Scott Benner 11/11/25 Scott Benner 11/11/25

#1677 Sneaky Chocolate Bar - Part 1

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Danny shares his raw journey from decades of denial and neglect with type 1 diabetes to losing his leg—finding strength, purpose, and a mission to help others avoid his path.

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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. You are listening to the Juicebox podcast.

Danny 0:13
Hi, my name is Danny. I'm a type one diabetic of 37 years I am from the UK, and I want to start raising awareness to the dangers of not looking after your diabetes.

Scott Benner 0:28
If this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast, and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox podcast and follow or subscribe, we put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin while you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin you

This episode is sponsored by the tandem mobi system, which is powered by tandems, newest algorithm control iq plus technology. Tandem Moby has a predictive algorithm that helps prevent highs and lows, and is now available for ages two and up. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox 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 us med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years, you can as well us. Med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, use the link or the number, get your free benefits. Check and get started today with us. Med, Hi,

Danny 2:36
my name is Danny. I'm a type one diabetic. For 37 years, I am from the UK, and I want to start raising awareness to the dangers of not looking after your diabetes.

Scott Benner 2:48
Danny, I appreciate you coming on and doing this with me. Thank you for having me. Oh, it's a pleasure. Did I see yesterday that you logged on a day early for our recording? I was

Danny 3:00
hoping you wasn't going to pick up on that.

Scott Benner 3:03
That normally only happens to Australians, but I think you're going to be my first person from England to have that that happened to so what the date got confusing? Or I wonder how it works always, because, like, what time is it now? Where you are, for example,

Danny 3:15
is now it's by 40 PM. But I just got my I do it quite often. Get my days mixed up. I I've turned up to hospital appointments a week early, dentist appointments a day late. It's just me if, if it's not wrote down in front of me, I'll forget.

Scott Benner 3:35
Okay, so is it August 7, where you are right now? Yes, it is. Oh, geez, Danny. I was trying to give you an excuse and an out, but you

Danny 3:43
just No, no excuses.

Scott Benner 3:46
So I guess what happens to the Australians is that it's August 7 when it's August 6 here, and we often get that confusion where, you know, I log on and there's no one there, and I send the note and I say, hey, you know you're not here for the recording. And they go, No, it's tomorrow. And I went look harder. So all right, well, yeah,

Danny 4:04
anyway, no, I've got not I'm guilty, Your Honor.

Scott Benner 4:07
So you've had type one for how long again? Tell me.

Danny 4:09
So I was diagnosed in 1988 on the fourth of April to 37 just over 37 years now,

Scott Benner 4:16
wow, 88 that's a year before I graduated from high school. How old are you?

Danny 4:20
I am 48 now. Oh, gosh, 48 years young. So what were you? I was 11 when I was diagnosed. Just started high with secondary school, but high scores, I gather the equivalent.

Scott Benner 4:32
Do you recall the those days of of being diagnosed? Do you remember how it happened?

Danny 4:38
Yeah, leading up towards my diagnosis, I was always active, playing a lot of football, tennis, played a lot of sports, and for a couple of for about a month, I was starting to lose a lot of weight, really tired. Always had a really good appetite for my food. Wouldn't eat. Of food, I was going through three liters of, like, diluted squash a day, and as soon as I was drinking that pint of squash, I'd go upstairs and I'd literally, within minutes, I'll be having having a week. And remember my step dad saying to me, to my mum, like he's diabetic, so my mum took me to the doctors the next day, within an hour, I was diagnosed as type one and admitted to my local

Scott Benner 5:28
hospital. Do you have any idea how your stepdad knew the signs? I don't know

Danny 5:32
how he knew the signs to be his his dad was diabetic, or his uncle's diabetic. I think okay, because it wasn't as common as it is to see the signs these days in the four T's, you know, it was, it was a lot different back then.

Scott Benner 5:47
Yeah, yeah. I guess just the frequent urination, high blood sugars thing, if it's a thing you've seen before, maybe it just it clicked for him, you know.

Danny 5:55
Yeah, I just don't know how, because, you know, he, he wasn't the most educated man. He was, you know, a real grafter, but he was the first one to recognize it,

Scott Benner 6:09
saying, you know, I was waiting to see where you were going to go when you started like, yeah, I

Danny 6:13
was trying not to, like, downplay his role in all of this. But yeah, you know, he, he was a hard worker, and it was him that actually see the signs.

Scott Benner 6:23
Figured it out. Wow, do you remember what your blood sugar was back then we

Danny 6:27
do it slightly different in the UK, but no, I don't even remember, okay, I don't remember much of it. I just remember it was literally a week. We spent a week in hospital being educated.

Scott Benner 6:39
And was that regular and mph, 88 what kind of insulin did you get? Do you remember

Danny 6:45
it would have been mixed hard back in 88

Scott Benner 6:48
Okay, okay. And couple times a day,

Danny 6:53
so it would have been. It was still two background insulins. And I think that was human actual frame back then interesting. And I think I remember either two, it was definitely two, maybe three, injections a day,

Scott Benner 7:10
okay, who managed it for you? Was it you? Was it your mom? How did it get handled?

Danny 7:14
To start off with it, with my mum. She was, like, amazing, like, took it all in her stride, educated herself really well on it, as did I as a kid. When you discharged from hospital, you used to be able to buy this book. Now it's all different, isn't it, it's all apps and stuff. But back then, it was a book called Countdown, and it had all your carbs in it. It was the Green was the good ones, Amber for, okay, red for stay clear, basically. Or they were the ones that, you know, the most carbs and sugars in back then we was told, you know, no chocolate, no candy, no sweets, nothing like that. It was zero tolerance. Did you grow up that way? I did. From the age of I was only allowed to have, like, a small chocolate bar if I was playing sports, and

Scott Benner 8:05
that was to help you from being dizzy. Is that how they thought

Danny 8:07
of it? Yeah, and that was to keep the sugar, sugar levels up, so used to reduce the insulin and just whack it up with a bit of chocolate or glucose tablets, right? You know, I'd have that sneaky little chocolate bar now and again. I felt like I was really naughty. After a few years of like, really being strict with it, it was like, I'll have a sneaky chocolate bar. My mum had no she knew straight away, because she'd take, like, do the finger poke when I got home, and she's like, you played football today? And I was like, yeah, yeah. She was like, Well, why your blood sugar so high? So I couldn't, I couldn't get past my mum. My mum was spot on with it. She knew if I was lying or cheating. Yeah. Oh gosh, there was a lot of sneaky chocolate bars eventually, but yeah,

Scott Benner 8:49
well, yeah, that's what we're going to get to, right? We want to dive into that. So how many years do you think until and do you see what might have caused a shift in how you managed yourself. You know where it went off the rails.

Danny 9:04
So I was diagnosed the age of 11, so I'd say late teens to early adulthood. Sort of 1617, 18. Sort of mark more, 1718. Is when I noticed I was different from everybody else. More More than ever. You know, at school, I was quite open about the diabetes, and people knew I was diabetic. But when once I hit adulthood, and everyone was going, all my friends were going out, drinking, to bars and stuff, that's when I noticed I was different from everybody

Scott Benner 9:37
else. How'd it make you feel?

Danny 9:38
It's difficult to remember back then, because, you know, up until the last five years, I've just lived my life, but back then it just, I was having to go out. Then I was having to come, you know, we'd, we'd be out downtown, in the barn. I live quite close to town, so when I'd come home, have some insulin, and I'd go back out. But at first, I wasn't drinking alcohol. I wasn't I'm. Wasn't smoking, I wasn't doing anything. And it just after a few years, these sort of things started creeping in, because I felt like, what was it? Even people peer pressure me, or just I wanted to be included. You know, I've always felt a little bit different from everybody else, okay,

Scott Benner 10:17
different like you were on the outside of something, like they were doing something you weren't doing.

Danny 10:22
It was like, right? We got into such and such, like, going to a nightclub, and it would be finishing at two, three in the morning. I blow can't, because I've got, you know, I've got to take my insulin. And obviously I started on the vials and needles back then.

Scott Benner 10:36
Yeah, so you had, like, in your mind, you're like, Well, I got to get home by a certain time because I've got to inject.

Danny 10:41
Yeah, I was, it sort of felt like I was restricted, and I was on a curfew. You know, that's when it started to plan my mind more, I think, because I knew I was different from everybody else.

Scott Benner 10:53
And then, how do you manage that? Instead of looking for a way to take your insulin at the bar or something, you just decide not to take it. Or how does it like?

Danny 11:01
So eventually I went on to the disposable pens, and that was easier, because you could put them in your coat pocket, and there was a bit more discreet, because you just had a screw on needle on the top, so it just looked like a big marker pen in your pocket. So that that was good, but then I wasn't testing my blood sugars properly, you know, I was, I was going to hospital appointments, and we used to have a diary back then there was no CGM, and used to have to write with I'd be sat outside the clinic filling in all my blood sugars, yeah, because they'd be saying, right, we need blood sugars for this day. These times, I'd write them all in this book, and I just make them up.

Scott Benner 11:41
Can I ask you, with hindsight, why did you not test

Danny 11:46
part of it was laziness, and I never really learned about diabetes, burnout. Yeah, never knew nothing about it until I started speaking to guys in the states early this year, and that's when I, you know, really learned more about diabetes burnout and thought, Geez, I have had it over the years and not really known about

Scott Benner 12:09
it. I have a hard time imagining that many people are going to go through living a life with diabetes and not experience maybe many different seasons of difficulty just doing, you know, what seem like, simple things, you know, test your blood sugar. I don't see how it can't, like, just the same way you talked about, um, you know, just slowly feeling different, you know, yeah, it kind of creeps up on you, and then you don't know how you got there, you just, you start having reactions to it and acting differently, or doing differently, and then before you know it, it's been a week and a month and you're not dead. So you're like, This must be okay. And then you kind of don't think about it anymore. It's, it's the same, I think it's the same process that people get unhealthy, and you know, a lot of different ways, gain weight, stop exercising, stop communicating with people you love, like, I think all of that kind of drifts away in a similar fashion.

Danny 13:04
Yeah, 100% and, you know, now, when I look back to how I am now, health wise, I wish I looked after it a lot better. You know, done them. Finger pokes back then. And if I'm honest, Scott, I was doing um, once a week, if he was lucky, for a number of months between the ages of 17 and 19, yeah,

Scott Benner 13:30
once. What was once a week even accomplishing? Do you know

Danny 13:33
nothing wasn't because I wasn't even changing my insulin ratio, you know, if I was high, I wasn't giving more, you know, I wasn't giving more insulin. If I was like, I was just sticking to the same regime that I was insulin wise, that I was on at the age of 16.

