#1554 Stop Trusting People
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Diagnosed at 35, Karen rides hard—mountain biking the Midwest with her family. Her path to T1D included MS and aneurysm misdiagnoses.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Karen 0:14
My name is Karen, and I live in the northern plains of the United States of America, and I was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of 35 back in her favorite year of 2020,
Scott Benner 0:28
if this is your first time listening to the Juicebox Podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox Podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. 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 healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. I'm having an on body vibe alert. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by ever since 365 the only one year where CGM, that's one insertion and one CGM a year, one CGM one year, not every 10 or 14 days ever since cgm.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is brought to you by my favorite diabetes organization, touched by type one. Please take a moment to learn more about them at touched by type one.org, on Facebook and Instagram. Touched by type one.org. Check out their many programs, their annual conference awareness campaign, their D box program, dancing for diabetes. They have a dance program for local kids, a golf night and so much more touched by type one.org. You're looking to help or you want to see people helping people with type one. You want touched by type one.org. This episode is sponsored by the tandem Moby system, which is powered by tandems, newest algorithm control iq plus technology. Tandem Moby has a predictive algorithm that helps prevent highs and lows, and is now available for ages two and up. Learn more and get started today at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox
Karen 2:38
My name is Karen, and I live in the northern plains of the United States of America, and I was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of 35 back in her favorite year of 2020,
Scott Benner 2:52
look at you making a big year out of it. You know what I
Karen 2:56
mean? Yeah. I mean, why not just jump all the way in with COVID and being diagnosed with type one. So it was quite the year, Scott, you're 40 now. I'll be 40 in June. Yep, awesome. Well, Happy Birthday a little early. Thank you. Of course, did you have COVID? I ended up having flu like symptoms back in October of 2020, where I ended up just being really sick with like fever, sinus congestion, like ear pain, like everything. So I did get tested for COVID, but they had said it was negative. So I just put it off of maybe having like influenza or something. So I didn't think much of
Scott Benner 3:39
it. Now that you know what COVID is. Do you think you had COVID? It could
Karen 3:42
have been, you know, I probably did have it. That was one of the things that my endocrinologist asked me was, did you have COVID? Because they were seeing an uptick in type one diabetes after somebody had COVID. Well,
Scott Benner 3:56
so listen, a lot of people are diagnosed after a virus of a number of different kinds. So, like, it makes sense that if we sprayed the world with a virus, a bunch of people who had, you know, auto antibodies, and maybe were on the edge, or one day, going to be on the edge, of having type one. It makes sense that they might have all gotten it, you know, at the same time afterwards. Also, like, I have no idea how well, none of us probably know how well those tests actually worked, like, here, jam this into your brain. You have COVID. No, you don't do another one. Oh, that one's different than this one. Awesome. Sit in your house. Sit in your house for a year. What was it 10 days?
Karen 4:34
I forget. Yeah, I think so. I think it was 10 days and it was like the whole flatten the curve of like two weeks. Everybody stay home. You know, yes, that turned
Scott Benner 4:43
into three years pretty quickly. Yeah, we just need you home for a couple of let's call it two weeks. It's gonna be probably two Christmas next year, summer,
Karen 4:53
Jesus kept on moving it. Yeah,
Scott Benner 4:56
lot, a lot of stuff happened you live. I know you're not saying. Exactly where you live, but you live out that part of the world that everybody thinks like this would be awesome. And then winter comes and I would run, right? I would run for my life. You
Karen 5:08
would probably run Scott like I honestly, I think about a month ago, like we had wind chills of 44 below.
Scott Benner 5:18
But what do you do then do you hide inside. You pray what goes on exactly? It's
Karen 5:23
business as usual. I mean, kids still go to school for the most part. I think only, like once we closed schools because it was super cold out. But I guess business as usual, I was out running to, like, the grocery store and whatnot, picking up stuff. So it didn't really stop me. We're just kind of used to it when it gets that cold. So that's ridiculous.
