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   Number 1: "Different every step of the way" - A Dexcom G7 Update (and more) with CEO Kevin Sayer

   This week, Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer spoke to the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference about the G7 and beyond. We talk about information from that presentation and get to as many of your questions as time allows. This interview took place on Tuesday Jan 11 and much of what we discussed isn't FDA approved. Dexcom presentation info here Club1921 info here Our usual disclaimer: Dexcom is a sponsor of this podcast, but they don't dictate content and they don't tell me what to ask their executives. Recent Dexcom episodes: CTO Jake Leach talks about Garmin, Dexcom One & more CEO Kevin Sayer talks about G7, Direct to Watch, Adhesive and more CEO Kevin Sayer talks about Dexcom in Hospital, G7, VA program and more Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Episode Transcription Below Stacey Simms 0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. Take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom and by Club 1921. Where Diabetes Connections are made This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. Welcome to another week of the show. You know I'm always so glad to have you here. We aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. And I'm talking with Dexcom CEO this week, it's Kevin Sayer, he is back to check in with us again. And in the interest of getting this episode out to you as soon as I could. It might sound a little different right here at the beginning. But Dexcom episodes are always so high interest that it really merits a quick turnaround. I didn't want to sit on this interview for a week. So here's the setup. Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer gave a presentation to the JP Morgan healthcare conference, if you're listening as this episode goes live, that was just Monday of this week, January 10, the interview you're about to hear took place on Tuesday, January 11. My usual disclaimer Dexcom is a sponsor of this podcast, but they don't dictate content and they don't tell me what to ask their executives. I asked the Diabetes Connections podcast Facebook group for questions. And Whoa, boy, did you have a lot as always not a surprise. And I really appreciate you sending those in, I got to as many as I could, while also trying to include what the folks at Dexcom had really asked me to bring up there are some topics that they wanted Kevin to make sure to address. And I think we do a pretty good job of trying to reach a balance here. Kevin, welcome and Happy New Year, Kevin Sayer 1:46 and Happy New Year to you. Stacey Simms 1:48 Thank you. Well, this seems to have started out in pretty happy way on the headline, just from this week. Dexcom CEO touts unprecedented performance of G7 in clinical trial. This is after your talk at the annual JP Morgan healthcare conference. Tell me a little bit about that unprecedented performance data. Kevin Sayer 2:08 I'm happy to. And I just have to qualify it by saying no, I can't send it to all your listeners at the end of the call yet. We're still waiting for approval in Europe. And we have filed this with the FDA, I'm going to take you back a little bit, we made a decision when we were going through the G7 development process that we wanted to answer that performed better than G6. And all of our scientists looked at us and they go oh, really, you're sure because this is really good. And so we spent a lot of time new algorithms and new manufacturing techniques, there's a lot of things in G7 that make it different. We also wanted to validate that performance with a study that was so large, nobody could refute it. So as you look at the data that I presented at the conference yesterday, over 300 patients 39,000 Match pairs all across since one ranges and on the I CGM standard side, but with the 5% 95% lower bound, and even the absolute points, you can see we are well within all of the iCGM standards, which are very technical and actually are a very good measure of how a sensor actually performs in reality. And they were very thoughtful in developing these standards to try and pick the centers that don't work to put you statistically in a bind to whereby if you really aren't performing in the low range or wherever, you're not going to get that iCGM designation. We're very comfortably there. And the overall MARD in the study, Stacey is eight point, you know I it's in the low eight for adults and pediatrics. And if you start looking at the data, we gather the data sets in three periods, you know, days one and two, the middle days, four, or five and six, and the last days nine and 10. It's pretty low, I think it's below 10. In the first group a day, the first days, which are always a little bit higher, traditionally in our centers than the other days. But in those middle and end days, it's it's near seven, and strips for six. I mean, we have done something that I've been in this business for since 1994. I didn't think we'd ever do this when I started. As far as being this good. This is really, really good data. And we're going to continue to deliver the experience to our customers that they demand from us. So as you can as you think about an iCGM that's driving an automated insulin delivery system. And not only is the performance great, the user where it's 60% smaller, it's a 30 minute warm up. It's a new app. From our perspective, we've got a lot of the clarity data, your listeners will know about clarity. We've got a lot of your clarity data right on the app. There's new alarm configurations. Stacey Simms 4:48 I'm gonna just jump in with a couple of quick clarifications before we go on. You mentioned a number of there that went by quickly I apologize when you talked about the 300 people in this trial 39,000 match what I missed that one Kevin Sayer 5:00 matched pairs. That's where you compare the CGM value to the blood glucose value from the laboratory instrument. So the way our studies work is literally we draw blood samples from the individuals in the study at intervals, and then we actually match the CGM data to that laboratory blood instrument. So 39,000 points from these 300 people in this study were matched. Got it? Stacey Simms 5:27 And you mentioned the MARD mean absolute relative difference. Most of you, as you listen are very familiar with this, the lower the better for CGM G6, I, my understanding was G6 was in the low nines. This is 8.1 for peds. 8.2 for adults, as I'm reading it, that's right. I know you can't tell me I'll ask you anyway, why? What made the difference here? Is it sighs is it algorithm? Do you have anything you can point to? Or is that a trade secret Kevin Sayer 5:49 it's combination, I think the algorithm has been the most, the algorithm changes were really extensive here. And, you know, we always have manufacturing processes to get better, the way we build the G7 centers different in every step of the way. Literally, our G6 manufacturing processes go away and the G7 ones take over the summer, we're a little similar on the actual sensor wire itself, and that manufacturing, but everything else is different. We just think it it's smaller, it's a lot shorter than G6 was. And so it is it's going to be a completely different experience for everybody. Stacey Simms 6:28 So to go back to what you were talking about, before I jumped in there, you were starting to talk about alarms, is there something different for the alarm, Kevin Sayer 6:35 the app is different. And so access to them, and, and just how you use them, if we try to get to be more consumer, thoughtful, as we configured the alarms, we'll see how everybody loves him. It'll be interesting. The alarms are one of the things we get the most comments on when we launch a product initially, we try and please everyone, but we never please everyone. And then you get you know, the agency at one time. I don't know if your call. I think one of our other discussions, we had to make the mute override not work on the low end. Boy, we got a lot of people mad at us about that one. So we've tried to comply with what our users want, and also comply with what the FDA has asked us to do. But I think users will find the alarm experience. Good as well. I like I think it's just gonna be a home run. Yeah, well, I Stacey Simms 7:24 mean, my son would be happy if an alarm never made a noise again. And I know other people who put like it to alarm every time there's any movement. So I hear where you're coming from, can you give any insight into the G7 app in terms of what the differences that we may see as users? And I guess especially one of the questions I always get is about follow any changes of significance coming that you can share follows Kevin Sayer 7:47 on a separate software track. And so the G7 system, the app is just we tried to get more data in the app itself, versus what we have with G6. So a lot of the clarity data, or at least summary query data is sitting there right in your app. And that will be i we think people will like that just to see how they're doing over time you got your time in range data for, you know, three 714, you know, a month, 90 days, see how you're doing time in range wise and the app is other than that it's relatively similar. The startup is different and you know, in the interface is going to be different. I think over time, what you'll see with us is that app is now going to get more sophisticated, we changed the entire software platform for G7 and started over again, and we developed a software platform, we can now really change and add on to a lot easier than we could in the past. And so we're hoping to have more frequent software releases. But we've also learned that CGM is not like Battlestar Galactica game, a game where you want to get a new release every two weeks to fire everybody up. We can't do a release every two weeks, because people depend on this for their, you know, for their lives. And if you do too frequent releases, and you botch a release, you do some wrong, you remember what happened, if we ever make a mistake on the software, the data side, we can't do that. But we do want to add more features more quickly in this platform will enable us to do that. I think one of the things you'll see going forward on the software side, we really want to automate a lot of the tech support features. We've added some, you know, you can get FAQs right from the app now with respect to your sensor, but there are other things we think we can do tech support wise in the app that will you know, reduce everybody's burden. Nobody likes making a phone call and nobody likes picking up the phone. And when we have a sensor fail, and we do have sensors fail, it just doesn't make any sense that you have to call us if we've got data on a phone, it'd be much easier. For example, if we could diagnose that failure right on the app and go through a very quick process to why but where you could get one. I can't give a timeframe when all those things are going to come but the platform is robust enough that over time, we can add features like that. One of the other nice things about G7, since it's fully disposable, you know, every sensor has its own unique serial number. Whereas with G6, that same transmitters used with three months' worth of sensors. So it will be, it will be fun to be able to follow things like that and see how the sensors go through the channel where everybody gets attract things of that nature. So what we're really looking forward to the change in our business that G7 affords us. Stacey Simms 10:28 As usual, I have listener questions, I'm going to try to not repeat because you've been really accessible in the last year, we've talked to a couple of folks from Dexcom, besides yourself. So as you listen, if I didn't get to your question, or if you have a question, good chance, we actually answered it in the last year, year and a half. But given let me ask you about compression lows, because that's one of the things we had talked about, about testing the G7. Any update on that in these trials, if you lay on it, you know, circulation slows, and you can get a false reading any better with the G7 Kevin Sayer 10:54 part of the clinical study is in the compression, because you're pretty much sitting in a chair with a needle in your arm drawing blood. So I'm sorry, we can't really test that we'll learn more about compression when it gets in the field. My hope is that it isn't as much but I can't promise that because I don't know, we're not enough people. I think there are ways over time where we can manage compression better, I'm not going to get into all the science on the phone, believe it or not, I do spend a lot of time with the engineers on this specific issue. Because I have it happened to me from time to time too. So I will call them up say Hey, can we do X, Y or Z? And I think there are some some answers, but I can't give them away because I don't want to give away the playbook. So let's let's just see what we can do overtime on that one. Stacey Simms 11:42 Okay. All right. But you know, the next clinical trial just have them lean against the side of their bed. Kevin Sayer 11:46 We will we'll have to do well. Diffic very scientific. Stacey Simms 11:50 Another question came up, and I think I'm gonna knock wood. I think we've been very lucky on this. It's about new iOS launches from Apple. And I'll read the question and it'll tell you, briefly our experience. This person said Dexcom is part of the Apple Developer Network developers have access to new release such as iOS months before launch, why does Dexcom lag behind Apple iOS launches by months in terms of quote, approved use. And our experience, frankly, is that we have not had any issues Benny and I both have, we just got but as a 13. Plus, we both had very old phones. And we have a latest software and no glitches for us. But that's not everyone's experience, can you talk a little bit about that, Kevin Sayer 12:30 we do get the iOS versions in advance, and we do our best to comply with them, I would I would tell you that it isn't as simple as it's made out to be. And the iOS version that's launched isn't always exactly what we've worked on as they as they make tweaks, not big ones. But you also test for everything that you know about the new iOS versions, and sometimes are things that you don't know, that are in there that come back and may affect the app later on, which is why we delay a little bit, we try and go through every bit of testing that you can imagine. And I'll be honest with your users, Apple's made iOS changes, because of us, we have called up and said, Look, you got to do XY and Z here we have a problem. And they're very good to work with, they've not been difficult at all, you know, when you think about iOS and Android operating system and all the things that they impact. And it's very hard not to impact somebody adversely when you do a new iOS launch. And you know, the perfect example with us is the home you'd override journey that I brought up earlier. In the beginning, I believe the only app that can overcome the mute override within iOS is authorized manna in the beginning was Apple's alarm clock, but other people would go around it with their apps was a medical device, we can't do a go around, we have to make sure what we do is in compliance and known so they work with us very well to make sure we could do what the FDA wanted with respect to the mute button. And the same thing with Android on that, and that was a very difficult exercise. So if there's a delay, it's because we're taking time to see what might have been put into iOS that would change our app. And it just one more thing that will stop. new operating systems are often designed to minimize power usage to extend battery life. Oftentimes, minimizing power usage affects an app that has to be running continuously. And those are the types of battles that we fight are things that we have to make sure we test as a new iOS minimizes power usage. Just does that turn us off? Does it does that stop Dexcom? And we've had, we've discovered things of that nature where it could affect our app. So there you go. Long answers. All right. Stacey Simms 14:44 No, no, that's great. And you mentioned you've asked iOS you've asked Apple to make changes. I assume the alarm was one any others that you can share. Kevin Sayer 14:52 I know that nothing I could share. Nothing major that I like you said they're very cognizant of the Dexcom community there we are. You know, we're we're a very large part of the iOS, you know, we're pretty, it's pretty vocal group when it comes to iOS, Stacey Simms 15:06 pretty vocal group period, the whole community. Alright, we say that with love. So another question came from my group, which was about Sugarmate. This is a, I would describe it as a third party app that uses the Dexcom information. And now the real time API to display and and act on data in its own way, my understanding is that Tandem owns Sugarmate, just from way of background here. And you know, Dexcom owns a little bit of Tandem. So there's a relationship there. Can you speak a little bit about data sources, but the bottom line question here was using Sugarmate and the situation to ask you, does Dexcom feel like they own the patient data? Or do the patients still own their data, even when going through the Dexcom web API's, we believe Kevin Sayer 15:49 the patient's own their data, not us, let me rephrase that we believe the patient's control the use of their data, we are the stewards of that data sitting on our servers. And so we have a responsibility to maintain it and to keep it but where that data goes and where that data is used. We do believe, particularly if it's identified data, that the patient absolutely has complete control over that