#300 Saira is the Trif3cta

Saira has T1, loves a T1 and gave birth to a T1

Saira has type 1 diabetes as does her husband and daughter. She also has a great T1 blog www.type1basics.com

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 300 of the Juicebox Podcast. It's kind of a cool little. We call that when you reach them. Point. It's a milestone, isn't it? That's what they call that. It's a bit of a milestone. I don't know if it means anything, but it's cool. 300 episodes is a is a bit of a milestone. Would you like to help me celebrate 300? Here's how you could you guys are like, oh god, he's gonna ask us or something. You're right. I am. A number of you. When asked what your favorite episode of the podcast is, or who some of your favorite guests are. A lot of people say Sam fold the former Major League Baseball player who's been on twice now and has type one diabetes himself. Well, Sam does a sports camp every year for kids with Type One Diabetes. And he's running a GoFundMe right now to help pay for the camp for these kids. Now the camp happens on February 8, so it's coming up really quickly. And any money that Sam can collect to help with this camp on would be a big deal. So I'm gonna put a link in the show notes that you can click on to its charity, GoFundMe, but it'll take you right to Sam's page. And if you can throw in a couple of bucks, anything you can to help Sam continue to work with kids with Type One Diabetes, it would be terrific. So perhaps you're very excited about the podcast reaching 300 or something else going on in your life and you need a way to celebrate where you found like, four or five bucks in the cushions of your chair, something like that. You're like us found money. I wonder what I'll do with it. He said I'll probably buy like a bag or rolos or something. I don't buy a bag or all those. Give it to Sam, let him help kids. Have a great time. Fine. Thanks for considering that. And now let's get to the show. I'll play some music. And then I'll tell you more.

On this live 300th episode of the Juicebox Podcast, I will be speaking with a lovely person who has diabetes, whose husband has diabetes, and whose child has diabetes. Am I What are you thinking right now you're like, well, that's three people. You're right, your math is rock solid. All you need to do while you're listening is remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. Also, I have some events coming up in Dallas, Wisconsin and Atlanta, very soon, go to Juicebox podcast.com. Scroll to the bottom click on events to find out more there are still tickets available to each of the events. Let's strap in get ready to talk to Syrah about her life with Type One Diabetes. That person living with type one, the spouse of someone who has type one in the mother of someone who has type one diabetes.

Right now I can feel you thinking oh my god, there's no ads. This is great. Now there's ads. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored proudly by Dexcom Omni pod and dancing for diabetes. But do we call them dancing for diabetes anymore? Or do we say touched by type one.org? Hmm, think about it. It's touched by type one.org. Don't forget that on the pod makes the world's only tubeless insulin pump, the insulin pump that my daughter has been using since she was four and she's 15. So if you can do the math, that's a long time. And of course Dexcom, makers of the G six continuous glucose monitor. Find out which way your blood sugar is moving and how fast with the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Find out more about all the sponsors. You can find links in your podcast app right in the show notes. You can go to Juicebox podcast.com, where you can type in these addresses my omnipod.com Ford slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box or touched by type one.org

Sarah Gallo 4:13
My name is Sarah Gallo and I have been living with type one for 25 plus years in multiple capacities including myself, my husband and I are older.

Scott Benner 4:26
Okay, so let's start slow. There's an AI in your name and you're seems to be pronouncing it so go slow and tell me one more time.

Unknown Speaker 4:34
like this the whole intro? No, no, no, no,

Scott Benner 4:36
no. Your name is it do you don't say you don't say Sarah you say

Unknown Speaker 4:40
no. It's Syrah Syrah. Got it? Okay.

Scott Benner 4:45
Got it. I'm good. I just didn't want to like threw in the entire thing. Because you don't know me. Well, Sara, but I will just say Sarah over and over again. And I don't want you to be on the other side going. That's not my name.

Unknown Speaker 4:57
I would I would stop you like this

Sarah Gallo 5:01
At least on a podcast anywhere else if I just met you in person, I guess Fine, whatever.

Scott Benner 5:06
So sort of sigh like a sigh and I got it. Okay, now we all know, and I'm gonna butcher it with my my northeast accent at some point, which I didn't realize I had to I had a podcast and then people started telling me Oh my god, you talk just like me. And I was like, wait, but Okay, so you said a lot in a very short amount of time you've been living with diabetes and a lot of different capacities. So let's start with you because you've known you longest. Do you have type one?

Sarah Gallo 5:37
I do. I was diagnosed. I'm in third grade. And yes, it was a little about 20. Actually, 23 years ago,

Scott Benner 5:47
okay. Okay. 23 years ago, you're in third grade. Do you remember anything about that time at all?

Sarah Gallo 5:54
Um, yeah, actually, I remember a decent amount. And I'm actually in fourth grade. Sorry.

Scott Benner 6:03
By the way, all that staying in the podcast because you said you remember but then you said the wrong grades. So listen to everyone listening. Now. This is probably just fanfiction about Cyrus. diagnosis. Okay. This is the best she can recall.

Sarah Gallo 6:20
I was sitting here thinking I could just leave it at third grade. But then I was like, my mom's gonna listen. She's like, no, it was fourth grade.

Scott Benner 6:25
My God, you do not have to watch your mom down. Exactly. Alright, so

Sarah Gallo 6:29
I think it'll make her feel better that I was older than I then if I say I was younger,

Unknown Speaker 6:33
doesn't like

Sarah Gallo 6:34
that. It's okay to be younger than they really were when they were diagnosed.

Scott Benner 6:38
Okay, so Okay, so fourth grade, which I had a terrible fourth grade experience. So I bet you mine, even though mine was worse? Probably not. I was gonna say, I bet you mine's not as bad as yours, because I didn't end up with diabetes when it was over. But I did have a really horrible teacher didn't seem to like me, but that's neither here nor there. So you're diagnosed during the school year?

Sarah Gallo 6:57
Yeah. Um, so I was actually diagnosed a handful of times. I remember going to the doctors a lot that year. And I was living in Pakistan at the time. That's where my family's originally from. And the doctor told my mom that I was just that I just didn't like school. And I was trying to make excuses and to send me back. And, yeah, so it wasn't until I went into decay that they figured it out. And was in the hospital. And I was sitting, I was there for at least a week. And I remember the thing I was most upset about when I like, woke up and you know, they told me Hey, you have you have type one diabetes, and they told me I couldn't eat grapes. And like, that was my absolute favorite thing in the world. I was like obsessed with grapes. And they're like, you can never eat grapes again. And I just started bawling like that's what got me upset. I didn't care about shots. I was like I could never eat grapes again like that's what

Scott Benner 7:58
by the way red grapes are green What do you prefer? READ WRITE nice and and I did you get to see the doctor again. Who told you you were just didn't like school and you were faking? Because faking BK is like, next level thing.

Sarah Gallo 8:12
And but that doesn't that's not really a thing you do.

So yeah, definitely. Definitely never saw him again. Excellent. I think I would, I wouldn't. I would recognize him if I saw him. I think

Scott Benner 8:23
as as the dumbest person you've ever met in your life?

Unknown Speaker 8:26
Yeah. Like you were you were totally wrong.

Scott Benner 8:32
That's crazy. I don't even understand why that would be with the why that would jump into someone's mind. Like, were you like a malcontent? in other ways?

Sarah Gallo 8:42
Well, I'm perfectly happy child. I had lots of friends. Like, I wasn't like this moody kid that like

Scott Benner 8:48
you weren't like lighting a cat on fire and saying you didn't feel well. Like it was just yeah, by the way. I don't know why that jumped into my head. I've never thought of hurting an animal before. But anyway, I guess that's my guess that's the back of my dark minds idea of what malcontent children think to do. Any please. Public Service Announcement don't harm animals of any kind. So okay, so you go in, you've been, you know, misdiagnosed pushed off a little bit, you go in there, and then you finally find somebody I guess to tell you how to type one or did not even go that easily.

Sarah Gallo 9:18
I mean, like I said, I was DK I was unconscious when they took me to the hospital. And that was how they figured it out. The primary care doctor was bad, there's nothing wrong with you. But then when I passed out, and they do awesome, like yeah, there's definitely something wrong with her. It's amazing. Um, and they knew to check my blood sugar, but the family care guide did not

Scott Benner 9:40
because you were unconscious, and they figured maybe this is not dead. Oh my gosh. Alright. So how is life with Type One Diabetes growing up then do you ease into it? Is it rough for you or your parents involved? Do they kind of leave it on you? How did it all go?

