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Category: Podcast

Rob Howe – Getting to Know Diabetes: The Interview Series

Chris Stocker

Please just type your answers below the question and send back to me.

Welcome to the sixth installment of a weekly series here on  The Life of a Diabetic called Getting to Know Diabetes: The Interview Series. Every Tuesday, I will be featuring an interview with a diabetes advocate and/or “influencer” in the diabetes community. These interviews will ask the same questions to every person.

Today’s interview is with Rob Howe. I first came across Rob from Instagram because Rob reminded me of a young me. Type 1, athletic, and driven to do something, whatever that something is. Please enjoy.

1 – Who are you? (Name, where do you live, what do you do for a living, favorite hobby, sports teams, etc.)

Rob Howe, Dallas Texas, Entrepreneur.

My favorite hobby is probably Diabetes advocacy, but I don’t really like hobbies. You put in hobby effort, you get hobby results. I have passions. I’m passionate about technology, innovation, health, fitness, creativity, mental health, advocacy, improv comedy, sneakers, fashion, cars, netflix series and the internet in no particular order.

2 – What is your connection to diabetes?

I’ve lived with T1D for 14 years.

3 – Give us the elevator pitch version of your diabetes diagnosis.

I was 16, woke up on New Years Day and vomited, after peeing no less than 30 times the night before while I was out with my friends. My mom took me to the urgent care where they tested my blood sugar (425) and told me to go to the hospital. I had a great diagnosis experience from there, and my doctor’s were very encouraging that all my dreams for my life were still within reach. I’m very fortunate to have started my journey in such a positive light.

4 – What made you decide to start sharing your diabetes? (For example, why did you start an IG account, blog, Facebook group, etc.)

In 2015 I was on a work exchange trip in Bogota Colombia, and I wasn’t allowed to leave my hotel room at night without my translator, so over the two weeks I was there, I had a lot of time to myself that I had set an intention to try to set aside time with a pen and paper to think about what I wanted to do with my life. My dad had told me years earlier that I was always happiest when I was helping people, so that’s where I started. But who would I help? Then I looked at my insulin pump which I had set on the little table in my hotel room and it clicked. I could help people with Diabetes! So I got to work and decided on doing a podcast (mostly because I didn’t want to write a blog every week) and Diabetics Doing Things was born.

5 – Obviously there are a lot of facets of diabetes, but what is your number one passion to share about diabetes? (For example, sharing signs and symptoms, mental health, eating disorders, governmental issues, etc.)

My number one passion is sharing the stories of the different interests of people with Diabetes. When I was diagnosed, my main concern was whether or not I was going to be able to play basketball with T1D. This was 2005, so internet searches were still in their infancy, but I was able to find stories about two people who were doing the “things” I wanted to do and that gave me a ton of hope and a blueprint of how to approach my life with Diabetes on my terms. Now, people can search for people with Diabetes who do whatever it is they’re interested in while they’re still in the hospital/doctor’s office/clinic, so I try to get as many diverse stories as possible so no matter what “thing” a newly diagnosed person with Diabetes is searching for, they can find it on Diabetics Doing Things.

created by dji camera

6 – What’s in your diabetes bag? (Pump, MDI, meter, syringes, adhesives, CGMs, etc.)

Let me just take this opportunity to say how happy I am fanny packs are back in style. I wear a Medtronic 670g insulin pump, with the Guardian 3 sensor. Since this pump is the hybrid closed loop system, I test less frequently than I used to with my old pump, so really I just carry my glucometer with me on a normal work day. But when I travel I stuff my fanny pack full of new sites, reservoirs, insulin vials, test strips, sensors, skin tac, sensor tape, and a syringe just in case.

7 – Where do currently get your diabetes news? (Favorite blogs, IG, FB, Twitter accounts, etc.)

Mostly through Instagram. I keep up with most everything there. BeyondType1 is a great resource for Diabetes lifestyle content as well.

8 – Share three blogs or IG accounts that everyone reading this should be following.

@yourejustmytype1 @t1dchick @insulin_and_tonic – all great.

9 – Let’s get real for a minute. What do you struggle with the most when it comes to diabetes? For me, it’s my weight. I can’t ever seem to lose weight. I lose it, then it comes back and being over weight creates stress and anxiety of not being around for my child in the future.

I pride myself in being very open about my life with Diabetes and not sugar coating (see what I did there) what I go through on a daily basis. I think my biggest struggle is the amount of Diabetes content we can find ourselves facing within the Online Community. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so grateful for the community and the support and friendship I’ve received from it, but I think it’s easier than ever to be overly focused on your Diabetes. There is more to life than Diabetes itself. I try to live and share my life in such a way that shows how Diabetes is a part of all the other incredible things I get to be a part of.

10 -What is the #1 myth about diabetes that just gets under your skin every time you hear it?

It’s a tie between people thinking that diet and exercise can cure Type-1 diabetes and that there is a “good” and “bad” Diabetes. All Diabetes is bad.

11 – What is your top diabetes hack? For example, before inserting a new CGM you do XYZ or you use syringes instead of pens because of XYZ.

