and it goes wherever you go. Learn more at my link. Omnipod.com/juicebox That's right. Omnipod is sponsoring this episode. To the podcast, and at my link, you can get a free starter kit. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.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 tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. If you're looking to meet other people living with type one diabetes, head over to Juicebox podcast.com/juice, cruise, because next June, that's right, 2026, June, 21 the second juice Cruise is happening on the celebrity beyond cruise ship, it's a seven night trip going to the Caribbean. We're going to be visiting Miami Coke, okay? St, Thomas and St Kitts. The Virgin Islands. You're going to love the Virgin Islands. Sail with Scott in the Juicebox community on a week long voyage built for people and families living with type one diabetes. Enjoy tropical luxury, practical education and judgment, free atmosphere. Perfect day at cocoa Bay St, Kitts st, Thomas, five interactive workshops with me and surprise guests on type one, hacks and tech, mental health, mindfulness, nutrition, exercise, personal growth and professional development, support groups and wellness discussions tailored for life with type one and celebrities, world class amenities, dining and entertainment. This is open from every age you know, newborn to 99 I don't care how old you are. Come out. Check us out. You can view staterooms and prices at Juicebox podcast.com/juice cruise. The last juice cruise just happened a couple weeks ago. 100 of you came. It was awesome. We're looking to make it even bigger this year. I hope you can check it out. 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, wrong way recording.com, you.

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#1654 Born This Way

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Music - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public, Amazon Alexa or wherever they get audio.

Crystal, 33, T1D since 12, recounts DKA, insulin restriction for weight, congenital health challenges, and her turnaround—prebolusing, diet tweaks, and pursuing an insulin pump—with community support and hope.

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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
Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of The Juicebox podcast. Welcome.

Crystal 0:16
Hey, I'm Crystal. I am 33 years old. I've been a type one diabetic ever since I was 12.

Scott Benner 0:24
This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by skin grip, durable, skin, safe, adhesive that lasts your diabetes. Devices, they can fall off easily, sometimes, especially when you're bathing or very active. When those devices fall off, your life is disrupted and it costs you money, but skin grip patches, they keep your devices secure. Skin grip was founded by a family directly impacted by type one, and it's trusted by hundreds of 1000s of individuals living with diabetes. Juicebox podcast listeners are going to get 20% off of their first order by visiting skingrip.com/juicebox now. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. 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, 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

Crystal 1:49
Hey, I'm Crystal. I am 33 years old. I've been a type one diabetic ever since I was 1212,

Scott Benner 1:56
so watch this. Crystal. Was that 21 years ago that you were diagnosed? Yep, it's been 21 years. No kidding, all right, 12 years old. What do you remember about being diagnosed?

Crystal 2:06
Well, I was at a checkup, and I felt fine and everything. I didn't feel sick, but they said my blood sugar was so high they couldn't read it, okay?

Scott Benner 2:17
And so you were just at a regular, like doctor's appointment at my regular doctor's office. Okay, and you you did or did not, I'm sorry you did or did not feel sick prior to the appointment. I didn't

Crystal 2:28
feel sick other than falling asleep a lot in class,

Scott Benner 2:32
you're falling asleep a lot. Is that why your parents took you to the doctor? Yep, okay. They said, Hey, this one keeps falling asleep. And they checked your blood sugar right in the office, and they couldn't even read it. Well, that's kind of cool that they knew to check your blood sugar, you know. So you were you didn't have any long, drawn out problems trying to figure out you had type one they told you right in the office. Do you remember what happened next? Did you go to the hospital? Or how did they handle it? I went to the hospital and got admitted. Okay, how long were you there? Three days, I think, three days. Okay, kind of fast forwarding a little bit you get out of the hospital and you have diabetes now, but 21 years ago. So 21 years ago, 2004 right around there. That sounds about right. Sounds about right. Okay. So do they give you pens or just needles? Does anybody talk about insulin pumps like how do you recall the management in the very beginning?

Crystal 3:29
Well, when I started, I was using the insulin syringes, but they didn't really talk about pumps or anything,

Scott Benner 3:37
nothing like that. Now, did your parents help you with your diabetes, or did they leave it to you?

Crystal 3:42
My dad was actually a really, a big hope before he died.

Scott Benner 3:45
Oh, gosh, when did you lose your dad?

Crystal 3:47
Four or five years ago, the lung cancer.

Scott Benner 3:50
Oh, I'm sorry. Were your parents together when you were diagnosed?

Speaker 1 3:53
My mom

Crystal 3:55
had died when I was eight.

Scott Benner 3:58
Crystal. How did your mom pass away? Kidney failure? Oh, I'm so sorry. So your mom passed away about four years before you were diagnosed. Then you were diagnosed. Did she have diabetes or any other health issues?

Crystal 4:13
My mom had it when she was pregnant. My dad's type two, and so is my brother, but I'm the only type one, okay,

Scott Benner 4:21
but your mom had gestational Yep, okay, kidney failure. I'm sorry to ask, but was that related to something or just out of the blue, my mom was only born with one kidney, like I was, oh, no kidding. Your mom had one kidney and I was born with one. You were born with one as well. Did something happen that precipitated her kidney failure, illness? Or is that? I don't understand, people live with one kidney, right?

Crystal 4:47
So I think she was just born with that. I don't think it caused her diabetes or anything.

Scott Benner 4:54
No, no. I mean, like her passing, was there an illness that, like, you know, what? I created the damage to the kidney that led to the failure. She wasn't taking good care of herself. Oh, okay. When did you know you were born with one kidney? Anything clicked when I was in elementary school? Okay. How many does your brother have? He has both of his. What a jerk. Okay. Well, I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your parents. That's terrible, but I want to go back to you're diagnosed, and your dad is really helpful with your diabetes. So what does that mean? Like, how was he helpful?

Crystal 5:30
When I was going to school, I would check my blood sugar, and then I didn't know how to do shots. If my blood sugar was high, he would go up to the school and gave me my shots.

Scott Benner 5:41
That's nice. That's very nice of him. When do you think, at what age did you become a little more proficient taking care of yourself? Maybe taking more of it on

Crystal 5:49
sixth or seventh grade? Okay, oh. How old is that? About? 1213, no, 1314,

Scott Benner 5:57
oh, so a little later, then a couple years after your diagnosis, maybe, yep, okay, does that then completely take him out of the care or just more of it's focused on you, and he helps, but he helps less,

Crystal 6:11
that really just focuses more on me, and he kind of helps less, but still helps.

Scott Benner 6:15
Okay, so now looking backwards as an adult. Now, how are you doing taking care of yourself.

Crystal 6:21
The last few weeks, I've gotten better, but I've still got a lot of work to do.

Scott Benner 6:27
So you're telling me that things are shifting for you, but only recently. So for the last 20 years, things have been shaky, very shaky, very shaky. Okay, what does that mean? What are your outcomes like? Do you see an endocrinologist regularly? What are your a one CS?

Crystal 6:47
Well, my last a 1c was a 10, but I'm supposed to go back on the 23rd of this month to talk about the insulin pump.

Scott Benner 6:56
Okay, you're not on a pump. Still not yet. Okay, so crystal, I want you to be like a little introspective, right? Is 10 a pretty average, J, 1c, for you,

Crystal 7:05
10 is average. It's been as high as 13.

Scott Benner 7:10
It's been as high as 13. Why do you think that is?

Crystal 7:13
Well, I wasn't Pre-Bolus thing before my middles or everything I'd eat like cereal and skyrocket.

Scott Benner 7:21
Gotcha, are you telling me that it's a little to do with how you're using your insulin, a little to do with what you're eating?

Crystal 7:28
It is. And also, they had me on a sliding

Scott Benner 7:31
scale. You've been on a sliding scale for 10 years. Yep. Where do you live? I'm in South Carolina. South Carolina. I guess now you've figured out that you need to do something different, but before you knew that, did you feel like you were doing well during those years? Would you leave an endocrinologist office thinking, Gosh, I am not doing a good job. Or did you think this is going right? Like, what's your like takeaway when you leave those appointments?

Crystal 8:00
I knew I wasn't doing good. I even went into DKA last

Speaker 1 8:04
year. Okay? And

Scott Benner 8:06
when you know you're not doing well, what stops you from trying to figure out a better way? Well helping,

Crystal 8:14
listening to the podcast, asking people in the group

Scott Benner 8:18
you've just decided to, like, dig into it more,

Crystal 8:22
yep, ever since I went to DKA last year.

Scott Benner 8:25
Okay, that's the answer. So DKA kind of got you thinking, I got to do something. Tell me about the dka. How did it start, and what was it like?

Crystal 8:34
I tried to go to sleep one night, and I just kept getting sick. It was two o'clock in the morning, my stepmom called an ambulance. I got to the hospital, my blood sugar was like 918 I wasn't responding to their questions or anything. The last thing I remember when I got there was them shining a light in my eye to wake me up. Okay? I was in the ICU for

Scott Benner 9:02
three days. Were you conscious the entire time?

Crystal 9:06
I was conscious, but very confused the first three days.

Scott Benner 9:10
Okay, Crystal, tell me, how does that happen? Your MDI, right. Were you not taking your basal insulin? Were you not injecting for meals? Like, how does your blood sugar? Were you sick? Like, what happened?

Crystal 9:21
Well, I was skipping shots, and I had a bad infection too.

Scott Benner 9:26
So you had an infection, which was adding to your insulin need, but you're skipping Why were you skipping shots to lose weight a little bit? Ah, okay, so is that a thing you've done throughout your life?

Crystal 9:39
It is, but I haven't really lately, I've been taking

Scott Benner 9:42
them all. Okay, where did you learn that? Just by, like, Googling, okay. Now, do you know that's dangerous when you're doing it? I learned that the hard way. So, okay, so this is interesting, Crystal, and please don't be embarrassed like I appreciate you sharing your story. Okay? I. Huh? So was your weight an issue, and you were trying to find ways to do something about it, and you tripped across the information. Or, like, how does that first come to be the first time that you thought, I'm going to restrict my insulin, because I'll try to lose weight that way. Do you remember how you got to that information?

Crystal 10:16
I don't really. But when I was going to school, I was, like, always picked on about my

Scott Benner 10:21
weight. Oh, your whole life. Yep. Okay, and so you're looking for ways to deal with it, which wasn't really the healthiest way. No, no, no, no, let's not be unclear. Crystal, it's not a good idea at all. So you find out through googling. I would give anything to be there the day you were Googling and to know what you typed in to get that information, but like you're looking for ways to lose weight, and you come up with, if I don't take my insulin, I'll lose weight,

Speaker 1 10:49
yep.

Crystal 10:51
Didn't even think of the consequences or anything.

Scott Benner 10:54
You didn't think of what might happen. How old do you think you were the first time you did that? 1617, maybe 16 or 17. And you tell me again you're how old right now? 3333 did it work the first time you did it? Or did it work enough that you thought I'll try it again? How often did you do that

Crystal 11:13
it worked to where I thought I'd try it again?

Scott Benner 11:17
Okay. Was it a thing you did yearly, twice a year. How frequently? Like, yearly, once a year. Okay, don't answer me if you don't want to, okay. But would you tell me how tall you are and how much you weighed when the first time you try to

Crystal 11:33
do it? I have one, I think I was like, right at 200

Scott Benner 11:37
okay? And what's your weight now? 202.

