#1180 Give a Penny, Take a Penny

Too much in this episode to list. Michael is 25 and has had type 1 diabetes since he was 7 years old. 

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 1180 of the Juicebox Podcast

Hey everyone, I'm back today I'll be speaking with Michael He's 25 years old has had type one diabetes since he was seven. Michael also has been a Lago Hashimotos, ADHD, anxiety and depression. We're going to talk today about Michael's experiences in college boarding school, how he's learned to be more present, and a lot more. While you're listening. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. If you're looking for a way to protect your finances, your identity if you need a VPN you're looking for aura you know those little ads you've seen with Robert Downey Jr. You know, Iron Man, right? Or a.com/juice box use my link you can get a free 14 day trial of ORA don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout that's juice box at checkout to save 40% at cosy earth.com If you're looking for community find that Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, we're coming up on 50 to one oh no, we got like over 50,000 members. That's crazy. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G seven made for all types of diabetes Dexcom G seven can be used to manage type one, type two, and gestational diabetes, you're going to see the speed, direction and number of your blood sugar right on your receiver or smartphone device. dexcom.com/juice box Have you been experiencing the fear of missing out on Omni pod? Foo? If you haven't, it's easy to get rid of. Omni pod.com/juice box that's right. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by the Omni pod five. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ever since the ever since CGM is more convenient, requiring only one sensor every six months. It offers more flexibility with its easy on Easy Off smart transmitter and allows you to take a break when needed. Ever since cgm.com/juice. Box.

Michael 2:30
Hello, my name is Michael and I'm 25 years old. And let's let's get started again,

Scott Benner 2:39
it's a perfect start. Sometimes people get confused and think they have to tell me their whole life story in the first 30 set. Yeah, Michael, you're 25 you have type one?

Michael 2:46
Yes. One.

Scott Benner 2:48
How old? were you when you were diagnosed?

Michael 2:49
I was seven. So it's been 18 years. Okay.

Scott Benner 2:53
You're 25 you're diagnosed me you were seven? And do you have anything else going on besides type one?

Michael 3:00
I've got I think before the diabetes, I was diagnosed with vitiligo when I was I think around the age of four or five. Okay, and then the diabetes at seven. And then I've had Hashimotos for I don't know how long I don't really remember when I started taking the medication for it. But I just got confirmation a few months ago that I indeed had Hashimotos I only thought I had just hypothyroidism. Right.

Scott Benner 3:30
But they said it's autoimmune. Yeah. Did they find the lumps on it? Is that what they did? No. We

Michael 3:37
did the the antibody blood bloodwork. Okay.

Scott Benner 3:40
Okay, what prompted you to do the bloodwork did because it didn't change the management at all right?

Michael 3:45
No, no, nothing really changed. I think it just, I just wanted to know for sure. Because I don't think I ever got an answer from previous doctors. And because I hadn't really my medication like the amount of levothyroxine I've been taking has stayed the same since I've been taking it. So I was like, Maybe I should see if, you know, maybe I need to go up and maybe it's, you know, if it is autoimmune, that means that's slowly getting worse and worse. So well, I just wanted to see if that was the case. Where does your TSH stay? Last I checked, which was a couple months ago, it was like the high twos. So not terrible. You

Scott Benner 4:25
could stand a little more maybe? Yeah, you know, it's sometimes good doctors. Like even if they can't go up a full pill. Some doctors will just tell you like, Listen, this is not me telling somebody what to do now. Yeah, but it could be as easy as an extra pill once a month. You'd be surprised how they can manipulate it like the ones that really understand the dosing of it.

Michael 4:47
Yeah, that's what I've been last. Last time I went to the Endo. i He was just like, I already I already had enough of like my 50 milligram pills. He's just like, I don't want to have to have you throw those away. So just every other day take two and so that's what I've been doing. If I remember to take it in the morning

Scott Benner 5:06
gotta remember Michael Don't Don't Don't make me parent util I got enough going on here. Okay. Okay, so vit a Lago type one Hashimotos.

Michael 5:18
I mean, that's pretty much it and autoimmune. Bad got. Yeah, no, I mean, considering Yeah, not bad at all. Yeah. And I don't really have any, like adverse effects from the vitiligo, it's just, it's not really in any super visible parts. So it's not like I really have to worry about sunburn, or it's not really and it's like, I'm obviously very white. So like, it doesn't really,

Scott Benner 5:43
yeah, I'm looking at you today. You're already a fairly pale person. So

Michael 5:48
yeah, and I think it is going around my eyes a little bit, but you can't really tell because of our glasses most of the time. Yeah.

Scott Benner 5:54
Honestly see the dark circles under my eyes? I maybe it'd be great if I could. Could I just get a little right. I guess you don't get to pick where it goes, right.

Michael 6:02
No, no. I mean, yeah. I mean, it'll just kind of spread where it wants to go. Yeah,

Scott Benner 6:07
that's a shame. I could use a I don't want to wear makeup. But there are times I see myself in photos. And I'm like, am I a person who has to wear makeup? is just so dark? Oh, my gosh. Well, let's talk a little bit about it then. So what do you remember about your diagnosis? Or do you not? I

Michael 6:24
remember, it was in August of, I guess what? 2005 I remember that summer, just, I was going to the bathroom a ton. I mean, like the typical, like using the bathroom a lot drinking tons of water. That was wetting the bed, you know, at seven years old, which isn't, you know, typical. And like, I specifically remember, we went to Walmart one time. And before we left, I was like, I gotta use the bathroom. And then within like, the 10 minute car ride to go back home. I was about to pee my pants again. I had to like, you know, the car was basically still moving, hopped out the car went went in the house and, and use the restroom. And so that went on for I don't know, maybe like a month or two before my parents were like, there's something. There's something up and my my cousin was diagnosed with type one, like, four or five months before I was really okay. And he was like two years old. I think so pretty young. And so they had some idea that like, maybe this is, maybe this is what's going on. And so they went in for the blood test. And my blood sugar was I think it was like in the seven hundreds.

Scott Benner 7:34
Oh, god. Yeah, that's that's pretty. You said a month at least the urinating was going on? Right.

Michael 7:39
I mean, from what I can remember, my memory isn't great. So I think it went it went. It went on for a good, definitely a couple of weeks. Okay.

Scott Benner 7:50
Yeah. And so your parents kind of recognized that because of your cousin, do you think or I mean, they just recognized in general, something was up. I think

Michael 7:59
at first, it was just some things up just in general. I haven't really asked a lot of specifics about like that that time. That's just what I remember. Okay.

Scott Benner 8:10
And there's some stuff here and your note to me, that I think of is autoimmune related. So kind of tell me about that. Because you said very specifically, you're like, well, that's the end of those. That segment of my concerns, but you have others, right? Yeah. You want to share them? Yeah, I've got or do you want me to?

Michael 8:29
Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, if you want to, I don't really remember what I what I wrote down. Okay. Well, it sounds like almost a year ago,

Scott Benner 8:35
I have here ADHD? Oh, yeah. Is that diagnosed?

Michael 8:40
Yes. Yes, it is. And it's a recent, like, within the last, like, two years or so?

Scott Benner 8:46
Is that a thing you think you've always dealt with?

Michael 8:48
Yeah, I think so. I think it's just something that I mean, it's, you know, maybe presented itself in a different way. When I was a kid, you know, I found ways to deal with it. And, I mean, I'm not saying that my parents like didn't recognize it, but maybe they just didn't know that, you know, like it because it wasn't the kid that was bouncing off the walls. And like, you know, I was a very quiet kid. And so I think that they were just like, well, that's, that's just not it.

Scott Benner 9:12
You know, when you look back, how does it feel like it impacted you?

Michael 9:15
I think I mean, paying attention in school. I mean, I was not a good student, pretty much all throughout until I went to college, until I got to, like, take classes that I like, actually wanted to take. Just like couldn't pay attention. I mean, my handwriting is terrible. It's like, couldn't I mean, taking notes on top of terrible handwriting was just like, I couldn't read anything, because

Scott Benner 9:35
you don't pay attention while you're writing. To what you're ugly.

Michael 9:39
Oh, I'm writing so fast. I'm trying to keep up that I'm like, Oh, this is and it's sideways. And it's, it's all blending together.

Scott Benner 9:45
I lose the interest while I'm writing.

Michael 9:48
Yeah, yeah. I'll start writing a list. I'm like, I don't I can just do this. I'll just remember and then I don't

Scott Benner 9:54
remember when I'm handwriting by the way. Like I just had to write something pretty voluminous. As for the internet, and I can sit down and, like pay 100% attention to it for as long as it takes. I don't have ADHD, like, like, I can just sit down and do my thing. But I am not interested in things I'm not interested in. That's for certain. Yeah. And I swear to you while I'm writing, while I'm making the letters with my hand, I'm like, Ah, and then I'll just squiggly line it, because I've just already annoyed that I've, I've spent this much time with it. Yeah. So I think sometimes those things can be a mixture, you know what I mean? Like, yes. And yes, maybe you have ADHD? And you do, but like, is that part of it? Or is that just who you are like to me like, like, it's hard to try to pick through all of it and try to figure out as my point. Yeah,

Michael 10:44
no, I'm constantly thinking back on all these like, little little things that I'm like, oh, that's just something that I did. Which is like it like it is, you know, it's not, you know, it's not like, if I didn't have ADHD, I wouldn't have all these other things that I'm, you know, that make me who I am. But just like, all the little things, the more I think about it, and like this is all starting to, you know, the pieces are coming together. And it makes sense, right? This

Scott Benner 11:10
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Michael 12:43
mean, I forget a lot of things. I mean, a big one is I always I would I mean I still forget to like Pre-Bolus You know, and it's been, you know, 18 years, and it's like, no matter how much I think about it, I just I'll just forget. And just like it's that stuff where it's just like, This is my you know, this is for the sake of my health and you know, safety as a person I will not remember. Or like taking my my medications in the morning or remembering, you know, not being able to leave for work on time even though it's like the same time every day. I know what to expect. I don't play plan ahead. Sometimes.

Scott Benner 13:24
Yeah. Okay. Next here on your list is depression. So is that is that clinical depression is a diagnosis. It's something you manage with medication or how does that impact you?

Michael 13:34
Um, yeah, it was it was diagnosed and it's, I was on a few other medications. I think, while I'm still taking one, I can't remember what it's called Bupropion. I said, Oh, that's that's the generic I think it's like Wellbutrin, Wellbutrin. Okay. So I've been taking that for maybe like two years or so. And I think that also helps with with anxiety and it's supposed to have some minor assistance with ADHD, which I'm not sure if it if it really it's hard for me to, to notice some of those things. Sure. But yeah, I take that and that it helps, I think, and, I mean, there's a lot of other things that that help that aren't, you know, medication. But it does, it does help. It's not really as bad as like, ADHD or anxiety. Where did you first see that your life? I think, probably starting in high school and college, I think just being more on my own, because I went to a boarding school for high school. So I was, I mean, not on my own, but I mean, I was living, you know, in a dorm with another kid that I didn't know at 13 and it was, you know, trying to deal with school. You know, being a bad student on top of, you know, doing being a pretty strict boarding school was difficult. Hold Up first,

Scott Benner 15:00
how did you end up at a boarding school if you weren't, like I think of boarding school is like a place where you send like motivated academic kids to flourish. Or maybe they're also places where you send kids who don't pay attention to try to get them to pay attention is that the other side of it? That's not

Michael 15:13
what it was, for me at least, that's how I, that's how I remember it. When I went there. My, I think all the public school that I would have gone to where I used to live, wouldn't have been great, I think. And so I, my brother went to the same high school. And so I think, you know, I maybe I had the illusion of choice to go there. And so I had, I had it in my mind that I did want to go there because like, Oh, this is cool. You know, it's like college, but earlier. And so it wasn't, it was just a, it's like a college prep, high school. So it wasn't anything specific. It wasn't like, like a military academy, like some of the other boarding schools in the area. And it was co ed. So it wasn't like, you know, boys only or anything. So

Scott Benner 16:00
when you get there, the experience is not good for you. I mean, it was

Michael 16:04
it was very exciting. But it was stressful. Because there was like freshmen, you know, you have to get up every morning to go to the office, like sign in to breakfast and like, you know, because they want to make sure you're getting up and getting class on time. And, you know, living with somebody else who isn't really your friend, you know, and just being kind of monitored, almost, you know, 24/7, kind of and, but I overall I really enjoy the experience. Okay, because I'm not a I'm not a rule breaker by any means. So it wasn't hard for me to follow the rules. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 16:44
would I think I'd be terrible that I immediately be like, What do I gotta say, I don't have to sign it for breakfast. That sounds ridiculous. I'm not doing that. I bet you'd get me at the very first thing on the very first day. But did you find like, so you think that's where your depression started to grow, though?

Michael 17:00
Maybe I think just like, kind of, you know, being less alone. And it's not like, I'm not a really

Scott Benner 17:10
social person, either. Oh, okay. So so then there's a lot of time in the day, where it's very solitary for you. Actually, not

Michael 17:17
really, which is kind of what what helped, because since it was it was a very small boarding school about 200 students. And so you kind of did everything with all the other students, everybody knew each other, which was nice. Okay. And it was an international school. So there were kids all over the world from all over the world, which was I really enjoyed that. I think, just in addition to the ADHD, I mean, obviously, there they go hand in hand. And so like being just, like, stressed out about schoolwork, and like, you know, why am I even? Why do I have to learn this? Why, you know, why is it so hard for me to learn this? No, why can't I get this right kind of feeling? Was Was there a lot that how

Scott Benner 17:57
does the depression, the depression manifest itself with you?

Michael 18:01
I think it's just like, I mean, it's not really anything super specific. It's just kind of like an over overarching kind of like, I don't, I don't feel great. No, it's not like necessarily sadness. But it's just kind of like a, I don't know, like, what am I? What am I doing? Why is this not? Why isn't this working?

Scott Benner 18:20
So did you have that, that overall gloom feeling that some people describe the Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warmup time, that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7. Till the time you're getting readings, 30 minutes, that's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period, so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable, and light. These things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7. a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this. Up to 10. People can follow you, you can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes, it's covered by all sorts of insurances. And this might be the best part, it might be the best part alerts and alarms that are customizable so that you can be alerted at the levels that makes sense to you. dexcom.com/juicebox links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com to Dexcom and all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful. You know, if you dream about walking past the doorknob without getting your insulin pump tubing caught or fantasize about jumping into a swimming pool without having to disconnect from your pump first. You may have FOMO fear of missing out on Omni pod. I know you wish you could wear any outfit you want with that to pump that you have button doesn't fit everywhere. Not like an omni pod would. The good news is you don't have to suffer from food move any longer, all you have to do is go to my link, Omni pod.com/juice box, I see a lot of people in my private Facebook group talking about their love of on the pod five, you may have seen those conversations as well, if you've had you found yourself thinking I'm missing out, you don't have to miss out any longer Omni pod.com/juice box head over there now read all about the Omni pod five, and get started today. Just everything feels like a rainy day all the time kind of thing. Yeah,

Michael 20:31
I mean, it wasn't anything until after, like, being in school helps because I was so busy. So I didn't really have a lot of like time where I could just do something like and or like, and do nothing, like there wasn't that much opportunity to do nothing. Same thing with college, like just so much work. And so it was more like after college, that things were like, you know, Okay, I gotta find a job, I gotta, you know, we got to do all this other, you know, responsibilities of, you know, living on our own. And I was able, I am able to kind of shake it off a little bit easier. Now, that's because of the because of the medication or it's because I have no more hobbies now or, or something. But so

Scott Benner 21:23
as you saw when you were busy as a younger person, it wasn't too bad. It was there. Get out of school, and the new pressure. I mean, finding a job and feeling like you have to take care of yourself for the rest of your life. All that stuff. That's there. You also you're managing your diabetes by yourself. When you're 30. Morning school. That's tough. Yeah,

Michael 21:44
yeah, that was tough, because I was never really great. managing it. To begin with, I was kind of pretty much on my own. Not on my own. But I was I was taking it on pretty much right away from when I was like eight or nine. Okay, I kind of did everything. Mostly on my own. I couldn't do the pot, the pump injections by myself at her too much. I was too scared to do that. But like, you know, giving myself insulin at school and stuff. I did that all by myself. I didn't go to the nurse or anything. And so that so that and not being great at it, and then being at school by myself with no one else who has type one. Not really anyone to like to talk about it. Yeah. Or to like explain, like, why this is hard to that. That was a big part of it to

Scott Benner 22:33
come from a big family.

Michael 22:34
I've got one brother, he's 10 years older. And I've got nine cousins. Pretty much all my family that's in the US is on my mom's side. And it's decently sized. It's probably about like 20 people. But that's pretty much it. And then I've got some some distant and like my grandparents live over in Sweden.

Scott Benner 22:57
But oh, that's your background? A lot of autoimmune there. Yeah, yeah. About that. Okay. So your brother's 10 years older than you because I was trying to imagine. I'm not judging anybody. But I was trying to imagine like, where, how do I if I'm your parents, like, how do I make the leap and descending my 13 year old type one off to school by themselves? But they have a different sensibility than I do. They're from? They're from a place where that's pretty common.

Michael 23:25
Yeah, well, I mean, my, so it's just my dad is from Sweden. My mom's from just from the Midwest. And, and so and he, he's lived in the US since he was, like, 19, or 18. I don't I don't think that was really the case. I think it was just they thought I was taking good care of it. By myself, you know, but I would, you know, they don't they didn't know the whole story. You know, they weren't necessarily checking all my records. I mean, they would go with me to the doctor and see, not only are your numbers aren't great, but my agencies were never terrible. So I was kind of, you know, barely, you know, coasting through,

Scott Benner 24:04
right. But you say I'm trying and they believe you and then it kind of just gets pushed on to the next appointment.

Michael 24:08
Yeah, or, like, you know, I would, you know, they would see that I would, you know, or like a few instances, they would pick me up from school. And then I would realize getting into the car that four hours ago, I didn't dose for lunch, you know, and then I would dose and they'd hear the pump clicking any like, oh, did you forget and like, like, No, this is for something else. And you know, that would and then so then you know they would get upset or you know, or angry with me and so then I would feel bad because I forgot

Scott Benner 24:38
that it just compounds when you talk about that even now at your age now. You forget to Pre-Bolus Does that does that mean like you're literally in the kitchen cooking, and it just never occurs to you and then you sit down you think oh my god, or is it that you're like you're not thinking about food at all. Then you just decide to eat and jump right into food like that question makes sense. both. It's

Michael 25:02
both of those. So like, if I'm cooking, and it's like the foods right in front of me, and I know when it's going to be done. I know when I'm going to start eating, I'll get through the meal completely. And I'm like, I didn't, I didn't do anything. I don't even know what my number is not

Scott Benner 25:14
even before. Okay, like, you've just don't have diabetes, when it comes to food when you forget. There

Michael 25:19
are there yeah, there are a lot of moments like that, where I'm like, I totally just am not aware of it for you know, maybe it's a half an hour, hour at a time. And it's like, I know, it's like, in the back of my head is there. And it's like, you know, I have I have a Dexcom I have, I have the glucose lights in my inner house. So I can see everything. It's right in front of me, but I just, it just totally just blows right past doesn't

Scott Benner 25:41
prompt you at all. And it's not apathy. Right? Like, it's, it's a thing that when you're talking about it, you're disappointed that it's not happening. It's not like you're like, I don't care. It just isn't happening.

Michael 25:52
Yeah, like, I mean, sure, there are some points where I'm like, I know, I can't deal with this right now. And it's like, but that only happens if it's like, you know, three in the morning, my blood sugar's a little high on like, I can't, I don't even know where my pump is, like, it's downstairs or something I don't. Like that'll happen every once in a while. But it's never like, I don't care. I don't care if my blood sugar's high, I don't care if I'm low, it's like, I know that if it's high for long enough, I'm gonna feel like, you know, crap for, you know, for like, for sometimes until the next day,

Scott Benner 26:22
I went Arden was home from college recently. It just something I forget what it was, honestly. But I had the feeling like we should test her blood sugar in the middle of the night. And I went into her room. And I was like, I'm not going to wake her up, I'll just do it. And I couldn't find her bag. It was just nowhere. And the next thing I know, I'm like, I'm in the kitchen in my underwear looking around. And I'm like, it's here under something. And I all I could think is, how could she go to bed without this? But then I listened to your perspective. And I was like, what's easy, right? Because, I mean, you don't want to deal with it all the time. You don't want to always be thinking about it, you know? So, I mean, I got it in the moment. But what you just said made me think of that, that situation again, just the like, how, like, I was like, I don't understand how you could come upstairs without this and lay down like what if, what if you need it? And she just doesn't see it the same way. You know? It's interesting. I mean, not to say that nine times out of 10 The bag is not right there. It because it is but the one time that was and I was like oh my god, like I was incredulous. I was like, how could this possibly. But you hear that? You're like, yeah, that makes sense to me. Yeah,

Michael 27:27
I mean, I do that with mean with all kinds of things. I mean, it's not just you know, to be like all like, you know, wandering water all day. And I'm like my water bottles full. Nice ice cold water right next to me. That's just like, it does not come across my mind.

Scott Benner 27:41
But you think that's ADHD?

Michael 27:44
I mean, I think that has something to do with it. Because it's I think the type that I have is inattentive. ADHD, and you know that like they don't call it add anymore. I don't think it's like inattentive ADHD. And so it's just like, you're not, you're not always able to, like, focus on what's directly in front of you what you're exactly focused on, right in the moment, it's hard for me to focus on things that aren't right in front of me, like, you know, the the next meal the next, like, f5 to get to work, but like thinking a few hours ahead of time. It's like, it's it can be difficult. I'm

Scott Benner 28:16
not discounting your experience, but I feel like you're, I feel like you're describing everyone on the planet. So yeah,

Michael 28:22
no, no, no, yeah. I'm not saying Yeah.

Scott Benner 28:26
If everybody if everybody right now who didn't drink as much as they meant to today, could raise their hand wherever they're at in their car. I think I think everyone listening is now not holding on to the steering wheel anymore. So yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know, I do beat yourself up about it. With the diabetes

Michael 28:42
stuff I do. Because it's like, it's like, sure, I don't have really any. I don't have any, you know, complications or anything. Really, I haven't really noticed anything major. But it's like, I know that it's going to catch up. If I if I keep doing this. And it's like, I'll do everything right for like two days. And then, you know, if I forget one time, then it's like, the cycle is broken. And it's, you know, it's really hard for me to get back into it. Does any sort of routine

Scott Benner 29:09
is difficult. What's your agency right now?

Michael 29:12
Last time, it was a couple months ago? 6.1 No, it's

Scott Benner 29:16
amazing. And what about your variability? Like, what's your standard deviation? You know, probably

Michael 29:20
a lot. I bounced around a lot. Okay, it's so

Scott Benner 29:25
as is and that's the part you're where you're more worried about is that if you could just remember to Pre-Bolus You wouldn't jump up and you wouldn't be bouncing around and doing all that stuff. Yeah,

Michael 29:32
yeah, it's a bouncing around. I just don't I don't like having to chase that all the time. I mean, it's not constant. Like when I'm at work, it's not really bouncing around that much. Unless my you know, the pods on the last last day and it's not working very well.

Scott Benner 29:47
Okay. I know I take all your points and I mean, although look even a bouncing six one, we don't want you bouncing but man, you know, you deserve a lot of credit. That's fantastic.

