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
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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
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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
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