Diabetics Doing Good with Scriven Bernard

[00:00:01] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast, where we explore the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics around the world. I'm your host, Rob Howe, 11-year type 1 diabetic and Diabetics Doing Things founder. Diabetics Doing Things is looking for sponsors. For more information, visit our website at DiabeticsDoingThings.com forward slash sponsorships. This week, we welcome Scriven Bernard, an 18-year type 1 veteran working in the nonprofit space in Dallas, Texas. This is episode 2. This is the first like actually real life live recorded in action in studio in Dallas, Texas episode of Diabetics Doing Things and this is Scriven Bernard. Hello. Also known as Bernard Scriven. Yes. To the tech guys at work. In the tech community. You swap those names around. So I've known you for what about a year now? Yeah. Or so. Yeah. and knowing you through improv, obviously. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where you're from, what you're all about. Yeah, cool. So I was born in Louisiana, and when I was about four years old,

[00:01:11] Scriven Bernard: we moved to Amarillo, Texas. And Amarillo is the place to be. I've heard that. Yeah.

[00:01:20] Rob Howe: I've had breakfast there. Yeah, where at? Big Texan? I didn't eat at the Big Texan. And I stopped at Whataburger. Oh, that's a great place, too. I don't know. It's a really cool local spot. Yeah, we're famous for that. Also, I remember you guys have this downtown area where there's a freeway exchange. There's lights. I don't know. It's like stoplights in Whataburger. Yeah, we have one building that's over 12 stories, I think. It's fantastic.

[00:01:44] Scriven Bernard: It's a beautiful place. Yeah, but I was... So I lived there until September of last year. And I did a lot of work with like... So I worked at the university. and then down in Canyon which is just a little bit south of Amarillo and while I was doing that I did a lot of volunteer work so I worked a lot with like the American Cancer Society and did a lot of Relay for Life stuff for them as well and so I was working like essentially like 40 volunteer hours a week as well as my job it was wearing me out and I had a friend from high school that had moved to Dallas from Austin and she had found the job at the company I work for now which works a lot with nonprofits nice and I saw that she I knew she liked it I'd seen a lot of her posts about it and I was like you know that would be perfect to get paid for something that has to do with the nonprofit space so I looked into it and

[00:02:36] Rob Howe: I fell in love with it interviewed got hired and I've been there ever since and so yeah so I mean you've been in Dallas almost a year and a little over a year that's awesome um what's what's different about uh I travel a lot this year and I know it like being in a place where there's like 400 Walgreens yeah it's different than like I was in Oregon one time I like ran out of insulin yeah I was just like yeah that happened to me in Oregon I um went actually what happened was I went to see to to visit my cousin and I packed all of my medical stuff in a bag with my contacts and

[00:03:14] Scriven Bernard: everything set it on my toilet in my apartment put everything else in my uh suitcase whatever I go to the airport, get to her place, I get all my stuff out that night, I take my contacts out,

[00:03:26] Rob Howe: the next morning I wake up and go to get new contacts and realize that I've left that bag on my toilet back at home. I had my insulin and everything in it, so I had to like, she had to call people she knew who knew diabetics, hunt down somebody who had insulin, and I had to borrow insulin. I mean, look at that network, that's so cool. Right? Yeah. And you know that's like the that's part of this shows like mission is to like expose other people to The cool things that diabetics are doing like nobody would have even thought that that's you know, there's a whole other step to vacationing

[00:03:59] Scriven Bernard: Yeah, that's that's one of those little things that people don't realize is because like I had a Somebody at work here they just hypothetically said you know What if you were what if you're going somewhere and you got stranded or whatever? and you're like, oh, that'd be terrible, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, that's a real worry for us. Like, if you're going on a trip somewhere, if you're going out of the country or whatever, you've got to be really careful about that. Because if you do get stranded, like, you're not going to last very long without a supply of insulin. Yeah. And it's like, you're not going to be one of those people on an island that's like, oh, nine months later they found me. It's like, you've got about, like, a week, maybe.