Crystal 11:42
Now I gained like eight pounds.

Scott Benner 11:45
I see you pretty much maintained around that 200 weight, though, I assume you haven't grown. You're still five one, right?

Crystal 11:52
No, I'm still five one. I've been as low as 150s

Scott Benner 11:55
before, though, okay, what age? I think that was about two years ago. How did you get to that? Was it restricting insulin? Or were you dieting, exercising, or did you find something else

Crystal 12:08
I was not doing shots and walking a lot, okay?

Scott Benner 12:12
And while you're doing that, you think, I want to make sure I understand what you were thinking during that, during that you were thinking, Hey, I found a way to lose weight. This is great. Where you thought I'm potentially hurting myself, but I'm losing weight, so I'll go with it really. The second one, you did have some idea that this wasn't okay not taking the insulin.

Speaker 1 12:33
Yeah, okay. Would you describe to me

Scott Benner 12:37
a general idea of what you eat in the course of a day,

Crystal 12:40
usually in the morning will be like cereal, which I'm trying to not eat as much, because I'll wake up my blood sugar will be like 90, and it'll shoot right up to three, four hundreds before

Scott Benner 12:55
you eat or after you eat, before I eat, before you eat. So you wake up in the morning with a lower blood sugar. And do you shoot your basal insulin before you go to bed? I do like right before, right before. Okay, so overnight, you have a pretty stable overnight blood sugar normally. Do you have a CGM? I'm sorry, I have the Dexcom g7 okay, you're wearing a g7 so overnight, what are your blood sugars look like overnight you shoot your what is it? Levimir, Lantus, Toshiba, what do you use? I'm on Trujillo, oh, to Jero, okay, overnight. And then what are your blood sugars look like overnight?

Crystal 13:30
Well, last night, I kept having to wake up because they kept dropping during the night. And I woke up and it was at

Speaker 1 13:39
like 40. Oh, you're getting low last night? I ended up like with

Crystal 13:42
two juices last night. Were

Scott Benner 13:44
you particularly active yesterday? A lot of walking or out in the heat or something like that. I'm usually always walking or I go outside. I feed stray cats. Okay, take care of them. Oh, that's nice. Is that your job? Do you have a job. What do you do?

Crystal 14:01
I don't so pretty much. My stray cats, I'll take care of them. When they have kittens. I'll find the kittens homes.

Scott Benner 14:11
That's so nice to you. Live with your stepmom. I do and my brother. Okay. Are you not working on purpose, or is there a reason I'm really not able to tell me about that

Crystal 14:24
I have, like, so many health problems on SSI and everything.

Scott Benner 14:30
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Crystal 16:47
no, I am missing one.

Scott Benner 16:49
You're missing a heart valve. I was like, I don't think you're gonna be okay with just one. So you're so there's a congenital defect. You you're missing a heart valve. I was born that way, right, right, right. And you have one kidney.

Speaker 1 17:00
What else

Crystal 17:02
I was born without a uterus.

Scott Benner 17:05
Get the hell out of here. Seriously, yep, did your mom crystal? I almost said the dumbest thing that anybody could possibly say. I almost said, Did your mom have a uterus? I wouldn't be here. I know crystal. That's why it's to be the dumbest thing anyone could have ever said in that situation.

Crystal 17:27
Oh, my gosh. Okay. Made my face like, turn all right,

Scott Benner 17:31
yeah, made me mine too. I was like, Oh, I don't have to tell people this, but I'm just gonna say it anyway. I almost said something so stupid. I'm sorry. Any anything else, the heart, the heart, uterus,

Crystal 17:44
kidney, well, I have high cholesterol, okay, I had high blood pressure, but that's actually gotten more normal now, and I've gotten taken off for the pills.

Scott Benner 17:59
That's good. That's awesome. What did you do in school? What did you enjoy in high school?

Speaker 1 18:04
Well,

Crystal 18:06
my favorite class was drama class. I love the stage

Scott Benner 18:12
and chorus. Okay, did you go to college? I did not. Did you consider it? I did consider it, but

Crystal 18:21
it's like, so expensive,

Scott Benner 18:23
yeah, no, I understand. If you went, what do you think you would have gone for?

Crystal 18:27
Maybe nursing. I kind of like to help

Scott Benner 18:29
people. You like helping people. Okay, so you don't see yourself in the future having a job

Crystal 18:36
I do, and I've been kind of looking around, what do you think you might look into, maybe, like working at the hospital or with pets, children?

Scott Benner 18:46
Yeah, stuff, helping people, helping pets. You enjoy that because I'm good with kids too. Yeah, you are. Oh, that's awesome. I am too, by the way, kids love me.

Crystal 18:57
It's funny. I'll go swimming and stuff, and a kid will randomly come up to me and be like, hey, I want to play tag in the water.

Scott Benner 19:05
Oh, that's lovely. Do you have something called Have you ever heard somebody call, my gosh? What is this? Muller Aryan, agnesis. I've actually never heard those words. A female born with no uterus. Mayor, my gosh. Why would they use something, something Houser syndrome, one kidney called renal agnesis, missing a heart valve. Oh, and I do have another condition get out of here. What else trying to think how to

Crystal 19:35
hydro something supera, the skin condition.

Scott Benner 19:40
Okay, hold on, skin condition. Let me see if I can figure it out. Skin condition, hydro, H, hydro, what

Speaker 1 19:49
hydro? I don't know.

Crystal 19:53
Superior is at the end, I don't know the ER told me one day I got it,

Scott Benner 19:58
he found it. Hydro. Written, okay, hold on. Hydronetis, superlative, yeah, that one abbreviated HS, chronic skin condition that causes painful lumps or nodules under the skin, often in areas where skin rubs together, like armpits, groin, under your breast, buttocks, lumps can become inflamed and swollen, rupture and drain, form tunnels or tracks and scar over time. It is not contagious and not caused by poor hygiene. This is a thing you have.

Crystal 20:27
I got that diagnosed with that when I was in the hospital with the

Scott Benner 20:33
infection, oh, the infection in the dka. It

Crystal 20:36
was like under my arm, under your arm, where was the infection? I have, like, two cysts under my left arm, and they got infected, and I didn't even know I had it until they said, I got you because

Scott Benner 20:48
you slipped into the DK, and they took you to the hospital, and then they found all that stuff when they were trying to figure out what was going on.

Crystal 20:54
And I have another one too.

Scott Benner 20:56
You have another what condition Go ahead? Gastroparesis. You have gastroparesis, stomach damage? Yeah, from the high blood sugars all those years,

Crystal 21:06
they told me I could still have breakfast in me by dinner time. That's how slow my digestive system is.

Scott Benner 21:13
Oh, gosh. Have you ever tried a little over the counter digestive enzyme to put along with your food to help it break down. I haven't I wonder if that helps it might you can find them. I mean, pretty much anywhere you can get them, on Amazon. Amazon comes to South Carolina, right? Oh, yeah, I love Amazon. Who doesn't? Let's see, hold on, digestive enzymes. I'm gonna look for you. There are probably a ton of different kinds. I would try pure encapsulations. Is one company that makes digestive enzymes. And if you want something that might be a little better priced, there's something, something called Super enzymes by now also should be pretty valuable, based on how I'm seeing them formulated here. Yeah, that 112's bucks. Listen, you know, I mean, everything's expensive. Now, 90 of them for $12 let's see it. Has the beta team, HCI, the ox bile, yeah, this ought to be okay, yeah, like take a capsule with a meal and see if, um, if, if you don't, maybe experience, uh, some better digestion does. Does the slow digestion cause problems on the other side, when it's coming out,

Crystal 22:35
it does. And I'll I get, like, a lot of stomach pain,

Scott Benner 22:39
yeah, this might help with that. It's worth a try. It's worth $12 to try. I think

Crystal 22:43
I'll get that. And leg cramps, a lot leg cramps.

Scott Benner 22:47
You could address the leg cramps with magnesium. Uh huh. Hold on a second. Are you taking any vitamins in general,

Crystal 22:57
right now? I'm not, but I'd be open to it.

Scott Benner 23:01
When you say problems going to the bathroom comes out too much or not enough. Not enough. I like you trying a magnesium oxide and the digestive enzyme. This should be, maybe there should be a pretty cheap magnesium oxide. Hold on a second. I'll send these to you when we're done. All right, so I like twin lab. They sell a two pack for 20 bucks. That's not bad, but you can get cheaper if you want it, but it has to be oxide, magnesium oxide. I would try one of those a day for going to the bathroom more consistently. And I would try the digestive enzyme with meals to see if you can't get your digestion to work a little better. Now that we've kind of gone all through that, and I feel like we have a good idea of who you are and how you got where you are, I need to ask you the DK, happens? You come out and you say to yourself, I gotta do better. What's your next step when you realize you have to do better?

Crystal 24:05
Well, right now I'm trying to get the Omnipod, but my doctor wants me to see her first

Scott Benner 24:13
before you can get a pump, before you get any pump or Omnipod. And you looking for Omnipod five, you want some automation or you What are you thinking

Crystal 24:21
about? I'm trying to decide between the Omnipod five and the tandem tea

Scott Benner 24:26
slim control IQ. Okay. I mean, I think either is a good option for you. Do you prefer the tubeless part, or do you not mind the tubing? Which one do you think you'd have an easier time with? I don't really mind the tubing. You don't mind the tubing. Okay, so you're looking right now at tandem control IQ, the x2 probably, or the Omnipod five.

Crystal 24:47
The only thing I would worry about is going low during the night.

Scott Benner 24:51
Well, both of those systems are going to do their they're going to try to keep you from getting low overnight. I don't think it's always going to work, but they're going to they're going to try. They're. What's your a 1c, right now? Did you say it's 10 right now?

Crystal 25:03
It's right at 10, and that's down from a 13.

Scott Benner 25:08
Okay, you've gotten it down since the dka, yep, by doing what,

Crystal 25:13
just trying to watch what I eat more, and Pre-Bolus thing that's been a really difficult where'd you learn about that Ryan's actually helped me a lot. Oh, you

Scott Benner 25:23
mean in my Facebook group, yep. What's up, Ryan? Good for you, man out there, helping people. That's awesome.

Crystal 25:29
He's awesome. He is, isn't he? I'm not. Nico. Are really good.

Scott Benner 25:34
Nico's awesome too. Yeah, no kidding, Crystal, look at you. Like so how did you find the Facebook group?

Crystal 25:40
I was searching diabetic groups on Facebook once, and that actually came up,

Scott Benner 25:44
got your attention, and you went and checked it out. Yep, you found all the lovely people inside trying to help each other. Benner, I didn't need the other groups. Well, the other ones, of course, are, you know, what do you need when you got the best you don't need the rest.

Crystal 25:58
And so many that are helpful in this group too.

Scott Benner 26:01
Really awesome people. No kidding, right? Yeah, that's that's excellent. I want to ask, though, at the hospital, did someone in the hospital, or a family member, your brother, or perhaps your your stepmom, did someone direct you and say, hey, you've got to get help, or is that something you came to on your own.

