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Scott Benner 0:00
We are all together again, friends for this next episode of The juicebox podcast.

Margaret is 26 she was diagnosed 15 years ago, and she has a very interesting job. She's a corrections officer, and her ANC has been dropping from an 11 due to help she received through the podcast. We're gonna hear all about her life, her job, her diabetes on this episode of The juicebox podcast, 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. Don't forget, if you're a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of someone with type one, visit T 1d exchange.org/juice box right now and complete that survey. It will take you 10 minutes to complete the survey, and that effort alone will help to move type one diabetes research forward. It will cost you nothing to help when you place your first order for ag one, with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink. Ag one.com/juice, box. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order@cozyearth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juicebox at checkout. That's juicebox at checkout to save 40 percent@cozyearth.com Did you know if just one person in your family has type one diabetes, you're up to 15 times more likely to get it too. So screen it like you mean it one blood test. Can spot type one diabetes early tap now talk to a doctor or visit screened for type one.com for more info, this episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour. Next.com/juice, box. Today's podcast is sponsored by us med. Us, med.com/juice box. You can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do, and I'm talking about Dexcom, libre, OmniPod, tandem, and so much more. Us, med.com/juice dot com, slash juice box, or call 888-721-1514,

Margaret 2:27
hi. My name is Margaret woods. I am 26 years old. I have been type one diabetic for 15 years, and I am a corrections officer

Scott Benner 2:35
Margaret 2615 years makes you 11 when you were diagnosed.

Margaret 2:41
Am I right? Yes, sir.

Scott Benner 2:42
Uh huh, a corrections officer. Oh, wait a minute, in like a prison and

Margaret 2:47
a jail. Oh, what's the difference? So jail, you are waiting to be sentenced, or bonded, depending on your charges, and prison you are sentenced, okay. Is there a difference prisons? Go ahead, sir.

Scott Benner 3:01
Is there a difference in your job? Like, if could you work at one or the other?

Margaret 3:05
Prison is owned by state here in Florida, and jail is County. You're

Scott Benner 3:11
in Florida and a corrections officer. Do we have to talk about your diabetes, or can I just ask you questions about being a corrections officer for them?

Margaret 3:18
Now you can do both. Okay, I love what I do, and I have, I have stories for days. I Well,

Scott Benner 3:24
that's what I'm thinking. Well, let's figure out first about your diabetes. So when you were diagnosed in your 11, was it a surprise? Is it a family trait?

Margaret 3:33
Where does that fall? Cohen sort of, kind of both. So type two runs heavy on my dad's side. And from what my mom has told me, because I've asked her about it, she said that they found abnormal blood work from my pediatrician, that my sugar was really, really high, about four or five hundreds. And they're like, Yeah, you need to take her to the ER, she's she's not doing so good. So that's what they did. They took me to the ER here locally, and they put a what do you call it? They gave me some liquids, trying to bring my sugar down, and it wouldn't budge. So they had to send me to a specialist. So at first, they caught it really, really early. So they're like, Oh, she's type two. Oh no, she's type one. Here. Try all these medications and shots and pills. Oh no, she's type two. Oh no, she's not. She's type one. And that was kind of the seal deal. So I got this shorter to the straw over

Scott Benner 4:33
here. That's something. They just back and forth like that.

Margaret 4:37
They, I guess they caught it so early they couldn't tell, like, what my body was doing quite yet. So they're like, Yeah, let's try a couple different methods. Well, what remember, yeah,

Scott Benner 4:48
what did they try first

Margaret 4:51
they tried, I think, shops twice a day, a type of pill twice a day. I remember my mom was trying to, like, get. Me to sit down whole still for when she had to check my blood sugars. And I'm like, No, don't I don't want to do this. And she's like, listen, just sit down. I'm like, I don't want to do this. She's like, you don't got a choice. Yeah. Like, no, stop

Scott Benner 5:13
misbehaving. Or I'll put you outside where the anacondas and the crocodiles are. Then you'll come back in gleefully. Do you live in that part of Florida, by the way, the part where, like, everyone released their pets and now it's the OmniPod. I

Margaret 5:26
guess it depends where in Florida. I'm more south of Florida, and you, you kind of know where the alligators are and everything. They're more by the lakes in the more swampy areas we just have. Where I used to live, had a lot of Sandhill cranes, and not a lot of people know what kind of bird that is, but they look like to me. They

Scott Benner 5:47
look like dinosaurs. Sandhill cranes, really, it's you

Margaret 5:51
if you ever hear them call. When they like, do their bird call? It's loud. So I had a friend in middle school. Her mom is not native to Florida, so when they moved down to Florida and saw these birds, and when they started their their call, she didn't know what was going on. She thought it was an alarm system going off. They're loud, and it's like, no, that was just our local birds. You'd be all right,

Scott Benner 6:15
can't the alligators catch them? So So you try and so they got you just doing a couple of shots and some pills. Do you think they think you're type two at that point?

Margaret 6:27
I believe, I believe, the first time that they diagnosed me, I was type two, okay, and then that wasn't working, and then they gave me shots. And I don't know if it was maybe the type events on they were giving me. I'm not sure what they did give me, because it was so long ago. I was in fifth grade, but nothing was working. And I guess either my body figured it out, or maybe the doctors did, and they're like, Okay, well, this is working. So yeah, she's type one. This is what she needs to do. And good luck.

Scott Benner 6:59
Do you carb count, or do you do sliding scale? I do both. Back then they started, but they started you on something, though, right? They started, I mean, they started you on sliding scale, basically, like twice a day shooting. They were probably telling you just certain amount of carbs when you were 11, and then they decide your type one and what happens after that. This was so long ago. If you don't remember, it's fine, just a lot of times people are don't remember. But

Margaret 7:24
I ate a lot of the same things every day, especially my lunches for school. So I did carb count. I don't remember what my carb ratio was then. I think it was one unit every 15 carbs. I think so I had a sandwich, turkey sandwich. What do you call them? Pringles, the sugar free chocolate cookies, pudding or jello, sugar free, and there was something else, peanuts. Maybe that was your life. That was basically my lunch every day. I mean, I would pick, like, the different kinds of flavors I wanted, as long as it's within that range of carbohydrate wise, breakfast would differ. Sometimes I'd have a little bit of oatmeal. Sometimes it would be eggs and toast with a little bit of peanut butter, because I love peanut butter as a kid like that was like, my life, right? There

Scott Benner 8:17
was that, like a diabetes thing? Was it like, low carbs, but then some peanut butter so your blood sugar doesn't fall when you bolus. Is that? Was that the process? Do you think? Or do you probably not

Margaret 8:28
even remember? I just remember, like, loving peanut butter so much that it was just like my savior back then. It's

Scott Benner 8:34
excellent. So when do you start taking care of yourself? Like it sounds like your mom was handling things? Is that right?

Margaret 8:40
Yes, greatly, she, I don't want to say she was a helicopter mom, because then I would say she was, but now looking back, she was doing what she could for me and having a the her youngest baby, having diabetes, it was not easy for her, and I know she wanted, you know, to give me the same opportunities as a right any regular kid. I when she started to kind of back away a little bit and gave me more freedom and controlling and handling myself, I think I needed her a bit longer than I thought, because I just kind of went off the charts for a little bit. I just didn't care. I guess she could say, so you did my own thing. Were

Scott Benner 9:23
you pushing for independence? Or do you or was she trying to give it to you? Like, hand it off to you.

Margaret 9:29
I think it was more of she was trying to give me the independence and, like, okay, so she knows what she's doing. She, you know, she knows her carb ratio. She knows what to give herself. She eats the same thing nearly every day, even on the weekends and whenever we did like physical activities, because we did do a lot of exercise around our neighborhood. And my dad and my dad's co worker and friend had, I guess you caught like a little house right by a. Lake here, Lake Placid, yeah, and we do like, jet skis and a lot of swimming. It was a lot of like, you know, water activities. And she had to really make sure I was okay, because I love swimming. You couldn't get me out the water. You

Scott Benner 10:14
freaked me out a little because I felt Lake Placid. Was in New York. No,

Margaret 10:17
we have a Lake Placid here in Florida. Everybody gets one. I didn't know that. I guess that's it. Is it purse? You know, everyone gets one in every state. I don't know

Scott Benner 10:26
everyone gets one so, but once she hands the care off to you, you don't do well with it.