[00:04:30] Rob Howe: Yeah, then you've got to figure something out. Yeah. I think about that a lot. Like, what will I do if, like, society stops?

[00:04:38] Scriven Bernard: it keeps it keeps me from like wanting to travel sometimes and I hate that but like I travel in the in the United States and I'll go to different cities and whatnot and I enjoy doing that but it's just like I'd love to go to Cambodia one day and that just terrifies me like the idea of what happens if you get there and something happens to my insulin and how do I find a doctor and get insulin and yeah and it's just it's just a lot to think about and if I was you know one of these

[00:05:04] Rob Howe: days I'll do it but I'll go with you man I got when I the longest trip I ever went on I went to like the Middle East Afghanistan on this military tour when I was playing with the Washington Generals and I went to Target and I found this like this like bag I don't know for some reason I just felt like these bags existed where like they have different little pockets and they kind of like fold up and I like put I had a month or more supply like diabetes supplies in this like little like basically like binder little thing yeah i still use it i used it when i when i go overseas but uh just because it's all in one place and like i was like i need something i can grab quick and it still had like four vials of insulin in it i didn't even use it all but it was just like if something were to happen and we were like stuck here for a couple extra weeks i would have been fine i think the whole trip was like three and a half weeks yeah i still had plenty so yeah i gotta i gotta just clue you in on my travel schemes yeah well we'll plan something let's do

[00:06:00] Scriven Bernard: I definitely want to go somewhere and don't want to die while I do it.

[00:06:05] Rob Howe: Yeah, that's terrible.

[00:06:06] Scriven Bernard: I think death really puts a damper on a vacation.

[00:06:09] Rob Howe: Yeah, I don't know. You should try everything once. Perfect. So let's back up a little bit. Let's talk about how long have you had diabetes. It's 2015 now. Yes. It's 2016. I've had diabetes for 18 years. I was diagnosed when I was 9 years old. What was that like being 9? I remember being 9 at a chili bowl. Yeah. I'm pretty concerned with that.

[00:06:32] Scriven Bernard: I can't remember anything before I was nine or really in the years up until I was about a mid-teenager, but I remember very vividly what it was like being nine years old, being diagnosed. I remember that as well as I remember what I did yesterday. Because it was terrifying at the time. I didn't know anything about it. If you want to know my diagnosis story, I'll tell you. Yeah, that's what we're here for. It's a little depressing, but I was in fourth grade, and I had this friend named Craig. And Craig had cerebral palsy. He also had type 1 diabetes. I did not know about the type 1 diabetes. So I knew that Craig had... No, I'm sorry. I got that back. I did not know about the cerebral palsy. I knew about the type 1 diabetes. So I didn't know what... You know, because it's a complicated thing to explain to kids. Sure. But I knew that he had diabetes, and so what I meant to say originally was that that's what I thought it was I thought the diabetes was a cerebral palsy so my mom was a nurse and she started to recognize the signs like I started I remember we went to see Les Miserables in the Amarillo theater yes that's the one we saw right but we went and saw that and it was during the show I had to go to the bathroom something like 16 times or something it was some ridiculous amount I kept counting because at that point it was an achievement um but I was very sick and my mom eventually realized like once I started like wetting the bed because I would have to wake up so many times in the in the night that eventually I just got lazy and I'm just like screw it I'll just pee in this bed and let's clean it up like I'm tired of getting up and she kind of figured out what happened uh and what was going on and so she came and picked me up from school one day and she was just being really weird about it. She was like, we're just going to go to the doctor and it's no biggie. And she was never like that. And I, so I knew something was up and we got to the doctor and this nurse came out and I remember clear as day. She, my mom hasn't said a thing. She walks into the lobby and she calls my name and then she goes, what else is wrong with him besides him being diabetic? And I just like, Like, first of all, my mother was furious, and then I just, like, lost it. What a bad manner. I know, right? I'm sure she was fired or something. Because that can't be the only bad thing she ever did. But all I could think of was Craig. And, like, we loved Craig, but Craig was different, and we all knew that. And I thought it was the diabetes. And so as soon as they said that, like, I lost it. I was sobbing. I was freaking out. My mom essentially had to hold me down. and then I spent four days in the hospital and it was just a rush just learning a lot of stuff at once just a lot of people explaining to me that Craig had two things that I was still a normal

