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Episode 37: Chris Roome, Adventures With Type 1
108 Plays21 days ago
In this episode, Jacqui chats with Chris Roome, who has spent much of his life proving that type 1 diabetes doesn’t have to define what’s possible.
Diagnosed at 12, Chris quickly adopted the mindset of being child first, diabetic second. Since then, he’s taken on endurance races, extreme outdoor adventures and even dog sledding in the Arctic, all while managing the constant decisions that come with type 1 diabetes.
Chris also shares the inspiration behind Project InsulNation, a community designed to bring people with type 1 together through outdoor adventure and shared experience.
This episode is a reminder that with preparation, resilience and the right support, life with type 1 diabetes can still be bold, adventurous and full of possibility.
Connect further with our guest:
Instagram: @project_insulnation
Facebook: Chris Roome
Website: www.projectinsulnation.com
Further Resources:
Type 1 Foundation Website
Follow us on Instagram
Join the Facebook Group
If you'd like to share your story with our podcast listeners, please email: podcast@type1foundation.com.au
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Transcript
Disclaimer: Not Medical Advice
00:00:00
Speaker
The content provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Reliance on any information provided by this podcast is solely at your own risk.
Podcast Introduction: Type 1 Club
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome to the Type 1 Club. Whether you're a parent grappling with a new diagnosis, a caregiver seeking guidance, or simply someone wanting to learn more about Type 1 diabetes, this podcast is for you.
00:00:36
Speaker
Together, let's dispel myths, break down barriers and build a community of understanding and resilience. Join us as we embark on this journey together, because with knowledge, compassion and support, no one should ever feel alone in managing type 1 diabetes.
00:00:54
Speaker
Welcome to the Type 1 Club.
Meet Jackie Kidman & Guest Chris Room
00:01:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Type 1 Club. i am your host, Jackie Kidman. I am a Type 1 mum to a boy named Harvey who was diagnosed in June 2022 the age of seven years old.
00:01:15
Speaker
I welcome a guest today all the way from America. So it's pretty exciting, exciting to have ah an international guest, but also that we managed to work out this time zone kind of thing with with actual ease. So we're both in kind of reasonable hours of the day, which is which is great. So I would love to welcome Chris Room to the podcast. Welcome all the way from New York.
00:01:40
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. I'm really, really happy to be here. I'm glad you had me.
Chris's Diagnosis Story at Age 12
00:01:44
Speaker
Story about me, you know, a little qualification. a type 1 diabetic. I've been type 1 for 26 years now. I was diagnosed in January of 2000 at the age 12.
00:01:58
Speaker
I remember coming home from middle school sick one day and it just got worse and worse and worse. And next thing I knew, i woke up in the yeah ah ER. I was kind of slipping in and out of consciousness with ah with extremely high blood sugars. Wow.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, so we all thought it was the flu. The doctors kind of told my mom just to you know, keep keep dealing with it like it was the flu. But then she realized that was much worse than the flu and rushed me off to the ah ER. And there they ran a couple of tests. They didn't really know what was going on, but...
00:02:31
Speaker
one of the doctors my mom knew called into the hospital and told a specialist to go down and take a look at me. And after two days of testing and the the people on call not being able to figure out that it was type one, this doctor walked down, took one look at me and looked at all the other doctors in the room and said he's a type one diabetic. And then they ran those tests and that's how they found out that I was a type one diabetic.
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it was a pretty wild story. I mean, I don't remember much of it because, again, I was in and out of consciousness, but I do remember when they transported me from the local hospital to a specialist hospital. Like, it was only like a 30-minute ride, but I remember the second the doors opened and they put me in the other ambulance, the blast of cold air woke me up out of the last bout of unconsciousness.
Life Changes Post-Diagnosis
00:03:23
Speaker
And from that, that's where I was told that, know, it was type one diabetes and, you know, 12 years old at that point, I didn't really know what to expect or what was going to happen.
00:03:33
Speaker
Spent three or four days in the hospital kind of with the the staff learning everything. um You know, that was much harder on my parents than it was me, you know, 12 year old kid. I don't really have the full grasp on the severity or reality of the situation at that point. And I,
00:03:52
Speaker
you know, I always joke with my parents when I got discharged and we came home for the first time, they were so meticulous about the carb counting and the insulin ratios that the first meal I was allowed to eat, my mom made me eat two full cups of spaghetti to hit my carbohydrates before I was allowed to have anything else.
