+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

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 859 of the Juicebox Podcast.

I had a fantastic time speaking with today's guest. His name is Dan. Dan's father had type one diabetes, and one of his children now has type one. While you're listening to me, talk to Dan and have a great time. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. I want you guys to know I wanted very badly to call this episode animal husbandry. But I went with my heart and said, hey, don't forget if you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone and you are a US resident, you can go to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box and fill out the survey completing that survey helps type one diabetes research T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box with my heart I did when this episode should clearly be called animal husbandry.

This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G seven continuous glucose monitor. That's right baby G seven is ready for you@dexcom.com forward slash Juicebox Podcast is also sponsored today by the Omni pod five, and the Omni pod dash. check them both out at my link Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox. And if you're getting ready to use the Omni pod five, I have a great resource at juicebox podcast.com forward slash Omni pod five. If you want Dexcom or Omni pod, please consider using my links typing them in a browser or clicking on them at juicebox podcast.com. Or in the audio app you're listening in right now. Because when you go to those links through my links, you are supporting the show helping to keep it free. Thank you so much. Let's get started with it.

Dan 2:25
My name is Dan, the father of a six year old girl that has type one diabetes that was diagnosed almost exactly a year ago. And then I grew up my father had type one diabetes. He was diagnosed, I think around six or seven. So it's been a part of my life for pretty much my entire life.

Scott Benner 2:51
Dan, you're a little far from your mic.

Dan 2:54
All right. Well, maybe I just need to talk louder.

Scott Benner 2:58
Did you get to the middle? Maybe? Like he's fading quickly?

Dan 3:03
Enough. Is it better now? That yeah,

Scott Benner 3:06
you just got soft while you were talking? Like Soft? Soft enough, though. I'm gonna say your daughter was diagnosed a year ago when she was five. And you grew up with a father who had type one. Correct? Gotcha. Yeah. Yep. Your dad have type one your entire life, or was he diagnosed as an adult?

Dan 3:23
So he was diagnosed at around six years old, I think from what I can gather from talking about the family. And you know, it took him a really long time to figure it out with him. They just didn't know as much back then.

Scott Benner 3:39
Is he alive now?

Dan 3:41
No, he passed away. About five years ago.

Scott Benner 3:45
I say I'm sorry. How long would he how old? Would he have been if he was alive?

Dan 3:50
Let's see. He was he'd be about 70. He was 65. From he,

Scott Benner 3:53
okay, passed away. So he was on. May I do the math on this. So it's 2022. Now if we take 20 from that it's 2050. More your was your dad born like in the 1950s? The early 50s. The late like right there.

Dan 4:09
I am terrible with those.

Scott Benner 4:10
I love that you don't know. But I'm just one. The one thing that

Dan 4:14
with my daughter, I will never forget her birthday now because every time I call to, you know, get some supplies or go get a prescription. I've got to give them her birthday. And so yeah, I'm bad with birthdays and dates, but I think your math is pretty close.

Scott Benner 4:27
Yeah. I'm guessing 52 ish diagnosed in 58. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Was it a point of discussion throughout your life was it never mentioned? How did that go?

Dan 4:42
It was weird. It's very different, I think than it is now for me with being you know, the parent. We really lived in normal life. It wasn't a big deal at all. I never thought about it too much. I remember it being really annoying, as in Junior High in high school that we had to eat dinner at the same Same time, like every day, my friends would be out playing and I'd have to come home for dinner. But other than that, he just kind of took care of it. And and that was that he

Scott Benner 5:11
would not notice? Well, okay, that's what I'm asking like, what parts of it? Did you say?

Dan 5:17
Yeah, he would get low, and just get kind of crazy and combative with my mom about it. And for whatever reason, he would listen to me. And, you know, have some orange juice, that was kind of his big thing. And then he would kind of snap back out of it. And then test himself, I think the lowest, I remember him being when we were out camping once was like in the teens, and he almost almost kind of, you know, fell asleep. I guess. At that point, he was starting to fade, you can see it in his eyes and

Scott Benner 5:56
but who handled that, in that time camping who handled that low?

Dan 6:02
I think I eventually talked him into, you know, treating himself with something. And that, you know, he always had like some candy bars or something in his car. But he just he lived a pretty normal life. We had a boat went waterskiing every weekend. We camping a lot. He worked out in the woods all by himself all the time. So totally different. I really never thought about how, you know, potentially dangerous some of that stuff was with him. I just expected he would handle it.

Scott Benner 6:38
Yeah, I've two questions. So first, I'd like you to talk about what it's like, for a person who's bigger and stronger than you to decide they don't want to listen and be in that situation where you're trying to save them? How do you handle that?

Dan 6:57
I would just try to reason with him. And I think that was the difference with with my mom, he would just, you know, there's probably more there. For him to sort of hold on to and not want to listen to her advice. And for whatever reason, it was pretty easy for me.

Scott Benner 7:17
And I figured that out when you said he was out in the woods by himself.

Dan 7:24
Well, and that was the funny thing, too. It's, it seems like when he was by himself, he was much more aware of that stuff. And then when we were all together, he would be more likely to get low.

Scott Benner 7:35
focused on other things. Maybe? Yeah, yeah. Um, I'm not sure if you're moving things on the desk or moving around or not. But if you are stopped, I will start okay. So you didn't really you never had to overpower your voice for some reason, shone through to him and he would listen to you eventually. Yes, so then that's right. That brings me into my second question. Looking back now as an adult, how old are you know?

Dan 8:02
42.

Scott Benner 8:03
Looking back on that time, do you think it had any impact on you having to be that person?

Dan 8:12
Yeah, I think so. I think it's, it's helped a little bit now that with with my daughter, Eleanor, you know, kind of knowing how we had the first time with her just a couple days ago, where she was starting to get a little bit confused. And it helped. I think, being able to that. I've seen that before. And now and now with the CGM. It's so much easier. I know exactly where she's at

Scott Benner 8:39
right. Now. It's it's instant. I was wondering if you had any, like resentment or anxiety or anything like that from it, but Oh, no, I don't think so. Yeah, I liked the way you talked about it. Much better. The way it kind of prepares you for this. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So any brothers and sisters for you?

Dan 9:01
So yeah, I have one half brother. And he

Scott Benner 9:05
does he live in the woods. I'm just kidding.

Dan 9:08
Kind of my poor parents when I was born, he was he had a brain tumor. And so they had to remove the tumor from his brain and ended up also removing most of his pituitary gland and damaged his optic nerves. So he's mostly blind, and he had to take growth hormone for my whole life, you know, while he was. He's eight years older than me, but I never really thought about it until just now. I wonder if my dad's thing wasn't such a big deal. Well, because

Scott Benner 9:46
so half brother from your father, from my mother from your mother, prior marriage or after they were done with each other or prior marriage. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. And then and this goes for all the people who come on the show if I'm getting Ready to make a joke about a family member who's had brain surgery and grew up partially blind? Could you please stop me? Right? That's run me over next time. Dang. Oh, nevermind.

Dan 10:11
It's all fair game.

Scott Benner 10:14
You know what I mean? I didn't know it. As soon as you started talking. I was like, Oh, God. Like, because you said half brother. I figured your dad was out in the woods making a baby with Sasquatch. And that's where you know what I mean? Like, I built a whole story in my head. Yeah, no. Okay. Well, okay, so he and what about other autoimmune issues?

Dan 10:37
Nothing. Okay. Except for well, my dead sister. My aunt she was diagnosed with type one diabetes at about 18

Scott Benner 10:47
Let me stop you go back and take back then nothing's gonna last the question again. Is there other? Is there other autoimmune in the family?

Dan 10:54
So yes, my aunt also is a type one diabetic. She has rheumatoid arthritis. Pretty bad

Scott Benner 11:03
as to for toe really impacts her?

Dan 11:07
Yes, yeah. She's still alive. But it's, it's rough on her. A lot of pain.

Scott Benner 11:13
How about celiac? Thyroid stuff? Anything like that? No. Okay. I am fascinated, not fascinated. It's interesting. How frequently I asked the question, and people go, No. And then they list six autoimmune diseases.

Dan 11:30
Really? Didn't really even make the connection until I started talking about it.