Speaker 1 26:20
That's

Crystal 26:21
really something. I came to on my own. Okay, awesome. And then when I saw the 918 I'm like, Yeah, that's not

Scott Benner 26:29
good, yeah. So listen, I'm not your dad, right? But I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you something. Okay, restricting your insulin is not okay. Don't do that. Okay? You're right to decide to eat differently, because when you take in fewer calories and use the correct amount of insulin, if you eat the calories that you should in a day and take in the insulin, you're going to lose weight. And it'll take a little bit of time, but it will, it'll work. I would also say obviously that keep going with, like, moving around, getting outside, walking all really great stuff. Make sure you're drinking, you know, a fair amount of water.

Crystal 27:09
Yeah, I'm kind of bad at not drinking water.

Scott Benner 27:11
What do you drink when you're thirsty? Diet soda, all right, so no sugar in your drinks, right?

Crystal 27:18
No diet soda or tea, but sometimes a sweet tea.

Scott Benner 27:22
Okay, no, sweet tea. Okay, listen to me, don't drink sugar. Okay, simple thing to do, don't drink sugar. That's going to help you a lot, lot of calories, lot of sugar, a lot of need for more insulin. If you take in too many calories, and you know you're you're going to gain weight, so you're going to have to restrict your insulin a little bit. Look for foods that are easier to digest. I would mix cereal. Is that one crystal? I haven't gotten to that yet, but please stop eating cereal. Okay, yeah. What kind of cereal you're

Crystal 27:54
eating? Like the rice krispies, the sugar cereal, basically

Scott Benner 27:58
not good. Hard to Bolus for lots of calories, lots of sugar, right? What if we had, have you? Have you? Do you like an egg? Have you had an egg? Ever hard boiled eggs? You like a hard boiled egg? Have you ever, have you ever poached an egg? I haven't, but that actually sounds good, a little bit. A low rolling boil, a splash of vinegar helps it stay. Crack the egg right into the water. Then you just you decide how much you want the the yolk cooked. You leave it in till it gets as firm as you want it. Take it out. Lovely salt, pepper. You're gonna love it. Okay? Scrambled egg, perhaps fried egg, even tiny bit of butter, I don't mind that in the morning with some sort of protein. You know what I mean? Mix it with, I don't know, anything you like really. You know, you like bacon, have some bacon. You you like a sausage, have a little sausage, chicken, anything at all, like that. Pro, try to stay higher protein in the morning, like that. It'll help you lose weight, to give you energy for the day. Won't be hard on your blood sugars. Do you like a salad? What do you have for lunch?

Crystal 29:06
Lunch is usually just pretty much a sandwich,

Speaker 1 29:10
okay, what kind of sandwich you enjoy?

Crystal 29:12
Ham, roast beef,

Scott Benner 29:14
okay, is that like a deli meats that you get from the grocery store?

Crystal 29:18
Yeah, like a Walmart. Okay, all right. And I'll put cheese on it sometimes.

Scott Benner 29:23
Not bad. What do you what do you bread? What kind of bread you like?

Speaker 1 29:26
White bread? All right, I know that

Crystal 29:29
one can cause your sugar to go up too.

Scott Benner 29:31
No. But let's just make sure that we're buying white bread that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it. So you, you're gonna look on the label for no high fructose corn syrup, and that's extra added sugar that you don't want. And there are plenty of breads out there that you can get that don't have that that would be a big help for you. And then what are you having with that sandwich?

Crystal 29:51
Usually I'll have, like, some chips. I'm bad at having Pringles. Pringles.

Scott Benner 29:57
Which ones you like, the red or the green? I.

Crystal 30:00
Like the sour cream, one with

Scott Benner 30:04
the the orange can you're telling me, yep, I hear you. Okay. Is there a world where I could have you replace the Pringles with maybe just a nice tortilla chip that would probably work? Yeah, of course. It would just a nice, simple tortilla chip. Gonna try to take some of the processing out of that, of those Pringles. I mean, I listen Pringles, awesome. I know what you're talking about. It's crunchy and it's salty and it's Gail zing from it, but not good for you. These are the things. You remove these things from your diet, you're gonna use less insulin, you're gonna lose weight. You're gonna be in a completely different situation. And you know, how much weight would you like to lose?

Crystal 30:45
About 20 or 30. Nothing too crazy.

Scott Benner 30:48
Okay. Well, listen, you'll never know where it lands. You know, when you you adjust your your intake a little bit, you're going to use less insulin. And then, you know, you have no idea where it'll, where it'll, where your body will kind of find its spot where it wants to be once you're taking in kind of an appropriate amount of calories in the day. How about dinner? Your mom cook, or your stepmom cook or or do you cook?

Crystal 31:11
Does dinner kind of usually varies.

Speaker 1 31:16
How last night was? Beef stew.

Crystal 31:21
Okay, I will do like spaghetti, some night stormy tacos. All right, all

Scott Benner 31:27
that sounds great. Do you know how to Bolus for that stuff? You learning?

Crystal 31:31
Learning? It's a process. Yeah, it

Scott Benner 31:34
certainly is. No it takes time to figure it out. Your stepmom helping you with any of this, or are you pretty much leaning on the people online. Pretty much just leaning to the people online. Yeah, does she have any health issues? Your step mom? How old is she?

Crystal 31:48
I think she just turned

Speaker 1 31:49
60. Okay, that's nice, nice age. Did you have a party?

Crystal 31:55
No, just a stay at home day.

Scott Benner 31:58
How about a card? Did anybody get a card. I made her a card. Hey, that's very nice. Did you draw something on the front? I did, but nothing fancy. I'm not a good drawer. I'm not either. I want to tell you very, very bad with the drawing. If people who are good at drawing are considered talented, I don't know what I'm considered not talented. At the very least, I'm terrible at drawing. I can barely write and read my own writing when I'm done.

Crystal 32:22
I have that problem too. Then it's like, Okay, what does that say? What did I write there? Oh, that

Scott Benner 32:27
happens to me a lot. I throw away a lot of notes. And the last thing I think was, huh, I wonder what that said. Do you use, like, a lot of white out? No, not anymore, but yeah, I used to, do you use white

Speaker 1 32:39
out? I do all the time.

Scott Benner 32:42
Awesome. I didn't even know when I

Crystal 32:44
was in school doing homework and stuff. I'm like, okay, that doesn't sound right, yeah. Do you have a computer? I do. I'm in the process of trying to save up for another one too.

Scott Benner 32:54
Okay, all right. How much do you think you'll need to get a new computer? 500 600 they're expensive. They are, they are, what do you use it for?

Crystal 33:03
Mostly, mostly, I'll play games, listen to the podcast, listen to YouTube,

Scott Benner 33:09
gotcha, and reach out to people online, but in the Facebook group too, I would imagine.

Crystal 33:14
And I'll watch peacock and Hulu on here too.

Scott Benner 33:17
Hulu, do you watch that murders and only murders in the building show. Oh, I do, yeah, the new the new season just came out the other day.

Crystal 33:25
I actually just got Netflix. I started watching Wednesday.

Scott Benner 33:29
Oh, I think there's two seasons of that available right now. I'm only on episode three. Yeah, are you liking it so far? I am. She's Interesting, yeah, no, no, she is. She's got a weird look, right? All right, so crystal, you're doing a good job here for yourself. You're trying to get the pump, like, How long till you think you're gonna have a pump in hand?

Crystal 33:49
Well, I see her on the 23rd and she said she'll send a prescription, and from there, I've talked to the pharmacy, and they said it would only take three to five days to get to me. Okay, so

Scott Benner 34:01
this is going to be covered by your what do you have Medicare? I do okay, and they're going to cover that.

Crystal 34:08
And then I'd have to set up training and all that. Yeah, I hear

Scott Benner 34:11
what you're saying. You're definitely going to need training. They're going to switch your insulin, you know, what's your fast acting insulin?

Crystal 34:17
Now I'm on Humalog. I took Novolog a long time ago.

Scott Benner 34:22
Okay, well, Humalog will work. The Humalog will go into your pump, and then there won't be any more of the to zero. That'll be gone. You won't need

Speaker 1 34:30
that anymore once, that'll be a whole lot easier.

Scott Benner 34:32
Yeah, right? One insulin, the pump will take care of it. But now you know, when you're using a pump, you we don't want you back in DK ever again, right? So, like, you the pump can't run out. You can't go like, Oh, I'll put another one in an hour or something. Like, you got to keep your pump on. Keep things going Bolus, your meals, keep Pre-Bolus in the way you're doing. You know, always have that pump on. That's going to be very important, okay,

Speaker 1 34:56
yeah, and make sure

Crystal 34:58
it doesn't like, fall off or anything.

Scott Benner 35:00
And, yeah, right, you know, hopefully it'll stick to you nicely if you get the Omnipod, and if not, like, if you have trouble with it with your skin, you can get, like, overlay patches that help hold it down. If you go with the tandem, the control IQ, it'll just be your infusion set that'll have a little sticky on it. And people don't normally have too much trouble with those that'll help when I go swimming and stuff. Yeah, exactly. Do you swim a lot? Very rarely. No, well, where would you swim in South Carolina? Pool. I got to a public pool. Usually was gonna say public pool, or a lake or something. Are there lakes in South Carolina, or are there alligators in those lakes? We've got a couple of lakes. I don't know much about South Carolina. I've driven through it, but that's it. They do have that one thing out on the highway the south of the border. Have you ever driven past that? I've driven past that a couple of times. Okay, do you drive I don't something I'm working on too. Okay, trying to learn. Yep. Okay, that's awesome.

Crystal 36:01
Instead of having to ask people to take me to the doctor and all that, yeah, do you date? Actually, I am in a long distance relationship. Are you now? We've been dating seven

Scott Benner 36:14
years. He lives in New York. No kidding. How'd you meet? We met online. Actually, very nice. What's his deal? What's he do right now? He doesn't have a job. He's looking for a new one. What did he do before corrections? He's a corrections officer. Uh huh. Oh, interesting. Ad. Do you get to see each other in person

Crystal 36:34
ever? About once a year?

Scott Benner 36:38
Maybe no kidding. Do you think you'll ever move to be closer to each other.

Crystal 36:42
He's actually thinking about moving to Florida.

Scott Benner 36:46
That's a little closer than New York, about,

Crystal 36:49
I don't even know how much closer,

Scott Benner 36:52
no, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say about 500 miles. Come off the top, then it's probably like 300 miles closer than not, except probably a lot closer by car all of a sudden. You know, that'd be exciting and be

Crystal 37:05
very doable to come visit. Yeah, of course,

Scott Benner 37:08
that'd be lovely. What are your goals around the diabetes? Like, where do you hope to put your a 1c, if and when you get it to a point where you're like, This is awesome. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Like, where do you imagine that

Crystal 37:22
being the lowest my a 1c has ever been was 7.5 I'd like to get it there or lower?

Scott Benner 37:31
Yeah, I think you put a pump on and you get good settings and cover your meals. I think a sevens very doable.

Crystal 37:41
Might have to, like, tweak the settings, maybe a little bit, yeah.

Scott Benner 37:43
I mean, along the way, that's gonna, that's definitely gonna be true. You're gonna need to get, you know, the doctor's gonna have to help you get set up in a reasonable way. You'll see what's going on, right? Like, there might be times where I don't know you might, like, you know, around your period, for example, oh you don't have a uterus. Do you get a

Crystal 38:01
period? I don't actually,

Scott Benner 38:04
awesome. That's good. Now people are jealous.

Crystal 38:08
I don't want one of those.

