#1289 Shot in the Dark

August 26, 2024Scott Benner

Travis was diagnosed at five. He’s using the iLet pump now with a 6.5 A1c, but through most of his life his A1c‘s were in the 19s.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome back to the juicebox Podcast.

I'm speaking with Travis today. He's 40 years old. He has two kids, and he was diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was five. For much of his life, his a one Cs were in the nineteens, but today he's been using the eyelet insulin pump for over six months. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. When you place your first order for ag one, with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink. Ag one.com/juicebox, don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com How would you like to make a difference for people living with type one diabetes, including maybe you or someone in your family, all you have to do is go to T 1d exchange.org/juice box and complete the survey you need to be a US resident who has type one diabetes or is the caregiver of someone with type 1t 1d exchange.org/juice box. This episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by OmniPod five, and you can learn more right now at my special link, omnipod.com/juicebox, today's podcast is sponsored by touched by type one. Check them out on Facebook, Instagram and at touched by type one.org. If you're looking for an organization who's helping people with type one diabetes, you're looking for touch by type one. This episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Eversense CGM, an implantable six month sensor. Is what you get with Eversense, but you get so much more exceptional and consistent accuracy over six months and distinct on body vibe alerts when you're high or low on body vibe alerts. You don't even know what that means. Do you ever sense cgm.com/juicebox, go find out.

Travis 2:25
I'm Travis. I'm 40 years old. I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of five. I'm married, I have two kids, and that's about it, all right? I diabetes for 35 years been a roller coaster ride, has it? Oh, it has, yeah.

Scott Benner 2:46
How did it start?

Travis 2:47
So at five I got diagnosed. Walked in to the doctor's office or Children's Hospital on the North Shore, my blood sugar was 896

so I was in the record book for being the highest awake patient to walk in, I should say. And then it's just been kind of figure it out from there, because that was the good old 80s of here's here's some insulin. Check your sugar, and here's a sliding scale, and have fun. Do you remember doing this while you were in school?

I do. I use diabetes to get out of school a lot. I would fake not feeling good, and then they would call my grandfather, and my grandfather would come and pick me up, and we would go to Denny's and have some lunch. And then I would have the rest of the school off until my mother figured that one out and gave the school a glucose meter, and then they would make me check my blood sugar to

Scott Benner 3:51
wow, it was that easy charge. You said you just kind of showed up in an office doing diabetes. Got to go, and then he just let you go home.

Travis 4:00
Pretty, pretty much. I said I didn't feel good. They said it was because my or I'd say it was because my diabetes. And they would call my grandfather yeah and let me go. Wouldn't check nothing, just ship me home.

Scott Benner 4:11
Hey, Mary the bee's got me I gotta get Yeah, no

Travis 4:15
problem. That's fantastic. Yeah. Then my mom caught on, and so they gave the school a glucose meter, and then they would make me check it, so that that that scheme, Scott stopped.

Scott Benner 4:28
I bet you she kicked your grandfather. And they asked once or twice too after that, no,

Travis 4:32
no, they just they, if they called my grandfather was to tell the school to check my blood sugar.

Scott Benner 4:39
Did he not know that you were being slick. No, he

Travis 4:43
did not catch dawn. Okay.

Scott Benner 4:45
How did you talk him into the Denny's? It

Travis 4:48
was, it was his idea. Oh, I

Scott Benner 4:50
see you were just shooting once or twice a day at that point.

Travis 4:56
Yeah, it was, I believe that. I don't. I lent us. It was the cloudy in the in the regular clear, yeah. So you would mix both of them at whatever you know, meal time,

Scott Benner 5:10
stick them in on your way about every 12 hours, like before breakfast, before dinner. Yeah, like breakfast,

Travis 5:15
breakfast and dinner time. Okay, so when I woke up, we would check my sugar, check the sliding scale, draw up insulin, and then off to school I would go. Then I'd get out of school, and it would be dinner time, and we'd check my sugar again.

Scott Benner 5:29
Do you know what your blood sugars were back then? Were they like, stable, low, high. I

Travis 5:35
don't remember they were. I know my a 1c, was a seven for the longest time, because I remember going into Jocelyn clinic and telling my mom numbers off of my machine, and then, like, faking some of them, she'd be like, Wow, these all really high. You're gonna, you know, you're gonna have to explain to the doctor why your your a 1c is out of whack. And then I would get my a 1c back, and it would say seven. So I figured I was doing pretty good, whatever I was doing.

Scott Benner 6:03
How old were you at that point when your mom's telling you, this is on you? You better figure it out.

Travis 6:07
Probably nine or 10, because this is when we were I couldn't drive so I was going to appointments with my parents still. Well, yeah, you How old are your kids? My oldest son is 21 and my youngest daughter is 1121.

Scott Benner 6:26
And 11 cars, you had a baby and you're 19 on purpose.

Travis 6:30
That was not on purpose. Okay, did they know that? My my son? Yes, he knows, yeah. I

Scott Benner 6:39
was gonna say he's kind of hard to hide, right? Yeah, no, no, I really wanted to start a family.

Speaker 1 6:47
So okay, your kids with two different people are the same person, two different people. Yeah, it makes sense. My point in asking how old your kids were is that you had two children at nine years old. Would you put them in charge of anything? Yes, and no, okay. Would you put them in charge of the health and welfare of a nine year old? No? Oh, okay,

Travis 7:09
no. So like my daughter is is pretty, I mean, both, both my kids were pretty self sufficient, yeah, but I Yeah, no, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I mean, my daughter has ADHD, and she has to take her medicine at eight o'clock at night, and we have to have an alarm set because she wouldn't remember if the ball the pill bottle hit her in the head, so we have a reminder set for but, yeah, no, I get,

Scott Benner 7:34
you know, I had a number of conversation I've had a number of conversations recently with Parents, and this is off Mike, and I get the idea of they need to understand it. It's going to be it's their diabetes, like we want them to be autonomous. I don't just understand it. I agree with all that, but you can't just make the announcement and then expect they're going to do it, and then when it doesn't get done, ignore that. That means poor health, and just go, Oh, you better figure it out. That part of thinking eludes me. It's a very like black and white way of considering things. Like, you know, they have to understand this. Yes, true, but that doesn't mean that they're going to randomly figure it out on their own. It's, it's such an interesting I don't know, interesting is the wrong word, because I'm trying to be polite, but I don't get it if you're doing that is what I'm saying. And so, you know, I don't know. How did that work out for you? Though, today's podcast is sponsored by the ever since CGM boasting a six month sensor. The Eversense CGM offers you these key advantages, distinct on body vibe alerts when high or low, a consistent and exceptional accuracy over a six month period, and you only need two sensors per year. No longer will you have to carry your CGM supplies with you. You won't have to be concerned about your adhesive not lasting, accidentally knocking off a sensor or wasting a sensor when you have to replace your transmitter. That's right, there's no more weekly or bi weekly hassles of sensor changes. Not the Eversense CGM. It's implantable and it's accurate. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox, the ever since CGM is the first and only long term CGM, ever since sits comfortably right under the skin in your upper arm, and it lasts way longer than any other CGM sensor. Never again will you have to worry about your sensor falling off before the end of its life. So if you want an incredibly accurate CGM that can't get knocked off and won't fall off, you're looking for the ever since CGM, ever since cgm.com/juicebox, cgm.com/juicebox, my daughter is 20 years old. I can't even believe it. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was two, and she put her first insulin pump on when she was four. That insulin pump was an OmniPod, and it's been an OmniPod every day since then. That's six. 16 straight years of wearing OmniPod, it's been a friend to us, and I believe it could be a friend to you. Omnipod.com/juicebox, whether you get the OmniPod dash or the automation that's available with the OmniPod five, you are going to enjoy tubeless insulin pumping. You're going to be able to jump into a shower or a pool or a bathtub without taking off your pump. That's right, you will not have to disconnect to bathe with an OmniPod. You also won't have to disconnect to play a sport or to do anything where a regular tube pump has to come off. Arden has been wearing an OmniPod for 16 years. She knows other people that wear different pumps, and she has never once asked the question, should I be trying a different pump? Never once, omnipod.com/juicebox, get a pump that you'll be happy with forever.