Scott Benner 13:50
Yeah, before you feel too bad, you know, let me tell you this, like, Arden had a pretty simple, like, medical procedure yesterday, right? So she had her tonsils out, but she's 21 so, you know, it's a bit of an ass kicking getting your tonsils out when you're 21 so she comes home, we, you know, had it set up prior, like, I'm just gonna, like, run her, her blood sugars and everything, you know, while, while she's because she's also on pain medication and stuff like that. So she was good for a while. Actually, I have to, I want to give a lot of credit to the trio app, which kept her blood sugar super stable overnight, you know, super stable in the morning, before the surgery, during the surgery, just awesome blood sugars for the lead up to the process. Then at some point, you know, the pain is going to hit her. Little bit of, you know, all the things that come with having a surgery and everything else, and I know she's gonna need more insulin. And I still, I still spent the better part of like, six or eight hours bolusing, like, I kept bolusing and bolusing before, like, before even my brain was like, dude, turn up the basal. What do you do? You don't mean, like, and if you were to come. Them on this podcast and tell me that story. I would immediately, without hesitation, tell you, like, as soon as I saw the blood sugars wanting to creep up after the surgery, I'd probably look at, like, 150 basal, 150% basal increase, you know, yeah, you're getting a unit an hour. Make it a unit and a half, that kind of vibe. And yet, for me, like, you get caught in the moment and everything's going on. And you just like, oh, higher blood sugar, Al Bolus. Higher blood sugar, Al Bolus. And I finally, like, you know, I don't know what happened to me. Like, four in the morning I woke up, I looked at her blood sugar, it was like, 180 and I'm like, what is happening? And then it just hit me. I'm like, oh, dummy. Like, what are you doing? So I went in and and I changed her basal rate, like, I literally just turned it up by 100% like, she's getting two units an hour right now instead of one. And now I haven't even looked in a while. I'm looking right now with you. Now our blood sugar is 119 or 114 Yeah. So with all that technology and all that knowledge, my point is, is there were still 12 hours in there where my brain didn't go, oh, do the thing, you know, do this. So I can't imagine when you're taking three shots a day, and you know, I mean doing a blood sugar test that probably was meaningless, right? Like you would do them, and then what? Nothing. Why would you settle for changing your CGM every few weeks when you can have 365 days of reliable glucose data. Today's episode is sponsored by the ever since 365 it is the only CGM with a tiny sensor that lasts a full year sitting comfortably under your skin with no more frequent sensor changes and essentially no compression lows. For one year, you'll get your CGM data in real time on your phone, smart watch, Android or iOS, even an Apple Watch, predictive high and low alerts let you know where your glucose is headed before it gets there. So there's no surprises, just confidence, and you can instantly share that data with your healthcare provider or your family. You're going to get one year of reliable data without all those sensor changes. That's the ever since 365 gentle on your skin, strong for your life. One sensor a year. That gives you one less thing to worry about. Head now to ever since, cgm.com/juicebox, to get started. I used to hate ordering my daughter's diabetes supplies. I never had a good experience, and it was frustrating. But it hasn't been that way for a while, actually, for about three years now, because that's how long we've been using us Med, US med.com/juicebox, or call 88872115, 888-721-1514, us. Med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omnipod dash, the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide, the number one rated distributor in Dexcom customer satisfaction surveys, they have served over 1 million people with diabetes since 1996 and they always provide 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping us. Med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM like the libre three and Dexcom g7 they accept Medicare nationwide, and over 800 private insurers find out why us med has an A plus rating with a better business bureau at us med.com/juicebox, or just call them at 888-721-1514, get started right now, and You'll be getting your supplies the same way we do, right? You just,

Danny 18:45
no, I'd be like, I'm a bit high, but I'm gonna, like, I said I was very active. I was doing a lot of love, playing a lot of football, yeah, so it was, it was quite easy to lower them sugars, right? Because I was, I was always active? Yeah, yeah. So I never worried too much about it, right? If that made sense,

Scott Benner 19:07
and did you have any expect? Did you have knowledge? I mean, 17, 1819, years old? Did you know what not taking enough insulin would do to you long term? Or do you have any feeling for what that could be

Danny 19:18
problem I have, I, you know, as a proud man, I would never admit defeat, or these things will happen to you. You'll end up having problems with your eyes gangering, losing limbs. That was told to me when I was a very young age, and I just I didn't care at that time, when I was, you know, early 20s, then I just did not care. I was like, I'll be all right. I'll be right. Because, like I said, I was doing that odd finger poke now and again, and not going to happen to me, right? Nothing, nothing was happening to me. So it's like, I'm okay, I'm okay. I'll just carry on.

Scott Benner 19:56
Feel invincible. Yeah, was. What happened after 20 Which way did it go then? So I

Danny 20:04
start when in my early 20s, I decided to go and work away for the summer in Portugal, got my big stock of insulin, went to the hospital, got signed off big prescription to take it with me. So I was over there for six months of the year, and it was a completely different culture for me. It was Drink, drink a lot, party hard, and sleep a lot. Okay, so I stuck to the same insulin regime that they give me, and I went six months of that year not testing at all, not one, not one single finger poke back, then you're right. I've done that for three summers consecutively,

Scott Benner 20:45
really, yeah, so summers, summers were, uh, were a vacation from reality.

Danny 20:53
Yeah, okay, vacation from reality, you know. And it's like always say, you know, you can go on holiday, but your diabetes doesn't. Mine did. Mine had a six months vacation. Set yours off. Yeah, so just, and I was a heavy smoker, but yeah, I was 22 years old. Cigarettes. Yeah, smoking 60 cigarettes a day, nearly, wow, between 40 and 60 cigarettes and just every night just drinking for six months, pretty much

Scott Benner 21:23
three packs, 63 packs, right? Yeah, wow. So just awake, if you were awake, you were smoking or drinking, and then you were sleeping. Otherwise, let's talk about the tandem Moby insulin pump from today's sponsor tandem diabetes care, their newest algorithm control, iq plus technology and the new tandemobi Pump offer you unique opportunities to have better control. It's the only system with auto Bolus that helps with missed meals and preventing hyperglycemia, the only system with a dedicated sleep setting, and the only system with off or on body wear options, tandemobi gives you more discretion, freedom and options for how to manage your diabetes. This is their best algorithm ever, and they'd like you to check it out at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox when you get to my link, you're going to see integrations with Dexcom sensors and a ton of other information that's going to help you learn about tandems, tiny pump that's big on control tandem diabetes.com/juicebox. The tandem Moby system is available for people ages two and up who want an automated delivery system to help them sleep better, wake up in range and address high blood sugars with auto Bolus. Yeah, taking any insulin. How are you doing?

Danny 22:43
I was doing the insulin. All the insulin, I was doing that. And it was literally just the same regime. So I wouldn't even know, because I was drinking a lot of vodka red balls. Obviously, Red Bull is full of sugar, isn't it? So, you know, I was drinking a lot of them. So, God knows what it was doing to me inside, but at the time, I didn't care. I was having a good time.

Scott Benner 23:07
You hadn't changed your settings since you were 16, no, eight.

Danny 23:11
So I changed it about 1890 No, sorry, I changed it when I was about 20, when I knew I was going to Portugal. And I thought, right, I need to sort of prepare for this a little bit. So I sort of behaved myself a little bit before I went away. Then I got over there, and it was just like, you know, by the end of the summer that that blood monitor, blood glucose monitor, had dust on it

Scott Benner 23:33
and and the amount of insulin you were taking didn't change if you gained weight, it didn't change if you ate

Danny 23:38
more. I wasn't gaining a lot of weight because I wasn't eating a great deal because I was spending all my money on going out partying.

Scott Benner 23:46
Yeah? Let me also, I would also imagine if your blood sugars were high all the time, that's another reason you weren't gaining weight, yeah, yeah, yeah. So okay, and so for six months a year, you'd be in Portugal.

Danny 23:58
I did, yeah, I'd done that from for six months of the year for the summer season, I'd come back to the UK. I think between the first and second year, I didn't even go back and see my Endo. It was just went back and done the same again. I was doing finger pokes and stuff. And I got back, and I thought, right, and back in the UK, you need to sort myself out of it. So I did then I was and not frequent, maybe twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening, before I knew I was going to bed or falling asleep, I'd do another one. See what was like overnight.

Scott Benner 24:33
Was your mom checking in on you with diabetes? Or had she stopped at

Danny 24:37
that time, I was living on my own. I had my own place so I was able to, you know, I was living on my own. Yeah, you know, I'm 48 years old now, and she still tells me off to certain things, not so much these days, because it is pretty much, really well controlled. Still have the off day, but I'm pretty much

Scott Benner 24:59
there. Now. So you said the last five years you've been kind of on top

Danny 25:03
of it to a certain extent. Yeah, okay, you know, even when my first child was born, she's 21 this year. So I was 27 when my first daughter was born, and I ended up having a Hypo when my ex wife, now she was delivering a baby. I like to go outside and get some sweets inside me because I was having a high five, so I didn't look after it for a number of years, a long, long period. Okay?

Scott Benner 25:30
I mean, I think this is the crux of why you came on, right? Like when you first introduced yourself, you said you want to help people to not ignore their diabetes. So tell me, let's jump to your first complication. What? How old were you and what was it?

Danny 25:45
So 2018 I started losing feeling in my feet, really suffering with a lot of pain in my lower limbs. And basically I was losing all the feeling in my feet and people saying to me, you know, my father in law was a diet type one diabetic, and he was an amputee. He ended up having a leg amputated as well for different reasons, not through diabetes, but he was like, You need to stop smoking. You need and I was still smoking, not as much as I was when I was younger, but still smoking quite a lot, and I was like, you know, the same old Danny, you know, I'll be alright. You know, it's nothing. Nothing's wrong with me at the moment, but the pain I was in of a night time was incredible. They ended up giving me some amitriptyline to help me sleep at night time, because I was, I was constantly fidgeting at night.

Scott Benner 26:41
Danny, let me stop Let me stop you for a second. So your father in law had type one diet. Has type one diabetes.

Danny 26:47
He did, yeah, he passed away a couple of years ago, but yeah, he was a type one as

Scott Benner 26:53
well. But back then, when you're telling this part of the story where you're having neuropathy and leg pain, and he says to you, you got to stop smoking, does? He has he had a limb removed at that point,

Danny 27:04
it was 2018 No, he was too. He was during covid, 2020

Scott Benner 27:10
Okay, so he but he knew about neuropathy, because he was experiencing it as well.

Danny 27:15
He used to end up going to podiatry because he had a bad shark over and he could see the people in there losing limbs through their diabetes. And he's like, Danny, you really need to get control of

Scott Benner 27:28
this. Gotcha Okay? And you said, No, I was

Danny 27:32
Scott I was always the one that would be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will do. I will do, yeah, definitely. And I do a couple of weeks of eating better, you know, testing my blood sugar, then I'll go back to the old routine again, of now and again, testing my blood sugar, you know, just same old thing, yeah, become invincible.

Scott Benner 27:54
And even with the pain in your legs, did you connect those things? Did you say, Oh, my blood sugars, my smoking, etc. This is where the pain is coming from. Or did you not connect them? I

Danny 28:04
didn't connect them, if to, if the truth be known. You know, when I started looking up about what was going on with my feet, losing the sensation in them, my mum was like, it's your diabetes. Danny, is she diabetes? You need to sort it out. You need to sort it out. And I was like, I will, I will, you know. And I did start looking after it better. And then 2019 I was admitted to hospital in the in the August DKA, which I didn't know. I think I'd had it a couple of years beforehand, like quite a few years ago, twice, and that had misdiagnosed at the hospital, or they told me it was saying. They told me it was gastroenteritis. Okay, it was a gastro thing, so I didn't think nothing of it. But this, this one really scared me. In 2019 the dka scared you. The DKA, yeah, my ketones were like, greater than seven. They couldn't even get a reading of how high my blood sugar was. It was that high?

Scott Benner 29:03
Yeah, I want to make sure I'm right. That's 31 years after you're diagnosed, right? Yeah, yeah, okay, please tell me like if I asked you five minutes before you were in that hospital, if I would have asked you to describe to me the level of care that you provide for yourself. How would you have described it? Poor, very poor. You knew it, yeah, oh yeah.