00:04:12
Speaker
You know, we always laugh about that because it's, you know, back then it was the, there was no CGMs, there was no closed loop technology. You had to, you had to calculate everything. And it was also, I think people got sent, it was like, okay, these are the carbs that you have to hit. This is the insulin dose.
00:04:29
Speaker
So then that was how it was just always sort of measured. Not, not when like that wasn't from, I've yeah just heard people talk about that. Like it was, yeah, thankfully that's not the case anymore. Yeah.
00:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, there it was not fun looking at a a plate of two cups of spaghetti, being told I had to finish it before I could eat anything else. Wow. But um we had spoken before the show how when I was first diagnosed, I actually came
Experiences Abroad with Diabetes
00:04:54
Speaker
to Australia. Right before my diagnosis, I was accepted to a student ambassador program, a six-week program for a group of us to go down to Australia and New Zealand from America.
00:05:06
Speaker
My mom says the only reason that they let me still do this was because the nurse in the yeah ah ER told my parents he's a child first, a diabetic second. Don't ever forget that.
00:05:17
Speaker
That's amazing because i think that when, you know, you quite often hear at diagnosis that people say, you know, like medical professionals will say they they won't be able to do this, they won't be able to do that. You know, like it's always all the things that now you have this diagnosis, you know, there's so many restrictions that are going to happen in your life. And then for them, for for someone to say, well, let's see, he's a child first and, you know, a medical...
00:05:41
Speaker
you know like in that aspect, a ti type one diabetic second. So you're traveling to Australia, which we are on the other side of the world. you know um um It's a long way away. Did your parents come with you or were you just went with the school for six weeks? Yeah, I went with the group. All the, i guess chaperones is the best term to use for the the staff that was involved. They all took like a like a six to eight week crash course on how to deal with type one diabetes. So they all had an idea of what to do and they made it happen.
00:06:16
Speaker
um I didn't have any major episodes. I mean, I can't say everything went okay. I was 12 years old. I probably should have checked my sugars more and did all the stuff a 12 year old, you know, you expect out of a 12 year old. But there were no serious events. I went on the trip. I enjoyed the trip. I didn't feel like I was different or an outcast. You know, I felt like I was living my normal life. And, know, fast forwarding all these years, you know, that's a major thing that stuck with me. You know, it has a lot to do with what I've done, like the the adventures that I've gone on. And I'll get into that in a bit. And the business that I'm building now, you know, it all stems back to that.
Living Fully with Type 1
00:06:55
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first experience of child first diabetic second. Yeah. I love, I love that because yeah, like I think that we get really bogged down with, with the diagnosis for me nearly nearly four years on, you know, like I'm kind of like, well, I mean, he can do everything. There's nothing actually stopping him. um, we just, type one just comes with us and we just work with, it just works within, you know, like it, yes, you might have moments where you think, oh God, that really didn't go well. Or, you know, we mucked that up or, um, I feel bad because, you know, he had to sit out for a bit or, you know, whatever, but, um, you know, we, we kind of,
00:07:35
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it's doesn't, it it shouldn't really hinder you any, any more. Which is what kind of grabbed me when I saw, um you know, algorithms kind of, kind of allow you to come across people. And that's how I, um how I came across Chris was on, I think it was on Facebook actually. And I was reading his story and he's got a picture of himself in the snow and all rugged up and stuff. And I was like, what's this? Harvey's desperate to go to Japan to go snowboarding. So um I am, you know, kind of embracing how we do that. And then I read Chris's story about how he tackled the Arctic Circle and and talked about, you know, how you...
00:08:18
Speaker
extra things you have to carry as a type one diabetic but let alone just extra things you have to carry being in the arctic circle i can imagine and and the preparation that went into that so maybe chris so um so yeah i'd love to share how you got into from running to then that next jump like what what made it what made you kind of do that For me, it's always been when whenever someone tells me no or whenever something scares me to the point where I don't really know if I can do it, I kind of lean into that because I know it's exactly what I need. you know It's the whole personal growth side of things. you know Lean into the uncomfortable. what you What you want is on the other side of what you fear.
