There are a lot of terrific small businesses creating products to help with diabetes management. We've seen families with 3-D printers making insulin vial cases, people who've come up with better ways to make your CGM stick to your body, and creative clothing with places for pumps. What if you could search through those products in one place? That's the question Adam & Celeste Litt decided to answer when they started their online marketplace, The Useless Pancreas.
Adam was diagnosed with LADA a few years ago. He and Celeste share what that diagnosis was like (he was initially misdiagnosed with type 2), how they teach their two boys about dad's diabetes, and what they hope to accomplish with the Useless Pancreas.
In Tell Me Something Good lots of teens and young adults with new jobs and a bunch of sports milestones to brag about.
This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.
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Episode Transcription (rough transcription, has not yet been edited)
Stacey Simms 0:00
Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Daria health manage your blood glucose levels increase your possibiLitties by g evoke hypo pin, the first premixed auto injector for very low blood sugar, and by Dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom.
Announcer 0:22
This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 0:28
This week, lots of people get a diabetes diagnosis themselves or in their family and they create a product or write a book or invent something to help others. Adam and Celeste Litt took a
Adam Littt 0:40
broader view. I just see all kinds of different really cool stuff out there. And I think that's part of the magic as well. Stacy is there's so many questions out there. What is the solution for this? How can I help this and you get shipped to all these different places and sites. It's not really in one place and people don't always really know where to go.
Stacey Simms 1:01
Adam was diagnosed with LADA a few years ago, he and Celeste join me to talk about their marketplace for T1D products and services called the useless pancreas.
In tell me something good. Lots of teens and young adults with new jobs and a bunch of sports milestones to brag about this podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider.
Welcome to another week of the show. Are we so glad to have you along. We aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. My son Benny was diagnosed with type one right before he turned to more than 14 years ago. My husband that's with type two diabetes. I don't have any kind of diabetes, but I have a background in broadcasting and that is how you get the podcast and Adam Litt who I'm talking to this week. We connected many, many years ago. Well it was a one way connection because Adam used to listen to me on the radio. And it was just funny to think about how you know things like that kind of come full circle. As I always say for the start of every show. You know I have a background in broadcasting here. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I worked in radio here for 10 years. I hosted a radio morning show Charlottes Morning News, the city's top rated morning news show,
basically, I got up in the middle of the night and got to work by four o'clock in the morning to go on at five for four hours a day trapped in a box with a couple other guys. And we had a great time. But I love that. But after 10 years of getting up at 233 o'clock in the morning, I definitely had had enough. But talking to Adam just reminded me about that connection that you have with your listeners when you do a job like that, you know, he commuted into Charlotte and listened every day. And my son Benny was born in 2004. And I was on the radio at that time. So my listeners went through all of that with me. And then they went through his diagnosis with me. So he knew the story. Well before the podcast, it just took me back because I was very lucky to have the career that I really always dreamed about having when I was a kid. I worked in radio first part time. And then I worked in television for more than 10 years as a local reporter and anchor then came that decade in Charlotte doing radio. And then you know, it's funny, I've really I've spent almost the last 10 years and I hadn't realized it, I left the radio station at the very end of 2012. And I did some freelance work. I worked as a multimedia journalist, it's really a one man band, you know, you're shooting your own stuff for about a year after that just for health insurance. But I've been on my own running my own business for a long time. And I hadn't realized how long until I talked to Adam and we figured out when he must have listened to me. I don't miss getting up in the middle of the night and I don't miss some of the nonsense of working at a radio station like the one I was at and that's another long story. I do feel extremely grateful to have been able to kind of create this radio job for myself and to be able to serve you and do this and have listeners all this time. We're coming up on six years this summer and every time I get a Litttle radio reminder like that I just want to take a moment be thankful so I really appreciate having you here
we will talk to Adam in just a moment and his wife Celeste but first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Gvoke HypoPen and you know almost everyone who takes insulin has experienced a low blood sugar and that can be scary. A very low blood sugar is really scary and that's where Gvoke HypoPen comes in. Do you focus the first auto injector to treat very low blood sugar? Gvoke HypoPen is pre mixed and ready to go with no visible needle. That means it's easy to use. How easy is it you pull off the red cap and push the yellow end onto bare skin and hold it for five seconds. That's it. Find out more go to Diabetes connections.com and click on the Gvoke logo. Gvoke shouldn't be used in patients with pheochromocytoma or insulinoma visit Gvoke glucagon.com slash risk.
