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It's In the News, a look at the top stories and headlines from the diabetes community happening now. Top stories this week: lots of news from the EASD conference, including info from Dexcom, Vertex, and more, the ADA issues new guidelines for CGM use at school around caregivers' ability to follow, a new study says women should be screened at a younger age for type 2 diabetes, and congrats to Lauren Dahlin, who lives with type 1, for qualifying for the Ironman race in Hawaii. Find out more about Moms' Night Out  Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! Take Control with Afrezza  Omnipod - Simplify Life Learn about Dexcom  Edgepark Medical Supplies Check out VIVI Cap to protect your insulin from extreme temperatures Learn more about AG1 from Athletic Greens  Drive research that matters through the T1D Exchange The best way to keep up with Stacey and the show is by signing up for our weekly newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter here Here's where to find us: Facebook (Group) Facebook (Page) Instagram Twitter Check out Stacey's books! Learn more about everything at our home page www.diabetes-connections.com  Reach out with questions or comments: info@diabetes-connections.com Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now XX In the news is brought to you by Edgepark simplify your diabetes journey with Edgepark XX Lots of news out of EASD – the European Association for the Study of Diabetes happening this week. Including, a new trial finds that antiviral medications, when given soon after a child is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, might help preserve those vital beta cells. The team followed 96 children aged 6 to 15 who were all diagnosed with type 1 diabetes within three weeks prior to their enrollment in the study. The children were randomly selected to receive either the two antiviral medicines or a placebo for six months. After one year of follow-up, the researchers found that C-peptide levels remained "significantly higher" in kids who'd gotten the antiviral treatment compared to those who hadn't. That suggests the treatment helped shield the child's pancreatic beta cells from destruction. While C-peptide levels dropped a full 24% in children who received the placebo, it fell by just 11% in those who got the antivirals, the investigators found. On top of that, 86% of kids who'd gotten the antivirals still produced their own insulin at a level that makes treatment with supplementary insulin easier, the team said, and is also known to be linked to lowered risks for diabetes complications. The treatment appeared to be safe, with no severe side effects noted. According to Mynarek's team, their research supports the notion "that a low-grade persistent virus infection is an underlying disease mechanism, and that type 1 diabetes may be prevented by development of new vaccines." The researchers concluded that "further studies should be done at an earlier stage in the disease process, to evaluate whether antiviral treatment could delay the progression of beta-cell damage leading to clinical type 1 diabetes." https://consumer.healthday.com/type-1-diabetes-2665779376.html XX Also at EASD, an update on once a week insulin icodec for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. While several other studies have investigated once-weekly insulins in type 2 diabetes, this was the first data to be presented from a large-scale phase 3 study in type 1 diabetes. The study, ONWARDS 6, included 582 people with type 1 diabetes who received either insulin icodec or insulin degludec. Participants had an average age of 44 years and an average diabetes duration of 20 years. Both the icodec and degludec group received basal insulin in combination with mealtime insulin (insulin aspart, or NovoLog) over a period of 57 weeks. Overall, participants treated with once-weekly icodec and once-daily icodec had similar reductions in A1C of -0.5%, suggesting that this new insulin may offer another option for treating type 1 diabetes. What were the key findings? This study showed that insulin icodec was effective at reducing A1C in people with type 1 diabetes, although icodec did lead to higher rates of hypoglycemia compared to degludec. Researchers are still investigating some questions related to the hypoglycemia events that occurred in this trial, such as how the time of injection and exercise may affect hypoglycemia. https://diatribe.org/once-weekly-insulins-type-1-diabetes-latest-research-update XX XX Vertex Pharmaceuticals says a third type 1 patient no longer needs insulin after it's investigational stem cell-derived therapy VX-880, being assessed for type 1 diabetes. Two patients who had been followed for at least 12 months likewise met the study's endpoint of the elimination of serious hypoglycemic events (SHE) between 90 days and 12 months. Tuesday's results follow an earlier data drop in June 2023, detailing the first two patients that achieved insulin independence and met the study's primary endpoint. The first patient achieved insulin independence 270 days into treatment, lasting through month 24 of the follow-up. The patient had type 1 diabetes (T1D) for “nearly 42 years,” according to Vertex's announcement, and was taking 34 units of insulin daily. Insulin independence came on day 180 for the second patient, persisting through 12 months of follow-up. The patient had T1D for 19 years and was taking 45.1 units of exogenous insulin daily. This patient had to restart insulin treatment at month 15, though at a much lower daily dose of four units. The third patient stopped needing insulin at 180 days of treatment, which happened after the data cut-off, according to Vertex. Aside from insulin independence, the new data from the Phase I/II study showed that VX-880 induced islet cell engraftment in all participants in parts A and B of the study at 90 days. In turn, these patients are now capable of endogenous glucose-responsive insulin production and demonstrated better glycemic control across various measures, including HbA1c and time-in-range. Before receiving VX-880, all enrolled participants had long-standing T1D and showed no signs of endogenous insulin secretion and required 34.0 units of insulin per day on average, according to Vertex's announcement on Tuesday. All patients also had histories of recurrent severe hypoglycemic events. An investigational allogeneic stem cell-based therapeutic, VX-880 works by delivering fully differentiated and insulin-producing islet cells, in turn restoring the body's glucose-responsive insulin production capabilities and boosting glucose control. VX-880 is designed to be delivered via an infusion through the hepatic portal vein. Patients need to be on an immunosuppressive regimen to receive the candidate. Vertex's T1D program also includes VX-264, an investigational therapy that encapsulates stem cell-derived islet cells in a protective device to be implanted into the patients' bodies, according to the company's website. Because the device is designed to shield the therapeutic cells from the body's response, VX-264 is being studied without the use of immunosuppressive therapies. https://www.biospace.com/article/vertex-touts-promising-data-for-stem-cell-based-type-1-diabetes-treatment/ XX I mentioned Dexcom's presentation at EASD in our long format interview earlier this week.. One of the company's studies, for example, recruited insulin users in the U.K. to test out the Dexcom ONE device, which offers a more simplified interface compared to the company's flagship G-series sensors. Though both Type 1 and Type 2 patients joined the study, Dexcom specifically singled out its results in the Type 2 population: The group saw their average HbA1c levels drop from a baseline of just over 10% to 8.5% after three months, then down to 8.3% after another three months, according to a company release. The data marked the first real-world study conducted on the Dexcom ONE CGM, Leach said. Another study presented at the EASD conference this week verified the use of the G7 sensor in pregnant women with Type 1, Type 2 or gestational diabetes—making Dexcom's G6 and G7 devices the only commercially available CGMs backed by clinical data for use during pregnancy, the company said. That group makes up about 10% of all pregnancies, he said, and “whether you're on insulin therapy or not, just the benefit of having a Supported by those findings, Dexcom said in the release that it now plans to make the G7 sensor available for use with Tandem's t:slim X2 insulin pump in the U.S. and “multiple markets across Europe and Asia-Pacific” before the end of 2023. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/easd-dexcom-cgms-notch-wins-among-type-2-and-pregnant-users-and-7-year-real-world-data XX Metformin may lengthen the time until insulin initiation, lower fasting glucose and improve neonatal outcomes for pregnant women with gestational diabetes, according to data from a randomized trial. In findings presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting and simultaneously published in JAMA, researchers compared glycemic, maternal and neonatal outcomes for women with gestational diabetes randomly assigned up to 2,500 mg metformin daily with those receiving placebo. The metformin group had a lower mean fasting glucose at 32 and 38 weeks of gestation, and the offspring of women receiving metformin had a lower mean birth weight than the offspring of those receiving placebo. Metformin reduces the likelihood for large for gestational age among offspring of women with gestational diabetes. Infants from mothers in the metformin group had a lower mean birth weight than offspring of mothers from the placebo group (3,393 g vs. 3,506 g; P = .005). The percentage of infants born large for gestational age was lower in the metformin group vs. placebo (6.5% vs. 14.9%; P = .003). Mean crown-to-heel length was shorter in offspring of mothers from the metformin group compared with placebo (51 cm vs. 51.7 cm; P = .02). “Caution should continue with metformin and small for gestational age, especially in those where small for gestational age may be more likely, so those with hypertension or nephropathy,” Dunne said during the presentation. https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20231004/metformin-provides-glycemic-neonatal-benefits-for-women-with-gestational-diabetes XX More voices are calling for more screening for type 1 diabetes. About 85% of people with type have no family history. Various research programs are going on worldwide to establish the best ways of implementing universal screening, including programs in Germany, the USA, Israel, the UK, and Australia. A new program (Edent1fi) has just been funded that will include multiple new European countries, including the UK, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Italy, and the Czech Republic. "These are all research programs. The next steps before universal screening for type 1 diabetes becomes general policy will require guidelines for monitoring and endorsement of screening and monitoring guidelines by applicable societies," explains Dr. Sims. This will also be helped by broader access to disease-modifying therapies to impact progression and the need to start insulin injections. Screening for adults, who can also develop T1D, is less well studied. Although optimal approaches have yet to be elucidated, this population will also likely benefit from identifying early-stage disease and the advantages of education, monitoring, and access to therapy. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20231003/Universal-screening-A-game-changer-in-early-detection-and-management-of-type-1-diabetes.aspx XX As I mentioned briefly in my last episode, one of the winners of this year's Nobel prize for medicine has lived with type 1 for almost 60 years. Dr. Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó won the Nobel for their work on the COVID-19 vaccines received a Nobel Prize of Medicine. Karikó and Weissman met by chance in the 1990s while photocopying research papers, Karikó told The Associated Press. Weissman was diagnosed at age 5 and I'll link up a great interview that Mike Hoskins posted – he used to write for DiabetesMine. http://www.thediabeticscornerbooth.com/2021/02/we-can-thank-this-researcher-with-type.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR254vGL8G0aU3uUnvfHbJa79WCiFgS8ihMgHMf0V2hK2QYJBLaa9zwMn7U XX Should women be screened for type 2 diabetes at a younger age than men? A recent study published in Diabetes Therapy explores this hypothesis – there's a lot here and I'll link it up, but they examine the theory that menstruation can throw off an A1C. Women with diabetes between 16-60 years of age have an increased mortality risk by about 27% as compared to diabetic men of the same age when both are compared to the general population. Women lose an average of 5.3 years from their lifespan with diabetes as compared to 4.5 years for men. The study comprised two cohorts. The first included over 146,000 individuals using a single HbA1c reading at or below 50 mmol/mol obtained between 2012 and 2019. The distribution was replicated using readings from a second cohort of about 940,000 people, whose samples were analyzed in six laboratories between 2019 and 2021. The mean HbA1c level in women at any given age corresponded to that observed in men up to ten years earlier. These findings were corroborated with data obtained from the second cohort. An undermeasurement of approximately 1.6 mmol/mol HbA1c in women may delay their diabetes diagnosis by up to ten years. Ten years in which they weren't being treated. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20231004/The-cut-off-for-HbA1c-based-diagnosis-of-diabetes-may-be-too-high-in-women.aspx XX Commercial – Edgepark XX XX Very recently, the Americans with Diabetes Association released updated CGM guidance for use in schools. The link to the new guidance is below. This came about after discussions with stakeholders, including myself and Attorney Roswig. Be clear, this was revised because of the discussions and “rallying” of families impacted, where in some cases schools were pointing to certain flaws in the language in the prior guidance. While this new guidance may address your CGM issue with your particular school, the new guidance, in our opinion, still needs work. Please know that this work will continue. If you have any more specific questions, please contact me and I will attempt to address the same. Thank you for your patience, thus far, and anticipated trust and patience going forward. https://diabetes.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/cgm-final-9-22-23.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1t4cpPUSmDoitWiH2hSgNnXWdeYQjPW4rlewjWkWHiOYWc65HX8ub74Yo XX have to show everyone and show myself that this doesn't change anything,” said Lauren Dahlin about her diagnosis with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at 26 years old in 2017. Today, she's a true athlete who has competed in nine Ironman races — consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. Completed within about 14 hours! This past summer, Dahlin competed in the annual Ironman in Lake Placid, NY. The event came with a lot of pressure because placing within the top 24 racers meant qualifying for the biggest Ironman event of all: the World Championship in Kona, HI. She did it. Dahlin placed 9th amongst about 600 other female competitors — becoming one of the first women with T1D to qualify for the Ironman in Kona, HI. Happening next weekend Oct 14th Here's a closer look at Dahlin's journey from diagnosis to rockstar competitive athlete. Diagnosed just days before a potential DKA coma “I couldn't even walk half a flight of stairs without getting extremely winded because I was so far gone,” explains Dahlin of her pre-diagnosis symptoms. “The clinic gave me an inhaler for asthma and sent me home!” Dahlin saw six different providers before someone finally gave her the appropriate diagnosis. They even performed a full-blood panel workup and didn't diagnose her T1D. Eventually, Dahlin went to the emergency room in Boston, where she lived, and the staff told her she was experiencing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). She then spent ten days in the intensive care unit learning about her new life living with T1D. “I was bummed that the doctors hadn't caught my diagnosis earlier because there were a lot of clinical trials happening in Boston that I could have been a part of.” Regardless, Dahlin didn't want to slow down — within one month of her diagnosis, she signed up for her first half-marathon. https://t1dexchange.org/ironman-world-championship-type-1-diabetes/ XX That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.  

Join us as we speak with Ginger Vieira about her new book, Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes. She shares so many insights to how insulin works in the body and how exercise effects our blood sugar. We also talk about the use of CGMs in people without diabetes, and she shares a little insight into the use of Ozempic in people who have Type 1 Diabetes.   Ginger Vieira has lived with type 1 diabetes and celiac disease since 1999 and fibromyalgia since 2014. She is the author of several books, including Pregnancy with Type 1 Diabetes, Dealing with Diabetes Burnout, Emotional Eating with Diabetes, When I Go Low (for kids) and Ain't Gonna Hide My T1D! (for kids). After 15 years of creating content for many websites, including DiabetesMine, BeyondType1, Healthline, DiabetesStrong, and more, Ginger has joined T1D Exchange as the Associate Director of Communications. Her background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in professional writing and certifications in coaching, personal training, and Ashtanga yoga. She joins us again to share her new book with us, Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes: How to exercise without scary lows or frustrating highs   Join the Diapoint mailing list for exclusive insights, offers and diabetes wisdom.   The Diapoint Family Weekend taking place on 4-5 November 2023 in Dubai! Just imagine—a space where you and your child's diabetes journey is not just understood but it is celebrated! The weekend is packed with activities for children and parents; from team building to fun games and other activities. Registration is now open, and space is limited, so don't miss the opportunity to reserve your spot. You can find out more information at www.diapointshop.com or just drop me an email at info@diapointme.com Don't miss this chance to connect with others.   If you're enjoying this podcast, we'd love to hear from you! Your feedback helps us create content that serves you better. So, if you have a moment, please head over to Apple Podcasts—or wherever you listen to your podcasts—and give us a rating and review. Five-star ratings really help us reach more listeners.   Don't forget to hit that 'Subscribe' button so you never miss an episode. And, if any of our episodes or guests resonate with you, share them on social media or forward them to friends and family who would benefit from our community's collective wisdom.   Visit the D-Shop where we offer beautiful, practical diabetes supplies and lifestyle accessories.   The Ultimate T1D Game Plan: A game-changing home study program for parents of school-aged children with Type 1 Diabetes.   Diabetes resources.   Looking for health support? Set up a FREE Health Plan call today! Book a time to meet with Pam at this link.   Watch our podcast episodes and more on our YouTube Channel! @DiapointTV   Connect with Diapoint @diapointme: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest   Connect with Diapoint Arabia: Instagram | Facebook | DiapointArabia.com   Find episodes, show notes and guest info of all Dia-Logue episodes on the Diapoint website.   Would you like to sponsor our podcast? Get in touch: info@diapointme.com   Diapoint is the place for people touched by diabetes. For more information and full details of our work, visit diapointme.com . Subscribe to the podcast so you get notifications for all our episodes, and please share it on social media or with anyone you think could benefit from this free content. Thank you for listening!

Pam welcomes Ginger Vieira, the author of of several books, to this episode of Dia-Logue: The Diapoint Podcast. Ginger and Pam discuss how to prepare for and manage diabetes burnout when it happens. They cover some of the wisdom from Ginger's book, Dealing with Diabetes Burnout. Ginger's other books include Pregnancy with Type 1 Diabetes, Your Diabetes Science Experiment, Emotional Eating with Diabetes, When I Go Low (for kids) and Ain't Gonna Hide My T1D! (for kids).  Ginger has been writing about diabetes for over 15 years for many well-known websites, including DiabetesMine, BeyondType1, Healthline, DiabetesStrong, and more. She has recently joined the T1D Exchange as the Associate Director of Communications. Her background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in professional writing and certifications in coaching, personal training, and Ashtanga yoga. Pam and Ginger talk about diabetes and exercise, food and nutrition, and Ginger shares her experience on diabetes and pregnancy. She gives us some advice on how to be unapologetically proud of your diabetes. We also get insight into her next book about diabetes and exercise.   Join the Diapoint mailing list for exclusive insights, offers and diabetes wisdom. Visit the D-Shop where we offer beautiful, practical diabetes supplies and lifestyle accessories. The Ultimate T1D Game Plan: A game-changing home study program for parents of school-aged children with Type 1 Diabetes. Check out our Diabetes resources. Looking for health support? Set up a FREE Health Plan call today! Book a time to meet with Pam at this link. Watch our podcast episodes and more on our YouTube Channel! @DiapointTV Connect with Diapoint @diapointme: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest Connect with Diapoint Arabia: Instagram | Facebook | DiapointArabia.com Find episodes, show notes and guest info of all Dia-Logue episodes on the Diapoint website. Would you like to sponsor our podcast? Get in touch: info@diapointme.com Diapoint is the place for people touched by diabetes. For more information and full details of our work, visit diapointme.com . Subscribe to the podcast so you get notifications for all our episodes, and please share it on social media or with anyone you think could benefit from this free content. Thank you for listening!

Happy new year! What will 2023 bring for diabetes technology? We bring our best guesses to the table and we take a look back at what we said would happen last year. Stacey is joined by Chris Wilson on a Twitter Spaces Chat and you'll also hear from Mike Hoskins for a look back to 2022. Mike is currently an editor at Healthline and formerly the managing editor at DiabetesMine. Chris Wilson, is a longtime advocate and information junkie who just marked 25 years with type 1. Chris will tell you that for much of his time with diabetes he didn't have insurance and didn't use a lot of the more advanced tech.. and now he really follows it all very closely, takes part in clinical trials and is designing his own pretty incredibly sounding DIY closed loop features. None of the three have financial stakes in these companies, past some stocks that may be buried in mutual funds – we don't' own individual stakes in these companies. And their information is based on whatever is publicly available. Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!) Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! *Click here to learn more about OMNIPOD* *Click here to learn more about AFREZZA* *Click here to learn more about DEXCOM*

It's "In the News..." Got a few minutes? Get caught up! Top stories this week: An FDA hiccup for Vertex, Omnipod 5 starts wider rollout, New peek at Dexcom G7 features, Beta Bionic study info, "Hey Alexa, predict my blood sugar" and Healthline shuts down their main source of diabetes news and information. -- Join us LIVE every Wednesday at 4:30pm ET Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!) Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! *Click here to learn more about AFREZZA* *Click here to learn more about OMNIPOD* *Click here to learn more about DEXCOM* Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. we go live on social media first and then All sources linked up at diabetes dash connections dot com when this airs as a podcast. XX In the news is brought to you by T1D Exchange! T1D Exchange is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving outcomes for the entire T1D population. https://t1dexchange.org/stacey/ XX Our top story – bit of a surprise for Vertex – the FDA puts a clinical hold on their newest trial. This is the company that made big headlines last fall – that New York Times article likely sent to you by everyone you know about a stem cell cure for type 1. That's when Vertex reported data on the cell therapy from a single patient who achieved a “robust” restoration of islet cell function after receiving a drug called VX-880. That response is going strong they say at day 270. This week, Vertex showcased results from another patient and said a third patient has received the full dose. A company spokesman says they're surprised by the clinical hold given the evidence so far and there have been no serious adverse events. They say they'll work with the FDA to get the trial moving again as soon as possible. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/unwelcome-surprise-vertex-fda-slaps-hold-phase-12-diabetes-cell-therapy-study XX Insulet announces that Omnipod 5 has completed the Limited Market Release and will be rolling out to a wider audience soon. Those who signed up for what they call the interest list will be notified first – we're told watch for that email this week. If you haven't signed up, sit tight. Omnipod 5 still isn't yet available through all insurers and at every pharmacy, but the roll out will continue slowly through the year. https://www.omnipod.com/current-podders/resources/omnipod-5/faqs?fbclid=IwAR1fghbXl4uP4H3z8DGovriAocpZyDyPzLdPzME_taonv3_ZfPC3XqukHJY XX We're learning more about Dexcom's G7 – approved in Europe and in front of the US FDA right now. Sensors will have a bit of a grace period – they'll keep working 12 hours after the 10 days are up. You'll also be able to silence the urgent low and sensor fail alarms for six hours – that's new. I'm talking to CTO Jake Leach for next week's long-format show and he's got a lot of info to share. I asked as many of your questions as I could, so please come back for that one. XX New study results about the iLet, the insulin only bionic pancreas from Beta Bionics. This is one of the many studies presented at A-T-T-D.. People in the study saw about half a point come off their A1Cs after 13 weeks and there was no increase in hypoglycemia. They also saw more than 2 and a half hours more time in range. The iLet is unique in that you only enter your weight and tell the pump system when you're eating – there are no basal rates or a need to enter carbs. No timeline for release but the company says its regulatory submission is currently under FDA review. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/04/30/2433019/0/en/The-iLet-Bionic-Pancreas-Significantly-Reduced-HbA1c-and-Improved-Time-in-Range-vs-Standard-of-Care-for-a-Diverse-Range-of-People-with-Type-1-Diabetes.html XX Amazon.com's online pharmacy PillPack has agreed to pay almost 6-million dollars to resolve claims that it overcharged government health insurance programs by dispensing more insulin injector pens than patients needed. That's the headline, but -editorial here – this story just shows a lot about what's wrong with our system. Many of us have had this happen – used to be if you had a prescription for insulin pens, they'd just give you the box of 5 – even if the prescription was written for 3 or 4. Now, they have to break open the box and count out the exact amount. It's not as though a patient was over-charged.. and that's not the focus of this lawsuit. This was about government health insurance programs. I get it, we're all paying for that in our taxes, but there's got to be a better way. Maybe pass that co-pay cap, or let Medicare negotiate prices or just cap the price overall. Then this issue – and many others – goes away. https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/amazon-unit-pay-58-mln-insulin-overbilling-2022-05-02/ XX Walmart Health's telehealth company MeMD launched a virtual care diabetes program this past week. The initiative, known as the Walmart Health Virtual Care Diabetes Program, was developed for employers and payers as a standalone offering or as part of a comprehensive telehealth program. It's a partnership with the ADA and includes a consultation with a licensed medical provider to discuss patient history, eating habits and more. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/walmart-launches-telehealth-program-aimed-diabetes XX Right back to the news in a moment but first we've got a new sponsor. As I mentioned, The T1D Exchange Registry is an online research study, designed to harness the power of individuals with type 1 diabetes. It's a research study conducted online over time, designed to foster innovation and improve the lives of people with T1D. Personal information remains confidential and participation is fully voluntary. Once enrolled, participants will complete annual surveys and have the opportunity to sign up for other studies on specific topics related to T1D. By sharing opinions, experiences and data, patients can help advance meaningful T1D treatment, care and policy. Sign up at T1DExchange.org slash Stacey (that's S-T-A-C-E-Y). XX An Australian company joins the diabetes conversation on your Alexa device. Jade Diabetes says their My Jade skill can centralize logging, dose calculation and dose management. It can also suggest dose changes within 3 hours. They say “Jade is the only system to use accurate predictions to alert patients of future risks at a given time.” It uses info from CGMs, connected glucose meters, digital pens and data from Apple Health. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220504005004/en/Jade-Diabetes-makes-Diabetes-Simpler-with-Alexa-Insulin-Dosing XX Really sad to hear that Healthline has decided to close down what I think has been just one of the best sources of Diabetes news & info.. Diabetesmine. It was started by Amy Tenderich after her diagnosis in 2003 and acquired by Healthline in 2013. I've had her and Managing Editor Mike Hoskins on the show many times. Amy's amazing other project – D-Data Exchange will live on. These are the bi-annual #DData forums connect experts, advocates and innovators developing data platforms, apps, algorithms and next-gen devices to take full advantage of data-driven diabetes care. You may recall the term We Are Not Waiting was coined at the first D-Data exchange – it's a cool place to be! The next one is coming up June 2nd, more info in the show notes. https://summer2022-ddata.eventbrite.com XX On this week's long format episode, you'll hear about the Mental Health Plus diabetes conference.. the organizers said every conference has one session on mental health – we really need more. So they did it. Love that! Next week, as I mentioned, Dexcom's Chief Technical Officer on the G7, some interesting new info.. and I asked him all of your questions. Listen wherever you get your podcasts That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.  