Danny 29:27
I know. You know. To be honest, I just thought I had a stomach bug that week. I was just being sick. What I was doing, I was still giving insulin, but wasn't eating, yeah, I had, I needed re educating about diabetes.

Scott Benner 29:43
Yeah, you're not wearing a CGM at that point.

Danny 29:45
No, no, that that came in 2020 War One, I believe yes, 2021 or 2220

Scott Benner 29:54
22 Yeah, in the last 10 of the 31 years that we're talking about right there, do. Did you see an endo every year? Sometimes, sometimes

Danny 30:04
the problem I had, I was too busy. You know, the job that I'd done was very, very physical, very active, but there was a lot of money to be earned, if that makes sense. You know, you'd never turn the overtime down. If there was a shift there, you'd be like, Yeah, I'll do it, I'll do it, and never for the repercussions.

Scott Benner 30:24
Yeah, you skip them because you feel like you didn't have the time. You're making money, and things are going well that way. Okay, I'm sorry. So we have neuropathy. Your father in law says, hey, get some help. You don't do anything there. 2019, the DK comes that, let's pick it up. From there, you're in the hospital with the DK, how does that process go? So, yeah,

Danny 30:48
basically, and that my partner called an ambulance for me, and I was like, don't need the ambulance. Just got a sickness bug. Paramedics came into the bedroom. My blood glucose meter had run out of battery. We found a spare one, but the test strips were out of date, so we couldn't even get a reading like that. They tested me, and they said, you're in, you're in DKA, yeah. And I was like, What's DKA? And they explained it to me, and I was like, No, I'm not I feel fine. It's not doing my diabetes. Got a stomach bug, and they just said to me, listen, Danny, if don't get in the ambulance, now you're going to die. And I was like, I'll just pack a bag. So did you believe them? I think it took that scare factor for me to if they would have just been like, Okay, leave you. You know, you don't want to get in the ambulance. Very thankful for them paramedics, because they were like, you're gonna die if you don't get in that ambulance and got blue lighted. I've never been I've been in a car quite fast, but I've never been that far. If my partner said they were like, land speed record to get me to the

Scott Benner 31:55
hospital. Yeah, they were. They really thought you were, you're in significant trouble.

Danny 31:59
Yeah, yeah. And I remember being in the emergency ward my local hospital and just being pumped for like, doctors working all around me. It was a bit of a haze, if I'm honest, and just being hooked up to all these having all these cannulas put in, but they couldn't get the cannulas in properly at first, because I was dehydrated, real, real scary time, and ended up being in ICU for three days not really know what's going on. You know, having members of family, I remember, like, sort of being semi conscious and seeing members of family around my bed. Yeah, wow. Thinking like, why is everyone here? It's not that bad.

Scott Benner 32:45
How long? How long did it take to get through that?

Danny 32:49
It was three days, and after the third day, they let me come home. Third or fourth day. The only downside of it was I was meant to be taking my partner to Ed Sheeran on Friday, so she ended up going with her mum. So my mum got a free ticket to go and see Ed Sheeran, and I still never seen him. So, yeah, that that was the one that really, really shook me up. You know, I come home and I was really lethargic that weekend. Yeah, still feeling a little bit underwear. But I was, I was testing my glucose. I was being religious with it. Then, you know, for that, for that first week had come out of hospital, I was, I was testing everything. They were getting me in, back in to see the endo in a different hospital, really good hospital that I'm under now. And it sort of kick started my diabetes again, if that makes

Scott Benner 33:44
sense, yeah, I got you back on track. What's the next thing that happens to you after that decay?

Danny 33:50
So you know, during this time, I've had some laser surgery on my eyes as well, so that that's been sort of going on for the couple of years beforehand, I said I Doctor tame, you know, you need to fuck your ideas up, your your blood sugars, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I started doing all that, right, in 2020 I don't know if you, I don't believe you guys do it in the States. It's called a Daphne. Course,

Scott Benner 34:18
no. Daphne's specific to England. I believe, yeah,

Danny 34:21
and that opened my eyes up to a lot of things. And I had been really looking after it then. And that was, that was in the January of 2020 when I had done the Daphne

Scott Benner 34:32
course, and you got a more modern look at what it meant to manage type one diabetes.

Danny 34:36
Yeah, it sort of re educated me again. So I went to the hospital for a week to, you know, carb count again, yeah, they showed me all these apps that was available. And then obviously I was looking after it great. And we went into lockdown. And, you know, was really still. Like looking after it quite well over lockdown, still having my bad days. Like, I know a lot of diabetics do have the bad day, yeah, you know, and that even now, I still don't say on the perfect, you know, I'm far from the perfect diabetic, but I try my hardest now, yeah,

Scott Benner 35:19
not. You're not pretending to try or pretend you're just gonna make it through no matter what. None, not Absolutely. No, I have two questions. Give me a second. I have two questions. Yes. So my first one is when you say it's not going to stop me. I can do it. I'm tougher than this, but you're getting laser surgery and your feet hurt. Do you ever have like an honest moment with yourself and you go, I am not actually beating this like you don't

Danny 35:46
even mean, no, I still, at that point, I was still, so I can turn this round. Was, was my thought, even in 2020,

Scott Benner 35:57
but like, I'm talking to you. You're a bright guy, you're thoughtful, you're thinking about your life. I can tell all that, right, like, so, so you're lying to yourself. Then, yeah, pretty much, yeah, because I can turn this around, but you're not actually doing anything to turn it around. That that's, you know what I mean?

Danny 36:13
Problem I was doing, Scott, I was saying the right things to everyone else, but I wasn't actually putting these words into action, no motion. Yeah, okay. You know it was just, yeah, I'm doing it. I'm doing it, and it was getting better. But, you know, the eyes, the pain in the feet, yeah, you're right. At that point I should have been like this. This is This needs to stop.

Scott Benner 36:38
Yeah, you're on fire. And you're telling me, Don't worry, I'll put it out. But you're not, you're not turning the hose on. You're holding the hose going, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. And yeah, and then you just don't take the step. Do you have any any reasonable idea about why not, beyond the like, I'm gonna beat it, or I'm a guy and I think I can win. Like, do you like? I'll ask it a different way. We'll get back to that question, a different way, would you ever describe yourself as not wanting to be alive, as not feeling like you're valuable? Like, did you have any bad self esteem problems? Like, any reason? No, you wanted to live?

Danny 37:12
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, no. And I had two massive reasons to live with my children, but I was so focused, my health came second after my work. Sure, I was very, you know, it wasn't even like a massive career that I was doing. It was just the money was good when you put the hours in. And I was so focused on earning money, earning money, my health came second. That was always my thought process.

Scott Benner 37:43
Do you think it's possible you're just you're a victim of being diagnosed so early that the expectation for people with diabetes was so low, and then the way management became different and different over the years, you never found out about so is the Daphne course, like almost learning, like you have a different disease than the one you had before.

Danny 38:03
You know, when I, when I was diagnosed, it was very strict. He wasn't allowed to eat, like I said, chocolate, sweets. He was not allowed. That was like, it's a big no no. And if you had a lot of diabetic chocolate, it was like a laxative, so it wasn't great for you. Yeah, so I stayed cleared of it. But then, when I had an appointment when I was about 18, it changed quite a lot diabetes management. And it was like, well, you can eat certain stuff as long as you you do you know, insulin to cover them carbs. And I was like,

Scott Benner 38:35
oh, right, so you ate the food, but didn't cover the carbs.

Danny 38:39
No, I did at first, but after a while it was like, Well, I'm doing okay. Got it? I'm doing okay, okay.

Scott Benner 38:46
And so it really is the way I describe on the podcast. Like, if you wake up the next day and you're not dead, then you just feel like, Oh, I'm what I'm doing. Must be okay, 100% right? And then the medical stuff happens so slowly that you don't necessarily, even though it sounds, I mean, you and I are talking, we know, we know it sounds ridiculous to say, but like you don't associate it with the decisions.

Danny 39:10
Oh no, yeah. Never, even before, never went through my mind that I'd be in the position I am in now.

Scott Benner 39:17
Yeah, you didn't connect that the pain was the diabetes management or the eyes, was the diabetes management? It was just these things are happening to me

Danny 39:26
because it's not visible as such. You know? Yeah, the pain was there in the feet and the legs. I just thought at some point, because my job, I was on my feet quite a lot. Yep, I'd drive to a job, then I'll get out and I'll be on the feet for a couple of hours back in the van, off to another job. I just thought it was the footwear I was wearing at first. You know, I never thought of the diabetes at one point, then, until I done that thing.

Scott Benner 39:52
And the reason I'm asking you the questions this way because you're kind enough to be here and share your story, but because I want people. To hear two things, like, if they have type one, I want them to hear that this, this slow kind of drift away from health can happen without you really knowing it. And I want them to hear that it can happen without you being malicious. Yeah, you're not consciously or even subconsciously saying to yourself, I don't want to be alive, I don't want to live. I don't want to take good care of myself. I don't want to be good health. You want all of those things. And, yeah, I don't know. I just think that's important for people to hear. I don't even know that. I want to justify what I mean by that. I just think it's important for people to hear that you're a reasonable, thoughtful guy with kids and a life, and you have desires to be alive and have fun and life and love, and you're not just ignoring your health. Because I think that it would be easy for a person to come in from the outside hear your story and say, well, here's a guy that just didn't care and didn't try hard enough. And I don't think that you would characterize yourself as either of those

Danny 40:52
things. No, I don't think it was that. It was my thought process was earn the money quickly to have a better life with the kids and stuff. You know, I hear I was very driven by money, which I'm not no

Scott Benner 41:07
more. So, okay, so we paint in the feet. What happens next?

Danny 41:13
So, you know, like I said, from I've done the Daphne course in 2020, went through lockdown, was looking after it reasonably well. I wouldn't say it was brilliant, but a lot better than I had done for the last 20 years. Maybe right at least, yeah, 20 years, and it got to 2022 and I was at work one day, and my my foot, my right foot, felt like really wet. And I was like, This doesn't feel like me. And I was working with another guy. We went back to the van to have a lunch, and my foot just felt really wet. And I was like, This isn't right. And I pulled my sock off, and basically half the bottom of my big toe was hanging off, as in, like, an ulcer, a blister on the bottom of my toe. And I was like, yeah, yeah. Panic time

Scott Benner 42:07
settled. First time you'd ever noticed it, yeah, okay. And it was like,

Danny 42:11
right, that's he went and got in his van. I drove to the local hospital. They bandaged it up, and it's a small hospital, and so they sent me home with some antibiotics. And this, this was on like the Friday, so I had a couple of days this on a Thursday, sorry, a couple of days at home. And it got to the Sunday, and I was in so much pain, so much pain in that foot. I took myself to my hospital, which is a massive Hospital in Cambridge in the UK. And sat in the emergency department for a good eight or nine hours, and they had another look, sent me back home with stronger painkillers and antibiotics, and I had hospital the next morning in the eye clinic, I had an eye checkup. Went to my eye checkup appointment, it just didn't feel right. And I just thought, I just thought I'd try my luck and poke my head into the diabetic clinic. And I spoke to one of the diabetic specialist nurses, when can we just have a look at it? They got me into because the podiatry was in the same area. It took me into podiatry, and they were like, right, we need to admit you to hospital. You could see the infection spreading up my leg. It was like, up to halfway up my shin by then. So I got hit. That was February 2022, and I was in hospital for two weeks on IV antibiotics. Told not to go put weight bear on that for a while. So signed off and working, which was the biggest at that time, the biggest killer for was me. Was like, I can't work, yeah, but still think, like, thinking everything might be okay. Went back the following week, and ever said, you know, I had a procedure when I was done in hospital called an angioplasty, where they run a line from your groin all the way down your to your feet, and they put these little balloons in to open up the veins to get the blood flow going again. And they told me that it was unsuccessful, and eventually, if these antibiotics didn't work, I was gonna have to have a bologna amputation on the right leg, and that was like, wow, yeah. You know, I was devastated. You know, some to hear something like that at the age of 40 odd.