My guest this week saw a gap in the diabetes community and like many of us, they jumped into filling. Adam Littt was diagnosed with LADA A few years after being initially mis diagnosed with Type two if you're not familiar with LADA 80 is latent autoimmune diabetes in adults it's also called type 1.5 it presents a lot like type two but it's really type one it's just slower moving is a really good kind of basic definition of it and i link up more information we've done lots of episodes on LADA but i like to explain it you just you know you never know if this is somebody's first time hearing about it adam and his wife celeste have started a new website it's a marketplace for diabetes products called the useless pancreas and i will link that up as well in the episode homepage it is useless pancreas all one word full disclosure my book is listed as one of the products on that website but they don't pay me any extra to list it there and no money exchanged hands for this interview adam and celeste thank you so much for joining me it's great to talk to you today
Adam Littt 5:48
thanks so much for having us yes thank
Unknown Speaker 5:50
you
Stacey Simms 5:51
yeah this is gonna be fun i have so much to ask you about our charlotte connection and your website and the uselessness of everything that you're doing but let's start at the beginning here if we could adam tell me about your diagnosis
Adam Littt 6:06
sure yeah be happy to go into that stacy so i was a ladder diagnosis the you know late onset type and at first and probably probably very similar to a lot of people's stories out there i was diagnosed as a type two and this was around my mid 30s and you know what stacy after that they diagnosed me type two that was a Litttle pudgy and i said yeah i'm just gonna go ahead i'm going to lose weight i'm going to work out i'm gonna get really fit and when i lost weight when i started losing weight i started losing weight at a pretty rapid rates where people started making some comments like well you're you're getting reasonably thin probably a Litttle you know fitter than where you ought to be and i blew this off i completely disregarded it you know i had my a one c's checked for a couple of years and they were maintaining in the mid sixes and you know everything was fine and but i kept getting healthier and healthier as far as weight control and diet and everything else and it wouldn't budge and then i went off to las vegas with some friends we partied a Litttle bit out there and after that i came back i was feeling really bad the day after i came back as you can imagine from las vegas and it went down in my workplace they're sort of infirmary set up and they took my sugar because i was again a type two in their eyes and it's 250 and they said you know let's go ahead and check you out and they they look they found ketones like you're off to the hospital right now and then you know after that it was the typical story you know you go see the end oh you do the tests you get the diagnosis my a one c somehow went from six and a half to it was 10.5 i think for that three month period so it was some rapid acceleration maybe you know it was just time i guess so anyway and it just gave out and was it las vegas probably not
Unknown Speaker 8:03
well it was also partly your birthday cuz your birthday was my birthday yes
Unknown Speaker 8:07
that was my my diversity is that what they call them
Celeste Littt 8:10
diversity is the day after his birthday
Unknown Speaker 8:14
yes yes there you go
Stacey Simms 8:15
so what during this time kind of what were you thinking you know 30s is young for type two to begin with but it's not extraordinary i mean were you kind of thinking things were funky
Celeste Littt 8:26
you know looking back on it i i think we saw signs and didn't recognize them up until that point so it was a Litttle scary i mean here i am with two young boys and you know thinking oh my goodness now i have one more thing on my plate adam sometimes put refers to the diabetes as his third child
Stacey Simms 8:48
adam had you ever heard of LADA
Adam Littt 8:50
no i had no idea as a matter of fact when my doctor first throughout the term lot i said i don't know what you're talking about she said well it's type one and a half so what do you mean type one and a half so i started looking all this up and stacy you know during this period where they do all the blood work you know you just pop every night and you're looking what is lot and i'm like i hope it's not tied to my biggest fear at that time was again a type two i was pretty well control they'd never had prick myself at all to take my pleasure my biggest fear was oh my gosh are they going to come back and start telling me i have to test my blood sugar once or twice a day well different story now but yeah we went through all that
