Diabetics Doing A Second Chance with Dave Maher

[00:00:07] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We've been telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all across the world since 2015, and we have over a thousand years of living with T1D on the podcast. The interviews range from incredible feats to everyday victories, and we celebrate them all just the same. Thanks for listening, and if you want to get involved even further, just send me an email at rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We're telling the amazing stories of people with type 1 diabetes all across the world. And I have a very special guest today introduced to me through the Beyond Type 1 team, Mr. Dave Maher. Thanks for calling in and thanks for taking the time.

[00:01:06] Dave Maher: Yeah, thank you for having me.

[00:01:08] Rob Howe: So Dave, you have a particularly interesting story of your life, which is actually Chronicle by This American Life. We're going to get into that. But the way my podcast works, no matter who the guest is, we kind of have to start a diagnosis. So why don't you tell us how you joined the type 1 diabetes family?

[00:01:25] Dave Maher: Yeah, sure. So I was 12 years old in 1997. And so it was like the summer, like right as 7th grade was winding down. And I was about to start 8th grade. Um, so it was like in June, I think, and I had been just peeing a ton and drinking a lot of water. Like I'd be over at a friend's house playing. And in the course of a couple hours, I would use the bathroom like six times. and um i had remembered that there's a kid in my second grade class when we all had to have um uh you know like a bathroom pass to leave the um right the classroom and he was the exception he could go whenever he wanted um and we were told that this was because he had diabetes and so something in my brain when I was older like connected these things and I asked my dad who was in med school at the time I was like do you think that I might have diabetes and he was like probably not like you know you're going through puberty there's like a lot of things changing you might just have like an overactive metabolism or bladder or whatever it was um but we'll get you tested. And so I got tested. Um, and then, uh, yeah, I saw an endocrinologist who was a guy with Marfan syndrome where, yeah, he has like, uh, you know, long fingers and kind of a big forehead and it just like, uh, he felt like a, and he was super, super nice and like not condescending, which is a big deal when you're a kid. Um, and, but just this like friendly skeleton of a man like telling me that yes you have diabetes and like what that meant and they played this this videotape of these like two like bright blonde kids like like sliding down slides on the playground and being like diabetes is this slide down a slide and then like these weird cutaways. So yeah, it was a very like, just surreal introduction to like, I actually remember, and I told this story at a storytelling show once about like, the day before or like the week before because there's this limbo, like after getting the test, and before finding out the results, where it felt like if I had diabetes, that would make me a very different person and that would be this new way of identifying myself and just trying on, like, I'm a diabetic guy. Like, you know, what if this is? And I don't even know what it meant, but I remember one night I went across the street to my neighbor's house to like, uh, like shoot baskets on their basketball hoop. And in my mind, I was like making this wager of like, okay, if I make this shot, I do not have diabetes and then missed the shot. And I was like, okay, best two out of three just, and did that until like, I was not good at getting the majority of shots in. So it took me to the best of like probably 17 or something uh and then i was like okay great i don't and then i'm like walking back uh home and i'm and i'm walking through my garage and looking in the like window of my parents car but like using it as a mirror and just like looking at myself and being like this could be the face of someone with diabetes and yeah and it felt very like dramatic yeah uh yeah so so that was like the beginning. And it was the end of the school year. And I knew another actual pretty good friend who had it and he had an insulin pump. And so he was helpful. Um, and, but then pretty quickly I moved, uh, from Oklahoma to Cincinnati, Ohio. And so a lot of things had changed. And, uh, yeah, that first year I was like, yeah, those, those first couple of years actually of like middle school and then high school, like spending a lot of time in the nurse's office and lying down when I, when I needed to and having snacks in classes. And I remember in, in English class in eighth grade, there was a, like, I forget why it got to this point, but this girl was like, how come he gets to have snacks in this class like every day? and I just relished so much being able to like have a really valid reason that I knew would make her feel bad um and so I was just like well I have diabetes and she just like immediately

[00:06:39] Rob Howe: shut down and uh you got to you got to shame her down like with yeah yeah to let her in that moment how many like I feel like it's so relatable like how many people you just like you finally reach that moment where someone else is so wrong that you get to slam them with this like diabetes, just kind of that validation that we get to get every now and then.