Travis 10:52
It worked out fairly well. I would say I did what I needed to do. And then at 1819, I moved out,

Scott Benner 11:02
then you really did what you needed to

Travis 11:03
do. And then I

Scott Benner 11:07
Yeah, Travis.

Travis 11:10
And then once I was on my own, and I was doing my, you know, working, and had my own health insurance, I finally realized how expensive everything was, and that's kind of where the roller coaster really hit for diabetes. Well, did

Scott Benner 11:23
you ignore some of your care for costs? So

Travis 11:27
I definitely backed off of taking insulin as much as I should have for for costs. I was doing that. You know, I'll take a shot when my blood sugar is through the roof, and if I can maintain a good sugar level, like, keep it around 150 then I won't need to, you know, inject. I was super busy at work. I was running around so active to kind of help keep the my blood sugar a little bit stable, but then, you know, just out of control, not

Scott Benner 11:57
enough, without the right amount of insulin. Yeah, exercise is nice, and it'll make your insulin more sensitive, but yeah, not if you're not taking it. Did your parents know that you were making that concession?

Travis 12:07
They didn't until I split up with my son's mother and moved back in with my mother, and she was like, You are what are you doing? And I told her I couldn't afford everything, and, you know, I had other bills that were more important to pay, and I couldn't I don't think I saw an endocrinologist. I want to say when I was 19 was the last time I saw an endocrinologist, and then I the next time I saw one was when I was like, 23

Scott Benner 12:38
Travis. Can I? Can I get a little context here. Did you move out because your girlfriend was pregnant? You were trying to put a nuclear family together? Yes, okay, okay. And then that doesn't go well. I mean, surprise. And trying to imagine, if that happened to me when I was 19, how long I'd be able to hold that together, that doesn't go well, then you've got to move home because now you're paying for the baby, and you're, you're still very young, and that's how your mom sees. I mean, she probably was, you know, I'm not going to lie to you, she probably thought the whole thing was a train wreck. But, you know, like, that's when she finally see, yeah. Definitely did, yeah. And then she's, then she sees the health aspect of it. Does she step back in at that point,

Travis 13:21
yes and no, she stepped in to make sure that I could get all my bills straight straightened out, and then kind of get my life back in order. I got a job. Well, first thing I did is I, I've got a found a doctor, okay, endocrinologist, I'll say she put me on Lantis and Humalog, and she basically was like, this is the poor man's pump, because you can't afford a pump right now and your your sugars are so out of whack, we're not going to put you on a pump, so we're going to put you on what they call the poor man's pump. I ended up doing what she was saying and ended up having a low blood sugar behind the wheel of a work pickup truck. So I lost my license for I want to say it was like 15 days until I could prove that it was, you know, a fluke in the system, yeah,

Scott Benner 14:13
that's a lot at a young age, Travis, yeah, what was the poor man's pump?

Travis 14:18
So it was Lantis, which is the the long acting and then Humalog. I would take multiple times a day, like four or five times a day. I would take Humalog insulin to well, but through a pump, no, no, no. Just through, through MDI, yeah. Okay,

Scott Benner 14:39
I see so. So this is kind of a, almost a cultural thing at that point, like this is kind of the time where they were moving from regular and mph to faster acting insulins. They didn't really even know what to call some of this stuff at the at that point, I guess, yeah,

Travis 14:55
and this is when I leave the first kind of insulin pump. Was starting to just coming out. Yeah, all right,

Scott Benner 15:02
I see I get it now. So yeah, it's just kind of like colloquial, the way they put it, I guess, yeah, wow. You

Travis 15:10
able to get your license back. I got my license back. I do have to say the paramedics and the police officers were very surprised that I was conscious and talking to them when they pulled up, because I was able to I had no accident. I had no crashes. I pulled into a parking lot. I was on the wrong side of the road, so the cops were following me, and when the paramedics came and did a sugar I was 14, they were both like, you should be dead right now. And I was like, Ah, it's all right, yeah,

Scott Benner 15:41
I got to get back to work. Yeah, I

Travis 15:43
have lunch here. I'll take 20 minutes to eat my lunch and then continue on. I promise I won't move from here. But they made me take the ambulance ride, and I had to pay that one off. Yeah, everything's

Scott Benner 15:54
when, when you're broke, it seems like everything is out to get you. And you know what I mean? Oh yeah, yeah. I lived through it for sure. I used to tell people, there's a time in my life that if you asked me for $50 you might as well have asked me for a million dollars. I didn't have the, you know, I couldn't have come up with 50 any easier than I couldn't come up with a million. It was just, just what it was. All right, so, okay, so you have some chowder or a lobster roll and a beer, and you get back to work, I understand. And then, like, from there, how do, how do things progress? Because your intake form is very interesting. You like, I just want to talk about, like, how things have changed. And so,

Travis 16:34
yeah, you know, because, yeah, so I, I progressed. I went from, you know, the old school knowing, in the 80s, very, I would say very little. It was a, you know, shot in the dark, you know, to do this, and hopefully you'll stay alive. Yeah, to, I ended up getting a job at the state and was able to finally switch over and get a pump. So that was the newer pump. I don't know if the the Medtronic mini Med, maybe, or Yeah, it was the mini med. You could get, like, a clear body of a black or a blue fan. I want to say, did someone

Scott Benner 17:12
try to make that feel important during a doctor? So I was like, you could choose your color. You'd be like, oh, I

Travis 17:17
want to say, I want to say it was the Medtronic rep, right? It was like, What color do you want? Like, this is. And I was like, I don't care. As long as it keeps as long as it keeps me alive, that's all that matters.

Scott Benner 17:29
Unless you have, I don't have diabetes in that, that wish list in there, I'm good,

Travis 17:35
exactly. Yeah, I got on the pump. Life was, you know, pretty, pretty smooth going. I want to say my a 1c went from I want to say, like a 19 down to maybe a 13 with a pump. So I was pretty impressed. And I was happy with bringing it down and kind of fighting to bring it down even more I did the Dexcom, the original Dex sensors that were like a syringe at an angle that you stabbed in yourself, and you had to keep in the fridge, yeah,

Scott Benner 18:08
oh, you had to keep in the refrigerator. Back then the sensor

Travis 18:12
piece, you had to keep in the in the refrigerator, yeah, you had to keep them

Scott Benner 18:16
cool. I don't even remember that. How What year do you think that was the very first one,

Travis 18:21
I want to say it was, they were just like, brand new. They're like, try these. See how they work. It's supposed to be, you know, you don't have to take a blood sugar as often. You have to do it, like twice a day to calibrate. I tried it, and then my insurance said, No, we're not paying for it. You'll have to pay the $1,000 a month for it. And I said, Well, I guess these can. I'll use them up, and I'll, I'll go back to what I was doing. Oh,

Scott Benner 18:47
just 1000 Sure. Can I pay for the whole year, please?