Stacey Simms 9:31
it is funny what your initial thoughts are when you get that diagnosis because we don't really have any idea right unless you're in it and so let's say i ask you because as you know in many families mom has a lot going on i'm sure adam is very responsible with his as he calls it his child that's their child there but i'm curious too when you heard he had a lot of what first went through your mind
Celeste Littt 9:53
oh wow like i said before i feel like i was overwhelmed it was a change in our lifestyle we actually had to take some time off to really figure out how to manage the type 1 diabetes and how to carry things around and how to deal with all the lows and the highs and there was this learning curve at the very beginning that was just very overwhelming for me especially trying to manage and make sure that he was okay he obviously wasn't on any Dexcom or any pump at this point he would test his blood sugar and it would be really low there were a couple of really scary moments at the very beginning where he had some 30s blood sugar levels and just thinking also just about having to raise these kids by myself there's always that thought in the back of your mind and and or am i gonna wake up and find you know that he didn't make it to the night i was constantly worried about him all night long and just during the day when he was away at work things like that
Stacey Simms 10:52
and did you know that
Adam Littt 10:53
did i know she was worried about me stacy well to that extent no i at all it's nice to to hear she's always been a wonderful caretaker and she carries around two Litters for me stacy wherever we go you can always see the concern obviously it did make me think stacey have you know when i was first diagnosed though i remember i was sitting downstairs with one of these lows that she was talking about and my older son who was still very young at the time she may be honey he was what like seven or eight at that time something like that he was looking down as i was experiencing this this low and shaking and trembling and not knowing what was going on i remember this this vividly and he didn't really know how to help me either and that was actually a reasonably scary moment it was all just brand new so glad we're you know we've learned since then
Stacey Simms 11:45
yeah are the kids kind of on board now i mean they're they're tweens i guess we could call them at this point do they kind of i'm sure they understand more and they they're you know they can help out if needed
Adam Littt 11:55
or though when we when we go out to the golf course they you know they pack smarties in the bag and stuff like that and you know if daddy ever has a severe low whatever it might be they'll go and run and get the two Litter they'll pour it for me and they'll stand by and make sure i'm alright so they're they're good kids
Celeste Littt 12:12
i feel like we've been proactive about that and we've tried to prepare them a lot for how to handle an emergency situation it's really important for me to continue getting them trained in first aid cpr and things like that on a regular basis so as they get older they're just they feel competent enough to deal with a such situation if it were to arise what's the two Litter the lemon lime soda
Unknown Speaker 12:37
hey it's probably sitting on my desk over there dc
Unknown Speaker 12:41
what does it like storebrand
Unknown Speaker 12:42
sprite is from lead oh yeah yeah it works it does a job it's quick
Stacey Simms 12:50
it's funny though because i really feel like i should mention before we go any further that while you and i don't know each other you have known kind of me since benny was diagnosed because and this feels really weird to say like you listen to me on the radio i mean i don't say that to weirdly brag or anything but it is funny how you have these connections with the diabetes community that when you are diagnosed or when your child is diagnosed it's so nice to kind of i know from my experience i knew people before benny was diagnosed is why i'm bringing it up and i was able to say oh my gosh i remember and i remember this kid evan that i had met several years prior and he was this nice normal funny kid i was like okay my kid's gonna be alright because i remember evan is all right and i'm curious do you listen to wb t and we didn't talk about benny all that much but you do remember him having diabetes
Adam Littt 13:37