there's vector sugar made, it's interesting, it was not using API's before it was a like many and non authorized use of the data to display it in a different format that people quite candidly, mess, like better than looking at the Dexcom app. And that's fine. That's why we built the live API's, we made a server change to upgrade our server platform, again, more capacity, more safety, more redundancy. It's a project that's been going on for years. And we've come to the end of that project this year. And when doing so there were some technical issues with Sugarmate, they very quickly switched over to the live API's. And now this is an authorized use of the data based on platform and data pipes that we built. So we're willing to share the data with people when they want it. I think that's an attitude of Dexcom. That changed very much over the years, when we first started, we had a hard time with that concept. Because we worked so hard to invent this technology and gather this data, why would we share it with anybody and say, See, you remember the early days and Nightscout, they were mad at us, we were mad at that. Now, we're not mad at anybody anymore. I think it's important that the data sharing be structured and be used for good purposes. But you know, all in all, it's a, it's a good use of the data that we have, because these are still Dexcom customers. If you want to, you're still buying sensors and using them. It's not a bad thing. Stacey Simms 17:35 Let me ask you a question about the sensors. And this came up in the fall. I've seen it less since but it's still out there. And I don't know if this is something you can answer. But it seems that we have not received this. But it seems that some customers are getting the G6 sensors, the inserters brand new in the original packaging, but a new label on it that says this product meets shelf-life extension requirements. I'm your people I reached out to them in the fall, they told me the stickers, oh, you know, it's all legit. There are updated expiration dates. But I'm curious why this is happening. And you know, what is the shelf life of the G6, Kevin Sayer 18:10 I can tell you exactly what's going on, you do shelf-life testing for product as selling your product will last. And over the course of our product lifecycle, you trying to extend that shelf life through more testing to make sure the product still works for the same amount of time period, if you manufactured product with 12 months shelf life, and then extend that shelf life to 18 months. And it's still the same product and still same manufacturing process rather than unbox it, put it in a new box or throw it away, we put a sticker on the outside because it's same products been tested, it's been proven that it works for 18 months, that's not a problem. That doesn't mean that it's 18 months old, we never have inventory that sits around that long to my knowledge, but we do extend shelf lives, it's important for us to do that, with respect to the distribution channel, particularly as we go to the pharmacy, you know, in the drugstore and and our distributors, the longer they have, you know that they can keep product, the better. We don't want people throwing product away if they don't have to. So all that means is we've extended our testing and shown that the product still works for a longer period of time and wanted to to label the product accordingly. That's all Stacey Simms 19:17 Yeah, I think because it came at a time when there is nervousness just in general not just in diabetes about supply chain and, you know, scarcity concerns. It just seemed unexpected, if that makes sense. Kevin Sayer 19:30 Well I one of the reasons to extend life is in fact supply chain we don't have inventory issues with G6 you know G6 is a very very well running process right now and still, you know, the premier sensor on the market. In fact, we launched a G6 derivation product in Europe, these past three months called Dexcom. One a it's a cash pay product sold on the E commerce platform in four European countries say See now and it's a lower price and geographies. But we did a feature that we took away, share and follow. We're not connecting any devices. It's it's a simpler technology. And again, we have d six supply to be able to go and do things like that. And we are planning to have G7 capacity to do similar things. We are not shooting small on either front will have capacity on both sides. And, you know, listeners on a supply chain perspective, we have been extremely diligent with respect to components for our products. And right now we see things very good today. We my operations team has just been outstanding on this front. So knock on wood, no, no Dexcom problems today. Stacey Simms 20:40 All right, two more questions for you. As always, we're going to run out of time. And as you're listening, I would refer you again, we did have a conversation about Dexcom. One in a previous show. So I will link that up. This one is more of I've asked this, you answered it, but I still continue to get questions to please ask you please make sure when GS seven comes out that Medicare is taken care of? Kevin Sayer 21:00 Well, that is a great question. And I think we've learned from our mistakes in the past. So we will when we get G7 done, what we will do is we will file with CMS to get G7 reimbursement. That's a process that I've heard anecdotally takes three to six months. So if we can get it done in three months, we can't file with CMS until it's approved. But we'll file after approval, and then we'll go and it is our plans to have capacity for all of our US users. When we go it is not that Medicare delay for G6 was one of the most emotionally gut-wrenching things I've dealt with here, because you can't imagine how many emails I got. But we didn't have capacity, and we didn't have everything ready. We've learned from our mistakes. And we'll hopefully be ready to go to everybody. That's our plan right now. Stacey Simms 21:49 That's great. Okay, and my last question is, and I hate doing this to you, but I'm doing it anyways, look into the chapter, we're gonna look, we're gonna come at it sideways, because I did have one listeners and ask him what's planned for the g8? And I said, Come on, let's let him get the G7. Oh, you know what? I'm happy? You can answer that. Let's go for it? Kevin Sayer 22:07 Well, well, I'll give you two because we did lose some time in the beginning because my computer wasn't functioning properly. As we look to the future, we want performance to continue to be better. And then we ask ourselves, but we're getting to the point where as you get to an eight, Mar D, we're getting close to finger six, I don't know how much more of a gap there's going to be, as we look to the future, and even G7 derivatives, we want to go to a longer life, we want to go to 15 days rather than 10. We'll be running studies doing that over the next couple of years. We've got a couple of plans there. We're always looking to upgrade the electronics, and how much better electronics, you know, I know one of your bigger user complaints is connectivity and loss of data, how do we improve that experience for our customers to make that better over time? Because we can always be better. And phones change faster than medical devices? So what why do we put there, we're looking at ways how we can help the environment for future product launches again, and changes in the next platforms, G6 has a lot more materials than G7 does as far as just raw plastic. So how do we make an impact there? On the cost side, there's some form factor things that are pretty far out there that we look at that I won't go into that are really, really fun. We'll see if we had done that. And if they're feasible from a cost of manufacturing perspective, but again, we're now very much focused on customer preference, rather than can't we make this work well enough, you know, in my early days here, it's Can we can we just get this thing working well enough to whereby people can rely on it. Whereas now it's one of those features that are going to make it a more engaging experience. And the last one will be software and analytics and things like that, as I look out over time, do we end up with analytics to whereby we can offer our users a menu of choices on the software side to whereby they can get more if you want Dexcom when don't want to connect or talk to anybody? You can have that if you want something that literally literally analyzes every glucose measurement that you take and does something scientifically. How do you get there, I think there's a number of experiences we can develop over time for future product generations without changing the form factor. So I don't see any slowdown in investment on the r&d side. And on the product side, G6 is the best product out there now and G7 will just be better in every way. And then we just keep going from there. Stacey Simms 24:27 And I appreciate you answering that. Thank you. So if you keep going from there, this is the sideways kind of question I wanted to ask. Okay, go ahead. Okay. A couple of days ago, Abbott announced the idea of what they're calling Lingo, which is bio wearables that will track not only glucose, but ketones and lactate and alcohol. And they say these are not medical devices. You know, this is for people who want to be you know, ultra-marathoners and things like that. We're already seeing sensors used in that way right now. Any plans to do something like this? Kevin Sayer 24:56 You know what our electronics platform for G7 We could put any, if we could develop a sensor wire with membranes and analytes and such for to measure something else, it would fit right into G7. And we design G7. With that in mind, we have advanced technology work going on with the other analytes. But it's still an advanced technology phase, we have to answer a couple of questions. First, have we done all we're supposed to do on the glucose side? Before we run there, and we got a lot to do right now, Stacy, you've heard me talk on this call. And so we need to get done what we started, we need to get G7 launched, we need to scale it up and manufacture it in the 10s. And ultimately, hundreds of millions of products as we stand up a factory in Malaysia and get our Arizona facility built out even more. So we've got to get that work done. The second piece, I'm going to answer this in three pieces. The second piece is what is the commercial opportunity for each of those things. They did announce this line of sensors, but they're all individual sensors. So I've worn a lactate sensor, I'll be completely honest with you from the lab and seeing what it does to my workouts and it's very cool, I can see which workout is better than another one. But I'm not ultra-marathoner, I probably wouldn't change my life. But it was very interesting to look at. There are other scientific uses of black data, particularly in a hospital setting. But what is the market for those, and so we're gonna kind of take an approach, we'll continue to develop the science and if Abbott wants to go develop a market, I am happy to follow this time rather than create it, like we've done with glucose. The third piece of this is there are a lot of biosensors out there. Now, you have your Apple Watch, and Apple is continuing to gather more and more data or ranks, whoop bands, Fitbits, they're advertised on television all the time, I would love to incorporate data from these other sensing technologies into into Dexcom. And vice versa, share our data with those people, particularly as you head down the health and wellness path. And let's get some other people's sensors into our platform. In all honesty, if Abbott's really good at sensing these other things, we'll take that data on our platform and analyze it to if they want to, I guarantee you, that probably isn't gonna, gonna happen. But we would, you know, let's be open about this. We're going to get our glucose work done to because we've not seen an opportunity that exceeds this. Stacey Simms 27:13 Got it? Excellent. Well, thank you so much for answering that it really is so interesting to watch and to see if, as you say, if any of this really, really makes a difference commercially, if people do want to adopt it widely. You know, I think the jury's still out, so we shall follow. Kevin Sayer 27:26 Hey, thanks for having me again. Stacey Simms 27:27 Thank you so much. Have a great day. You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. More information at the episode homepage, diabetes, Dash connections.com. I'll have the transcription up as soon as I can. But again, quick turnaround on this episode. Thank you so much, again, for sending in the questions. Obviously, I didn't get to all of them. And if you're not in the Facebook group, that's generally where I asked for questions for this kind of thing. It's Diabetes Connections of the group. I'll link it up in the show notes. As always, I know not everybody's on Facebook, please feel free to always email me if you email me now about Dexcom. I'll save those questions until the next time we talk to them. It's Stacey at diabetes connections.com. Again, it's in the show notes and it's on the website. But I get it not everybody is on Facebook these days. To that point, at the very beginning of the show, in that little sponsor tease before things even begin, I mentioned club 1921. So let me tell you a little bit more might be an update for some of you. Maybe some of you are hearing about this for the very first time. Briefly, club 1921 is a website. It's a project I've been working on for a long time. And it is a place where anyone with any type of diabetes can find events anywhere in the United States. We are in beta right now. I invite you to go to the website club 1920 one.com. Until around, check it out. Let me know what you think we've immediately identified we went into beta, late last fall several things mostly about the signup that need to be fixed, those could be fixed by the time you log in, my guess is closer to the end of January. There's a little bit of confusion there. I'll explain in a moment. But other than that, it's pretty well set. The idea here is that instead of a Google Calendar or something like that, this would be a website where you go, you sign up, you tell us what kind of events you're looking for, and then you never have to come back, we'll email you automatically. When events that meet your criteria are edit, very easy. So you pick your type of diabetes, you pick your location, you pick which type of events you want, you pick your age, I mean, you can just say I want everything in every category you can kind of go through, but whatever you pick, and you can change those if you want to come back and change your filters, but whatever you pick, we will email you when those events are added. If you want to add events. There are two types of events you can add one we're very creatively calling events. This is your JDRF walk. This is your friends for life conference. This is your hospital education for people with type two. It's an event by an organization a was a staff an event where they expect lots of people or it's regularly scheduled, or there's a fee, that kind of thing. The other kind of events we're calling Hangouts. These are my favorite types of events. I love what we're calling Hangouts. This is your mom, coffee, your kid play date at a playground, you know, you're going out to a bar, post COVID, with your adult friends with type one, hang outs are not put on by an established organization. They're put on by people like you and me, we don't have a staff, we just want to meet people in our area. When you're adding those. That's where a lot of the confusion came up in the registration process. Because if you want to add events or Hangouts, you actually have to sign up in a different way. So I'm going to talk more about that as the weeks go on. We're fixing that part of the website. But if you try to sign up and you see some confusion, it may be because you are trying to add an event or a Hangout. If you want to just sign up to learn about the events and Hangouts, it should be pretty simple. But if it's not, if you have any questions, any suggestions, please let me know. Email me Stacey at diabetes connections.com. Pretty soon you'll email me Stacey at Club 1920 one.com You're going to be hearing a lot more about this because I'm so excited about it. Yes, I know, we might not have a lot of events this year, that's fine. We're going to have events, eventually, in the diabetes space. Again, we're gonna have lots of events, and social media, Facebook, even things like Eventbrite are a terrible way to get the word out about them. And it shouldn't be work to find them, you should be able to just raise your hand and say, I want to know about this stuff. And it should automatically come to you. And that's what I'm hoping to do here. Okay, back to our regular schedule with the podcast. We will have our Wednesday in the news that's live at 430. Eastern on Wednesday on YouTube and Facebook, and then 445 on Instagram. And then that turns into an audio podcast episode for Fridays. And hopefully next week, we're back to Tuesday and Friday. And we won't do any of this nonsense of pushing episodes around. But I do appreciate your patience. Again, I didn't want you to wait a week for this interview. All right, thank you as always to my editor, the very flexible and understanding John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. And thank you so much for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here in just a couple of days until then, be kind to yourself. Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

   January 11, 2022·33min
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   Number 2: In the News.. New G7 data, Lingo sensors, COVID & Diabetes studies and more!