Scott Benner 11:34
No, no, that's, that's why I brought it up. It's um, you know, Hey, did you know anybody in your family? No, no, well, not at all. We have this. My aunt has celiac. My father's hypothyroidism, my mom's got Hashimotos. And, and before you're done, you're like, those are all autoimmune diseases. They go? Well, it's crazy. I didn't know. It's just it's interesting. That's why it's why I asked the question every time because I'm trying to listen to Dan, I don't know if this is obvious or not. I'm trying to get people to ask these questions in their family privately. So they can have a better idea of what's going on with their health history. But I don't know if I'm being tricky enough to get it done or not. Well, that you put it out there. Well, you know, I mean, now I'm just saying it like, go ask your family members for God's sakes and find out what's going on. You know what I mean? Like, maybe maybe Uncle Bill doesn't just fart a lot. Maybe he's got something going on, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So okay, so your aunt has type one your brother had your father had type one. Did they have any other brothers or sisters?

Dan 12:38
There? Yeah, there were two others in my dad's family that didn't have any autoimmune issues that I know. Okay.

Scott Benner 12:49
And now, and you haven't had any? Nope, no. How about your wife's side of the family?

Dan 12:57
Hers is hard. You know how diabetes thing is? They all say that her grandfather or someone had type one diabetes, but a lot of them have type two diabetes. And so she doesn't. She doesn't really know if, if that's a real thing or not,

Scott Benner 13:17
again, fascinating that people don't know. Stuff like that about their own history. Yeah.

Dan 13:21
Yeah. They're very different.

Scott Benner 13:25
I mean, I'm not even talking about like your aunt or your uncle, like somebody you see at Christmas, and New Year's, something like that. I'm talking about people you've like that are in your life. Like, you know, Grandma, did she have diabetes? I don't know. You don't know. She's around for the first 10 years of your life. She wouldn't leave you alone. Yeah. But it's, it goes to show and your story about your father goes to show how people find a way to exist with these things. You know, yeah. Yeah. And that's really that's kind of terrific. So did you think when your dad was six, when he's diagnosed, how old were you? You're at roughly, do you have any idea?

Dan 14:06
How old was she when she was diagnosed? Yeah, she was 18.

Scott Benner 14:09
Okay, so by the team meeting, so by the time you're in your 30s, you think you're free and clear? Or is it something you've never thought of, or something you always worried about?

Dan 14:18
I was pretty sure I was free and clear. And then, when my wife and I talked about having our first kid it was a conversation that we had and talk to some different people about it. And then after we had my, my older daughter is 12. So we had her and I remember taking her to the doctor and talking to the doctor about it when she was just an infant and he was really kind of on the ball about stuff. He's he said that diabetes now they don't know if it's all genetic, or partly genetic, or he said there's some environmental factors involved, and they're just trying to figure it out. And so the optimist in me heard it was all just environmental factors with my dad and my aunt. And so we're good. We will

Scott Benner 15:14
you know, Dr. Here, he doesn't seem like he knows what he's talking about. I'm just going to pick and choose from what he said. We're gonna move forward and make my own thing. Yeah, I'm also imagining the conversation you and your wife had was having, like, you know, in bed. While you're thinking we should do this, you're like, Yeah, you're just Yes. Anything, right? Like, it's possible that kid's gonna have diabetes. Like, I don't care. So we talked about it. You think the kid loves diabetes? Probably not. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Pretty much how it happened. Yeah, we've all had that conversation about a condom at one point or another. It's right there. Should we just get it? Yeah, it's gonna be alright. Yeah. So exactly. But But I take I mean, listen, it, at least you thought about it and talks about out loud when you talk when you talked about it. Did you ever give over to the idea that it could happen and have that conversation? Or did you do the I'm now making air quotes with my fingers? Like the talk about it where you decided it was going to be okay.

Dan 16:16
We, we didn't decide that it was going to be okay. It was we knew there was a risk involved. And we're just going to see what happens. Yeah.

Scott Benner 16:28
I mean, listen, it's a valid, it's a valid way to go. You don't I mean, there's no right or wrong answer for certain. I'm just interested in how it happens. You know, because people say stuff like that all the time. We talked about it, but then they never told me what they talked about. So if the pick, it's my job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so now you're still your second child is the one with type one. And she makes it to five before she was diagnosed. But did you see anything prior to that?

Dan 16:52
No, no, I really thought I thought we were free and clear. So my dad passed away when she was not even one yet. So for the next four odd years, there was no diabetes going on. And I just I didn't I really didn't think about it, you know, kind of got over the morning part with my my dad. And she was, she was good. She's super. I know, all parents are bias. But she's like a super smart kid. She's doing well and everything in life, and we're doing good, you know, and the whole pandemic thing kind of started and we went through that, and

Scott Benner 17:37
anybody would get COVID.

Dan 17:41
Our whole family got it. So we were all vaccinated. And my wife and I had our boosters. And we had a trip coming up to go to Disneyland, actually, that I was just thinking about touching all the stuff, all the kids stuff at Disneyland. And about a month before our trip, Eleanor was just kind of being whiny, and had a little bit of a runny nose and almost out of spite. Like, we'll test you for COVID. And it was positive. So we all went down, got the test done. And both the kids were positive, my wife was never positive. And I was just walking around Walgreens with no mask on feeling great and got the email that I was positive. We should probably go home I guess.

Scott Benner 18:31
Did you do you think you got it from Mickey Mouse or you got somewhere else?

Dan 18:35
Well, so that was before this word. We're actually glad that we got it. We don't have to worry so much. Disneyland. So I don't know where we got it. You know, school? Probably. Yeah, it's picking stuff up.

Scott Benner 18:47
All that learning mess and everything. Oh, yeah.

Dan 18:50
Well, especially at the kindergarten age. You know,

Scott Benner 18:53
you think it's possible. It's okay to skip that. And maybe you could count to 10 at home? Not now kindergarten teachers like I do more. Now. I know you don't. I'm just I'm just it's fine. I'm just saying. Yeah, if you're gonna skip a grade. I mean, I would think one of the easier ones to manage personally might be the lower grades. I guess what I'm getting from

Dan 19:14
there might be easier to catch up from that. Yeah.

Scott Benner 19:18
Well, I mean, you might be able to handle on your own. I also love when people say their kids are smart. And I'm like, I don't know how smart you are. This is all perspective. People like like, it's brilliant. I'm like, smarter than you. Maybe.

Dan 19:32
She scored. So she's in the 99th percentile. You had her test things. No, they do the standardized tests, standardized tests. I was teasing. We actually did. All right. I said no, but but we did.

Scott Benner 19:48
How many times you're gonna lie to me in the first one.

Dan 19:52
To get into the school that she's in. We had to do an IQ test. So she goes to this school. That's an old charter school that's looped in through public funding now, and they can still use their old requirements so they can be selective about who they let in. And so we did we did have our IQ test and that was also

Scott Benner 20:15
high. So you get throw over that word, the wall that walled garden, Dan, get her back there. But the other smart Yeah, let's Yeah, exactly. Don't get too excited. I was one of those kids when I was little, and I make a podcast now. So you don't I mean, yeah, don't get too excited. I don't think the money is just gonna start falling over the walls.

Dan 20:33
No, no, I know. I already disappointed me several times with telling me what she wants to do when she grows.

Scott Benner 20:43
Now we're getting to it. Dan's willing to say he's been disappointed by his five year old. But what is what does she want to do?

Dan 20:51
Well, I don't remember it's been all over the place. She Well, she wants to do what I do. And what my wife does, which I guess are, are both good. My wife's a veterinarian and you'll get a kick out of my job. I know you get a kick out of people's weird nature jobs. I own a company that installs fish tanks, and does fish tank maintenance all over the area. You and

Scott Benner 21:12
you own a company. I own the company when's the last time you had your arm elbow deep in a fish tank.

For a person using insulin, the benefits of a Dexcom CGM cannot be overstated. The Dexcom allows you to see the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar. For example, my daughter who is 700 miles away in college, her blood sugar is currently 163 after a meal and steady. I'm going to tell you all about that in a second. But please remember that you can get a Dexcom right now@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. I have that information because I am one of the people who follows her Dexcom CGM, the Dexcom CGM allows for up to 10 followers of your choosing. That means that I can see everything that Arden's blood sugar is doing. No matter where she is. You might be thinking, Oh, you have to look at your phone constantly, but you don't because you can set up alarms to let you know when thresholds are met. I on my phone have Arden's low alarm set at 70 and her high alarm set at 120 on Arden's phone, her low alarm is 80 and her high alarm is 130. So we get alarms that make us go hmm, I wonder what this is about? Do we always do something about it? We don't. Right now for instance, I can see what Arden has been doing. I spoke to her recently, I know what she had for lunch, she made a great Bolus, this is going to come back down. But if it doesn't, we'll see that on the CGM. If it starts to head back up, we'll see that on the Dexcom. And then she can make adjustments to her insulin using this great information. Find out more right now and get started today@dexcom.com forward slash juice box. That special link is for you the Juicebox Podcast listeners. And guess what? You may be eligible for a free 10 day trial of the Dexcom G six you'll find out at my link head over there. Now. Maybe there are some questions you have about Dexcom that I didn't answer in this ad. But all the information you need is right at the link. See customizable alerts and alarms. Zero finger sticks and glucose readings right on your smart device. dexcom.com forward slash juice box links in your show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. 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 AMI 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 it tubeless a tubeless pump, 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 loosely, 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, and you're not looking for the automation, Omni pod dash for full safety risk information and free trial Terms and Conditions. Please also visit Omni pod.com forward slash juicebox.

