Diabetics Doing Athletics and Sport with Dan Allison

[00:00:01] Rob Howe: Welcome, everyone. It's me, Rob Howe, and this is the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. I just wanted to toss out some gratitude your way because your continued support is the reason we've been able to get these amazing guests on the podcast. But we're always taking recommendations, so if there's someone you're dying to hear from but I haven't found a way to interview yet, let me know on Instagram or send me an email. I can think of a few, but I won't mention them by name just yet. Also, a word on the street is that our friends at Beyond Type 1 have launched the Beyond Type 1 Power Up campaign. They're inspiring people to get charged up all October long by supporting programs and initiatives that change what it means to live with Type 1. I love Beyond Type 1. I think that their perspective on the Type 1 lifestyle is super refreshing, and so I'd encourage you guys to check it out. So, how do I power up? I think it starts with the way I treat my body. I do my best to put the best things in my body, whether that's food, exercise, vitamins, or insulin to keep my blood sugars on track, but mostly just to feel good. Throw a little daily meditation on top of that and you got yourself a Rob Howe power-up cocktail. But the biggest thing for me is getting to interact with other type 1s. Your comments, emails, and messages fill my cup. And there's no better community than the type 1 community. I have so much in common with each and every one of you. So, in a way, you're my power-up. Be sure to check out the Beyond Type 1 Power Up campaign and share your power up with me. I'm dying to hear it. All right, let's get back to the episode so we can get back to the real good stuff. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all across the world. My very special guest today is Dan Allison calling from Beverley in the UK. Dan, welcome to the show. Thanks. It's nice to be here. And for those of us who are maybe not as familiar with you, you and I have been chatting back and forth via Instagram for the last few months. Tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe the story of how you ended up on this podcast. How did you end up as a type 1 diabetic?

[00:02:09] Dan Allison: Well, it was almost 10 years ago now. Sounds kind of corny, but it was my granny's birthday. and I was literally just drinking water all the time. I can still remember the feeling. It was like a garden party kind of thing for a birthday and I was just drinking water, eating watermelon and stuff all the time. And my mum was like, you could be diabetic kind of thing. So she's a nurse, fortunately, so she kind of recognized the signs. um so then she got a testing kit and kind of like took me to hospital because she thought i was because i think she died she detected ketones in my urine um so then i went into hospital um i don't really remember much so i was quite young i was 10 at the time i'm 21 now so it's quite a long time ago but the weird things i do remember uh the the first nurse that ever did my blood sugar pricked my thumb and obviously um my blood sugar was quite high i can't remember top of my head but she was like you're just too sweet you're just too full of sugar and to a 10 year old like that just stuck with me um i don't really remember much apparently i was in hospital for about a week um apparently i was in intensive care i i don't honestly it's just a complete blackout I remember going in and then coming out kind of thing um I remember the first injection they gave me as well because I was asleep and then I just felt the sharp pain in the side of my leg um I was like what what's going on here but yeah apart from that I just really like remember going in coming out um so I've been diabetic 10 years uh throughout those 10 years I'd say I've had quite a lot of struggles um mainly because i'm very like outgoing and i love to do sports so when i was younger i was doing like swimming football and i do judo as well quite a lot um and it got a bit complicated because i was quite good at judo um so like i think i've got letters upstairs i used to be in the east yorkshire squads and stuff and i think i got invited to the England training like a few times um and football wise I used to play for it's almost like county level football but it's just it's a step down kind of thing but the team I was playing in regularly challenging for the league and stuff um and basically the diet the doctors at the hospital didn't really know what to do with me um because obviously I'd hype up all the time so that was the main problem so this went on for a few years and unfortunately I saw someone called Francesca Anna when I was about 16, 17 and she gave me a program kind of thing of how to control my diabetes and do sport which from then it's just kept like everything sorted itself out a little bit if that makes sense

[00:05:11] Rob Howe: and I want to back up sorry for cutting you off I want to back up just a little bit because the here in the US, we have, there's a lot of different types of diagnosis stories that I hear. So the first one is you go in and the doctors are very encouraging. And they say you can do, you know, whatever you want in your life, as long as you take care of yourself. The other end is almost the exact opposite where they say, you know, you're not going to have a full life, you know, you're going to you got to constantly worry, you can't do any of these things. You were obviously very active and continue to be. You may not remember exactly, but do you remember that you still felt like you could do all your dreams for your life, all your dreams for sport were still relevant even with your diabetes?