Scott Benner 5:45
Karen, no one's used to that. Now listen, like when you leave the grocery store on a day where there's wind chills, of, let's just be kind and say minus 20, not even minus 44 Do you curse the entire way to your vehicle
Karen 5:58
sometimes, but no, not all the time, like it's just, it's gonna get better. It's gonna get better. Like it's just us, just a little snippet of cold weather, like we're gonna get through this so, like, it's just making me stronger. Scott, I
Scott Benner 6:11
want to be clear that I live in New Jersey, where I don't think it really gets below, like, I mean, I don't know, it's not below freezing that often, right? Like, maybe it gets into the high 20s. Once in a while it doesn't matter. Like, this spring, it'll be 48 degrees, and I will, like, make the miscalculation of going to the grocery store without a sweatshirt on, and I will get out of my car, and I will be like, mother and just curse the whole web. Oh, I'm so cold. I'm so cold, I'm so cold. I'll just keep like, out loud. I'll be like, oh, people look up at me, I'll be like, This is insane, isn't it? And they're like, it's 48 degrees, and I'm like, I don't know, I caught a chill. So, you know, I think I would during the summer. I mean, it just it feels angelic to see the photos. It's nice
Karen 6:55
in the summer. I love it because, like, our our sun doesn't set until about 10 o'clock at night up here, and it is just amazing. Like, I love the summers up here so and, I mean, don't be fooled, we get some hot summers. Like, I think last summer, I was volunteering for a race, and it was 109 Scott and I was just melting again, like
Scott Benner 7:17
cursing, complaining the whole time. But actually, I'm better with the heat than the cold. For sure, this podcast is not about where I get cold at though. So although it should be, it should be, this would be a whole podcast of when I feel chilly. I don't think anybody would listen, but I would have such a good time just complaining about the weather. I'm going to be such a great old man one day. It's going to be awesome. So you're diagnosed out of nowhere, or do you feel like, like, did you see it coming? Did it creep up? Or did it hit you quickly?
Karen 7:45
I feel like it creeped up. Scott, so after I was sick, like, the end of October 2020, in November, I started getting, like, blurry vision, and I'm like, What is going on? Like, I don't think my vision, like, decreased that much so, like, it was almost to the point like I had, I was working in an office, and I had a calendar about maybe, like, five feet for me, and I could not see the numbers on it, so I'm over here, like, Well, I'm just gonna go to the pharmacy and get some eye drops. Maybe I have something in my eye, you know,
Scott Benner 8:18
in both eyes. You get something in both your eyes at the same time,
Karen 8:20
yeah, you know maybe, I mean, generally, I'm a pretty healthy person, so that didn't do the trick. So then I Karen, I
Scott Benner 8:29
gotta stop you for a second. You're gonna You're such a good storyteller, I'm running you over, and I apologize. But, like, did you actually put the drops in your eyes and when it was still blurry? Go, huh, can't believe it. Or, or were you like, yeah, I didn't think that was gonna work. I'm out nine bucks now. How did it, like, how did that feel? I'm being serious. Well,
Karen 8:45
no, it was one of those of like, Huh? I guess I don't have something in my eye, but the but the pharmacist said that, you know, it could cause some blurriness a little bit. So I'm like, I'll give it a day
Scott Benner 8:56
and it wait. You said the drop caused the blurriness? Yeah.
Karen 9:00
He's like, Well, when you put it in, it could be blurry for a little bit, so just give it a little time, and then it should clear
Scott Benner 9:05
up. I don't want to be an alarmist, but everyone listen to me for a second. Stop listening to everybody. Okay, just this. There's no one to trust. Eye Drops might make your vision. Hi, I'm here because I'm trying eye drops, because my eyes are blurry, and I think there might be something in them. Oh, no, they're still blurry. Oh, that could be the drops. It couldn't be that my eyes are Oh, my God, I don't know. I trust no one, please. It's over. Okay, talk to the Internet if it tells you something I don't know. Verify it two more times and just go with it. Jesus, don't listen to me. For goddamn Sure. Let me just say that right now. I know a lot of you are, but you're making a huge mistake anyway. Oh, I'm sorry. The drops didn't work. Go ahead.
