#232 A Journey of a Thousand Miles

Amy comes full circle……

Insulet’s Community Manager Amy Drauschke is not just an employee, she’s also the mom of a pre-teen Podder! Amy and Scott chat about being bold with insulin, not being a diabetes defense attorney, and creating great content that helps people manage their type 1 diabetes.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
I just finished recording the opening for the show and it was perfect, but was it perfect? It didn't flow exactly the way I wanted it to. So I'm just gonna blow through it right now. top of my head ready? Welcome bold people to Episode 232 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by Omni pod Dexcom and dancing for diabetes. You can go to Miami pod comm forward slash juicebox dancing the number four diabetes.com dexcom.com forward slash juice box or if you want to see them all in one place Juicebox podcast.com. That was good.

On today's episode of the podcast, we're going to be speaking with Amy. Now Amy is the mother of a preteen named miles who has type one diabetes, but she's also the Community Manager for Omni pod. Amy reached out and she wanted to interview me for the Omni pod blog. And I being incredibly lazy, and not having the time to write out my answer. So why don't you just come on the podcast instead? So I tricked her. Because I could have written out the answers. I just I really didn't want to. Anyway, Amy and I had a really wonderful conversation. And we covered so much about her son miles and type one diabetes, that I've named this episode, a journey of 1000 miles. While you're listening to Amy and I please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always consult your physician before making any changes to your medical plan. We're becoming bold with insulin.

Amy Drauschke 1:44
My name is Amy Drauschke, and I'm a two MD mom of an 11 year old boy, his name is miles and I live in New Hampshire. I also work in diabetes, and the consumer content and Community Manager at insulet Corporation.

Scott Benner 1:58
Amy, I know you because you work at insulin. Is that correct?

Unknown Speaker 2:02
Yeah, that's how we got connected. Exactly. And

Scott Benner 2:04
so tell me what you do there.

Amy Drauschke 2:07
So I work on the marketing team. But I'm the content and community manager which means that I deal with a lot of digital content, which is we have a blog, we have social media channels. I get involved in some website, any type of communication that's online. My primary role is to be that connection to the diabetes community and to the potter community, which we call our Omni pod customers Potter's it's sort of a dual role of community manager and writer slash editor of, of online content.

Scott Benner 2:40
I understand. That's excellent. And you guys have been branching out in that space a lot in the last year and a half, I would say like you have an Instagram now that just didn't have before that's doing well. And you guys put Instagrams up for like different parts of the country like, excuse me different parts of the planet, like different countries and everything. And so you guys are kind of, you're moving in that direction more. So how long have you been at insulin?

Amy Drauschke 3:04
I've been in slept for two years, I started out primarily focused on the blog, Potter talk is our blog, which I'm hoping everybody will check out and then I'm going to share our interview on there. But the blog is, it was just basically supposed to be stories about people with diabetes, not always necessary people, not necessarily people who use Omni pod, but just inspiring stories as well as helpful information about living with diabetes. And I started out as that being my primary focus, and I was really part time, but then about six months later evolved into a bigger role with the social media channels. And I also attend conferences and get involved in some of the local, you know, jdrf events and ADA and things like that. So I'm sort of a connection to the patient community, both in person and online.

Scott Benner 3:58
The first time I ever took money from Omnipod was to write on their blog. Actually, was it actually now I take it for the podcast, but it was really valuable because they gave me a lot of freedom when I was doing it.

Unknown Speaker 4:11
Oh, yeah. So

Scott Benner 4:13
when I first started, cobbling together the thoughts that we now discuss on the podcast, one of the big ones everyone knows is just the idea of not being afraid of insolent not being afraid, in general. And I resigned my contract, which sounds so fancy, trust me was not a lot of money. And I resigned my contract with the pod one year and I and they were like, Well, what do you want to write about this year? I said, I'm gonna write a six part series about fear. And there was dead silence. I'm like, wait, what are you doing? That's like, trust me, it's gonna be fantastic. And I said, it's, yeah, and it's not just content for you. I'm gonna run it on my blog, too. And they're like, wait, we're gonna pay you to write for our blog, but you're gonna use it on your blog. I was like, Yes, those are the terms of my of my new contract. And they were really cool about it and did it and it just helped me It helped me formulate a lot of the thoughts that I share now. So

Amy Drauschke 5:02
Oh, that's a no When was that? Do you never remember

Scott Benner 5:05
years ago? I don't know it. I mean, honestly, had to have been four or five years ago. It was a long time ago.

Amy Drauschke 5:13
Yeah. Because there's been a lot of change and a lot of, you know, different focuses. And, you know, I'm constantly trying to get my head around what we want to put on there. So that's really interesting. I'm gonna have to have to see if I can go check it.

Scott Benner 5:24
Check it out. Find out the history. Amy's like, that's interesting. If you tried that nowadays, we wouldn't let you do that. Well, anyway, so you've been interesting. You know, you're on the show today for a couple of reasons. You're on the show, because you're the mother of a child with type one you said Myles is 11. How old? Was he? When he's diagnosed? He was six. First grade five years ago.

Amy Drauschke 5:48
Yeah. So five and a half years ago, it was the fall of 2013.

Scott Benner 5:51
When he was in first grade, yeah. Okay. So you have that you've got that part of your life. And you work for Omnipod. So you're going to actually, during this conversation, kind of slip in a couple of questions for me. I'm going to expels which now I just have two people just tuned up I go Scott's going to talk a lot in this. And but um, but you're gonna interview me a little bit here and there as we go. And maybe put that up. I guess it's going on for Father's Day on your blog. Is that right?

Amy Drauschke 6:18
Yeah. So um, I really have always wanted to. It's funny, a year ago, I think I had you down as somebody I wanted to interview and put on the blog. And for some reason that time got away from me, and it didn't happen in time. But I I'm really hoping to share your story and how, you know, being a diabetes dad has morphed into this amazing role that you have in the community. And obviously, we have a partnership with Omnipod, and that you're an Omnipod customer. So that's, you know, I think it's a perfect story to tell. And I'd love to be able to take this interview and share it on our social channels as well as the blog.

Scott Benner 6:51
I'm not just the spokesperson, I you

Amy Drauschke 6:54
and I'm the thing I you know, I'm in that same boat. So I was my funniest Omni pod before I ever went to work for insolate. So it's a great, I feel like it's something really cool that you and I have in common.

Scott Benner 7:05
It's excellent. So and you have a third thing that that we're going to kind of dive into today, which is interesting is that you and I spoke privately, I'm going to say a month or so ago. And I did I did one of those, like, information dumps about my diabetes management ideas into your brain, which I know is overloading and we probably did it for like 45 minutes or an hour on the fun. So we're gonna get to find out how that's all struck you and how its hazard has not helped you in your life.

Unknown Speaker 7:33
Oh, wait,

Scott Benner 7:34
let's let's start with a little simplicity right. Myles is diagnosed in kindergarten, how did he present?

Amy Drauschke 7:43
It was actually first grade. It was the very beginning of the school year. So he in my in our town where where he lives. We don't have full day kindergarten. So the first time you go to school for the whole day is first grade. And so this was September, October time, he had just started school going all day. And you know, he was showing signs of fatigue he was wetting the bed, all of a sudden, that was the biggest sign. And he had never, you know, I have two other kids who were in pull ups for years. He was my one kid who never had trouble with nighttime bedwetting or needed pull ups or anything. He just immediately was toilet trained when he was little. And that was it. So when that was happening, all of a sudden, I was like, That's weird. All of a sudden, at six years old. He's He's wetting the bed. But I had, of course, you know, I feel like a lot of parents, you chalk it up to something else, they find another reason why it's not a big deal. And so in my head, I was like, well, he's just started first grade, he's going to school all day, he's exhausted and his body is just not waking him up. So that's how I talked myself out of being worried about it.

Scott Benner 8:48
How long were you able to talk yourself out of it?

Amy Drauschke 8:51
I feel like it was probably maybe two or three weeks. It didn't go on too long. Thank goodness, we did catch it early. But it was really more of a convenience thing I had he had a well, well child checkup, normally scheduled annual checkup with his doctor. And you know, they always say Do you have any questions and the time his dad was the one who took him to the appointment? And I said, Do you think you could just ask him about the bedwetting and see what he thinks? Yeah, what

Scott Benner 9:19
we're where we could get a reasonably priced mattress was like six of them.

Amy Drauschke 9:24
Exactly. Um, but at the end of employment, I said, How did it go? and his dad said, Oh, fine, everything's fine. And so did you. Did you ask him about the wedding? And he said, You know what, I didn't want to embarrass him. But didn't. And I was like, Ah, so that was a Friday.

Scott Benner 9:40
Good luck, because now I'm gonna embarrass you can we step in this room privately?

Amy Drauschke 9:45
So, um, I don't know why that was just an that was his decision. But on. just coincidentally on Monday, that was a Friday and on Monday, I had my own appointment and we go to a family practice. So I was back in the same doctor's office for my own. appointment. And I just kind of mentioned it to my nurses that, you know, I, my son was here Friday, and we didn't we had one more question that we didn't get answered, can I just leave a note for for Dr. Ariane and see what he thinks. And so I wrote my note, and I had my appointment, and she came back in the room after my appointment and said,

Scott Benner 10:17
Amy, you should check out dancing for diabetes.com it's dancing the number four diabetes.com Oh, and they have really great social media on Facebook and Instagram. That's really what she said. I saw.

Amy Drauschke 10:31
She came back in the room after my appointment and said he read your note about the bedwetting he has a couple more questions. And it was questions around, you know, is he excessively thirsty? Is he hungry? Is he tired? And I was like, Oh, he is pretty sick. And he's busy. And he's tight. You know, he's gone to first grade all of a sudden, and he's running around. And so all the questions they asked me I had reasons why it was not a big deal. But he knew immediately like that was something he wanted to check was his blood sugar. So, you know, I think it was a very quick couple of appointments that day later that day, and as well as maybe the next day, where they just wanted to check his his urine and his blood for glucose levels. And like I said it was it wasn't totally out of control. I think he was maybe in the 400. But he was like, yeah, I'm pretty sure this is this is what it is.

Scott Benner 11:19
And that was it. So I'm really, really grateful that I had that appointment myself and I and I followed up because if not, we probably would have waited a few more weeks and not really thought much of it. Gotcha. So so the bedwetting and the other thing is just the tired and lethargic stuff. That was just that was it. You never got to any of the kind of worse stuff which Yeah, did he honeymoon at all? Or were you was it pretty much I need insulin right away? and it stayed like that?

Amy Drauschke 11:45
Um, yeah, I mean, when people say honeymoon, I think of that as and I'm in my experience honeymoon was he didn't need a lot of insulin, but he definitely needed it. And we definitely had to start doing injections right away and checking blood sugar right away. So yeah, he definitely honeymoon, probably six or eight months. And then it just, you know, he needed more after that.

Scott Benner 12:03
Were there ever moments when he flatly did not need insulin at all?

Amy Drauschke 12:08
Not really. No. And I mean, we were so new to it all. It was kind of a roller coaster. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 12:14
yeah.

Unknown Speaker 12:16
It really shakes you up

Amy Drauschke 12:18
any other endocrine problems in your family line that you know of? He had some relatives on his dad's side that had celiac and lupus. Actually celiac and his preterm on his dad's dad's side, and then his dad's mom's side, someone had lupus. So I feel like autoimmune diseases sometimes come together. But nobody would die. No one with Type One Diabetes. Gotcha. Okay, well, you know,

Scott Benner 12:44
how did it start for you? You said you've been using on the pod prior to working for them? Did you go right to a pump? Or did you start with injections? Or what was the process of getting to where you are now?

