I Want to Be Gary Scheiner. The Why Behind the IDS Clinicians

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And then I read Think Like a Pancreas randomly because my endocrinologist recommended it and I was like, no, I'm going to be Gary Scheiner.

(00:21):
Welcome to Think Like a Pancreas, the podcast where our goal is to keep you informed, inspired, and a little entertained on all things diabetes.
The information contained in this program is based on the experience and opinions of the Integrated Diabetes Services Clinical Team.
Please discuss any changes to your treatment plan with your personal healthcare provider before implementing.

(00:44):
We all have our specialties, nursing, mental health, exercise physiology in my case, but something we have in common, we're all certified diabetes care and education specialists as well.
So why did you get into that field and what do you like about working as a CDCES?
So I stumbled into it.

(01:08):
My husband and I moved to this area, moved to Grand Rapids from Chicago, and we thought we were going to be here very temporarily.
And there was an acquaintance that we had that worked for the local hospital.
The first job that I had with the hospital was not a great fit.
I was doing home visit, high-risk pregnancy.

(01:28):
So it kind of overlapped with, but in my graduate program, I had no idea about anything in the medical field and psychology, but there was a position for a social worker in pediatric endocrinology.
And so I applied.
I was like, I don't even know what, I didn't even know what that was because I was, I didn't know I saw a pediatric endocrinologist.

(01:49):
I was diagnosed as an adult with type one.
So it just, I spent the first five years in pediatric side and then in the adult side. The adult wanted to grow something a little bit more sophisticated and they recruited me to build the mental health part of that.

(02:10):
And so it just kind of kept going from there.
And really the credentials didn't necessarily mean a whole lot to me.
I think it was just more about feeling seen and the specialty area that I have just wasn't represented in my social work licensure.

(02:31):
So I wanted this other one to show that I specialize.
It's grown. Now the ADA has a whole directory of mental health professionals in the diabetes space.
It's finally getting its just due after many, many years.
I developed my interest because I met a guy, literally.
It was a few years after my diagnosis.

(02:52):
I was having a lot of blood sugar issues.
I had some serious lows because I play a lot of basketball.
I was getting lows in the middle of the night after playing.
And I went to a hospital class about diabetes and I met a guy named Tom Kowalski who was an exercise physiologist and he also had type one and he was teaching everyone about things you can do to manage your blood sugar during and after exercise.

(03:17):
And it just blew my mind.
I mean, I had never heard at that point about self-adjusting insulin, about having extra carbs and things like that.
And I said, I want to do this.
This is what I want to do.
I want to get good at it and be able to teach other people.
So that's when I went and got my master's in exercise physiology and landed a job with the Joslin Clinic and it kind of grew from there.

(03:43):
Tavia, what got you started?
It sounds sort of similar to your story, Gary. I had to go-
You met Tom Kowalski also?
Except mine wasn't named Tom.
But I was forced to go to a hospital-based diabetes education series of group classes in order to get my first appointment with the endo there when I moved to Colorado area.

(04:07):
And I was really kind of salty and irritated of having, I'd already had diabetes for 25 stinking years.
Now you're making me take work off and go to these classes.
In one of the classes, the educator at the time, her name is Terry Ryan Turek.
She worked at the University of Colorado Hospital.
And now she's in Hawaii doing her diabetes educator goodness there.

(04:29):
She was teaching the class and it was time for a break.
And she was checking her blood sugar and said, oh, I'm a little low.
And I looked around the room and nobody freaked out.
Nobody was like, oh, do you need more insulin?
Or should I call an ambulance or all the things that, you know, people who don't know anything about diabetes are inclined to say to you in that moment, which is super not helpful.

(04:50):
And I thought, this is a clinic designated at least in large part to people who take insulin and have diabetes.
And I want to do what she's doing.
It would be so great to be able to.
And I actually learned some things in the classes.
So it was worth my time, even though I didn't know what it was going to be.
And I thought if I could give back to other people so that they could live well, I'm only here because I had smart doctors and smart parents that pushed the bounds on what you can and can't do.

(05:24):
And somebody says, you can't do it.
Well, why can't we just do it this way?
I think we could.
Right.
And I could do this.
And that's where my light bulb moment was.
And so I went back to school to become a nurse so that I could become a certified diabetes care and education specialist.
And they thankfully hired me in that same clinic several years later.
And that's where I got my start.

