#56 TEEN SERIES part 4: Giving your Teen more Independence with Stacey Simms

Stacey Simms is the host of the very successful T1D news podcast, Diabetes Connections and the author of the book The World's Worst Diabetes Mom. Not only that, but she is also mom to Benny, a now almost 17 year old young man who was diagnosed with type 1 right before he turned two. Today she steps out of her normal roll of podcast host to be my guest! Stacey talks to us about the evolution of diabetes management in their home from the toddler years to the late teen years and what it looks like now with her son getting ready to enter young adulthood. 

Find Stacey on the Web, Socials and Listen to her podcast, Diabetes Connections, by clicking HERE.
Check out Stacey's book, The World's Worst Diabetes Mom, on Amazon by clicking HERE.
Find Stacey on Instagram @staceysimms

PRODUCT FEATURE OF THE WEEK: Clover Honey Sticks! The perfect 4 carb low treat!

Transcript

#56 TEEN SERIES part 4: Giving your teen more independence with Stacey Simms

[00:00:00] 

Katie: You're listening to episode 56 of the sugar mamas podcast. I'm Katie. And this is the fourth installment of the 10 week series for parents of teens living with type one diabetes. Today I'm talking with Stacey Simms. Stacey is the host of another awesome diabetes podcast called Diabetes Connections.

Katie: Diabetes Connections is a at T1D news show where Stacey interviews, prominent advocates, authors, and speakers, and ask some really hard questions of healthcare companies and tech developers. Stacey is also the author of the book. The world's worst diabetes mom. She is well known and well loved in the diabetes community.

Katie: Not only that, but she has a Teenage son who was diagnosed with type one at the ripe old age of two today, Stacey shares with the listeners, what diabetes management looks like for them now, how it's changed over the years and the importance of giving your team more independence as they get [00:01:00] ready to leave the nest.

Katie: Of course, I will leave a link in the show notes to where you can find Stacey's podcast and her book. All right. Let's jump in. 

You're listening to the sugar mamas podcast, a show designed for moms and caregivers of type one diabetics here. You'll find a community of like-minded people who are striving daily to keep their kids safe, happy, and healthy in the ever-changing world of type one. I'm your host and fellow T one D mom, Katie Roseboro.

Katie: Before we get started. I need you to know that nothing you hear on the sugar mamas podcast should be considered medical advice. Please be safe, be smart, and always consult your physician before making changes to the way you manage type one diabetes. Thanks. 

Katie: Everybody. I am here with Stacey Simms today, and that name might already sound [00:02:00] familiar to a lot of you, but Stacey, I'm going to let you do the honors of introducing yourself and tell us your connection to type one diabetes.

Stacey: You got it. And I'm so excited to be here. So my son was diagnosed with type one right before he turned two. And that was back in 2006. So he is almost 17 and we are almost 15 years into this, which is bananas. Think about I am the host of diabetes.

Stacey: connections, a podcast that's been around for a bit.

Stacey: And the author of the world's worst diabetes mom. 

Katie: Yes. I want to ask you questions about both of those things. Why don't we start with your podcast? So tell us about diabetes connection. What was the inspiration behind it? When did you start it? We'll start there.

Stacey: Sure. So I started a diabetes connections back in 2015 in the summer of 2015. And my background is in broadcasting. I was a local reporter and anchor for TV stations. Then I did a morning show here in Charlotte, North Carolina for radio. For 10 years [00:03:00] and after I left, I was kind of trying to figure out what to do next.

Stacey: And I love podcasts. I've been listening to podcasts. I mean, when they were called podcasts, cause the iPod, right. You you'd plug the iPad into your computer and you had to download all the shows that really used to happen. 

Katie: I don't remember those days. That's crazy.

Stacey: Right, right. Well, that's why it's called podcasts.

Stacey: Cause it's from the iPod and nothing was automated, nothing was streaming. So like the mid two thousands before the iPhone and I loved podcasts and there have always been diabetes podcasts, and I love listening to them, but most of them. We're adults with diabetes talking about their personal experiences, which was fabulous, but it wasn't the show that I wanted to hear.

Stacey: And I wasn't even so much looking for a diabetes parenting podcast. I was looking for a news podcast and I thought, okay, I can do this with my background and near knowing the little bit of the technology. Lucky for me. Some of the podcasters that I listened to [00:04:00] were generous and very, very helpful. Christopher Snyder, who now works for Tidepool, used to have a podcast called just talking.

Stacey: He's got a couple of podcasts still, but that was fabulous. He had managed to show once I think back in 2014 and I said, Hey, I'd really like to do this, but how do you do. Right, because it's not just the talking and the recording. It said, how do you get it out there? And he really helped me get started.

Stacey: And I started the show thinking, all right. we'll see where it goes. And I, Katie, it is, I mean, I just published episode 415.

Katie: Wow.

Stacey: Yeah. I mean, it's wild. It's. You know, we're going on the sixth year now, which I will see how long it keeps going. I'll do it until I find it cumbersome. Or, you know, I've, I, I just was asked yesterday, I get this question all the time and I'm sure you do too.

Stacey: How do you find topics to talk about don't you run out of stuff to talk about? And the answer is obviously Nope.

Katie: Right, Yeah. I know when I told my husband. I have this idea. What do you think he's like, well, what would you talk about? And I'm like, okay. I [00:05:00] pulled up, I pulled up a list in my phone that already had like 80 things that I could talk about. And I'm like, and I think I just keep thinking of other things.

Katie: Like, I don't think I'll ever run out of things to talk about. So. 

Stacey: no, no. 

Katie: Yeah, I agree. So has it just grown steadily over the years? Or how have you seen it change? Like how has it, you know, evolved as far as growth and just kind of like topics that you've had on the show. What have you seen over the years?

Stacey: Yeah. it's been really interesting. I thought the initial concept was the conceit of the show in the very beginning. And you can hear it. If you go back was we're going to talk about connections. I'm really passionate about in-person. It was the first presentation I was ever hired to do at a JDRF summit many moons ago.

Stacey: And I really think in-person connection, which is so hard right now because of COVID, but we will get back to it. It is essential for community, for mental health, for all of those things that really help us live well with diabetes, whatever kind of diabetes you have. So I thought, all right, I'm gonna talk to these people, but their connections and how [00:06:00] they met the people that help them.

Stacey: And you know what they've learned and that's good for like three shows. I think you're asking the same questions. It's like, oh my gosh, this isn't going to work. So I pivoted to more of the news, which had been that concept that I'd kind of been carrying around as well. And over the years I have found that my audience and I thought it would be mostly parents.

