#854 T1D In PR

February 22, 2023Scott Benner

ADULT TOPIC WARNING. Sexual Assault. TRIGGER WARNING: This is a frank discussion with a female assault survivor. Amanda has type 1 diabetes and she has overcome a lot.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 804 Wait, what episode is this? Oh 54 Hello friends and welcome to episode 854 of the Juicebox Podcast. I'm not editing that out you should see that I can't keep up with this

on today's show I'll be speaking with Roxanna she is not rocks on her accent Roxanna. She is the mother of a toddler with type one diabetes. And this is their story. That what they say on this hokey TV shows. Welcome today. Roxana. Roxanna, this is your story. I can't do I can't I don't. I don't. I don't have the energy for all that. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always, always, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin. And remember, my voice may be deep, but I hate those stupid voices that they put on like on the local news and stuff like that. Like Hi, Jenna. I hear it's snowing out there. Ah, I can't do that. This is Roxanne the story. Guys, listen to Andy exchange.org forward slash juicebox go take the survey please takes less 10 minutes would really help a lot of people with type one diabetes would really help me t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Should I just talk like this all the time, it would be really irritating. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Dexcom. And you know what they make? They make the Dexcom G six and Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitoring system. You're looking for that new Dexcom G seven Scottie gotcha covered dexcom.com forward slash juice box head over now. And why not while you're out and about look for an omni pod on the pod.com forward slash juice box. There's Omni pod five. On the pod dash. There's so many to choose from Omni pod.com forward slash juice box you can wear the same CGM and insulin pump that my daughter has been wearing for ever. I can't curse the ads off the bleep that out. Links in the show notes. Links at juicebox podcast.com. Support the sponsors support the show. You know I was just thinking about it. I don't think it says anywhere that I can't curse in the ads. It's interesting. Alright, I'll give that some thought.

Roxana 2:41
My name is Roxana. I'm from Puerto Rico. mom of two and my toddler is the one with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 2:48
Okay. How old is your oldest? My oldest is 12. Oh, and then the type one is how old? He is

Roxana 2:55
two years old and four months? Wow.

Scott Benner 2:58
It's still at the age where you're counting months. That's cool. I mean, not for people.

Roxana 3:04
I was about to be really awkward and say something like 36 months, Scott? No, but I controlled myself.

Scott Benner 3:12
Do you think of it that way? Still, though? No, I

Roxana 3:14
don't. Okay, good. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 3:16
don't want you to I mean, it's nice. Two years old really? is really

Roxana 3:20
a toddler. Yeah. Look for toddler stage.

Scott Benner 3:24
Yeah, the toddler like right, they start becoming really amazing around like, what, like five or six. And they're just like, so much fun at that point. And 12 Is that a boy? The 12 year old? Yes. He's

Roxana 3:34
a boy.

Scott Benner 3:35
That's getting ready to go wrong.

Roxana 3:36
So yeah, no, no, it's getting there. Yeah, it's almost there. I think we're there I'm not sure.

Scott Benner 3:43
We're almost there. Just what is when his armpits start smelling just hydrogen just high? No. On

Roxana 3:48
his armpits started smelling like about I guess. Before school ended? Like about second week of May. Yeah, his arms market stalled already.

Scott Benner 4:04
So your to your How long ago was your two year old diagnosed?

Roxana 4:08
He was diagnosed a year ago. He was diagnosed at 14 months.

Scott Benner 4:12
Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's tough. Okay. Okay, so how does that present? How do you because you don't do you don't have any other type one in the family? Um, no.

Roxana 4:24
Well, okay. So my, my husband's cousin. And that sounds really odd because that sounds so far out of like the close family relationship. So my husband's cousin. She has type one, but I never knew her like we never met her. I never knew any details about her like how she took care of herself or anything. And then, when my son was diagnosed, we found out that Hashimotos has to do with immune system So my my husband sister has Hashimotos. So yeah, there

Scott Benner 5:05
is a autoimmune in your husband's side. Yeah, for sure. And now and now now with you. Well, so you didn't know what to look for. And you

Roxana 5:16
know, I had no, I really had no context like. So 2020 obviously was difficult because of the whole pandemic. And well, my son was born in February. So he, I stopped working, like, I just decided that it wasn't worth the risk. So I stopped working. I'm a teacher. I should add that around there. I'm there. And it was difficult, the whole virtual thing. My students not showing up to class. Like, they're just like, No, I'm not going to be there. It was difficult. So I decided, like, since I had the baby, I was gonna stay home. And I stayed home. And so my son, my oldest, he was 10 at the time when I started staying home. And he was online too. So it was like, it was a win. Like, okay, I'll stay home and he's online doing his whole schoolwork, and we're gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. And there's like a fire. Yeah, well, so. So that's how everything like, and that's how we that's what we decided that we were going to do, like, because of the whole COVID thing. And then, um, we, before my son got diagnosed, my dad died. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was like really unexpected. We had to fly out to Georgia. And he was like, I, I saw my toddler. He was 10 months at the time. So obviously, it was kind of weird, like what I was seeing in him, but now when you look back to it, it's very relevant. He was peeing a lot. He was eating a lot too. Like he was eating a lot, but not gaining weight.

Scott Benner 7:06
Okay, yeah, that the vicious hunger is, is definitely it

Roxana 7:11
was like never ending like he wanted to eat everything and anything and he still does. I'm thankful for that. Because toddlers are very, sometimes very picky eaters. But he's not a picky eater at all. Like he'll eat anything,

Scott Benner 7:23
makes it easier to Bolus if you know they're gonna eat it.

Roxana 7:27
And we had some we had some How do you say that like? Like the the endo wasn't happy that I was bolusing before he ate?

Scott Benner 7:39
Really well, okay. That's not what they teach or what they know.

Roxana 7:42
She was not happy at all. And I was like, but that's how you do it. She's like, No, that's not how you do it with toddlers, because they're so unpredictable. And I'm like, No, that's how you do it. You have to Pre-Bolus Because God said so.

Scott Benner 7:57
Well, you found a way to make it work with him because he was an eater that you can count on.

Roxana 8:03
Yeah, he was really he was really good eater when we got. So he was diagnosed after like four months after we came from my dad's death. And it was kind of weird, because it was like a lot of things going on at the moment. And I was very hyper aware of a lot of things like I obsess sometimes over things. And I was at the point with with his health and like everything that was going on. I was getting on my on his doctor's nerves, like I would call the pediatrician. And he was like, oh, yeah, I have you on my caller. Id what? Like, what's your name on it already?

Scott Benner 8:42
Oh, it's Roxanna?

Roxana 8:44
Yeah. What's going on? Roxanna? Did he like not poop or something?

Unknown Speaker 8:52
Are you calling?

Scott Benner 8:53
Are you calling over everything? Or was

Roxana 8:56
I was like, Well, I don't want to say yes, but I know it was.

Scott Benner 9:02
You don't admit to it that you were calling too much or you have legitimate concerns. And you were trying to get them

Roxana 9:08
figured out? Yeah, I felt I felt like I was calling too much. But when I'm so my, my toddler's name is Fabian. So when UBN started, like peeking through his pajamas, and I looked at him and he that day, specifically that day, he had like, something was really off like he his neck was hurting. And I don't know if that has anything to do with high blood sugar, but his neck hurt it like to the point like if he looked to any of the two left or right. He was crying.

Scott Benner 9:44
Really? Yeah, it was really okay. That's interesting.

Roxana 9:48
Yeah, it was really weird. So I I took a video of it. Yeah, that's, um, to that point. I took a video of him like looking to the side and sent it to the pediatrician. And I was like, hey, This is not normal, like he has a lot of pain. And I don't know what's going on. And plus, he's paying through his PJs. And that's not normal either. So like what's going on? And he's like, Well, I bet it's not nothing. It's not anything Roxanna, but so you can be like at peace, bring him in and all. Send him to do some lab work. And let's see what's going on. And that what we did, I went to the lab and his lab results came back with high blood sugar of 680.