   Every week "In the News..." brings you the top stories and headlines around the diabetes community. Top stories this week include: a Dexcom G7 data update, Abbott announces new Lingo sensors to measure ketones and more, it's 100 years since the first insulin shot, Lilly Diabetes discontinues T1D Everyday Magic and an ultra releases diabetes data to a medical journal -- Join us LIVE every Wednesday at 4:30pm EST Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Episode Transcription Below Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. All sources linked up where you're watching and at Diabetes-Connections dot com when this airs as a podcast. XX Looking to get organized? Check out my new guide with top tips to clear your diabetes clutter. Everything from how to start to where to donate and how to keep it from taking over your house. Head over to diabetes-connections dot com to organize your diabetes supplies! XX Some new information about Dexcom's upcoming G7, which has been submitted to the US FDA and in Europe. Latest clinical study show the MARD of the G7 is 8.2 for adults, compared to 9 for the G6. MARD is the Mean absolute relative difference and the lower the better here. G7 was even lower, 8.1 for kids. This is close to the same results they talked about last summer, but the group in the trial was bigger. G7 is expected to get approval in Europe this quarter and likely in the US much later this year. Our last longer format interview episode is with Dexcom's CEO and we go in depth on this. https://www.drugdeliverybusiness.com/dexcom-ceo-touts-unprecedented-performance-of-g7-in-clinical-trial-awaits-fda-decision/?fbclid=IwAR3G5_Fu9fhPfR0M3FzgCNCsFYmo4gDRDy5nJySgxt56mMVJgrpUsVQedis https://investors.dexcom.com/static-files/0c3012e2-40f4-4046-a962-85e6b421d490 XX Two COVID and diabetes studies I want to talk about.. the first showing that more children are being diagnosed with type 1 and type 2 diabetes after getting COVID. This study looked at databases of people under 18 starting in March 2020 and going for 18 months. There are a LOT of questions here.. including whether post-COVID type 2 diabetes will actual be a temporary or chronic condition. Which leads us to the other study.. this one of adults, in almost 4-thousand covid patients, just under half developed high blood sugar levels, including many who were not previously diabetic. These researchers say a lot of the patients here were in their 30s and 40s, no sign of diabetes before COVID.. and the levels of glucose in their blood were incredibly high, sometimes more than twice the level that indicates diabetes. These patients still had high levels of C-peptide, which shows that they were still producing insulin. The theory here is that something is disrupting the fat cells. But the researchers admit they are just at the beginning of figuring this out. It's this latter study and others like it that seem to be showing that there really is something different about COVID and blood glucose. I saw a lot of people dismissing the children's study with, well, any virus can cause T1D. I'm glad these researchers are digging into what's going on. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-diabetes-fat-cells-blood-sugar https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/health/kids-covid-diabetes-cdc.html XX Abbott unveils plans for a new line of consumer bio-wearable sensors that will collect a broader range of biological readings to help users optimize their exercise and nutrition regimens and overall health. Called "Lingo"- which are still under development and aren't intended for medical use— they are based on the existing Freestyle Libre diabetes monitoring technology. We're talking about glucose, ketones, lactate and alcohol. Interesting to me that these were shown at the Consumer Electronics Show and not a medical conference, but Abbott is up front that these are basically for athletes and not for people with diabetes or those who need to make medical decisions based on the sensors. We'll see which of these makes it off the drawing board. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/abbott-ceo-ford-unveils-lingo-line-sports-biosensors-based-diabetes-monitoring-tech XX Another divestment for Lilly Diabetes – last week we told you they were doing away with their Journey Medals for diaversaries.. they have since announced that T1D everyday magic is no more. This was a partnership between Lilly and Disney that was a blog and a place for recipes and the home of those Coco books, the cute monkey with diabetes who hangs out with Mickey & Minnie Mouse. As of today you can still get digital versions of the books via the website but we'll see how long that lasts. Full disclosure: I wrote for them a couple of times – and was paid by them – glad I saved those columns. https://www.t1everydaymagic.com/thank-you-for-sharing-the-magic/ XX Interesting news from an amazing athlete with type 1. We told you that Sebastien Sasseville biked across Canada this summer. He previously went up Mt Everest and did a brutal race across the Sahara. Now, all the data on his blood sugar during that recent ride has been published. It's in the Journal of Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism. Sasseville wore the Tandem and Dexcom Control IQ system during the ride.. the article is about how using that kind of automated insulin delivery system can help ultra athletes with diabetes. https://dom-pubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dom.14629?fbclid=IwAR2JLTn9dGJu43have5EMqXkWlENuDgPFDQq6RrsbY7TJyRJV0aERsDxYbo XX This week marks 100 years since the first person received a shot of insulin. Canadian teenager Leonard Thompson got that life saving injection on January 11, 1922. Of course, this was via Dr. Frederick Banting and his team.. Thompson was drifting in and out of a diabetic coma and weighed only 65 pounds. He was 14 years old. The first shot was found to be impure and didn't work. But they were able to fix the problem and administer a second purer shot. Thompson only lived to age 27 but his actions helped save so many lives. https://www.healthline.com/diabetesmine/diabetes-care-joslin-100-years-first-human-insulin-shot#A-century-of-Joslin XX Before I let you go, as I mentioned earlier, the podcast this week is an update from Dexcom. CEO Kevin Sayer answers your questions about the G7 and lots more. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or if you're listening to this as on a podcast app, just go back an episode. That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

   January 14, 2022·6min
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   Number 3: Stacey's Favorite Things 2021

   This week… something completely different! It's an episode all about my favorite things. With apologies to Oprah, this isn't about the holidays – it's a little late for that! And while some of this might make good gifts, this more of a season-less list. Just good stuff I like. Couple of rules I set for myself: Nothing that needs a prescription. Nothing that I'm getting paid for. No one on this list will even know they've been mentioned until the episode goes live! Hope you enjoy! -Stacey Here are the links to everything I mention: Keep it cool: Frio wallets Tempramed VivCap Sticky stuff/application: Skin Tac wipes Stay Put medical patches Benadryl spray and Flonase spray Nexcare waterproof bandages Cases/accessories T1D3DGear (warning, profanity) Casualty Girl pouches Disney-themed pouches Dia-Be-Tees shirts and stickers Books: Think Like a Pancreas Raising Teens with Diabetes Sugar Surfing When I Go Low Just for fun: Heroic Kid (play d-tech for toys) I Heart Guts New Rufus the Bear! Misc. The Useless Pancreas (marketplace) Highs and Lows Ring Guitar Pick Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone Click here for Android Episode transcription below: Stacey Simms 0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by... Dario Health – Manage your blood glucose levels. Increase your possibilities.By Gvoke HypoPen, the first pre-mixed autoinjector for very low blood sugar. And By Dexcom. Take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. This week, something completely different. It's an episode all about my favorite things. With apologies to Oprah, this isn't about the holidays, it's a little late for that. And you know, some of this might make good gifts. This is more of just something I've been thinking about doing for a long time. So I would consider this a bit of a seasonless list, just good stuff that I like. And unfortunately, unlike Oprah, I haven't hidden everything I'm talking about here under your seat as a gift. So I can't do that. But I did set a couple of rules for myself, you're not going to hear me talk about anything today for which you need a prescription. Right, I'm not gonna talk about medical stuff, and nothing that I'm getting paid for. I will put the links for all this stuff in the show notes, but they're not affiliate links. So that means they go right to the product where I think it's most easily available. They don't go to a special link, you know, which tallies you up and then pays me. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that as long as everybody knows what's going on. And a couple of these folks may sound familiar, I've worked with them before, we have had partnerships and sponsorships with the mostly the booked clinic program. But I really just wanted this to be a fun way to share my thoughts. If you have a product that I mentioned. And the link is wrong or doesn't go exactly where you want it, please reach out. I want to make this great for you and easy for my listeners. So drop me a line Stacey at diabetes connections.com. And maybe we'll get a thread going in the Facebook group to find out some of your favorite things. Because you know, Benny is older now and the products that we really needed, you know, like the super cute insulin pump pouches that he used when he was three years old, he does not use anymore. So I don't have recommendations for stuff like that. Maybe we can kind of get a list going and I can do a follow up in a couple of weeks or months for listeners but you really should be in the Facebook group. Anyway, if you're on Facebook, I know not everybody is so if you're there, come on over. Alright, so here are a few of my favorite things let's talk about keeping insulin at room temperature. A couple of products I really like for that we don't have a ton of issue with this day in and day out. I do live in North Carolina and Benny of course is outside quite a bit in the summer, he does go to summer camp. When we've needed to keep something at room temperature. We use a Frio generally these Frio wallets pretty standard in the diabetes community you probably know about them. What's nice is you can get them at CBS. Now, I think Walgreens carries them used to be online only. They're really easy to use. Please follow the directions. Don't be like me and oversaturate and then you can't get anything in the wallet. You have to just read the directions. You'll figure it out better than we did. But Frio doesn't keep it cold. It just keeps it cool. But we love Frio. Close to edging it out. And the only reason it doesn't here is because of the price. And because it doesn't yet cover vials. But that's coming is the VIVI Cap. These folks reached out to me middle of last year, probably spring of last year and sent us a sample we decided to try it on Benny's trip to Israel. If you'll recall, my son went to Israel with his non diabetes camp last summer for a month. This included tons and tons of outdoor activity in temperatures that were in excess of 100 degrees. Quite often, he packed two bags, one was like the go bag, three days worth of supplies. And then the other bigger bag that stayed inside or in a refrigerated area, at least the insulin part of it did on the bus or you know, wherever they went, I have my suspicions as to whether it's stayed perfectly refrigerated the whole time, but only a little bit of insulin went into the desert with. But the idea was he would take a pen, we would use the VIVI Cap, and then he would just change the pen out continuing to use the VIVI Cap in his backpack. Whenever he needed more insulin. He had vials he had pens we use both in his pump. And it's always nice to have a pen in case you need to give yourself a shot something like that. So when he came home and this is so typical of my son went through his bag, for he did a great job with diabetes, but there must have been like a communications problem because he never changed out that insulin pen. He never needed to give himself a shot, which is probably why but he just always used the vials that I'd sent him with. I sent him with way too much insulin for a month but you know, you know mom's What am I gonna do? So upshot of this long story is that the one insulin pen that we sent to Israel with stayed in hot temperatures definitely in excess of probably 75 degrees around the clock, and certainly in excess of 100 degrees for several days at a time during the daytime. And what happened to it right it was with the VIVI Cap the whole time so we decided to test it out. You know how he supervised setting right? I wasn't going to let him use this pen and then jaunt off do overnights or whatever he was with us. And look, we would know right away if that insulin was no good. And guess what? It worked perfectly. It was fantastic. He was in range. I mean, he was really we were really watching obviously, right. But he was in range pretty much the whole three days. So it was fantastic. And I was definitely converted to VIVI Cap. That should be their tagline guys call me if you can stand the Israeli desert heat, right, you can certainly hang out a day camp in North Carolina this summer. They often have promo codes, discounts. It's more expensive than the Frio wallet. But it's also really durable and lasts for a whole year. And it has different sizes. So it will fit whatever insulin you're using. My understanding is that they are working on a similar bit of technology for insulin vials, and that would be great. Let's talk a little bit about getting stuff to stick. I have a whole document about this. If you haven't seen it, it's been a pop up for a couple of months. It's been incredibly popular. So I haven't taken it down yet. But I'm probably going to move it over to the bookstore section. Do you don't have a bookstore section on the website, we're kind of creating a place to put documents a lot of stuff is free. There are PDFs, so we're gonna move that over there. But of course there there's my book to buy and there will be more later this year. But the getting stuff to stick is so personal. I think it's really hard right? Everybody's skin is so different. So here's what we have liked over the years could not keep anything on Benny skin with a Skin Tac that is the brand that