[00:07:00] Dave Maher: I know. It's so weird. It's like, it's not their fault. Like, I guess it's a very like misdirected kind of like anger that gets to be their fault in that moment. I think the most common thing I get now is just the, do you have an insulin pump?

[00:07:17] Rob Howe: I do. Yes.

[00:07:18] Dave Maher: yeah so i'm sure you're familiar with the like is that a pager right lots of like you know

[00:07:26] Rob Howe: lots of just one-off comedy responses of people just random strangers like hey here's my moment

[00:07:33] Dave Maher: this this is a pager right right exactly and yeah and and like thinking that they've like you know found this thing that no one else has ever thought to compare it to or something and But a lot of people don't even know. And so I've kind of taken to just like answering it, answering the is this a pager question directly and as if they're genuinely asking, which I think usually they are.

[00:07:59] Rob Howe: Yeah.

[00:07:59] Dave Maher: But then I find that they'll apologize. They'll be like, oh, I'm so, so sorry. And it's like, you don't have anything to apologize for, you know.

[00:08:07] Rob Howe: I think it's that's an interesting it's an interesting response like that comes, I think, with time and age. Like people, their ignorance is not it's not directed at you. They just don't know. And I mean, we're all the same way unless you had a friend or a family member or have diabetes. You really don't know the difference between type 1 and type 2 and nor do you have any reason to. So I think most people are just curious. And sometimes initially over the first few times, it feels like you're being attacked. But, you know, really, they're just curious more than anything.

[00:08:38] Dave Maher: yeah and now that I think about it like my first sort of like emotional responses to diabetes were like I mean it was like years I don't I probably can still feel this way sometimes but certainly like you know up until the end of high school it was like those first four or five years it was like just feeling like this unresolvable unfairness of the world and like what there's no reason why I should have this and it sucks and it like sometimes it's worst when my blood sugar is low and I'm especially emotionally susceptible sure you're just like what like this is not okay like And so I think maybe that's where the snarkiness comes from a little bit is like this is so unfair that maybe I can react against the unfairness by getting back at people who have not done anything in the first place.

[00:09:45] Rob Howe: Well, and I think it's especially tough at that age, you know, in high school where your hormones and emotions are just going crazy all the time. Mood swings high and low, especially for creative people. I was having another conversation with a type 1 creative person in the community earlier today talking about how, you know, sometimes you feel like you're carrying a heavy load creatively and you have this responsibility to get these messages out there. and then also you have diabetes and maybe you had a bad day or two and feel like trash and you know just don't don't feel like you know and then someone will message you asking you where something is or why you haven't done something and it's just like in those moments you have those kind of weak emotional like end of your rope type feelings that I think can manifest themselves sometimes and they're totally okay and very natural but I think especially as creative individuals you can kind of

[00:10:37] Dave Maher: feel like it's you against the world at that point. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, and I also, I think another way that I reacted, and this is probably some sort of like sublimated anger thing, is taking advantage of, of diabetes and like those times in the nurse's office being like, I'll take another 15 minutes here out of class or even dangerously. I don't know why I didn't feel comfortable just straight up lying, but I would give myself just a little bit too much insulin on Sunday so that I could get out of church to go get something, get a snack for my blood sugar. Um, which just felt like, well, this is so unfair. I might as well be able to get a couple of benefits out of this.