[00:06:00] Dan Allison: If I'm honest with you, I was too young to even have dreams for sport kind of thing. It was about the same time I was diagnosed that I started playing football kind of thing. So it's kind of like I was just very young. And obviously with my mom being a nurse, she just kind of knew what to do all the time. So I didn't really think about it. All they really said to me was they were just like, you can do whatever you want to do. Just you can't join the army. And that's the only thing that they said. And they said, like, you've got to let you've got to control your diabetes and not let your diabetes control you, if that makes any sense. So they were all very for doing things and said you can still have a really positive life. They weren't negative at all. They were go-get kind of thing.

[00:06:44] Rob Howe: And I think that makes a huge difference in how people perceive themselves after. And you talked about you were still very young, so you hadn't really formulated a lot of the plans, dreams for your life at that point. but still that you taking care of your diabetes was just the entry point for you to be able to do whatever you wanted to do

[00:07:07] Dan Allison: I will say my mum helped incredibly because I'm really scared of needles which doesn't help obviously being a diabetic so I had to see a psychiatrist for about two years but like while all this was going on my mum did my injections for me yeah like those early years she pretty much just took it under her wing and like looked after me if that makes sense because I think I was a bit too young to understand everything

[00:07:38] Rob Howe: and I was planning on asking you about that because I think it's I mean parents are such an important part of a type 1 diabetics life anyway especially when they're as young as you were when you were diagnosed but to have someone who was a nurse and really just very in tune with the symptoms during your diagnosis. Basically, just diagnosed you off of your thirst and just drinking so much water and going to the restroom, right? So what's your relationship like with your mom today with

[00:08:10] Dan Allison: your diabetes? I control it all myself now. I'm 21 now. So basically, how it developed was in the first like early years um she just took over everything because i was just too young to understand and then she kind of like i kind of got a bit more responsibility as time went on um so i think it was around about 15 16 was when i started taking like a more active like right i'm gonna look after myself now i want to do this kind of thing um and i kind of like went on a few holidays with some friends and spent some time away like getting used to it by myself and i think that really helped and then just through then like i've just gone strength to strength but obviously if i ever need any support or anything like that i can just bring my mom and be like well what do i do but it's kind of nice in that way yeah and uh my mom

[00:09:06] Rob Howe: is uh is a huge part of my relationship with with diabetes from the from the beginning she took a very active role. And I'm, you know, I'm very grateful for that, looking back. So now let's, let's talk a little bit about, you know, your transition, because now you're, you know, you're in university, you and I chatted briefly, you're, you're traveling a lot at this, at this point. What are, you know, a lot of people, I think, look for tips, tricks, planning about traveling with type 1 diabetes. So first of all, just tell us kind of what you're doing and traveling around, and then also how you prepare with your type 1 diabetes.

[00:09:52] Dan Allison: Okay. So basically, I'm at University of Nottingham, and they offered me an exchange program in Prague for a year. So for the last 10 months or so, I've actually been living in Prague. and traveling around Europe a little bit. Obviously, because I knew that I was only going for a certain amount of time, I kind of like stockpiled all the medication I needed, and I literally took a whole suitcase full from England to Prague kind of thing. When I was traveling around Europe, it was kind of I'd always come back to Prague like every week or so. So the way I was doing it was I kind of had Prague as a base, as like my pharmacy, if that makes sense. Right. And then I would take what I needed with me and then go. But one like really easy way, well, I don't know if any other people do it, but I find it really easy when I'm traveling all the time. Do you know like clear pencil cases? Yeah.

[00:10:52] Rob Howe: Like a trapper keeper?

[00:10:56] Dan Allison: I'm sure it's the same. I'm sure it's the same thing.