Michael 29:58
Yeah, and Well and that's mostly before that it was like 7.8 like a couple of months before that horrific and that was because I got on the on the pod five

Scott Benner 30:08
on the pod fight I've been from a seven eight to a six one. Pretty

Michael 30:12
much I didn't really change that much. Wow. I think the overnights which is like what everyone's what everybody says the overnights really help. Just like if I mess up a Bolus, and I'm you know, on the high, two hundreds, almost three hundreds, they were bringing you back down to 120 at a time a week up. If I don't if I don't catch it.

Scott Benner 30:30
That's wonderful. Good for you. I'm just noticing because we're on camera today, I've lost weight. But I haven't thrown out all of my shirts that don't fit me anymore. And I'm like, I can't stop looking at like, how big this t shirt is all I thought when I looked up that as soon as we're done doing this, I'm throwing the shirt. Yeah. Here's the last part of your note. And I'm I'm endlessly fascinated with this. So I'm gonna dig into it with you. All right. What is the potential autism diagnosis mean? I,

Michael 30:59
I mean, I know that like this is a, I don't know, weird to say a trendy thing right now. But like,

Scott Benner 31:06
You're not wrong, by the way, the amount of people I hear that, that like, kind of like, blindly say, Oh, I'm a little autistic. And I think they mean it. Like I think they they're being sincere. It's gone. It's gone up significantly. Like, like the amount of times you hear people say it. I don't know if I want to say like a social contagion or not. But you do wonder, because people, and I don't think this is I'm not saying this to you, and I want to hear your story. But I do think sometimes people just want a thing. Yeah,

Michael 31:35
they want they want to they want a label to it. They want a reason for me. Like, this is why I'm acting like this and like kind of like a thing to put it on. Yeah,

Scott Benner 31:43
I think that I do. I also by the way, this isn't you. But I've just as a side note, but I've also seen people who feel left out. So they start trying to attribute some of their personalities to something and they go look, I have this like, oh God, is it important for you to have something? You know, like, but but that's not this. So tell me what brings you to that thought first? Is somebody come to you and say it? Or is that a feeling you'd have on your own?

Michael 32:07
I mean, it's it's a little bit of both. It's something that I feel on my own. I've been with my my current girlfriend for almost six years now. And there are a lot of things that she has noticed about me that she has also noticed about herself, that, that we have kind of been like, this isn't, neither of us have a ton of friends. And like, I'm I don't know, I mean, there's I mean, there's a lot. I mean, there's, you know, obviously it is a spectrum of sorts, and it's hard to get, you know, a diagnosis, and there are just a lot of things that on top of the ADHD, all this the social anxieties and, and things that can be attributed to that. And it's like part of it is like I need I want something to be like, this isn't just who I am. There's something. No

Scott Benner 32:58
reason why this is happening. Yeah.

Michael 33:01
And it's like, that's what I've always wanted to know, what

Scott Benner 33:05
is it that's happening? Like, what do you mean? Like social anxiety? What's that? First of all, for you? Like,

Michael 33:11
I mean, it's just like, I can't talk to people if I don't. If there's no reason for me to, like, I haven't absolutely no desire to, like talk to people, sometimes.

Scott Benner 33:27
It feels like a thing you don't want to admit. Yeah.

Michael 33:28
Because it's like, it feels like I feel bad thinking this like or if like if I'm at, like, even if it's like someone in my family or someone at work. I'm like, I make myself ask them how their weekend was no kind of thing which is like, but it's like, deep down. I really don't care. But let's like I do as I want to care, but I don't right. Like I would be totally fine. Not talking to anybody all day except for my girlfriend.

Scott Benner 33:56
Michael, I gotta tell you again, I don't know that you're much different than anybody else. So like, but it strikes you hard. I'm looking at you. It seems upsetting to you that you don't care about their weekend. I don't. Can I be clear, I don't care about anybody's weekend either. So none of us do. It's not that we don't care. It's that we don't have time to care. And I mean, if we were all living in a yurt together, then that's the right poll, right isn't a you're a giant tent that hippies living? Yes. If we were all living in a yurt together, then I might say to you, hey, what's going on my goal? And I'd really care because I wouldn't have anything else filling up my brain. But you're 25 you're with somebody, you live in a place that from what I can tell looks clean. So you've got like stuff to do that you have responsibilities. You're working a job, there's probably things you enjoy doing with your free time. And you're out of time to worry about how Jim and accountings like weekend win, but you're such a decent person you're upset for not caring about his weekend. Am I right about that? Like am I characterizing that pretty close to correctly? Yeah,

Michael 34:58
no, you Yeah, it's that's definitely the lie. I am in no way saying that I am like the only one No, no

Scott Benner 35:05
that like this is yeah, but let me stop you, Michael even there. Yeah, you're concerned that, that we're discounting how other people feel while we're having this conversation. You don't need to concern yourself with how they feel like we're just talking about you and me. You know what I mean? And they're listening in. But we're not, we're not saying, See, this is a, you're young. So you don't know this, okay. But this is a fairly new phenomenon in the last like, 10 years, where we all have to pressure ourselves to be worried about how you feel about what I'm saying. Like that didn't used to be a thing. If you were 40 years old, and we were having this conversation right now. You'd be like, I don't know, man, I don't care how people's weekends go. And that would be the end of it, and you go, but I heard about this. And I'm wondering if maybe I got a touch of this. And that would have, that's how our conversation would go, it would never occur to you or to me to worry that someone hearing it could be offended or upset by it. That is a fairly new phenomenon. It burdens you like I mean, it's burdened you a couple of times in the last half an hour already, like you're worried about other people, you know what I mean? Which is nice. But not to the level where it where it impacts you. I care about other people. I hope they have a good weekend. I don't want anything bad to happen to them. If it does, it's not my fault. And if I can't help or can't do anything about it, I can't shoulder that burden with me. So are you an incredibly like empathic person? Yeah,

Michael 36:35
I think so. I, but there's certain things where I care so much more about other people versus, you know, my, myself. And it's hard to like, I don't care what other people think, or I don't care how other people are feeling. I just want to do what's good for me right now. I understand what it's like, really, I can't get hurt. It's like, almost almost impossible for me to do that.

Scott Benner 37:05
Because it feels like you're, you're doing something to them. Like it feels like an affront to other people that you're not spending your time worried about them.

Michael 37:16
Is that right? Yeah, yeah. Or just like making sure that they're, like, it's, I mean, this is mostly a thing with my girlfriend, and I like I will take on as much as I can. So that she doesn't have as much to worry about, you know? Because, like, I'd rather me do it, because I can deal with it maybe a little bit more than she can. So that it's not as hard for her like her as an example.

Scott Benner 37:43
Does she have other struggles? Like are some that are similar to yours?

Michael 37:47
Yeah, I mean, she, she is she's got chronic migraines. And I mean, she's on medication for it now, which helps a lot. But she's got she's got a lot of chronic pain, and headaches, migraines, and pretty severe depression, and anxiety like myself. So there are a lot of things that can overwhelm her more than they will overwhelm me. And so I'll try to like, I just try to do as much as I can. Does that

Scott Benner 38:17
create an echo chamber? Like does does it bounce around like sonar? Does her anxiety bounce into you, that causes your anxiety to bounce back to her that makes her feel depressed? Because you're not happy? That makes you feel depressed? Because she's depressed? Like, does it just keep feeding itself like that? It

Michael 38:31
can, I will try my best to, like, reassure her that, like, you know, that, you know, or that I am okay. And, you know, if that's me, you know, lying to her that I'm, you know, maybe I'm not maybe I'm more anxious than I put on, or I'm more, you know, worried about something. Because usually the things I'm anxious or worried about are, it's never a big deal normally, and so but like the things that she's worried about are usually it is totally make sense for her to be worried about these things and to want to, you know, figure these these things out and get, you know, whatever, these things, these things fixed, and are

Scott Benner 39:08
they the kinds of things that in truth, if you push them, like if you could convince her that they were okay, and she didn't think about them anymore? Are they the kinds of things that really wouldn't cause a problem?

Michael 39:18
I think that they still would, because some of these things are like the real impactors, then

Scott Benner 39:23
not, not stuff that falls under that, like, I have a motto that one of my one of one of the things that I kind of like I model some of the things I do after and one of them is often the best thing to do is nothing. Yeah, so and and it works like you know, you're moderating a Facebook page or dealing with business stuff or a lot of times the best thing to do is nothing goes away and it's never a problem, but you're talking about real things that would actually be like negatively impactful if they weren't managed, but yet their day to day things that a lot of people just handle without incidents but it's tougher for you guys. Is that right? Yeah,

Michael 40:03
like, you know, you know, maybe it's deciding what we want to eat for dinner, you know, it's just like, it's hard for us to think about, like a week at a time versus a day at a time. You know, so like, stuff like that it can, like, I used to get really upset when I couldn't decide what to make for dinner, which is like, it sounds, you know, I obviously know how that sounds like, it sounds ridiculous. And it sounds are like, you know, if things don't work out, as well as I want it to. And it's like, not that big of a deal. I'll just get like, I'm like unreasonably upset if it's something like in my personal life, or if it's at work.

Scott Benner 40:43
So let's say that that is autism for a second, let's just suppose that this right. You need somebody to teach you how to how to deal with that stuff. Right? Yeah. So you need services, I imagine that would identify this and then help. Yeah, and but it's you and her by yourself, your are your parents involved in your life anymore?

Michael 41:05
They are I don't talk to them that much. Because pretty much ever since going to boarding school, we kind of went by the no news is good news motto. I would only call them if I needed something. Or if they just you know, or you know, at most every, you know, twice a month, we would call and talk. But it's just like I

Scott Benner 41:26
device like your mom right now how you worship like, Oh my God, He's great. He's got a job. He's got a girlfriend, they got a nice place. Like, that's how she would respond. Right? Yeah. Does she know all this stuff about you? I

Michael 41:38
mean, she knows. I mean, they've known about the, the anxiety for that was like my first like, you know, you know, it's, I guess, mental health diagnosis. When I when I was a kid, because it used to be really bad. Like, I used to go to a diabetes camp in the summer. And it was like a four hour drive. And the morning of the entire car ride I was, I was incredibly sick and nauseous and I would throw up. And like, every time we would travel, I would get, you know, just, I would get sick. I couldn't eat the day before I couldn't sleep. You know, and that's not as much of a problem anymore, but it still was throughout high school and college. Like the first day of class was like, you know,

Scott Benner 42:24
it was terrible. either of your parents like this. Like, do they have personalities that are similar? Yeah,

Michael 42:29
my my mom and I have some things that are in common. And my dad night to my dad's also very quiet. My my brother and I are pretty much like the same person. So that's kind of nice to kind of have someone to talk to you about some of the stuff. Yeah,

Scott Benner 42:44
you can talk to your brother about it. Yeah, it's great. Even he's 10 years older than you. Ah, yeah. So he's 35. That's good for you. Because he's been through a lot that he can kind of relate back to you. I would imagine how he's worked on. Yeah. Is he married? Yes. Yeah, this is unfair. But is he married to a person who's similar to him? It's unfair, because he's not on here. But I don't and I won't ask more than that. Because you've found a person who understands your stuff, because they have the same stuff that he has to do the same thing?

Michael 43:12
I'm not sure if that's nice. I mean, they are they are pretty similar. Okay. But they're not. I don't think that they are like the same person by any means. Okay. I think that she is very understanding, just like, I think, yeah, just very understanding of like, all the things that you know, that he has going on. Okay. Which is really all you can ask for.

Scott Benner 43:33
Yeah. So I'm sorry. So back to my initial thought was, you don't have somebody that you? Well, you do have somebody to your brother, just not your parents, that you could go to and say, Hey, these are the issues I'm having. I need. I think I need help. I don't really know where to go for that help. Like, have you tried saying that to him?

Michael 43:49
Yeah, yeah, I have, because he's gone through a little bit more than that. I have, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, like, I don't know, maybe six or seven years ago, maybe more, I don't know, the exact date. And so he's had his fair share of, of therapy, and, you know, going into a hospital for for that, and, you know, staying there for, you know, a week or so and like, dealing with that on top of trying to explain that to our parents.

Scott Benner 44:22
That was going on. Yeah,

Michael 44:25
I mean, I know that it did not go that that well, because they don't you know, people have, you know, my parents generation. I mean, obviously, this is well known that like they don't fully understand the severity of some

Scott Benner 44:39
mental health issues. Issues. Yeah. And they also I mean, I think it can be it can be common for people to not want their children to have problems to begin with. You know, yeah, so saying I've learned this Oh, no, you just you just don't like car rides. Like that kind of stuff. You know what I mean? Like because that's probably how they remember because it honestly, when you're vomiting on the way to like, diabetes camp. They're not thinking, Oh, that's a really anxious kid I got there. They don't see it that way. You don't I mean, yeah, so it makes sense. Wow, man. That's a lot. You overwhelmed me for a second. So don't feel bad. I know you're gonna feel bad. I don't feel bad. I'm alright. Don't worry, the internet already attacked me today. You can't hurt me. I'm good. Every once in a while the internet likes to come for me. Did I seem to be the day? Wow, what made you want to come on the podcast?

Michael 45:32
i Sorry. No, Michael, I

Scott Benner 45:35
didn't know you're gonna emotional. Go ahead. Take your time. It's fine. It's fine. Do you want me to cry? Would it help if we were both crying? Because I'll do it. I can cry it through the face for three more seconds, I'm gonna cry just to get us. Like it's okay.

Michael 45:47
Take your time. Yeah, it's just that this No, listening to this podcast has helped a lot. Because I've been I've been listening for a couple of years at this point. And just like, you know, I want to be able to do that same thing for you know, someone else, you know, even if it's just that one other person, you know, that maybe has something similar. I'm like, you know, because like, I've had some some friends that are that are diabetic. But like, obviously, going to camp was like, probably one of the best things I could have done. I went consistently for like, like, 15 years in a row. And so I think just having someone like, like you, who is, you know, taking this, this thing, and just making it that much more manageable. And like, you know, even if it's just, you know, having people who don't have diabetes, understand, you know, just all the different perspectives decided just wanted to be a part of it. Because I'm not very active in, like, on the Facebook group, or, or, or anything. I think the only time I posted on there was because I ran out of pods and insurance and send me more, try to see if I could get some but

Scott Benner 47:21
not an uncommon. So let me make sure I understand. I think I do. And you made me cry. So I'm good. Now. Now we're going to cry. You found this connection that it's giving to you. And you recognize that the reason there's value in it for you is because other people come on and tell their stories and you want to add to it. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. And like,

Michael 47:45
because because like, I know that, you know, you know, I may not be the only one who has this exact, you know, experience, but everyone's got something a little bit different, you know, and everyone's got a different combo of, you know, autoimmune diseases and, you know, mental health issues and, you know, different different stages of their life.

Scott Benner 48:03
Right. Well, I think you'd be surprised by how many people have your combo, actually. Yeah,

Michael 48:07
you know, yeah.

Scott Benner 48:10
It's, I mean, you know, and I would know, without making the podcast for certain, but it's incredibly common, the, the anxiety, depression part, along with the autoimmune stuff, just like even when you said your brother had a bipolar diagnosis. It was hard for me not to say yeah, like, doesn't surprise me. So many people have said it, like somebody in their family has bipolar diagnosis. At this point. I mean, I don't know. I guess I'd have to go interview 1000 People who don't have any autoimmune in their life, but it seems connected to me. You know? No,

Michael 48:49
yeah. There's, I mean, there's no way that it isn't because, I mean, my mom's got, she's got hypothyroidism and my brother's got hyperthyroidism, recently diagnosed. You know, my grandma on my, on my dad's side, too, has thyroid issues. So like, it's, you know, it's like, and like all this stuff on you know, because like, I think I've heard you say that, you know, ADHD can be, you know, inflammatory kind of in this in the same way. And I mean, it's definitely related. And then they kind of bounce back on each other because like, your blood sugar's out of whack.

Scott Benner 49:19
You know, she's around more, you're not who you are on top of everything. Yeah, I completely buy into it. I listen, I'm not a scientist. I don't know how cells work and how inflammation works. And also, I don't think I mean, I think we're on the in the infancy even in the science world of how people understand inflammation, or even like, You're, like, you know, if I would have said 20 years ago, if I would have turned to somebody in my life and said, You know, I think it's possible that the biome in your gut is impacting how you feel and how you think. I don't know that people wouldn't have locked you up for saying something that sounds too crazy. I'm still old enough that when I say it out loud I get weird douche chills. I'm like, oh my god, do I sound ridiculous right now? But I think it's just I think it's obvious. You don't mean like, I'm not saying it would fix anything but like, I'm drawn to ask you if you're taking a good probiotic. And that makes me sound like a lunatic in my own voice like, in my own head. You don't I mean, no,

Michael 50:18
but I mean, after listening to I mean, I've listened to all those episodes where he talked about the different supplements and art and supplements. And I've been, I started taking a while I was already taking magnesium, but I started taking it, I think I was taking a little bit more, because you know, you kind of have to, you kind of have to take too much to know how much to take. Yes. And so that that's been helping a lot and taking a same digestive enzyme, which I've, I think the past like month, I have not taken it, I've totally forgotten that I hadn't had it. But that did help that help with the like, even just like making sure I don't like, go sky high after a meal. If I didn't know, if I was a few minutes off on the Pre-Bolus or something. You know, it helps to now

Scott Benner 50:59
you're gonna make me really upset, like, I'm actually going to cry now. Because to know that sharing that with someone helped you or anybody is, you know, I spent? And I don't want to turn this conversation to me, but no, and I also know that people are laughing now. And they're like, of course, she just got but I don't.

Michael 51:20
I mean, it's, it's conversational. Yeah, it's a team effort.

Scott Benner 51:25
But the thing that happened today online, caused me to have to explain what it's like to be in my position. Right. And, and it's, it's a thing that I can tell you with, with great certainty that most people won't be able to understand. Like, it's like, I know, we all think of ourselves as like, you know, internet, like, everybody feels like they're a personality now and internet because everybody has, you know, an account here and there. And you might even have 1000, or a couple 1000 followers. And it feels like, wow, I say something and 1000s of people see it, but they don't really like people follow you. They're not on Instagram constantly. They're not on wherever you're at constantly. But I have a significant following. And you would think that it would impact me to say that, like, yeah, it's obvious, I talked about this, and it was going to reach you and you were going to try it and it was going to help you. But I don't have that feeling about myself. So I don't honestly think that way. Like, I know that it's there are probably some cynical people who won't believe this, but I'm just recording my thoughts. And I put them out. And they do what they do. And I don't really think about them anymore. After that. I'm not here maniacally trying to be like, Oh, I'll say this. And this, you know, and it'll make people think like, I don't have, like, I don't think like that. So that when someone comes back and says that the podcast has been helpful for them in some way, there is a small part of me that's shocked by it every time. You know, like, like, I'm just like, oh, wow, that's crazy. Really good for you like that. That's how it feels to me when you say that, Oh, I got something that helped me. And so it's just a, it's impactful to hear that something about your life got better, because something happened to my daughter, and we talked about it on here, and it made its way to you. And anyway, I think when I say that, it It must seem disingenuous to some people, like you know, how many people you're reaching? Because I do I know, I know how often the podcast has been downloaded and how frequently and what the numbers are and how it ranks and all that stuff. But, um, but it's not a thing that I it's not a top of my mind when we have conversations like this, I guess. Right? So,

Michael 53:35
I mean, it's, I mean, that's a totally like, you know, you can't expect yourself to be constantly thinking about, you know, how you're coming across to people during a conversation, because then it's like, you'll, you'll never be really in the conversation. Yeah, you're not really focused,

Scott Benner 53:50
right? You'd always just end up I'd be, I'd be the equivalent of our local news anchor, then, you know what I mean, if a big dumb look on my face, and I only say things that I know, everybody could agree with. Like, we love it when it's sunny, right, Bill? Yeah, like, great. Thanks. That's gonna help no one, but okay. Anyway, like, You shocked me, like when you started talking about like, oh, the magnesium like, Oh, my God, he does that. Wherever you hear about that? You know, so it's an oddity for me, I get this, and I get better at it all the time, like absorbing it and taking it. But there's also part of me that thinks that I shouldn't go too much farther the other way. Because I mean, what's over there, except me just like pompously believing that everybody hears what I say. And like that. I don't think that would be healthy to feel like that. So, you know, I mean, I don't feel like that, but I wouldn't want to either. Anyway. Wow. Well, you definitely help people with your story, that's for sure. That's really great. I mean, you're incredibly open. And it was people can't see you. But it's been difficult. We've only been talking for an hour. It's been difficult for you at times, like genuinely difficult to say things that you've said and and that's that's very nice of you to do. Actually, I have a question going all the way back to like 20 minutes ago, maybe 20 minutes in. You said like, I don't care how their weekend is, could that be the Wellbutrin keeping you from caring how their weekend is? Or did you not care before the Wellbutrin? I?

Michael 55:17
That's a good question. I don't know. Maybe. But I'm not taking. I mean, I think I'm taking like 300 milligrams does. But that's a good good. I don't, it's hard for me to take notice of some of these things. Sure. I'm like, I don't I don't remember why. Right. I don't know what it's, I don't know what it's like to, like, you know, like, it's hard for me to have breakfast, sometimes the morning before you go to work. But then in the morning, I do have breakfast. I won't really notice if I feel better. You know, like, like, stuff like that. It's like hard for me to like, I can't pay attention to myself enough. It made me

Scott Benner 55:54
wonder like is the medication helping you with one thing, but hurting you in another way? And because that description, like you won't know this until you hear it back? Maybe not even then. But that that push and pull of like, I do care about their weekend, but I can't make myself care about their weekend as like a torture statement. You know, and it's it's tough to know, like, but but I also don't know what you're being helped, like, what what has been alleviated for you that is incredibly important to be alleviated? I don't know that either. So,

Michael 56:27
I mean, even I don't even know what's been illegal, like, I'd have to stop taking it to be like, Oh, this is what it was helping me with. Like

Scott Benner 56:36
the enzyme I don't really know. Yeah, you start taking it and it helps and everything gets better. They actually say that, like cycle like, second, what's the word I want just, let's just say depression medicine, like, the biggest problem that they have with it is for people to become non compliant taking it because they have a problem. And then for the ones that start taking it that are helped by it, their life normalizes and then they start thinking, I don't need this medicine, I'm fine, when the medication might be the only reason they're fine. And you know, and so yeah, you get put into a slightly different reality than you would be. And without it, you don't even know where the other reality is, let alone to have ability to I guess, adequately discuss it, and then evaluate it, right? It's a weird position to be in. Do you ever think of just stopping it? Or do you remember what it was like before that and that doesn't seem like a good idea.

Michael 57:33
I've thought about it, because I'm like, I want to see like, you know, maybe just from having maybe a slightly better routine of, you know, eating regularly eating healthier, doing more exercise, like maybe, if I or if I just go down on it, you know, cut it in half to see if it would make any differences, but I kind of don't want to mess with it quite yet. Because, you know, what if it is, it's like, I've forgotten to take him out one night, and I feel terrible. The next day, he was just like, it's the withdrawal. Right? Right, right. Yeah, talking there. But like,

Scott Benner 58:08
there's a way to titrate off of it. If you're going to come off of it, it's actually takes some time to grow. We prior to that, did you ever have like thoughts about hurting yourself or anything like that?