Stacey: Cause that's my experience. Right. I'm a peer and I don't live with type one. I'm a parent of a kid with type one, but because I don't talk about myself, Story much on the show. He comes on maybe once or twice a year to share what's going on. But my show is not about how to manage your child. I don't tell you how to get a great A1C or how to get what to eat, or I don't even share his numbers.

Stacey: The show is. The current state of affairs in diabetes. And I almost hope it'll be like a time capsule, you know, maybe in 50 years we'd be like, well, what was going on in diabetes or what we're thinking about technology, I'm hoping it kind of gives you that because my listeners have become so interested in the technology that I am now more and more known for asking [00:07:00] hard questions to the technology makers, to the insulin makers.

Stacey: And also this is really recent. I really. My audience is getting older and people with type one. We're living longer than ever before. And there are questions and situations that are coming up, not just with Medicare and insurance, but with aging menopause, other things that come with getting older, that people didn't have to think about with type one, because unfortunately they didn't live as long.

Stacey: So my audience is getting older. My older portion of my audience is increasing because I'm one of the few places where we talk about this kind of stuff. It it's been absolutely fascinating. So sorry for that long answer, but a lot has changed and it keeps evolving and I hope to just keep listening to my audience and kind of really serving them.

Stacey: What, what works. 

Katie: Yeah, I think that, that was a very interesting answer. I, I, I feel like the world of diabetes just changed. Well, you know, it's changing constantly so quickly, especially right now, just because technology is evolving, just so, [00:08:00] so quickly. So I appreciate your podcast because it keeps me up to date with what's going on in the world of yeah.

Katie: In the news world of diabetes, like what, what what's going on with insulin what's new out there? What about the technology? What's happening. , so I think you're doing a great job. 

Stacey: Oh, thank you. 

Katie: do you have a favorite episode?

Stacey: Oh, gosh. It's like asking you your favorite child, right? And I have

Katie: I know. I always tell my kids. It's my 

Katie: They ask me all the time. I'm like Henry, the dog. He's my favorite.

Stacey: Yes. He's the best at unconditional love. And you know, you don't have to do all the, you don't have to worry about Henry going to getting into college and 

Katie: that's right. So true. And he doesn't talk. He's so quiet. 

Stacey: Yeah, it doesn't talk back.

Katie: Yeah, exactly.

Stacey: love, I get the most nervous to be honest with you, for the episodes where I'm talking to somebody who is mildly famous or, or very famous right.

Stacey: Where we could get anybody who's an actor or an athlete, you know, I've talked to you know, Victor Garber has been at the movies and Breck Basadur, who's a, you know, doorbell, TV, star, she's in star girl. And she was in Bella and the bulldogs on [00:09:00] Nickelodeon and, you know Mark Andrews from the NFL.

Stacey: Anytime I talked to folks like that, because. You know, they speak to so many people in general, they don't always talk about their diabetes. And so I'm always a little bit nervous. Like how are they going to answer it? Do they want to answer? Or this has to be too personal, but my favorites honestly are the technology episodes because while you know, Medtronic or tandem or insulin, make it a good press for.

Stacey: That they put out there and that it's picked up by, you know, CNBC or, you know, one of these Yahoo finance news, pit places, it's they never asked the questions that we wanted. Right. Nobody's asking when they put out that press release, well, what can I adjust the limits and the range, how low is the range?

Stacey: And it go, how long is the insulin on board going to last? How, you know, the, the, the display, not the insulin, things like that, you know, what is the inset like? Have you changed anything? Those mainstream outlets they don't know to even ask. And their listeners are not interested in the nitty-gritty like we are.

Stacey: So I love that. [00:10:00] I get so charged up. I love asking my listeners, what do you want to know? And then bringing it to them because I know it's, it's just not something that most outlets know enough to go into. And that's the language that. 

Katie: Yeah. That's so true. I love it. Somebody asked me that recently and I'm like, what am I about this this week will be the 40th episode. So I don't have nearly, you know, times that by 10 and that's you, but I don't have nearly the, you know, the, the backlog, but I, I just, I'm so hard to pick.

Katie: I I've loved them all. Anyway, I just, I wanted to ask you and see what he said. So tell us about your book before we move on to to some other type one related questions with your family and your son, Benny and all of that. So your, your book is called the worst diabetes mom ever, which is a very relatable.

Katie: for me, and I'm sure many of my listeners, because even though honestly, I feel like we're doing a very good job of managing diabetes right now. There are days where you just feel like, oh my gosh, I just, I really blew it today. I think we can all [00:11:00] say that at some point we have been the worst diabetes mom ever.

Katie: So what inspired you to write that?

Stacey: Well, you're, you're what, like a little bit more than a year in 

Katie: Yeah. 

Stacey: for your diagnosis. Okay. So my son was diagnosed, like I said, in 2006, and it's really hard to believe. I think for people who are diagnosed in the last four or five years, How much things have changed. And I don't necessarily even mean in terms of technology.

Stacey: Although I think that that's a big reason why I'm going to get to I'm going to get here, but I think it's more social media than anything else. So when Benny was diagnosed, we were obviously very fearful, really worried, you know, oh my gosh, our endocrinologists worked with us are I say CDE, but they've changed their name.

Stacey: Our diabetes educator worked with us. Right. And we kind of went out and found our community and moved on with life. Because we didn't have a CGM because we didn't have social media. We weren't comparing ourselves to anybody. We were just thinking, is he gonna have a good day? Is he gonna go play sports?

Stacey: Am I going to [00:12:00] do a sleepover? And like, I'm kind of an easier, easier going mom. I think in some ways in that I have an older child as well. I have my daughter and like my point of both my kids is grow up and leave. Right. I'm raising you to get the heck out of my house. I love you. I love you so much now please go, you know, they're very independent people as well.

Stacey: My daughter, when she was seven, was like, I'm going to sleep away camp. And I'm like, sure thing, whatever, you know, I say all that, because they'll think I'm really, really loose with diabetes, but I'm not, it's just different. So as we got more and more into social media, I kind of realized that.

Stacey: The empowering messages and the, you know, the, you can do anythings and all that kind of stuff. We're being a little bit drowned out by look at my graph, look at my range, or, you know, look at this cereal. And my child's spiked. So we're never eating cereal again. Or we played soccer and then my kid went above 200.

Stacey: I don't like that. No more soccer or there was a Dexcom out. So [00:13:00] I'm sleeping in my kid's room for the next week, or I'm bringing my child home from a sleepover now. I don't say to judge on any of those things, that stuff wasn't working for me, we all parent differently without diabetes. We all parent how we parent.

Stacey: So when I saw all of that, I was thinking what is changing. And I, I kept kind of going to these groups and, you know, we're all on Facebook too much. And it's ridiculous. I had a blog for many years. And nobody read. My blog was read by three people because I wasn't very personal about it. You can go back and find it it's on Stacey Simms.com and it's, it's fine, but it's not like, you know, I was not sharing a lot.