Scott Benner 38:09
Yeah, nobody wants that. Do you get, like, a hormonal shift every month, even though you're not having a period?

Crystal 38:16
I do a little bit, and I'm on birth control.

Scott Benner 38:20
Okay, so you do have that birth control for. What's the birth control for? To help with hormones, keep your hormones more stable. How long have you been on those

Crystal 38:29
since high school? I think it's been a while. Why did they put you on them originally? Honestly, I don't even remember. I'm saying,

Scott Benner 38:38
Crystal, why don't you talk to your doctor about that, because couldn't that be I mean, I'm not a lady, but couldn't the birth control help or be part of your issue with weight? Maybe, hold on a second, I don't know, so I'm gonna try to find out birth control can affect weight, but the relationship is more nuanced on a second, water retention, hormonal effects on appetite, estrogen and progression and birth control can increase appetite in individuals, potentially leading to increase the calorie intake. Small portion of users may see shifts in where their body stores fat, like hips, thighs, breast due to hormonal changes. Most large, well controlled studies find little to no significant long term weight gain from birth control. Anyway, I would ask a doctor, I don't really know, but I would say, Hey, I've been on birth control for 15 years or more here, and I got to be honest with you, I don't have a uterus, and my boyfriend's in New York, so is this a thing I need to be doing? Could this be part of my issue with my weight? Ask the question, see if you can get an answer from a doctor on that

Crystal 39:49
yeah, because I was just at the doctor the other day and she said I gained eight pounds.

Scott Benner 39:54
Yeah. I mean, what was her advice? The only thing she really,

Crystal 40:03
pretty much, only told me was stop eating cereal.

Scott Benner 40:06
I mean, it's good advice, but it makes me wonder why she didn't wonder about the about the birth control too. I'd want to, I'd ask about that. If I was the doctor, I would, I would kind of dig into that a little more, because eight pounds kind of seems like a lot. It is, right? I mean, like 5% of your weight, actually, so it's a, it's a big number for that. And did you change anything? You're using more insulin, right?

Crystal 40:31
Yeah, I'm using more insulin, just Pre-Bolus thing, and I didn't really change much.

Scott Benner 40:35
Okay, so crystal, I'm going to tell you this. I think, like you said, if we if you eliminate the cereal and, you know, go with something like something more natural in the morning, like I said, eggs, some sort of protein, like meat, you know what I mean, bacon, sausage, I don't know, anything like that. You know, try to stay away from bread that has a lot of sugar in it, so no high fructose corn syrup. Take a look on the label. Just make sure it doesn't say high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients. Drink a little more water. Keep going outside, moving around, walking, you know, finding exercise. But I would just try to cut sugar out of my diet. Sweet tea. No, you know that's just, yeah, not really healthy. Yeah, that's empty calories and a lot of sugar you don't need, and more insulin, because you're gonna have to Bolus for the sugar in

Crystal 41:27
it. Think I drink too many diet sodas? I'm like, hooked on those.

Scott Benner 41:30
Yeah? Well, listen, I prefer if you didn't drink too much soda, but over sweet tea, I'm choosing the diet soda over the sweet tea, yeah, whether the sweet tea, yeah. I mean, there's other stuff you could do. There's some, oh gosh, like, there's like, no sugar, like, cranberry juice. I don't know if there's other things you might find that you enjoy. I don't know you have to cut.

Crystal 41:50
I like those. I don't know if you've seen them, those Starburst flavored waters.

Scott Benner 41:55
I have not. But that does not sound like it's gonna be. Hold on, Alexa, do they have sugar? Actually zero sugar. Okay. Well, listen, anything zero sugar, I think is better than sugar for you. Uh huh, you're telling me there are Starburst waters,

Crystal 42:09
flavored water.

Scott Benner 42:10
Yep. Come on a second. Where do we live? Oh, yeah, there it is. How about that Starburst ice? Yep, they're actually good. I imagine they might be tasty. Strawberries, zero sugar, okay? Well, like four or five flavors, I think. How much are they? Expensive?

Crystal 42:30
$1 and stuff at Walmart.

Scott Benner 42:33
Okay, I was looking at the Walmart right here because I knew you said you went there 12 pack, a 12 pack of variety, 17 ounces, 12 pieces. How much? Why won't you give me a price? You would think I would give you a price. Yeah, you know, on it, don't they want me buying? Oh, $24 everything's gone up. You're not kidding. So that's $2 a bottle. Well, you know what they say about water pre Yep, yeah,

Crystal 43:06
and I prefer bottled water because I've got well water.

Scott Benner 43:11
Does it taste like minerally? It does? Yeah, icky, a little icky. I hear you. Well, then, okay, then bottled water, it is all right. Do you know what you're doing now. You have a good idea, a plan

Crystal 43:24
I do, and hopefully that ANC will get down soon.

Scott Benner 43:28
Listen, you're paying attention to it. Crystal, that's the biggest deal. Okay, so you're paying attention you have a goal. You know what you're you know, you know what you want to get done. You know, you've outlined all the smart ideas eliminating sugar and junky food from your diet, you're already getting outside, moving around a lot. You keep doing that. Do more if you can. You know, be careful. You know, as you're changing your diet, we don't want you to have in a bunch of low blood sugars because you're using more insulin. You know, you're using the amount of insulin that you usually use with the junky food, and then you take it away. You know, you might see some need to adjust your, you know, your basal insulin, if you're getting low or seeing lower blood sugars. So keep an eye on that. Talk to your doctor about it. I'd let them know, you know, the first time it happens, you know, you see a low, it's hard to deal with, and you've changed your diet. I'd call and say, hey, look, you know, I've cut some things out of my diet, but I'm seeing some low blood sugars. Do you think we should adjust my basal? You know, maybe my insulin sensitivity for corrections.

Crystal 44:29
One thing I'm trying to get better at when you wake up in the morning and your blood sugar just rises foot on the floor,

Scott Benner 44:36
yeah, you get nervous in the morning, or adrenaline, excited. How do you feel in the morning when you wake up? I get like, excited, yeah, yeah, to get the day going right,

Crystal 44:46
and then it'll shoot up. Then you're like, uh, really?

Scott Benner 44:49
Have you tried, like, waking up and giving yourself a little insulin right away? I have, like, 10 minutes before I wake up. How does that work? That's actually how. Helped a whole lot better, good, yeah? Just kind of get in the way of that rise with some insulin.

Crystal 45:06
I kind of freak when I see double arrows up, though, yeah.

Scott Benner 45:10
I mean, listen, I understand you don't want that, but you don't have to freak out. Also, I think with either of the pumps that you're talking about, they, you know, both have, you know, automated systems that should help you with that. As that rise starts to occur, it should start pushing back, even before you you're awake, to push the button and ask for more. So that can help as well. Maybe I didn't even think of that. I think you're going to be in a much different situation in six months from now. You know, because you got a different focus, you're going to have different tools that should give you enough time to figure out, you know, your settings and how to use your pump and everything. And I think you're going to be really pleased with with yourself and all the work you've put in, you know, a few months from now,

Crystal 45:53
and it'll be a lot better than using shots.

Scott Benner 45:56
You prefer to get rid of the shots if you can. Yep, yeah. How many shots you have a day usually. Right now

Crystal 46:01
it's three to four shots today, but lately, it's been more with corrections.

Scott Benner 46:06
Okay, yeah, is that counting your basal or plus basal? The plus basal? Yeah, three or four shots. Are you injecting just when you're eating meals? I do just before I eat? Okay? But now you're starting to do more corrections for high blood sugars. Yep, that's a great idea. That's very good. You don't want to sit and stare at your at high blood sugars, right,

Crystal 46:30
and waiting for it to go down before I eat. But I'm just kind of struggling with still. I'm used to just eating.

Scott Benner 46:37
Yeah, well, listen, may I say something between you and I feel like we might be friendly. Now, I'll be honest with you, okay, you're not working just, you know, chill out and wait. Pretty busy, you know, I'm saying, yeah, just like, you know, I know it's tough, but find something to distract yourself with. Just don't get so distracted that you forget to eat. I've actually done that before. Yeah, of course you have everyone has I've made full plates of hot food and never touched it. You ever done that?

Crystal 47:05
Ridiculous? And one day I went there to go lay down, and I'm like, oh, it's dinner time. I need to eat. And my step mom goes, you don't remember you already ate dinner? No kidding. I'm like, wait, I don't remember any of them. Were you just tired? I think I was just exhausted that day.

Scott Benner 47:24
Yeah, you know, you're not gonna feel as tired when you get your your a 1c down, when your blood sugars are lower and stable and they're not fluctuating up and down all the time, you're gonna feel better. You really are. It's gonna change a lot of things for

Crystal 47:36
you. And I won't almost faint, like I almost fainted in church or Walmart once

Scott Benner 47:41
wait from low blood sugars or from high

Crystal 47:45
from, I guess, high blood sugars, that went really low when I was in the store,

Scott Benner 47:51
Oh, I see, start walking around the Walmart, and it crashed. Well, I was in

Crystal 47:55
the pet food aisle, and I started getting dizzy. I looked it was dropping. I go, Oh, I'll feel fine. I get to the cash register and at least start feeling worse. And almost passed out, and a nurse was right behind me.

Scott Benner 48:11
She help you out. She gave me a regular Coke. Nice. What kind of pets you have? Besides the cat? Were you there getting cat food?

Crystal 48:20
I was getting cat food, and I have two birds too.

Scott Benner 48:23
What kind cockatiels? Oh, did they go in the same cage, or they? Did they stay together? Do they have to be separate? They stay together, a boy and a girl? Do they make any babies? Not yet. How long have you had them? It's been five years, they haven't made a baby yet. Nope. Are you sure it's a boy and a girl?

Crystal 48:44
I think not 100% sure.

Speaker 1 48:47
How do you check? I don't even know.

Scott Benner 48:51
Just like Cockatiel or cockati Yeah, cockatiels, they're like, they got the little yellow, they're white, and they have a little yellow up on their head,

Crystal 48:58
right? Yeah. The boy, he is white with like blue, and the girl's really dark.

Scott Benner 49:06
Oh, she's dark, like a great green, gray. Yeah, my friend's mom had them. Actually, he had diabetes too. Did he? I didn't know that. I know, yeah. But do you think cockatoos heels give people diabetes? Now, probably not, right? No, I don't think so. Do you think people with diabetes just like cockatiels? Hmm, there's no way for us to know this. Okay. Do you have any questions for me or anything that you'd like to talk about that we haven't talked about so far? Um, I don't we did a good job. We did you awesome. Oh, you were awesome. I was just okay. You're just okay, yeah, I mean, I did my best, but you were really the star of the show. You really, you really made things work, and

Crystal 49:47
I'm glad this phone works a whole lot better to understand me. Yeah,

Scott Benner 49:50
no, your headset, people don't know this because it was before we started working, but your headset, it sucked. Yeah, I need a new one. That what I tell you. I said, throw that thing in traffic when. You're done. There's nothing good about that thing. But no, this worked out really well. You sound awesome, and you were able to hear me. Okay, right? Big time. Yeah, okay. Well, I just want to tell you that I'm super happy that you found the Facebook group and those people and that they've been helpful for you. I'm really proud of you for taking control of your situation and already getting your a 1c down as much as you have. I really do think that if you keep on the path you're on, and stay focused the way you are, that you're going to learn a lot of new stuff over the next couple of months. And I guarantee you're going to have an A 1c in the sevens when you get that pump. That'll be awesome too. It's really going to be wonderful for you. I hope it, sincerely hope that it helps you with some of your other issues. I think it's definitely going to make you feel better, give you more energy, mental clarity. I hope that you're able to give the magnesium oxide and the digestive enzymes a try, because I'd like to see and not have so much stomach pain, especially when you're eating right and I'd like to see you go to the bathroom every day. Everybody should poop every day. I know, right? Yeah, they say everybody poops, but they didn't meet you. Crystal, you know what I mean? Yep, yeah, you seen that book? Everybody poops. I have that's been a while. It's because it's a kid's book. All right. Well, Crystal, I'm gonna thank you for doing this and say goodbye, but I really appreciate you doing this. Will you hold on one second for me? All right. All right. Hold on one second. Let me hit stop. Okay, where is stop? Oh, it's in the same place. It always is, right there.