Karen 9:50
No, it did not work. So I'm like, Okay, now what do I do? I'm like, well, I shouldn't maybe go into my eye doctor. So went in there, and I'm like, my eyes. This are blurry. What is going on, and they couldn't tell me why. And they're like, they seriously thought that I had Ms. They're like, we think that maybe you're developing Ms. And they were like, pulled out, like, this eyedrop dropper with a red cap on it. And they're like, What color is this? I'm like, it's red. They're like, you don't see pink. I said no, it's red. They're like, typically, like somebody developing ms would say that that is pink. So they were kind of like, you check out, fine. There's nothing wrong with you. Reiterate
Scott Benner 10:35
again, please stop listening to people like, I mean, I were we in a pearl Vision Center? What was going on exactly? This episode is sponsored by tandem Diabetes Care, and today I'm going to tell you about tandems, newest pump and algorithm, the tandem mobi system with control iq plus technology features auto Bolus, which can cover missed meal boluses and help prevent hyperglycemia. It has a dedicated sleep activity setting and is controlled from your personal iPhone. Tandem will help you to check your benefits today through my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, this is going to help you to get started with tandem, smallest pump yet that's powered by its best algorithm ever control iq plus technology helps to keep blood sugars in range by predicting glucose levels 30 minutes ahead, and it adjusts insulin accordingly. You can wear the tandem Moby in a number of ways. Wear it on body with a patch like adhesive sleeve that is sold separately. Clip it discreetly to your clothing or slip it into your pocket head. Now to my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, to check out your benefits and get started today, when you think of a CGM and all the good that it brings in your life, is the first thing you think about. I love that I have to change it all the time. I love the warm up period every time I have to change it. I love that when I bump into a door frame, sometimes it gets ripped off. I love that the adhesive kind of gets mushy sometimes when I sweat and falls off. No, these are not the things that you love about a CGM. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Eversense 365 the only CGM that you only have to put on once a year, and the only CGM that won't give you any of those problems the Eversense 365 is the only one year CGM designed to minimize the vice frustration. It has exceptional accuracy for one year with almost no false alarms from compression lows while you're sleeping, you can manage your diabetes instead of your CGM with the ever since 365 learn more and get started today at ever since cgm.com/juicebox, one year, one CGM,
Karen 12:48
I went to some local eye doctor here within my town, and I was just like, I left there, like, there is something wrong with me, but I don't know what it is. So I ended up going to work, I think, the next day, and I was just kind of chatting with my coworker, like, I don't know what's going on. Like, I don't know what to do. And she, she was really concerned about me. She's like, Karen, you need to you need to go in. I'm like, I don't want to go in. There's COVID. Like, everywhere. No matter where you go, there's like, COVID here, over there. Like, I don't want to go into a clinic and end up catching COVID And like taking it back home. I want to
Scott Benner 13:25
call this episode COVID here, COVID there, COVID everywhere, a new Dr Seuss story. I just love that. Like in the span of a very short amount of time you went from there might be something in my eye to Ooh, the drops that I put in my eye to clear out my eyes might be making my vision blurry. To, I have, MS, oh, no, there's nothing wrong with me, but I still can't see. What's the timeframe on this? Please. What is the timeframe from, hey, My vision's blurry to, you don't have, MS,
Karen 13:53
maybe just a couple days, I'm jumping
Scott Benner 13:55
off a roof. By then, I'm like, it's enough. I gotta get away from all you people. All right, so did your friend get you to a hospital?
Karen 14:01
So my friend was like, Okay, call my clinic, because what they called it back then was a clean clinic, basically meaning that they weren't taking any patients with COVID. So I'm like, oh, okay, sure, I'll go and I'll talk to this clinic. So I called them up and explained my situation, and they're like, well, we're not taking new patients right now. So I, I actually spoke to a doctor, and I kind of went through everything that I was experiencing. And he goes, I'm concerned about you. I'm concerned that you may have a brain aneurysm, Jesus Christ. So he's like, I highly suggest you go into the ER right away and get this figured out. Okay,
Scott Benner 14:44
this so they were able to figure it out, I imagine so.
Karen 14:47
Like, okay, I'm over here. Like, well, I don't feel like I'm dying right now. I don't know about going to an ER, but so I ended up just, I'm like, just whatever. I'm just going to the clinic. Like, I'm just gonna mask up. I'm gonna sit in a corner by myself and not look at anybody, and not trying
Scott Benner 15:07
to look at the floor so the COVID can't see me absolutely, exactly, by the way, if I had to bet, I'd think we all had COVID, by the way, at some point or another. I just think it probably varied and like, it's, I mean, how do you not so many people had it. How do you have I mean, unless you sat in your house and really, just, like, hunkered down. I realized later that I was the one that got sent to the grocery store. And it occurred to me later that, like, the three of them must have got together and been like, if we can, like, afford to lose one of them, I think it's him. It really feels hurtful in hindsight, I guess is what I'm saying. All right, I'm sorry now you have a brain aneurysm. Go ahead. Yeah,
Karen 15:47
now I have a brain aneurysm. So that's, that's great. So here I am sitting in this, in this waiting room, and everybody's coughing around me like I'm gonna get COVID. That's, that's it like it's just gonna happen, Scott, you know. So I get called into the doctor's office, and he's like, all suited up. I'm like, okay, great. Like, I hope you don't have COVID on you. So he, he went through, like, what is your symptoms? I'm like, well, blurry vision, extremely thirsty, and I lost 10 pounds in a week, you know? So I'm like, there's something not right here. And by the way, when I was experiencing all this, I was like, doing like, a fitness challenge at the gym, and one of the things was to drink X amount of water daily. And I was doing this with my sister, and she texted me one day she's like, I am struggling to get all this water in.
Scott Benner 16:39
You should have said it gave me a brain aneurysm. So stop complaining. Okay, right?