[00:11:39] Rob Howe: Right. And I think some people have the same, um, the same issue at times with like pre-boarding on airplanes, uh, because as a person with diabetes, like that's an option for you. Um, although it is, and like, even though on the surface, uh, it's a disability that you can't really see, obviously. And there are many people who are, you know, world-class athletes and extremely healthy individuals that you would never be able to tell. But because at some point, the overhead bins on airplanes can fill up and you need to be able to have maybe your medicine with you or your insulin or your supplies, airlines will let you board early to go to your seat and be able to put your medical supplies in the overhead bin. Whoa. So now you know. there's the, there's your free like tip that you got out of this podcast. If you wanted to do, I typically don't do it because my supplies are easy for me to carry on my person. So it's not a big deal. But, um, some people there, there's a lot of shaming of, well, you're not truly disabled. You're not doing this, but some people I think use it as like a, Hey, I have to deal with this. I might as well get some perks out of my diabetes since I can. Um, so let's talk a little bit about, um, Um, obviously we haven't talked about you being involved, uh, and being a comedian and being involved in the comedic community. Talk a little bit about how, you know, after, you know, you, you've grown up now, you, you've been a teenager through your teen years of diabetes, you're going to college. Uh, when did you start to, you know, find the comedic community and, um, you know, how did that start to manifest itself? And then what was that like for your diabetes? knowing that, you know, when you're doing comedy, you're often up late, you know, out of bars, drinking, eating out, um, eating at bars, you know, eating fast food, uh, with a tough schedule.

[00:13:31] Dave Maher: What was that like? Yeah, that's interesting. I think I like mostly didn't put together the ways in which those things in the ways in which that stuff and that lifestyle, um, affected my diabetes. Um, but I started really doing comedy my freshman year of college. I got really obsessed in late high school with this local, um, improv group that was like a short form, like whose line is it anyway style, um, gamey improv group. And my friends and I would go, we were like, yeah, I mean like they were like our fish or something. Like we would like go see all of their shows around Cincinnati. And so then when I was looking for colleges, one of my criteria was they've got to have an improv group. And that was pretty easy because most colleges have improv groups. But I ended up coming to Chicago, where I still live, and joining like one of the oldest improv like college improv groups there is it was founded by Bernie Sahlins who was one of the original second city founders so um and and i actually there were like two groups on campus and i auditioned for both and got didn't even get a call back for the like you know less i would i would say worse one but also i'll just say like less storied one um and then got into the better month and started doing improv. Um, and I'm trying to like the thing that I think about it related to diabetes the most. And I still think about this. Like I just, um, I don't, I don't do improv really formally anymore. Uh, I improvise on stage, but it's all within the context of standup and my own like solo stuff. Um, but I just spent a month in Edinburgh, Scotland in August of this year, 2018. And the so doing this one man show that I have, and I'm doing the show like, it's one hour every day for like three and a half weeks. And it was it was an incredible experience. But every single day, I've noticed so a couple of like rituals that I have before going on stage. The first one is like peeing just constantly. Like I will pee two to five times in the hour before I go on stage, even if it's for like a 10 minute set here in Chicago. And it's not always cause it's almost never because my blood sugar is high. It's just, I don't know. And maybe it's not related to diabetes, but that is a,

[00:16:32] Rob Howe: diabetes adjacent thing. Yeah. I think, I think I, I have a similar, I don't know. It's a weird thing that I guess to discuss, but it's like, yeah, a nerves, like pre-show nerves, you go and pee. It's just like a weird, I don't know if it's an auto, some sort of auto response from my body. It's like, Hey, we're about to do something that's a, you know, a fear, like stuff, even though getting on stage after I'm sure after all these years is not as, you don't have as many butterflies as you did the first time, but you still, there's like, there's that perception that this could go really bad. So, you know, there's the, uh, you know, I don't know your

[00:17:04] Dave Maher: body just flushing itself, I guess. Totally. And yeah, yeah. It's also like a, a time in which to like get a little bit of time to yourself in a context where there may not be, you know, it might seem a little weird to like go into a corner and stare at the wall and like talk to yourself or something so being in a bathroom is an easier place to just feel like you're getting a break from people before you have to go be you know the sole focus of attention for right a little while and but so before these shows in Edinburgh because it's this like giant fringe festival it's like I think the thing I've read about it is that it is the like third largest ticketed event in the world after the Olympics and the World Cup. And so it's like the biggest arts festival in the world. There's all these, yeah, it's huge. And every day before my show, I would not only pee, I would test my blood sugar. And then even if it was, yeah, I don't know. I have a, you know, after what? It's been almost 21 and a half years of having diabetes, like two-thirds of my life at this point. I'm 34. And I still don't feel like I have a perfect relationship with feeling appropriate to what the number is of my blood sugar. like frequently, you know, 90 something will feel low. And I think sometimes, especially now having a continuous glucose monitor, it's like it makes sense because I'm seeing that like, oh, it's currently 90 something. But in 10 minutes, it's about to be 65. Right. Because I can see the trend of it. So it makes sense that my body is like feeling that quickly.