Sarah Gallo 9:56
So it was really hard for me in the beginning. Like I said, I was living in Fox on and I had to switch schools, because the kids thought I was contagious. And, and even then after I switched, it was still like, there's a lot of stigma attached to diabetes in the developing world in general. And so inbox on, especially back in, in 93, when I was like, knows, I'm sorry. So I obviously have bad memories and numbers I'm giving her all wrong, but whatever. Here it was, when I was in fourth grade 96.

Unknown Speaker 10:33
That's what it was, I'm having such a good time with these

Sarah Gallo 10:37
90 days a year, my friend, that's what I was thinking maybe six was when I was diagnosed. And yeah, so it was just, it was there weren't a lot of people with type one out there. And not a lot of people knew about it. And then like I said, there's, there's just a stigma associated with anything being wrong with you. Regardless of what it is, it was like you don't talk about it. And unfortunately, type one, especially as a kid, it's not something you can't talk about. And, you know, going through it as you as anybody knows, and you speak to a lot of families that are you know, within the first year of being diagnose, there's a lot to learn. And so I was I was low a lot. And so I had to leave class a lot. And a lot of the kids used to make fun of me and be like, Oh, she's just making excuses to get out of class. And I remember, like, teachers yelling at me, like, Why are you sleeping in class, and it was like, I'm not sleeping. I'm, I'm low. And it was like, it was it took a lot to kind of get over that. And I didn't actually honestly realize that, like, it had impacted me the way it did. until after I met my husband. Like it was just I turned into this like, oh, because all these people are always telling me like, that's the girl with the problem. I think I tried to hide that I had it. And in high school, it was to the point where like, friends didn't even know I had type one. And I was proud of that. It was like, Yes, I really don't even know that I'm living with this. Like that was a badge of honor for me.

Scott Benner 12:14
Okay, that you were able to keep it from people? And what was the impact on you? I guess two ways, from keeping it keeping it from people. Was there an impact psychologically? And was there an impact? medically like, were there things you didn't do? Because you didn't want people to see?

Sarah Gallo 12:31
Yes. And so that didn't start until a little when like, you're at that point where you just want to be normal. You don't want to be this kid isn't doing anything differently. So I think it was one more year Honestly, I'm just something I've never talked about. But I I went through like that's when my my diabelli Mia started and essentially I I was going through puberty so it was like taking care of your blood sugar's is really hard. This is pre loop day is this is like pre anyone else helping you figure it out. I was still on MDI, back then. I I say it was Lantus by them. And either way it was. So it's a lot harder to like, be in control at that point. And I remember like a couple of times, my mom is very absolutely love her. But she was he was always like, if I was ever high, it was like, why are you high? Or why did this go wrong? And again, as like a 14 year old and the 15 year old that like, doesn't really want to have to spend that much time thinking about diabetes at a time where it took a lot of effort. I kind of got to the point where I was like eff this. If it's not in control, even though I'm trying, I'm going to be out of control because I chose it. Does that make sense? Like that was like my reaction to it. So that was kind of how I managed to hide it because I just didn't I just didn't do what I needed to I didn't take shots that often I would skip doses on a lot. And yeah, that was kind of like my way of dealing with it where it's like, I can't, I can't figure out how to take care of like the hand controls. I'm just not

Scott Benner 14:11
going to so I'll be in control of the audit control part. Exactly. Right, right. That's really, I'm not surprising, honestly. How long did that go on for

Sarah Gallo 14:22
way longer than I would have liked probably a good 10 years. And then it wasn't till I met my husband and that kind of like, really soft. So I would go on and off. But like, I'd be good for a couple of months. But then I was like, it would get hard again. And it was like forget this. I'm not gonna do it.

Scott Benner 14:43
So I'm interested you met your husband, and was it his support that helped or was it like there's so many people who come on here who seemed to indicate that when someone else in their life appears that they love and care about they suddenly want to do better? for themselves, sometimes it's having a child, sometimes it's falling in love. It's really interesting. And so common that I think it's a, it's a rule at this point, people who struggle with their diabetes, meet somebody they love. And all of a sudden, they, I don't know what it is, I don't want to oversimplify it and say it's a reason to live. But it's, it happens a lot. I was wondering how it happened to you.

Sarah Gallo 15:20
So, for me, it was a little bit more of like, Oh, I can do it. And diabetes seems so easy for him. Like it was not the struggle. He had a very, very different story and diagnosis and everything, but it was like, hey, if he can do it, I don't why why is it so hard for me kind of a thing. So that was like, one of the motivations. And then, you know, there's something to be said about, like someone else doing things differently. So like, if he was high, he was like, I can't eat that right now. And I'd be like, oh, and that's perfectly okay. Like he was just, he's always been unashamedly diabetic. Like, if he's gonna stop what he's doing. That's what he's doing. He's like, I don't understand why the world can get on board with that, like, to him. This is what it is. And it's he's not gonna try and pretend that things are different. So he needs help. He needs help. And that's it. So that was, that was really helpful for me to see like, people still love him. Nobody has any issues with him. Even though he will stop whatever he's doing when he's low. He'll literally stop people mid conversation and be like, I'm really sorry, I gotta eat something. Or like, while they're talking, he'll just grab something out of his bag and start eating. It does. Anybody? Yeah,

yeah. Whereas for me, I'd be like,

well, how come you didn't like just wait till later, or like, it was just, it was just something I had never, I'd never done it that way.

Scott Benner 16:48
I don't know what you're doing right this second, besides listening to the podcast, but you're not just listening to the podcast sitting down, you're doing something else. When you're done that something else I want you to run, be safe, but run to a computer, click on my link, or type in the words my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. And I want you to get an absolutely free 100% no obligation on the pod demo sent to you right now. When it arrives, there'll be an explosion of excitement in your home. You'll be like, Oh, cool. We have Omni pod demo, but we do with it. But what you'll do with it is you'll put it on either yourself for the person with diabetes, you'll find a place you'll think this is where I will one day where my Omni pod, slap it on there. And you go about your life so that you can see what it would be like to wear an omni pod tubeless insulin pump, no tubing, no connection to something else. Just this little thing. It's just it's hard to put into words. That's why you need a demo. So you can see it. Little tiny, stick it on holds the insulin inside. Now one day you'll have it for real, you know, you'll need to tell it what to do. So they just give you this little thing. It's like a little diabetes manager. With the Omni pod dash, it looks just like a little Android phone. Right? You tell the you push on the buttons. I'm gonna have a unit it's on here, Polish and then wirelessly. It tells the pump like now put the insulin in it does it? It's magic. It's not magic. It's you know, like Bluetooth, which is kind of magical. When you think about it. You touch something across the room and something on the other side of the room does something magical. Miami pod.com forward slash juice boxes links in your show notes are the ones you'll find at Juicebox podcast.com. Don't forget when you're looking through those show notes and those links check out Sam fold sports camp. Do me a solid. Do Sam masala has been a great guest on the show twice now. And we can get him to come back. Yeah, well, you bumped into you bumped into the wrong people in the beginning.

Right? Like what?

stuck with me. So random. But to that just you get diagnosed and you're around some people who are like, Oh, she's contagious. And then the you move to a different school which is running away like you don't I mean, like, you're like, Oh, these people are bothering me. I'll run over here. And now you've taught yourself. When I have trouble with diabetes, what I should do is leave the place that's giving me the problem. And then it then that builds, you know, it builds and builds and builds and then your mom gives you a problem and you ran away you know, you ran away from that. And she's like, why is your budget are high and you're like, ah I'll just do the opposite. Like I'll go I'll move away from like, You kept moving away from conflict, I guess. If that if that if I'm reading it correctly from your conversation. It's it's um, it's completely understandable. It's just it's just did it start? Like what if you would have been diagnosed around 10 like local kids who were like, Syrah? It's okay, we love you. We've got this will help you. Like would that have just changed everything? You know what I mean?

Sarah Gallo 20:00
For whatever, I have no idea what the trajectory of my life would look like in that case. Um, I think there's a lot and I think that's, that gets into like, a differently I parent I love versus my husband because of like, me having the lens of what I went through, and him having the lens what he went through, obviously. So it's just, it's, it helps put us into the perspective of like, your story isn't her story for both of us. Whereas if it had been just me, I would have been like, this is what type one looks like for children. And because that's what it was for me and having him I can easily feel like that's not the case. And I don't have to project my experience on there.