(05:47):
Awesome.
And when I think about, for me, I had no role model.
I never met anybody that did what I wish so much there would have been somebody like me at my diagnosis or anywhere along my journey to come in and be like, just talk to me about any of the mental and emotional parts of diabetes.

(06:19):
So that, that I think was a big driver for me when I didn't see any examples was, I know what it feels, I know what it's like to not have, and I've worked with amazing people over my career, like as a patient, but in professionally, but I wish there would have been somebody like me to talk to.

(06:43):
Yeah.
And the patients that we work with, I mean, I love this work because we develop relationships with our patients that go on long term.
And we really do get to experience the changes that they go through and the benefits that they reap from the work we do together.
I work as a diabetologist in South Africa, and I was interested in, I'm very interested, although I'm a doctor, I'm very interested in diabetes education.

(07:08):
And I was Googling diabetes education online, and I came up upon Gary and IDS.
And then we had a Skype video consult in those days at first.
And then we just kept in contact.
And then I was coming to Boston to come and visit a family member there.
And I phoned him and I said, can I hop on a plane to Philadelphia and come visit you?

(07:31):
And that's how I got involved with IDS.
Jumped through lots of hoops to become a CDCES, but here I am.
Yeah.
You would think as a doctor, they'd just be like, yeah, come on in here.
But no, they put more roadblocks in front of Paula than they put in front of most anybody.
Anna, how did you get picked up with the team at IDS?
So many people have heard of Gary Scheiner.

(07:52):
He was the diabetes educator of the year, and he's written the iconic Think Like a Pancreas.
And when I went out on my own and started my own private practice, I almost modeled my practice after what Gary had started.
I just think he is the bee's knees.

(08:12):
And so I had connected with him and worked with him on a couple of different conferences.
The diabetes world is super duper small.
I think I commented on a Facebook post about some Timeout for Caregivers class.
And then he was like, oh, why don't you come join one of the calls and chime in?
And then he called me up and was like, we need you.

(08:36):
And so it's been so much fun to work with a team, albeit virtually, for the last, I don't know, almost three years, two, three years.
Time flies.
Helping families and kids and young adults and adults to just navigate all the invisible stuff that we don't see that we know exists in the back of back in front of our minds with T1D.

(09:02):
It's fun.
I had the weirdest connection to IDS so far on our team.
I had, I was, I was diagnosed as an adult and my PCP who diagnosed me with LADA said, here are three books that you need to read.
And I still to this day refer to, I refer other patients to them and I refer to them as my trinity of diabetes.

(09:27):
And they are Sherry Kohlberg's, the diabetic athlete's handbook, because I'm an athlete.
And they were, okay.
I always mix up John Walsh and Joe Walsh.
One of them is a diabetes expert.
The other one is the guitars for the Eagles.

(09:47):
So, John Walsh. Pumping Insulin, because she knew I was going to need a pump pretty quick and Think Like a Pancreas.
And so I read that book until the cover fell off.
I probably read it 14 times.
I just read it and read it and read it and read it.
And every time a problem would come up in my blood sugar life, I'd go, that was in the book.

(10:09):
And I would go back and I would read it again.
And so eventually I decided to become a diabetes educator.
And long time past, I got my CDE in May and in June, my son came along.
So I was out on maternity leave and my leave was up in July.

(10:30):
And I was just, I was like, well, I got my CDE now let's keep an eye on CDE jobs.
And I happened to get on LinkedIn and a job popped up for CDE in Philly for Integrated Diabetes Services.
And it sounded like exactly what I wanted to do.
Because I always thought like, it'd be great if I just help people with insulin.

(10:51):
Like if I could just have this really tight niche, it'd be amazing.
But you can't really do that as a nurse, right?
And I was like, let's see.
And I clicked on not the link, but as you do on LinkedIn, you then stalk the job and who else is connected to it.
And Integrated Diabetes took me to Gary Scheiner.

(11:14):
And I was like, Gary Scheiner?
And my husband walked through the room behind me and he kind of looked and he went, isn't that the guy on your book?
I was like, so I just totally fangirled.
I was like, I'm not qualified for this job.
I'm not going to get this job.
I don't know enough for this job.
I just got my CDE.