Dan 26:06
Yesterday,

Scott Benner 26:07
okay, I'd like to get you to a place where the other people are taking care of the work. But I bet that sounds good. That sounds well lucrative actually.

Dan 26:16
I have three people that work for me, and they go do most of the work especially since the COVID stuff. My job was flexible, and I was able to stay home with the kids more than my wife. And so I sort of transition to working more from home. But all of the all of our fish tanks that we that when I ordered fish, they come from all over the world. A lot of the saltwater fish are caught in the wild. And so I have to put them in fish tanks first to make sure they're not carrying parasites that delete fish food and all of that stuff. So those are all in a room in my garage. And so that's where I had my hand in a fish tank yesterday. I

Scott Benner 26:57
see. I have not. I used to have tanks because my dad had them and I have not had one since my little brother poured I used to have had a probably like a 55 gallon saltwater tank. It wasn't huge, but it was great and ran really well. It had live car oil on it and all it was really great. And one day my little brother put when you want to smell nice Dan, what do you spot cologne, he put Kelowna to see what would happen. Do you want to guess what? Oh? Yeah, that probably wasn't good. Yeah, killed everything pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah. And then we had good.

Dan 27:36
We had a, we do a lot of assisted living places. And one of my clients called a while back and said that one of the old guys there dumped his milkshake in the fish tank. Fish like it. Yeah. She wanted to know what would happen. So I said, I'm not sure.

Scott Benner 27:53
Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna be over and send you a bill. Don't you worry. Yeah. Get lost right now. I just never had the I did not have the fortitude to do it again. It was it was a lot of work and an expense. I was young, you know. And I just but my son asks me about it pretty frequently. How can we? Yeah. And he's never had one. And he asks about it. It's really, really kind of interesting. So yeah. All right. Well, that's, that's how did you get into that, by the way?

Dan 28:22
In college, I switched around a couple times what I was going to major in, and I ended up majoring in fisheries biology. And I was going to do like, research, you know, streams and fish. And

Scott Benner 28:38
when you like that you're mad at your parents when you chose that.

Dan 28:42
Yeah, that was originally gonna do physical therapy. And then

Scott Benner 28:46
I'm trying to picture I'm trying to picture 15 years from now little l&r comes up to you and says she wants to get into fishery sciences. You go in oh, wait a minute. Who's gonna pay the bills? Yeah. You know, my very I don't I've never said this before. My very first job was at a pet store. Oh, yeah, I was 13. And the local guy had a pet store. And we were always in there buying fish and stuff like that. And one day, I think he saw us as a nice, a nice revenue stream. And he thought, Well, I'm like, just basically I was free labor for fish. I basically worked for fish. Now that I think, I think back on it. Yeah. And you'd go in and clean tanks, and we're on the register and stuff like that. And I know people were like, 13 year olds can't have jobs, but it was the 80s We could do whatever we wanted. So you know, go in there and work and and then he'd pay me at the end of the week. At the end of the week, I'd basically end up paying him all my money back for whatever I bought during the week. It was brilliant. Actually, it was a mad genius, wasn't it?

Dan 29:48
Yeah, but yeah, that's a great job. Another job in college.

Scott Benner 29:51
Now, there was a couple things I wouldn't do. i If you bought a snake while I was working by myself. You got the snake out yourself. It was self service. I was like, that's fine. Go ahead and get it. I'm not doing this.

Dan 30:03
Yeah. Not a snake person.

Scott Benner 30:05
No, no, no, no, not in any way, shape or form. It's not happening for me. Okay, so Eleanor shows, signs, symptoms, anything. What's your first look at diabetes?

Dan 30:18
Yeah. So her kind of diagnosis story. She went to Oregon when kids turned five, I don't know if you are aware of this, they can fly by themselves on the airplane. And so she wanted to go on a on a trip. So the first she went with just my mom, my mom took her to Oregon to see some family. And I went to the airport to pick them up when they got back. And my mom was just saying that she was just thirsty the whole time just going through bottles and bottles of water. And it just kind of had that feeling. When she said that I just sort of knew

Scott Benner 31:00
well, did your mom not know from your dad? Well, that's

Dan 31:04
why she was telling me is she was kind of thinking it too. But it was like the first thing she said to me. I was like, hi, thanks.

Scott Benner 31:14
How was your trip? I think the kid asked the diabetes. Yeah. Still in the, in the runway, little ball thing coming off the plane, you know?

Dan 31:24
Right. Yeah. So that the following day, she was flying by herself with her sister. So let's see. They were five. They were she had just had her fifth birthday. And Kimberly was probably 10.

Scott Benner 31:41
And you're coming off like a real hippie here with this flying alone thing. Go ahead. Keep talking. I'm interested. Yeah.

Dan 31:45
So. So we sent them the next day on the plane. In hindsight, I would not have done that. But they flew to see some family in Las Vegas. And we asked my mother in law, you know, about halfway through that trip? If if it was still going on? And she said, yeah, she's definitely been drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot. But we were still in denial. We're thinking it's hot in Las Vegas. And she's five. Yeah, so it's just a habit. But my mother in law has type two diabetes and had glucometer. So we said, Well, can you just test her? You know, finger poker? Well, we're on the phone. She couldn't figure it out. She doesn't never use her. glucometer I guess. So. She's poking. We can hear screaming in the background and your mom is the kids screaming? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. My mother in law. I think she was putting the blood on the on the like, stick, you know, the test called test strips, and then putting and then putting the test strip in the glucometer. Oh, wasn't working

Scott Benner 33:01
it? Yeah. No, it has to go in first. I've never said that out loud before. I just thought people knew. But

Dan 33:07
yeah. So we just said, alright, you know, we'll just figure it out when we get back. And then her uncle kept telling us just how much she was eating and weird foods. She ate like a whole jar of pickled okra, and like, five hamburgers. And so it was getting to be where, you know, we really

Scott Benner 33:30
she was feral at this point. Yeah. Yep.

Dan 33:33
And so it, it was a busy little time that we had planned. She came back in two days. After that. We had rented this RV. We were gonna go RV camping. And so we called the pediatrician and told them what was going on that we'd like to get her in there and the receptionist. She's like, so she's just eating a lot and drinking a lot of water. City and she's like, Okay, well, I think you're fine. You know, have our triage nurse call you and say as I said, you know, we're going to kind of remote area. I'd really like to get her in. I'm going to pay you for this right now. But we had to fight to get her in there and get her there.

Scott Benner 34:15
You had to fight through the reception people. Yep. No medical people whatsoever at that point.

Dan 34:21
Right. Yeah. Again,

Scott Benner 34:23
I joked about this a minute ago, but I need to ask are you a hippie? Upper Midwest, anything or upper? Right, like Northwest

Dan 34:35
that's where I grew up. My dad was in the timber industry there so I couldn't be a hippie because he's you're cutting all the trees drying the forest.

Scott Benner 34:46
Okay, but I'll tell you I have to tell you like no judgment. The putting kids on a plane thing is a leap for me I don't think I can make so I really I just assumed you're a little high when he did it. That's all but it's

Dan 34:59
no I feel it's the first couple of times it was I was nervous. But

Scott Benner 35:04
yeah, that's what I mean. It's, it's cool. Like, thinking about it now I'm like, take them to the airport, you watch them go down the, you know, the little loader thing, they go into the plane, there's people there, you got to think they're relatively safe. And then, you know, they get off, walk off and there's a family member, it's actually makes a ton of sense. I just don't think I could do it. And I don't know why. Yeah, as I'm thinking about, it's interesting.