[00:10:59] Rob Howe: That's what we call them here. I guess everything has different names, right? Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:04] Dan Allison: but you take like a clear pencil case and in it I just put like a tub of glucose because you can get them in England in packs of 10 so like a Lucozade thing and then I put like one bottle of test strips two needles for my finger pricker I'm on the Omnipod so I just stick a couple of Omnipods in there and like a vial of insulin and basically it was kind of like in that pack i kind of had everything i needed so i had maybe like 20 of these packs and it was i found it so easy just to like if i was coming if i was coming back i could just like swap out the packs and i knew that i was already always covered if that makes sense right and also if you were flying anywhere because they were in um plastic see-through complex um bags uh they had no problem at the airports because i had a problem coming when i was flying out to pride because I took quite a lot of insulin with me and it wasn't in uh plastic bags see-through bags so I had to take it all out the bottle and then it all had to be checked out and scanned and stuff like that but when I found that when I placed it all in the traffic keepers we'll call it um it just went straight through no problem um but yeah that's that's what I found to be one of the most like effective ways of like controlling your diabetes on the go because you you always know that you've got a spare, like literally it's like a pack just with everything in. And it's really, really small, so it's like the size of an envelope. But I find that really helpful.

[00:12:40] Rob Howe: Well, and I think it's really, you know, it must be really easy for you, especially when you're running around being very busy, you don't have to think about what's in each pack. You can just grab it, put it in your bag, and get on the road.

[00:12:51] Dan Allison: Yeah, I mean, it's probably one of the best, like even like, I have them at home, I need to make some more actually, because obviously I have to refill them like every couple of months. But yeah, I find that they're so good because like if I was, if I'm in, if I'm living at home, for example, and I've got to go to Nottingham for, I don't know, a job interview or something like that, I know that if I'm traveling, I can just chuck two in and then I don't have to worry about it. And it's just there. It's so easy. I'd recommend doing it to like all those people that like have to work around a lot because then you don't have to keep worrying about it. you don't have to keep going through thinking, have I got this? Have I got that? Have I got this? Cause you've already got like the pre-made packs.

[00:13:32] Rob Howe: Right. And I think that's such an important part of, you know, really any sort of habit, but especially with diabetes is taking the thinking out of it. It's like, it's already there. You just grab it and go. And then, cause you're always going to be worried about everything that's going on around you anyway. You got it. You have to, you know, if you're going on a job interview, you've got plenty on your mind. So it could be easy to forget something. So like myself,

[00:13:54] Dan Allison: I mean, I did forget my insulin once because I didn't make the – this was like before the PAX. And I was supposed to be getting a bus to Bratislava. And I had to miss the bus because I just completely forgot all my insulin. This was like pre-PAX, if that makes sense. But like since doing it, we've never had an issue like that again, fortunately.

[00:14:19] Rob Howe: Yeah, I recently traveled to New Orleans over, I guess, last weekend for work. And I brought everything. I mean, I've got travel pretty much down now. But there's always surprises, right? Like my pump's battery died. My batteries only die like once every eight weeks. And I have spare batteries at my house, at my office, in my car. But I didn't have any with me on the road. And so I had to go buy batteries. And fortunately, it's easier to buy batteries than it is to get insulin. But I think, you know, we've all got that story of, you know, when we went out of town or we're preparing to go on a trip and we just forgot that one thing and had to scramble and figure out how to get it. Yeah, definitely. So, you know, you and I have talked a little bit about your work and your vision for raising awareness about people in the UK with type 1. so tell us a little about your initiative, about your plans and what you're doing to raise that awareness