[00:19:17] Rob Howe: But did you find that did you find that validating when that sort of happened the first time I found when I got on a continuous glucose monitor and I felt like, um, you know, I'm a little bit left, you know, I feel low or I feel like I'm going to be low and I test and I'm still, you know, within range. Uh, and then, you know, 15 minutes later, you're like, Oh yeah, like I do know myself. Was that validating to you at all? Or did it just kind of throw another wrench in the, in the engine?

[00:19:41] Dave Maher: No, it's definitely validating. Uh, it's, it's crazy. The amount, I mean, and the other thing is too, like my, my tendency, I think I probably err on the side of not trusting the numbers. Not that I don't trust them, just that like if what I'm feeling is high and I can tell that it's going down, but I'm still at like 230 and I feel, you know, the dry mouth and the like blurry, not blurry. For me, it's not blurry, but it's that like kind of like pulsy eyes or something like sticky eyes is the way I would describe it. But I will give myself too much insulin, not because I'm like trying to go low, but just because I want to feel normal as quickly as possible. I'm not saying that this is like a good idea. But then if it's if I feel low and I'm 90, I'm going to have a little bit of juice or something just because I want to feel normal as quickly as possible. Um, but I also, before these shows in Edinburgh would, uh, you know, when I was feeling low and it was around 90 or something, sometimes I would just set a lower basal rate for the hour so that I could, uh, I was like, you know, I probably am not going to go acutely low, but I just want to have a little bit of a lower baseline during this period of stress and activity. Um, but if it, sometimes it was like actually low beforehand and I would have to stall the show for 10 minutes, um, while I had a Coke. And, and so basically in terms of how diabetes affects my performance, a lot of it is artificially hovering in the like one 50 to one 80 range for like, cause I'd rather do that than, than be at 75 for an entire performance right um so there's that but then in terms of the lifestyle like i don't know like now my perspective is so different because i'm uh a sober guy now and and and i'm very aware of the ways in which like the comedy lifestyle is not does not have to be one specific thing, but certainly there's that like stereotype of the way people drink and eat and live. And, um, yeah, I just, I just didn't pay attention to it. And like the, like I, I got so empowered, but like falsely empowered by the insulin pump being like when, you know, when people would be like, Oh, can you eat that? Like, you know, Oh, so sorry. Like we have these things or whatever. I would be like, no, I can eat whatever. I have an insulin pump. So, you know, I can eat just like everybody else. Right. Not paying attention to the fact that like, well, the way you're eating is actually not like everybody else. You're like going way too hard on the sweets or the fried foods or whatever. And it's almost like the ego response is,

[00:22:48] Rob Howe: you know, even if you don't really want to, you just want to prove them wrong or prove that you're

[00:22:52] Dave Maher: normal. Exactly. Exactly. And so, yeah, I was definitely my like active comedy days definitely coincided with the beginning stages, you know, of alcoholism and, uh, just years of eating. Yeah. Just eating without any mind toward how it was actually affecting me or my diabetes. And, uh, you know, at that time it wasn't, it didn't seem like alcoholism. I'm like, Oh, I'm, I'm partying. It's college. This is how everyone drinks. And then five years later, I'm the only one who's still drinking like that. But so, yeah, it was – I think the too long, didn't read answer of everything I just said is that it is not, I didn't acknowledge or pay attention to the ways in which my routines, schedule, diet were affecting my diabetes. And that was, I was able to do that for so long because I was drunk or high for so long.

[00:24:14] Rob Howe: And I think that kind of leads us into the next phase of the story, right? And to the sort of this American life story, because that lifestyle, the results were dramatic. They weren't just, you know, incremental as we would maybe think, you know, a couple high A1Cs here and there. It was a drastic, you know, the lifestyle choices that you had made and not being mindful in those took you to a place that, you know, some people don't come back from. And nearly, you know, you almost didn't come back from.