Travis 18:50
Yeah.

Scott Benner 18:51
Can I get a 10% discount for but that's crazy. Here's the thing I'm really focused on. You're diagnosed in your five we're talking about a time when you're in your early 20s and your a one season 19, in your early 20s.

Travis 19:05
Yeah, it was bad. I didn't control it at all. I went out. I would go out drinking and partying and, you know, while taking care of family, while doing everything. And, yeah, I was refusing to believe I was the diabetic. You could say, at that point,

Scott Benner 19:21
okay, how long did that park go on

Travis 19:23
for where you were? Just like, um, about five, maybe six years. And then I, you know, was like, I gotta, I gotta change. Is

Scott Benner 19:32
that when you got to the 13 with the pump? Or no,

Travis 19:35
not yet, yeah, that's when I got to the 13 with the pump. Okay, so

Scott Benner 19:39
I gotta change, grab a pump. Go from 19 to 13. Do you stay at 13 long, or do you start to figure it out and see a decrease at that point,

Travis 19:48
I started to see a decrease. I want to say. I went from 13 down to and I kind of hovered at 10 for a long time.

Scott Benner 19:58
Give me some context. What are you. C right now.

Travis 20:00
My a 1c right now is a 6.5 not good for you. Now.

Scott Benner 20:06
What's the difference between a 6.5 and a 10? What's the difference in your effort and what you were doing?

Travis 20:11
So there's a there's a lot of effort put into that. Actually found a very a new endocrinologist, because I was trying to get my CDL, so I needed to go and get all this paperwork done. And she was basically like, I'm not signing this paperwork unless you can get your a 1c down to a seven. Here's what you need to do, and I will help you. And she actually saw me for the very first time and didn't even charge me for an appointment fee. So absolutely love my endocrinologist. Now I still see her. Okay, so I, you know, she kind of kicked me in the butt, and I worked. I started, you know, checking my sugars more. I started, you know, bolusing more, because I think that's the biggest thing I never did, was bolus for meals I would always, oh, I ate. Let me just give myself a bolus later.

Scott Benner 21:02
Did you ever even do it later? Or was it just,

Travis 21:05
were you it was probably 5050, sometimes I did it later. Sometimes I was like, well, it's too late now. Let the pump, you know, let me let it, let it run its course and catch up. This

Scott Benner 21:17
is not an uncommon story from people who've had diabetes for a long time. And I think what I mean by that is for people who, at one point, were just doing regular and mph like, just shoot it. Shoot it again. Don't think about it. Don't test Don't worry. It is what it is. Are you telling me that you were doing your Atlantis and nothing else most of the time, or even that you if you had a pump on you would let it run your basal insulin, but then very frequently, or coin flip, whether you would bolus for your meals or not. So

Travis 21:48
with the pump, I would very frequently. I would, I would not frequently, bolus for meals. I would just let it run the basal, and then if my sugar, you know, if I was up in the three hundreds and it wasn't coming down with the basal, I would then kind of mess around with the bolus number and see how I could, you know where I how much I needed to get down,

Scott Benner 22:11
and what was your understanding of the impact that was having on your health.

Travis 22:15
I knew it wasn't good because I had a doctor that told me that I was going to lose my arms and my legs and body parts, and I would never see my kids grow up, but I was, you know, still in my early 20s, and I was like, whatever. I'll, you know, I've lived this long. I'll, I'll continue to live. My understanding is that it was absolutely terrible. Thankfully, I don't have any side effects, except for retinopathy in my in my eyes, which isn't bad, and they're keeping, you know, tabs on it. So,

Scott Benner 22:50
so going back to that time, hey, you're gonna lose your losing your arms, losing your legs, maybe think of a Metallica song when you said the way you said it. There's something about that, but that's being told you, and you're like, whatever? Do you mean, whatever? Like, nah, that's not gonna happen to me. Or I'm okay so far. So I won't think about, like, why would I'm trying to understand why,

Travis 23:10
when it was a whatever, you know, I'll never live to see that kind of kind of thing. Like, Oh, okay. I was told I only you know if you live to, you know, if you live to 25 you know, you you've hit a milestone. So, you know, I was, you know, Bunk. If I hit 25 that's a milestone, and I probably don't have much longer after that. But

Scott Benner 23:32
no Travis, no feeling of like, I'll beat this or I'll do better than that, like, just you took, you took what they told you to heart, like I'm not going to live a very long life.

Travis 23:41
I kind of took it to heart, but I was like, You know what? I'm we all gotta die at some point, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna live it up and have fun. I'm not gonna let the diabetes hold me back and not be able to have fun like all my other friends are doing, and do what they're doing. So especially if I'm not gonna live very long. Yeah, so if I'm gonna die, I'm going to die having fun with a smile on my face, is how I looked at it. And I made it to 40, so I'm doing pretty good. I

Scott Benner 24:06
think, I think you're doing well, let me ask you a question. If this hall happened and you were 40, you're the person you are right now. And I came in and I said to you, Travis, you're not going to live very long. Don't even bother trying. Blah, blah. Do you think you'd still accept that, or do you think now, as a more mature person, you'd be like, Well, are you sure maybe I should talk to somebody else, or are you sure,

Travis 24:25
as a more mature person, I am definitely taking way better care of it, and I have to say, listening to the juicebox podcast, I understand a lot more of what the harms I have done to myself and why I'm trying to do way better than what I used to do. How long have you been listening? So I haven't been listening that long. I want to say maybe a year. In a year, has your A once he gotten better? There's kind of a odd story in there. I have the eyelet pump now. Oh, good. I was on the trial. I was in the trial for it, and. Then once i i was able to receive it early, because I was in the trial and spoke to the creator of the islet when I was getting hooked up and doing my setup process. And he kind of mentioned, oh, have you heard about this podcast? And I was like, I so I, you know, kind of looked at him up and listened to his his podcast with you first. And then I was like, this is pretty interesting. And then started going through him, and I now listen to him every day. Oh, wow, I subscribe now too, so I get to listen to him early. Oh, thank

Scott Benner 25:35
you. Hey, that's not a thing I usually bring up, but yeah, if you pay like, a few bucks a month, you'll get the episodes a day early, and there's no ads in the Pro Tip series or the bowl beginning series. But that's neither here nor there. That's a little ad for myself, Travis, but no, but I don't want to get off track, because this is incredibly interesting. So in 35 years, you went through this process, but still, in all a year ago, you were pretty lost,

Travis 26:00
I would say so, except for my endocrinologist, who would yell at me, will not really yell at me, but just be like, listen, I can't help you if you don't help yourself, right? And you know, if you want to keep your your CDL and I have to continue to sign this paperwork, then you need to figure this out and make and show me that you actually want to keep your CDL license, oh,

Scott Benner 26:22
I was gonna say, like your first major health improvement. It was for money. You you need to keep your job and upgrade your job with a different license. That's why you really got your a one scene down to seven, right?