Stacey: It was more of an education. I started it for my listeners at my old radio job who wants to know about diabetes. So it was a little bit of, you know, to the outside world. I bring that up because my publisher had said for years, put your blog posts together. I was like, those blood posts are not like they're boring and there's a lot of good parenting books out there already for diabetes.

Stacey: Like, what am I going to add to the conversation? So I was on with these Facebook groups and somebody was talking about how, you know, to my point that if your child spikes above [00:14:00] 200, like life can go on. Like it's okay. That happens. It's diabetes. And then I got into a discussion, you know how it goes on social media.

Stacey: Sometimes it's just me. And the guy was like, you know, you're going to hurt your child. You're going to hurt your and least just kind of said, you're going to kill your child. And I was like, I said, I must be the world's worst diabetes, mom. Boom. And I closed the computer and I walked away and I was like, why did I even engage?

Stacey: Right. I mean, that was on me. So I took some screenshots, but I did delete the posts. And then I thought, oh my gosh, the world's worst diabetes mom. That's the book. So I said, I want to show parents that they can make, and they should make all the mistakes, all the mistakes that you can make with diabetes do not be afraid.

Stacey: It's going to be okay. Live your life, make the mistakes. Here's what we did. Here's how many times we messed up. Here's how great he's doing and it's going to be fine. And so with humor, fun stories, but concrete advice you know, I wrote the book and so, sorry, really long answer, but that's all what went into writing the world's worst diabetes. 

Katie: No, that that was a great answer. I, I think more moms need [00:15:00] to have that kind of attitude surrounding diabetes, because I think a lot of people can really let one bad blood sugar or one bad day. Take them down. I mean, they can get just trapped in that negative thinking cycle of, you know, this is never going to get better.

Katie: This is never going to get easier. I've ruined my kids. So I think that, I mean, I'm, I feel like I kind of fall along your line of being a pretty easy going parents. Like I don't let a whole lot of things bother me. And so I've really had to adopt the mindset of we're going to see blood bad blood sugars.

Katie: Like, there's just no doubt about it. I mean, I don't care how good you are at managing diabetes. There's going to be some times where you have big spikes but it's okay. Like we're going to get it down. It's not like it's going to spike up there and you're going to leave it up there forever.

Katie: You're going to get it back and, you know, Your, your life will go on and your life will go on. And I think about all these people that were managing diabetes without all this technology. And before, and I mean, they probably had no clue what their blood sugar was for 12 hours [00:16:00] out of the day. I mean, who knows?

Katie: I, you know, cause it was so hard to check your, what your number was back then. And, I would venture to say that their numbers were probably pretty high a lot of the time and, and. they did. Okay. Like they, you know, share those complications and, you know, there's certainly things to be concerned about and we all want our child to be as healthy as humanly possible.

Katie: But you know, I think we, just freak ourselves out too much, too easily.

Stacey: And just to, to jump in again, you know, I changed my mind. My favorite episode that I've done is one called evidence-based hope. 

Stacey: And it, what, to your point this was a conversation about. Where we can look for good news and diabetes studies. Why don't we hear more about how things are getting better?

Stacey: And it focused on a, a slide presentation I had seen at a T C O Y D take control of your diabetes. Look at them a plug conference. And this was the Dr. Steve Adelman and Dr. Polonsky who do a bunch of presentations, but I'll make a quick the studies are. the DCCT trial and the EDIC trial, EDI C and these are two studies taken many [00:17:00] years apart that show the progression of how people with diabetes are living longer.

Stacey: And without complications, the EDIC study finished in 2009, 30 year study. So people diagnosed, you know, 30 years prior, right? So in the seventies, late seventies, before blood sugar meters were at home. As to your point. And the level of complications, if they just kept their blood sugar. I think that UWC was 7.5 was amazingly low and the DCCT trial was the first one, diabetes control and complications trial was the first one to show that A1C in control even mattered.

Stacey: Because before that, they thought that if you had type one diabetes, you just went blind and died. I mean, I know that's a horrible thing to say, but if you look back at the numbers and the way that, that, that trial turned things around, it's absolutely incredible. So the next one. Right. Let's see what the next study brings.

Stacey: I'm incredibly hopeful that it's going to be even even less, but that's, I changed my mind. Evidence-based hope it's a really uplifting episode. And a lot of humor from Dr. Adelman, who was just a very fun guy. 

Katie: Oh, awesome. Well, before we move on [00:18:00] diabetes connections, people can find it really wherever they listen to podcasts rate. 

Katie: And the world's worst diabetes mom that is on Amazon. Correct.

Stacey: Yeah, you can get easiest place to go. Is diabetes-connections.com. It leads you to every place that you can find the podcast, but yes, every place you get audio and pretty much every place you buy books, you know, Amazon target Barnes and noble, the books everywhere. 

Katie: Okay. Awesome. Well, let's transition a little bit to talk about your life as a type one, mom and your son, Benny. He was diagnosed. You've already said this at the age of two, and now he is a teenager. He's he's, you know, getting up there in the teenage years. So how. Well, let me ask you this first. If you could go back now until your newly diagnosed self, some, some words of advice or some words of encouragement, what, what would you say to yourself?

Stacey: You know, I would basically just say that none of your fears are gonna come true. Just keep moving forward and. Take the advice that is given to you from people [00:19:00] who live with type one. I got such great advice from adults. I was on the radio at the time. So I came back to work and said, this is what happened to me.

Stacey: And these adults with type one wrote in, remember it was 2006 and said, or they emailed and said, I'm a firefighter, I'm a banker, I'm a police officer. Your son's going to be. Do what my mom did push him to live life. Don't wrap them in bubble wrap and keep them home. You know, a lot of them said it was harder on my mom than it was on me, which I'm not sure I believe, but you know, it was really interesting to get this amazing out of the box perspective for us was one that started us on a really positive road of let's keep pushing him.

Stacey: So I'm not sure I would give myself any advice that would change anything, but I would say, look, stay. You know your fears about him not being able to have the wonderful life knock on wood that you want him to have. Those are not going to come true. It's going to be okay. You know, again, it was a different time.

Stacey: We didn't have continuous glucose monitors. We didn't get an insulin pump for six months, which was still really quick. Lantis had just been approved for little kids. So we were really lucky that we didn't even have to go on that [00:20:00] whole NPH and regular routine. That you might have heard about, you know, we could feed him when we wanted, we didn't have to have, you know, my friend, Maura McCarthy has another great author.