we like we get Skin Tac from Amazon. Over the years we've gone from just using the little Skin Tac wipes to using the liquid bottle we used to liquid for many years. I think gosh, Benny was like 13 or 14 and he was like no more. I don't want that it's not portable enough. He's never home. So he uses the wipes. Now. He uses nothing to dissolve it. So I have no favorite product for that. He literally just rips things off his skin. I cringe every time but hey, it's not my body. We like Stay Put Medical patches. That's the brand, Stay Put Medical just foyer for years and years. We had trouble in the water. I tried vet wrap I tried all the stuff that all the moms tell you to try. The Dexcom overlays that come free from the company are great, but it didn't work as well in the ocean, or with sweat, that kind of thing. So Stay Put patches really were fantastic for us. The story I always tell is Benny with a diabetes camp for a full week, right Saturday to Saturday. And then we went to the beach and we restarted the ducks calm. This was a couple of years ago. And it survived to Stay Put and the Dexcom survived a week of diabetes camp where they swim and sweat and you know, they're pretty gross for a whole week. It's hot. Again, as I said we live in North Carolina, and then three days at the ocean, sand and ocean. All that stuff that you get and it really did stay put. So I really love that they're big. He got an incredible tan line. That's one of the only downsides of it. We used Benadryl spray, Benny had a brief time of having a mild allergic reaction. I think this was to the Dexcom G5 years ago and my husband came back from the store with over the counter Benadryl spray not Flonase requested, and it worked fine. So it's kind of a weird, favorite thing, but I haven't heard a lot about Benadryl spray, but I'll mention it here. I also really really like next care waterproof Band-Aids, the brand doesn't really matter. I mean, it's just a Tegaderm bandage, but I'd like to mention it because you can get it at the drugstore or the grocery store. It's over the counter. Unlike a lot of the stuff that has to be ordered from your medical company or from Amazon, you can take a waterproof bandage and in a pinch, slap it over your Dexcom or slap it over an infusion set. I mean, you have to cut a hole into for the infusion set. But sometimes you can just slap it on top. We've done that and then gently pulled it off later to reconnect to the tube to pump. And it works great. I've heard a lot of people say they're afraid of doing that because they don't want to block the signal from the Dexcom people. We have done this many, many, many times I can show you photos. When we went to the Dead Sea in Israel, I did not want to take a chance of the salt. Right. It's so salty, corroding the transmitter. So we put a waterproof bandage over the Dexcom. And he left it on for a couple of days. I don't know the probably wasn't very comfortable, but he didn't seem to care. And it worked fine. So that's my in a pinch favorite thing at the beach let's talk about cases and organization something that my son doesn't care about at all. And if I if this were me, I'm the kind of person that I love pouches and organization and cool stuff like that and he really doesn't care. But I will go through and tell you what I like. I am a huge fan of T1D3DGear. This is just a fantastic family in the diabetes community to begin with, and their stuff is awesome. So as you can imagine T1D3DGear, they're making stuff right they're printing it out on their 3d printer and it's everything from trays, which we do use, I love those makes your supplies really easy to find. And they've got different sizes for different brands to insulin protection vials, which I like a lot, and they will do custom colors as well, we've been so lucky, where's the wood that I can knock that we've never actually like dropped a vial, but I always put the vial we're using in the case. And that makes me feel so much better. It's just a really easy, it kind of looks like R2D2 in a way. I don't think that's by design, but it's really helpful and really handy and they're making super useful products. They also make the cutest ones like if your kid wants a unicorn or different options. I'll link up their website, as I mentioned, Benny doesn't really like pouches, but I make him use them anyway because otherwise his diabetes bag is just a complete mess. So we like the ones from casualty girl, some of these have a bit of profanity, you know, all my diabetes stuff. You can fill in the blank there, but they have a bunch of really clean ones, obviously, you know, for younger children, even for my kid I don't like him carrying stuff in public that that has profanity on it, but they have some really cute stuff specific to diabetes, also personalized. They put names on it, and they were so nice. A couple of years ago we gave away a bunch of their stuff at friends for life, so I always like to recommend them. I also will recommend and link up Disney themed pouches that don't look super Disney. I know a lot of you especially friends for life people you're big Disney fans. I am too but I don't like to have like Mickey Mouse on my purse. I like it to be a little bit more subtle. And at red bubble. There's a bunch of people who will put together pouches you can see the samples. They just kind of hint at Disney so I have the small world pouch but it's just like a pattern that is featured in small world. It's not actually it doesn't say small world. I got Lea my daughter for Hanukkah. This year. I got her one that has the Haunted Mansion wallpaper on it. You'd never know unless you knew. So very cool stuff. It doesn't have anything to do with diabetes. But I love red bubble. They also have a fun bunch of diabetes stickers there. Oh, speaking of stickers. The best is Dia-Be-Tees This is my friend Rachel. And she has amazing T shirts. She is so creative. She's got great stickers, she made an ugly Hanukkah sweater for diabetes, because a couple of years ago, she makes these great, ugly Christmas sweaters for their diabetes steam. They say funny stuff on them. But I pointed out to her like, hey, everybody celebrates Christmas and she was immediately on it. My favorite stickers are the Tyrannosaurus Dex, get it and the Banting fan club that she made this year for Dr. Banting. Very, very cool stuff. And I'll link up to her Etsy shop. Let's talk about books. I promise I won't talk about my book here. I talk about it enough. But I really would like to recommend some books that have helped us a lot over the years. My favorite, the one that I always recommend is Think like a pancreas A Practical Guide to managing diabetes with insulin. And that is by the amazing diabetes educator Gary Scheiner. He is out with an updated edition. So he did this book, it's got to be I don't know, Gary, I'm guessing 10 years old, but he does update it frequently. I think it's the third edition now. It's really a great source and resource to understand your diabetes and your child's diabetes better and more thoroughly, let's say then perhaps you might get these quick endocrinology visits, definitely better than the information you're getting on Facebook. I of course love raising teens with diabetes, a survival guide for parents by Moira McCarthy that has not been updated for the technology that has come out since its publication. However, I don't think that matters. I think that there are so many wonderful ideas, thoughts and ways to recognize how tough a time it is for teenagers and come through that time with your relationship with your child intact. So I really recommend that I know Maura is working on updating it. But even still, it's so good because I think so many people with teenagers, even as we say all the time Oh, it's such a tough time. It's they feel so alone. I still I mean gosh, you guys I always wonder and I call Moira. She would vouch for me. And I'm like I'm not doing this right. It's hard. It's really hard. I also love Sugar Surfing how to manage type 1 diabetes in a modern world by the amazing Dr. Steven ponder, I would be lying if I said we are perfect sugar surfers. But we have used a lot of the principles that are in this book. And it does help you understand so much about how everything works and the dynamic way of managing. You know before CGM. It's incredible to think how much Dr. Ponder was able to do. And now with the monitoring, it's really, really helpful. But I will say you can get this for free. If you're newly diagnosed, I believe it's the first three months it might be six months, I will link it up. But I'm telling you right now, if you get this for free when you're newly diagnosed, put it away for a couple of weeks at least maybe put it away for six months, because it's it's pretty advanced in my opinion, and you got to learn diabetes, you got to learn a little bit more about it before you start worrying about the Delta and other stuff that's in here. But I love Dr. Ponder and highly recommend that one. I get asked a lot about children's books. And you know Benny and I read so many diabetes children's books, so many I mean how many are there in the market but we read them so often when he was little And my favorites probably aren't even available anymore. You know, Jackie's got game was about this kid who was trying it for the basketball team. And then he goes low. We loved Rufus comes home, which is about the JDRF. Bear, there were a couple of that diabetes kind of popped up into lots of picture books that we read if the person in them didn't have diabetes, or the animals in them. But I gotta be honest with you, I struggle to recommend children's books, because I'm not reading them with little kids anymore. And I think they're a really good judge, right? I do. Like when I go low, a diabetes picture Guide, which is a terrific book by ginger Viera. And Mike Lawson. And this is a terrific book, because both of those people live with type one, we had them on the show, you know, I've known them for years I full disclosure, but I think it's so valuable because as a parent of a child with diabetes, who doesn't live with diabetes herself, I don't have that kind of insight. And I really trust those authors to share that information and help a child kind of give voice to how they're feeling when they go low, that sort of thing. It's a fun, cute book, it's, you know, it's not serious. It's not scary. It's really great. And I'm just gonna say, and don't be mad parents, if you're thinking of writing a children's book, just carefully consider it. Look at what was already out on the market. I talked to a lot of people who spent a lot of money to put these books out, you know, most of them are not published by a traditional publishing house. Some are but most are self-published. And that's great. But you know, gosh, there are so many out there right now that are very similar. So you know, we don't need a general explainer, please think about what the need in the community is, what's the unique need, you can fill? And I would say, you know, that's why I like when I go low, because it's written by people with type one, we do need them. I mean, the children's books are great. And there's some wonderful ones out there, but I'll tell you, what I'd like to see is some elementary school and tween level books. That's what we really need around here. We don't need another picture book, we need something that an 11 year old or an eight year old could read and see themselves in, you know, baby sitters club is the only thing I can think of where diabetes is there, but it isn't always the focus, it would be really nice to have something else like that. Frankly, I'd like to see that adult level book as well. There's a couple of authors that have written books were diabetes featured but isn't like the main point. But boy, it would be really fun to see that in like a blockbuster bestseller kind of book if they got it right of course. Alright, let's talk about some just for fun stuff. years ago, Benny got his years ago on his 10 year diaversary. So five years ago, we gave Benny the I heart guts, stuffed pancreas. I heart guts is a company that makes they're so funny. They make stuffed animal type body parts, I'm sorry, they call them plush organs. And since we purchased a few years ago, they have a few more options on their website. They have socks, they have pouches, I was talking about pouches earlier, there's one that says party in my pancreas. But what I really like about this is you can get something for your kiddo with type one. But you can also find something for a sibling who doesn't have diabetes, right? If you're if you're just looking for something silly, I gave my daughter the heart, right? I mean, knock on wood, thank God, there's nothing wrong with her heart. But it was a symbol of my love for her. And while she thought it was kind of silly, you know, it's a way to include her. So diabetes isn't always you know, the middle of everything. And they I mean, this place absolutely cracks me up. There is so much here. They've got puns as far as the eye can see. So if your kid needs their tonsils out, if your wife is having a knee replacement, these are just really fun. And I may have to go and order a huge amount of the stickers. One of the things I absolutely love is that a lot of businesses have popped up to make toy accessories for kids with diabetes. So you know, you've probably heard like Build A Bear has a diabetes kit, you can get that online. years ago, the American Girl doll kit kind of kicked this off. But there's a bunch of people in the community making this stuff. So I recommend heroic kid, and they make tiny little CGMs for your Elf on the Shelf. If you're into that, or you can put it on an American Girl doll. You can have a libre, they now make a bunch of insulin pumps. It's awesome. I love this stuff. I mean, I can't even imagine if we'd had a real real looking insulin pump for Benny when he was two years old that he could have stuck on his Elmo. Holy cow. So heroic kid is fantastic. And the other thing for kids I wanted to share. And I I tell if you saw my newscast last week, we talked about this I broke this story in 2019. Jerry the bear, and Rufus the bear are now one, there can only be one, there was only one bear. And we talked about this when beyond type one and JDRF announced their alliance in 2019. I kind of jokingly asked like what happens to the bears? And they answered it with a straight face and said only one. We're gonna figure this out because it doesn't make any sense to have to, you know, we don't want to be spending money on this kind of stuff. So what happened is Rufus is now $22 which is a lot less than the starting price of Jerry. And if you're not familiar, I probably should explain. So Jerry, the bear is an interactive toy made by the folks at Sproutel, they have gone on to make things like