Margaret 10:30
I was very like on and off with it. I think it was because I didn't take care of myself a lot back then. Was because I was treated differently as a child for my both my teachers and my fellow students, slash friends, a lot of bullying going on. So I just wanted to fit in. I just wanted to be a normal kid.

Scott Benner 10:54
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Margaret 13:32
I remember, I remember some kids saying that I was weird and I was different, that, you know, I had something different that you know wasn't and within my control, like, I'm sorry this happened me. I don't know why you're bullying me. Because of it, I wanted to do sports. I wanted to do basketball and volleyball, and the coaches didn't want me on the team because I was a liability. So I didn't get that opportunity. I had to leave early before lunch to go check my sugar and get myself insulin. And when the kids pick that up, they're like, Oh, she's just going early to eat a second lunch. It got to that level. And then they used to steal my books. They would write in my books, throw the books at me. It was pretty rough.

Scott Benner 14:21
My God, so jeez. So bullied about your weight, about what you had diabetes. How would you diabetes your height? Well, you're very tall, very short.

Margaret 14:31
Then I was tall for my age. Okay, I was the tallest in the class, but third tallest in the overall grade, especially going into middle school, not pleasant. You didn't like that,

Scott Benner 14:45
or did you not mind it, but they just used it as something to focus on.

Margaret 14:48
I wish then I was shorter, but I had stopped growing, so now I'm like a good average height for a female. I guess. How tall? 5656,

Scott Benner 14:58
that's a nice height. Five Six, yeah, so, I

Margaret 15:01
mean, I'm taller than most of my fellow deputies, so it's like, okay, yeah. I mean, I don't know,

Scott Benner 15:07
Arden's five seven, and she looks like a giant next to most women, you know,

Margaret 15:13
I guess it just depends, you know,

Scott Benner 15:15
it's just on who you're around. But, but the kids took so when you say bullying, do you think it went on for like, a semester a year, for years. How long did you deal with that?

Margaret 15:25
The fifth and sixth grade was the was tough, the toughest seventh I had the same kids for all of my classes. So with the same especially the boys, they would target me, especially when it came to gym. And I hated Jim because of that, especially when we played dodgeball, the kids would, they would all throw the balls at me, and I would be basically the first out, if not me, then my friend at the time, Austin, because he was a kind of a geek, and I was kind of a nerd because I liked superheroes and anime and manga. And I like to trace over the manga to I wanted to draw, but now I can do stick figures, so they would target us mostly. And one time, a kid threw a ball and it hit me right in the jugular, and it stopped my airway for a good few seconds, yeah. And then the coach saw that, and she's like, Yo, what? So I had to basically sit out for the next few games before I felt okay to go back in. And then the dodgeballs were not those like soft, little rubbery or plastic ones. It was like those rubber ones. They stung if they got you that sung when you got hit. They

Scott Benner 16:39
made that noise, the thump, the clump, I don't know how to make the noise. It's like a hollow like a hollow rubber thumping, you know, you get hit with it. Anything done about it? Like parents step in, faculty, anything like that. No,

Margaret 16:53
no, I did go to the teachers. I did go to the dean. And then it was a lot of hearsay. So unless there was proof, they couldn't do anything. And of course, you know, then the group of bullies, especially in my seventh grade class, were like, Oh, we didn't do anything, you know, we don't even bother her. And it's like, well, this is what they're doing, you know? And they're like, Oh, we don't, you know, we don't care about you, or we don't mind you, you know, you help us in class, especially with math and science, and it's like, really so, and I did tell my dad, and he, he told me the same thing. He's just like, Well, talk to your teachers, talk to the dean, and nothing was done. So I just kind of just went to school, did the best I could, talk to the small two friends I had, and then just went about my day. You

Scott Benner 17:42
said in your note that you were in and out of hospitals as a child.

Margaret 17:47
Yes, when I was first diagnosed,

Scott Benner 17:49
that was during the beginning of the diagnosis. Was that because we were having trouble getting some balance? Or what was that cause of that?

Margaret 17:56
So I remember before I had to go to the specialist. That's when they try to get my sugar down. Gave me some fluids. My sugar didn't budge. Went to the specialist and to educate me, like, about diabetes, what it is, and this is when they confirmed I was type one. They're like, Well, we, you know, come to the hospital, you know, stay here for a week or five days, or however long it was, then we'll teach you how to carb count, how to teach you to be more independent and give yourself shots. They were very big with JDRF, I think it's called at the time. So they did give me like a little teddy bear that had, like The Little Miss, colored patches on its arms and legs and stomach, where you could give yourself to shots. They gave me, like, a little book with the Pink Panther on it, and it says, you know, life with type one diabetes. And I think I still have it, actually, you

Scott Benner 18:52
have the Pink Panther book.

Margaret 18:53
I think I do. Yeah, we threw ours. Remember seeing it recently? Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:57
we must have had it for over a decade. And then one day somebody was like, well, have we ever opened this in the trash? What's your remembrance like, if I just tell you to look back and like, you grew up with diabetes, is your remembrance going to be like, bad, like, people picked on me, I was sick. Like, is that your vibe when you remember it?

Margaret 19:16
It was It's heavy. It's very heavy, but at the same time, I'm glad it did happen, because if I did not have that experience, I wouldn't be the person I am today. Who are you today? I think of myself as outgoing and fun, and I don't let my condition be an excuse or hold me back with what I want to do, especially physical stuff. And I actually had a co worker ask me, you know, because I tell basically everybody, especially those that never worked with me, like, hey, just so you know, I'm type one diabetic, and if I need to step out for a minute to check my sugar or whatever, you know, I need to, it's a health thing. Right? And one of my coworkers brought that to my attention, and she's like, well, if you're so adamant about your condition and telling everybody, why did you pick this field of profession where it can be zero to 100 real quick, I said, because I'm not going to let my disease dictate my life. I'm not going to like evolve revolve around my condition to make it easier for me, I like a challenge, and that's one of the reasons why I chose this profession. She's like, Okay, well, I don't say people, but they just are like, well, she's, she's been clear to do this job, and she's going to do this job. Yes, I understand that. But you know, I've now that I've been on a pump, my sugars have been a lot better at preventing me from going too high or too low. Okay, so my sugars have been, as of lately, beautiful, excellent. I very rarely have to step out and, you know, eat, drink a juice, or eat glucose tablets and then go back on the floor and do whatever I was doing.

Scott Benner 21:02
Was that more common when you were younger with low blood sugar? Yeah,

Margaret 21:05
no, I was running high a lot. Okay,

Scott Benner 21:08
so what big adjustments have you made to your management over the last couple of years? Then I

Margaret 21:13
did go to a different endocrinologist, the two I had back to back prior to this current one, they were not helping me at all. I had one. He was an older gentleman, and nothing wrong with that, but he just wouldn't listen to me. He wouldn't talk to me. He, you know, we, we would talk. And I tell him, you know, this is what's my daily routine. And this was before I became a corrections officer, right? This is my daily routine, you know, then I was not too active on the floor or too active physically. I think I was a with the school board. I think at the time he, you know, would be like, Okay, well, then we're going to do this and this to see if we can bring your sugars down. And then he would, you know, give my paperwork to his nurse, and then the nurse would fill in my prescription for insulin. And at the time, I was on pins. I was not yet on a pump, and then somehow along the way, he messed here, or the nurse would mess up the correction dose and gave me the wrong insulin pen. So I was, I am still on Nova log, and they gave me humor log, and my insurance doesn't cover humor log, so for a single pen, I had to pay $250 out of pocket for that.