Stacey: She jokes about like every diabetic in the world was having a snack at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM or whatever it was because they were on such a strict regimen. And that's how her daughter had to grow up. But I would just say like, okay, deep breath. And remember that you are this, I would also tell myself you're always going to be. That the point of my book and my reassurance, all that stuff. And everything is not that you don't worry as a parent. You Stacey, you were always going to worry, but to have to let them go anyway. And I still, like, I still have moments where my heart drops and I worry, and I just have to remind myself, Nope, this is part of parenting, not just parenting a kid with diabetes.

Stacey: So 

Katie: you're exactly right. That's what I was thinking. When you were saying that like worrying is just a part of being a parent and, you know, type one or not you're unfortunately, you're just gonna worry. And I think there's a, there's good worry. Right? Cause worry keeps us safe and can protect us, but then there's [00:21:00] the worry that can be all consuming, which is, which is not good.

Katie: So just, you know, just don't get stuck there. Right. So, how have you seen what's? What has the transition been like from kind of the elementary years of type one management for you guys, and then now into the teen years where maybe, you know, he's, I'm assuming a lot more independent. Doesn't want you to help him very much.

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Katie: Check them out on Amazon. I'll leave a link in the show notes last, have you checked out? Buy me a coffee yet. Buy me a coffee is a great way. Kind listeners like you to support the show. Your gift can be a one and done donation, or you can sign up for one of our fund membership levels starting at just $1 a month.

Katie: Every cent donated goes to making this podcast go from my mouth to your ears each and every week. Head on over to buy me a coffee.com forward slash sugar mama. To check it out now, back to the

Katie: What has the transition been like from kind of the elementary years of type one management for you guys, and then now into the teen years where maybe, you know, he's, I'm assuming a lot more independent. Doesn't want you to help him very much.

Katie: What does that transition been like? 

Stacey: It's been really gradual and good. for us. Middle-school was the most difficult so far because I don't know about your kids. But [00:23:00] middle school, my, both of my kids lost their minds like this fog of hormones and nonsense and forgetting things. And then, you know, lying and, you know, they're great kids.

Stacey: They never did that before and slamming door, the hormones just like?

Stacey: they take over their bodies. So we found an and B diabetes wise. Oh, my gosh.

Stacey: So much insulin, so much insulin that it was like overpowering the, the insets. We switched to an untethered regimen, which I can share more about, but unbelievable.

Stacey: And that's actually come back down and has been much more manageable, but that was very difficult. So we were in the process, you know, my kid was, I always say looking back that like a lot of little things. With diabetes become like superstars, like ages five to 10. They're like, we've got this and we're going to cut the ribbon at the walk and yay diabetes.

Stacey: Woo. I'm a superstar, you know, whatever. They write letters to celebrities and they're all in. Right. And they lull you into that sense of thinking that they're always going to be rock stars. Then they hit middle school and they're like, I hate you. I hate diabetes. I hate everything. I don't want to do anything.

Stacey: I can't remember anything. I left my bag. I left my PDM. I [00:24:00] left my insulin. Like, you're like, oh my God, what happened to my child?

Katie: Oh, my gosh.

Stacey: And then most kids come back. They get their brains back like eighth or ninth grade 

Stacey: and you know, oh Yeah.

Stacey: don't worry. It happened. It comes back now. Obviously everybody's different and some kids do.

Stacey: Stop paying attention to diabetes, they rebel against it. You know, they have issues, but it's, it's not that brain fog. And I think for us, and again, we're at, he's a junior in high school, so we're at age 16, 17. I'm not into the college age. I can't speak to young adults. So I don't know what happens next, but for us, he kind of, we gave him so much independence in fourth and fifth grade because he was in that rockstar fees.

Stacey: And then by middle school, we had to kind of reign it back. And at the time I remember feeling kind of disappointed, like, damn it, we were doing so great and what happened and, but it's so developmentally appropriate. And so developmentally common to give all that independence by the end of elementary school and have to take some of it back.

Stacey: And by taking it back, it wasn't as though he had to go to the [00:25:00] nurse and check in and write everything down. It was more like I would text him once or twice a day at school. And we would kind of let them something slide that I might not have an elementary school, because it was really important for him to have that independence and to experience those.

Stacey: Issues. And I say issues, you know, it was safe. We didn't do anything that wouldn't have been safe, but I did let blood sugars go a little higher than I would have in elementary school when everybody was watching him. And it gave him the reins to understand more about him himself. But then by high school, you know, we transitioned again into driving we've transitioned again.

Stacey: But the biggest, biggest transition for us was about gosh, after he got controlling. The tandem system, which is very highly automated, but not entirely. I turned off my Dexcom high alarm in October of 2020, which was like a big milestone for me. Right. I remember when I did it, I remember all this is going to be so interesting.

Stacey: And then and I haven't turned it back on and then this summer Ben, he went to Israel and they were going to talk [00:26:00] about that. But he went to Israel for a month. I turned off my low alarm, not the urgent locust can turn that off, but what am I going to do with the low alarm? So I turned that off too. He came home.

Stacey: Spoiler alert. He did great. And we had a whole conversation about, well, what do we do now? And I said, okay, am I like customer service? I'm hearing you DP, but I don't call you. And he was like, Yeah.

Stacey: I think that's what we're going to do. So I haven't turned any, I have no alarms except urgent low. I do not check him.

Stacey: Like, when's your inset? What's your Dexcom. Have you? I don't do any of that. I cannot help myself, Katie. I, I will say if he's eating something like really Carvey, I'm like, are you have your bowl? This digital, this will you bolus? You know? So I'll still like, oh, you're still at my house. It's harder in my house, but we are in a really weird for me, a weird time of me not, I'm still ordering the supplies.

Stacey: I'm still on the roof. I'm still the insurance lady. I'm still organizing the drawer because I can't help myself. But we're, we're in prep for college mode. I really feel, I feel really weird [00:27:00] about I can't can't lie.

Katie: I think that's wonderful. I mean, I feel like, you know, like you've, we've already said every kid is different and there's some kids that are probably doing things that, you know, are not safe and you probably have to reign them in a little bit more, but it sounds like Benny's a fairly responsible teenager and you've been able to let those reins loose.

Katie: And I think that's great. I mean, that's kind of my plan, I feel like middle school, like you said, is probably going to be rough. Like she's probably going to not want to have anything to do with me or diabetes. Like she'll like me and stuff, but I don't think she's going to want me to like inter interfere, but I'm probably going to have to, and then hopefully her brain will come back in high school.

Katie: Slowly start to give her more independence, but yeah, that's gotta be so hard as a mom to start to let go of that control. Just because it's hard to let go of control anyway, as a mom, but in this, you know, medical situation, you want to make sure they're safe. So 

Stacey: well, here's a good example of, of something that just [00:28:00] happened the other day. Benny goes to a, every year he goes to this little concert, it's.