[00:15:23] Dan Allison: ok so basically this all stems from the fact that when I was a kid and I managed to see Francesca and she kind of gave me the plans or like the foundations of how to get your nutrition right while doing sports and having diabetes so it's fairly new and I've created this page called The Athletic Diabetic. So this was about six months ago. And this all stemmed from, in the UK, I don't know if it's a similar thing in the US, but in the UK, I joined a Facebook group called Type 1 Teens when I was about 13, 14, and I've just been a member ever since. So it's kind of like a support group. And in this group, there was a couple of, I think they were 13, 14-year-olds looking to do sport. I think one of them was like trampolining, the other one was running or swimming. I can't remember. But basically, they put on the group saying how many times they'd have a hypo. They don't know how to control their blood sugar when they're doing sport. Basically, I just saw myself in them because I would have the exact same problems that they were having. And I just sat there and I thought, well, I've already been through this. So why don't I just try and offer them some advice? So I wrote down what I would do if I was doing this sport, and I sent it to them. And they both were like, oh, thank you. There's not really much like that here in the UK. And they tried it, and it worked. And I just sat there thinking, surely there must be more than two of the young diabetics that want to do sport, but just feel that because of their diabetes, they can't do it. so this is why I created the Athletic Diabetic with the aim of increasing awareness of diabetes itself throughout my friends and family but B also to kind of give a foundation for those people that actually want to do sport that are diabetic so the aim of the page is kind of like whenever I do a sport or whenever I do a sport I try to I do my blood sugar before I do it after and depending on what my blood sugar is I then either adjust my insulin suspend it eat but I write down what I've done in each post kind of thing so that if there's another diabetic that's watching what I'm doing and they're kind of like oh I don't know what to do hopefully they can follow what I did and it might work for them so that's that's kind of the point of the

[00:17:59] Rob Howe: athletic diabetic well and I think it's so important because there's so many different types of situations when you're going into a sport, right? So, uh, you can have a hypo, you could be high, you could, uh, you could spike up during a high intensity workout or, um, over a long distance workout, you could have a crash. Um, you know, if you're in a, a game type performance, you have a break at the, at halftime and you could test during then maybe eat something. So I think there's so many, you know, there's so much value in sharing those, experiences and collecting that data because you know a lot of people myself included have been through all those scenarios but maybe never wrote down exactly what they were doing each time and how they responded and what the results were so um yeah i think that's a very beneficial um

[00:18:49] Dan Allison: you know i think endeavor i think what helps as well is i'm like pretty much willing to try any sport um so i know there's a lot of like like swimming for example i've read quite a bit about like different diabetics that do different things with swimming but like um just completely out of the blue there's like a new trampoline um like i can't i can't think of the word it's like a trampoline pavilion kind of thing where there's like loads of trampolines you pay like five pounds and you can spend an hour like running around on these trampolines like and there's like um phone pits and stuff like that and like it's just i'm willing to try pretty much anything but like a lot of people don't realize that that if you're running around trampolining that's something completely different so when i when i go again this was kind of i went before i did the page when i go again i'll write down like everything i do to make sure i don't have a hypo and stuff so i think i try like i'm willing to try pretty much any sport um and monitor it because that's kind of how I've been doing it as a kid. And I think not only is it important that the like data is collected, but on such a wide like range of sports.

[00:20:00] Rob Howe: Well, right. Yeah. And I think, you know, not every, not every type 1 diabetic is trying to run a marathon or win a bodybuilding competition or, you know, become a professional football player. Right. So I think it's really important to have those, those data points for people who are just wanting to be active and go and know that they can have the confidence that they can go jump on a trampoline for the whole afternoon and you know have have a have a regimen for what they can do with that or when they can go run a 5k or then go play a sand volleyball tournament during the day or something along those lines i think that's really important yeah well that's

[00:20:39] Dan Allison: that's that's the whole point of it really but it's i must admit like it's having quite an effect to my friends because like now my friends are kind of like if I go to the gym with them or I go running with them they're kind of like oh I've done blood sugar before like and they're paying like more of an interest in making sure I'm okay which I think is kind of nice because at the same time like it's kind of raising awareness and if they see like I would hope if they if they saw another diabetic who was struggling they would kind of have an idea of what to do um because I I don't think a lot of the youth here in England don't really have a clue about type 1 diabetes. And it really, really, really annoys me when most questions they ask are, how come you're not fat? You've got diabetes. Does that mean you can't have too much sugar? Can you eat everything? It just really grinds my gears. So the whole point of the page as well is to try and preemptively answer those questions. Right.