Scott Benner 44:34
Wasn't great, no? And by then had your father in law lost his leg?

Danny 44:39
Yeah, he had been in an amputee for two years by then, sort of, sort of, you know, he was, he was on hand for advice and stuff

Scott Benner 44:49
like that. But you had real context about what life looked like after the amputation too.

Danny 44:54
Yeah. So I was like, you know, this is gonna be a minor setback. Be back at work within a year. So that they said, right, we're gonna have to do an amputation. This was in the February, and I kept going back on these. They said, if it didn't improve, so obviously, I'm still pinning my hopes on that this leg was going to stay. And it got to it would have been April, and they said that nothing's working. You know, the foot's dying. We need to do a baloney amputation. Yeah. I was like, okay, sort of got my head around it, and they phoned me up on the fifth of May and said, Oh, we want to book you in for your amputation. And I was like, All right, when's that? And they said, Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. And I was like, I didn't know what to say. I was like, I was like, Can I phone you back? I need to speak to my partner. Yeah, spoke to my girlfriend. She was like, What you thinking about? It needs to be done. Just phone them back. Get it done. So, yeah, on the sit for May, I ended up having a right leg below knee amputation. And, you know, it completely rocked my world.

Scott Benner 46:11
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 feed. A huge thanks to us, med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Don't forget us, med.com/juicebox, this is where we get our diabetes supplies from. You can as well, use the link or call 888-721-1514, use the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us. Med, the podcast you just enjoyed was sponsored by tandem diabetes care. Learn more about tandems, newest automated insulin delivery system, tandem mobi, with control iq plus technology at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox there are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com. I'd like to thank the ever since 365 for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and remind you that if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year and not every 14 days you want the ever since CGM, ever since cgm.com/juicebox, one year, one CGM. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox podcast.

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Scott Benner 11/10/25 Scott Benner 11/10/25

#1676 Eli’s Vibe

Sixteen-year-old Eli shares how type 1 diabetes shaped his outlook on life, sports, and empathy—turning challenge into motivation and inspiring his dream of becoming an endocrinologist.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

Eli 0:15
Hello, I'm Eli. I'm a junior in high school living with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 0:19
If this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcast or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management, go to Juicebox podcast.com. Up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. 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. 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've got my morning routine down, and now I'm optimizing my nighttime routine with ag one. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ag one, Learn more at drink a G one.com/juicebox, later in the episode, I'm going to tell you about a g1 and a G Z, Z, like sleep you go. 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 today. Today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 and the Dexcom g7 warms up in just 30 minutes. Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox, hello.

Eli 2:36
I'm Eli. I'm a junior in high school living with type one diabetes. How old are you? I'm 16 right

Scott Benner 2:42
now. Nice. I want everybody to know that we do a little preamble before we start the podcast. I say things. I should probably do it one time so people know. But I ask some questions. Make sure you don't have any questions. I love the way young people do it. You have any questions? No, I'm good. You sure you and yeah, I'm fine. I sometimes people get on there like, Well, I'm a little worried about this, and I'm wondering about that. And I'm like, it's just a podcast. We're not moving everyone to Mars, like it's gonna be okay, so doesn't need that much attention. Eli, that's very cool of you to do this. I appreciate it. What made you want to come on the podcast? How'd you find

Eli 3:15
out about it? I got was introduced to this podcast by my parents, because they heard about it, probably through Instagram or Facebook. And yeah, they told me about the podcast, and figured like I didn't know that it could be an opportunity, but I reached out knowing that hopefully my story would be interesting and worth sharing. Yeah, so yeah, I'm happy to be on here. Very

Scott Benner 3:40
cool. Tell me a little bit about you being 16. Your parents come to you and say, like, Hey, I found a podcast I want you to listen to. You don't just immediately think they must be out of their mind. There's no way you're gonna listen to the podcast that they want you to

Eli 3:53
Yeah, well, I'm not really a big podcast listener, which maybe you could expect. I feel like this podcast is different because, well, obviously it's something that I'm very passionate about, and I care about, and something I live with. So it definitely, like made me more interested in this podcast, and I spent time listening to some episodes, especially the Noah gray episode, because I play football, so Okay, I just started listening to it, and it's really interesting.

Scott Benner 4:20
Um, yeah, oh, it's awesome. It's nice of you to take your parents suggestion to heart too, and not just assume that they must not know what they're talking about. But yeah, young people aren't listening to podcasts, right?

Eli 4:32
No, it's not really a big thing between, at least between me and my friends, I

Scott Benner 4:38
wouldn't imagine what you guys do. YouTube. More. What do you where do you get your like,

Eli 4:42
mostly, YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, the basic social media is now

Scott Benner 4:47
the core social Yes, yeah, that you old people don't know about. I'm going to show off for a second. I have a premium YouTube account. I use YouTube so much that I don't want to watch the ads, and it's worth $20 a month for me, not. The door.

Eli 5:00
So that's how I feel about Spotify. I listen to music all the time, so it's definitely worth having ultimate like unlimited skips and no ads.

Scott Benner 5:07
Yeah, no, I'm with you. Okay, so how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Eli 5:11
I was diagnosed when I was 13 years old in April of I think it was the 2021 or 2022

Scott Benner 5:20
Yeah, yeah, I love that. You don't know, it's kind of awesome.

Eli 5:24
I mean, it's, obviously, I know what day it was, actually April Fool's Day, which is a little bit ironic within

Scott Benner 5:28
itself. But, yeah, well, that's, that's why you know that

Eli 5:30
part, yeah, but I know that I've been a type one diabetic for four years, but it's not always the first thing I'm always thinking about when it comes to it's part of my identity, but it's not, you know what defines who I am? Yeah.

Scott Benner 5:45
So Eli, if you and I met somewhere, let's say I was at a I don't know, would you say you were 16? Yeah, let's say I was a cute 16 year old girl. We're play acting now, and we're out somewhere, and I'm like, Oh, hey, Eli, tell me about yourself. What would you tell her?

Eli 5:58
Like I talked mostly about that I play sports, that I love, people that are funny. I don't know what point I'd mention that I'm a type one. I think once I get to know them a little bit more, and I can trust them a little more, but it's not something that I'm afraid to share. Okay, what do

Scott Benner 6:16
you mean trust? Why would it take trust to share with them that you have type one?

Eli 6:21
Well, I feel like a lot of people don't really know what type one is. I mean, they've obviously heard about diabetes, but they don't know, and that could either lead to like, awkwardness between us, especially if, like, I want a relationship to foster, but I feel if I'm able to trust them, that that relationship would foster either way, no matter what I tell them, so them being able to understand what type one diabetes is or not, and give me the opportunity for, like, teach them about it. Yeah, then I think that adds a lot

Scott Benner 6:52
more. You just talked about fostering a relationship. Are your parents therapists? No. Where did that come from?

Eli 6:58
I don't know. I my school was big on kind of community engagement, so I feel like I've, I'm surrounded by a lot of people trying to build personal connections,

Scott Benner 7:10
I guess. Wow, and it's sticking to you, yeah, definitely is. It was pretty awesome. Just now, you're like, you know, we're trying to foster relationships. I'm like, What is this kid? What's going on here? So you think that that's your I'm sorry, I know this is probably not what you thought we'd talk about, but you believe that your your school is helping you to think more deeply about personal relationships,

Eli 7:30
in a way they encourage community engagement. And it's a smaller school, so I've been in this with the same friends since like kindergarten, so I've definitely had a lot of time to it gives the school user an opportunity to get to know people a lot

Scott Benner 7:45
I see, okay, so you have some long held, close friends that you've had for a lot of years. Yeah, those people know all about your diabetes.

Eli 7:55
Yeah, I would say anyone who I know for like, more than a day knows about my diabetes, either because they asked about my alarms, or they see my Dexcom on my arm, and then at that point, can't really avoid

Scott Benner 8:08
it, but if you have some romantic interest in that person, then you think it would take long. I know it's a weird word, but it would take longer for you to share that stuff. I

Eli 8:16
think it'd be the same. It depends, like if they if they noticed it before it would come up in a conversation,

Scott Benner 8:21
yeah, so you wouldn't make any effort to hide it. No, definitely not. Okay. Do you have devices or you MDI? How do you do your diabetes? Yeah, I

Eli 8:29
have a Dexcom g7 that I normally like to keep on my arm, and then I have the Omnipod that I normally like to keep on my stomach.

Scott Benner 8:37
Okay, let's go back to being diagnosed. So I like that you're not exactly sure how old you are, but you were probably 13 ish. And do you recall how it manifested? How you know, Were you sick? Did your parents notice something about you? How did all that work?

Eli 8:53
Yeah, I remember it was right after spring break for us, for my school, and we went on a ski vacation to Vermont, and I remember always being extremely thirsty. That was one of the like first things that always sticks out to me that I remember obviously, I didn't know that could be a sign for type one, but I would always go to the bathroom. And then my parents noticed that I was always kind of cranky and lethargic, and they at first assumed that's just what a normal teenager is going to be. But I went for my physical, and we mentioned this to the doctor, and they took my blood sugar and did all those tests, and I remember later that day, I was playing Minecraft with my friends on my computer in like, seventh grade or sixth grade, and my dad comes in and tells me, can you hang up the phone? Can we talk about something? And he tells me, based like, basically the news, that I could be a type one, and that we have to go to the we have to go to the Children's Hospital, which is a hospital around us. And I went there on March 31 and then spent the night into April 1 in the. Hospital. Did that ruin Minecraft for you? No, I mean, I don't really play much anymore,

Scott Benner 10:05
but if you had, like, a bad experience with it, now, you're like, oh, geez, it's kind

Eli 10:09
of more of a funny memory, because, like, the cannot be more unrelated.

Scott Benner 10:13
Do you wonder? You're too young to wonder, like, if your dad stood outside of that door and thought, like, when am I gonna say this to Him? Like, how's he gonna remember this? Or if he just, he just blasted, and he was like, oh, we gotta go. You have diabetes.

Eli 10:24
He's definitely as, like, nice about it as he could be, like he because he also didn't really know too much like about it at that point, like and like, neither did either my parents. So okay, they were kind of going through it the same way I was. I see,

Scott Benner 10:42
when is the first time you think it wasn't in that moment? But when do you think you start, I don't know, coming to terms with the idea that something happened and it's not going to go backwards. It's going to be like this. Now.