Every week “In the News…” brings you the top stories and headlines around the diabetes community. Top stories this week: A new treatment is being studied to help prevent hypos, cannabis use may decrease women's risk of type 2, examining Veterans Affairs claims for T1D & Agent Orange, better prevention for T2D and heart disease and which athlete at the Winter Olympics was diagnosed with type 1 as a teen? -- Join us LIVE on Facebook & YouTube every Wednesday at 4:30pm EST Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!) Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! DEXCOM Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. If you're new we go live on social media first and then All sources linked up at diabetes dash connections dot com when this airs as a podcast. XX Looking to get organized? Check out my new guide with top tips to clear your diabetes clutter. Everything from how to start to where to donate and how to keep it from taking over your house. Head over to the home page to get organized. XX Our top story.. moving forward to find a daily therapy to slow or prevent low blood glucose in people with type 1. This is from diabetes-focused life sciences company Zucara Therapeutics. They're calling the drug ZT-01 and in theory it could restore the body's ability to release glucagon. Long way to go here, but reducing hypoglycemia is obviously a great outcome due to the many risks lows can create. Zucara will now move ahead with it's proof-of-concept clinical trial in people with T1D. The company expects to publish the findings from that study closer to this summer. https://www.biospace.com/article/zucara-reveals-hopeful-preclinical-data-in-type-1-diabetes-/ XX Part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act means a close look at type 1 in the VA. It mandates a report on disability compensation claims submitted by Vietnam War veterans who have Type 1 and were exposed to an herbicide agent during their service. The VA recognizes that Vietnam veterans' Type 2 diabetes can be related to Agent Orange. But it requires veterans with type 1 to provide evidence. There are some challenges here: The VA's claims decision data only goes back to 2003 and they track Type 1 and Type 2 with the same diagnostic code, they don't distinguish between the two conditions. In 2020, diabetes represented roughly 6.5 percent of all service-related conditions for which Vietnam War era veterans received compensation. gao.gov/products/gao-22-105143 XX New study of gestational diabetes shows it recurs for nearly half of women who've had it before. These doctors say little is known about the risk factors for recurrent gestational diabetes. Part of the problem is that they just changed criteria for diagnosing it. In this study about 8-percent of women had a history of gestational diabetes. Of those, almost 50-percent had it recur and just over 7-percent developed type 1 or type 2 between those pregnancies. https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20220208/risk-factors-differ-for-first-time-recurrent-gestational-diabetes XX What's the link between weed and a lower risk of type 2? First.. this study only showed such a link in women NOT in men and only in heavy users. In this study that means using cannabis at least four time in the previous month. No differences in the prevalence of type 2 in men who were light or heavy cannabis users versus nonusers. These findings come from a large 5 year study that ended in 2018 and in which people self-reported their use. These researchers say the gender difference was also seen in animal models. Expect more study on this one. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/968186 XX More good outcomes with SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists. These drugs are a mouthful but new research links them with lower chances of potentially fatal heart problems in people with type 2 without established heart disease. They compared these newer meds to the risks in people using more traditional therapies, such as metformin. The researchers showed the odds of developing heart failure was 51 percent lower for people using SGLT2 inhibitors, 18 percent lower for GLP-1 users and 57 percent lower for people using both drugs. The newer drugs are prescribed less and these researchers say we need to look at why when the newer ones show better outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-diabetes-drugs-thousands.html XX Some tough numbers about depression and diabetes. In the US.. about 30-percent of people with either type 1 or type 2 have depressive symptoms and 11-percent show signs of major depressive disorder. This lines up with studies from other countries as well, so it's not just about healthcare. There's some info in this study about how insulin resistance may go hand in hand with depression.. Women with diabetes seem to be at a heightened risk. Emerging research suggests treatment of depression with antidepressants may decrease the risk of developing diabetes-related complications, although other research suggests there may be complications related to their use. These conflicting findings highlight the need for further research. https://www.endocrinologyadvisor.com/home/topics/diabetes/diabetes-and-depression-and-distress-and-psychological-and-clinical-and-social-causes-insulin-and-glycemia-and-antidepressants/ XX Our friends at DiabetesMine have a good write up about the very attractive and ever elusive state of non-invasive blood glucose monitoring.. One that caught my eye was Scanbo. This technology uses a 60-second noninvasive finger measurement instead of a traditional blood drop required to measure glucose. The company has developed a prototype. You just put your fingers on the flat white sensors and the system uses a set of algorithms to analyze and offer insight on glucose values. Like most of these we've reported on.. they present at consumer shows, not medical conferences and no clinical trials. And.. this is my editorial.. what a weird photo. It looks like you have to put both hands on the machine and with the chipped purple nail polish this looks like no thought was put into it. https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/non-invasive-diabetes-technology XX At least one athlete in these Winter Olympics lives with type 1… Kamilla Kozuback was diagnosed at age 13.. and her first question was whether she'd ever be able to snowboard again. That was only four years ago! At the time she told JDRF Canada – quote, “I want to be in the next Olympics. I'm going to keep working hard, and training all I can” She's competing in Beijing this week. https://www.instagram.com/kamillakozuback/?hl=en https://www.jdrf.ca/finding-strength-in-adversity-newly-diagnosed-teen-competes-in-2020-youth-olympics/ XX The documentary “Pay or Die” gets some Hollywood star power behind hit. Susan Silverman signs on as an executive producer. We had directors Scott Ruderman and Rachel Dyer on the show last year to talk about what they describe as a look at the health care crisis in America, told through the personal stories of those with Type 1 diabetes who, because of soaring insulin costs, are living on the edge of survival. Silverman says, “I believe Rachael and Scott might just shame our shameless government enough to move the needle,” “I'm grateful for the chance to help get eyes on this crucial documentary.” https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/sarah-silverman-diabetes-insulin-documentary-1235084792/ XX Our long format episode this week is Molly Schreiber who lives with type 1 and rheumatoid arthritis. Medication for the latter made the decision to get a COVID vaccine complicated and she shares her story. Next week we're talking with the people at SIGI pump.. a new tubeless rechargeable pump that got breakthrough device designation last fall. Listen wherever you get your podcasts That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

The US FDA has approved Insulet's Omnipod 5 Automated Insulin Delivery System. This system was submitted more than a year ago but has been delayed due to COVID 19. Stacey talks to Dr. Trang Ly, Senior Vice President & Medical Director at Insulet Corporation who explains what makes this system different from the other AID systems on the market, what phone control means, what the roll out will look like, insurance issues, Medicare and more. Omnipod 5 FAQs from Insulet  DiabetesMine's write up of Omnipod 5 This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.   Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!) Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! DEXCOM Learn more about Dexcom help for veterans here 

Our top stories in the news this week: Congressional report on insulin pricing, SGLT2 pulled from EU market, Insulin-producing cells found outside the pancreas, Sugarmate returns & Miss America with #T1D joins Smithsonian display. -- Join us LIVE every Wednesday at 4:30pm EST Full episode transcription below: Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. As always, I'm going to link up my sources in the Facebook comments – where we are live – we are also Live on YouTube and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. XX In the News is brought to you by The World's Worst Diabetes Mom, Real life stories of raising a child with diabetes. Winner of the American Book Fest Prize for best new non-fiction. Available in paperback, on Kindle or as an audio book – all at Amazon.com. XX New Congressional report from Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight & Reform keeping the focus on insulin pricing. It says Medicare could have saved more than $16.7 billion on insulin if it were allowed to negotiate like other health programs. This final report is the culmination of an almost 3-year investigation. Documents from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi indicate these firms "raised their prices in lockstep in order to maintain 'pricing parity'. One particularly damning quote – a Novo Nordisk pricing analyst remarked, '[M]aybe Sanofi will wait until tomorrow morning to announce their price increase...that's all I want for Christmas'," https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/964799 XX Surprising move in Europe – they've pulled the SGLT-2 inhibitor Forxiga from the market for people with type 1. AstraZeneca said the decision isn't about safety but didn't explain further. There are already concerns about an increased risk of DKA from SGLT-2 inhibitors in people with type 1.. that's why they aren't approved in the US.. but many advocates say the benefits outweigh the risks. The UK Chief Executive of JDRF, said it is "appalling" that the drug has been withdrawn, as quote "many people with type 1 are finding it an effective and useful tool to help manage their glucose levels." https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/964844 XX The FDA issues a warning to Medtronic over it's diabetes headquarters. This is related to a July inspection that led to recalls of the MiniMed™ 600 series pump, and a remote controller device for MiniMed™ 508 and Paradigm™ pumps. Medtronic says they are implementing a range of corrective actions and process improvements related to the observations, and will continue reviewing these actions with the FDA. https://www.kpvi.com/news/national_news/medtronic-diabetes-receives-fda-warning-letter/article_bf45a3c3-1759-5fff-b234-6a71cd874a98.html XX Here's a new one. Israeli scientists have discovered that the human fetus makes insulin in its intestines before birth and say this means that adults may have a “backup” system that could be reactivated to treat diabetes. This is peer-reviewed research published in the journal Nature Medicine. These scientists say there's a lot here they don't understand and practical applications are a long way off but.. the hope is that some kind of medication could one day reactivate these cells in adults. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-scientists-say-humans-may-have-backup-insulin-system-diabetics-could-use/ XX Good news Sugarmate fans! Late last week the app makers announced it would once again connect with Dexcom for US customers. They issued an apology and thanked users for their patience. Still working on re-connecting for those outside the US. This is all about changes to the Dexcom API, the way apps talk to each other. https://help.sugarmate.io/en/articles/5790778-reconnecting-your-dexcom-data-source?fbclid=IwAR3FC616f4mGt4yAGUcEvLDaTVpDhC7aqQIxQPN7lk5ZBNJVxASIDzK57k8 XX Dexcom expands it's physical presence, opening a second large facility in Arizona. Big celebration this week with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the 500-thousand square foot facility and a job fair. In looking into this story, I found that earlier this year the other Dexcom center was used as an indoor drive-thru Covid vaccination site.. a partnership between Dexcom, the Arizona Health Department and Walgreens. https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2021/12/14/diabetes-device-maker-opens-another-mesa-facility.html XX Time Magazine's Heroes of the Year are the scientists behind the COVID vaccines. While there are of course many people at work here, they highlighted four – including Dr. Drew Weissman who has lived with type 1 for more than 50 years. He and partners began working on mRNA science for vaccines in 1997, publishing a landmark paper in 2005. There's a lot more to this story of course.. DiabetesMine ran a photo of Weissman almost a year ago, getting the vaccine and you can see his insulin pump on his belt. https://time.com/heroes-of-the-year-2021-vaccine-scientists/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=person-of-the-year&utm_term=_&linkId=144413683 XX Miss America memorabilia moves to the Smithsonian, including items from Nicole Johnson, the first Miss America with type 1 diabetes. Johnson posted about this on social media saying she was donating her insulin pump, swimsuit and letters from children with diabetes that she received during her reign in 1999. The exhibit will mark 100 years of the competition. Other items include a hearing-aid-compatible microphone used by Heather Whitestone, the first deaf Miss America of 1995 and the first swimsuit worn in the pageant. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/miss-america-contest-is-forever-shaped-by-its-swimsuit-competition-180979125/?fbclid=IwAR0YAQt1Lo1X5hB1yce2Ixftk5Y3I6_ncLLCbNBy9H-nKttLtBaYgSXx_Is XX New York Times article today about model Lila Moss wearing her omnipod during a fashion show a few months ago. They included a few other runway models with type 1 and got some quotes from JDRF.. nothing too new here but worth mentioning. One tidbit.. it's not uncommon, these models say, for pumps and CGMs to be airbrushed out if the client or they wish it to be – they're keeping their tech on for the shoots. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/style/lila-moss-hack-diabetes-runway.html XX Before I let you go, a reminder that the podcast this week is my favorite things! I had a great time with this episode.. it's short and fun I think – and I talk about accessories, storage, toys and more. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or if you're listening to this as on a podcast app, just go back an episode. Next week our predictions episode – DiabetesMine Managing Editor Mike Hoskins joins me as we talk about tech in the new year. That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.  

With Thanksgiving almost here and the winter holidays around the corner, we know that diabetes stress is about to ratchet way up. The D-Moms are here to help! Moira McCarthy joins Stacey to talk about everything from holiday travel, long car rides, well meaning relatives and holiday gifts centered on T1D. And of course, FOOD! Get advice to keep your children with T1D safe and happy so you can make terrific memories without freaking out about "perfect" blood sugars. Previous D-Mom Holiday advice here Adults with T1D give their take on the holidays:  This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode Transcription below:  Stacey Simms  0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. Manage your blood glucose levels increase your possibilities by Gvoke Hypopen the first pre mixed auto injector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom, take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.   Announcer  0:20 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  0:26 This week, Thanksgiving is almost here and many holidays just around the corner. Ask the D moms is here to help more McCarthy and I answer your questions and share our own stories to help you make more wonderful memories with less stress, even if that means doing things differently for a special occasion.   Moira McCarthy  0:44 And the reality is in this long, long, long, long, long lifetime marathon diabetes, you need to just chill a mile here and there. And by doing this and saying to your children, we're going to turn this off. This is okay. Don't worry about it. You're fine. You're modeling that for them and you're giving them the confidence and the courage to know that they can be okay. Yeah,   Stacey Simms  1:06 she said turn this off. She's talking about something I dare to say and do about Benny's CGM. We also talk about long car rides well-meaning relatives and holiday gifts centered on diabetes. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of the show. I'm your host Stacey Simms always so glad to have you here. You know, we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. And yes, this time of year. I mean, it's the holidays are stressful without diabetes, right. But I'm already seeing in my local group, the stress ratcheting up, somebody said to me the other day that they feel like even though they're not necessarily doing more than they did before the pandemic as more people are venturing out and traveling. They feel like they're really busy. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we haven't been very busy for the last year and a half, really. So there's gonna be more pressure on this holiday season. There's going to be more travel, there's going to be I don't know, it'll feel like higher stakes and especially if you are new to type one, that first year those first holidays, those first milestones are incredibly stressful. So Moira and I are here to help you out you probably already know. But just in case Moira McCarthy is a dear friend of mine. She is the author of many books about raising kids with diabetes, including the amazing raising teens with diabetes, which has that fabulous photo of a teen rolling her eyes right on the cover. I love that cover. You'll hear how long her daughter Lauren has lived with type one. She's a very successful adult now living on her own. And if you are brand new, my son Ben, he was diagnosed almost 15 years ago. He is almost 17, which is really hard to believe so most of my stories have to do with the early years. We're not out of the teens yet, and Moira will help kind of pick it up from there. And I always look to her for guidance as well. One funny thing about Thanksgiving this year, we have a set menu, right? We have our traditions. My husband is the cook in the family and we've always hosted Thanksgiving. He does something a little different every year, but it's really up to him. But Benny has been working in a grocery store for the past six or seven months now. And he is really jonesing for a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, which we don't usually do nothing do with diabetes. It's just not our style. We generally save the marshmallows for dessert. But my mom who makes our sweet potato casserole every year has valiantly stepped up and says she will make one for him. Because at the grocery store. He has been seeing the display and he's like Mom, it's just sweet potatoes, brown sugar, sweet potatoes, marshmallows, sweet potatoes, brown sugar, like they have this. And he took a picture that I saw the last time I was there. I mean, it's one whole side of a produce display. So this poor kid, he is really dying for that that marketing worked on him. He wants those marshmallows. My daughter is the canned cranberry sauce person, right. You know you make that beautiful, homemade cranberry sauce with the whole cranberries. Are you you boil it down? No, we have to have it in the can with the jelly lines on it. I prefer that as well. I have to admit. Alright, Moira and I talking about real stuff just a moment. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke Hypopen. Our endo always told us that if you use insulin, you need to have emergency glucagon on hand as well. Low blood sugars are one thing – we're usually able to treat those with fact acting glucose tabs or juice. But a very low blood sugar can be very frightening – which is why I'm so glad there's a different option for emergency glucagon. It's Gvoke Hypopen. Gvoke HypoPen is premixed and ready to go, with no visible needle. You pull off the red cap and push the yellow end onto bare skin – and hold it for 5 seconds. That's it. Find out more – go to diabetes dash connections dot com and click on the Gvoke logo. Gvoke shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma – visit gvoke glucagon dot com slash risk.   Moira, welcome back. I am so excited to talk to you What a week. I didn't even think about this when we planned. This is a big week for you and Lauren,   Moira McCarthy  5:04 it is yesterday, October 28. At 2:35pm was exactly her 24th diaversary. My daughter has had type 1 diabetes for 24 years. I can't even believe it. It's crazy.   Stacey Simms  5:22 But I have to ask you the time had you know the time.   Moira McCarthy  5:25 So I don't know why I know the time. We were at a doctor's appointment, and I know what time the appointment was. And I know what happened when I got there. So I don't know. It's just drilled into my head. And then there's people I meet that are like, I can't even tell you what day my kid was diagnosed. But for some reason, it just stuck with me. And as a little kid Lauren, like celebrating every year, so I sent her flowers yesterday. No, I don't care. 24 hours or so give us Do you   Stacey Simms  5:51 mind, maybe just a little bit of how she's doing maybe a little update. If this is someone's first time joining us for Deimos.   Moira McCarthy  5:57 I'd be happy to so my daughter Lauren was diagnosed. Well, I just said the date. So basically the beginning of kindergarten when she was six years old, right after her sixth birthday. I can remember feeling like the world was gonna end. But we had a really great medical team from the beginning who were saying to us, you are going to live the life you lived before. We're just going to add steps to it. And Lauren at six years old was saying I'm gonna lead you're not gonna, you know, let this hold me down. Now has it been all rainbows and butterflies? Absolutely not. We have had challenging days. We've had challenging weeks, we've had challenging years in her teen years. But right now, I think, well, first of all, what everybody cares about most is her physical health. She is 100% healthy. She has the labs that a person without diabetes would have if you checked, you know, her kidney and her eyes and everything else. Emotionally, she's really doing great. She has a long struggle with burnout. But I think she really has figured out a way to deal with that when she recognizes it coming up. And the most important lab of all I always say is she's incredibly happy. She has an amazing career and lives in the middle of Washington, DC all by herself, and I don't follow her on share. And I never worry about her. She has 8 million friends and I couldn't be prouder of her and the life that she is building as a young adult. So that's where she's at pretty good. Right? Despite diabetes, that's fine.   Stacey Simms  7:28 I love hearing that, as you know. And as you listen, you may know, I have followed Moira and Lauren story for many, many, many years since before more and I knew each other. So I always kind of look ahead. It's like my time machine of what could happen with us. Where could he go? And of course, he's never leaving our hometown, going to a scary place far away like DC he's gonna He's going to live here. And   Moira McCarthy  7:51 Sunday dinner every week   Stacey Simms  7:53 is nice. That's so nice. So I'm glad she's doing so well. Like you're doing so well. And you know, gosh, I heard something recently about diversity that made me smile. Instead of the diversity you're you're on the new level. So Lauren has reached level 24.   Moira McCarthy  8:08 I like that. That's really funny. And her boyfriend is a big video gamer so he'll like that.   Stacey Simms  8:13 Oh, that's good. Yeah, Benny's approaching level 15. And I am one of those people who I always have to look up the date. I just know it's the first weekend of December, but I never. Yeah. Alright, so we are in that time of year where it's not just our kids diver series. It is holiday time. And after I rewound the Halloween episode that we did a couple of years ago and I got a lot of questions and people asked us to do a follow up for Thanksgiving and looking ahead to the winter holidays. And I got some great questions. So I was wondering more if you wouldn't mind sharing though, you know, the first holiday season that you and Laura and your whole family had to address this you guys want a very different routine? Yeah, we can be a little more difficult but would you mind sharing what that was like that first year?   Moira McCarthy  8:59 I will and and I think it's good to hear because it can help people see how far we have come daily care for this disease. We may not have a cure yet, but what it looks like on a day to day basis is completely different. So Lauren was diagnosed in October so Thanksgiving was our first big holiday and I remember we were going to my in laws and back then you took a moderate acting or we called it long acting, but it was really middle acting insulin called NPH that peaked a bunch of times during the day and then you took regular which you had to take it wait 30 minutes and then eat exactly what you had dose for it exactly 30 minutes which was super fun with a six year old child I will tell you and no waiting in between. So I had reached out to my in laws ahead of time and asked them if they could work the meal around the time that it would work best for her to eat and they said yes and I I move some things around with A doctor to kind of compromise with them, you know, so we changed what time we gave everything starting, like two days before to be ready for Thanksgiving. And then we showed up and they were like, oh, yeah, we decided on a different time. Oh my gosh, the world is ending. But the world didn't end. You know, we figured it out. We got through it. What I will say for these holidays, for people who are new to it, it's not always going to feel this scary and confusing and daunting. I think the first 12 months, you go through every holiday, every special event, every family tradition for first time. And then the second year, you're like, Oh, I remember this from last year, and it gets a little better. And then the third year, you're, you're sailing. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.   Stacey Simms  10:43 I would absolutely agree with that. I also kind of suffered and I'll say suffered from this feeling out of the box, that it had to be perfect. Because I remember one just show everybody that we were okay. Especially my mom, I wanted her to not worry. And know that we were we were just fine. And for some reason that got tangled up in my brain by thinking this has to go perfectly and I can't make a mistake. And of course that lasted about three   Moira McCarthy  11:06 seconds. Yeah, we're really with a toddler with type one, and you want to put together a perfect Thanksgiving. Why don't we do that to ourselves, though, you know, but feelings of control at a time when you feel like you've lost control?   Stacey Simms  11:21 Night? Exactly. Alright, so let's get to some of the questions that came in. I got one in my local group. And this was about travel. And the question was, we're driving along distance. And I guess we could talk a little bit about flying or other modes of transportation. But this particular case, we're driving along distance, you know, six or seven hours to a relative's house. Any ideas or tips for helping me and the question here was about stable blood sugars. But I'm also going to kind of throw in there. How do I make this trip? easier on the whole family? Yeah, I'm I have a lot of ideas that maybe you do too.   Moira McCarthy  11:56 Well. So I guess my first idea would be for special occasions and events, stable blood sugars aren't the most important thing ever. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying, of course, we want to try but the first thing I'd say is if it doesn't go perfectly, that's perfectly fine. I am quite sure if you ask your medical team to help you with the plan. That is one of the things they will say to you. That's the first thing. So I mean, what did you do on long car rides? For us it I don't remember it impacting her blood sugar that much, you definitely have to have snacks in the car and like more than you ever think you're going to need in your life, because you never know when you're going to get stuck in a traffic jam from a car accident or something like that. You know what it is be prepared, and then you don't need it. We tend as a family, not just for the person with diabetes, but for everyone to try to stop every 60 minutes and get out of the car and stretch and move around and breathe fresh air and then get back in. I think that helps   Stacey Simms  12:56 us How about depressive we don't my husband would have fit? No. So in my   Moira McCarthy  13:01 father, he would never do that. That's probably why I do it. I grew up driving from Minnesota to Massachusetts and like never being allowed to get out of the car. So   Stacey Simms  13:10 I would say for us we actually did struggle a lot with long car rides, because we did a lot of trips, especially to my parents in Florida, which is like a nine or 10 hour road trip. And we found that Benny's blood sugar would go very high. Just you know, an hour or two in the car and looking back, it's probably because toddlers never stopped moving. So his insulin dosage was all based on constant activity. So when he was sitting still, just looking back that's my assumption. Also, as you mentioned, you know everybody's eating in the car   Right back to our conversation, but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario health. And, you know, we first noticed Dario, a couple of years ago, we were at a diabetes conference, and many thought being able to turn your smartphone into a meter. It's pretty amazing. I'm excited to tell you that Dario offers even more now, the Dario diabetes success plan gets you all the supplies and support you need to succeed, you'll get a glucometer that fits in your pocket unlimited test strips and lancets delivered to your door and a mobile app with a complete view of your data. The plan is tailored for you with coaching when and how you need it. And personalized reports based on your activity. Find out more go to my dario.com forward slash diabetes dash connections. Now back to the D mom's and I'm talking about what we did when we realized Benny's blood sugar would always go pretty high in the car. What we did was talk to our endocrinologist about adjusting doses giving more insulin when he was in the car, giving more insulin for food when he was in the car. And that was a real trial and error for us because, you know we have to be really conservative about that you're not going to be changing basal rates by enormous amounts and so it may not quote unquote work the first time you do it, but I think you know we're doing Talking about stable blood sugars, I hope that this person means is like maybe kind of sort of in range. You know, when I see somebody talking about stable blood sugars, I usually think like, it's not going to be a steady line at 95, right? We're just trying to keep them from skyrocketing and staying there. And even if that happens, which happened to us a ton, it's fine, and you fix it. When the baby was younger, and the kids were younger, I was much more mindful about healthy eating. You know, they're 19 and 16. And it's like, they buy half their own food. Now anyway, I don't know what they're eating. But we used to get coolers the big cooler, and fill it with, you know, healthy fruits and veggies and hard boiled eggs and carrot sticks. And you know, and then of course, everybody would want to stop for fast food and ruin everything. Right?   Moira McCarthy  15:39 So I made the assumption, and perhaps I shouldn't have that by stable, she meant within that range. If this mom is suggesting that her child should have a straight line across my answers quite different. I have no idea going on the assumption that what she means is within their range. And my answer was based on that what I meant was, if you go above your range, or below your range, I think it's okay. I don't think that if you're going to celebrate with a family, the most important thing is, is staying in your blood sugar range, I think the most important thing is enjoying the time and loving your cousin's and running around and having fun and staying within a an area that is safe. And by safe. I mean, you're not you don't need to get in an ambulance, I guess. And maybe my advice would be talk to your medical team, take some ideas that we have on your idea, I think that's a great idea. My only caveat would be the doctors probably going to want you to err on the side of your child being hired. The first time you do this, as you mentioned, you did it after some trial and error, I'm not sure a new parent to diabetes should just, you know dial way up on their kids insulin because they're going to be in the car for nine hours, I think you should take it slowly and go a time or two or three and see what happens. And then make decisions like that after that. But for now talk to your team. They're they're going to say what I said, and they're going to support you and say, Don't worry about going out of range. You know how to do corrections, here's when and here's why to do a correction and then take it from there.   Stacey Simms  17:12 And like you said, some kids sit in the car and nothing happens. Right? They don't go super high. That's why can't do   Moira McCarthy  17:17 assumption, right. That's why you have to wait and see what happens. One quick   Stacey Simms  17:22 thing about the car that I learned the hard way you mentioned about you know, be prepared for traffic be prepared for you know, delays, if you have and we all do I think have a you know a diabetes kit. Make sure it's where you can reach it, especially if your child is very young, right? I mean, there's a lot of kids, they're older, they can have it the backseat with them. I'll never forget packing everything we needed and leaving it in the trunk or like the way back of the minivan. And then we were delayed. And I'm like I need a new inset like says it was leaking, or we'd like crawl through the car.   Moira McCarthy  17:54 That's a really good tip. So put it   Stacey Simms  17:57 up to the front seat with your pack, even if you just pack a couple of things. And we had so many car adventures. Okay, the next question, I loved this one, because this just I could picture this one I know you can do more. So Deborah said we are in the first year of diagnosis, I just realized I don't know what to do about our Christmas cookie tradition. We make a bunch and give them to relatives we usually eat as we go. Can we still do this with diabetes child is eight and is on multiple daily injections, so no insulin pump yet.   Moira McCarthy  18:26 So my answer is eat all the cookies, bake all the cookies, visit all the friends have all the fun, click your fingers if you want to. But then wash your hands, have all the fun and check in with your child's doctor. And what they're going to say is go do all that check at the end of all the fun. If you need a correction, here's what we'd like you to correct. And here's what we'd like you not to correct for they may not want you to correct because sometimes these things involve a little adrenaline high. And again, first times you have to see what's going on. But just have all the fun. Fix it later. If your child gets high during it, it's no big deal. If they get low, you've got cookies. There's an old saying it started with Kelly crewneck, who's a very well known person on the diabetes world on the internet. And she said people with diabetes can't have cookies, dot dot dot with poison in them. Right? The only cookies you can't have.   Stacey Simms  19:26 I think that's fantastic. And it took me back listening to that about we know we don't have a Christmas cookie tradition. But we certainly you know, I think most people with little kids love to bake. And it's just such a fun activity to do with them. And in the first couple of weeks with shots, it was so difficult. You know, Binney ran away from us. He didn't want anything to do with it. But after a little while, he didn't really care as long as we didn't make a big deal and make him stop what he was doing. So and we bought after, which I know is like bananas that people admit to bolusing after these days, but I think it's so much less   Moira McCarthy  20:00 Streisand gets really super smart, particularly with a small child.   Stacey Simms  20:04 And so for something like this, like we would bake, and then I would kind of try to estimate like, what did he licked the spoon? Did he eat the crumbs? You know, when you do a guess? And in my case, I would always get a little less because he was teeny tiny. And then we would eat the cookie, and a couple hours later, we would correct and move on. Now. I don't know, I feel like the fun as you said, the memories of that time, you know, outweighed the quote, unquote, out of range blood sugar, I'm sure his blood sugar went out of range. And he might have been low, because they sometimes they just get really excited. And you know, he might have been high, but he's, they're healthy.   Moira McCarthy  20:39 You know what, I think this, this mom, and anyone who's considering these kind of questions over the holidays should think about too, when I look back on Lauren's life, these 24 years with type one included, I don't remember that her blood sugar went higher low. I don't remember what her diabetes did one day, I remember that the cookie swap was fun. And so that's why I think it's important to focus on the fun, within reason with a kid with diabetes, you know,   Stacey Simms  21:12 oh, yeah, that's a great way to put it. And I'm realizing as he gets older, I have a lot of those same feelings. I'm so glad it didn't stop us. I'm sure at the time. My heart was pounding, right, especially at first, I'm sure I was worried. I'm sure I was thinking, Am I doing this the right way. But look, you know, you have those fabulous pictures and those great memories. So that's a great way to put it. Alright, so let's talk about well meaning relatives. More Hi, Moira. And Stacy. My aunt thinks she knows everything about diabetes. She has type two and is always lecturing me about not letting my second grader eat, quote, bad foods. Holidays are the worst. I'm sorry to laugh, because she wants us to have sugar free desserts. There's so much going on. In that question.   Moira McCarthy  21:59 Bless her heart, right. You know, I mean, what do you do? It would depend on what kind of person she is. And if they have, if they have a relationship that she could, I would call her ahead of time and say, Look, we're working on adjusting Stevie's life, whatever the child is, and, and there's a lot of things he's dealing with right now. So I'm just asking you, if you have anything you want to say about it? Could you say it to me now over the phone before we go, and let's just avoid talking about diabetes other than Hey, how you feeling? I'm really glad you're doing well at the holiday because I don't want him to feel sad when he has all this on his mind. That's a great way to put it. Who knows what she'll do. Right, right.   Stacey Simms  22:45 I mean, you have you have well meaning relatives who want to help you have nosy relatives who think they're helping, it all depends on my mother for the first year or two she wants to make she makes one of those sweet potato casseroles, not always with marshmallows, but it's got a ton of sugar in it. And so she made it sugar free. And I didn't really notice but it's not something Vinnie was going to eat much of anyway. Yeah, when he was he was three at his first Thanksgiving with diabetes. But she meant well, but what I found worked over the years, and I still use this, even though he's his own advocate. Now, I really found that saying, Our doctor says, which I made up, but our doctor says helped everything. So I would say to somebody like this. Oh, you know, thank you so much for thinking about my son. I really appreciate it. I gotta tell you things with diabetes have changed so much now. And our doctor says that he can eat these foods and as long as we can dose with insulin, you know, we know what we're doing. He's helping us or our doctor says that Thanksgiving should be a date, like every other day or whatever it is. But people would never listen to me. Listen to what my doctor   Moira McCarthy  23:46 says my my words for that was always her medical team. Yeah. sound very official, our medical team is me. But they don't need to know that. The one thing I'll say, though, is it's also okay, if it's not super aggressive, and really out of line. I think it's also okay to teach our children to show some people a little grace. And sometimes and all this even when people are wrong, maybe at the family thanksgiving, or Hanukkah, or whatever party isn't the time to say, Do you know what I mean? Great. And so if someone makes a sugar free thing, and your kid hates sugar free, you say to your kid, please just put a tiny slice of that on your plate and then push a couple pieces around under something. And it'll be fine. They met Well, yeah, you know, yeah, say and then afterwards, you can say hey, he really liked that. But FYI, next time, you don't even need to do that make the same delicious pie, but you don't need to make it sugar free. Right   Stacey Simms  24:41 on everything. And that's a good point. Because we're so in our society today, we're so ready to fight. We're so ready to be on the defensive. And so I think that that's a great point just to be able to say we really appreciate it. We know how you meant it, you know, just thanks and then have the discussion later on. Yeah,   Moira McCarthy  24:57 but if they're over the top aggressive about about telling your child what they do wrong with their diabetes, then you need to have a conversation ahead of time. That's right.   Stacey Simms  25:04 Or you know, even in the moment if this sometimes you see, you know, I made this for these kids who don't have diabetes and look at this wonderful vegetable plate I made for your child like they're having cupcakes, but you could have the carrot that it's okay.   Moira McCarthy  25:17 It just jello Jaguars. My daughter was locked up. I always have to bring a tray of jello jugglers This is before acting. And   Stacey Simms  25:25 that is so funny. I'm so sorry for sugary jello. jigglers Woohoo. Oh, my gosh. Okay, another question. How do I dose for all of the grazing that goes on during Thanksgiving and holiday gatherings? This is kind of similar to the Christmas cookies, or I would think our answer is going to be but in some homes, right? It's not just one set meal. It's we showed up and we're starting to eat and we don't stop for seven hours. Oh, yeah.   Moira McCarthy  25:51 My house isn't that yours?   Stacey Simms  25:53 Isn't? No, no, no.   Moira McCarthy  25:57 Not every house was like that on a holiday. Seriously, this is interesting. All right, well, I guess I'll answer this first, then talk to your medical team. Ask them about planning different times during the day for check ins. And then just let your child have what they're going to have. And at the check in times that you agree with your doctor, it may be every two hours, it may be every three hours, it may be twice I don't know. They'll they'll help you decide. You see where they're at. You look at what's going on what they're going to be doing next. And then you do a correction of corrections needed. That's it.   Stacey Simms  26:31 Go, I'm going to add a layer to that. Yes, please do. For those who are addicted. I don't know anyone like this. I certainly have never been like this anyone who's addicted to their Dexcom. So if you're listening to more thinking, how am I supposed to check every two hours when the Dexcom or wherever three hours, whatever the most no more thinking how am I gonna check at those intervals, when my Dexcom is blaring every five minutes, okay, stay with me, people consider turning your Dexcom high alarm off, and then look at your child's Dexcom High Alert off, and then only looking at it as recommended by your care team. It will take away an enormous amount of stress. Even if your child goes high. And you bolus it's not going to happen right away. You know this, it takes a long time for insulin to work, right. So you're not really doing yourself any favors by checking it every five minutes. I know it's hard. Ask your doctor. But that has helped me more than the years when I was glued to it listening for this a lot.   Moira McCarthy  27:34 And you know, I think that's really wonderful advice. Because there's nothing wrong with freeing up the family to enjoy a good time. If it's so important to you that you keep them in a certain range and you want to watch it all day, then go ahead. But I think what you suggested and what you just said you do is such a good model for your child, because as you care for your child, you're modeling how they should care for themselves later. And the reality is in this long, long, long, long, long lifetime marathon diabetes, you need to just chill a mile here and there. And by doing this and saying to your children, we're going to turn this off, this is okay. Don't worry about it, you're fine. You're modeling that for them. And you're giving them the confidence and the courage to know that they can be okay. If they're not doing, you know, 150%. So I love that answer. Stacy, you get a gold star. Yeah,   Stacey Simms  28:34 it's funny to think about, but that's actually how we use Dexcom. And how everyone use Dexcom intil. Gosh, I'll probably get the year wrong. But until, let's say 2015 Because Dexcom share did not exist, right? So at school, our child would like many others basically used his Dexcom receiver as a no finger stick monitor. Right. So at the time of day were Benny would normally have done a finger stick, he just looked at the receiver showed it to his teacher. And that was it. We started using it like that. So I think it makes it a little easier if you come home from the hospital, like a lot of families do attuned to every alarm. These things may seem like an astronomical ask, but you really can do it. And I would also add with the grazing, we you know, we were grazing experts, because I had a two year old with type one who was diagnosed. I mean, a few years after Lauren, so you know, was not on that very regimented timing. So Benny could pretty much eat all day, like a normal two year old. I mean, obviously not all day, but you know what I mean? Several times a day, and we just had to give them fast acting. So it makes it it does make it a little more difficult, right? It's not but it's not something you do every single day, either. So I think that you know, you've got to kind of let go a little bit, but it's not harmful and it can make these ladies have these wonderful memories. Alright, and finally, this question, I'm a little stymied by this one. What's the Christmas present for a child with die? beedis   Moira McCarthy  30:01 Okay, a good Christmas present for a child with diabetes is what they put on their Christmas list. If you want to give diabetes related gifts for Christmas, that's all good and fine. I knew someone who gave their child quote unquote, their insulin pump for Christmas and like, their heart was in the right place, and the child felt great, but it just made me a little sad. I guess if your child puts insulin pump on their Christmas list, though, that's different. But even then I think I'd say no, Santa doesn't need to bring you medical stuff, we can just get that went whenever you need it. There are toys and animals and things like that. If someone's interested in actually, diabetesMine is having me do a list of them that's going to run in late November, early December. We can link that on this after Oh, that would be great. Like   Stacey Simms  30:54 the American Girl doll stuff and road kid kits. Fabulous.   Moira McCarthy  30:59 And then I don't mean that there's anything wrong with that stuff. I just think that you should give your child gifts that they want as a child, not as a child with diabetes. Yeah,   Stacey Simms  31:09 I think a lot of that depends on how your family celebrates and what gifts you're giving. We are We joked in our family for Hanukkah, when I was growing up, you would get everything from the toy that you really, really wanted to the dictionary that you did not ask for to the socks that you need it right so if your gift giving is like that mixed up, and it's you know, if your family expectation is that kids will get super useful stuff in all the kids not just the kid with diabetes, then I guess I could see it. But I'm with you, I think unless it's something really fun like one of those add on what your list is going to be made up but like, what are those stuffed pancreas like? silly things like that. And yeah, accessories for dolls and fun stuff. It's just like a useful medical thing. I think you've got to be very careful and know, the child like especially a parent to a kid is one thing but if you're like the fun and or you're the family friend thinking this will be a big hit. I just be a little careful. One of the things I saw in another group was you know, there's a newly diagnosed child which they get the family and the most popular response was don't get them anything quote diabetes related, get them fuzzy slippers, and a gift certificate for babysitting or you know a trip to the movies and get them something fun and engaging.   Moira McCarthy  32:22 Get them something normal and and pushing back on what you said I still even if my family did that stuff, I still wouldn't give my child like a box of syringes. So core. I like if you're giving your kids toothpaste for Christmas, because that's what you do, then give your kid with diabetes toothpaste for Christmas treats the same way you treat your other kids when it comes to gifts.   Stacey Simms  32:42 That's a good point. I think if anybody ever gave Benny any diabetes related gifts, and no one would ever mind my family would have ever done that. But   Moira McCarthy  32:49 one time in our family Yankee swap, I used a syringe box, like for the gift and whoever opened it thought it was syringes and we're like, I don't get it. And I'm like, Oh, for goodness sake. It's just a box.   Stacey Simms  33:03 Open it up. Is a Yankee swap like a Secret Santa.   Moira McCarthy  33:07 Yeah, kind of but you you could take gifts away from like a one white elephant. I don't know. I'm sorry. That's a white Jewish lady. It's like we're from different worlds, Stacy.   Stacey Simms  33:21 Oh, you New Englanders.   Moira McCarthy  33:24 Bless my heart.   Stacey Simms  33:26 We do have one funny story. So on Christmas day in Gosh, I'm looking back already. This was this is eight years ago. So on Christmas Day, we started the Dexcom. The very first time we ever used the G four platinum. Vinnie was nine. Oh no, the g4 Platinum pediatric. So Vinnie was nine years old. And we were sitting around a Christmas day at my mom's house like you do. And we said, let's start the Dexcom. Why don't we will put it on we had been instructed on how to do it. Of course, again, I don't know if I can emphasize this enough. We do not celebrate Christmas. I don't think I would do this. Christmas. So but we put it on and I will never forget because that was you know, Christmas Day. Gosh, so yeah. Merry Christmas kid. That was the big horrible insert or two.   Moira McCarthy  34:14 But then it could have Chinese food before the movie, right?   Stacey Simms  34:18 Really my house.   Moira McCarthy  34:21 I know you.   Stacey Simms  34:23 That's great. So normally at the end here, we talk about where we're going in the diabetes community. Of course, you know, there's no diabetes events going on now. And I'm really, really hoping they come back next year. But I mean, I'm doing some virtual events. I'm reaching out, but I cannot wait to be in person again more.   Moira McCarthy  34:39 I feel you. I can't believe I was just thinking about this the other day because my Facebook memory was, I guess right before the pandemic I was in Buffalo, New York speaking at a big diabetes event at this time and they were all these pictures and people posting about interesting things they learned and how happy they were going to be and I was like, oh, I want to go back somewhere. I think we're We're gonna see things start bubbling up I do believe friends for life is going on this summer I'm hoping I'll be there I haven't heard yet but um I know that's probably happening and I think JDRF is going to start doing some smaller half day programs in the near future knock on wood so I hope we're in the same place to Stacey that's what I hope not only we get out and speak but you and I are in the same place.   Stacey Simms  35:22 Yeah. Oh my god,   Moira McCarthy  35:23 it's all about us.   Stacey Simms  35:26 Why not? I was kind of pausing because I don't remember when we saw each other live to look that up. At the end of the show.   Moira McCarthy  35:33 I think it's been at least two years Stacy that's really weird.   Stacey Simms  35:37 It has to be it has to ah, I miss you.   Moira McCarthy  35:40 Me too. We talk every day practically. I miss you as a as a human life form.   Stacey Simms  35:50 Well, the next time we get together we can we can do a Yankee swap.   Moira McCarthy  35:52 Yeah. And and a white elephant, white elephant.   Stacey Simms  35:57 Well, if I don't speak to you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, enjoy your family and your adorable grandchildren. And give Lauren my best and tell everybody we said hi. Same here   Moira McCarthy  36:07 and make sure those kids yours know that I still think they're awesome.   Announcer  36:16 You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  36:21 I will link up some information, including to an episode we did with adults with type one and their take on Thanksgiving. I'll put that in the show notes along with the transcription for this episode, you can always go to diabetes connections.com. Every episode starting in January of 2020 has a transcription. And there's lots more information there. I got to tell you more. And I make it sound pretty easy now, right? But those first couple of years, it's so stressful because you're trying to have a nice holiday. You're trying to project confidence, you know, we're doing great. Diabetes won't stop us. And then you're freaking out, you know, what did you eat? Should we pre bolus what's gonna happen now? Am I gonna be up all night? You know, it's, well, you know, who's got the carb count? Is it accurate? Spoiler, the carb count is never accurate. It's never accurate. I hope you know that. We're estimating everything, even packaged foods. Even somebody who weighs in measures, everything is a total guess, on carbohydrates. So just do the best you can. And it's you got to get through that I think you've just got to get through that experience. There is no other teacher like experience and diabetes, you've got to make mistakes, you've got to kind of be upset, you gotta be worried you got to get through it. But if you let yourself I think as a parent, you really can get to a place where you're like sure marshmallows on sweet potatoes, we can figure that out and go from there. And if you hated my advice to turn the Dexcom off, let me know I would love to hear from you. You can yell at me all you want. Let me know if you try it though. And if it works for you, I don't want to cause more stress. I promise. Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And hey, listen, I'm all about using the technology in a way that helps you thrive with diabetes. So when I say turn it off, it's not a knock on Dexcom. It's sharing how we use it to help us make great choices. Live well and be happy. I stand by that you know we have been using the Dexcom system since he was nine years old. We started back in December of 2013. And the system just keeps getting better. The Dexcom G six is FDA permitted for no finger sticks for calibration and diabetes treatment decisions, you can share with up to 10 people from your smart device. The G six has 10 Day sensor where the applicator is so easy. I have not done one insertion since we got it but he does them all himself, which is a huge change from the previous iteration. He's a busy kid, knowing that he can just take a quick glance at his blood glucose to make better treatment decisions is reassuring. Of course we still love the alerts and alarms and that we can set them and turn them off how we want. If your glucose alerts and readings for the G six do not match symptoms or expectations use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. To learn more, go to diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo. A couple of quick housekeeping notes we will have a regular episode next week. Our regular episodes are on Tuesdays. So we will have one for you next week. We will not have an in the news edition of Diabetes Connections. Thanksgiving week though. I will not be doing that live on Wednesday and there will not be an episode Friday the 26th I will say if anything really big happens if we get an FDA approval, you know something like that. I'll probably pop on and give you an update. I you know, I know we're all waiting for something so I can't promise I won't do it. It's not it's like the news person in me I was in you know, I've been doing this since I was 19. So if something breaks, I'm gonna have to jump on. Even if Slade is like, you know, making turkey behind me. We'll figure it out. But right now again this week, the week of the 16th. We will have the regular in the news on Wednesday, which will become an audio only podcast on Friday. The following week. We will have a regular episode, but there will be no in the News episode Thanksgiving week. All right. With that thank you to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening I'm Stacey Simms I will see you back here for in the news this week until then be kind to yourself Diabetes. Benny  40:10 Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