00:09:03
Speaker
you know Running, I kind of stumbled into running just because COVID shut the whole world down. I had no other way to... really go work out or any kind of stress relief. So I kind of just started started running through running. I found Spartan
Running & Resilience: Defying Limits
00:09:17
Speaker
races. It kind of combined trail hiking, physical obstacles, kind of all the things that I like put into one, you know, the entire Timeline of my story is full of medical professionals questioning my decisions, but I've never let that stop me because I understand that it's their job.
00:09:38
Speaker
You know, they don't, they don't walk in my shoes. They're, professionally trained to handle the disease itself, which I respect more than anything in the world, but nobody understands my body and my mindset like I do.
00:09:52
Speaker
So if I want to do something and I'm physically capable of doing it, I'm going to prepare and plan for the type one side of doing it on top of the physical and mental, and I'm going to go do it because I know I can.
00:10:05
Speaker
And I swore to myself after, like this goes back to the going to Australia as a 12 year old, like I will never let type one diabetes be the deciding factor in anything that I want to do.
00:10:18
Speaker
Yeah, things may go wrong. I may have to pull out of some things. I may not finish a race. and I may be on an adventure somewhere and have to call it short and go get supplies, but I'm not going to let it be the reason that I don't set out on that adventure.
00:10:33
Speaker
So with the Spartan races and all that, it was the same thing. Doctors kind of warned me against it. You know, they told me if I absolutely want to do it to stick with the shorter distances, but that's just not who I am. So I kind of worked my way up the Spartan distances. You know, I got to the point where I probably ran 12 15 the races,
00:10:54
Speaker
But then I kept finding myself being like, now what? You know, i I could go back to the drawing board and I could kill myself in training to take two minutes off of my time in the next race.
00:11:06
Speaker
But... I wanted more. So that's when I got into the the trail running, the endurance running. I decided that, you know, being ah a 230 pound guy, I'm not going to be on a podium. I'm not going to be one of the fastest runners. You know, I'm doing this all to prove to myself that I can do it. So the best way that I could take the next step was to push the distances.
Marathons & Extreme Goals
00:11:31
Speaker
So I ended up running the New York city marathon, the Chicago marathon, the Berlin marathon, uh on my way up distances after those i ran a 50k trail race and then i ran the 50 mile trail race and now i've got my sights set on a hundred mile trail race and it's not for anything other than just proving to myself that i can do it you know i can manage type one in the situations get through the race and and say that i crossed the finish line um
00:12:02
Speaker
I live that same. Thanks. I live that same kind of mentality into to my adventures. You know, I don't think I've really ever taken like a ah beach relaxing vacation. Vacations for me are like backpacking, hiking, camping, dog sledding, stuff like that. um You know, the the post that you saw was about being in the Arctic Circle. i found... ah I found an ad somewhere about dog sledding and I thought it would be really cool. So I did some research and i linked up with this guy who does dog sledding in the Iditarod race in Alaska. and he has people come stay with him and you can go out. And as part of training for his dogs, you get your own dog sled team and you run the sled for four days in the Arctic Circle. It's training for his dogs and it's me doing something really cool.
00:12:57
Speaker
So I jumped all over it. It was like, this is awesome. Like how many people can say they've done this? And then I was like, all right, well, there's type one. I'll figure that out. But the first thing I did was just sign up for it because once my mind starts asking the questions, it's like, all right, and I know I need to do it. this is um To this day is probably one of the best trips I've ever taken. You know, it was just amazing.
Arctic Circle Adventure Planning
00:13:23
Speaker
all all All aspects of the trip from like being immersed on my own dog sled for 12 hours a day, having to take care of my own team of six dogs, living in the back country in Sweden from like hut to hut with the other people that were on the trip.
00:13:38
Speaker
um It was cool because my sister came with me too. um I told signed up for it. She thought it was pretty cool. So I called the guy and asked there was another spot. So it was pretty cool to do it with a family member. Yeah.
00:13:50
Speaker
But, um you know, there was a lot that went into it because there were days that I don't know the conversion, but there were days where the temperature was negative 59 Fahrenheit. You know, we had to we had to continue. very cold We had to continue to move our limbs when we were on the sled because you could you could get frostbite even through five and six layers of clothing on the sleds and those kind of temperatures. Yeah.
00:14:16
Speaker
um So, like, naturally, the the concern for a type 1 is ah my insulin at that point. you know, being on the pump, I taped the pump to my body for my body heat to keep the insulin from freezing.