Stacey: like an arts festival or something. Is it arts festival? It's like horrible music. I don't even know what it is. I made it sound like he's tripping through the Renaissance festival, but it's like this horrible concert I would never want to go to.

Stacey: But he had had a couple of his friends. One of the dads has taken them. This is the third year. The first year I gave the dead, this whole. He's got his stuff. He knows what he's doing, but if this happens, if that happens, if this happens, if that happens, whatever, you know, the talk, we all didn't talk the next year.

Stacey: I didn't have to say anything this year. I'm like, Hmm. I don't even know if the dad's going in with them. I was so excited. Cause these kids all drive. Now these, most of these kids are seniors in high school and Ben is a junior. So I was like, okay, I'm so glad he's going. I said, well, let me ask you a question.

Stacey: Like, what bag are you taking? And he was like, oh yeah. good. I think I'm gonna take my it's like a Fanny pack, but he wears it 

Katie: yeah. Like 

Stacey: shoulder, like a sleeping bag. 

Stacey: Right. I'm like, okay, so what's the plan? Like what are you thinking of bringing? And he told me, and then I said, oh, great idea. Like a backup pen and all this other stuff.

Stacey: He's like, Yeah.

Stacey: I'm going to leave my pump in the car. You'll leave your pump in the car. I was like, what [00:29:00] will, I'm going to go really low? I always go low. So I'm just going to take my pump off and leave in the car. Okay. I'm glad I asked good thought process. Right.

Stacey: I don't want this to happen. So I'm going to do this.

Stacey: I said, I just think you should bring your pump with you. You might want to put it in exercise mode, which control like you has. You might want to set up a zero Bazell rate or something. You might want to change the settings. If you want to take it off, like put it in your sling bag. I said, what happens if you decide you're going to eat something that you don't expect to eat, or you guys get stuck at the. There's a police action. There's a rainstorm. I mean, who knows? Right? He could be stuck there for six or seven hours. You can't get back to your car. Oh, you didn't think about that? Well, that was it. And then we had that conversation, but he did everything else himself. So those are the things where they still really need us.

Stacey: Right. He's not really ready. I'm not going to let them pack and go away for a week without me, at least seeing what he's packing, but he's close and we've got to let them be close and it went great. It really did. I don't know. I don't even know if he took his pump off or what he did. I have no. 

Katie: Well, yeah, and I feel like that's [00:30:00] probably a teen thing. I mean, not to stereotype teen boys or just boys in general, but it's probably a boy, like moms have a tendency to, to think of every possible situation that could go wrong 

Katie: and you need to be prepared for it. So it's good. And you guys make a good team.

Katie: Like he's, you know, he was going to bring some of it. You just had to remind him to bring, to bring the rest. 

Stacey: Put your pump on, I mean, that's the beauty of a tube pump is how easily it comes on and off, but you're not supposed to leave in the car. 

Katie: Right, please, please. Don't leave in the car. What if someone stole your car? That's another thing, I mean, 

Stacey: Oh my God. I took a sip of water there. Right, 

Katie: I have had my car broken into what if someone 

Stacey: Yeah, of course. Of course. 

Katie: Yeah. Hey, can we talk about driving for just a second? Like, I mean, I can't even, I've already told my husband, this was before diabetes and everything. I'm like, I will not, I cannot, I will drive them around the neighborhood and I will drive them to Publix, but I'm not going for it.

Katie: I can not, I can barely sit in the passenger seat while my husband is driving. I'm like the, you know, the wife, that's like, Ooh, And like, you know, he goes to merge and I'm [00:31:00] flinching and I was like, you're just going to have to do it. I'm sorry. But so do you just make sure he's car is stocked with low stuff?

Katie: how do you guys handle that?

Stacey: Yeah.

Stacey: Yeah,

Stacey: And I do think also I've mentioned my daughter a few times. I think sometimes when you have an older child who doesn't have diabetes, it makes it easier in some ways, because you go through these milestones without diabetes and you realize a lot of stress is just the Bayer. I think it must be difficult when your oldest child has type one, because you're hitting a lot of these milestones And parenting milestones, you know, with diabetes on board as well. And that's gotta be very difficult because you don't know what's diabetes and what's just kid stuff. So we, we did a lot of the same things for both kids. I agree. I don't like to be in the car with my kids. I mean, it just it's so stressful, but I got over it because my daughter's school didn't have a bus, so we just drove every morning to school and I kinda got over it, but I always say, cause I'm the same as you with the flinching and the Ugh, but I say this is not an editorial.

Stacey: I just can't help myself. It's just instinctual. Like I'm, you know, it's not you, even though it is sometimes so with Benny we had a an agreement, you know, he's [00:32:00] got a Dexcom. It's so easy to look at it. So the agreement was every time he got behind the wheel and I got this from parents who, you know. in the olden days, without CGM, you had to poke your finger every time he got behind the.

Stacey: That was a big agreement for most kids. Do you think about it, right. They don't know where the blood sugars at. They have to. So, and then you could look through the meter and make sure they did it kind of as proof. Well, there's no proof that you looked at your CGM. So for the first year when he was had his permit, he would have to send us. He would just take it. I mean, I'd be in the car with him half the time, but he had to take a screenshot of the CGM. Okay. I'm behind the wheel. I'm 120 click. I'm 120. And that to me was a good way of him getting in the habit and a good backstop for us. And we keep tabs all over the car. He always hated temps.

Stacey: It was not his choice to treat low blood sugar with glucose tabs. He always treated with juice. But his feeling was, those are super. I think they won't go bad. They won't melt, you know, we're in the south. They won't freeze for the two days that they cold here. So that's what he's got. And I buy him like the big industrial size.[00:33:00] 

Stacey: And I got to say one of my proudest parenting moments. I got a text from him and he said, I'm parked I'm low. Because again, I don't have my little. So he was like 79 or 80 or something on our rule is no driving below 80. So he said, I'm, I'm parked and I'll be home in a bit. And then he texted me again and said like, can you warm something up for me?

Stacey: It was late. It was like, after wrestling practice at school, I'm like, oh, sure. And I popped up to do it. And then I realized like five minutes later and I knew where he was parked. He was very close to the house. He wasn't home yet. So then I started to get really worried, like, oh no, Or driving, did he? Oh, and then he texted me again.

Stacey: Okay. I'm back above 85. So I'm going to start driving now. And I was like, oh, I thought you already had like good for you. So that was a wonderful moment to know that he was taking it seriously. And the other thing I had to teach him was if your low alert goes off, don't just pull over to the side of the road.

Stacey: Like me. Like you can't pull over on the highway. You have to like, you have to be careful if you know, if you're to avoid driving low, it doesn't mean that you [00:34:00] crash your car while you're trying to avoid driving. Please take it easy. So we've practiced that. It's still terrifying. I hate it all, but he's doing fine so far.