Michael 58:20
Not nothing serious is always fleeting, like kind of like, you know, but it was it's always in, you know, like, I have a lot of guilt about a lot of things that are like on an unreasonable guilt. So that kind of can play a part

Scott Benner 58:40
be overwhelming without it. Yeah. I was going to ask you did anything like tragic or traumatic happened to you when you were younger?

Michael 58:51
I don't think so. I mean, other than the diagnosis, which really, I mean, I remember like, crying when they had to prick my finger over the roof, because it hurt, you know, but like, and like having to deal with all the shots and all that stuff. Yeah,

Scott Benner 59:05
I'm talking more like a neighbor's never take me in the basement to show you this train set or something like that.

Michael 59:11
No, no, not nothing like that. I mean, I've had I mean, I got a pretty gnarly concussion a couple years ago. But I mean, like, that's not but nothing like yeah, no, like, no, like physical or like, mental abuse,

Scott Benner 59:23
actual mental, like physical stuff like that. And you had a bad concussion. But you've had these problems prior to that. Yeah. Okay. Not to say that it has to be one way or the other. But the stories that I hear from people over and over again, it's either wiring or something really bad happened. You know what I mean? Like and, and that's, that's it. You see somebody do you talk to a therapist?

Michael 59:46
I do. I see someone almost every week. Good. Does it help? Yeah, I think it does help even if it's just like, you know, having feelings. Yeah, that is You know, Microcenter isn't, you know, family or, or, you know, friends and someone who can like really kind of understand what's, what's going on. But

Scott Benner 1:00:12
it helps in that it relieves the pressure, but it's not. It's not lessening the strain. Overall, is just keeping it from exploding. Yeah,

Michael 1:00:21
I think yeah, I think it's just yeah, being able to get it out and to like, talk about it in a way that, like, just how I am talking here. It's like, I don't really, you know, it's like, in a way I know you but not not really interested. Yeah, you know. And so it's like, A, it's really easy for me to talk to somebody I don't know, which is kind of weird. Because it's like, if I like talking to people at work, it's like, I don't want to let them know who I really am all the way. Yeah, no, I

Scott Benner 1:00:47
I agree with because it's like, I

Michael 1:00:49
see them every day.

Scott Benner 1:00:50
Yeah. And you have to keep the job too. And you don't want them to walk away and go, we should get rid of Michael. Yeah, he's worrying me. And, yeah, it's a weird place to try to make a really sincere personal connection, because there's always the job. Is that the core of why you even know each other, you know, and I don't know what you do. But if you're in a competitive environment, there are certain terrible people that will use that against you to try to just jump up the ladder. You know what I mean? So

Michael 1:01:19
yeah, well, thankfully, I work at a very, very relaxed, and somewhat I don't want to say easy, but it's a it's a, it's a pretty easy job. And I really like it. It's, it's hands on. So I'm a hands on person. So but they're

Scott Benner 1:01:35
not currently, it's not a place where people are clawing at each other to make 10 more dollars or something like that. It's

Michael 1:01:40
no, there's only like seven or eight people that work there. So good. Okay, well, that's good. It

Scott Benner 1:01:45
sounds like a good fit for you. Did you end up making it through college with a degree? I

Michael 1:01:49
got my BFA in furniture design from SCAD. Oh, really? Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:01:55
Where are you? I think I'm not supposed to say my daughter goes there. So yeah, no. Are you in Atlanta? Were you in the Atlanta campus? Or Savannah?

Michael 1:02:05
Savannah?

Scott Benner 1:02:07
Oh, no kidding. Did you stay local, or if you left, we

Michael 1:02:09
left to go to Milwaukee. After we graduated, we graduated 2020. So the West Center graduate, and then we moved back. We're in the we're back in the southeast, okay, after like, almost three years in the Midwest, just because we like the weather down here. And it's more familiar to us. And we're close enough to Savannah, because we love living there. It was, it was amazing to live there already

Scott Benner 1:02:36
and can't wait to leave. Really, she's like, it's too hot. And everyone moves too slowly. That was the other thing. She says she's like,

Michael 1:02:45
Yeah, no, the slowness can get to you. I mean, but after four years, I mean, you kind of learn to settle. And to like, enjoy it to be like, you don't need to move fast. You're you're gonna get way too sweaty to move fast.

Scott Benner 1:02:57
I think I think those two things actually do impact each other. Yeah, it's a lovely area. I've visited obviously, a number of times, and I've always had a good time. I again, I've never lived there for more than a week. But yeah, it's always been a really pleasurable experience, actually. Yeah. So So do you design furniture for a living?

Michael 1:03:14
Not for a living? I mean, obviously, ideally, that's what I wanted to do. When I graduated. I wanted to do more, you know, hands on furniture making and, you know, maybe some some, I mean, obviously, I love to design and make my own stuff. Which I, which I still do for just for making stuff for our house or making stuff for friends. I'll do but I'm never really got a job to do that. Because it's a pretty small. It's a pretty small industry. Yeah. And like, I don't want to be sitting behind a computer doing CAD work, you know, all day, because I don't, I just sounds like the worst.

Scott Benner 1:03:48
How do you apply what you learned that in the world, making stuff for myself,

Michael 1:03:53
I love just making, like, I've always loved making things that somebody or myself could use in their everyday life. I think that's just something like really fulfilling for me. And so the job I have now is, does that and it just in a different way. Okay. And so, I mean, I use my like, whatever I learned for like, design wise, almost every day, but furniture wise, I just, I'm always thinking about stuff I want to make, but I haven't had a job and like the furniture or like woodworking industry like properly. I was a finished carpenter for a few months. And I did a furniture maker apprenticeship with a guy in Milwaukee for a few months.

Scott Benner 1:04:35
Did you enjoy it? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I

Michael 1:04:38
really liked the the apprenticeship. The finished carpentry was difficult. I mean, it was during the winter in Wisconsin, so it was really cold. I mean, it started at like seven in the morning. And I did drive 30 minutes to get this freezing outside.

Scott Benner 1:04:52
Doesn't seem that bad, but it does when it's minus one degree. Yeah, yeah. And

Michael 1:04:57
those roads are frozen. So we're working in isn't finished so it's not heated and my girlfriend's from Texas and so she anything below 50 is, you know, the coldest ever. And so like living there for you know, three years was that was bad.

Scott Benner 1:05:13
She must have hated that. And you go where your girlfriend wants to go. So you're stuck. Yeah. Well,

Michael 1:05:17
no, because she she had a job. She had a she had a job route to college. So we figure why not, you know, and it's, you know, there. You know, it wasn't the worst. I mean, we did really love living there for half a year.

Scott Benner 1:05:30
Did you guys meet at school? Yeah, yeah, we

Michael 1:05:32
met at SCAD. Sophomore year.

Scott Benner 1:05:36
Nice. Oh, that's, that's lovely actually Arden's a sophomore right now. Yeah, she's working. It feels like 50 hours a day, at the stuff that it's fascinating how much work there is? Yeah,

Michael 1:05:49
it's. And it's funny, because I mean, obviously there. I mean, every school is different. But people will come into an art school like that and be like, Oh, it's going to be easy. But it's like when you have two and a half hours to do classes. And like I had a couple of five and a half hour classes. And like it's not. And it's like you're working constantly. And it's like, it's not, it's definitely not easy. And it's not especially the first year and doing all the Gen Ed's and the drawing and those things. And one 3d design and all that stuff is yeah, it's it's not easy.

Scott Benner 1:06:25
She's in life drawing right now. And last week, the instructor teacher that whatever you would call them, I didn't go to college. So no fancy words, I guess, Professor, they said, Hey, this weekend, you have to draw this. And you should spend at least six hours in the lab doing it. And art was like, I have so much to do. Like, I don't know how to, like accomplish that. But she did it. And then she went back to class and she said, Everyone who didn't spend the time, you could tell in their work that they didn't put the time in, you know, she's like, so the time is, it's the effort, but the effort takes a lot of time and if you don't spend it then you don't get it back. She said the the teacher pictures upset. It was really good show to the people. So this is like, what we were looking for that kind of thing, but aren't like that, like, that was great. But it took a whole day. You know, like, like, Hey, get up. I gotta eat. I'm gonna take a shower. I gotta go over there. Now I'm there for six hours I get home. It's dark, you know? Like, it's, she's like, it's a lot. And she goes, I don't think people just like you said, I don't think people would believe how busy I am here.

Michael 1:07:28
Yeah, yeah, it's it's constant. And that's why I'll have to go in there open 24/7 so that you can stay drawing until three in the morning. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:07:35
I don't walk the buildings. You can just yeah, you can go in and work whenever you want to because you have to. Well, I think most people would hear that and go, oh, there's no science and there's no math and there's no this and you're not really at college, but it's a little work for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Like what did your girlfriend do while she was there, which was her degree with?

Michael 1:07:54
She got her degree in fibers. So like, I tried

Scott Benner 1:07:58
so hard to push Arden towards the Yeah,

Michael 1:08:01
yes. It is one of the coolest majors I think there is. I mean, she learned so much. And she is a hands on person just like me. And so like learning how to weave and like, she knows how to spin her own yarn. And then the job that she got was like surface design. So it's like designing print and pattern for clothes and graphic. And, you know, like the the flowery prints on a dress, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. But it was it was a corporate job. So she hated it. She left. I

Scott Benner 1:08:32
think that's what Artemis said. She's like, I'm not gonna want to do that. I even just I'm like, just take a minor in it. And I was like, seriously, it looks so interesting. And she's like, Yeah, I don't know. And I'm like, but we anyway, we were really like my wife. and I were like, This is good. I would look at this. And she's like, not what I want. Okay.

Michael 1:08:47
Yeah, no, I mean, you should I mean, if she could take even just a class at Pepe, it's, it's an awesome that buildings awesome. And the minor is, I had a friend and furniture who took the minor. And he said it was it was a lot of fun, because it's just like, it would go hand in hand with with fashion.

Scott Benner 1:09:07
I know. That's what we really did push her towards that she just took a business track as a minor instead. Because I think she really feels like she's gonna, like run a small business. It's something

Michael 1:09:16
I want to do do her own thing. Yeah, that's definitely and you can't really go wrong with that.

Scott Benner 1:09:20
Right? So we'll see. But anyway, Arden doesn't go there. She goes someplace. And where am I supposed to say Chicago? Chicago? Yeah, all of you are wrong. And please don't look for her internet. I get a note the other day from a woman who said, I'm not a stalker. Any note you get online that begins I'm not a stalker. You're like, Oh, I'm gonna die. But anyway, this one, she goes, I'm not a stalker, but she was I was in Forsyth Park the other day. And I saw a girl with an omni pod or with a Dexcom on her arm. And she had like your daughter's color hair and I stopped myself from going up to her. And I responded back and I said, Listen, you're lucky you didn't do that. because that wasn't her, because Arden doesn't wear Dexcom on her arm. Oh, I said, so you would have been rushed? A person who did not know at all, what the hell you were talking about? Like so. So anyway, so for all of you in Savannah, don't just assume you see her. You might be seeing other people have diabetes to get out. Yeah,

Michael 1:10:20
I mean, I will do that. There was we went to this art art show gallery thing a couple of weeks ago, and there were two people there who were I could see their pumps. So I forced myself to be like, a diabetic. And like, ask them questions and be like, oh, like, I would love to get your number, right. So that we can, like, have some sort of, you know, community, which I think is really important, you know, something like, the podcast, or just like, you know, being able to have somebody to, you know, even if it's like, I had someone at SCAD, who we had the same, you know, on the pod Dexcom. So, like, I would often run out before my insurance would get me more. And so she would trade me one, and I give her one when I got mine in the mail next week. Of course. Yeah, stuff like that is just like, it's a, you know, it's a priceless resource. Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:11:09
diabetes. Give a penny take a penny. Yeah. Oh, we're gonna call your episode. Give a penny take a penny. What a great idea. All right. See? You mind that? That sounds good. All right, is that I mean, that's what you're doing. Right. You're adding your story and taking other people's stories out and putting that in there. And it's perfect. Look at me being creative. Alright. Anything we missed anything? Michael, anything we should have talked about that we didn't?

Michael 1:11:36
I don't think so. Unless there's anything you wanted to ask me more?

Scott Benner 1:11:41
I mean, you feel good about what you got out, though. I want to make sure about that. Yeah, I

Michael 1:11:45
think so. I'm trying to think if there's anything else I wanted to talk about. But I mean, I think just I think I'm just so hard on myself with like the daily, the daily stuff of like, I've had this for 18 years, I still haven't nailed this down. Like what's like, what's wrong with me? You know, that kind of feeling? I guess we kind of touched on that. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:12:03
dude, you have a sixth one. And really, the last thing for you to do is Pre-Bolus. Yeah, just stop, you're bouncing off the chase. So like, is there? Like, I know you said earlier, like when you and your girlfriend are trying to even make like a schedule for what you're going to eat this week that it's difficult for you to do. I wonder if instead of trying to say to yourself, let's sit down and make a menu for this week? Could you not just say, let's sit down and write down all the food we like. And just write it all down? And then just take what you've written down and slide it into segments and do your grocery shopping? You don't I mean? Like, maybe it's the pressure of what are we going to make for like, you know what I'm saying? Like, like, what if you just made it more fun. I know, that seems simplistic, but it's what popped into my head when you were saying it earlier? Just like let's just, let's just write down everything we like to eat, and then we'll make it or why don't we just decide that we're gonna go grocery shopping twice a week, and, and just choose the next three days, like, we'll take our master list of food we love. And we'll look at it and choose three things and go grocery shopping for them. And then go again, why not make your thing fit into life? Instead of trying to make a life fit into your thing? I guess is my thought and then, you know, from there? I don't know man, the Pre-Bolus things tougher everybody. But yeah, do you eat at the same time every day? Or a similar time?

Michael 1:13:31
Similar, I try to eat lunch at the same time lunch I can usually remember to because I'm like, cuz I'm looking forward to taking lunch when I'm at work. So I'm like, Okay, I guess that means I can I can eat lunch soon, you know, all you know. So I'll plan it more ahead. And it's I don't eat a huge lunch. So it's like, easy for me to Pre-Bolus Is this not

Scott Benner 1:13:49
as easy as setting an alarm on your phone that says Bolus at certain times a day? And even if it's not exactly right, at least maybe it's in your head, then I

Michael 1:13:57
will do that for lunch. I'll like be like, I want to eat. I want to eat soon. I'm going to people's now I'll set a timer for 10 minutes. So because sometimes I'll Pre-Bolus I will forget to eat. Sure. Yeah. And then and then I'm dropping and then I'm like, I can't eat fast enough for it to catch and then I have to eat more. Like you know, drink a juice and then a pie and then it's like that. That happens way too often for me and I don't I mean, even if it's or if it's you know the other way

Scott Benner 1:14:21
around. Yeah. But you struggle most with timing your meal insulin. That really is your biggest struggle. Am I wrong? Yeah, yeah. Also, related, unrelated. If you could get your TSH down a little bit, maybe you maybe use insulin a little better. Actually, if you drank water a little more, maybe you'd use your insulin a little better. Like maybe these little like fixes along the way would all kind of commingle and make a big guy you know and pick improvement for you

Michael 1:14:50
know, I mean, so far even just in the past year that I've had because I've had the Omnipod fi for almost a year now. Pretty much got it as soon as I could. I had issues with insurance but What's new, but yeah, that it helped a lot. I was so excited. I was looking forward to this for years, once they had like the ones there's like the little teaser for it for automation.

Scott Benner 1:15:10
I remember when they used to call it, whatever they're gonna call it first. Like Verizon, they were gonna call it an omni pod horizon, and they changed the name to Omni pod five. That's right, even though there was not an Omnipod 123 and four. Yeah. I've never asked anybody about that. Maybe I will one deck. Yeah, it's like the Dexcom numbering, like, somehow started at seven then went to four, like, and then seven plus then four, then five. And then I was like, You guys are overthinking this. Start at one. Yeah, but excellence to keep going. But I think I think when even it shows you, even with a company like they don't when they're doing it, they don't know the future. Like they probably didn't realize when they were making Dexcom that ended up being iteration after iteration after iteration of it. You know what I mean? So the first person calls it something and then you wake up three years later, you're like, Oh, our naming system doesn't work, right? What's it you know, just what happens? Honestly, I have that problem. Sometimes with my episodes, I'm like, Oh, I shouldn't call it that. Now. I'm stuck. And they got to work around it. It's a pain in the butt. How'd you find the podcast?

Michael 1:16:20
My dad was out walking his dog. And one of their neighbors has type one. And she had mentioned it to him. And that was like, that must have been sophomore freshman year of college. Okay. And so that's how I heard about it. And then I didn't listen to it for a while until I remembered it. So I wasn't really listening to podcasts yet. Like, I was just like, I'm not ready to lay I don't have time to listen to podcasts. Like, I can't we listen to him in class. And I was more like, couldn't do them yet. But now I'm like, podcasts 90% of the time. And so that, so I found it through my dad.

Scott Benner 1:16:59
Okay. And it helped you like management wise, the podcast is, has helped you make better decisions. Yeah,

Michael 1:17:05
I mean, I didn't know about I mean, my doctors haven't told me anything. Basically, about, I didn't know about protein rise. And like I didn't know, like, I didn't even know about Pre-Bolus thing until a few years ago. Like, I mean, I knew that, like, that's kind of what you should be doing. But that's not like, we didn't do that at diabetes camp. You know, we didn't you know, the doctor didn't tell. Tell us about that. You know, I did the extent of my diabetes education was you can read a nutrition label, you're good. Okay. And that was like, and that and I was seven years old. And so then no more after that.

Scott Benner 1:17:37
So like, Well, is it maybe it's fair to say that maybe you don't forget to Bolus as much as you've been trained not to? Like maybe this is a habit you're trying to break? You know what I mean? Yeah,

Michael 1:17:48
yeah, I have a lot of, I don't think I've had a good habit. Like, I don't have a consistent habit of anything, I think, which is, like, weird to think about, but I think about it a lot. Like, I haven't done anything good consistently for more than three days in a row. Pick

Scott Benner 1:18:04
one. Just pick one. Yeah. Drink, drink water thing. Or, like you don't I mean, like, pick one thing, and then prove to yourself that you can break a habit. And you know what I mean? And then just keep trying to apply it to other things. It's gonna be a long process. But But here's, here's what I here's what I'm pretty certain of, if you were my kid, and I am old enough to have, yeah, oh, my God has word. But But I would say this, there's trying, and there is accepting it. So if you just accept that, if you accept it, and like, I'm never going to get this, right, it's not going to make anything better, because you're still going to torture yourself about it, you're gonna feel disappointed. I hear your voice when you're talking about how you treat people or like, even how you feel like you're never you're just going to burden yourself in a different way. Right? So you have to there's no choice, in my opinion, you got to keep working at it. And then working out, it can't just mean knowing that you're not doing a thing. It has to mean actual, like functional, functioning, functional, excuse me, like steps. So you have to create steps that are small enough that they're going to make an improvement. But tell yourself it's okay if it doesn't happen today, or this week, or this month, has to be like a big improvement. And, you know, I can tell you like I gave myself over to that idea when I started like we go V because the doctor will say to you Oh you know, where do you see like once it's in your system, like you're gonna lose like a pound a week. And I know when the doctor says that they're like, that's amazing. A pound a week's amazing but back then when someone says it to us, you're like, Why? Why, like a pound like I got, I got more weight to lose and all that like, like, how's that gonna help anything? But that's how it happens. You lose a pound a week. So you just accept that that's the situation and you call that you don't just call it progress. As you celebrated the weekends and you're a pound lighter, and you're like, I can't believe this, you don't look in the mirror and go, I have to lose 50 pounds to this is not very exciting. The you don't eat meat, you say this is amazing. I was supposed to lose a pound this week I did. This is a major celebration. I think that's how you treat like when you pick your waterglass up you go look at me doing it. And you act like you've done. I mean, fake it till you make it. And that's what they teach in AAA. So seriously, I don't know if you like it or not, it doesn't matter if that's a staple of that of that recovery idea. It is really what you're trying to do is you're trying to recover from a habit into another one. So just yeah, you know, man, I say it a lot of different ways, but just set the bar so damn low that even if you trip, you'll end up on the other side of it.

Michael 1:20:43
Ya know, I tried to do the I tried to set my expectations really low. Because it's like, that's, I mean, it's like, you got to start somewhere, you know? It's like, Yeah, I mean, you got to, you know, if you can do one thing. And then it's like, if you like, even if I don't expect to do it, and then I do it. It's like, Oh, great. It's like, you know, those couple days a week where like, my, my, my blood sugar doesn't go above 150, which is like very rare. But it's like, it feels amazing. It's such a great feeling.

Scott Benner 1:21:12
Please think it's interesting when people say that, they have to drink more water, it's a great example. And then there, they end up with a flat a Hydro Flask in their hand that's holding like it feels like it's a half a gallon of liquid. And they're like, hey, you know, it's got lines on it and drink this by eight o'clock this dynamic. You were a person yesterday who drank six ounces of water all day. And now you want to drink? I don't know, however much isn't that thing. That seems to be an unreasonable leap to me. Like, why don't you just start with 12 ounces. And then tomorrow try for more into like, because you'll build up a muscle to it. Like I take that AG one in the morning, it was actually hard to learn how to do. And it wasn't after not actually tastes fine. And like all that's fine. It's just it's that it wasn't a thing I used to do. And then I wanted to make it a thing I did it taking vitamins is the same way like people like oh, I forget them all the time. I get it, like I that happened to me, I had vitamins I want to take, I would forget to take them all the time. So I went out like an old person and bought a vitamin caddy, and I load them up. And I it's right in the middle of the island, like right in the middle of my kitchen. My wife did not like them there. So she moves it, then I go take it and move it back. Because not because I'm messing with her Michael, although that is a lovely byproduct of the of it. Because I do enjoy. I do enjoy screwing with her. But not because of that. But because I just said to him, like if it's not right here, I won't remember. And that needs to be important to you. Because it's important to me, and I need them to be right here. So there's this big, ugly plastic thing on my countertop, and I cannot avoid it. I literally put it I did the like physical equivalent of taping it to my forehead, or writing Pre-Bolus on my palm or something like that. You know what I mean? So, and then it became a habit. And now I can't, I can't forget, like it's impossible. Every day. I'm like, Oh, I take these vitamins. Every day I eat something that I know my body will struggle with. I take those enzymes with it, because I leave them out in front of me. Like I don't give myself the opportunity to forget it. So I don't know you're not the same person. But I hope something in there is valuable for you. Oh, yeah.

Michael 1:23:23
I mean, I did the same thing with my, with my pills. I got like a I got like a, like a very nice looking wooden pillowcase. So that if it's on my nightstand, it looks good. And I'd be like, Oh, it's right there. Let me just take it. I can preload it, you know, for the week. And it has it has a morning, morning side and a night side. So I can keep it all right there.

Scott Benner 1:23:42
I thought for sure you were gonna say that you made it. Like when you said, No, I

Michael 1:23:45
wish I wish it looks it does look really nice. I mean, I probably could, but it would be this person did it so well. So it's like I'd rather somebody else by law. I

Scott Benner 1:23:56
really appreciate this. We're getting along now. So I'm going to say goodbye. But yeah, I want to hang on from it and talk to you when we hang up. And then. Yeah, and I appreciate your time very much. Thank

Michael 1:24:04
you. Of course. Yeah. Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:24:06
That was a real pleasure. Hold on one second.