00:14:32
Speaker
I kept all of my devices, my my glucose monitor, my CGM, um my my readers, anything electronic, I kept on my body for my body heat to keep from depleting the batteries. Right. And it was just um I just had to be I had to be hyper aware of where all of my type one stuff was at all times, because even if I had to stop and take something out and use it, I had to be very quick and intentional with my time, because if it got too cold, then I was going 24 hours, not knowing when it was going to start up working again.
00:15:07
Speaker
Wow. well It was just, ah it was a lot of planning, a lot of preparation, and ah a lot of just making sure that everything was in the right place on me at all times. Yeah. So how do you plan and prepare that? The average person would just put, would kind of go, well, you know, yeah, like, but I don't really know how to, like the dogs would go. I don't really know about the coal, you know, like there's a whole lot of stuff that would come up, but then you have to add in that extra bit of, okay, well, how am I going to yeah store this? What's it going to react? Like, how do you plan for that before you get there? Cause I'm sure that you get there and you hit the ground running. Yeah.
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, we got picked up from the airport and taken right to the place and the next morning we were off. But ah for me, I'm kind of like you seeing my post and just reaching out to me to talk about it. There's always somebody who's done something that I'm looking to do. So I find the best thing for me is to find someone who's been in the environment, whether they're a type one or not. you know Type one obviously helps because they can I can ask very specific questions, but someone who's been in that environment can tell me a lot more than what I can look up on my own. you know There's a lot of questions that I don't know to ask when it comes to situations like that.
00:16:25
Speaker
So for for this trip, I you know i i have a ah pretty... wide network of type one diabetics. So I was able to to leverage that network and find a couple type ones who are very active in the skiing and snowboarding community and kind of talk to them about what they do, you know, how they store, how much extra they carry, what they plan for if they're on a multi-day.
Learning & Preparing for Adventures
00:16:49
Speaker
And I was able to kind of just backtrack and build based off of my my trip and my specifics off the information that they gave me.
00:16:58
Speaker
Like, do you also think around things of if something does go terribly wrong, you know, like how do you get medical help or do you kind of go that far? I could lie to you and say yes, but I...
00:17:12
Speaker
that That what if is always in the back of your head, but honestly, even non-type ones, you know, if I'm if i'm in tune with my body, if I'm paying attention to my diabetes and I am in this case, like taking care of my supplies to the point where I don't have to worry about them going bad, then I have just as much of a chance of something going wrong as a non-diabetic on the trip.
00:17:36
Speaker
So I lean on my preparation and I lean on my planning to kind of remove the type one what ifs and just go as if I was a regular traveler because anyone can go out and do anything and anything can happen. You know, yes, type one has a lot more to it. Type one has some serious ups and downs that can come with it. But if you prepare for them, you're in the same boat as someone who doesn't have it you know.
00:18:02
Speaker
like And i always i always let the people with me, if I'm in a group, I always let the people with me know that I'm a type one. i let them know that I am very well controlled, but I also show them like my emergency sugar and my glucagon. Like if I go down, give me that shot and then call for help.
00:18:24
Speaker
You know, you'll buy time doing that. Like I give them the one-on-one basic, do this before you call for help. yeah So I always make sure the people around me know the first step if something goes south fast and then the rest from there will kind of unfold.
00:18:44
Speaker
Don't ignore the four. The four early warning signs of type 1 diabetes. Excessive thirst, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss, and extreme fatigue.
00:18:54
Speaker
If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms, don't wait. Get checked by a healthcare professional. Early detection and treatment are key to managing type 1 diabetes effectively.
00:19:09
Speaker
So you talked about tapping in with people who have done stuff before, other type ones and type one community to to lean on kind of experience. I guess that kind of leads to what you're kind of building kind of now, like you've kind of tried and tested and, and, you know, some of the strategies and, and, and things that work for you. Is that what you're building now in terms of your business, you were talking about that you're now helping other type ones to be able to feel confident to be able to do stuff like this. um So they're not having to start from scratch. Your your expertise then becomes someone else's, like you coach them through this sort of stuff. Is that is that the hope and that is that what you're trying to build?
Empowering Type 1 Diabetics
00:19:55
Speaker
In a way, yes. So we're we're building right now, it's a company called Project InsulNation, play on insulin and nation together. It's type one adventure business where the whole purpose of the company is to create a movement that inspires, encourages, and empowers type one diabetics to get out into the wild and learn firsthand the confidence and independence it takes surrounded by people who understand you.