Scott Benner 20:37
Yeah, Ellison that's, that's how generations are supposed to work, right, you're supposed to figure something out. And then your kids supposed to get the start on your shoulders, not in a hole, right. So we all just keep lifting each other up until one day one of our kids is going to be able to fly. That's what I'm assuming. That's a little fanciful, but I'm saying I, we, you know, I have parents who were blue collar hard working people didn't have many expectations for themselves. And, but they gave me the idea that there could be more for me. And so I went out and found more. And now my kids get to start with the idea that not that there can be more for you. But that more already exists. And it's theirs for the taking, which is which is differently than I thought it I thought it is something I had to go get. And now they just think of it as something they have that they're just trying to hold on to or make better. And so your idea of diabetes started work did you met a guy who had a completely different aspect that you know, completely different upbringing, his perspective was different, you guys blended that together, and now you're gonna have your daughter starts on your shoulders, you know what I mean? So it's really wonder it's beautiful, really, it sucks for you personally. But, but it's great for the world and for your daughter. Because like, you know, you're putting, you're putting better stuff out there than the people who you met. And very likely, when your daughter was diagnosed, she was not surrounded by a bunch of people who were just like, pointing at her and trying to witch trial, you know what I mean? So,

Sarah Gallo 22:03
yeah, I've, I've tried really hard to make sure that diabetes is extremely normalized for her to the point where she thinks that wearing an insulin pump is just as common as wearing glasses. Which I think is, is something all kids should see. And we talk about in the context, especially of type one, but in the context of any kind of difference, whether it's, you know, kids that are in wheelchairs, versus whatever it is, be, like, you know, being different is just That's all it is. People have different skin colors, people like different people's bodies need help with different things kind of a thing, and I didn't have that growing up,

Scott Benner 22:39
whatever your thing is, is your thing. It doesn't I mean, to be to be disappointed in who you are sad to begin with, but then did want to hide it is I don't know. And it's funny, too, because you and I are talking you're completely reasonable, thoughtful, intelligent person. And, and yet, that pressure was enough to, to push you in that direction, which I just think indicates how easily that kind of wrong exterior force can can move somebody, especially when they're a child, you know. So what was your husband's secret that he was he like, that he grew up with parents who were just like, whatever, don't worry about it keep going. Or what was their vibe? Do you know isn't?

Sarah Gallo 23:22
Um, I mean, he was telling us a little bit earlier. So I think there's a little bit to be said about that. He was a little over 10. And it was like at a routine checkup. And the way his mom approached, it was like, she literally made it this game when she went to school for the kids where they were, like, excited to learn about type one. And they got to win getting their blood sugar's checked if they got answers about diabetes, right. And, like, she went in and talked to the school about it and stuff. And I think a lot of it is just where he was, as well, versus like, the stigma and the community I was in, and a little bit of it having to do with, you know, the way his mom handled it as well. I think she did do a great job with that, where, you know, it was just, this is what it is. And the other kids were like, Oh, that's cool. All right. That's it, you know, like his friends would go to like the jdrf walks with him every summer or not summer, but whenever it was back home, and yeah, that was just it was always just something that was that was normal, and it was okay. And it wasn't it wasn't a big deal. And then all honestly, his control has always been different. I have always been told that I'm infertile diabetic, so it's just, it was harder for me to do. And even before I started looping, my husband and I are totally different people, we do very similar things, the amount of effort he put into his diabetes, you know, at a certain level, but if I put in the same amount of effort, my blood sugars would have been all over the place. So it just it's always been harder for me to do At the same level of control for him, if that makes sense, like it took less work for him.

Scott Benner 25:04
Yeah, no, I mean, let's just come out and say your husband got easier said have diabetes than you did. And he sucks. I get you. I hear exactly what you're saying. He can, he can, he can chirp all he wants about how well he's doing. But he got the easier one. And that's that. No, no, no. So, so it's funny because the term brittle. strikes me wrong.

Unknown Speaker 25:22
I don't love it. Yeah.

Scott Benner 25:24
And, and, and, and at the same time? I don't know. I mean, I'm not arguing with anybody who thinks that I just, there's it to me, it's always about insulin. And

Sarah Gallo 25:34
I actually I actually agree, I don't think brittle diabetic is actually a thing. I think it's more like, you haven't figured out the way to manage your diabetes in the best way possible. And just because this is what works for him is that doesn't mean that's what works for you. And so he happened to work with the standard procedures that were prescribed right? Like, this is how you do it. This is how you carb count, this is what you do. And it worked for him. Yeah. And that that's kind of how it's always been taught. Like, there's a certain way that you handle type one across the board. versus a there's other dynamic ways of doing it, whether it's, you know, how you talk about being bold with insulin, or whatever else it is. And I think that that's what it was, it was like what everyone else is doing isn't working for you. So you're brittle, there's something wrong with you versus like, there's something wrong with the way we're managing you.

Scott Benner 26:22
Don't forget to check out touched by type one.org. The next time we get a chance you're on your phone, you're a little bored. You type it in touch by type one.org. Take a look around. Same thing if you're at the home. I mean, you kind of click through Facebook one too many times, you know, like, Oh, I'm too tired to get up to board to keep looking at Facebook, check out touched by type one.org. That way you can remain lazy and sedentary and still do something different new environment. I remember a time when I would give my daughter insulin and count carbs, like give her some insulin and wait three hours and test your blood sugar. And her blood sugar would inevitably be really high or really low. And then I'd give her food if she was low or more insulin if she was high. And more often than not, she was high and there was another meal coming and Oh, just was terrible. And then one day, Arden got a dexcom continuous glucose monitor. And all of that changed all of it. Because now suddenly we could see the direction and speed that Arden's blood sugar was moving in. And we could sort of readdress our insulin decisions. If they weren't right. Now, sometimes, you know, like a couple hours after a meal, you're still like 180, it won't budge. Well, instead of staring at it and watching it go up and up, we address it with insulin and get it back down safely. And we do that with comfort, because we can see Arden's blood sugar in real time. And of course Dexcom has user definable alarms that I can set to give me a little like, Hey, yo, you might be moving a little quicker than you think or get a little higher than you want it to a little lower etc. And so Arden's blood sugar really never leaves a range that we've preset without us knowing that allows us to readdress with insulin or with carbs. And that helps contain for blood sugar in one sort of stable place. So instead of staring and wondering and waiting to test, we can look and see and know and feel comforted and decide to dexcom.com forward slash juice box or please use the links in your show notes, or the ones you'll find at Juicebox podcast.com. To find out more about the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor today, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Sarah Gallo 28:37
That's what it was. It was like what everyone else is doing isn't working for you. So you're brittle. There's something wrong with you versus like there's something wrong with the way we're managing you.

Scott Benner 28:46
instead of hitting the first roadblock and saying, look, here's the rules, you know, the proceed rules at that time for diabetes. Oh, they didn't work for me, oh, well, you just doesn't work, then you're broken somehow. Like, what a fascinating leap? And how do people even get out of med school thinking like that? You're like, like, Why? Why wouldn't your thought be? Okay, well, that didn't work for you. I wonder what would it not not just suddenly like, because how do people not look back especially doctors and say, hey, look, the what we're teaching right now today isn't the same as what we were teaching three years ago, or five years ago or 10 years ago, that won't be the same thing we're teaching next year. So why don't we look at the fact that maybe the person just needs more personalized care? And it's a really fascinating because liquid liquid did the deal with like, again, someone who was like, Look, do this, you did it, it didn't work. And you're like, well, I'll say it doesn't work.

Sarah Gallo 29:37
That's termed as a brittle or non compliant patient right away.

Scott Benner 29:42
Yeah. Instead of like, just somebody who needs a little more help. We're you know, the tools don't work the same for them or whatever it ends up being it's just all it's it's really infuriating. Honestly, you're gonna get me upset if we keep talking about it. So we're gonna move past that now. Okay. And I won't ask you any more questions about dates or times because I realize your recollection is is,

Unknown Speaker 30:02
is young children coming.

Scott Benner 30:06
So listen, you said you went about a decade with, you know, not really caring for yourself the way you hope to do. Are you having any side effects from that decade? Or are you doing okay?

Sarah Gallo 30:17
Hopefully I'm extremely lucky and that I have no side effects. Then you know my routine bloodwork and eye checkups and everything, and we have no side effects that we, that we know of yet. I'm honestly in the back of my head, I'm always wondering, like, Did I do anything that's going to hit me later? And we won't, we won't know. And it really pulled me out was more wanting to get pregnant, like you said to somebody else that you cared about being you know, that, that drive to do better. Because even when even getting married and being with someone that has type one that did a lot help me actually start you know, whether it's actually testing my blood sugar's or, you know, trying to take care of myself, but it wasn't, honestly until I wanted to get pregnant that it was like, Alright, you got to really lock down and like care about what your agency is, and really make it make a change in your management. Um, and then, and then after I was diagnosed, I was like, oh, there's no way you're ever gonna not be allowed to take care of yourself. Because what are you gonna teach your kid?