Scott Benner 22:30
Any reason, you didn't say, hey, this isn't really what I'm supposed to be getting.

Margaret 22:35
I did when they gave me the pen and I saw the different color, I said, this is not mine. They're like, that's what your doctor gave you. And I'm like, I don't take humologue, I take Nova log. And I said, You know what? Just, is there any way that I can come back for it? Because I don't take this and I'm not paying this much for a single pen of insulin that's gonna last me, like, a week, yeah? And they're like, Yeah, sure. We'll hold on to it just in case. And then I called my doctor, no answer. I left voicemail, no answer. And then I finally got a hold of a nurse, and she's like, Oh yeah, he put in some of the stuff wrong on the paperwork and let me see if he'll come back and fix it. And I explained to her, you know, the pen and the insulin. And she's like, well, that I have to follow. You might have to come back and do another follow up. And I'm like, what? So I'm like, I have, like, no insulin, so I'm gonna have to go and pick up this insulin and pay this money. And she's like, unfortunately, you're gonna have to do what you got to do. And I was like, hey, thanks. Do you feel like

Scott Benner 23:38
from the very beginning, your kids mean everything to you. That means you do anything for them, especially if they're at risk. So when it comes to type one diabetes, screen, it like you mean it, because even if just one person in the family has it, your child is up to 15 times more likely to get it too. Screen, it like you mean it, because type one diabetes can develop at any age, and once you get results, you can get prepared for your child's future. So screen it like you mean it type one starts long before there are symptoms, but one blood test could help you to spot it early before they need insulin, and could lower the risk of serious complications like diabetic ketoacidosis or DKA. Talk to your doctor about how to screen for type one diabetes, because the more you know, the more you can do. So don't wait tap now or visit screen for type one.com to learn more. Again, that's screen for type one.com screen it like you mean it. Anybody's ever like pushed you towards more successful moments, or had your back, or has it been a slog the whole way? Like, part of your note here is kind of fascinating. You said, I was told through my younger life I could never have a normal one. You know, I couldn't be do what other healthy people did. I couldn't die and lose weight if I needed to. Get a tattoo, a piercing, have healthy children like did. Were people just constantly telling you that just was depressing? I

Margaret 25:08
want to say yes, it's been like that, even after I graduated high school, thankfully, I was in marching band my all four years of high school, my first my band teacher. He was there for the first three years of high school, and then we had a different band teacher my fourth grade year, or my high school senior year. Sorry, he was really cool. I honestly do miss him, and he's doing amazing in life, you know. He's like, Well, if you need anything, you need anything, you know, let us know. And I said, Well, you know, I have to have my testing kit on me, and if I can't carry it, can you know, somebody else carry it? Or a parent of a parent volunteer, he's like, Oh, no, we got you. So the drama teacher would carry my stuff, and if she couldn't carry it, then she passed it off to one of the parent volunteers. And my dad, at the time, was an SRO, so he would be at the football games, and when we got done with our halftime show, you know, we'd go to where the the board is, where it keeps, like, the track of the scores, yeah, scoreboard. We'll call it, yeah,

Scott Benner 26:13
Margaret. That was my favorite part so far. You're like, you know, the board where they keep the scores. What the hell is that thing called? I

Margaret 26:19
mean, the scoreboard,

Scott Benner 26:20
um, hold on a second. Let me think it's geez, I get sorry. I looked up my tongue. Are you nervous by any chance? A little bit? Yeah, it's not going away yet. You

Margaret 26:30
could probably hear a little bit of shaking in my voice. I'm just nervous and I'm excited, and I'm just like, oh

Scott Benner 26:36
my gosh, stop for a second. Why are you excited? Because

Margaret 26:39
I'm putting my voice out there. For once, a lot I felt like, a lot of times, like, especially throughout my life, like nobody gave a second thought, no one cared or give two shits about me. And now that I'm more vocal and open about it, and now that I've, you know, found this podcast, and I really wish I had growing up, it gave me a lot of encouragement, and it gave me a lot of like, I guess, the support that I needed. And I've just become more like, comfortable with myself, because then I was just like, if they know, they know, and if they you know, don't, they don't. I don't care. I'm just gonna do what I do. You know, I don't, I don't care. I don't give two, it's, I guess, more depressed than now. I'm just like, hey, you know, how are you? You just say, No, I'm diabetic. And if you have any questions, I'm very open about it.

Scott Benner 27:30
Do you think you've been depressed in your life, or do you just think you had depressive moments or sadness,

Margaret 27:35
probably both, and I just didn't realize it. Do you think it existed prior to diabetes? I think it became more so when I got diagnosed, and with all the bullying and the, you know, they just didn't really care. It's just like, Okay, well, I'm just going to be over here in the corner. Don't mind me.

Scott Benner 27:53
Have you ever had your thyroid checked? Yes, uh, what's

Margaret 27:57
from my last blood work? It was within normal limits.

Scott Benner 28:01
Okay, good. What does that mean? What? What's the number? TSH, do you know he,

Margaret 28:06
I don't know. He just said it's everything looks normal. You know, nothing sticks out. I was just like, okay, okay,

Scott Benner 28:13
would you not now, while we're recording, but take a look for me. Okay, you like, go find, go find your labs. The reason I say is because they'll tell you that. Some doctors will tell you anywhere between, like, I don't know, zero and 10 is an acceptable TSH, but I'm going to say that over about two, two and a half, if you have thyroid issues, that's not that could possibly need medication. So if you're, for instance, you know, a four, they'll say, oh, that's in range. That's fine. But if you're a four and you're losing your hair, and you're tired all the time, and you're anxious or depressed, like these could be like thyroid symptoms, hypothyroid symptoms,

Margaret 28:54
I'm gonna have to, I'm seeing my doctor next month, so I might have to ask him, because I don't, I don't have any of the lab work?

Scott Benner 29:00
Yeah, well, you could get it from there. Do you have any hypothyroid symptoms that you know of? Do you know what they are?

Margaret 29:05
I don't, but I don't think I do,

Scott Benner 29:09
fatigue, weight gain, trouble tolerating the cold, joint, muscle pain, dry skin, dry thinning hair, heavy or irregular menstrual periods, fertility problems, slow heart rate, depression. Did you hear yourself in there? Or no?

Margaret 29:24
Well, I'm not losing hair. Thank goodness you just

Scott Benner 29:26
heard the things you were happy wasn't happening to you, like, Oh my God, my hair is fantastic. Never mind.

Margaret 29:32
It's long and luscious.

Scott Benner 29:35
But I'm not saying you do. I'm just saying that if, if you have some of that stuff, it's okay to ask.

Margaret 29:40
Why do I've always had trouble losing weight. I don't know if it's just because of maybe the diabetes and how my agency was, like, really high. Then,

Scott Benner 29:49
see, the thing is, if your agency was higher, that would indicate higher blood sugars, and you'd probably have less trouble losing weight if you weren't using enough insulin. You might, you might have, like, you know, when you get the. Somebody gets DK, they lose weight because

Margaret 30:02
their blood sugars are higher. Yeah, I went through that too in 2017 Yeah. Were you? Were you thinner at that point? Yes, I don't know what my a 1c was. Then I had noticed a lot of weight loss. I was 170 and I was just kind of like, okay, this is great. You know, I'm losing weight. Don't know how or why, but Sure, let's go with it. And remember, I got really sick. I was throwing up, nothing was going keeping down. And that it was like that for over a day. And then on day two or three, I couldn't even keep down with water, and I didn't know what was going on with me. And then I was with a different guy at the time, my high school sweetheart, and I fell to the floor, and I couldn't breathe. I felt like there was like this immense, sharp, burning sensation where my kidneys are, and it was preventing me from breathing. And I kept saying, call the ambulance. Call the ambulance. I can't breathe. So he did, and ambulance came, took me back to the ER, and they said, Yeah, you, you know you're there's a lot of sugar in your urine, your sugar's, like, I don't remember what they said. It was really, really high. And basically, went into DKA, and I was in ICU for three days. Yeah,