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Matt shares his shocking, symptom-light journey to an unexpected quadruple-bypass—burping to diagnosis, surgery, recovery, family impact—and why proactive cardiac screening can save lives.

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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
Welcome back, friends to another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

Matt Fouse 0:14
My name is Matt Faust and I am a 41 year old type one diabetic who just underwent a quadruple bypass, open heart surgery, completely unannounced and surprised. So that is what I will be discussing on today, this episode,

Scott Benner 0:39
this episode of The Juicebox podcast is brought to you by my favorite diabetes organization, touched by type one. Please take a moment to learn more about them at touched by type one.org, on Facebook and Instagram. Touched by type one.org. Check out their many programs, their annual conference awareness campaign, their D box program dancing for diabetes. They have a dance program for local kids, a golf night and so much more touched by type one.org. You're looking to help or you want to see people helping people with type one. You want touched by type one.org. 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. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 the only one year wear 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 this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube, free, automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections, learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox at my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox omnipod.com/juicebox,

Matt Fouse 2:23
my name is Matt Faust, and I am a 41 year old type one diabetic who just underwent a quadruple bypass, open heart surgery, completely unannounced and surprised. So that is what I will be discussing on today. This episode

Scott Benner 2:44
awesome. And Matt, for those of you who are longtime listeners, was on episode 405. How we eat plant based? Oh, Matt, did you have you been eating plant based all this time, and you had heart surgery? What's going on?

Speaker 1 2:58
So, yeah,

Matt Fouse 3:00
I was eating plant based, you know, when we talked 12, that was during covid, and then we had kid number two, who is now going to be five. Wow. Goodness gracious. And, you know, I took a little break here and there in between. You know, busy, two kids, everybody, having a different diet is kind of difficult in the house, but for the most part, we eat plant based in our house, my 10 year old does not eat meat. She'll eat like cheeses, things like that. But generally, very healthy eater, you know, very minimal red meat intake. The only red meat, like, if I decide to eat it will be venison, which is a leaner meat, because I'm you'll laugh. I'm a hunting vegan. I love to deer hunt on my property.

Scott Benner 3:59
So Matt, give people context for that, though. Like, how do you become a vegan, I guess, for At what age? Just so, like, I don't want to rehash your entire other episode, but just give people, like, a quick overview.

Matt Fouse 4:11
Yeah, so it, it gradually happened. You know, I gave up red meat for the majority of the time, and then pork. And then I'm like, Well, I we eat fish on occasion. I We, you know, I live in Maryland, so gotta eat the blue crabs. You know, if maybe once a summer,

Scott Benner 4:33
what makes you think to yourself, like, I'm gonna stop eating meat? Is it a social feeling? Is it, you know, something about how you're you notice with your health, or,

Matt Fouse 4:42
yeah, overall health, I just feel cleaner inside, if that makes sense, like my body feels like it's doing a better job at what it's supposed to be doing. When I don't eat meat, I feel like my inflammation is down the. The brain fog is kind of gone.

Speaker 1 5:02
Gotcha, it is not out of a PETA

Matt Fouse 5:06
animal rights way. Like I said, I am a hunting vegan, so I do kill animals.

Scott Benner 5:13
Do you eat the venison because you feel like, oh, I hunted it. I'd like to eat it, or because you are trying to add some meat in periodically

Matt Fouse 5:21
both. So I grew up hunting as a kid in the sticks of Central Pennsylvania. We we got off a week of school after Thanksgiving to hunt, specifically like in our school district. So I grew up doing it when I moved to Maryland, I kind of continued to hunt. Now I'm in the suburbs of Baltimore. I have, you know, a nice wooded area, like 1000s of acres that I back up to. It just has unlimited deer, white tail deer. Nobody hunts around here. I kind of do my part. You know, you're either going to hit them with your car or I will hunt them, is kind of my thought. And it is a very healthy lean meat, yeah, you know, less fat than, like, beef, okay, it is delicious, but I have my like ritual, like, if I bag of deer during hunting season. You know, you have to got it. I take the heart out, because true schnitzel uses calls for venison heart. So I make schnitzel the night that I get a deer. That's kind of my thing. Okay, the family does not eat the schnitzel, but I would say, out of a year, I may eat meat three to four times. Okay, okay, if that. And then I donate the deer, the butcher, I go to, you can like checklist on it, donate, and they just donate it to local food banks, which is, you know, kind of doing my part.

Scott Benner 7:02
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Remind people how old you were when you were diagnosed. I was

Matt Fouse 7:07
four years old, so that would have been 1988

Scott Benner 7:13
How old are you now?

Matt Fouse 7:14
I'm for I am 4141

Scott Benner 7:18
Matt, describe to me your level of care as a child growing up, etc. Like, what? What were a one CS like through the first 20 years?

Matt Fouse 7:29
Yeah. So growing up, I had an amazing doctor. He did everything that he could do in our small town for me and my sister is also type one. We did what we could. I remember the first glucometer that we got as a family. I used to, you know, pee on sticks to test my sugar as a kid. So you did what you kind of did. We had very crude insulin, cumulon n and cumulon R, which I just look back and I'm like, I have no idea how my mother did it. Right the time of activation was, what, like, six hours or something like that. I think growing up, my a 1c were pretty relatively stable. You know, I think they were usually, like, under eight. When I moved out, I was in high school, 18 years old. I moved to Baltimore. That's when I got my first endocrinologist that that was kind of unheard of in a small town, like an endocrinologist. What? What's that? Yeah, and then I kind of learned the techniques, you know, he's like, you know, every diabetic now is on an insulin pump. You need to be on an insulin pump. And I was doing just, you know, needles and glucometers. Now I'm looping, thanks to listening to your podcast, Penny Fox, my, I have not had an A, 1c, under 5.5 and probably six years

Scott Benner 9:09
for you man, maybe, do you work with Kenny? Or do you, do you mean, like from listening to him in the podcast? Or do you work with

Matt Fouse 9:15
him, just listening like, you know, listening to all the looping in the what is it looping in Fox, in the loop house, or whatever the episodes you have of him? Yeah, kind of learning what to look at. And, I mean, it's kind of down to a science. Now. It's like, I know if I eat this food, what to do, right? It's rare to get high sugars. You know, sometimes you can't help it if

Scott Benner 9:39
you're sick, about a five five? Yeah, I'm at about a

Matt Fouse 9:41
five, five, my last, but, well, so my last a 1c was the lowest I've ever had. It. I had a 4.7 and that was on the blood work previous to going into the hospital. Because, you know, they like to do all their labs before you do surgery. And that was 4.7 Right, jeez. And the surgeon came in who was gonna do the heart surgery, and she just goes, Wait a second, you're diabetic. Wait, but you have a 4.7 that's not diabetic. And I was like, oh yeah. And then she's like, well, we're gonna have you take levamere previous to surgery, we'll do an insulin drip during surgery. But I think you probably know more than the people here at the hospital, so we're going to just let you take care of yourself when you're in the

Scott Benner 10:30
hospital. They said, Listen, I know this is surprising, but there's a guy named Scott. He's got a podcast. There's a guy named Ken. These dudes online, these ladies, they made this algorithm. It's on my phone. Like it must sound crazy to people, you know?

Matt Fouse 10:43
Yeah, I was explaining what I do to the doctor taking care of me in the hospital. Just the internist. He was like, wait, you have a 4.7

Speaker 1 10:55
a 1c, is that? Am I looking at that right? And how do you do that. And I was like, so

Matt Fouse 11:01
basically, there's this group of people on the internet that designs this code, and I just really trust them. It's not FDA approved, and I get this patch of software and I download it on my computer on, you know, it sounds completely bogus, of course. No, no. But he's

Speaker 1 11:20
like, and your endocrinologist is okay with this? And I was like, oh, even better,

Matt Fouse 11:27
he had me give a talk to all the endocrinologists at the hospital that he teaches at. So the sugars are just, you know, I'm like, non diabetic. Basically, that's awesome in that area, this whole thing of I needed heart surgery was complete shock to

Scott Benner 11:47
me. Tell me, Matt, is there, are there heart issues in the family? Or do you think this was earlier diabetes care catching up to you somehow? Is there any, any feeling for what might have happened?

Matt Fouse 11:59
Yeah, there is bad genetic lottery. My mother had a heart attack at I want to say she was like in her 40s. 47 she survived. She's still alive. And her father, she never met him. He died at 39 of a heart attack, which would have been in the, what, 50s, and at that time, like open heart surgery was didn't even exist. So even if he would have caught something, they would have been like, well, sorry, you know that's your heart doesn't work. Yeah, tough luck. Yeah, see you later. And I think my dad's dad also had a heart attack. So jeez, it's in the family which you get that card. It's kind of, you do what you can do and you hope for the best. Yeah, is kind of all you can

Scott Benner 12:53
do. So was this a thing you were keeping track of with a cardiologist? Or, you know, because, I mean, you're coming up on the age where it happened to a great grandfather, it happened to your mom. Like, was this on your radar or no? Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. We talk a lot about ways to lower your a 1c on this podcast, did you know that the Omnipod five was shown to lower a 1c that's right. Omnipod five is a tube, free, automated insulin delivery system, and it was shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they switched from daily injections. My daughter is about to turn 21 years old, and she has been wearing an Omnipod every day since she was four. It has been a friend to our family, and I think it could be a friend to yours. If you're ready to try Omnipod five for yourself or your family, use my link now to get started. Omnipod.com/juicebox get that free. Omnipod five Starter Kit today. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox CDE comm slash Juicebox. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 and just as the name says, it lasts for a full year, imagine for a second a CGM with just one sensor placement and one warm up period every year. Imagine a sensor that has exceptional accuracy over that year and is actually the most accurate CGM in the low range that you can get. What if I told you that this sensor had no risk of falling off or being knocked off? That may seem too good to be true, but I'm not even done telling you about it yet. The ever since 365 has essentially no compression lows. It features incredibly gentle adhesive for its transmitter. You can take the transmitter off when you don't want to wear your CGM and put it right back on without having to waste a sensor or go through another warm up period. The app works with iOS and Android, even Apple Watch. You can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the ever set. 365, learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juicebox, one year, one CGM, no,

Matt Fouse 15:10
absolutely not. I knew heart issues were in the family. You know, my endocrinologist always tests everything he should, cholesterol, all that stuff. It was always within levels that wasn't like, we got to do something. Hit the brakes. We got to send you to a cardiologist tomorrow. The whole thing started of me seeing a cardiologist because, on top of, like, you know, taking care of myself as a diabetic. I'm also a, like, marathon runner. I've run marathons, many I can't tell you how many I've run in the past. So I run. I exercise daily. And while exercising and running, when my heart rate would get up to, like, 130s I would start burping, and I'm like, Oh, this is really annoying, I guess, now that I'm old, I have GERD or something. I went to a GI doctor, and I'm like, Well, I think I have something, based off of me being a professional internet Doctor, I have a hernia or GERD. So they did, did all the tests, stomach scope that came back completely clear. Everything on their end was like, you're fine. We don't know. You know why you would be burping, yeah, while you're exercising, yeah, burping, yeah, yeah. And it was, it was annoying. So I'm really close with my endocrinologist. We're kind of like friends, and he's like, just to, like, roll things out. Why don't we just send you to a cardiologist? So I made an appointment, and this, this wasn't even that long ago, probably now we're going on maybe six months ago from today. Made an appointment. They did all the stuff the cardiologist, amazing. He kind of like, yeah, you have a family history. Your cholesterol is fine, but we'll, we'll send you to do like a cardiac CAT scan. And what that does is, it's very simple test, and most insurances will not cover it. But even out of pocket, I think you pay it might be $200 for the test, and that will show calcification of the heart. And what calcification shows is usually plaque. It's like hardening, and it will just show and it will give them an overall score. It goes by, you know, your heart chambers and the score will kind of be like, Oh, you're you're screwed. You got to go get heart surgery. Or, you know, maybe we should dive into this.