[00:24:44] Dave Maher: yeah man gucci main said rock star lifestyle might don't make it yeah that's right he really did shout out the franchise boys yeah where do we where do we go where do you want to yeah uh well

[00:24:58] Rob Howe: so the story is and and i think i'm i'm going to paraphrase a little bit but you uh your blood sugars had been high for an extended period of time and then there was some event and i you feel free to walk us through it if you like, that pushed your blood sugar so high that you ended up in a coma. And, you know, during that time, one of your friends or family members had put on Facebook that the doctors were recommending that you be taking off life support. And so for people to write in their, their memories and so and, and wish you well while they still could. and and then you know over the course of all of a few weeks maybe months um i think the story was that your dad came in and just greeted you like he had been the entire time you'd been in a coma and then you suddenly woke up yeah yeah um so i mean like that that i just the the way i delivered that is like doesn't seem very profound but like you were gone and and came back yeah no for sure

[00:26:03] Dave Maher: I was in a coma for three and a half weeks and then in the hospital for another three and a half weeks after that. And yeah, it was, you know, it wasn't exactly one event, although, of course, there was a point at which I was comatose rather than conscious. but it was mostly a result of like, yeah, this addiction stuff, this like poor diabetes management, not even realizing it. And also I was selling my test strips. And so just testing very infrequently and pretty much, you know, the way in which like, okay, if you spend enough time at 200, 200 starts to feel like 120 and you know so on with 250 and 300 and so it's like my sugars are rising and rising and rising and I'm feeling you know quote-unquote normal or too high to realize that I'm not normal and then one weekend I just I started going into DKA and throwing up and to too like, you know, high and out of it to get with the program and call a hospital. So I just, you know, uh, stayed in my bed and smoked weed about it and went into a coma. And, um, my roommate found me, uh, and yeah, so, so yeah, the, the, the kind of, I think dramatic stuff is that I was almost taken off life support. because there was a certain point where the hospital that I was at in Chicago, before my family transferred me to a hospital in Cincinnati, the hospital in Chicago just wasn't equipped to handle my case. They didn't really know what they could do. My family saw me suffering a ton, and it just seemed pretty hopeless. And the call for people to come celebrate me was actually in person. It was like before they were going to take me off of life support in Chicago. My family invited all my friends to the hospital to say goodbye. And then at some point after that, you know, people started making assumptions. They were like, well, you know, he's gone at this point. And and then the tidal wave of Facebook eulogies began. People just started posting like memories. And so in terms of what my family said on Facebook, it was actually my brother who told people like, hey, please stop talking about him in the past tense because he's still alive. We haven't done anything yet. So it was actually a corrective from my family rather than an encouragement. But yeah, all of those eulogies were like – they're still up there November 13th, 2014. I can go back and see what people said about me when they thought I was dead, which is a very like surreal thing. And and yeah, then I was transferred to a hospital in Cincinnati and woke up after like three days. And, you know, there's no adequate explanation for why there are like, you know, certain factors, but nothing that's like, oh, great. And now we feel that this has been fully explained and wrapped up and we have no need to explore it anymore. It's just this kind of mysterious thing.

[00:29:44] Rob Howe: What's that like? What's that like for you to, I mean, outside of diabetes, just to, I don't know, just kind of help you walk me through, obviously, it's a huge emotional moment for you and your family to process. but just an unexplainable, inexplicable phenomenon, I guess.

[00:30:03] Dave Maher: Yeah, it's frustrating, man, because I'm like, on one hand, I think about these big existential questions a lot, and even before this, that was definitely, I'm like the guy hanging out in the spirituality section of the bookstore, And I'm thinking about this stuff. And part of it is like, I would kind of like very specific, definite answers to some of these questions. Like, I would be okay if someone was like, this is exactly the nature of the universe. This is the nature of consciousness. This is what happens when you die. And I'd be like, great. You know, thank you for some. I'm not just like questioning to question. But then you realize that like, well, if you're going to ask these kinds of questions, you're never going to get completely solid answers. So you are questioning to question. And so in some ways it's like – it's scary but it's empowering because you have these – this mysterious event. So the onus then comes back on me to interpret it and to be like, OK, well, either I get to choose what I think about this and why. and you know it's helpful for me not to not to try to try to like resist that urge to like be completely black and white and and and clear about a thing that's not clear um so on one hand it's like frustrating but on the other hand it's kind of empowering it's like well it's not just a cut and dry you know you were sick and then they gave you this medicine and now you're better it's like I don't know my my sort of belief system is certainly centered around mystery anyway and so this kind of just feeds into that a little bit well it's kind of like the I like taking the

