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Hi, everyone. Thanks for tuning in. This is life as a type one diabetic. The highs, the lows. I'm George Canyon, your host. This is Episode one of season one, and a big welcome to everybody tuning in for this first podcast. And, of course, on YouTube as well. We're live on video as well, here. My name is George Canyon, and I am, uh well, I'm first and foremost a husband and a father of three, and, I'm very proud of that very proud Canadian. And I'm a country music recording artist amongst a few other things. I've been in the music business for 30 years, and I'm very blessed to have a great career all over the world and blessed to play in a lot of different countries. Including, of course, at home in Canada and in the United States. I was born and raised in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, which is on, of course, the East Coast on the Atlantic Ocean in Canada. And I had a great childhood growing up. You know, I was typical kid. I wanted to be in the Air Force. I want to be a Canadian Air Force pilot. I wanted nothing more. Actually, it's all, uh, that's all I could I could think about. I remember mom and dad driving, driving them actually batty. Um, I'd see an airplane flying over, and I have to stop the car so I could watch it. I wanted to be in the Air Force so bad I had my entire life planned out. And as they say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. I'm sure he had quite a laugh over my plans, but ah, long story short at the age of 14, I'll never forget it. It was just coming Christmas. In fact, I had celebrated my my 14th birthday in that August was back to school and winter had had hit, of course as it always did in Nova Scotia when I was a kid. And I love being out there in the woods and snow. And I was helping Dad with with wood chopping wood for the winter to burn in the in the wood stove to stay warm.  And I remember just feeling terrible, being abnormally cranky and moody. Not my normal moodiness, but the abnormal, moody and drinking just anything I could get my hands on warm water; cold water - didn't matter. I just was so thirsty all the time. And remember my dad, who was chief tech of the hospital at the lab, he knew exactly what was going on. My nanny, my grandma, she actually had type one diabetes. And I remember as a kid at their place in Westville and nanny would be boiling her needles and there was no blood testing back then. So of course she had to pee on a strip. And that was how you had an idea of where your blood sugar was. But I didn't really pay much attention. You know, as a kid, you don't pay attention to that stuff until you have to. And at 14, well, I had to. My dad knew what was happening. We celebrated Christmas and the day after Christmas Boxing Day 19.....oh man.... 1984 Boxing Day.  I went into the Aberdeen Hospital down in New Glasgow, and that's where I stayed for about a week in a bit and was diagnosed immediately with Type one diabetes, juvenile onset. And then well, as they say, the rest is history. Now I've been a type one for 36 years, into my 36 year now once I turned 50 which is coming up shortly. And you know, after all these years, I think it's finally time that I start sharing what I've learned - more about the mistakes I've made in my life to really help, especially help type one diabetic kids and their families, but also to help type one diabetics in general. You know, I heard someone say once an old dog can still learn new tricks and I am living proof of that. I'm 49 years old, and I'm still learning new new ways to, um, to live my dreams as a type one diabetic. And I've been so blessed to do that. So this is where this podcast comes from, and video whatever they call that nowadays. Vlog - I guess as well.  It's to share all that knowledge, and I think we need to do more of that, especially within the type one diabetic diabetic community, because so many of us have type one and this podcast it's going to, uh, I can't really say how many episodes long this one's going to be, but this this season, one just to give you an idea. There's so much to get through, so much to talk about. And during during these upcoming episodes, we're gonna talk about a lot of stuff. We're gonna talk about my experiences as a type one diabetic. When I was a kid, what it was like is a teenager going into I guess what I would call young adulthood, although using that word and term very loosely because I made so many mistakes as an 18 year old and messed up so much of my my control. But by the grace of God, get it all back into condition. We're gonna have interviews. We're gonna have guests coming on. I'm not gonna say who right now, but we've got a few lined up and it's gonna be a lot of fun. We're gonna get to talk about, Really. Just talk about being a type one diabetic. And, you know, when I was 14 nobody said they were type one diabetic, nobody that were living their dreams. And for me, I really could have used that. I could have I could have used a mentor, if you will, to say "Oh, yeah - look so and so is a huge actor, a huge actress, and and they're living their dreams as a type one diabetic". That really would have helped me. And that's what I've been doing for the last 20 years. Working with kids and families to really encourage them to control, take control of their diabetes and live their dreams. And that's part of what we're gonna talk about during this podcast course. When I talk about food, I love food. We're gonna talk about food and diet and exercise, and, you know, testing and all these wonderful