i do and i remember i remember driving to the same company i still work for every morning and listening to you in the crew on wb t and i remember these sort of snippets and you would talk about benny and what i really heard come through i didn't fully understand even though we do have a connection to family stacey right i have a half brother that was diagnosed in 12 but you know he's you know he lives in new york and we talk whenever but i never flew him sandy but but hearing what at what i heard is i heard the amount of emotion that came through when you talked about it right and that's what i remember from those you know those discussions that you were having and things like that and you know also you know the the passion for what you were doing in the community so that that really did resonate and then you know so many years later i'm diagnosed i run across you again i'm like stacy and she's in the type one community and here it is i'm like i have to go ahead and shoot an email right now and that's that's what i did and now we get to do this really cool talk so
Celeste Littt 14:38
yeah we appreciate it
Stacey Simms 14:40
oh of course of course unless it's funny to think about that vinnie was so young you know i had him while i was working at wb t so it's really funny to think about when did you well i'll ask celeste i'll start with you here when did you all get the idea for the useless pancreas
Unknown Speaker 14:55
how did that come about
Stacey Simms 15:01
Back to Celeste answering my question in just a moment. But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dario Health. bottom line, you need a plan of action with diabetes. We've been lucky that Benny's endo has helped us with that and that he understands the plan has to change. As Benny gets older, you want that kind of support. So take your diabetes management to the next level with Dario health. Their published Studies demonstrate high impact results for active users like improved in range percentage within three months reduction of a one c within three months and a 58% decrease in occurrences of severe hypoglycemic events. Try Dario’s diabetes success plan and make a difference in your diabetes management. Go to my Dario comm forward slash diabetes dash connections for more proven results and for information about the plan.
Now back to Celeste and how they got the idea for the useless pancreas.
Unknown Speaker 15:54
Well,
Celeste Littt 15:55
it was actually Adams idea. I was visiting some relatives in Florida, and I left him at home that that visit I brought the kids down, we visit the grandparents, I guess we've kind of talked about doing something for the type one community for some time, but we weren't quite sure where we fit in yet. And while I was gone in Florida, he was up here and it just kind of hit him. He was always on a lot of Facebook boards and things regarding diabetes to find the answers to his questions and to see what other people are going through. And a lot of times people always were wondering, well, where can I get this? And what is the solution for this issue that I'm having? And so he came up with that idea? Well, you know what, let's solve these problems. That's pretty much where we started from. And I don't know if you have anything to add to that.
Stacey Simms 16:46
Adam, was there like a item that you will have an aha moment where you thought, Oh, my God, I need to do this.
Adam Littt 16:51
Yeah, there was there actually was Stacey, it's interesting. So yes, less left, I had quiet time. And I guess this is what I do. In my quiet time, I just start thinking of things to keep myself busy. And so yeah, it was, you know, it's amazing, because the type one community, I always in, not in a negative way, Stacy, but I always feel it's just a massive population of just really good people just looking for solutions. But the community is underserved in various ways. And on some of these big boards, like the Dexcom boards, a lot of people would go out there and they would post, you know, whatever they were selling, whether it would be as a hobby as a business just to support their type one child, whatever it may be. And I think this one board had maybe 30,000 people on it massive, you know, creating
Unknown Speaker 17:35
a Facebook group,
Adam Littt 17:37
a Facebook group. Yep, I'm sorry. Yep. Yep. And, you know, the moderator said, No, look, I'm really sorry, but we can't have these solicitations or posts anymore. And somebody else posted up there, you know, that's fine. You know, you put a comment on his post saying, Well, look, you know, we started this Litttle other community. And, you know, you could go ahead and buy and sell on Facebook right here. And I went to that community as well, anyway, you know, and you saw people just trying to go ahead and solution and sell their goods, you saw people looking for them. And I said, you know, this is great, but there's got to be a better way that we can bring this community together and make the transactions easier. And that's how sort of the whole concept came to be Stacy.