Amy Drauschke 12:53
It's funny, because you know, when you are in that doctor's office, and they start talking to you about all this stuff, and you have absolutely no familiarity with it. You know, I remember in the endo office, when he was a, you know, in the hospital, when he was first diagnosed, they said, you know, we typically wait six months to get people on a pump, but we could probably advance that up to a little bit and get you started sooner. And I didn't even know what an insulin pump was, you know, it was like, Could somebody back up? Someone back up and tell me what that means. But yeah, so lo and behold, we did get started with a different a tube pump an animist pump at the time, probably, it was probably closer to a year, almost a year later, I think it just took time to, to get trained up on everything, and then to choose the one we wanted. And we changed clinics in that time, too. So

Scott Benner 13:45
a lot of different a lot of different reasons. Yeah. So

Amy Drauschke 13:47
I think we were just getting comfortable with everything. And then we went to the pump in September that following year, and so he started on the animals. He was so he was seven, he's birthdays in August. So he was just a little bit after seven and definitely made life easier. We picked that one because it had the remote, and you could Bolus like across the room or not have to find it on his belt. And I liked that. Of course Omnipod had that same ability. But for some reason, we didn't think that he'd like to have it stuck on his on his skin. And at the time, we didn't have a dexcom yet. So I think it was that idea of like, I don't know if he's really going to wear something on a skin. So we'll try this one first.

Scott Benner 14:29
And you have a dexcom now,

Unknown Speaker 14:30
yeah,

Scott Benner 14:31
using the G six.

Unknown Speaker 14:32
Yes, yeah.

Scott Benner 14:33
You said you were interested in interviewing me, but that's kind of professionally But personally, were you aware of the podcast and did you listen to it or no,

Amy Drauschke 14:41
not at first. So I actually before I worked for insolate. I worked for two nd exchange in Boston, which is a type one diabetes nonprofit research organization. And I had a similar role there. I was the content and Community Manager for their online patient community which was called glue.org and so it was there that I think I started to be more connected and aware of all of these different resources and blogs. And, and I think I had definitely heard about Juicebox Podcast through that. But I don't think we ever worked together. I don't think, you know, there was never an opportunity to have content connection. But I just remember hearing Juicebox Podcast and seeing your little logo with the, with the picture of art and on the jukebox, but I wasn't really into podcasts. In general, we actually had our own at at TNT exchange called diabetes speaks.

Scott Benner 15:35
I crushed it, I crushed them all.

Amy Drauschke 15:38
I had a colleague who was I'm just kidding, I had a colleague who was working on that. And he was so passionate about podcasting. And I was kind of like, I don't really understand, like, when would I listen to this? And what? And why would I listen to this?

Scott Benner 15:51
I understand I I really do. I am. I don't I did not know that they had a podcast. I really was just joking. I didn't I didn't want I did not find out they had a podcast and set out to destroy

Amy Drauschke 16:03
that a couple of seasons. And then it just didn't get you know, the funding that we needed to keep it going.

Scott Benner 16:09
Yeah, I understand. Okay, but so you want to listeners Well, here's what we're getting at. But and so when you and I spoke a month or so ago? How would you? How would you characterize how you were doing with miles, like as far as his blood sugar's go? And as a one season and your goals? Were you reaching them? Were you struggling? Did you realize like, Where were you at?

Amy Drauschke 16:30
When we first spoke recently? Yeah, I think all along, we've been kind of on this roller coaster up and down, up and down, up and down. You know, you have good, better periods of time. And then you have others that are harder to manage. But I think when we when I, when we spoke, I was very skeptical because I had started listening to the podcast. And I just couldn't get my head around what you were saying versus what his doctors were saying and telling us to do what is every three month appointments. And I'm a rule follower. I'm very, you know, a type like, I'm not going to, I'm going to do exactly what somebody tells me to do. And for some reason, I started listening and feeling like maybe I should give this a try if all of these other people are trying it. I know he's not a doctor. I know he's not my doctor. But he can't argue with the numbers. So maybe I should listen to what he has to say.

Scott Benner 17:25
Was that difficult for you to kind of set aside a part of your brain that tells you I've already got a doctor, they're telling me something, even though it's not going anywhere near what I expect or what I wonder what I need? Yeah, yeah. How did you do that? Did you just yeah, I

Amy Drauschke 17:38
think that was exactly it as I was kind of like, okay, so we go to these appointments, and they tell us not to correct within three hours. And I don't really understand how they can say that, and then look at his numbers. And, you know, is a one C has always been, I'd say, between seven and a half and eight and a half. I don't think it's ever gotten below, maybe a couple of seven and a half, like once for like three months. And that was it. And so I started to think like, that's all fine that they're telling us to do this, but they're not really helping us to get this number down. And they're not saying it's bad. And I guess it's you know, it's this scale, you know, it's not as bad as it could be or as high as it could be. But I would like it to be lower. And if I'm hearing that you are having all the success and other families are having, you know, much lower a win season much less of a burden of diabetes taking over there every moment, then maybe I should put aside the Yeah, at the end of directions and take a look at this.

Scott Benner 18:35
Well, let's just say that we would never ask you to put aside your endos directions.

Amy Drauschke 18:39
Right? Exactly. Right. Right. But maybe incorporate it, maybe just incorporate some other insights. Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:46
gotcha. But that's really, I mean, it's honest of you, I appreciate it. And it's valuable for people to know because I'm sure that it's off putting to be on social media somewhere on Instagram On Facebook, and everybody's like, you know, somebody comes on and says, I can't get this this down, or this won't work for me. And then some people come and go, you should listen to Juicebox Podcast, you should try this go to this episode. Try that. Then you get there. And I'm saying things you've never heard anybody say before. And and you're just like, wait, what that's completely different. And somehow in the spot where you ended up being where you were like, Look, I've seen this eight and a half a one see enough. Now I'm done with this. Let me try figure something else out. And some people aren't in that spot yet. I listen, one of my best emails is from someone who's like, I started listening to the podcast, and I hated you and everything you were saying. And then six months later, I picked it back up again. And I was like, let me try this. And now here's my a one c 6.8. Yay. And and I was like, great. That's wonderful. I'm glad that it like struck you at some point, you know. So for the people listening who have heard the pro tip series so far. Basically what happened to Amy is that in less than an hour on the telephone, I condensed that 10 that that now I guess nine part series, it's up to now. And I jammed it into Amy's head. And when it was over, she sounded dizzy even when she wasn't speaking.

Amy Drauschke 20:14
Well, to be fair, I, I had listened to the pro tip series as well.

Scott Benner 20:20
But yeah, love to hear like all jam like that, or was it clarifying in ways? Or did it just make more questions?

Amy Drauschke 20:26
No, it wasn't too bad. I mean, I took notes and I think it's funny we we work with Kate Hall, the amazing track long jumper I don't know if you if you know about her, but she held the high school record for a long jump. And she's also an omni pod where Omni Potter,

Scott Benner 20:43
I feel like she might be set up to be on the show. I'm not sure.

Amy Drauschke 20:47
Oh, yeah, she's just really great. And she had given a talk at the jdrf summit in Boston this past winter, about sports and managing type one. And what she's, there's something she said that always struck me is that with her diabetes, and with her long jump, you know, her track, and now she's a professional track athlete is that she wanted to you know, she takes goals, and she just picked one thing that she could be doing better. So you had given me a lot of things to think about. But she said, You know, there's always going to be a million different things, you could do better, but just pick one thing at a time. And she started doing that with her training. And and also she thought, you know, she said, that's a really good way to look at diabetes. So you would give me, you know, ways to use bazel ways to, you know, the bump in nudge corrections and things like that. And I was just kind of like, Okay, I've got all this information. But even if I just do one of these things, that's gonna be better than than none of these things. So that's kind of how I took it in.

Scott Benner 21:47
That's excellent. That's, that's I think that's smart. You want to hear something funny? It is may right now, right? In 2019. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. recording with Kate Hall on December 3 2019. And she'll Oh, wow. She probably won't go up until like, I don't know, maybe four months after that. So I'm set up the

Unknown Speaker 22:08
lady. Yeah.

Scott Benner 22:10
I need to push her off a little bit. My kit, my scout my calendars. pretty sad. So

Unknown Speaker 22:14
so I have to say,

Amy Drauschke 22:16
I also like her because she's from Maine. And so she's from New England, Northern New England here where I'm from. So we have a lot of time I

Scott Benner 22:24
can stay alive in that. In those temperatures is tough, except for. I love that at one point where you're like, I just thought my son was overwhelmed by like, starting like full day, like first grade. I was like, oh, gosh, I was like me didn't think the kid was tough for a minute. She was like, I can't hack it. He's very sleepy after first grade. Right? Okay, so you see, you've done that. Now you chose something and you're like, Well, let me start with this idea. What did you pick to start with? Before I start the army pod, do you wanna hear something hilarious? The Kate hall that I'm scheduled to record with? Is not the Kate hall that Amy was talking about? I know, right? Oh, Mind blown. The Kate Hall I'm recording with is a famous soap opera writer. But that's for later, for now. Um, the pod baby, the only two bliss insulin pump in the world and you want one. You know how I know because my daughter Arden has been using one for over 11 years. And it is fantabulous. You do not have to take my word for it. And that's the really kind of amazing part about the pod. All you have to do is go to Miami pod.com forward slash juice box and request a pod experience kit. That's right, a peck ami pod would like to give you a pack, they'd like to send it to your house for free. So that you could try a pod on yourself and wear it and say to yourself, hmm, that Scott guy on the podcast said I'd put the pod on then I wouldn't notice it after a little while. And that happened. And look how small it is. And it just holds the insulin and no tubing and inserts itself. That part you can't figure out what the demo of course because it's not really good to insert it's a demo. But the best part is this after you've decided that you love the Omni pod it is completely simple just to get back in touch with on plenty. Let's keep going. Maybe I want to be a potter, my omnipod.com forward slash juice box, get a pod experience get today, wear it or let your child wear. See what they think. Get started at your own pace. Get it today, summer's here you want to swim without having to disconnect from your insulin. You guys we talked about all the time you want your basal insulin working for you. You don't want to disconnect again in the shower, go swimming, my omnipod.com forward slash juicebox with the links in your show notes or Juicebox podcast.com

Amy Drauschke 24:41
those biggest things in my head without even looking back at my notes. We've definitely been doing the hat like I think when you said if you see the arrow going up even if the algorithm and the pump or whatever says don't correct, you know, because you've got too much insulin on board just to a half a unit just to slow the arrow down. I've definitely been doing that. A lot. lot like just do a half a unit or a point to five units just a tiny amount. And that's, that's been helpful. I mean, sometimes it's not enough, but at least you feel like it's something you can do to take action and you can see if it makes a difference before you then make your next decision or while you're waiting for that, you know, okay, I really shouldn't do much I should wait it out a little bit. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 25:22
I people are starting. That's something

Scott Benner 25:25
that and that's working. So you're you're stopping the arrow, or I think Jenny called it to Jenny called arrow tax at some point while we were talking like there's an arrow tax, somebody said an arrow tax on and I don't know, it's popping up on social media now, like something that that stuck in people's heads.

Amy Drauschke 25:40
But the other. Yeah, the other thing is, we struggle with Pre-Bolus, saying, I know that you're supposed to and I know how much of a difference that makes, and I understand the science behind the speed at which insulin works versus your food, hitting your bloodstream. But he Oh, he's very, in the moment, you know, doesn't have a lot of patience. So when you said there was a bit about, like, add to that amount, you know, add to your Bolus to cover that spike that will come because you didn't Pre-Bolus that made a lot of sense to me. And we've been doing that as well.