Eli 10:55
Yeah, I remember it was the first night I came back from the hospital and my grandparents came over, and we were all eating dinner, and this was before I got all of my it's before I had a pump. And I did have a Dexcom on my arm, but so I was able to continuously, like see my sugars. But we had sushi for dinner, which wasn't the probably the brightest, especially because my numbers still weren't 100% in range or in control. And I remember the sushi didn't help that I skyrocketed. I remember pricking, and I went for a walk with my mom after just the talk and to help because, like, we read that that would help, like, lower blood sugar. And I remember talking to her about how there's actually no way to go back now. And I think it took me, it didn't take me long, to realize how much my life was going to change, but I probably assumed that it was going to change more than I

Scott Benner 11:49
actually did. Your worry was bigger than the reality. Yeah,

Eli 11:53
like thinking about it now, yeah. But I think it makes sense because I didn't really know anything about it at the time, sure I had, I didn't have, really any friends that were diabetic,

Scott Benner 12:04
so, right? No, you just kind of knew, to me, imagine the worst, but it's a good takeaway that you know, not to worry too much until you really know what it is you're worried about, right? Like it's yeah, you know I'm saying yeah, how long you've been listening to podcast? I haven't

Eli 12:20
even listen to the podcast for too long, but as soon as I found out about this opportunity, I listened to the no grade podcast, and I tried my best to listen to as many as possible. But

Scott Benner 12:30
do you like more management stuff? Or you like conversations with people that you find interesting?

Eli 12:35
I think conversations with people are more interesting because especially people that are older than me, because I get to see like, either how they handled it when they were my age or as they got older. So it gives me, like, a sense of what I'm like, going to have to do when I get older.

Scott Benner 12:52
Yeah, yeah. No, that makes sense. Do you have any brothers or sisters?

Eli 12:56
I do. I have two younger siblings. I have a younger sister, and that's a freshman in high school and a younger brother who's in seventh grade.

Scott Benner 13:03
Any of you have other autoimmune issues besides type one diabetes, like celiac? No, no thyroid? None

Eli 13:09
of us do, and I don't know that anyone in my family really did either.

Scott Benner 13:14
Okay, you're not related to anybody who has type one that you know of. No, yeah, both sides, mom's side, Dad side,

Eli 13:22
yeah, both sides. My entire family. There is no medical history of

Scott Benner 13:26
type one. Does that make you feel alone in ways? Or how does it strike

Eli 13:32
you? I don't know. It makes me feel special, like I don't think of it as a negative thing at all. It's being it makes me unique. So that's what I that's how I like to think

Scott Benner 13:41
about it. Explain to me the parts of your personality that allow you to think of this positively.

Eli 13:47
Well, it gives me more opportunities the benefit, especially like I noticed within my health and understanding nutrition, I feel like a lot of people would never really understand how carbs and sugars kind of work with your body the same way that I will. Yeah, I think that gives me an advantage when I'm trying to eat healthier, or when I'm working out, I feel like I understand my body reacts to certain things more than other

Scott Benner 14:13
people would. Why do you care about that? Though, at your age, you know what I mean? Like, you know, other kids, like, that's not a thing everybody would care about. 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 the Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warm up time that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7 till the time you're getting readings. 30 minutes. That's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable and light these things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7 a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this, up to 10 people can follow you. You can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances, and this might be the best part, it might be the best part, alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juicebox, links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com, to Dexcom and all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful.

Eli 16:22
Well, I care about my health a lot, obviously, and I know that being in shape is obviously important. And I play sports, I play football and I run track, so keep myself like at the best. Like performance level that I can be makes me not only like feel better, but helps me perform.

Scott Benner 16:41
How long have you been playing sports, since you were little? Yeah, my entire life. Which ones do you prefer? Like, if I took all them away, except one? Which one would you keep football for sure? Football, what position?

Eli 16:53
Yeah, I play receiver and dB.

Scott Benner 16:57
Okay, you're lean. You can run, yeah, what else does your body style like, impact like, lean into basketball. What else do you do?

Eli 17:07
Definitely not basal. I'm a little bit shorter, but I'm a sprinter, so I'm pretty fast, and I feel like I have good hands. I can catch

Scott Benner 17:16
Well, yeah, you don't mind the hitting.

Eli 17:19
No, I like it. You like that? It's fun. Yeah, that's that's what makes football, football, and not any other sport, is getting to, like, smack somebody, yeah, yeah. It gives me a chance to take out some pent up frustration.

Scott Benner 17:32
Would you prefer to catch a ball and get hit or watch somebody catch a ball and hit them? That's a good question. Yeah, right, because there's the excitement of catching the ball and the idea that you could score, but you're going to get popped, or the other side of it, where you get to kind of take out your frustration on somebody so good, which is better? I

Eli 17:50
think I like catching and then hopefully getting a chance to score. I mean, I like being control, so if I got the ball in my hands and I can hopefully either dodge that hit or make a

Scott Benner 17:59
play, it's actually very telling about your personality. It all lines up with your personality. Yeah, you're young. You don't know that yet, but we'll figure it out as we go. Why are you so nice? I end up asking people this all the time, did your parents do an incredibly good job? Are they missionaries? Like, why are you so thoughtful at 16?

Eli 18:17
Well, I guess my parents have always taught me like being nice is the best way to like, go through life. There's no like, why wouldn't you be nice when you can be right? Like, even when you're frustrated, it's just important that like, being nice is the top priority, and because that that will only take you further in life, if, like, you would so much rather be friends with someone who's nice, or have a connection with them, or a long term relationship, if they're nice, then if they're mean, which is, like, seems like it's common sense, but you're like, actually applying that every day is a little bit more

Scott Benner 18:53
challenging. Yeah. But how about your brothers and sister? Are there is anybody a problem? Are you like, you got like, you know, I mean, no one's

Eli 18:59
a serious problem. I mean, we get into our fights and stuff, like every sibling pair does, but I don't feel like any of us are a serious problem. If

Scott Benner 19:07
I asked them about being kind, you think they would say something similar?

Eli 19:11
Yeah, definitely, yeah. I think especially my sister would say it would care something about being nice. My brother is a little bit younger, is still a little bit more hyper, but he like, he definitely thinks the same way as I do.

Scott Benner 19:26
Okay, all right, do your parents model this to you? Like, do you see your parents being similar? Are they kind people in general? Yeah, definitely. My mom,

Eli 19:33
she's probably the nicest person, so never seen her be mean to someone else, when, in any case, really

Scott Benner 19:42
not even to your dad.

Eli 19:44
Well, I feel like that's different. It

Scott Benner 19:47
is different. Do both your parents work or No,

Eli 19:51
yeah, my dad, he works kind of within the government in the patent office, and my mom, she's a elementary school teacher. Oh, your

Scott Benner 19:59
mom's a teacher. Okay. All right. All this makes sense now. All right, I'm good. What makes you want to come on the podcast? Like, what did you think when you thought like, there's an opportunity here? I can what you all know that I drink ag one every morning, so I'm excited to let you know about something new from ag one. It's called ag Z. Ag Z helps to improve your sleep quality and supports the central nervous system. Not only does it help with your sleep quality optimization, but it will help you to fall asleep and wake up refreshed. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ag one, and if you're interested, check out ag one and ag Z with my link, drink ag one.com/juicebox, one.com/juicebox, start taking your sleep seriously with a G Z head now to my link, drink, a G one.com/juicebox, to get a free welcome kit with the flavor of your choice that includes a 30 day supply of a G Z and a free frother. A frother. What is that like? A whisk drink, a G one.com/juicebox, to find out what a frother is. And did you know that a g1 now comes in different flavors? It does for in fact, original citrus Berry and tropical drink. A G one.com/juicebox, links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com.

Eli 21:19
This podcast, it made me feel like that I can share my story that I know people might benefit from, like another podcast is directed towards families that either just are going through diagnosis, are looking for advice, and I know that I feel like I live with it for a decent amount of time now, and I feel like that it's definitely affected my life, but I feel like it's important to share how and that it could actually end up helping people and like this is one of the best ways to kind of get that out there. Okay, Eli, then

Scott Benner 21:48
what's your story? Like?

Eli 21:50
My story is just trying to connect all like aspects of my life into just building to building my character to like what I want it to be, and knowing that I'm in control. So I feel like my story is surrounding trying to be the best person I can despite my situation and not letting like other people's actions define who I am or what I

Scott Benner 22:16
do. Yeah, are there specific actions from others that come to mind when you say that. I

Eli 22:21
don't know, I can't really name any specific things that people might say or do, but it's more of a collective either opinion, like a collective opinion on me, or something that I identify as as a whole kind of or a community that I'm a part of, kind of not letting like a stereotype define me.

Scott Benner 22:40
Yeah, you want you ready for a deeper question? Sure. Do you think that's how some people think about you, or do you think that's your concern about what they're thinking?

Eli 22:50
I think it's different from person to person. Yeah, that some people will think will just categorize, for example, all diabetics is people who couldn't manage themselves or lost control of their eating, which obviously that could be because they're uneducated in the genre. But I also think that with some people that I want to impress more, I will be more conscious of how they think of me versus how they think of something like a category that I'm a part of.

Scott Benner 23:24
Okay, so you're worried that people will have pre conceived notions of you before they even meet you or get to know you?

Eli 23:30
Yeah, well, I wouldn't say that necessarily worried about that, but always in the back of my mind, especially when I'm maybe introducing myself and I'm like, what does this person know about me already? What do they know about how I act and how I feel, or

Scott Benner 23:43
what do they misunderstand about diabetes that they're going to apply to me now? Yeah, exactly. And so you live your life in a way that that becomes less possible because you're out front with concern for your own health, positivity, activity and and sharing with people, so you kind of try to be ahead of it, to take away their opportunity to misunderstand.

Eli 24:07
Yeah, I think that yeah, like avoiding misunderstanding is what's going to help see a bigger picture that either I'm trying to achieve or trying to talk to them about, I guess,

Scott Benner 24:17
is it frustrating to have to do that? Because without diabetes, would you really need to do

Eli 24:21
that? I feel like not to the same level. So in a sense, that's frustrating, but I feel over time, I've definitely learned how to deal with it when talking to people and how certain people will react, especially people that I've known for a longer time, when something happens and I know how they'll react to it, versus someone I've never talked to before, and I kind of have to start with basics, and they ask questions about my diagnosis, or what are signs that I might be diabetic, and it's kind of more basic when it comes to teaching people, but people that I know I feel like I've learned how to. Adapt to their questions or their

Scott Benner 25:01
reactions? Do they mostly have the same questions and reactions

Eli 25:05
like, the same questions and reactions to people that don't know? Are

Scott Benner 25:09
the things that you run into out in the world, whether it's with your friends or with people you don't know? Are the things that you hear repeated like, over and over again, or do you sometimes hear new questions? Yeah,

Eli 25:21
every I feel like there's like, a basic set of questions that everyone asks, especially when they first learn that I'm diabetic. And normally it comes with like, and I'm sorry first, like, I'm sorry for you. And then it will follow with questions about, like, what was your diagnosis? Like, can you eat sugar? Very like, basic questions that someone who's uneducated in diabetes

Scott Benner 25:45
would ask, yeah, does that bother you that people ask you that over and over?

Eli 25:49
No, especially because I, like, tried to understand where they're coming from. Like, I might have been the same way before I was diagnosed. Like, I could have been thinking the same stereotypes about old diabetics. And so I can't always put like, a blame on them. It's just, it's not necessarily their

Scott Benner 26:05
fault. Yeah, what do you think 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you'll say, Do you think you'll be like, No, it's okay. I would misunderstand too. Or do you think you'd be like, I'm sick of this? Like,

Eli 26:13
eventually I'll get sick of it, but I'll try to turn into like, good humor. Like, either I'll make a joke out of it, or try to make people laugh, or either, like, trick, like, push their buttons a little

Scott Benner 26:24
bit. Yeah, I gotcha. What did you enjoy about Noah Gray's interview?