Dan 35:26
You have to let go a little bit. It's,

Scott Benner 35:28
you think I'm uptight? Maybe? No, I'm saying

Dan 35:31
a person has to be able to, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, when you have a baby and you leave them, go on your first date, or whatever thought you're gonna

Scott Benner 35:43
say, all by themselves. You know, sometimes you leave a kid in a Strawbridge and Clothier or something like that for a couple of minutes while you go get a pretzel, you know, as long as they're sleeping in a pile of soft laundry or something that they're really it's hard for them to hurt themselves. Strawbridge and clothier? What was that? Straw bridges? Did you have a clover near you when you were growing up? was like an offshoot of straw bridges. Is that is that affiliate? No. No, sorry for anybody who doesn't know what that is? A big store. There you go. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Dan 36:19
Yeah, so we got her in, and then off to the emergency room from there. And, of course, you know, even growing up with my dad, I still didn't really know how diabetes works. So we're like, let's go through the Wendy's drive thru. grab some lunch on the way to the ER, because she'll probably never get french fries again in her life. And so we did that. And

Scott Benner 36:46
well, your your expectation to diabetes, I'd have to imagine was somewhere near we're gonna have to buy orange juice. And it must not be that bad, because I never saw my dad do anything with it. Really?

Dan 36:58
Yeah, yeah. It was still, you know, pretty mind blowing learning about it. So my dad, he did have some things. He, in his 40s had a lower leg amputation, which definitely changed the way he did life. And then he had a heart attack when he was older. And

Scott Benner 37:26
yeah, I didn't expect I didn't expect that he died in his early 60s Because he fell out of a window. I figured if you're diagnosed with diabetes in the 50s. And you know, you're basically because what you described down. I mean, listen, people come on all the time. They tell their stories, which I think is really, it's amazing. But you described basically a time and a place where people didn't really understand diabetes, too. Well, and in all honesty, if your dad wasn't falling over, he was winning. And that was it.

Dan 37:52
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. When I I remember, when I was young, he was still doing that. It was like a test strip that you pee on. And then you compare the color to the thing on the little jar of test strips, and then that's how you figure out how much insulin you need. And

Scott Benner 38:11
yeah, and now you I mean, do you have any technology with your daughter?

Dan 38:16
Yeah, she has a Dexcom. And then she's on the T slim with the control IQ. Okay,

Scott Benner 38:22
so a completely different world. And now so different. Yeah. So when you look at your daughter's care, and you juxtapose your memories of your dad, you realize, I mean, it's, I guess obvious, right?

Dan 38:34
Yeah, that's a big thing for me, after, you know, seeing that, it definitely took years off of his life and some other stuff that you know, if you can control it as much as possible, you know, hopefully prep prevent a lot of those side effects.

Scott Benner 38:53
Alright, I'm gonna test you real quick. Dan, would you live feed a lionfish? A goldfish?

Dan 38:58
Oh. No, not usually, unless they're not eating.

Scott Benner 39:04
flakes are okay for them. So

Dan 39:06
I would do like frozen prawns and fish things like frozen shrimp that are thought out? Yes, squid, stuff like that.

Scott Benner 39:15
Ah, interesting. Okay, I was just checking. I'm testing you down. I was just testing from little bits that I remembered from working in a pet shop. Let me see 2333 4337 years ago, so

Dan 39:28
yeah, yeah, no, that's Well, usually you can only get like live goldfish and that's not very good for them. It'll cause a lot of fat buildup in their organs and

Scott Benner 39:39
really look at you know, and stuff about your child. Yeah. And your wife is she like a buttoned up veterinarian or she one of those hair going in 16 directions. I love the animals veterinarians.

Dan 39:52
She's kind of in between. She's a she's just dogs and cats. That she does and she is a works for someone that owns the practice. There's two of them there. And you know, I think, especially when she was younger, she loved the dogs and cats, but yeah, working with all the dog and cat owners might have changed that slightly.

Scott Benner 40:16
I have a question when you realize that your girlfriend is one day gonna have to put her finger in a dog's butt regularly do you think she's, you go like she's applying right like this girl. This girl will be okay.

Dan 40:27
Well, that's, that's for the vet techs. Oh, when I met her. She was already doing.

Scott Benner 40:35
How was your day? I had my finger and six dogs. But yeah, don't worry. I was just expressing a gland. Great.

Dan 40:43
Gosh, she had her arm. So at her school. They had this cow that had a spot where you could stick your whole arm

Scott Benner 40:53
and stuff. Like you might have found that line. Hold on.

Dan 41:00
So it sounds like a sealed off area and the cow that that's could stick their arm in

Scott Benner 41:06
we okay, go slow. I gotta get my breath back. I actually thought oh my god, here we are 800 episodes into it. I really figured out what I don't want to talk about. So not not in the cows. orifice. Right. Okay, the cow was surgically opened. Yes. So that med so that students could Oh my God, that's fascinating. Yeah. Wow, cow has done a real service for other cows. No, I think it has a plaque somewhere the school it should.

Dan 41:38
It should it should have a statue. Yeah. Okay, monument.

Scott Benner 41:42
I've been serious. That's I know, it's, I know the cow doesn't. I mean, I know. I'm guessing it thought This isn't good. But I'm saying that contextually? I don't believe it knew it was helping other cows. But that No, really. That's kind of lovely. Actually. Wow, that's that's really something else. Thank God. You didn't say what I thought you're gonna say. I just, I was in a panic. I started feeling like a little air when you started like, Oh, don't please don't tell me about this. Nice living. We're happy we married her all that stuff. She getting the bills.

Dan 42:17
It's you know what she she is the pandemic. They have never been busier. You know, so many people have

Scott Benner 42:27
paid? Literally. Yeah, they probably dogs and cats. Oh, people buying more animals? Yeah. So I thought maybe they had time to pay attention. But that was just me being kind to people, I guess. Well, it's Yeah.

Dan 42:40
And now it's the opposite. People are going back to work. So there's a lot of animals that are having separation anxiety, you know, dogs that are used to their owners being home all day.

Scott Benner 42:51
And now they're peeing on everything. Now,

Dan 42:53
yeah. Now they're not

Scott Benner 42:55
telling your wife about it. She's like, Yeah, exactly. What's wrong with my dog? Leave me alone. My kids got diabetes. I'm done. I'm out. Check out how does your daughter handle type one? Is it? Is it smooth four? Is it choppy? I, I see people online a lot, who talked about? It's, you know, it's nice that they share, like some of the problems their kids have. But people don't talk about it. When they come on here. It's the one thing about the podcasts that I still wish went slightly different than it does is that a lot of empowered people come on. So their stories are generally like, we got this. But I mean, how is that for her?

Dan 43:35
It's been a bit of a roller coaster. So when, when she was first diagnosed at five, she really didn't understand what a chronic thing was. And so I remember having some really, really hard conversations with her. When she'd say, you know, I think I'm better. When am I going to be better? You know, I feel fine. And she told me one time, we're driving around that. She's like, I know, all that water and stuff like that. But I think I was just thirsty. And I don't think I have diabetes. And so I think that part was harder for me. But, you know, you just kind of see in their eyes, they're trying to understand what you're telling them

Scott Benner 44:25
it and she's not my daughter and it was hard for me to hear. So yeah.

Dan 44:30
And then then it just became part of life. So about I think maybe a couple of weeks to a month into it. We got the CGM and you know, that changed things a little bit because you know, the way that we we treat her and then every time things change for her she gets it gets hard again for a little while. She didn't really want to stab this thing into her arm and then You know get used to get her clothes off and on with that on has been rough. She's really good at it now. But you know ripped a couple off and that hurts and the at all the adhesive and, and stuff like that she's had to get used to just like we have. And so and then the shots we were doing, you know, injections, multiple injections. For the first six months, we tried to get a pump, but got denied by our insurance and had to go through the whole appeal process. So we figured out we found those I ports. And that worked really well right with the CGM because we were able to give her a little bit of insulin for a snack if she wanted it. Or, you know, if we just messed up the Bolus and had to make a correction or something like that we could do it without actually having to stab a needle into her.

Scott Benner 45:53
Yeah. Hey, free plug iport from Medtronic diabetes. Oh, yeah, sorry. No, no, no, I they're not. They're a sponsor for something else. But not for this. But we don't talk about I poured enough, right. So this little port that your daughter wore, and then the needle, the actual syringe went into the port, so you weren't technically, like you weren't stabbing her over and over again. So you're saying, if she wanted to have a couple of carbs, you could pop a half a unit in there or something like that without actually having a sticker?

Dan 46:18
Yeah, it was life changing when we tried it. And nobody told us about it. We might have seen someone mentioned on the on the Facebook page. Yeah. But like the medical staff. They're like, Yeah, sure. You know, you want to try it? Well, we can write you a prescription but not really into it at all is

Scott Benner 46:38
nobody else if you liked it, and and it was valuable.