I think my biggest one is re-using pump reservoir tubing. I use long tubes, so there are around 18 units of insulin in the pump tubing that I was just throwing away. I do around 110 site changes a year (2 per week) so I did the math in my head and decided that was a waste of insulin, especially when there are so many people out there who don’t have it. I still change the tubes after a while because they can get blocked or kinked, but that helps me save over 1,000 U per year. That’s substantial I think.

Editor Note – I did the exact same thing when I was on an insulin pump. I would change my tubing every 3 site changes on average, I would also re-use reservoirs 4-5 times.

12 – What is one thing you would like someone without diabetes to know about living with diabetes?

That some of us are really good at making this very complex, very difficult disease very easy, but that we still carry a heavy load and have so many things to consider when we do very simple activities like going to work, going to the gym, traveling, spending the night away from home, going to bars, going to college. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and yet so many people handle it with incredible grace.

13 – What is your favorite “healthy” food option?

Spoiler alert–I’m a mega health nut. Every day the first meal I eat is a giant salad for lunch that makes me so happy. Big bag of mixed greens, pulled cabbage, organic pulled chicken, almonds, organic dried cranberries, chopped bell peppers, organic sunflower seeds, topped off with generous amounts of avocado oil and salt. I don’t eat breakfast, a cup of coffee is enough for me.

Now we’re going to do a little this or that.

  1. Cats or dogs? Toughest question by far. I love both.
  2. Coffee or Tea? Coffee
  3. Fruits or Veggies? Veggies
  4. Sweet or Salty? Salty
  5. TV Series or Movies? Please don’t make me choose
  6. Mac or Windows? Easiest.
  7. Ice cream cake or regular cake? Regular Cake
  8. Pancake or Waffle? Waffle
  9. Book or eBook? Book
  10. Pineapple on pizza is great or pineapple on pizza is a crime –  (I’m non partisan when it comes to pizza) I too am non partisan.

Take this time to add anything else. Add more to your story, include all links to all of your social media profiles and blogs, VLOGs, websites, etc.

Website: diabeticsdoingthings.com

Personal IG: @robhowe21

DDT IG: @diabeticsdoingthings

Podcast on: diabeticstdoingthings.com/podcast itunes, spotify, google play, stitcher

How Entrepreneurship Saved my Diabetes Management - new size

How Entrepreneurship Saved my Diabetes Management

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

As many of you may, or may not, know, I own my own business(es). I first started my own business back in 2009, but still worked full-time and just ran the business at night. During this time, I was not sleeping a lot. I worked until about 2 am and then woke up at 7 am to go back to my day time job.

During this time, I was hustling my ass off to grow my business on the side, while keeping my day time job. The day time job was important for two reasons.

First, I needed the money.

Second, I needed the health insurance.

There was a third reason, life insurance, but then I found a place that specialized in life insurance for type 1 diabetics.

This was back in 2009, so this was back in the day when pre-existing conditions were an automatic denial.

I wasn’t sleeping well at that time. I wasn’t eating healthy at that time. But I was hustling and growing a business and at that time, that’s all that mattered to me.

Fast-forward almost 10 years, I am still running that same business. It’s changed a bit, but not much. I own and operate an SEO and Social Media Management agency.

I also help my wife in running her Etsy business (soon to not call it an Etsy business, because we are launching our own site and adding more categories).

I also run an eBay / Amazon re-sellers business that takes up most of my weekend time.

Why am I talking about all of this?

Well, I made the decision a long time ago that I wanted to own my own business. I wanted this so that I am in control of my own income, my own future, and most importantly in control of my own time.

Time is the most valuable thing in this world and it’s something that we can’t buy more of or return and get back.

Entrepreneurship has allowed me to use my time how I see fit.

This is not only important for my family, but also for my diabetes.

In the last decade, I could schedule doctor appointments whenever I wanted. I could change an infusion set or a CGM sensor whenever I wanted. I could go exercise at any time that I wanted. I could eat lunch whenever I wanted.

I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

This is important to me. This has helped me manage my diabetes because I can take breaks when needed, I can be flexible on my appointment times, and I can also take the time to make a lunch during the middle of the day and prepare a healthy snack.

Now, listen, I know you can do that all when you work for someone else and work in an office or a typical 9-5.

However, when I was working a 9-5, I didn’t do those things. I ate out all the time. I didn’t exercise. I didn’t drink water.

Entrepreneurship has done wonders for my diabetes management.

I was always scared that I could never be an entrepreneur because of having diabetes. I thought that needing insurance would hold me back.

Well, it hasn’t and I’ve been able to do this for nearly a decade and I don’t plan on stopping here!

If you want to hear more about diabetes, entrepreneurship and the combo of both which I call my life, then subscribe to the Type One Entrepreneur Podcast. I tested the waters with this podcast earlier in the year, but I’m going all in on it. The scheduled re-launch date is August 13.

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Check out how it’s helped and visit https://thelifeofadiabetic.com/onedrop and use promo code “STOCKER” to receive 10% off your order.






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