Karen 16:45
I'm over here, like, I don't know, I'm doing pretty good, like, I'm able to get it in. And she's like, I don't know how you can. I'm like, I don't know, but nothing would quench my thirst. I remember grabbing a sprite and like, I'm just gonna drink this. Like, I am just super thirsty. But anyway, yeah, well,
Scott Benner 17:02
you were being driven by certain death, which apparently makes you very thirsty when it involves your pancreas not working. Yeah, I guess. So. I can't wait to hear how this because I have a, you know, you just said to an ER doctor, I have blurry vision. I've lost a lot of weight. If you say that to me, I go, Oh, you have type one diabetes. And I want to reiterate what I said earlier. You shouldn't be listening. I barely got through high school. I got to think, if I'm an ER doctor, I hear that, and I go, oh gosh, you have type one. Let's check your blood sugar. But what did
Karen 17:31
he say? So he checked my blood sugar? Oh, good. Okay, he did. He's like, Well, let's check your blood sugar and go from there. And I think at the time, my blood sugar was like 400 so he looked at me and he said, You have type two diabetes. Can
Scott Benner 17:48
I curse? I don't know where you are on the religion scale. Close your ears for a second, Mother, 400 you have type two diabetes.
Karen 17:56
Yep, yeah. Go ahead. Yep. Type Type two diabetes. So I sat there and was like, What in the world? I swear he was going to have me Pinky promise him not to eat any sugar. And he sent me home and said, you cannot eat any sugar. And, like he said, it like three times to me, I'm like, Okay, I promise I will not eat any sugar. So, and I walked out of that clinic just like, I don't know what happened. So if you had type two diabetes, I was so confused, Scott that I didn't know. I'm like, a
Scott Benner 18:36
large portion of the population of the planet has type two diabetes. How come they can see their calendars,
Karen 18:43
right? Yeah, yeah. And I should back up a little bit to kind of talk about I was pregnant back in February of 2018 and had gestational diabetes then, so I remember going to, like, my doctors for like those follow up visits, and they're like, gosh, Karen, you are just killing it over here with, like, checking your blood sugar, eating what you need to eat, and whatnot. Where fast forward to walking out of that clinic. I thought to myself, I just got promoted to diabetes. Like, I now officially have
Scott Benner 19:19
diabetes. Like, my fault. I did too well with those blood sugar checks. And God, was like, she can handle it. And yeah, right now I hear, yeah, oh, Jesus,
Karen 19:27
you know, kind of like those work memes, like, when you do a really good job, you get promoted to something you don't want to be promoted to. And I'm just like, I got promoted.
Scott Benner 19:36
No raise and pay. They didn't change my title, but I got more work all of a sudden,
Karen 19:43
so I walked out of there and he had told me, you need to meet up, like, talk to your primary physician. Well, at the time, I didn't have a primary physician, because he just retired. He probably saw COVID coming. He was like, I'm out.
Scott Benner 19:56
I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna leave you. Yeah, yeah.
Karen 20:02
So I'm like, Oh, great. Now I gotta establish care with somebody. So I honestly was calling around just trying to find somebody. I had a doctor that I was gonna go visit with, but she was like, three weeks out. I'm like, I can't wait three weeks like, I don't know what's going on with me. So I got a primary physician pretty quickly, and she was the one that was like, Hey, I don't know if you have type two diabetes. Let's, let's go ahead and let's do some other testing on you.
Scott Benner 20:31
Yeah. Oh, I'm so glad, by the way. I'm stunned that the ER doc didn't voice the the Metformin on you. I thought for sure that was coming in the story.
Karen 20:40
Well, I think she actually put gave me Metformin. So really, I was on Metformin for a little bit. I can't remember if it was him or if it was her that put me on it. Gotcha.
Scott Benner 20:51
I mean, if she thought you had type one, I don't think she would have been the one to put you on Metformin.
Karen 20:57
That's me, guess it could have been him, because I remember, yeah,
Scott Benner 21:01
having conversations now, personally, with somebody like in their early 20s, you know, 140 pounds just lost 20 pounds, clearly has type one diabetes. That person left the ER, with metformin. He you have type two diabetes. Here's some Metformin. Luckily, they knew me and texted I was like, that kid does not have type two diabetes. This is, you know, I wouldn't take the Metformin if I was. You like, go find a better doctor. And that's what they did. But anyway, just unbelievable. I'm so sorry. Like, go ahead. You're having a horrible time. And you're also the mother of, like, a two year old at this point too, right?
Karen 21:31
Yeah, and two, two boys as well. So I looked at it, I'm like, Okay, I had a boy who was 12, another one who was How old was he? I think he was, he was seven at the time, and then a two year old.