[00:09:28] Rob Howe: person and right so yeah it was there's there's a there's a pick-me-up story for you well I you know I think everybody the key there is everybody has a different diagnosis story uh and they it's cool that everybody remembers it so vividly. I mean, it's such a huge moment. Two days before I was diagnosed, I was seeing a movie, too. I saw The Aviator, which is like a two-hour and 40-minute movie. And I must have gone to the bathroom like 16 times. This is not your podcast.

[00:09:57] Scriven Bernard: Are you diabetic, too?

[00:10:00] Rob Howe: What are we going to find out? I've known diabetic cats, by the way. I had a diabetic dog growing up, and I think that helped me clue in a little bit like what was like what because I had to take care of her sometimes so like help her give her shots before she ate and like she had like would her butcher would plummet sometimes because she was a dog she couldn't like test it or let us know you know I know she was super yeah she was a super dumb guy what a mooch god she was you know couldn't even take care of herself I don't know really bad about her shots but it helped me learn like a little bit of like how it went But then I remember, too, that education process. I remember being on the phone with the kitchen. They're like, you have to order your food, and you get this many carbs. And I'm like, what is this? They had just a menu with all these different numbers on it, and counting by 15. Yeah, what a huge adjustment. But it's so weird, the weird movies you see before something like that happens. The Aviator. That's interesting. I've never seen it again. I never went back.

[00:11:05] Scriven Bernard: Really? Is it, like, have you ever seen, like, posters of it or heard people mention it and just gives you weird vibes?

[00:11:11] Rob Howe: Yeah, I thought, like, I legitimately, I hear people say, like, oh, it's what a triumph. Like, what a great movie. I'm like, I don't know. I don't really like it because I was so annoyed. I had to keep getting up and down, like, going into the theater. So, yeah, I don't know. It's one of, like, a couple things I haven't done. Have you not done anything since you've been diagnosed? I mean, yours is a little bit longer ago than mine.

[00:11:29] Scriven Bernard: I never trick-or-treated after I was diagnosed because it was right before Halloween. Right. And that was a big thing for me. And so I would dress up, but I, like, wouldn't go out. And then my friends would all go out. They would bring back the candy, and my mom would take us up to the oncology floor at one of the hospitals. We would give out the candy there. So, but I would, it was just weird for me. Like, I would never go out and trick-or-treat with them. I just, it was, I don't, I don't think I was conscious of why I was making that choice at the time. But I think now it's obvious.

[00:11:58] Rob Howe: Yeah, clearly. Just your, your, I mean, what, and what time of year were you diagnosed? October. Oh, so it was like right before. So it was like you just weren't even thinking about it at that point.

[00:12:09] Scriven Bernard: Like this one went by. Yeah. I was in the hospital for four days and then I stayed home for four days after that. I think, you know, it seems like a long time to be out of the hospital or be out of school and whatnot. But like while I was at home, all of my friends from school, like everybody in the fourth grade class wrote letters in crayon, of course. I don't know why that's important, but I just don't remember making a crayon. I think it wouldn't have meant as much if they'd printed them on the computer. But they all had crayons and markers.

[00:12:41] Rob Howe: Although in that day, it probably would have meant more. They went through more to find a printer. They found computer ink and printed it. They loaded it up with toner just for use.

[00:12:51] Scriven Bernard: So I had this stack of letters, and none of them had any idea what I was in the hospital for. but it was cool to see that children had been forced to write things to make me feel better.