00:20:22
Speaker
Everyone involved in every trip we do is either a medical professional, a caretaker or a type one themselves. So we take people and get them off their couch. You know, the people who are scrolling through, like, I wish I could do that. That looks so cool, but I'm a type one. We take those people and we put them in. So we're going to a mountain range in New Hampshire at the end of May. We're taking eight type one diabetics for a 41 mile backpack. You know, we're putting them in a ridgeline together.
00:20:52
Speaker
And allowing these people to experience the ruggedness of outdoors as a community who understands each other. You're removing that feeling of being different.
00:21:04
Speaker
You're removing that fear of what if something goes wrong because the other people are also in the same exact boat as you. So the whole idea behind it is to ah kind of construct more of a family dynamic in small groups on these adventures to really help people break through any limiting beliefs that they can't do X, Y, or Z because of type 1 diabetes.
Community Support for Type 1 Diabetics
00:21:31
Speaker
I absolutely love that because I think that, like we sort of said, that and I try to explain to people of, you know, like say, for example, when you, like I read your story, like, and then I tell people about that. I'm like, i don't think people completely understand um how easy it is to just kind of go, well, that's just too hard. You know, like when you've got type one, you know, that's just without type one, you can say that. And then when you add type one, like type one can just be like, well, we can't do that because, know,
00:21:59
Speaker
you know, cause what about my diabetes or we can't, you know, I can't do that. I can't do that. And then, and then I think more and more we're seeing, you know, people do, you know, Olympic Olympians, you know, getting, getting, you know like competing or even getting medals or, know,
00:22:16
Speaker
you know doing doing amazing things that, you know, like playing tennis in tennis finals for, you know, like six hours, you know, like high level tennis and stuff like that, that like I try to say to people like the thought process that they're not just thinking about the next shot or the next, I mean, that's tennis shot, not, not insulin shot, you know, they just thinking about that, that you, you know, that there is so much preparation that has to go into how they manage their, what their body feels like when they can, when do they need to have that to eat something to, you know, to have insulin. Like i said there's all that stuff that sits on,
00:22:55
Speaker
up on the sidelines and but then you've also then got that you need to then be able to play or play good tennis or or be able to hike that mountain or you know do that jump or know there's not just the skill set there's then also the the type one skill set that needs to then come into it and you know I try to explain that that's just to me that's just far more superior than you know they They say it's 128 more decisions a day a type 1 diabetic makes than an average person. We add high-level athletic event on top of that. That just amplifies. you know And what you were just touching on is is exactly what we're trying to bridge. There's the gap.
00:23:38
Speaker
You've got these type one diabetics who are Olympians, who are Ironmen, who are doing all these insane things. And you've got these type ones who we all know want to do those things, but they're afraid. They're afraid because they don't want to put themselves in the situation where they're alone. If something goes wrong, there's no one to help.
00:23:57
Speaker
But they also don't want to join a group where they don't know if they're the only type one because they don't want to be the odd man out or the person who's different. You know, we're we're trying to bridge that gap to build that confidence for them to just say, you know what, I can do this and I'm going to do it.
00:24:14
Speaker
Nothing's going to stop me. Yeah, absolutely. And that's actually what we're working with, with the Type 1 Foundation.
Shared Experiences Eliminate Isolation
00:24:20
Speaker
We're looking at, you know, exactly that, just creating some community treks or some, you know, like community walks. um because I have heard people sort of say, like, I've done, you know, great, like overnight treks, but I always feel like I'm letting people down because I'm a type one diabetic. And then I have to, you know, kind of say, I just got to sit down for 15 minutes and they feel like,
00:24:41
Speaker
the group is like, well, you know, what are we waiting for? Or, you know, those sort of things. When when you have that connection with people that understand that language and understand like, yeah, that's cool. You know, we we take it a little bit slower or we can, you know, prep and, you know you know, like kind of do a bit more prep so that you don't have to feel like you're letting the team down or don't have to stop because you're not dropping or, you know, things like that, that it it is just – I don't think people understand that that there that that is a real hindrance to, you know, to people. You don't, I know that myself in my, when when I did my first trek in central Australia, I felt like I was the most unfittest person out of this group of women that were these other, you know, 13 odd women that were so fit and they were trail runners and stuff. And I'm, I'm not a runner, um but I'm, but I can, you know, I can, I can walk for a day, you know, like I can do that sort of stuff. But I felt like I was the one that was always further back, further back. And then it was someone, at one of the guides was saying, you all end up at the same point, you know, and you're you're really probably only like 60 seconds behind, but that 60 seconds when you're trekking feels like hard to make up that time or, you know, when you're really pushing. um
00:25:57
Speaker
So just me personally, like thinking that my fitness isn't good enough, let alone having, that, oh gosh, I'm a little bit low and I've got to stop and I'm not feeling great or, you know, adding that to it. You know, there's just so many other little things that I think just in human life, we can just say it's just too hard.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah. We're wired to compare, you know, that's, that's been the biggest thing. I can't say shocker, but it's definitely been the biggest draw to the attention that I've gotten with project installation so far is the overwhelming outreach of people who just want to do it with a group of type ones.