Scott Benner 21:44
So, gosh, what are you trying to populate the planet? What's going on, right?
Karen 21:47
I mean, three kids. I'm like, after my last one, like, this is the last one. I'm not going to try to have another
Scott Benner 21:54
to keep me busy. Tell me the truth. The third one, not on purpose.
Karen 21:57
No, it was my husband wanted another child. You're like, okay, okay. So he's like, no more like,
Scott Benner 22:05
he's like, here, I'm gonna make a third baby and I'm going to work. So good luck with that. You're like, I have a job too. Wait a second. Hold on, boys. Never mind. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, you're okay.
Karen 22:20
So I ended up going to my my new primary physician, and she had said, Okay, let's do some different testing on you, because I think that you are not a type two. I'm like, oh, then what I am i She's like, I'm thinking that you have Lada, you may need to have insulin. I'm like, okay, so we ran the test in she had messaged me later, and she's like, yes, you're gonna need insulin. So I'm referring you to an endocrinologist.
Scott Benner 22:48
Okay, well, was it nice to have an answer? Yes, it was very
Karen 22:52
nice to have an answer, because I was very confused with everything from MS, from blurry eyes to ms to brain aneurysm to type two and now type one. You know,
Scott Benner 23:04
you know, if you would have asked an AI or Google, you would have gotten a better answer than all the people you saw before that. I probably would have, Scott, no, I mean, if we type in right now, I have blurry vision, this, this, and my blood sugar is 400 it's going to say you have type one diabetes.
Karen 23:21
That's what I'm gonna do here on out, Scott. I'm just gonna use AI, like, tell me what I have
Scott Benner 23:25
stop trusting people. Is the name of this episode. Go ahead, I
Karen 23:29
went to go see the endocrinologist on November 18 of 2020, and that's where he was, like, we're stopping Metformin. They got me a Dexcom right away, which is wonderful. I remember them saying, like, well, you're gonna have to check your blood sugars. Karen, and I'm over here just thinking finger sticks like the whole time. I didn't know anything about a CGM, so I'm like, well, that's going to be kind of hard to do this all the time, because we're a pretty active family. We do a lot, a lot of mountain biking. So I'm like, Well, an exercise like, decre like, drops your blood sugar. So I'm like, Well, I guess I'll just stop on the trail and just check my blood sugar from time to time. But my diabetic educators, like, No, we're gonna get you a Dexcom here today and and send you home with it and get it all like, set up on you and whatnot,
Scott Benner 24:23
stop for the regular reasons on the bike trail. Now, yeah, it's interesting that that's how it popped into your head. Like, oh gosh, I know what blood sugar checks are, because I was gestational. How is that going to affect my bike riding? It's interesting. I always wonder how the news strikes different people. Like, yeah, what do they think of first, what scares them? What do they stay scared about? What do they figure out later? Get away from like, you have such a limited understanding of what you're, you know, being thrown into, and then all of a sudden you're trying to apply that limited understanding to the rest of your life. It's almost not even worth thinking about in the beginning. You wouldn't know that. But, you know, yeah. You just gonna come up with the wrong answers to a lot of things. They didn't hassle you about not being on insulin and giving you a CGM.
Karen 25:08
They gave me insulin right away at the endocrinologist office. So like that day, my husband and I left, and you gotta go pick up insulin, and you have to pick up bass me in the event that you have like, a super low low they got me all set up with that. I think I spent like two hours at that at the endocrinologist appointment, Scott, it was a long visit. Yeah.
Scott Benner 25:34
I wonder if they it just, it just struck me. I wonder if they do that, because I've seen a couple of people get diagnosed. Lot of they don't really need insulin yet, but they're like, Here, let's just give you, like, a basal pen so you have it. I wonder if they do that so the insurance won't argue about the CGM. I don't know. That just occurred to me. Maybe that's like, some sneaky good thing a doctor does know to do. All right, yeah, okay, by the way, I'm not saying don't listen to doctors. I'm saying don't listen to anybody. I just want, I tried to go out and pick up some takeout the other night, but can I tell you a story? So, like, yeah, we're visiting my mother in law for her birthday. We kind of sprung in on her. So we're like, let's we'll go bring a meal in, right? So we've nice restaurant nearby. Go, you know, order the food. They say, Come 45 minutes. I come like a gentleman, 40 minutes before, right? The girl goes, we're very behind. An hour and a half later, they bring out my food like, you know what I mean, like, it's now an hour and a half past when I ordered. So it's twice as much time as they said. She brings the food out. She goes, Listen, you waited so long. I'm so sorry. Let me go through this piece by piece. Make sure you get everything. I don't want you to get home without your food. I was like, That's lovely. Thank you. She pulled out the receipt. She took out a highlighter. This is this? This is that? This? This, you've got everything. I was like, Oh, you're a gem. Thank you so much. I got back to my mother in law's house. People are looking at me like they forgot who I was because I've been going for they're like, oh, yeah, that guy went out for food a couple of days ago. And, you know, I lay the I just wanted soup. Everyone's got their food, and I look in the bag and I'm like, where's my soup? So I don't trust her. Trust the people. It's over now. I can't, I can't everything was there. There must have been, there must have been 25 items in that bag, just not my goddamn soup, man. I've liked it. I've given up. I don't trust Karen. I don't trust you. I trust issues. I swear to God, like I don't know how many times I can be let down before I just say to myself, Why do I keep expecting this to go? Well, you know what I mean, do I sound like? I sound depressed? I'm not, Oh, my God, all right, I'm so sorry. You got a Dexcom, you got a doctor, you had this super long visit. And did you stop worrying about COVID?