Dan 46:42
It was amazing. Yeah, good. And so that got us by until we got the pump and then then the pumps a whole nother thing, you know that she took some getting used to and didn't really want it at first and but now we've, we've adapted and most days are fine. We've had to I think she just got out of the honeymoon period. So I've like been doubling her Basal insulin. It feels like it's take so much now. I'm still struggling with it. I almost they're

Scott Benner 47:18
hard to get over the number change, right?

Dan 47:21
Yeah, it's, you know, it's kind of scary. And I don't know why. Because every time I do it, it ends up just making it better. But it's still a little, it's just intimidating to, to add that much more. You know, she, when she got the pump, she was only barely using like 10 units a day. And it's just probably in the 30s. Now,

Scott Benner 47:42
yeah, it's interesting. Like I get it, like, I get it MDI, like if you are using three units a day, basil, and you're, you know, multiple daily injections, and then suddenly it's six you think, Wow, I'm going to put in double the the insulin. I can't get it out again. But I mean, when it's when it's a pump, you'd change the setting up if you start seeing it go the wrong way. Just, you know, have a snack and put it back. Yep. Right. Yeah, but I still I still get the eggs. I mean, get it by get it. I mean, I see it happen to a lot of people. Yeah. And then there's something about the numbers that freak them out. Like,

Dan 48:19
yeah, I think with repetition, you know, it becomes these get a little easier, right? But so yeah, and then there's still the stuff a couple days ago, we switched the kids rooms. And we're kind of letting them decorate stuff. l&r. She was super excited and just kind of bouncing off the walls and she hit the bathroom hinge and ripped her Dexcom off and it just took the wind out of her sails, you know? So

Scott Benner 48:51
how do you how do you handle that? Do you you come in with the big enthusiasm don't worry about it, we'll fix it no problem, or do you let her feel bad about it? Or how did you handle that?

Dan 49:02
I tell her we'll fix it and it's okay and you know that I let her talk about it and say I understand but you know she she'll hit me with like the Sometimes I hate my life sort of thing. It's it's hard to to you know

Scott Benner 49:18
kids IQs too high do you understand times let's get you a nice kid with an 80 IQ just goes everything's fine don't just kids kids thinking around the deeper corners we don't know yeah I can everything difficult for you. Well, so we had

Dan 49:37
just gotten a new a new transmitter for this one and so this time i i Let her I was like, Do you want to put a Dexcom on me first you know before we do your so I am wearing one for the first time which has been interesting, but that helped a lot. She thought that was pretty fun.

Scott Benner 49:53
Okay, hey, interesting, Dan, like you think you have diabetes are interesting to see how a functioning pancreas works.

Dan 50:00
Interesting to see how a functioning pancreas works. And it also kind of kind of sad. You know, it's so easy for me I can pretty much do whatever I want

Scott Benner 50:13
to eat something exciting happens, right? It just Yeah, nothing. Well, I'll tell you that I think I've worn a CGM a couple of times, and just seeing the ebbs and flows and how different foods impact, I found it really valuable. It changed my perspective a little bit to about meal times. You know, I, there would have been a time in my life where I just thought that any rise in blood sugar was a mistake. And now I get me talking about all the time but I you know, I think of like after a meal, I don't want it to go up. If it doesn't, it's great. If you don't get any kind of a rise, and you don't get a low later. Be right on. That's perfect. But if you go 131 40 And it comes back in 30 minutes, I don't I don't think about that the same way as I did years and years ago.

Dan 50:59
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's interesting to see that and with me. Sometimes, there's not even any meal correlation. I'll see my blood sugar go up to whatever 120 And then go back down and like it. What's That was weird.

Scott Benner 51:14
Stress, anxiety. Yeah. Yeah. Could be and

Dan 51:19
the lows too. You know, I'll get down to the upper 60s.

Scott Benner 51:25
And you feel fine.

Dan 51:27
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't know if I wasn't didn't have this on

Scott Benner 51:31
right. Yeah. Somebody came on years ago, a long time type ones. First time I heard somebody say that. Every person experiences blood sugars in the 60s like once or twice a day or and sometimes for extended times, people without obviously if you have active insulin working manmade insulin, it's a different concern. But it was that was another thing that I heard that was valuable for me. You mean like my blood sugar gets down to 65? Sometimes, and you know, no one runs around goes crazy. Yeah, helped me a lot.

Dan 51:59
Yeah, yeah. You don't freak out quite as much when?

Scott Benner 52:02
Yeah, I mean, if my blood sugar 65 I don't. I'm also not like riding around with for it, you know, four units of of NovaLogic in my arm or something like that. Right? I'm but yeah, it's not an apples to apples comparison. But it is enough to give you different perspective.

Dan 52:19
Yep, yeah. Well, what my wife and I do with that, you know, if Eleanor is starting to get down into the safe, lower 70s. We just like to give it one more reading, we usually say you know, we'll text each other one of us is working. So what do you think and kind of look at the line, but, but we'd like to just kind of give it one more to see what happens before we make any

Scott Benner 52:46
decision before you turn a 73 into 120? For no reason. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Listen, that's the one of the great aspects of the Dexcom. It's just yeah, you know, it allows you not to panic about things. Once you see it once you can, like see the big picture. It's it's excellent. I mean, just really life changing.

Dan 53:10
It's made me think a lot about my dad. Because he never, he had a pump, I think the last couple years. But he didn't like it. And he never had a CGM. And so, who knows, you know, he used to eat these big bowls of Honey Bunches of Oats as favorite cereal. I see what elder eats something like that. You know, probably by the time he went and tested himself again. He was fine. But in between, who knows what was going on? Well, I'm

Scott Benner 53:41
gonna guess that he wasn't fine because he had a lot of a lot of issues. Yeah, so I'm gonna guess that his blood sugar was high most of the time and if he lost a leg and had heart damage, I mean, we'll never know I guess but you probably had a one season attends and a loved ones. It would it would it would make it would make

Dan 54:01
I would imagine. Yeah. Especially you know, as a kid, you know? Yeah. 20s, late teens and 20s

Scott Benner 54:09
was the how do you remember him? His disposition?

Dan 54:15
Always he was always very positive. Until Until the leg amputation and then it it really kind of slowed him down. A lot of the stuff that he liked to do and you know, like, he was sensitive to people seeing it at first, and then it just hurt his leg would hurt a lot.

Scott Benner 54:40
So you had neuropathy as well, I'd imagine. No, no. Huh. Okay. All right. That's interesting. Yeah. And the heart disease eventually.

Dan 54:52
Yeah. So he had a heart attack. We were out. out camping. Actually. My sister in law was with us. She's an ICU nurse. My dad was explaining what's going on. And she's like, sounds like you're having a heart attack. He's like, No, I'm fine. He went to bed. And then we ended up taking my wife to the ER because she had a reaction to some antibiotics she was on, never took my dad to the doctor when he was a woman. Because you know, life was in danger.

Scott Benner 55:23
You have an incredible sense of humor. Well, at one point, you said something like my dad's leg was amputated. And it stopped him from and you paused. And I thought in my mind, those voices in my head when playing soccer, and because I didn't know where you were gonna go, because you've, you've had such a, like, you're quietly very funny. And you have, and you have a great sense, a dark sense of humor, and I didn't know where you were going, like, I didn't know if you're going to be serious, or like, tell me what really happened to him. And it just You just laugh, like, my dad was having a heart attack. And we took my wife to the hospital.

Dan 56:01
It was kind of funny. In hindsight, but

Scott Benner 56:06
it didn't end up being didn't work out great for him. Yeah,

Dan 56:10
no, he had a quintuple bypass after that. And

Scott Benner 56:13
wow, how long did you live after the bypass?

Dan 56:16
I'm gonna say, about six or seven years,

Scott Benner 56:19
I was hoping it was a while so that your story seemed like it was okay for it to be funny. I was very worried you were gonna be like four months got it was four months after that. But yeah, cuz then I really would have, it would be hard to laugh about. You're not taking him to the hospital. But older people. Older people are like that, too. Like, it'll be alright. You know what I mean? Yeah,

Dan 56:37
he was he thought he was just fine. And the doctor said he had had multiple heart attacks, probably with the tests that they did. Wow. And then, yeah, he had a lot of circulatory circulatory problems. And, you know, that was probably from having a lot of high blood sugar. I would

Scott Benner 56:58
imagine his life. So is that a driving force for you now with your daughter? The memory your dad?