"We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us." — British MP Jo Cox Accomplishing something truly great by yourself is a hard road. It's why many nonprofits develop partnerships with other organizations that have similar missions. But doing so is not always straightforward.  In this episode, Kyle J Rose—a Vice President at the International Diabetes Federation, Head of Strategy at DiabetesWise, and an Advisor at DiabetesMine—comes on the show to share his extensive experience developing partnerships. We discuss his journey that started in engineering, his advice for staying unbiased in partnerships, and how to navigate international relationships. Website: https://diabeteswise.org/ and https://idf.org/Twitter: @KyleJacquesRose

It's "In the News..." the only LIVE diabetes newscast! Our top stories this week: 100 years of insulin, the largest genetic study of type 1 diabetes is complete, approval for a new type 2 meds for teens, research moves forward on an insulin-producing implant and an Olympic hopeful starts a diabetes sports foundation!. Watch "In the News..." live every Wednesday at 4:30pm EDT on the Diabetes Connections Facebook page Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode transcription below:  Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days.  I'm on the road, so apologies if the audio and video are a little bit off but I think we're good enough. And As always, I'm going to link up my sources in the Facebook comments – where we are live – and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. so you can read more when you have the time. XX Lots of articles, op-eds and celebrations to mark this week's 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. In July of 1921, the collaboration of Frederick Banting, Charles Best, James Collip and John Macleod led to the isolation and purification of insulin. Most marking the occasion this year are focusing on access and affordability.. The International Diabetes Federation is launching a three year campaign to celebrate the advances made in diabetes, but also to call on more action to ensure all people living with diabetes have the best possible quality of life and health outcomes. https://insulin100.utoronto.ca/ XX The largest and most diverse genetic study of type 1 diabetes ever undertaken is complete. Researchers at UVA say they've identified the “most likely causal genetic variants associated with risk and their target genes.” They hope the results will help lead to better medical and drug treatment or possible prevention and genetic treatments. This study looked at more than 60-thousand people. and identified 78 regions on our chromosomes where genes are located that influence our risk for Type 1 diabetes. Of those, 36 regions were previously unknown. https://news.virginia.edu/content/largest-ever-type-1-diabetes-genetic-study-identifies-potential-treatment-targets XX New partnership announced between LifeScan the glucose monitoring company and Noom, a digital health platform focused on behavior change. LifeScan will be the first digital health diabetes management company to partner with  Noom's Diabetes Support Program. The goal is to bring personalized health insights to better address eating habits and weight management. The new fully-integrated OneTouch Solutions program will be available first to consumers in the US starting this Fall. https://www.lifescan.com/news-and-updates/2020-press-releases/noom-to-launch-digital-diabetes-and-weight-loss XX AstraZeneca gets approval for its once weekly diabetes medicine  Bydureon in kids as young as ten.   The injectable is used for people with type 2 diabetes. The approval comes about a month after data showed the drug significantly reduced blood glucose levels in adolescents compared to placebo. Bydureon is already approved for adults with type-2. The only other non-insulin options available for adolescents with type 2 have to be taken daily. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/astrazenecas-weekly-once-diabetes-drug-gets-us-approval-children-2021-07-23/ XX Rice University bioengineers are using 3D printing and smart biomaterials to create an insulin-producing implant. The three-year project is supported by a grant from JDRF. They researchers will use insulin-producing beta cells made from human stem cells to create an implant that senses and regulates blood glucose levels by responding with the correct amount of insulin at a given time. The goal here is to show their implants can properly regulate blood glucose levels of diabetic mice for at least six months. So we're really early on here but it's an interesting new way of looking at reproducing what the pancreas does. https://indiaeducationdiary.in/rice-university-rice-team-creating-insulin-producing-implant-for-type-1-diabetes/ XX A judge rules that Roche did NOT infringe Insulet's patent – this case brought over a patch pump sold in the UK. We told you about this case a few weeks back.. Insulet claimed because of it's Omnipod patent, Roche didn't have the right to sell it's Accu Chek Solo. The judge ruled for Roche. https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/roche-diabetes-care-succeeds-in-uk-3307644/ XX An Olympic hopeful with type 1 is sitting out the Tokyo games due to an injury.. but she's also inspiring others and starting a new non profit to help other people with diabetes. Long jumper Kate Hall Harnden was on track for the 2020 Olympics, but was injured this past January Diagnosed at age ten, she and her husband have formed the DiaStrong Foundation, which aims to give financial assistance to people with diabetes who want to improve in their sport and diabetes management. They've planned to launch grants for financial assistance in July 2021, and those details are being finalized. They'll host two camps in Maine this year.. one for teens and one for any age. I've linked up to a great story in DiabetesMine if you want more info..   https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/kate-hall-diabetes-olympic-hopes XX That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! And join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode -Tuesday –  I'm talking to Omnipod – we'll get a update on the Omnipod 5 with Horizon system. This week's interview – the one that's out right now – is with Gold Medal Olympian Gary Hall Jr – when he was diagnosed in 1999 he was told to give up swimming. He didn't and he talks about why.. and how he overcame what was conventional wisdom for athletes at the time. Thanks and I'll see you soon

The internet is bringing people together like never before. Amy Tenderich is a journalist, blogger, and nationally known patient advocate. She hosts a series of diabetes innovation leadership events, and is a frequent public speaker on diabetes and digital health topics and is also the Co-author of the book, "Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes." Since Amy launched DiabetesMine.com, it's become one of the Top Health Blogs in the country and worldwide and has joined Healthline Media to create summits and forums to help bring people together. Don't miss out on this conversation, jump in and learn more about how Amy's work has led to patient advocacy. [00:01 - 06:41] Opening Segment I introduce Amy Tenderich Amy shares her background and story Becoming an advocate for patients as a patient  The growth of DiabetesMine Innovating diabetes tech early on Launching events and forums to bring people together [06:42 - 16:31] The Growing Interactions Between Diabetes and Social Media Amy talks about the changes from then vs. now From exciting peer support to something taken for granted A growing sense of anger and feeling of exploitation The social media activity between T1D and T2D A growing voice  Findings from research  How to deal with misinformation and abuse  Moderations  Two-way communication  The problems of comparison How Amy navigates consumer and client requests  [16:32 - 23:44]  Amy's views on ‘digital diabetes' The evolution of our world Top things consumers say change their life CGM is the number one thing A mix of online resources and community  Looping systems and online appointments  How different demographics respond to diagnosis  Are vendors getting it?  What people want vs. practicality  [23:45 - 31:07] Closing Segment What's next for Amy and DiabetesMine? Using strengths to advocate for the community  Future events and forums  Helping people feel represented  Organizations attempting to respond to criticism  Projecting 7 years into the future  Final Words  Tweetable Quotes: “A lot of people who thought that they would not like to have online doctors appointments have actually found that it's really convenient and they often get just as good attention from their doctors, sometimes maybe even better.” - Amy Tenderich “People want to do the least possible for their diabetes and get the best possible outcomes.” - Amy Tenderich  Resources Mentioned:  https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Outlive-Diabetes-Marlowe-Library/dp/1569242720 (Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes) Connect with Amy on https://twitter.com/amydbmine?lang=en (Twitter), https://www.linkedin.com/in/amytenderich/ (LinkedIn), and https://www.facebook.com/amy.tenderich (Facebook). Go check out https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine (https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine) to learn more about their innovations in Diabetes. To know more, you can connect with me, David Kliff onhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ephraim-glick-8403a465/ ( )https://www.facebook.com/DiabeticInvestor/ (Facebook), https://twitter.com/diabetic_invstr?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (Twitter), and https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kliff-78b669b/ (LinkedIn), or email me at dkliff@diabeticinvestor.com. Be sure to visit https://diabeticinvestor.com (https://diabeticinvestor.com) for more insights and real-time analyses on the evolving business of diabetes. Don't be shy, I'd love to hear from you! You can also reach me at 224-715-3761. NOTE*: We are in no way a replacement for real medical professionals. All information in this podcast is obtained through reliable sources. Please be aware of our https://diabeticinvestor.com/investment-newsletter-disclaimer/ (Disclaimer). LEAVE, SUBSCRIBE, REVIEW + help someone who wants to learn more about the wacky...

It's "In the News..." the only LIVE diabetes newscast! Give us five minutes and we'll tell you about: European approval for Medtronic's new no-calibration sensor FDA considers a drug to prevent T1D New info about gestational diabetes A potential type 1 vaccine moves forward Telehealth update (and what's next after COVID) Join Stacey live on Facebook every Wednesday and watch "In the News..." Live! https://www.facebook.com/diabetesconnections Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode transcription and links below:    May 26, 2021 FB LIVE: Starting soon slide Hi, and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! A short weekly newscast full of the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past week. I’m Stacey Simms & whether you’re joining me live on Facebook or watching or listening after, I’m here to get you up to speed quickly XX In the News is brought to you by Inside the Breakthrough. A new history of science podcast full of “Did You Know Stuff” In The News this week.. XX Bit of breaking technology news today as Medtronic gets European approval for its Guardian 4 sensor. This is their newest sensor which requires no fingersticks for calibration or diabetes treatment decisions. Medtronic says they’ll start integrating this sensor into the 780G pump and InPen offerings in the fall. No word on a timeline for US approval for the Guardian 4 sensor. MedT Guardian 4: https://investorrelations.medtronic.com/news-releases/news-release-details/medtronic-secures-two-ce-mark-approvals-guardian-4-sensor-inpen XX   FDA advisory committee may give more information and feedback on the first treatment to delay or even prevent type 1 diabetes as early as tomorrow. They’ll decide if Teplizumab is safe and effective. This is not full FDA approval, but it’s another step toward releasing what is an IV drug, given as a single 14-day course of infusions. If you’ve heard us about the TrialNet studies on this on the podcast over the last few years.. that’s what most of the evidence is coming from. Their studies showed a relative 59% reduction in risk for developing T1D and a delay of diagnosis of 2 to 3 years. https://www.medpagetoday.com/endocrinology/type1diabetes/92784 XX Another new treatment for type 1 diabetes moves into clinical studies.. this is a vaccine that looks like it prevents the destruction of insulin producing cells in the pancreas. DiabetesMine has an excellent report on this and we’ll link that up here so you can read the whole thing. But the Swedish biotech company Diamyd has been working on this immunotherapy vaccine for two decades, including a study where they injected it into the lymph nodes of the study participants. Their large-scale Phase III trials will start this year in Europe and the US and will include more than 300 children and young adults recently diagnosed with T1D. Diamyd vaccine: https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/diamyd-type1-diabetes-vaccine XX A new long term study shows that women diagnosed with gestational diabetes are more prone to type 2 and type 1 diabetes later in life. It’s been known for some time that gestational diabetes is linked to the risk of type 2.. but these researchers say auto-antibody testing should be considered in order to have a better understanding of all the risks In this study, 50% of women who experience gestational diabetes go on to develop type-2 diabetes later in life and almost six percent developed type-1 diabetes. This 23 year long study was presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology   Gestational diabetes increases risk for T2 and T1 https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-05/esoe-als051921.php More info to back up what a lot of patients have been saying for a long time. If an endocrinologist  is negative or belittling, people stop listening to them and even stop going for check ups and prescriptions. University of Florida Diabetes Institute polled their minority communities recently and found that the main challenge is support from their endo. Or lack of support These researchers looked at people who missed two or more endocrinology appointments, have experienced diabetes-related complications in the past year and receive primary care at a federally qualified health center. The study found when people from minority or low-income groups report negative and belittling interactions with their endocrinologist, they stop going to appointments. These researchers say they want to look at implicit bias in care and do something about it.     Endo attitudes: https://www.wcjb.com/2021/05/21/university-of-florida-study-uncovers-equity-disparity-within-type-1-diabetes-community/ Telemedicine – no surprise – skyrocketed for people with type 1. From less than 1% before the COVID-19 pandemic to about 95% in April 2020, according to study data. In March 2020, clinics in the T1D Exchange Quality Improvement Collaborative began attending virtual meetings to share progress and best practices with the shift to telemedicine. Researchers collected the monthly number of type 1 diabetes visits and HbA1c values collected from a subset of 11 pediatric clinics and two adult clinics from December 2019 to August 2020.   The researchers noted the proportion of telemedicine visits varied widely at each clinic. About 62% of clinics performed both video and phone visits. Zoom was the most popular platform, used by 62% of centers. More than 95% of clinics also used CareLink, t:connect, Clarity or Glooko to view diabetes data remotely. Most centers had diabetes educators, registered dietitians and social workers participating in telemedicine. However, only 15% of clinics said a psychologist participated in telemedicine. All clinics provided continuous glucose monitor training through telemedicine and 70% provided insulin pump training.   Telemedicine https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20210521/telemedicine-visits-rapidly-increase-at-type-1-diabetes-clinics-during-covid19-pandemic but first.. quick break – want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible. Inside the Breakthrough is a podcast that mixes historical wisdom with modern insight – it’s a science show that’s also entertaining. I love it. The latest episode talks about when a belief thought to be settled science turns out to be wrong. And to illustrate that point they talk about the horse poop crisis of New York City. It was real and it resolved in a way no one expected. Listen to Inside the Breakthrough wherever you listen to podcasts..  Can a game – with competition – really help people live a more healthy lifestyle? A one year trial with people with type 2 diabetes tracks steps and game elements such as points and levels. Some also received social support from a family member or friend. A third group just got the tracking device. Everyone in the study lost weight and lowered their A1Cs but those who didn’t play the game took fewer steps and tracked less activity overall. A lot of gamified apps have come and gone in the diabetes space.. these researchers say the competitive aspect may be the key. Game study for T2 https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/gamification-step-count-leads-more-activity-diabetes-focused-study That’s Diabetes Connections – In the News.  If you like it, share it. And feel free to send me your news tips. Stacey @ diabetes dash connections dot com. Please join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode -Tuesday – we’re talking to the folks from Banting House, the birthplace of insulin. Thanks and I’ll see you then!