Speaker 1 17:53
Okay, mine was in

Matt Fouse 17:56
the moderate, so it wasn't like alarming, but it definitely made the cardiologist do more testing, so he scheduled a nuclear stress test, which they have you run on the treadmill, and you're hooked up to all these wires that they can read your heart rate and your rhythm, and then they put you in, I think it's like A CAT scan area after you run, and they inject something that makes your heart like glow, and it shows like, hot and cold spots of your heart, which is, you know, shows blockages, because if it's blocked, it's going to be cold. Area is going to be cold. Okay, yeah, yep, yep, that came back abnormal. And I was like, Oh man, holy crap. What's this is annoying? Yeah, I'm thinking, okay, maybe, maybe I have something in there clogged, and they'll put a stand in. It will be good. That failing of the test prompted a catheterization, which is, it's invasive,

Scott Benner 19:00
it's they go up through your groin. Is that that?

Matt Fouse 19:03
Well, now they go through your wrist. Really, though it's amazing technology. You're sitting there. They numb everything. It's pretty painless, honestly. They numb your wrist. They go up through it, and they can they're basically like playing a video game where they can see everything in live time you're watching them, and you're like, oh, wow, that's my heart. Like, in real time, it's, it's crazy, wow. So the the first catheterization, I'm like, Okay, this adventure, it's going to be over today. Like, they'll put a stint in. I'll get back to running without burping. I'll be great. It'll be good. Yep, be happy to have this over. They disappear for a while. Man, what's taking so long? A surgeon, they had a consult, and she's like, Yeah, pretty much all of your pipes go into your heart are completely. Groups. They were like, you know, 90 cents, and I can't tell you, like, the amount of shock, like my wife and I had that day, yeah, well, you're really young. She's like, Yeah, we're scheduled. We're scheduling surgery. Yeah, I was her second youngest heart surgery that she had.

Scott Benner 20:19
Yeah, they were gone so long because they were out looking for a for an ER to pull you into,

Matt Fouse 20:23
yeah, basically. And that's the crazy, scary thing. Like, I'm exercising daily, right? Like, every single day, and come home, I split firewood, I work outside, I mow the lawn, you know, I'm shoveling snow in the wintertime, right? Like, I'm very active and I'm very healthy, like I'm within my body weight that I'm supposed to be. You look at me, and it's like,

Scott Benner 20:50
your measurables. Look, this guy's getting quadruple Yeah,

Speaker 1 20:53
yeah, which was just

Matt Fouse 20:57
like the biggest shock at I was 40. I came home two days before my 41st birthday from the hospital. Yeah, she's like, Yeah, we're scheduling. I got an opening in two days. So I went from, you know this is going to be over, to oh my gosh, yeah, it's quite a recovery. Then I have to stay in the hospital for a week.

Scott Benner 21:19
Let me ask you a couple of questions, though. So you have heart disease in your family, like, and people have been having heart attacks, and you've had type one diabetes since you were a kid. These are two things. These are contributing factors to having heart issues. Like, so does she like? The surgeon, first of all, described what the blockages were like, that, you say 90% blocked.

Matt Fouse 21:40
Oh, that. I think there were more more. Yeah, okay, I don't know how I've survived so long, because i This doesn't happen overnight. This, this is, you know, ongoing.

Scott Benner 21:51
Yeah, Were you tired or No, no, no,

Matt Fouse 21:55
was not. That's what. Nothing. There was no other symptoms besides burping. You know, that's I'm so happy you had me on here, because it's like, I posted this. You know, I'm pretty, like, not reserved with my health, but I don't go out and, like, tell everybody about I gotta, yeah, tell everybody about everything. I usually keep my diabetes stuff to myself. You know, if somebody asks me, like, I'll tell them, but I'm not gonna go blab everything. Sure, I put this on, like, my personal Facebook, I had so many friends message me and they're like, Man,

Speaker 1 22:31
this is just crazy. I made

Matt Fouse 22:33
an appointment with a cardiologist because, like, I just wanted to get things checked out. And I had a couple people be like, I'm so glad you put that on, because it prompted me to make an appointment, and my cardiac CT scan came back elevated. I guess once you're a certain age, you just got a jack Benner like, even if you're not having symptoms, because

Speaker 1 22:53
you could be one step away from hearing those stories of like, man so and so was on the floor wrestling with his kids, and he

Matt Fouse 23:03
just died. You know that that happens every single day, so I'm just so glad that they found it, because I would have been one of those. Can you believe Matt died? Because, oh

Scott Benner 23:15
no, yeah, for sure. Yeah, you people have been like he was in his early 40s. Are you sure about like, that kind of thing, Matt, did they tell you what the blockages are made of. Like, I listen, I'm not a surgeon, or really, I have no expertise in anything. But, you know, we talk about a lot of times where high blood sugars can make, you know, small damaging things inside of veins and arteries. Then your body kind of patches them back over, and eventually those patches create a blockage. But also, there are people who just, you know, through diet and lack of exercise and whatnot, else will will have blockages that are made up more of it's not so much the scar tissue like Did they discuss with you what your blockages look like?

Matt Fouse 23:54
Yeah, the surgeon, she is an amazing surgeon. She told me, when she was doing the surgery, that my arteries were like cottage cheese. She said they just were soupy and falling apart when she, like, was sewing the new arteries in. So basically, you can take care of yourself, but a lifetime of diabetes is going to do damage. You know, with the Think of all the times you're sick every single year, it might be a couple times, but I'm sure when that happens, that you have it scars over it, scars over it, scars of next thing you know, your arteries are crap.

Scott Benner 24:36
You also had, you know, a one sees that for the time were good, but you don't want eight, nine, A, one CS for a couple of decades, which is maybe what you were living with as a young kid. And, yeah, yeah, definitely. And when did you figure out, like, looping? And how long ago would you say, Oh, I figured it out. And my a, one, CS came down and got stable. How old were you then?

Matt Fouse 24:57
I've been looping. I'm trying to. Think I had the first Riley link that was, it seems so crude now, that you had to, like, plug into the, like, USB, yeah, mini plug. So, like, what's that? Five or six years, maybe.

Scott Benner 25:14
But is that about how long you previous?

Speaker 1 25:17
Yeah? No, no, no. So

Matt Fouse 25:20
even previous to that on a pump, like, even when I was just doing shots, I had a one CS in the like, 5.6 5.7 5.8

Scott Benner 25:31
take, like, your lifetime with diabetes in years, and tell me how many years were you in the eights until you found a different like, I'm trying to just figure out, like, how long you were in the eights before you figured things

Matt Fouse 25:44
out. I would say from when I moved out as an adult 18. Okay, so

Scott Benner 25:51
to your first 14, four to 18.

Matt Fouse 25:54
Yeah, it could have been a crap shoot, like, I mean, and it was, this is what it is. You know, I had maybe sevens, eights, I can't remember, but it was, it wasn't fives and sixes.

Scott Benner 26:05
And I want to say to a seven and eight is not an insane. I mean, it's not what you want, but it's not an insane, like, Yeah, I hear people all the time walking around with 10s, elevens, twelves, like, that kind of thing, yeah, not perfect, but also not like you weren't trying, not like you weren't putting effort into it. And then maybe you, I guess that gets coupled with the, you know, the genetic portion of the heart there, there you are. So when they, when she says they're soupy, like, they get replaced. Like, how do they handle? Like, you know, I mean,

Matt Fouse 26:32
she completely needed bypass it. So what isn't working? They took my mammary glands, which is in my chest or not, glands artery, okay, and split that to the two main ones that are, like she said, they're the money makers that keep you ticking. And then they use saphenous veins from my leg and did the other arteries with those, the arteries are supposed to be a lot wider, and they last like a lifetime. But the veins, unfortunately, I think after 10 years, there's like a pretty high risk of needing an intervention, maybe, like a stint or something like that.

Scott Benner 27:18
I was gonna say, meaning another bypass or another, but a stent maybe some way to keep so they expect those to start getting blocked up in about 10 years.

Matt Fouse 27:26
Yeah, and I think what happens is, from my limited knowledge and research, the saphenous veins are not meant for the high pressure of like a heart. I see they're in your legs. They're in your arms. It's this is amazing, like what the human body does. So when they get moved and there's higher pressure of blood that they're used to seeing, they re engineer themselves to like work better. And they thick. They thicken so the walls actually, like, smooth out and thicken, which causes narrowing when that happens, which can reduce blood flow. And, you know, maybe cause issues, occlusions, or just the blood's not going through as fast as it should,

Scott Benner 28:22
eventually get you back to another problem. But that is magical, that they can do that. So basically you're gonna, I mean, you're gonna have a cardiologist forever now, and they'll need to be other interventions in the future at some point. But how do you describe how you feel now versus how you felt before the bypass?

Matt Fouse 28:39
Yeah, that's, that's the crazy thing I do feel like I feel younger and more vibrant. I definitely have more pep in my step. I noticed, like on my my daily hikes or runs, you know, going up a hill, like I just don't feel it anymore at all. I was healthy previous, but I think that was huge in my recovery and everything. But now I'm just like, blasting up hills, and I'm feeling awesome, not crazy. So I'm like, Oh, I guess, I guess maybe I I was feeling it, but I was healthy enough that I just didn't even notice it.

Scott Benner 29:18
When sometimes you get that, like, slow drift away from health. You don't notice the decrease, you know? Yeah, definitely, yeah. You get turned back on like that. Then you're suddenly like, Oh, is that the feeling I was accustomed to? Man, that's and so how long ago was this surgery? And what's the recovery like?