Scott Benner 10:33
Wow. That's pretty high. And this is just like a year ago, so maybe a year and a half.

Roxana 10:41
That's a year ago. He was diagnosed in April. April 2021. Okay.

Scott Benner 10:49
Okay. Is the is the islands still in trouble from the storm? When was the storm? 2017?

Roxana 10:58
Yeah, about 2017.

Scott Benner 11:01
Does that affect services still? Or are things moving?

Roxana 11:05
Well, things here haven't been like, great. Like, I don't want to. I know people listen to the podcast, like from all over the world. I don't want them to think like they're like, things aren't going like great, great. But we do get like power outages constantly. And but I think like about two years after the hurricane, everything kind of went back to normal. I mean, we're still struggling a little bit, but it's not like that to that extent.

Scott Benner 11:35
Okay. So improvements slowly, but not not affecting your health care services and things like that.

Roxana 11:43
The it affects health care and the and the aspect as of how far away you get, like appointment set. Oh, okay. If I recall, if I were to call today and I need an appointment for I don't know, the dentist, for example. It will be like really far off like, I could guess maybe October.

Scott Benner 12:05
Really? Yeah, well, it's spring now. So there's a does your doctor does it not count for you for diabetes? Because you have a direct line to your doctor? Where did they get their number changed?

Roxana 12:21
At least no. He haven't changed it yet. And I hope he never does. If not, I'll look him up. He has an Airbnb I'll look him up see where his Airbnb that

Scott Benner 12:32
will find them. You're not getting not getting away that easy. So, okay, so you the neck pains. Interesting. Nobody's ever said that before, but very high blood sugar into the hospital? Or was it COVID? Or did that not impact the diagnosis?

Roxana 12:51
Um, that didn't impact the diagnosis. Like it was really fast. Everything moved really, really fast. Like, I remember when the lab lady called me and she's like, Hey, does your son have diabetes? And I'm like, ha.

Scott Benner 13:08
Oh, yeah. You got that like, so? That's not exactly a skilled person who does that. Okay, I just looked at your kids bloodwork. They have diabetes, right? Like, wait, what are you talking about? Like, you know, one time, Roxanne I Arden went in to get blood work for something completely. It was just her well visit at her pediatricians office. And I knew her blood sugar was a little high when it got wrong. And I was sitting outside of the lab, watching the nurse, like run things that were you know, going to go into the office for the doctor to see they were doing it right on site right there. And she just got like, you know, like, why does it ghost like her face just dropped? And she starts looking around all panic. And she's picking up papers and walking out of the room and I put my hands up and got her attention. And I said, Hey, and she looked at me and I said we know she has diabetes. And she and she goes oh, okay, okay, like she was a rock she thought she would she thought she discovered diabetes in a kid and you should have seen how impactful it was. I felt badly actually

Roxana 14:09
love for people like to grasp the idea of him being so little and having type one it's really it's it's how you explained it like it's really difficult for for any doctor or nurse or anyone that encounters him like it'd be like, we took him to urgent care. Because be because why? Why did we take um, I don't really remember why we take him to urgent care. I know we took him to urgent care and, and the nurse because we have Dexcom Omni pod and we were we're looping so when she looks at his Omni pod it's not common here in Puerto Rico for people to have Omni pod it's like really rare because people or I would say like endocrinologist like they go for the traditional pa Um, like to PhD and all of that. So when when the nurse like saw like he had the Omni pot and then the Dexcom she was like so. So what's going on? Like, why does he have so many things? I'm like, No, I'm explaining to her and my brain goes like an automatic like when people talk to me about diabetes, I want to give him like the full on experience of like, what's going on? And then, like, go back and say, oh, yeah, this is Dexcom it his blood sugar tells me like, What were his blood sugar's out. And this is his insulin pump. And that's it. And like I

Scott Benner 15:35
have to, well, you'll just go on.

Roxana 15:38
Yeah, because if not, I'll go on and I'll explain the loop. And I'll explain that it gives insulin if it sees him rising, and then I'll explain that it takes away basil and then I have to explain basil.

Scott Benner 15:50
You start a lecture, a lecture series, actually, it sounds like so when you go into that urgent care, and the person notices it, do they accept your description, and move on?

Roxana 16:01
Anything about it? They I tell my husband a lot of times, like if we have to take into urgent care if it's like that, to that extent. I always tell my husband not to mention the diabetes. Like if it's not like how do I explain it? If it's not because the lab work comes out like his blood sugar is too high or something like I tell him not to say anything about it. Because usually doctors like only focus, even though he came like for, I don't know, leg pain or something. They'll they'll focus on Oh, he has type one. Oh, so it must be because he has type one. And it just gets really annoying. So I try not to like focus on on his diabetes, like when we take him to anywhere?

Scott Benner 16:50
Well, yeah, not only annoying, but you might really not get the care you deserve. Or this available if they start thinking, you know, they start kind of I mean, how could it happen, right? They could see your kid here, diabetes, and then start commingling. All of the diabetes stories, they have to gather and think oh, this is because they don't take care of their blood sugar or something like that. And now suddenly, your kids like pains being treated like they're like a 63 year old type two, who, you know, it whose blood sugar is all over the place? That makes sense. Sorry, no, that makes sense. I was gonna I just want to say,

Roxana 17:26
yeah, that same nurse, she came in, and she wanted to, like poke his finger, and like to break down his head, like what his blood sugar was that and I looked at her and I was like, why are you going to do that? Because we're not here for that. Not to be rude, but like, and she's like, No, because since he has type one, well, you have to write down what his blood sugar's at. And I looked at my cell phone. I was like, He's 106. Yeah. What time is that from? And I'm like, from right now.

Scott Benner 17:57
Right? Yeah. Does she understand that

Roxana 17:59
the technology doesn't like?

Scott Benner 18:02
Or did she ask, did she still want to do the finger stick? Excuse me? Did she accept that number from the Dexcom? Or does she still want to do the finger stick?

Roxana 18:11
No, she accepted it. Be I told her like, it's 106. And it's stable, so that it's fairly accurate. And she just looked at me like, I know she's missing like information. I know. She wants to ask, but she did it.

Scott Benner 18:27
You have a magic thing on your cell phone?

Roxana 18:31
It's frustrating. It's frustrating. Like, because we're there's so many. We're lagging, we're lagging a lot.

Scott Benner 18:42
A lot of places are too. It's not just because you're in Puerto Rico either. Right? Or do you think it is something to do with with your geography?

Roxana 18:52
I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 18:55
So that you can get the stuff there. But you're not you're not getting Dexcom and Omnipod? Like through a family member on

Roxana 19:03
it? No, no, we Dexcom Dexcom is provided by a medical supplying company, obviously, um, then Omnipod is supplied by another company, which I haven't called regularly and they do not have my number on their, on their cell phone, asking them for the Omnipod five. But they're, they're very diligent, and I'm very thankful that they they do provide us with everything. Yeah.

Scott Benner 19:31
Are you thinking about trying the Omnipod? Five? Um,

Roxana 19:35
well, I'm kind of like in between, because I've read that Omnipod five only connects like to one device.

Scott Benner 19:43
Oh, like, like, it could either be the I see what you're saying can either be the receiver for the Dexcom or the PDM for the Omni pod? Is that what you're saying?

Roxana 19:55
Yeah, and I'm not sure like I haven't read into it, but uh, you can answer that. For me, I'm not sure if, like, if it connects to the PDM on the Omnipod five will that? Will that not? Let me see his numbers? Like if I do the follow with the follow up?

Scott Benner 20:13
So does he have a cell phone? Yes, then No, you'd still be able to see it on the fallout for the Dexcom. Okay, yeah, because Arden's using Omnipod five right now we're just trying to like wrap our head around it. And she's using the PDM. And her cell phone is transmitting her Dexcom data to me.

Roxana 20:37
Oh, okay.

Scott Benner 20:37
But you do lose some of like, you know, with loop, or using Nightscout with loop?