[00:13:07] Rob Howe: Some teacher was having a bad afternoon. I was like, just write letters to Scriven. Everyone write. You will write a letter to Scriven. It's funny. Think about this. Obviously, your life changes a ton. uh what today like what's your how's your life different from like a normal you know 28 29 year

[00:13:30] Scriven Bernard: old guy i think that well you've got like the obvious differences like basically anything i do i've got to be diabetes is just always in the background so it's like if i go play tennis if i go run whatever i've got to take precautions i have to make sure that my blood sugar is stable before i do it um i have to go buy little minute made things of orange juice or whatever just have something on standby, especially if I'm not close to my house or wherever, and you just always have to be thinking, like, precautions. So you can never, you can never be in a situation where you don't have resources nearby, like, you know, every sugar you can get to if your blood sugar drops or whatever. I mean, it's one thing to go to work where my blood sugar is going to be stable for the most part, but if you go, especially if you do something with a physical activity, you've got to be thinking of that sort of thing. Because my degree is in biochemistry. And I'd originally started pursuing that because I thought I wanted to go into pharmacy or whatever and then I kind of realized I liked the non-profit space better. I didn't really see myself becoming a pharmacist or anything like that. But I was already well on my way to getting the degree so I finished it. But I always had an interest in science, how the human body worked and all that sort of stuff because of the diabetes like I was always very independent and so I mean I don't think anyone else ever gave me an insulin shot ever because I was so stubborn about it was like I'm gonna do this I don't want all these people controlling this disease for me like even when I was nine I remember deciding I was gonna learn as much as I could about it and so that's what I did I started learning and that's kind of why I went and got my degree and um just because I and And so I just always had this quest for, like, understanding the things about myself. And I think it started with diabetes.

[00:15:23] Rob Howe: Isn't that interesting? Like, you get a little bit of a chip on your shoulder?

[00:15:29] Scriven Bernard: Yeah, I was in elementary school. So, you know, kids are mean. Yeah. And I don't know what your experience was like. but they for some reason found ways to bully me for diabetes and it's not even something that like you can bully someone about it's like oh your pancreas doesn't make insulin like but they would they just they knew it upset me and that was all they needed yeah it was like and so like that was part of the reason that i was like i'm never gonna let this control me or anyone else control me with this and it's yeah yeah and I think I wrote like I wrote a paper one time in high school yeah it was some like uh it was I was in some AP English class or something it was like a writing prompt and they were like you know write about like something in your life that's hard or something and I was like oh cool got this one and uh I wrote this paper called diabetes didn't bring me to my knees it taught me to stand and i got so i got so mad when my teacher she gave me like a 75 on and i was like you gotta be kidding me like this is this is heartfelt ma'am you don't understand i'm like this is diseaseist you can't do this to me that's what i knew she gave it to me just because i was pandering but yeah yeah my big thing is um needles when people are like i gotta get my blood i'm like oh come on you know how many shots i've given him and it's it's crappy to do but it's the one thing we got yeah it's like just so true it's

[00:17:05] Rob Howe: like the one thing like all the times we endure oh you can you eat this oh it's office birthdays can you eat this i don't i don't understand that like why why as a human you would ever walk up to someone and and ask them anything because when you say that when you say hey should you be eating that you're saying i don't trust you to be able to take care of yourself as a person yeah like

[00:17:28] Scriven Bernard: so i i just whatever it is i shove it in my mouth immediately and ask them to see their medical degree basically but it's just you still get mad i do get fiery and i'm still i'm still a jerk about

[00:17:39] Rob Howe: it too yeah i'm just and people are curious and they just want to know but and that's like people don't know the questions to ask. I know. What's the right question? What's the right question to

