Diabetes Unscripted
Creating a community for folks living Type1 diabete to learn and grow from one and other. Because until there's a cure there's a community.
Diabetes Unscripted
S1E2: Tell us about you; Diagnosis story for each participant
What if the very thing that challenges you every day could also guide your life's purpose? Meet Cassie Bunker, who was diagnosed with diabetes at the tender age of six and now stands as a beacon of hope and resilience. Her journey comes full circle as she now works as a nurse practitioner in the very clinic where she was once a patient. Join us as we unravel her story and dive into the life of a retired school superintendent who recounts his 50-year dance with diabetes, marked by moments that tested his courage and taught him the art of self-care from a young age.
Our episode continues with Olivia Omer, whose diagnosis at age eight fostered a deeper connection with her sister, creating a family narrative rooted in strength and understanding. Her ambitions to become a physician's assistant are nothing short of inspiring. Tom Grossman, another voice in our discussion, shares his journey with diabetes, providing us insights from his work at Optum Health and the emotional challenges he faces in his role. The episode wraps up with a spotlight on diabetes technology, exploring how innovations like insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors are reshaping lives. Tune in to witness these remarkable individuals who not only manage their condition with grace but also weave it into their stories of triumph and community.
You're listening to Diabetes Unscripted, where we are focused on creating a platform for people living with diabetes to share, learn and support one another, Because until there's a cure, there's a community. Hi friends, thanks for tuning in to this episode of Diabetes Unscripted. This week we're going to be going through the candidates that I interviewed for season one, and first up we have my dear friend Cassie Bunker, and here is a little bit of her background and her diagnosis story.
Speaker 2:So I was diagnosed when I was six years old so it was way back in the 90s, like before CGMs, before pumps. So I definitely sound ancient now to some people who are diagnosed now. A lot of people that come over from foreign countries have it, but it's not something that's given out routinely in the United States. The point of this, or the kind of goal of this trial, was to try and extend the honeymoon phase, so that may or may not have helped me be like successful and healthy kind of throughout that phase and throughout the majority of my life so far. So kind of hard to give the results of that study. I was never given them, which is kind of interesting, but I definitely feel like that had actually a big impact on my health.
Speaker 2:I was always pretty confident that I wanted to have a job that was related to diabetes, because in general diabetes is just a bit of an inconvenience for me. It's never been something that's super challenging. I've always been kind of excited and pretty proud to have it. So diabetes was always the thing that really made me unique. It kind of made me who I am. I went to school at Michigan State University for my first degree and that was a bachelor's actually in zoology, and then I went to nursing school at the University of Detroit, mercy. From there I actually worked at Children's Hospital of Michigan on the endocrinology and neurosurgery inpatient unit. It's actually here where I met one of my diabetes Emily. So that's a pretty exciting time. After about a year of working there, I went to U of M for my master's and I got my master's in nursing there and so now I'm working as a nurse practitioner.
Speaker 2:About a year after I started working as a nurse practitioner, I had an opportunity to work at a pediatric diabetes center in Syracuse, new York. So I moved out there. I didn't know anybody, it was just this really cool opportunity. So I was out there for about three years when I got an opportunity to actually move back to Michigan. So I'm actually now working in the same clinic that I was seen at as a kid. So that's kind of fun and exciting, yeah, so it's well. It's funny too, because I actually work with a lot of the staff that took care of me as a kid. So, and now I'm working with Emily, so that's been very fun and exciting and just a good thing. So a lot of my life has to do with diabetes um, which I think is great um in general.
Speaker 2:I'm still happy to have been diagnosed. I started going to diabetes camp when I was about seven, which is always the best part of the year. This is when I kind of first started building my diabetes community, Just because I didn't have anybody in my family with type one, it was always just me. So I still go back every year. I'm med staff now, which is how we met and that's exciting. I think you were on staff when I was a camper Don't quote me on that but that was exciting to work with you. Diabetes, you know, really is, like I said, kind of a part of everything that I do. You know the majority of my friends have diabetes. A lot of the text groups I'm in every day, everybody has diabetes. So I'm just really fortunate to have such a good community around me.
Speaker 1:So our next interviewee is one of my closest friends in life. We've worked together at the camp for several years and been on several adventures together. He is a retired school superintendent, and here's a little about him and his diagnosis story.
Speaker 5:Been a diabetic for just over 50 years, I guess. My story is. My parents weren't very observant when I was diagnosed. I lost a lot of weight, going to the restroom often, and my parents just thought that, since I was learning to use the big boy potty, that that was just normal, of why I was drinking so much and why I was using the bathroom so often.