Stacey Simms 18:15
So tell me what it is. This is like a flea market almost. For all the diabetes goods and services. Maybe flea market isn't the best word.
Adam Littt 18:23
No, it's it's okay. I mean, that's, that's actually exactly how we started. And we started. And so we started, you know, talking to some of these people on these boards, we said, you know, look, you, you if you want to take it a step further, you know, we'll handle the transactions for you and just go ahead and post it up. And people started started doing that. And we started getting a Litttle bit of traction, the first site we rolled out was really, really terrible. And eventually, it was terrible. It was awful. It really did look like a flea market actually is less right.
Celeste Littt 18:53
But if you think about it at a flea market has multiple vendors all trying to sell products. And so yeah, actually, flea market is not a bad term for what we have at the very beginning.
Stacey Simms 19:01
I like a good flea market. Maybe that's not the best term. We need a better phrase for it. marketplace. marketplace marketplace.
Adam Littt 19:09
Yes. I mean, even eBay, they call it fleabay. Right. You ever heard that term, but anyway. But yeah, it started out pretty awful, Stacy. And you know, as we started going, at least the design, the concept was always there. People loved it. And we had some really early adopters despite the design and the look and feel of the site. And we started talking to some of the larger companies and the larger companies said, you know, we're excited about the idea. We love the concept of bringing everything together in one place, almost like a you know, an Amazon and everything store for type one diabetics, which is really how we started to head but we don't, you know, want to, you know, we want you to just put up everything for us. We want you to sort of host it for us and take care of the business and we just want to be sort of a we want you to be a marketing outlet for us and that that's how we've trained And now states that we handle, we handle everything we handle the really small guys that are selling, you know, like these decorated vials or patches or they have these seat belt Oh, girths. Yes, stickers, a ton of people stickers on Etsy for their kids. And then you know, we move all the way up to the, to the bigger guys that have, you know, these really high end diabetic bags, accessories for supplies, you know, the the insulin cases, the, you know, cases for the various pumps, things like that. So, you know, the idea is, is to get everything under the sun, type 1 diabetes, so all of us all the community can go to one place and find sort of the solutions that they need.
Celeste Littt 20:41
The main goal, I think, is to have people be able to share their solutions with others in the type one community and provide a place to do that someplace, even if you don't have your own website, you can get your own storefront on our website. So you could start out with that, and then move on to a more, you know, larger company setup where we have a drop ship option. It's really for all not just for large companies.
Stacey Simms 21:03
And I'm I won't ask you to play favorites, and everything on the website is fabulous. But have you found anything that you're using? I mean, I'm not I'm not seeing any gLitttery stickers on you.
Adam Littt 21:16
I'm really simple guy, right? So I don't use much in the way of anything, I actually just I keep the basics. Although I you know, I will say I really tend to favor some of the patches out there because you know, I have constant like everybody does with the I wear Omni pod, the word Dexcom. That does tend to peel away. And some of the, you know, some of the CGM patches and the Omni pod patches are really great solutions when you've tried everything else like skin tack and stuff like that. Yeah, those those patches seem to really help beyond that, as Celeste mentioned, I want to say Stacy, the creativity of some of these people on 3d printers, engineers making cases, as less said somebody came up with a design to prevent compression modes where you, you know, put basically a almost like a case around your Dexcom. And you sleep with that. And that seems to help. We've got people out there, we just on boarded a new business the other day that that actually, if the adhesives, if the patches don't work well for you, he's actually got a Litttle Litttle belt to go around and secured or if you're really active. So that seems to help as well. So you just see all kinds of different really cool stuff out there. And I think that's part of the magic as well, Stacy, is there's so many questions out there. What is the solution for this? How can I help this and you get shipped to all these different places, and cites it's not really in one place, and people don't always really know where to go. And now we can present all these options to the type one world,
Celeste Littt 22:51
I wanted to just throw something in there as well. We are worldwide, we have a global type one community. And a lot of times when I'm looking at products, I'm finding different products over in Europe and in Australia and some other countries that I have not seen here in the US yet. And if people aren't searching for something in particular, they are never, they never know what's out there to be able to solve their problem,
Stacey Simms 23:16
you'll ship like if I see something I live in Australia,
Celeste Littt 23:18
well, the cool thing is, is we actually don't carry any inventory, we're only dropshippers. So the companies choose where they will offer their products to where they will ship them to. And a lot of companies will ship to the US or we'll ship to Australia, Europe, UK is very big on our on our community as well. So the more countries that they're able to ship to that the more obviously the more sales they'll get, and the more they'll be able to share their products with other people who can use them around the world. And I want to say as well, Stacy, it's clearly listed on on each of the listings, where where the shipping is, but we will always go ahead and reach out for somebody, if somebody asks us if, you know if they can ship to that particular country, we'll certainly go ahead and contact the vendor and ask them, you know, we want to try to do what we can where we can for both parties. And to be clear, this is a business for you all.