(11:35):
The ink is not dry yet.
I don't think they had even sent me the actual certificate yet.
And so I applied and I was like, best case scenario.
I get an interview.
I get to go in and shake the man's hand and say, thank you for your book.
And I went in and I just kind of vomited all of my diabetes knowledge and realized, you know that feeling guys that we get when you go to see your doctors and your educators and you feel like you know more about diabetes than they do?

(12:06):
Yeah.
Sometimes it's accurate.
And sometimes you get hired as a diabetes educator at a lead practice.
The reason I went, the reason I became a nurse was because I saw other people who needed to know more to live this life well.
And I'm a born student.
And if it was this hard for me, what happens to people who aren't a born student?

(12:30):
And that gap was not okay.
And so I wanted access to be able to help people.
And so for me, that was nursing.
And so for me, that was IDS.
To be able to use my struggles and what I've had to learn to help me, if I only learn it to help me, what's the point, right?
Because I'm temporary.

(12:52):
And that means it's a lot of work for like very little output.
But if I learn it to then disseminate it, share it, make other people's lives better.
It's interesting that difference between experiential knowledge and academic knowledge.
And I mean, that was, I think, my driving factor in getting me involved in diabetes.

(13:13):
We had, I think, literally in the whole of medical school, two lectures on diabetes.
And all they told us was 90% of people have type 2 diabetes, 10% of type 1 diabetes.
If you fail at everything else in type 2 diabetes, there's always insulin, which is completely the wrong message to give to people.

(13:34):
And we only learned about two different oral agents.
And you can take basal bolus insulin, or you can take a pre-mix.
And that was it.
For about five years in clinical practice after I'd qualified, that was my diabetes knowledge that fitted onto two like A4 pages.
And after seeing so many patients, I thought, this is ridiculous.
And every patient that was coming was coming with complications and amputations and heart attacks and strokes and lack of vision.

(13:59):
And I was like, this is crazy.
And that's when I decided to do my master's in family medicine and then do an advanced diploma in diabetes and actually start understanding more about the disease.
And when I look back now at what we were taught and the difference between your experiential knowledge and what we were taught at university, it's frightening.

(14:20):
And it's frightening to think that there still are primary health care providers who come out of medical school and even 20, 30 years down the line, unfortunately, it's not that different.
No.
I had a new client just yesterday, and she was diagnosed in her mid-60s.
And with LADA, where she's titrating up on her insulin needs, very low, kind of compared to someone like me, who was in full-blown DKA at my diagnosis.

(14:51):
But her PCP called her back, blood sugar 450, go to the ICU.
They didn't know what to do with her.
And this was a year and a half ago, and this is in Boston.
And she's sitting in the ICU and the ICU is like, we don't deal with people.
Well, yeah.
And they admit it.
They're like, we're not diabetes educators.
They had her on insulin drip.

(15:13):
They stabilized blood sugar, stabilized potassium, all the things.
But then what?
And the one thing she said to me was like, I don't know how to do blood sugars.
And I think for me and you and all of us, this experiential learning, diabetes, it's a lifestyle.
And I was diagnosed as a six-year-old.

(15:36):
So I was just telling Paula before we started, yes, we've come so far.
The first meter I have, I think I have it upstairs.
I wish I could go grab it, but it took 120 seconds to get a reading.
It was the AccuCheck 2.
That's two full minutes.
Two full minutes.
And now we don't have to do anything.

(15:57):
I haven't pricked my finger in weeks.
Maybe don't record that, but I don't need to.
But like literally, what's my blood sugar? I now just look at my watch.
Yeah.
And so it took, and you had to get a crap ton of blood.
Like I'm talking, my mom would bring me a tray in the morning.
There was a cotton ball, the alcohol swab, the meter, the strips.

(16:20):
It was like a thing.
It was like a whole thing.
But we were only required to do it four times a day.
And anything that happened in between was like, you don't know.
And I think for me, one of the main reasons I decided to give back, we talk about experiential learning is, because I was diagnosed in the late eighties, early nineties, I didn't know anyone.