Speaker 5:During my diagnosis, when they eventually did bring me in, we were told that I was basically possibly a day away from being in a coma. So definitely hit my parents pretty hard, but I was young. Well, obviously back when I was diagnosed in the 70s it's not quite the same as what it is today. I think I was in the hospital for close to two weeks. What I thought was also pretty interesting is I vaguely remember them in the hospital trying to teach me to give my own shots when I was around two years old, using a tangerine and a needle. So I think the first time that I gave my shot was probably just after a couple months of being home, and, of course, I had my parents there, so or parent there.
Speaker 1:So our next two interviewees are sisters. They're good friends of mine. They're incredibly smart, talented young women, very good golfers and have been extremely successful living with their type 1. So we'll start with Olivia and then we'll go to Reese.
Speaker 4:Okay, so my name's Olivia Omer. I'm a junior currently at Adrian College. I'm majoring in biology and my minor is public health. So I'll have a year left to go and obviously next semester, but my stretch goals are to hopefully become a physician's assistant. So that's a little about me. I'm also on the women's golf team at Adrian College, the captain of the women's golf team. I'm also involved in Circle K, which is part of Kiwanis, the SAC, which is the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, and I'm currently working on getting my CNA certification. So I'll hopefully be a nursing assistant within a couple weeks.
Speaker 4:So I was diagnosed in December of 2006, just after turning three, so I'm currently 20, so that was 17 years ago. It took a while for my family to kind of figure out what was happening. I slowly started to go downhill health-wise. Like within the summertime before my third birthday I started to get frail, kind of small. I was getting sick, often excessive urination, all the classic symptoms, excessive urination, all the classic symptoms. So my mom brought me in and said you know, after lots of family members saying hey, like something's going on, you should probably go get her looked at. So we went to the hospital, got looked at, basically told me that and my mom that it was most likely just the flu and that take me home and just make sure you do anything else you would do if it was the flu. That obviously didn't work because it was type one diabetes.
Speaker 4:So came back, we did all that stuff and finally one day I was just so sick. My mom brought me into the hospital where they immediately sent us to the ER and said it was as simple as a finger check to see that I had type 1 diabetes, but my blood sugar was over 800. I spent a week in the PICU. It was a lot. They struggled to find a vein in my arm for the IV because I was so dehydrated and the doctor who originally missed my diagnosis had some personal issues and is no longer practicing medicine.
Speaker 4:So it's just, it was a tough time to kind of figure that out. Tough time to kind of figure that out. The doctors were kind of worried about me and my safety after delivering all this how to take care of someone with type 1 diabetes to my patient or to my parents, who had no further history of how to take care of type 1 diabetes. So it was difficult, but I would say it helped us in the long run. I'm, I'm sure you will mention my sister, reese, who was also diagnosed. Um, we're the only two in our family and she was diagnosed just a couple of years after me, so I believe, so I think, three she was, yeah, she was eight, and we're two years apart. It's a little tricky. Yeah, three years.
Speaker 3:So hi, I'm Reese. I just graduated from Michigan State last December, in three and a half years, which is so exciting, and my undergrad was in psychology. So right now I got my first big girl job right out of school. So that's really exciting too. And I'm working for the state and workforce development and I'm a career advisor there. So I'm working with the youth population primarily and that has been super a fulfilling job for me. I've really enjoyed coming to work every day, and then I just applied for graduate school too. So back to Michigan State in the spring in school psychology yeah. So it's very, yeah, very exciting.
Speaker 3:And then my diagnosis story. So I'm 22 years old now and I was diagnosed when I was eight. So it's been 14 years living with this crazy condition and my story is probably a little bit different than most people's in that my little sister was diagnosed before I was, so in a weird way, we kind of already knew all of the what goes around living with diabetes, what it takes and kind of what a low blood sugar and a high blood sugar, what those symptoms might be, and then so I was feeling like I was having a low blood sugar myself and I'd helped my little sister, obviously with her care, and I was having this weird moment. All of a sudden I started getting shaky. I was super hungry and as an eight-year-old like this, maybe, maybe this would be a typical situation. But my parents, being as savvy as they were, they were like let's, let's test Olivia or let's test Reese, using all of my little sister's stuff. And so they pulled out her glucometer and I pricked my finger and I was 55. So it's actually it's kind of a super interesting story after that. So my mom called my little sister's endocrinologist and totally lied and said that she was calling on behalf of my little sister. She called the endo and the endocrinologist said well, stay calm, we don't know exactly what this might mean yet, so don't worry.