00:26:37
Speaker
I just want to be with people like me. I just want to be with people who understand, or i think it will be really cool for eight of us who live with the same thing to just be together. Like that's been the overwhelming, like not, not so
Creating Connections through Podcast
00:26:51
Speaker
much. They want to learn how to do this, but they want to be submerged with that family and that culture and that comfort more so than else.
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah. And for them to, to kind of realize that they're not alone, you know, like a lot of, a lot of type ones don't, you know, don't know other type ones, you know, like that's as much as we kind of talking about these little groups that there are, but, you know, there's a lot of people that have never met other type one diabetics or other type one parents or, you know, that sort of stuff. And, you know, I think that's what i always say to newly diagnosed is find your community connect with people um ask questions you know it's part of the reason why i created this podcast was because you know i wanted to kind of learn more um and then what's what a better way to do it than kind of then recording them and then sending them out to the world to also learn more you know it's kind of It shouldn't just be my information. That's how I feel. I feel like we should all keep continually sharing it, which is what we're obviously doing exactly the same, just in different ways. I do the talking and you do the more of the extreme stuff. It bill it doesn't matter how you do it. You're you're teaching people.
00:28:05
Speaker
You're making them more comfortable. You're showing them that it's not... It's not the end of the world. You can still live a full, happy, unhindered life. You know, and people people need to hear that. you know, when when you get diagnosed with type one, your whole world comes crashing down.
00:28:21
Speaker
you know, all all the stuff you have to learn at the complete stop of a dime is overwhelming. hmm and like I said at the start you go through this grieving process of well I know that as a parent I did that of like what's my life going to look like you know I think because we have this societal kind of vision of like well you've now have this you have this lifelong disease and you know like it's it's doom and gloom but really it's not like it's just a lifestyle change and you just have to become become a bit more prepared. You have to do a little bit more extra. I mean, a lot more extra like think if you kind of equate to over a hundred plus extra decisions a day. But, um you know, I think it just becomes a little bit more second nature the more you do it.
00:29:06
Speaker
You know, ah that's definitely, I mean, you're 26 years in. I'm, you know, four years in with Harvey and, you know, it's kind of just like, oh, you know, like it doesn't stress me out as much kind of anymore.
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And like being being the type one for 26 years, you know, now like I went through the teens and the 20s like everyone does. You kind of revolt against it. You don't really take care of yourself, you know, but when I got serious about it,
00:29:36
Speaker
ah Probably about 10 years ago, i got really serious about taking care of my type one. And now I'm, it's second nature to me, like you said, like I'm so in tune with my body that I can feel the subtle changes. I can feel the trends before my Dexcom tells me I'm going up or down. you know, i I can... Look at three days worth of data and know there was a consistency that I have to tweak a basal rate or ah tweak at a carb ratio or something like that. Like I've, I've learned me, you know, to a point that no doctor knows me. They can look at my charts all they want. but they still don't know me better than I know me. And I'm at that point now where I've learned so much about how my body is with type one. I can make those subtle changes to to find things that work. Like you were you had hinted earlier about the the profiles that I make for my running events. you know After years of training runs, I found what
00:30:37
Speaker
I, by finding through what doesn't work, I found what works for me. you know, and I have ah a lot of people reach out asking what I do. And a lot of them are disappointed because I tell them there's no, there's no one size fits all. Like you you need to get out there and find what doesn't work for you. Like, this is what worked for me. You could start down this route if you want, but I can't give you an answer because you have to learn your body.