Yes, yeah,

that's what I thought. Okay, all right. But I mean, so you met Ed? Is it ed that you met, he was on the podcast, right? Yes, yeah. And so, well, that's interesting. So, so are you in the islet trial? Because how did they find you?

Travis 26:52
So I'm in the islet trial because my my endocrinologist knows knew the doctor that was running it, and she gave my name, and they reached out, and then I reached out, and I took I got into the trial. My a 1c when I started the trial, was at a seven. And then after three months of being on it, my a 1c came down to a 6.6 Wow. And they gave me all the, all the paperwork in, you know, basically the breakdown of what, what the islet pump was doing in, what it was giving me for breakfast, lunch and dinner, bolus, yeah, I have to say how amazing my endocrinologist is. Is that she had my pump, my Medtronic, 760 or whatever it is, set up pretty close to what the islet was doing, minus the basal rates. I mean, minus the boluses. Okay, so I basically took what I was bolusing for breakfast, lunch and dinner on average, and when I started back onto my Medtronic pump, I would, you know, that's what I would give myself as a bolus. Unless I ate a little bit more than I would kind of bump it up a little bit. If I ate a little bit less, I would bump it down. So I was basically doing what the eyelet did, but in a manual mode. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 28:16
Wow. Do you think it's possible that your doctor rep said, Hey, I think I have somebody for this study, because you fit the bill of what they were looking for, which was people who are looking to not really be involved very much.

Travis 28:28
I think so, yeah. And that is, you know, I hate to say it, but I I want to be involved, but I don't want to be involved. I have, you know, I want life to be life, and diabetes is part of my life, but I don't want it to overwhelm and take over. You

Scott Benner 28:45
know, listen, I can't tell you that I think there's anything wrong with that desire. You know, I understand it. I think this pump is going to help a lot of people who feel that way as well. Has listening to the podcast made any difference for you on eyelet? Or is there not really any kind of adjustments you can make anyway, or is it more about bolus timing, stuff like that? Have you gotten from it?

Travis 29:05
It's more about bolus timing, because you really can't make any adjustments. The biggest thing I think you need to figure out is your meals, if it's a regular, if it's a usual meal, a bigger meal or less meal, yeah, is kind of and that's where you kind of need to know your carbs. And I definitely think the podcast has helped with the the protein spikes and all that, because we do like a pizza night at the house, I'll make homemade pizzas, and I know that I can bowl us for that pizza as a as a normal meal, but in an hour, I'm gonna spike up in about a half hour or 45 minutes after my initial bolus, or Yeah, bolus, I will then give myself a usual amount, and it will keep me right where I need to be.

Scott Benner 29:56
You figured out how to tell the eyelet two different meals? For something like pizza, correct? Yeah,

Travis 30:03
the islet, the islets, great, but it doesn't it trends your, your rises in in phrases, when you're going up and you're if you're getting too low, it'll figure that out. But if you're after you eat for like, a protein, you know, Spike, it doesn't really catch it quick enough, right?

Scott Benner 30:22
So that's how you're getting under a seven with eyelet. Uh, yes. You're kind of bolusing extra, not really extra. You're bullish in what you need, but you're filling in gaps where the pump wouldn't be as aggressive. I guess I should say yes.

Travis 30:35
Okay, okay, wow. But for for people that are just getting on it and figuring things out and don't really know, yeah, don't do that. What they're doing. Well, don't be like, it would be great for somebody. It would be great, I would say it would be great for somebody that doesn't quite understand carb counting, and because you could definitely maintain a seven just, you know, bolus for what you're eating, because it will catch it. You might, you might hit 200 and sit at 200 for a little bit longer than you would like, or I would like now, but it will definitely catch it and bring you back down. I see,

Scott Benner 31:18
yeah, no, I when he explained it to me, I really did think there's a great many people actually. You're, you're the kind of numbers I was thinking about when he was talking about this thing. There are people wandering around with 13, a one, CS, all over the place. And if you're telling me, you can put this device on them, and they can say, what is it? I'm having breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's usual, less than usual, more than usual amount of food. That's it, right? Yep, it's usual, more or less usual, more less breakfast, lunch, dinner. That's it. That's it, yeah? Well, that's not a lot, so, but you're doing it too big, you know? Because there's a world where 20 year old you wouldn't push the button even Well,

Travis 31:58
see, this is where I think a 20 year old me would push this button because it's easier, okay, less consuming than having to go in and calculate, okay, I have to put in, like, the Medtronic pump. You have to put in, you know, this meal is, you know, 40 carbs. Okay, I put in 40 carbs. Okay. And, you know, I just hit a button. Bing, bang, done. Do me?

Scott Benner 32:22
Do me a favor, because I think I have a good grasp of you already, as good as I can in a half an hour. But I want to make sure everyone else does too your regular life. You're a hard working guy. You're not lazy, right?

Travis 32:32
I'm not lazy. I I drive a truck for a living, a dump truck for a local trucking company. I coach rugby on the weekends. I used to play rugby. I try to stay as active as possible. My daughter ice skates. My daughter plays rugby.

Scott Benner 32:49
My wife works with animals, so we're you're involved. Personally, going, Yeah, you're involved. Parent, the whole thing, yes, yeah, it's just this aspect for whatever reason, whether it's your personality or the time you got diabetes and how it was first explained to you, or whatever it was that put you into this mindset. This is just the mindset you you have, and you're adapting to it with different technology.

Travis 33:14
And I have to say, I love the new technology. I have a, you know, the Dexcom. I'm on a Dexcom g6 right now. And I would, you know, I'd fight you over taking it away.

Scott Benner 33:27
I used to say that about TiVo. I used to say, if you came to my door and tried to take my TiVo back, I would, I would get a bat. Now, everybody doesn't even know what that is like all media is time shifted at this point. You know what I mean Exactly, right? Uh, but But I take your point, like, Listen, man, that's fantastic. And it's actually kind of big of you to come share this story, because this is not a story of like, Hey, I found the podcast right away. My a one season the fives, and I'm doing great. Like, that's easy to share. You know what I mean? Like, this is, I lived a long time. I wasn't doing the things I needed to do. I wasn't taking steps to change that I probably wasn't going to, you know, I got pushed into it a little bit because of a job situation, and then I got lucky with a good doctor who helped me stay as focused as possible. But then this technology is where I make my leap.

Unknown Speaker 34:15
Yeah, wait, can

Scott Benner 34:16
you imagine if someone would have slapped this on five year old Travis? I

Travis 34:20
would, I don't even know what I'd be doing now. I'd

Scott Benner 34:23
be, just be so exciting. Honestly, I would, yeah, be, also your attitude would be completely different. About diabetes.

Travis 34:30
I mean, my attitude thought bad. No, no, I just Travis.