Scott Benner 31:16
Margaret, let me have a chat here with our computer overlords for a second and tell you that chatgpt says high blood sugar can lead to weight loss, primarily due to the body's inability to use glucose effectively for energy when insulin levels are insufficient, or when the body becomes resistant to insulin. Here's a detailed explanation lack of insulin or insulin resistance. That's the first header. Is insulin is necessary for glucose to enter the body's cells to be used as energy when there is not enough insulin, where the body is resistant to insulin, glucose stays in the bloodstream rather than being used by the cells. This can lead to energy deficits because the cells are not receiving the glucose they need. The body perceives this as a state of energy deficit, even though there's plenty of glucose in the blood, breaking down fat and muscle to compensate to compensate for this lack of usable energy, the body starts to break down fat and muscle tissue to provide an alternative source of energy. This breakdown of fat and muscle leads to the weight loss. In addition to this, when blood sugar levels are extremely high, the kidneys try to remove exose glucose through the blood by excreting it in the urine. This process also causes loss of calories, which can contribute to further weight loss and, of course, dehydration. So I'm saying this out loud because it's dangerous, but you will hear people sometimes who have type one diabetes restrict their insulin as a way to lose weight, and that, of course, is actually an eating disorder. It's a sign of an eating disorder, but and very dangerous. Please don't do that. But my point is, is that if you're having trouble losing weight, if you're using a lot of insulin, or because you're eating a lot of calories, then that might be that, but it doesn't have much to do with the insulin beyond the the caloric intake. Now, if you're insulin resistant, that's a different issue, etc. Do you have PCOS or any of the menstrual issues?

Margaret 33:08
No, I thought I did. Was it 2018 I went into the ER for a really bad kidney infection, and they did a CAT scan, and they saw a little lump on my ovaries. So they said, then it was a cyst. And so as of recently, as of this year, it grew with it grew to the size of the peach and the spam of maybe four to six months. And my OB was like, Yeah, you're going to need surgery. So March, I had to get it removed and lost my left, left tube and ovary. But then they took it out to make sure it wasn't cancerous. Because of how fast it was growing, they were worried it was cancer. So it just turned out to be just tissues. It wasn't even a cyst. And I was like, Okay,

Scott Benner 33:59
well, but they took your fallopian tube anyway, the left one? Yes, I still have my right one. Okay, well, you can drive on this side of the road, then in America, you'll be fine. I'll be all right, yeah, can you still? Can you have kids? Did they say?

Margaret 34:12
They said, if I wanted to, yes, do you want to? No, why not? I just don't see myself as being a mom. Both my current boyfriend and I just decided not to have kids. We just, I guess, want to fulfill ourselves in our lives. Um, before, without really bringing in that extra load, as as mean as it sounds, an

Scott Benner 34:34
extra load Margaret is how you end up having kids, by the way. Listen, there's nothing. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with not letting kids. I was just interested. Like you don't have to explain it to you don't have to explain it to me. Like, did you feel like? I was like, why not? I didn't mean that. If that's how I came across, I'm

Margaret 34:47
sorry. No, a lot of people have asked, like, why don't you want kids? I just don't want kids. I don't see myself as being a mom. I especially don't want to put myself through that, I guess, trauma, because another thing I was told. Growing up was I have a hard time conceiving because I'm type one. I have a hard time keeping it because I'm a type one, and there's a greater chance that the child will be born with or have it later in life as type one, or have diabetes. But I'm thankful, to say, grateful that I actually have three nieces and a nephew, so those are my kids, and I try and spoil them when I can. Margaret.

Scott Benner 35:24
Did you have a fairy godmother that was on smack or PCP? What is what the hell happened to you? We've glossed over this so far, but I can't anymore. How are your parents? They decent parents.

Margaret 35:36
I mean, I love my parents. You know, they're a little rough around the edges, like they ask

Scott Benner 35:40
you if you loved them. Hold on a second. Like, did? They did? They did? They hit you?

Margaret 35:44
No, they love me. No. They yell at you only when I was bad. All right,

Scott Benner 35:49
you didn't feel abused. Of course, not anybody an alcoholic or a drug addict in the house.

Margaret 35:54
Oh gosh no. All right,

Scott Benner 35:56
are they a little oopids day? What am I saying? Margaret, you know what I'm saying? OOP and stay oopid. Stay. I don't want to spell it out. Are they dummies, but they dumb, stupid? No, no. Okay, well, then so you're getting so then Where's all this doom and gloom coming from? Oh, my God. Are they Catholic? Are they Catholic?

Margaret 36:14
I think we're, I think they're Pentecostal. I love that you

Scott Benner 36:16
don't even know what your religion is, Okay. Never mind. So Pentecostal, that sounds like snake handlers, but I don't know much about religion.

Margaret 36:23
We just went to church on Sundays. And then I became older, and I was just like, I'm gonna do my own thing.

Scott Benner 36:28
You can't speak parcel tongue, though, right?

Margaret 36:30
I don't think so. Oh, I haven't attempted. Let me just go out and find Anaconda. Hold up. Can

Scott Benner 36:34
I tell you something right now, the craziest goddamn thing ever, when my son was like, I don't know, six, eight years old, whenever that goddamn Harry Potter movie was like in its heyday, we were at the zoo, and he walks over and had seen the movie, and does this like, pretend parcel tongue stuff at this big cage, and this snake zips up, looks up, turns and goes right to him. And we were like, Oh my God. Like it was the weirdest goddamn thing. I'll never forget it. It felt like he talked to that snake. I know he didn't. And please, if you're a weirdo, don't find my son and kill him because you think he's a witch. Nothing like that. Actually, it was, it was coincidental.

Margaret 37:10
I'm all for it.

Scott Benner 37:11
This is not my point. My point is Margaret at somewhere along the line, growing up, you were around people who just expected bad things to happen, because everything you were told you could have been told the opposite, like, that's the thing that I don't. I didn't. I'm not understanding about your story. Because you can't have kids. You're not gonna be able to get a tattoo. You can't do this. You can't, you can't, you won't, you shouldn't. What the fuck has anybody ever heard of hope? How about like, you know, we'll get your blood sugar in a good spot. So if you get a tattoo, it'll heal well. Or, you know, there are plenty of people with type one diabetes who have babies, we'll figure out how they do it. Like, what's with the What's with the woe is me and the doom and gloom? Like, where does that come from?

Margaret 37:52
I don't know. That's what it's all around you. That's, that's what that was the energy around me, but that's not the energy in me, and that's why, even though I've been told all these negative things, I guess that. That is why I like a challenge. That's why I decided to push myself into exceeding expectation and became, I guess, worthy.

Scott Benner 38:19
This is what I got to figure out, because in the first half of your story, you seem muted, like you seem sad, but I don't think you are like, and I don't know if it's just you're just a slower talker and a thoughtful talker, maybe, but like, or if you're just still nervous, that's why I asked you if you were nervous earlier, because there's part of me that thinks I'm going to break you free and you're going to be like, like, I feel like I should have asked a prison story first to get you going, like, I seriously, I feel like I did this out of order. I'm feel I'm starting to feel bad about it like, so let's practice this for a second. All right, seriously. All right. Let's just jump ahead for a second, and then we're gonna jump back. What's your best jail story? Please make it about somebody hiding something in their vagina. But go ahead. So

Margaret 39:00
the most, I have a few, but this is a most recent one. We had a girl come in, and she was very rowdy, you know. So that can mean a lot of things when they come in, rowdy, you know, they could come in drunk, high, aggressive, like, to the verge of fighting, or they could just be basically talking. It just all depends. So I was there in booking, picking up some females to go back to the dorm. And when they heard that they hadn't had one coming to rowdy, I stayed around just to see, like what was going on, if they needed another female officer to handle this situation, I was just kind of, you know, being the fly on the wall. So then she came, and she was just yelling. I'm guessing it was her, because she was very, very loud. So I found out later, because I didn't know the whole story, she was pissed at her girlfriend because she was going to have sex with her girlfriend, but the girlfriend left to go have sex with a man. So when the one, when the girl came in that was arrested, she had on a strap on, and the arresting officer, who was a female, saw says, strap on, ganked it from her, and put it on her cop car. It was, it was a suction cup, and just right on the hood of the car, she got mad at the arresting officer because she took her dildo, and they're expensive, I would imagine, I would assume. So, yeah, so she's, she kept begging the book inside. She's like, please, saj, give me 20 minutes. I'll that up. Her up she give her 20 minutes and I'll give her the pinky or the black ear, whatever she said. I was like, Oh my god. So this y'all don't need me. Okay, I'ma go.