[00:17:51] Scriven Bernard: ask? So my boss at work, uh, at one point, like, so we had kind of, whenever I started working there, we had the initial like, like, oh, can you eat that sort of thing? And then I just kind of gently said, Hey, I don't like that. Here's why, whatever. And then after that, it was always like, you know, Oh, tell me more about it. Teach me. Like, I don't know anything about it. What is this? And I thought that was cool. So when you approach it kind of admitting that you don't know anything or that you you know are interested in learning and you don't you can start it with that be like i don't know what to ask but i'd like to learn about it or something i'll totally help you out yeah but that's totally different than starting with a statement that tells me you don't trust me to be able to handle myself you know it's and i get it people don't really mean it that way but there are stigmas with diabetes and there's a long history of a lack of technology and diabetes treat and so when in the past they would have to use like primitive methods essentially with shots or even before that like you know i don't even know what all they had to do to get insulin in their bodies but when you're using like insulin that you cannot uh fine-tune the dosages of very well and that sort of thing it's just a shot in the dark get it uh sorry that was bad anyway but it is it's a shot in the dark and so you're trying to you're trying to maintain your blood sugars with these primitive methods and so the best way to do that is to limit the amount of sugar that you intake right uh we also as you know we used to have the long-acting insulin where you would give the shot like in the morning or whatever and it would last all day or into the next day or whatever and so nice yeah yeah and so you had uh essentially you kind of had to stick to kind of the same diet all the time or at least know what you were going to eat because you couldn't fluctuate too much if you weren't giving short-term insulin with it which i wasn't and so you were on strictly like Lantus at some point there was a little bit of Humalog with it okay but it was like i only had like two Humalog shots a day and so it wasn't like now where i can eat whenever it was like i had a few set times and so the the problem comes if you want a snack in the middle of the day or something but because of that like because we have these set regimens and you couldn't just go eat a piece of cake in the middle of the day because you haven't given the insulin for it then you you they did say diabetics shouldn't eat sugar they shouldn't eat these kinds of things because it's tough to manage. And now that we have the pumps, it's still certainly easier to manage your blood sugars if you keep your diet relatively restricted, but you can eat things like cake as long as you plan for it and stuff like that. And that's the thing, we know what we're doing with the insulin pumps, and so we can accommodate that sort of thing. But you just have those, you know, the way that people used to view it, and it just sticks because people, instead of learning about it, they just go with whatever they read on Wikipedia or heard from their grandmother. And I think, I think it's got to be easier to be diagnosed when you're nine than it was like when you were 16. Cause like for me, for you, you've gone through 16 years of life and you're, you're totally used to it. You're into your rebellious teenage years and that sort of thing. Me, it's like, I'm nine, but I'm still doing what my parents say to do and that sort of thing. And so it's, I was just so lame. I never, I never rebelled I just always did with my parents perfect I believe you I believe you now that it actually caused me to rebel quite a bit more or I don't know if it was more than I would have but it was like that was the one thing I had that I knew would really upset my parents so I'd be like I'm not doing my blood sugars or I did a lot of damage back then

[00:21:23] Rob Howe: I'd be like my blood sugar is 400 right now what are you going to do about it and it's like now I look back and I'm like you are an idiot why would you do that to yourself it's so funny uh well i never i always think the opposite like uh you know if what would have happened i mean when you're young i hear about little kids who are two and three who get diagnosed with diabetes it's like oh man like i you know what a burden on the parents like you've got to look out for them and at the same time like being five on the playground is hard enough you know i mean trying to just learn and navigate your way through life and you have this on top of it um you know but everybody has something i guess you know i used to babysit some kids back in amarillo

[00:22:07] Scriven Bernard: who were diabetic and their parents you know you don't want to leave them with a regular babysitter i guess especially because they were like two and three that's a great gig though yeah of course it

[00:22:16] Rob Howe: is because you're like you're the only one i've got a monopoly on this you corner that market but it was like it was terrifying because the three-year-old like for instance didn't have the