Matt Fouse 29:34
My surgery was May 16. I just fully recovered. They say full recovery is 12 weeks. They cut you open like a clam. They saw through your sternum and like your ribs, spread you, and then they do the surgery, and then they basically weld you back shut. But they put these, like little butterfly screws and clamps around it and then stitch you back up. The, honestly, the worst part was probably, like the, you know, the broken bone part, which wasn't even that bad, because they modern technology, they use nerve blocks in the surgery, which I think wear off when you're recovering, so, like they last basically the full time it takes to heal. When I was 19, I was in a mountain biking accident. I broke my collarbone and shoulder. That was probably 10 times worse of a recovery than my open heart surgery, which is completely crazy

Scott Benner 30:48
to me. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah,

Matt Fouse 30:51
it's just nuts. And now this is me. I know other people probably have it different, but the day after surgery, I was in the hospital, and I was so bored, and they make you get up and walk to prevent blood clots, right? And I was so bored in the hospital, they they kind of give you a test to see that you're okay being on your own to stand up, yeah. And I had passed all of these the day after surgery, I'm doing laps in the hospital with my Apple Watch on. I did 2.6 miles of walking in the hospital because I was so bored. The doctors were like, you definitely win an award out of any patient we've ever had.

Scott Benner 31:40
I want it out, yeah, trying to get going.

Matt Fouse 31:43
Yeah, the recovery was fine, like it was, besides not being able to lift anything or drive,

Scott Benner 31:50
that was the most annoying thing. Were you on pain meds during the recovery?

Matt Fouse 31:53
Stop taking pain meds the second day, so they kind of just give them to you, yeah, like, after surgery, and then the nurse will come in and be like, how's your pain on one to 10? I'm like, honestly, I'm fine. They just stopped them and that, that was it. Anything's besides, like, Tylenol. It was not really happening, man,

Scott Benner 32:17
I I have to tell you how Arden had her her tonsils and her adenoids taken out a few weeks ago, and it's about a pretty painful thing for adults, because apparently the swelling in your throat hits a nerve that radiates like significant ear pain. They prep you for this is very unpleasant, and the recovery between, like days five and nine or even worse than they are, you know, in the first couple days or in the end. And on top of that, you've got like, a sore, you know, a very sore throat. They can't tie off the tonsils and they take them out, so there's just this, like, scabbing that happens the back of your throat. The whole thing is kind of horrifying. But they gave her a Percocet right thing. It was Percocet with acetaminophen, I if I'm not mistaken, and she had to use it, like, Arden. Arden's pretty tough. Like, I think when she started, she thought, like, oh, I won't need this, like, this. But pretty quickly she was like, okay, she took it the way she was supposed to. So she ran out of it, because they only give you, like, a week's worth in the first go. And so like, a day or two before it's gonna run out, we called them and said, Listen, you know, this has been pretty painful, and she's gonna need more Percocet. And you'd think that there'd be, I don't know, with all the talk in the world about, like, you know, there's painkillers are everywhere, and it's ruining America, and blah, blah, blah, like, you know, a 21 year old calls up and says, Hey, I need more Percocet. You'd think you'd need to talk to the doctor. No, the lady that answers the phone, and five minutes later, you've got a text from Walgreens. Hey, we're refilling your prescription. I'm like, but they do just hand that out. Like, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, it's interesting. You know, I was surprised that there weren't, but Matt, you didn't need it after having your chest cracked open because you're saying there was a nerve block that was working,

Speaker 1 34:00
yeah, so

Matt Fouse 34:02
the surgeon told me she put a, I don't know where or how this works, but she said, Oh, we used a nerve block so your pain should be less. And honestly, it was, you know, broken bones hurt. I did not feel that bad. It was kind of nuts.

Scott Benner 34:21
Oh, you got a good doctor. Then say her name. Please help people out.

Matt Fouse 34:25
Dr Harrison was her name. She is absolutely amazing. Like, in my like, doctor's visits and follow ups and stuff, anytime that a doctor or like, somebody at like, the cardiac rehab place would hear that she was a woman surgeon. They were like, kind of shocked, really. And I was like, Oh, this must be, yeah. I'm like, this must be pretty rare. So we googled it. And I guess in the United States, there are about 4000 cardiac thoracic. Surgeons. And now these surgeons are like, top of the top of the top of surgeons like to be cardiac, thoracic. There's so many things you have to be good at. There are, out of those 4000 the internet said there was less than 100 of them in the United States are women like, Oh, my goodness. I can see, I can see why people are like, what? But yeah, she she was amazing. When she came in to do the consult, when I had my catheterization, she like, very excitedly, oh, this is my favorite surgery to do. And I was like, Well, I'm glad I can help you, you know,

Scott Benner 35:43
yeah, so Matt, I have to tell you, you've said a couple things that I've looked up while you were talking so about the nerve block. So there are different kinds of nerve blocks they could use during this surgery, that some of them can last between 1872 hours, some up to five days, if the catheter stays in longer. It's pretty awesome. And I did look up the thing just now about the surgeon. And no kidding, yeah, study analyzing the Medicare provider utilization and payment database identified 2435 practicing cardiac surgeons in the US. By 2019 of these, 122 were female, representing 5% of the total in 20. Yeah, it's crazy. In 2013, of the 2076 only 3% were female. So there is an increase happening, but very slowly. I wonder what it is about that specialty that doesn't lend itself to women going after

Matt Fouse 36:36
it. Yeah, I don't know. One of my really good friends, his father was a cardiac thoracic surgeon, and he was telling me, like stories that his dad told him about going to, like school and his learning and stuff,

Speaker 1 36:52
the stuff they have to do, like they basically have to be able to thread

Matt Fouse 36:58
like multiple knots in like seconds with their eyes closed, like with tweezers and things, which is, I'm like, Oh my gosh, like,

Scott Benner 37:06
I dropped the tweezers. They'd be like, god damn it.

Matt Fouse 37:07
And I noticed, like a lot of the follow ups, Dr Harrison always would have young female, like high school girls or college girls following her, because, you know, they were interested in possibly being a surgeon. I was like, oh, you know, like, that's awesome. She would always ask, Oh, this is my daughter's friend who was thinking about maybe becoming a surgeon. She's in high school. Would you mind? And I'm like, No, have at it.

Speaker 1 37:35
Like, yeah, teach the young, yeah.

Matt Fouse 37:37
What's your scar? Like? The scar healed over. Very nice. It's a little reddish, and it's a line that goes a little bit below my nipples, up to maybe like couple inches above, like my pecs, so maybe like five, six inches. And then I had a scar on the leg where they took the vein, which is completely healed over. You can't even hardly see anything.

Speaker 1 38:09
And then my left

Matt Fouse 38:12
chest is healed over. That's where they took the mammary. But, yeah, the recovery was it was the best possible situation. My follow ups have been all good, and I just hope for the best to come. You know, you never know you could be one day away from kicking that bucket.

Scott Benner 38:30
Matt, this doesn't, does this change your overall life expectancy at all?

Matt Fouse 38:33
The surgeon said no, because I said that. I said, Well, you know, I'm a realist, and I googled the average life expectancy after open heart surgery, and I think Google says 18 years. So to me, that puts me at 58 which is pretty young to die.

Scott Benner 38:57
59 was that, when you did the Googling, did you Google that you hadn't had a heart attack, but you had the quadruple

Matt Fouse 39:04
I did not, but I asked this to my surgeon, and she said, Yes, but those stats are they're taken from a group where the average age is at minimum 20 years higher than you. So I think the the average open heart surgery patient is probably mid 60s,

Scott Benner 39:27
in their 60s already. Yeah, yes. There's no way for them to really track, yep.

Matt Fouse 39:31
If you look at that, it's like, well, yeah, that makes sense. That puts them near 80 when they die. Or, you know, seven, late 70s. Sure, you know, I got, I got a lot going against me. I got a diabetes since I was a young child, and a history. But now I will be seeing a cardiologist at minimum once a year. They will be running all the tests that they do. I'm now. On, oh my goodness, I have a pill box now because I'm on so much medication. I'm on statins, anti clotting drug I'm on, oh gosh, I can't even remember all the things I'm on.

Scott Benner 40:14
But what do they got you on warfarin or something like that for blood thinners?

Matt Fouse 40:19
I'm on aspirin, just aspirin, just like baby aspirin, yeah. But the other stuff, I think, is to prevent clotting. And then I was on a beta blocker, which makes your heart pump lower. I think the main objective of that is to give your heart rest for recovery, like after the surgery, okay, and I was on that and I would just feel so painfully sluggish, like my life was in slow motion, like I was wearing cement shoes, and my reaction time just felt like way off on the beta blocker, Which makes sense, because it, yeah, it slows it slows everything. It slows your heart rate. But yeah, I was feeling awful on that, and I noticed that during, like, my exercise, I just felt horrible because my heart wanted to do what it's supposed to do, and wanted to be that, you know, 160 versus 105, so my cardiologist took me off of that, and I feel so much better after being off of the beta blockers, good, but I will probably be on statin for the rest of my life. You know, the internet says, seemed like pretty much any person who's had type one for more than, like, 20 years, I think they just put them on it now, kind of prevent what happened to me.

Speaker 2 41:50
Yeah, yeah, geez, but this is the

Matt Fouse 41:52
first time I've been on one since the surgery.

Scott Benner 41:56
Talk a little bit about how it impacts the rest of things that can mean you're married, right? And you've got young kids, and, you know, what's the kind of psychological side of all this?

Matt Fouse 42:06
That was a wild ride. So at first, everything's just a shock. My wife and I, like, I it didn't even hit us, like, even after the surgery, it's like, Wait, what just happens? Yeah, quick. I remember the morning of the surgery. I think my skirt surgery was scheduled at like eight, but they had you report at like 6am to, like, prep you right? I remember going in and hugging both of my kids because I'm like, I might not see them again. The surgery has a

Scott Benner 42:41
sorry, no, no, take your time. Matt, seriously,

Matt Fouse 42:45
it's got, it's got, like, a one to 3% survive. The rate of death is like one to 3% which is pretty high. I mean, it's not high, but it's like, well,

Scott Benner 42:57
you know when it's high, it's when it's you, this could happen. Yeah, yeah, when, when did you have in the surgery? That seems like a pretty big number. Yeah.

Matt Fouse 43:03
And I'm like, so if you line 100 people up, which is not many people, three of them might die during this surgery. Yeah, that's a lot more than, like, you look at the statistics for, like, dying in a car wreck.

Scott Benner 43:15
Well, also you, you're sitting there at that point too, thinking like, this is, you know, happened to other people in my family. I have had type one diabetes for 40 years. Like, maybe I'm skewing a little closer to those three people than I am to the 97 Yeah, exactly.

Matt Fouse 43:29
You know, I was previously healthy, but it's like, well, I got the diabetes and my stuff so clogged. You know, anything could happen. I could throw a clot to my brain, whatever. It could all go downhill

Scott Benner 43:42
quick. Yeah, surgery is not simple, and being even just being put under, you know, is dangerous. So, I mean, I can tell. I mean, I can, I completely understand going to your kids and being like, hey, you know, you know, I was trying to bum me out, Matt, but they're so young. 10 years from now, if you pass away in that surgery, they're not even going to half remember you. You know what I mean, like, that's the thing you got to, like, stand in real time. Yeah, yeah, think about that,

Matt Fouse 44:04
yep, yeah, exactly, yeah. But that, that was that morning, and I was like, Man, this is really hitting me now,

Scott Benner 44:12
yeah, which one of these scum bags is gonna hit on my wife? You know what I mean? Like, you know of your butt, Yep, yeah, of your buddies. You're like, which one of these guys I know is, like, gonna wait like, a year and a half and then, like, you know, like, hey, you need help with something you like, dirt bags.