Scott Benner 34:34
Let me stop you. I don't think you have a bad attitude. I just mean, I made your perspective would be different, I

Travis 34:39
guess. Oh, probably, definitely, yeah, yeah. But, you know, I don't let diabetes. I in. Anybody that lets diabetes hold them back from doing something they want to do is, is crazy. I mean, I didn't realize that I was supposed to take off my pump going on roller coasters. When I got the eyelet, they were like, don't forget to take that off if you go on roller coasters or jump out of a plane. I was like. What do you mean? I've done both those and I've never taken my pump off. And they're like, is your pumps? Your pump still worked after? And I was like, Well, yeah, why wouldn't it like,

Scott Benner 35:09
Oh no, my daughter wears omnipot on a roller coaster. Well, I

Travis 35:12
don't know if omnipot is different than the Medtronic one, but I was like, I sure, I guess. And all right, I'm super excited for for the technology that makes you know me being able to get my CDL a possibility, and maybe having a diabetic be a airline pilot, because that was never a possibility, and now they're looking into letting that be a possibility.

Scott Benner 35:37
A guy doing it, he was on the show already. Oh, perfect. Yeah, yeah, fantastic. So that's, that's the kind of stuff you're thinking about like you're thinking about everybody being able to have more opportunities.

Travis 35:48
Yeah, and there's, actually, there's a kid in my daughter's school who's in his in her class that I came I didn't have to work one day, so I went to breakfast with her, because her school serves breakfast. I saw him pull out his phone and look at it. And I was like, so I kind of looked at her, and I was like, is he a diabetic? And she was like, yeah. I was like, Huh, okay. And my daughter is so nonchalant with everything. It's It's amazing. She she knows where my all my insulin supplies are. She knows how to change my palm. Even the new one, she knows where the on. I can't even think of the name of it now, glucagon. The glucagon, Yep, yeah. She knows where that is. She knows how to use it. I've actually spoken to the other kids parents, because they're getting ready to go to nature's classroom, which is an overnight like camp for the the kids. And I said, you know, my, my daughter knows how to take care of everything she's she's quite aware of what a low blood sugar behavior is, what high blood sugar behavior is, um, even though it can be different in that anybody she she can, you know,

Scott Benner 36:57
she's aware of this kid needed help, right? Yeah. And I was like,

Travis 37:01
you know? And I said, she knows what a glucagon pen is and how to use one. And the mother was like, well, we have the nasal spray. And I was like, well, even easier, because I'm sure she can figure that out.

Scott Benner 37:13
And okay, hey, Travis, you ever growing up end up in DK in the hospital? So

Travis 37:19
I've been in DKA once, and it was, I want to say it was probably 1110, or 11 years ago, and it was because my pump, my pump, malfunctioned, and I actually had to get a new one from Medtronic. Those

Scott Benner 37:36
years when you had a 19, A, 1c, you never ended up in the hospital. Never ended up in the hospital. My god, that's interesting. What do you do? You have any feelings about why that is? I'm lucky. Yeah, I don't know. Were you just like, waiting until you got high and then crushing blood sugars, but you didn't have a ton of lows either? Well,

Travis 37:55
no, I did have a ton of lows. I was definitely roller coasting, roller coaster. Roller coaster was crashing

Scott Benner 38:01
at the end.

Travis 38:01
Yeah, oh, okay. So definitely going from like 500 down to, you know, down to 50, and then catching it

Scott Benner 38:13
and then catching it yourself, or did you need intervention from other people?

Travis 38:17
No, I would catch it myself, except for that one time I was behind the wheel, yeah, literally.

Scott Benner 38:22
So that one time is your one really scary low blood sugar incident?

Travis 38:25
Yeah, and that one is the reason why I started running my blood sugars at like 200 behind the wheel when I was driving for a living, because I didn't want to have a low behind the wheel again. That experience actually made you keep a higher blood sugar? Yeah, yeah, that starts to make sense too. Looking back now, like if you could go back and talk to yourself, What do you think you would try to convince yourself of I would try to convince myself to maintain it better when I was running reckless and not even thinking about being a diabetic five years? You said five six years? Yeah, like five or six years running rampant. Jeez,

Scott Benner 39:08
were you with a woman at that point? No, not living with some I'm just trying to wonder if there was another person in your life who saw that happening and didn't, did or didn't say anything to you.

Travis 39:18
So my my son's mother wouldn't have really recognized it, right? My wife, now would. She's pretty on top of it, but yeah, no. The only other person that would have recognized it would have been my mother, but I was out of the house by then, and I wouldn't go home at that time. So

Scott Benner 39:37
any other type one in your family line? No,

Travis 39:39
my grandmother, later in life, became a type two. There's thyroid problems. My mother, actually, I want to believe, has her had her thyroid removed or had something done? Maybe, yeah,

Scott Benner 39:54
okay, so she, she takes a replacement. Your thyroid is okay. My

Travis 39:59
thyroid. It is okay. My cholesterol was a little elevated. They put me on a statin, and then they took me off, so I'm not taking a statin anymore.

Scott Benner 40:08
How about in the family, celiac, eczema, bipolar, or anything like that. In the family,

Travis 40:16
there's definitely bipolar in the family, maybe my aunt. Okay,

Scott Benner 40:22
so any Alzheimer's with the older ones? Um, no, no. Okay, wow, man, it's crazy. This is the kind of story that just really interests me, because to me, it has so much to do with how you started. And, you know, listening, I don't know that we can blame anybody in the 80s, right for with today's standards like that. That would be a pretty big stretch, but still, like so much of where you are is where you started.

Travis 40:50
Yes, and the other thing too. I mean, my both, my my parents are separated now, but they were both in the service. They both got into drug use. So when I became a diabetic and my mom had to do shock draw up syringes, she said it was the hardest thing for because it would bring back flashbacks of when she was using. So that's they

Scott Benner 41:14
was that they were using in the military, in the military, or when they got out,

Travis 41:18
I believe it was the end of the military. I'm not too sure. Okay, my mom's been open and you know about all drug use that's been throughout her life. And you know, it's pretty an open it's a pretty open book.

Scott Benner 41:31
So she said, What age do you become aware of that?

Travis 41:34
When we were, like, 1617, she used to tell us, you know, because she was trying to keep us on the straight and narrow,

Scott Benner 41:40
did that work, or does, did part of that partying? I've

Travis 41:44
never done drugs. I mean, I've taken pain killers that probably weren't prescribed to me, but I don't do that, you know, it was, yeah, that was in

Scott Benner 41:52
the we're gonna count, though, but not in the same way

Travis 41:55
that was what I was, you know, in in my 20s, running crazy and doing things and partying with everybody, but I, you know, I mean, I still had my job, I still kept my responsibilities,

Scott Benner 42:06
but are you drinking? Mostly,

Travis 42:07
I do. I mean, I still drink. Now, I don't drink heavily.

I'll have, you know, a few drinks on the weekend, but back then you were pounding it right back then you could consider me a binge drinker. Yeah, okay, and throwing a pill once in a while. Yes, okay, wash that down with a little whiskey, maybe something like that. Yeah, wash it down. Yeah. And then you guys, would you just hang out? Were you like, roaming the streets of Boston, causing trouble?

No chasing girls, doing we would hang out, you know, either at a hotel or in the woods. The town woods. Hang out. The woods. Was there?

Scott Benner 42:41
Was there a sofa in those woods? Travis,

Travis 42:44
there could have been a sofa in those woods.

Scott Benner 42:50
I saw one of those sofas a couple of times.

Travis 42:54
You're not You're not that much older than me. I know you. Yeah, I'm

Scott Benner 42:57
not that much older than you. Oh, my God. Did you imagine that there was a time in your life when you were like, You know what makes sense to me? We're gonna get good loaded, climb out in the woods and sit on a dirty sofa that I'm 100% sure a squirrel on.