[00:21:37] Rob Howe: No, I totally understand. I think a lot of people will identify with that and relate to those feelings. Because when people don't understand something that's very close to you, yeah, it can be very frustrating. I know especially early on in my journey with type 1, I suppose, I would have a negative and anger reaction on most of those things. And now I've softened it a little bit to be more. Most people just don't know unless they've had a family member or a friend with type 1. So, yeah, any way to raise awareness is super positive. Yeah. I know you and I chatted a little bit before we started recording the interview about some of the differences between the U.S. and the U.K. in terms of medication. Did you have any other topics that you wanted to talk about with me other than sort of insurance and things about differences between UK and the US?

[00:22:41] Dan Allison: Well, to be honest, I've literally no knowledge at all pretty much of how it works in the US. I know that like here in the UK, we have like regular checkups. So once every three months, I meet with my diabetic doctor. I think it's Dr. Pat Moore. And I'm on the Omnipod. So they download that and they analyze it and stuff like that and make sure I'm on track. And I must admit, in the UK, they're very good. If you need any additional support or anything, like if you need to see a dietician or psychiatrist, they literally just on the dot like there you go go see them kind of thing um i just wondered like is it the same in the u.s because when i was in prague in the czech republic i found they were very negative and very hard to cooperate and nothing really got done and i didn't get to see any of the doctors because they were just so rude and i just i just saw like it made me appreciate the uk a lot more um and it also made me like wonder like well what's it like in other

[00:23:53] Rob Howe: countries, if that makes sense. Sure. So, um, it's a little bit similar, uh, in, in terms of the timing. So, uh, I think you are endocrinologist would recommend taking every three months and having a three month cadence, especially early on. Uh, I'm on about a six month cadence now, so I go about twice a year. Um, and I do, we do our A1C. Um, I, I have a Medtronic and older Medtronic pump, so they can't download the data, but they do my A1C test. We talk about how everything's been going, any sort of, you know, technology or whatever medication that's new, we kind of review those things. And then, you know, in terms of extra care, like psychology, psychiatry, nutrition, some of that is just handled sort of on your own. So you're like, and maybe the doctor will recommend someone, but then you sort of go, and that's what's called more of like a specialist here in the U.S. There's like two different categories of physicians. There's like general practitioners, so that's like your doctor. So just like when your regular checkups, then you have like your endocrinologist, psychiatrist, psychologists. Those are all specialists, so those fall under a different category. but we still have access so we have it very good that doesn't necessarily mean that every endocrinologist is good or psychologist or whoever but we have a lot of options to choose from here in the US depending on how our insurance works and who it covers

[00:25:36] Dan Allison: just another question you said you want to pump who pays for that? is it the insurance that pays for it or do you have to fund it yourself? because in the UK I was one of the first people to try the Omnipod purely because of the amount of sports I was doing as a kid and I originally said I want to have a pump with wires so they like trialed this with me and it's brilliant but it's all funded by the NHS and I know that can be quite costly so just out of interest is it the do you fund your own pump or is it insurance?

[00:26:11] Rob Howe: So it's a combination. So the actual device I think was like 90% covered by insurance, which was great. And then my supplies every month, just because my insurance that I have been on, I pay for those out of pocket.

[00:26:29] Dan Allison: Right. Okay. Yeah. It seems very similar.

[00:26:34] Rob Howe: Yeah, it is. It's very similar. I think the general big headline is that England has NHS and the US doesn't have something that's as comprehensive as that. Yeah. But I think like we talked about, there's a mix of public and private health care options depending on employment and things of that nature.

[00:26:56] Dan Allison: I know this might like seem like a bit of a sad question but like isn't Trump trying to repeal that and how does that make you feel

[00:27:07] Rob Howe: don't even get me started yeah yes he is and it makes me feel like the people who are making the decisions don't understand what the people with the chronic illnesses are going through on a day to day basis so So I think it's more of a political move than an actual move to try to make people healthier or have access to health care. And it makes me upset when I hear people get so upset about people having access to health care. I think it's – so that's where I'll leave it. Okay.