Scott Benner 40:40
This girl was upset because the arresting officer took her strap on from her which had a suction cup, probably to embarrass her suction cup to the car, and she was wearing it because her girlfriend, who she was going to have sex with, left the house to go have sex with a man instead. Basically, what a great story you could tell these all day, like there's no one. If you want to hear it, do I want to hear again? I feel like we should have gone to this first, because I think your personality is going to come out. Because I I'm going to say I want to hear the next story. Margaret hold it into you. But I'm I at this moment, I'm blaming myself because I knew you were nervous and I didn't do enough to break you out of it in the beginning. So I feel like I've done you a disservice. So we're gonna keep going. Give me one more story. So

Margaret 41:24
we have a lot of mental health I went to go pick up one, and I know she's mental health, but she's not aggressive. She just talks a lot, yeah. So she's an older woman. She's very short, like I said, I'm five six, maybe five seven on a good day. And she's like to my to my shoulder bone. So she's very, very short. So we have a booking deputy. He's very, very tall. He's, I don't know how tall exactly, but he's very tall, and he's very big, not fat, but he's just, you know, he's like a mountain to me. So she so I went to go pick her up. I said, All right, come on, you know, pick up your stuff. You know, let's, let's go back to the housing unit. And she's like, I see that man right there. So I said, I look. And I was like, Oh, you mean him? She's like, Yeah, he, he arrested me, and he, he, he took me in the back, and he, he raped me. And I was like, Oh, my goodness. So I'm looking at my at the deputy. I was like, how did that go? And he's laughing, because we knew she's she's not all there. Then the females were housed, like, towards the very back of the jail. So when we were taking that, that very long walk, remember that old Kmart as, like, yeah, the one that shut down, like, I don't know, seven years ago. She's like, Yeah. I said, Well, what about it? She goes, there was, there were seven doctors, and they all took me back there, and they had their way with me. And I was like, oh my goodness, I'm so sorry to hear that. And I know she's like, not all there and just making this up. And then she's like, Do you know where this road is? I said, Yeah, I used to live off of that road. She goes, I had my my son there, and I used to live off that road. It was a natural home birth. I said, Well, congratulations. Let you know I'm glad you you know, had your son, you know, you know, whatever. She's like, Yeah, and that son is, is the child of the of the sheriff. And I was like, Oh, here we go. I was like, Mm, hmm, okay. And she goes, yeah, he that son of a bitch won't come in and claim that child, and that mother owes me a million dollars in child support. I was like, Okay, let's keep walking. So then we're almost there to and we have to go pass the door to get to another door, to another door. So we're like, at that first door, and then she says, You know, I have a boyfriend. I said, Well, congratulations. I'm so glad that you have somebody special in your life to help you through your share these moments, yes, yeah. And then she's like, he has seven houses. I said, Wow, you look at you dating a millionaire. You know, good for you. Girl? And she's like, Yeah, and that mother won't give me one house. I was like, Oh, here we go. I'm trying to hold in my my my laughter, until I get her into the cell, and then when I got her there, and then into we call it the tower, where the control board is, I just start dying on the floor, and my coworkers are like, are you okay? I was like, No, I'm not okay. I mean, my inhaler.

Scott Benner 44:28
I mean, I don't know how bad did that do you have to be not to be able to get one of those houses? You know what? I mean, like, Oh

Margaret 44:34
my God. And that's so are there a

Scott Benner 44:35
lot of mentally ill people that come through? I

Margaret 44:37
don't know how many exactly, but we have a good portion of mental health, both male and female, but they are housed separately from a regular population, so they're not so they're not at risk, and so the other inmates are not at risk for exposure or whatever occurrence, negative.

Scott Benner 44:59
Occurrence cut that could happen. How many inane conversations do you have a day?

Margaret 45:04
It's like mental health. Yeah, no.

Scott Benner 45:06
Like, just absolutely like conversations that after you have them, you walk away going, what the hell just happened? You know what I mean? Like, I feel like you're a I always feel bad for people who work at cash registers too, because, you know, people say the dumbest while they're in line for cash registers.

Margaret 45:19
I have won almost every shift, and it's just like

Scott Benner 45:26
that just really happened. You should just write a book. You should just, every day, write down the craziest one, and at the end, just publish the book of jailhouse conversations I've had. Probably,

Margaret 45:34
I could probably get a few people on board and be like, Hey, let's do this. And you know, especially the ones that been there a lot longer than me, that are like, a little older than me. Oh, I'm

Scott Benner 45:45
sure. How is your diabetes doing? Is the job like rigorous or a lot of walking? Does it mess with your blood sugars? Actually? How do you manage now? What? What devices do you use?

Margaret 45:54
So I was on OmniPod five and freestyle three. I could not afford a Dexcom because they wanted, if I can remember correctly, an 800 down payment. And the supplies after that were just out of my price range, and I could not afford it. So with the OmniPod, I honestly loved it. I kept it on my thighs. It was wireless, and it was a low, I guess, low, chance of it breaking, if, God forbid, I had to put my hands on somebody. Now I'm on the recent Medtronic pump, seven,

Scott Benner 46:30
um, 70 g7,

Margaret 46:32
80 G, yes, seven, 787, 80 G. So

Scott Benner 46:36
that's so you're using their algorithm, yes.

Margaret 46:38
And just because I the sensor that I had the freestyle three there, your insurance is covering it. It wouldn't cut. It wouldn't pair up with the OmniPod five. No, no, of course, yeah.

Scott Benner 46:48
So you're using the Medtronic sensor. Yes. Now, okay, how are you enjoying that? I hear good things from a lot of people about that. Is it a good system?

Margaret 46:56
This one, yes, because I was on Medtronic in the past a little after I was in ICU for three days, yeah, I didn't really care for it. It did. The Wire did snag on a lot of doors, because then I used to be a lunch lady, so and it would just catch on the doors. It catch on tables. It, you know, I, no matter how, like, much I would like tuck it in my pocket, it just would wiggle itself out. Yeah. So now, now I have the sensor. I've rarely have issues good, um, I do. I do have pressure lows sometimes, but I know how to, like, prop my arm up to prevent it. And if I ever have, like, a malfunction of a sensor, I could call I'll be like, Hey, this is what happened. This is the reference number, and they're like, Okay, well, we'll ship it out and we'll you'll get it within X amount of weeks. Okay, well, great. So

Scott Benner 47:49
I don't think you can at this point a compression low with any CGM that you wear on your skin. It's just going to be what it is like you they're very simply described. Is when you press down where that sensor is, it disperses the interstitial fluid underneath, and it kind of pushes the glucose away. So it's still actually accurately reading the interstitial fluid that it's in, but you're pushing so much fluid away that it looks like there's less glucose there, because there is less glucose in that spot. And then, of course, you stop pressing, and it kind of like redistributes. So the algorithm doesn't get you too low doesn't fit. Like it'd be too high. You like how aggressive it is around meals and etc.