Roxana 20:43
No, I'm not using Nightscout. Because I haven't figured out how to set it up. But I'm on that. Gotcha. Because I've read I read and I don't know if I can say this, but you can,

Scott Benner 20:54
why not? What are you gonna say? What do you get?

I read something what's gonna happen right now?

Roxana 21:03
The FDA may numb this their Guinea,

Unknown Speaker 21:05
pigs are listening.

Roxana 21:08
How do you say I'm blue?

Scott Benner 21:20
How would you like to know what your blood sugar is, without poking a hole in your finger, you can with the Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitoring system, which is available@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. Not only this Dexcom offers zero finger sticks. But you can get your glucose readings right on your smart device that's your iPhone or your Android don't have a phone. That's okay. You can use Dex comms receiver. On any of these devices, you're able to set up customizable alerts and alarms, setting your optimal range so that you'll get notified when your glucose levels go too high or too low. And you can share this data with up to 10 followers. Imagine what that could look like your child could be at school, and their data could be available to you, your spouse, their aunt, the school nurse, anyone who you choose, my daughter has been wearing a Dexcom for ever. And it helps us in multiple ways. Around meals, we're able to see if our boluses are well timed, and well measured. If they aren't, we can tell by how her blood sugar reacts and then go back the next time and make an adjustment. Without the Dexcom CGM. We're sort of flying blind, but not just that meals. Also during activity and sleep. The Dexcom offers us an unprecedented level of comfort and security, being able to see my daughter's blood sugars in real time. And not just the number. But the speed and direction is an absolute game changer. If you're using insulin dexcom.com forward slash juice box head over there today to see if you're eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six. The Dexcom is at the center of how we've been able to keep our daughter's a one C between five two and six two. for over seven years, we've been able to minimize variability and keep her blood sugar's in a stable range because of the information that we can see with the Dexcom these are our results and yours may vary. But using Dex coms feedback has helped my daughter without any food restrictions, live a more normal and healthy life dexcom.com forward slash juice box my daughter Arden began wearing the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump on February 4 2009. That was 5093 days ago. Were another way to think of it 1697 pods ago. At that time, she was four years old. Hang out with me for a moment while I tell you more about the Omni pod Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Today Arden is 18 and still wearing Omni pod back then there was one choice just one pod but today you have a decision to make. Do you want the Omni pod five, the first and only tubeless automated insulin delivery system to integrate with the Dexcom G six because if you do, it's available right now for people with type one diabetes ages two years and older. The Omni pod five is an algorithm based pump that features smart adjust technology. That means that the Omni pod five is adjusting insulin delivery based on your customized target glucose that's helping you to protect against high and low blood sugars, both day and night. Automatically. Both the Omni pod five and the Omni pod dash are waterproof. You can wear them while you're playing sports, swimming in the shower, the bathtub, anywhere really. That kind of freedom. coupled with tubeless, a tubeless pump, you understand it's not connected to anything, the controller is not connected to the pot, the pod is not connected to anything, you're wearing it on the body tube lessly no tubing to get caught on doorknobs or anywhere else that tubing with those other insulin pumps can get caught Omni pod.com forward slash juice box, that's where you go to find out more, you may be eligible for a free 30 day trial of the Omni pod dash, you should check that out too, when you get to my link, Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. So if you're looking for an insulin pump that is tubeless waterproof, and automated, you're looking for the Omni pod five. If you want to do it on your own, you're not looking for the automation, Omni pod dash for full safety risk information and free trial Terms and Conditions. Please also visit omnipod.com forward slash juicebox.

Roxana 26:10
I try to translate in Spanish and it's a little bit difficult. Okay. I read that loop has it the new the new version of loop and it and it permits remote Bolus,

Scott Benner 26:22
oh, really, it's funny, I don't keep up as much I know that they're, and by they I mean the magical people online who are who work on loop. I know they're working on a version for on the pod dash currently that I expect to see made more public soon. But I didn't know that they were working on it. So they're working on remote Bolus for the actual loop app that exists now for the

Roxana 26:45
actual loop app. And the only way that you can remote Bolus if you if you have Nightscout setup. So that's why I'm so obsessed with getting Nightscout setup because obviously, if I'm far away and what the toddler and all, he doesn't really stay anywhere, he's at my he's at my mother in law's house right now. But she lives about like five minutes away from my house. So I was like, I left her all his like, snacks. And I told her please don't give him anything out of this. Because he usually like runs really high carbs or real sensitive like because he's so small, obviously. So I gave her all this snacks, like Carol is snacks. If he wants anything, please pick out of this. And I'm going to be home and I'm going to be watching these numbers. Please don't call my husband if anything happens if he goes low. Please give him this juice box. And I got like I gave her like really quick rundown and I just

Scott Benner 27:41
left. Does she watched them frequently or No, no, she doesn't watch them

Roxana 27:45
at all. Like it's really rare that I let

Scott Benner 27:48
go. But today's special.

Roxana 27:52
Yeah. Today's special because I wanted to talk to you. And I wanted to insist and you getting the program in Spanish.

Scott Benner 28:01
I have to tell you, Roxanna, listen, for years, and I'm not kidding. For years and years and years, I've wanted to do this. I started off by thinking well, I can let me just get the Pro Tip series put into Spanish like that would be helpful. Right? Yeah. So how do you do that? And you know, it comes down to it's this recorded thing. There's no transcript of it. I mean, I guess we could make a transcript of it and have somebody read it. But then wouldn't it feel kind of fake if people were just reading back and forth. So I thought, well, maybe like voice actors who can like listen in their ears too, while Jenny and I are talking. And then in the end, I just don't have the money for it. Like I wouldn't not only do I not know where to begin. But even if I had an idea of where to begin, I can't pay people to do that. And that's why. And I try and no disrespect to anybody. I bring it out to almost every advertiser, like hey, would you guys like to, you know, pay for this to happen? And I'm like, it would open it up to a completely new, you know, group of people. And I'm sure those people have insurance and would want to buy devices and things and stuff. And you could sponsor the whole thing. And I have not gotten anybody to say yes yet. But I do. I pitched a lot. So I appreciate how how valuable it's been for you. And I am aware like somebody just asked me the other day to like, you know, turn on the Spanish subtitles on YouTube. And I thought, Oh, that's a nice, easy fix. Except I can't even figure out how to do that. So I'm working on it. Yeah,

Roxana 29:36
I'm guessing also like, like, if you do turn on the Spanish subtitles on. On YouTube, someone's gonna have to read that anyways, because sometimes the the translation isn't

Scott Benner 29:49
good. Well, that and then you're bumping into the real concern, like the main concern I have, which is I'm not fluent, or even a little fluent in Spanish. So I can't quality control anything that's being done. Like I could say to a voice actor, listen to what I say and say this, but I won't know how to hear what they say and make sense of it. So I don't know if they're doing it the way I intend or not. And then what happens if they start filling in, like taking liberties to fill in gaps where the words don't translate, and that comes off wrong? Like, I don't want that either. So I don't know, I would need, I would literally need two people to read the parts of Jenny and Scott. And I would need a third person to be able that understood me. And my diabetes sensibilities and, and understood the podcast and English to be able to then listen to it in Spanish, and say, This checks out, or no, we can't say this, like this. I just don't have a, I don't have a setup like that here.

Roxana 30:45
Now. It's like, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Because you would need someone that understands English, that understands Spanish, and that also understands the terms of diabetes, because there's a lot of people that are bilingual, but understand, like the components of diabetes, and all the Pro Tip series, all the things that you guys say, Yeah, that's a lot.

Scott Benner 31:05
Yeah. And then on top of that, I mean, there's what 25 pro tip episodes 44 Defining diabetes episodes is probably going to end up being like, you know, by the time you're done, it's 100 hours of content, after all the series get a handle. And I mean, it sounds to me like it would take a year like it would take a concerted effort by a small group of people, probably a year to get it done. And I mean, I swear, if I knew how to do it, I would definitely do it. I'm sorry. I know that every time.