Karen 27:53
Yeah. I mean, in a way, yeah, like, okay, huh? Worry about me having COVID, or, you know, trying to get it, you know, other than, you know, going to the grocery store and just your typical life, you know,
Scott Benner 28:06
what I mean is, is that, prior to this diagnosis, you know, you see this all the time, right? Like, people's perspective level, like you said, you know, I got promoted. Your perspective gets promoted really quickly when somebody tells you your kid or you have type one diabetes, like, you know, you hear people talk all the time about, like, Oh, I'm so worried about this or that, you know, then all of a sudden they just stop worrying about that stuff, because they're like, I got bigger fish to fry here. So, like, I was wondering if that happened to you, like, did you just go, Oh, I can't think about this COVID thing. I'm thinking about this. Yeah,
Karen 28:36
yeah, because it was so much to learn. Scott. I mean, they're they're now giving me insulin, and they're like, Oh, hey. Like, you need this to live, but if you dose too much, you could die from it. I'm like, Okay, awesome. Like, this is great. So I'm like, Just tell me what I need to do. And they're like, You have to learn that. I'm like, but, like, from who, like, how, from you. Scott, and I learned a lot from you. But now I'm really questioning if I should trust you. You
Scott Benner 29:11
probably shouldn't, although there is a shop back in the room and it's red, and I can see that it's red, so I don't have MS, at the very least,
Karen 29:16
that's good. I'm glad it's not pink.
Scott Benner 29:20
But seriously, they said, Look, this could kill you. There's a lot to learn. Get out there, kid, good luck. Well,
Karen 29:26
they set me up with like, Okay, this is how much you should take, like, carb ratio and so forth. I think I was looking in very much for like, black and white stuff, Scott and like, learning about type one now it's not black and white, yeah, because my my educators, like it's going to be different, because food affects you differently, you know, and, and that's where listening to your podcasts about, like, fat and protein and how you get, like, a rise with that later, like, I learned that from the podcast, you know.
Scott Benner 30:01
All listen, I learned that from the podcast. Sure, yeah, you know what? I mean, like, seriously, like, if you think I knew fat and protein made my kids blood sugar go up when she was, like, eight, I didn't know that, you know? I mean, I know it's a thing people knew I didn't know. And then you start having conversations, and somebody says something one day, and you're like, wait a minute, what? And then, you know, all of a sudden somebody's like, oh, you should talk to this lady from Canada. She's got a way of talking about, like, great, get her on. And then she's talking. You can even look at the Pro Tip series and see sometimes like, oh, he figured that out later, because if he didn't that clearly would be higher on that list. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, it's a journey for everybody, but it's, I think the podcast is just a great place to have a conversation so people can figure things out absolutely
Karen 30:44
and it it's very much. It is a journey, because I tell you what that that two hour endocrinologist appointment with a dietitian, with with the endocrinologist himself and a type one educator, like, it was like information overload, yeah? And I mean, I'm, I'm grateful for my husband being there with a clipboard, like writing down all these notes, Scott, you know, so that we can refer back to it. And if they would have told me about that, about fat and protein, like spiking your blood sugar later, or making it rise later, I don't know if I would have retained it. Well, you know, do you
Scott Benner 31:22
have any idea it hasn't been that long ago? So maybe you're a good person to ask, like, do you remember what you took away from that meeting,
Karen 31:29
that I would have to wear a CGM basically for the rest of my life, that I can't do anything to change type one diabetes, and that it was an autoimmune disorder.
Scott Benner 31:41
It took him two hours to get that to you. That's all you know that. That's what I
Karen 31:45
remembered. But, I mean, look at my husband's notes, and there was much more, but that's just what I took away. Like at that point, I couldn't tell you much of anything else. Meeting with the dietician, I knew some of that stuff just from having gestational diabetes, of like this has how you kill carbs and and so forth.