Scott Benner 31:23
You don't want to be a bad you don't want to be like the wrong kind of influencer example to her. So you have two kids, right is either younger or older.

Sarah Gallo 31:31
All the older she's four years old now. And she was diagnosed when she was 10 months old.

Scott Benner 31:36
Okay. So I mean, listen, you guys are just, you know, you were clearly gonna make a baby with type one. Just to like, Chase like your whole house is diabetes. It would be we I'm assuming that your other child who doesn't have it probably feels left out at this point.

Sarah Gallo 31:50
She really does. She's the one I work with. As honestly, we do a lot of like, diabetes community stuff locally. And so we're we're around other kids in the pipeline pretty often and just other people in general. And she's, whenever we do Islas pod changes, she she always wants the time. And I'm running out of demo pods.

Scott Benner 32:13
That's excellent. So is that something that you're? Is it in the front of your head yet? Like? How do I keep her from feeling like she's different? Because, because here's my example for you. I'm adopted, I've shared that a bunch of times on the show, I was adopted by very nice, average blue collar people. And as I started to get older, it was clear that I thought differently than they did. And so like, you know, like a problem would come up around the house or, you know, a problem with a bill or anything like that, like something you heard discussed in the house, then my mother and father and my brothers would have this almost instant reaction to something. And they all seem to match each other. And I was off on the side thinking like, Oh, that's not what I would do in this situation. Or that's not how it strikes me, or I'm not worried about that, because of this, and they would all get focused on one thing, and I would get focused on something different. And it always made me feel weird, that I never once just reacted the way they reacted. Like it wasn't my you know what I mean? Like, it wasn't my first indication to be like they were and I don't know what they could have done or not done. Although your husband's mother's example of running headlong into the world being like a one man like, you know, diabetes information crew seemed like that works pretty well, you know, but like, you know, what is it you'll need to do without going so far that your, your other child, you know, your Nandi one child is is like, just like, Oh, my God, this woman's always covering for me because she thinks I can't take that I don't have diabetes, like so there's a line in there, obviously. But what do you do? Have you thought about the roles or stuff you're doing now?

Sarah Gallo 33:57
I mean, honestly, right now she's two years old. So the amount that we talk about her feelings is limited. her feelings are around the fact that her sister stared at her for too long right now. Those are the kinds of meltdowns we have.

Unknown Speaker 34:15
So

Sarah Gallo 34:17
we we are going to be going to friends for life this summer for the first time as a as a family. And the one thing that I love about what they offer is like the sibling program. And so I know that's something I want to kind of have as an outlet for her to talk to other people who are caregivers type ones. And then honestly, she will always have my sister to talk to because she she grew up as like the older sister that me like my older sister have to go on sleep overs with me because this was pre CGM, so it was like a sister's going with you to make sure you're alive in the morning kind of a thing. As she she felt she gets what it's like to be a caregiver. And you know, my daughter and like, my, my type one daughter, she's, she's, she's been a type one caregiver essentially, I feel like she'll always have her as someone to talk about and vent about, like, type one taking over. Because I know that my eldest sister had a times where like she, she has a guard because something bigger going on with my type one at that moment, and I know she'll have her as a resource. And then the other thing that we are really big on in our family is just doing what we call special time. So like, I like it's time to hang out with just me and hang out with just her dad. And same with an IRA, we have time to hang out with both me and just her dad to kind of be like, okay, we all have relationships outside of just being a family of four. And, you know, letting her have that time honestly, like, I feel kind of guilty for this sometimes, but like, I took an hour to Disneyland ones just in her and it was like, I don't worry about Pre-Bolus and knew her about, you know, going low while we're standing in the heat or any of that stuff. And it was like, I felt guilty that it was easier to be with her. And I've always kind of wondered if that's how it doesn't mean I love her differently, or any more or less than, than Iowa. It's just a different experience when I'm just with her. And I've always wondered like, how is this how my parents felt with me? Yeah. Like not that they didn't love being with me. But it's a little bit more to think about when you're with me. No, I listen, I started taking care of it myself.

Scott Benner 36:39
I imagine I would. I mean, wondering about that. How does it make you feel like do you? Does it make you feel sad to think that they might have been like, Oh my god, I'm so happy not to be with her right now? Because it's just easier and I need a break? Or do you see that as just being human and reasonable? Or does

Sarah Gallo 36:57
it I if anything, if I wasn't a type one parent, I would maybe think of it differently, but feeling the exact same way myself? Yeah, I get it. I can't blame them. And it's totally fine. Um, yeah,

Scott Benner 37:11
yeah, I was just I went away for one night to do a speaking thing recently. And you know, there's a little dinner at night and people like, well, what are you gonna do now? It's like, Oh, my God, I'm gonna run upstairs and go to sleep. Yeah, I just I can't, I'm so excited to go to sleep. Because I'm going to send my wife a text and be like, Hey, good luck. And then I'm gonna go shut my eyes. Yeah, basically for nine hours in a row. And that's exactly what other people are planning for things. And I'm just like, ah, your lives are way too exciting for me, I I'm seeing some unbroken sleep calm, and I gotta get going. I get it. Like it just it is easier. And I have a similar situation. I go away with my son, sometimes for baseball stuff. And there's less to think about. And there's it's nice not to think about things. Sometimes. It's actually it's not even just going away. It's, you know, I mean, an hour and a half ago, I was running around the house on a phone call with someone taking down you guys really getting a good look into my life taking down like these little curtains that need to be laundered. And I'm putting them in the washing machine. And it just hit me out of nowhere. I'm like, I should look at Arden's blood sugar, because it was like 1045 in the morning, and I had not looked at it yet. I was like, I really should look. So I just kind of whipped out my phone. And I'm walking and trying to see what our blood sugar's at the same time. And I thought for a second. Other people don't have to do this. Like, that must be nice. And you know, I guess I'll never really know, but just sound nice. You don't I mean, like, and to your point, it doesn't it has no impact on how I feel about Arden whatsoever. Yeah, it just, you don't I mean,

Sarah Gallo 38:47
yeah, we still love our children. And in hindsight, we would do it all over again. We wouldn't ever be like, Oh, you know, I had a lot of people ask, like, if you knew which occur in children? Yeah, yeah, I spoke to another mom of a guy with type one the other day and I straight up was like, I would do it all over again. I wouldn't not have islands. As you told me. She was gonna have type one. And she looks really surprised. And I was like, Really? You're you would you would say you wouldn't have had your son because, yes, they've won. Like why, especially in hindsight,

Unknown Speaker 39:18
and what other reasons would you give him away for?

Sarah Gallo 39:23
And then also,

I mean, we had some, like, really not necessary comments about like, Oh, are you guys trying to breed diabetics when we have our second and it was like that not funny. To you.

Unknown Speaker 39:36
A person we don't talk to

Sarah Gallo 39:37
anymore. I personally don't talk to anymore. Yeah.

Scott Benner 39:41
Do you think they were trying to be funny, or do you

Sarah Gallo 39:44
think they were they thought it was funny because they like laughed, and you know, and I like you could tell on my face like that. But I just, I just kind of like, boxed away. I think I've ever seen that. It wasn't it wasn't a friend. It was like appointment so it doesn't matter. I've never seen him again. Yeah.

Scott Benner 40:03
It's, it's it's it's interesting what happens when people are trying to be like, real quick or off the top of their head or get any mean like flipping or fun. And then they just say something stupid and everyone stares like, oh geez, I went too far, or I didn't realize where the line was or something like that. It's very, uh, it's very telling, actually, I'm more interested in the woman who said, Would you have done this if you knew? Because that's, I mean, I mean, how far into that? Are we going to get it Really? Because my kids are kind of annoying. Like, if I knew they're annoying, would I not have had them? You know? I mean, I know I look at my wife sometimes. And I realized that she's like, oh, if I knew all this, I definitely wouldn't have married this guy like that. I can tell. You know, like that. That seems obvious to me. But I don't know. It's such an odd statement. Like I go back a lot to Sam fold was on the show, and he's a white coach for the Philadelphia Phillies now, but he was on and I and I said to him, like something similar like the Did it ever occur to you not to have more kids because of diabetes? And, or to have kids at all? Because the type of cuz he's type one his kids aren't? And it's funny, his answer was just so like, No, of course not. Because I realized when he said, he has type one, he has no trouble with it. It doesn't cause him. He doesn't think of himself differently. And because of that, he wouldn't be concerned if he had a child who had it. I was like, Oh, it's more about his. It's how he feels about himself, not how he feels about the diabetes. And you're not me, like he doesn't see that. It's no different than if you were incredibly short. And I said to you, Oh, are you thinking of not having kids? So your kids wouldn't be short? Like you would think Well, that doesn't bother me. Like I I'm fine with my height. So they're very, very, very interesting how how that all goes plus? I don't know. I'm looking at your I have a little picture here for you guys. You're a delightful family. Why would you not want this to exist? You know, Amy? Yeah, very cool. She's a pretty funky little girl. And I would never ever change anything about her even when she's having a meltdown. I I'm so delighted at the idea that, that I can look at her younger daughter or sister and freak her out by staring at her like she doing that on purpose. Do you think? Is there anything? Yeah.