Here huge thanks to Dexcom for being longtime sponsors of the Juicebox Podcast dexcom.com/juice box head over there now get started today. If you'd like to wear the same insulin pump that Arden does, all you have to do is go to Omni pod.com/juice box. That's it. Head over now and get started today and you'll be wearing the same tubeless insulin pump that Arden has been wearing since she was four years old. I want to thank the ever since CGM for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Learn more about its implantable sensor, smart transmitter and terrific mobile application at ever since cgm.com/juicebox. Get the only implantable sensor for long term wear get ever Ever since. If you're living with type one diabetes, the afterdark collection from the Juicebox Podcast is the only place to hear the stories that no one else talks about. From drugs to depression, self harm, trauma, addiction, and so much more. Go to juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and click on after dark. There you'll see a full list of all of the after dark episodes. I know that Facebook has a bad reputation, but please give the private Facebook group for the Juicebox Podcast. A healthy once over Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes. The group now has 47,000 members in it, it gets 150 new members a day. It is completely free. And at the very least you can watch other people talk about diabetes, and everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones, everyone is welcome. Go up into the feature tab of the private Facebook group. And there you'll see lists upon lists of all of the management series that are available to you for free in the Juicebox Podcast, becoming a member of that group. I really think it will help you it will at least give you community you'll be able to kind of lurk around see what people are talking about. Pick up some tips and tricks. Maybe you can ask a question or offer some help Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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#1179 Cold Wind: Institutional Nursing

"Jessica" has been a nurse in a home for the elderly and a hospital for criminals. 

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 1179 of the Juicebox Podcast

you didn't hear what just happened to me while I was trying to say Hello friends, but I'm going to cut it out put it at the end so you can hear it later. Why am I here? Oh, I'm here to tell you that this is another cold wind episode. I'll be talking to a person today who we're going to call Jessica. Jessica has had type one diabetes since 1993 When they were diagnosed at 22 months old. That's right, she's 32 today. Jessica is a registered nurse. She's worked at an assisted care facility with an elderly population. Currently, she's in a criminal justice based system that deals with people who have committed crimes or have significant psych issues. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. Hey, the T one D exchange is looking for US residents who have type one diabetes, or are the caregivers of someone with type one they need you to take a survey the survey takes about 10 minutes your answers to completely simple questions that you will know the answers to help to move diabetes research forward specifically type one diabetes research. So if you want to help type one research, go take the survey T one D exchange.org/juicebox. It's quick, it's easy, and you'll actually help. Today today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by touched by type one. This is a fantastic organization that I've been dealing with for years. I go to do their speaking events. They care about people with type one diabetes, they're doing terrific work for them and I'd like for you to go check them out at touched by type one.org. Go find out what they're up to, and then follow them on Facebook and Instagram. Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, a company that's bringing people together to redefine what it means to live with diabetes. Later in this episode, I'll be speaking with Jalen, he was diagnosed with type one diabetes at 14. He's 29. Now he's going to tell you a little bit about his story. And then later at the end of this episode, you can hear my entire conversation with Jalen to hear more stories with Medtronic champions, go to Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox or search the hashtag Medtronic champion on your favorite social media platform. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the ever since CGM. Ever since it's gonna let you break away from some of the CGM norms you may be accustomed to no more weekly or bi weekly hassles of sensor changes. Never again, will you be able to accidentally bump your sensor off. You won't have to carry around CGM supplies and worrying about your adhesive lasting. Well, that's the thing of the past. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. Let's find out a tiny bit about you first. Jessica. Do you have type one diabetes?

"Jessica" 3:08
Yeah, since 1993 93

Scott Benner 3:11
How old were you then?

"Jessica" 3:13
22 months?

Scott Benner 3:15
Oh, no kidding. Yeah,

"Jessica" 3:17
I was I was a little tatertot

Scott Benner 3:19
that's gonna say that's young. How about that? 93,003 1323

"Jessica" 3:24
and 32. Now Wow, look

Scott Benner 3:26
at that. Good for you. How you doing?

"Jessica" 3:30
I'm with my title. I'm okay. I have some early stage complications. But I'm but since going on a POM those have kind of slowed down. What were they? Um, neuropathy and early stage renal disease,

Scott Benner 3:43
neuropathy and your feet, your hands. But but your eyes are perfect. Okay,

"Jessica" 3:48
perfect. It's just my kidneys. And I was really stressed out my blood pressure was high. And that doesn't know my jobs. And so they put me on a blood pressure mat. And guess what? Everything. The protein urea cleared right up.

Scott Benner 4:02
Oh, when they got your blood pressure under control. That's

"Jessica" 4:05
why my diabetes went better. Like when I went on a pump.

Scott Benner 4:08
How far into diabetes. Were you when that happened? I

"Jessica" 4:12
was 25 years in.

Scott Benner 4:13
Okay. Do you think? How would you categorize your care for the first 25 years your outcomes? I

"Jessica" 4:21
mean, I was on old school insulins with peaks and valleys called it's not even made anymore. It was called 90 and ultra Plantae. And regular like Lintian Ultra linty aren't even made anymore. Yeah. Did you have monitoring? Yeah, we would check my sugar four times a day

Scott Benner 4:37
with a finger stick or some other way. Yeah, finger stick. Do you know what your A onesies were when you were growing up?

"Jessica" 4:43
Back then they wanted you to ride higher. So they were between seven and eight.

Scott Benner 4:47
Okay. And you think they actually were and that's where they wanted you. Yeah. Okay.

"Jessica" 4:51
Yeah. Because they didn't want those to happen in kids because there was some study somewhere that said they wanted there was brain damage. From lows, I don't know what the new research shows, you know, because this was 30 years ago, but they didn't want all these lows, like I would get low and have seizures. Of course, every time I dropped, I would get diabetic seizures like every time I hit 40.

Scott Benner 5:15
And how often was that happening to you? Oh, God, I

"Jessica" 5:18
can't remember. But I do remember how much I hated the seizures because I would I would get tired after but I wasn't like an epileptic seizure. You know, where you don't remember. I could remember how much it hurt to jerk around like a fish out of water. I

Scott Benner 5:34
wonder if I wonder how much that had to do with the existing insulin? how it worked, because 40 is a little high to seize. You know what I mean? Although the monitoring probably wasn't terrific, either. So who would even know you don't I mean, like exactly what your blood sugar was. Right?

"Jessica" 5:47
And the meters were old. And sometimes we didn't check immediately. They just knew oh, god she seizing gave

Scott Benner 5:53
you a bunch of stuff, check your blood sugar. And now you're 40 Yeah, all right. I gotcha. Well, that's interesting. And in any other episode, we would keep talking about that. But because this is a cold one, we're gonna fast forward significantly. And you have

"Jessica" 6:08
you probably just like the background of how people how much damage they have based on the control from the backer, you know what I mean? Well,

Scott Benner 6:15
I just, I want I want people who are talking to know who they're talking to, and what kind of understanding of diabetes you have. Because we're going to be talking about it moving forward. And you know, this should just know who you are a little bit. I don't know about like, you know, I just followed the course of your conversation. So I if, you know, some people are fine, they don't have any complications. But I just want to know, you know, a little bit about when you were diagnosed, what you know, and what you've been through, you know, two different jobs of yours we're going to talk about today, let's do them in chronological order. So the first one is, tell me about what your job was in the nursing home. So

"Jessica" 6:48
I was a registered nurse, meaning, you know, of course, the duties of a nurse, she would do assessments, admissions, administer medications, monitor for side effects of medications, basic registered nurse duties that people are aware of that you would see in a regular hospital. It's just these are elderly, frail. Sometimes we'd get younger patients, sometimes with diabetes complications that could no longer take care of themselves, because they were, too they were falling apart from bad care, or just sheer self neglect, you know, earlier in

Scott Benner 7:21
life than you would expect. Okay, so there's kind of two different kinds of age groups. You see, you see older that you expect to see in a nursing home and you see slightly younger who have had enough medical issues that they've they've ended up there a little more quickly than then the older people. Just let's first of all, just talk about nursing home care to begin with. Let's say I bring my parent there. They live there. Now I leave, they take a couple of medications a day. They've got some, I don't know, they've got some exercises they have to do they live in in a room basically by themselves, right? The room, what's the room? They

"Jessica" 7:57
would actually I've been in one facility that will only work there for a month, but my predominant facility was three years. They'd have four roommates.

Scott Benner 8:05
How large was the room? Well, it

"Jessica" 8:07
was like you'd have a bed. Probably 10 feet a room and then another bed. Wow. For being across the hall. That's it? Yeah. We they fit for people. Yeah. So

Scott Benner 8:16
east, the West in between beds. Yeah. And north to south. And they

"Jessica" 8:20
were it was like you could hear everything. When you're doing care. There was only a curtain. You'd have up to four people or at least two. It depends on your insurance, though. If you had better insurance, you had a single room. You were on Medicare or Medicaid. You had all the roommates.

Scott Benner 8:37
Gotcha. So more money gets you fewer roommates in this first place. But not privacy. Does it get you better care? More money? No,

"Jessica" 8:46
because you still have nurses are still taking care of 26 or more patients.

Scott Benner 8:51
So 26 Plus patients on the floor? How many nurses to those 26. One,

"Jessica" 8:58
I would have 26 patients I was responsible for how long was your shift? Eight hours? Three to 11.

Scott Benner 9:08
One nurse for eight hours for 26 people. They all need something pretty consistently or no?

"Jessica" 9:15
Yeah, everybody's completely debilitated with multiple comorbidities. Okay.

Scott Benner 9:19
How do you even manage that? Like do you just run from buzzer buzzer? Or do you just wear to you do what you need to do and try to get to people for the extra stuff when you can. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the ever since CGM. Ever since cgm.com/juicebox. The ever since CGM is the only long term CGM with six months of real time glucose readings giving you more convenience, confidence and flexibility. And you didn't hear me wrong. I didn't say 14 days. I said six months. So if you're tired of changing your CGM sensor every week, you're tired of it. Falling off or the adhesive not lasting as long as it showed or the sensor failing before the time is up. If you're tired of all that, you really owe it to yourself to try the ever since CGM. Ever since cgm.com/juice box, I'm here to tell you that if the hassle of changing your sensors multiple times a month is just more than you want to deal with, if you're tired of things falling off and not sticking or sticking too much, or having to carry around a whole bunch of extra supplies in case something does fall off, then taking a few minutes to check out ever since cgm.com/juice box might be the right thing for you. When you use my link, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful. Ever since cgm.com/juice box. This episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box. And now we're going to hear from Medtronic champion Jalen.

Speaker 1 11:03
I was going straight into high school. So it was a summer heading into high school was that particularly difficult, unimaginable, you know, I missed my entire summer. So I went, I was going to a brand new school, I was around a bunch of new people that I had not been going to school with. So it was hard trying to balance that while also explaining to people what type one diabetes was. My hometown did not have an endocrinologist. So I was traveling over an hour to the nearest endocrinologist for children. So you know, I outside of that I didn't have any type of support in my hometown.

Scott Benner 11:37
Did you try to explain to people or did you find it easier just to stay private?

Speaker 1 11:42
I honestly I just held back I didn't really like talking about it. It was just it felt like it was just an repeating record where I was saying things and people weren't understanding it. And I also was still in the process of learning it. So I just kept it to myself didn't really talk about it.

Scott Benner 11:57
Did you eventually find people in real life that you could confide in, I

Speaker 1 12:01
never really got the experience until after getting to college. And then once I graduated college, it's all I see. You know, you can easily search Medtronic champions, you see people that pop up and you're like, wow, look at all this content. And I think that's something that motivates me started embracing more, you know, how I'm able to type one diabetes, to hear

Scott Benner 12:22
Jay Lynn's entire conversation stay till the very end, Medtronic diabetes.com/juice box to hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community.

"Jessica" 12:33
Do what you need to do, and then get to the extra stuff if like they're on the floor, of course, because they bring their buzzer and weren't tended to quick enough, I would have to stop what I was doing attend to that somebody had chest pain we had somebody with or in the case of diabetes, a hypoglycemic episode, you'd be tending to those emergencies in between juggling the basic stuff like administering medications and assessments.

Scott Benner 12:57
Is there any advanced doctoring going on? Like, having a problem that isn't quite figured out yet? Do people actually try to diagnose what's going on? Or is it just there's orders from their doctor about medications? And we do that thing, and that's it?

"Jessica" 13:12
Um, well, if there is a change in condition, we would get them further care, we would call the doctor and say, hey, this person is exhibiting this, but typically, it's just you get admission orders from the hospital, because they would come from a hospital typically, okay, you know, because they, the hospital would determine they needed further care along with the family. Sometimes they would be directed MIT's from family, it just depended on the situation. They would get their basic orders, like basic, everybody got the same basic admission orders. Yeah. And then they would get their basic medications that they were prescribed by the doctor, and then they'd be seen once a month. If they were on Medicare. I can't speak on the private pay. But Medicare patients can only be seen once a month. And then, which was kind of challenging for some patients because they were so sick and their conditions were rapidly changing. Once a month wasn't enough. Yeah. So everything would be done by phone.

Scott Benner 14:07
Okay. And that would be through the nurse and through the facility, not because you're not asking the patients to speak for themselves at this point about their health, right? No, okay.

"Jessica" 14:17
Everything's done by the nurse.

Scott Benner 14:19
So then you're counting also on the nurse understanding what's happening and, and relaying it properly. Yes. Simple things like medication. I'm supposed to get something at noon. How likely is it? I'm actually going to get it at noon? We

"Jessica" 14:31
had an hour before or an hour after window to give medications. I would be given nine o'clock meds at 1030. Okay, but that 11

Scott Benner 14:41
I gotcha. Because your verse rushing around. You're literally just can you tell me if there's 26 rooms in a row? Do you go get all the medication for 20? Sounds like you wouldn't, you'd probably go back and forth over and over again. Right? Because you don't want to waste things up.

"Jessica" 14:54
Right? You don't want to miss anything or have a meta or No, I know some nurses would do the 26 but the thing is then if you have to hold a medication because their blood pressure or something was low, then you'd be picking through the cup trying to figure out what met it was okay. So I would just go back and forth and pop the pills out of the container, right? Because they came in little med cards. So I would just do that as I would go. But you're going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to the med cart to the rooms.

Scott Benner 15:21
What about a simple thing? Like a person who's wearing an adult diaper? They wet themselves? How long could they sit in that before it can get handled? Sometimes

"Jessica" 15:30
I'd have one scene for 40 patients, and nurses can help a scene out but of course, we had our nursing duties to tend to write our medical care, but I'm a cena with 40 patients, they'd be waiting for hours.

Scott Benner 15:43
Tell people what Cena means. Certified Nursing Assistant. Okay. Now, my mom has passed now, but she spent the last couple of years of her life in an assisted living facility. A certified nursing assistant, in my personal experience was some poor kid with a part time job. Or some lady who was working her second job or something like that, running around like crazy. And if you ask them any question, they didn't know the answer to anything they were they're performing tasks. And that was it. Am I undervaluing that? Or Is that about right?

"Jessica" 16:17
That's about right, because they don't have a lot of clinical knowledge. A lot of them I had some really good ones that do basic things like keep the head of the bed up on a tube feeder, when you had those CNAs that had basic clinical knowledge. Like some of them would say, you know, this dizziness isn't normal. I'm not going to get them out of bed, because I'm going to go call the nurse. So some of them had more common sense than others.

Scott Benner 16:39
Okay, so the good ones could do a little more thinking, yeah. And

"Jessica" 16:43
then they would be able to tell the nurse when something was going on. Yeah, we had some of them that knew the signs and symptoms of like low blood sugar and are brittle diabetics. They'd be like, You know what, you're acting funny. I gotta I gotta get the nerve

Scott Benner 16:55
to get the nurse to tell me something. These these people and you difficult job being asked to run around like crazy for 26 people for eight hours. These other poor people are changing diapers and bowel movements and cleaning people up afterwards. Crazy good paying job, right? You drive a Lamborghini, you were making like a million dollars a year. Now? What is that? What is one of those scenes make?

"Jessica" 17:17
When I worked at the nursing home? About 1314? an hour?

Scott Benner 17:21
Yeah. So for $13 Now I get to change people's diapers all day. Right? What am I? What a joy. Okay, and you're completely anonymous. Jessica. So what were you making?

"Jessica" 17:32
I was making 30 Originally, and then I went pool as they call it. So I went up to 37 an hour

Scott Benner 17:39
30 to 37. And not just and you'd only been doing it for three years. Yeah. Did you consider that a reasonable compensation for what you were doing? No,

"Jessica" 17:48
no, the amount of tasks I had to do in liability I had on my license with that many patients, it was not reasonable.

Scott Benner 17:56
Explain that part to people liability on your license. What is that? So

"Jessica" 18:00
what would happen is if you provided poor care, you could be or something adverse happened based on the quality of the care you provided. They could file a complaint of your licenses, the state, the state with an investigate your license, and you could actually lose your job. Okay. And your license your livelihood, if there was an incident that something happened, which could be a lot of different things. So with 26 patients, I can't monitor all the minor changes. I can't prevent every wound from occurring, because I can't turn everybody every hour. People are getting bedsores. That's a liability. People are falling. That's a liability because I've had, it wasn't my patient, but I know one woman whose patient fell and died. Okay. And she was in hot water because they're like, Well, what did you do to prevent the fall?

Scott Benner 18:48
That was on her? Right? And then there's a layer above you, like there's the administration of the facility, and then the owners the ownership, which you don't know or see the administration's under as much pressure as you are? Right, because they want

"Jessica" 19:02
to pass the state inspection to get funding from CMS, the center of Medicare and Medicaid Services,

Scott Benner 19:08
okay. Okay. Even at your 37 at your highest number. You're 37 How much cash in your hand at the end of the week did you have? I

"Jessica" 19:16
was working part time. So I was working about 12 hours a week. So 37 times 12. I'd have to do that math, which wasn't very much,

Scott Benner 19:25
but you had full time you'd still be making 37. Right. Okay. Okay. Did you feel like the administration had your back as a nurse? No,

"Jessica" 19:36
they were clueless. They walked around like no idea what was going on.

Scott Benner 19:39
But there are people who previously had your job though, right? The deal when

"Jessica" 19:44
did the director of nursing the administrators typically a business person, they have to be a licensed nursing home administrator, but their background is business and finance. So

Scott Benner 19:55
it seems to me like your job is the difference between spinning plates and Being told if they fall and break, we're gonna sue you or you're gonna get fired or something like that. And the plates being on a shelf and just it's like, oh, it's your job to keep the plates there. Like, I can keep those from falling, meaning eventually the plates are going to fall. Like you just you can't avoid it forever, right. 26 older, frail people with a lot of comorbidities, you're running around like a lunatic. And this the place make money? Yes. Like, could they have hired two people for an eight hour shift is what I'm getting at? Yes, yeah. Okay. So this is a cost cutting thing. Would you say? A person in that situation living in that situation? Is it just like, I hate to say it like this, but is it storage? Like is the idea like, Listen, you don't have a lot of time left, we're just going to do our best here just so you don't suffer and that you're getting what you need. But like we're not, you're not looking for quality of life. At that point, right. In

"Jessica" 20:56
theory, you are always looking for quality of life, because that's how the patients maintain their well being. But the way the system is set up, you can't provide quality of care or quality of life, right? I couldn't do range of motion like you're supposed to do. I couldn't sit everybody up. You know what you're supposed to I couldn't turn everybody like you're supposed to the basic nursing stuff you learn in fundamentals in nursing, I couldn't do because of time, because of time constraints Exactly. Like in nursing school, they recommend people that can't sleep, try something like a warm lotion and BackRub like, you know, nice tasks like that. But the elderly appreciate. Couldn't do it. Like everything, just open them up on pills to get them to fall asleep. Instead of trying non pharmacological intervention. Just dope them up on pain meds and put them to sleep that way. Yeah.

Scott Benner 21:43
Yeah, I had to stop them from doing that to my mom. At one point. I was like, Hey, I think my mom's high all the time. What are we doing? And it wasn't what she was looking for either. I even thought like stuff that they would say like, oh, there's a community room she can go down to, we're not going to help her get there. Or you know, whatever. Yeah, like, but if she can get there, great. And then if she walked out in the hallway and made one wrong turn, they'd be like, Your mom doesn't seem to know where she is. Like, it's a big, like, expansive corridors, like she just got there. Like, I wouldn't imagine she'd know where she was, you know what I mean? And then they act like, well, so she can't go to the community room. Is everything felt like an excuse to limit or not do something? Yes, yeah. Do you really mean and when stuff didn't happen? It was kind of hilarious. So in my mom's room, at the first place, she was there's, you know, a cord, your pole for a bell, right? Goes to the nursing station. So my mom falls in the bathroom, and she pulls the cord. But it doesn't work. It never alarms, the nursing station, nothing happens. So luckily, my mom was trying to go to the bathroom and tidy herself up right before she knew somebody was going to come in. So she only spent about 10 minutes on the floor. But she was 10 minutes kind of folded on herself not in a precarious position. But luckily for her someone was coming in. So she got found pretty quickly. And that made me Of course, call the place and say look, you know, she pulled the bell, the Bell didn't work. And she was oh, no, you know, we'll we'll check into that. Then no one ever gets back to me. And then I press it. And it's like, oh, yeah, the wall. So there's a problem with the bail system, but we're getting it fixed. And I was like, Okay, great. But I called back in two weeks, is the bail system fixed? No, I'm gonna call you in seven days is the bail system fixed. Now this went on and on and on until I really got upset and pressured it, we're gonna get somebody out. We can't get somebody out here because of COVID. And I said, you can't get somebody out there to fix the Bell system because of COVID. I was like, that doesn't make any sense. What is COVID have to do with any of this? And then they didn't have an answer for that. And then finally, one day, I was in my car. And Jessica, you don't? I mean, you know me if you listen to the podcast pretty well, but you don't know me know me. Scott in his 20s didn't have a good temper. So it's got as an adult as okay. But I get a call one day I'm sitting in my car, I pull over to the side of the road, and a person gets on the phone and says, Hey, we just wanted to let you know, when your mom fell. People didn't come not because the Bell didn't work in her room. The bell in her room works fine. And I went, Okay. And I said, Why didn't they come? And she said, The Bell didn't work at the nurse's station. So the system works fine. It's just at the nurse's station, there was a problem. And I went, No, this system doesn't work fine. If one and it's a walkie talkie if one of them works and the other one doesn't work. The walkie talkies don't work, because now your mom's walkie talkie works. And we had this inane conversation that went on for a couple of minutes until if I'm being honest, I screamed at her and hung up the phone. And I believe part of what I screamed was fix it and 24 hours or I'm calling the state. And then 24 hours later, they it was fixed. It was amazing. Yeah,

"Jessica" 24:57
well, this is a little outside track, but I was Allstate. I did it for eight buttons. I was a state licensing surveyor for nursing homes. With that I was going through and making sure they were following the licensure guidelines. And something like a call bell not working could be a tag, like you said, yeah. Because that puts the patients in danger. Anything that puts the patients in danger, it results in a fine. Yeah,

Scott Benner 25:20
as crazy as that all was, by the way, and by the also in the time that that that whole conversation was going on, like I told you weeks into a couple of months, they put literally bells, like you would see on a desk like you remember, like old movies, you'd walk in, there wasn't somebody manning the desk, and you ding ding the bell, they put those in their rooms next to their bed, I'm like, Well, how does that help her in the bathroom? Like, I don't, what are we doing so they were literally ringing a bell to get people. For a while, it was pretty horrible. Anyway, to me, the amount of times that the person I was on the phone with the amount of times that she insisted that if one side of the walkie talkie worked and the other side of the walkie talkie worked, and you were holding the one that worked, the system worked. That told me everything I needed to know about that place for the rest of my life. She had something in her mind that she thought would keep me from being able to sue them. And she was not going to she wouldn't say the system wouldn't work. If both sides didn't work. She said your mom's worked fine. She just kept saying that. And it was I was like, Okay, well, I'm I'm, obviously the truth isn't going to come out here. Let's talk about people with type one diabetes. In that setting. What is being done for them? Your type one is just how you'd want to be taken care of tell me the whole thing, really. So

"Jessica" 26:41
what would happen is you would be on AC HS blood sugar checks, meaning before meals and at bedtime. So you'd get checked four times a day, just like I did in the back in the day when I was first diagnosed. So they're doing an old school, right? Yeah. And then they would be on what's called for insulin a sliding scale. I don't know if you know what that is from. Okay, so from when your daughter had it, I don't know if she was on a sliding scale

Scott Benner 27:08
she never has. But I've talked to 1000 people have done it. So yeah, so

"Jessica" 27:12
it works like you know, zero to 150, no insulin 151 to 200, you get x amount of units, 200 to 250, so many units, and so on and so forth. And the scale typically stops at 400. And then at 400. You give 11 units, just a example number, and then you call the doctor immediately. Okay? So it's like, you're not getting meal coverage, you're just getting so many units.