Scott Benner 32:04
What does your husband do for a living? That he owns a clipboard.
Karen 32:09
He works QA for a software company, so he gets to test all these programs and see if they break or not. So that's what he does. But for sure,
Scott Benner 32:19
you're gonna tell me like he was like, mobile, and he needed it, like, to lean on in his car or something like that. Anyway. Oh no, no. I'm like, Who owns a clipboard? It's awesome. He does page one at the top, it said, Get Karen pregnant a fourth time. Scratched out. He was like, never mind that not happening. So he kept, like, what we'll call copious notes. And like, Did you refer back to them afterwards? Or was he, like, acting like a coach at that point? Was he yelling out, like, don't forget this, or
Karen 32:51
I would go back and look at the notes, and along with the notes that they had taken, because I have, like, my chart where I can go in and look at the notes and so forth. He was a great support. He's like, Hey, Karen. Like, I think we got to do this. You know, looking back at my notes, this is what they said. But no, he was not a coach. Like yelling at me,
Scott Benner 33:11
if he's a regular boy, what he thought was, oh, who's gonna take care of these three kids? I gotta keep her alive. I mean, like, I wanted to, like, go to soccer once in a while, but I wasn't looking for the whole experience. So, oh yeah, Aaron, you gotta live. You gotta live.
Karen 33:30
I can't take care of these three kids and maintain a house. I
Scott Benner 33:33
don't have it in me to do the sit ups. It's gonna take the trick another lady into watching these kids. Oh yeah. So okay, well, that's, that's lovely. So he's got the notes you're referring back. That's your entree. You've got these two hours he's writing furiously awesome. You're not really retaining much, except, like, life shift things, which makes sense to me. So then, like, when you know the next day becomes the next month, like a month later, after that meeting, where are you like, And are any of those notes or anything that happened to you? Are they? Is any of it helping?
Karen 34:08
I feel like that. It was helping. Good, like, the next couple months and, and I should say Scott like, when I was diagnosed, November 18 of 2020, I was in extreme denial about it, you know, where I'm like, I am going to show them that I don't need insulin. You know, I I don't need this. I'm going to, I'm going to accomplish this with diet and exercise, which now, like, you can't know in
Scott Benner 34:36
that moment that that wasn't actually possible, and you just were like, I'm going to try anyway. Or did you actually think it was possible? Was possible? I
Karen 34:44
think it was like, I'm gonna try anyway. Like, because, like, when I had gestational diabetes, I only needed, like, a background insulin, you know, I didn't have to take insulin when I ate. So I'm like, that, I'm just gonna do a background insulin. And I think part of it, Scott, is because I was. I didn't want to give myself shots, you know, I didn't want to carry this fast acting insulin around with me everywhere and having to take like shots, like at a restaurant and or at work and so forth, and explain myself all the time. I just didn't want to do it. So I'm like, I'm going to show them that I don't need fast acting that I can, that I can manage with just a basal insulin. Did
Scott Benner 35:25
you ever say that out loud to anybody?
Karen 35:28
I asked my educator, because she called me, like, a couple days later after the long meeting, and she's like, how is it going? Karen, I said, pretty good. Like, I just want to know, like, do I have to take this fast acting insulin all the time. Can I just get away with taking basal, like an injection once a day? And she's like, typically not. I'm like, Okay, well, I'm
Scott Benner 35:52
gonna do it anyway, just so you know. And what was your plan to accomplish that? Was it like an eating style? Was it an exercise regimen? What were you like? What were you thinking was going to do that for you? I
Karen 36:02
was thinking it was going to be exercise and low carb, you know, I mean, and I did the low carb diet, I guess, and it didn't work out so well. You know, I found type one
Scott Benner 36:15
diabetes. I still had type one
Karen 36:16
diabetes, Scott. And I think the other thing that I didn't know, Scott, when I was in this denial, was that there's so many other factors that contribute to high blood sugars, rather than just the food that you put in your mouth. You know, I didn't realize that. I thought it was purely just because of the food. I didn't know that heat and cold and hormones and I mean the list goes on and affect your blood sugars,
Scott Benner 36:45
all things living, breathing, turning your head,
Karen 36:51
stress. You know exactly. It all affects it.
Scott Benner 36:53
How long are you on this journey to not use insulin well, just
Karen 36:58
just so that we're on the same page. I was using insulin, like I was doing fast acting. But I'm like, I think I'll get it like, to the point where I don't have to, you
Scott Benner 37:06
know, okay, I'm sorry. How long were you on the journey to trying to not use insulin? Yeah,
Karen 37:10
maybe a good six months. Wow. Of like, I'm gonna try to just eliminate all the carbs that I'm putting myself in and not have to do it.