She wore her insulin pump in the Miss America pageant back in 2014 and Sierra Sandison continues to advocate for people with diabetes today. In this Classic episode from June 2015, you'll hear from Sierra just as her book "Sugar Linings" is coming out. We'll catch up you on what Sierra is doing these days, her advocacy work and her accomplishments outside of the diabetes community. Article from DiabetesMine about Sierra's STEM studies & accomplishments Sierra resigns from Beyond Type 1    Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android   Episode Transcription Stacey Simms  0:00 This episode of Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Inside the Breakthrough a new history of science podcast full of Did you know stuff?   Announcer  0:13 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  0:19 Welcome back to the show. I always so glad to have you here. We aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with an emphasis on people who use insulin. I'm your host, Stacey Simms, and this is a classic episode which means for bringing back one of our early interviews, and this is one of the earliest my fourth episode, which originally aired in June of 2015. Sierra Sandison  is a big name in the diabetes community. You might remember her bursting onto our TVs and appearing all over social media after she won Miss Idaho and then walked across the stage and the Miss America pageant, wearing her insulin pump. She coined the hashtag Show me your pump, which continues to get lots of mentions today got millions and millions back then. I remember connecting with Sierra like it was yesterday, I was on vacation with my family in Isle of Palms, which is a beach near Charleston, South Carolina. We live in North Carolina, but believe it or not, the North Carolina beaches are generally further from us than the South Carolina ones. So we basically went to Iowa palms, I want to say almost every summer when the kids are growing up. And if you've read my book, that's where most of the bananas beach stories happen with Benny getting sand in his inset and all that stuff that I talked about. But we were leaving, we were just about to be on our way home. And I had reached out to Sierra, I don't remember who it was over Twitter or email, because she'd already been in the Miss America Pageant that had been the previous year. And I hadn't I didn't have the podcast in 2014. But she was talking about her upcoming book, Sugar Linings . And I thought this is a great chance to get her on the podcast. So I reached out and you know, had just launched I don't even think I was on Apple and the other apps yet I had launched the podcast on my blog for the first three or four weeks. And she reached back and said yes, and I gotta tell you, I was so excited. I remember, like the dork, I am high fiving with my husband, he was excited for me. And I gotta tell you, I'm still just as excited to connect with people and hear their stories. It's just a thrill every time somebody says yes, so I hope that never goes away. Thanks, y'all for letting me do this. I really appreciate it. And I'm gonna catch you up on what Sierra is doing today in just a moment. But first, Diabetes Connections is supported by insight, the breakthrough and new history of science podcast. It was created by SciMar, a group of Canadian researchers dedicated to changing the way we detect, treat and even reverse type two diabetes. The latest episode is all about how unpopular science can be very good science, Galileo probably comes to mind he was not exactly popular in his day. But there are a bunch of really interesting examples that they go through on this episode. Inside the break through you can find it anywhere you listen to podcasts. And remember, this podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. As I'm doing with these classic episodes, I reached back to the person you're talking to, to see if there's an update any information that they would like us to share and zero was kind enough to send me a message. This is five and a half years now after this interview you're about to hear and more than six years after the Miss America pageant, and she said that the main thing that she'd like to get across is that she has been trying to be much more outspoken about our advocacy efforts when it comes to focusing on insulin access and affordability in recent years, and I will link up another podcast She appeared on. She has been very outspoken about this and really trying to get information out there about better ways to advocate for lower prices and better access with insulin. She also says she is at Boise State studying mechanical engineering with minors in biomedical engineering and computer science. She was recognized as the number one student in her junior class. She's working on starting a 3d printing company and she is set to graduate next spring, Sierra, thank you for the update. You are absolutely remarkable. And obviously she's keeping quite busy. Here is Sierra Sandison  from July of 2015. Thanks so much for joining me.   Sierra Sandison  4:25 No problem.   Stacey Simms  4:26 It's great to talk to you. You have a new book, a new blog, we have a lot to talk about. Have you always been in pageants since you were a little girl?   Sierra Sandison    4:36 No, I was actually diabetes who got me in that got me into it. So at 18 I was diagnosed and throughout middle school in high school. I was bullied a lot I didn't really fit in. I didn't know what my identity was. I just like I just wanted to kind of disappear into the crowd. And this diabetes thing was another thing that the bullies could target and call it contagious and say it was my fault because of poor eating. How habits or lack of exercise, which weren't even like a part of my life. So it was ridiculous. But, um, I was just this. Just another thing on top of all the rest of the stuff that was making me different, that the bullies again, could target. So I get diabetes, my parents start pressuring me into training or into getting an insulin pump. And I kept refusing because like an insulin pump is a physical like external, very visible symbol of the fact that I have diabetes and   Stacey Simms  5:28 How old were you when you were diagnosed?   Sierra Sandison    5:31 So I would always like go to the bathroom to give myself shots and try to prick my finger. And, of course, that caused some problems, because I wasn't testing or bolusing when I was supposed to. Sorry, no. So   Stacey Simms  5:45 I interrupted when you were talking about your parents wanted you to get a pump. And I asked about your age only because that's a difficult part of life anyway. I mean, you're transitioning, you're trying figure out what college is going to be like, or what's next. And here your parents think put this thing on you?   Sierra Sandison    5:57 Yeah, exactly. And especially as an adolescent female, that struggles struggled with self-esteem, it was not something I wanted to put on my body. So then, a few months later, and by this time, I was either just about to graduate, or I'd already graduated. I can't remember. But I it was at the beginning of the summer, I heard about Nicole Johnson and the woman who directs the Miss Twin Falls pageant, which is my hometown, came up to me, and explained who she was and that her kids went to my school and she knew I had diabetes. And that she thought, I wouldn't want to know that Miss America. 1999 also had diabetes. And I thought that was so cool. So I go and Google Nicole Johnson. And here she is this beautiful woman. And she I found out she has an insulin pump. And up until that point, I thought that if I got an insulin pump, I would kind of disqualify me from being beautiful, because like, we are fed this definition of beauty, like we look at, we look at women on the front of magazines, and we compare, I compare myself to them. And I'm like, Well, my skin's not that smooth, and my hair isn't flawless like that. And this is not like this doesn't live up to that standard. And this doesn't live up to that standard. And none of them have an insulin pump. So therefore, that must not be beautiful. And now I see Nicole on Miss America, who has an insulin pump, and it's just like, super awesome. So I turned to my best friend that day at school. And while I was googling Nicole Johnson in class and I was like, Brittany, I am going to go to Miss America. And I'm going to wear an insulin pump. And she was like, I don't know what was going on in her head. She just looked at me blankly. But first of all, I didn't know what like how to use makeup or do my hair at all. I was totally, I was awful at everything I ever tried. So it was a struggle to find a talent. I'm not coordinated, like not athletic. Just like I just sucked to everything except for math and science, which didn't really help my popularity much. So I was just like, this dorky kind of nerdy person who always had a book and got made fun of so Britney is looking at me like, okay, like, whatever. But she was just like, what, like, the insulin pump is in like, the little machine your parents keep wanting to get and you're like, refusing to get it. And I was like, Yeah, she didn't. She didn't know where it came from. So then I go home and tell my parents, and they were like being the pageant like, Okay, if it's gonna get you an insulin pump, we'll get you an insert or like, we'll let you do the pageant and pay for this stuff. So Wow. So I compete in my first pageant. And guess what happened?   Stacey Simms  8:37 You won. I lost. So you lost, but that was not what I expected.   Sierra Sandison    8:42 Yeah, so I lost, which was discouraging, but I didn't give up yet. I go to this other little pageant. So I competed Emma's Twin Falls, which is my hometown, but there's also these other little pageants in the state that anyone from the entire state can compete in. So I went to this pageant that was open. That's what it's called when it's like, open to everyone. And there's four other girls were at Miss magic Valley. There's like 20 girls, for Miss Twin Falls, there's like 20 girls. And at that pageant, I won. So I was qualified to go to miss Idaho, and I was so excited. I was like, that was easy. Like, now I just have to win was Idaho, and I will go to Miss America. And so I show up at Miss Idaho, and there's 18 girls and the way Miss Idaho works is that Friday night, everyone competes. And then Saturday night, they read off the top 10 or top 11 and those girls compete again. So this year, they did a top 11 even though there's 18 girls, because I think they announced that they were going to do a top 11 before they know knew how many girls were competing. So Saturday night comes around and they read off the top 11 and I'm standing in the back with the bottom seven and it was so devastating because I at least if I didn't win, I at least wanted to make the top 11 and knock eliminated right away. So I got really sad and Brittany was like, Okay, how about this? How about you were your insulin pump wall like solving calculus problems, and inspire little kids that way? No, Brittany, I'm gonna wear my insulin pump on stage. But at this point, I kind of was giving up on the whole Miss America idea, which kind of made me like sad, but I realized that everyone in the audience would hopefully have I think everyone, everyone in general has an insecurity. Like I had my insulin pump and insecurity that makes them different that they sometimes want to hide and I really wanted to encourage them to not only like not hide it and tolerate it, but also to love it and celebrate it because it makes them unique.   Stacey Simms  10:46 So how many Miss Idaho pageants did you enter before the one we all saw?   Sierra Sandison    10:51 Yeah, so Okay, so I go home, and I compete for missed one falls. And this time, there's like, a gazillion girls, but I win it. And that was a little encouraging, because I just won like one of the hardest pageants in the state. So I, that's a, it's a whole, that pageant takes place, like a week after Miss Idaho. So I had an entire year until the next beside Whoa, I worked really hard, like, really, really hard. And I won't go into detail. But that's what made the difference between year one and year two, and I get to it,   Stacey Simms  11:20 I understand you don't want to do it. What are your work on? Is it just your is it just getting in great physical shape? Is it more to it?   Sierra Sandison    11:26 So that's part of it. But um, mostly it's really finding yourself and knowing what you believe. So when you go into interview, any question that's thrown at you, because you know yourself so well, like, you can answer it. And so I went to Okay, let's see, in December, Miss Miss Idaho, who was who won when I didn't make the top 11 challenged all of the local title holders to a new year's resolution. And I was about to go backpack through Europe for five months alone, which is a self discovery journey in itself. But I everyone was doing like, I'm going to work out more, and I'm going to eat less candy or something. And I was like, I'm not going to give up carbs. Exercising in Italy, like are you crazy. So I knew that we couldn't be fitness based. So I decided to read one book a month, which I've actually kept up to this day. And it's just taught me so much. But and then of course, we have the Europe thing. And like traveling in Europe alone for a long time. Just to traveling just teaches you a lot. So that's what I changed. So I get back to miss Idaho. And I really, I bow so I decided to wear my pump on stage. This is the first time I'll ever wear on stage because I hadn't more I will only wanted to work at Miss America where I could explain my story on TV into the media stations beforehand. And everyone would understand what the insulin pump was as well as my message. So I'm beside Whoa, there's a small audience. There's no type one diabetics watching. And I can't go out on stage and be like, Hey, everyone, like this is my insulin pump. And my message is for you to love the things that make you different. Okay, bye. Let's get on the show like that. So I get to miss Idaho in my pump, I put my pump on my pants. In that day, it just looked so much bigger than normal is like when I got a zit on my forehead and it looks like I'm so I'm trying to talk myself into wearing the pump and I'm, like freaking out. And finally I calmed down and I'm like, no one's gonna notice no one's gonna notice. So   Stacey Simms  13:27 why did you Why did you wear it on stage? And what was it like, just before you walked out? If that wasn't the plan, what happened that you said, All right, I got to do it.   Sierra Sandison    13:35 Um, so I didn't think I was ever going to go to Miss America because of the not making top 11 thing so but I really I got into pageants to where my pump on stage. And I wasn't going to give that up. Even though it wasn't the Miss America stage in front of millions of people on national television. I still wanted to know that I had the courage to do it. Um, so I walked out of the dressing room. And this little girl's staring at me and I met this in this like really self-conscious state like, no one look at my insulin pump, please. And the first thing she blurts out is like, hey, what is that she points to my insulin pump. And my heart sinks and I get really angry at the same time when I go back to the dressing room to kind of rip off the pump. And she's and she follows me and she explains that she's diabetic as well. And we get into the conversation about diabetes. And I end up asking her What kind of insulin pump she wears. And it ended up that she didn't have an insulin pump because she was really scared of what her friends would say. So at this point, I was like, I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the audience thinks I'm gonna go where my insulin pump for this little girl and so that weekend I ended up winning and her mom came up to me and are her McCall is a little girl and her mom came up to me and Nicole was like, I'm getting an insulin pump. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. And then her mom after McCall ran off to tell some other friends how excited she was. Her mom came up to me crying because she's so excited that like she never thought her daughter would get an insulin pump agree to it. let alone be jumping up and down excited and confident about it. So that was probably the best. And then, of course, from there, I went to Miss America and made tough teen and yeah, yeah, there's   Stacey Simms  15:10 a lot more to talk about. Yeah, I have to ask you, though, it's just so inspiring to hear. But when you walked on stage, and you've been in pageants for a couple of years, harder to wear the pump, or harder to wear that bikini, because Wow, did you look gorgeous? Oh, my gosh, that was so hard.   Sierra Sandison    15:28 I actually have I so I, I work out a lot. And I like, I do CrossFit all the time. And I competed not now Geez, not now. But I competed in, like, power competitive powerlifting, or I guess that's redundant powerlifting competitions. So I was used to like being in like one piece, or just a sports bra and shorts. So that's like being in the bikini, scary for a lot of people. But it really wasn't that big of a deal for me until I put the pump on. So when did you realize that the pump   Stacey Simms  15:59 and the pageant was becoming an actual movement, you know, that people were responding so strong.   Sierra Sandison    16:06 Um, so I posted the picture online. And I kind of, I don't know, if some girl a lot of girls tried to start social media campaigns for their platform, and they just kind of flop because no one's really interested in them, if you know what I mean. So I was really scared that no one would like, like my message or because some people were telling me like, like fighting the beauty standards is stupid. And it's a stupid cause. But it's something I'm really passionate about. Because when I see someone like loving who they are, even though they don't look like a Victoria's Secret Angel, it really like encourages me to love myself. And so I really wanted to encourage that. But I also didn't think that anyone would take the time to take a selfie with their insulin pump. I don't think I would, I don't know. I just like, so I posted it. And then I went on with my day. And I got back to my phone. And it had like 1000s of likes, and 1000s of shares. And I went on Instagram, and people had been posting like crazy. And it was like it was incredible. So I think that like the same day or maybe the next day, I realized it was going crazy. It was awesome.   Stacey Simms  17:15 Do you have any numbers? Or do you know how the hashtag Show me your pump? How far or wide that went? I mean, I know you were on the Today Show. And good morning, American NPR picked it up?   Sierra Sandison    17:24 Yeah, I think so we, we did the math on the hits. And like number of viewers on all the TV shows and all the articles that were written. And we think my story reached about like five to 7 million people. And then as regard in regards to how many pictures were posted, you can't count those on Twitter, or Facebook. But on Instagram, there's almost 6000 today.   Stacey Simms  17:50 So the social media campaign is going on in the time between Miss Idaho leading up to Miss America. Was it difficult to balance getting ready for the pageant in September of last year, when you were also being asked to be a guest on national shows and little kids are coming up to you? What was that like?   Sierra Sandison    18:06 That was insanity. So I was actually the last girl. And out of all 50 states, I was the very last person crowned. So I had only eight weeks to get ready for Miss America, which is an insanely short amount of time. So I was super stressed. I was up like, from 8am to like, probably 1am. And it was just it was insane. And then you add all the interviews on top of it. And it was so overwhelming. But in the end, I think it actually helped because I was practicing interviews part of Miss America. And obviously, when I got to Miss America, the judges already knew about Show me your pump. And it was a big topic of conversation in the interview. And I had talked about it so much that I didn't have to stumble over my words, I knew what I wanted to say, etc. So having all those interviews with the media, which there could, there was like five, there could have been like five to 10 a day. Having all those interviews actually helped me prepare a little more even though it was a little hectic.   Stacey Simms  19:06 Okay, so you won the People's Choice Award in the Miss America Pageant. How do you find that out? Is that in a live on stage thing? Yes. So   Sierra Sandison    19:12 I just find it out when like live TV, I find it out as soon as you guys in the audience and across the nation do so that was what was that like it was I think I knew that I kind of had a chance. And in the past, I've tried to predict like the Miss America winters at home. And the way you predict the People's Choice person is by looking at the YouTube views and I was not winning in YouTube views on the People's Choice videos. So I was kind of stressing about that. And I really just I really wanted to wear my insulin pump on stage in my swimsuit. And that's all I wanted to do. I just was like make it to the top of team and then you can eliminate me Please give me People's Choice, please. And at the last minute I think Miss New Mexico had just like a rush of votes and my heart just like   Sierra Sandison    19:59 it's New Mexico.   Sierra Sandison    20:01 Yeah, my roommate and like one of my best friends. But I was like, No, like, this can't happen. So when they called my name, and I don't know, I'm used to like losing things in high school like being the last one picked for dodgeball team making, not making like even the JV team for basketball. So I was like, it's not gonna be me like, I'm used to this. And then he said, and you're the winner is Miss Idaho. And that's all after that moment. That's all I remember. Everything else is a blur. I think I fell down to the ground. And like, I don't even remember, his   Stacey Simms  20:33 pictures are pretty amazing. It's a wonderful reaction. I love it.   Sierra Sandison    20:36 So So what happened for you when you did go on stage? Oh, my gosh, that was the most amazing feeling because I know like, it just seems I don't know how to explain the stage like especially the same was with Dr. Oz, like the Dr. Oz studio was so like, exactly like it was on TV exactly like it is on TV in the Miss America stage is exactly what it is on TV. Except I can also see like, the tent, like the audience of 10,000 in this gigantic, gigantic room that's like a football stadium. So it was it was thrilling. And I just couldn't believe that I finally, like I reached my goal. And it was coming true right there. And I don't know, it was awesome. Fabulous.   Stacey Simms  21:19 It's really is a remarkable story. I'm so glad to share you what is next for you, you have a new book out, you have a new blog you're launching, tell us what this is.   Sierra Sandison    21:28 Yes, I'm so excited. So I've had this idea for a while. And like, finally, my friend was like, do it. And I don't know, all authors are a little self conscious about getting your ideas out there, because who's gonna read it, like, Who cares what I have to say, so my best like one of my, I call her my diet bestie one of my diet besties Hadley, George was just like, you need to write it. So I sat down in Cincinnati, probably in February and started writing. And I've been, like, just rapidly writing way since then. But it's called Sugar Linings , finding the bright side of type 1 diabetes. And for me, diabetes has been a huge blessing, obviously, because of Miss America and all the opportunities it's brought me but I there's also things I also thought that before I really succeeded in pageants. So the other things I talked about, besides my own personal story are Sugar Linings  that apply to everyone's life, not just inside the house. So I talked about how diabetes makes us more stronger and resilient. How it can bring us friends. So like Hadley, Hadley is like one of my best friends and I would not go back in time and get rid of diabetes, if it meant losing her friendship, and then how it can give us a passion. So lots of people get diabetes and then become very involved in fall in love with JDRF, or whatever diabetes organization they decide to volunteer with. And the same is true for a lot of other hardships, I think we face in life, whatever thing you go volunteer for, usually people have like a very personal story of why for why they got involved, and why they became passionate about it. So and I think being passionate about something. And making a difference is a really important, like part of all of our lives, like when I go to schools, a lot diabetes, and at the end, I always close up with whatever hard thing you're going through, like use it to make yourself stronger, and also make a difference. And I asked all the kids like who wants to make a difference before they die, and everyone's hands flies up. And it's just like, so encouraging to know that, like most humans just have this natural desire to make a difference. And diabetes gave that to me, and I hope it can give it to a lot of people. But if someone for example, isn't isn't like passionate specifically about diabetes, even though they have it, the last chapter in my book is about how it does increase our ability to show compassion, empathy, so we know what it's like to get misinformed and hurtful comments and just deal with this disease and the stress that goes along with it all day every day.   Stacey Simms  23:54 The book is called Sugar Linings . And the blog is also Sugar Linings . But the blog is a chance for other people to tell their stories.   Sierra Sandison    24:02 Yeah. So I'll also continue telling, like continue updating people through that blog on what I'm doing and what's going on in my life. And maybe if I discover a new sugar lining, I'll talk about it. But I really wanted to give other people the chance to tell me about how it's made them stronger about their like diversity about how diabetes gave them a passion to serve the diabetes community or maybe a situation where their diabetes experience gave them empathy for help them be empathetic towards someone else. Or if they have some sugar lining that is maybe unique to them or maybe true for everyone that I just haven't thought about. I didn't mention my book, but that they want to let the diabetes community know. So we can add another sugar lining to our list.   Stacey Simms  24:51 I have a couple of questions that I was asked to ask you. If I may, when people found out I was talking with you. Rebecca would like to know how you deal with the down days when having diabetes on board just feels like it's it's too much to handle.   Sierra Sandison    25:08 Yeah, so there's two things. One, I think the hardest week for me was actually that time where I was visiting Hadley in Cincinnati, and she encouraged me to start writing this book. I think my pump like malfunction, so I was like, Hi. And then when I got like, they got my new pump to me super quick, which they're, they're awesome about that. So they got into come to me, but I'd been high for a little while. And then I got my new pump on, and my insulin had expired, because it had been in like the heat. So then I was high for another four days before I figured that out. And I was just like, Oh, it was miserable. And I had like five schools every day that had to go to the speedway. And at the same time, I was kind of going through this identity crisis, where people tell us over and over again, like, diabetes isn't who you are, it's not part of your identity, like you're so much more than your disease. And here I am, like, I am the diabetic beauty queen like that is my identity to most people. And I was kind of feeling guilty, like, should diabetes, not be my life, like, I'm so involved? Should I, like get involved with something else and not do diabetes? Does that make sense at all? Oh, absolutely.   Stacey Simms  26:19 I think it's difficult for any of us to find a balance.   Sierra Sandison    26:21 Yeah, I was like, Oh, I felt just felt like it was overwhelming my identity. And Hadley has an organization called type one teens that she started. And she like, she came into my room because I was crying. And I kind of opened up to her about it. And I felt so so guilty about feeling that way, like feeling like, I shouldn't be serving the diabetes community. And she's like, Oh, my gosh, I totally know how you feel. And she kind of made me feel like, it was just a natural feeling. And she's always the person usually, she's always the person I go to when I'm having just like the down days. So first of all, I use my diversity to get over him and or to get through the down days. And then second of all, something that's really inspirational to me is when I meet people who have lived with diabetes for like, 30 or 40 years, and like I'm, and that wasn't in 2015, like, they didn't have a Dexcom they didn't have like an awesome touchscreen insulin pump from Tandem. They had, like, the like, we hear horror stories about what like the diabetes products they use. So like if they can do that with those. With those, I don't know what to call them. The   Stacey Simms  27:30 The, the bad old days of diabetes, right? I mean, the old tools like boiling needles, that kind of stuff.   Sierra Sandison    27:35 Yeah, do 40 years, and most of those years have the old diabetes tools, and they have way less resources and dealt with a lot more misdiagnosis and misdiagnosis sees, is that the word? And we do today like I can do today. I'm curious   Stacey Simms  27:54 with what you just said, Do you have an obligation to always show your pump? I mean, I'm curious, you know, you're the show me your pump lady? What if you don't feel like showing your pump? Does that come into your mind?   Sierra Sandison    28:04 So it is totally okay, if anyone does not want to show their pump. And I had to come to terms with that this year, because I get like, I'll post a picture where my insulin pump is like tucked in my speakeasy and I'm wearing a dress. It's totally not visible. And some mom will comment and be like, Where's your pump? Like? My Are you hiding your pump? Like I don't want my daughter to see this. And I'm like, they don't say that word for word. They'll say where you're pumping, where's your pump, but that's like, how I feel when they say that. And it was really hard for me for a long time. Because like I'm a human being I don't want I don't want diabetes to be the forefront. Like I said, like I struggle with that identity thing like is diabetes like, like a whole, like 75% of my identity now, and I don't want it at the forefront or like in front of everyone all the time. And at the same time. I'm not ashamed of it. But I just don't want it to be the topic of discussion constantly. And Kerri Sparling, who's the blogger in charge of six and tomie.com. just posted she went to like a red carpet event with her husband. And she posted a blog about how she the dress she got just like she there's no way to make it look great with an insulin pump. So she decided to take off her insulin pump and do shots for a couple days. And like, that's okay. And I I commented. And I was like this, like means so much to me. Like, I feel like I'm not allowed to hide my pump. And it's not that I'm hiding it. It's just that I'm not. I don't know, I'm not like purposely hiding it. I just like don't want it front and center sometimes. And I met her this last weekend at a conference we were supposed to speaking at. And she was like that I'm just like, so that comment just warmed my heart and I'm like, you just need to know that it's totally a natural feeling to not want to show your diabetes all the time and like I don't care what your fans say. Like if you need to hide your pump once in a while. Like you should feel okay to do that. So with that, I mean you're you know, show me your pump is wonderful and empowering but it doesn't mean you have to wear it on your head. Yeah.   Stacey Simms  30:00 Michelle asked me to ask you, if you have advice for parents who are struggling to give their kids with diabetes independence.   Sierra Sandison    30:07 Hmm, that is so hard. That's like, I always talked about this at conferences, and I haven't, there's no perfect answer to it. But I do think a balance is really important. Between like, keeping your kids safe, and making sure you're empowering them and giving them independence at the same time. And I think with so I didn't get diabetes till I was 18. So I was immediately independent, and that was fine. But in everything else in life, my parents were really, really strict. Up until the point I was 13. Like, the most insanely strict parents you'll ever meet, and then back by, like, at 13, they decided to like start. So and this is all they're like, they had this all planned out in advance, at 13. When each of me and my siblings, my siblings, and I turned 13. They started like, slowly, carefully, like making letting us be more and more independent, and at the same time, instilling like adjectives into us, like, you're so responsible, you're so intelligent, you are so like, independent, we're so proud of you. And even when those things weren't true, like those statements were definitely not true throughout most of my high school, but they kept instilling them in me. And eventually I was like, Yeah, like, I am responsible, like, that is my identity. I'm, I'm smart, and I'm responsible. And I'm not going to make this bad decision   Stacey Simms  31:23 theory this, your book is launching, this is a very busy time for you. What are you most excited about?   Sierra Sandison    31:28 Oh, my gosh, I am excited, huh?   Sierra Sandison    31:32 I Well, I'm   Sierra Sandison    31:33 most excited, I think so a lot of girls, when they hand down their crown, it's a really bittersweet time, because they've been so busy all year, and they're exhausted. So now they're gonna stop. But at the same time, they kind of don't want to stop. And for me, I've like figured out the balance. So I'm not exhausted, and I'm having a blast. And there have been like, back in like, January and December in November, I was exhausted. And I was like, holy cow, I need, I cannot do this. So I kind of like learned how to say no to things so I could survive. And now I'm at this perfect balance where I'm not too busy. And I'm really enjoying it. But if I was anyone else, I would have to stop on June 20. And because of Show me your pumping because of the awesome diabetes community I've been, I've been I have like events booked out and conferences to go to, until like December right now, which is super exciting. Because I don't have to stop like being decided, oh, I'm not allowed to wear the crown. I get to do everything else that I love. And I'm not really I'm kind of like a not a girly girl. So I don't care about the crowd anyways, but people still can try it on. So   Stacey Simms  32:34 literally, you can bring it with you. But you can't put it on.   Sierra Sandison    32:37 Yes,   Stacey Simms  32:37 exactly. All right, the next interview is going to be all of these pageant rules, because I didn't know any of this stuff. Yeah, that's terrific. So you can so so you know little girls or even the girls like we could put it on and take a picture with you. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Sarah Sandison , thank you so much for talking with me today. It's been so much fun and the books gonna be a big success. I hope we talk again soon.   Announcer  33:04 You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  33:10 More info on Sierra and what she's doing now and then taking a look back at her story. You can find all of that at the episode homepage at Diabetes connections.com. I mentioned towards the beginning of the show that she's focusing a lot on insulin affordability and access. And she stepped down a while ago from her position at beyond type one, she was in a kind of a volunteer leadership position there and stepped down over this issue. How you might have seen that on social media A while back if you didn't, I will link up again, the more information on the story behind that and so much of what she's doing now, really just a remarkable person. And of course, I'll link up the information on her book Sugar Linings . Alright, I am working on a bonus episode that might come out in the next couple of days. I have an episode about mutual aid diabetes, this is a new group that has sprung up recently trying to kind of organize and get better information out to the community about a problem that again, insulin affordability and access but it's something that many of us are already doing in our local communities, right getting insulin to people who need it at least we do that in in Charlotte, I mean, I've hopped in my car several times in the last couple of months and careered you know insulin here there and supplies and things like that. And I bet you have done that too. Or at least connected on social media or amplified some mutual aid diabetes is trying to be more organized about that. And our next regular episode is all about low blood sugar. I am talking to two powerhouses of the diabetes community ginger Vieira and Mike Lawson and we will be talking to them about their new children's book but really about low blood sugar what it feels like what people without diabetes who care about people with diabetes should keep in mind all that good stuff. Question for you before I let you go too many episodes. What do you think? Right? We're at two episodes a week now with these classic episodes started that back in February and throwing Get a bonus episode and my overwhelming you. You don't have to listen to every episode. I hope you don't feel guilty if you don't, but I'd love to get your opinion. What do you think here? Is this the right balance? Should I cut back? Maybe go to one episode every two weeks space it out a little bit more? Let me know I'll put it in the Facebook group as well as a question for you. Thanks as always to my editor John Bukenas at Audio Editing Solutions. Thank you so much for listening. I will see you back here in just a couple of days until then. Be kind to yourself.   Benny    35:34 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged  