Scott Benner 27:42
So could I, before a meal be under a certain level, and they would even give insulin for the food? Correct. So if my blood sugar is 149, and you won't give me insulin, typically no. Okay, in most sliding scales, but I'm about to eat. So you come back to me before the next meal, where I'm assuming you find my blood sugar in the three hundreds, and then I get insulin for that.

"Jessica" 28:07
Yes. Oh, so it's kind of like you're good at breakfast, because you get your Lantis you know, at night, which typically it was a lot of our facility use a lot of land tests. Okay, that was what was on formulary. You know, and this was it's just it goes off the formulary, right, so you get your Lantis typically a bedtime. And then you'd usually get enough Lantis to where your blood sugar was great at night. So you were almost like feeding the Basal, you know, because you wake up great overnight, and then they would expect that sliding scale to cover you for breakfast, or the blanches to cover you for breakfast, which we all know Basal rates isn't supposed to cover a meal, yeah, you would only get meal coverage after like a month or more a bad blood sugars, then they might give you two units for a meal, like a very small amount for meal coverage. But that was only when the sliding scale failed.

Scott Benner 29:01
So were most of those people living with higher blood sugars, correct? Yeah. And that affects their ability to be happy, I would imagine. And if they're in the middle of healing, that also slows that down.

"Jessica" 29:13
I would just, it's not conducive to their well being. Right, right.

Scott Benner 29:17
But it's not a consideration. Nobody says Mary has a wound on her arm. Let's try to keep her blood sugar tighter so it heals more quickly or so that we don't talk about like that. No,

"Jessica" 29:27
we just do wound care like the wound care that the wound care dock orders, but the diabetes perspective is never considered in that. Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:34
So these people are basically being treated like an old car that's falling apart that we can afford to replace. So we'll just fix whatever falls onto the ground and then hope the bumper stay stuck. And if it doesn't, we'll glue it back on until the door handle falls off but we're not trying to we're not trying to renovate the car I guess is what I'm saying.

"Jessica" 29:54
They're not sure I don't know what the ANC goal is of the ADA. Now, like I said, My date was below seven. I think it's still below seven. We weren't shooting for that. It was just like you said, just repair on their agency came back at eight, we might modify the insulin, depending on the patient, right. But they weren't shooting for an agency of 5.5. Yeah.

Scott Benner 30:16
Do you know if I asked you what the average amount of time is a person stays alive after they enter a facility.

"Jessica" 30:24
We have patients that were there for 10 years, but those ones were generally had less conditions. They might have just had like severe disability like muscle weakness and wasting, and they were private pay. So the private pay ones lived a little longer, because most of them were less sick.

Scott Benner 30:39
Okay, so private pay people that would indicate I had, I can't live at home by myself anymore. I don't have family to live with. And I've got some cash so I can afford to move into another place. So they show up a little sooner. But they're not as sick when they get there. Yes. Okay. The sicker you are when you get there, the less time you have. Correct. Okay. How would you feel if your diabetes was managed the way there's this horrible, that's the sliding

"Jessica" 31:09
scale is what we did back in the day, when I was first diagnosed. And my dad recently looked at my logs, and he goes now I'm surprised you're not dead today. And he was he's that type A, like personality, like perfection. Yeah. But we didn't have half unit syringes. And I was, you know, 22 months. So you're guessing game based on one unit and eyeballing a half a unit on a syringe. So he like I said, he looked at those numbers and said, How the hell do you not have much bigger problems? Yeah, yeah. And he tried his absolute hardest, like to have a normal childhood, yet have good numbers.

Scott Benner 31:48
Jessica, if I Google, how long does the average person live in a in the next word that populate self populates in Google is America but the second one is a nursing home. That's funny, and I don't I think it's a pretty average question I'd ask the current average length of stay in a long term care facility is two and a half years. Yeah,

"Jessica" 32:13
that sounds about right. If you look at admission dates on the computer, and then adapt date.

Scott Benner 32:17
Yeah, that's on NJ that's from nj.gov. Probably because I'm in New Jersey. So Google fed me back something local. There was tough, because you had that thought when you're when my mom went in, like, I felt like, oh, like it felt like you're on a countdown. Like she can live two and a half years. Honestly, it worked out almost, you know, almost exactly like that. So then the question is, is society doing something wrong? And are they doing it just because of money? Like so if all those people no matter how beat up they were, if they all had their own nursing care and could see a doctor more than once a month? Do you think they'd last longer than they do? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Is that a reasonable thing to ask? And as you're a person who's got type one, you worked in that setting, even if all the money was available, and the facility was willing to spend it and put all the nurses in there? Like how much would that change their lives? Do you think?

"Jessica" 33:12
significantly? Really? Okay, yeah, because no one feels good at 300. We'd have patients writing in the three hundreds all day. But then it's like I would do that previously in life, because we had didn't have CGM in my mid 20s. I was on Medicaid. So I didn't have a CGM. So I purposely write high, because I couldn't feel my lows. And I pass out at work right at that I passed out at the nursing home twice. Okay. And that was scary. They almost dial 911 for one of them. You know why? Because you can't have the nurse go down.

Scott Benner 33:44
So I laughed, because there's not one more nurse there to help you. That's the part that made me laugh.

"Jessica" 33:51
So luckily, I had one nurse that was able to help with the dementia Ward, which was like harder because the people would refuse care. You know, I'd get hit all the time that they took me off the dementia Ward upon my request, because it was just too crazy. But yeah, I passed out and my coworker slapped me across the face to get in response to pain, literally, like, slap me frontwards and backwards. And then she forced us down my throat like I could suck with a straw just enough to get the juice out my throat out of it. Wow.

Scott Benner 34:23
So I tell you keep your blood sugar higher. And but now that monitoring exists, you were CGM. Now. Yeah, yeah. And I love it. You don't keep your blood sugar 300 anymore. No, no. Okay. Is there any way in that setting that you could manage someone who couldn't help themselves? The way you're managing now?

"Jessica" 34:47
No, not what the number of patients I had that average 26 divided by eight. I can't I'd have to do a calculator. How many minutes you had to care for them, but it was less it was like 15 minutes if that okay. If I'm only seeing you 15 minutes a shift, I can't manage you as tightly as I, as I could. Yeah. And then we're not trained in pump therapy. Most people don't come in on pump therapy. And depending on the state, Medicare, Medicaid, or Medicare might not cover pump therapy. So the facilities take away anything that would provide tight control, because they don't want the liability of somebody accidentally overdosing on insulin with a pop. So

Scott Benner 35:27
did you ever see an older adult who just really understood their diabetes? And like, listen, I can do this? Or do they lose their ability to take care of themselves once they get there? Legally, we

"Jessica" 35:37
had a lot of people that were alert and oriented times for person place time situation, and they knew that they weren't being managed, and they're demanding to call the doctor. Right, you know, because they knew what was up. They knew it wasn't healthy to be 300. And have the nurse laws a fair use a sliding scale? Yeah, because they would just be on the yo yo, you're giving them no units for zero to 49, then they're up to 400, then you're slamming them with 11 units. And then they skip their meal because they're not hungry because they feel so crappy, right? No one likes being 400. And then you're slamming 11 units, and um, which I know everybody's insulin needs vary. But then they bottom out. Yeah. So they just get on this yo, yo, and I can't provide the care. But I know that they need

Scott Benner 36:22
right. That's never gonna happen. There's no fix to it. Right? Correct. Yeah, this is slightly off topic question. But I want people to have some context. Did you ever experience a family, bring an older person in get them settled? Say, hey, we'll see you Monday and literally never come back.

"Jessica" 36:43
All the time? Where they literally abandoned?

Scott Benner 36:45
Yes, yeah. So I learned how common that was from a friend of mine. And it really did shock me. So they get their parents to the facility, get them checked in, and then just ghost them. Like don't pay the bills. Don't ever talk to them again. They just disappear. Yes, yeah, that's not uncommon. Yeah. Okay. Well, we're all we're all doomed. That's fine. Least you picked a good name, Jessica. That's nice. We can be happy about that for a couple of minutes. Can I ask you the first time you realize that happened? What did you think? Do you remember the first time you realize this person has been abandoned here?

"Jessica" 37:25
It breaks your heart because we become your family, you know, and I can't provide you that same emotional support that I could if I had less patients. And those patients need a little more love. We would be hugging patients, you know, the ones that were allowing us to, if patients crying and you'd be holding their hand, but you're holding their hand for two minutes, not until they're done crying, right?

Scott Benner 37:50
You're like, Okay, I gotta go. I have to say that the people that my mom intersected with personally in her room were always terrific, always. And nobody was unkind. I always felt like you're describing like, there's, listen, there's not enough time for me to do the thing that needs to be done here. And if you want something to happen, you have to do it yourself. Like I would have to call doctors and browbeat them into just doing their jobs. Like Like, just really just push and push and push. I had a general practitioner who was mismanaging my mom's blood pressure, for example. And I finally just said to him, like, why won't you send her to a cardiologist? Like you're using a really old medication? It doesn't seem like you know, what, what's going on here? Like, why don't we give her to somebody that could help her. And then he did that. And then they were able to bring her blood pressure down. But for the months that he messed around with it, she couldn't get her cancer infusions to help keep her cancer away. And then my mom dies eventually, because her cancer comes back. But my mom's cancer comes back, possibly, because this guy messed around getting her blood pressure down. And so she couldn't get these infusions that were meant to help keep the cancer away after they've been removed. It feels hopeless. While they're there, everything about it felt hopeless. And the only thing that kept my mom from feeling hopeless, was her trying to keep up her good attitude. And that's the other thing is she's trying to keep up that good attitude. While basically most of her life is puzzle books and television and music and not much else in a tiny room, and nowhere to go. And nobody to help her go somewhere if she wanted to. So here's a hard question. And then we're going to move to your next job. If you got to the age where this was going to happen to you, you were going to have to go into an assisted living facility. But you had a switch, you could just turn your lights off and and be done. Would you turn yourself off or go into the facility?

"Jessica" 39:44
Turn myself off. You would because I don't want to die of a bedsore. I don't want to die of diabetes complications where you suffer you know like with the going to die dialysis being poked and prodded out there. Like I said, bed sores are very common in nursing homes because people are not being turned every hour like they're supposed to be. I don't want to die of drowning in my own fluid from heart failure because they couldn't get my blood pressure under control. I mean, just the variety of problems that occur. I would just like you said, I would just keep the switch off and call it a night.

Scott Benner 40:23
And even personal like, affirming personal interactions with family, there are too few and far between to be meaningful right.

"Jessica" 40:33
Now families like we had one lady where her debt hurt songs only concerned if she was eating. That's it. Because when people stop eating, that's when you that's when you're ready to go. Yeah, so he would call me every week, at the same time. And it was my shift. It was I don't remember if it was a Monday or Tuesday, but he would call and I would just tell him, it was a five minute conversation. Your mom is eating, I pull up the screen about 25 to 50% per meal. And he'd go is she taking her supplement? Because we'd have venture shakes? You probably know what venture shakes are. Yeah. You know, we've all seen them on the TV, is she taking her ensure at least Yes. And eventually she was eating 10% of a meal. You know, it got less than last minute she passed. But the song appreciated just a nurse, like calling him and telling him, this is how your mom is doing.

Scott Benner 41:24
So he could understand what was happening is horrible for everybody through by the way, I'll tell you like, I'd go visit my mom a lot. And by mom, I'll be back I'll see on Friday, like but you know, you go out the room and you close the door. You just stand there for a second and you're just like, oh my god, I can't believe I'm leaving. I can't believe I'm leaving her here. I feel terrible. She must be doing the same thing on the other side of that door that I'm doing right now. She must be sitting there thinking, oh my god, I can't believe he left. I can't believe he's not going to be back till Friday. Like, you know, it's just, it's tough. Listen, I'm sure there are plenty of people who have quality of life at the end of their life. But for the ones that don't, it isn't great. So okay, so they're not getting good care for their diabetes. They're the it's just like I said, you're just you're gluing the mirror back on when it falls off. But we're never going to, we're never going to pull the car over for an hour, pull all the mirrors and bumpers and doors off, strip it down payment and start over again. It's just let's see if we can keep this thing together. As for as long as we can drive it down the road. Your next job, where did you work at the next place? And is that where you are now? Yes. Okay. It is

"Jessica" 42:27
a forensic psych facility, which is state operated and run for patients that have committed a crime and they go there instead of jail because they were I don't like the term crazy, but they were crazy and were mentally ill at the time of their crime. Okay. I won't say the legal status because that could identify the state but as a particular legal status.

Scott Benner 42:48
Okay. All right. So people ended up there because either they were mentally ill and committed a crime or mentally ill temporarily while they committed a crime or said that they were once they got the court and the court believed them. That's pretty much how you end up there. Okay. People who have killed people. Okay, yeah. So from murder to something

"Jessica" 43:08
like maybe attempted murder or vehicular manslaughter. Okay, we had one guy that had bipolar disorder, and was driving a car recklessly and harmed a person,

Scott Benner 43:19
I think. All right. So you're running the gamut there with that situation? Now, are these people they're there for their? For the the mental health side of it. They don't necessarily have physical problems, right?

"Jessica" 43:33
Correct. But we do get people with physical problems, right? Because, like right now we're taking care of it. We have a type one on my unit. Okay.

Scott Benner 43:41
So let's talk about that. That specific situation, type one diabetes on that unit? Vi I guess first of all, how many people are you taking care of in a shift? How long is a shift?

"Jessica" 43:51
12 hours? You have two nurses for a house of 20.

Scott Benner 43:56
Well, that's better. Are you getting paid any better any worse? Slightly

"Jessica" 44:00
better, but I have more experience. Now. I'm making about 40 an hour now,

Scott Benner 44:05
making 40 for having more experience. You don't get a VIG for them having murdered somebody and you still have to help them. That doesn't work. Okay. Are you ever frightened for your own safety?

"Jessica" 44:16
Sometimes? Yeah. Because Because these patients have committed a violent crime they murdered somebody one time they lost their marbles murdered somebody one time. What if they go What if their mental illness start cycling again? Are they going to become violent?

Scott Benner 44:30
And you are in a room with them? They're not restrained or anything like that, right? They're just, they're living. Yesterday,

"Jessica" 44:36
I had three guys almost beat each other up. I had to get like one I had to pull off and say you go sit down in your chair. You put your shirt back on and sit down. I was firm. I mean, maybe not the most therapeutic but these two guys needed somebody blonde and short right? So I was like, put your shirt on it sit down.

Scott Benner 44:56
First of all, why is your shirt not on and secondly, stop hitting it. What do you You know what they were fighting about some

"Jessica" 45:01
girlfriend thing there was a bunch of girlfriend drama and they were playing a card game and the other guy was mocking him because he lost. So one guy was mad because he stole his girlfriend and and the other guy was mad at the same guy. Because he was mocking him over a card game. These

Scott Benner 45:14
guys have girlfriends. Yeah, like

"Jessica" 45:17
gruff six units.

Scott Benner 45:18
Oh, the girls that are other women in the facility. They're not people coming to visit them that are their girlfriends. Sometimes they are really, okay. And how many people in a room in that situation? Usually, like if

"Jessica" 45:29
we have visitation that's pre scheduled, we have a staff supervising of course, because they're not allowed to like, be too personal, like a peck on the cheek, maybe one peck on the lips, and then that's a wrap. Okay, you're not allowed to sit there and get touchy feely with each other. Right. But on other units, we have six units total, I work on the intake unit, the initial admission unit. So it's a little wilder,

Scott Benner 45:51
because they haven't settled into their lives yet. Correct. And once they settle in how many people live in a room? Are they singles are there multiple people in those rooms, on

"Jessica" 46:01
the intake room at singles on the intake unit, because patients are too unstable. And then on the regular units, that's about two per it's two people per room.

Scott Benner 46:10
Two people per room, okay? Okay, varying age ranges, very young, very old.

"Jessica" 46:16
We've got 18 all the way up to their 60s, sometimes seven days. And if

Scott Benner 46:22
that 18 year old, murdered somebody and had a license, they'll live there the rest of their life. It's

"Jessica" 46:28
a privilege system. I won't go into that. But they could be released early, kinda like probation. But they're still under the jurisdiction of the court. You know, they have to follow the rules of their release. If they don't they come right back

Scott Benner 46:41
to the hospital. Places always full, never an open bed. Right

"Jessica" 46:45
now we got a few open beds, but we're filling up again, we've got to get people moved along to the release unit. But that's all up to the courts.

Scott Benner 46:52
There's this cycle throughout the year. I don't know how this is gonna sound but you know, I run a pretty big Facebook community. And there are certain times a year that people are a little less stable than other times of year, like Thanksgiving to New Years is one of those spots, for example, like do you see that? ebbs and flows?

"Jessica" 47:11
Yeah, because the holidays are hard on people because like, daily can get visits for the patients that do have families in the area. But we had a couple people, one guy who was just passing through,

Scott Benner 47:21
and he did committed a crime, and now he's there. Yeah, he's got a 10

"Jessica" 47:25
and a half year sentence. And he served about six of them. And but a holidays, he's just calling his family. He's not there enjoying the cranberries and no stopping. And, you know,

Scott Benner 47:36
is there a moment when somebody's been there long enough that you see them as the person they used to be? Like, do they get to a point sometimes where you're like, oh, my gosh, like you don't even belong here anymore? Like, how does that work?

"Jessica" 47:51
Well, hopefully they get their meds right. Not everybody is severely mentally ill some of them just had a psychotic break. Like we have a postpartum depression case that really breaks my heart because she was postpartum and couldn't get the help that she needed, you know that. So she was temporarily insane. She wasn't fully but we keep her on her meds to keep away any signs of depression, but she's not on heavy duty meds, right, like antipsychotics, then we've got other patients where we hope to get through any psychotics up where they're good. And they, they're completely normal. Yeah, like they can talk coherently. They know what's going on, they're not hallucinating anymore.

Scott Benner 48:27
So they almost feel like they're experiencing that place the way you are. Yeah. And I

"Jessica" 48:33
also live with a serious mental illness. And they're, like me, like functional and you're like, Wow, you could go get a job if you wanted. You're

Scott Benner 48:42
having not made that mistake away from being me. And do you ever feel like and I'm having made your mistake away from being you ever think about that? Not that we're here to dig through you a little bit.

"Jessica" 48:54
I'm like, you always wonder like, wow, how did I get so lucky to have the treatment team that I did? That didn't let me down? Right?

Scott Benner 49:00
Because that's, that's how you see what's happened to them sometimes? Yeah. Okay. All right. So if one of those people has type one diabetes, how are you managing for them? Oh, we'll

"Jessica" 49:12
call him. Paul. We got two patients. I've managed one of them's now on a different unit. But we'll call the one guy Paul. Paul was managed with a sliding scale, like in my long term care facility, right. His numbers were so up and down. He was like, we weren't sure if he was a brutal diabetic as they used to call it. Yeah. Or if we were just mismanaging it. I thought the facility was mismanaging it because I know how to treat Type Line, right? I know how to use Lantis and carb counting and correction factors. Again, just a sliding scale. Yeah. Yeah. And you couldn't eat snacks, but he would eat snacks because what would happen if you need carbohydrates uncovered? They go up. So we weren't covering it and the guy was hungry like in between meals. He wasn't like overweight. He was very active actually. And poor Paul would just skyrocket. But it was like, Sorry, dude, I can't give you when someone, you know when I would feel bad because I know I just Bolus whenever I want to eat right? Yeah. But we don't have that option. It's just before check the blood sugar before meals, bedtime and as needed. Like if they're showing signs or symptoms of hypoglycemia. Well, I gotcha. So I just Paul, though, I have nightmares of him. By his sugars were so badly managed, he'd go to 40 to 401 day. And

Scott Benner 50:36
it doesn't matter because we're not actually actually proactively doing anything. We're just doing something on a schedule of when the meal comes up. That's it. I mean, I can't imagine that this is much different. There's no answer to this question, either. We can't let Paul have his own medication, right? He can't be in charge. Even if he was younger and not sick. You wouldn't put insulin in his care, I imagine. No.

"Jessica" 50:58
And it was sad because we wanted him he was also illiterate. Okay, English was not his first language. So poor Paul was different language speaking without revealing what state I work for. And it was like the one doctor wanted to put him on a pump. We don't have a patient with a pump. But we had another patients to the facility to get on a libre, right? Because he said, I want to be on the best control possible. So he successfully sued the state to be on a libre, because they're very, you know, they're more expensive than checking the sugar four times a day. Yeah. But he had to sue the state to get that right.

Scott Benner 51:34
Is that a thing? He actually did? Or did his family step in and do it for him? He had his

"Jessica" 51:39
lawyer do it, him and his lawyer because he knew that this tech was out there because his family told him about it. And they watch TV, right? So they can see, they see. And they watch cable where all the ads are. I saw libre

Scott Benner 51:49
ad last night during the Oscars. So they're watching it and they see

"Jessica" 51:53
this tech, and then they're like, why can't I have that? And they were like, Oh, well, we're not going to pay for it. So he sued, and he got it. It was otherwise he'd have to pay fight pay him out. But now

Scott Benner 52:03
that you see the blood sugar constantly, are you doing anything about it?

"Jessica" 52:07
They referred him to endocrinology. Is he

Scott Benner 52:11
getting better care now is the CGM answer.

"Jessica" 52:14
I would say it's a big proponent, because you can see that we would never do something as advanced as carb counting, just because a lot of my nurses are not trained in it. They don't know how to carb count. Half of them are bad at math. The computer system doesn't permit that. Okay, like the medical record, the one we use does not permit that carb counting with the correction factor and all that. It was horrible. Because I mean, it's numbers. We saw how bad they were. Just

Scott Benner 52:42
to get did you just say half the nurses are bad at math? Yes. Like, I mean, counting,

"Jessica" 52:50
like doing division, like I have 32 carbs and it's a ratio of one to eight, like the kid we got now. He's 18 diagnosed at nine. Right? This is a different patients. So Paul was our bad non English speaking diabetic. We have a new one. We'll call him Jonathan. Okay. So Jonathan knows how to carb count. And apparently when he was in juvenile hall, they would do carb counting. I didn't know that. But his ratio, he goes, my ratio is one to eight, which I laughed about because I'm in a one to eight ratio,

Scott Benner 53:20
like twinsies.