Roxana 31:35
I know you try your best to like get to get to everyone. It's just sometimes like I when I started listening, I didn't even start at the Pro Tip series. I started on a random on a random episode of a mom that adopted and I don't know if she adopted him with diabetes already. Or he got diabetes after her adopting him anyways, it was a real rough episode because she she explains like all the things that she had to go through because he's adopted because all this all of his conditions, and it was really rough. And I wanted my husband to listen to it. Like, look what's going on. Like, I want to, I want to talk to you about this. And he's like, explain it. I was like, the half of the episode and I'm like, forget it.

Scott Benner 32:28
So you're almost having to, like translate it for your husband while you're listening to it.

Roxana 32:34
Yeah, yeah. I the episodes that I've translated for him have been like the the get basil, right. The first one that's like, newly diagnosed I don't know if it's new like that newly diagnosed or it's like,

Scott Benner 32:56
I don't remember one called newly diagnosed or starting over.

Roxana 32:59
I think it's that one. That's

Scott Benner 33:01
the first one in the in the Pro Tip series that that episode has over 50,000 downloads. Like that episode has been downloaded 50,000 times, which freaks me out.

Roxana 33:15
I bet like a third of the eyes me like

Scott Benner 33:21
don't ruin the illusion Roxanne.

Roxana 33:25
No, I guess it doesn't count that I like that anyways, because I'm guessing like, download per? Like,

Scott Benner 33:31
keep it on your phone. Like it doesn't live on your phone. Yeah, it lives on my Yeah, then it's not a download every time you listen. Oh, then I tried to delete it and listen to it again. Anyway, don't do that. I would appreciate it if you want it to. But don't do that.

Unknown Speaker 33:47
Yeah, so well.

Scott Benner 33:51
The frustrating thing is that if we had people in place to do it, then they could keep up with new episodes. Like then a new episode could come out. And it would almost be like a talent develop like my podcast. You don't I mean, like just these two voice actors sitting back just reading the, you know, like their script. I really do. It's one of the things I really do want to accomplish and I just can't seem to get anybody to get behind it. So

Roxana 34:15
I hope I really hope you get there something soon. Like not I'm not rushing you. But if you can do it tomorrow, I'll really appreciate you. Yeah, any anytime? No, it's just because the fact that you provide so much valuable information and like so. So like layman's terms, like it's like baby food, it's like here, thank you here you here have it and like you can digest it easily. And it just, I would it would be such a value for my family obviously because my family is not bilingual. I'm bilingual but it's because my dad was he was a vet. He was a military so I'm How do you think that you're a

Scott Benner 35:00
military army brat.

Roxana 35:02
Yeah, I'm an Army brat. So that's why I'm bilingual. And I have that privilege of having two languages. And that's obviously that opens a lot of doors. But I just wish like I could, at least that first that episode that you have that that's like for, like, what's it called? That's like for someone like listen to this. If, if you're if you have diabetes, or if you don't know what it's like explaining diabetes, I think,

Scott Benner 35:30
yeah, I know which one you mean. I'm just trying to figure out what episode number it is. Hold on a second. It's it's a part of it's, it's part of the Pro Tip series. And it was asked for by listeners, it's called. I'm looking Oh, it's just called explaining if diabetes pro tip explaining type one. It's episode 371. It's Jenny and I talking about? Like, we just kind of sat down and thought like, what would what needs to be said to people in your life so that they can understand diabetes a little bit? And even just that you said would be really helpful?

Roxana 36:06
Yeah, even just that like them? Learning like the layman's terms like carbs, fats, protein, like, How many times have I said and I know sometimes I can be a little bit rude, but not not to use God not then I'm like, in my daily routine, like sometimes that can be really rude, but it's just the simple fact. Like, for example, I'll be at my mother in law's house. And my son will ask if he can eat some cheese like he'll go to the fridge and he already knows where the cheeses and he's she's like, she'll look at me like with those big with big eyes like scared? Yeah. Can he have cheese? And I'm like, for the 100 billion time can tell she's given cheese like I don't they won't. They won't affect his blood sugars. Like maybe in the future. Maybe if it was like a really absurd amount of cheese. Maybe it would because of the fat

Scott Benner 37:00
eventually would slow as digestion down it might push his blood sugar up, but yeah, but a slice of cheese is gonna be okay. And, and this person in your life cannot commit that to memory.

Roxana 37:08
No, like, it's really rough. It's really rough. Like Father's Day we had turkey. Like when my son didn't want anything, and here, we eat a lot of carbs. Like we're crazy. We eat lasagna with white rice. Like like that's not good, Scott.

Scott Benner 37:32
What's for dinner? We're gonna make a bread salad with lasagna and white rice. Now I would like to sprinkle sugar over top of the entire confection. It's going to be wonderful and

Roxana 37:41
if and if someone makes beans even better yeah, both are

Scott Benner 37:45
just throw beans on the whole thing. With a spoon. Is that cultural?

Roxana 37:50
Yes, that's cultural full, like fully cultural. We would like my husband can't go a day without eating rice.

Scott Benner 37:57
This is part of his it's just part of it. It's like

Roxana 38:00
ingrained in him yeah, not in my in my not in me like in him because he's, he's grown here his whole life. But I can do the pasta I can change like if if we're going to eat pasta. I'll do like the garbanzo one for Fabi chickpeas. Yeah. All do the high protein one. The new I found one that's high protein. That's I think it's smart pasta or something

Scott Benner 38:30
like that. Roxanne I don't want to get too far past this before I mentioned that so far. My favorite part of this episode as you said engrained about rice and of course rice as a grain and I was just planning I was totally tickled when you said that I was like oh rice is ingrained in her husband's diet and then I started wondering like the but I thought like they're like that like is there like a Spanish version of that that we could have used instead? And anyway my mind got very far away from me when you said that I was like so well, are there no other options? Or is it just there are other options but people just don't don't use them?

Roxana 39:12
Um, there are there are many options like we have a lot of options I've done quinoa I've I do the pasta like low low carb pasta. But pasta usually doesn't affect his blood sugar's as much as rice would we change the rice for basmati? And that's that's made a real change my sent my oldest doesn't love it, but he won't. He won't say anything about it but a

Scott Benner 39:40
little drier, I think is what I want to say basmati rice. By the way. I think the boss Mati rice industry owes me money but that's just neither here nor there. I said one time like I find basmati rice easier and Arden's blood sugar and now like, you know, and that was sold out. And there's a culture of people who are like honestly If I should, at least an ad or something right or a Christmas card, even from Whoever sells basmati rice, I'd like to hear from you. Well, that's excellent. Like, I mean, it's excellent that you're making changes and you're doing things but it's still, it's just prevailing. It's, it's not, it's not going away. So you have to learn how to Bolus for these things. And your doctor was telling you don't Pre-Bolus Because you don't know what he's gonna eat.

Roxana 40:24
Yeah, he was like, No, don't know. And it was, it was really upsetting frustrating. Because when Fabi was diagnosed, our first Endo, she gave him and pH. Really NPH. And our,

Scott Benner 40:44
you know, I just talked to a grown man last night who was given that,

Roxana 40:49
like, was diagnosed in 2021. It's not like we're not like, why are we giving toddlers this insulin? And I asked her about it. And I was like, Hey, do you think we can change his insulin? Because I don't see him like being stable ever. Yeah. And she's like, No, because those are the insulins that we recommend for toddlers. And I was like, Okay, well, then I'm not going to schedule another appointment.

Scott Benner 41:20
Did you switch doctors?

Roxana 41:21
Yeah, we did.

Scott Benner 41:22
Good for you. Hey, real quick, a second ago. You paused a long time before you found upsetting and frustrating. Did Spanish words pop into your head instead? When you what pops into your head? A bad Spanish word? I'll just say because we can curse in Spanish. But what? What popped into your head?

Roxana 41:41
I thought why in carbona? I was so pissed off.

Scott Benner 41:45
Can you tell me what it means? I'll bleep it out.