Scott Benner 26:12
So you've been over bolusing the meal to make up for the lack of a Pre-Bolus. And that's working. Yeah, that's

Amy Drauschke 26:18
working pretty well. Yeah. I mean, it's, it was a little tough, when it's a meal, that's, you know, you also are extending and you're figuring all that stuff out. But I had a pretty good sense of extending Pre-Bolus before so this piece was kind of like, a like, light bulb over my head when you said that, like, Oh, that makes total sense. And it makes me feel like it's not always an immediate failure when you can't Pre-Bolus

I was gonna say, it's so hard to figure out bazel so that, you know, I feel like it's constantly like, you've no idea what bazel is the right amount. And that and I remember you said that, too, was like, well, none of this matters if you don't have your basals. Right. And I just feel like that's a constant struggle is increasing and decreasing and changing bagels. And then you're like, Oh, no, I did it too much. He was low all day. And it's hard.

Scott Benner 27:07
Yeah. If you're not thinking about basal insulin, in the, in the, in the framework of timing and amount, just like I'll tell you like when I say everything's timing and amount, I mean, the Bolus and the Basal, like, it's always the right amount of insulin at the right time. And that could mean, it could mean a lot of different things. I saw a person online today, who showed a graph of like their kids blood sugar, who had gotten high during an activity. And I said, That's bazel. And they're like, No, no, the basal is right, because a couple hours later, it went right back. And I'm like, Yeah, but the basal wasn't right during the activity. Right, just because at the at three, three o'clock in the afternoon, the day before the kids blood sugar was stable. You added something else till you added? Right? another variable, right? That hit him with some adrenaline probably and pop them up. And but it's funny when you say there's not enough bazel there, the default in their head was no, no, that's always That's right. I know. That's right. And so they skip over the actual answer, and then start searching for something else that must happen. And the things they come up with are always amazing. It's like, no, it's more bazel. And they're like, No, no, here's what it is. He bumped his knee on a thing. And I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about more bazel. And it is, it's just great. It's great to hear you say that you're that you're figuring out. So it's only been like a month or so. But do you have the clarity app? I was gonna ask you. Like, um,

Amy Drauschke 28:27
I probably I probably do, but I haven't set it up. I should look and see if I have it while we're talking. But I used to use gluco. And this is probably I just have we switched to dash. And I haven't figured out how to hook up dash to glucose. So I just feel like I'm a little bit in this place where of all the times I should be looking at it very carefully. I'm in this transition.

Scott Benner 28:51
I'm dying to know what the estimate of your a one C is for the last like 30 days.

Amy Drauschke 28:54
Well, yeah. So that being said, I have the sugar mate app. And that's what we use. And that has, we've been keeping our eye on that. And actually, that is something we can talk about this more to but like behaviourally, that's something that motivates miles is to keep his eye on that. And so if I look at the 30 day estimated through sugar mate, it's like 6.9. And what was it? What was it at your last but I believe it was, I want to say 8.20?

Unknown Speaker 29:21
Well, that's Yeah, significant reactions. Yeah, that's really exciting. It really is exciting. I

Amy Drauschke 29:30
mean, and that's a that's an estimate. And it's, you know, you never know if it's accurate, but it's definitely gone down a lot. It wasn't 8.4.

Scott Benner 29:38
So yay. Imagine if a month later, you're like it hasn't moved at all. This is just the god the podcast guy. And now I get to talk to him. I pretend I care, but my agency hasn't moved at all, but 6.948 and a half

Unknown Speaker 29:50
is nuts. Like try now on 30 days.

Scott Benner 29:53
I'm gonna go try to imagine where you're gonna be in 60 days.

Amy Drauschke 29:56
I know. It's exciting. And I guess one thing I'd say is like, I Right now I'm literally looking at it. And he's 360. And he's at school and we struggle a lot when he's out of sight because he, you know, he's definitely in that like, preteen mode of like, I'm gonna ignore my diabetes and his, but his school nurse is not always able to be on top of it. So I kind of have to look at it, like we do the best we can with doing these techniques when we can, but it's not all the time. And it's, you know, it's definitely not perfect, but it's enough that it's making a difference. It's making it Oh, can

Scott Benner 30:30
I ask you a question? And please don't feel judged. Just for the conversation. Can you not text them right now and be like yo Bolus?

Amy Drauschke 30:40
I could. So it's funny, he, he got a text. We have like a group text between his school nurse and his dad night. And the school nurse had texted him and, you know, texted all of us, but said, you know, milestone needs to correct and this was at 937. And there's no response. So it's a little hard. I never know whether I should jump in and also ask or, you know, call her and say So did he he's also had lunch since then. So we're still, you know, we struggle a lot with like, how to manage him in middle school when he is on his own. And the school nurses not right there with him all the time. And I'm not right there with him. But yeah, I probably could. Yesterday we had a day where the three of us has stepped out his dad and me all texted him to ask if he had corrected and I found that out last night and felt terrible, you know, so

Scott Benner 31:27
I would send is using an iPhone. Yes. Yeah, I send what I do is if I don't get a response in a timely fashion, and it's important I send the Find your iPhone tone, which is a deafening and incredibly embarrassing tone that the phone makes and that

Unknown Speaker 31:41
really fine

Scott Benner 31:42
then Arden texts me right back after that happens. So I'm I'm less concerned with her. What's the word I'm looking for? Happiness. No, no, that's not the social calm, like, like I don't I listen. It's not every day. It's not even every week. And it's not every time like don't get me wrong if Arden's blood sugar was 120. And I'm like, hey, let's, you know, bolus point four here. And I don't hear back from her. I'm not gonna bother her. Like, that's that silly. But, but if she was climbing or rising, or if it was an hour before lunch, and she was 200, and I thought we have to get this down before we Pre-Bolus for the food, and she wasn't answering me, then I would, I would. And I don't By the way, you sort of said it a second ago, and I want to reiterate, miles isn't doing anything wrong. He's 11 Arden's for, like, you know, I'm happy. My daughter's not running around constantly thinking, I have diabetes, I should be doing something. I don't want her thinking like that. I don't want to, like, invalid. But but she has to know, I think that there are times when I don't really care. You know, like, she told me one time she's like, you have to she's like, Don't text me right now I'm taking a test. And I actually texted her back. And I said, knowing math won't help if your blood sugar's over 200 all day. And so I don't care about your math quiz. I care about your blood sugar. And then I care about your math quiz. There's a pecking order health is first, the rest of it comes later.

Unknown Speaker 33:04
And I think that's a dad thing.

Amy Drauschke 33:07
I think that's a perfect segue into our conversation about parenting, because I feel like I get accused all the time. By my husband of you know, you're too soft on him, you're too worried about how he feels about it all in his, you know, emotional state, you know, he's lying to you, or he's ignoring you or whatever. And he's like, you've got to punish him for that, or you've got to get him to understand and I'm like, oh, but I feel bad. It's not as salty as diabetes.

Scott Benner 33:32
Just be a little jerk about something else. If he didn't have diabetes, probably. I've told my wife throughout the years, you're not his defense attorney. That's what I tell my wife about my son. I've never, I've never once seen her defend my daughter, the way she defends my son. First is interesting. Oh, my God, are you kidding? The minute the boy was born, right? He came out, the doctor grabbed him, I cut the cord. And then it was like an alarm went off in the room. I said, What's that bell and Kelly goes, Oh, you're not my boyfriend anymore. Now that kid is. And so you know, you're just here. You're just here now to make me and my new boyfriend happy and comfortable in any way you possibly can. And so we'll tell you what to do. You'll do it and then quietly sit in the corner and wait for a new task to come. And it does happen to mom sometimes. And I do think especially with boys, and I don't know why I don't understand the psychology behind it. But my children are aware that if if they were to ignore me on that level, diabetes and diabetes, I would show up in their school I'd be like hi and I'd bring like I have to just go talk to my kid for a second and then once you pull them up here and they pull them up I'd walk assign ago have been texting you have an answer, man, it's gonna be a problem if you don't do it, and then that would be it. Yeah, that's it. You're, you're from New England. Take them out in the cold without his clothes, making friends for 15 minutes, break down with diapers, find out, bring them back in and be like, do you want that to happen again? Of course you don't because your toes are blue. Now miles, let's say so what do you got? What are you going to Do so if people tell you about it, and you kind of seem to see it, what stops you from doing? I think that's the real, like joking aside, that's the real question, like, what stops you from being like, hey, you're 360 I don't care if you've been talking to the nurse, this isn't Okay.

Amy Drauschke 35:15
Um, I mean, I get to the point where I'm like, Listen, like you, this is unacceptable. There's certain times a day when you have to pay attention to your diabetes. I know this isn't your choice to have this condition in your life. And it wasn't mine either. But we've got to, there's certain times a day when you've just got to do what you got to do. And it's, it's not negotiable. That being said, if you do that, then I won't be texting you. And I won't the bothering you, because we'll be keeping it in check. But it does, it gets to the point where it has to be like, a really kind of high day, like really high, you know, and I'm like, okay, it's not just a little high, it's really high, and it's not good. So here's my suggestion, maybe,

Scott Benner 35:53
maybe You scared the life out of him in a different part of his life, not the diabetes part. Like for instance, have you ever taken every piece of anything that brings any joy to your child out of the room and locked it into a closet for a month? Have you ever done that? Because it's exhilarating, when you take the television down, and they're looking at you like, Oh, my God, my TV? And like, Oh, yeah, everything's gone. Yeah, you just have to assert yourself.

Amy Drauschke 36:19
It's funny. That's what it basically came down to. Recently, we had one of those days, and I and he had a baseball game that night, and baseball means everything to him. And I said, you know, what, not only can I sit here and tell you that you're not gonna play well, and you're gonna let your shame down. But like, I might just not let you play. If this happens again, that day, you know, on this, you know, you can't be at school all day and be off the charts and ignoring your diabetes, and then come home and expect to go to baseball, like it's just not. And I think that scared a little bit, you know. And I think that, that we have to find that thing that he cares about, but he could lose, and it's hard, because I again, I go back to the emotional part, like, I don't know, if psychologists would agree, like, you shouldn't punish your child for anything related to diabetes, you know, you should incentivize them and reward them, but don't punish them. It's like, it's like anything with parenting, diabetes or not, you know, it's there's just different techniques, and some people feel strongly about about different ones. So I definitely struggle with that. And I definitely have, you know, I have a, my, my ex husband and my husband both involved, and we probably all have different opinions about that. Which makes, which makes it interesting. So