Sarah Gallo 42:19
Oh, am I looking at me? Excellent.

My oldest.

Unknown Speaker 42:28
You looking at me and my mother. Like,

Scott Benner 42:31
you broke up for a second, but I got it. I got it enough. I'm hearing that you did it with your older sister. Oh, yeah. That's so cool. So all right. Let's see. I do have questions. Management ideas. So you were pens for a long time. I'm assuming you went to a pump at some point. Did you

Sarah Gallo 42:48
never Pound those all like straight up syringes, syringes? No kidding?

Scott Benner 42:51
Okay, syringes, right, from syringes to a pump? Did you have a pump before a CGM?

Sarah Gallo 42:57
I did. So I get a pump until my junior year of high school. And then I took a break. For like, I'm gonna say a year. Because we lived in point at the time, it was kind of hard to get supplies. And there was like a couple of different reasons. This was also when I wasn't taking care of myself anyway. So it was like, I didn't want a thing on me. And I did. back, I started with Medtronic. But I've always had. And that was like the first pump that came out. And it was like, the best at the time. And then I've had probably three Medtronic pumps at this point. And I got on their first VM when it first came out. I hated it. It was like the worst thing ever. It was always wrong. And so I stopped I stopped using it. I had a really bad experience with fans, basically. And I was like, No, I don't trust them. They like do worse than you know, because I'll like treat a low when I'm not low kind of a thing. And then I got on Dexcom when we decided we wanted to get pregnant. And so I wanted I wanted to get my agency down. I wanted to know like I wanted to be in control because you know, to tell you that you want your UNC a certain amount before you even try to conceive so yeah, and I've never ever got off of it after that.

Scott Benner 44:25
Nice. Yeah, I mean, my understanding of that, that early on Medtronic sensor, the CGM that they had was just that it was terrible and like, yeah, I think anything that I've heard people describe as a harpoon is something I would try to.

Sarah Gallo 44:44
Yeah, I mean, I was on there. The first thing they had where it was like where it for, I want to say three days, but you can see the readings that the doctors could like you would, you would take it back to them and they would see what your blood sugar's were. Yeah, the whole time. I tried that. Like, you know, they did that in the Beginning and then we switched over, whatever, whenever they came out with the first one. My dad's always been really big on like the newest diabetes technologies. As soon as like a new pump with a new thing came out. He was always like all about switching to that one, even if it's not what I what I wanted, like, I'm fine with MDI. And he's like, no, this is better.

Unknown Speaker 45:20
And better at it.

Sarah Gallo 45:22
It was it was out here, there's more tools that we can use to help. So we always try, like the newest thing that came out. And yeah, I just I hated I hated the Medtronic CGM I, I've been on I've been on the, you know, whatever version of Dexcom has been out ever since then we're on. I'm right now looping with the G six, and old Medtronic legacy pump, which is the same pump that I met my husband through, ironically,

Scott Benner 45:51
met your husband through an insulin pump.

Sarah Gallo 45:52
Yeah, that's how we met. I was in the Peace Corps when we met. And so nobody there knew what an insulin pump was or what diabetes was really, that actually ended up being my project. And the Peace Corps was working with the Diabetes Association to help break the stigma around type one around there, ironically. And so he, I want to say I was walking into a building and he was walking out the story is always better when he tells it for the record. And I was I think I was bolusing. And I was I was holding my palm. And he looked at me, he was like, Hey, nice insulin pump. And I was so excited. Because I was just like, I just been fighting. Like, why? You know why diabetes needed to be something that was talked about? And like, then here, there's, there's somebody that I already knew what it was, and I was like, How did you know? And he pulled his insulin pump out, which was like, the same one as mine. And we just never stopped talking after that. That's really cool.

Scott Benner 46:50
And oh, wow, I did that sweet and simple and easy. And you're nowhere near home. And, and that still happens. And you guys, how long have you been together now?

Unknown Speaker 46:59
Um, we I know I'm taking

Scott Benner 47:01
a risk. Yes, you have a date related question.

Sarah Gallo 47:06
We've been married seven years, but we've basically been together for nine.

Scott Benner 47:09
Okay, that's really sweet. That's excellent. So you, you said, you said a couple of things that, that I'm gonna like, circle back around on. So at one point, he said, I guess like to start, tell me a little bit about your, your background. So tell me again, where you grew up? And

Sarah Gallo 47:27
a loaded question. Um, I was born here in orange, California, I moved back to the black side, which is where my parents are originally from. When I was seven or eight. I want to say eight. And we lived there for about five years, we moved back to closer to my grandparents. And then my dad, job moved away, where we lived for another five years or less I did when I graduated from high school, moved to DC for college, left for the Peace Corps, and then finally moved back here to California.

Scott Benner 48:08
Okay, and can I ask like, what ethnic background Your parents are? And I have a reason for asking if you'll, if you'll go to the Pakistani. Yeah. Okay. So how much of like, so it's interesting, you said that because I live in a community that is there's a fair amount of Indians and Pakistanis near nearby. And when you said your father was like, This is the newest, this is the best, we should use this that struck me very much to be in sort of the way a lot of my friends think, who are have had that background. And I was wondering if that's something like, was it just around diabetes? Or was it was your dad is your dad sort of like that, to begin with?

Sarah Gallo 48:51
He is an engineer by background. Um, so he's all about, like, technology is his thing. And he always I mean, he, he's always got, he works in telecommunications, now, or he did. He's kind of switched around what he's done. So he's always been like, the newer phone, and this is the newer, you know, whatever technology is there. That's what he's always been excited about. He's always been in that field. for him. Tech is kind of like, a thing. And it was something he felt like he had control over and how he could help.

Scott Benner 49:23
so and so and so also then kind of thing in the thought for a second, he talked about stigma around diabetes. That's also something I'm now seeing. It's in the Indian community, but with type two. So a lot of a lot of Indians are sort of developing type two as they get older, but none of them really appear to talk about it too much. And, and they are really hesitant to move away from kind of cultural foods that I think they know they shouldn't be eating, right, that they just sort of, it's this very, they're so proud of their culture, that it's just like, Look This is what I eat. And so I see it's not good for my blood sugar. But, you know, if I got to go down with the ship, it's very reminiscent of, of type two in the south really in like the 70s and 80s, where like we drink, you know, I drink tea with sugar in it. That's what I do. And like, so it's like how I grew up. And it's hard to break away from

Sarah Gallo 50:19
hard to break habits. And I always feel bad for people that are diagnosed later in life, whether it's, you know, adult onset type one or type two, because as hard as childhood Davies's, it's easier to change habits earlier on. Yeah. Versus like, this is how you've lived your entire life now do things differently.