[00:22:27] Scriven Bernard: senses that I had. He couldn't feel it. He didn't know what it meant. Like we went, one day I did not know that his mom had given him insulin before I got to the house and she she's just spacing out. She's totally forgot. And so I didn't, I was planning on us doing lunch in like a couple hours or something. And so, you know, total mix up, but it's like we, we head to the park to feed the ducks and we're just walking and you know his sister and me and we're just walking all of a sudden I realized that he's kind of lagging behind us and I turn and I look and I just see his face and I just see it it's you know his lips are kind of going blue he's like turning pale and he's just like starting to look like he's spacing out and I'm like that's low blood sugar and like I had his bag in the car uh that had all his orange juice and stuff and so he's fine but he was like he could not he could not walk to me so I like pick him up it just it hit fast and I was like that is it hits a lot faster when they're young like i imagine yeah they don't have the body mass that we have to take the insulin or whatever so for him it's like i was like okay so it was scary

[00:23:31] Rob Howe: but it's like that's why i'm there as opposed to a regular babysitter you know who might not know just might see something and think you know he's sick or something and not know how to how to deal with it um that's a pretty that's a pretty wild little blood sugar story even not from you do you have any like crazy low or high experiences other than rebelling with your parents when you're 400 when you're 400 above i do and it's a somewhat gross one i'm going to tell it anyway yeah and

[00:23:58] Scriven Bernard: this is what this is what the show's all about guys get these stories out there so when i was a rebellious teenager well when i was about it's probably 14 or 15 and because i had done so much damage with my blood sugars uh i had this condition called gastroparesis where the gastric nerve to the stomach is damaged by sugar and so it doesn't respond as quickly. So sometimes if I ate foods that had too much fat in them, like taco salad on this particular night, I wouldn't digest them. And so my stomach would never release its contents and it would just keep getting fuller and fuller. So the problem with that is that I'd already given my insulin on this one particular night and the food's not going in. So I'm not actually turning the food into sugar. So the insulin's hitting and my blood sugar's dropping and there's no food going into my system. But my stomach was completely full like like when you're at Thanksgiving dinner have to undo your belt full and I had to treat a low blood sugar and I couldn't and it was like I I was gonna throw up if I put anything in my mouth and my blood sugar started dropping so fast and I started like I remember like blacking out a bit and finally my mom drags me into the bathroom and I just like kind of forced myself to throw up and I throw up in the toilet and then my stomach's empty and then I turned and just like down like half a jug of orange juice and it was and so I was fine and picked back up but I was I was bottoming like it had gotten to the point where my meter said low um which is like yeah below 20 on those meters and um so yeah it was like I remember and it was terrifying and I was like I was in shock and so I was like sweating and clammy and all that crap and it was I remember it was terrifying just feeling like what do I do? Had I had my wits about me I probably would have been like well I could just throw all this up and then get orange juice

[00:25:48] Rob Howe: Yeah when you're 15 you already know how to do that I guess if you're lucky you don't know how to do that There was a lot of panic It was probably my best low blow shooter story There's always that moment when you're in a relationship with somebody you change your pump in front of them and either they look on fascinated They're like oh my god that needle and I like to do the thing where you're like pretending to hide it And you're like oh just don't look don't worry about it. I'm fine. Look how big this needle is I just think it's just so hard you pull that needle Watch you make that sound with your mouth

[00:26:25] Scriven Bernard: Let me have that can't you let me have anything

[00:26:29] Rob Howe: Have you ever I've I've One time I was putting my pump they're putting the side in and I'm like I take the needle out and I accidentally drop it and then I'm going to like fix the tape and I'm like well I'll get it in a second and I step right on it and the needle like went up in my foot and I was just like okay I think about that every time I throw a needle in the trash like reaching into the trash to get something and just sticking it through my hand so I never have I'm just terrified of like I'm so aware of that needle all the time if I drop it on the floor

[00:26:58] Scriven Bernard: I'm like freeze I've had one under my thumbnail I don't even know how it happened and it was like I went to pick up the side thing. It didn't go very far. It just, it was enough that, like, it hurt, and I was like, it was more the heebie-jeebies that it gave me, just, like, thinking, oh, something's under my nail, but, yeah, it's...