Scott Benner 37:27
so let me say, I've joked around a lot here, but let me be serious for a second. So. And I was serious about some of it. I you know, I think that there's, I agree with you, I don't punish Arden related to diabetes, right, I speak to her clearly about it, I make sure she understands the pros and the cons and what could go right and what could go wrong, and why some things are important, why they're not in other aspects of her life, though. She knows, and I'll just bleep this out later. She knows I'm not. So there's an invitation, that that knowledge translates to other things. And you don't have to say it. Yeah, that's good point. And so I'm gonna give you the benefit of my, of an experience. So most people may or may not know, listen to this, but I have been a stay at home father, since my son was born and my son, tomorrow, I'm going to go pick my son up from his last day of his freshman year of college. So that's how long I've been a stay at home dad, right. And in that time, in that time, I've learned a ton about what women bring to parenting that men don't in instinctively bring to parenting. And I've tried my hardest to incorporate some of those ideas into myself. And I've done that because I thought my children deserved it. You know, we had this role reversal. And I realized my wife would have done things said things felt things that I'm not experiencing. And so I need to understand what those things are. Because my children are at the moment being robbed of a maternal influence in their day to day life while my wife's at work. So I'm a bit of a blend and now of, you know, a traditional mom and a traditional Dad, I think, yeah, but the one thing, the one thing that I've noticed over and over again, that I am grateful for, for being a stay at home father, is that in those moments, I am not conflicted by any of the things that you brought up. Like it's not fair to them. Or they didn't ask for this, like those feelings. They never popped into my head. Like, not once, I would never in that moment. I have a simple packing list. I've prioritized it in my head health comes before everything else. And so I'm a guy. I'm like, a, like a rock with a pulse. Right? I'm not I don't think that Yeah, I just I just I set out on my course I follow my list and I go, okay, health is first. I don't care if you're taking a quiz. We're going to Bolus now. You know, I don't care if you're talking to your friends. That's meaningless to me. You know, I know we've texted more today than we do normally, and it's annoying and trust me, I'm annoyed too, but let's just do it. We have to do and move on. And that has served me well, in the bigger picture, because my kids and I do have a relationship where we can be at, you know, for the lack of a better term parenting odds in one moment, and then it shifts right back again, like, no, there's no hard feelings. People don't, aren't mad for hours at a time after I've had to assert myself as a parent. It's, it's expected. Next comes taught me how to expect something. You want to know what it is rock solid data about my daughter's blood sugar, the direction it's moving, and the speed it's getting there? Is she 102? and headed up, headed down or staying stable? That's the incredibly important information. Forget that she's 102. I don't know if she's one of the two or 80 or 130. I mean, I do but you know what I mean, it's more important to know how fast she's moving, and where she's going. It's incredibly interesting to see, I ate dinner at 6pm. And my blood sugar just never moved, right until 640. And then, oh, it started to go up. That kind of information makes me think, hmm, is there a way I can change my Pre-Bolus or an extended boluses are a way to put my son in a different spot to help that rise? To not happen? How about three hours after I eat, it's my blood sugar going down. Maybe my insulins gotten unbalanced, right? Maybe the food's gone now. But the insulin remains behind. I wonder if I would have slipped my Pre-Bolus forward five more minutes or done a different? I don't know amount of insulin would that low have never come. It's interesting information to have. That's how you think about your diabetes. at another level. You want to be a ninja with diabetes, you need the information you need to know when to react. Right. I'm not Yoda. I can't close my eyes and see stuff coming at me. I need to know what's happening. So I can react so that I can get out of the way or get in the way.

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Amy Drauschke 43:00
I definitely had some some new ideas, though about like, well, maybe I should do this differently. Or maybe I should do maybe I should show up at the school. I'm lucky enough that I get to work from home a lot. And I literally the other day had this thought that if no one else, if he's not going to pay attention to this and his school nurse can't or isn't. I'm going to just bring my laptop and sit at the middle school all day one day and do my work from there and check in with him when I need them like that would maybe that would turn him around quick to have mom in the hallway with her left.

Scott Benner 43:27
Not just the helicopter mom, but an attack helicopter

Amy Drauschke 43:29
mom, like I mean, literally, there's Wi Fi there, right? Like what else do you

Scott Benner 43:34
see, I've told this story in the past. I haven't told him in a while. But when I think of that, I'm obviously nowhere near the parent. My father was in the 70s. Right, like in the 70s in like outside in Northeast Philadelphia. I don't think he once thought about anything about what I cared about or was concerned with, right. But I've told the story before that I got sick one time. And the doctor gave us pills and we got the pills home and they were huge. I mean, like really big, not just because they were monstrous. And I took it out. That's like I can't take this somebody that's like, Oh, don't do that. Just take the pill. And you know, and so I put it in my mouth. And I was like, I can't do this. And he said something like, those are expensive. And if you spit that out and he didn't even like get the finishes thought and I thought okay, I really have to smallest so I went to try small and I couldn't. And the next thing you know, a man who could have just broke me in half if he wanted to was about six inches from my nose and he was like, swallow the pill right now. And you know what I did? Amy I swallowed the pill. And it's better than the perceived beating I was about to take. And I don't think he really was going to do that. But I mean, he pressured he pressured me to swallow that pill and I did it. And I'm not a serial killer now. I don't have any weird sexual fetishes that I'm not

Unknown Speaker 44:52
no no.

Scott Benner 44:52
I'm not broken in any meaningful way. Yeah, so lean on that kid a little bit. That's that's my

Amy Drauschke 44:58
I know. Yeah. And I definitely think I was talking about this. At work yesterday, we had a retreat, and we were all socializing, and somebody was talking about chores and allowance and that kind of thing. And one of the people in the conversation that doesn't have kids, she was she's younger than us. And she was like, but I don't understand. When I was growing up. I just had my chores, and I had to do them. And that was it. There was like, it was just this expectation. I don't understand what you guys are talking about struggling to get your kid to do what you want them to do. And we were like, it's just a generational thing. Like kids just, they don't have that same fear of their parents for that same.

Scott Benner 45:33
My kids are still afraid.

Unknown Speaker 45:37
Maybe it's because we're too soft on them. So

Unknown Speaker 45:39
it's the it's the it's the winters and it's an ongoing battle.

Amy Drauschke 45:42
And I have to say, when I when I listened when I used to listen to you before I started these techniques, that's, that was always kind of something I've skeptical of as I was like, he must be bothering her all day long on her phone, and she must hate it. And I don't know if I could do that.

Scott Benner 45:58
It's 11 o'clock here. She left the house at seven. I haven't spoken to her today at all. So that's awesome. Yeah. And she will talk while we're be she will text while we're talking about her about her lunch about our lunch bolus. But that's it. It'll go back and forth real quickly anyway. And I get to imagine if you start listening to this podcast on the day where I'm joking around about, like, you know, pressuring children to swallow pills they can't swallow or stuff like that. If that was your first episode, you'd be like, Oh, my God, but I don't know. I should call I should call somebody. Well, this guy said in his pockets, but it's, you know, it's an it's an idea. It's an overarching kind of like feeling in your life. Like, I don't, I didn't grow up feeling like I could assert myself too much with my parents. I could tell them what I thought. And when they told me they didn't care, I was pretty much done. You know, I didn't get to. I didn't get to appeal to a higher court. I couldn't turn to my mother or father, depending on who I was talking to. There was just that was it and they were nice. They were blue collar people and they did not have time for my BS. So yeah, it was this is how it is and and do it. And so the other day, I took on a big project at my house, I regraded a portion of my lawn. And I had to rent like a small machine to move a significant amount of topsoil around and when it was over. And Arden came home from school, she's like, can I help? And I was like, Yeah, sure. Get a broom. And we're gonna hose off the driveway, you can broom the mud into the grass as I'm doing it. Right? Yeah. And she comes out and she's like, Alright, and for some reason she was into helping, I didn't know why. So I just let her help. And she says, I should get paid for this. And I said, you know, no, something I agree with you. I said, I will give you 10 American dollars for this work today. And she said this is that's not enough money. And I said, That's all I'm offering. And and then she was like, okay, since she starts doing shoes, my sneakers are getting muddy. If they get dirty, I'm gonna need new sneakers. I said, Well, you better hope you can buy them for $10 because that's gonna make on this job. And so she kind of like laughed, and I was like, Don't laugh. I'm not kidding. And and, and she just had these sneakers only cost $20 I'm always thinking about saving your money. And I said, Okay, I said, Well, if they get ruined, I will buy you a new pair of sneakers up to $20. She's like, Oh my god, I'm gonna get a new pair of sneakers and $10 Oh, no, you can get the new or you can get the $10 you can't get both. Right, right. And, and she looked at me like maybe I was crazy. And then I was like, do you want to try to drive the the little loader that I ran into like the bobcat? And she's like, really? I'm like, yeah, sure, try it. So I let her drive that around in the driveway. And, you know, taught her how to drive it. And it took her a couple minutes to figure it out. And then she was like toying around with it. We got everything cleaned up. She put it back. And I said, was it fun driving the thing? And she said, Yeah, I said, I want to charge you 10 bucks for driving that. But I won't because I love you. And I think you did a good job working here. So then we get in the house, my wife because you're gonna pay her I'm like, No, let her come to me. And she's like, well, I don't like I'm not giving her the money. So she asked me for it. I was like, we don't pay for 90 days here. That's our, that's how we handle it here. I send my invoices out for the podcast ads, I don't get my money back the same day. I was like letter, letter done letter done me a little bit later coming after like, but seriously, like, give her some responsibility and then a little bit. So we were joking around. But I think that's just the general vibe here is that we're in charge. They can have their opinions, we totally let them you know, we're not like my dad. You know, my wife's parents were they're allowed to voice their opinions. They're allowed to argue with us, they're allowed to show us why they think we're wrong. And in the end, if we say no, that's kind of where it ends.

Amy Drauschke 49:31
But i well i think that's I was gonna say I think is related to diabetes. When I when I when my son was first diagnosed I very quickly got into this business as a you know, as a professional, and I found myself connected and getting to know adults with diabetes who were diagnosed as kids. And I had this constant you know, information about what that was like and them saying what it was like when their child when their parent wouldn't let them go on the on the overnight school trip and what it was like when they had to eat the same amount of goldfish every day for snack and and so I think I just early on got that like sympathy bug where I was hearing from these adults about how hard it was to have parents all over them about their diabetes. And so I'm not I don't do as well with the like, it's, I'm in charge, It's for your own good. You can have an opinion, but it's really, you know, I'm not interested. So it's just tough for me, I think and I think in this community, that's something that's so different is the people who have diabetes versus the parents who are managing it for a child who has it. It's such a different experience. And you can never know what it's like to be on a on the other side. And I, you know, I've had brainstorms and wishes around, like, how could we connect more people like so that that experience that I had with my co workers? Like, how could we get the general community to have that, like, have a relationship with somebody else who could give them that insight in case it would be helpful, I don't know if it would be helpful for adults who have diabetes to hear from a parent, but I think definitely parents could bet could benefit. You know, maybe even you I don't know, from talking with an adult who was diagnosed at six and hearing all those stories, so it's like, it kind of sucks when your parents texting you or it kind of sucks when you can't do things that you want to do? I don't know. I'm just Well, let me tell you, I'm thinking out loud.

Scott Benner 51:17
Let me tell you my experience from from recording the podcast. So there are 230 episodes up. And I've recorded 40 more, and I will do hundreds more in the coming years, I imagine. And if you have had that experience, and I've heard I've heard from those adults, and I've heard what you got, which was it stunk being like somebody up my butt all the time, and blah, blah, blah. And I've also heard from people who are on donor lists waiting for kidneys telling me they wish their parents would have been more Yeah. And so and, and everywhere in between, like, those are two, two sides of the of the, you know, of the rainbow. and everywhere in between my parents helped a little, they helped a lot. Sometimes they didn't know, but they wanted to be valuable. What I got mostly from most of them was that it was comforting to know that they cared. That was that's that's most people's takeaways, whether they were harsh and didn't know what they were talking about. Or at least I knew they were interested. The people whose whose parents just don't talk to them at all about it in one way or the other. They seem devastated. Just leave it to them. Right.