Travis 43:10
Yeah, yes,

Scott Benner 43:12
this will be great. We'll love this. So your mom did scare you out of doing drugs. You think it wasn't scare

Travis 43:18
me out of I never even I wasn't really for you. Yeah, it wasn't for me. I wasn't really interested. I was around it all my I mean, I've had friends Sure, did everything under the sun, but it just really wasn't for me. I have

Scott Benner 43:32
to tell you, I have the same story. I've every opportunity in the world. I just never cared, never really cared for it, or thought to try it. It's interesting. I didn't drink either, but that's I'm not I'm not bragging. I'm just saying, like, the drug thing never occurred to me. It's really interesting how it strikes some people and not others. Yeah,

Travis 43:51
I mean, it's, it's strange, I don't know, like, my really good friend still smokes pot to this day, and I'm like, I don't have a ton of trouble with smoking pot, I

Scott Benner 44:01
have to be honest. But like, I'm talking about, like my friends were doing cocaine and, you know,

Travis 44:05
yeah, well, my friends were too, and they actually, now they just all smoke pot. Now they kind of grew out of everything else. So

Scott Benner 44:12
they grew out of it. I grew out of cocaine. Don't you worry?

Travis 44:15
I Yeah, it's funny to say, but it's true. Yeah, no, I

Scott Benner 44:18
know. I know it is, how did you talk to your son, or your son about all this, about drugs, alcohol and and, like, how you were, I mean, because maybe you haven't, but, like, you're running around, you made a baby pretty young. Like, did you give him the like, I sent my son to school. And I was like, listen, just don't up the things you can on. And he was like, he was like, what? I'm like, You can't kill somebody and come back from it. You can't get somebody pregnant and come back from it. I'm like, Don't up the things. You can't un and he was like, okay, and I sent him on his bike. I'm like, did you have a conversation like that? I did have

Travis 44:55
a conversation with, like, with him like that. He's a very good kid. He's got. Good head on his shoulders. I love him dearly, but he sometimes isn't the brightest he, as he would say, at least I didn't make your mistake. I'm making my mistakes. You know, he's, he'll, he'll come to me and goes, and he says, you know, listen, I'm 21 I don't have a kid yet. I'm doing better than you already. And I was like,

Scott Benner 45:19
there you go. Hard to argue with also, yeah, nice that you guys can talk about it, because with that freedom, because he is talking it must be difficult on some level for him. He's talking about himself as a mistake, and that's that can't be easy, like psychologically, you know what I mean. But it sounds like you guys have a nice, open back and forth about it, and I think that probably is what makes it easy for him, you know, yeah, I

Travis 45:42
mean, I tell him all the time, you know, yes, I if I could go back, I would still do what I did, like I, you know, I wouldn't take anything from my past. You know, it wasn't a struggle to have a kid at 19. Oh, yeah. But, you know, I made it work. I made it happen. I, you know, supported him, you know, from day one. And yeah,

Scott Benner 46:00
I'm glad you're here, but I maybe should have owned a pot and a pillow before I did this. Like, yeah, exactly,

Travis 46:08
yeah. No, we, you know. I'm like, You're not a mistake. You were an oops. And he's like, Oh, thanks. Makes it so much better. It's like, oh no,

Scott Benner 46:16
it does a little actually, there's a lot of context in the word mistake, you know what I mean? Like, not on not on purpose, and something I wish I wouldn't have done is is very much different. So it's interesting. I'm thinking of calling your episode shot in the dark. That you said that earlier, and I thought, How come there's no episode called shot in the dark? It's like such a nice like, double entendre and everything. Anyway, I'm working towards that, unless I just call it Boston, that's gonna be that. How the hell do you live through the winters? I'm not lying. When the wind comes in off the water, why don't you all just scream, die and fall over.

Travis 46:51
All honestly, I hate winter time now that I'm older. I used to love it as a kid. I would, I would love to get out of Boston and move down to Tennessee. All honestly, I have to convince the wife to do that, but she's been working for the same company for 25 years now. So that's that's where the struggle lies. Tennessee has become a very popular place for people to move. I would love to go out in my flip flops, in my shorts, and just leaf blow the snow away and

Scott Benner 47:18
the call that winter exactly. I have to be honest with you, I do not want to live in the cold, especially as I get older too. It gets it's hard sometimes even just the other day. I mean, you and I are close enough to each other. It got really windy and bitter the other day, and I had to run out for something and groceries. And I, you know, pushed the cart back to my car, and I put the stuff in, and I took the car to the return, because I'm not a piece of and if you don't take the car to the return, I'm judging you. And so I'm taking the car to the return. This me and this guy, like, make eye contact, and he looks at me, and I look at him, and I went so fucking cold. And he goes, me too. And he said, I think it's because I'm old. And I was like, I was thinking the same thing, and we ran back to our cars, and that was the end of it. I 25 years ago, I would have gone to the grocery store and shorts on that day. I wouldn't have thought twice about it. And it's just, I don't know what it is, but I don't want to. I don't want to feel like this anymore. So, yeah, no, I

Travis 48:15
don't want to. I mean, I shouldn't say too much, because I salt for the you needed the state. So I get, I get paid to be out in the cold, but I just, I don't, I don't want to do it anymore. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 48:27
don't. I'm with you, man,

Travis 48:28
I but I love the company I work for too now. So I hard to leave. You know it's hard to leave? Yeah, no, I

Scott Benner 48:35
see that. I'm watching my wife. My wife has a job offer this week, and I'm seeing how it pulls on her in both directions. It's actually kind of very interesting. All right, what else you got? Anything else you'd like to talk about, is anything we haven't talked about? I want to make sure I'm not missing anything from your perspective.

Travis 48:51
I don't think so. I just, you know, the new technology coming out, I mean, is amazing. Give it a try. Even the the g7 now, which is, is, is a plus. And

Scott Benner 49:02
how long have you been on g7

Travis 49:04
I haven't been on G I haven't switched yet because I haven't, oh, confirmed. I haven't confirmed with my doc, my insurance company, if they'll cover the g7 but islet is compatible, though, right? Eyelet is now compatible. If I open up my eyelet, it says, Please choose g6 or g7 when I switch my sensors. So nice. So you're thinking about it, that switch is definitely coming. Going to be coming to my only issue with eyelet is the length of the tubing is too short. So I think it's causing some tunneling, because when I roll around in my sleep, I think it's pulling the tube, because it's only a short tube. Have

Scott Benner 49:46
you given them that feedback? Because I imagine if that's happening to you, it's happening to others, they'd probably like to present people with more options. I would imagine I

Travis 49:54
have. There is another option. It's the steel set I'm not able to. At through my distribution yet. Okay, but they're working on it, and then I'm also in the works of maybe switching to the fast acting whether it's FIAs or the other one. They both work in that pump as well. Yeah, one of them is actually going to be pre filled cartridges. So you'll get pre filled vials all set. You just popped. Man, is it going to be loom, Jeff?

Scott Benner 50:23
I wonder if I'm trying to see I'm looking right now, hold on a second. I don't know that loom Jeff works for the island, and I don't know that it doesn't, but I don't know that it does either.

Travis 50:32
I think they did FIAs for the test.