Matt Fouse 44:26
Yeah, exactly. But my wife was amazing through all of it. My mom came down, watched the kids while my wife stay with me every single day in the hospital. For, you know, the amount of time that she could during visiting hours, I got out, and then my wife, just like, she had her like, Okay, I was strong for the kids. And then she just like, she had, like, a week of like, holy, you know, yeah, she was just emotional. Crying because it like you have a release. Eventually you're like, everything just kind of, lets go, right? I remember I was really emotional in the hospital, and I was like, I just think about, like, our kids, like, what am I putting them through right now? And she's like, well, the ones for she's such a dangling she's not going to remember any of this, like you're right?

Scott Benner 45:24
And then I have a 10 year, 10 year old too, right? And then go ahead, I'm sorry,

Matt Fouse 45:28
yeah, I have a 10 year old. I think she's still young enough. She didn't really grasp the seriousness of the situation at the time the day my surgery was scheduled. I work for a professional baseball team, the Washington Nationals, and I'm their barista. So we get, like, free tickets anytime we want to the games the nationals were playing the Orioles, which is big because it's like two local teams. They were coming up to Camden Yards. We had the VIP tickets like that. You get to go on the field, because I work for them, and we're going to get to meet all the players. I was like, I had to come home from the catholicization and be like, I'm sorry, honey, but we can't go to the game. And she immediately was like, oh. And I was like, because I'm going to be on an operating table getting split open like a clam while they reroute my arteries. I think all she thinks about is like, of course, she loves me, but she's still 10, and she's like, Oh man, she completely understood it. Though we were not going to that game that night after the surgery.

Scott Benner 46:40
Listen The saddest thing you said so far is that you work for the nationals, who have been really terrible this year, and that must be sad.

Matt Fouse 46:47
Oh, bless them. Yeah, they're all great guys, and they're doing the best they can.

Speaker 1 46:55
Yeah, it's a little

Scott Benner 46:56
bit rough. Matt, what do you do for the team? I'm their barista. So like you wrote, do you wrote? I do, yeah, yeah. That's so cool. Tell me about it. Tell me, please, yep.

Matt Fouse 47:09
Only just work for the nationals. Like they're I work for the nationals, but any game that they have that's early, usually, like the one or three o'clock games that they like to be caffeinated, because, let me tell you, baseball players, they get paid a lot, sure, but I see what they go through because I'm friends with a bunch of them. They if they have a one o'clock game, they usually start reporting at 7am for these games, and they're studying the next teams, whatever they study, I guess they're like, pitches, their percentages, stuff like that. Yeah, they do stretches, they do practices, they do all this stuff. But yeah, so I caffeinate them. I also have people that work for me. So a lot of times the visiting teams were in the, like, Major League Baseball vendor network. So if they're traveling through Camden Yards or Nationals Park, they can choose to hire my company to bring an espresso bar and caffeinate them. So a lot of times I'll have one of my baristas doing the visiting locker. And like last was it two weeks ago. We did the Milwaukee Brewers at the same time that I did the Nationals. So I'm just basically making coffee for baseball players. Is what my job is.

Scott Benner 48:32
That's a pretty cool down, down to a team. That's a pretty cool job. Listen, my kid never played professional baseball, but I can just tell you that prepping for a college game is a day long experience. It's, it's a lot more work. They don't just wander out there and like, you know, stretch your shoulders twice and get going. It's a lot, you know, really. And you can see these guys now are all taking much different care of their bodies than they had in the past. You know, they're eating differently, cooking differently. That all takes time too. So, yeah, but listen, and the Nationals, oh my goodness, yeah, yeah. By the way, you're better than the Braves this year. That was surprising, I imagine,

Matt Fouse 49:10
Yep, yeah. That is crazy. That is just crazy to me, how

Scott Benner 49:14
that happens. It really is. Well, listen, I love baseball. It's so cool that you get to are you even there for the games, or are you just there earlier in the day? How does that work with your time there?

Matt Fouse 49:24
Usually I'm just there earlier. I can go to pretty much any game I want to. I just gotta tell the manager that deals with that. Hey, can you put me on the list? And he'll put me on the so every major league Park has a friends and family section that they will not sell public tickets to, okay? And that section is for friends and family or, like anybody that's on the list, all he's got to do is put me on the list, and then I can go sit. It's it's usually always like behind home plate, up and over to the first base side. You. But the thing is, it's like, well, I got there early. I was working all day, and now I have to wait two hours and then sit through a long baseball game. So usually I don't if they're anywhere I want to see them. I can also go to the games. So like, if they're in Camden Yards, we go and I can bring family, friends, whatever, pretty good perks of the job. I guess that

Scott Benner 50:28
sounds like a great job to me. Actually, that's awesome. I would like you to teach me how to make coffee so I can show up and do that be seriously great. And were you able to let me definitely fun. Yeah. I'm gonna finish up with you by asking this, like, how long were you out of work, and how quickly were you able to get back? And do you notice any deficits at this point? After the procedure,

Matt Fouse 50:46
I could not lift anything over I think it was eight pounds for the first six weeks. And then after six weeks, I had a follow up, and I think at that point your bone is healed enough that you're kind of good to go. You just kind of have to be careful. So when I went to the appointment with the surgeon, she was like, yeah, just listen to your body like you don't really have any lifting restrictions anymore, but if something feels like you shouldn't do it. Listen to your body. Well, I took that as okay, this week, I'm going to run 26 miles, and I'm going to split four cords of firewood. Yeah, and that was the worst decision I could have made, because I think that set me back weeks in my, like, overall recovery, because last, like I said, last week was on my official, like, 12 weeks. But I think I definitely was set back because of that. I just felt like garbage for like, two to three weeks after that, and I was like, it's so funny. My wife is not a naggy wife whatsoever. You know, she's not the like, you shouldn't have done that. I said to her, I'm like, Why didn't you say anything to me? And she's like, I was watching you split firewood from the kitchen window. And I said to myself, he should not be doing that probably. And I'm like, Why didn't you say anything?

Speaker 1 52:25
I was like, it's your fault. You weren't nagging enough.

Matt Fouse 52:29
My gosh, that was pretty much, you know, I think it's 12 weeks. Everything is technically like your bone is fused together.

Scott Benner 52:39
You should have, you should have followed the instructions. Matt, yeah, okay, try listening next time. I know, yes, that's crazy. Well, listen, I am. I'm very happy that you're okay. I That burping saved your life. I think, I hope everybody picks a time in their life where they say to a cardiologist, can we just get a look in there? I know. I think about it all the time. I genuinely would like to do that. And it does feel weird to go to somebody and say, Look, I'm not having any problems, but I am older, and I'd like you to look. I think even I've got to get over that. I'd like a little, you know, a little look around. I don't know what they do, Echo, look around, some sort of an imaging. I want to know if there's anything in there brewing. No pun intended. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matt Fouse 53:20
I think it is so important, like, if you are type one diabetic and you've had it for a good amount of time, even if you don't have symptoms, you can start. You go to your doctor, you say, I have no symptoms. I want to do a cardiac CAT scan. Insurance might not pay for it. You pay out of pocket. It's not that expensive. Like, even out of pocket, it takes a minute and a half to fling you through this thing that will show if you have a problem, like that will show calcification, and that could save your life. Like, I think it's worth diving into. Worst case, you blew however much the it cost for it, but it's worth doing that versus being that story of like, guy died wrestling with his kids playing on the floor. You know? Yeah, that's what I'm hoping you know, just this story can get across to people, like, dive into it and like, take a look, look at have a look.

Scott Benner 54:26
I share periodically. But my buddy Mike, who was diagnosed when we were, you know, 18 ish, like, at the end of high school, and never really, kind of came along with modern methods to take care of himself, till it was a lot later in his life, and he ended up on dialysis, and then one day, like he just, it is exactly the way you described. He was sitting and talking to his wife. They were talking about dinner. He stood up to make dinner, and stood up and fell right over again. And that was just sort of it. Yeah, I sometimes think that, you know, the rescue squad did him a disservice by by saving him in that moment. And then he, you know, laid in a bed for a few. Days before his heart gave out the rest of the way, because there was nothing they could do for him, because the damage to his heart was significant from his his lifetime of, you know, higher blood sugars, and that pretty much is the beginning the end of it all. On top of that, kidney dialysis is is hard on your heart, too. So he had a he had that double whammy going for him. Yeah, yeah, yep. I want to make your point through his point, which, if he was here, he would tell you that the day before this happened to him, he did not think he was about to have a heart attack. Like, that's not what. He did not see that coming. So I think that really should be the takeaway, honestly,

Matt Fouse 55:35
yep, yep. You might not see it coming, but it might be coming. So do what you can, go

Scott Benner 55:41
look for it. Nothing wrong with peeking around the corner to see what's coming and maybe get ahead of it a little bit. You know? Yeah, definitely not at all. I appreciate you sharing this story, and I wish you nothing but success. I know there are going to be a few people that are going to laugh because you had a plant based diet and then had heart issues, but I don't think that's got one thing to do with the other.

Matt Fouse 55:58
Yeah, and the marathon runner a day, I know.

Scott Benner 56:02
Listen, it's like, I ran a lot, and I never ate meat, and then, by the way, I had to have a quadruple bypass. Like, yeah, yeah. Not funny, but, you know, there's going to be some irony in there, yeah, that people don't, maybe don't jive with, but nevertheless, I'm gonna have to say goodbye because I'm out of time. But thank you very, very much again for sharing this with me. Thank you, Scott, that's a pleasure. Hold on one second. Okay, yep.

Touched by type one sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Check them out at touched by type one.org on Instagram and Facebook. Give them a follow. Go check out what they're doing. They are helping people with type one diabetes in ways you just can't imagine. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube free, automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections, learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox at my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox omnipod.com/juicebox, are you tired of getting a rash from your CGM adhesive? Give the ever since 365 a try. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox beautiful silicone that they use. It changes every day, keeps it fresh. Not only that, you only have to change the sensor once a year. So I mean, that's better. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcast and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend, and if you leave a five star review, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card 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. When I created the defining diabetes series, I pictured a dictionary in my mind to help you understand key terms that shape type one diabetes management. Along with Jenny Smith, who, of course, is an experienced diabetes educator, we break down concepts like basal, time and range, insulin on board and much more. This series must have 70 short episodes in it. We have to take the jargon out of the jargon so that you can focus on what really matters, living confidently and staying healthy. You can't do these things if you don't know what they mean. Go get your diabetes to find Juicebox podcast.com go up in the menu and click on series. I am here to tell you about juice cruise 2026 we will be departing from Miami on June 21 2026 for a seven night trip going to the Caribbean. That's right. We're going to leave Miami and then stop at Coke. Okay, in the Bahamas. After that, it's on to st, Kitts, St Thomas and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands. The first juice Cruise was awesome. The second one's going to be bigger, better and bolder. This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type one diabetes, expand your community and your knowledge on juice cruise 2026 learn more right now at Juicebox podcast.com/juice, cruise. At that link, you'll also find photographs from the first cruise. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com.

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