00:31:03
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, that's absolutely. And what if you look at it in a more optimistic kind of way, what a gift that this is of how in tune you are with your body. Not many people who can actually say that, type ones or not. you know what I mean? Like I sort of feel like I sometimes say that to Harvey. I say it's like you've got like this I feel like it's an element of a superpower because, you know, you need, you know, what you need to, you know, where your levels need to be at and what you need to be doing when to have like the best basketball game, you know, and, you know, and that sort of stuff. And a lot of kids don't,
00:31:43
Speaker
A lot of kids don't don't know that, you know, they can they can feel crappy because they've eaten, you know, haven't eaten properly or they're, you know, like what I said, but you can you can go into that knowing that you you're giving it your best shot because you've had a good breakfast and you've done, you know, you know you've dosed correctly and, you know, that sort of stuff.
00:32:00
Speaker
um And it's, you know, it's it it's you we're probably more in tune with his body um than any 10 year old would be really, or any other 10 year old, you know? A hundred percent.
00:32:14
Speaker
It brings about more, for like for me, I can honestly say it's brought about more focus for me too, because of all the, all the things leading into the event have me hyper-focused on the event that I just naturally go, like say, don't know, just for the conversation sake, we're talking about a basketball game. all of the things leading into the basketball game, the, the, the timed carbohydrate intake, the, the cut basal profile, the reduced carb to insulin ratio, all of the focus on that has me at a point where I'm already laser focused for the start of the game. Whereas the other kids are coming in after just having, having dinner at ah a fast food place or grabbing a snack and they're, they're not as focused, you know, I've, I don't know if that's,
00:33:07
Speaker
if that's common or not, but I found with me, like being so focused on my diabetes, that focus has correlated across to other areas of my life. Yes.
Balancing Preparation with Realities
00:33:17
Speaker
And I think that it's, it's, um it's finding that, that balance too, isn't it? Because then you can become like obsessive, you know, like, you know, and then also disappointed if stuff doesn't go the way that it, that it did. And, you know, like you talk about that with the 50, with the 50 mile um trail run that you did when, you know, with, with you got, you know, you had elements that got thrown at you, like weather and,
00:33:43
Speaker
you know, that sort of stuff. And then as I was listening to that podcast, I'll put it in, I'll put that podcast in the show notes as well, if people want to listen to that as well, because it's really interesting. But then you were saying like, because your clothes were so wet, that it ripped out your pump site.
00:33:59
Speaker
And I was like, Oh my God, like, you know, like thinking about, but you had a plan for that. you know, like you were like, okay, well, if this does happen, I've got this, you know, and then, and then how you were churning through, um you know, carbs quicker and, and then how you had to quickly make those plans of, okay, what's my next station? And, you know, just things like that. I just, I was just like, oh, this is, you know, everything that I find with, with type one, not just, I mean, the race is a good kind of you know, analogy, I guess, but just with type one if something doesn't go to plan, it's also like, okay, well, let's pivot.
00:34:37
Speaker
And how do we then, you know, do the next, you know, then what, what, what can we, what can we do now? And what could we change the next time? You know, there's not that it's not like, oh my God, you know, dire straits, know, you know, kind of head in the sand of like, this is just shit and I hate this. And, you know, that I mean, I know that there there are those moments. we you know like kind um You know, I've definitely had those moments as a parent. um But I think that, you know, we talk about just that constantly pivoting and kind of just making making sure that, okay, well, next time we carry a spare this or we, you know, and that's what I do now, like with Harvey, you know, for basketball games, we carry spare, like he's on an Omnipod, we carry a spare pod and a spare Dexcom. And, you know, if we need to modify if we need to do that, then it's got it, he's got it there. He knows how to put it on. he knows, you know, all that stuff. Like we've made contingency plans that if I'm not there, um it's not the end of the world and someone will always be around. My neighbour up the road has a child that's type one. I have a friend that's, you know, that lives in another suburb, a couple of suburbs away that's type got got a type one child. If they needed to come and do something, if I was, you know, away,
00:35:57
Speaker
they it can be done, you know, like there is always people out there that I think in this community that are willing to kind of go yep, I'll stop and and come and help. um And, yeah, I sort of, I loved the way how, you know,
00:36:13
Speaker
with that race that you, you talk about how, you know, you have all these plans, but you don't know how it's going to Like you don't, you can't set it and say, and that's just the same with anybody, like with any race, really, regardless of type one, you know, but you just got to kind of go, okay, well now I've set,
00:36:31
Speaker
my fitness level is one thing, but then, yeah, what happens if if all
Contingency Planning for Challenges
00:36:36
Speaker
these little things? And then you just knew what to do um which I was just like, it's very, it's it's very inspiring, I think, to hear those sort of stories. um And i i I think it's great that you share all of that because, um you know,
00:36:57
Speaker
There's not that often that in any race of ah of a 50-mile race for anyone that things go exactly to plan. Yeah, exactly. And you know no nope you can't help anyone if you're just talking about everything that went right. That doesn't help anyone. you know You're not relatable.