[00:32:19] Rob Howe: ownership of making the choice um that you know whether whether you can explain it or not now the onus is on you to interpret it for yourself and make the decisions accordingly um because that's all we can compare it to, right? It's all we have is what those choices were given. So even though there are maybe more questions, now you have a choice to make. And, you know, now we're talking about it on this podcast, you know, four years later, what choices did you make? What was the, as you kind of got back acclimated to, you know, being awake and recovered, you know, what were your first inclinations for how you were going to go forward?

[00:33:00] Dave Maher: yeah well so i when i woke up the the the first question like the most common question people ask is like do you remember anything from being in the coma and that has a very definitive answer which is just no right like there's i do i did not have any sort of out of body experience i didn't hear voices it was just going into the coma which was a fuzzy process you know i'm like in and out of consciousness as I'm going comatose. And then coming out was a fuzzy process because I was on a lot of sedatives. So if anything, not only do I not remember anything from within the coma, there are sort of the bookends of going in and coming out that are even a little fuzzy. Right. But so when I woke up, I thought that I was in rehab for alcohol. and had this sort of like heart to heart moment with my parents or, you know, what I thought was a heart to heart moment where I was like, you know, mom and dad, like I get it. And, you know, I've decided that I'm going to stop drinking and, and that, which made them happy. But, you know, I had a little bit more to learn about why I was actually there. But so that was my first inclination was like, I need to make a definitive change in my life. And that change is to stop drinking. And I actually like kept like that, you know, I have not drank since waking up from the coma. What I did return to is getting high. And for me, that was mostly like, it's like smoking weed was the way that I was avoiding my life. And I, you know, after a couple months after getting out of the hospital, like I had this open tracheotomy scar. And so I'm like, I'm, uh, I'm pilfering some things from the, the one man show I do about this stuff. Uh, it's called Dave Maher coma show. And I, but yeah, so the, the bit, and it's true is that the very last day that I was in the hospital, I was like waiting for my mom to pull the car up to the lobby and I was just on my phone like googling if you could smoke weed with a tracheostomy and I so eventually that and the answer was mostly no and it healed and so then I got back to Chicago started getting high again and this sort of like definitive epiphany moment felt like it was receding and so I was like this is not okay like I need to this was an opportunity to make some like big changes. So, so sobriety is like the biggest change. And then along with that, that kind of paved the way for, you know, once you're not high constantly, you have a certain amount of clarity in your life that allows you to make other changes. Um, and so realizing like okay now that I'm sober uh you know it it would really help to pay attention to this uh continuous glucose monitor and I'm trying to remember I think it wasn't I think I didn't get the CGM until after the coma I'm almost I'm almost positive so so and the CGM was a huge game changer yeah uh like my my I don't remember the last a1c that was over 6.5 for me which is a huge accomplishment um and I'm like very proud of that so and then that had a huge part in that And then just eating healthier. I actually like went into recovery for the like food issues as well. And so now I have some some things that I just steer clear of entirely. I call it recreational sugar, which is a very intuitive and kind of nebulous category that might look very different for someone else, but I know what it means for me. And so through changing the way I ate and then starting to get more active, and a lot of that was – I've always kind of experimented with things, the thing that like really made the change. So after like getting sober, going into recovery for like many different behaviors and substances, like I peeled away all these layers of the onion and then the core was this like – so it doesn't fit into the narrative of like went into a coma, got sober and life is much better now. Because the reality is that like a couple of years in, things got way worse because I just didn't have any of the coping mechanisms that I was using to cope with life. And so I – like last year actually, I went into treatment for depression and that was a big game changer. I mean, after like six or eight weeks of doing that, I came out and it felt like I was completely like a 33-year-old newborn baby just in terms of the equipment I had to deal with the world. Like everything was new. Everything was – people talk about having to relearn things when you get sober, like how to be at a party without drinking. And I never felt that stuff until after treatment because that was when I had been like completely stripped of things. But in treatment, they talked a lot about like, you know, what are ways that you can like live in your body and get out into the world and enjoy yourself. And like activity was a big one. and so I like I took a swim class and that was a big game changer because I'd never known how to do the like freestyle with the breathing and so I was like you know this is the thing I'm gonna humble myself take a swim class with a bunch of like Mexican teenagers and old Polish and Chinese grandmas and I'll be in there and I'll learn how to swim and it was like super fun and that was the thing that was like, oh, this is like an exercise I can do for the rest of my life. And so all those sorts of things together have slowly, even when I have had epiphanies, there are, it like doesn't make a difference. Like just having this like revelatory moment kind of doesn't matter if you You can't back it up with like daily action that supports the change.