Stacey Simms 24:08
So you are making money on this. We are
Celeste Littt 24:11
okay. Very Litttle. But
Unknown Speaker 24:15
that's the amount of work we're making less 510 cents an hour. Oh,
Celeste Littt 24:19
my goodness, not even not even but it's okay. Right. But I
Stacey Simms 24:23
just wanted to be clear that the way it's set up is that you know, the you are going to make money on the transactions and that kind of thing.
Adam Littt 24:31
We are Yeah, we're a mission driven organization in the sense that we want to serve the type one community but admit it's a for profit business for sure. I mean, as with any startup, Stacey, I mean, most of that gets most of it all of it gets dumped right back into getting the word out advertising listing, you know, and basically soliciting right back out to the community.
Stacey Simms 24:50
Yeah, well, you've heard the podcast I have sponsors, I have no issue with ethically making money, as long as everybody's upfront and clear, as you all are.
Adam Littt 24:59
So yeah. As part of the community aspects of all of this, Stacey is we want, as you know, you just asked, you know, we're making money. Of course, there's markups between, you know, what we, you know, what it sold for, you know, what we pay, and we're trying to give a lot of that right back to the community. So we started an affiliate program where if affiliates want to go ahead and sell for us, they can easily sign up on the website, and they'll get a piece of whatever is sold out there. So, you know, that's one of many ways that we're trying to get the word out and keep the money in the community. And maybe, you know, one of the things to mention as well here, Stacy, is we don't want to limits the marketplace in any way to products. We're already talking with diabetic coaches out there. We talked with somebody just the other day that does lessons, or rather gets together kids groups,
Celeste Littt 25:56
right social groups for diabetic children.
Adam Littt 26:00
Yeah, and we've already talked with people that work with type one, diabetic groups for travel as well, you know, after the whole COVID thing is over, we like to get into all of these things. So you know, people can come to one side and say, you know, hey, I could travel, I could send my kids who grew up or maybe I need nutrition counseling or fitness coaching. And I could buy a set of CGM patches at the same time if I need those.
Stacey Simms 26:22
And Adam, how are you doing? You mentioned you're using an Omnipod, you've got a Dexcom. So it sounds like you're, you've come quite a long way from worrying about checking your blood sugar once or twice a day.
Adam Littt 26:32
Well, I've got a handy two Litter there, right, just in case No, I, I don't know. I was born with a very obsessive personaLitty, Stacy. So
Celeste Littt 26:40
I have to admit he does do well. That's nice to hear.
Adam Littt 26:43
I tend to keep pretty good control. I want to say that part of my retirement for my workplace is probably going to have to be annuitized turned into lifetime income Stacy, I intend to live till 150 just to get all of my money right out of that workplace.
Stacey Simms 26:58
Very nice.
Adam Littt 26:59
You got it to God, it's so I tend to do okay, I'm pretty regimented. I know you know what I eat and what it does to my blood sugar is I live pretty boring lifestyle as far as food, I put my energy into business and and the kids who run me relatively ragged. Thanks for asking. Sure.