Stacey: Where's the wood. I'm knocking more with them.

Katie: I know. Okay. I really love the idea of taking a screenshot. Did you have him send it to you or did you just every now and then check in his camera gallery 

Stacey: I, I just checked his phone and we got, we got away from doing it after about the first year because I do trust him and, you know, he does have all of his alarms on, and.

Stacey: I got to tell you that the control IQ really keeps him from going low most of the time. So really an amazing system. It's not perfect. 

Katie: I know I'm nothing is, but yes, we are just twiddling our thumbs over here waiting for a Dexcom to, I mean, not for Dexcom, we're waiting for Omni pod to hook up to the Dexcom. So one 

Stacey: ah, it's going to be life-changing. 

Katie: it will, and I just don't, I just don't have it in me right now to figure out the whole DIY loop system.

Katie: So maybe I will one day, but 

Stacey: No, I, I didn't, I mean, I have lots of wonderful DIY friends and they will laugh at me because we never did it, but I was like, you know what, love you. But at 2:00 [00:35:00] AM, when it breaks, you're not tech support. And you know, they do, they are amazing. It is a wonderful community and boy, so many lives have been changed.

Stacey: And I really think that without the DIY people pushing the commercial systems, we wouldn't be where we are at 

Katie: No. That's very true. That's very true. Oh, I think it's awesome. I just, I'm just lazy. I just don't want a bigger, I just don't wanna figure it out right now. So you've mentioned it already, but Benny recently went on a four week trip to Israel without you and without anybody in your family.

Katie: And and it was with a camp. Correct? 

Stacey: Yeah. 

Katie: Yeah. So was that a hard decision to, to let him go? I mean, cause I listening to your show, I know he's done some, some diabetes camps in the past. He's done some other camps that aren't diabetes related, you know, without you, so, but I mean Israel's, you know, across the entire world.

Katie: So how did you come to that decision?

Stacey: It was a really easy decision to make and a really hard promise to. 

Katie: Hmm. 

Stacey: Let's put it that way. So both of my children, I [00:36:00] mentioned ages ago, I mentioned earlier that my daughter at seven was like, I'm going to go to sleep away camp. And that's true. We have a wonderful camp where we've sent a, both of our kids.

Stacey: I grew up going, you know, we're Jewish and camping. Summer camp is a big tradition on my husband went, I went, my dad went and we wanted our kids to have that experience. So my daughter went, she actually went for the first year when. Eight or nine, because the first year was canceled. If you remember H one N one, the swine flu, and a lot of summer camps were canceled in 2009.

Stacey: So that was her. Yeah, that was her first year of summer camp. It didn't happen. So she went the following year, but Benny she'd come home every summer and say, you're going to love camp. I can't wait till you're old enough to go. And I was always like, he's not going to this camp, forget it. Like, you can go to diabetes camp.

Stacey: He's not going to Coleman. And she would always come home and say, no, it's going to be great. It's going to be great. And then. Benny was like, mom, you always said diabetes. Wouldn't stop me from doing anything. I want to go to camp. Why did I say that? What was I thinking? [00:37:00] So he went to diabetes camp for a week, sleep over, and then the following year, you know, he went again and that year we also sent him to camp Coleman.

Stacey: The first year he went for two weeks and we, we started prepping the camp way in advance. Would you be willing to do. They had actually had a couple of campers who were type one at the time. They'd had kind of a difficult experience because the two young women that were campers, there were both struggling in their own diabetes management.

Stacey: They were, they were, frankly, they were not taking insulin. So they would lose weight. Which is, you know, a real issue. Unfortunately. So the camp had kind of struggled with that and I was like, well, he's eight. You're going to see everything. Like he has no independence when it comes to diabetes at this camp.

Stacey: And he and Benny had agreed. I'll do anything. You tell me what to do. So we just kind of trained them not to do his care because he could do it all himself. And this was just, you know, blood sugar checks and administering insulin, but we trained them to check on him. These are the times of day and the situations where you need to say to him, check your blood sugar. [00:38:00] That kind of thing. I'm going to watch you put the numbers in your pump. And then this age group is really interesting because so many of these little boys they're eight years old, they either were on medication or their parents wanted supervision of what they were eating to make sure they just weren't eating.

Stacey: I don't know pancakes all day long, it came. I don't even know what they read chocolate. Right. So a lot, right. A lot of the parents had already requested some special assistance. So every night my son would get on a golf cart with like three other kids, go up to the infirmary, get like a visual check, make sure that he was cool.

Stacey: And then back down now, the following year he went back, it was a success. He was fine. The following year, we changed it up a little bit to give him a little bit more independence. And every year that he went back and the second year he went for a month, And every year he went back, we would change it up and improve it.

Stacey: It got to the point where my, my feeling was, he should think as little as possible about diabetes and that will help him make the decisions he needs to make to stay healthy. So they would bring him like when other kids were taking medication, they would bring them in and said, it's three days, you gotta [00:39:00] change your insects.

Stacey: So he didn't have to remember that. Right. Things like that.

Stacey: And you know, he had a, he had a continuous glucose monitor the next year. He only had the receiver cause there was no sheriff. There was no shear and fall. Right. I know you made a face. It's so funny to think about, right. He got, he got a CGM when he was in the end of fourth grade, beginning of fifth grade, maybe.

Stacey: And you know, no sheriff follow. And so we didn't think anything of it. We were like, that's cool. He's got his receiver. And then when he got Sharon followed, this camp has no wifi. We were like, yeah, he doesn't need it anyway. So we never followed at camp and nobody ever followed him at camp. 

Katie: Wow. I mean, I can't even imagine. I think it's 

Stacey: Right, but the alarms go off. I mean, if he's high, if he's low, the alarms go off, he's never alone. There's a responsible adult to say, are you Okay.

Stacey: You know? And he went to this camp every year. It wasn't always great. I will say that the two years that he went to this camp in middle school, his blood sugars were higher than I would've liked.

Stacey: And we really debated, and we talked to our endocrinologist and our endo felt, and he was right this level of [00:40:00] independence and confidence that we were giving. Would pay off in dividends down the road that a lower A1C or more time in range would not pay off health wise. It wasn't dangerous enough. And it wasn't like three hundreds all day one, but it was, it was I'd say, I mean, with all disclosure, he was floating around 200, like the entire time he was a camp at summer.

Stacey: And that to me was higher than I would've liked, but the doctor was like, he, this is not going to hurt him. Long-term and it will help him. Long-term if you let him continue with this independence. 

Katie: Yeah.

Stacey: Which is a struggle I still have. So this age cohort goes to Israel. When you were a junior in high school and you're entering your junior year.