Scott Benner 50:35
Okay, all right, you're hoping that makes a bit of a difference too, because now, yeah, I'm hoping tell me, Travis, you've you've sniffed the sixes now, now you're wondering what else you could do, right?

Travis 50:45
Well, I'm hoping just to stay in the sixes, we can get to the low sixes. So my other thing too, is I'm in discussions with my endo about maybe getting on we go V because I'm having trouble losing weight. And with everything I've heard on the podcast, it could help with my total daily dosage. Do

Scott Benner 51:06
you want to talk about it? Give me one. Yeah, let me say this first US based, diabetes focused medical technology company beta bionics has received FDA clearance, compatibility of the FIAs pump cart, pre filled insulin cartridge. So that's what you're talking about. Not, yes, not that I let providing users with a choice of three insulins, Novolog, Humalog, or the FIAs pump cart. So those are the three that'll work with it. And that's

Travis 51:30
really cool. The Novolog and the human log you have to fill yourself, yeah, but the fiasco will come pre filled, which, I mean, you might like, if it saves me a step, you know, save me five minutes. That's five minutes of my life. I

Scott Benner 51:43
get back. Yeah, you take it. Well, I'll tell you to the g7 where you're going to love that besides the size and the ease of the insertion is there's a shorter window for warm up down to 30 minutes. But there's also a, like, a grace period at the end of the sensor. So what I tell people all the time is, it's like, you put the new one on and live with the new one for an hour or two or three, or whatever, through the grace period, and then pop the old one off. And as soon as you pop the old one off, the new ones there and giving you numbers already fantastic, like, you know, so you don't have a especially with these algorithms, right? You're not gonna, you're not gonna have a gap of data at all. But tell me about, about wanting to lose weight. How

Travis 52:23
much do you think you have to lose? Probably about 50, maybe 60 pounds. I'm like 275, right now, at six one, and I just, I don't eat much anymore, yeah, but I try to maintain, you know, watch what I eat, not the greatest with, you know, nutrition, I know my lunch is like a little kid's lunch, because I'm sitting in a truck and I need to just have quick snacks that I can eat while I drive. Right? You know, me and the wife go out walking when we can with our dogs, and then, you know, we I coach rugby and run and chase the kids at Rugby. And what was your frame like in your 20s? What do you think you weighed back then? I weighed 220, back in my 20s. Did

Scott Benner 53:05
you have weight to lose then? Or were you solid?

Travis 53:08
I was, I was fairly solid. I mean, I probably should have lost weight, but it was all, you know, it was all that alcohol, yeah,

Scott Benner 53:15
because I'm telling I'm looking at the obesity chart right now. At six, one, you are considered obese. 227, to 295, so that puts you in that category. You'd have to get below 182, to get to moderate weight, which means and the reason, I think that's important is because that means that you qualify right now for a GLP medication for weight loss. If your insurance company covers it, it'll be free. Even you got to find out if your insurance company covers either we go V or zepbound. And I'll tell you, I'd try for zebound If I was you first. Okay, maybe fewer side effects and the hope of losing more weight than on we go V, but man, I thought like I'll tell you when I started this whole thing. I don't know if you've listened to my diary about losing weight, but I started at 236 and I thought I told my wife, like, boy, if I lost 20 pounds, like, I'd be great. And when I lost 20 pounds, and I looked, I was like, Oh, I'm still fat. I was like, Oh, why did I think I only had to lose 20 pounds? That's ridiculous. And then I said to her, I'm like, well, I'll just need to get under 200 that'll that'll be really great. Then I got under 200 and I was like, Nope, that's not the answer either. And now I'm this morning. Actually, this morning I am the lowest I've ever been, 187 187 is that right? 197 How much do I weigh?

Holy crap. Hold on a second. No, I

think it's 190 Oh,

Unknown Speaker 54:41
187 pause, this is embarrassing.

Scott Benner 54:47
I wait one Yeah, I think I'm 187 this morning. How about that? Isn't that crazy? The I've what I've learned over this last year Travis is the number is meaningless to me. It's about my health. How I feel and what my body is holding on to that it shouldn't be holding on to. I was 187 this morning. I've lost 46.4 pounds in total since I began this whole thing. I guess I started like two, 233, or something like that. I forget now, um, so I still have it around my my midsection. I still have what I would consider to be three handfuls of fat around my midsection. I'm trying to get rid of that. I just moved up on me. My wife

Travis 55:25
did Weight Watchers, and we lost weight on that. But I, you know, we stopped doing it, and then found the weight. Found the weight, yeah, and then I want to say right, right now my total daily dosage is like 8990 units per day, so I'd like to cut that down, because I'm, I'm burning through insulin like you wouldn't believe so have you heard some of the stories lately? The little girl, for instance, I did, yeah, and that's kind of the one that was like, Huh? I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk to the doctor about this. Now,

Scott Benner 55:55
this would not be forever. This is not gonna happen to everybody. I don't even know if it'll ever happen to anybody else but her mom texted me this morning. Her daughter hasn't had a bolus for a meal in 90 days. And impressive. Glucose average, 109 standard deviation, 23 GMI through the Dexcom is 5.9 and that's that kid has type one diabetes. So and I'll more personally, I'll tell you that we started Arden on point two five of ozempic watched her needs drop significantly. I would say six, maybe eight weeks into it, it stopped working as well. So we moved her to point five, and right back again to the the lower insulin needs. But Arden's basal went down from 1.1 an hour to point eight. So there, what is that? That's point three an hour times 24 and then her insulin sensitivity basically doubled from like one unit moves her 42 to one unit moves her 83 now I think, I think that's our setting, and then her carb ratio went from one to four to one to eight, maybe seven and a half. But still, who cares? Like, that's a lot less insulin.

Travis 57:15
Yeah,

Scott Benner 57:17
you know what I mean, and that you know nothing. I think you know me. I think everybody should take the amount of insulin they need. I'm not. I'm never advocate, advocating for people to think of insulin as too much or too little, because I really do think that runs the risk, then, of people not caring for themselves well. But these glps For Type ones, I know they're not, they're not covered at the moment, but it can't be much longer, like it's gonna have to be. They're studying it now, and these conversations are probably gonna help, you know, at some point, you know, and it's not like my daughter lost like, 50 pounds, or something like that. That's why she's using less insulin, like she lost a little bit of weight, but maybe, like, you know, 810, pounds, something like that. It's not just because of that, because now the weights down, and when her body got used to that level, at point two, five, the insulin needs started to go back up again. Yeah, so she had a little more now she's back in. I don't know where she'll settle in at man, but if you could get that, it'd be a big deal for you. I

Travis 58:13
think, yeah, that's, that's my hope. I know, I know FiOS isn't covered by my insurance. But I reached out to them, and I, you know, kind of let them know my my dilemma, and they said that they're gonna, you know, they'll look into it. So I'm hoping they change formats, and it's not a level four whatever prescription. Well, I have to play full pliers for it, so get it