Roxana 41:49
Like in Ghana means like, pissed off. But here in English. It's not a bad word. But if I say that in like a public place, like people will look at me weird.

Scott Benner 42:01
Oh, I see. It would seem harsh in public. Yeah. Oh, I see. I say Oh, okay. I could just tell like, there was a moment where you, you reached for a word, and you found one in Spanish. And then you were like, upsetting? And so? Yeah, that's really interesting. Wow, it's such a so it's so amazing to be bilingual. Like, just, it's a real gift. It really is.

Roxana 42:25
Yeah, it is. I love it with my son, my son's bilingual also. And me and my son, my oldest, obviously, my toddler. He also knows a lot of English words. But my oldest he has a sense of humor. Like he's getting into that personality person adult, not Oh my God, help I got

Scott Benner 42:43
personality. Thank you.

Roxana 42:45
And like, feeling like, free like he can express his what he's feeling and all of that. And like he'll, he'll talk to me and he'll talk to me like half in English and then half in Spanish. And then my husband will come out ahead the rooms like, are you guys talking about me?

Scott Benner 43:06
Be fair, do you talk about your husband in English.

Roxana 43:09
Um, sometimes. I'll, I'll My, my, my husband, he likes. He likes to think or imagine like, nobody lives in this house. And he wants it to be always like, clean

Scott Benner 43:25
and organized. You're gonna have to give up on that. If you have a kid. Yeah,

Roxana 43:29
I'm like, You're gonna have to like, move us out.

Scott Benner 43:34
If you put us outside the house, we'll get cleaner.

Roxana 43:37
Thank you buy another house, we'll use that house to live in. And you can live in this one that's always like organized. Do you can you can do that.

Scott Benner 43:44
I remember when I came to that conclusion, when my kids were young. And I thought, listen, we live in this house, there's just, there's either enough time to live in it or keep it clean. Not both. Just as they get older, it gets easier. You know, if you're, you know,

Roxana 44:00
I'll usually tell my my oldest, like, clean your room or pick up your shoes or something

Scott Benner 44:06
we used to have, we still have a rule where if you went to your room, you took something of yours with you. Nobody ever walked to the room without something in their hand. Like grab this grab. As a matter of fact, we were cleaning up for our son's graduation party recently. And my wife said to my kids, like you guys remember when you were little we used to say Hey, pick three things that are yours and take it to your room right now. She's like, do that and keep doing it until all your stuffs out. But anyway, that's great. So not a lot of differences. What kind of you said you stopped working but did you go back or no?

Roxana 44:41
I kind of went back in February of this year, I I was selling brownies. Like I was doing like the side thing and like trying to get some income to pay at least some of my things. And I was selling brownies and making cookies and I went to a former school that I worked at. And my boss at that time, she was at the front like she was at the secretary. She was like, Hey, we don't have a secretary. And we don't have a science teacher. What are you doing? And I'm like, Well, I'm at home, but Fabi has type one. And we really don't have anyone to take care of him. And I don't think this is a good idea. And she was like, no, if you want, if you want all contract you and you can bring Fabi Oh, wow. So and I'm like, Yeah,

Scott Benner 45:36
did that work? Like were you able to accomplish that?

Roxana 45:38
Yeah, it kind of worked. I want to say it did. But I really didn't. It was really rough. Because, okay, Fabi is with me, I can see his blood sugar, I can see I can take care of him. But like we were in like, we were in a classroom all day. Yeah, from eight o'clock till three o'clock. And Fabi was he like, I'm not lying. He he did good. Like he was, he was being good. But at times, he would just be like a regular kid, he wanted to go outside. He wanted, he knew there was a park there. So we would go to the park, he would play with my students. I taught seventh through 12th grade. And he wanted to play with my students. And most of them were really accepting of folly in the classroom. And at the end of the school year, they were like, We're gonna miss him if he doesn't come next year. And I'm like, but I'm not cutting.

Scott Benner 46:32
This didn't work for me. Well, you basically had two jobs at once you taking care of them. You're teaching these kids

Roxana 46:38
and teaching. Yeah, it was rough, because sometimes I would be on the whiteboard. And that's when I decided that I wasn't ever going to write on a whiteboard. Again. I would start writing something. And Fabi would take a marker and he would start writing also. And I would be like, half the half the board written and half the board would be raised because Fabi would erase it.

Scott Benner 47:00
I can't see how I mean, to be perfectly honest. It's nice that they wanted to be able to I mean, I guess it sounds like they were stuck. So they were willing to make concessions. But

Roxana 47:08
yeah, they were they were in need, like they were really in need. And I started and I did, I did what I could, and I was about to like, not return. At some point. I was like, No, I'm not doing this again. But I was like their fourth science teacher. So it was also rough on them as students like having so many teachers on in one school year. So I was like, No, I'm not gonna give up on them. Let me just like push till the end. And we made it until the second week of May. And I said goodbye. That's, that's all. That's all for this year. I

Scott Benner 47:42
can't do this anymore. It's interesting. Well, I hope that things changed a little bit. Maybe you can find a place for Fabi to be with like daycare or like some kind of care with a family member and that maybe you could Did you enjoy the work?

Roxana 47:56
Yeah, I enjoyed it. I it's just the commute was a little bit long. Usually here in Puerto Rico, there's a lot of traffic jams. And I don't know if it's because there's so many cars or everyone goes to work to the same area. Okay, because more there's more opportunity to work obviously. It's really draining like it's it's like a one hour commute and then an hour almost an hour back

Scott Benner 48:25
in like stops that standstill traffic. How far how many miles? Would you go in that hour?

Roxana 48:33
Like, how many miles per hour? Or how many miles to get to my job?

Scott Benner 48:36
Yeah, how many miles to get the job?

Roxana 48:39
I wouldn't be able to answer I have no idea. It's not like I can I can Google it. It's not that far. Like if there's if there's no if there's no. How do you say that like congest there's no traffic, like, let's say a Sunday afternoon. And I want to go like to the same area or the same town that I worked at. It's like a 30 minute drive maybe 25 out much. But since that the when it's when it's like the weekdays. It's just a little bit harder. No, I understand.

Scott Benner 49:11
Yeah. No, then it just adds to the day. And then your husband's working too. Right. So yeah, my

Roxana 49:17
husband's a police officer here in Puerto Rico.

Scott Benner 49:19
Oh, wow. So who does your 12 year old stay with if your husband and you are working? Because that I guess that's a problem to

Roxana 49:26
school. He's at school or? Or he's with me or he's at score and he's with his dad because he's not my husband, son.

Unknown Speaker 49:35
Oh, okay. I see.

Scott Benner 49:38
So, how has diabetes been in this in this first year? I mean, it sounds like you're doing incredibly well. Honestly.

Roxana 49:47
Um, it was rough at first. Like. I remember like when they when the doctor told us, he told us he told us. He told us the scientific word. for Taiwan, diabetes, Mala whatever, I don't even know the word diabetes mellitus, something like that. And like my husband and I looked at each other and hmm. And then he used layman's terms. He was like, No, he has type one. And then my husband cried for the first time ever. I don't know. Never seen him cry. How long have you

Scott Benner 50:21
been with him? About 10 years? 10 years the first time you saw him cry? Yeah. Really? Not at your wedding. Not at the birth of a kid. No, no, no. And he was inconsolable.

Roxana 50:36
He was he was crying. And I was like, stuck it up.

Scott Benner 50:41
That's why he doesn't cry because he didn't want to get yelled at.

Roxana 50:46
He doesn't know he didn't. He cried that day. And we just pushed through it. I obviously, this technology helps a lot. And I just Googled everything was like, What are we going to do now? Google Tell me, what are we going to do?

Scott Benner 51:03
What's what's the first thing you figured out?

Roxana 51:06
I figured out that we did not want Medtronic pumps.