[00:27:44] Dan Allison: Sorry, I'm just interested because in Prague, I kind of made friends with a few Americans. And I've been following like American politics a little bit. I just find it a bit interesting.

[00:27:56] Rob Howe: Yeah, we could talk a little bit more about that off air. So you mentioned this, and I couldn't get her last name when you were talking, but earlier you mentioned a woman named Francesca, who really helped you with your preparing to live a life with diabetes and playing sports. yeah is uh you know who do you look up to in the t1d world as you are thinking about um you know people with type 1 who are you know living living their best life or people that you've seen you know on social media where you're like wow you know that person really inspires me

[00:28:35] Dan Allison: okay i'll be pretty honest okay because like when i was younger i felt quite alone um because obviously like social media hadn't quite taken off to the same extent that it has now sure and when I was like 14, 15, 16 kind of thing I felt quite alone and isolated because I would see like I'd be sat in the waiting room for example waiting for my diabetic appointments and stuff and I'd just look around and I just didn't see like any of the kids that were like me because I was really skinny because I kept doing all the exercise and sport and stuff and it was kind of like well when I would go to the appointments because of the sport I was doing they didn't really know what to do because I was such an anomaly if that makes sense and all the other diabetics I spoke to weren't interested in sport as much as I was so from probably 14, 15, 16 the only sports persona that I knew that had diabetes was a 1980s Tottenham player called Gary Mabbutt so he lifted the FA Cup with Tottenham and he was considered one of Tottenham's best footballers kind of thing but as for when I was growing up he was the only person I knew that had diabetes and did sport so it's been a bit of a tricky one for me and I think that's one of the other reasons that I started The Athletic Diabetic just because I don't want kids to think they're alone I don't want people just because you do sport like does this make sense like just because you do sport and you're diabetic like you're not alone there are people like you um you don't have to like regress into a life of just sitting around

[00:30:26] Rob Howe: doing nothing like you can't go get your life um of course and i think you know that's something that i've learned a whole lot more as i've become more involved is that the more you connect with other people with type 1 the more you're involved with the community i mean there are literal like health benefits. Like if you look at my A1C like chart, uh, for, you know, for my blood sugars, since I've gotten involved, since I've started diabetics doing things, it, uh, they've improved by like, you know, 25%. It's like 25% better than it was. So my A1C was 7.3, then now it's 6.1. So, um, it's pretty, it's pretty staggering how big of a difference it makes when you are able to connect with other people like yourself and you don't feel alone

[00:31:13] Dan Allison: i mean literally since starting the athletic diabetic obviously i found you um i found there's i think there's someone called diabetic running girl in belgium i think you follow her as well i'm not sure yep um and then there's another guy who was in a very similar situation to me called the Aesthetic Diabetic. He's also from the US. He seems like quite a nice guy. It's comforting to me to see that there's other people living the same kind of lifestyle. And I think it's just comforting. I can't describe. It's just comforting. Obviously, to me, I've only found these people out in the last six months or so. But yeah, I'm so happy to have like found them do you know what I mean yeah it is it's hard to explain it's it's

[00:32:06] Rob Howe: just a feeling of like oh I'm there actually are other people like me and you start to uncover this entire world that you really didn't know existed before and yeah it's a great it's a great adventure I think you're and you're just really scratching the surface I think it's gonna

[00:32:21] Dan Allison: be really great for you I'd say it's like a feeling of belonging because obviously being diabetic and doing sport I've never really felt the same like connection with other diabetic people but at the same time I've never really felt the same connection with normal people that do sport because they're not diabetics they don't understand what it's like to have hypos and there's been like football coaches that have been telling me to run when I have to say look physically I can't run because I'm having a hypo and it just kind of goes in a bit of a cycle but now that I've found this community online, I just feel like a sense of belonging. Does that make sense? Because it's just like everyone's so similar. It just made me quite happy, basically.