Speaker 3:And then I went to the hospital a couple of days later and, sure enough, I had type one diabetes, just the super early side of it. So before science had really caught up to what that might mean, your pancreas spits out little bits of insulin before it starts to shut down, and so we caught it so early I was in that little spit of extra insulin time. So I was full-blown diagnosed like six months after that. No, yeah, so that's another funny thing, I was never inpatient, so we did all of this at home. So I was an out-of-patient diagnosis which I don't know how many of those are even out there but they had to do the glucose I'm not even sure what the scientific name of it is, because I was eight but where they give you all that little glucose and check your blood sugar on the 30-minute mark. But that was, and so that was my diagnosis, was that? But that was even done outpatient as well. So I was never admitted and I haven't been admitted since. So that's another really really fun thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, three years, um, so she. So I'm at the 14 year mark and she's at the 17 year mark, so she was three when she was diagnosed. Yeah, yeah, uh-huh, but I just I'm so lucky that they they had the, the eagle eye out on me too and just wanted to make sure that everything was all right. And then we it's so impressive because we caught it so early so I never, I never had any of those crazy high blood sugar things where you lose a lot of weight and you don't know really what's going on. Your body starts to shut down. So I'm really thankful for them in so many ways for that, for that as well.
Speaker 3:So diabetes was never a scary thing exactly in our family.
Speaker 3:It was more of just something that you had to work around in order to be like every other kid, and that's really how we have framed it.
Speaker 3:So I never I don't think I was ever like worried or scared or overwhelmed, even.
Speaker 3:It was just something else that we got to kind of take on.
Speaker 3:And, if anything, I'm like weirdly kind of grateful for it in so many ways, cause I've I've never been closer to my sister and I think this is something that if she's having a bad diabetes day and she just wants to vent about it, I'm her first person, and then it goes the other way as well. I look to her for so many things, so it kind of stinks, but at the same time, it's it's awesome to have somebody who totally gets what's going on, and even if that means not wanting to talk about it too, like you, just you just want to be with somebody and you don't want to have to explain anything, and it's it's awesome to have a built-in person that totally gets it. So yeah, absolutely, and it's such a cool club to be in because people, people around you just get it right. You don't have to explain yourself, you don't have to I don't know go into the detail on things. People just get it. So in a weird way, it's kind of like a little army of people that are just constantly on your side.
Speaker 1:So our fifth interviewee for this season is a good friend of mine, tom Grossman, who is living with type 1 diabetes for some time. Him and I have done several of the ADA rides together and also worked in industry together. He's a man that probably needs no introduction. He was also part of the T1D run across America, but I will let you tell. Let him tell a little bit about himself in his diagnosis story.
Speaker 6:Yes, all right, so so yes, I live in Midland Michigan and I work for Optum Health. It's a company owned by UnitedHealthcare and our clients are Blue Cross, blue Shield of Michigan as well as UnitedHealthcare. I work in with patients as they're approaching their end of life. So prior to palliative care, there are certain healthcare inefficiencies that commonly appear. So my role is to engage those members of the plans as they're approaching end of life to accept certain no-cost benefits. So it is a sales role and really what I'm selling is the people accepting their own mortality mark, which really no one wants to do. So these are kind of conversations both with patients and their families as patients are approaching end of life.
Speaker 6:So diagnosis story I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 8. And I remember the day pretty vividly. You know standard dramatic weight loss, thirst eating, standard dramatic weight loss, thirst eating. And you know when someone is that young it's hard to miss it right, with type 1 especially, of course. So I was brought to a pediatrician's office and that was in 1982. And glucometers were new then and blood test was done, done, blood sugar was high, and then the news was delivered.
Speaker 6:So I then went to uh, directly to the hospital, my, my mom was there and my sister was there and I remember, um, I didn't really have an opinion, I've had no basis, I had no exposure to diabetes, but they did so, of course, upon that news, I looked to them and you see, you know, my mom starting to cry and my sister older sister looking to my mom also, and I was like whoa, you know, we've got a situation here, apparently. But, yeah, so that's, that's kind of how things, how things started off and went right to the hospital. I think it was about 10 days. I know it's done differently now, it's much briefer but much more brief. But yeah, with diabetes education, they didn't let us leave until you could do insulin injections.
Speaker 6:So at age eight, that kind of seemed like, you know, it seemed like, um, like a science experiment, almost. You know, I, I, I kind of enjoyed it a little bit. Um, you know, I mean, ignorance is bliss sometimes, but, um, no, I was, uh, I took it, I always took it seriously as a child, um, but I approached it and tend to approach it in a positive way seriously as a child, but I approached it and tend to approach it in a positive way.
Speaker 1:So my last interviews for this season were with the wonderful Dr Mike Brennan. I'm going to turn it over to him and let him tell you a little bit about himself and his diagnosis story.