Scott Benner 51:11
Okay, and you got that from like, like social media,

Roxana 51:16
from media from reviews from Reddit. And like most like when you go online, and you look up type one diabetes, and you look up any like pictures or anything, like usually they have or T slammed tandem or they have libre, and, and the Dexcom. And usually, usually at the end DOS, office, they they have a lot of like libre advertising, okay? They don't have the Dexcom advertising. But I figured out Dexcom so I pushed my pediatrician to get us Dexcom. But it was like it was rough at first because I didn't know what to expect. And I usually like to know what to expect. I like to plan. And so it was difficult for me because because I had to figure it out alone.

Scott Benner 52:07
Do you have good health insurance to your husband's job?

Roxana 52:12
We have this the the state like with air quotes around it because we're not a state. But yeah, we have the the one that they give us here for free. And it's an it covers everything. Oh,

Scott Benner 52:27
cool. That's excellent. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so you got technology pretty quickly because you use the internet? And, but how do you figure out how to use it?

Roxana 52:37
At least and what part on the on the Omni pod?

Scott Benner 52:41
Yeah, I mean, just start with an app right? Like, is the doctor walking you through how to use the insulin pump? When we

Roxana 52:49
got when we got the Omni pod? We got it in August. So I'm gonna say like six four months after diagnose August Yeah, for months, we got and we we got set up with like a person that explained like what we're going to do and like how we're going to put the Basal rates in because obviously, we weren't looping. In August, we were just regular with PDM and the regular Basal rates and all that. And like we were with him for about like a week. And then my son decided to take the PDM and throw it in the toilet. Oh. Great. Great start. So when that happened, I called him I'm like, Hey, we're not gonna be able to continue like talking because I don't have a PDM so I'm just gonna wait out the politics buyer and take it off and go back to NDI which we weren't doing bad with MDI. But it was just frustrating to go back. So when the PDM is flushed, we go back to MDI. And it was like about a week and a half or two weeks before we got a new PDM and then we started all over again, and this time we used to I started alone, like I didn't call him to tell him hey, I got a PDM Can you help me? I was like, No, yeah, because he was being way too conservative. And he was my son was running high like most of the day in the 203 Hundreds and I was just freaking out.

Scott Benner 54:24
So they set you up on a pump but gave you week settings that were leading to and were you Pre-Bolus thing at that point too. Yeah, we were Yeah, so the settings are just weak.

Roxana 54:35
The settings were just way off like he had us at point 10 Basil Ray and his card was like one two. I want to say at what was this?

Scott Benner 54:49
How did you know what to move them to? Did you just try something or did I just

Roxana 54:53
I just listened and listen to your to the to the Basal one episode where the basil one and then I listened into you have another one like the perfect Bolus. And then I just read a lot like I read and read and read and like I hyper focused on getting it right. And we're still far away from like, the 90 in range percentile. Like we're still at 75 ad.

Lija Greenseid 55:23
Max. And did you send me a lot of panic messages in the beginning?

Scott Benner 55:28
Was that you? Yeah, it was right. With me, like, what? I just brought it up. So I could, I could ask you what it's like to, to know that something needs to be fixed, but not have any idea of how to handle it.

Roxana 55:44
Yeah, one of the messages I sent you, I was like, freaking out. And you just said, You're so calm, like, you're so zen. Like, Hey, do you think you can like, maybe, like up the basil like point 05 And see what happens? I'm like, Okay, I'll do that. And I did it. And everything changed. And everything was in range. Again, I'm like, Ah, I could have done that.

Scott Benner 56:12
Right, Roxette, I don't know that I'm incredibly Zen or anything like that. I just think that when one person seems upset, it's not great for the second person to be like, Oh, my God, you know, like, it just somebody has to just, you know, just go through the steps, you know, like, well, this isn't working. What would happen if you tried this, and I mean, point 05, even with a really little kid. I mean, that's, that's a very small move. And you were describing higher blood sugars, that I just couldn't imagine that that much of a change was going to make a low blood sugar, right, like, so let's see the impact, and then make a decision on what to do next, based on this impact. And, and you were able to do that, which is really great.

Roxana 56:54
Yeah, you, you, you were like, I don't know, like when I wrote you the first time, I was skeptical. I was like, He's not gonna read this, he has to have like, 350 messages on Instagram. And his email has to be like, really ridiculous amount of email. So I was like, I'm gonna write see what's going on, see if I can get something like and that was it. And then after that, I think I messaged you again, and like, I sent you a graph because he was going really high after eating. Right? And I think we just like did. We did like, sorry about that. We did like, carbs ratio, range. And then that was it. And then we got back again. And like, now, as I look back, I don't like I do stress, but it's not like I'm gonna die like that. The for at the at the beginning of diagnosis. It's like, okay, I'm going to stress because he's going high. But it's okay. Let me see what I can change. Like, because when we've started looping, looping is really aggressive.

Scott Benner 58:06
Or using auto Bolus? Yeah, where you

Roxana 58:08
bought a bottle Bolus. And it was being really, really aggressive. And I'm like, Oh, my God, what's going on? Am I gonna hate this? And then I got into the loop group, and then I got to a little loopers group. And they helped me out a lot. So it's like it's been, it's always like a learning process. And I guess people that see it from the outside or see it from afar, they see oh, yeah, they're doing great. But it's really rough.

Scott Benner 58:38
Sure. It's a lot of frustration. And it's a lot of fear, too. Yeah, just if I do this, what's going to happen? I think is the is the biggest concern, and the only thing that pushes you is that not doing anything seems to be bad as well. So you start, you start thinking like, Well, I mean, can it get worse than this, you know, than the 300 blood sugar all day long. I mean, to give you a lot of credit for, for being able to push through that it's a it's not an easy thing to do. I guess it's a function of, of kind of being alone, right? And feeling like if I don't do something nobody else is going to.

Roxana 59:16
Yeah, it's literally that feeling because one time when I talked to my husband about like, hey, I need you on my team, I need us to like be on the same path of his care. Because sometimes that obviously me being a stay at home mom and knowing everything that goes on and one day he he was lacking. But now lacking in the sense like I don't want to know anything about it. But it's because obviously he's working. So when I talked to him, he was like, well, then you have to make me a list. And you have to tell me and you have to do this and like, I'm like I looked at him like dead in his face. And I was like, no one did that for me.

Scott Benner 59:56
You gotta figure it out the same way. I did. Yeah.

Roxana 1:00:00
but you're gonna have to read, you're gonna have to do your research like Do whatever you have to do, but you're gonna have to do it is He? He's, he's figured some things out like he knows like we we have different bread for for Fabi because like regular bread is like really bad. I'm sorry about that.

Scott Benner 1:00:19
No, you're fine. I don't know what you're apologizing for so I didn't hear anything. Okay, that's good. But what? Tell me what?

Roxana 1:00:26
nation went off?

Scott Benner 1:00:28
Oh no, you're fine. Don't worry. So yeah, like so you actually have a bread in the house? It's for Fabi and you have one that's for everybody else.

Roxana 1:00:35
Yeah. But usually we just eat whatever's available like if Fabi is the one that fabious Bread is there. We'll just use that one. So, I tried to do alternate alternate alternate alternative alternatives. Yes, thank you. Because white bread is the devil saltine crackers are the devil. Regular white rice is the well, we didn't try and I tried to obviously help him like, Hey, babe, we don't use this rice. We're gonna use this rice or, Hey, I did this. I have everything set up. But usually I don't leave the house very much. And if we do we leave as a family. Okay. But it's a lot of stress. Like I my brain is like thinking of like everything that we have to take if we're going out.

Scott Benner 1:01:22
We you started to talk earlier about maybe being because you have some anxiety. Oh, yeah. Did you have it before diabetes?

Roxana 1:01:31
No, not as intense. But I've, uh, but I know I do have it like, because I do like to plan like I mentioned earlier, I like to plan everything. But it's just because I hate the I hate like the like the like the weird silence for so for example, like that weird. Like, we don't know what we're going to do and where we're at. I hate that. And I like we went to Disney. I know this is way off topic. But we went to Disney and I had everything like really, really planned out of everything we were going to do. But this certain day, my husband decides no, we're going to be adventurous and we're going to animal kingdom. And like on a Saturday.