my special AFLAC duck. They have, I think it's called a purrburl. It's like a little stuffed animal that kind of helps kids kind of calm themselves. It's interactive that way. And but they started with Jerry, the bear was their first product developed when these guys were in college. It's a really smart team. But Jerry is a teaching toy. And there's an app on he's evolved over the years and really looks great. And of course, now he looks like Rufus. So this is Rufus on the outside Jerry on the inside, and it's available for $22. I'm gonna call this next category, miscellaneous, because these were just a couple of things that I wanted to make sure to tell you about. But they don't fit into many of these categories. And the first one popped up into my Facebook feed. But it looks beautiful. It's a ring. It's kinda like a zigzaggy ring. But it's called to my daughter highs and lows ring, it is only $36. It is cubic zirconia. It is sterling silver plated with 18 karat gold. So this is not a you know, super expensive super valuable ring. And that's fine. I think it's great for what it is, makes it a terrific little gift. And it comes with a card that says the ring stands for the highs and lows in life, wear it as a reminder that I will be there for you through all of them. That's pretty cool. And hey, moms, I mean, you can buy it for yourself. Even though we go through some highs and lows, they don't all have to be diabetes related. I want to mention, this is very silly. But this is our miscellaneous category. And these are my favorite things. I think everybody who uses a Dexcom should have a guitar pick lying around. Because you've probably seen the trick to use a test strip to to pry the Dexcom transmitter out of the sensor for a couple of reasons doesn't work for us. I don't know if our test strips are weak or our transmitters are strong. But we have found that a guitar pick does the trick very easily. And I'll tell you the number one reason why we have to remove Dexcom transmitters, it's because then he will start a dead transmitter, or I'll start a dying transmitter. And he'll ignore all the notifications, we'll put the sensor on and clip the transmitter and then the transmitter is dead. So yeah, the guitar pick comes in handy to pry that out and then put the new transmitter in. I also want to recommend a website not a product here but Useless Pancreas.com is a clearinghouse for so many products. They've done an amazing job. We had them on the podcast earlier this year. But since I talked to them, they've added so much. So if you're tooling around and you're not sure even what you're looking for, like I need to get something that'll make stuff stick or I need something that'll they have these two categories, like what will make my kid happy. It's just a neat place to go and find a diabetes marketplace. So I'd like to recommend that because, you know, you go on Amazon, there's so many choices. But they've done a nice job of really trying to narrow it down and give us one place to go. Alright, before I wrap it up here, I did ask Benny if he had any favorite diabetes, things to recommend. And he looked at me like I hit three heads. After thinking about it for a minute or two. He said, The silent button on my pump and Dexcom. So I can't say I blame him for that. I am happy that he has the vibrate only we wish every alarm could be silenced. We understand why they cannot be. So there you have it. That's my very first favorite things episode, I will put a link in the show notes. For every item that I talked about here, I want to make it easy for you to find. Again, if you are haven't mentioned and you have a product and you're not crazy about the link I use, feel free to email me Stacey at diabetes connections.com or ping me on social media and we will figure it out. I want to make sure that people can find your stuff. And if you have your own favorite things that you'd like to list, I think I will put something in the Facebook group and maybe we'll share that in the weeks to come. Thank you as always to my editor John Buchanan from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening. A couple of weeks left in December, we are going to have these Tuesday episodes, as I mentioned, including kind of a look ahead to next year some predictions possibly. And I'm really hoping to get one more technology update for you in before the end of the year trying to get someone from Tandem to come on and talk about that R&D update that I spoke about in the news episode. Last week. They laid out their five year plan for new products and software. But I will see you back here on Wednesday for in the news or if you listen on podcast. That'll be Friday. All right. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here soon Until then be kind to yourself. Benny 24:43 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

   December 14, 2021·25min
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4. 4
   Number 4: In the News... Tandem's tiny pump, more stem cell progress, a new Rufus the Bear & more!

   Our top stories In the News this week... Tandem Diabetes shares a big R&D update, laying out their product pipeline for the next 5 years. More stem cell progress, this time from Viactye, a look at another non-invasive CGM claim, big news for Rufus the Bear from JDRF and Stacey spends some time remembering Beyond Type 1 CEO Thom Scher. -- Join us LIVE every Wednesday at 4:30pm EST Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone Click here for Android Episode transcription below: Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. As always, I'm going to link up my sources in the Facebook comments – where we are live – we are also Live on YouTube and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. XX In the News is brought to you by The World's Worst Diabetes Mom, Real life stories of raising a child with diabetes. Winner of the American Book Fest Prize for best new non-fiction. Available in paperback, on Kindle or as an audio book – all at Amazon.com. You can also get a big discount right now at diabetes-connections.com – use promo code celebrate to save $4 XX Our top story, big news from Tandem as they lay out their product line for the next 5 years. Still waiting for FDA approval for bolus by phone.. once that comes through next up is Mobi, that's brand name for what we've all been calling T-Sport until now. Then there will be an X3 pump, then Mobi goes tubeless, then a true disposable patch pump. They also mentioned some software upgrades. A lot can happen in 5 years but exciting to see it laid out. A lot more to come here, we're working on having Tandem on the show soon. https://investor.tandemdiabetes.com/events-and-presentations XX Over at Insulet, CEO Shacey Petrovic says they no longer expect FDA approval for Omnipod 5 in 2021. After all, that's in just a couple of weeks. She spoke at a NASDAQ investor conference and said it's not any kind of problem, just the COVID backlog at the FDA. Petrovic says she is – quote – "eminently confident in our submission." https://www.medtechdive.com/news/insulet-omnipod-5-delay-fda/610981/ XX More stem cell research news, this time from Viactye. University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health. showing that a tiny implant infused with stem cells can help the body produce insulin on its own. Fifteen patients living with Type 1 diabetes participated in the study, which included the insertion of a device the size of a quarter in their abdomen. Each device contained millions of lab-grown cells that were "coached" into becoming insulin producing beta cells. Six months later, the cells had started producing tiny bits of insulin. Next year the team plans to do the procedure without immunosuppression drugs. The ultimate goal to have somebody who stops taking insulin and not have to take any anti-rejection drugs. We first talked to Viactye about this in 2016 – I'll link up that episode. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/stem-cell-based-treatment-may-help-type-1-diabetes-patients-produce-insulin-canadian-study-1.5694725 XX The White House continues it's push to pass Build Back Better.. focusing a lot this week on the insulin co-pay cap. It's passed the House and if the Senate approves.. government and private insurers have to cap the cost to the patient at $35 for a 30-day supply of insulin. Nothing in the bill for those without insurance. Btw 20 states and DC have passed similar copay limits. I did see late this afternoon on Twitter a few reps who want to change the language to include the uninsured. We shall see.. XX The Free Style Libre 2 App is now available for Android. Approved earlier this year, it's now actually available for download. The Libre 2 version features optional real-time alerts for both low and high glucose levels, without the need to manually scan the sensor to trigger those alarms. You do still need to scan to see the actual number. https://www.abbott.com/corpnewsroom/diabetes-care/freestyle-libre-2-now-connected-to-your-iphone.html XX Dueling lawsuits from Abbot and Dexcom. Abbot filed suit last week – it's sealed but has to do with a 2014 settlement agreement. That agreement gave the companies cross-licenses to patents related to glucose monitoring. It also included agreements lasting through March 2021 not to sue each other for patent infringement or challenge the patents' validity. We told you back in June of this year that Dexcom filed the first suit, Abbott countered the next day. This seems like an additional legal maneuver in the same case. https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/abbott-sues-dexcom-over-glucose-monitoring-patent-settlement-license-2021-12-02/ XX Another entry for the non-invasive blood sugar monitor rumor mill.. K-Watch Glucose smartwatch has a disposable part underneath that features something called "micro-points" that will measure blood glucose. The company says, "Although the wearer might feel some slight pressure, there is no breaking of the skin and therefore no pain." Not sure those two thoughts really go together – enough pressure can be uncomfortable enough.. but we shall see. The coverage here talks about clinical trials and getting this on the market late next year. I went to the actual clinical trial recruitment site – and I'll link that – it says the trial started in November but it also says it hasn't started recruiting. I know I'm the dream killer with the non invasive monitoring stuff. I do believe it'll get here I promise! But I think the coverage of most of these items Is irresponsibly based on rumors. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05093569 https://www.notebookcheck.net/Painless-continuous-blood-sugar-monitoring-on-the-horizon-for-US-199-thanks-to-the-K-Watch-Glucose-from-PKVitality.582622.0.html XX there's a follow up to a fun story I broke back in 2019 – the merger of Jerry the Bear and Rufus the Bear with Diabetes. Rufus is getting a big it looks like the Rufus outside with the Jerry the Bear educational interactive stuff and the app. The price is 22-dollars! A far cry from the first version of Jerry which we gave away a few years ago and cost hundreds of dollars. This is really great and I would have absolutely bought it for Benny if it was out when he was little. How'd I break the story? I interviewed the heads of JDRF and Beyond Type 1 when they announced their alliance– and I asked what was going to happen to the bears almost as a joke. They said, nope – they told me then.. only one bear would make it. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jdrf-announces-the-relaunch-of-rufus-the-bear-with-diabetes-301437309.html XX I want to take a moment and remember Thom Scher – the CEO of Beyond Type 1 who died earlier this week. I went back and listened to that interview we did back in 2019 – the one where he and JDRF told us about Jerry and Rufus… and a lot more. It was one of many times we talked on and off the podcast. I didn't know Thom as well as many others in the diabetes community. We only met in person a few times – first in 2018 at the Diabetes Mine conference and again in 2019 at FFL – where we talked about working together more.. sort of noodling out the possibility of bringing the podcast into the Beyond Type 1 content. Thom was a terrific interview – not afraid to go on the record and very accessible. I remember once I warned him that I had some tough questions from the community about get-insulin dot org because beyond type 1 takes money from the insulin makers. He welcomed it and answered the questions other people would have avoided. I just read that Thom was 33 when he died. So incredibly young. He believed in what he did.. he wanted to make life better for people with diabetes. And the world is little emptier without him today. XX Before I let you go, a reminder that the podcast this week is with the executive team at ConvaTec – the people who make infusion sets for tubed pumps, including the new 7-day set for Medtronic. you can listen to wherever you get your podcasts or if you're listening to this as on a podcast app, just go back an episode. Next week it's a first for me, I'm going to do a "favorite things" episode. That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

   December 10, 2021·9min
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5. 5
   Number 5: (Un)Doing Diabetes Representation: What the media gets wrong (and what we can do about it)