[00:33:10] Rob Howe: Yeah, of course. And that right there is that feeling. You can't replicate that, right? There's no substitute for feeling that way. I think it's, yeah, of course it makes sense. I get that. Every time I talk to somebody about diabetics doing things, I think it fills my cup is what I say. Yeah, definitely. So I asked this question to all of my guests. So let me sort of set the stage here for you. You travel a lot, so you'll get this. So you're in an airport. you've got like 30 seconds before they're going to shut the gate to your flight and you've got to be on that plane you can't miss this flight and you run into somebody who is either recently diagnosed with type 1 or is struggling with their with their type 1 what's the one thing that you say to them in that 30 seconds before you have to get on that plane the one thing that you tell them

[00:34:08] Dan Allison: you're not alone keep going like you just there's there's so like i know it's saying i know a lot of friends like that and they think it's the end of the world and they're struggling but like honestly things will just get better just keep going just keep plodding on it's not the end you can still live like a really full life um i mean i'm i'm an example like i'd say i'm trying to be an example to you kind of thing and just honestly keep going it's not the end i know it seems dark but it's at the end. I hope that's... Is that 30 seconds? That's it.

[00:34:43] Rob Howe: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now you've got to jump on that plane. No, but that's fantastic. Yeah, I totally agree. You're not alone, and the more that you get involved, the more that you'll start to realize that. I think that's what... Over the years, my one thing may have changed from you can do anything you put your mind to to get involved, tell your story, connect with other people it makes a huge difference

[00:35:12] Dan Allison: I mean I thought that question was going to be very different I thought because obviously I've been going through airports a lot and I thought you were going to say have you had any awkward encounters with airport security because there's this one time honestly it was absolutely hilarious so I don't know have you seen an Omnipod they kind of like stick to you like a lot of people So I've taken all my thing. Everything's out of my pocket. Obviously, I've got nothing else on me. I walk through the machine, the gates kind of thing, and it goes beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. And then they've started. They're like, right, come in. We need to search. We need to search. Sorry. And then they've started like patting me down, and they felt my Omnipod. And I've had to explain like first, like bear in mind, I was in a foreign country where they didn't really speak English. and they kind of thought it was like a terrorist thing and then they like come out and they've got all these like swabs and stuff and they like started swabbing it and eventually they realised everything was fine and I had to try and explain to them that it was just my Omnipod but it did create a rather awkward encounter for about 20 minutes when I was just sat on this chair being like almost interrogated by these foreign officials about what this thing was that was attached to me because they didn't really speak English. So that was my awkward airport encounter.

[00:36:37] Rob Howe: Yeah, I've had a few of those myself. Like in China, I had one where, yeah, again, nobody speaks English. So you sort of have to go through the process of letting them wipe it down, going through. Here in the U.S., though, now we have this thing called TSA Pre, which is like basically there's two lines. So you have one line that goes through like the body scanner and does the, you know, the x-ray and then you have one that's just like the metal detector and my pump doesn't go off with the metal detector. So, uh, and TSA pre you get to keep your shoes on and you don't have to take your computer out of the bag. So you just like go through this line and it is perfect for diabetics because like you can just keep it all hidden and you just like go all the way through. And there's one, there's a version of it for, uh, international travel. I think it's called Global Entry or whatever. But, uh, Yeah, that's my T1D life hack of the week is go get TSA Pre if you're in the U.S. Dan, thanks so much for coming on the show and for reaching out and for staying diligent because we've been chatting back and forth for the last few months. So I'm really, really inspired by what you're starting to do. and I think based on what we've talked about I think what's going to pay off the most for you is when you really continue to get involved and find that you're not alone and there are a lot of other people who could benefit from the experience that you had you mentioned this a few times but I think you're the athletic diabetic on Instagram and I think the spaces are underscores

[00:38:18] Dan Allison: I think it's like the underscore athletic underscore diabetic. Perfect. If that makes sense. Yeah.

[00:38:25] Rob Howe: And I'll include that link back to you in the show notes. But yeah, man, thanks so much for coming on and, you know, really looking forward to, you know, what you do from here and, and excited to be a part of that journey.

[00:38:39] Dan Allison: Can I just say thank you for giving me a platform to be able to express my views and yeah, cheers, man. Like it means a lot. 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.