(16:45):
There were no visible devices to feel that sort of sense of connection, even just walking through the mall or in the parking lot or wherever I went to camp.
And for me, that was my bubble.
And I grew up going every summer.
And it was sort of like those two weeks were my opportunity to feel seen, to feel safe.
And I know so many kids also get that opportunity today, but there's also so much more opportunity for connection.

(17:12):
However, it was my, I was in, it was 2005.
I was the assistant camp director for the day camps.
And I had to go to New York city and pick up some kids and bring them to camp.
And that's when I realized my, you know, socioeconomic or whatnot, family situation with diabetes and support was not the same as everyone else's.

(17:39):
And that there were a lot of other factors that contributed to people feeling okay with diabetes.
And I wanted to get underneath all of that to every family and, and make sure that even if they didn't have the support and even if they came from potentially a broken home or had other underlying, you know, mental health or comorbidities or whatever it is that they still felt like they belonged somewhere and someone would listen to them.

(18:12):
I feel like for me, like I'm living my dream.
I'm living my passion because that's what drove me, you know, those experientials to go into get my master's in social work.
And then I was like, oh, well, I can have a CDE and be an MSW dream job for all of the people out there who are like, how do I become a CDC?
Yes.
Or, you know, you can, you can use your, yeah, call me, call me, maybe you can use your, your skills and dream it and do it.

(18:42):
And that's most people at camp, like they want to become nurses.
They want to become teachers.
They want to become this like service oriented skill level of, of career path, which is just so, so cool.
I'm here for it.
We're, I think we're all here for it.
And I think we would all do anything Gary included to be the, to, to mentor and, and have people work alongside.

(19:05):
That's we at IDS to mentoring and raising up other CDEs is like our side passion.
Now a word from our sponsor. Byram Healthcare understands that managing diabetes isn't one size fits all. With a full range of CGMs, insulin pumps, and diabetes supplies from top brands.

(19:26):
Byram makes it easy to get what you need hassle-free shipped right to your door and Byram's team of experts helps navigate insurance.
So you can focus on living your best life ready for better diabetes care, visit byramhealthcare.com/podcast, or call 866-692-8024 and select option three.

(19:49):
And now back to our program.
When I was diagnosed with diabetes, I was in my early twenties and had so many plans, so many plans for being active, so many plans for starting a family, so many plans for just all the things I wanted to accomplish in the world and on a different trajectory in terms of education.

(20:12):
But the diabetes educator that I worked with was just so profound in my diabetes education.
So I think when you're, you know, you're not diagnosed as a young child, but you know, you're kind of taking on your diabetes management as yourself, it can be super lonely.
You know, you don't go to diabetes camp, you don't have your parents, you know, necessarily as involved, because you're not living with them so much.

(20:37):
And so this woman, her name was Deanna, ironically close to Dana, she was fantastic.
And so she was the one who kind of started me thinking about becoming a diabetes educator.
I have a master's in public health.
I had a totally different direction in terms of career.
I did public policy and lobbying for a little bit.

(20:59):
And then I decided to make a lemonade out of lemons.
And that's kind of the silver lining of my diabetes story.
I feel like she really was the one who just showed me that you could be impactful on someone's life and diagnosis in like a low point of their life.
And then just start to show them that diabetes is not a limiting factor at all.
It can be your superpower is what I like to say.

(21:21):
Yeah. I'm glad.
How about you, Jenny?
I'm one of well, you know, prior to diagnosis, I really wanted to be a veterinarian.
I think all young girls do, right?
I remember being that.
Yeah, yeah, I just and I actually had we I grew up with cats.
And so our veterinary service was not too far from my house.

(21:42):
It was only like a half a mile away.
And so I had even done, from about fifth grade until my diagnosis, I had done some summer just volunteer work with the pets that were there while they were, you know, overnight for a couple of days or whatever for surgeries and really got to know it.
And I really, really like I really liked it.
That's what I thought.

(22:03):
So and I've always been more interested in math and science.
I really have always liked those kinds of things.
So then I was diagnosed with type one.
And kind of like you, Dana, I had a really good education team.
I mean, I spent, you know, years ago, they used to have you spend like a week in the hospital with diagnosis.