Speaker 7:So my name is Mike Brennan. I am a endocrinologist by trade. I have had type 1 diabetes since age 13 and I often a lot of people don't know who an endocrinologist is. I think that one of the funny things about having type 1 diabetes is you get to learn who an endocrinologist is and sadly for some people who have very insidious processes of their diabetes starting they think they have type 2 diabetes they might not see the right doctor right away. But if you have type 1 diabetes, I would say it's pretty essential that you find out who the endocrinologist is in your neighborhood. And so when I was 13 and diagnosed, I found a pediatric endocrinologist who helped me a great deal, and then I would make an argument that I tried not to become an endocrinologist. Endocrinology kind of picked me.
Speaker 7:I went to Michigan State University. I got an undergraduate in packaging engineering. I worked for GM or General Motors, which is a company in Michigan. I was sitting there one day and I was like I can't do this anymore and I had originally planned on going into medicine a little bit, but because of grades as well as activities that I did in undergrad, I thought that the packaging engineering would be a faster way to get a successful career. And so I went back and did my pre-med recs. I got a master's in epidemiology, because the people in the medical school were like packaging engineering applying for medical school how does this ever work? So and then my intention was to go to medical school wherever, and I got to go to the greatest place ever, which is Michigan State University again. So I literally got to spend like a decade at Michigan State University, which some people hearkened that to a movie called Tommy Boy, where he just stays there in school forever but um otherwise. So I was just like living there for a while. But I got through it and then the decision came in my studies to be like well, are you going to be an orthopedic surgeon? Are you going to be a general surgeon? What type of doctor you want to be, with, of course, endocrinology always like looming in the background. And so I did this pathway called internal medicine and pediatrics, because, for those of you that don't know, there is a subspecialty called pediatrics. Then you do endocrinology or you do internal medicine and you do endocrinology, and internal medicine is the adult form and pediatrics is obviously the kid form. So, still not knowing which way I was going to go, I elected to do med peds and then eventually that took four years of training and then the choice was to do internal medicine endocrinology, which is adult endocrinology, or do pediatric endocrinology or do both, and to do both took five years more. To do pediatric endocrine would take three years and to do adult endocrine took two years. So my wife made my decision for me and said you're going to be an adult endocrinologist, which has been a beautiful thing and I'm so lucky.
Speaker 7:When I was diagnosed at age 13, I had the same story as everybody else, with polyuria and polydipsia and weight loss which are fancy medical terms, for I was peeing a lot and drinking a lot, and so, fortunately, by the graces of God, I went in for my physical and it was earth-shattering. My mom came in the room crying. My doctor said you got to go to the hospital. I didn't know if I had cancer, I didn't know what was going on with regard to why everybody was so upset, and I got to go straight to the hospital. I remember getting there, getting insulin, trying to learn stuff. I remember also being in a bed next to a kid that was really destroyed by his diabetes, which was pretty shocking and moving.
Speaker 7:I also was diagnosed in approximately 1989, and this was the advent of the glucose meter, and so I was fortunate enough to have good enough insurance and people literally learned at my bedside how to use a glucose meter. So I was able to go home with a huge drop of blood, test my blood sugar and get a number in about 45 seconds to a minute. That was a game changer too, because before that you were walking around pretty blind as to what your glucose was, and so I was a vial syringe guy. I was a regular NPH guy mixer of insulins regular NPH guy mixer of insulins. That was really cool. And then I was a PR on sticks back then. And then I mean the story is so beautiful Mark and I have talked about it several times like the evolution of the diabetes experience has been tremendous.
Speaker 7:And so I tried to stay away from pens because I thought I knew what I was doing with the violin syringe. I tried to stay away from pens because I thought I knew what I was doing with violent syringe. I tried to stay away from pumps. Mark Walsh is more of a guy who like if there's a new technology he'll try it. He's like a try it before you even buy it or can get it. But me, I was kind of. I feel my numbers are good today, so why would I move on? But I've learned that over time, even with my own clinical experience, like these, new technologies are life-saving and needed for almost all of us with type 1 diabetes, and so, with that, I currently am on an insulin pump, I currently use a continuous glucose monitor, I currently take care of a lot of people with diabetes and we have a good time.
Speaker 1:So it's no secret, we have a star-studded cast for this season. I want to thank you all for listening, and these are the folks that were willing to give up their time to contribute in the episodes ahead, so I'd like to personally thank each and every one of them for their contribution. Thank you for listening to this episode of Diabetes Unscripted. The information presented in this podcast is for general knowledge. The mention of specific products, medication, treatments or services does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. No-transcript.