The DiabetesMine D-Data Exchange is a great time to catch up on the latest technology and get a sneak peek at what’s coming. This is the conference where #WeAreNotWaiting was coined in 2013, which almost seems like ancient history now! We talk to founder Amy Tenderich about what's new and take some time to focus on their effort to reach more diverse voices. Watch the videos from Innovation Days here In Tell Me Something Good, a big diaversary to celebrate.. Stacey's son marks 14 years of type 1 diabetes this week. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode Transcription  Stacey Simms  0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop created for people with diabetes by people who have diabetes by Gvoke HypoPen the first premix auto injector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.   Announcer  0:21 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  0:27 This week, the DiabetesMine innovation days is always a great time to catch up on the latest technology and get a sneak peek at what's coming. This is the conference where we are not waiting. The phrase was coined in 2013 which almost seems like ancient history now   Amy Tenderich  0:44 stuff that seemed like such a pipe dream at the time like this whole idea of a closed loop system it was like kind of eye roll or like but now we have a very viable do it yourself. Homemade pancreas closed loop system which I'm using By the way, I've been looping now for quite a while and it's a game changer.   Stacey Simms  1:00 That’s Amy Tenderich, founder of  DiabetesMine who puts this conference on twice a year. This time around. There was also a big focus on inclusion and representation. Lots of info share In Tell me something good a diaversary to celebrate 14 years of type one in my house. Betty was diagnosed the first weekend of December in 2006. And I just remembered a funny story from that week that I haven't told before. I was always the worst. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of the show. I am so glad to have you here I am your host, Stacey Simms, and we aim to educate and inspire about type 1 diabetes by sharing stories of connection. As I said in that intro, my son was diagnosed with type one right before he turned to 14 years ago this week, my husband lives with type two diabetes, I don't have diabetes, I have a background in broadcasting in radio and television, local news. And that is how you get a podcast. I'm going to be talking about Benny’s diaversary later on in the show, I will tell you a rather silly story that I just remembered about our first weekend home from the hospital. So about a week after we got home, and we went out we had theater tickets. I will tell you that story later on in the show. But stick around. It's a funny one. I think it just kind of sets the tone for how we manage diabetes and continue to this day. Oh my goodness. I also want to let you know that friends for life is having another conference of virtual conference. And if you are listening as the show is first airing friends for life is happening this Friday, and through the weekend, December 4 2020. And along with the incredible educational opportunities and the wonderful social stuff that they have great meetups, I am also doing my annual game show I do a version of NPR is Wait, wait, don't tell me, which is a really fun game show. If you've ever listened to it. I do Wait, wait, don't poke me and I have taped that and we will be airing it and premiering it this Friday. So definitely come by and please check that out. I will link up all the registration information for friends for life from the wonderful folks that children with diabetes, just go to Diabetes connections.com and click on this episode. You know every episode has pretty extensive show notes where I link up information. And I also put a transcript now for every episode in 2020. And we're starting to work backwards. So hopefully eventually, I'll have a transcript for every episode of the show. Thanks for your patience on that. All right, talking to Amy Tenderich from DiabetesMine in just a moment. But first diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop in One Drop is diabetes management for the 21st century. One Drop was designed by people with diabetes for people with diabetes. One Drop glucose meter looks nothing like a medical device. It's sleek, compact and seamlessly integrates with the award winning One Drop mobile app, sync all your other health apps to One Drop to keep track of the big picture and easily see health trends. And with a One Drop subscription you get unlimited test strips and lancets delivered right to your door. Every One Drop plan also includes access to your own certified diabetes coach have questions but don't feel like waiting for your next doctor visit your personal coach is always there to help go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the One Drop logo to learn more. My guest this week can be summed up I think in the motto of the conference. We're about to talk about learn, connect, collaborate, Amy Tenderich was diagnosed with type one as an adult in 2003. And not long after that she started the website DiabetesMine, which is a terrific source of news and information in our community. Seriously, if you're not reading it, I'll put a link in the show notes. Make it a bookmark. They even say that anymore. You know, put it in your reading list. They say that anymore. Make sure you check out diabetes mind because all kidding aside, they do a tremendous job on reporting in depth news information in our community if you're interested at all in technology if you want to learn personal finance stories to they do that it's a great deep dive and I rely on it for a lot of information, I share her on the show, of course, I always credit them. But in 2013, Amy started organizing the D-Data exchange twice yearly events that focus on technology and breakthroughs. This year, Amy added topics about diversity and representation in the diabetes community. It's something she was already working on, as you'll hear before, the events of this year brought it to the forefront for many people who maybe hadn't considered that before. But maybe it was already on it. Lots of information here and look forward. Of course, it's always great to catch up with Amy. Amy, welcome back. Thank you so much for joining me to talk about D-Data. I really appreciate it. This conference is always so interesting to talk about. So thanks.   Amy Tenderich  5:46 Oh, thank you for having me.   Stacey Simms  5:49 first question really has to be just the difference this year in terms of making everything virtual. You know, I was in some of the conference presentations, I have to say this was a cool looking online conference. Do you mind share just a little bit about how were you pleased the way it went? I know at the beginning of the year, it must have been kind of crazy to regroup?   Amy Tenderich  6:09 Absolutely. It was it was been a big learning curve, obviously moving from in person to online, no matter what kind of event you do. I mean, first of all, there was this, oh, my God, I'm in the events business. And now we have COVID. And you know, what's going to happen? And there was some question about whether people would still be interested. But I feel like I found that people are really anxious to connect, because we're not going to all these in person events. You know, most of us feel like we're just sort of out there some kind of juggernaut on our own trying to keep up just by clicking on links. And so having a conference that allows people to connect, I think is you know, something that people are still really looking for, we had to do it the first time for our June event, because we do these D-Data events in June and then in the fall. And so you know, that was literally starting from scratch. Our event, as you may know, is sort of like a leadership forum, we always kept it at about 150 people Max, try to keep it somewhat intimate, so that it really put an emphasis on collaboration and interactive sessions. And you know that the networking part of it is really important. So we thought, how can we recreate that. So it's not just people sitting and watching, you know, one presentation after another, especially when everyone's doing so much of that these days on zoom. So I've been working with the same event manager, actually, for years, a lovely woman who, out of San Francisco, who helped me find this platform that is really, in fact, they do use it for much larger events up to thousands of people. But the thing that's so special about it is it kind of recreates the experience of sort of walking into a live conference you like sit down at a table, and then you're able to immediately see and talk to the people who are at your table. And if you jump over to another table, then you're talking to that group. So it kind of looks like a zoom breakout room. But the idea is that it's you know, it's sort of oriented by table. And then what if you want to work together with the people at your table, there's even this whiteboard function that lets people have kind of a little sandbox to play in. And so that we do, again, a lot of interactive stuff, where we try to get people to talk with the group at their table and brainstorm things. So they were able to use that sort of shared space where you can draw pictures and you can post links and and you know, get creative. And you can actually capture whatever your your table does there as a, you know, an image and save it for later if you want. So it really it has this great functionality that allows both live presentations, pre recorded presentations, and then a lot of interactivity. Yeah, so again, it was a big learning curve. You know, it really helped me that we had done this once in June. So going into our two day event. Now in the fall, I had a better I didn't have to kind of recreate that whole wheel of just understanding how the online platform works. You   Stacey Simms  8:48 know, this conference is so well known, as you said, leadership technology, things come out. And we'll talk about this that, you know, years later come to market. But one of the things that you focused on early on and or even really, before the conference was this survey and discussion of representation.   Amy Tenderich  9:06 So yeah, what happened there? It's actually I'm kind of proud of myself and this was prior to the whole, you know, uprising around George Floyd and the big sort of, you know, visibility of the Black Lives Matter movement back in January, I was talking with Cherise Shockley and a few other people and said, You know, I feel like we should have a panel at our event to kind of delve into this I feel like this is a it's sort of something that's a little bit on the margins we talk about every now and then but this is so not solved, but I feel like people of color are really not represented and and Sharif was all over it said absolutely. We need to have this conversation and started recommending people and so I had already spoken to Mila Clark Buckley, who you may know and a few other people reached out to area Lawrence. And then of course, everything kind of exploded and it was like Okay, wow. And so, in our planning sessions, I basically kind of convened this group of advocates of And I said, Listen, you guys, I want to have a session, I think it'd be great to have a live kind of Roundtable. But, you know, what else can we do? Or how do you guys want this to run? What do you think would be meaningful? So what was so cool is that that group actually drove the whole content of it. So they said, Listen, we're happy to come and be on a panel and talk. But you know, we, again, people of color are not a monolith. Right? They can't represent everyone. And they sent me to get more voices involved. So they had the idea, you know, can we do some kind of research? Can we do a survey so we can gather, you know, input from a larger, you know, swath of our community? And they also said, What about a video? What if we got people to, you know, because we had done this before for diabetes mind with our winners, and you're familiar with the Stacey, where we have these people who are patient voices winners, basically applied to have a scholarship. And then if they won, we flew them out to Northern California, and put them up to be part of the event. But in years past, we'd had those winners each do a little snippet, and just them talking about, you know, who they were and what their sort of advocacy soapbox was, was in the area of diabetes, if you will. So the idea was to do something along those lines, where we ask a larger group of advocates of color, to just say a few words about what they do and about their thoughts on you know, being a person of color with diabetes, you know, what's good, what's bad, what would they like to have changed, see change, I said, it's completely up to you guys. So I don't know if you got to see that. But we created this compilation video that started off our session. And it was really impactful, because it was just people saying, their bit, you know, what's disappointed them or why they do the work they do, or what they would like to see change. And it's just what, you know, I can't I talked about this session is sort of unveiling what's been left unsaid for too long. You know, I think that a lot of this was kind of going on behind the scenes. And some of these people of color also told me that in the past, they kind of if they had a negative experience, they would kind of brush it off, they would just say, Oh, it's kind of a one off, it didn't. It's not necessarily racism, it's just, you know, I had a bad experience. But when they start to connect with each other and share these stories, they realize there's a lot of commonalities, you know, of getting brushed aside of being misdiagnosed of sort of not being proactively told about all of the latest, you know, technology options, because maybe a healthcare provider would sort of assume that they weren't going to be the ideal candidate for a pump or a CGM or something cutting edge. So, you know, it seemed that there were some themes. And when we saw this group of advocates, each recruited more people in their community. So we had a team of about 12 people who actually helped craft the survey questions and vet the survey, and then helped us get it out there to the community. So we had about about about 207 people who completed the survey, there's always some people who start and don't complete answers. And I did a whole presentation on sort of summarizing the results, which is also a video that's posted online that we'll be sharing with people. But yeah, it was just so eye opening. So so many of their concerns are similar to anyone with diabetes, right? They're worried about costs and access, and you know, finding a physician who's empathetic and, you know, who treats them as you know, as a partner in their own care, and all those things. I mean, those are things that I would say are across the board for anyone with diabetes or issues. But what also became very clear that they do not feel represented, we got very strong results that people said, both in marketing and in educational materials, they don't feel represented, they need to see more people who look like them. And that's everything from you know, skin. And he says to, you know, just, you know, seeing someone who looks like me, who might actually use that product.   Stacey Simms  13:43 Wow, I mean, so much going on there. And I know a lot of people were posting that they were really excited to not only be involved in it, but to see it. And I always hate this question. But what comes next for something like that?   Amy Tenderich  13:55 Is the million dollar question. And that's actually one of the things where you feel like you're sort of a victim of your own success because you have an event and people say, this was so great. What else you gonna do? I'm like, What do you mean, I'm still recovering from this.   Stacey Simms  14:12 Back to our interview in just a moment, but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And when you got a toddler with type one, you do hear rumblings for a long time about the teen years, you know, hit us full force a little bit earlier than most and I'm so glad that we had dexcom Benny's influence started going way up around age 11. He's almost 16. And it has been an absolutely remarkable transformation, I think is really the only word for it. He's so much taller, everything's different. I mean, I need to tell you what puberty does, but along with the hormone swings, I cannot imagine managing diabetes during this time without the Dexcom continuous glucose monitoring system. We've been able to react more quickly to highs and lows, see trends, adjust insulin doses with advice from our endo. I know using the Dexcom G6 has helped improved Benny's a one C and overall health, if your glucose alerts and readings from the G6 do not match symptoms or expectations, use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. To learn more, go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo. Now back to Amy, where I have asked her what's next.   Amy Tenderich  15:19 So I don't know. But you know what the fun thing is, I mean, not only the fun thing, but I think the important thing is to not try to decide that too soon, the world is changing. And these events are always about kind of what is timely and what you know, we try to sort of take the temperature of, you know, what is boiling up hottest in the in the patient community and in the industry. So especially with our D-Data day, with the technology side of it, you know, we try to let the dust settle from the existing event and see where things are going. What are people talking about? Is it suddenly that smart pens are all coming out to market? And people are buzzing about that? Is it some of the latest trials for the closed loop systems? You know, is it sometimes it was like accuracy of, you know, cgms, that became like a big hot button. You know, obviously right now a lot of it's just about affordability and access, it's an always an ongoing issue. But we really try to and again, especially for the day to day I try to check in with the community, you know, I'm a conduit, but I'm not one of the hardcore developers, or the people who work on loop who make these incredible tools. So I always check in with them and say, you know, what is the community buzzing about what else is you know, who's working on something new and cool? How are people feeling about the latest commercial products have come out, or a lot of people you know, chattering about that they have a lot of input, you know, and just try to sort of find out what's happening out there and then address those things. And, you know, really keep it fresh and timely. So that we're really having conversations about the things that are like currently on top of mind,   Stacey Simms  16:49 it's so hard to predict, certainly, right, what's going to take off because you always have devices and people at this event that are as you said, so cutting edge and, you know, certainly the DIY crowd is always well represented. So it's hard to figure out what's really going to hit Were there any products or standouts, I saw a non invasive CGM of some kind like a bracelet that was there. I know Dexcom spoke there was the there was a loop link. I mean, was there anything that really struck you or that you want?   Amy Tenderich  17:19 Thank you for asking. So the fall event is actually this two day thing where one day is kind of our broader Innovation Summit, it was our first event that we ever did. And then the second day is D-Data where we go really deep on the technology. So that's why this time, the first day, we did a featured panel on telemedicine and like whole person care. That was very cool. That included Vita Health, One Drop, health first, and what’s the fourth person, fourth group that was there. I can actually look it up. But yeah, but we really because obviously telemedicine is now just medicine. Right? Right. Right. You know, it used to be the sort of add on thing that you could do if you wanted to, but you know, now it's really how care is being delivered. And the whole notion of like, Can we get past just focus on glucose numbers and lots of coaching combined with technology. And then they're trying to help people with like a variety of health conditions while doing really high quality diabetes care. So we have this great talk about it. And I'm sorry, January AI was the fourth company and they are this amazing new machine learning based company out of the Stanford area that is actually doing a platform currently for type two diabetes, but I think they will be expanding. And that group also did a demo on day two, the first day again, was kind of this broad look at like what's going on in healthcare and diabetes care, that's when we had our inclusivity and diversity panel, we also had an interactive group problem solving exercise where we got people to we had a little It was kind of like choose your own medical adventure. It was this video of this, like a sort of mock patient and had her talk about her issues that she's facing. And then there were sort of three choices of what you could recommend for this woman to do as sort of her first line of defense with her diabetes care. And then we had people discuss that at their tables and decide and then vote on which one they would pick first. And then we showed what how they played out in real life, you know, and in order of what people chose as the first choice, so we'd have to do some really cool stuff to get put people kind of in the shoes of a health care provider but also in the shoes of the patient as in again, we have a mix of people at these events. So you've got you know, diabetes educators there and endocrinologists and even some like nutritionists and other people who are recommending stuff to patients and then you have patients who are you know, walking the walk and so it was kind of a cool way for them to discuss like, Okay, if you recommend this to this woman, like what are the pros and cons gonna be? How is this gonna play out? That was really fun. I we like to put people in the driver's seat and kind of see what they do. And a lot of this event is about the fact that you might have someone who is like, You know, really big has big following online as a patient advocate sitting next to you know, the CEO of some major pharma company, sitting next to you know, someone from FDA, and then all these DIY folks mixed in. And you know, we've got healthcare designers, and we've got educators and someone who might be the head of the you know, Joslin Diabetes Center. And so they get a chance to kind of interact and great networking, and I think really gives people a lot perspective and helps to break down barriers between these groups. You know, it really does.   Stacey Simms  20:31 I was there two years ago, and it was the first time that I was in the same room as somebody from the FDA. And I remember thinking, This is amazing. And it turns out that part of it was my fault. Because as they explained to me, when I asked like, how come I haven't seen you before, you know, basically, you can come to us, and here's how, and I have put that information out, and I will again, but it was it was one of those situations that you know, I've been in the diabetes community for 12 years at that point. And it just hadn't occurred to me that I could have access to somebody like that. And this is a, you know, a public servant, really. And they explained how to do it. And you know, what the deal was, and it was funny to me, because I while I have a podcast, I'm a diabetes mom. Right? So it was a really nice, you know, lowering of by perceived at this as this boundary. And I'm sure that many other people feel that same way. It's It's nearly as you said, it's a lot of interesting people in the same room.   Amy Tenderich  21:21 Yeah, thank you. And I mean, that's why I had this little panic attack when we, you know, when they close down all the Yeah, person events, like, how can we recreate that but, you know, as much as it gets old, being on online stuff all day long. It's amazing what you can accomplish, really. And you know, there are some, like I said, Great platforms that are being improved upon. So after we use this platform in June, we actually gave them feedback about what we would like to see. And they've made some progress, like, yes, it's really great. So you're asking about the non invasive cgms and whatnot. So CGM, obviously is this burgeoning area. So our opening speaker for  D-Data this time on Friday, November 6, was Kevin Sayer, the CEO of Dexcom, talking about the future of CGM. And clearly, I mean, if anyone's qualified to do that, it's them. They've led the way. But there are dozens of kind of want to be you know, me to CGM companies coming out, they're doing all kinds of stuff from implantable to, you know, non invasive to semi invasive to just straight up Dexcom copies. We did a story diabetes might not long ago, something like 39 new companies working on cgms, you know, yeah, so there are many, many of them. Obviously, the non invasive or minimally invasive feature has been a dream for so many years. And there was this white paper written years ago called the deceitful Turkey, by an expert physician who had been researching it for so long, it's a very difficult thing to crack to be able to get something that is accurate and really usable. That doesn't penetrate the skin at all. But then you've got companies like bio link that are working on like they call minimally invasive with these like micro needles. So it's not drawing blood, but it's sort of like pokes into the skin very minimally. Mike Hoskins and I, who's my main man diabetes, mind, we were just talking about this the other day that it's probably time to do another story to sort of explain where we are with non invasive technology. Because Yeah, nobody's really done it yet successfully. But there are lots of companies that are just on the verge of having something really viable, which is exciting.   Unknown Speaker  23:27 I'd read that story. Yes, definitely.   Amy Tenderich  23:31 You know, especially now that you know, one of the big hot topics is the idea that CGM is going to become really, truly become standard of care and become more widespread use even among people who are not on intensive insulin regimen. So it's like what is going to help them be comfortable wearing it and get the most out of it. And we had another interactive session on Friday. And that was all about that it was a mock. We had people at their tables pretend that they were like a design group making a new CGM. And they had to pick their priorities for designing the CGM, and talk about why they did that. And were they trying to simplify data learnings for people? Were they trying to make it more motivational to use a CGM? Or were they trying to kind of like increase the consumer appeal and have it you know, have this kind of sexy look and feel. But I think a lot of people agree that especially for non insulin users, you know, the, the physical factor of the sensor is going to be a big deal breaker, right? But   Unknown Speaker  24:26 it Yeah,   Amy Tenderich  24:27 yeah, there's just so much going on. And you know, it feels like it never changes. But then again, if you look back, it's like, wow, things have really changed so much, even since we started doing this. And well,   Stacey Simms  24:38 and that's what I want to ask you about too. We are not waiting. The phrase, as you obviously know was coined at the D-Data exchange. I was at the first one in 2013.   Amy Tenderich  24:50 That's correct. So we started doing the Innovation Summit in 2011. So we had two of those events. And then the third year, it became clear that there were Are all these sort of people out there who were tinkering and you know, doing yourself the sort of technology savvy, it started with a group of D dads, basically diabetes dads who work in technology, who were like, Hey, we can do stuff with this. So and we decided that we would host a get together for those folks. And we were doing the summit at Stanford School of Medicine, that we just did it as a pre day to our summit, the day before, we got this sort of classroom, in this bio center directly across from the big hall, and just invited a bunch of people who were happened to be, you know, in or near the Bay Area, who would be able to come and we thought we'd have, you know, 25 people or something. And we were smashed in this classroom with like, 50 plus people, and there was all this excitement, and everybody was like, sharing their, what they're doing. And we kind of realized, like, wow, we're really onto something. And I want to give due credit to Howard  Look, and Brandon Arbiter, from Tidepool, who really helped me I, you know, they were just coming on the scene then too. And so we were having all these conversations, and I said, Hey, you know, I really want to do this event, you guys want to help me, like get this group together? So we worked on it together. And what happened is the next day at the summit, I had asked Howard to get up and sort of summarize what happened at this D-Data exchange thing. And he kind of, you know, presented this term, which I believe the first person to utter it was Lane Desborough who is also a diabetes dad, as you know, and then worked at Medtronic for many years, and then was at Bigfoot for a while. But he basically said, what I'm hearing here is that we're not waiting. We're not waiting for the, you know, industry or for the FDA or for anyone to tell us it's okay to do this. We can do it. We're doing it. Yeah. And yeah. And then it's, you know, just as you know, absolutely blossom from there. So,   Stacey Simms  26:38 as you look back at that, and it's been seven years, and it seems like as you had said earlier, it seems like things are moving so slowly and things would never change. And now Surely, there's a long way to go, right. It's not perfect. But now we have hybrid closed loops. On the commercial level, we have more DIY stuff, we have DIY stuff that might be going to be FDA soon, thanks to type pool when you look at the last seven years and your own diabetes management. And if you don't mind me asking, what are your thoughts about how far we've come since lane said it, and Howard wrote it on the whiteboard, you know, we are not waiting. It's pretty remarkable to look back at these seven years.   Amy Tenderich  27:14 It's absolutely remarkable. And it's stuff that seemed like such a pipe dream at the time, like this whole idea of a closed loop system, it was like kind of eye roll or like, but now we have a very viable Do It Yourself homemade pancreas closed loop system, which I'm using, by the way, I've been looping now for quite a while. And it's a game changer, you know, and now the industry is coming out with them, it's a little slower. And obviously, on the industry side, you know, they have to, you know, there's so much risk averseness they need to be really careful. So they're, you know, have to make incremental changes. But we're getting there, I think soon. Again, you know, the idea of just getting a pump without a CGM, or even a smart insulin pan without something connected to it would just seem silly, because it's like, of course, you want to have the whole deal so that you can both continuously monitor your blood sugar and then also get help or have it automated to decide your dosing your ideal dosing amounts. So we've come a hugely long way. Insulin pens were done back then and talked about connecting them it took, you know, it's only very recently that the pen came out. And that we're really going to be able to actually use pens in a larger system, again, connect them to CGM and whatnot. And the apps obviously, becoming incredibly long way they were pre primitive back in the day. And, you know, I like to say the biggest problem was that so much of the stuff was being designed by people who don't, you know, not only don't have diabetes, but don't have any patient experience at all, it was being designed, it was just engineering driven, or clinically driven. And it wasn't livable, and it didn't solve real world problems for people, any devices or apps that just add more burden, it's not going to be continued to be used. And it makes absolutely no sense. You know, no, no   Unknown Speaker  28:56 doubt,   Stacey Simms  28:57 if you could look into your crystal ball for us just for the next year. Really, I know a lot of things were held up this year, because of COVID, things that we kind of expected in 2020 might be pushed to 2021. Or further, I won't hold you to it, we're not going to really make a bet on this. But I'd love to get your take on what you're looking forward to in 2021.   Amy Tenderich  29:16 Oh, thank you so much. So we were privileged to be able to host the first ever closed loop system showcase at our fall event last year. So the end of 2019, we had six of the companies that are like getting closest to having or already have a system out. And it was just amazing. You know, they came and they talked about the details of their algorithm and you know, how they, what the targets are set out and whether the settings are customizable. And then we had patients there who had used the systems either in the real world or in studies. And I just think that there's going to be so much continued improvement on these systems. One very encouraging thing is that the studies are no longer being done in some kind of clinical environment or they are doing real world studies where they literally go out Follow people while they actually go out and do sports and eat food and do things that real people do, you know, so I think it's hugely important for kind of the form factor and just to understand how they can improve on the kind of day to day living experience with these systems. So I'm super excited about that. I do think also that insulin pens, again, gone from just being another sort of thing that you use to stick the insulin in your skin to an actual tool that can help people figure out their dosing and help people keep track of their, you know, their whole diabetes management, regime, and, you know, be connected to, you know, your stream of glucose data, which helps you understand what's happening. So, you know, all of this stuff is just getting so much more real world usable. And I think that's really going to be kind of the linchpin going forward. And it's already hard now for family for people who are newly diagnosed now, to even understand how good they have it. Compared to what it was, like, you know, even when I was diagnosed in 2003, I mean, it was a world away. I mean, right?   Stacey Simms  31:06 What is the next event for DiabetesMine, I know, things are up in the air with COVID.   Amy Tenderich  31:11 You know, so our, you know, traditional pattern has been that we do the D-Data exchange twice a year, so, so again, traditionally, pre COVID, it was in June, on the Friday before the big at a conference, wherever that happens to be. So we've done it in New Orleans, in San Diego, and Boston, Orlando, all the places, right. And then in fall, we would do this two day event, which was always in Northern California, it was at Stanford School of Medicine for years. It's also been at UCSF School of Medicine for the last couple years. And that was the called the Innovation Summit day, which was kind of this broader look. So it didn't only have to be technology, it could be anything that was innovative, whether that's a community program, or whether we were talking about innovations in like coverage, or community events, whatever, and just a variety of different things about improving care. And then the D-Data exchange day, which was always the deep dive into technology. And that event kind of has a pattern to it. At least we've always done it so that we have a featured DIY talk. So we try to always get some interesting speaker from the DIY community to come and talk about something that they're working on. That's cutting edge and new. And whether it be about the community itself for about a particular tool, that we traditionally had FDA come and speak because it's like, let's hear from them. They're so important in all of this. And then we have this lineup of demos that we always do kind of cutting edge stuff. And that's been everything from as you mentioned, new CGM systems to like apps that motivate teenagers to I mean, we've in the past, we've even had some I don't know things for diabetes complications, like socks that can monitor your feet for neuropathy. But right now, it's it's been also a lot of AI, you know, machine learning driven platforms that are trying to help people better calculate their insulin doses are better predict what's going to happen when they eat certain things, or do certain activities, different ways to be able to kind of glean meaning out of your data. Generally, we do June and then we do like early November, it kind of dawned on me that if if Ada does not go back in person, this coming June, which they may not, then we don't necessarily need to be tied to that date anymore. I mean, the the idea originally was, you know, everyone's in town. And it started that very first year that we did the bigger D-Data it was ADA was in San Francisco, which is my hometown. So we're like, oh, everyone's gonna be here. So we'll just do this kind of afternoon thing before and get everyone together. And that's worked really well. Because physically, people are, you know, in from all over the world. But right now, everything's kind of footloose. Because of COVID.   Stacey Simms  33:44 well, thank you so much for coming on. And talking about all this and sharing these stories and for doing the conference and putting it all out there. And we'll link up as much as we can. If anybody missed it and wants to read all this stuff. It was really well covered on Twitter, I was following along the hashtag when I couldn't be there. And we'll get the word out. But he thank you so much for joining me.   Amy Tenderich  34:02 My pleasure. Thank you so much. And thank you for being part of it. And I hope you will join us again sometime.   Unknown Speaker  34:07 You got it.   Unknown Speaker  34:13 You're listening to diabetes connections with Stacey Sims.   Stacey Simms  34:19 More information about DiabetesMine the D-Data exchange. And that video we mentioned near the top of the interview the video about representation what people had to say, it's only five minutes, it's well worth your time. I'm gonna put it in the Facebook group and I will also link it up here in the show notes. Really interesting people definitely worth watching and worth possibly a follow if you're on Instagram or social media as well check them out. And I love talking to Amy because we always learn something new and see what new technology is coming. So of course more to come in the new year. Boy, I feel like there's a lot coming in 2021 that we've been waiting for. So I don't wanna get too off track or into the future but I'm excited and I'm Hoping to do an episode or two about a summary of what's coming. And I should also let you know I've also got interviews lined up with some of the people that are releasing really cool stuff coming up. We've got a lot to look forward to when it comes to technology in the new here, okay, tell me something good in just a moment. And it's an embarrassing personal story, but I will share because we're friends here, but first diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke HypoPen, and you know, almost everyone who takes insulin has experienced a low blood sugar, and that can be scary. A very low blood sugar. It's really scary. And that's where Gvoke HypoPen comes in. It's the first auto injector to treat very low blood sugar Gvoke HypoPen is pre mixed and ready to go with no visible needle. That means it's easy to use in usability studies 99% of people were able to give Gvoke correctly. I'm so glad to have something new. Find out more go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Gvoke logo. Gvoke shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma. Visit Gvoke glucagon comm slash risk.   Tell me something good. This week is about my family. We are celebrating a diaversary my son was diagnosed with type one, as I always say right before he turned two back in 2006. Which means as hard as it is for me to believe we are marking 14 years and that kid is going to be 16 pretty soon. So the story I want to tell you here for Tell me something good. And if you're a new listener, he is doing great. Maybe that's the good news story I should start off with he is happy he is healthy is independent. He drives me bonkers. I want him to do more in his care. I want him to change his sites on the spot every three days and pre bowl is 15 minutes. Every time he eats. He doesn't do that. But you know what he does so much. He's super responsible, as far as I'm concerned. And he is almost 16. So for where he is, and what I was told could happen during the teen years. I really keep my fingers crossed, I knock wood I'll swing a dead chicken if you make me. I mean, I really feel like we have a lot to be thankful for. So having said that, this is a story about how we did everything wrong. 14 years ago, let me set the table. When Benny was diagnosed, I have a daughter. She is three years older than him. So she was just five. their birthdays fall in such a way that she just turned five he was not yet to. And my brother in law. My husband's brother was living with us. It was a temporary situation. He was with us I want to say for about, I don't know, a year, year and a half. He was between jobs. We had two little kids. We both worked full time. He asked you know Hey, can I come stay with you for a little bit while I get things settled? And we said please come down and be like a nanny. We can't have you here fast enough. And it was amazing situation. It really was uncle David was just a godsend, great guy and, you know, left us and went back to a full time job and a great life and relationship in a situation where he now lives too far away. If you're listening, David, he's up in Pennsylvania. But he was there when Benny was diagnosed, which made our lives kind of easier. He had another caretaker in the house when Slade and I took Benny right to the hospital on that Saturday morning. That first weekend in December December 2 I always have to look at the date December 2 2006. David stayed home with Lea until we were ready to trade off and have her come visit and that kind of stuff. And we all learned how to do things together. So we came home Three days later, we tried to go back with our lives. Haha, you know, we were all kind of in the thick of things. And that Saturday night, the following week, Slade and I had tickets to go see a show, you know, I'm a big Broadway fan, love that kind of stuff. And David said you should go I've got this. I know just as much as you guys do. And he really did. I'll watch the kids go and your phone call away. So the theater in Charlotte, you know, we have one of these regional theaters where the Broadway shows come traveling through. It's about 30 minutes from us. Yeah, you really put the pedal to the metal 25 but 30 to 35 minutes. So we thought okay, this is good. We're all our doctor says go on with your lives. We're going to go on with our lives. David's got this. The show was Spamalot. By the way. It was you know, very funny musical comedy. And we decided to go and enjoy ourselves. We got dressed up. We went not 20 minutes into the show, maybe 30 minutes of the show Slade's phone starts buzzing, and he gets up and leaves if you are familiar with the show, this is just after he is not dead yet. And the lady of the lakes. So I'm sitting there watching this very funny show, being amused being entertained. But my husband is no longer sitting next to me and I know something's up right. If he had come right back, it might have been something easy just to question, but he's not back. I think I made it about halfway through the song that goes like this. I remember seeing that which is the song that really just goes on and on. When that ended, because I wasn't gonna run out of the theater when someone was singing people applauded and I booked it out into the lobby. And Slade was on the phone, pacing and talking and pacing and talking. Here's what had happened. David had given Benny an injection for dinner or snack, I don't even know whatever it was it gave me an injection. And remember, at this time, we're using a syringe and we're drawing up teeny, teeny tiny doses. He's getting like point two, five, maybe for 20 carbs, I think I mean, who remembers these doses, but they were minuscule. They didn't have half unit pens at the time. And they certainly didn't have quarter unit syringes. I don't think they have that. Anything like that now. So unless you're using diluted insulin, which nobody had mentioned to me during his whole toddlerhood, you know, you're really guessing at the dosage, and you're trying to eyeball these teeny, tiny poufs and wisps of insulin. So David had tried to draw up like half a unit, I don't remember the exact dose he was supposed to give was, but he gave him two full units, which was bigger than anything we had given before. It makes me laugh now because to like, it's like a speck of dust for him now, but two units   when you Wait, 27 pounds is a huge deal. So what David and Slade had already done while I was sitting there watching people singing, they had already called the endocrinologist. And they had actually already gotten a call back. And that's what the phone call and the pacing, that's what was going on. When I had walked out, he was on the phone with the doctor. And of course, they advised check the blood sugar, give more carbs if needed. You know, nobody was panicking. So we didn't panic. His blood sugar was fine. David had checked it before he called he checked it after the endocrinologist called back, he was fine. It gets a little weird, because the dose had been given Well, before the phone call. It was one of those situations where David did it. And then A while later thought, did I really do that? He absolutely swears that he gave the kid two units. But two hours later, his blood sugar hadn't dropped. So my suspicion at the time was you didn't give him two units, you probably drew it up and just misread the syringe, which was very easy to do at the time, especially when you're distracted by a toddler and a five year old or the child didn't go all the way in, or something really weird happened because his blood sugar stayed steady. You know, we were checking with a meter. We did have a dexcom at the time. But he was checking him every half an hour. We left the theater, we went home. We didn't want him to have to handle this by himself. And how are we going to enjoy Spamalot, right?   Stacey Simms  41:54 We're worried about Benny. We're now home, probably close to three hours after the dose is given. His blood sugar was steady. We called the endocrinologist back and they said look, it's three hours pass the dose. If he hasn't dropped, he's not going to drop you guys are okay. So we being the terrible parents that we are looked at each other and said, you know, our friend was having a holiday party that we couldn't go to because we had tickets to Spamalot. David, do you mind if we go to the party now? I swear we did. We left we went to my friend's party. And my friend is only 10, 15 minutes away from my house. And it was what 10 o'clock at night already. So we only went out for about an hour and a half. But yes, I left my sleeping baby and he never woke up. And he never even woke up with all those pokes all those finger sticks to check his blood sugar, which I'm sure David did 10 more times before midnight, he slept through the whole thing. We were all worried but not worried enough not to go to that party. Ah, I am the worst. We have always been the worst. But you know what he was safe. And our endocrinologist gave us the correct information told us what to look for helped us through it. And there was no sense as we saw it, not going to the party. So I know I'm a terrible parent. That's why I always say I'm the world's worst diabetes Mom, I still have not seen Spamalot all the way through. So maybe when it comes back through shark, I'll go back and make it through the first half of the first act. Oh my goodness. And hey, anybody dealing with a toddler or baby with type one, and those teeny tiny doses, I salute you. It's not easy. Getting an insulin pump makes it a little bit easier. But anything under the age of five is a circus of you know, type one is never easy no matter what age you are. But we're heading into 16 year old with it. And that means driving, which is an adventure for another time. Before I let you go quick reminder friends for life is this weekend, the virtual conference. And if you were able to attend in July, you know that did an amazing job. If you were there, the one thing I will say that surprised me in a very good way was how much just schmoozing. We were able to do. They had specific zoom rooms for different ages, you know, parents and teens and young adults with type one, it was great. And I really wish I had put aside more time in July to attend the conference. Because I didn't really understand how much just hanging out and socializing we'd be able to do. So I'm putting more time aside to attend this one. And I hope you can check it out as well again, link in the show notes. Hey, in the weeks to come, we're gonna have a couple of more episodes in December probably take one off the week of Christmas, even though I celebrate Hanukkah, but you know, we go with the flow. And I also want to just point out that this time of year, there are often a lot of approvals. It just seems like that last week in December, there's usually a lot of news. So stay tuned. I know a lot of delays happened because of COVID. So, you know, I'm not even sure what's been submitted to the FDA that was planned for this year. A lot of delays that way, but we will definitely be talking about it. Make sure you follow on social media for the latest and greatest. And thank you as always to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much as you listen and if you've listened this long, I really appreciate it got a little chatty this week with that story about Benny and Uncle Dave. But But I appreciate you listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here next week until then, be kind to yourself.   Unknown Speaker  45:10 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media, all rights reserved. All wrongs avenged.