Eli 26:28
He gave great advice related to life with football, and I've, like, definitely tried applying it to my life with football. And he also gives good advice on how to deal with it, kind of socially, because he talked to me, he talked about his diagnosis and his experience in the hospital, and that, in a way, kind of connected to mine, because he didn't his entire family didn't really know what was going on, and in the same way that happened to my family. Okay, so it felt nice having to like a connection. You know, this is interesting. I'm

Scott Benner 27:01
gonna ask you a couple of questions. Of questions that are going to seem odd, but stick with me. Okay, are you or your family particularly religious?

Eli 27:10
We're Jewish. We identify as Jewish, and we're not super religious, but it's definitely part of our identity.

Scott Benner 27:16
Oh, Eli, this is even more interesting. Now wait, do you see where the rest of my questions go when you think about the interview you listen to with Noah, do you think of it as being particularly a religious conversation? I remember

Eli 27:29
some of his conversation, some of his answers were related to God and Christianity and having trust in God, which is a little bit different for me, but I think that it's just so I feel like someone else's opinion, like, who am I to judge about that? And I still listen to it, and I listen to what else he has to say also, and try to pick apart what other important information he shared. I

Scott Benner 27:55
think this is awesome, and I love that you brought him up organically, and we got to talk about it because I also thought His conversation was really good. I loved how I thought he was talking about being active with type one and giving, like, real life examples and being honest. Like, you know, when he says, for instance, like, you know, if the game goes into overtime, I might be in trouble a little bit, because his system really works for four quarters of football, yeah, that kind of stuff. And at the same time, I heard back from some people. They were like, Wow, that guy talked about God a lot, and I thought, Oh, I didn't, like, really notice, I mean, I did not notice that I'm not an idiot, right? But like, I never, like, when I was talking to him, I never thought, like, oh, this seems like a sermon. And at the same time, I don't have any religious holdings, so, like, you know, but I'm also like, you like, I just think everybody should just do the thing that they like, Yeah, I'm a pretty live and let live person, but it's interesting to hear you like, there was part of me that wondered, you're kind and you're thoughtful, and for your age especially, and I kept thinking, like, oh, well, the reason he liked Noah, the reason he brought it up, is they're probably both Christians, and he probably really related to what he was saying. But then when you talked about what you found important about his conversation had nothing to do with that, you blew my mind a little bit.

Eli 29:10
Yeah. I mean, I see it, yeah. I understand what you're saying. Thank you for those compliments, but I feel like what he had to say was more valuable relating to type one more than anything.

Scott Benner 29:21
I agree. Yeah, I think so too. But that's really great to hear. And you don't have to thank me for the guy. It's just a conversation. I mean, if every time I say something awesome to you thank me, it would just be you thanking me for an hour because I'm awesome constantly. Eli, you said you like funny people. Am I one of those people or not particularly to you?

Unknown Speaker 29:40
No, yeah, you're pretty funny. I'll give it to you. I appreciate it.

Scott Benner 29:43
I don't know where, like, how young. I don't know where my bullshit stops working. You know what I

Eli 29:47
mean? Yeah, I don't know. I haven't been able to pick up on much, so you must be doing a

Scott Benner 29:53
good job. Awesome. Good. Thank you. Are you the funny person in your group, or is there somebody else I'd like

Eli 29:59
to think I'm. One of the fun year, but I think my friend group of the combination is pretty hilarious.

Scott Benner 30:04
Yeah, that's awesome. When I made up earlier that, you know, you were talking to some cute girl, did an actual person pop into your head? No, no, you're

Eli 30:13
putting me on the spot here. But no, yeah, are you dating? Not right now? No, do you want to it's on my mind, but it's not something that's a top priority.

Scott Benner 30:23
Okay, have you thought about how that will integrate diabetes will integrate into your dating situation when it starts to happen? Is that like a out front concern or thought for you right now? Or is that not something you're talking worrying

Eli 30:35
about? Like it's it's definitely not a concern. But I feel like getting to more like intimate relationships, I feel as if it'll be more important to bring it up, because obviously I'll be with them more so they would be surrounded by more that bet they'll have more questions and giving them more explanation and have them have a better understanding. Will only like add more.

Scott Benner 30:57
Do a lot of your friends have girlfriends and boyfriends? Or is that not a thing at your age right now,

Eli 31:02
a couple of my friends do. It's, I mean, it's definitely a thing in high school, but some people do. Some people don't,

Scott Benner 31:09
yeah. Do you think it's really about relationships, or do you think it's more like social and just having that being, you know what I'm saying. Do you think it's like, I don't mean performative, but maybe I do what do you think like? Do you think some people are just like, I want to have a boyfriend or a boyfriend or a girlfriend and it's a thing and I show off? Or do you think they actually enjoy the time they're spending together?

Eli 31:28
Probably depends on their relationship, but definitely, some are definitely, I feel like performative is a good word to use for that. I feel like some relationships are a bit more performative, but then also, some people actually do really like, like or love their partners. So, yeah,

Scott Benner 31:42
you see it going both ways. Yeah. Definitely Gotcha. When you hear older people talking about your generation and they feel worried about them, do you know what the hell they're talking about? Older people are worried that you guys are on your phones too much, that you know your self confidence lacks, that you're there. People are more depressed at your age now, like all these things that you hear talked about in the zeitgeist, I feel like I could use Zeitgeist with you. Seem like a pretty smart kid, like all these things that are kind of out in the world and everything. Do you think those are real concerns? Or do you think that's just old people looking back and seeing and misunderstanding who you guys are as a whole? Yeah,

Eli 32:22
I think it's definitely some misunderstanding, because our generation is extremely different. Definitely with technology, other generations didn't necessarily get AI. We're not necessarily behind or kind of screwed, but I think we're going to learn how to integrate better than anyone else, which is going to be kind of the best advantage we're going to get.

Scott Benner 32:41
You brought it up, so I'll keep going with AI. When you think about AI, do you think, oh, it's going to kill us all?

Eli 32:48
No, definitely not. I think AI is a great thing. It probably helps so many people, not just within school, but I know there's integration into health and AI is taking over the world, but not in a bad way.

Scott Benner 33:04
So if I said to you, I could easily bring on some person here to tell you that, like we're gonna have to build more data centers and knock down trees for power plants, and we're gonna need way more electricity. And is that not a thing you would think about? Probably, yeah,

Eli 33:19
I don't know 100% how AI works, but I mean, I know it's horrible for the environment, so obviously that's a concern, especially with global warming, warming, but over time, there's going to be better ways to integrate it, and people are going to learn how to make it more environmentally friendly. Okay, see,

Scott Benner 33:38
that's what I wanted people to hear. I wanted to hear I wanted to hear a young I wanted them to hear a young perspective, because I'm an older person. But, like, it's a big bet to make right thinking globally. But I generally believe that too, that, you know, things improve, and we tend to figure out how to mitigate the bad parts of them as we go. Like, part of me thinks that sitting here saying, like, well, AI is going to, like, ruin everything. Like, I'm sure there was somebody back then, like, with a horse, who was like, this car is going to ruin everything, you know what I mean? Or this thing is going to it changes it for your perspective on the planet and on life, because you're going to run into something too one day. It sounds crazy, man, but like, 20 years from now, something's going to happen, and you're going to be like, I'm worried about this. And if you can step back far enough, you'll realize it's just different than what you're expecting your a lot of your worry and concern will be for nothing most of the time. But it doesn't mean it's not worth thinking about or again, trying to, like, plan for, you know, or mitigate somehow, to go back to just the idea of using it. You're 16. My daughter is now in college, right? And she had a professor tell them her class the other day. I know you're hearing people say, don't use AI. It's cheating, but you better be using it, and I want you to use it. How is it being talked about in high school?

Eli 34:58
Certainly. School, it's a very strict no policy related to writing essays for us or direct copy and pasting from chat GBT into homework assignments, sure, but it's definitely, there's definitely some uses for it. Like to help study, or if there's a concept I don't necessarily understand after a longer or harder class, I'll go home and I'll have it explain it explain it to me at a simpler level until I can understand it that the class wants me to. And maybe it'll help me make flashcards for finals or any vocab quizzes. So there's definitely some uses, but the schools are pretty strict on at least high schools in my area are pretty strict on using it to submit homework or write essays for you. They don't want AI doing the work, but using AI to help you get to do the work, I think is okay.

Scott Benner 35:46
I think that's the balance we're looking for, too. And do you succeed at that, or do you use it and, you know, quote, unquote, cheat? Yeah.

Eli 35:55
I mean, I definitely don't cheat, because they'd catch us and the consequences would 100% not be worth it, but I feel like I do a good job of integrating it into my study.

Scott Benner 36:06
Okay, that's awesome. And do you think that that's generally speaking, everyone's opinion, or do you think there are a lot of people using it incorrectly?

Eli 36:14
Think there's some people using it incorrectly, but I know most people are using it just to help them study and kind of do the same things that I'm trying to do with

Scott Benner 36:23
it. That's what you're hearing from friends. You don't have a lot of friends who are like, Oh my god, I found a way around that. I'm cheating like hell with this thing.

Eli 36:29
Well, there definitely are some things like that where people use it to make shortcuts, but I know none of us, I can speak for most people, none of us use AI to directly submit, yeah, work. When I

Scott Benner 36:42
was in school, there were things I was good at and things that I wasn't, and the things that I wasn't that I wasn't good at, apparently, talking is one of them. But the things that I weren't, why can't I find the the connecting, or anyway, the things that I struggled with, I would have just skipped, I wouldn't have taken the time to, like, cheat. And I wonder if like, even that isn't valuable for somebody like, you know, I would have just taken a poor grade, like, I wouldn't have cheated to get to get better. But maybe now people are going to be like, Look, I don't really understand this, but I can ask this thing a couple of questions, it's going to tell me the answer. Like, hopefully they'll read it. Maybe it'll bring them a little closer to it, even the maybe even the poor side of this might have some benefit. I have no idea. It also could end up being a crutch for people, and they don't learn a damn thing because they're not actually learning anything. But again, like you said it a couple of times this one already, like, I think that's gonna be a person to person outcome. It's not, it's not gonna be the same for everybody.