Stacey: If you go to this camp, they don't even have camp. It's go to Israel or don't come to camp that summer. So we knew all this time that it was, I mean, there are other programs they can do, but you do not go to the campground. You can do it in a, in the USA program. You can do other programs, but you cannot go to this.

Stacey: So we knew it was coming and I, all this time was like, it's not, I can't, what am I going to do? [00:41:00] So I started working with them again, well in advance, but they had already had other kids with type one on the program because these kids are 16, 17 years old. So it's a little bit different than sending your eight year old to summer camp and Benny and I talked about where he wanted to do, who we wanted to follow him.

Stacey: And I mean, I can go through the whole thing if you want. But the bottom line is he did really. 

Katie: Yeah. 

Stacey: E his blood sugar was more in range than I ever expected. He had a couple of scares Dexcom sensors, it was Willy have enough pump. You know, when you think about using, if you use pods, right? Imagine your car, you're going to swim in the dead sea.

Stacey: You're going to go hike where it's really sweaty. Like, is this stuff going to slide off? Is it going to stay on? And you know, the insets for the tandem are smaller than pods. So they're pretty easy to throw in a bag. He actually had no issue with anything coming. It was amazing. So that was really good, but yeah, I packed about 150% of what he needed.

Stacey: I wound up packing probably 200% more insulin than he needed. Cause I was concerned about that now it's Israel. So it's an easy country [00:42:00] to get care. It wasn't, I wasn't really concerned. and a lot, he had more false lows, more compression, lows, and more weird Dexcom wonkiness than he has at home usually, but he was terrific and strange food, tons of activity.

Stacey: And I'm telling you when he came home, I was like, I guess I don't have to make you as much unique, weird.

Katie: I mean, you've proved yourself for sure. You've been to Israel and back, and you lived to tell about it. So.

Stacey: I had a stomach the whole time. It was, I'm not exaggerating. It was very, very difficult for me. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. And I'm glad I did it. I'm glad it's over. It's it's it was a very hard, but man, it was so good. 

Katie: yeah. How do you even start to a pack for something like that? Did you just, was it like a year's worth of diabetes supplies?

Stacey: I took a picture and I wish I had taken a better picture because the picture I took was of the bag full of the stuff. I wish I'd taken all the pictures of everything that was out [00:43:00] of it. Now, my husband is a fantastic packer, so he said, just show me what You need. And I decided to take 150%. Of everything he needed. I thought 50% extra would be good. And I did sneak it, another inset in there. And I know I just kind of started, I kept throwing stuff. my biggest fear wasn't so much even And I have friends who live there. I have diabetes friends who live there, so I'm like, okay, if, well, I made diabetes friends who lived there too,

Katie: right. You 

Stacey: it was like, if I need something 

Stacey: right.

Stacey: If I 

Stacey: need something. I figured we could sneak it to him, but that was difficult. And so what we did for packing was the trip itself. They told you how to pack. And then I called and said, well, he's going to take his diabetes stuff in his backpack, but that's like three days worth of stuff in his backpack is Suitcase or medical supply bag, we'll stay at the hotel in the bus. Like we had to figure out how we're going to do this so that you can't bring a month's worth of diabetes supply into the desert and go hiking for three days. Right. You can bring your backpack for three days worth. So we worked at a whole [00:44:00] plan where this would stay refrigerated this not, he would change it out this way.

Stacey: That was the hardest thing was just to coordinate all of that. 

Katie: Yeah. And was he like moving around from hotel to hotel and, you know, he was having to pack up all of this stuff every time, make sure he remembered everything, make sure he got his phone charger. You know, that, that would be the thing that would worry me the most. Like just don't leave your phone charger in a hotel room.

Katie: I'm sure there's places to bring, to buy another ho you know, another phone charger, but still when you're in another country you just don't know. So.

Stacey: Well, it's interesting because you, how old is your. 

Katie: She's only nine.

Stacey: Okay. She's nine.

Stacey: when she's 16, she's never going to forget her phone 

Katie: Well, that's true. True. 

Stacey: And if she does, all of her friends are gonna have when she can borrow. And that was it's funny how that changes, right? Because these kids were on, they were actually not allowed to be on social media for most of the trip.

Stacey: There was a lot of security, but they were all taking photos and WhatsApping each other and you know, that kind of thing. But Yeah. he had, he was in charge of. Checking his bag and making sure you're checking to make sure this applies for a fresh and everything was okay. And he [00:45:00] enlisted smartly enlisted one of the counselors and was like, Hey, can you help me make sure that when we're heading out of the hotel, will you backstop me and say, do you have XYZ?

Stacey: That was his biggest concern. It was a great question because his big concern was what if I forget to repack my bag and I was like, ask for help, get somebody to look over your shoulder. You know, we all need that. So that was that it's you hit it right on the head. 

Katie: Yeah. Yeah, that was my first thought. Just the moving from one place to the next. That's not, that's not easy for me to do so. Okay. I feel like we've hit all the major points that I wanted to talk to you about. I just want to end with, you know, cause you are the mom of a T one D teen and since this episode will be part of the teen series D what, what would be your best piece of advice for a mom or a caregiver of a teen with type one diabetes?

Stacey: Gosh, I think it's, it's such a difficult age because they really are becoming. A separate part of your family. They are becoming an [00:46:00] individual. They're becoming a young adult, but they're not there yet. So you have that push pull even without diabetes of seeing where they are going and knowing that they're not So it's very difficult. And the advice I would give came to me from, again, I'll mention more on McCarthy, who is the author of raising teens with diabetes, 

Katie: Yeah, she's coming on the show, by the way, 

Katie: I've already contacted her.

Stacey: Good. Good. Good. She'll be terrific. But, and she'll probably say this, but it's such good advice in that, you know, the best thing you can do for your, your teen with diabetes is to give them compassion and empathy and understand how difficult it really is.

Stacey: They are not your super wonderful diabetes rockstar. I mean, if their diet, if they were diagnosed as teens too, that's a different story altogether. And I don't have that experience, but I have found that giving up a little bit of control. For me has paid off in dividends with my son. We are very open.

Stacey: We're very [00:47:00] honest. We communicate all the time. I say to him, you know, what can I do to make it easier on you? Here's what I need. Here's what I need you to do for me. Right? This is, can we come to a compromise? Can we be clear about it? Can we talk it through? And we've been like that since he was little so it's, it's very easy, but I would say, just understand.

Stacey: And if you don't believe me, ask your. Right. If your teenager has had, you know, you're a little kid has been a 6.7 A1C their whole life, another 14, and they're an eight. You talked to your endo, is it worth right? Is it worth fighting? Is it worth restricting? Is it worth creating issues? And it may be your endo may say, look, you know, this is a situation where I really do feel like you can do XYZ, but for the most part.