[00:27:18] Rob Howe: I had a, when I had the pens, like, one had come, I don't know, you had pens, didn't you? And some went, like, you know, little caps, like, you screw the cap on, pop it off, and then pull off, like, the needle guard. Well, like, I think the needle guard had, like, I dropped it and so in my bag was like my used ones because I would put them in my little bin in my like safety bin when I got home it came off and I like put my hand in there and it like it stuck me and it like stuck through like the callus on my thumb and it was like sticking out I was like gosh yeah that was it was gross but and I gave me the eb-g's but it's also like super anti-contractic I was like okay well you're like you kind of wanted like nearly bleed to death I wanted to at least be impactful, but it just wasn't. It was silly. So, I mean, we've talked a lot about different feelings and everything. What would you tell yourself, what would you tell nine-year-old you today about this journey you're about to go on? Well, I'd tell him, first of all, that it's trying to prove his independence

[00:28:21] Scriven Bernard: is not nearly as important as it seems at the time. I think I would explain to him, a lot of what I would say is what you would say to your own, like, your non-diabetic nine-year-old self, like, quote being an idiot and these things are going to impact your future. Tie your shoes, wipe your mouth. Yeah, but it's like, you know, I think a lot of it would just be like, hey, you're about to go through some years where you're going to do some damage to yourself. You're going to try to be your own person. And it's not that important. Like, you can be your own person and be in control of all of it without proving other people wrong. with in because I think you know whenever I was diagnosed with the gastroparesis which has since like pretty much cleared up I don't I don't know how it clears up whether the nerve repairs itself or if it just wasn't as bad as I thought it was or what but like so since then I've been a whole lot better but in that time it's like I was causing damage that was causing real neuropathy in my body and it just, you know, it didn't sink in back then. Yeah. It did once I was an older teenager, but, you know. I would also tell nine-year-old me that, like, it's, there are far worse things in the world. It's a manageable thing, but it's kind of like, in some ways, diabetes is a lot like having another bank account. you have things going in, so you have like food and whatnot going in, and then you have expenditures coming out, so, well, you could even say it the other way, the food is the expenditures and the insulin is the saving or whatever. Either way, you have your blood, you have your food intake and then your insulin, which balances it, and your blood sugar going up and down, and you're trying to keep it balanced. And so it's just this constant bank account that you have to just pay attention, make sure that the expenditures and the income match, essentially and it's just that the result or the consequences of not maintaining that bank account long term can you know cause a lot of damage to your body um and there's emergency things with it

[00:30:34] Rob Howe: that a regular bank account doesn't have like emergency low blood sugars and stuff but it's just another response sometimes you see that emergency line of credit yeah right in the middle

[00:30:42] Scriven Bernard: of the night i'm gonna get a loan um but that's the thing you know it's it's just another responsibility and if it's done right diabetes is not a deadly thing it's not as detrimental as what people are used to seeing like the missing limbs and that sort of thing if you take care of yourself if you learn enough about it to take care of yourself and you know that doesn't mean you can't splurge and whatnot here and there but like do it with knowing how to do it you know talk to your doctor and learn because I remember my doctor telling me if you want to eat ice cream here's what you do right and it was like they knew I was going to eat it anyway so it was like why not give him the tools he needs to eat it you know and so whatever you can make from all of that I

[00:31:30] Rob Howe: just spouted out no that's great I love that analogy I've never I never thought of it like that it was very cool well I remember learning my my parents trying to teach me to budget and I was like oh this crap's just like diabetes and I was like I don't want to do this either so now all All of a sudden, you're a master budgeter. Jeez. It's great, man. Thanks for coming on the show. No problem. This won't be the last time. All right. Sounds good. Yeah, coming soon. Diabetics Doing Improv. Ooh, that'll be fun. With our friend, Lindsay Power. So that'll be great. Yeah. All right. Thanks for listening to Diabetics Doing Things. Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly emails and behind-the-scenes content. And if you or someone you know has an amazing story to share, send an email to rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com.