Eli 37:37
Yeah, definitely. Eli, do you have any pets? I do. I have a dog

Scott Benner 37:41
I'm watching right now while I'm talking to you. I don't know how much of this you listen to, you know, but I have a couple of chameleons. I have a blue eye and Bonjour Panther chameleon, and he eats so strangely. Most of them just like they, you know, the tongue shoots out and they grab the bugs, yeah. So, you know, I have one tongue shoots out, grabs the bugs, chews it up, swallows it. He's done. I have another one. She's an assassin. I don't even know if she chews honestly. But the third one, the blue and banjo, who I got from fram's camps, who ironically, has a type one connection, but that's neither here nor there, he grabs the bugs and then squeezes them in his mouth and holds them for such a long time before he chews them up. And it's so I just want to say it's so creepy. And right now he has a horn worm in his mouth. It's the big green worms he might see on a tomato plant. I don't know where you live. You maybe never saw a tomato before. He's just pinching it and just looking around the room to make sure that nothing's gonna murder him while he's trying to eat. If I had five seconds where I could, like, talk to this thing and it would, it would believe me, and it could understand me, you know, if I had a magic wand kind of a situation, I'd be like, dude, tell me why. Why do you do that? Like, why don't you just eat the damn thing? I just want to know so badly, like, he's just eyeballing me and squeezing this worm. It's not great. He's very pretty, though, so and he's active and he's fun to watch, nevertheless, that's not what we're talking about. I actually want to talk a little more about AI. Do you have anticipation that it's going to be involved in your diabetes care moving forward, I think 100%

Eli 39:24
I think that there's already some. I don't know if it's technically AI, but the ability for the Dexcom talk to the pump, and then the pump understand what the Dexcom is showing, then using that information to then auto correct for me or adjust my basal and Bolus. I think that's very interesting, and that might not technically be considered AI, but I think that anything automated is definitely getting further along within medical ideas, and I think the incorporation of AI is only going to take that so much further,

Scott Benner 39:56
right? What do you want to do when you say, grow up, but you're pretty grown up. But. Do you want to do when

Eli 40:01
you're out in the world? I'm actually interested in being an entrepreneurologist. Are you? Yeah, I think that's something I

Scott Benner 40:08
would love to do. Is that since your diagnosis, or

Eli 40:11
Yeah, definitely, I had no interest in many things, but, like, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but once I got diagnosed, it kind of slowly crept into like, the back of my mind, yeah,

Scott Benner 40:21
no. I mean, you were playing Minecraft before you're diagnosed. You're just, you were, you were building a thing for your cows. You weren't really, yeah, yeah. So what's the experience that you've had that's moved you towards

Eli 40:33
that having a good endocrinologist myself is really something that kind of gave me an idea, and then kind of slowly understanding more about how an endocrinologist can help others, and that's something that I'm really interested in. Over time I've spent, like last summer, I did some research in a lab, kind of, I did, like, an internship with MedStar related to endocrinology. And while, like, I was kind of held back, they wouldn't let me do too much with patients, I was able to sit in on some doctor's appointments. And it really gave me more like perspective on what being an endocrinologist is like, and it only inspired me more to want to be one.

Scott Benner 41:20
How are you with your stem stuff? Science, Math, you good.

Eli 41:23
I feel like I'm more of a stem guy than I am a humanities so it's that that played into it.

Scott Benner 41:29
Okay, that's good. So it leans a little more into your into your strength. Yeah, yeah. How did you end up with the opportunity with MedStar?

Eli 41:37
I have a friend whose mom kind of has connections to MedStar, so that, and then, just like reaching out through emails and talking to research like heads at MedStar, and that slowly just integrated me into finding the right person to talk to. So

Scott Benner 41:56
that's awesome. Do you think you're very interested in the hands on part of medicine, or do you think you're more back room?

Eli 42:02
Definitely. I feel like the backroom stuff. I know it's not always avoidable, but I feel like that can be more boring, and the fun part is actually talking to patients, seeing like what their lives and answering their questions.

Scott Benner 42:14
Yeah. Well, this is exciting because I think you might be exactly the kind of person we need. You're thoughtful, but you're not having trouble communicating how you think and feel, which I think maybe I don't want to be insulting, but, like, I think sometimes there's some doctors who struggle in the communication portion, yeah, you could be a good balance of those things. That's, that's, it's exciting to hear. What is your experience been with your positions and your outcomes? So I want to know, you know, you're three years into this, I guess I should just ask you, like, what's your a 1c what are your what's your variability?

Eli 42:45
Like, yeah, my a 1c is at a 5.5 last May, which is, I know is pretty good, and I think that I attribute a lot of that also to my parents and kind of all my doctors, that especially like endocrinologist who, whenever I need an adjustment to my ratio, my insulin, car ratios and all that stuff, like, he's pretty on top of it. And my parents are obviously the biggest help in the world. So yeah,

Scott Benner 43:12
so the doctor is good about keeping your settings moving with your needs, which is awesome. And yeah, when I find when people struggle, it's mainly because their their settings aren't keeping up with what their needs are, and then your parents are very involved. What does that mean?

Eli 43:27
My mom has always helped me carb count, especially what like when I'm at home, and let's say for breakfast, I have a pretty similar breakfast every day, but sometimes I'll have a bagel, and my mom will text me when I get out the shower and say, Tell me dose 80 or dose 25 for a piece of toast or whatever breakfast is, whatever she made for me that morning, and allows me to dose before I eat, to give a little bit of time for that instant to start working. And it just takes a little bit of stress off me. And same thing with my dad, who's always on top of the equi like getting making sure I have the right equipment and I'm not running out of supplies. And he always helps me change my pod if I if I need

Scott Benner 44:06
to help with that, you're aware that they're doing those things because they tell you they're doing them, or you are aware of those things, I mean, needing to be done, and you're seeing that it's being facilitated and handled by them. You know what I mean? Like, are

Eli 44:16
they? Like, yeah, well, both because, well, I don't know all the background stuff with my dad, kind of talking about getting supplies, but he tells me, he explains them to me, and then I obviously, I see both of them always helping me, like, dose the right amount, or, yeah, tell me what to do,

Scott Benner 44:32
yeah, without all that Pre-Bolus thing, you're not getting anyone seeing the fives. I'm assuming you eat like a regular kid. I mean, I

Eli 44:39
try to eat healthier, but I'm conscious about it, but I'm not on a keto diet.

Scott Benner 44:44
Okay, what level is your Judaism? Are you eating differently on the weekends for religious No, not, not to

Eli 44:50
that level, not that level. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 44:53
could you do it by yourself? Yeah,

Eli 44:55
I'm very independent when it comes to when my parents are. Young. They they love like they help me as much as they can. But I went to summer camp for seven years, but I was diagnosed for only three of those years, and that's without my parents. I go for eight weeks. I'm in the middle of the woods, and I'm fully self sufficient when I go up there. The first year there was, it was like probably three or four months after I got diagnosed. So I had a little bit more help from the nurses and the staff, but by the time I got to my last year at camp, I was kind of doing everything myself,

Scott Benner 45:30
okay, but you were willing to admit that your mom and your dad with the Pre-Bolus thing, the Pre-Bolus thing like that really does take a level of concern away from you. Is that right? Yeah, and

Eli 45:44
it just, it takes a also, like a level of thought, like high school is a lot and also, diabetes adds a lot more caught, like complex situations and having just something in the morning when I'm worried about a test that I have first or second period, or a big homework assignment that I forgot to do last night, just having them take that little bit of like, thinking off my mind just helps so much.

Scott Benner 46:07
You don't mind being told. I mean, for a lack of a better phrase, like, you don't mind being told what to do, being led. Yeah.

Eli 46:14
Well, when it comes to this stuff, I trust my parents, obviously, when I have people that don't really know much about diabetes, trying to tell me what to do, and I know that I know more than them. It does get a little bit of a little bit frustrating, but I feel like there's rare situations, because I feel like most people are good at recognizing when they're a little bit out of place and telling me how to manage myself.

Scott Benner 46:39
Yeah, so a couple years from now, you're out with that girl that we made up. Yeah, and your mom texts you and says, Don't forget the Bolus extra for popcorn. You're not gonna be like, Oh my god, like, lady,

Eli 46:49
well, I probably would, because as soon as I leave the house, I don't get texts from my parents at all about my diabetes. Okay, I'm completely self managed. Just only when I'm I'm around the house, and they're there to help me. They do an amazing job. How

Scott Benner 47:04
did they figure out the Pre-Bolus Thing? Thing is that from Doctor, is that from me? Is that like from experience? Where did they figure out that out?

Eli 47:11
At first, it was definitely from doctors. But then over time, I think experience was the best thing that they learned from because, because I like to keep my breakfast kind of consistent, for example, and over like they'll see how my body reacts. And I know, let's say, before I go to my finals week, every morning I'll have the same breakfast, because I know how my body will react, and my parents have figured that out to like to the science, basically. So yeah, I feel experience has helped them the most

Scott Benner 47:42
within that, okay, yeah, did they have any background in in diabetes, or is it just that they threw themselves into it and figured it all

Eli 47:50
out? Yeah, they threw themselves in and figured out this. I mean, that first year. I mean, it was just, probably just straight learning. So they didn't, yeah, we had, we didn't know anything about it, really, okay before I got diagnosed. Awesome.

Scott Benner 48:05
It's really, it's lovely of them to put their effort into it like that. Do you think your siblings are at all concerned that they might get type one one day?

Eli 48:13
I haven't talked to them much about it, but I hope that they would not be concerned at all, because they see that I'm a normal kid, it didn't completely change like, who I am. So hopefully that will give them confidence that, no matter like what if they get diagnosed or not, that it won't change their life

Scott Benner 48:34
100% Yeah, do they treat you differently or No,

Eli 48:39
still get blamed for everything, and, yeah, there's not really been a change in that they

Scott Benner 48:47
don't treat you differently. That's great. Do you think that there is any resentment from them that you get your parents attention so much?

Eli 48:55
Probably not, because what my parents like do a very good job of making sure, like they don't put me at the center of the attention always. So especially because I feel like I if they need to, they know I can self manage myself as as much as I need. Yeah, and so they can spend an equal amount of time with all of

Scott Benner 49:13
us. I'd be so interested to ask your siblings that question, yeah? I wonder. I wonder what they would say. Yeah. They'd be like, Oh my God, they're always talking to him about something. Yeah, my mom doesn't even look at me. She just looks at him. Are you the oldest too? Yeah, you're the oldest and you're a boy. They probably already hate you, you know what I mean? Because they're probably, oh, mom thinks he's a prince. Maybe you get older and you find out I was just I'm bringing it up for fun, but also because I think as you get older, you should be aware of that to some degree, that no matter how balanced your parents are, at some point, it's possible that your siblings are going to just see like, oh, we were always talking about diabetes, yeah. And it's gonna, even if it's not true, it could feel that way to them, yeah. Is it a little thing from me to you? Do? Just keep an eye on it. Don't worry about it, although you don't seem like a worrier about anything. Yeah, yeah. No, you don't have any anxiety right

Eli 50:06
now, I've got like a goldfish mentality. Something bad happens, learn from it. Move

Scott Benner 50:11
on, yeah, or forget about it. Move on. So your mom's not anxious. She's

Eli 50:15
definitely more anxious than me or my dad, but I think that's just because she cares, which makes sense.

Scott Benner 50:21
Is she just like, a mom anxious or is she like, Yeah, I think it's definitely a mom anxious thing. Not like, I think mom should take a pill, not that level. Yeah, no, no, gotcha. How old are your parents? Do you know

Eli 50:34
they're both in their 50s? Oh, my God, my mom. My mom's in her 40s. My dad's in her 50s.

Scott Benner 50:39
Sorry, yeah? Jeez, your grandparents alive?

Eli 50:42
Yeah, I'm lucky to have all four of them still

Scott Benner 50:44
very nice. Did they have any understanding of your diabetes? Or how does that work with them?

Eli 50:48
It definitely took a lot more explaining to them, because they really knew a lot less, especially with the like new technology, with Dexcom, like, all they know is like finger breaking and insulin shots. So explain to them how old that worked. Was new for them, but we basically had the same level of understanding before I got diagnosed. And just, I try to teach them as much as I can whenever they have questions,

Scott Benner 51:13
okay, well, yeah, I mean, I think there's a cut off. I haven't reached it yet, but I'm scared of when I get to it. When the world that age you get to where you're just like, You know what I know, all the stuff I care to know about, yeah, I hope I don't get that way. I try to keep up with music, I try to keep up with technology as best I can, how society seeing things, you know, like how politics is changing, like it's, you know, like all that. I I try my hardest, but I know I'm gonna get to an age where one day I'm just like, I don't care. It was better than when I was better than when I was young, and then I'll just never think about it again and just just off and die. You know what? I mean, hopefully a ways from that. Do you curse?