Unknown Speaker 52:18
Yeah. And so I can see that. So I,

Scott Benner 52:20
I take your point, 100%. But I would want to I would want to add to it. I wonder how those people who you spoke to back then would have felt if their parents were more involved and had valuable information for them. Right. So that's the goal of this pod. And that's what you

Unknown Speaker 52:37
Yeah, yeah. And

Amy Drauschke 52:38
we've come so far, you know, now versus them. So I Oh, you know, of course, there's that, you know, I'm talking to a 35 year old talking about her experience in the 80s is obviously going to be very different. Yes,

Scott Benner 52:47
when she was taking regular an MPH, and her meter was the size of a break. And it didn't leave her house,

Amy Drauschke 52:53
right. And she had to eat the same food every day. And there was no wiggle room,

Scott Benner 52:57
right. And that, and that's what was in her parent's head, which was, you know, either they were doing carb exchange, right where it was like, You have to eat this certain amount of carbs. And so some so so imagine some doctor who had a 1980s idea of type one diabetes, I mean, imagine that versus the idea you hear now. And still you talk to doctors, like God, these people understand this at all. So, so so they had that 1980 idea of it. And they're like, Look, at this time you put in this amount of insulin, and you make sure to eat this many carbs and do it. Because if you don't balance out, yes, if you do this exactly like this, everything will be okay. And if you don't, you're gonna, you know, someone's gonna have to cut your foot off one day, or whatever, like scary thing. They told Gary Yeah, right. And now that parent every time they have that meal that's in their head three, three times, at least a day, for years and years and years. So it probably gets boiled down to, hey, eat that right now. Or make sure that's 25 carbs, or that kind of thing. Where I would say to them, Listen, you know, are you going to snack on that, that's fine. Start with three units, and we'll readdress it if you snack longer than you think you're going to. And that's a freedom Arden loves because the other day, excuse me the other day, I had to go to the dentist in the afternoon. And she I'm leaving, and I was in a rush. And I'm like, I gotta go. And she's like, I'm really hungry. I want to have some of these like little Ritz crackers or something like that. I was like, all right, do me a favor, because I'm leading count them out. So we know how much we're doing. And she was like, I don't want them then. Like if I didn't count these crackers, I don't want to eat them. And so that shows you how much the freedom of snacking means to her. Like Like she you know, we have set up this world where you know, she can have a little bit of insulin snack and then add more if she needs more insulin later. When I said to her account, these all make sure you eat these and put in the sense on she's like, I don't want to do this. Now. You might think Oh, that's interesting. I wonder what Scott did next. What I did was I said just count the crackers out. Put the insulin in, I gotta go. I'm late for the dentist. Okay, I'm not interested in your conversation here about your thoughts about these crackers. You're hungry, I see that you're hungry. This is not the time to take some sort of a stand. We'll deal with this later. And you know what she did? She counted the crackers. She gave herself the insulin, everything was fine. So

Amy Drauschke 55:18
that's a good, that actually leads me to a question. So Arden was diagnosed when she was a baby. Right are two very young

Scott Benner 55:27
just a couple of weeks after her second birthday. Yeah.

Amy Drauschke 55:29
Yeah. So my question to you is, you know, my my thought is the other day I was trying to get miles to understand this is that he came into this world, right when Dexcom was coming out, it will not coming out. But like the g4, I think was the first one we had Omnipod was available, he has all of these tools. And we're fortunate enough to have access to them. And he doesn't realize how flexible life is for these tools.

Unknown Speaker 55:59
He looks at it

Amy Drauschke 56:00
as like, I don't want to put my ducks on center on. I don't want to Bolus like, it's all a burden to him. But when I think about someone like Arden, you know, you must have really experienced it. You know, before we had such flexibility, maybe not as much as like my my friend who's 35. You know, she didn't have any flexibility. But the fact that all of these devices and tools that that we are fortunate enough to have access to make our lives easier. I wish I could get him to understand like, this is not that bad. Like if this had been 10 years ago, it would have been totally different. So I was just wondering if you you know, if it was when she was obviously as a toddler, that must have been difficult for different reasons, but just the devices alone make it easier.

Scott Benner 56:42
I think it's an ongoing conversation. And it's one we've had over and over again, you know, in different strengths based on how old she was and how mature she was. So the other day this came up, and I said, Arden, we really need to add a fifth and sixth location for your on the pod because Arden is left over naval right of her naval sort of up and down and thighs, right. But I really want her to periodically put them on the back of her arms. Is it FDA approved for the back of your arms? Yeah, so

Amy Drauschke 57:12
actually, I will say as the marketing person. Everybody always shows pictures of the arms. And I'm always trying to remind people you don't have to just use your arms. There's other places so that's awesome to hear she she's not an arm of a lot of people, you know, love the armors or think that's the only place

Scott Benner 57:29
so she hates the idea of it being on her arm now. Now here's why she hates it. She said Okay, so we're good now so I'm quitting my my messaging app. So she she hates the idea of her arm based on an experience she had when she was like six where she worked on her arm had to go to softball One day, she threw it and all she crawling arm, you could feel it moving around. And that sticks with it all this time.

Amy Drauschke 57:50
So I said, well, miles won't won't wear it on a stone at all, during baseball season.

Scott Benner 57:55
Yeah, exactly. But she somehow had it as has an aversion to it now, but I'm like, Look, we have to start using your arms more frequently. And she kind of like pushed back. And I told her look, if we ruin your sites, on your stomach and on your legs, or they're done, you're done. If you want to go back to injections that fine, but I'm thinking for what we do, you're going to get about 15 of them a day, and you're gonna have to, you know, is that what you want to do? If that's what you want to do? I don't care. I was like, but, but just understand that, you know, some of the food decisions you make aren't gonna work out as well anymore. And, you know, and you're gonna get injections a lot more. So do you want that? If you do, I'll do that for you. Yeah, she's like, no. And I said, Okay, well, then we're gonna try your arm, just get over. Like, it's not it's not the worst thing in the world. And, and we've had versions of that conversation, you know, a few times a year for years.

Amy Drauschke 58:48
And what I say to like, when when he doesn't want to say, miles is the thing about the sensor assertion, you know, even with the JSX, he still winces and says, it hurts. And so he procrastinates or he says, Can I have a break? And I and I have that same like, well, it's your choice, it's your body. However, if you don't worry, CGM, we're gonna be checking your blood sugar with your finger every hour, or every half hour or whatever. And I'm like, I don't think you want to do that, do you? But if you do, then yes, but if not, let's just put the sensor on. And usually He's like, all right.

Scott Benner 59:22
Of course, the truth is if we get into a time machine and go ahead, you know, 50 years, and the G six is the size of a hair and it's a little tiny pill and you have to swallow and they're gonna complain about that. Like well, because it sucks because because Amy everything anything excuse me anything you have to do beyond what normal situations ask of people is extra an extra an extra things but it doesn't have to be a fight your entire life. Like at some point, you just have to say like this is this is my life, like this is this is gonna go and I'm I'm going to just accept that move on. Listen, my son is finishing up a college, I told you and we were facetiming with him last night. He's got like one paper left. And it's in. It's in a class, he doesn't particularly enjoy that I don't think he's as strong as mine doesn't sort of work in that way. It's a philosophy class. And I got to write this paper. And you know, we were talking to him a little bit, he was bouncing some ideas off. And right before he went, I said, Hey, I need to tell you something real quick before you go. And I said, I'm at the moment, you're thinking about this paper as something that you have to do to get a grade. I like you've decided it's work. And I was like, I really think that this next 10 hours with this paper would go a lot easier if you just tried to do your best. Like if you read this stuff, and instead of thing, I have to read this, just think like, let me try to learn this. Because it's all just your perspective, one way or the other, you're going to read all this material, you're going to write all the things you're going to write, and you're going to hand it in, this is not going to change. But it's it's you that you could change, you could change your attitude about this situation. And if you did, that, this could end up being a pleasant thing. And not only that, but the outcome is going to be better. I said, I promise you if you stop thinking about this as a chore, and start thinking about it as something that you're going to do and try to do your best and try to enjoy. It will you'll feel better when it's over. And I watched a real look on his face of like, Alright, that that makes sense. And he said, I'll try and I was like, Okay, I'm like, just chill out, man. Like, just read that. Read the thing and write what you think. And yeah, it'll be it'll be better. I promise. I think this is all the same thing.

Amy Drauschke 1:01:38
There was a we have on the on the blog, a series with Sean Busby from writing on insulin, he had done some video interviews with people. And they were all you know, a lot of them were folks that are in his writing on insulin organization. And one of them was this, this kid, I can't remember his name, I want to say his name may have been Dan. But he his story of when he was first diagnosed, as he said, I think he was maybe a teenager. So he was a little bit more, you know, cognitively mature. But he said there was a sign in his kitchen that his mom had on the on the wall, and it said, whatever you are be a good one. And when he read that, he said, Well, if this is what I've got to deal with, at least I'm going to, I'm going to do the best that I can and be a good teacher, I'm going to be a good diabetic, which I know diabetic is not a label that people always like to use, but he said it himself. And I think about a lot. And I think that's similar to what you're saying is like if your hand you dealt this hand, you might as well play, play it the best you can.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:36
You know, it's funny, man, I

Amy Drauschke 1:02:37
think that's a good thing to remember.

Scott Benner 1:02:38
I think that's it's perfect. It's not just about diabetes, or parenting. It's about life like you just yeah, you know, I mean, your situation is your situation, complaining about it or feeling bad about it. I mean, if you're chemically Listen, if you have a chemical imbalance, and you can't stop yourself from feeling depressed about something, that's one idea, but for the rest of you, just stop dwelling about like your perspective, like I tell people all the time, like you can't be dramatic about diabetes and be successful with diabetes. Like if you're always running around yelling, oh, can you believe this happened? Can you believe that the pot, you know, my infusion bag fell out. It's so irritating, or, you know, the next time needed to be reset for two hours? I can't believe it. Or, you know, this stuff always happens at the worst time. Like there's a good time for your, for your sensor to need to be replaced, like what's the

Unknown Speaker 1:03:27
right, exactly. It's so bad

Scott Benner 1:03:29
when you want to be dramatic about things, then it's always a problem. Or you could just accept it, this is it and do it. And that's just that's how I do it. And but again, I'm a boy. So I mean that like detrimentally about women, I just mean that I lack I lack the ability to think about

Unknown Speaker 1:03:49
just like

Scott Benner 1:03:51
it's that old thing. Like, you know, a kid gets hurt on a on a sports field and all the moms jump up and the dads don't even notice it happens there.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:57
I said

Scott Benner 1:03:58
to my wife, like he could really be hurt. And I said, Well, if he's dead, there's nothing we can do about it. Like, like, but if he's not dead,

Unknown Speaker 1:04:07
these are nothing great. Well,

Scott Benner 1:04:09
well, beyond that, though. If he's not then these couple of minutes will read Don't rush out to him like his nursemaid are gonna build character. So he's either dead, he's not dead. And if he's not dead, then let's do something positive for him. And if he is dead, we can be sad in a minute. Like, like, like, you don't need to just sit here it's worth sitting here for a second just let him live in it for a minute. And I don't know it just seems like common sense to me.

Amy Drauschke 1:04:36
I think that's that's a good It's also a good segue to um, you know what I wanted what the one question I had for you for just our conversation is I feel like what you're doing on the blog and what are you know on the podcast and what I'm trying to do on our content and in I also do freelance writing articles for other diabetes sites. is like not always trying to be Susie sunshine, but to show That positive aspect and to show that, like, he can struggle with certain topics and certain things, but here's the tools that can, that can help and can make it better. And, and I think that that's an important thing for, you know, I don't know how involved everybody with diabetes gets with being connected to the community, but I think if you do have that connection, and you can read and hear about other people's experiences, you know, that's, that's impactful. And I'm really grateful to you for this podcast, because you know, as I'm driving to Acton, Massachusetts, 90 minutes each way, when I do go to the office, you know, I have something to listen to, that helps me at the end of the day with my own management of this, and however you absorb those experiences and that information, you know, I do think that can change people's perspectives. Otherwise, when you're alone, and you feel like no one understands and nobody else gets it, you can wallow and you can be very negative. So I'm particularly proud of, you know, both of us for being in this community, and in this world of giving people some information that hopefully helps, even if it helps one person, you know, it's the one more than zero.