   Diabetes on TV and in movies is rarely anything close to accurate. Turns out, those media misconceptions can be real-life harmful. This week, Stacey is joined by Dr. Heather Walker, the co-author of (Un)Doing Diabetes: Representation, Disability, Culture and Dr. Phyllisa Deroze, who contributed a chapter called "Laughing to Keep From Dying: Black Americans with Diabetes in Sitcoms and Comedies. Dr. Deroze & Dr. Walker both live with type 1 and both have difficult diagnosis stories that influenced their experiences with diabetes going forward. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. More about Dr. Phyllisa Deroze More about Dr. Heather Walker ---- Check out Stacey's book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone Click here for Android Episode Transcription: Stacey Simms 0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. Take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom. This is Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. This week, diabetes on TV and in the movies is rarely anything close to accurate. And those media misconceptions can be real life harmful. Here's one from the sitcom 30 Rock. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 0:30 Tracy has diabetes there. And he does this skit where he replaces his foot with a skate. And he's like I'm practicing for when I lose my foot to diabetes. And that is the thing. There was a diabetes diagnosis and the next scene, he's already imagining himself with an amputation. Stacey Simms 0:49 That's Dr. Phyllisa Deroze, who wrote a chapter in a new book we're talking about this week. The book is called (Un)Doing Diabetes Representation, Disability Culture. And it's authored by Dr. Heather Walker, Dr. Deroze and Dr. Walker both live with type one, and they join me for a great conversation. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of the show, I am always so glad to have you here. You know, we aim to educate and inspire about diabetes with a focus on people who use insulin. This is our first show of 2022. So Happy New Year, everybody. I hope you're doing okay. Still stressful days for everybody. But hopefully you can kind of come along with me every week, as we talk about what we're finding interesting in the diabetes community. And I say that because 2021, I decided I was going to focus on technology for the year, I was going to try to do as many episodes as I could, talking about new technology talking to these companies. And I did that although I gotta say the log jam at the FDA made that a little difficult, right? I mean, we thought we'd have a lot more new technology. And a lot of companies will not talk about stuff until it is FDA approved. So this year, I'm going to stay with that because the technology episodes are what you have told me you are the most interested in, in fingers crossed are going to have some approvals pretty soon. But I gotta tell you, I've also decided that I'm going to do shows on just whatever the heck I find interesting. I started this show seven years ago, this coming summer, and honestly, this might be the last year of it in this form. I mean, I love it. I love doing this but seven years is a long time for any project. I have some new things that I'm working on. I'm not sure how much time all of it is going to take. I'm not abandoning the podcast by any means. I want to hear from you too. As we go forward. You know, as the year goes by, I will keep the lines of communication open. We will figure it out together. This episode does fall into the category of something I am fascinated by and I love to talk about and that is diabetes in media. And by the way separately. Both of my guests this week have bananas misdiagnosis stories, we get to that right out of the gate. Wait till you hear what one of their doctors ended up doing. I have never heard this happening before. It was pretty wild. And we will talk about the book I mentioned that it is (Un)Doing Diabetes Representation, Disability Culture. It is authored by Dr. Heather Walker and Dr. Dr. Bianca C. Frazer. It contains essays by other authors including Dr. Phyllisa Deroze a little bit more about the book in its public description. It says undoing diabetes is the first collection of essays to use disability studies to explore representations of diabetes across a wide range of mediums from Twitter to TV and film to theater fiction, fan fiction, fashion and more. In undoing diabetes Authors deconstruct assumptions the public commonly holds while writers doing diabetes present counter narratives community members create to represent themselves. And just a little bit more about my guests. Dr. Heather Walker is Associate Director of qualitative research at the University of Utah health. She was diagnosed with type one at age 11 in 2001, and Dr. Phyllisa Deroze began blogging at diagnosed not defeated almost immediately after being misdiagnosed. She found out later with type two diabetes in 2011. And now she has been correctly diagnosed with LADA. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze is also the founder of Black diabetic info after the interview, and it's a pretty long interview. And that's okay. They have a lot of great stuff to say, I'm going to come back I want to tell you about something that happened to me. It's not quite diabetes in media, but it is diabetes jokes. So I want to tell you how I handled something in a Facebook group. But I'll come back and do that after the interview. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze, Dr. Heather Walker, welcome. I'm so happy to talk to you both. Thanks for coming on. Unknown Speaker 4:50 Thank you. Stacey Simms 4:51 So let's start if we could, I mean there's so much to get to and I was so excited to see you both at friends for life and see the presentations that you were doing but which You mind kind of backing up a little bit and kind of letting people get to know you? We could start just tell me a little bit about your diabetes diagnosis story. And Phyllisa, let me let me ask you to start with that if I could. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 5:12 Um, yes, I was diagnosed shortly after getting my PhD in English literature. I had moved to North Carolina, I experienced the classic symptoms of hyperglycemia. I had seen a physician who didn't check my blood sugar told me that I just needed to drink Gatorade because my electrolytes were off. A little later I was in the hospital. Blood sugar didn't register. Finally, I think first reading was like 597, or something like that. So I was told I had diabetes, and what type didn't get clarified until I was discharged. When I was discharged. I was told that I had type two diabetes, and I lived with that diagnosis for eight long years, it was inaccurate, I was misdiagnosed. I live with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. And I was correctly diagnosed and joined the T1D group in 2019. I get this Stacey Simms 6:06 question. Every time I speak to somebody like yourself who was misdiagnosed like that it happens so often. How do you live with what is really type one for all that time? I mean, I can't imagine you felt very well. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 6:20 I did. Okay, after diagnosis, I had a pretty long honeymoon phase, I actually lived about three years with just diet and exercise. I think one thing in the T1D community is that we don't talk enough about honeymoon phases and people who have latent autoimmune diabetes and adults, because so much of the common knowledge about type 1 diabetes is that everyone is insulin dependent. And that's not necessarily true, everyone will become insulin dependent. And that's an important message, because I never thought to have test done until I went into DKA. Again, so I myself didn't know that it was possible to have type 1 diabetes have a long honeymoon period and be misdiagnosed. Stacey Simms 7:09 Yeah. The more I learned about Lada, it is so similar, but it's so different. There's a lot more to it, I guess, is what I would say, than I had realized for sure. Heather, what is your diagnosis story? When were you diagnosed with diabetes? Dr. Heather Walker 7:21 So I was diagnosed at 11. And I also sort of have a misdiagnosis story. So I had diabetes, and I was in what I assumed to be a honeymoon phase for three months before my diagnosis actually came around. Because I was seeing a physician at the time who looked at me, skinny white girl, whose parents were really afraid because she kept losing weight, who was just about to hit puberty, and he thought eating disorder. No matter how many times I told him, I was eating everything in sight and drinking everything in sight. That's still what he firmly believed. Luckily, at about three months after I started coming in to see him for this and for the symptoms, he went on vacation, and I got to see his pa instead. And his pa John, you know, it's so funny. I don't even remember his last name. But just he's just warmly John to me, right? He just looked at my chart, and he knew right away, it's like, oh, you have diabetes, you know, so calmly, and I remember that freaking me and my mom out. We were in the appointment. It actually was my dad. But still, the first thing that we did was went and got me a doughnut because I think my dad was like, alright, well, maybe this is it. You know, he'll never eat another doughnut. Yeah, like, we really don't know about this, we don't know what's gonna happen. And so they didn't do a glucose tests on me. They just drew blood. So we didn't know right away anyway. And then it was like, you know, the next day, they called and said, You need to come to the hospital and for US history. Stacey Simms 8:45 I'm guess I'm gonna get ahead of myself a little bit here. I don't want to start drawing conclusions too early in this interview. But it is interesting how both of you were misdiagnosed. Somebody else made an assumption, because of how you present it to them. I've got to imagine. So Heather, let me ask you. And then Phyllisa, I want to ask you the same question. But other how has that stuck with you? I mean, you you kind of set it so matter of factly they're like, Hey, he assumed I had an eating disorder. Did you kind of carry that with you? Dr. Heather Walker 9:11 Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think I got a huge chip on my shoulder. From that. I mean, there's something about you know, being 11. And being in a world that already doesn't take you seriously, and then have a life threatening disease thrown at you. And your doctor doesn't believe what you say, even before diabetes. And Stacy, I've heard on episodes of your podcast you talking with with teens about or people who were teens with diabetes, about how fast it speeds your life up, right? Like you don't really get to have a childhood you don't really get to be a teenager and like, you know, carry on with reckless abandon because you just can't because there's all these safety things that you need to take into account. And so, but even before diabetes, I was kind of like that, like I was, you know, a 30 year old and a 10 year old body. I've been the same Age since then until now, but that, for sure gave me a big chip on my shoulder. It made me want to like, look into everything and see as it's happening to other people is like what's going on with this diabetes stuff. Stacey Simms 10:13 Phyllisa, I'm curious for your experience too, because as you you kind of already said something interesting, which was like, Well, I didn't know how were you supposed to know? Right? The doctor supposed to know. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 10:23 Right. What's interesting is that when I was told that I needed to look into LADA because I had given a speech in Dubai to a roomful of doctors from the MENA region, Middle East and North Africa. And I was simply telling them my diagnosis story, very similar to what I share with you is a little more in depth, but pretty much that was the basics. And you know, I'm 31 years old at the time. And so during the q&a, some of the physicians from Tunisia, they raised their hand, and I was like, yes, they were like, well, your story kind of sounds more like LADA than type two. Are you familiar with it? And I said, not really. I mean, I know Cherise Shockley has it, but I don't know any more details than that. And it was at the lunch afterwards, one of the physicians came up to me and she said, you really ought to look into seeing if you have a ladder, and don't stop until you get the answer. And that kind of haunted me like, don't stop until you get the answer. But I just thought it was a simple request. So I asked my Endo, I got told no, I asked three months later, if I had ever been tested, the answer was no. Well, can I get tested? No. I saw a second opinion. No, you have type two. So I definitely think their view of me being an African American woman living with obesity played a lot into the constant denials. It took me over a year, another decay episode, and begging my gynecologist to run type one antibody testing for me in order to get it. So it wasn't easy. I literally had to not stop until I get the answer. Dr. Heather Walker 12:11 For Phyllisa, it was your OB they finally gave you the testing you wanted? Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 12:15 Yes. Because I told her, I can't get an endocrinologist to run this test. I know I'm in decay, a I'm losing weight rapidly. And she listened to me and she said, Okay, she said, I don't do endocrine, I do you know, OB GYN. So we were literally on her computer on Google trying to find the codes to request the testing. And so she was calling around, what do I put in to order this? And I remember when she called and she said, Listen, you know, this is out of my field. But come get these results, because your endo was going to need to see them. That was all on me. I got the results. I just remember seeing the get 65 should be below five. And mine was greater than 7500. Stacey Simms 13:05 Oh, I'm almost speechless. I mean, I'm not I'm never actually speechless. I came in less than that happened. But the idea that you have to work so hard to get those answers, I've got to assume just like with Heather, that had to inform not only your experiences going forward, but the way you help other people because you both are extremely active in the community. You You're both very prolific writers, you both have, you know, studies and presentations that we're going to talk to, but Felicity, that whole experience with somebody else saying, Well, I think you have lotta to I got to get answers for myself to finally getting them. When you look back on that, how does it inform how you talk to other people about Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 13:43 diabetes? I tell people definitely to be way more assertive than then imagined. Like, I honestly did not think it would take me constantly asking for the results. I thought it was like a simple test. I mean, you're testing my cholesterol, you're testing my a one C, like you're already getting a vial of blood, like just check off one antibody. So I thought it was something simple. And it turned out it was not, which was very frustrating for me. Because like in that I realized my education level didn't matter to them. I was literally like you are African American living with obesity. And that was what I believed to be their motivating factor to deny me testing. And what's so problematic about that, in addition to everything else you can imagine is as my physician Wouldn't they want to know that they're treating the right condition. Yeah, I'm asking so my records actually have a note from my endo saying, Melissa asked multiple times for type one antibody testing, and I denied it Stacey Simms 14:55 literally says I denied it in your file. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 14:57 Yes. Wow. Stacey Simms 14:59 I'm just sorry. I got to ask, did he show that to you as an apology? Or did you sit there in the room while you made him write it? Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 15:05 What I did was I refused to leave the appointment. I love it until there was this moment of record, like, I need you to recognize that I have been asking you for over a year for this test. We just need to come to that because it was like, Oh, you need insulin, let's go. And, you know, I was kind of being escorted out of the room. And I said, No, I'm literally not going to leave this chair until we have this conversation. And so I didn't know that my endo would put it on my records. But I definitely refused to leave until that conversation was had, they did apologize. And there was a note and my files. Stacey Simms 15:47 It just didn't have to be that hard. This could have been an episode in and of itself. Want to make sure to get to that the research or the publications that sparked my interest here. Right back to our conversation and right was like kidding about the diagnosis stories, and then her doctor putting in her chart that he was wrong. Oh my god. Alright, Diabetes Connections is brought to you by Dexcom. I want to talk for a minute about control IQ, the Dexcom G6 Tandem pump software program. When it comes to Benny's numbers, you know, I hardly expect perfection, I really just want him happy and healthy. And I have to say control IQ, the software from Dexcom. And Tandem has completely exceeded my expectations, Benny is able to do less checking and bolusing. And he is spending more time in range. This is in a teenager, a time when I was really prepared for him to be struggling, his sleep is better to this is great for all of us basal adjustments possible every five minutes, the system is working hard to keep him in range. And that means we hear far fewer Dexcom alerts, which means everybody is sleeping better. I am so grateful for this, of course Individual results may vary. To learn more, go to diabetes connections.com and click on the Dexcom logo. Now back to the interview. And we are moving on to Dr. Walker's book. Heather, tell me about the book that's coming out. Dr. Heather Walker 17:14 Okay, I'm so excited to be talking about this. So you might hear that excitement in my voice. So it's awesome. The title of the book is called undoing diabetes representation, disability culture, that's a full title. And it's going to be released very soon, by the end of the year, we hope it's a collection of essays that looks at diabetes in a new way, the volume or the volume as a whole. You know, it points out that all the stereotypes of diabetes that the public really buys into are like maintained through a lens of individualism, our society looks at diabetes as a problem of the individual person right of their choices. And so to respond to that public tendency, right to like focus on the individual, all of our authors in the book do the opposite. So in the collection, they ask questions like, What do individualistic stereotypes reveal about the social conditions for the diabetic person? So it like flips it on its head? And also what do they conceal, right? What is stereotypes hide? What do they prevent us from seeing? And how do these like harmful narratives, these harmful assumptions, these stereotypes that just break down our community? How do they reinforce ideas that the public already has, for what constitutes like a normal or a good body, which is just like, as a person who's living with diabetes, this makes me so excited. And then I'll just add one final thing about the book, which is our collection is really unique in that we use disability studies frameworks to unpack all of these questions. What are disability studies? So this ability studies is a field of study that looks at the social conditions of disability. So how is disability perceived in society? How is it represented on the screen, and all of those types of things. And so we have frameworks in the field that we use, it's kind of imagined, like a camera lens, right? That's kind of like a framework and the camera lens has a filter on it. And so when we look at this movie, or this film, we're looking at it through a specific lens with a specific filter. In our book, all of our authors are looking at different types of media, through these disability studies, frames or lenses, and sort of seeing how they operate in society and what they do, and then poking holes at what it does. And every chapter is brilliant, and Phyllisa is going to talk about hers, but as a volume, like I could not be more proud of this collection and all the work that it does. And all of like the change and the shifts it's going to make for readers. Stacey Simms 19:43 It's so interesting to me because of the mediums that you use so let's let's ask Felicity if you want to if you could talk about what you presented friends for life, what you talked about you were looking at TV shows, right and not unfortunately not more current ones which sometimes get it right. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 19:59 Um, yeah, I was the title of my chapter is laughing to keep from dying black Americans with diabetes in sitcoms and comedies. So I was looking at television shows as well as movies, and focusing on how those representations make meaning of diabetes within African American communities. Part of this started, when I thought about the first time I heard you have diabetes, and I was in the emergency room, my first thought was, I'm going to die. Like that. Was it? Like, I just thought like diabetes meant death? And when I started unpacking that, to find out where did I get that messaging from? Because no one in my family has diabetes. I didn't personally know anybody with diabetes. It really came from television and film, and of course, our media. And I thought it would be really nice to look at some of these classic movies and TV shows that are very popular in African American communities to see what story is told when you focus on the diabetes characters. Can you talk about some examples? Yeah. So for example, like Soul Food is one of those classic staple in African American film, a memory just like the color purple is something that people cite quotes from all the time. But when you look at Soul Food, it really stems from Big Mama who has diabetes. We understand this because she burns her arm on a stove. And a couple of things later, she passes away, she has an amputation and then a stroke. And she's no longer with us. The Big Mama character also comes up in Tyler Perry's plays and his films in his television shows. And again, these are staple matriarch characters who have diabetes. Now Madea lives on because that's a part of, you know, Tyler Perry series, but she has diabetes Boondocks I look at and of course Blackish. So blackish, I would say is probably where we first see the the image turn, where we first see a character with diabetes, checking their blood sugar, and all the other stuff we don't. And so what that tells us is that diabetes is going to cause either a slow death or quick death, perhaps an amputation, if you're familiar with 30, Rock. Tracy has diabetes there. And he does this skit where he replaces his foot with a skate. And he's like I'm practicing for when I lose my foot to diabetes. And that is the thing, there was a diabetes diagnosis, and the next thing, he's already imagining himself with an amputation. So when we look Stacey Simms 22:59 at something like this, what do we take from it now? I mean, we you can't go back and change those representations. What do you want us to kind of learn from them. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 23:08 But I would ideally like for the film industry, to change their portrayal of characters with diabetes, I mean, all characters, not just African American ones. But last year, there was the release of the Clark Sisters first ladies of gospel biopic on lifetime. The Clark Sisters are like a staple in African American culture. They were these gospel singers that were absolutely phenomenal. The Lifetime movie of them ended up being the highest rated Lifetime movie and four years. This comes out last year, the mother has diabetes. She is seen not taking her medication, not caring about her diabetes. And of course, there's all these tragedies that happen. And the thing is, when we don't see African Americans using CGM technology, insulin pump technology, we don't see checking blood sugar. What happens with those messages is that it becomes the common assumption. So when someone goes to the doctor, the doctor may think, Oh, well, black people don't check their blood sugar. And so then that begins to impact the individual prime example. I was in a setting once. And a woman said, Oh, I didn't think black people ate vegetables. What? Yes, yes, literally said this. And I was just so floored, but I thought, okay, she didn't think black people ate vegetables. And so I'm wondering like, what images you know, is she being fed? Right? Yeah. came from so the thing is, is we have to look at our television and our film, not just as sources of enjoyment for some people, but also as information that provides an understanding about certain people. So literally in all of the films and television shows that I look that there were probably two that showed the African American character with diabetes, actually living a rather fruitful life. Outside of that it was amputation and death. And so when someone is diagnosed with diabetes, like I was, and I didn't know anyone with diabetes, instantly, the first thing I thought about was death and dying. And that association that comes with it, when I hadn't seen people living well, with diabetes, I just want to say this. When I was first diagnosed, I went to Barnes and Nobles sat down in a bookstore with one of Patti LaBelle cookbooks, and I flipped to a page and she said, in this book, I had diabetes, but I wasn't going to let diabetes have in me, and I cried, right there in the Barnes and Noble, because that was the first time that I had ever seen or read or heard someone who looks like me diagnosed with diabetes, and they were determined to continue living their life. Like if you want to see that image, where do you go? Because our television and our films are not that place. And that's also the fertile ground for which black diabetic info on my website started and my blog, because I didn't know where to go for that. Like, I got it in Patti LaBelle cookbook, and I cry. But then where can I go to see it again? Yeah, didn't have an answer. Heather, I Stacey Simms 26:53 want to come back to you and ask you something I saw you posted about on on Twitter. A couple of months ago, Pixar posted a teaser for their new movie turning red, which I think comes out in the spring. And there's like a split second shot of a kid wearing some kind of what looks like diabetes device. It's, you know, an insulin pump or a CGM. And they confirmed it. I actually talked to somebody behind the scenes at Pixar and fingers crossed, we'll have them on the show in a couple of weeks. But it is a diabetes. I'm so excited. But it is a diabetes device. But you were pretty adamant about one point, would you mind sharing that? And why? Sure. Dr. Heather Walker 27:30 So when I saw that, you know, I came late to the show. Let me preface with that, right. Like, by the time I saw that trailer, the community was abuzz. Like they everyone was so excited. And what I saw was, Oh, my goodness, we see a character with type 1 diabetes. And as someone who is completing a chapter for a book of essays on representations of diabetes, you know, my antenna went up when I saw how the community was claiming that. And I just thought to myself, This is not a representation of type 1 diabetes, this is a representation of diabetes, because people with type two can and should have access to those devices as well. And so for the type one community to be exclusive, in this moment, in this grand opportunity for all of us to celebrate together, really sort of broke me down in a way, you know, I was like, Why? Why can't we just keep this open? Why can't we make this a win for everyone? Instead of saying, quote, unquote, type two people don't use these devices? And I think that the reason why it was like it was like a jab in my heart is I think that that claiming does something in society, right? It, it functions to show us that large groups of the diabetes are the type one community feel like, maybe type two diabetics aren't using that technology, because they're the ones who don't care. And they're the ones that the stereotype is about. And so that shows me that we have pockets in our type one community that buy into the stereotype just like the public does. Stacey Simms 29:06 I'm looking at the description of the book in terms of the different mediums you use Twitter, to TV to film to theater to fiction, fan fiction. Dr. Heather Walker 29:13 Yeah, we have a chapter, whatever author of your chapter covering a segment of fan fiction, and it's wonderful and actually, that author and she discloses in her chapter as well, so I'm not outing her. She also lives with diabetes herself. And I'm pretty sure she has a physical science PhD. So this genre and this discipline is new for her and she just like, Oh, she did such a great job having us understand how diabetes is being pulled into fanfiction. Alright, we Stacey Simms 29:46 now should have set this up better if you're not familiar, and I'm going to do probably a terrible job of describing this. If you're not familiar. Fanfiction is stories, poems, pictures, it's fiction, written by people who are Fans have a genre or fans of a certain bunch of characters, and then they kind of make up their own stories using the established characters most of the time. So in other words, you love Harry Potter, you write yourself into Harry Potter or you write a different adventures that the characters might have had. And it's accessible to pretty much everybody. Is that how I feel about fanfiction? Yeah, I Dr. Heather Walker 30:18 think it's kind of a, you know, once you get into it, you know where to look. You can probably Google it. And you know, I'm not even really in the world of fanfic, full disclosure and transparency. But I feel like I want to beat now that I've read, I've read that chapter. So Stacey Simms 30:34 these are characters people are writing about that loop with diabetes, or they are the just bringing diabetes into exactly as it sounds. It sounds silly, as I'm saying it out loud. Like I'm explaining it. I'm trying to, you know, hit it over the head to the to find a point. But just to be clear, Dr. Heather Walker 30:48 yes. So I think in the pieces that this author talks about in their chapter, it's situations where the characters themselves do not have diabetes, and the fanfic authors write them having diabetes. Oh, so they add that to their character. Stacey Simms 31:04 You know what we were doing that a long time ago? Because I don't know if you know, Heather, and Phyllisa, but Bob, the builder definitely has diabetes, because why else? Would he have that big belt around his equipment? Because that's where his insulin. So anytime we saw somebody on screen with that, he was like, Oh, he's got diabetes. I didn't mean to interrupt Heather. But that clarifies it for me. Dr. Heather Walker 31:23 Oh, yeah. That's a perfect example. Right is imagine that we had a fanfic author who loves Bob the Builder when they were a kid. And now they're writing the whole story about Bob, the builder and his diabetic life. It's wonderful. The book itself, Stacey Simms 31:37 is this something that's accessible to people? And I asked that I mean, is it more of an academic book, tell me a little bit more about that. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 31:43 So one of the things that I like about the book is that it's assessable. For a large reading audience, if you are a casual reader, you can get through it, if you are an academic, you can get through it. So it's not laced with academic jargon. But again, we are using theoretical frameworks, but in a language that is accessible to everybody. So that's one I definitely enjoy about the collection, is there something in there forever? Stacey Simms 32:13 And that's a great point, because I think we do get a little nervous about academic type books, Heather, right. I mean, it's, it can be a little scary and off putting it away. Dr. Heather Walker 32:21 Yeah. And I'll just add, you know, we have, so we have several authors who are like myself, and Phyllisa, who are scholars and community members, which is very nice, and just like really brings it home. And so, you know, you kind of know, as a community member, that you're going to get authentic pieces by people who are living with this, in addition to having a couple of us who are scholars and committee members, we do have chapters from community members, from activists who don't have their hand in academia at all, and they're writing about their personal experiences. And, you know, they're still talking about representation in different media, but they're doing so from their lens existing in the community existing in the world with diabetes. And if nothing else, although I, I would also say what, you know, Melissa said was true, all of them are accessible, but especially those that are coming, you know, from the mouths of babes that are coming from our community members, who, who many people who do pick up the book already know, Stacey Simms 33:20 before I let you go, let me let me pose this question to each of you in kind of a different way. And that would be you know, full. So you mentioned blackish, being a bit of a turning point, the show where people are shown, you know, a character shown checking blood sugar. I'm looking back over the last year and thinking of a more accurate depiction of diabetes, or at least type one with the Babysitter's Club on Netflix with we'll see with Pixar is turning red, but with Greenland, you know, written by someone who's married to Greenland, the movie Written by someone who is married to a person with type one, do you think things are getting better? And and I would ask you, as well to include the black community, because we don't talk about that enough. You know, I mean, I'm trying to think if all of those I mentioned they did not feature people of color. Do you think it's getting better? I mean, what would you like to Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 34:06 see, I would like to see more diversity as we get better in the American film industry. When I look at all the films that I studied, type 1 diabetes is grossly under represented like none of these characters have type 1 diabetes, which again, if you think about myself, 31 years old, being diagnosed, I never knew type 1 diabetes could be an option. I'm still not seeing African American characters using technology wearing CGM. Often when I'm out in public. People are asking me about my devices. It's the first time you're seeing them. I'm explaining insulin pumps. And so while things are getting better, I would say within shows, television shows and films that are popular within African American characters. Progress is about Very slow on that. And Stacey Simms 35:01 Heather, from where you stand. Could you share a little bit about what you think is going on in media? Are we getting better? Dr. Heather Walker 35:07 Yeah, I think Phyllisa what you're speaking to right is incremental ism. It's like we are getting better slowly, like painfully, slowly, bit by bit. I mean, I'm inclined to say yes, only because the number of representations that we're seeing are increasing. But, you know, I'm hesitant at the same time to say yes, because we still have to ask, okay, if we even if we have more representation, are they representations that are doing good for diabetic people in society? Right, like, not necessarily, Are they accurate? Or are they you know, a direct portrayal of what people experience? But what is the public taking away from that representation? Like, what are they leaving that with? And if we have a lot more characters all of a sudden who have diabetes, but the audience still thinks, Okay, well, diabetes is still what I thought it was, right? It's like overweight people over eating, making bad choices not exercising? If that's what they're leaving with, then the answer, of course, is no, we're not making progress, even if we're having more characters. And what I find is, what I think we would need to make really big change would be to centralize a character with diabetes instead of making them a sub character, right? Yeah, like for the baby sitters club. And Stacey is not a new character with diabetes is has old, right, like we've known that Stacey has had diabetes for a long time, it just wasn't being produced at the quality it's being produced at. So that's not really even a new one. But we do have new ones, like there's a just a year and a half ago, or so there was a new series called Sweet magnolias. And one of the characters there has, or is about to be diagnosed with diabetes, and it's the same, it's the same story. It's like, you know, if you don't fix your habits, you're gonna get diabetes, and you're gonna die like your mom and all these fear tactics. And so and I really want to be hopeful, Stacy, I really want to be hopeful and say, Yes, we're headed in the right direction. But I just don't know i We need people in the writers room with diabetes, and other health conditions and disabilities, to have a direct voice and call things out before they're produced. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 37:19 I agree 100%, we have to be in the room. Because some things they don't make sense. For example, blackish, you do see him check his blood sugar. However, once he puts the strip in the meter, he starts talking to his wife, and anyone who knows how to use a meter knows that you have about 30 seconds before you have to put a drop of blood on that thing, or else you've lost it. So even little things like that. Stacey Simms 37:46 I had indicated that was the last question, but I got one more. And that would be and II feel free. Either one of you jump in? Or both? What can the community do? You know, sometimes I feel like, you know, I stopped correcting people online a lot of the time unless it's really egregious, you know, but if they make a joke, or there's a hashtag diabetes with dessert, or things like that, like I'm tired, you know, and then you have no sense of humor, you know, gosh, what can we do to try to fix this? Or what can we do to to improve the situation? Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 38:15 I think, this research, this book, this podcast, these conversations are so important. So for example, prior to writing my book chapter, I didn't see anything talking about the representation of African American characters in television and film. Whenever I talked about diabetes characters, there was maybe the one mention of soul food, but like, there was a dearth there. So this book chapter hopefully helped spark the conversation in wider circles. And so by talking about it more, and rallying around these things, hopefully, the attention like first recognizing that there is a problem, and then getting think tanks together to talk about them is probably the best plan of action. Dr. Heather Walker 39:06 I love that. And I would just add, you know, I think what the community needs to prioritize is inclusion, right? Like, we need to give up on being exclusive, especially in the type one community, and we need to open our doors to people with type two people with Ladda. People with all like, there are so many different types of diabetes, that even saying type one and two is, is exclusive. I really believe that if we can do that, and if we can elevate the voices of people with diabetes of all types, who are also people of color, then we'll make a lot of progress in our community because we'll start seeing those perspectives that we've been missing that make us as a community really limited to our own perspective. To me, that's the only way to do it. I love the idea of a think tank Phyllisa I think that's brilliant, and just absolutely, and I'm sure you would agree needs to be diverse, right? Like it can't Be a bunch of like, white people. I don't know. There's a lot we can do. There's a lot. Stacey Simms 40:08 Thank you both so much for joining me. This is amazing. I'm so thrilled to have you both on the show, you've got to come back on there. We just kind of scratched the surface here. So thank you for spending so much time with me. Dr. Phyllisa Deroze 40:18 It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Dr. Heather Walker 40:21 Yeah, this has been so fun. You're listening to Diabetes Connections with Stacey Simms. Stacey Simms 40:34 More information about my guests and about the book on diabetes all at diabetes connections.com. As you know, every episode has its own homepage with transcriptions and show notes and all that good stuff. The transcription started in January of 2020. And we're working our way back here in there, hopefully filling in all the blanks. But right now, not every episode before 2020 has a transcription. And I should tell you just I don't want to get ahead of myself here. That Pixar movie that we talked about turning red. Since our conversation, they put out another trailer and it showed more diabetes gear, another child in the movie is wearing a Dexcom. So it looks to me I mean, really can't tell yet. But it looks to me like one kiddo has some kind of pump. And another kiddo has a Dexcom. So as I said, I had a contact at Pixar. And I've got another one now. And it looks like there might be an actor, a voice actor in the movie who has diabetes. So we're to sort this all out. And I should be able to have somebody on about this. I don't want to over promise. But the folks at Pixar have been really receptive. So that looks like they won't do it too far in advance because the movie comes out in March. So as we get closer, I'll keep you posted for it. And I had mentioned a story before the interview about not necessarily diabetes in media, but about jokes. And I don't know about you, but years ago, I was on high alert for diabetes jokes, you know, I can't eat that, or the the hashtag of my dessert is diabetes. And I don't know, I got burned out. And I don't talk about it as much. I don't police it as much, certainly, but I couldn't help myself last week, at Christmas, I'm in a group. It's a very clever group. It's called fatten the curve. If you want to join it. It's a public group, a friend of mine in the Charlotte area started at the very beginning of COVID. Obviously, it's a play on flatten the curve. And as you would expect fatten the curve is all about food. And it's just become a place where people who cook and eat like to share their photos. And somebody posted around Christmas time, you know, it's my diabetic coma, and then all of this food. So I kind of did the do I want to go to I want to do this, or I want to get this person's face. So I just very nicely said, Hey, diabetes jokes are never cool. Not sure if you thought about that. But hey, the food looks absolutely delicious. You know, hope it was as good as it looked or something nice like that very casual and breezy. Just like Hey, dude, not cool. But moving on. And there's a couple of other people in the diabetes community who have joined that group, but it's not diabetes, it's just food. But you know how it is when when Facebook shows you something people, you know, jump in. So other people commented like, yeah, Stacey's right? Please think twice. And this guy apparently lives with type two posted like a non sequitur about his scientific studies and stem cells and all this stuff about diabetes. He did, obviously, not really sunk in I don't think, but he didn't respond negatively. And I just said, You know what, fine, I'm moving on, right? But then a couple of days later, somebody else popped in, it was like, nobody can make a joke anymore. You're too sensitive, and why we're just too easily offended. And that's when I was like, Alright, now I need to respond. So I very nicely, I think it was nice. You know, I wrote a response. And I said, Hey, you know, once the guy said he had diabetes, you'll notice I didn't clap back, I didn't get nasty. We are all entitled to say whatever we want. But it's important to understand that what we say does have meaning and impact. And as you listen, I know, you know, all this, I did the standard. When we joke about diabetes, we don't do this with other conditions. We don't talk about a cholesterol coma, or a high blood pressure problem when we're eating big meals like this. Why is it only diabetes? And did you realize that actually, you know, the blame and shame that can be encountered here prevents people from seeking treatment or makes them feel like it's all their fault, and nothing they do will matter. I posted all that waiting for the response. There was none, which I'm really glad about. Because I don't want to argue I just it's exhausting. But everyone's not something like that pushes my buttons and I have to save something. Hopefully that group will just go back to posting yummy pictures of food because it's been two years and we haven't had any issues like that. I mostly post pictures of what my husband cooks. Because I don't like to cook and what I do cook isn't really Facebook, really. So I guess we're often running for 2022. We are back to the Wednesday in the news episodes. I hope you'll join me for that either live on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram, or as an audio podcast which comes out on Fridays. Thanks as always to my editor John Bukenas from audio editing solutions. Thank you so much for listening. I'm Stacey Simms. I'll see you back here soon, in a Couple of days until then, be kind to yourself Benny 45:07 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Simms media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged

   January 04, 2022·46min
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