Eli 51:48
Eli, yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna go out my way to drop F bombs on every sentence, but I'm not at all like care it could happen, right?

Scott Benner 51:57
Yeah, I'm happy about that. You seem a little too perfect, so

Eli 52:03
try. I'm trying to be professional. You know, now you're doing a good job.

Scott Benner 52:07
Don't worry. I know you put something your notes. I want to ask you about still, but let me ask you a couple more questions about being young. Okay, drugs. Do you see a lot of drugs? Yeah.

Eli 52:15
I mean, I go, I go to parties a lot, and it's definitely like, alcohol and drugs are definitely a big part

Scott Benner 52:22
of it. What are you seeing right now? Weeds everywhere. Eli, I'm assuming that definitely. What are you seeing? Cocaine. What else are you seeing?

Eli 52:29
No, no, not definitely. I mean, I don't know about college or anything, but at least in where I'm from, and what I've seen within my school, like, that's come not a thing at all, and neither are any other, like, super harsh drugs like that. You're

Scott Benner 52:44
not seeing pills or stuff. No, definitely not. Nobody's using heroin. But like, Well, no, you're laughing, but you know,

Eli 52:52
yeah, no, I know what you mean. It just, it's just weird to think about like, because it's just not something we even like consider.

Scott Benner 52:58
You're not seeing it. But weed, yeah, everyone's got weed, is that, right?

Eli 53:01
Yeah, I would say that's probably the biggest drug. Okay, there is out. Is it legal where you are? Yeah, it's legal in DC and

Scott Benner 53:07
Maryland. Okay, oh, that's the area you're in. Okay, do your parents, I'm not asking you if you smoke weed, but do, generally speaking, do your your friend's parents know that they're smoking weed? I

Eli 53:18
would say my closest friends don't at all. So my parents, so their parents obviously, like, don't know that. They don't

Scott Benner 53:25
know everybody. You like, good job. Now, the people I know don't do it, but you're talking about other people. Scott, no, yeah, sure, those other people. Eli, that I'm talking about, do you think their parents know

Eli 53:34
I don't know? Because I feel like they wouldn't necessarily talk about it, and if they get in trouble, then maybe they would, like, I don't know if they would stop, but I feel like they wouldn't go out publicizing like that their parents found out they caught them smoking in the

Scott Benner 53:49
basement or something. Yeah, drinking is a big thing or no, it's definitely

Eli 53:53
bigger than smoking for you in your group.

Scott Benner 53:56
Yeah, okay. I mean, is that a thing your parents have talked to you about that they go up to you and say, Look, we expect at some point you're going to intersect alcohol. And here's how it works with

Eli 54:05
diabetes. Yeah, as soon as I, like, started talking about seeing it at parties like freshman year, they immediately started doing research on it and making sure that when I came across it, I know how to like, react to it and how to be safe with it. And I had to talk with my endocrinologist about it, also to understand more of the science behind it, which was really helpful. Okay, so it was definitely a huge topic that was brought up.

Scott Benner 54:29
And, you know, glucagon may be less effective when you're drunk, right?

Eli 54:33
Yeah, I know about all the effects it has on the liver. It delays insulin ability to work, and the long list of things that it does. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:42
diabetes took the fun right out of beer, didn't it?

Eli 54:45
Yeah, gotta avoid those hard, high carby drinks. If I wanted

Scott Benner 54:50
to you're like, I thought this was gonna be fun, but it really like, now I know more about how the liver works, so this

Speaker 1 54:56
not as much fun as it could have been. Okay, all right, that's interesting. I appreciate this. What have I not asked you about that I should have? And then I want to look here in your notes, before we get to that. You are you wrote something advocacy projects. So tell me about that you're doing. You're doing type one advocacy. Let's go to

Eli 55:16
that. Yeah, I've been working with breakthrough T, 1d I started kind of last spring where I did they have a walk across the Capitol, and I was able to, like the all the funds, kind of go towards researching for a cure. And I was able to raise, I think it was around $18,000 between reaching out to people I know and connections to help fundraise all that, and that led me to this program in T 1d called the champions program, which is something that I just started this fall, where there's a it's like a leadership that is organized by area across The country. So I'm part of the Mid Atlantic region. So there's kind of eight Youth Ambassadors, and my title is one of those. And that's kind of something like, inspires me to push on, like, within leadership, within my own type one diabetes community around me.

Scott Benner 56:16
Wow, that's really lovely. How did you get involved in that? You just want to go for to one of the walks. Then it all kind of came out of that.

Eli 56:24
I was like researching with my parents about what I can do to raise awareness or anything, and then break through T 1d is always the first thing that pops up. So we were like, looking through the website, we see that they have walks and that you can fundraise and apply to be a fundraiser. So we did that, not knowing how far it would actually be able to take me into like this program and leadership, like roles,

Scott Benner 56:46
$18,000 that's an effort on your part. You were working hard on collecting those donations. It sounds like

Eli 56:52
Yeah. And I mean also, after my parents had helped me a lot. Also,

Scott Benner 56:58
yeah, I got some friends with better jobs and your friends, huh? Yeah, what have we not talked about that we should have? What seems like, if you listen back to this, you'd say, Oh, I can't believe I didn't get to this. This is important.

Eli 57:10
I think one of like, the more like, defining events I always think about when people ask, like, what is like, the worst experience you had with type one diabetes, or what's the most frustrating thing was my Canadian back country trip. So that was a trip that I took when I was 16, when I was 15, sorry, and I went to my sleep way camp. When you're the oldest camper, you get to go on this 10 day canoeing trip and back country trip through the Quetico National Park, which is right near the boundary waters up in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Okay, on that trip, we probably spent a month thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong with my supplies. I had two bags, one on separate canoes, in case one person flipped and I lost everything, and we had a backup plan for everything. And besides that, this it's a pretty hard trip. We're canoeing for 13 hours a day, and we have portages that are miles long and heavy gear, heavy tents. So adding on top of to like, the how hard it was, I had to obviously deal with my diabetes, which I wasn't afraid of at all. But on day two, I dropped. At this point, I still had a PDM, like, where Omnipod wasn't on the phone yet, yeah, and I dropped my PDM on a rock, and it shattered. I was like, Okay. I was as calm as possible. I went and I went to go open my next My we had a backup PDM. So I went to go open it. I had this sheet with all my ratios to set a new one up. And I open it, I type in my password, and it says, you need connection to set this up, which is, I think the one possible thing me and my parents didn't think of, because we're in the middle of nowhere, we have, we have to use satellite phones to reach back to anyone, right? And there was, at this point now, there's no way to put a new pod on, so I have to go to manual daily injections for the first time since, probably, I don't know, three months after I was diagnosed, okay, and I knew how to take care of myself, but it still was a little bit shocking, and it was like a very harsh reality like this is going to make this 100 times harder. And at first I was extremely frustrated, because I have to stop every five minutes, like, if I needed to, I need to give myself a shot. And we would stop for 50 less than, like, 15 minutes to eat, because the mosquitoes were insane, so we had to hurry up and add to give myself a shot when we wanted to eat, which would take time I felt like I was taking away from the group. But I'm lucky that I had such a great community, like those guys who went on the trip with me are still my best friends today, and the staff was very helpful, and the way the camp handled it was amazing, because they let me continue on the trip. There were talks about having to use a C plan to evac me, but I said that I wanted to do this. I'm like, There's. No way you're taking me out of this trip. Yeah, so my friends made it possible to not completely lose my mind. And because I feel like my camp friends, because I live with them for eight weeks a year, they understand my diabetes probably the best, because they hear my alarms through the night, and they understand just how it works a little bit more than other people sure they were trying to help me as much as I can. They understood that it's going to take me a little bit longer to do everything. I would say, my blood sugar was a little bit more chaotic after that, it was harder to keep it 100% in range, especially working with basal and Bolus, because, like, I'd be so tired after a long day, I'd get back, I'd just fall asleep, and sometimes I'd forget to do my basal, which is obviously horrible, and then I'd wake up in the middle of the night and wake up the entire camp my alarms. That'd be like a burden. But my friends kept, like, reminding me that that's not like we are. Like they understand, yeah. Like, what happened?

Scott Benner 1:00:56
So you've met a lot of nice people in your life so far? Sorry,

Eli 1:01:00
yeah. I don't know. I don't know if everyone can say that. No, I

Scott Benner 1:01:03
don't. I don't think everybody can. I think it's incredibly fortunate. Also, I'd be willing to adopt you as long as your parents kept doing the financial stuff, because I think you're pretty great. Like, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, I don't want to pay for college, is what I'm saying. You're definitely going to college. I can't thank you enough for doing this like this was really well done by you, and I'm so happy you reached out. I'm super impressed, obviously, by by everything you said here today. I think we'd all be happy if our kids were like, as together as you are. I love that. You don't really know why, just is sort of how you are, you know, yeah, I wish you a ton of luck. I hope that keeps going for you. I think it will. I also think, yeah, no, no, it's my pleasure. I also believe you could easily be an endocrinologist if you wanted to be. I think if you go to go that route, I think you're going to see a lot of the stuff that you said about AI come true. You know, I think there's a world where already there's products where people are going into their doctor's offices and just being recorded while they're talking, and then the notes are done automatically for the doctor. These notes are being saved and piled up on top of each other visit after visit. I think one day that that AI is going to go back in and be looking for other concerns or ideas that maybe adjustments or maybe other issues that you know cumulatively, these these conversations over time, maybe will will shine a light on, I think you're going to see algorithms not dislike the ones you're using now, you know, get better and better, and maybe lean More on, who knows? Maybe, you know, visual carb counting from Ai, maybe it's going to be, you know, AI making adjustments the settings on the fly. Who knows. But I think the world's going to look a lot different for people with diabetes in the next 20 years. And sounds like you might be involved in it, and it sounds more like you're going to be a good choice for that. So I hope that all works out for you the way you're hoping.

Eli 1:03:04
Yeah, me too. I'm doing everything I can to make that a reality. Yeah?

Scott Benner 1:03:09
And you're not pressure, like, you don't feel like an amazing amount of pressure about this either, right? It's just the thing you're doing.

Eli 1:03:14
Yeah? I think it's just, I don't get phased by pressure.

Scott Benner 1:03:18
Yeah, we could bottle Eli's vibe. We could sell it seriously and good for you, brother. All right. Well, I'm happy for you. Thank you. I don't hear enough positive stories sometimes so that this one's awesome. Just gonna say goodbye and thanks and hold on one second for me, I'd like to talk to you a little bit after the recording is over. Okay, all right,

Eli 1:03:36
yeah. Thank you so much. Bye.

Scott Benner 1:03:44
I Dexcom sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Learn more about the Dexcom g7 at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox a huge thanks to a g1 for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and for letting us know about ag Z, that's right. Today they introduced a GZ, a nighttime drink designed to support restful, restorative sleep with clinical studied key ingredients, including adaptogens, herbs and minerals. A GZ is a melatonin free formula that supports the body's natural sleep cycle. Use my link drink, ag one.com/juicebox, to get started right now. 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 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 podcasts 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 this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com,