Speaker 1 58:39
covered under your formulary. To give it a try. Well, listen, I mean, do you think they'd cover the weight loss medication? Because you might not matter. The insult may not matter after that. I think so. I have to call that was going to be one of the things I do today was call and see about what they cover for ozempic, or we go V or whatever the other one was, I gave a talk this weekend, and I then there are hundreds of people with diabetes there, and everybody walked up to me at some point and said, Can you explain how the GLP medication works to me, like, you know, it's and everybody had the same story. I use a lot more insulin than I used to, or that I want to, or I, I think I have PCOS or, you know, like, I can't lose this weight no matter what I do. And then, listen, there's some people like you said, like I did Weight Watchers, I could lose weight, but you didn't lose 70 pounds, right? I think I lost 15 pounds. And how long, three months. Okay, well, that's, by the way, that's great, good job, but you just couldn't keep it going. So we stopped going to Weight Watchers, and I kind of ate the same, maybe a little bit worse, here and there, but yeah, no, it. What do you think was keeping the weight down versus not doing it? You just started taking in more calories at some point,

Travis 59:55
I think so. Well, my job changed too. I started driving. Oh, so we stopped going to Weight Watchers. Then I got my CDL, so I stopped, I started driving, which means I wasn't moving as much anymore, right? Yeah, man, listen, from, from for me,

Scott Benner 20:00:11
I don't think there's no shame in it at all. Like, I'll tell you what I've learned over the last year. One of the most important things I've learned over the last year is that my life is finite, and I am not going to sit around thinking, Oh, well, maybe if I could have just worked out and ate better for a couple of years, I probably would have lost the same thing. Like I've lost 45 pounds, 46 now in in the last year, and I don't feel like I cheated. I my body clearly needed this, because as soon as I had it, I was okay. I don't eat wildly differently than I did a year ago. And the medication is not this magic stuff that if you eat a bunch of junk, you'll still lose weight. Like, that's not how it works either. So you have to make adjustments to how you eat, you know. But the medication helps you, you know, like, keeps it out of your mind. A little bit keeps it, you know, keeps you from your stomach rumbling and thinking, like, oh, maybe I got to eat something. So you got to be a little more meaningful about how you eat. And you know, I never, like, I made myself two eggs this morning. I put a piece of sausage and some mushrooms with it, and I got to the end, and there were sausage and some eggs left. And I was like, I can't finish this. Like, I just can't and so, and so I said, so I stopped. I'm not hungry now, but my wife was like, Hey, I think I'm gonna she texted me a little while ago. She's like, I think I'm gonna get a slice of pizza at um, at lunch. And I thought, Oh, I might eat a slice of pizza at lunch. That's fine, but I won't eat three of them. You know what I mean, somewhere between the hunger being tamp down and the other things that that medication is doing. I mean, it's amazing. It just, it just really is so go for it. That'd be, you know, my personal advice, but nothing you hear on the juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical otherwise. But you know, if you were you and I were standing around together, I would tell you to give it a shot. I

Travis 20:01:58
told my, one of my best friends, to do it. He just saw his dendone. We were talking. He's like, supposedly I'm pre diabetic, so they're gonna the doctor was trying to put me on ozempic, but said he couldn't get it cleared. So changed his mind. Said, we go, V Yep, and they cleared it. I was like, it's the same drug. And he goes, Yeah, that's what he said, Yeah.

Scott Benner 20:02:17
It's how it works. Man. I just have a, I just had a family member got raked over the coals. They were. They're like, point one away from having diabetes, and they will not give her the medication. Just lazy. Won't give it to her and and does she qualify for weight? She does, but her insurance won't cover it, so now she has to wait till she gets diabetes, then they're going to give it to her. No problem. America makes no sense. Actually, hey, it's not America. That's money. But you know what I mean, in Massachusetts, I

Travis 20:02:46
can, I can get disability for being a diabetic. So really, yeah, how? Where

Scott Benner 20:02:52
would that come in handy?

Travis 20:02:53
I have not a clue. I have never done it, but I know I worked with a guy whose wife was on disability because she was a diabetic. And I was like, that was like, I don't want to hear that. That's awful. Travis is like, I

Scott Benner 20:03:04
want to work. I got to keep moving trying to get to Tennessee. Yeah,

Travis 20:03:10
I need to work. I couldn't be home all day. You know, it's

Scott Benner 20:03:14
funny, I'm watching my son get older, and he's like, you know, you guys work too much. And I was like, yeah, that's how it works. Man, I don't know what to tell you. He's like, the end of the day is the end of the day. And I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. I gotta get these podcasts out. I gotta do this. I have to do that. Like I gotta, I thinks I gotta get done. I don't want to be working all the time. But in this is it, like, it's a successful entity like this, is what it takes to support it. If you don't want to have something this successful, you could probably work less and still be perfectly happy, but you're not going to do something like this. And so I can, I'm watching him figure the whole thing out right now. It's pretty interesting.

Travis 20:03:55
It is I'm watching, I'm watching my son do that. So, yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 20:04:00
I said, One day you'll understand. Like, you know, you will. He's like, when will I understand? And I said, Oh, as soon as you have a bill to pay, and it's for another human being, you'll, you'll get it pretty quickly. And, you know, you hit you pretty hard in your life. Well, oh yeah, yeah, Travis, I can't thank you enough for doing this. We should tell people that in order to have a quiet place, you drove to a parking lot and you're doing this from your car, which I very much appreciate. I am, yeah, very cool of you to do. I'm gonna say thank you and wish you well, and thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate

Travis 20:04:31
it. No problem. Thank you. And please keep doing what you're doing, because it's a wealth of knowledge to everybody. Well, if

Scott Benner 20:04:37
I listen to my son, I'll be taking off the afternoon and just flitting around. But don't, don't worry. I'm not listening to them. I appreciate that. I certainly will. I have great plans for the rest of this year. Like I said, I like I always say, as long as we can get people to advertise in the show that covers my financial need, and then I can put my entire effort into this. It's great to hear you. That someone told you, go check out the podcast and then to hear then how much it helped you is, uh, is very encouraging for me. Definitely gives me all the motivation I need to keep doing it. So I appreciate it, and

Travis 20:05:13
I've, I've spread the word of your your podcast too. So

Scott Benner 20:05:15
hey, everyone should be doing that, not just Travis. Don't put it on Travis. Everybody get out there. I You should be finding two new listeners a day. Can I incentivize people? How would I do that? Exactly?

Travis 20:05:28
I don't even know. Do you know

Scott Benner 20:05:30
one time I thought of having a drawing every year, every month, like, like, Amazon gift cards, and you just like, I don't know, the honor system. Tell me how many people you've like gotten to listen to the podcast, and then you get a drawing. I don't know, I don't know how to do it. I wish I could walk around and and have lunch with everybody, or say thank you personally. You know what I mean. But I just, I can't figure out how to accomplish it. So anyway, yeah, that's, that's too much. Yeah, it's a big ask. I don't know how to reach the people and like, how to do all that. But nevertheless, all right, man. Thank you so much. Hold on one second for me, a huge thanks to OmniPod, not just my longest sponsor, but my first one. Omnipod.com/juice box. If you love the podcast and you love tubeless insulin pumps, this link is for you. Omnipod.com/juicebox a huge thanks to touched by type one for sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast. Check them out on their website, touched by type one.org or on Facebook and Instagram. I want to thank the ever since CGM for sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast, and invite you to go to Eversense cgm.com/juicebox to learn more about this terrific device, you can head over now and just absorb everything that the website has to offer. And that way you'll know if ever sense feels right for you. Ever sense cgm.com/juice, box, if you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The juicebox podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com, you.