Dan 57:05
Yeah. 100% I, I think I listened to a podcast where you mentioned you had a friend, you know, that Mike? Yeah, that had kind of poor management. And it was a motivating factor for you.

Scott Benner 57:20
It helps me it helps me with the podcasts for sure. And, and I do think about him, in certain ways in relationship to my daughter, but I Mike's memory is stronger for me when I imagine the people listening to the podcast. Yeah, you know, because you, you describe it. I mean, listen, your dad was it was in the 50s. Like, you know, he's a kid, like, I get it, you know, but I mean, an amputation, you know, a quadruple bypass, you know, circulatory issues, those those are problems from high blood sugars, like prolonged high or fluctuating, but, you know, most I bet he wasn't fluctuating that much. And he was probably just high all the time. And yeah, and you also described a mother in law who didn't know how to use your own glucometer a type two. Yeah. And that's why I think, you know, keep having these conversations, you know, so that, you know, what happened to Mike can, and your dad and, you know, everybody else can can hopefully benefit someone, be a more positive influence and with like, if you hear this story and think like, oh, it's sad diabetes, it's gonna get me. You're missing my point, you know? Yeah.

Dan 58:35
Yeah. Yeah. Well, to answer your question better about my dad, I, I think that it taught me I saw him low, many times, growing up, and it was always fixable. And, you know, of course, it's dangerous and scary not to be taken lightly, but never caused any real problems once we've resolved that. But it was the high blood sugars that ended up you know, really ending his life.

Scott Benner 59:12
And they were the thing that he didn't really pay attention. He didn't really pay attention to as much

Dan 59:17
you know, he will feel uncomfortable.

Scott Benner 59:21
So then let me amend what I said just because the tools didn't exist not that your dad was like, Screw it. Like he was living the life that was was available to him.

Dan 59:32
Yeah, he was and he just wasn't, wasn't his thing. He didn't really know about carbs much or I don't think he really knew how things worked. He just did what the doctors told him.

Scott Benner 59:46
The doctors tell him to eat Honey Bunches of Oats because I'm pretty certain none of us should be eating Honey Bunches of Oats.

Dan 59:53
I don't think they told them that. That was the best food

Scott Benner 59:58
Oh my gosh. Wow. So, are we are we covering everything the way you were hoping? Or is there? Is there something I'm not getting to?

Dan 1:00:06
Um No, I think I think we covered it all.

Scott Benner 1:00:16
We're doing okay. Yeah, yeah, I'm not kicking you off. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. That's all. Because, you know, like, there's stuff that you've thought of since you I mean, I'm assuming you signed up for this, like six months ago.

Dan 1:00:29
Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna email Scott. See? So then, you know, I've been nervous about it for the last six months.

Scott Benner 1:00:38
Have you really?

Dan 1:00:40
No, not really real as well. today? This morning. I wasn't like, oh, no, I've got to do it.

Scott Benner 1:00:45
Are you nervous now? No, I'm

Dan 1:00:47
fine. Now. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:00:49
But this morning? I wonder how often that happens. Because, you know, I mentioned on here sometimes, but I part of my screening process is that there's no screening process. So you have to want to be here. When I sit down to record to you with you. Get me like you get, I think two emails that remind you, yeah, and it's a six month wait. I mean, imagine like in June that you'd be like, I'm going to be on a podcast, and then in December, you get an email, like four days before, whatever. And it's like, hey, don't forget, you're gonna be on that podcast. I don't call you and be like, Hey, don't mess this up. I'm like, there's the link, you'll be there if you want to be. And everybody shows up like it. I'd say twice a year, there's no one there. And they usually just need to reschedule. People don't bail on me. But yeah, because of that I get I get well thought out and people who who have a real desire to tell a story, you know?

Dan 1:01:43
Yeah, that's, that's really good that I would assume that more people bail on you.

Scott Benner 1:01:49
But when that starts happening down, I'll get panicky, don't you worry.

Dan 1:01:54
I think that it's, it's kind of part of the community that, like, when Eleanor was diagnosed, there was we had all the vaccine stuff going on, where everybody, you know, hated each other, based on your opinion of that, and all the political stuff going on. And the one good thing that I kind of got out of it was the people in this community are so supportive of each other. Nobody, nobody cares about that stuff. Once you start talking about type one diabetes, and it's really kind of refreshing.

Scott Benner 1:02:30
I agree. It's a wonderful community. It really is. And, and a large part of why people are here, like, I'm sure if I was running a podcast about, you know, animal husbandry, people would bail more frequently. They'd be like, why wait six months to record that animal husbandry Podcast?

Dan 1:02:48
I'm gonna start one, I'm gonna see

Scott Benner 1:02:50
the end. You know what's funny? I'm about 86%. Sure, I know what animal husbandry is, it just sounded like funny words in my head when I thought of something.

Dan 1:03:01
You probably it's just taking care of animals, right? Is it?

Scott Benner 1:03:04
It's not about inseminate them? It's that I hope it's not that was what I started panicking and worrying about by saying something creepy.

Dan 1:03:12
husbandry is just like, you know, at the at the zoo. The zoo keeper practices Hold

Scott Benner 1:03:19
on a second. husbandry and animal husbandry is a branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fiber, milk, or other products. It includes day to day care, selective breeding and raising of livestock. There we go. Anyway, if I had one of those podcasts, I'd expect people doing I'm not waiting six months to get on this damn thing. I don't know we throw the feed in the bucket. What a bad podcast that would probably be

Dan 1:03:48
very interesting, at the end

Scott Benner 1:03:49
of this whole thing, then I'll torture you guys. Like whenever I decide I'm going to be done. I'm gonna torture you by doing an entire year of interviews that have nothing to do with diabetes and are about the craziest, most bizarre thing, bizarre things that I don't understand. I will spend the last year of my life trying to understand all like, I'll find somebody to talk about animal husbandry, they'll come on and walk me through the whole thing. Seriously,

Dan 1:04:13
what if you did that? And then that got really popular even more?

Scott Benner 1:04:18
Well, that would go to my head down. I just want to tell you one thing, God.

Dan 1:04:27
One thing I just for whatever reason thought of that I think some people might enjoy hearing about is so I've been seeing a lot of stuff about airports on on the different Facebook pages and you know, going through the security and with all your equipment and stuff like that. And so with my dad with his prosthetic leg, they had no idea what to do. It was different every time and I remember one time the most awkward one. They made him take his leg off. Put it through the scanner, and then hop through the metal detector on one foot, and then put his leg back on the other

Scott Benner 1:05:07
one airport was this call them out?

Dan 1:05:10
I don't remember it might have been might have been in Portland.

Scott Benner 1:05:14
Why are you guys flying so much?

Dan 1:05:19
You know, it's an entire lifetime.

Scott Benner 1:05:21
It's like how much of your yearly income goes to airfare by the way? I can't believe I'm saying this. This podcast episode is definitely gonna be called animal husbandry. All right, nice. Because I want people to listen the whole time and think, nothing to do with that.

Dan 1:05:41
That's the funniest thing about this podcast is when I'm looking for one I didn't like I didn't go in order on them, but you really can't get anything from the title.

Scott Benner 1:05:51
I'm making you listen, damn, I don't need you. I don't need you disregarding an episode because you see a word you're not sure of.

Dan 1:05:59
That sounds interesting. I think the first one that I listened to. My wife sent me a picture that she got off of the Facebook page of like, the first ones to listen to, I guess. And the first one that I listened to was texting diabetes. And it was right before Eleanor started kindergarten. So her first like public school thing, and we were just freshly diagnosed. And I'm gonna have to do it different this year, because I was like, I was like hot walking. School telling them what they're gonna do.

Scott Benner 1:06:33
Yeah, I got you all charged up then. And then you went in there.

Dan 1:06:37
They're all fired up.

Scott Benner 1:06:40
There's an episode of the podcast called The frozen urine part of diabetes. I can't for the life of me remember why that is? Was to that one. The other day? butthole adjacent came out?