Scott Benner 50:41
Yeah. I mean, I brought it up. Because I imagine that, you know, you don't have to be from Pakistan to have something about the way you grew up that influences how you think or how you won't change, you know what I mean? Like there's, everyone's got something culturally that they are, you know, attached to, and don't want to get away from. And it's just, I don't know, I want for everyone listening to realize that, that it's cool to want to do what you want to do. But at the same time, if what if what you've been taught or what you've grown up with is moving you in a bad direction, then you need to get away from it. You need to do what you know, Sarris husband does just he's like, I don't care. He's like, you know, I'm talking to you, my blood sugar's low, that's over now. Now I'm doing what I need to do. I think that what you need to do, is the most important thing. And I talked to too many people who have the, you know, the situation that you described, where it's like, I wouldn't treat my low if I was in the middle of a conversation with somebody. And for whatever reason, I just, I don't know, I just really want people to be more focused on themselves first and not care so much about what other people think because, like, I always say, like, this, that person that's hassling you, they're not going to be around. Don't be mean like, that's not like, it's not like they're your your spouse, or you know, changing your arm, like you can just walk away from them. In a tougher when you're a kid, and you're trapped in a school with them, but in a real world situation, you're in charge, you know what I mean? So,

Sarah Gallo 52:11
be in charge. Yeah, but when you when your kid kids can be cruel. So like, it's, um, I think that's part of why I might overthink a little bit like how I, I like, make type one normal for eila. I know my husband didn't have that experience. But like, for me, it was like, I was made fun of for a bunch of different reasons. And so I and I've already noticed, like, certain interactions that I was had, where I remember there was this mom on a playground at this like Co Op that we were going to, and she had one of those massive bags of like it was like grandma's cookies or something that are sugar laden and just yeah, you know, from like, they were just awful. I don't even know how many carbs are. That wasn't the point and she was like, handing them out to all the kids and I was blood sugar just happened to be really high. I'm never like, I'm going to restrict what your what you eat. But if you're like 267 double arrows up and you already just ate a snack. There's no need for you to eat that

Scott Benner 53:09
cookie time. Yeah,

Sarah Gallo 53:10
yeah. And so this time, I was like handing them out to everybody. And she is she's not the type of guy to take food from from somebody says this grandma was like holding it out. And she's like, they get tickets with her and she kept pushing. And finally, I was like, You know what, she really doesn't need that like that type one diabetes, and it's fine. Just, you know, stop pushing it on my kid, basically. And then she just like, took them away and made a point of being like, they're like all the other kids like, okay, here I haven't but then she looked at Island back but not used to be hard. These aren't for you. It was like really was that necessary woman like this thing? Oh, my child out make her feel bad. And now she wants the cookies, obviously. because someone's telling her she can't have it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 53:51
yeah. Wait, like, there are so many stupid people. I I wish that could be the episode title of almost everything we do. It just there are just so many stupid people, and you're gonna bump into them, especially when you bring them into your world like that. Where? Because like, look what you were doing. You're like, Look, she's got diabetes, leave her alone. Like, you know, you're trying to give her the reason I'm not being rude to you about the cookie. There's a real good reason here. why she's we're not going to take the cookie from you. Thank you anyway, and then her, her idea of how to make it better, just makes it like seven times worse. It's really fascinating. And at the same time, so incredibly expected. So I just yeah, there's nowhere to run. Sometimes I'll say to my wife, like, we need to move and she's like to where and I went Yeah, that's a good point. Like, we're, we're gonna run to exactly.

Sarah Gallo 54:39
But on the other hand, we've also had, you know, times where I was like on the playground or in like a swimming pool or something and a kid will point it or pot and be like, what's that? Like? What's my pod? Where's yours? Like her? That's just yeah, everyone have fun? Yeah. I mean, she knows that like she has diabetes and and not everyone does, but she also knows that it's not Have it like, there's a balance and to find it, interview me in 10 years and interview her and see if I didn't Okay, job.

Scott Benner 55:09
Isn't that funny. That's what there's something about the podcast that makes me feel like I have to go on forever and double back and talk to everybody again a second time, like a decade later, which that's now my idea that someone else on another podcast is gonna steal, but that's fine. So I, but I think that, um, we don't do that often enough, like, my son and I were in the car the other day and Baseball Draft was happening. And they took some kid out of high school. And I said, I really wish they would just like, keep up with that person. Like, I want to know what happens next. Because you know, more often than not, what's going to happen is they're, you know, drafting a kid out of high school, he's going to go off and not be able to do it, or fail or get hurt. It's just very likely, statistically that he won't play baseball for much longer. But the part that young kids hear is, oh, that guy got drafted. And that seems like the win. You know what I mean? Like, can we never go back and follow up with people. And that's probably where the more interesting stories are. But you need to know the first part of the story to know the second part. And I did. I don't know if you heard me one time, but I interviewed a younger a younger girl, like she was like, 10 or 11 years old. And I said, I think I'm gonna have you back on every year for as long as I do this, just to see how your life has changed. I think there's something incredibly interesting about that. So don't Don't laugh. Maybe I will have you back on when will your daughter's or say, you can come back on and tell us how she's a stripper. And you're

Sarah Gallo 56:42
ready for kindergarten?

Scott Benner 56:45
Well, listen, it doesn't matter. I'm paying for college right now. You're gonna be broke and destitute. By the way it won't really matter. Very, very expensive.

Unknown Speaker 56:53
I always tell people in diabetes supplies

Scott Benner 56:55
just Oh, yeah, yeah, between insulin and college, I get retirement. Yeah, I'm assuming you guys should have six jobs. So you've said a couple of interesting things about like you were in the Peace Corps. Was your husband in the Peace Corps to when you met?

Sarah Gallo 57:11
No, he works in your construction. So you happen to be working on a project down there?

Scott Benner 57:16
I say and, and are you has your whole life sort of going in that direction, like doing things for other people?

Sarah Gallo 57:23
That's what I chose my path Initially, I I suppose I thought I wanted to join the United Nations. And so yeah, Peace Corps was like the first thing that I wanted to do. I worked in the nonprofit space for quite a while. And right now for the most part, my my full time job is being a mom, but I serve on the board for a couple of organizations and do most of my charity stuff through volunteer work instead? Because parenting type one kid this young and then just two and four year old is a lot of work. I know you've been stay at home dad for longer than I've been doing the mom thing. It's hard.

Scott Benner 58:04
It's in if my god i the people wouldn't people wouldn't believe it. I think that don't do it. But yeah, I haven't heard the television on. While the sun's been up in like, since the last space shuttle. That literally is the last time I turned on the television during the day, I thought to myself, I should probably watch the space shuttle launch. So go back to however long ago that was That's the last time I turned on a TV during the day. So let me let me kind of dive into some other ideas here for a second. So just very quickly, it doesn't sound like it. But I want to see, are you and your husband involved in each other's management at all? Do you ever, like bounce ideas off of each other? Is it stay fairly separate?

Sarah Gallo 58:42
Yeah, um, we we are. So I think I'm convincing him to switch over to Luke on the 670 g right now. And he's seen like how great it's been for me and, and he just is not a fan of the Medtronic sensor. We've had enough failures with it. And he's been on calm himself before. So he wants to go back to that. So that's probably the extent I've been hands off since he went on the six, seven AG, because I just I don't know that system very well. And I don't really know how to use it. I've, you know, I've put them in touch with friends who are on it, and had you know, in that way, but then we've analyzed, like, what it is about that system that, you know, makes it work the way it does for him and we've we've talked about it as much as I can without having actual experience with it. And most of our you know, my my help in managing his would be like a reminder to Pre-Bolus or, like telling him how many carbs you're eating and reminding him like, hey, there's a lot of fat in that one. But the 70s he doesn't know how to do that. It doesn't know how to extend the bolus. So instead, it's like, Hey, remember, there's a lot of fat in that. might want to add another 10 carbs in right now. Like an hour later, kind of a thing. I don't have to bet For myself, because I'll just put it into loop. And same for Iowa, but a lot of it was teaching him he. So when he switched to this energy and I switched to loop, which is or at the same time, about like a year and a half ago, we both kind of became a little more hands off, because what we both noticed was that when either I was doing well with diabetes, or he was like eila wasn't. So it was kind of like there was only so much headspace we had for type one. And so that's why we we made those decisions where it was like, we need something else to manage our diabetes, so we can focus on her. And so that's what that's what we chose, he chose the 670 G and I chose Lupe, and we kind of like stopped thinking about our, our own diabetes for a little bit. Because we were able, we were able to do that something else was kind of handling it for us.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:47
Yeah. And trying to figure out we were able to,

Sarah Gallo 1:00:50
yeah, and then we were able to kind of take care of her a little bit better. And then when the Omnipod loot became available, it was like a no brainer, because I'd already been doing it myself for a year that I was like, that's definitely what I want to do with her. And it wasn't like, in all honesty, usually it's like, you know, we would have these conversations about what we think makes sense for her. But it was one of those cases where I was like, this is what we're doing. And you're gonna get on board with it. And he was totally fine with it. Obviously, if it hadn't gone well, we would have would have switched back but but it has. And I think that's probably the the other thing is that he's kind of left a lot of those decisions to me, like I'm the one that decided to get the Omni pod for her. And like fight with insurance because they didn't cover the Omni pod. And I was like, I don't want to put too big on my on my two year old I'm sorry. And like he's kind of left that part to me. And as you know, just trust that I'm I've done my research and know what's what's best in that space. Because he's he's always been kind of like this is what's working and I'm you know, there's no need to mess with it. So despite him having like, I'm kind of going off on a tangent I realized I wasn't adoring him having been like, the reason that I started taking care of myself. Like, before me has a one sees are like seven and a half and eight. I honestly usually hate talking about agencies that I feel like they're not a true testament to how well you're doing because it could be like a balance of a lot of highs and lows, right? Um, but his were his were usually like seven and a half, eight. And it wasn't till like, I started taking care of myself. And we I started getting more involved with him that he brought us down to like 6.5, like between six and 6.5.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:38
And with

Sarah Gallo 1:02:42
I guess I kind of lost track of where Oh,

Unknown Speaker 1:02:43
where? Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:02:45
well, let me ask you then. So when he was more like seven and a half and eight Where were you?