[00:40:18] Rob Howe: Well, and I think it's, I mean, we live in like quick fix culture. And I, I spend a lot of time talking about falling in love with incremental progress. So I love.

[00:40:29] Dave Maher: Yes, I love that.

[00:40:30] Rob Howe: I love that. Like your, your fix was not one thing. And I think in diabetes, especially your health, you know, experts will be talking about, well, if you eliminate this one thing, you'll get X. So, you know, I love it. Wasn't just addiction. It wasn't just food. It wasn't just exercise. It wasn't just mental health and self-care. It was the holistic approach. And you had to really relearn all of it. Because if there's one thing I think a lot of our listeners know, I mean, people that listen to diabetes podcasts are in like the top 5% of diabetes managers are all around, right? Right. So, I mean, the people who really need this type of information won't get it through this podcast yet. Unfortunately, that's a big problem I'm still trying to solve is how to reach the, you know, the silent majority. But, you know, I think the diabetes is so complex. There's everything from not getting the right amount of sleep to not drinking amount of water or just having a stressful conversation or, you know, a barista putting sugary syrup in your coffee instead of sugar free, like all of these things that can affect you drastically. So I love that your journey from a coma to where you are today is, is not just one thing. It's just learning and kind of relearning how your body responds to these things. And, uh, you know, whether it's mental health or actual physical health and wellbeing and what you put into your body, um, and all very difficult and challenging things at times. So I appreciate you being, you know, open and honest with, you know, how it hasn't been just rainbows and butterflies since you, you know, came out of a coma. Yeah, for sure. Um, well, Dave, man, I, I think we're, that's kind of a good stopping point maybe for today for us, but I think I did want to thank you for telling your story and coming on to the podcast. I think a lot of people are going to really benefit from hearing your story and just like such a real and, um, relatable way. And, uh, you know, obviously, uh, you as a performer, this, this episode just was such a fun thing to follow. I kind of found myself like following along, uh, do instead of doing the interview rather than, uh, you know, just being a listener. So, um, thank you very much.

[00:42:42] Dave Maher: Yeah. Thanks for having me, man. Can I, uh, can I give you like the website info that I would

[00:42:47] Rob Howe: point people to if they're interested? Oh, absolutely. Part of this podcast is absolutely to plug yourself. So social media websites, one man show tickets, uh, there's going to be a group of type 1 diabetic bloggers, influencers, advocates in Chicago in November. So if you have a show or something, just like plug it. This is the time.

[00:43:08] Dave Maher: Cool. Yeah, I don't have like I am planning to tour Dave Maher Coma Show. I don't have specific dates for that yet, but all of that stuff will be up on my website, which can be either Dave Maher Coma show.com or this is Dave Maher.com. And that's my stuff on all social media is just, this is Dave Maher. So Twitter, Instagram. Yeah, whatever.

[00:43:34] Rob Howe: Awesome. Well, uh, we will definitely tag you not only in the show notes, but, uh, on Instagram as well. And, um, again, Dave, just thanks so much for taking the time and, uh, looking forward to hearing all the positive reactions from this episode.

[00:43:50] Dave Maher: yeah thanks so much Rob I really appreciate it man