00:37:17
Speaker
But like you you were talking about before, you had contingency plans. you know that's That's what type one management is all about, the contingency plans. And you learn contingency plans in situations where things don't go right.
00:37:29
Speaker
You know, when my when my pump site ripped out and I was unable to put the backup pump site in, i had a bottle of insulin and a syringe on me. I had a bottle of insulin and syringe because I had done a race where my pump site ripped out and I didn't have a bottle of insulin and a syringe on me. So I learned next time, carry one, because if I'm out on a long race and the pump site comes out, I'm going to need insulin. They're not, I can't call them failures, but they're instances that happened in prior events that I learned from to better prepare for the next event.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, Chris, I've loved this chat. I am really grateful that we got to connect and thank you so much for taking up the offer to come onto the podcast. Um, I always end my podcast with with one question, and that is what is your go-to hypo treatment?
Favorite Hypo Treatments
00:38:24
Speaker
um Mine changes a lot, kind of depending, but when I'm at home, my go-to hypo treatment is dried mangoes. Dried mangoes.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The, yeah the glucose hits pretty quickly. It's got a little bit of nutritional value. so bit of fiber Yeah, that's good. <unk> I'd say if, if I could line up all of the hypo treatments that I use, dried mangoes would be the one that I would choose most often.
00:38:52
Speaker
no Okay. And when you're on a race, When I'm on a race, it's glow gummies. I don't know if they're in Australia or not, but they're ah they're a chewable glucose tab um constructed fully out of glucose, which is the fastest acting sugar. It doesn't need to be digested. The second you ingest it, it starts working. So when I'm in when i'm in my events, I make sure I have pure glucose on me for that fast act response. that' Is it just a tablet that you just chew? Yeah.
00:39:25
Speaker
Is that what you said? Yeah, it's it's almost like a little fruit snack. Okay. We've got similar things like that. I don't know if it's purely, but, yeah, I think we've got similar stuff to that. Harvey does like like those as well.
00:39:38
Speaker
And I guess because, yeah, you you're still burning a lot of energy as you're dropping. You know what i mean? Like it's that hard balance, isn't it, to try and find. i know that we yeah we have that in Harvey's bum bag, things like that first when he's particularly for sports. are Amazing. We will put all of the links to... ah for you guys to connect with Chris. um I encourage you to go and read some of his little posts around some of the amazing, awesome stuff that he's he's done, but then also some of the stuff that he's doing as well. And we'll put the we'll put to the Instagram and Facebook links as well.
00:40:16
Speaker
Is there anything else that you would love to share before we close up today?
Diabetes Doesn't Define You
00:40:20
Speaker
I'm just going to reiterate the fact that type one doesn't define you. If you want to do it, go out and do it. It just takes a little extra preparation and preparing. That's all.
00:40:28
Speaker
ah Thank you so much for your time, Chris. I really, really appreciate it. And that's it for today's episode of the Type One Club. I would love to thank you all for joining. I hope that you got some great information and you really enjoyed this chat as much as I did. And I look forward to bringing you another episode of the Type One Club in another fortnight's time. Take care, everybody.
00:40:49
Speaker
Bye-bye.
00:40:52
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in to the Type 1 Club podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and gained some valuable insights. If you like what you heard be sure to subscribe to our podcast on all the platforms so you never miss an episode. We also appreciate it if you could leave us rating and review. It really helps us to reach more listeners just like yourselves.
00:41:12
Speaker
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00:41:26
Speaker
Thanks again for listening and we will see you next time on the Type 1 Club.