Stacey: A little bit of independence and showing them, look, I trust you. I know this is a tough time, but I want you to figure it out as well and really go a long way. And I think as a parent, right, don't we do that without diabetes when they're teens, [00:48:00] right. We kind of let them make some of their own mistakes, hopefully in safe environments, knowing that their brains will come back even better when they're in their twenties. I don't know, I also would say, and then we tie it. We kind of touched on this in the beginning. I would say, please, parents let go of your competition. And I still do this. And you know, we know there are studies that social media makes us feel bad. 

Katie: Oh, for 

Stacey: There are so many studies about this, and I'm telling you if I see, you know, graph after graph on social media, like, yay, my kid is, you know, doing so great.

Stacey: That's wonderful. But think about why you're sharing it. Think about what you're putting out there. And if you have your child posing with a sign that says, you know, 5.81, see, think about what your child may feel like. If there's A1C is 7.2 and you don't post it right. Or 9.5. And you don't post it, right.

Stacey: There are things that are going to change and [00:49:00] things that are going to go up and down. And I don't know, I just think we have to celebrate the child, not the number. 

Katie: Yeah, absolutely fabulous advice. I mean, comparison is for sure. The thief of joy and social media is. I just have such a love, hate relationship with it. And unfortunately you can't have a podcast today without being on social media, 

Stacey: Great. 

Katie: I know, but it's just, it's just, it's, it's so great in so many ways.

Katie: And then it's so bad. And others and yeah, I mean, honestly, I feel like if, if you're a parent and you're struggling with that, just feeling bad and depressed over my numbers, don't stand up to everybody's else's or my kid doesn't, you know, I would, honestly, I would get off social media. I would just get off 

Stacey: Yeah. Or, or start focusing on other goals. I mean, obviously. The bottom line is we have to have more enraged numbers. We want our children to be healthy, but at the same time, you know, you can start measuring things like how many [00:50:00] smiles did I get from my kid today? Did I get a hug? Did they finish that tough homework assignment?

Stacey: Did they, you know, did they find a new skill? Did they make a new friend? You know, are they reading a new book? And it sounds silly like, well, I don't want to, you know, I don't have a high A1C, but I'm okay that my kids reading, that's not what this is all about. It's all whole child approach. It's the whole thing.

Stacey: And so, you know, if you start feeling bad about diabetes, I'd also start to think about who your child is in total. And that really does help me cause you know, I can't hide a KT way back in the back of my mind. I'm like maybe I should make them stay home and not go to Israel and not go to camp. Cause boy has numbers would have been. 

Stacey: If I was in charge if I was still in charge. 

Katie: Right. 

Katie: Yeah. But I 

Katie: think you've done what I will. Exactly. And I think you've done, you're setting him up for success because like you've said, the goal is not to raise a child and have them live in your basement for the rest of your life. The goal is to raise them and then kick them out when they are productive, [00:51:00] independent member of society.

Katie: So I think you're doing a fabulous job and, and I think you're definitely setting them up for success. So. 

Stacey: Oh, fingers crossed my 

Katie: I know, I'll check back. I'll check back in five years. Yeah. Something that I wanted to say when we were talking about you know, look focusing on the attributes of your child, that aren't diabetes related.

Katie: Something I realized in my own life recently is that when you know my, my nine year old daughter. You know, no surprise has a phone so she can, we can do the whole Dexcom follow thing. And I found that I was only texting her. It was diabetes related, like, Hey, bolus for this, or bolus a unit, or you need to eat some Skittles or whatever it is.

Katie: And I was like, I'm never texting her. I don't love the fact that my daughter has a phone anyway. So I don't, I wish I wasn't having to text her, but you know what I mean? Like I just realized I'm not texting her anything other than diabetes stuff. I mean, I [00:52:00] talked to her during the day and I give her words of encouragement there.

Katie: So she's hearing nice things from me. But as far as the. String. I'm like, I don't want her to look back on this and be like, man, mom never like texted me anything that wasn't related to diabetes. So I've just started like throwing in little texts during the day. Like, you know, I was really proud of you when you did this, or I love you so much.

Katie: I'm excited about this for this upcoming weekend or just little things. So it's not always diabetes. That's the one thing.

Stacey: Does she use the phone for anything other than diet? 

Katie: Yes, she 

Stacey: Oh, then there you go. Okay. Then I would say then you're right on. 

Katie: Yeah. I mean, she has like the little, I always say it wrong, Facebook messenger, messenger kids, or whatever it's called. She can chat with her little friends and with grandparents and stuff like that. And she has a couple random games on there, like roadblocks and, and some other, some other things like that.

Katie: But 

Stacey: yeah, 

Stacey: I only asked because if, if you're only using the phone as a medical device, then who cares, but if she is using it for other things, then I think you're really. [00:53:00] To, to make that effort and realize that it can easily become all about diabetes when you don't want it to, it doesn't need to it's

Stacey: but that's really hard.

Stacey: And your daughter's the age, right.

Stacey: I started my podcast when Benny was 10. I think it might've been turning 10 or he was 10. Yeah.

Stacey: He was 10 years old. So that's really funny because you can hear in my voice too, how terrified I was of the teen years. And I talk like back on those old episodes and I'm like, oh my God,

Katie: I know I'm, I'm, I'm kind of excited. I mean, diabetes, teen years does scare me a little bit, but I really like, I would not agree. Hmm. How do I want to say this? I love being a mom and I have loved my kids at all stages, but the toddler years were like super hard for me. Like, I'm going to look back on them fondly, but I don't ever want to go back to the toddler years.

Katie: But I just love as they're getting older, like the. They're funny and we can actually laugh and joke about things that are like funny and not just a knock-knock joke that they're making up. And, you [00:54:00] know, I just love how they're, they're becoming sarcastic and they get little, you know, kind of witty dry humor.

Katie: I'm like, Ooh, this is going to be fun. This is going to be fun. We're gonna have fun with this. 

Stacey: It's good stuff. 

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the Stacey, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for your time. Thank you for all your wonderful, just words of encouragement and advice for caregivers and moms. And I just really appreciate it.

Stacey: Thank you so much. 

Katie: You're welcome. Bye. .

Katie: That's it for our episode today. I hope you enjoyed listening to that Sage advice from Stacey. I know I did. Please go check out her podcast, diabetes connection, follow her on social media and take a peek at her book. I will leave links in the show notes to all of it, Stacey. And the information she puts out is how I know what's going on in the ever-changing world of type one.

Katie: Especially when it comes to healthcare and technology, it's really hard to keep up and I'm grateful that Stacey makes that easier for me. Okay. Signing off here, have a fabulous week, [00:55:00] stay calm and bolus on my friends.