Celeste Littt 27:17
I actually I have to say he, he has simplified my life because he does eat almost the same meals for breakfast. And for dinner. And lunch is our main meal with his protein at lunch. So I can't complain so much. He actually does keep things very simple. For me.
Stacey Simms 27:34
That's the difference of having perhaps a husband with type one and a son. As we were saying, for the interview started, I'm not exactly sure what my son is eating what hour of the day, especially with virtual school. Chinese who to two o'clock in the morning.
Unknown Speaker 27:48
That sounds like our tweets, actually. Yeah. That's what they went through last night.
Stacey Simms 27:53
Adam and Celeste, thank you so much for joining me, it's great to talk to you and learn more about this. I'll link everything up so that people can learn more and start snooping around the website and maybe contacting you if they have products. We have some very creative people in the audience as well. But thanks for sharing your stories.
Celeste Littt 28:08
Thank you so much for having us.
Adam Littt 28:10
Thanks so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 28:18
You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms.
Stacey Simms 28:24
Lots more information. As always, at the episode homepage, just go to Diabetes, Connections COMM And I like to say every so often, if you are looking for a previous show, or a topic that we covered, if you go to the website, I have a search box on the upper right hand side, it's a really robust search, we have 365 episodes. There's a lot of stuff out there. If you'd like to hear something, many of the newer episodes have transcripts, not the older ones yet we're working on that. But it's just a really easy way to go through what I hope is a good source of information and sort of what I kind of call it a snapshot of the history of the diabetes community for the past five, almost six years. I'm certainly not exhaustive, but really good snapshot of what's been going on in our community since 2015. So definitely check that out at the homepage. Tell me something good is coming up. We have a teen and young adult edition this week.
But first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And I just want to take a moment to talk about control IQ. This is the Dexcom G6 Tandem pump software program. When it comes to Benny's numbers. You know, I hardly expect perfection. I just want him happy and healthy. I have to say control IQ the software from Dexcom and Tandem has exceeded my expectations. Then he is able to do less checking and bolusing and spending more time in range. His last three A1Cs were his lowest ever they keep going down. This isn't a teenager, the time when I was really prepared for him to be struggling. His sleep is better to with basil adjustments possible every five minutes, the system is working hard to keep them in range. And that means we hear far fewer Dexcom alerts, which means everybody's sleeping better. I'm so grateful for this. Of course individual results may vary. To learn more, just go to Diabetes, Connections comm and click on the Dexcom logo.
I went looking for good news stories in a Facebook group that is frequented by parents of teens and young adults. And I've got some really fun stories to share with you. Catherine says Noah is my type one spectrummy 16 year old he had his best report card since third grade three A's and a B plus. He's on new meds new therapist, a new school also doing remote school. So it's quick with reduced social anxiety, fewer distractions and no papers to lose. He actually likes school this way. I gotta say, I know this year has been very difficult, but remote school has been a boon for many kids. I don't know what we're going to do when things go back. It's not for me to say but it would be really nice to figure out a compromise here for some kids like this that it's really working well for. Tammy says my son Cole is a sophomore in college. He was diagnosed at age three and a half. He's now 20 he serves he rock climbs he traveled to Cabo. He's MDI and uses a Dexcom he ran on club teams. He was a varsity runner in track and cross country. Tracy posted about her daughter Sophie, who was diagnosed at age nine. All she posted first was a really cute picture of her daughter saying she finally got her job at Starbucks. So I had to say, Is there more to this story? I do not get it. So Tracy wrote back and said she is a junior in high school and enjoyed bagging groceries at Publix. But her main parents made her quit due to the pandemic. She has attended virtual school since last year. But missed working. She discovered Starbucks was safer, because they only have a few people working there at a time and it's mostly drive thru. It took weeks of email and calling and follow up work to make it happen. She just turned 17 on Sunday. So that's the story. And then Jessica writes in my 17 year old Trenton played in all three games at their state basketball tournament. He's their ninth guy, he even scored a