Scott Benner 1:06:04
Yeah, I appreciate that. And I appreciate that, that you're trying to do, you're doing the same thing. I'll tell you that my perspective on it is, is pretty simple. So there are a when you say, the diabetes community, I hope I hope that you and everybody else knows who's listening that right now. I just said those words, and close to 10,000. people heard it, okay. And, and to the main thing to them, they don't care about the diabetes community, they care about connections, they don't care that there's this thing in place, like Like, for instance, I like that when I go to my faucet, water comes out of it. But I don't care about I don't care about the water company in my local municipality, right? I don't I know it's there. And I know there are wonderful people, they're doing good work, and that's why I get the water, but I really don't care about it, I care that I have the benefit of it. But that's the as much as I think about it. Most people don't think about the diabetes community, the way people who create content, think about it. So what what you all might not know when you're listening is that there are people writing blogs and, and doing other things. I know those people, most of them, and they know me. And sometimes we have private conversations, I had a really wonderful private conversation with Mike Hoskins from diabetes mine the other day where we talked about how to help people, right, like, like, hey, and so there's more going into it than you might think sometimes. And, and if you're lucky, you're talking or listening or reading someone who really cares about you, I genuinely do. And there's no way for you to know that except to listen and decide for yourself. There are also people in this world, there are also people in this community, just trying to make money off of you and your diabetes. And you have to figure out who those people are as well. And I can't, I can't tell you, but you need to figure that out, too. What I can tell you, what I can tell you is this. Some people are trying to give you the benefit of their experience in a way that will make your life healthier, lighter, happier, more full of joy, more free time for yourself and your family. And there are some people who are trying to keep you scared, and anxious and worried. Because that brings you back to click and read and come somewhere. I've always said, I hope you listen this podcast forever. I hope I make it entertaining enough that you can keep listening to it. But if there's a moment where you get your like, my a one C is six and a half. I never think about diabetes, and I don't really need this podcast anymore. Nothing would make me happier. Yeah, seriously, and don't feel bad about leaving, because 17 more people are coming right behind you people get diagnosed all the time. And yeah, but but the point is, is that I am not going to do something for clickbait, I am never going to try to make a person feel scared or angry or anxious, or put a worrisome thought in their head. I'm also not going to treat them like a baby. I'm not going to hide things from them, I'm not going to tell them what they want to hear. I'm also i'm not i'm not that person who's like I speak the truth. You know, those people sometimes those people are mean you got to speak the truth when the truth is eligible to be accepted by somebody. Right, right. Like you don't run up to somebody on fire and start telling them about how if they would have been more careful with matches have happened, right? Those people need water thrown on them. So some of you some of you listening need the water thrown on you and some of you need the safety talk about the matches. And I'm trying to put this podcast together in a way where it is entertaining, light hearted. And yet all of those things are happening for you. And it's my goal that they happen to you for you in a way that you almost don't know what's happening. And so, to kind of bring it full circle, I mean, that's how I parent like I I don't, I don't grab my kids and sit them down and go here's the lesson for today. I try to involve them. conversation, let them see things that move them in the direction that I'm hoping to direct them. I told somebody recently, I may have said it here, I don't remember anymore. Somebody asked me like, What's your job as a parent? Like, how do you say it? And I said, Well, I think of my job as a parent as having to say the same thing 1000 times, but not be irritated by having to say it 1000 times and trying to find 500 different ways to say it, and trying to build it into conversations about other things, and other people in other situations. I'd like to think that my son thinks about how to treat his sister through a conversation we've had about politics, or that he's considered about how to vote in an election based on a conversation we've had about how to treat a sister. You know what I mean? Like, I think I think it all builds together. I think that when you preach it, people, it doesn't work. But I also think there are moments when you need to be told, shut up and swallow the pill. Right. And so that's what I'm trying to do here. And I don't know if I'm doing it or not, but that's my goal.

Amy Drauschke 1:10:58
Well, you know, I, I will be honest, and say, My first reaction to to your podcast was, like, this guy's got it all figured out. And he's bragging and telling everybody that he's got it all figured out in the end. And then I started really listening and realizing, wait, you weren't just about that, you were saying, I've got this figured out, and I want to help other people figure it out. And I needed to be open to the fact that like, you know, maybe I needed to listen and do some things differently. And I think that that's my initial defensive, you know, I am the kind of person who, when my son was first diagnosed, they said, go to this parent support group at the hospital. And I went, and there was a bunch of moms in the room all talking about what they do and how they do it. And I left thinking like, Well, I'm not doing with those things, what those moms and dads are doing. So I must be a total failure at this diabetes thing. And I never went back. And so it's a weird, like, reaction I have to hearing other people's ways is that you can take the information and then decide for you whether it's helpful or not. But you don't have to feel like you're always comparing yourself to them. And I think that's something over the last five and a half years, but I've evolved into thinking about is like, it's not there's no one way, there's different ways, and there's different things you can try and tweak and no one's perfect, and no one's got it all figured out. But some people, you know, really might be able to help you with with some little tip or some little piece of information. And so I'm always listening to as well as writing and, and putting content out. And you're right, like there are people that are newly diagnosed every day, and they know nothing. And so I might feel like I said the same thing a million times through my writing or through the blog or through social media. But then it's like, no, somebody may have just joined for the first time. And I think, as I write for tea, when everyday magic, I don't know if you know that site, it's specifically for parents. And they asked me to write a lot about the diagnosis experience. And a couple times I wrote, you know, they'd give me a topic, and it had to do with something around diagnosis. And then I turned it in. And I see I there was one article, I forget what the topic was, but at the end, they said, Can you end it with something that gives people you know, some hope and some feeling like it's gonna be okay. And I was like, I guess like, I don't think I felt that way at the time of the story that you're asking me to write, but I can spin it that way. And it's like, that's what people do need at that time. So, you know, it's all just, it's so interesting. And it's so much, there's so much going into it. You

Scott Benner 1:13:25
just gave me so many different thoughts. So first of all, the first thing I thought was, there is an incredibly popular diabetes blog that only talks about bad things. It seems like no matter what you do, it's something scary or something that went wrong or here. Yeah. And then, but don't worry, I'm persevering. And I'm like, Okay, great. Like I get that's a good message, right? Sometimes things go wrong, and I'm persevering. But at some point, the person writing that blog realized this sells. Yeah, so everything you do is Oh my god, can you believe this happened? But I'm not giving up? And I'm like, Okay, yeah, great. And people don't not need to hear that. But that could be every once a month, it doesn't need to be every day or every time. Yeah, that's right. Yeah,

Amy Drauschke 1:14:12
I read blogs like that, too. And I've been turned off because I'm like, I don't need to read about the terrible bad negative stuff all the time. Like I get it that have bad stuff happens to us, too. But maybe it's that I'm too much of the glass is half full, I don't know. But But you're right, like those people get. There are people that are making a lot of money in this business by speaking at conferences, and being on every keynote, you know, every agenda of every conference and every patient event because of that.

Scott Benner 1:14:36
For those of you who reach out to me and say, I really want you to come to like my jdrf type one nation event. And I don't end up at the ones all of them. You should know that the ones I end up that are run by progressive thinking people because when I get on a phone with them privately, I'm not like Oh, I'm so thrilled that you want me to come talk. First of all, I'm irritated. Because I live in the northeast. I've got to go I got to go to a horrible airport. And then I've got to park my car. somewhere that when I walk away from it, I think that's probably not gonna be there. When I get back and I get to fly somewhere I'm missing time with my family. I don't want no to this place, right? It's not something. I'm always amazed like, Oh my god, I got here people like, I got to go to Ohio tonight, nothing against Ohio. But it's an airport with and I go to a hotel, it's not a big deal, right? I love meeting the people and exciting people, but everything else about it is a horror, okay. Except for that. And so I tell them if I'm going to come, I'm going to explain to people how to use their insulin, I am not there to tell them a sad story. I'm not there to tell them a sad story that turns into a happy story. I'm not there to shake. I'm not a cheerleader. And I'm not an I'm not gonna whip them into supporting your you know, your cause I know you're trying to raise money. But if you let me come and discuss with them how insulin works so that they can have success sooner, and get rid of anxiety and stress and fear, then I will tell them how great you are. Yeah, and and some people say, well, we're not comfortable with that. And I don't get to go to those places. But you're not if I'm speaking where you are, you should know I'm saying exactly what I wanted to say when I got there. Because if I wasn't I wouldn't have gone. Yeah. And and there are too many people who get stuck in the situation. You just got in like you wrote something you felt and someone's like, can you happy it up at the end, they're like, you know, by the way, I've written for them a couple of times, but I don't like the way they pay. It's a very irritating to get your money. And so when I got to the point where I thought I would rather not do this and get paid for this blog, I was like, Well, I'm never doing this again. And so I stopped but but point point is you need you need to follow people who have your best interest at heart. And, and my mind for me, it's simple. I spent two years thinking I was killing my daughter every five seconds, and crying in the shower, and just mortified about what our life was. And then I started finding little pieces that made sense. And slowly. And I've said it before because of writing on the blog, I got to sit down and thoughtfully go through like this seems important. I'll write about this, this seems important. I'll write about that. Yeah, one day, I was able to step back and go, Wow, I put these things together. I kind of have a system here. And and then I just couldn't get past it didn't matter like you eight and a half, eight, one c couldn't I was stuck like that wouldn't work, realized, Oh, my fear of insulin got passed it wrote about it. And then boom, it all started like downhill. I was like I just started finding it and honing it and fine tuning and seeing the bigger picture and writing about it and sharing it. And if that sounds egotistical, try to understand that I'm trying to make this fun before if this you do this podcast was medicine. And I was so careful about every word, I said, you wouldn't have had that initial thought. But then again, you wouldn't have kept listening. Because there have been a lot of diabetes podcasts that have come and gone. And you have to ask yourself, why did they stop? or Why do people listen to this one in such greater multipliers than the others. And the reason is, is because because they found a way to make it fun at the same time. And the downside of that is is periodically I say stuff that's stupid, or that's overblown or sarcastic. And sometimes you don't hear the sarcasm when you're in a situation where you're like, buddy, I'm I'm here for life and death. You got to tell me how to get my kids a one c down right now. And now you're making funny, like, like, and that strikes people wrong sometimes. I'm thrilled that you came back. I really am. Like, because I'm sure well, no,

Amy Drauschke 1:18:44
I definitely. And I wasn't saying like when we do content it on the blog at Omni pod is what I find through you know, analytics is that I also send out the email newsletter. So if anyone's not a customer, and you're opted into email, you get like a monthly newsletter with all kinds of links to blogs and information. And definitely, it's the helpful resources and the helpful tips and information that people click on the most like, they don't need to read a sad story or hear a sad story. I feel like that's the stuff that's more for the general public's awareness of how serious Type One Diabetes is. But that's not the the diabetes community and that's not really going to help somebody in their everyday if you really do have to give them information that will help them and so I think that's definitely what you're like I said, I know it's not you know, you're kind of Rogue and you're This is what works for you and you're sharing the information but you're not a you're not a doctor and you're not a CDE but at the same time, so much of this disease is managed on an everyday basis by people who don't have degrees and you do kind of have to lean on your your peers to figure this stuff out on a daily basis. So isn't it I've learned that through listening to you and you know, I thank you for that. It's been really helpful and we'll see in a couple months which is I very much appreciate that and

Scott Benner 1:19:57
I'm in and I'm I'm compelled to say Isn't it? Isn't it fascinating that that the word you considered was rogue? Like if something in a roadway and all I all we're talking about here is using the right amount of insulin at the right time? Like, how is that rogue?