Dan 1:06:55
Oh, yeah. I saw you. I saw on the Facebook page that you asked how people feel about

Scott Benner 1:07:02
that. Yeah, I actually was concerned. You know, I was like, let me just see, by the way, overwhelmingly, people did not care. And yeah, it's funny because I'm, you know, I mean, if you listen enough, you probably get my sensibility. Like, I might go, I'm going to listen, it's an episode about a girl who got a fissure or something like that. What did they call those? You would think I know, because I recorded the opposite. Sounds right. Yeah. harassed, exploded. Okay. And it was, it was prior to her diagnosis. And so it's a big part of her diagnosis story. She had this pain, she went to a doctor, etc, etc. And the, you know, the damage, you know, where she had the injury, you know, is it's an injury of her skin, right? It's, it was between her. It was it was it was entertained. So, I was I was, I was waiting for you to say, yeah, so I couldn't say like, you know, blah, blah, blah, pain exploded. And then I was like, that doesn't work, you know. So I was like, Well, where is it? I was adjacent to her butthole. I was like, I'll call it butthole adjacent, and I'm typing that out. And there is no voice in my head that says, you should probably not do that. But I'm just like, that makes sense to me. Right? And then I set up the post. A couple hours later, I thought, maybe I ought to just throw a poll up on the Facebook page. Just real quick to check myself.

Dan 1:08:29
Yeah, when I started, most people are okay, I don't care.

Scott Benner 1:08:31
overwhelmingly people were okay with butthole Jason. And now, five years from now someone's going to trip across that and be like, what does that mean? What does that have to do with diabetes? You know, yeah, I'm looking here. I typed in but beauty to bring up you know, I got butthole adjacent Rocky and Bullwinkle, Bullwinkle, this Jenny burnout. Navigating bureaucracies with type one defining diabetes bumping nudge under the shade bus with MADI bushwhacking with Justin like I'm starting to wonder like what would happen like just say a word in any short word god

Dan 1:09:06
OH. husbandry

Scott Benner 1:09:10
bastard What are you doing? So I will type in don't have

Dan 1:09:15
anything now about how about how I'm trying to think I was gonna say food but that

Scott Benner 1:09:21
probably has everything that funny will have something Yeah, yeah. co parenting So I typed in food co parenting through divorce came up. Printing a one sees the word food must be in the description somewhere mature onset of the here's one mature onset of young love. Oh, what does that mean? We'll see. But I know Dan. Right. This person had Modi i think so mature onset of Baba bah is Modi. And she met her husband when they were really young. And to me those were the two keys of the story. And so but what would I need like You know, what would I do? Like what title? Should it be? You know, Jill has Modi and she got married young. If you read that, you'd be like, What the? Listen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yep. Trust me, I know what I'm doing. Am I doing Oh, am I being tested here, Dan?

Dan 1:10:17
Successful. So keep doing it.

Scott Benner 1:10:18
Yeah. Against all odds. And I seriously mean, if you knew me when I was younger, you'd be like, really worked out anything for him. That's interesting. Pull it together.

Dan 1:10:32
I don't know how you. You are very good at just letting that Facebook page go. Most of the time, I've only seen a couple things where you get mad, because someone's trying to sell something which I get because you're not doing this, you know, you could probably make a lot more money than you are doing. someone stealing your stuff to try to sell things that would kind of piss me off.

Scott Benner 1:10:55
I don't I don't like people taking advantage of other people. So yeah, if I come in there, and I say, look, here's a link for G voc hypo pan. If you click on it, it helps the podcast, you know, that's aboveboard? No problem. If somebody comes up and says, I found this thing that I use, it's really helpful, and I want to share it with people. That's great. But you can see the sneaky, you know, affiliate links, where they try to act like Oh, my God, this thing really helped me you should check it out. Or, you know, T shirts, scammers, that's really the biggest problem is that I don't want people to get scammed. And it happens constantly look at this shirt, and then people like, can you make me one? And then before you know what, everybody send him money to people, I'm like, stop, stop. No, no, no. Yeah, I mean, the truth is that, that that Facebook page, I think, right now is 20. I it's weird when I say it in the podcast, because then I listened back six months later, there's so many more, but now there's like 20 26,000 people in there. And there are people who are helping themselves. They're helping each other. They're sharing information. They're being supportive, they're creating a community, they're, they're, you know, they're helping people with questions. And they need to feel safe there, they shouldn't have to think that you're trying to steal 20 bucks from them. And Facebook is, you know, you have to protect that. So it's not. And then the other thing is, it's not a marketplace. I can't just let people come in there and pimp their businesses like crazy because those people are 26,000 people trying to help each other. But from a cynical perspective, they're also a bloc of people who are primed to buy certain things. And that's not that's not right, either, you know, and I don't get mad as much as I'm just like, ah, like, can you just leave me alone, I don't want to do this. But, but to your original point about the Facebook page, it works really well. Because it runs off my general vibe, which is speaking adult, just just stop it. I mean, like don't Don't, don't be looking to be upset and don't pick on people and don't be crappy to people just just be a be a human being and talk about your diabetes and people follow my lead do gratefully because it's a that Facebook pages is valuable to people diabetes, this podcast is I believe,

Dan 1:13:14
yeah, yeah, I don't really ever comment. Well, I haven't made my own Facebook page for posts for probably five years. My wife just does it and tagged me in it. So I don't ever comment on there. But I read people's stuff all the time. And I'm glad that other people comment because it really helps you learn all kinds of different tricks. And you know, it's such an individualized thing. type one diabetes is not the same for anybody and so I just getting all these ideas from so many different people. It's pretty amazing. It

Scott Benner 1:13:47
is it's um oh, it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen actually people helping people like I sound goofy sang it, but you're from the you're from the northwest. You don't care if I sound Yeah, right, right. Yeah. So yeah, we're help each other man. Let's go in the woods. What's that a mushroom? Let's eat it. I know. I haven't figured it out completely. But I'm getting there. And so fish like how often have you stare at those fish? That you just like if you find them relaxing? Still? Are they still just work?

Dan 1:14:16
Oh, yeah. So no. Fish Tanks will bring your blood pressure down. Study that they've done. But yeah, definitely raises mine. I can't go to like a public aquarium without trying to see the problems. And then usually if I find some problems, I feel better. I'm like, Oh, they have

Scott Benner 1:14:34
issues too. You start throwing business cards around or what do you do?

Dan 1:14:39
Yeah, I'll fix that for you.

Scott Benner 1:14:42
Anything about your job help you balance say a hot tub pH? Does it lend itself to other parts of your life at all?

Dan 1:14:49
That is an interesting question, because when I was in college, I worked at a pet store that sold fish and reptiles and hot tubs half Hi. So my boss's idea was that it's more or less the same thing. It's a thing full of what? You know.

Scott Benner 1:15:10
Let's just go for simpler distributors similar skills. How many people do you know who believe in Sasquatch?

Dan 1:15:18
I think just my older daughter.

Scott Benner 1:15:20
Okay. Well, she's 12 I'm okay with that.

Dan 1:15:22
Yeah. Yeah. So it's funny. I just looked at the follow app, you know, saying I was nervous to get on here. My blood sugar. I haven't. I haven't had breakfast today. My blood sugar is 158. Wow. And I just had my a one C done a couple of weeks ago. And it was like 5.2. So I think I'm okay.

Scott Benner 1:15:44
Artists, blood sugar is 94 at the moment. So she's doing better than your pancreas.

Dan 1:15:51
It started going up right around 1015.

Scott Benner 1:15:54
I hear it sometimes people like get on and they're talking for 10 minutes, I hear beep beep and I'm like, You're right. Like, yeah, my blood sugar is just going up. I don't know why I'm like, You're nervous. I'm famous. And then you know, which I'm Dan, you know, right. I don't know. I don't think that kind of a big deal. So who? To you?

Dan 1:16:11
Yeah, to the people that know about you? Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:16:13
it's an oddity, really, I'm gonna go back downstairs, when we're done here, and my wife will make sure that I know I'm not a big deal. We'll take care of take care of the whole thing right now. I I wanted to get back to though just the idea of community for people super important. We don't talk about enough, it sounds kind of hokey, when you say it, it doesn't need to mean that you're like at diabetes camp for a week, it doesn't need to be it doesn't need to mean that you ever post on that Facebook page. It can just be the practice of watching the conversations, I think is incredibly valuable. And and just being around people who are are in a shared experience is was very comforting. Yeah. It's weird that I'm the one that facilitates it, but maybe not, you know, I was thinking it's funny. It's funny, you bring this up, I saw an email today from a person that I know who is the community manager, right. So it's a real job, it's 2022, this person makes a real honest living owns a home. And they're they manage a community online. That community that they manage has a small fraction of the members that mine does, it does not run well. And I've never thought of myself as a community manager in my life. And I realized when I was looking at it, it was all kind of like coalescing in my head, I thought, Oh, I am a community manager. I just do it differently than people do it. I don't put rules on people constraints. I mean, the basically, the rule of the Facebook page is be nice. That's yeah, that's it really, you know, I don't know, once a while people try to argue about politics, there's no politics. He just say no politics, that's the end. And when people say things that are kind of, you know, I was gonna say off color, but it's not true. I think what happens is, I think what happens most of the time is that people just don't communicate the way they want to sometimes they have an intention in their head but doesn't come out, right, or they don't think about how it reads. And there was a thing this morning, where I just I said to the person, hey, I don't think you're I don't think you meant this this way. Like, could you look at it again, please. And I didn't say it to them privately, or send them a message or I wrote under their comment I said, I don't believe that you, you know, I hear what you're saying. I have a ton of respect for the situation you've been through. Can you please look at this again, to see how the original poster might read it. And then the person came back and said, Oh, I didn't mean it that way. Like it, it was very, like, cordial. It again, to me, it's the you got to you can't walk around wanting to be upset. You know, you got to give people the benefit of the doubt. And, and assume that they mean good things, too. And then a lot of times you'll find out they did or you'll catch somebody in a bad moment. And they'll they'll adjust themselves. And the ones who don't are crazy. So what are we doing? We're gonna argue with them. You don't I mean?