Margaret 48:25
And sometimes, if I eat, like, maybe 15 to 20 carbs worth of of a food item, it'll correct itself. Like, if it sees I'm running high, it'll correct itself. Handy as hell it is. So I'm, like, very thankful for it, especially at work, because sometimes we're so busy that I just eat without really thinking about what I'm eating and without really thinking about the correction, it'll just take care of itself, like I do try and be like, Okay, so this is, I don't know, 20 grams of carbs or 15 grams. I'm just gave myself a little bit, or none at all, just because of the physical activity at work, yeah? But if I'm, like, on my days off, like today, you know, if I'm sitting here and doing nothing, then, yeah, I'm gonna give myself the insulin because I'm not active. It's nice,

Scott Benner 49:14
you know what? Though, I don't understand. Like, for listen, if you got a job where you got to talk to a crazy lady about her oral sex skills. I don't know why your insurance doesn't cover whatever you want. You should have better I if I was in charge of the world, you would have better insurance, because I feel like you deserve it. You know what I mean? Like I haven't had to have a conversation. Well, I guess I just sort of had that conversation. But I don't have to have that kind of conversation at work. If I did, I would want my choice of CGMS, no matter what they were, although I think the system you have now is great, but still, do you understand what I'm saying? I feel like you deserve you deserve choice, damn it. It's a lot. Do you ever feel unsafe at work?

Margaret 49:49
Sometimes, I guess it just depends on the situation and who I work with, because they we do have deputies. I've been there for a very long time. And they're just like, it is what it is. It is, you know, she should be i. And I'm just like, hello, here's another good story. So we used to have covid protocol when I was hired. So I was hired in 2020 but as a as a civilian, and then I went through the academy, got certified. And then when this dorm was the male intake covid. So they would fill up the whole dorm, they would quarantine for, I don't know, 10 to 14 days. And then they'd cows to where they're supposed to go based on their classification. So then that and I used to work with two amazing deputies that I miss every day. So, you know, they watch out for me. We look out for each other. They liked me because I watched them and I opened doors like, like, as they get to there, because you can't open doors too late and you don't want to open too early. So they, liked how I operate the board and the books, and that's what they want me there. But I get along with them great, and I miss them anyway. So they were both out for Christmas, Christmas Day, and I was with two other people who I never worked with before, and we had a guy come in the night prior, and he came in really drunk, so he was kind of being an issue throughout the night for the night shift people, and when we came in, they're like, yeah, just look out for him. He might, you know, be an issue. And I was like, Okay, great. So then I worked with a deputy who's very nonchalant, just was like, shrugged the shoulder and kept walking. It's just like, I understand that. But like, you know, I'm a woman in a male pod. Any, anything that could happen? Yeah, so the guy became a problem throughout the day about his pin number because you, because you have a pin number when you come in to make a phone call so he can call your family to get you out, call the bondsman or whoever you need to to basically get out of jail. So he just became an issue all day. Sergeant had to get involved. And then when a sergeant came, he's like, Oh yes, sir, I appreciate you. And it's just like a complete 180 and attitude. I was like, oh wow. Keep a mental note of that. So it was towards the end of the day, and I was escorting the nurse to do her rounds for whatever medication. And the guy was like, my pin number is still not working. So I told him that they just reset it. He's got to go in there and change it to what he will know the pin number will be so he can make his phone call. So the last guy comes out for medical, gets his meds, goes back in, and he's at the door again. So he is like, it's still not working. I said, then I don't know how to help you. I've tried to help you. And then he had the audacity of saying, Well, you haven't helped me. So I cussed at him, like, really bad. And I try not to cuss at inmates because a lot, because I try to be respectful. Because a lot of times if you're respectful to them, they were, they will be respectful back. But for him, totally different story. So I said, I haven't helped you. I had spent all motherf day trying to help your dumb ass get out of jail, out of my pod, so you can get the home. Because I do you think I want you here? No, the I don't. I'm I'm tired of helping you figure the out. And I slam the door, and he just, I watched him when I got back in the control room and the control tower, and he's just like looking at the other people, at the other inmates, and they were all laughing at him. So he sat down for a few minutes, and then went upstairs and fell asleep.

Scott Benner 53:54
It has occurred to me, Margaret, you have the worst customer service job in the world. That's really what is going on here, you know, you, you get on the phone with somebody, and they have to help you. It's their job, right? Like, you have to help them. And you can't, you know, and there's a laws to follow, etc, and everything like, this is the, this is like a CSR job from hell that you have. It really is, do you, but you like the job, though, right?

Margaret 54:17
I honestly do. I don't. I can't figure out why. I just, I don't know if it's because maybe I'm a people person, and I just, I don't know I like what I do. You

Scott Benner 54:28
like it? Yeah, what's cool? Listen, they say, if you like what you do, you never work a day in your life.

Margaret 54:34
I mean, you're not wrong. That's what I'm

Scott Benner 54:35
hearing. Listen, I have one like last question for you, and then I'll make sure that we've talked about everything that you wanted to talk about, but you sent me, like, a couple of pictures, and in one of those photos, you were playing an instrument that I cannot I don't know what it is. I mean, it's

Margaret 54:52
five feet I had to pull up my email too because I sent them. But

Scott Benner 54:54
listen, it's a five foot tall wind instrument. There can't be more than what. What in God's name is that? It,

Margaret 55:00
excuse me, was, am I in my marching uniform? No, you're not black dress. The black dress, okay, so that one is a, it's called a contra base clarinet. Like I said, I'm five foot six, and that thing is at least another four inches, at least three to four inches. So it is, yeah, it's quite big for that. That's another funny story. Try to find the email too, of the pictures I sent. Oh, here it is. I've

Scott Benner 55:30
never seen what, what would I need that like? What kind of music would I be playing if I was wearing that, if playing that thing?

Margaret 55:37
So for concert, I did bass clarinet, which a lot of people don't want bass clarinets, but my at the time band teacher for the first three years of my high school was okay with it, just because we helped the tubas to, kind of like make them sound better, to lift them, to make them seem louder. Because the the bass clarinet itself is not very loud instrument, but it helped support the sound of the tubas, because our tuba players were not very loud. Okay, um, so the Contra bass sent, you cannot march with that. That's a that's a concert instrument, okay, so if you look in the background, there's like a chair that's off color. It's like tan with blue legs. I see it. So I had, that's a high chair, because the other black chairs that we had, I wouldn't be able to reach the mouthpiece.

Scott Benner 56:29
Oh, I was gonna say, do you play it standing or sitting? That was my next question. Okay, I had to have a high chair, and then it goes way out in front of you, like a kickstand, right?

Margaret 56:38
Just how I just have in front of me and just straight up and down like that, just like by like that.

Scott Benner 56:45
No kidding, it's bonker. It looks like, it looks like I asked chat GPT to make a clarinet for you, and it got crazy and made it too big. That's exactly what it looks like. When did you start playing instruments? In high school,

Margaret 56:58
I was actually five when I started playing music, I started off with piano. I got a little bit into guitar, but I couldn't really do strings. Middle school, I did French horn, and then I wanted to play the clarinet, but my band teacher, middle school band teacher was like, Well, I don't have any more clarinets. I have a bass clarinet. I was like, Ooh, what's that? And he's like, here you go figure it out. I was like, Oh, I love it, thanks.

Scott Benner 57:26
I wanted a saxophone, and they didn't have one, and I gave up pretty quickly.