Sarah Gallo 1:02:51
I mean, before I met him, I was like, in the 12. I was but remember, I wasn't taking care of myself. Yeah, sure.

Whatever. I

I was probably once I started taking care of myself was in the sevens, but it wasn't till we tried to we started getting you know, wanting to get pregnant I had been I'd been like in the 655 sevens free wanting to get pregnant. And then after I say I think what changed my mind a lot about my diabetes management was the endocrinologist Iris and an endocrinologist I had the second time around with inara. He was just amazing. He was basically like your I know, you're familiar with loops. So imagine everything that Luke does, he would do for me, like every week, I would meet with him every week. And he would change all the numbers he'd like, sit there and analyze every graph on my clarity on my on my pump and look at everything, and change literally like every hour and my bezels and my carb ratios and everything and just send me home and it would fix whatever was going wrong. And my uncle never been better. I was like, I was a six when I was pregnant, which is really amazing to have all these hormones, like there'll be that good. And that was what made me like change how I thought about I managed things. It wasn't like, oh, you're not trying hard enough. It was like I need somebody to look at the math and tell me like What does and doesn't work. And like the first the first highrisk under I had with eila was like he literally made me cry a couple of times because it was like you need to eat the exact same thing every day. I need the exact number of carbs that it says on this stupid little sheet that says how much nutrition you're supposed to have. And it's like that, that's an insane amount of food. I'm not gonna eat that much. Like a whole it was a really bad story with with my pregnancy with Iowa. But yeah, that was what made me really, really change how I thought about like managing type one and that kind of sent me on that trajectory of like being better and my agencies have been under six since then. That's

Scott Benner 1:04:59
that's really Go in and Islas is working progress are going well or how was it? She's looping now? I guess

Sarah Gallo 1:05:07
we haven't. She's only been looking for a little bit. So we haven't actually analyzed her her numbers, but she was as as we did the Jade study with lube and so she was a 6.4. Last we checked, I think is amazing. doesn't eat what you tell her to. And when you tell her when you're not looking? Yeah. How were

Scott Benner 1:05:31
you doing prior to like prior to that dude, listen to this podcast like were you doing like the stuff we talked about here? Or? No?

Sarah Gallo 1:05:39
I do listen to the podcast. I'm gonna be really honest.

Yeah. I hated you in the beginning. I love that. That's great.

Scott Benner 1:05:47
Why

Sarah Gallo 1:05:49
not? And you because I think the first podcast they listened was the one where you interviewed. I can't remember her name. I want to say, Chloe or not. The Girl with the diabetic alert dog. Oh, okay. And le le and coach for Mom, I talked to my mom. Right? Yeah. And I felt like you were you. You kept saying like, you would never get a diabetic dog. And here I was listening for the first time and I have an older dog. Sorry, I don't know what he's talking about. He's not in my shoes. Don't tell me to like bass Hi. Like, I got defensive. I was like, guys, like, he doesn't know what he's talking about my site. You know, the way we manage it is totally different. I that's how I felt it was like, I felt like who were saying like, you do things a certain way. And that's like, the only way to do it. And that was my like, reaction that was just

Scott Benner 1:06:44
no place. I remember doing that interview and actually feeling weird about doing it. She had approached me about being on and I was at a spot where I was like, I don't like I don't get the alert dog thing. Like I just didn't get it. So I was like, well let her come on. And I'll tell her I don't get it. And she can talk me out of it. And you know, or whatever. Like, let her you know, tell us how it goes. The stuff I don't understand. And it was also earlier in the podcast too, right? Like what? Yeah, it was I was still getting better at Yeah.

But that's cool. So but you stayed? Did you just want to like tune back in and be angry at me again? Is that what happened? Funny,

Sarah Gallo 1:07:22
it's so funny because I like I think that was the first one. And I was like yelling as I was listening. I was like washing dishes and it was like on on the speakers and I was like yelling at you. And then I like I think like a week later, I was listening to another one. And I was yelling at you again. And my husband was like,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:38
why are you still listening to this guy if you hate him so much. And I was like,

Sarah Gallo 1:07:44
I was like, I just I kept listening. And then yeah, eventually just like learned your personality. And I was like, Yeah, I bet you this is not gonna say I'm gonna like get my bloods gonna boil for a bit, but I don't yell anymore.

Scott Benner 1:07:57
So nice. This is a very interesting difference between, like us, you live in California, and like this place where people are just so nice to everybody all the time. And I just I don't know. Yeah, I just don't I'm not that nice. So, I mean, I, I'm not not nice. I just don't have the ability to talk around things. I don't know what that means. Exactly. That my wife's like, you know, there's a nicer way to say that. And I think, yeah, it takes up so many words. And then you know, like, let's get to the point. But I appreciate that you're still listening. I think it is an incredible testament that you really were yelling at me and your home and still listen to the podcast, I would I would accept that as a as a beautiful review. And thank you for

Sarah Gallo 1:08:38
and then in the beginning, it was like I can't stand on but these people is interviewing like, that's, that's what kept me because it was like, I want to hear what this woman has to say or I want to hear, you know, whatever it was that you were that you were talking about that day. And then eventually, it just listen to all of them because I is a dictate what we listen to in their house. But I do wish and I know that other people have asked you this as well. But there was a way to like search by topic. Yeah, like in the podcast app to be like, oh, let's see, I bet Scott has interviewed somebody about this.

Scott Benner 1:09:12
It's tough because the podcast, the way app, the way they all have it set up. It's not that searchable. I understand there's going to be an update to it that will be out by the time this us our conversation goes up that it's going to make them more searchable. It's tough, too, because I very much like the conversations to be kind of unwielding and just kind of keep going. Like you're talking on the phone with somebody. So like, like, here's an example. Tell me right now, if we were going to put it into a description, what's your interview been about? It's not that easy. Yes.

Sarah Gallo 1:09:50
I mean, for me, usually it's like, when whenever I talk to anybody, it's like, oh, the type one times three like to end tends to be family. That's like the gist. Anybody uses like, oh, here's someone living with them multiple pasties? Because that is kind of like we've talked about me and my husband and I, Ella, I guess I know what it would be you and I

Scott Benner 1:10:09
talked, here's what you spoke about in my memory right now, right? This is how I think about it. You and your husband, your daughter have type one, great. Your mom, you know, had some influence that you weren't thrilled about. You met people at school that pushed you away. They may have very well caused you to hide your diabetes, you met a person who helped you to bring it out because they were more open about it. You really started taking care of yourself better when you decided to get pregnant, you've moved into different tech like so I don't know how to. I don't know how to quantify. Right, right. And I don't want and here's my concern, is I think you said a dozen really valuable things in the last hour. And if I pick one of them and tell somebody, that's what the podcast is about, and they are not interested in that, then they're not going to hear the other 11 things you said. And that's Mike. That's why I make the podcast descriptions vague, because I figure you'll get in there and try to find out what it is to you. Yeah, I just I don't know. And and if I said to you, this week is about red, and next week's about blue and next week's about yellow, I'd get bored with that. And I wouldn't listen. So. I don't know. It's just my brains broken a little bit, I think. And I'm in charge. So this is what happens.

Sarah Gallo 1:11:31
Fairly fine. It works. I guess that is only sometimes where I'm like, Hey, I wonder if he's already talked about this?

Scott Benner 1:11:36
Oh, no, I hear you. I am I do, honestly, I mean, being 100% serious. I wish there was a better way. And I'm hoping that what Apple's about to implement might help that because apparently, they're going to index all of the words spoken in the podcast and make the make the text searchable. Somehow, I don't know

Sarah Gallo 1:11:56
what that sounds like. It's gonna complicate it to the level of like, needing to know SEO for podcast. I don't know.

Scott Benner 1:12:01
I don't know what mad genius is gonna either get that right or screw it up. But I'm interested to see what's gonna happen. So. But one way or the other, you're saying that the frozen urine of diabetes was not a good title for an episode?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:15
I mean,

Unknown Speaker 1:12:17
it made me gag.

Scott Benner 1:12:21
That's great. All right, listen, is there anything we haven't spoken about that you want it to?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:30
my notes.