"Jessica" 53:24
So I was like, okay, so I go, because he's like, if I eat 32 carbs, I get four units. I goes to your ratios. One day, he goes, Yeah, what I think so. But he knew we ought to do that. Yeah. So he knew it. And he's like, why aren't we doing this for me? And I said, Well, the doctor wants to see a pattern of your numbers. He goes, You guys are just giving me numbers based on my number. You're not doing anything to manage the carbs. Why am I not getting insulin with my meals? Even if I'm 140? Yeah, same thing you asked earlier, right? This kid knows how to manage his numbers because he committed his crime in his early teens, and he sentenced to life. But he knew how to manage his sugars, which was really hard because he knows what's up. And I'm sitting here, I know what's up. And he's just, we're not giving him the care of it he deserves or the care he was receiving before. He's 300. I was like, I looked at my coworker yesterday is we give this kid 11 units because he was 318. He goes, You know, I'm like, this kid's gonna be blind by 30.

Scott Benner 54:25
So you know, what's happening? Does the administration understand it? I

"Jessica" 54:29
have nothing against nurse practitioners, but they're not endocrinology specialists. They're not an endocrinology and T. They're a generalized nurse practitioner. Yeah. So they start simple. And then they might refer them to endo if they can admit that they're not doing a good job. But it takes a little bit of their ego away, Jessica,

Scott Benner 54:47
for people who might listen to this and say, oh, yeah, sure. These people don't know. But look at the places they're working. This is where we house people that we've given up on or who have, you know, committed crimes, but you could go be a nurse in a regular hospital. No trouble, right? Yeah, yeah. Your credential. Do you understand? You could handle it? Yeah,

"Jessica" 55:07
I've worked in a hospital before. Right. Okay.

Scott Benner 55:10
I just, you know, not I don't think that by the way, I just imagined it's possible that some people could be listening and thinking that you're the nursing equivalent of the lady that makes the fries. You know what I mean? Like, but that's not the case like you, you're an RN, just like everybody else.

"Jessica" 55:26
I'm an RN, just like everybody else. Now, sight gets a bad rap, because we're not the heroes. But we treat the patients that nobody wants society's throwaways. Because mental illness still has a strong stigma attached to it. Of course, my patients have committed heinous crimes, but I still treat them with the same level of respect that I would somebody that hasn't committed a crime, they get the same amount of love and care that my long term patients did, or that I wanted to go to my long term care patients. I get upset when they're sad. I get upset when their blood sugar's aren't being managed, you know, I feel like that bad for him and pity. But I have empathy for my patients, despite them doing horrible thing.

Scott Benner 56:04
Yeah. When you offer them compassion, do you see them change? Sometimes?

"Jessica" 56:08
Yeah. You know, like I, the one guy that got into a fight yesterday, he asked to go outside for a walk. So I took them outside, you know, to help them cool down. And he appreciated that we just talked for a little bit. I told them, hey, what you did was not appropriate, he reflected on it. And he cooled off. He appreciated that.

Scott Benner 56:26
It makes me wonder, it's not what we're talking about. But it makes me wonder if like, maybe if somebody would have done that for him when he was younger, or something if maybe like his situation wouldn't have changed. I know some people's mental illness is unstoppable. But I wonder how many times people are kind of pushed into situations as well. Anyway? Well, I'm gonna say again, what I've been saying at the end of these cold wind episodes for a long time, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea. But I can tell you, they're actually really popular. So people enjoy listening to these conversations. I think it's because I mean, for me, like, again, you didn't say anything here today that shocked me. But it's still eye opening for someone to say it out loud. You know, you're gonna send your mom to this place. And let's be honest, this is the end the you know what I mean? Like, if you think they're, they're living like a pony running in a field, that's not probably not happening, if they have health concerns on top of that, they're going to be managed as well as possible. But, you know, possibly by one nurse every eight hours for 26 different people, which sounds. It sounds like you must have gotten there, taking a deep breath started working. And before you knew it, it was eight hours was over. Yeah, but I can't imagine there was even like a half a second in there anywhere.

"Jessica" 57:44
Don't you didn't like I said I would have to ride it. 200 Because otherwise I pass out. I was clocking 24,000 steps a day. Just take as you're running

Scott Benner 57:52
around like crazy. Yeah. About them. Is there anything I haven't talked about or asked you about that? I should have something that no,

"Jessica" 57:59
it's just like I said in the psych facility, the blood sugar's are managed just as bad as long term care. And it breaks my heart because I got, like I said, the 18 year old I don't want him blind. Yes, he did something horrible. But he's actually like, nice. And I would never wish diabetes Complications upon anyone.

Scott Benner 58:18
Yeah. Well, listen, if we're going to house people, it's got to be compassionately at the very least, I mean, I know you can't do something, if one of my nurses just judges me for what I've done. And they don't want to help me anymore. But they will. But they're just I'm going to get bare bones from them, because they're not as compassionate maybe as you are. But you also have, it's interesting, isn't it? You have a personal reason to be able to maybe understand their situation a little better. I mean, you can share your thing if you want, but I'm not asking you to, but like, you have a bit of a connection. Is that right?

"Jessica" 58:46
I would say so. Yeah. Because I live with it. I am actually all job more medicated than some of my other patients to keep my condition stable. And I function very well. Nobody knows. I told that to coworkers. And they're like, I would have never guessed. So I managed to pull off the stable appearance.

Scott Benner 59:06
Are you stable, you just appearing stable?

"Jessica" 59:11
At least at least at work.

Scott Benner 59:12
One day, you don't think one day that the like, somebody is going to look over from the other bed and go didn't used to be my nurse

"Jessica" 59:22
when I wasn't taking because I go up and down taking my meds because there are pain to take. And I also have to face living with a really bad disorder. It's a story. I'm more apt to take care of my diabetes in the mental illness. Yeah.

Scott Benner 59:32
Well, this has been something I really do appreciate you coming on and, and sharing this with me. It's a it's a unique perspective. And it's also kind of nice to hear that no matter what we did for my mom. I don't know if this makes it better or not. But at least I know I wasn't missing something. But this is the situation what I saw happening is really what happens that she wasn't being treated any more poorly than anybody else was when she was being true. and poorly, I might opt for the switch to so you know, Jessica. Alright, thank you very much. Hold on for one second for me, I want to talk to you at the end here bio. Okay

Jalen is an incredible example of what so many experience living with diabetes, you show up for yourself and others every day, never letting diabetes define you. And that is what the Medtronic champion community is all about. Each of us is strong and together, we're even stronger. To hear more stories from the Medtronic champion community or to share your own story, visit Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox And look out online for the hashtag Medtronic champion. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoy my full conversation with Jalen coming up in just a moment. A huge thanks to a longtime sponsor touched by type one, please check them out on Facebook, Instagram, and at touched by type one.org. If you're looking to support an organization that supporting people with type one diabetes, check out touched by type one. A huge thank you to ever since CGM for sponsoring this episode of the podcast. Are you tired of having to change your sensor every seven to 14 days with the ever sent CGM, you just replace it once every six months via a simple in office visit. Learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juice box if you're ready to level up your diabetes care. The diabetes Pro Tip series from the Juicebox Podcast focuses on simple strategies for living well with type one. The pro tip episodes contain easy to understand concepts that will increase your knowledge of how insulin works and so much more. My daughter has had an A one C between five two and six for since 2014 with zero diet restrictions, and some of those years include her in college. This information works for children, adults, and for the newly diagnosed and for those who have been struggling for years. Go to juicebox podcast.com and click on diabetes pro tip in the menu or head over to Episode 1000 of the Juicebox Podcast to get started today. With the episode newly diagnosed we're starting over and then continue right on to Episode 1025. That's the entire Pro Tip series episode 1000 to 1026. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes, and you're looking for support, comfort or community check out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. And now me trying to say hello friends. Hello friends. Hello friends Hello Hello friends and welcome to episode 1179 of the Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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#1178 Two Old Scotts

Scott Has type 1 diabetes, celiac, asthma and more.

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends welcome to episode 1178 of the Juicebox Podcast

Okay, so Scott is 55 years old not me, Scott Scott, who you're going to listen to today on this episode with me so two old Scott's that's why we call it that he's 55 years old he has type one diabetes celiac asthma Raynaud's Gilbert's vitiligo, he's a marathon runner. Today we're going to talk to Scott about his life and some things that he's worried about, not the least of which is how newly diagnosed people are under informed. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. T one D exchange.org/juicebox. Take the survey help type one diabetes research to leap forward you need to be a US citizen. Have type one diabetes or be the caregiver of someone with type one. The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. You can do it from your phone or your tablet. You could probably do it while you're sitting on the toilet because it doesn't really take that long. He won the exchange.org/juice box but don't sit too long you'll get hemorrhoids.

US med is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast and we've been getting our diabetes supplies from us med for years. You can as well. Us med.com/juice box or call 888-721-1514 Use the link or the number get your free benefits check it get started today with us med this show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox do this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ag one drink ag one.com/juice box. When you use my link and place your first order you're gonna get a welcome kit, a year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs.

Scott 2:24
Hi, my name is Scott. I live somewhere in the Midwest near the mountains. I have type one diabetes. I was diagnosed in June of 2020. My doctor actually called me while I was mountain biking to tell me that I probably should eat less carbs for a few days. So they figured out what was going on. No family history whatsoever. But I have five other autoimmune disorders.

Scott Benner 2:46
Wow. which one came first.

Scott 2:50
I was diagnosed in my teens with Go Bears, which is you know, it's benign that my father actually had it. That's how I why I was tested for it. And then I have slight hands of arthritis. But it's I don't take anything for it. That was diagnosed when I was in my 20s. And then I got Giardia from drinking contaminated water in the woods one time and my doctor gave me blood tests for all this the medicine you have to take for it. My liver function was really weird. So I spent months in and out of tests before they finally decided I had celiac.

Scott Benner 3:28
Okay. And how old are you then? Cheese?

Scott 3:31
2000. So that was in my 30s. Okay, like 32 I have I've had asthma my entire life, which could be considered autoimmune to some extent because that's, you know, it's just inflamed inflammation. Yeah. And then was diagnosed in 2020 with type one. Did you ever DKA No, nothing.

Scott Benner 3:50
Okay, hold on. So I actually think this doesn't happen very frequently. I should have a sound effect. But I don't know anyone's ever said Gilberto's before to me. So common harmless liver condition in which the liver doesn't properly process bilirubin. Yep. Do you do anything for it? No,

Scott 4:09
the only the only effect it has on my life because I can't donate blood.

Scott Benner 4:14
Well, listen, that's not been. Exactly. He did a couple of things to get me out of responsibilities. That'd be alright. Wow. Okay, but how did how did you avoid type one for so long? You're like, uh, you don't I mean? Yeah,

Scott 4:29
it's so funny. So my wife's a nurse, a very, she has like, all these letters after her name on her badge and stuff. So she's, she's done some crazy stuff. And when I was diagnosed, she was actually at work. And I texted her my, my labs and she goes, type two, and I'm like, I have no idea. I mean, all I had was the lab. All I had was my glucose was like, 600.

Scott Benner 4:52
Yeah. What's your body style like Scott?

Scott 4:55
I mean, I'm a distance runner. Okay. Yeah.

Scott Benner 4:59
Is that why when she was like type that type to doesn't make sense to her she thought

Scott 5:03
nor did it to my my son. My pa is actually also a runner and I've run with her like around town, which is hysterical. We didn't know each other till so we moved here I never we moved to where we live now and I had never established a doctor here. Like a permanent doctor, I had gone to a group of doctors for you know, just do the checkups but did not have a specific position. So I made an appointment with this person just for you know, I had these weird symptoms. Um, I felt like my mouth was on fire. Like all the time, I couldn't eat anything with hot peppers in it. And I love hot peppers. I absolutely adore spicy food, and I couldn't eat anything. And that's why I went to the doctor.

Scott Benner 5:45
Did you ever figure out what that was? Yeah, it's as

Scott 5:48
soon as my blood sugar got back to normal. I was back to guzzling. Siracha like it's water.

Scott Benner 5:54
Oh, my goodness. That's interesting. Again, it's kind of your like a like a, like a virgin delete here. Yeah, no, no, I mean, you just saying so many things I've never heard before. I'm delighted, which I'm sorry that your medical maladies are delighting to me. But I mean, I've had a lot of conversations. I don't hear a lot of people say stuff that's different sometimes, you know, in this part of the conversation, so that's interesting. So you couldn't handle spicy food while your blood sugar's were high. Yeah.

Scott 6:20
And, like last night, I had rice we had we had Thai food last night and I went way overboard. And you know, when you go way overboard, obviously your pump fails or your pump site fail. So I was like 250 and like I could literally feel my mouth burning and I'm like, This isn't fair.

Scott Benner 6:40
That's quite the deterrent actually, isn't it? I can't I get when my bloods are good. I or my mouth will go on fire. But that's it, man. That's what else you got going on, that people don't know about? Like, is there any other weird stuff happening? No,

Scott 6:54
no, I think that's about oh, and I'm gonna say it wrong. I always do my doctor last meet vitiligo, vitiligo.

Scott Benner 7:01
Oh, it's, yeah, it's been a Lago. I spent the last week of my life with my wife mocking me pretty openly, because I'm enjoying the television show, Mayor of Kingstown. And I've been saying it a lot in the house. I'm like a child. And she says, it's, you're saying the word incorrectly? And I was like, is it not? Kingstown? And she says, no, no, the other word. So I said of, because I was screwing around by that. And she goes no mer, you're saying Merong. You're saying like ma Ra? And I was like, Yeah, and I was like, Mayor, and she goes, Nope, wrong. And I'm like, Mayor, and she's like, nope, and now it's now it's an Abbott and Costello routine. Like I'm like, mejor. And she goes, that's weird. And I was and so anyway, this goes back and forth. Then she gets frustrated with me. And then I think it's not even just frustrating. I think she looks at me and thinks I probably shouldn't have made another human being with him. I feel like I feel like that's where it is. Anyway, this went on for days because I like, like a Heiser. I don't know if you want to get it but I blew my way through two seasons of that show because I was enjoying it so much. So I've been talking about it for like two weeks. And anyway, I don't know how to say the word so don't feel bad about that a Lago which I only know because Michael Jackson had it. If you take insulin or sulfonylureas you are at risk for your blood sugar going too low. You need a safety net when it matters most. Be ready with G voc hypo pen. My daughter carries G voc hypo pen everywhere she goes, because it's a ready to use rescue pen for treating very low blood sugar and people with diabetes ages two and above that I trust. Low blood sugar emergencies can happen unexpectedly and they demand quick action. Luckily, G voc hypo pen can be administered in two simple steps even by yourself in certain situations. Show those around you where you store G vo Capo pen and how to use it. They need to know how to use G vo Capo pen before an emergency situation happens. Learn more about why G vo Capo pen is in Ardens diabetes toolkit at G voc glucagon.com/juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used if you have a tumor in the gland on the top of your kidneys called a pheochromocytoma. Or if you have a tumor in your pancreas called an insulinoma visit G voc glucagon.com/risk. For safety information. It's very important to me that the supplements I take are of the highest quality and that's why for the past number of years, I've been drinking ag one. Unlike many supplement brands. Ag one is researched and developed by an in house team of scientists, doctors and nutritionists with decades of experience in their respective fields. Taking care of my health shouldn't be complicated and ag one simplifies this by making it so that there aren't a million different pills and capsules. For me to keep track of just one scoop of ag one mixed in water every day, and I'm on my way, ag ones ingredients are heavily researched for efficacy and quality. And I love that every scoop also includes prebiotics, probiotics, and digestive enzymes for gut support, as well as vitamin C and zinc to support my immune health. I've partnered with ag one for so long because they make such a high quality product that I genuinely look forward to drinking every day. So if you want to replace your multivitamin, and more, start with ag one, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin d3 que two and five free ag one travel packs with your first subscription at my link, drink ag one.com/juice box that's drink ag one.com/juice box, check it out.

Scott 10:51
I was in a research, a research trial for a COVID vaccine. And I got to be really good friends with some of the PIs that work for the research hospital. And they have me at the top of the list they said which means I might have a chance for a study they're doing with some new topical and light therapy and all that. So I'm hoping to get into that.

Scott Benner 11:15
Wait a minute. So that's for the vitiligo Where do you have it on your what do you have it on your body?

Scott 11:19
My hands, my face, really all over? So like, I have scars on my legs because I fall a lot. And every time I get a cut on my leg, it leaves like a white line that never never read pigments. That part does. I mean, it doesn't bother me. I told my wife all the time that it would be nice not to look like a tattooed freak for a little bit. And she laughs because that that nobody notices that. You know, everybody notices.

Scott Benner 11:44
Well Are you are you incredibly Caucasian.

Scott 11:47
I can get a tan with a flashlight. So okay, it's and and I live in the high desert. So I'm in the sun a lot.

Scott Benner 11:56
So is it it's interesting, like so your skin tone is? I don't know how to do this. Are you like Italian like that? That kind of skin tone?

Scott 12:06
No, I'm mostly German and Eastern European. So okay, if you put me in a cave for a year I'd be pasty white. Yeah, probably

Scott Benner 12:14
be able to see through you. I got I there's European and my kids from my wife. And more Italian from me. And they tan well, but they they go to translucent in the wintertime. It's it's pretty interesting. Really is oddly interesting how, like pasty they get without the sun. That's your whole life. The vitiligo or no? Yep, that's been well,

Scott 12:40
I mean, I so I was like 19. And it's kind of funny. I was a bartender and hair halfway down to my button. My mother hated it. My mother thought that I look like a hippie. And I guess it was 21 I was driving home to see my mom. And I just literally stopped the haircut place, like halfway in the middle of Pennsylvania, and got it all cut off. And when the lady cut it off, because you have gray hairs, and I'm like I do not I'm 21 or 22 or whatever it was and she's like, No, but you pull one out. And that's when it started. That's when I noticed that that I started losing pigmentation and within a year I you know, I was partially gray and within like five years I was completely and totally gray and had patches all over and every doctor I went to went yep, that's what it is. It's

Scott Benner 13:26
always encouraging when they do that. We were at a we were we were at a doctor or Arden was getting she had a lot of shoulder pain. She got a like a steroid injection in her shoulder, right. She had like some inflammation, I guess and and it was fascinating how quickly like he put the injection that went away immediately was crazy. But not the point like while we were there. She's like, you know, I'm pretty bendy. Like Arden's not like super flexible, but she's got, like flex to her. And he's like, ah, that's probably that ILS Dan Lawler. And we were like, yeah, we've we've considered that that could be that we don't know, she doesn't have a diagnosis or anything like that. Bah, bah, bah. And he goes, Yeah, there's nothing I can do about that. He just he just said it. Like, you're gonna want to let that one go. He's like, you can exercise and stuff. And then he just sort of stopped talking. I was like, what a lovely bedside manner you have, sir. Okay, so your autoimmune stack up as you get older. Now your mom and dad don't have any autoimmune stuff or they don't have diabetes.

Scott 14:27
My dad had Go Bears and that is the only thing we know about as far back now I did have an uncle who this would have been like, in the 50s or 60s Probably had celiac because I always remember it's Bill never drank beer. That was the whole family knew this like never offer bill a beer because he'll get sick.

Scott Benner 14:45
Oh, no kidding. And that was that. Yeah. And I

Scott 14:49
also remember him when we go to would go to their house. Like he would eat steak and potatoes. And that was literally the only two things he would eat was was was red meat and potato He knows how long do you live? Not long like 60

Scott Benner 15:05
The way you giggled Scott was almost like devious. No, we got him Don't worry. No, I mean, yeah, because I mean, there's a couple of other nutrients you need.

Scott 15:16
You kind of want to balance that meant maybe have a salad once a week

Scott Benner 15:20
or whenever throwing a vitamin even. Yeah, but yeah, that's it. Your dad was the Go Bears and nothing else and maybe an uncle with celiac blade just all jumped on you now. Do you have kids? Yeah. Did they have anything?

Scott 15:31
I have a 22 year old, a 25 year old and 28 year old and we made them all do trial net. We had them all tested for celiac. When I was diagnosed. Nothing, absolutely nothing. And I'm good with that.

Scott Benner 15:47
Geez, did you grow up under a powerline? Or something like that?

Scott 15:51
By train track? Does that count?

Scott Benner 15:52
I don't know if it does or not. I just remember those stories about people whose homes burned near power lines, then they turned into Spider Man or something like that? Yeah, which of these things has the biggest impact on your life?

Scott 16:05
Probably the celiac because it just minutes. I live in a place where we're like, even the breweries have tons of gluten free selections. It. It's amazing how much like gluten free beer I can have. But like getting, I can't stand gluten free pizza. I just I don't like the the texture and the taste. And so it makes it hard to work in sales. I should note that I so I go out with customers and take them to dinner and stuff. And so the celiac really impacts that because I don't want to like, oh, yeah, I have to eat gluten free. Let's go pick this place. Or I'm diabetic. Let's go pick, you know, someplace that's low carb or something like that. So the celiac makes it hard to sometimes to you're

Scott Benner 16:53
gonna say you're a bummer in the car. Like, let's get pizza. Now, we want to Chinese. I want my blood sugar to be high all night. No, what about

Scott 17:03
these conversations? Yeah, I'm sorry.

Scott Benner 17:04
What's it like in a bit in a because that's a real business setting. That's even beyond business. Because it's not like it's not like the people sitting around you in a cubicle or the the people you work with every day. Like when you have to sit down at a meal and give yourself insulin. Does that come with a description every time when you meet a new person? Yeah,

Scott 17:24
so I'm running loop. And I work in a very, very high tech field. So I work with a lot of people who are programmers and software guys and AI and all that. And I always chop loop and the pump and the CGM and talk about you know, the fact that we're running pirates or not pirated, unapproved code and all that. So it's a great icebreaker with some people like that. I've had people who have literally built lube for their the one guy built it for his nephew.

Scott Benner 17:52
After seeing it with you. Yeah. That's pretty cool. All right. So cool. So I mean, you're an older you get me you're in your 50s. I was just thinking about this this morning. The the lessons that come with being older, about like patients, I was thinking a lot about patients this morning, and how, like when I was young patients felt like apathy. But that doesn't feel that way anymore. And, you know, I'm assuming you've learned along the way that none of this matters. So, you know, it's just tell people who cares. If they don't like it? What are you going to do? I wouldn't imagine it's ever gotten in the way of business, right? Like nobody's ever like curled up and been like a like that. Right?

Scott 18:30
That my last job. I had a meeting on Tuesday at 11am, every other Tuesday. And I would I would have to prep for that meeting. Because it was that was my biggest customer. And like, I would hear from my management on a routine basis that this customer leaves, so do you. And they were unhappy, and I was getting so that they are the reason I left my old job because I was under all this pressure and I was getting no support. And I just Life's too short to hate your job and I hated it. So I left and then bit every Tuesday I would have to prep for this meeting, I would have to take a unit of insulin, like 15 minutes before the meeting because I would spike and I would I would go from you know a flatline of 90 with no carbs whatsoever. 280 in 20 minutes, meaning just the stress of it. Yeah, that is the only thing that I could possibly come up with it. The diabetes impacted my work, okay.