basket. And she posted a really cute picture of Trenton with his parents, I'm going to grab these photos with permission and put them into the Facebook group because they're really fun, especially this one, I have two more good news stories for you. They're very different from one another. But this one is from Alex. And she writes, I was born and raised in Oregon. But I've lived in Argentina since the 90s. Our daughter was diagnosed a Litttle over two years ago. And I learned that in Argentina, they have a diabetes law that guarantees access to insulin strips and all necessary technology for diabetes care as a human right. This love is achieved by a group of moms in 2013. While there are gaps in the system, there is a framework within which you claim access to what you need at a public hospital. The psychological relief she writes, this law provides brings me no end of comfort. And I love that it was achieved by a group of moms. This is the photo of when Congress approved the law. And this is a great photo of moms cheering and hugging and crying. And there's one gentleman in the photo as well. I will put that in the group. What a great story. I mean, wherever you come down on the side of access and insulin for all I know there are different poLittical views. That's fine. You've got to really believe that the psychological stress of trying to afford this stuff is heavy on many, many, if not most people's minds. And I will leave you with a really fun one. And I don't know if she knows that this is kind of an anniversary. So here's the story. Leslie, who I have known for years, you may have heard me tell the story about when Benny was very Litttle another Litttle boy was diagnosed right at the end of Gosh, I'm getting old now was at first or second grade, I want to say was the end of first grade. And Michael and Benny talked it over and everybody felt better about it. But Michael and Benny had also played baseball together and Leslie posted a photo of Michael Vinny no longer plays baseball. He played lacrosse and then he's into then football and now he's he's really into wrestling. But Michael stayed with it and it's done really well. And she posted a photo of Michael as an umpire. He is working as an umpire and the picture is partial gear. This kid you can't even see him. He's like buried in the equipment here. And she says he really enjoyed it. calling home plate is more fun than the basis I have a new appreciation for the discomfort ups must be at games after the many layers required to put on and I said it was an anniversary of sorts because it was this week. It's last week as you're listening. But this week when Leslie sent me the photo that Michael and Benny and another Litttle boy Parker, all played in a baseball game together two teams. This was our Litttle town baseball league for elementary school. So a couple of towns I guess, but two teams and three boys with type 1 diabetes on the same game, and it showed up in my Facebook memories, which is how I know so let's Thanks for sending that in. Thank you all for these great good news stories. This is always my favorite part of the show, send him in, you can email me Stacey at Diabetes, Connections, comm or post them in the Facebook group.
Before I let you go big thank you to jdrf Desert West, which includes chapters in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. I participated in their type one talk last week, and I really appreciate you have me out to talk with the world's worst diabetes Mom, I am looking forward to an event with my local chapter, which I don't even know how big my local chapter is anymore. Maybe it's North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, I think. But at the end of April, well, April 23, I will be hosting trivia, I'm very excited about this, we're gonna have a big online zoom, but play along trivia. And if you'd like to do something like that, I am more than happy to host it for your chapter, your diabetes group. If you've ever seen my silly game shows or listen to my game shows that I put out here it's not dry trivia. We're not quizzing people, we're not going to do math problems on bolusing. It's lots of fun diabetes news. But you know, in a, I'll give myself credit in a comedic, It's lots of fun diabetes news, but in a fun, interesting, family friendly kind of way. So I would love to do that get in touch. Let me know if that's something you're interested in. You can play over zoom. Everybody needs a separate app on their phone. It's a Kahoot app that lots and lots of schools use. So your child probably already has that and can set you up if you don't have it yourself. Alright, lots of stuff coming up classic episode in a couple of days and we are back to our interview shows on Tuesdays. So please join me then. Thanks as always to my editor john Kenneth from audio editing solutions. thank you as always for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here soon until then, be kind to yourself.
Benny 36:51
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