When Shaina Hatchell's little brother was diagnosed with type 1 at age nine, she knew her life - and her life's goals - had changed forever. She decided she would teach everyone about diabetes when she grew up. Now a registered nurse and certified diabetes educator, Shaina has written "Shia Learns," a children's book to teach families about diabetes. In this episode she shares her story and answers listeners questions about teaching kids with T1D all about acceptance. Watch Shaina's JDRF FB Live here Check out Stacey's new book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! In Tell Me Something Good, cheerleaders and a lot to cheer about and.. our newest segment.. Innovations.. new studies and approval for the latest hybrid closed loop pump systems. .. More information here about Semglee insulin This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode transcript: Stacey Simms  0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop created for people with diabetes by people who have diabetes. By Real Good Foods real food you feel good about eating and by Dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.   Announcer  0:21 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  0:26 This week when her little brother was diagnosed then 12 year old Shaina Hatchell knew her life and her life's goals had changed thanks to their diabetes educator.   Shaina Hatchell  0:38 It was in that moment of her teaching my entire family teaching me allowing me to trial everything that I realized like this is what I want to do with my life. So at 12 I already was telling my mom, I'm going to be a diabetes educator one day because I loved it so much. I love learning.   Stacey Simms  0:54 Shaina is now a registered nurse and a certified diabetes educator. She's also the author of a new children's book about type one. And she's answering your questions about kids and T1D In  tell me something good cheerleaders and a lot to cheer about, and in our newest segment, innovations, new studies and approval for the latest hybrid closed loop pump systems. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of Diabetes Connections. I am so glad to have you along. If you are new Welcome. My name is Stacey Simms. I'm your host and we aim to educate and inspire about type one diabetes by sharing stories of connection. My son was diagnosed with type one right before he turned two. He is now 15. He's a sophomore in high school. So we've been doing this for a while. My husband lives with type two. I don't have diabetes. I have a background in broadcasting and that is how you get the podcast and I'm laughing a little bit because as I was recording that, I don't know what I said, but I activated the Siri I just said it again on my phone, don't say anything, okay, didn't activate it. And he started talking. So if you heard that I apologize. But it's funny sometimes. And I promise I'll get to the guest to the diabetes stuff in just a minute. But I was talking about my radio days recently, I worked a long time in radio, and I'm taking part in a podcast festival, a virtual podcast Festival, which is all about learning and sessions and panels and stuff, kind of like diabetes festival, or I guess, more like a diabetes conference. But it's all about information and podcasting, and we were talking about my time in radio. And it's amazing to me to think about how many people worked on that show that I was on. I did a four hour morning news show with a co host and a sports guy and you know, reporters and lots of moving parts and running around this little studio. But we had sound engineers and we had producers and you know, we had interns that we had so many people working on that show. And so to do a podcast, of course is usually I mean unless you're NPR or You have a lot of corporate power behind you is usually a one person or maybe a two person show. I do have an editor who helps me out after the fact. But it's when little things happen like my phone going off that I remember those days. Not that I'm really itching to go back to spending five hours because we did also have an hour show prep in the studio, which was the size of the room that I'm in right now about the size of a, let's call it a standard bedroom with four or five, six people every day, starting at four o'clock in the morning. So I can't say I recommend that. Oh, my goodness, sorry to get off on such a tangent, but I am taking part in the Charlotte podcast festival. If you're at all interested in podcasting, I will link it up. I'm sure you could attend. It's free. And then later on in the show, I'll get back to diabetes conferences and tell you what's on tap because there's some interesting changes happening. Of course, everything's still going virtual, but some new announcements and I will get to that a little bit later on in the show. Okay, Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop, and I'm really impressed at how much they just get diabetes. It makes sense their CEO Jeff was diagnosed with type one as an adult. One Drop is for people with diabetes by people with diabetes. The people at One Drop work relentlessly to remove all barriers between you and the care you need. Get 24 seven coaching support in your app and unlimited supplies delivered. No prescriptions or insurance required. Their beautiful sleek meter fits in perfectly with the rest of your life. They'll also send you test strips with a strip plan that actually makes sense for how much you actually check One Drop diabetes care delivered. learn more, go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the One Drop logo. My guest this week is the author of what is meant to be a series of books for children and families about type one. The first book released is called Shia Learns, author Shaina Hatchell is a registered nurse and CDE and her brother was diagnosed when he was nine. The book is adorable the illustrations are really top notch. It's gorgeous. But the substance, of course, is what this is all about. Shaina talks about her family's story. And she answered some listener questions that you sent in about kids and type one. And she gets these kinds of questions every day in her practice. She meets a lot of new onset families. She talks about that and a lot more. Here is my interview with author Shaina Hatchell. Shaina, thank you so much for jumping on. I know, it's been a really busy time for you with the pre sales, but the book is out now. Thanks for spending some time with me.   Shaina Hatchell  5:32 Thank you for having me. I'm so excited and it's been busy, but I couldn't miss this interview.   Stacey Simms  5:37 Oh, thank you. All right, let's just jump right in. But we'll talk about your background and your brother and everything. Let's start by just talking about the book itself. What is Shi'a learns, tell me the story of the book.   Shaina Hatchell  5:50 Oh, right. So I have been wanting to write a book that does some sort of diabetes education for many years, even before I became a diabetes educator, there have been a lot of experiences that I've had in my home with my brother and my parents that I felt like when we were going through certain situations, it would have been great to have a book that would have kind of given us a little bit more guidance, because we only see the doctor every three months. So now that I had the time and I felt like you know, I had enough knowledge to really create what I wanted to create. From the beginning I decided to go ahead and start writing some books. And in the beginning, Cheyenne learns wasn't the title was just me writing honestly, more so like poetry style books about diabetes education, because I love poetry, and then it kind of just dawned on me like okay, this is turning into a series and this should be about a child and let me just go ahead and title it Shai learn. Shi'a is the name of a child that I lost during gardening. decided that, you know, this was another way for her to be bored. And then just having her be the title of the book she learns, which is actually perfect for me. So the reason why I wanted to make her a young African American Girl is because I wanted to help with the disparities and care that some African American face. And I do that by increasing education with the book in the topics that will come in not only this first book, but the books to come, as well as increasing representation. So that is the reason why we're starting with preDominantly African American characters, but that is going to grow, because I want everyone to feel represented in these books,   Stacey Simms  7:39 a lot to unpack there. But let's start with the book itself. That first, as you said, it's a series what's the story of the first book? Is it her diagnosis? Your take me through it?   Shaina Hatchell  7:49 Yes. So in the first book, it's actually going to be explaining in following Shia and her parents in their journey for a new one set in the hospital. So basically in the first one Shia is going to start to have some films that the parents notice are not normal. And so they take her to a hospital. And mom explained to the providers, what she's been noticing about Shia. And then they do a couple of tests and they diagnosed her with type 1 diabetes. Then in comes the diabetes educator Dom who will start to explain to the family, you know what type one diabetes is how insulin works in the body, and give them everything they need for discharge. So it's literally just that first story that anyone who has a loved one with type one or if they're the type one themselves, have experienced, you know, that first new onset experience.   Stacey Simms  8:45 I gotta say, the illustrations are just beautiful, but one that caught my eye. Oh, yeah, one that really caught my eye is the depiction of insulin as a key, right where we're explained a lot. Can you take us through what that illustration is showing, and I know As you're listening, I'll put some things out on social media and in the show notes, you can see these photos. It's an adorable depiction of what insulin does.   Shaina Hatchell  9:08 Yes. So anytime I educate because as a diabetes educator, I do preDominantly new onset education. So this first book is literally what I teach almost every single day. And when I'm explaining to families, what insulin does in the body, I always draw the picture on the board. And so I sent this to my illustrator and she did an excellent job. Thank you, Candace Bradley, you did an amazing job in actually bringing this to life. But what I always say is that when we eat carbohydrates, we eat food that has sugar. So your carbohydrates are even if we had like a regular juice or soda, which is sugar in the simplest form, you know, the carbs broken down in the stomach turn into sugar and then the sugar that pure sugar goes to the bloodstream. And when there's more sugar into the bloodstream, the body sends a message to our pancreas that sends a message to our body. To sell to release the insulin, and insulin is the only key that can unlock ourselves so that sugar can go inside and be used for energy.   Stacey Simms  10:09 Our endo use the exact same analogy with the key and I I wish I had a book like this to show my two year old. I don't think he even has that analogy in his head to this day. Tell me a little bit more about your story. Your brother was diagnosed when you both were kids that has to have influenced you. What do you remember about his diagnosis? He was nine.   Shaina Hatchell  10:28 Yes, he was nine and I was 12 years old. I remember when he started to lose weight. And I remember when he started to drink a lot of water and go to the bathroom a lot. And that was probably for like, I want to say two weeks before we my mom, I say we but I was too young to be a part of that before my parents decided that they needed to take him to a doctor's appointment, but I remember just seeing him like the weight and then at nighttime, he started to put sheets from off of It started with sheep into his pants into his pajamas. So that if he went to bed while he was sleeping at night, it would like be on the sheets and not all over the bed. And I remember like, of course, as an older sibling in older sibling fashion, like making fun of him about it. And I think that's when my mom was alarmed because my brother was upset with me. And I told her why he was upset. And you know, I made a joke. And then I went to school. And when I got out of school, I got in the car with my mom. And usually my brother was first to be picked up. So I was expecting him to be in the car with us. But he wasn't and my mom was sitting and says, We're on our way to the hospital, your brother is in the hospital. When I got there. I just remember being really confused and feeling really bad about the joke I made and learning that he has type one diabetes. My family had never heard of a kid being able to get diabetes. And we had no idea that this was even possible for our family because we didn't have a family history of it. So we were kind of confused and then we of the day, the next day was a diabetes educator who explained everything. And it was in that moment of her teaching my entire family, teaching me allowing me to trial, everything that I realized, like, this is what I want to do with my life. So at 12, I already was telling my mom, I'm going to be a diabetes educator one day, because I loved it so much. I love learning.   Stacey Simms  12:22 But today, kind of pat you on the head and say, Sure, sweetie, are they Yes, we understand. And this is   Shaina Hatchell  12:27 something you're gonna do. My mom is like, amazing. She actually is like, Yeah, well, you know what? We need you. So yeah, you do this when you get and it was like it. From that point forward. It was kind of like a thing like Shay is going to become a nurse and she's going to be a diabetes educator. And I went to vocational high school and got my LPN at 17. And it was like, we're gonna make sure you get there. So they were actually super supportive from the beginning. It's fantastic.   Stacey Simms  12:56 And your brother is in the book, right? Am I he's one of the characters   Shaina Hatchell  13:00 He is he is a diabetes educator. So Dom is his actual name. And Dom is the name of the diabetes educator in the book. And he is the educator, because he taught me way more about diabetes management in the home and you know about diabetes in general, and how it affects the person then, than anything I've learned in any textbook or any other experience. I got that firsthand knowledge directly from him. So it was only right that he'd be the educator in the book.   Stacey Simms  13:31 You know, you you talked about how you want more representation for the African American community. We want to see more black characters in these books, and curious, there's so much misunderstanding, even in the middle community about diabetes and I hear stories of people who are Latino who are black, who have been told you can't have type one, you have type two, or you know, you don't understand what's going on. It just seems like there's a lot of medical disparities. Do you recall the Did you and your brother face that When he was being diagnosed   I know right back to our chat but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Real Good Foods. Real Good Foods is all about making delicious foods you feel good about eating high in protein, low in carbs and always made from simple real ingredients you feel good about eating. their newest products include these bowls they have these great meal bowls, Mongolian beef, lemon Chicken, Chicken lasagna, all low carb and in a handy little bowl. You can get all of their items delivered or find out where to buy. They're in our local Harris Teeter I know they're in the Walmart here as well. And you can find that in their store locator right on the website. While you were there. I highly recommend you get some ice cream. They do a great job of shipping the ice cream I was a little nervous about that. But it comes fully frozen. They do a terrific job and it is so good. My whole family loved the peanut butter I am always partial to chocolate and I thought the mint chocolate chip ice cream was top notch. Find out more go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Real Good Foods logo. Now back to Shaina answering my question about whether there were any questions of the doctors minds that her brother had type one.   Shaina Hatchell  15:22 So when my brother was diagnosed we didn't face that. Personally, I think that his signs were pretty clear that this was type one. There was never a question for type two. But this is something that people of color do experience and I do have a friend of mine that she started to have the increase in, you know, thirst and urination and all of the crystal clear signs. She is an athlete, very thin and always healthy. And she went to the doctor's when she was experiencing these things and she was older and they automatically put her on That format and told her this was a type two diabetes, they didn't even try to test to test her for like any sort of type one. They didn't do any antibodies, any labs. It was just this was a type two diabetes because you are an older teenager, and you're African American, like that's what this is. And of course it ended up being type one. And so seeing her experience that and the frustration of thing I'm taking this Metformin on eating healthy, I'm exercising like you asked me to, and I still don't feel good. And not being heard initially was it was very difficult for me to see that because you know, me, I'm like, No, I know my brother is like, no, it's not it's got to be. And so to know that, that is an experience that many people of color with diabetes have is heartbreaking for me. And so just for like, if there are books that are available, that people of color that do not have diabetes at all can read, that will give them more of an understanding of what is happening in the body of someone with T1D, that if they see someone experiencing it their cousin, family member friend, that they'll be like, Oh my goodness, this is what I read in this book when I was a kid. And so you should ask them to check you for type one diabetes, or you know if they're experiencing it themselves, but they'll think you know, what I remember, these were the things that were talked about in that children's book. And so I should definitely be pushing more toward them. Checking for type one specifically, I   Stacey Simms  17:28 can't tell you how many listeners I have who diagnose themselves because of the baby sitters club books. So you know, it does work. Right. Exactly. It really does. So my listeners had some questions for you, if that's okay, if I could jump in and ask some advice questions, because you do work with families. Thank you so much for letting us do that. So I like this one a lot. Um, Valentina asks, how to handle remarks about what it is that you eat. She gets asked, What is that on your arm? Why do you get to keep that Your phone and nobody else can use she feels overwhelmed by the questions her friends are asking any ideas to help kids deal with that?   Shaina Hatchell  18:07 Yeah, you know, that can be it can be overwhelming to constantly get these kinds of questions. And so a part of why I created the book is that this will be something that children again, not living with diabetes can read, and start to understand a little bit better what's happening to their friends. And so being able to give them a book that is entertaining, that has these, you know, great illustrations and allowing them to read this content will help to decrease the questions, right, because there'll be able to get some of those answers in the book. But the other thing really starts in the home with the parents and the child. I find that the same way that we prepare for job interviews, adults, prepare for job interviews, we look over the questions if we can, you know, we have them and we think about the best ways to answer them so that when we are in that interview, with Parents, and we feel less stress and less anxiety because we prep for these questions is the same way that family should look at how they can prep for questions that may be x, you know, of their child or you know, is a child of yourself. So I think that it's really important for parents to sit with the child and say, Okay, let's talk about the kinds of questions that you might get asked, let's talk about what you would say if someone actually why you get to have your phone, or let's talk about the kind of answer to the question of why you're eating certain things or what's that when your body? How would you like to answer that, that way the parent can hear the child's response, and maybe there is some uncertainty and help really guide how that answer will be. A lot of times children are diagnosed and I know this because I do it. Sometimes, you know, you try to involve the child but depending on the age, maybe the child isn't as involved. And so as they get older and they start to understand a little bit more what's happening in their body. Sometimes the parents have those better answers and have never thought about having that discussion, you know, because the child's had diabetes now for, let's say, five years. So we think, you know, they understand but the reality is that the real understanding is with the parents who was really alert and and listening to what was happening from the beginning. So I think that that's really important.   Stacey Simms  20:17 That's a great point. I'll reach back to my son. When my son was diagnosed, he was only two. So he learns nothing, right. We learned to ride a bike. He used to say, when he had something your question, I don't know, his friends asked him a question, or they just pointed out or pulled at it or whatever. And he would say, that's my diabetes, you know, leave my diabetes alone. got older, we would teach him and he had different words for it. Now he's 15. And he has actually told people you know, hey, that's Skynet. I'm robot controlled. It's a tracking device. I mean, 15 year olds are a little bit more snarky. I would not recommend that. That's what you teach your children to say they will come to that themselves, but that's good advice you do you kind of roleplay and talk them through it. And it's okay to say it's a medical device. Leave me alone. In a polite way,   Shaina Hatchell  21:00 of course, of course, in a polite way, and just being able to be prepared for those kinds of things, and from some people are not ready to talk about it. And that's okay, too. I think that it is also important to understand that it's okay to just have healthy boundaries and say, you know, I just, I don't want to talk about that. Please do not touch it. And when you're ready to have that conversation, that's all right to   Stacey Simms  21:24 another question was, and it kind of goes hand in hand. There are children. And as you said, there, there are children who don't want to talk about it. My son is very open. We're so lucky that way. But there are kids who don't want to, and they get embarrassed by it. How do you help children get over that feeling of I don't want to call it shame. That's a bit of exaggeration, but they're more private. They're a little bit more embarrassed by diabetes.   Shaina Hatchell  21:45 It's actually funny that that's a question. So I like the liaison of my family and my brother, Matt, very fond of being open and talking about diabetes. Honestly, growing up A lot of his friends did not even know that he had diabetes, it's just not his thing. And he will even say it to me now, like, you know, this is not just not my thing. Like, you know, it's not my family like talking about it, I'm like, okay, you know, I think that it's just, again, I feel like everything starts in the home, if you make them feel comfortable and confident in it being okay that they that want to share all of the information that does help you know, them establish again, really healthy boundaries at school, building healthy boundaries with with friends, but I also feel like the war that we normalize conversations about diabetes, the more that we normalize, discussing, it's kind of like a kid with asthma. I'll give this example because I grew up with asthma. And I remember as a kid, my inhaler, having my inhaler, having to give my inhaler to my teacher at the beginning of class, and I remember you know, all the kids, we had our inhalers and baggies or names and we would just hand them over and no kid thought twice about it because there was a normalized conversation about being a child with asthma. So, kids Oh, that's your inhaler, because you have asthma, okay? My friend has it or I saw something about that, or my mom talked to me about that. And it became just so normalized that there was, I didn't feel ashamed, you know, I kind of felt a sense of pride in like handing over that inhaler like, yeah, I'm one of the special ones. What I have. And so I think that if we have increased in the type of content that talked about type one diabetes, I think we'll see that kids will feel a little less shy about it, because it's going to be normal conversation to have so with me creating these books, I'm doing a lot of marketing to people that are not living with Type One Diabetes, I'm trying to market it to children in general so that it becomes more normal to know someone that has type one diabetes, I tell people all the time, you probably have met someone or you know someone or your your waiter or waitress, or somebody that you've encountered is either living with type 1 diabetes, or someone really close to them is, and so it's closer to home than we think. And if we start to have this be something that we just talked about, as usual, it really does decrease that feeling.   Stacey Simms  24:16 Yeah. When my son was in elementary school, especially for the younger kids, they used to always ask, you know, for your kid's birthday, maybe don't send in cupcakes send in a book. I mean, this was not because of diabetes. This was just because we had great teachers. I loved that. And so we would always send in a book about diabetes, like, um, you know, one of the Lilly diabetes books, or one of the books that we enjoyed is when Benny was little, and it was always a really popular book for other kids in the classroom. You know, they keep it a little classroom library and the other kids would bring it home and I would get emails from parents, like, Do you know my child brought home Is this okay? It's like, yes, it's for them to read. It's not like it's book like they didn't take it from him. Oh, my goodness. Okay. So let me ask you another diabetes educator type question that I get all the time. The tech analogy is wonderful, but it can be overwhelming. Especially I think when a family is first diagnosed and just trying to learn the basics, how do you kind of coach your families and educate them through, you know, they're gonna go home and get on Facebook and everybody's gonna say, you've been diagnosed for three days, get it on Dexcom get control, like, you know, get this one. So how do you get you deal with that?   Shaina Hatchell  25:21 That's a really good question. So one thing that we used to do so before working our children's national I worked at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles as a diabetes educator. So I have been on both the West Coast and East Coast with diabetes education and one thing that is the same as that, you know, for someone who is newly diagnosed if they want to start to look into technology, they have had to have been living with Type One Diabetes for a minimum of three to six months, give or take. And so that was kind of like a thing at Children's National but we've been actually just made a change where, of course what for insulin pumps is still three Next month, because you really need to know the basics before you can hop on to that kind of technology because it's man made. And if an insulin pump fail, you have to know how to jump right back into your manual mode. And so for that one, we still make it the same. And we tell the mat at New onset, like, Hey, you know, I know you might read some things about insulin pumps, but this is definitely something that we would discuss further with you, after your first follow up appointment with your endocrinologist. And then even then, you know, you have to have a conversation with them. And they may not think it's time yet, because honestly, influent pumps is a lot more work when you think about it and making sure that you understand again, how that pump works. And also remember, you know how to do things in manual mode, just in case things don't work with the pump, but as far as continuous glucose monitors, what we've started to do is really introduce it at New onset. If the family is really interested in it, or they know someone that has a CGM and they've already heard about it. Then we will introduce it It'll tell them that it was linked to them things. And the family then is calling every single day. So we might start the process of them getting a CGM at new one set. But of course that took time insurance has to approve it. There's so many different steps. And then after it's finally approved, and it's sent to the home, we have been talking to them every day on the phone. So if they had more questions about it, they have plenty of opportunities to discuss it with a nurse practitioner who was also looking at how their blood sugar's have been. And then once they receive it, they have to go through an entire class, either myself or another CDE. We will do a class with the family before they put it on, and really teach them everything about the CGM. So I just think that those technologies take a lot more education a lot more understanding in the very first day is always sounds great for families, but then once they start realizing how much more work is entailed with it, how much more they need to know about it. They either decide to go ahead, let's continue move forward. Or they might say you know, nevermind. The other thing is like the kids usually don't Feel that great and it sounds good while they're in the hospital because it sounds like something that'll take away them having to do finger sticks. But when the child is actually feeling a lot better realizes that this is a device that's going to be on their body for days, sometimes, not all of them. But sometimes the kid decides that that's not something that they're ready to do yet. And that's okay to sort of make sure I always tell families like, this is not like if you decide to start the process of getting a CGM. That doesn't mean that you have to wear it, it doesn't mean that it becomes the only way that you can do things, you know, the manual way we've taught you if you have your meter if he or she decides that they don't want to have that on their body, even if they've had it on for three months, and they just say, you know what, I just really don't like it. Take it off. It's no love loss. It's totally okay. And they can always come back and visit it later. If they like.   Stacey Simms  28:50 Going back to your book. I know that you've been in pre sales for a while and you've got some reaction to it. It's about to kind of go as we're speaking it's about to go live. What has that The reaction been hasn't been what you hoped.   Shaina Hatchell  29:02 It has been beyond my hopes and dreams. When I created Cheyenne learned, and I thought about combining my love for poetry with my love for diabetes education, I thought it would be more of like a local thing. I thought that people that knew me were kind of spread the word around the DMV area, maybe you know, Delaware, which is where my family is that Philadelphia, which is where I'm from, I thought those areas would take a liking to it and it would kind of just be there but it there are people that I have never met. There are people all over the world that are buying this look at pre sale and sending mixed messages and are so excited and that just makes me feel great and not for the sales or anything like that. But truly because I know that Cheyenne learns about insulin is going to be a book that really reaches people and really accomplishes my goal far better than I do. Did it to do so. I'm grateful. I'm really grateful and excited.   Stacey Simms  30:04 So let me ask you and you mentioned right at the beginning of our interview, that Shia is the name that you were planning for your baby and you had a miscarriage. We don't talk about miscarriage at all. Right. And I was not going to ask I feel like I'm prying but I also you named the character after her. So I hope you'll forgive me for being nosy or prying. But was it hard to make that decision to use that name that means so much to you? Tell me just a little bit more about that if you don't mind?   Shaina Hatchell  30:34 Oh, I don't mind at all. I am so open about having this conversation. And even in the acknowledgments, I mentioned that she's you know, shy is now my rainbow baby. She's born she's here. So for me naming the book shy learned was like this is it I have talked about since I was young that like, Oh, I'm gonna name I could show you because my name is Shaina. And it just felt right back. About his name Shia for years for years and so when I found out that no I was with child I was pregnant. I was like, Oh goodness Shia and it for me, it didn't matter if it was boy or girl like the meeting was shy like this is it. And so once I miscarried, I was actually in the middle again of writing the books in like poetry form and so it just kind of like dawned on me like, Okay, this is it. This is how Shai is supposed to be born. This is how my baby is supposed to be put into this world, I kind of felt like it was destiny, that shy of the birth a different way, you know, and so now, Shia lives forever. And I think that that is so awesome for me. And I'm just I'm excited about having another way of bringing forth this name that I've held on to for so long.   Stacey Simms  31:51 This is not a show about pregnancy or miscarriage, but at the same time, I can't pass on the opportunity. You have found a way To deal with something again, we never talked about it. And I know that women listening are relating to you. So I have to ask, do you have any advice for somebody who has gone through this and hasn't hasn't said anything or doesn't know what to do with all this emotion?   Shaina Hatchell  32:13 I think that it's all about, you know, making sure that you talk about it. But you know, think of healthy ways to get those emotions out. It's, it's different. It's definitely a feeling that I never thought I would have, you know, feeling sad, and then you're like, can be a little frustrated. There's still grieving process that you go through, you know, regardless of what how far along you are in the pregnancy doesn't matter when you know that you were going to be bringing life into the world and then you know, it doesn't happen. It can be an entire grieving process. So give yourself time, be kind to yourself, love yourself. Let your family love you know, those are all things that made the difference for me and allow for my coping to be one that turns in to something so beautiful. And so for me, it was just like, you know what, being kind to myself and letting my family and friends be a part of my journey of healing through this. And it's been great for me, I just say, you know, tap into yourself tap into your loved one, and you will make it through. This is not the end, you know, you can absolutely a lot of people feel like once they miscarry that they will never have children. And that's not true. You know, our bodies can do amazing work, and it will happen for you. Don't give up. Just be kind to yourself.   Stacey Simms  33:33 Be kind to yourself, indeed. Hey, you have already mentioned I always ask people what's next? You have already mentioned that this is a series of books. Yeah. What is the plan here? So when it you know, is there another one in the works? Is it already planned out?   Shaina Hatchell  33:47 Yes. So you this is exclusive right here, this is elusive. So there are actually two more books that I already have in the works. I'm going to of course release them one at a time. So the next book is going to be Shai learns about home management, and Shia is going to meet her very first friend. And her friend's name is Trevor Garcia. And Trevor is going to have type 1 diabetes as well, Trevor will have been diagnosed earlier than her. So he'll have diabetes since he was three years old. And they're going to meet at her first clinic visit, the first follow up in the waiting room. And the families of course, are going to connect, and they're going to talk about some of the things that they've been doing in the home. So the very first book again, I'm just going over the journey through being diagnosed, I don't yet start talking about the treatment, right, the whole management, that aspect of it, so I'm gonna give that in the second book. And then the third book, I'm like, super excited about the third book. I'm excited about the second one, but the third book, I'm going to be introducing type two diabetes into the series, and it's going to be Cheyenne learns about type two diabetes and it's going to be shy and meeting her bye babysitter so the family is going to need a babysitter. And they're not going to be wanting to trust just anybody right because Ryan needs a lot of care and so they end up getting a young lady as a teenager by the name of Kenny and Kimmy is going to have type two diabetes is going to have had been on you know, for favorable influence therapy but has been doing really well with eating healthy and exercise, lifestyle modifications that she's going to be on just like basal insulin and Metformin, and she's going to teach Shai about the difference between her type one diabetes and you know the type two diabetes that she has. So I'm really excited about introducing Kimmy into this Shire learns world and starting to kind of merge type one and type two diabetes so that we have an understanding of each other. I've heard a lot of mean things being said about type two diabetes, like you know, they don't have as much work or things like that and i i Don't like that that is kind of like the conversations that are had or that they're even compared in that way. I think it's time that all types of diabetes, you know, what the the main two types of diabetes really start to understand each other a little bit better. So I'm really excited about that one.   Stacey Simms  36:14 Oh, that sounds fabulous. I'm with you. I think we're all stronger together and a lot of misunderstanding. Shaina, thank you so much for spending time with me. I am so excited about this project. I know how important these books are to families. And I'm thrilled that you've done this and it looks beautiful. So again, you mentioned the illustrator at the beginning, kudos to her as well. But thank you so much for joining me.   Shaina Hatchell  36:35 Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed having this conversation with you today. And I am super excited for everyone to continue to see what Shailene has in store.   Announcer  36:51 You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  36:57 More information about Shia learns and their whole story. I'm gonna link this up in the show notes. The episode homepage is always at Diabetes connections.com. There's also a video that she did with jdrf. I'll link that up as well, really nice explainer. She did a live on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. So if you want more information, we will put all of that there as well. And right now her book is not on Amazon is my understanding, but still shipping from her website. Again, Diabetes connections.com. For all of the details. tell me something good in just a moment. But first, diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. It's hard to think of something that's changed our diabetes management as much as the Dexcom, share and follow apps. The amazing thing to me is how it's helped us talk less about diabetes. That's the wonderful thing about share and follow as a caregiver, a parent, a spouse or whatever, you can help the person with diabetes managing the way that works for their individual situation. Vinny and I have had multiple conversations over the years about how to use share and follow what you know what works best for us when he was nine. It's a lot different. When he is 15 and these conversations really help us have fewer conversations if that makes sense. You think Dexcom internet connectivity is required to access Dexcom follow separate follow app required. learn more, go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo.   All right, we have some terrific Tell me something good stories. If you've got one, you can always send it to me through social media or Stacey at Diabetes connections.com and Mandy writes in hi Stacey, I have something good to share. My type one daughter Maddie entered high school this year and she made the JV cheer team. She is beyond thrilled and excited. me I have to say I'm a bit nervous considering our current pandemic situation and in type one and managing the ups and downs of physical exertion on her blood sugar, but I'm also excited for her to have this experience safely. Have a great day. Mandy, thank you so much. And I hear ya you know, no easy decisions, the stays, but she sent me a picture of Maddie. I asked for cheerleading picture and it hadn't started at the time. So hopefully Mandy, you can send me another one and we'll do a follow up in the Facebook group because I'd love to see that. I do have a true confession sort of thing about cheerleading. And this is kind of embarrassing, but I'll tell you anyway, when I was in high school, I tried out for the JV cheer squad. I was a freshman or sophomore year. I don't remember that. But I was in high school. I can't do and I couldn't do at the time split, a cartwheel, and anything that required cheerleading skill. It might have just been my school, but I think it was also the time. It truly wasn't the incredible sport that it is today. Did I make the squad? Absolutely. Was I captain of the JV team? You bet. Why? I don't know. Looking back. I think it was just force of personality. Because it certainly wasn't my skill. I had fun but I was also on the swim team all throughout high school and it was just a little too much for me to do so children was one and done but it was a really fun experience. Another Tell me something good comes from bond Who says here's my new meow Miss Charlotte and posted a picture of her cat. She said I needed a companion doesn't alert like my dog Sammy could but it is love funny that cat is beautiful. So welcome Miss Charlotte and if you want to see these pictures, you can go to Diabetes Connections, the group in Facebook, if you have a Tell me something good just send it to me You can post there or send it to me as I said at Stacey at Diabetes connections.com in innovations this week, last week, we talked a little bit about listener made hacks. But this week is all about the pros. I want to tell you about FDA approval and some new studies about hybrid closed loops.   big announcement for Medtronic recently FDA approved the mini med 770 g for people with type one diabetes down to age two and it lets caregivers See real time CGM and pump data this is on the smartphone. Interestingly, I didn't think this made a big splash when it was announced last week, I would have thought that a share and follow system from Medtronic would have made a bigger punch through of the news that we've been hearing lately. Maybe I am missing something. The whole system is the pump, The Guardian sensor, three, the mini med mobile app, and it is compatible iPhone and Android and the Accu check guide link meter with Bluetooth and that if you talk about the mini med 770 g system, that's what you're talking about. So I will link up more information about this. They are taking orders already for this system. So if you're a Medtronic person or want to learn more, I've got information in the show notes. Another system already approved, but more information about was in the news recently as well and that is the Tandem control IQ for younger children. So this study was for kids ages six to 13. In this study, they spent about three tene hours in range, which is an average gain of about two and a half hours after four months of the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, there were also no severe cases of low blood sugar and there were no cases of decay. The city basically confirms what came before because the FDA has already approved a control IQ for kids as young as six years old. And again, more of this study in the show notes as well. Doesn't really matter how high tech the pumps are if we cannot afford the insulin to put in them. So I'm always on the lookout for insulin pricing stories. This one is not about fast acting, which would go in the pump. This is about a lower priced insulin that is basically a knockoff of Lantus. I never know how to pronounce these new insulins. I think this one is pronounced Semglee. It was launched here in the US at the end of August, and it will cost nearly three times less than the list price of Lantus. DiabetesMine points out and I'll link There article that this is the first time in a decade in more than a decade that the United States has any insulin with a list price lower than $100. I should note that is for a box of five pens, so it's $100. For five pens, it's not $100. For one, I really want to make that clear. At the same time, little editorial. I mean, how much does it cost to make So while we're celebrating a lower price, and a lot more work still needs to be done and there's a it still remains to be seen. If the pricing changes, right? Will the other long acting insulin prices come down? Or will simply price go up? I know I sound cynical if you're a newer listener, I apologize. But it's been a long time since we've had any actual good news in this so I will wait to be seen. I would like to be impressed. So let me know if you buy Semglee if you're if your insurance covers it, if you have experience with it. I would love to know how it works, how it compares to Lantus. I'm sure we'll hear more about that it gets out into the real world and what the price actually turns out to be when you go get it at the pharmacy. So let me know, if you have something for innovations. It can be something as complicated as these large studies and approvals. Something as simple as a hack that you do something that you have created to make your life easier with diabetes, definitely let me know you can email me or you can drop into the group or just ping me anywhere on social media.   Before I let you go, I mentioned at the beginning of the show, couple of diabetes events coming up that you'll want to make note of TCOYD is having a big virtual conference in October, take control of your diabetes is a terrific conference. It was mostly geared for adults with type one, I went to one of their in person conferences A while back, but they have added more for parents of children with type one. So something to look into. If you fall in either group, I highly recommend TCI D it's also for people with type two, and I think we just could use more events that crossover and really help the entire diabetes community so kudos to them Plus, they have so much humor that they Using their presentations, really great people and friends for life, which usually has a conference in the fall in Falls Church, Virginia, they have moved that is this virtual Of course, it will be in December, I will link up more information about both conferences at Diabetes connections.com on the episode homepage for this particular episode, but definitely check out friends for life, they did a terrific job of their large their big, big July conference making that virtual, this more regional conference, although this year, it's probably worldwide because anybody can join in virtually, but it is a smaller scope. It's not gonna have as many days, it probably won't have as many speakers, but I'm still learning more about it. And I hope to take part in that as well as a speaker or a presenter, but I'll definitely go as an attendee. So check that out as well. All right, thank you to my editor, John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much as you listen, I really appreciate you being here. I'm Stacey Simms and I will see you back here next week. Until then, be kind to yourself.   Benny  46:04 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms Media. All rights reserved. All rounds avenged   Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Digging deeper into recent news from and about Dexcom. Stacey talks to Chief Technology Officer Jake Leach about the news that competitor Abbott has received approval for it's Libre 2 CGM. What does that mean for the marketplace? She also asks Jake about G6 sensor issues, data gathering and more. Check out Stacey's new book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Dexcom statement on data and privacy: Patient safety is a top priority at Dexcom, and we design our products to be as safe and secure as possible, as the data that comes into our system from CGM devices is extremely important for patients and physicians in understanding and improving diabetes management. Dexcom works with government agencies, industry partners and security researchers to apply current best security practices for medical devices to help ensure the integrity and availability of our systems. Our terms of data use are laid out for patients to consent or opt-out when they first set up a Dexcom account, so they know exactly how their data could be used and who will have access to it. In order for healthcare providers to access patient data, each patient must approve the sharing of their data to the healthcare provider through the CLARITY app. Another way patients can opt-out of sharing any of their data is by using the dedicated Dexcom receiver to view their glucose levels instead of a smart device. Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android   Episode Transcription: Stacey Simms  0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop created for people with diabetes by people who have diabetes and by Dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.   Announcer  0:16 This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.   Stacey Simms  0:22 Welcome to a bonus episode of Diabetes Connections. So glad to have you along as always. A bit of an unusual situation this week in the very last episode, and hopefully you've heard it. I spoke to Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer. we taped that episode before the ADA conference actually took place. You know, the time shifting nature of podcasting. we taped these interviews ahead of time and then a couple of days or a week later, generally, the interviews air. A a couple of days after taping that interview, the FDA approved Abbott's Libre2 and this is a different CGM is able to continue transmit glucose data every minute. And users can now set the system to send alarms when their glucose is too high or too low. And previously, you had to scan the sensor in order to get any kind of glucose reads. So that is a big change, and frankly, more direct competition to Dexcom. I have reached out to Abbott in the hopes of learning more and asking them any questions that you may have Dexcom though, immediately reached back out to me and asked if we wanted to talk more about CGM and how they stack up in the marketplace. Now, I am not going to pass up the opportunity to ask more of your questions. And that's why we have sort of a Dexcom double feature this week. My usual disclaimer Dexcom as you have heard, and longtime listeners know Dexcom is a sponsor of this show. That means they pay me to have a commercial in the show. That sponsorship gets them a commercial, it does not get them any kind of approval over content. And so what does that mean? It means I don't send them all the questions. I have of time, we don't plan out what we're going to say. I hope you know, as you've listened that I don't hold back on questions and criticism from them. But we do have that relationship. And it's really important that you you know it right because we were doing news interviews here. And this interview is with Dexcom CTO, Jake Leach. I will link up more information at the episode homepage. And as always, there is a transcript. So here is my interview with Dexcom’s chief technical officer. Jake, thank you for jumping on and spending some time with me and my listeners. We always appreciate learning more about what's going on at Dexcom. So thank you.   Jake Leach  2:36 It's a pleasure to be here. Stacey. Thanks for having me.   Stacey Simms  2:38 Absolutely. So I just talked to Kevin Sayer. We did kind of a high level, you know what's new, what's next? How are things going? Talking about the G7? It he's of changes that have happened to the G6 COVID delays, that sort of thing. My listeners had a bunch of questions as this is the backdrop of course of the Libre news that came out Abbott's Libre 2 have got approval for use of the United States. The number one question that my listeners had was, can they talk about the price difference? I don't know if that's a CTO level question.   Jake Leach  3:11 Yeah, as much as you know, I'm involved in it. We basically, when we think about the cost of the product, the most important thing to be thinking about is making sure people have access to it. So insurance coverage, we feel really good about the fact that 98% of the private insurance companies do cover the product, as well as Medicare started covers it. And in states, many Medicaid systems do also cover the product as insurance. That's where we focus our time is really on on that. And we very few of our customers actually pay cash for the product. The vast majority of everybody gets it through insurance coverage.   Stacey Simms  3:48 When I look at the Libre, and full disclosure here, my husband has type two diabetes and he uses the Libre and Benny my son has used the Dexcom since 2013. Now, wow, yeah, it's funny to think about how much time has gone by. But one of the things I look at with the G7 coming and the you know, the bit that we know about it is that it will be much more like the Libre in terms of the sensor and transmitter in one. Can you speak to that in terms of the G7 in terms of size, insertion, that sort of thing?   Jake Leach  4:25 Yeah, so the G7 is, as you pointed out as an integrated sensor all in one, so it's the wearable device that goes on the body includes both the sensor, the transmitter, as well as the electronics inside the wearable that are both monitoring the center and then taking that signal and sending it via Bluetooth to the different integrated display devices whether that's a mobile phone, so a smartphone with an app on it, Android or iOS, or a insulin pump for automated insulin delivery systems. Other display devices, we have our receiver that is our proprietary handheld, some people really like that as their way to access the information. So our goal is to make it as interoperable as possible, which is one of the key important points about IC GM is that it's interoperable device   Stacey Simms  5:16 you And with that, I always get hung up on it. Because when I heard about interoperability A few years ago, in my head, it seemed like, Okay, well, I could switch out my pump, or I could switch out my sensor, I could use a different brand with this thing and kind of mix and match. And of course, insurance for most of us is the biggest problem for getting different devices. But it doesn't really work like that, does it? I mean, if a Dexcom g seven works with say, Omnipod five horizon, and with a T slim X to control IQ, people aren't really going to be able to just switch out devices like that and use the same sensor, are they?   Jake Leach  5:51 Yeah, as usual, it's more complicated as you look at it under the hood. But the key thing about the integration is that systems have to be designed To be able to be integrated. And so one of the big moves that we made when we transitioned between Gen four, and Gen five, and then subsequently Gen six, and as well as Gen seven, we moved to Bluetooth technology, which is a much more readily available technology within the display devices. So we moved to that. And when we did that, we designed an architecture that the intelligence of the system is all on the the wearable. So all the glucose calculations, all the information that you need is actually on the little transmitter device in G6, and will be in G seven as well. And so that is the device that can be accessed by multiple displays. If you think about it, you can use your mobile phone and the whole share feature that comes along with our mobile system, the remote monitoring feature, you can use that and at the same time, you can use a tandem controller to pump doing automated insulin delivery. And so the system is really designed to have that type of integration where you've got the right information in the right places and makes it interoperable. The systems have to be designed To be connected, for example, horizon five Omnipod five, the system that is in development by insolate is being designed to be integrated with both G6, that's what they're doing their studies with as well as G seven. So you have to do the design work and do the testing to ensure that it operates safely. But interoperability is a great thing. But it isn't as simple as just pulling and pulling everything it has to be designed and tested.   Stacey Simms  7:22 Yeah, it was interesting. I in my head, I always had it as well, this, you know, I can mix and match, I can figure out what I want. But when I talk to technical people, they always kind of smile at that because they understand more of the intricacies, I think of what it takes within the technology to make that kind of stuff happen. Whereas as the user, I just want to hokey pokey it around and use what I want. But we'll see as it goes down the road. Some other G7 basics that my listeners asked was, will the G7 have a shorter warm up and does it have a lower MARD? Is it more accurate than G6?   Jake Leach  7:55 Great questions. The warm up time is designed to be shorter than g6. And so we're As we're landing exactly how much shorter it's going to be, but it's definitely going to be a faster warmup. Also, the mard is the average difference between the sensor and the reference measurements that we measured the performance of the device and so on. That way, we want to ensure that we hit those iCGM standards. And so I think G7 definitely has the opportunity to perform better, but it definitely will meet those CGM standards, which are rigorous and important to ensure the product performs accurately throughout its life.   Stacey Simms  8:30 Can you give me a hint on the warm up? Is it going to be more an hour and 45 minutes or more?   Jake Leach  8:35 No, no, no, it's gonna be It'll be an hour or less.   Stacey Simms  8:40 You know, just had to double check on that.   Jake Leach  8:42 Yeah, no games there. We're just we're still trying to dial in exactly what's going to be to ensure we you know, the system has to be accurate. Second, it starts up but we do value short warmup time because we know how important it is when you know you're without the sensor data for that warmup period. So you want to make sure it starts up as fast as possible.   Stacey Simms  8:59 Yeah, it's interesting too. Because I'm probably an outlier but previous to we use the control IQ system with tandem previous to using that the two hour warmup really didn't bother me too much. I mean, it was only two hours especially if you came from like we did seven years with no CGM. It's really did not seem to be that big a deal. But now that we're using this algorithm, and the pump relies on the Dexcom data, two hours just seems like way too long to be without it.   Jake Leach  9:27 I agree. Really interesting.   Stacey Simms  9:29 Speaking of wear time, we've been very fortunate. Again, as I said, we've used Dexcom for a long time we do not really have a lot of issues knock on wood with it. He's of sensitivity which Kevin mentioned in his in our interview together, we went over that, but also with where time, but a lot of my listeners wanted me to ask if you are really checking into the people who can and there are many who can never seem to make it to 10 days on a sensor. Right who really was it whether it's because they have a young  child or the body chemistry for whatever reason, it does seem to be an issue that many people can't get the full life out of a sensor.   Jake Leach  10:07 Can you address that? I know you're looking at it.   Jake Leach  10:09 Yeah, yeah, I've got, of course. So a couple things there. There's quite a few things we've done over time. And we continue to research on this. There's two aspects to sensor longevity. One of them is how long the sensor can remain accurate. And so within our device, we have algorithms that are checking the performance of the sensor at all times. And so there are times when we detect that that sensor signal is not accurate and not meeting the CGM standard. And so we we actually shut it off and that's when you get on the display, you get the sensor failed signal. That's basically we detected that that sensor is not working properly, and it's not going to return to functioning based on the data that we're seeing from it. As you mentioned, most people are able to get 10 days out of the sensor particularly now that we've made some changes with the adhesive as well. But there are some people who don't and with those folks, we often spend some extra time with our tech support, and kind of walk through what their issues are. And there's quite a few things that can be done to help sensors last longer. I mentioned the adhesive, we recently updated our adhesive, we've added an overlay. that's optional, people can ask if you have access to the clear adhesive that goes over the top of the white one that comes with the product. And so we're looking at lots of different ways. Because what we found is everybody's a little different in terms of what their needs are and what works for them. And so we're trying to do is have as many options that we can to make the sensors stay on and heared. And it's really that's our philosophy around sensor longevity is if I really wanted to I could I could run a study and claim that G6 goes 15 days because I know the performance would meet that the problem is not all the centers would last that long. And so what we're really after is making sure all the sensors, as many as we can get out to the labeled timeframe, not just some of them. And I think that's one of the key differences that you'll see over time between different CGM companies is we're very focused on a high level liability, you're never going to get 100%. You know, sensors will come off and they'll get knocked off. It's a challenge. But it's one that we're very focused on trying to ensure that we can have the highest flow reliability possible.   Stacey Simms  12:12 Let me just follow up on that, because sensor sticking is one thing, right? I mean, I know that that's an issue in everybody's skin is different. And you have the overlays now, and the adhesive does seem to be sticking better to many people. Butwhat about people who have no trouble getting the adhesive to stick in the wire to stay in, but get recurrent sensor failure? Are there any best practices for people who seem to get that over and over again,   Jake Leach  12:36 there are and it's actually often comes down to, you know, sensor placement and you know, the sensors indicated for abdominal use. And so, we often instruct folks to try at different locations. We've also, if someone's really having repeated challenges and where they're getting those sensor failures, we do have specific capability with our tech support to work with that customer and look at their data and To help determine exactly what is going on, there's a number of things to we tend to see, that happens when people are more dehydrated. So you know, kind of making sure they're well hydrated and drinking water. But if someone's having consistent problems all the time, then we really want them to reach out to us and talk to our tech support. And we can get someone who is experienced, but you know that those types of issues to talk to them and look at their data and help work through it.   Stacey Simms  13:22 I don't mean to harp on it. But I've just, and I'm, I know, you may not be the right person to try to pin down on this, so forgive me, but I'm thinking like, Is it an insertion thing is it I mean, we've, anecdotally, the community has said, drink water, stick in the fattest place you possibly can maybe rock the sensor a little when you're inserting it so it doesn't go as deeply in like it's more shallow. I'm just curious with all the data that you will collect in these phone calls. If there's any, like I said, a best practice that would help or if it's just you know, you've got to talk to your local rep, maybe get an in person or zoom call lesson or talk to tech support, but you know, just a more concrete business advice, I think would be so helpful.   Jake Leach  14:01 Yeah, I think a lot of it does have to do with that insertion saying, like you said, you want to put it into a place where you've got good interstitial tissue. The other thing I've seen, too, is, um, you want to make sure that it's not at a place where you're going to compress the center a lot, you know, if it's under compression, you're not getting the same amount of perfusion there have glucose under the skin. And so that can also lead to issues. There is something recently that we've released in a product that has really solved a number of issues in that people were getting sensor failures during really high glucose excursions. We've sent some solved that problem with a new version of our transmitter that is now out in the market, almost everybody has that device. Now, it did make quite a dent in those we were detecting the algorithm was detecting that really high glucose as a potential issue. And over time, we've learned through looking at the data that that wasn't an actual issue until we were able to correct that in a recent version of the device. But yeah, it does come down to kind of working through sensor insertion and placement in Don't have data that validates, you know, some of those techniques that you mentioned that says it will work if you do these things. But we have heard from the community, and in our own times speaking with patients that it has been very helpful. And some of those concepts you just mentioned.   Stacey Simms  15:14 Jake, I'm sorry, can I ask you to clarify? It may have gone over my head. But when you were mentioning the newer transmitter that is out, can you just clarify what you meant by when it was reading very high blood glucose? And that was affecting the sensor? And then it sounded like you said, but that wasn't the case. Can you just clarify that?   Jake Leach  15:31 Yeah, sure. So what it was, was that during really high glucose excursions, the device was detecting a potential sensor failure where it wasn't the sensor failure. There's nothing wrong with the sensor. It was working. But you know, it's one of those things that once you once you get a product on the market, you learn more about it. And so we've made several iterations to the G6 even since it's been in the market for several years to improve it. And that is one of the cases that we saw patients running into, that we resolved with the newest version of the device is that it doesn't give The sensor error when when there was really high glucose excursion,   Jake Leach  16:03 and I'm just curious cuz it does sound like you've resolved it. What is really high glucose? Like over 400?   Jake Leach  16:10 Oh, well north of 4, 5, 6 hundred.   Stacey Simms Oh my goodness,   Jake Leach  16:14 yeah, we're really, really high glucose.   Stacey Simms  16:16 So if somebody has a teenager who's like bumped up to 250 and getting sensor failure, that's not the issue.   Jake Leach  16:21 That's not the issue. No, no, no, not in not in those,   Stacey Simms  16:24 because everybody has a different idea of really high glucose. So Thanks for clarifying.   Jake Leach  16:27 Yeah, that's a good thing to clarify. Because, like you mentioned,   Stacey Simms  16:32 you know, another question that my listeners had was about data. And we've talked a little bit here about some of the data that you collect. And I don't know if it's different internationally, but to speak about the data.   Jake Leach  16:43 Yeah, sure. Of course, first of all, data privacy is very important, both just fundamentally and philosophically as well as to be in compliance with all the global regulation we're seeing in this area of data privacy. There's a lot of advancements in the laws and regulate Around consent, and users granting access to their data, because in the end, it's the users data. We're just a steward of it. And so we take it very seriously. And so in our processes and our controls, that's how we proceed. So the data that comes into our systems from the CGM devices are used for things like share. So we provide the share system, the remote monitoring, that connectivity is super important. The data is also through that same system made available to the clarity application for use by the patients or customers or their physician. And then we also have that data in a safe lockdown repository that can be used by our tech support agents. If users are having track challenges, like we talked about tech support agents can actually log in and work with that user on their specific data. But   Stacey Simms  17:48 hey, it's Stacey jumping in here. I need to insert myself into the interview with the episode here because we hADAn audio issue right there and it was completely my fault. So apologies. Dexcom is going gonna give you a full statement on data and privacy, and I will link it up in the show notes. So Jake can kind of continue his thought that way and give you the full statement. One thing he said that I thought was very interesting though was if you are concerned about privacy and want to opt out, you can just use the receiver all by itself. They don't collect any data that way. But then you can't use clarity or share the information online with caregivers or your health team. But if you want to opt out, that is one way to do it and still use the Dexcom system. I did follow up the data question with one about transmitting data and why it's limited to certain devices. If you use a tandem pump like we do, for example, the transmitter can send data to your phone and to the to the mix to pump but then not also to the receiver.   Jake Leach  18:52 Yeah, the ad goes down into the specific engineering of the device deep down inside the wearable, for example to the transmitter producer. There's a battery in there. Every connection to a display device takes a Bluetooth communication channel. And so today, which is six, we support two channels, one for mobile phone and one for a medical device such as the insulin pump, or the Dexcom. receiver, it can support to have those connections to the med devices, because we need one available for a phone. We are looking in the future to allow multiple different types of devices you can imagine watches and other things. And so that technology is we're working the architecture of that. But the key there is that circuitry has to be low enough power that it doesn't use up the battery. We specifically designed G6 to be reliable for that 90 day period for the mere life. And so we couldn't put that system you can't support more than those two connection.   Stacey Simms  19:45 Yeah, practically speaking for us. It's plenty. I was just curious about the thinking behind it. And is that going to be the same thing with the Omnipod five? horizon? I'm laughing because I have to figure out how to say that Omnipod five. will it be the same thing Work goes phone and PDM or something, or is that a different setup altogether?   Jake Leach  20:04 It's a little different. But it's it with the G6 integration, G6 will support the Omnipod five as well as a mobile app like a G6 app. So it does support that. And as we look into the future towards things like g seven and future versions of G7, we are looking at architectures that could support even more display devices, more than just two.   Stacey Simms  20:24 And I'll hope to talk to Insulet in the future to get the specifics. But as I'm asking you this question, that sounds a little ridiculous, because where would it show up on the pod? I guess it would show up on a PDF if you use that instead of a phone.   Jake Leach  20:34 Yeah, I think one way to look at it for all of these automated insulin delivery systems is you want good communication between the algorithm that is doing all of the calculations for how much influence to deliver, you want a good connection between that and the glucose signal and the pump that's doing the delivery. That's part of the system engineering of the of the product and part of G6 was designed specifically for interoperability with so that it can support use cases like that   Stacey Simms  20:59 you mentioned To watch, I did talk to Kevin about this. So I'm sorry to bring it up again. But my listeners are really waiting for that direct to watch component. Can you speak to that from your perspective?   Jake Leach  21:11 Yeah, sure. So, you know, it's a it's a feature that we've been working on in development for for quite a while. And as we've worked through it, well, it turns out, you know, on our side, as well as on the leaves, Apple Watches is one of the one of the examples other than a significant amount of engineering. I think that we all underestimated when we first started talking about that product in the way that it interacts with the G7, as well as the phone app. And so we've been working with Apple closely know, over the last couple of years, actually, when when they announced this feature, it was really kind of a prototype feature. We started working with them closely on it, making quite a few updates on both sides to support that type of a feature. And so while we don't have any dates, where we're going to launch it, it's important feature that we know, adds flexibility to users lives and so we will continue to work on it. But at this point in time, we don't have a specific comment.   Stacey Simms  21:57 Yeah, I'm curious um, before I let you go here, DiabetesMine, which is a really great news source, if as you listen, you're not familiar, I always read them. I think they're fantastic. They recently, earlier this year, put out an article, headline “39 potential new continuous glucose monitors for diabetes,” as some of these are never going to happen. A lot of these are, you know, non invasive wearables that, you know, look at a headline, and we may never see again, but some of these are going to happen. Jake, I know you all are watching the competition. You know, I know that, you know, Dexcom has enjoyed a long time here of not having a lot of competition, especially the United States. I'll give you the floor. Are you guys ready to take on these companies?   Jake Leach  22:39 Absolutely. I think the just notion that there's that many different companies and working in this space is kind of validating the concept that continuous glucose monitoring is the standard of care for diabetes management and so perfectly comfortable with Mark people working in this space and we continue to drive forward all of our efforts on advancing the technologies, whether it The performance of the sensor the longevity of the sensor, particularly the ease of use, and the integration of our CGM with other devices. And you know from what we've seen, it's a very large opportunity. There's a lot of people who could benefit from CGM, so we're comfortable not being the only player. And we actually going to welcome expansion of CGM space across the globe with other companies as well as tech from   Jake Leach  23:23 Well, thank you so much for jumping on. I feel like I got a double feature of Dexcom this week. So thank you for the info. It's always great to catch up.   Jake Leach  23:29 I appreciate it. Stacey. Thanks for having me.   Jake Leach  23:37 You're listening to diabetes connections   Jake Leach  23:39 with Stacey Sims.   Stacey Simms  23:43 More information in the show notes as always, the episode homepage and there is a transcript there there are important links. Same thing if you're listening in a podcast app, you should be able to get to the show notes. But you know some apps are weird and they don't post links and Apple podcasts which is the most common one. Used as kind of bad for that sort of thing. So I always put it on the episode homepage, which you can find at Diabetes connections.com. And a little bit on that audio error if you're interested. I mean, here's some inside baseball. But here's basically what happened. Whenever I do a remote interview, and probably 90% of the interviews on this podcast are remote, right? We're not together, I do them generally through Skype. And my computer is set up so that it automatically records when a Skype call is placed. I have a backup recorder. For those of you who are technical and want to know it's an h5 zoom, and it's fabulous. But it's an external recorder that's plugged into the computer and has an SD card inside of it. So this call like a couple I've done recently, our zoom calls, my computer is not set up to automatically record and you know, everybody knows zoom by now if you're not the host, you don't have the power to record well 99% of the time, I asked the host to please record it on their end and then send it to me as a backup and I just roll the h5 zoom over here. forgot to ask them To hit record, there's always a PR person on these calls, you know, Jake doesn't have to worry about it, they'll take care of it. But I forgot to ask her to do that. So I'm rolling on my end, but they weren't rolling on there. And then and this has never happened before, the SD card was full. And it's a huge SD card. I don't know what the data is. I'm not going to pop it out. Now, look, but you know, I cleared out periodically, but probably only once every six months. And oh, my gosh, I completely forgot to do it. So it just clicked off and stopped recording. I share this with you. Because I mean, we're more than 300 episodes in right. We're close. You know me, I know some of you, but I thought you might appreciate it behind the scenes look at some of the nonsense that goes on here. I was able to stop the interview, ask them to start rolling and then restart. But we did lose that part, which I hate about the data. I have talked to Dexcom in the past about data. I will link up the specific interview where I talked to them about that. And I will link up the statement that they gave me after the fact I asked them to email me some information about that. But you know, hey, we're not perfect around here and we don't pretend to be the next Episode shouldn't be an interview with tandem. if things work out. We're still in the process of moving some things around with ADA and breaking news, we always like to do the best we can. So tandem should be up next, please join the Facebook group Diabetes Connections, the group to stay up to date. And that's the best way to get your questions into these interviews. When I have something like this, I always ask and you guys are amazing at getting me great questions and letting me know what you want to talk about. So I appreciate that very much. Thank you as always to my editor john Buchanan's from audio editing solutions. And thank you very much for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here next week. Until then, be kind to yourself, even if your SD card is full. Benny 26:45 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged   Transcribed by https://otter.ai