Scott Benner 19:26
I used to hate ordering my daughter's diabetes supplies. I never had a good experience. And it was frustrating. But it hasn't been that way for a while actually for about three years now. Because that's how long we've been using us med us med.com/juice box or call 888721151 for us med is the number one distributor for FreeStyle Libre systems nationwide. They are the number one specialty distributor for Omni pod dash, the number one fastest growing tandem distributor nationwide, the number one rated distributor index. com customer satisfaction surveys. They have served over 1 million people with diabetes since 1996. And they always provide 90 days worth of supplies and fast and free shipping. US med carries everything from insulin pumps, and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGM, like the libre three and Dexcom G seven. They accept a Medicare nationwide and over 800 private insurers find out why us med has an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau at us mad.com/juice box or just call them at 888-721-1514 get started right now. And you'll be getting your supplies the same way we do. Yeah, you know, it'd be beeping, while these people are already like pissed about something that's not nothing you can really do about because you're just you're just in there like you're a mediator, right? And that's scenario. Like they're mad about something that's not you're doing it's the business and now you have to go in there and explain to them why they shouldn't be mad.

Scott 21:06
Yeah, I was the designated apologize or

Scott Benner 21:10
is that on your CV? Is your business making people upset? Scott can handle it. Started tap dance and singing a song at the same time, right is what it feels like? i Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I almost know what you mean, I didn't before I had this job. But now I I'm in a weird position where the value of the podcast to advertisers is something that some of them just intrinsically understand. And some of them don't get at all. Like it works. But they don't know why. And they want it to be trackable. And you're busy explain to them. That's not really how this works. Like, I know you want it to work that way you want it to be person A clicked on this thing, they bought that thing, it came through my link, you can attribute that to me, I have value. And that's literally, you know, that's the business side of my life. Except that there are plenty of things that people go into doctors offices, and they're like, Hey, give me a one of these. Or the doctors like do you need a blank? And they go yeah, I'll take blank because they might not even think it's because they heard on the podcast, but it is. And that's not trackable for me. Yeah, some of them really get it actually a lot of them get it, and a few of them don't. And having meetings with those people. That's what it feels like. It feels like I'm tap dancing on the head of a pin, singing a song and juggling at the same time and trying to get them to see something that they don't understand. And it's it's a ton of pressure, because it's a diabetes podcast. Like there's not a never ending list of people who are super interested in advertising. You know what I mean? Like, it's, I hate the pressure, honestly, I wish I could just make the podcast and not think about that. Or they would just agree that I'm fantastic. And just send the ad revenue, and I'll do the ads for him. You know what I mean? So that'd be nice. But I take your point, I would. It's nice that you were in this situation to get away from that. I don't want to make it sound like I'm like burdened or anything like that. I make a podcast, Scott, you don't I mean, like might be after I do this with you, I'm gonna have lunch with a friend, and then I'm gonna get my hair cut later today. So I'm not like, it's not the worst thing in the world. Anyway, I'm gonna get to your diabetes in a second. But I'm interested in you having to go to basically your adult children and telling them they have to get a medical procedure. So was that met easily with them? Were any of them like, I don't want to do this here to talk them into it.

Scott 23:44
So I have two mini me's The one is the anxiety ridden bundle of nerves, me and the other one is the sarcastic and rude me. And the bundle of nerves is the boy and the sarcastic one is the girl and the boy said, I'll do it. But I don't like needles. And the girl said I swear to God, if I get diabetes, because of you. You're you're going to the what was it? Oh, she said you're going to the county nursing home, not the paid one.

Scott Benner 24:16
There you go. Even the anxiety Scott, I think might be a little like, I'm not going to tell you anxieties autoimmune because that would be silly. And I'm not a researcher. But I do think that after having so many conversations, I don't even know how to put it but I think there are things that run in that river. You know, like how many people have I spoken to who are like, Oh, I have a bipolar uncle. I'm like how many people would type one have to say that to you before you go play? That seems like more than a coincidence. And you know, or the even just allergies. I had terrible allergies when I was younger, like really bad. And they've gotten better over time. Oh my but my son got blasted with them when he was is like a senior in high school. And they've gotten better over time. But he's always like a like a little sniffy when you say him or something like that. You don't I mean, yeah, I

Scott 25:11
am this time of year just the dust here is crazy. And when the the wildfires are really bad No, we escaped so the central part of the US escaped most of the the Canadian model file fire smoke this summer, like it always back East. And that's really weird. But when we get the Utah fires and stuff, it's absolutely terrible. Here, I ran a half marathon and air quality that was kinda sketchy. Like afterward, looking at the news, we probably shouldn't have been running. But I spent like a week using an inhaler because of it.

Scott Benner 25:42
Really, just from running out doors in that. Yeah, yeah,

Scott 25:47
it was a bad day. Like, it's funny. I picture shows up on my Facebook memories all the time. And it's like, you can't even see the sun. It's just like this blur in the sky. There

Scott Benner 25:57
were days here where it was dark during the day. Yeah, and yellow. Like, the sun couldn't get through at all. And the sky was dystopian, but like, no kidding. Like, I'm not over exaggerating. And it you couldn't see, sometimes you couldn't see down the street. And that was from Canada, and I'm in New Jersey. And it was just, it was not a thing that happens around here. So it took it was really off putting hard to breathe. You go outside, you couldn't get a deep breath. Like you know, you cough it was really something else, actually. Bye bye

Scott 26:31
have to wait for you to release some of the Canadian ones that you Canadian people that you interviewed this summer to see if you're blaming them for oh, I

Scott Benner 26:38
blamed them all heartily. And I know Canadians that I would text personally, and tell them that I don't know what you're doing up there. But please pull it together. I said, if this was America, we'd have this handled by now. I don't know if we would have or not, by the way. I just you know, like, come on. And so you're saying that your, your level of I don't know, like tolerance for that changes by the like, in the year? Or is it more about the dust in the air?

Scott 27:06
It's more about the dust in the air. It doesn't help that I have two very, very dogs and a cat. And, you know, any normal person without with bad allergies would probably start by not getting a couple of dogs and then you know letting them sleep on the bed with you.

Scott Benner 27:19
Yeah, no, that's a bad decision. I'll tell you right now my son loves our dogs. i If he ever gets ones and adult Arby's I'll be stung. There's one of our dogs if he touches it, he he can't even touch the dog. Oh, you know, and my wife has gone through bouts of that through the years where she could wrestle with the dog. There was no trouble down though I can't touch it back to its better again. And it's actually difficult as a parent and as a husband. Because there's part of me, it's like, I should take this dog for a walk and not let it come back. Because it's like, this is a really terrible for my family. And there's part of me that's just like, I don't maybe dogs just don't belong in a house. You know? It because this is it's more than they can handle. For sure. You know, I get like, sometimes I'm like, is it bad for everybody? I don't know. I don't think I'm gonna turn people off on having a pet but I take your point. I don't know why the hell you would do that. I was like your Do you like my dogs now? Well, hey, listen. I like them, too. You also like pizza, but you stopped eating it? What are you gonna do put pizza in the dogs in the same box and put them in the garage? Yeah. But it is. Pizza is good. It's terrible. Sorry. I'm really sorry.

Scott 28:35
You were talking about what affects me the most. I hear you talk about your pizza recipe. I would love to do that. I love to cook. I'm actually fairly competent at it too. I would love to cook pizza like you You made but you just can't make gluten free pizza like that. It doesn't

Scott Benner 28:52
work. You need the gluten. Actually, it's what you need. It's all about that mean when you learn to make the dough there's nothing to dough by the way. It's like flour and salt water to me yeast. But when you really like go dig down deep and learn about what makes a good pizza dough. It's all about that building of those those gluten molecules in there. And that's what makes it fluffy and crispy and airy and everything you're looking for. So yeah, it sucks, man. I'm sorry. There's so much good. Like if you told the story about your whatever uncle or whatever, the beer guy that couldn't drink beer. And obviously that's a really long time ago. I'll be before it sounds like he was before a factory farming. Yeah, right. But now there's so many people are affected by it. It really does make you wonder like, what's on the wheat? Like, is it something they're spraying on the wheat that's like, causing it more like I don't know, obviously. But the the incidence has gone up so much over the last few decades. It's just seems crazy to me. Honestly.

Scott 29:52
It's amusing to me that my wife and kids love to poke fun at me like we'll go to a restaurant and be like, hey, the spread is good. You want some? Or you know, they did this to me all the time. And we all laugh and joke about it. My wife went to the doctor yesterday for some stomach issues she's been having. And the doctor told her he wants her to go gluten free for a month. And she came home almost in tears. And I'm like, I don't I feel bad for not that bad. She

Scott Benner 30:19
upset because of the gluten or because of the crap she thought she was going to take from you. No,

Scott 30:25
no, no, because of the gluten. So she was she's like, she never met a carb. She didn't like she has she and the dogs have breakfast cookies every morning, which sounds terrible. But they have these the best coughs I mean, you

Scott Benner 30:41
want to tell her to go on we go V because she just wouldn't care about food at all. And then that would fix that I because we had we made something for dinner the other night and it just went poorly. I bought the wrong. It's a long story. I'm not going to bother you with it. But I bought the wrong meat. I usually get it into one place. I got it another place, went to eat it. And we were immediately both of us were like, This is terrible. Now we've been cooking all day. And we just like swallowed hard and threw in the garbage. And I was like, I'll go get a pizza. It was just a knee jerk reaction from like my life before being on weight loss medication. And then we got the pizza. And both of us took a couple of bites here like we don't want this is terrible, like so heavy and greasy. And like nobody like really. It's very interesting how that those GLP medications just tell your brain like I don't want this. Like I'm not telling your wife to do that for that reason. But I'm telling you if she was using that she wouldn't give a crap about those breakfast. Things. She wouldn't care at all. It's fascinating. I was explaining it to my, my dentist yesterday. He's like, how's this working? And I said, Well, I think I might have a GLP deficiency because as soon as I started taking it, I started losing weight. Well before it even like caloric restriction could have helped me. But I just said I'm like my brain is not my brain never tells me I'm hungry. And my stomach never tells me I'm hungry. And so I need to an even when I'm incredibly hungry. It just feels like oh, it would be nice if I had a meal. Like that's the extent of the pressure I get from it. I think they're going to do more testing. And I think you're gonna see type ones get GLP medications in the future. Yeah, I'm talking to a couple of people. Eventually I'll have some of them on the podcast, who are experiencing a significant decrease in the amount of insulin they need. And they're a onesies are going down their blood sugars are more stable. They're using the GLP medication for weight, but it's actually working so well in other places. Anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about. I have a question about Raynaud's. How does that present for you?

Scott 32:47
Mostly after exercise? Like, if it's below about 60 degrees, my hands will get like completely numb. And there have been times that I literally had to go so come and water because it gets painful. And you know with vitiligo, my hands were already mostly white, but they turned like like a corpse white, like printing paper white. I've had people stopped me and asked me if I was okay, because I looked at my hands were so white,

Scott Benner 33:18
like a stranger.

Scott 33:20
I ran a I think it was half marathon. And at the end, I was just like bent over catching my breath and the medical staff came come over and they looked at me like are you okay? And I'm like, Why? Why are you asking? And they started pointing my hands and they're like, your hands are really really white and like, Oh, it's just we're not don't

Scott Benner 33:39
worry, I have a lot of autoimmune issues. I I like that you said corpse white. That's not a color you're going to find on a on a wall paint ever, I don't think but it does paint a picture doesn't it? So numb or cold? Both

Scott 33:54
so I can I can like it'll get painfully cold and then it'll get numb and then it'll get painfully cold again and then it'll get numb.

Scott Benner 34:03
And there's no way to warm your hands. Right? It's just

Scott 34:07
it goes away. You know after 1520 minutes I draw my hands in my pockets and put gloves on and it goes away. As

Scott Benner 34:14
you're sitting here talking about I'm squeezing my hand I'm like why am I squeezing my hand while I'm doing this? A couple of weeks ago I went to touch by type one Orlando and I spoke at their event beautiful event really terrific. It was all day Saturday. I flew home early Sunday morning to be with my I was like oh I don't want to miss the whole weekend with my wife so I'm going to take an early flight to get home. That was a mistake. Here's why it was mistake 6am Flight had to be up at three o'clock in the morning in the hotel didn't go to bed till 10 o'clock at night the night before got up was exhausted like you know middle of the night Uber to the to the airport, get there and then my flight gets pushed back an hour and a half which is just has nothing to do with the story but is incredibly frustrating because you started thinking I could have slept till four o'clock. And anyway, we finally get on the flight. It's this as you might expect on a Sunday morning. A very sparsely you know, but distributed flight. There's people in seats here and there. And before we take off, stewardess comes up, and she just makes the announcement. Listen, there's enough people on this flight, you guys can all have your own row, just feel free to get up and move. So I go to another row, I'm on a very low budget airline because it goes to an airport very close to my house. And so I'm like, Alright, I know that the seats are basically concrete with a piece of paper overtop of them. But like, whatever, you know, like, I'm going to land 15 minutes from my house. So this is the thing I want. So I go into the row and I'm like, I'm exhausted. I'm gonna lay down and I lay across the three seats, I just curl up on my right side, like a baby and I go to sleep. In my cozy Earth joggers, by the way, in case people are wondering, cozy earth.com Use the Africa juice box to save 40% And I'm laying across the thing. I hope they're, I hope they're still get relaxed or six months from now this comes out, I pass out Scott like, I'm gone. And I am awoken by my right hand asleep. Like that's what wakes me up like how painfully my right hand is asleep. And I'm so tired. I just flip over. And I go back to sleep. I sleep for another like 90 minutes. And when I wake up, my right hand is still asleep. I was like, that's weird. But I had no idea about time like I had been so like, sound asleep. I didn't know. Anyway, I'm getting my bag. I'm getting off the plan. I'm shaking my hand out in the parking lot. I'm shaking my hand, I get my car. I'm like what is happening? And it is now three weeks later, and I still have numbness on my right hand. I think I slept on the metal rail, right on my elbow where that nerve passes through your elbow, like near like where I guess people would call it like your funny bone. And I think I damaged the nerve in my arm. I think I was that passed out on this hard thing. So it's getting better very, very slowly. And the internet. Please don't laugh of me. If you're listening. The Internet tells me this could take months to go away. Yeah, yeah. So I'm not like going to a doctor because I have like full, like strength and range of motion, all that stuff. And it does seem to get better as time passes, but incredibly slowly. So and my point of telling you that is that every day, I'm bothered by it. And I can't imagine what would happen if I went for a run and my hands were freezing cold I'd be I mean, I would find that upsetting. But I guess you're used to it. It's weird, though

Scott 37:30
I don't seem to have the problem skiing, or like hiking, or it's just that it's it seems to be just after some sort of strenuous activity.

Scott Benner 37:39
Yeah, I'm gonna definitely end up with a problem as I get older because I have a lawn mower that I sit on and my arms are out in front of me. And if I do that, in the cold, my fingers go numb. And they actually a doctor told me they think it's the where the nerve passes through my shoulder. That gets pinched. And I was like, well, can they do anything about that? And he's like, oh, there's an incredibly difficult surgery you could try. It's like, nevermind, I guess maybe I'll just get a different lawnmower or, you know, whatever. But yeah, you love it when they're like, Oh, it's a surgery. It's really hard and like, thanks. But anyway, this thing with my elbow, and my hand is it's hard not to be concerned every day. Like, you know, just When water hits it, and it feels weird. Like, it feels like my half of my arm and half of my hand like the skin on top is like half asleep. I don't know another way to put it. Have you seen a doctor about this? I looked on the internet, Scott. And the internet said to me. Yeah, that's the same thing. I also called My shoulder surgeon. Because I thought that maybe it was emanating from my shoulder. He of course was like that's not your shoulder at your neck. I'm like, Dude, it's definitely not my neck, it might be my elbow. And he said, well, listen, if it persists, and I was like, right, he said, Go see a doctor and I was like, what kind of doctor and he said two different kinds. You can either see a psychiatrist or a neurosurgeon or neurologist, and I was like, alright, neurologist, I understand loosely I'm like a psychiatrist. He said they have access to drugs that actually impact nerve pain. So apparently there's something that psychiatrist prescribed for something else. That also helps nerve pain and I was like Alright man, I'm gonna believe you but I'm also gonna go with I think it's gonna go away. So as long as it continues to get better, I'm not going to think anything of I'm just going to let it go. I think I've given myself two months and then I'm gonna go to a doctor. You think that's too long it doesn't get worse like I can sit and work all day at my desk doesn't change. So I don't know it's I probably should go sooner Is that what you're telling me? It's it's amusing

Scott 39:53
because we're talking about my my discovering ahead diabetes story about how I The Burning Man thing, but I for like four or five weeks I had been drinking we, it was June, and it's hot here. And we've been hiking all over just tons of hiking, no one hike, I took a two liter backpack of water or two liters, like a Camelback style backpack with two liters of water and drank it all, and then tried to get my wife to give me hers before that, but I did the same thing. I'm like, I'm gonna, I have this this thing I'm concerned about, but I'm going to I'm going to set a timeframe it's going to be like, if it's not better in two weeks, then I'll go to the doctor.

Scott Benner 40:33
Well, the internet said that my this nerve thing could last of the six months. I won't let it go that long. But, you know, I mean, also, where am I getting the neurologist from, and you know, I'm gonna go to a neurologist held my hands asleep, and I know, he's gonna be like, Oh, that'll go away. I'm just gonna be so angry. But I also think about, I shouldn't maybe I shouldn't say this on the podcast, not like big stuff like not like your blood sugar being 300 every day or something like that. But these little things. I also do like a cost benefit analysis in my head about how long I think I'm going to live. Mike, can I just deal with this until it's over? Salad feels to me sometimes. I mean, and Madison thinks about things that way too. Like, if you need a hip or a knee, they're going to tell you wait as long as you can. But we can't wait too long to get too old. But we need to wait long enough that you'll never need it again. Because you can't you the next time this hip goes out, you'll be too old for the surgery. Like so that is I mean, partly our bodies are what they are, and they're not just eminently fixable all the time. This is some bullshit. I'm not gonna lie, the amount of it feels really weird. Like just sitting there, my path, my hand tingling, and not tingling enough that you're like, stop just enough that the world feels different. And anybody who's had their hand goes sleep knows what I'm talking about. But anyway,

Scott 41:55
I busted my thumb up on a snowboarding on some feature. And I went to the doctor after three weeks of agony. And the doctor said, Well, we can cut it up and, and fix all this stuff inside of it. Or you could take Motrin for another two, three weeks and just live with it. And so my left arm doesn't look like my right thumb, because I was not having having my hand and the cast for six months, because my thumb felt weird.

Scott Benner 42:18
You know, we're gonna have to call this episode to old Scots, because I just had toe surgery. And I will gloss over it because I think I've mentioned it on here, but I just woke up one morning, I'm embarrassed over a year ago, and maybe longer than that now. And my toe hurt a lot. And I know, in my mind, I was like Kelly's like, Did you stop it? Did you I have no recollection of anything happening to my till I went to bed, it was fine. I woke up and felt like somebody was stabbing my toe. And I'm like, this will go away, then it didn't, then it got worse. And then there'd be good days and bad days. And I was like maybe there's a bone chip in there. And like someday, like, you know, I'm like telling myself all kinds of stories. Then I get into the position where I have to fly unexpectedly, to go say goodbye to my mother. And as me and my youngest brother Rob are like trying to get through like the Chicago airport. He's like, dude, do you need a walker or something? And I couldn't like I couldn't walk. I was like walking on my heel, like running through the airport on my heel. I was like, Oh, crap, I'll go to the doctor. So I went to urgent care because I was like, just do an x ray. And it'll probably show like a bone ship or something. And then I can take it to a real doctor and get it taken care of. Like, that's what I thought. And so sure enough, she actually isn't she goes, Oh, it looks like a little bone shipped off here. I was like, and then I felt like a genius. I was like, I knew this is what happened. And she goes looks like it's settled in the knuckle here. Blah, blah. I took the film to a doctor. He goes, Oh, yeah, it looks like you have some arthritis in this knuckle. We'll clean that out and we'll be fine. I was like, great. I woke up from the surgery he goes wasn't arthritis. I was like, wait, what he was, like, takes a lot of fraying in there. And I'm like, what? And he goes the ligament not the ligament. The other thing. Crap. Fiber says something doesn't matter. That something was all frayed away. He goes anyway, I had to give you microfracture surgery. And I was like, why? And he's like, Yeah, we poked like, countless holes in the bone, a cartilage. He's like, so that hopefully the cartilage will grow into the holes and kind of reattach your toe. And I was like, seriously, then he's like, Yeah, I'm like, Okay. Like, I thought he was cleaning out a knuckle and taking out like a bone chip. And I'm like, how does that happen? He goes, No, no, you probably heard it. At some point. I was like, okay, so yeah, the cartilage was just fraying in my toe. And it was my big toe and it wouldn't bend and I couldn't drive off it. So I couldn't walk Okay. And boy, I'll tell you, that writes your brain about what you're in control of, you know what I mean? Like that little thing in there is broken like I'm now hobbled, like legitimately hobbled and in a significant amount of pain, I took a fistful of over the counter drugs to get through that flight. Anyway, it actually seems to be working, it's getting better all the time. And the pain is very minimal. So hopefully this works, because if not Scott, they're going to fuse my toe. And I'm like, they're gonna want now it's okay, we just go to the knuckle, we fuse the bone together. I was like, that's the fix? Like, where the hell are we? Anyway, that's where medicine is for your toe. for yourself. You don't use medication for asthma symptoms, or just an inhaler? Or is it and is that prescribers over the counter? It's

Scott 45:52
it's a theater, although it's a script, and I haven't used it. I haven't used it at all this summer. Like I said, we had a very, very low smoky summer here, and I'm really happy with

Scott Benner 46:03
it. You don't need it to run. No, no,

Scott 46:07
I, it's kind of funny. I ran a small race down and done by Colorado Springs. This weekend. It was only a 10th of a mile for 24 hours. And the dust was really bad down there. And I thought, Oh, I didn't bring my inhaler. This is going to stink really badly. But I had no problems whatsoever. Thank goodness.

Scott Benner 46:30
Hold on one second. I am looking at. I'm getting a live. I'm moderating my Facebook group live. So somebody looks like they've jumped into the group. And they're trying to scam people. And Isabelle knows I'm recording. And she wants to make sure I want to do what she wants to do.

Scott 46:52
Yeah, so it's just one of those. I trust her judgment. Yes.

Scott Benner 46:55
Yeah, I think she's just because she's gonna have to ban the account. And she's like, I want to be sure before I do this. Okay. That's what we're gonna do. I have a whole life that no one knows about. She just, she just typed by to me about the account, not to me. So I'll say thank you still recording? Yeah, it's, it's a real world, like a whole job moderating that group. It's so big. You're in it. I know, I work because I recognize name from it. But there's this thing, like, the bigger the group gets, I think the more valuable it gets. It's amazing how well it works for people, there's no time of day in a 24 hour day, you can ask a question and not get responses, which is amazing. But once there's that many people, and it's that active, then the members look like fish in a barrel to people who are either scamming or selling. And they'll very artfully try to make what they're doing seem legitimate, or caring or whatever. And then they get you then they DM with you, and then they take your money. So it's hard to

Scott 48:05
work in a space that does content moderation, not what you're doing. But on a similar vein, and I see it all the time in all of these groups where someone comes in and goes, Look at the shirt I just bought, or look at this thing I just bought. And you look, you click on their profile, and they they joined five minutes ago. Yeah.