Dan 1:19:07
Yeah, yeah, well, I write and delete emails to my clients all the time because like, caught me in a bad mood and I'm gonna I'm gonna wait to send that

Scott Benner 1:19:20
let me just take a second here and think this through i I said to somebody recently might have been on the podcast, I don't know, I feel bad if I'm repeating myself, but the podcast and the Facebook page and in general, interacting with people with diabetes for so long. It's made me a better communicator. But I I know how to talk to people in a way that I mean, that is still unique to me but sincere and does not. And takes into account how people might be feeling in ways that I don't know so you don't. I'm not a person who uses the word triggered really, but they're, you know, So you don't trigger people. So you don't get them. Yeah, you know, you don't put them in a in a disadvantageous situation the first time you talk to them, and that's how you, you breed conversations. So,

Dan 1:20:11
yep. Yeah, I agree that you have that unique skill that it's hard to do. It's hard to get people to tell you, especially things like this that are can be so personal.

Scott Benner 1:20:25
Without, well, then your barriers. You're nice to call it a skill, but it my whole life, people just tell me stuff. I don't know why it is natural. Yeah. My wife's like, when people tell you things they shouldn't tell you. And I'm like, I know. It's been happening forever. I have no idea. So probably just my deep voice then makes everybody comfortable and a little woozy. And then they're like, Yeah, my wife wants to put her hand inside of a cow.

Dan 1:20:50
I just, I just started a podcast this morning. Sounds like Alright, I'm gonna wait, just see how this goes. And it was all you the All I got to was you just talking about how great your voice was?

Scott Benner 1:21:03
Oh, you started one of my episodes. I thought you were like, This is the end. Now. I'm going to pimp my new podcast.

Dan 1:21:09
It was yours. It was the like divorce attorney. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:21:13
yeah. Great episode with a divorce attorney who is also the parent of a type one, she comes on gives great, great conversation about how to manage that situation. So I do the edit on it. You know, I know we recorded it a couple of months ago, I she wrote a great blog post for it that's on juicebox podcast.com. That's a companion like a real step by step how to like great advice. Anyway, I edited it. And it was ready. So the audio gets chopped up into blocks. And it's waiting for me to do the open like the Hello friends like that part. And you know, this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and then I put the ads the middle, and I do the outro like the thank blah, blah, blah. And that happens later. And a lot of times that happens later at night. So I sat down to do that one. And I hadn't recorded in 12 hours, like I hadn't had these headphones on, you know, since noon. And I put them on. It's midnight. I'm probably a little dry and a little tired. And I go Hello friends. And my voice was so deep. It frightened me. And then I got okay, because I'm hearing it my ears like you and I are the same. You and I are the same audio level in my ears. So it keeps me from talking over you because I hear you on my level. Right? And so when I sit down to do the Edit, and I just my voice was booming, and then I got intoxicated, I was like oh my god, like it wasn't stopping. I was like, my voice is so deep right now. Anyway, that's the end if I had the opportunity, or the idea or the knowledge of how to pretend to be a different person, I guess I would but this is really just sort of me. So Oh, my God, my voice.

Dan 1:22:56
I think it's likeable for most people.

Scott Benner 1:22:59
Why are you listening to it? Dan, do you think you're getting divorced?

Dan 1:23:02
Yeah, that's what I actually thought about that afterwards, it was I wanted to find one that had the normal like intro that wasn't like a famous person or something like that just to sort of get my bearings. And then after I clicked on it, I was like if this like, somehow shows up in my history, and my wife's listening to that one.

Scott Benner 1:23:24
So don't think I didn't worry about that when I made it. Because I thought, are people going to listen to this? Like like it because it's great. I mean, she's terrific, like no life. Like, really, it's a great interview. You know, she talks about her, her, you know, her professional ideas around the topic, we talk a little bit about her, you know, her daughter as type one in the regular life. It's it's a nice mix, like you would expect. But when I put it up, I thought I wonder if people will just not want this in their history. Because it says co parenting through divorce. And if you're married, and that's in your history, somebody might not think that's great. And I just wonder what will happen. So I'm going to look right now to see if stats wise, it's different from the episode that went up right before it. Let's see. First day stats, I'm not gonna say the numbers out loud because you people don't get to know that. Yeah, but let me look at the next one. This one? Yeah, it's down a little bit. It's down. It's down a little bit over the one that came out just before it, which was my expectation. And to your point earlier about, you know, that's still a great conversation. If you're not thinking of getting divorced, still listen to it. Talks about communication and mediation and how people talk to each other and problems that arise in relationships and all this stuff but you write divorce on it, then everybody's like I'm not getting divorces and they won't listen to it.

Dan 1:24:55
Well, now I can listen to it and then if my wife you know this suspicious about I'll be like, just wait, you know, four or five months.

Scott Benner 1:25:06
Meanwhile, review. Your wife's listen to her three times already. She's like, Yeah, how to books she's making a man or guy was serious about these fish tanks. I didn't realize I gotta go. Oh my gosh. All right. Well, then you've been terrific. I really appreciate you doing this.

Dan 1:25:25
Yeah, thank you. I enjoyed talking to you. And, you know, it goes without saying, if you're just saying that, and it's terrible. I will not have never. You'd never use this one.

Scott Benner 1:25:38
You listen to the show right there? I do. I don't I don't throw away interviews ever.

Dan 1:25:43
I didn't. I didn't think so. Yeah, no, I

Scott Benner 1:25:46
mean, so I've been a handful of them that have gone wrong for reasons that have nothing to do with the person giving it. And I've put up episodes that I wasn't personally attached to. And I still hear back from people about how much they love them. It's not just about me, or one person or one aesthetic. Like you're right for somebody, you know? Yeah.

Dan 1:26:07
Yeah. That's kind of why I wanted to do it. Good.

Scott Benner 1:26:10
I really appreciate you taking the time. I sincerely do.

Dan 1:26:14
Alright, yeah. I appreciate you. And so well, how long how does it work? You just decide, like, how long does it how does what work?

Scott Benner 1:26:23
We're done. How do I? How do you ask me a question?

Dan 1:26:27
How do I know? How does one know when there? Interview gets?

Scott Benner 1:26:33
Oh? Well, then the machine takes care of it. We have a large intricate staff over here. I don't know Damn, it goes up. It goes up in your podcast player and you go animal husbandry Holy crap. All of that. What an idiot. That guy is. I have no idea why that podcast is listened to by anybody. No, I don't. I'm not going to tell you just gonna Yeah,

Dan 1:26:55
okay. Just kind of watch it. And then

Scott Benner 1:26:57
six months is six months is about the measuring stick. Okay, so pretty close six months and beyond. See how I've trained you six months to be on six months to go on? Record. So it's a year from when you emailed me? And you're like, Oh, that's not bad.

Dan 1:27:16
I think that is it. I already

Scott Benner 1:27:17
waited six months for this. Like I'm teaching people patience. I'm really I'm doing a public service. You know, I really happy yeah. All right. Yeah. Hold on one second. Okay.

Did I not tell you Dan was terrific. I was right. Thank you, Dan. And thank you, Omni pod makers of the Omni pod five, and the Omni pod dash Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. What are you waiting for? Speaking of waiting, how long have we been waiting for the Dexcom G seven and now it's here, Dex comm.com forward slash juice box. Go go go go. I want to thank you for listening and for sharing the show with other people. And for all the kind things that you do for each other. I'll remind you that I'll be back very soon with another episode. And that you should check out the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. Alright, I'm out of here. Don't forget to use my links