Scott Benner 1:02:16
How did that mess anything up?

Roxana 1:02:19
And he's like, Yeah, we're going to Animal Kingdom on a Saturday animals like okay, you okay? I'm gonna trust you. We're gonna go and we're gonna have fun. We weren't even like an hour in. And I looked at my toddler and he hands me his decks comps, his like, could the sensor like he took it off and he hands it to me. He pulled it off. He pulled it off.

Scott Benner 1:02:43
Well, that's not that's not animal kingdoms fault. Is it?

Roxana 1:02:47
animal kingdoms fault? Because that wasn't the plan.

Scott Benner 1:02:50
Oh, rocks. Little do you have a little OCD.

Lija Greenseid 1:02:55
Now maybe. But you do. Okay. Well, your husband being a cop, though. What you do okay with your husband being a cop?

Roxana 1:03:04
I feel okay, because he's not working like and high risk area. He used to work in a high risk area when we started dating, but not anymore.

Scott Benner 1:03:12
Did it bother you more than? Yeah, I

Roxana 1:03:14
did. Okay, I wouldn't. He used to work in the area where there was a lot of like nightclubs and a lot of nightlife like gangster nightlife. And yeah, I would be like wrecked, I wouldn't sleep, I would be like texting him is everything. Okay. We I've worked on it. And I do have, like I mentioned earlier about the appointments. I do you have an appointment, like and I think in about two weeks, because I know I have a really high anxiety but it's just because I want to be prepared. And I know that and I know that's like really counter controversial, right?

Scott Benner 1:03:54
Well, no, I mean, I understand wanting to be prepared. And I realize and I but I do want to be prepared or are you trying to stop unknown problems?

Roxana 1:04:02
Yeah, I want to stop a new problems. Definitely things don't

Scott Benner 1:04:05
work that way. You have your preparation is is the end of it. Like you're, you have the things you need. And if something goes wrong, then you go to the the knowledge you have and start implementing what you know, and you do your best with it. But you know, I know you know this, but you don't want it to to impede your life or, or if obvious life you don't I mean,

Roxana 1:04:29
yeah, I know and I try my best like to tone it down. And I do recognize that I do need to get like some sort of help on that part. But um, it's just hard. No, I understand. And I and I started and I when I sat down, I said I wasn't gonna cry today, Scott, so I

Scott Benner 1:04:51
make you cry.

Roxana 1:04:54
I'm just like, holding back.

Scott Benner 1:04:56
Well, you can cry if you're like, Hey, do you do you cry in Spanish?

Roxana 1:05:01
How'd you cry in Spanish?

Scott Benner 1:05:03
I don't know. I'm just being silly.

Roxana 1:05:06
I'm trying to figure that out. How would that sound?

Scott Benner 1:05:08
Does weeping have a tone?

Roxana 1:05:11
I don't know. I cry in silence remember in the bathroom? But yeah, I think I do like over exaggerate situations and not on purpose though, right? Yeah, not on purpose. Like I just like, for example, like, well get in the car. And, and like, I'm like going through my mental list of things that we have to take insulin at this and that and juices and a change of clothes, and anything like I can think of, and like, we'll get to the place and I'll say, Hey, did you bring? I don't know, the stroller, for example. And he's like, No, I left it in your car. And it just like it wrecks the rest of

Scott Benner 1:05:50
the day, for you or for everyone.

Roxana 1:05:53
No, no, not everyone just for me. Like I don't. I do have a sense of awareness that I cannot let my emotions or how how things affect me affect others. Because obviously, that's not their problem. Like, hey, we don't have a stroller, but like the little kid can walk like can you walk can walk, he can walk, right? Let's just get over it and keep going. Yeah, and yeah, but some things do really affect me like, on a higher on a higher level than maybe most people.

Scott Benner 1:06:25
I remember walking to the beach one time with my young family and my wife and she had brought, I'm going to say everything we owned. And, and I at the time,

Roxana 1:06:36
if she if she? If she loved me and I because we bring everything to the beach.

Scott Benner 1:06:45
No, she's, she's anxious sometimes, too. So yeah, so she's trying to cover all her bases as well. Like, what if we need this? Or what if we need that? Or, you know, I would say to her like, it's fine. Like we don't? Like when's the last time you use something like that? Like, I think sometimes even that's what like hoarding is a little bit like that fear of like, what if I need this? And some people can hear well, we haven't touched it in 12 years. I'm guessing we don't need it. And go, Oh, that makes sense. Throw it away. And some people think no, but tomorrow could be the day. You know, and that's a shame that is a that's a difficult thing to live with. You know, I spend it's different in you're not wrong. It's difficult for other people to who are like, Look, can the kid just walk like, look, he's walking, he's fine. And you're like,

Roxana 1:07:33
and they're telling me this? They're telling me hey, it's okay. He can walk. He wants to walk and I'm looking at the time. And I'm like, No, but it's it's like almost almost

Scott Benner 1:07:42
you create a different problem that yeah, like so. The first problem is we need the stroller. We don't have the stroller. Oh, that's okay. Okay, can walk well, I'll make a different problem now. So he's walking, but it's not happening fast enough. So now we're now

Roxana 1:07:55
or if not, it's like, it's almost two o'clock. And I know it's almost nap time. So I know he's gonna get cranky, and he's walking. And if he falls asleep, he's like, he almost weighs like 45 pounds. So who's gonna carry him? I'm not gonna carry him. Are you gonna carry him? Yeah, that's my,

Scott Benner 1:08:09
when he fell asleep. Did your husband carry him? Yeah, because I'm not gonna shut up. That's not a problem then. Right? Like, it was? Like, do you think your husband wasn't gonna walk away and leave him like, on

Roxana 1:08:23
my husband, he's like, a godsend. Like, we are total opposites. Like, he's really calm. And he's like, He'll do whatever it takes to make people happy. He is. He has a little bit of people pleaser. And him. Yeah. Yeah. But he's like, really the opposite. And we just complement each other very well. Like, I'm very grateful for him. But he he gets on my nerves sometimes when he forgets things,

Scott Benner 1:08:49
because he doesn't do everything perfectly the way you would do it. Yeah, yeah. And

Roxana 1:08:53
that's my problem. Like when letting go. That's, that's why your podcast obviously is would be very helpful in the near future when it is in Spanish. I could just play like, getting basil right on and play and like he'll go he likes to run like he likes to exercise so he can like put his little earbuds in and listen and then listen to another episode. And even my, my my mother in law and my father in law, like they can listen. Because they're based on like, they're they do it on purpose. I understand. Yeah, they're just got it. Yeah, we they're not in they're not old either. Like they're in their 60s like 50s 60s Almost. So they're very they're very How do you say that like,

Scott Benner 1:09:43
yeah, together and active and they understand.

Roxana 1:09:47
They come come to my house and we'll go to their house like they're very active in Bobby's life. But I wish that they were active like in other areas to also not just like, hey, we're here. We're going to be here. I get our visiting and then we're leaving, like, because that would that would give me a little bit of free time.

Scott Benner 1:10:07
Do you think you need a break? Excuse me? Do you think you need a break? Oh, yeah, yeah, long time. Well, how are you doing in this last? I mean, we've been talking for an hour now. Do you feel okay that he's not with you?

Roxana 1:10:19
Yeah, I'm okay. Because I see the his numbers on my screen. So

Scott Benner 1:10:24
is there a reason we couldn't do this more often? Like, like, like, let your mother in law watch him for a little bit. So you could maybe go somewhere?

Roxana 1:10:32
Um, yeah, I could, I could make that happen.

Scott Benner 1:10:36
You know, I mean, if you need a break, and this setup is working for you, then do it more often than take a minute.

Roxana 1:10:45
I was I wrote on the Facebook page, like I needed to switch as Dexcom to another cell phone. So I can get low loop setup on other cell phone also. Because my cell phone is the one that's that's everything. Everything is connected to so it has Luke has the dex home It has everything. So that's why I haven't like totally on unlatched, I guess. But I think when I get that done, and maybe when I get the Nightscout done and have the the the remote Bolus setup, I could, I could do that. I'm making a lot of a lot of excuses.