(22:24):
And 37 years ago, that was kind of the thing that they did.
Like you just got to sit in the hospital and learn all the things that you were going to learn and make sure you could take an injection and you know, whatever.
But I pinch the orange, which is not pinchable, like unless you remove the skin, you cannot pinch an orange, right?
Anyway, it's kind of funny in the hospital, I actually had a stuffed animal with me.

(22:47):
And I asked if like there was no Rufus at that time, there was there was nothing except the orange.
So I asked if I could actually use my stuffed animal, because it was pinchable. And the orange wasn't.
Already ahead of the curve, Jenny. Already ahead of the curve.
There you go.
Yeah, I should have designed Rufus, man.
Yeah.
But yeah, I really good team.

(23:08):
Gosh, I still remember my diabetes educator was a nurse.
And once I got to high school, I actually found out that she was the mom of one of my classmates.
I didn't know them in grade school.
But once I got to high school, you meet more people.
And yeah, her name was Nan.
She was fantastic, really, really patient, like listened to me even as like the age that I was at.

(23:31):
And then the dietitian educator that worked with her was also just as fantastic.
Interestingly, I don't remember her name, which is odd, because they were really awesome together.
But after that, just kind of started thinking more, especially once I got into high school about gosh, I like, I really like the nutrition part of this.
I really like learning about what food does.

(23:54):
And I think that was my early learning of the macronutrients and the value to what they do in my body.
And I was an athlete.
And they, as a team, were really good at explaining that for me, which I mean, it clicked in my brain at that age.
Right.
So I kind of changed courses, not in college, but I changed courses and was again, one of the weird ones who goes to college kind of knowing what I really wanted to do.

(24:21):
So yeah, that's kind of and then I went to school, obviously, for biology, and then just did emphasis in human biology and nutrition as my track and all the fun things that you end up learning along the way.
Mine was like completely unorganized.
So I when I was little, I wanted to be a bone doctor is what I would say.

(24:45):
So I thought I would be an orthopedic surgeon.
Is that because you were breaking a lot of bones?
Yes, it was.
I sure was. And so yep, I was in the
You in your crooked elbow.
Yep, my elbow is crooked to this day.
It's great.
Yeah, it's still very painful.
But yeah, that's what I wanted to do.
And when I went away to college, by that time I had shifted, I wanted to be an endocrinologist.

(25:09):
So I started with biology.
And then I was like, wow, I really don't like these classes.
It literally just like intro to bios like this terrible.
Then I was going to be a nurse.
And then I was going to be a sports psychiatrist, or something in that realm.

(25:31):
And then I read Think Like a Pancreas randomly, because my endocrinologist recommended it.
And I was like, no, I'm gonna be Gary Scheiner, which is...So I literally decided
Wow! A way prettier version.
Yeah, yes.
So that's how I went for exercise physiology.

(25:51):
And then I did my master's in exercise physiology.
And prior to going for my master's, I got to connect with Gary.
And so we sat down at this cafe close to the Integrated Diabetes Services office because I was from Pennsylvania.
I'm from Lancaster.
And I got to work in the office for a while as the little intern.

(26:14):
Well, I went to school, which was pretty close as well to the IDS office and did my master's but exercise physiology, I feel like that was definitely the path I was meant to go.
Thanks for tuning in to Think Like a Pancreas--The Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to like follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

(26:35):
Think Like a Pancreas, The Podcast is brought to you by Integrated Diabetes Services, where experience meets expertise, passion meets compassion.
And diabetes care is personal because we live it too. Our team of clinicians, all living with type one diabetes understands the challenges firsthand
We're here to help no matter where you are in the world.

(26:56):
From glucose management to self care strategies, the latest tech, sports, and exercise, weight loss, type one pregnancy and emotional well being, we've got you covered.
We offer consultations in English and Spanish via phone video chat, email.
Want to learn more?
Visit integrated diabetes.com or email info at integrated diabetes.com to schedule a consultation.

(27:23):
On behalf of Think Like a Pancreas, the Podcast, I'm Gary Scheiner, wishing you a fantastic week ahead.
Don't forget to think like a pancreas.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Burden

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}I Want to Be Gary Scheiner. The Why Behind the IDS Clinicians

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Burden

All Episodes

I Want to Be Gary Scheiner. The Why Behind the IDS Clinicians

Stuff You Should Know