Unknown Speaker 1:20:15
I know

Scott Benner 1:20:16
how well that's different from what people are taught, but it is.

Amy Drauschke 1:20:20
That's the rule follower part of me that had a hard time with that at first, because I was like, what I don't understand what how this can be right? Because this is not what I'm hearing in other areas. You know, and I don't know if it's, I don't know, I don't know if it's the system or if it's the education or if it's keeping up with the times and you know, the technology is advancing faster than the the medicine medical community, I'm not sure. But it's, you know, I do have the Dexcom I have all these tools that you have, why not? Why not use them in a different way?

Scott Benner 1:20:50
I appreciate that. And and, you know, when you hear me say or when anyone hears me say like, I'll say like, Oh, my daughter, say once has been between five, two and six, two for over five years solid, no, no food restrictions.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:01
Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:21:03
Imagine if I didn't say that. Imagine, imagine if I said, Hey, I have this way of thinking about insulin that's completely different than what your doctors told you. I won't tell you my results with it. Right?

Amy Drauschke 1:21:14
Or when you say no dietary restrictions, like I would assume if you didn't say that, I would say Oh, they must be you know, on a keto diet, because there's plenty of people that are out there pushing that agenda. You know, it must be that she never eats carbs,

Scott Benner 1:21:25
right example in that. And that is I hear that from people all the time. I saw you online, and I thought, Oh, yeah, sure. This guy's done eating carbs. And then realize you weren't, I was like, Oh, let me find out more. And so it's important for me to say this is the a one c range, there's no diet restrictions. And Arden doesn't have protracted or frequent lows. Like that's, that's the important part. Yeah, having to say it over and over again, in different ways, is where sometimes you might hear me and I might just say, I might say it like it's a throwaway or like I'm bragging, or you might hear it that way. And not what I'll tell you mostly is that when people are struggling, when they hear about people being successful, it turns them off immediately.

Amy Drauschke 1:22:06
Exactly. That's how I definitely agree. That's how my reaction was that I was feeling frustrated in my own kind of failure. And I was didn't want to hear about someone else's success.

Scott Benner 1:22:15
And so what I was gonna say to you, but luckily, you said it anyway, as if I may, you weren't mad at me. You were mad at yourself.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:22
projecting, I was projecting.

Scott Benner 1:22:24
So if I have to be that for some people, I'm okay with that. Did you know to me, like I don't mind. Like I didn't get to actually feel the moment when you were in your house going, this guy's a jerk. I'm not listening to this. And so I didn't, you know, and so but but if I have to be that for some people, that's fine with me, if you want but what I want you to think of what I what I hope people think and I try to repeat enough without making it, you know, too repetitive is that when you hear about somebody doing, let's just say better than you were their diabetes, you should see that as hopeful not as something to be angry about. Like if if I can do it, you can do it.

Amy Drauschke 1:23:01
Exactly. And I think that's what you do. Like when you when you tell me like what she hasn't her lunch. I can't tell you how helpful that is. Because I'm like, Oh, I can't get you know, my kid isn't gonna sit there and eat cauliflower crust and protein shakes. I've tried it all I've tried all of the like less carbs, higher protein and he is who he is. He's I look at it. Like he's the total carb King and the fact that you don't have any diet restrictions and you list off all the things kids love to eat in her lunch, and it's still okay, that gives me a lot of hope. And let me just say this Amy, if you do want cauliflower crust pizza, you go to a real good foods calm, that's

Scott Benner 1:23:37
real good foods calm and use the offer code juice box, you'll save 20% of your entire order. And there's free shipping

Unknown Speaker 1:23:44
on cauliflower crust pizza. I just wish he did. So I will definitely I'm both

Scott Benner 1:23:50
joking and trying to keep my advertisers happy at the same time. And so I appreciate that. Because I hear that from so many people that just and by the way that was by mistake. That's a function of laziness. I the first time I did ardens Bolus while I was recording the podcast, I was just like, I'm just gonna leave that in because I don't feel like editing it out. And then as I went back and did the Edit, I thought oh, this is kind of interesting. I'll leave it in. But I wasn't a mastermind. I didn't say to myself Oh, people are gonna love to hear this but it is one of the most like commented upon things in private messages. I love hearing you do Arden's Bolus.

Amy Drauschke 1:24:31
Well, I remember when you you did it on the interview with Brett Christian Christiansen from Omni pod and I remember he was asking you about it. He was like now what are you doing right now? are you texting her? Are you looking at it on a

Scott Benner 1:24:42
screen? You know, and I thought that was really great. It's a different way of doing things that listen, we're all in the same situation. We all get diagnosed by a doctor who tells us to count our carbs. Push the button, eat the food, push the plunger down, eat the food. wait three hours test. Correct. Do it again. Keep doing that till you drop that, like that's pretty much what they tell you. And then and then if you're a one sees nine, they'll say, Well, what are you doing wrong and you're like doing wrong. I did exactly what you told me to do. You know, like, how what's your diet like and then then you start feeling bad. I spoke to a young girl last night through a messaging. And she was thanking me for the podcast, she said, she felt like a quote, bad diabetic. Because she's a she's not a, she's a bigger girl. She She described herself as a bigger girl. And she said, because of her diet, she needed more insulin. But when she dialed up the insulin, if she got too, too much, she felt bad about it. So she was eating the food, but not correcting with the insulin, because the amount of insulin made her feel bad about her weight. And so now, not only was she eating poorly, but she wasn't using enough insulin and causing yourself a different problem. She said, she found the podcast threw away that idea, or a one sees already coming down. She's got her blood sugar, so she's starting to exercise think differently about her diet and everything. And that's from someone speaking to her honestly about this, instead of trying to make her feel good about it, or tell her it's okay or don't worry. And by the way, don't worry. But don't do the same thing over and over again, that's causing a bad outcome. And then not worry about it. That's, that's called ignoring it. And I don't worry, Arden's blood sugar's gotten upside down a couple of times this week. I didn't spend all day upset at myself. I was like, Alright, I did this. And that happened the next time. Let me do this. And let's see what happens. It took me a couple days. And now I figured out I mean, how long has it been since we Bolus now a long time, it's maybe 25 minutes, 35 minutes, and she bolused she'd been eating for a while. Her blood sugar 71 still. So this insulin is now it's now active, we have a perfect balance between that insulin and her food. And so we're gonna ride this I bet you for the whole afternoon. She's gonna come home from school two hours from now. Two and a half hours from now. And I don't think I don't think your blood sugar's ever getting over 80. Yeah, it'll probably be right around 80. That's amazing. Right in there. Yeah. With a big, biggest bagel.

Amy Drauschke 1:27:17
I still struggle with though like, does he need more than a different carb ratio at lunch than he does at dinner? And is this you know, are the bases, I just feel like his days are so unpredictable. But it is. It's all. It's just so hard to think of all the variables and all the things. So I understand that today is not going going so well so far. But we'll get a handle on it. He did, he did text me back and say I can't, you know, I have seven and a half units on board. So we're going a little bit of a waiting pattern right now. But I think that's the hardest part for me is being being in this in this role and talking about diabetes all day long at work and managing it at home. And like when he's not with me and I can't do anything about it in the moment. It's so hard to not be able to just fix it is really hard.

Scott Benner 1:27:59
And you're in a different situation to because you've just obviously you're remarried and you have a you know, you have an ex husband who's obviously involved with miles and and so there's now three or three people trying to make a decision. And I think there's a story about like too many cooks and wives how the cake doesn't work out. But you know, like, yeah, you're in a different situation. And so you do your best with that. Can we before I let you go, can we talk nuts and bolts about this high blood sugar right now for a second? But miles has had I'm sure. Yeah. Okay, so. So you said he was I mean, you I think you said 360 earlier, and that was probably 45 minutes ago. Is he still there?

Unknown Speaker 1:28:37
Um,

Amy Drauschke 1:28:38
yeah. So I'm looking at it right now. It's updating. He's at 375. straight across. And he said he had seven and a half units on board around when he at 1109. So it's been

Unknown Speaker 1:28:53
40 minutes since then.

Amy Drauschke 1:28:56
What's your ex only I did, I asked him to increase bazel 75% for the next two hours around 10. So he he has a hard his mornings are tough because he goes to middle school, he has breakfast before he leaves the house around 630. Then they have snack at nine o'clock. And then they have lunch at 1045. So he has like three meals or three opportunities to eat in a very short period of time. And it always messes us up.

Scott Benner 1:29:22
So me you you just thought about those food options. There's opportunities completely backwards from how I would have thought about them. So because he's leaving the house at 630, but he's going to get food again. What time at nine. Yeah, that that's an opportunity for you to be super aggressive with the breakfast because he's gonna have food to catch it if you go wrong. And then again, and then again, you can stay foot on the pedal at the snack because lunches come in an hour and a half later. Like you have so many opportunities to address insulin. So instead of thinking about how the insulin affects his blood sugar or how the insulin affects the carbs, flip it around and think about how you can affect the insulin with the carbs. Like so instead of the insulin pulling his blood sugar down, how could you be as aggressive as possible with the insulin with the safety net of more carbs coming in two hours? And again, an hour and a half?

Unknown Speaker 1:30:16
Yeah, that's true. So

Scott Benner 1:30:17
you could so if you have a heavy enough, I know it's tough in the morning, and you're talking about he, it's tough for him to Pre-Bolus the morning, it's tough for anybody to Pre-Bolus at 630 in the morning, like, let's be honest, right. But if you if you're super aggressive with his 630, and just spread the insulin out a little bit, you know, maybe a broken like an extended bolus or something like that. And then so really keep your foot on the neck of the blood sugar, like don't let it up. And then that insulin is going to come together in three hours, two and a half hours, you're going to have food, though. So say, say he's at two and a half hours later, who cares? He's about to have a snack. And so now you can. And now when you bolus that snack without much of a Pre-Bolus, it probably doesn't matter because you still have active insulin going from the, from the breakfast to some degree. So do you see what I'm saying? like yeah, always he's kind of right, he's always eating ahead of when a low is gonna come.

Amy Drauschke 1:31:19
Right? And so you don't have to worry as much. So you would just do more insulin? Like, would you double his breakfast and spread it out over the 90 minutes until he has snack and then do the same thing at snacks?

Scott Benner 1:31:29
First of all, the answer is almost always more insulin.

Unknown Speaker 1:31:32
Right?

Scott Benner 1:31:34
What I mean, I don't know, like the exact like thought of it. But if you can tell me like so how many carbs does he have in the morning at? And what time does he eat them?

Amy Drauschke 1:31:43
So this morning, he had 20. And we Pre-Bolus, probably 15 minutes. And he was at. I'm looking at it right now he was at, like 140 when he woke up, okay. And so he had his for even with a Pre-Bolus and 20 of 20 carbs, he went up to about 200 by 730. So an hour later, then it dropped pretty dramatically, but not not well not dramatically dropped from 200 to 150. Again,

Unknown Speaker 1:32:21
by eight o'clock,

Amy Drauschke 1:32:22
but then he went up again, you know, he started rising pretty dramatically, even without more food. And then by nine o'clock when he had his other snack, he was 260. And this is the part where I cannot wait for Omnipod for the for the apps to come out because I can't see a fee. I can't confirm he actually bowls for his nine o'clock snack because that's been a struggle sometimes with him is that he just doesn't. But without knowing whether he had insulin or not. He's you know, he's almost at 400 by 1130. And he does eat lunch at 1040. So and he gets a Pre-Bolus of 30 minutes before lunch. But when he's already 300 going into that Pre-Bolus it's like, you know, he just keeps he's just gone up, up, up, up up all morning. So okay,

Scott Benner 1:33:07
so what I would say is you said at one point in that breakfast, you said he went down, but how far did he go down?