In mid-March, the folks at Eli Lilly held a conference call for diabetes writers, bloggers, and podcasters. The call was to talk about Lilly's participation in the new Part D Senior Savings Model, as well as general updates about our insulin affordability programs. After listening to some of the remarks, Stacey asked about the price of insulin and suggested a bold way forward. You can listen to what she asked, and the response here. Transcript is below. Please note: there were many other advocates on the call - this excerpt only features Stacey's question but she was not the only person pushing for change. In particular, Amy Tenderich of DiabetesMine was also vocal about lowering the price of insulin. Check out Stacey's new book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here Links to insulin assistance programs: Lilly  NovoNordisk ADA GoodRX ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Transcription: Stacey Simms  0:06 Hey everybody, welcome to diabetes connections. Although this isn't really going to be show today. This episode is more like an audio excerpt. I'm Stacey Simms, of course, and we will have a regular episode with all of our usual segments dropping as soon as later today, or more likely tomorrow. I debated putting this one out. The production quality isn't exactly as it always is, because I'm doing a quick turnaround here. And it isn't usually how we do things, but I think it's important. So here's what happened on March 16, the folks at Eli Lilly held a conference call for diabetes writers and bloggers and podcasters. The press release said during the call, you'll hear more details from Andy Vicari a leader on the Lilly diabetes insulin team about our participation in the new part D senior savings model as well as general updates about our insulin affordability program. grams. That was the PR quote, these calls are rarely groundbreaking. They do them sometimes they'll put out a press release that says largely the same thing. But they do give you the chance to speak directly to the people who help mold the policy. And I do try to join when I can. I am so glad I did this time. The PR team welcomed us and told us that in addition to the planned remarks, Mr. Vicari would speak to the company's response to the Covid 19 situation. It became pretty clear though, that this really just meant he was going to go through the already published ways to get coupons and use the Lilly call center, you know, that kind of thing, which I will link up in the show notes along with other ways to try to get a break on insulin prices from all the manufacturers. If you're a regular listener, frankly, it is the usual stuff as far as I know as of this date, which is March 30th 2020. Nothing substantially new has been announced. It's important to note and you'll understand why when you hear the audio From the call that I'm going to play, when you hear my question, there have been no widespread reports of people not being able to get insulin. There isn't a supply problem. I asked a little bit about that, because I had just been contacted by a woman whose local pharmacy wasn't carrying what she needed. But that was a local situation, and as far as I know, has since been resolved. When it became clear that they weren't really doing anything new for what is an unprecedented world situation, a world health crisis, I decided to ask another question. I asked the folks at Lilly, why not? Why not do something very bold, very different and really show us what they stand for. And I want to play you that Please come back around at the end for an important announcement about what you can do to make your voice heard on this issue. Here is the unedited version of that portion of the call. The gentlemen answering my question is, as I said earlier, Andy Viacari, senior director, diabetes US insulin brand leader for Lilly: (Call begins) All right, I'm going to ask this question and I understand it might not be a very popular one. But, again, looking ahead to as you said, there will be things in place for people who are, you know, losing their jobs who are poverty level, that sort of thing. In a time of really what is very much uncertainty, understanding that people with diabetes cannot live without insulin, as you know, why not be a hero in the space and say right now, that Lily will cut the price of insulin to one level to $35 to $25. Why not let people fill prescriptions for whatever they are written for from their physician for a price that while would obviously be very dramatic, very different, would help people around this country feel better about the one thing that they are? I can't, I can't. I'm not exaggerating this, you know what we are in this community all of the people on this call one thing that people are devastatingly worried about, there are already reports of people who don't have insulin in their pharmacy. They're very, very isolated. I have no idea what brand they are. But this is something that's on the minds of everybody was type one diabetes and many people with other types. Why not consider something that dramatic, even if it's temporary?   Andy Vicari  4:32 Yeah, appreciate the passion and and some of the frustration in the question, I think it's important to acknowledge that, you know, what I can say from a human log standpoint. You know, similar to any other time, if we cut that price, could that disrupt the supply through our other supply channel partners that certainly we have contracts in place with them for a certain price so it would go beyond our ability just to cut that price. We would be having to negotiate with them. So certainly something that I think is feedback for us. I like the way you framed it. Why not? Maybe not the hero I think yourself and the folks that have any type of diabetes is the hero in this case, but we can play a significant role. What I what I will say is, we are constantly from a leadership standpoint, it's not a an overstatement to say, Mike Mason in our executive committee is constantly looking at for things we can and should be doing this time. So while I can't sit here and say it is something that has been considered and being planned, I think these conversations are further fuel for those types of interventions at a at a at an enterprise level. What could we be doing around this space? And it's important that I'll make sure that I continue to come back to my leadership, as we close this call and have those conversations What else could we be more vocal about? What else could we come out and announce to help people in this time and it may have all Just given the circumstances with the country and what's happening. So what what I can't promise you is that there'll be an immediate reaction. But what I can say is we're always looking at these things. And the steps that we've taken, the quickest way for us to do that would be with our authorized generics. Again, we have similar contracts the same contracts in place with our, with our wholesalers and with our pbms and payers, so we would have to be renegotiating with them, and they'd have to be okay with that. Now, you could argue that they they can and should be, it would be very difficult for them to say anything other than that's a good idea, but I can't comment for others in the supply chain. I know that's perhaps not the exact answer that you'd like but it's a it's a real answer on we are always considering these other options. And by cutting our price just automatically, we would put at risk those folks that are stable on our products with just not getting covered by the P ends and payers that have us on today.   Stacey Simms  7:00 I do appreciate the answer. I just think that - just a bit of an editorial statement, you know, a crisis is a time to define what your company is all about and what an opportunity, I really hope you guys consider that and let the pbms and the others say no, I mean, let's give them the chance to, to not step up to the plate. And let's see what happens. (end of call) But do you think will Lily take any bold steps? I know most of you are skeptical, but you never know. And as I said that was an unedited portion of the call. There were other diabetes bloggers and writers on the call asking their own questions that hat tip to Amy Tenderich of diabetes mine for seconding. My thought and backing me up and and pushing ahead on that too. But what can you do? Is there anything right now to take action on Patients for affordable drugs. A group we've talked to here on the show before, has put out a call for all three insulin manufacturers to lower their prices right now, in response to this health crisis. There's a letter it is being released on Tuesday, March 31. I've signed it virtually, of course, and I would urge you to check it out and sign it as well. I'll link it up in the show notes and I'll share it on social media once it is live. Let's keep pushing on this issue. It is in times like these, that companies truly show us what they're about that big change can happen. And as Amy said on the call, that it's a time for disruption. It The time is ripe. So make your voice heard. Let's do what we can. I know a lot of you already, as I said are not optimistic, but we cannot give up. Thank you for tuning in. Regular episodes are coming your way the next one will be out as soon as tomorrow. I'm Stacey Simms. Subscribe to the show on any free podcast app so you don't miss out or just come back the way you found this audio excerpt. Thanks again for joining me   Unknown Speaker  9:09 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media. All Rights Reserved all wrongs avenged.   Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Erik Douds has big plans for the next few weeks. First, a 100 mile bike ride through Death Valley next week and then the New York City Marathon. Douds says these events take on a new - unexpected layer when you have type 1: it becomes about community. Buy the Book! The World's Worst Diabetes Mom is on sale now! Erik is partnering with Scott Johnson on the JDRF Death Valley Ride, we'll talk about how the popular community leader got involved. Donate to Erik & Scott's JDRF Ride Plus.. tell me something good! Scholarships and new blogs! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Sign up for our newsletter here 00:00 Show Open: What's on this week 1:20 Stacey Welcome: Stacey is recording on the road from a women's podcasting conference. She talks about Benny's recent injury he's okay - they thought it might be an ACL tear, but it's just a bad knee strain - and what happened with blood sugar. Book update as well! Pre-orders have gone out! 6:20 Snippet of Scott Johnson ride video 8:20 Interview with Erik Douds 41:30 Tell Me Something Good: college scholarships for people with diabetes? College Diabetes Network list Beyond Type 1 List Check out DiabetesMine monthly blog/social media roundups  45:30 Stacey's on the road! Look at her schedule and request that she come to your event here.  ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android