Scott Benner 1:11:23
I mean, listen, I understand anxiety. And I understand especially with a toddler type one new diagnosis, all that stuff. But if you're recognizing it, you should take some steps towards mitigating it if you can, for your own, like sanity and for the people around you. You know and for him, so he doesn't grow up. Like an anxious ball of nerves. Always worried something's gonna happen too.

Roxana 1:11:47
I'm, I have a I mentioned it earlier, I have an appointment coming up. And I will talk about that with the doctor. Obviously I do it non non mostly. I know my toddler senses my energy and like he's like in that same high as I am sometimes. But mostly for my for my, for the oldest. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:12:10
that's good. Like, is this a therapy appointment? You're going to? Yeah, good. Good for you. It's excellent.

Roxana 1:12:16
Yeah, because it's rough. Like and my and my oldest, I don't know if he like, if it's, he's masking it. Like he doesn't want to like, Tell me about it. But I can see his face. And I can see like him trying to solve any type of problem with Fabi. Like if the alarm goes off, and he already and the point is that not everybody knows that. The alarms on the Dexcom don't all sound the same, like the low alarm sounds different. The high alarm sounds different. The will if you're going up really fast if it's going low really fast. And my my oldest he knows all of this.

Scott Benner 1:12:54
Excellent. But he's trying to protect you you think?

Roxana 1:12:57
And I don't know if it's me, or if it's more because of Fabi because he really does love his brother like not because they're brothers obviously. But like I do see that care for him. Like he's at his dad's house right now. Right? And he and he asked me Mom, can you turn on the follow app? Like I'm not gonna turn that on? And he's like, please. Oh, he's worried about him too. Yeah, he's really worried about notice

Scott Benner 1:13:27
anxiety with your older son in other ways.

Roxana 1:13:33
And the planning like Hill Hill last week when we were at school like Hill take his you know, this is not This is normal, but I don't I don't know a lot of people that do this. But Hill. He'll have his snacks ready for the next day. Like he'll already take his snacks out for the next day. He get his water water ready. He'll take out his clothes if he needs me to iron his pants because he does use uniform. He'll tell me like, hey, I need to I need to iron these pants. And he'll have everything like setup. And if he can, if he can have his backpack in the car the night before we leave to school, like the night before school day. He's like, yes. That's happiness for him. Yes, that's happiness.

Scott Benner 1:14:22
Yeah. Well, that does sound a little. A little concerning, but maybe not. Yeah.

Roxana 1:14:28
And when, like when you think about it, he's 12. Like he should be petting his backpack.

Scott Benner 1:14:35
Not planning for it for three days from now. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, Roxanne, I'm having a good time talking to you. But I'm up on my time. So I'm wondering if we've talked about everything that you wanted to talk about or if we missed anything?

Roxana 1:14:48
Um, no, I think we're good. I've mentioned like a billion times that translation of the podcast I know you're gonna get that done because you're you're Scott. So

Scott Benner 1:14:59
I feel like I I'm married to you now. Like, you know, like, listen, take care of this, okay?

Roxana 1:15:05
Like, I trust you, like, another level. No, I'm like, seriously, if that can get done sometime like I don't even, I'm not even putting like a time limit on it like, Scott, it's, it's in your hands?

Scott Benner 1:15:21
Well, well, I want to find some people with some deep pockets and push them.

Roxana 1:15:25
Yeah. And I'm like, I'm a stay at home mom. So if you need to hear if I need to hear like an episode in Spanish, I'm I'm here for it.

Scott Benner 1:15:34
Do you really think people would be able to find it? Like because it would exist inside of an English speaking podcast? I mean, it would be word of mouth that we'd have to get around. Is there that kind of structure in the Spanish speaking community around type one diabetes?

Roxana 1:15:50
That's another thing like, we don't have an IV? And I would, I would do it. But I just don't think I'm, I'm up for it. Because I do see that I'm the dynamic in your Facebook group. And I see how everyone is real cordial. And some people are asking, but not all of them. And people get rid of them. Like you have, like this super structured group that you didn't structure? I don't know if that makes sense. Like, that's put it out there. Here's my group and like, Take care of yourselves and, and be cordial and be kind. And I don't think that's something that would happen in in, in a Facebook community, like here?

Scott Benner 1:16:36
Well, I don't know, it's uncommon, it's uncommon, and a lot of places, honestly, it's, you know, I had the podcast to base it off of, and I just sort of laid it out there and put my vibe overtop of it. And people picked it up and kind of ran with it. So. And there have been times where I have had to surgically step in and be like, like, No, you know, but not that frequently. And, and I've, you know, I've set a tone where people are adults, and they should take care of themselves. And they, you know, they don't need me or somebody else to tell them, you know, what to say or what not to say?

Roxana 1:17:12
I would I would want it, I would want it to exist here. Like because there is no, no community, like type one community here in Puerto Rico, like, I haven't found it online. I haven't found it on Facebook. But they would, it would be great for everyone like because I know like another T one D? because he lives here in the same town I that I do I know another to Wendy because she's my best friend. But, like, community wise, like there's not much of that. So it would, it would obviously be like a lot of promotion, like a lot of Facebook ads or trying something new to get it around. But I think a lot of people need it. A lot of people need to know that. It's that it is difficult. But it's not impossible. Like yeah, I know, rice is difficult. And I know you eat it every day. So let's get a hold of it. And let's measure it out. And let's see how it reacts. And things simple things like that. So I would have a lot of impact. It's just, I would I, like I mentioned, like, a Facebook group here in Puerto Rico, like it would be very difficult. Starting at the point like where people? Like if you tell them something I know you do the whole like, I'm this isn't medical advice. Right? People don't really. I'm not offended people get I don't know how to say like people get oh, you said it was gonna be okay kind of thing, you know?

Scott Benner 1:18:43
Oh, yeah, I don't need that problem. I don't know anything. Okay. And I'm not a doctor. And this is not

Roxana 1:18:53
like in a Facebook group. Like if, if if you were to create a Facebook group, like, specifically in Spanish, for example, it would it would be a little bit like, more hands on, like, there would need to be a lot of people like promoting kindness and promoting being helpful with others not because we're not helpful. It's just because we have our own opinions. And usually our opinions are really strong.

Scott Benner 1:19:20
I see. All right. All right. Well, I'll keep thinking about it and try to figure out a way to do it. And you can keep doing your thing over there. It's all it sounds like listen, to be perfectly honest, for such a short time with diabetes, you're doing really well. I know it's not easy. And I know that it seems like it's crazy right now, but I think it gets easier as you go. You know, maybe it's not easy as much as you get better at it and it starts to feel easier. But I think you'll find your way it sounds like you're off to a great start. What's his one say?

Roxana 1:19:53
6.8.

Scott Benner 1:19:55
That's very good. You're doing great. You really, I mean, a two two year old with a say exceed eating all that food that

Roxana 1:20:03
doesn't have like, he has restrictions like on some things, like obviously really sugary things like doughnuts or something like that. But like on the rest of it like I just tried to do my best. I'm like attack it not all just crashing catch it.

Scott Benner 1:20:18
Are you good for you? Well, thank you so much for doing this. Roxanne. I really appreciate it.

Roxana 1:20:23
Thank you, Scott.

Scott Benner 1:20:24
Yeah, hold on one second. Okay. Okay.

Hey, thanks so much Roxanna for coming on the podcast and sharing your story with us. And thank you Dexcom for making the Dexcom G six and now Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitor dexcom.com forward slash juice box. Of course, the Omni pod dash or the Omni pod five are available at Omni pod.com forward slash juice box Use my links if you have any interest or if you're just trying to learn a little more. If you can't remember those links there juicebox podcast.com. But I guess then you'd have to remember that link. So why don't they just put the links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in? That's what I'll do. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.