Margaret 57:31
And I wanted to do that one next but, um, and I wanted to do jazz, but I couldn't. I didn't have that free elective to pick from, yeah, so I picked culinary. So another funny story with with the chair incident I was talking about. So my senior year high school band teacher, she was, she was a character. So she knew I was diabetic. She didn't care, you know, she thought I didn't need any special privileges, like, I guess that stereotypical type of person that had the stereotypical thoughts about diabetics and everything. So I've had on and off issues with her about that. But, you know, I was just kind of like, I let me just graduate at this point, because I'm done. She had this rule where, if you were not in your seat by the second bell to warm up your instrument, you'd get lunch attention. So, you know, I didn't think nothing really of it, but that chair was the only chair that we had in the in the whole theater, part of of the of the school. So the chair could be in the band room, it could have been in the closet where we keep our our marching uniforms. It could have been on the theater, it could have been in the hallway. It could have been in the drama room or the choir room. It was like head in stake with that chair, not only that, but since the instrument is taller than me, it, you know, I had to get out of the closet and put it together, which only connected in two ways, one in the middle, and then the mouthpiece. It's mouthpiece itself. So then, you know, by the second bell, I didn't really think nothing of it, got my chair and warming up. So where, how we are sat. I sat like Deadshot middle of her, so she had full eye contact of me, and she's like, you want to explain to me why you're not in your chair this after the second bell. So I said I was looking for this chair because this is the only chair that we have where I can reach my mouthpiece. So she's as I'm talking. She writes a detention slip and she gives it to me. I said, I'm not taking that. She's like, why? I said because I'm diabetic and I have to leave class early to go and give myself insulin for lunch. So you are giving me, giving me 15 minutes of not eating as is, and adding another five to 10 minutes I have to leave before lunch to give myself insulin. That's a total of 20 to 30 minutes of me not eating after insulin. I'm not doing. Not and I could, you know, I told her, I can have the blood, blood sugar and the pass out. Yeah. She's like, take it. I said, Okay, watch this. So I took it. I went home. I said, Hey dad, guess who got lunch attention. He's like, Huh? So after I explained to them the whole spiel of what I just told you, and he's like, Well, why don't you just served the lunch tension. And I, you know, told him about the whole timing thing. He's like, Okay, gotcha So again, my dad was SRO. He called up the school dean, told him what happened, and he said, When you get off the bus tomorrow, or when you get there, go see the Dean real quick. So I was like, okay, so I got there, went to the dean, and he's, you know, he took me out, took my name off the list, so I didn't have the sort of lunch attention. And he's like, are you serious? Like, she's giving you lunch attention even though she she knows you're diabetic, and did it as like, yeah. So I think she found out, because she was very, very upset with me the next few classes. So,

Scott Benner 1:01:00
you know, it occurred to me earlier, I should have said to people that SRO means school resource officer, but it didn't occur to me that it was going to come out twice. But I have some advice, but it's not great advice. I think you should move out of Florida. I thought about it. That's my advice. I mean, I'm sure it's not Florida, it's just where you live specifically. But like, you know this could be in any state, any place, but you've just encountered so many people, their perspective seems to be one sided, and the way they impact you seems to be one sided, and I think it's left the mark on you. Like, I really do. Like, I don't know you all that well, obviously, but you seem like an upbeat person who spent a lot of time being told downbeat things, if that makes sense,

Margaret 1:01:48
and and at that, at one point, you know, I guess in the midst of things, I guess you could say I was depressed, you know, I believed, you know, I was not going to be normal. I was not going to be okay. I was going to have to live with this, and was not okay with it, because I wanted to do my own things. Yeah, I just don't know what the light switch was. I don't know if it was because I found the podcast and looked at other support groups, and it became hopeful, and then I was like, well, these people are living their lives regularly and doing, you know, first responder jobs or construction or truck driving or whatever. And I'm like, Well, I can do that, because I'm already doing it. So what's, what's stopped me from living up to my full potential? And then let the last I'd say, year and a half, I've made a drastic change, and even though I'm still having trouble losing weight, but I'm exceeding that expectation that was placed on me, right? So I do have piercings, I do have tattoos. I don't want children, but I'm not against it.

Scott Benner 1:02:56
Think you could get one out if you needed to, right? And it would be okay.

Margaret 1:02:59
I mean, you don't,

Scott Benner 1:03:01
do you believe that still, that it would be hard to have a baby? I

Margaret 1:03:04
still do just because I don't think my body will be able to handle it. But then again, you never know

Scott Benner 1:03:09
what's wrong with your body. You couldn't handle it. Is

Margaret 1:03:14
there other stuff going on? No, I just, I think it's just my my diabetes that, I guess is that that's still that fear factor. Because, again, I don't want to bring a innocent soul into this world that basically is cursed with, with what I have. Because people think, oh, you know, she'd be, she just guys do this, this and this, and she'd be all right. It's a lot more to that. So a lot of times, especially at jail, like, if there was, like, an MA that has diabetes and they don't understand, like, the difference between good and good, normal or bad numbers. They turn to me and be like, I have, basically have to explain it. Like, oh, yeah, no, this, this is what's going on.

Scott Benner 1:03:57
Yeah. Well, you're gonna find a lot of people don't understand their diabetes. Like, Oh, they don't, yeah, that's for sure. And you, you do now, did you for Did you always, or did the like, did the finding the podcast actually up your game?

Margaret 1:04:10
Uh, I think it did. Um, because I've, I've spoken about it a lot to a handful of people, especially, I think my boyfriend and I was like, Oh, listen, this podcast is about, I forgot the last one I listened to. I think there was one about a firefighter who was a firefighter, and he, know, he says that he does this, this and this. And even though he's more physically active, you know, you know, it just, it. Just brought that security,

Scott Benner 1:04:39
I guess. So if a firefighter could do it, you could do it, that

Margaret 1:04:41
kind of thing. Yes, yeah, no, it makes sense. If he can do it, why can't I? I

Scott Benner 1:04:46
think that's true. Also. I think you could easily have a baby if you want. I mean, what's your a 1c

Margaret 1:04:50
so the last one was 7.6 Okay, now that I'm on a new system since January, and still kind of fidgeting with my diet a lot. Little bit my doctor expects that my a 1c will be in the low, in the low six, okay, which I am seeing him in a another month, month and a half. So every time I go see him, like, Hey, how's my a 1c am i doing better? Because going from that previous doctor I was talking about to another doctor, she saw me twice and no longer wanted to see me. Didn't explain why. She just said, Not go somewhere else. And I was just like, Okay, but why? And that was it. She wouldn't explain herself to me. Did

Scott Benner 1:05:29
you feel like you were having a personal disagreement with her? So

Margaret 1:05:33
I guess she's the type to be like, Well, if you're not going to prove yourself that you want to get better within two sessions, she's done with you. She seems that type of person. It's an overtime thing. It's not like you're gonna just get better by tomorrow, but

Scott Benner 1:05:47
you had like, a seven, an A, 1c, in the sevens. That's where it's currently at. Yeah, where was it when you met her?

Margaret 1:05:54
It was in the higher elevens. She wouldn't first shirts tell me, until I had to go see my new endo because I had to get cleared to go to the corrections Academy, because there's a clinic here for for county employees. And the doctor, I put air quotes a doctor because I think he's a quack. But then again, I'm not a medical professional. He's told me that I need to go see an endo, because if not, then he was not going to clear me to go to the corrections Academy just because I was type one diabetic. I was like, okay, so then I went to see the My current doctor. I did blood work, and he's like, you're a 1c at Ben was 11.7 I was like, Oh, that doesn't sound good.

Scott Benner 1:06:43
How does that? How does that happen? Like, what? What decisions are not being made that lead to an 11, A, 1c, how long had that been going on? Did you know that what you were doing was leading to it? Or did you not care? Did you know and not care? Or did you not know?

Margaret 1:07:00
I believe I just needed more guidance. I guess they'll have that mind thought of I can basically do what I want and be okay. I did do a lot of research. I found the podcast I'm on a Reddit type one diabetics, and did, I did speak to a nutritionist a little over a year ago, and just kind of set that I made my own pave. Way, my own pavement. Yeah, that payment. Sorry. No, I made my own path.