Scott Benner 1:12:34
One day, I'm gonna make notes. But not today. Although I did write something down. I wrote down to one sibling interview, because you said something earlier that made me think it might be really interesting to talk to an incredibly open person who grew up with a person with diabetes and didn't have

Sarah Gallo 1:12:49
that would be really nice. So that's a perspective, I'd be really interested in hearing. Um, I was gonna say, if I listened to your interview with Amy from Omnipod, the other day or from a flood, and she said something about, like, you know, she has a unique experience speaking to other you know, adults with type one, and most people don't have that and how, like, she specifically said, you can never be both. And I like I like, like my hand up in the air as I was driving was like, Yes, yes, you can, you can, like understand being a parent of type one, and also having it yourself. And the one thing I like to tell any parents that I meet with kids that have type one who obviously don't, you know, they don't know, what it's like to have type one themselves, is that being the parent is much harder than being the one with type one. So like, I lived with it all my life was not half as big of a deal, as it was when she was diagnosed, like, what you're going through is way harder than what Arden is going through. In my opinion, well, that's good to know. Like, usually makes people feel better. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:13:56
that's definitely good. I can see that, like 100% can see it from that perspective, and you have obviously a unique perspective, being a person who has it and is now the parent of someone with it. So I'm going to take your word for it. I and it absolutely makes sense to me that whatever a person's going through is just sort of normal for them. You know, and that's got to be the hope a little bit right that, yeah, I have diabetes, but it's my situation and, you know, I'm okay. It's going okay, like your I love the way you describe how your husband talks about it, just like this is what it is. And this is what I do. And you know, that's it.

Sarah Gallo 1:14:34
That's like a man thing because my dad was very similar. It was basically like, I remember my mom would tell, like my sister, my cousins or whatever to like, eat ice cream in the other room or something like that. And my dad would be like, no, why should anyone else do things differently? Like she's just gonna have to learn to deal with it. Don't make other people do things different around her. And my husband's kind of the same. He's like, it is what it It is cuz like he cried when she was diagnosed. And that's about it. He's never been upset outside of that. And I like I'm the one that gets emotional over like hard slight changes, or blood draws or whatever. And are random guys

Scott Benner 1:15:11
on the internet that you don't agree with?

Sarah Gallo 1:15:16
Not random anymore, though. Thank you. And

Unknown Speaker 1:15:20
you just like,

Sarah Gallo 1:15:21
yeah, it's hard, but I can't do anything about it. So why get upset about it? That's his attitude is like, if I can't change it, I'm not gonna dwell on it.

Scott Benner 1:15:29
Yeah, I feel like we talked about that with Amy, cuz you brought up Amy from insulin. I feel like I talked about that with her like is there is just sort of a guy perspective. Sometimes we're just like, this is what it is. Let's just keep going. Who cares? And, you know, maybe that's a defense mechanism where you don't want to deal with how you feel about things. And maybe it's a survival instinct. You know, I have no idea.

Sarah Gallo 1:15:53
I think it's a thing where men feel like that, and I'm totally generalizing here. But men usually feel like they need to fix things. And if they can't fix it, then it's either not broken, or it's just we're gonna ignore it.

Scott Benner 1:16:05
Yeah, we're not that bright. I hear what you're saying. But, you know, you can't make babies without us. So guess what? You're stuck? No, that's incredibly valuable. I can't wait for someone a year from now to come on to tell me about this stuff that you said that they disagree. I

Sarah Gallo 1:16:26
think that that was my biggest issue with listening to the podcast in the beginning was it was like, I'm a really big proponent for your diabetes may vary. There's a reason for like quite a while all three of us are on completely different systems, different influence different CGM, like everything was different. Because that's just what worked for us, like I was on MDI, and no sensor for a while. And that worked for when it worked. You know, I just, I think, the one thing I want people to know is that there's like, no right way to do diabetes, it's like you will figure out what works for you. And, yeah, it's not based off of necessarily what a doctor will tell you, because they'll tell you what they know. But they might they don't know you, they don't know how you live, they don't know what time you wake up or what labor what days you exercise or don't, and how that impacts like, everything is different for every person. So I think that's like, the thing I want people to know is that every, everyone's different, not just like, your bezels are different. But like, everything about your life is different than someone else's. And that unfortunately, diabetes has like how many variables so I can impact your blood sugar's there's no right way to do it.

Scott Benner 1:17:37
And so I 100% agree with you. And I think that, but there's probably times where I come off, like I'm saying, No, no, listen, it's just about how the insulin works. And it doesn't matter. Like the other things don't matter. The other things do matter. They just don't quite, in my opinion, matter as much as understanding how the insulin works. And so I, this is a long conversation, this podcast is it has to be like, it's not just an hour or a week, or a month or a day, like, in my opinion, you need to listen through all of them as best you can to hear one person say what you just said, and then hear another person say something different to find out that they both are having success or failure, you know, and it looks different. And how can I adjust? It's just, I just realized, at one point that people's expectations of sharing online are from blogs, and in a blog post, you can start off by saying all that stuff, your diabetes is going to be different than someone else's. And don't forget that this is dangerous. And this is, you know, you don't want to do this first. No, you know, you know, somebody will say you use a pre buy Temp Basal, but don't don't suspend your insulin, because then your pump won't show up at all the like, once you get done safety in all of your statements, a no one's reading it anymore. And be it's so incredibly long. It's not, it's not absorbable. So I just thought like, why don't I just say to myself, okay, there's gonna be times I'm going to say something on the podcast, and there's probably nine addendums to it, I should be adding, but I'm not going to, I'm going to just hope they listen next week when that comes up, or that they heard it two weeks ago when I said it the last time because because I think that we just weren't pushing hard enough. Like with the way people were writing about it, because I used to write about the same way too, is very careful about everything and measured. And what I can tell you for certain is that when I was just blogging, I would get a note every once in a while, every few days, maybe a couple times a month, hey, the blog is really helping me I appreciate it. I wanted to let you know, those notes now come six to 10 times a day. So there's something about this, that if you stick with it long enough, it'll get to you. And I don't know what it is. And I'm not even taking credit for it. I just it was my idea and it seems like it's working out more or less and look, you hated me and you still listen so I must have been Don't do something. And I just think that there's a bigger, there's a bigger thing to consider around all of this than what you can just maybe put into 300 words. And that you're going to have to resolve yourself to the fact that you're not going to learn it all in a day or in one sitting when, you know, that kind of a thing. I don't know if any of that made sense or not.

Sarah Gallo 1:20:21
But it does. I mean, at the end of the day, your podcast is an opportunity for people to have, like a diabetes community that doesn't involve just reading words, because I think tone is lost a lot in in text. And having a view into conversations with people with type one, especially for the people that don't have a really big, like, diabetes community around them, I think is, is extremely valuable. Not everybody has

Scott Benner 1:20:48
the ability to be a part of that for multiple reasons. It could be the time they have, it could be where they live, whatever it is. And you are giving people that that opportunity to be a part of something without having to leave the comfort of their home or their car, or whatever it is. It's amazingly interesting to me, when somebody will say to me, you know, what is the podcast about I'm like, Oh, it's about how to use insulin. And then someone will come up to me and tell me that for them, This podcast is a community that they didn't have otherwise. And I think, wow, that wasn't even my initial intention. But look, it ended up being that thing for that person. And so whatever it ends up being for you, whether it's a community or a way of using insulin, or somebody yell at whatever it is, it's like, to me, it's great. You know, like, if it does any of those things or other things for people, I'm happy about that. So anyway, I now I'm gonna get emails from other people are yelling at me in their house, but that's fine. I'll take that.

Sarah Gallo 1:21:42
Sorry for giving people permission to yell at you. No, no,

Scott Benner 1:21:45
no, please. I'm married. I'm okay with being I be disabled. Goodbye, because we've been at this for a long time. And then I'm gonna I'm just gonna tell you, thank you privately. We're not being recorded. So thank you very much for coming on the show. I appreciate

Unknown Speaker 1:21:59
you having me.

Scott Benner 1:22:03
Huge thanks to Dexcom ami pod and touched by type one for sponsoring this the 300th episode of the Juicebox Podcast, the Juicebox Podcast, the Juicebox Podcast, and thanks so much to Syrah for coming on and telling the story of her family with Type One Diabetes. It is not too often we're going to get someone who is the spouse of someone living with the mother of someone living with Type One Diabetes. She's like the trifecta. She is the trifecta. Oh my god. Syrah is the trifecta. I just thought of the title for this episode.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Pandora - Spotify - Amazon Alexa - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

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