things that we all have to do as s a type one diabetic. You know, at 14 years old, when I was diagnosed, I had to immediately grow up overnight. Now those of those who know me, my fans know I've never really grown up. I'm still 12 years old in my mind, but when I look back, I seriously had to grow up overnight. I had a whole slew of responsibilities that my mom and dad would of course, wanted to take all in their own hands. But I had to step in, and it was so important, so important, that I stepped in and took control as fast as I could so that I could be responsible and be proud of taking care of myself. You know, lots of people ask me, what does it feel like to be a type one diabetic and, uh, most days with where technology is right now it feels okay. I I honestly can't remember what it felt like to not be a type one diabetic, which is kind of weird, weird to say, but I was 13 years old, and it's hard for me to remember what it was like to not have to test my blood, to not have to take insulin to not have to go and see specialists, you know, every six months to a year. Well, six months back then - to not every three months have to come downstairs to have morning breakfast before I headed to school. And there's my dad with a pillow on the pillow laying on the table, and he had all the blood collection kits and and having to what we would call in our diabetic world, get my A1C done. I don't remember what it was what it was like to not have that you know, after all these years, 36 years where I'm at now, technology has really given me so much control back, so much freedom. And we're gonna have episodes that talk strictly about technology. We're gonna get just right into that. We're gonna have episodes that talk about society and how important it is to really encourage type one diabetics, especially young type one diabetics, to talk about their diabetes openly so that society really learns what what being a type one diabetic is really about and that it doesn't hamper us. When we take control of our disease, we can live our dreams, and we're gonna have many episodes dedicated to Transport Canada and the work that I was very blessed to get to do with a few other type one diabetics and family members to change the laws in the rules that Type one diabetics now can become commercial airline pilots in Canada. And that's a whole episode or two or three. The way I talk, it's probably four episodes. Who knows? And then of course, in Episode Two, which will be coming up right after this episode, we're going to really dig into one of the technologies that have made oh, such a big, big difference in my life. And that is my CGM, my Dexcom G6. Now I'm on the Dexcom G6 I was, of course, on the G5. Dexcom, I can't say thank you enough to to what they've created in the technology that they have provided for me as a type one diabetic and others all over the world. And Episode two is gonna be all about that particular piece of technology. And then we're gonna get into insulin pump therapy. I'm also on the Insulet Omnipod. I really want to spend a whole episode talking about that and talking about where technology has come and where it's going R and D and a research and development where what's coming around the next turn and there's some really exciting, exciting stuff coming. It's gonna be an episode all about the JDRF Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and how important, um, that is how important it is to not just the type one diabetic community, but the type two diabetic community as well. But this episode one was really the the idea is to just tell everyone what's going on. Get it out there. Tell your friends. Tell families that you know they might have a type one diabetic child to tune in. Get on YouTube. Watch the video if you want. If you don't like listening to podcasts, you can do that. But if you're into podcasts, this is the best way to do it. It's quick. It's easy. I listen to podcasts all the time, especially if I'm if I'm in the gym and I'm just walking on the treadmill or if I'm sitting down and just want to chill out, I'll listen to podcasts because it's it's kind of like listening to an old radio show. But if you do like the video stuff, check in on YouTube. That's we're gonna be able to find all these videos as well. And sometimes if you just listen to a podcast, you might want to skip over to YouTube as well, because I might be showing something, um, some piece of technology that that they've sent me or that I had actually happened to have that's that's about to get released, or is you know, they're working on it right now. That's gonna be coming up as well, and, uh and then we're gonna be taking lots of questions too anybody. Has questions from the type one diabetic community. Please send them in. We're gonna try  to gonna try to have a part of each episode where we answer those questions. Because really, for me as a type one, that's how I learned. I ask questions. And, uh, well, I just keep trying to learn as much as I can. Thanks so much for tuning into Episode one. Like I said, this is just the intro. There's so much more to come. So much more data. That and some so much I want to share with all the type one diabetic community. And hopefully you guys will share with me as well. And we'll learn and and grow together with type one diabetes. So God bless everybody. Thanks so much for tuning into YouTube. And thanks so much for listening to Episode One: Season One of Life as a type one diabetic - The highs and the lows. I'm George Canyon, and it has been a pleasure getting to spend a short time with you.