Scott Benner 1:07:27
No, I hear what you're saying. I feel like, I mean, I feel like you found the podcast that gave you some ideas that that you could kind of reframe around, and now you're moving. Obviously, going from an 11 to a seven is amazing. There's no reason to think you can't go to a six or lower. You know what I mean? You know what you're doing. If you I mean, I would check on your your thyroid. If your thyroids an issue, then handle that. If it's not, you can look into other stuff. Glps aren't, aren't being prescribed through insurance for type ones yet. But like, there are other ideas, there are things you could maybe do to help yourself lose weight. If you're and I'm not asking you, but if you're, if your BMI is over 27 you could qualify for a GLP for weight loss, and then that would very likely impact your insulin needs. So you'd make you more insulin sensitive. You'd use less insulin, probably lose weight. Would change your diet. There's a lot of pathways here for you. I feel like you're just in the beginning. It's, I mean, it's exciting actually, like 11 years, but it feels like you're starting and and you're having a lot of success initially, which is fantastic.

Margaret 1:08:33
I've noticed that now my a 1c is with within, I guess, normal range, or even though, even though seven's a bit, I guess, high, I've noticed that I'm a lot more happier. I'm a lot more active, and working night shift is easier, right? Well, to me, it's easier. I did find a really good schedule that I put myself on as of late I haven't been on just because of the surgery, and I want to make sure I had, you know, the chance to recover like at work, there's a gym provided for us on my days off, I, you know, pack my snacks and label everything meal prepping. Or I get up a few hours before work and I cook something and just take it to work. They do have meals for us Monday to Friday, but it's not the best. But you know, you can't complain about free food. So if I episode

Scott Benner 1:09:29
876, is it's a best of but it's altered minds. It explains how high and low blood sugars make you feel differently, and high blood sugars will definitely create a lot of the problems that you just said seem to have been going away for you. So that's first secondly. I mean, you're, you're in a significantly different place right now than you were previously like, and it's happening kind of quickly, right? Is this all over, like the last year,

Margaret 1:09:53
as far as the job, or as far as a 1c coming

Scott Benner 1:09:57
down, the blood sugars, about the. Year and a half. Okay, that's really, first of all, congratulations. Like to go from the elevens to the sevens in a year and a half is really, it's wonderful. And it sounds like you did it by yourself, so that's hard work, and well done. And congratulations. There's no, no reason to think that it can't keep going down either. Again, I just think you're right at the beginning of all this. You might not even realize it, because it just feels like you've been doing it for so long, but you've got the information now, you seem to understand what you're doing with it. I don't see why the you know, I don't. I don't think you've run out of ceiling. I think there's more room to go if you want to go more

Margaret 1:10:33
right? And like I said, I've, I'm always pushing the boundaries and going from a juvenile to an adult diabetic. There was some things that were new to me, or I didn't like, realize or know about, like the the wait 15 minutes and then eat, rule after you've given yourself insulin, or whatever it was. I didn't know that. I didn't understand nutrition all the best. I mean, it was provided when I was a child, and that's why I went to to nutritionist and spoke to her to better understand, you know, because nutrition is always changing, I drink a lot of coffee. So another thing that I didn't really understand or know about was the ACT sugar and coffee creamer, even though it's labeled sugar free. So I've noticed, like, I buy this coffee creamer, and then I would have high blood sugar for like, a few hours during the daytime, and I'm like, why is my sugar high? You know, I'm not eating breakfast, or I'm eating a or having a protein shake that's got, you know, very little carbs. And I just didn't

Scott Benner 1:11:37
understand. I don't know if it's the creamer, but I can tell you that coffee makes some people have to bolus for coffee. Some people don't, but some people do. And

Margaret 1:11:45
I, I didn't know that, but when I realized it was the added sugar and the coffee creamer, I switched to a different coffee creamer, and that helped. It never had a problem. Since it's, you see, I was just like, it's little things that, you know, people don't tell you about.

Scott Benner 1:11:59
Also, you're just, I mean, listen, it's hard for me a little bit, because in the photo that's in front of me, you're like, it looks like you're at a wedding maybe, and you're like, Your makeup is done, and you're dressed up like you look like, you know, you look older, but you're not that old. You're only 26 the one on the Zoom cam, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, in that one, like, if you told me, like, oh, that she's in her 30s, I'd go, I believe that. Like, but you're not like, you're really just getting started. Like, there's you're not an age where you're like, you should know everything already. It might feel that way, but I feel like in many ways, you're just getting going with your life. Give me you're two years older than my son, who the other day said to me, I don't know what I'm doing. And I was like, No, I know. I'm just, I'm still trying to figure it out. Yeah, exactly. You're very much the beginning of all this. Like, I'm not telling you to have a baby. I don't think people who don't want to have a kid should have kids, but I wouldn't be surprised either of five years from now, you felt differently after your blood sugar not being high all the time for a while, you've proven to yourself that you know how to take care of yourself, like that kind of stuff. You don't know how, like, your vision of the world will change. You know what I mean? Like, right now, you're coming from a very specific perspective, and an 11, A, 1c, is definitely got you altered. You were probably had brain fog. You didn't know about, like, there was a lot of stuff going on. You're probably snappier, right? Like, like, short tempered, like, that kind of stuff.

Margaret 1:13:21
I was more depressed, depressed. Okay, my dad is the snappy one, and he's type two. When he gets high, he gets a little snappy. And we're like, check our blood sugar, and he's just like,

Scott Benner 1:13:31
I think the way you feel about your life could change a number of times over the next couple of years. I think you should just keep doing what you're doing and keep believing in yourself and learning and adding to your knowledge base and caring for yourself, because I think you're you're really on your way to something wonderful.

Margaret 1:13:47
And I've noticed that in the past year, year and a half, that I've been like wanting to get better, like, you know, I was tired of being tired and depressed and not loving myself and constantly seeing high numbers, and I just that change, and then now where I'm at, you know, I am happier, and you know, I've loved every bit of my journey, and I'm still going, we don't know what tomorrow will bring. And that's, you know, even after all the negativity I've been put through in my life, and the bullying and, you know, not, you know people are like, Oh, she's probably gonna die young and she's not gonna take care of herself if they could see me now, it's just, it'll just be a slap in the face, because I'm loving life, I'm thriving and I'm happy. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:14:39
them, you get them, yeah, you get to decide, forget that. Don't listen to those people do what you think is right, and don't let them tell you what you are or what you can

Margaret 1:14:49
accomplish. Please prove everybody wrong.

Scott Benner 1:14:53
God damn right. You are. Thank

Margaret 1:14:54
you for being here. Bye, yeah, exactly.

Scott Benner 1:14:56
Well, let us. Let us end on that. Hold on one second. You. Omnipodence.

Did you know if just one person in your family has type one diabetes, you're up to 15 times more likely to get it too. So screen it like you mean it one blood test can spot type one diabetes early tap now talk to a doctor or visit screened for type one.com for more info. A huge thanks to the contour next gen blood glucose meter for sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast. Learn more and get started today at contour, next.com/juicebox this episode of The juicebox podcast was sponsored by us Med, usmed.com/juicebox or call 888-721-1514, get started today with us Med, links in the show notes. Links at juicebox podcast.com if you or a loved one was just diagnosed with type one diabetes, and you're looking for some fresh perspective. The bowl beginning series from the juicebox podcast is a terrific place to start. That series is with myself and Jenny Smith. Jenny is a CD CES, a registered dietitian and a type one for over 35 years, and in the bowl beginning series. Jenny and I are going to answer the questions that most people have after a type one diabetes diagnosis. The series begins at episode 698, in your podcast player, or you can go to juicebox podcast.com and click on bold beginnings in the menu. Okay. Well, here we are at the end of the episode. You're still with me. Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribed in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me, or Instagram. Tiktok. Oh gosh, here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page you don't want to miss. Please do not know about the private group. You have to join the private group. As of this recording, it has 51,000 members in it. They're active, talking about diabetes, whatever you need to know. There's a conversation happening in there right now, and I'm there all the time. Tag me. I'll say hi. 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, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com. You.