Scott Benner 48:24
Oh, there was a I've said this before. But it's worth saying, again, a coordinated effort to sell shoes. And it was fascinating how well it was coordinated. One account, by the way, could all be the same person like I would have. Like, there's no way to know what you're dealing with. But one account says, I have diabetes, and I'm having foot pain. And I'm looking for a shoe. That's all it asks for. It needs help. And then real people come in and give help, while along the way. And other accounts will come in and say, Oh, my doctor gave me these and check them out because they really worked. And then they'll have a third account, come in and say I use those two. Then the first account says, I'm going to give these a try. And then they appear to be having a real conversation. And then before you know it, other people in the thread start buying the shoes too. By the time that all got broken down by one of my moderators who figured the whole thing out Stephanie, she like, sniff the whole thing out like Columbo. I think we learned that there were like six accounts that were all on this one shoe scam, just to make everybody feel like it was a real conversation. It's good business to like, I mean they're making money off of it. And

Scott 49:39
it's chose the wrong side of this. I sit in much spammers all day long. Constantly 24/7 I think these people are idiots I could I could get around me.

Scott Benner 49:48
I could do a much better yet. Well that is the other problem is often where they're easy to catch is there. They don't have a grasp of the English language usually, which is what makes it easier to like you know, like I'm a pirate like that kind of thing. And like it's easier, but when they, when they do when they can speak English well and use phrasing correctly and stuff like that. It's hard to find sometimes, I've often thought the world is lucky, and I'm a good person. I don't know if you've ever had this feeling. Because I could, I could definitely rip people off if I needed to, like I would, I could see how it could be done. Like, that's what you're saying, like, I could get around this if I needed to. I don't have any, like ill intentions for people. But if I did, I mean, my God, like there's, you could, you could do this all day long. Just little little, like scammy things all day long. You could you could do nothing but print money doing that. And that's what's happening. It's everywhere. So anyway, we keep it out. And it's a lot of work. And I hope people appreciate it. Because there's times it's like, one o'clock in the morning and I'm getting texts, like we have to do something about this. We can't leave this set, like I want to sleep, and you kind of can't. So anyway, alright, Scott, why did you want to come on the podcast? I mean, we've only been talking for 45 minutes, so now's probably the time to ask you.

Scott 51:07
Mostly I just You had reached out about people who are diagnosed as adults. find it fascinating watching basically the just found out crowd or the community. Oh, yeah, I was diagnosed, I've been in the hospital for a week, what do I do? It pains me to know and that these people were getting out of the hospital and asking what to do, because I think I mentioned I was actually mountain biking when my doctor called to tell me I had diabetes. So I wasn't in the hospital. But I came back. It took a little bit to find an endocrinologist, like a week. And I basically just ate salads for a week because I didn't know what else to do. And that's what my wife said to do. So I did that. Yeah, I got him with the Endo. They gave me some information. But, and she's a great fit. Don't get me wrong, I loved her. She was the best endocrinologist I've ever met. Then she moved, and they got another one. And she's just as good. So I have this really great care team, I have an RD. And I see these people jumping in the group like, what's the carb? What? How do I take insulin like these, these, these supremely basic questions seem to be not covered well by the medical staff. And that's, that's what led me to, that's actually how I found your podcast was one of the other, you know, just the typical type one groups on Facebook, or were just driving me nuts with the sheer volume of this and misinformation.

Scott Benner 52:29
It's it's tough. Jenny and I are prepping a series right now that's aimed at doctors. And so the the idea behind it is, we're going to talk to doctors about what they should understand and what they should be telling people. And at the same time, we think the information will serve as education for the patients about what they should be expecting from their doctors, right. So it should, it should serve two groups, you should see like the massive amount of information we've pulled together from, from patients from people listening to the podcast are like, here's what my doctor doesn't know, or here's what I wish they understood. And we pulled that all together. And then we're going to kind of reverse engineer it and try to basically teach doctors how to take care of diabetes through a podcast, because I'm out of ideas about how to like, I'm, I'm past hoping it's gonna get better. Because it just isn't like the way the medical system is set up. And the way they're taught in school, they just don't know. And they're never going to and no one's going to change it. So I figured if this podcast helped people to live better with diabetes, maybe we could help doctors to understand it better. And I think it's big enough now that it's time to take a swing at that. So anyway, it's something we're going to be working on through the end of the year and the beginning of next year.

Scott 53:45
Is it going to be on the different podcast format? Or is it going to be part of the Juicebox? Podcast?

Scott Benner 53:50
Oh, no, it'll be it'll be right here. But I also have toyed with the idea of launching it as a separate podcast, too. But the problem there is is that is that making anything popular is is actually it's impossible. It just it is. And when something becomes popular, it's as much luck as it is anything else. So I've got the IRS already. I figured we put it here and let people the only thing I can't decide is are people going to be have the nerve to give something like that to a doctor. Oh, I did. Yeah. Yeah. So I think maybe yes, and I think a lot of doctors listen to this too. So hopefully, that'll be a way that it can happen. But I can't I can't take it anymore. Either. Like it's just frustrating for an adult or a child or a parent to like be put into a situation where they have this difficult to manage thing that could be explained to them and nobody explains it to them. And then you learn that they're not explaining it to them because they don't understand that either. Then you have these conversations with people and see how their lives unfold when they don't have that information. It's unconscionable. So, I mean, somebody's got to try to do something And I tried for a couple of years, and I'm sure this will pop up. When Jenny and I talked about it, I tried to get speaking engagements, you know, there are organizations that, you know, have the ear of the medical community. And every time they contact me, they want me to come on, and they want me to come to their thing and speak. But they want me to be like, you know, the famous guy from the podcast, like, give some light hearted, like, they just want to draw people in. And I want to say something, and I tell them, here's what I'd like to talk about. And they go, yo, we can't have you out to talk about that

Scott 55:30
over and over. And they would, would lose their minds. Well, you're not

Scott Benner 55:34
a doctor, and you're not going to come here and tell everybody they're doing it wrong, is what I was told once, one time, a more reasonable person said, I wish I could have you come do that I would get fired if you showed up and spoke about that. So that's when I was like, this isn't gonna they're not gonna fix this. So like, maybe I'll take a shot at it. I mean, the podcast is spread, right? It helps people with diabetes, they find each other, maybe that'll work the same way. I don't know. But it's worth a shot. And at the very least, even if doctors ignore it, it will teach people listening, what to expect. And so it'll still be really valuable for listeners. Anyway, that's my idea popped in my head in the shower about six months ago.

Scott 56:14
I think it's a great idea.

Scott Benner 56:16
Thank you, I have all my best thoughts in the shower.

Scott 56:18
I see people jumping in all the time, like, Hey, I saw my doctor said, you know, take this many units for this many carbs. And it's not working, what should I do? And the number of people who simply don't understand that this is their life, that if they, if it's not working, fix it, you know,

Scott Benner 56:36
try something would be a good first step. And then well, then the other problem is, there's there's factions, oh, yeah, different than any other life, right. But we had it the other day in the Facebook group. This woman's kids had diabetes for three weeks, you know? And she's like, Hey, rice, what's the deal with rice? You know, and she's like, you know, how do I do this. And they're, you know, overwhelmingly in my group, like, genuinely, overwhelmingly, it was a very popular thread where people came in and gave all kinds of different great thoughts about how to Pre-Bolus or how to, you know, change to a different rice. We do that we basmati rice here, because it's easier to Bolus for, or how to do extended boluses how to cook. Like, people started talking about cooking things, then cooling it and reheating it. So it doesn't have the same impact, like just tons of great information. But it only takes one person who's got a, you know, something they want to say. And they're like, don't eat it. That's what you do. Don't eat it. And I'm like, That poor lady's kid has had diabetes for three weeks. Even if don't eat it ends up being the right thing for her. That's where you want to start by scaring the hell out of her and her kid. Like you don't you mean? Like, why? Why is then there's the older people have type one diabetes, I just, I don't eat those things. And I'm like, Have you tried the Pro Tip series? It won't help? No, it will. But okay, so okay, you're old enough, you decided you can't eat rice, that's fine, then you have to kind of like moderate the conversation so that it's clear that there would be another way, just and not offend that person, which I had to do with a couple of older women that were in the group. I was like, Look, you should try this. I think maybe you'd find that if you timed your insulin differently. I don't have time for that. Okay, good. But at least now the people reading it can see that there. They might have been wrong. And there might have been another way. But if that's the decision they make, by the way, Scott, I don't care if you decide just to cut out rice, like God bless whatever. I don't really care how people eat at all. But then it's just It's always, it's always one person. One. Like, bro, sciency I only eat elk meat that I kill myself. You know, like that vibe. And you're killing yourself and the insulin is killing you and carbs are killing you. And I'm like, Oh, my God, man, calm down, like go live like that if you want to, but don't What are you doing to this woman? So then I tried to have a conversation with that person knowing by the way, when it starts Scott, I'm going to be as thoughtful and open to this man's ideas about how to eat as I can. But I know that by the time this day ends, he's going to leave this group. But I still have the conversation because it's worth letting people watch the conversation happen. And in the end, it works. The lady says I'm going to go try the Pro Tip series. I'll be back. I'll switch to basmati rice. I'm going to try the cooking and cooling process for you know, I think some people do it with potatoes and stuff like that. So we got all the good information to her. And I told her and if you one day, you just want to eat low carb because you can't figure all this out, then that's up to you. You should do that. But don't not understand how insulin works and just give up on the third day. You know what I mean? Like because that's going to lead to something bad because you know, pizzas really good and it's Gonna be a problem at some point. And if that kid goes to college man, good luck being low carb and a college on a college campus. I don't know how the hell you're gonna do that.

Scott 1:00:07
I can't even imagine it. I can't. I think that we we push people into disordered eating habits. We being diabetics push others into disordered eating habits instead of fixing the problem of good eye cream balls too early, too late, too little too much. Should I have extended Bolus? What do I do versus I'm just not going

Scott Benner 1:00:26
to eat? Yeah, I think it's a 10% greater risk of having an eating disorder if you have type one diabetes, and it doesn't matter if you're going to forget the science behind it. I've talked to a lot of people with diabetes, a lot of them have eating disorders like so. And it's, in my opinion, based on my experience, it's because of this. It's because they don't want their blood sugars to get high. And of course, they don't want to and they don't want to use insulin in a way that makes them low later. And of course, you don't want to do that. And they have no like we've discussed for the last hour, nobody's taught them how to do it. So they're doing it all wrong, their blood sugars are ping ponging all over the place. And yes, eating no carbs will put an end to that, it'll cause you to use less insulin, less insulin will mean fewer spikes, fewer lows. 100%. Right. It also means you're eating steak every day, or something like that, you know, or for the rest of your life. And I'm sure there are low carb people that will hear this and I go, there's plenty of good. So I'm sure there is there's plenty of great stuff you can eat. It's lovely. It's also expensive. Some people can't afford it. It's also a big idea some people can understand. And whether you're eating carnivore or keto or somewhere in between, you still need to understand how your insulin works. So let them understand the insulin, then they can apply it to whatever eating style they want. Because this is America, and I'm not their mommy, and they can eat whatever they want. There are plenty of people who eat stuff that I'm like, Hey, here's how you Bolus for this, that I also think I wouldn't need that. If I was you, that does not look good for you. You know, I'm not them. To act like you can make people do anything, because it's what's right, or what's good for them is ridiculous. Like, I don't know how long you have to be alive before you can figure that out. You know, if it was as easy as telling people the right way. First of all, that would infer that we know the right way. But if it was that easy, then the whole world would work great. Because we would just tell everybody what to do. And it would all be fine. Except that's not how it works. So you're going to ignore that. And then let them have poor health for their whole life. Like, why? Cuz you know what I mean? Because you think eating a carnivore is the way to go, like, or whatever, like I don't, I just don't get that whole thing. I don't understand that feeling that you can bend the world to your will. It's just because it's quote unquote, right? It doesn't make any sense to me at all. But anyway, apparently, it makes sense to a few people. And then I get into a, you know, I get into a thing with those people, because they're just attacking and defending their position. And I, I try very hard to stay open minded to see their position, explain what I think the bigger picture is. And then eventually, at the end of the day, they think I'm tall, and then they leave. So it's, but every time it happens, Scott, I think, Oh, this is my day. I don't want this to be my day. But it's gonna be and and then there we are. I'm sorry. I went off on the thing that I apologize when

Scott 1:03:15
I was diagnosed with celiac. And I came home from the doctor and we lived in this this town of like 600 people in the middle of the Allegheny Mountains. And I went to the grocery store, which you know, small town grocery store you've been, you can look up and go in and I'm trying to find something to eat that's gluten free. And I mean, I had done some research on the internet. I knew, you know, certain things. And I went and I'm like, Well, I'm getting ice cream because I deserve ice cream. And I pick it up and they look at the label and one of the ingredients is way and I hadn't stuck it like it's stuck in my head that I couldn't have way that way was a wheat product. I don't know what made that connection, but it did. Threw the ice cream back in I grabbed a bag of Fritos and went home and I'm sitting on the couch pouting and my wife comes in she goes What's the matter? I go, I can have ice cream it has way and my whole family to this day mocks me for that.

Scott Benner 1:04:08
I can see you eating the Fritos I don't want these freedom. Exactly what it was stupid freedom's stupid.

Scott 1:04:18
But I think I think that happens to a lot of people is they get something that's factually wrong in their head and they run with it. They it's like instead of shopping to look at the flag, they're caring and to see if it's right, they just take it as a standard barrier and run down the field.

Scott Benner 1:04:35
I want to be completely clear, a lower or low carb diet will make type one diabetes management easier. It will 100% Eating cleaner foods will stay away from processed foods will cause more complex carbs are going to be more difficult. Like I'm not telling you that but it's not impossible. It's just the thing you need to understand. You deserve the opportunity to understand it before you make a decision about a thing. You're never going to eat again for the rest of your life. And it that's just, that's my take on it is that everybody should understand how to use insulin, and then take that knowledge out into the world and do whatever you want with it. I don't care, like you just but you should have a basic education before you start making lifelong decisions. That's all. And I think that for some reason, the way people eat becomes very tribal. And they very much defend it. I've talked about it before I understand if you're, you know, a person who has diabetes, who struggled and went low carb, and it feels like it saved your life. Like I understand that completely. And I would probably proselytize about it too, if I if I had that feeling. But I'm going to tell you that if you would have met me before that and tried those pro tip episodes, you might not have done that. And you still could have, but it might not have been your only decision at the time. So that that's all that's all I'm saying. But trust me that gets bent all the time, like I see online, like he's a carb pusher, like, oh my god, I'm a carb butcher. I don't give a crap what people eat. As a matter of fact, I don't think you should have that many carbs. It's, you know, a reasonable amount, that's fine. But you find yourself in a day where you're having 300 carbs, 500 carbs. I don't I don't know. I wouldn't do that if I was you. But I'm not you. So I don't care what you do. I don't know why more people. What's that?

Scott 1:06:20
Somebody posted the loop graph the other day asking your question about something and the 135 carbs on board and I went, I have not eaten 135 carbs in a day. In 10 years.

Scott Benner 1:06:35
Oh, there are days where Arden's just like, I'm stunned by how much insulin she like needs for some times. Like it's usually around her period, that kind of stuff. When she gets I think cravings for things aren't and could have like three meals a day, and each meal could be 50 or 60 carbs. And well, yeah. And then that's, that's

Scott 1:06:53
not that much. I mean, my wife goes to Starbucks and comes back with a drink. And I think it's probably 150 carbs. Yeah. All the time.

Scott Benner 1:07:02
But that's a great example. Like Scott asked me if I think your wife should drink that. I do not believe she should know, I think that's probably a mistake for her overall general health. But if she's going to and she has diabetes, I'd like her to be able to do it without a 350 blood sugar that lasts for two hours and ends up with a low.

Scott 1:07:20
I tell people this all the time. I don't I eat low carb, low ish carb. Like, if we go out to we I was out with some friends a couple of weeks ago, and I got a burger with no bun. Because celiac and french fries and they were making fun of my my halfway keto halfway, not keto dinner, but I don't eat carbs in the morning, very rarely, because we get up and get moving, I get a few hours of work done. And then I go run. And I know if I have more than a half unit of insulin on board, when I go for a run, I'm going to have to do drastic things like I'm going to have to like eat 20 or 30 grams of carbs. So I don't crash because it might go from about 10 to one or 10 cars per unit to about 100 carbs per unit.

Scott Benner 1:08:08
When you're exercising. Yeah, yeah. It's

Scott 1:08:12
so funny. My own that that. So I ran 30, almost 34 miles on Saturday. At that race, my g7 freaked out in the middle of it. And I was running this perfectly flatline at number for like an hour and a half and all of a sudden it beeps and says hey, you're too 20. And I'm like, No, I'm not to 20. I know this, I fooled around with it, tried correcting it a couple times. It didn't work her place that which the warm up on the new sensors is everything. To me. It's beautiful. So I've eaten a whole lot of carbs to correct the insulin that that was given to me when it thought it was 200 but wasn't. But at the end of the day, after 10 hours, I had used less than 40 units of insulin total.

Scott Benner 1:08:52
It's over on that. Yeah,

Scott 1:08:53
yeah. And I eat a lot of bananas.

Scott Benner 1:08:56
The way the variables impact is fascinating. I mean that. I mean, obviously that's a lot of running. But Arden has been doing a couple of all nighters in a row. And like clockwork, she's getting low at like four o'clock in the morning. And it's just it's from her sleep being off. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That'll kill me. Yeah. And so it's an it's fascinating. And then of course, you're exhausted and your sleeps off, and you're low. So like, last night, I had to wake her up. I had a hard time waking her up last night. And like, I was sending, like, find my iPhones, like I left my bedroom, so I wouldn't wake my wife up because I was like calling. And I got to the point where I was looking at her blood sugar, and I'm like, I'm gonna have to call her roommates. And I'm like, she's gonna be pissed about that. But I tried not to and I but I, as long as I could, but with Nightscout I could see she still had enough insulin on board. This was going to be problematic. She wasn't going to float at 60 and she didn't she went down to 50. And then it was like 48 And I'm like, okay, like, that's it. Like, here we go. And I woke everybody up and she sent me an angry text, you know, don't bother my roommates and I just sent her a text back. I said, Arden, I waited as absolutely long as I could this was necessary. You know, you need to drink a juice. And that's it. And actually remotely, I changed her target from where it is to like 110 for the rest of the night, so it wouldn't happen again. And oh, people are like, how do you do that? I did it with Nightscout. She's using Iaps. I don't have time to explain it all to you right now. Actually, I don't have time, Scott, because I have to go to a lunch thing soon. But I did all that. And she woke up this morning, and I got a text from her at like 10 o'clock, she should have been in class. She goes, Dad, I slept through my class. I'm so sorry. Like, you know, I'm gonna have to do a couple of things. Because I'm behind and I'm exhausted and I need to catch up. And I just told her, like we even talked about last night, like she's not mad about last night. She wasn't mad, then she just shut her blood sugar was low. It's four o'clock in the morning, and she was frustrated. And I just told her one of those things that like, you know, I've learned like, through being old, I just told her. I said, like, just remember, be flexible. Like, rearrange your to do list so that it reflects what's you know, most important now? Don't look backwards. Don't worry about anything that you feel like you're putting off. I said, You're a smart person. You'll do the right thing. Just keep going. That's it. And I hopefully that's what she'll end up doing. But yeah, she tried to burn the candle at both ends for a couple of days. And it just, it made everything hard for so yeah, anyway, those variables like running or not getting enough sleep or whatever. They're, they're tough on you, Scott, I apologize for doing this. But I gotta ask if there's anything else that we missed, because I have to

Scott 1:11:36
go in a minute. Oh, no problem. No, I had a great time. Thank you. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:11:39
me too. We're definitely calling this to old Scots. Yeah, is a perfect name. Although I imagine you're like, you know, in amazing shape. And I'm just still trying to get there. And I'm using medication. It sounds like you're running to do it, but good for you. If it's therapy. Well, you know, I didn't want to say because you seem like such a nice person. But I believe anybody that runs this much is is exercising their their thoughts. Oh,

Scott 1:12:06
my, my shrink look. Well, I would agree with you all day long.

Scott Benner 1:12:10
That's all fine with me. I don't know where you were, however you think comes out. Listen, if you think comes out with extra healthy. Fantastic. You know, one

Scott 1:12:19
quick story, please. You got all these please, please. So it was at the grocery store yesterday, I just had like three or four errands to run. But I'm like trying to do between meetings and stuff. And I got run into the grocery store. And I'm grabbing the things and for whatever reason my blood sugar goes from 116 to 50. In the 10 minutes, I'm in the grocery store. I've had tumbling issues, that's probably what it is. But I get up to the camera and I'm standing there and I'm like I because my blood sugar was so low. I forgotten everything that I needed. I'm standing there with two six packs of Diet Pepsi. I can't operate the machine. I can't do anything. So I grabbed a package of gummy lifesavers, and I'm not talking a small package. I'm talking like, you know, the big roll by my cigar. Yeah. And I'm shoving them into my mouth while waiting in line at the checkout. And the woman comes over she goes, Are you okay? And I'm like, why? She goes, You're sweating really bad. I'll be fine in a minute. I couldn't she had to ring me out at the self checkout. I couldn't do it. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:13:09
that's crazy. How quick did it come over? Get 10 minutes? Oh,

Scott 1:13:13
yeah, if even I mean, I literally walked in the store and was was suddenly confused.

Scott Benner 1:13:17
And that's you wearing a fairly adept algorithm that is taking you're taking away insulin trying to stop that from happening to you like that. And it still can happen after I managed Arden last night, got her awake and got her to do everything. I looked back at how long that algorithm had been trying to stop this low from happening. It had been trying for like four hours to avoid this moment. You just stop and think if that's not an algorithm then for the last four hours, she's getting a unit of insulin an hour as her basil on a on like a standard pumping system. And she would have needed I mean, instead of like a small little quick 15 gram juice box that took a 50 and turned it into a 95 for the rest of the night. I mean four units. I mean, she would have needed like 40 carbs to fix that maybe more and something more substantial than juice. So anyway, this stuff's amazing. We're lucky to have it I got to jump off scot I'm so sorry. Oh, no

Scott 1:14:16
problem. Thank you.

Scott Benner 1:14:17
Of course Hold on one second for me. A huge thanks to us med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Don't forget us med.com/juice box this is where we get our diabetes supplies from you can as well use the link or call 888721151 for us the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us med. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors. Ag one drink ag one.com/juice box. You can start your day the same way I do with a delicious drink of ag One thanks also to G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGLUC AG o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. If you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app, please take the time now to do that it really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. That Juicebox Podcast is full of so many series that you want and need afterdark s gotten Jenny algorithm pumping bold beginnings defining diabetes the finding thyroid, the diabetes Pro Tip series for type one, the diabetes variable series mental wellness, type two diabetes pro tip, how we eat. Oh my goodness, there's so much at juicebox podcast.com. Add up into that menu and pick around. And if you're in the private Facebook group, just go to the feature tab for lists upon lists of all of the series. always free. Always helpful. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com

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