Instead of a rescue Glucagon shot, how about a nasal spray? A simple spray for emergency low blood sugar is in front of the FDA right now. We speak with Lilly Diabetes Senior Medical Director Dr. Thomas Hardy about the need for this product, what it is and how it works.  In our Know Better segment.. a quick tip about Dexom’s G6 - save your papers!! More in Stacey's Facebook live video here. And a bit about the Bike Beyond documentary.  Stacey says it wasn't what she expected at all. You can buy the DVD here or find out how to host a watch party.  Join the Facebook Group!  ----- 1:35 Stacey Welcome - thanks to DiabetesMine and Jacobs Media (& Elsie Escobar) for featuring us in recent columns 5:30 Interview with Dr. Thomas Hardy, Medical Director for Lilly Diabetes 28:30 Stacey shares her mistake when she was training again on injectible glucagon 32:00 Dexcom G6 information - keep your paper 35:30 Bike Beyond - Stacey's review of the documentary ------ Sign up for our newsletter here Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android 

The US FDA this week approved the Dexcom G6 system. It means a smaller sensor and is factory calibrated for 10 days of use, which means no fingerstick calibrations. Stacey talks with Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer about the details about the system, timeline for consumer availability in the US and internationally as well as what will happen with the G4 and G5 systems already on the market (and integrated with pumps like Tandem and Animas).  Great article from DiabetesMine with more G6 info here Join the Facebook Group! Now available on your Amazon Echo with Alexa! Sign up for our newsletter here Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android     

Abbott gives us an update on their flash glucose monitor, the FreeStyle Libre. Stacey talks to Principal Clinical Research Manager Tim Dunn who's been working on CGM technology for 20 years.  Stacey mentions "hacks" for the Libre: read more here Join the Facebook Group! Now available on Alexa! In our Community Connection segment, how NC State is stepping up to make changes for students with diabetes. Stacey talks to Lisa Eberhart, a registered dietician and certified diabetes educator who serves as NC State Dining’s director of nutrition and wellness as well as the dining hall manager, Jaelyn Phelps, who lives with type 1.  And in Know Better, we'll take a look at the new standalone CGM from Medtronic. Good article from DiabetesMine here. ----- 2:00 Stacey welcome. Should you leave your T1D kids at sports practice without a parent? 6:30 Interview with Tim Dunn from Abbott 28:30 Community Connection: Interview with NC State's Lisa Eberhart & Jaelyn Phelps 45:00 Know Better: Medtronic's standalone CGM 49:30 Stacey finishes the story about how her family handles sports and T1D without a parent present and explains more about leaving her kids alone for the day while she went to a JDRF conference. Sign up for our newsletter here Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android     

Join the new Diabetes Connections Facebook Group!  ----- Learn about the Abbott Freestyle Libre, a Flash Glucose Monitoring System recently approved in the US. We talk to Dr. Chris Thomas, the director of biosensor technology for Abbott about what exactly the Libre is, how it works and who it's for.  Plus, Bigfoot Biomedical is now partnering with Abbott to use the LIbre in their automated insulin delivery system. We talk to CEO Jeffrey Brewer to find out how what this means and what's on the horizon for Bigfoot. Good article on the partnership here from DiabetesMine. You'll also hear from Steve Hanley of KNOW Foods. Stacey wanted to speak to him after he donated all the bikes to the riders of Bike Beyond and wound up learning all about this new company. You can read more about KNOW Foods in this Sweet Life column by Kerri Sparling. Stacey also shares her take on overnight school fields trips; Benny recently spent three days away with his school. We also address the closure of Animas, what that means to the podcast, Stacey & her family and to customers. Learn more from Animas here.  ----- 3:00 Stacey talks about Animas 8:00 Stacey talks about Field Trips 15:00 Interview with Chris Thomas, Abbott 33:00 Interview with Jeffrey Brewer, Bigfoot Biomedical 1:19:00 Interview with Steve Hanley, KNOW Foods   ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android  Sign up for our newsletter here

Amy Tenderich is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of DiabetesMine, one of the oldest and most respected diabetes blog sites. Ten years ago, she wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs about diabetes technology. The letter went viral and Amy turned that energy and feedback into an international crowd-sourcing competition called the DiabetesMine Design Challenge. That led to the influential annual DiabetesMine Innovation Summit, and a biannual meeting of tech developers called the DiabetesMine D-Data ExChange, which is happening again June 9. Stacey & Amy talk about what prompted her to write that letter and what she thinks has changed most since that time. Amy also shares her personal story, she was diagnosed as an adult in 2003, and explains what the D-Data ExChange is all about.  Also this week, Stacey shares a follow-up about a previous Community Connection, Willl's Way. We talk about getting diabetes gear to stick in the summer sweat and wet (listen to the episode referenced here) and get ready for Bike Beyond. Diabetes Connections is partnering with the folks at Beyond Type 1 to bring you stories from an epic cycling trip from NY to San Francisco. Diabetes Connections is now available as an app! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android  Sign up for our newsletter here As always, thanks for listening!!

Wil Dubois has written a weekly diabetes advice column for DiabetesMine for more than ten years. Called "Ask D'Mine," Wil answers questions with straight-talk, a blunt attitude and understanding that comes from experience. Diagnosed type 1 as an adult (and first misdiagnosed) he's also a diabetes author and community educator. Stacey & Will talk about the column, Wil's diagnosis and about working in an area of the country where diabetes educators and endos are few in number and access. Wil also shares which columns generated the strongest reactions from readers. This episode also features information about Diabetes Podcast Week. Plus a way you or your business can help the Spare a Rose campaign get life-saving diabetes supplies to children in developing nations while also getting a mention on the show.

In early May, United Health Care announced that Medtronic would be its preferred provider of insulin pumps. Adults over the age of 18 who have UHC insurance will not be able to have any other brand of insulin pump covered. This set off lots of discussion within the diabetes community and prompted this special episode of Diabetes Connections. Stacey talks to Christel Aprigliano of Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition (DPAC), Gary Scheiner, a diabetes educator with Integrated Diabetes Services, and Mike Hoskins, managing editor of DiabetesMine. This episode was partially recorded on the video platform Blab.

We love this guy! Mike Hoskins, in our mind, is one of the bonafide leaders of the diabetes online community and was the perfect guest to launch the show into 2016. His perspectives over at DiabetesMine.com have always caught our eye, especially his honest takes on real life. Most recently, he published some high quality, scientific […] The post The Diabetes Tech Balance, Beer and Coffee Experimentation, and The DOC Evolution | Mike Hoskins from DiabetesMine.com | Real Life Diabetes Podcast 13 appeared first on Diabetes Daily Grind | Real Life Diabetes Podcast.

This week is all about the DiabetesMine Innovation Summit. After completing its fourth year of gathering a wide range of perspectives to talk about the future of diabetes care, Amy Tenderich, editor in chief of DiabetesMine sets the stage for the rest of the podcast. Also featured are three recipients of scholarships to attend the summit - Neal Ulrich, Rosy Karna, and Cooper Galvin - their takeaways from the day-long summit, and their perspective on including the patient in health care conversations. Enjoy. Special thanks to all of my guests: Neal Ulrich - nmulrich at stanford dot edu Rosy Karna - rkarna at stanford dot edu Cooper Galvin - coopgalv at stanford dot edu For more information about the DiabetesMine Innovation Summit, visit diabetesmine.com, check out the presentations from the summit on Slideshare, and see the DiabetesMine Patient Voices 2014 video. Run Time - 1:11:34 Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com.

On today's show we welcome back our old friend from show #22, Amy Tenderich. Amy joins us on the phone to talk about the DiabetesMine.com, Innovation 2012, Patient Voices Contest. http://www.diabetesmine.com/designcontest

Joining me for Episode 102 is Amy Tenderich from Diabetes Mine. Our conversation covers her diagnosis and the ups and downs of her first years with diabetes. Also discussed are the origins and evolution of her blog, how her backround in journalism helped shape her blog and the opportunities that have come her way. Finally, and in my opinion most importantly, we talk about the Design Challenge and Innovation Summit and the potential impact they may have on every person living with or caring for someone with diabetes. As you will soon find out, it's a fascinating conversation that was my pleasure to host. Enjoy. Follow Amy on Twitter @AmyDBMine and you can keep up with the blog at diabetesmine.com and on twiter at @DiabetesMine. Run Time - 52:15 Send your feedback to feedback@justtalkingpodcast.com.

This week, on the phone, we welcome Amy Tenderich.Amy is the co-author of the hot new book 'Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes'. She is a valuable member of the diabetes community, as represented by her popular website DiabetesMine.com, a gold mine of straight talk and encouragement for people living with diabetes.If you have any questions or comments for any of our team or would like to hear your voice on one of our upcoming shows, call our special voicemail line or email us. You might soon be a podcast star. Comment Line: (206) 888-0444 email: feedback @diabetespowershow.com