Amy Drauschke 1:33:14
Um, so an hour after he had the breakfast, he went from 200 to 150. Oh, so but he's standing right back up again.

Scott Benner 1:33:24
So a little bit of it is changing how you think about it. 150 isn't down. So high, right? 150s 70 points higher than 80.

Amy Drauschke 1:33:33
Right? It just what I meant is he's been on this upward track all day. But there was one instance where he blipped down a little bit, but then kept going up.

Scott Benner 1:33:40
So that's that, that that dropped down to 115. At some point that insulin peaked, and it overwhelmed the food for a second. But after the peak was gone, the food was still there, and brought him back up again. So you needed more insulin, spread out a little more over like maybe 90 minutes. Okay, and so if he ends up at 260 later, I mean, how much insulin did you use for the 20? carbs?

Unknown Speaker 1:34:08
Do you remember, um,

Amy Drauschke 1:34:09
I think he's at like an eight to one ratio. So pi two and a half years.

Scott Benner 1:34:13
So I would suggest to you to ignore whatever his ratio is. And just think about it in terms of how much insulin Do I need. So what really would have worked here, so it doesn't matter if you use it, you know, it doesn't matter. Say you use two and a half units. And let's say that that snack didn't exist at nine o'clock. And so at 930 He's 260. How much would it have taken to correct it to 60 back to 100.

Unknown Speaker 1:34:39
And

Unknown Speaker 1:34:43
what was that 160? You know,

Scott Benner 1:34:45
so you're doing the math.

Unknown Speaker 1:34:48
three units about how many

Scott Benner 1:34:50
how much do you think it would take forget what the math says? I think about 260 back to 100. If I just said you right now you can't there's No Bolus calculator. You're on your own Amy, how much insulin is gonna give you? 100 right now?

Unknown Speaker 1:35:06
Probably for you. Okay, so

Scott Benner 1:35:08
probably that meal that you gave him with, like two and a half units was probably more like five and a half units. Okay. Right. And so you could have taken this five units and spread them out, you could have put, I don't know, it sounds like he didn't go up for the first hour. So maybe you could have put like 30 or 40% in at the beginning and the balance over an hour. And that would have stretched it out, you know, then you would have had some peaking. You know, in that hour range, you would have had some peaking in an hour and a half range, there would have been some in the beginning more over time, like I don't know the exact answer. But what I'm saying to you is, is you have to figure out how much insulin and where it needs to be on the timeline of that food.

Amy Drauschke 1:35:50
Do you typically extend very frequently, like because when I when I learned about extended Bolus Originally, it was always like I only used it for the heavy fat, long, long digestion foods. But what I think I'm hearing you say is that you can use an extended bolus only over 30 minutes or 60 minutes and have help but give more insulin as a total bola right.

Scott Benner 1:36:13
Yeah, so like in some people, like people on injections, I'll tell you sometimes I inject some now and some and a half an hour, sort of the same idea, you know, 35% 40% up front, the rest over an hour. The fourth the first 40% goes in when you push the button and then incrementally this other 60% is being jammed in over the hour, over a half an hour. You know, I know that most people think of extended bonuses is how to spread insulin out over four hours for pizza, right like that. But you can manipulate the insulin with the extended boss you can manipulate it with Temp Basal. You could if you were scared that five and a half units was too much. What's his basal rate? If he told me how much he weighs? I might be able to guess it. How much does he weigh?

Unknown Speaker 1:36:52
You know what I was below it, but I don't know how much. I was one in 10. So is his basal rate like 1.1? Like point nine? Yeah, it's probably a little low too, by the way.

Unknown Speaker 1:37:01
Really? Okay.

Scott Benner 1:37:02
Right. So so you know if so you could have doubled as bazel to make a unit. And when done four and a half Annabelle, so say four and a half and a bolus and a double bazel for an hour. And that way, if that's too much insulin at any point, you can just cancel the Temp Basal. Yeah, and like and get some of it back again, it's all about manipulating the insulin to be where you want it to be.

Amy Drauschke 1:37:22
It's funny, because when you said that about the 50%, up front, and over an hour, that's what we did yesterday. And it's what my husband did, I wasn't home. And he texted me later. And he's like, I figured it out. This is what we need to do for when he has those french toast, things. He has this french toast sticks with like

Scott Benner 1:37:39
disgust or maybe poison. I know what you mean,

Amy Drauschke 1:37:42
pancake wrapped around a sausage. He's like it's 50% up front over an hour. And he's looking at work. And I was like, great.

Scott Benner 1:37:50
Later, no, two or three hours later.

Amy Drauschke 1:37:52
No, yesterday, he had a great day. Oh, okay, interesting.

Scott Benner 1:37:55
Just think about it that way about how to put the insulin where where it's needed stop. So stop thinking about what the pump says. Because all the pump says is the arbitrary numbers that your doctor put into the pump. Right when the doctor did that they weren't thinking that you were gonna find a way to wrap a sausage in a pancake. They were just they're just like that. But I do think again, like I said before, it all comes back to it. You got to figure out if it's Basil's right first. And because if he's point nine, and he should be 1.2. So that's every hour, he's not getting a third of a unit of insulin that he needs. Right. And then that happens all morning long, like while he's sleeping, he gets up and then you give him two and a half units for something that, by the way, probably was more like five units, and one of the units is only going to replace the bazel over the next hour. Yeah, so you're right. There's no deficient in. You have a deficit of insulin at that point.

Unknown Speaker 1:38:50
Yeah, that's it. No, I

Amy Drauschke 1:38:52
mean, that's, that's really good. I've been trying to figure out the bezels for, you know, days. And then it's, of course, the like, do you give it three days and wait and see? Or do you play attack it every day? That's what

Scott Benner 1:39:03
people say, I'm more of a three hour kind of girl. Like I put it in? And if it's not working more, it's much less? Because Yeah, you have access to the Dexcom right away. So like, use a pretend Do you have time we were going on forever? Do you have to go?

Unknown Speaker 1:39:20
Um, well, I

Scott Benner 1:39:22
think I have a little bit more time. So. So think about this about adjusting bezels. Right. Say your base will set it at a unit say it's set at five units. I don't care where it's at. And your if your blood sugar is not resting at 90 without food or insulin, then your basal is not high enough. And so, right you know, well. Okay, Scott, well, my basal is resting at one my blood sugar rests at 180 how much more I don't know how much more but definitely more. So say you're at one and you're you rest at 180 I would push it 20 or 30% and see what happens. It's not like it's not like you're gonna put your bazel up 30% for an hour and he's gonna be dead 90 minutes from now. Like you You're just gonna see his blood sugar coming down. And so maybe it only comes down to, I don't know, 150 and then it sits at 150, well then try a little more. And just keep trying a little more until you get where you want to be. And now you're down to where you want to be. And maybe you'll end up getting too low. So bump it back the other way a little bit. Just, you know, yeah, mess with it until it's making sense. And now when you're close, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect. But when you're close, now you can start making adjustments.

Amy Drauschke 1:40:30
I think the hard thing is like, it's that resting with no foods, like he just so rare that there's no food in a system and no exercise and no anything in it. I mean, so I look at nighttime a lot as like, like, last night, he,

Unknown Speaker 1:40:45
you know, he

Amy Drauschke 1:40:46
slowly rose up after being like, 100, he ended up at like, 180. And so I'm like, okay, so clearly the bazel I always think of nighttime is like, it's definitely bazel because nothing else is happening. But it is. And then I wonder if like, is the base of the same across all 24 hours? Oh,

Scott Benner 1:41:01
it's not the same over every hour. Yeah,

Amy Drauschke 1:41:04
it's so that's really hard to figure out is like, Well, does he need more in the morning? I left sir.

Scott Benner 1:41:08
But but that but here's why. It's here's why it's not. Because more. Because if you're not if you're not 90 more, if you're 180. Overnight, more, if you're 180 overnight. You're right. There's less happening overnight, although there's still body functions and growth and stuff. But you're right, more happens during the day. His eyes are open, he sees things. They make him anxious. They make him excited. They make him angry, he eats food. So if you didn't if you needed more overnight, you probably definitely need more during the day. Right, right. And then yeah, so just more, so I get him down. You know, I'd get him down from this high get him home from school. And I do a Temp Basal increase of, I don't know, 20 or 3020 20% 30% for four hours and see what happens.

Unknown Speaker 1:41:54
And you because what you're gonna when he comes down? You mean once he's back?

Scott Benner 1:41:58
Yeah, right now I'd have his bazel double till I could get him back.

Unknown Speaker 1:42:01
Yeah, right.

Scott Benner 1:42:02
Because you're fighting with a high blood sugar and food that wasn't counted wasn't covered correctly with insulin right now. And when you look at that insulin on board, when you have a 270 blood sugar, and your was a 270 was at three, seven, I forget now. It's 37. So you're looking at 370 blood sugar, and you're like, I have seven units on board. I'm going to tell you, if that was me, I wouldn't consider those in those units at all. Because if they were doing something, they would have done it. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I think it's more

Unknown Speaker 1:42:32
to do add a couple more units, like, keep bumping it. I mean, in addition to the bazel It's tough. School,

Scott Benner 1:42:39
right? But I mean, I would I would Bolus, get it down and catch it with juice later if I had to. But But sitting and staring at it's not going to help you like and the other thing is to your insulin action time, is where that insulin onboard number comes from. So do you. Do you know what the insulin action time is set for?

Amy Drauschke 1:42:59
I do I believe it's two and a half hours. That's where I like to keep it. Okay. Hold on. So I think originally when we got the dash, it was defaulted to three hours. And I changed it right.

Scott Benner 1:43:13
So the point is, is that you if you tell it two and a half hours, three hours, four hours, whatever you tell it that's affecting what it's telling you the insulin on board is and you're saying, Oh, that's definitely in there that amount? Well, if you went into his pump right now and changes insulin, it was action time lower, higher, it would all of a sudden tell you he has less insulin on board. Because it does the calculations is Oh, we must have used it up because she told me it was only going to take two hours for it to use up or write you know, you know, she told me for

Amy Drauschke 1:43:40
me, I know what that right amount is?

Scott Benner 1:43:42
Because if it was the same for everybody, no, but if it was right as blood sugar wouldn't be 370. So so you'll figure out what his insulin action time is, by when you one day get his blood sugar to not go up while he's eating. And at this point in the recording, I suffered a massive computer failure. So this is the end had been some time it's almost two hours long. Last thing I was gonna say was that when she gets the insulin right, she'll one day get his blood sugar to not go up while he's eating and not to get low later. All right, people if you made it this far hour and 45 minutes of this show, you're a huge fan of the Juicebox Podcast and for that I am eternally grateful. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to Omni pod Dexcom and dancing for diabetes for sponsoring the show you guys rock go to my omnipod.com forward slash juice box to get started today you get a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod to try for yourself and@dexcom.com forward slash juice box you can find out how to get started with the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. And let's be honest, if you're listening to this podcast and you don't have a Dexcom I mean let's go right here we go get on it. All right, the music's gonna stop in a second, you're gonna go to dancing for diabetes.com that's dancing the number four diabetes.com. And you're gonna like them on Facebook and Instagram. I mean, you know, please saw all of your new reviews and ratings on iTunes recently. Thank you very much. And I would like you to know that this show is now available on radio.com. They have their own app radio.com. If you're using the radio.com app, and you'll want to listen to the podcast there, you absolutely can. But if what you're doing is working, don't feel any pressure to switch. I'll be back next week. Thanks for listening.

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