Scott Benner 37:20
Did those six months end with a whimper or a bang? Did you go out fighting, or did you just slowly go, this ain't gonna
Karen 37:26
work? I went slowly like, this isn't gonna work, you know,
Scott Benner 37:31
or anything like that. No,
Karen 37:33
I didn't. I mean, there's time Scott that I remember just crying though, like I remember being at a bike race with my husband, and I was extremely hungry, but my blood sugars were so high, and I just remember just crying. I'm like, I'm hungry, but I cannot put more food in my mouth because it's just gonna, you know, spike it even higher. And I'm like, This is how people end up with eating disorders. You know? I'm just like, I need to eat. And, yeah, after that, I'm like, Okay, I need to change some
Scott Benner 38:07
stuff. I'm gonna give myself some insulin and have a sandwich. So, right, right?
Karen 38:11
And, yeah, and I was giving insulin at that time too, but I'm just like,
Scott Benner 38:15
just, did you not know how to use it at that point? I
Karen 38:19
think it wasn't going down like, I gave myself some insulin to get my blood sugars down, but it wasn't going down fast enough. It was warm, I was cranky, I had a sick, car sick kid, and I'm like, I just need, I just want to eat something, and I feel like I can't eat anything because my blood sugars are in the 200 and if I eat the sandwich right now we're just going to bump them up to 300
Scott Benner 38:43
bike and be a mom and all the other stuff. You guys got to stop riding bikes. It sounds like your biggest problem.
Karen 38:49
Oh yeah, that is what we live for. Some days, I tell you what, which I was writing this all out. Scott and I looked at it, we did a bike race about a month after I was diagnosed, I'm like, What was
Scott Benner 39:03
I thinking while you were doing the this isn't gonna stop me thing, right?
Karen 39:06
Yeah, I think I was like, this isn't gonna stop me. And then I looked at it again, and I'm like, I did another race in February of 2021, which, brace yourself. Okay. We ended up doing this race in winter with wind chills of 24 below, and I ended up walking hiking 20 miles for this race. Why
Scott Benner 39:31
do you have to hike to get on the bike? I don't understand. Well, okay, so this is a
Karen 39:35
fat bike race, and like a snowshoe race, basically, I don't have a fat bike for the snow. So I opted out to do a snowshoe. Karen, when
Scott Benner 39:44
we start this conversation, it would have been polite if you would have started by saying, I have a mental illness, but I would have known, while we were talking that, you know what, I was dealing with. Why, in God's name, would you do that?
Karen 39:57
Because that was on the path of this is not. Going to type one's not gonna stop me. Yeah, could you have
Scott Benner 40:03
learned to code or something instead? Like, why wasn't it like, type one's not gonna stop me. I'm gonna make my own app.
Karen 40:12
Nope, nope. And, and I think the other part is just, like, you just get cooped up and you're like, I need to get out of the house and do something. And that's, that's what we did. We traveled to go do this race and, and in fact, Scott, I heard you make a podcast. I don't know what it was, but anyway, you're like, I'm always surprised when people listen to the podcast. So just so you know, during that race, back in 2021 I was listening to your podcast and just well,
Scott Benner 40:42
then it's fine. No, then I don't have any trouble with it at all. So why didn't you just
Karen 40:47
say that? Yeah, listen to your podcast during this race. So listen
Scott Benner 40:51
now. I think you're making a lot of sense. You should be out there probably 18 hours a day learning, you know what I mean, really, really ride and let that thing run. And for all you listening, why not let it play overnight while you're sleeping too, right? Maybe you'll learn something while you're asleep.
Karen 41:07
You never know, save time, right? Oh,
Scott Benner 41:09
my God, I had I was watching a YouTube video when I fell asleep last night, and like, an hour later, I realized it was still happening, and I was like, oh god. I mean, how many other videos ran? Like, what is it? I now know that I don't want to know.
Karen 41:23
Yes, yes. Anyway,
Scott Benner 41:25
yeah, no, I didn't mean I'm so sorry. Let me apologize if you were I think you're not mentally ill for going out in the snow. If you're listening to my podcast, there's a guy online who's like, I left my keys at work and it like, turned into, like, five more hours of driving, and he's like, but I listen to the podcast the whole time, and I was like, Oh, right on.
Karen 41:46
I think I saw that. Yeah. I
Scott Benner 41:48
was like, Oh no, that's cool, Ryan, thank you. That's what we need, absolutely. So after all this, right, forget me for a second. Like, why does finding other information, like, in different forms. Like, how did that end up helping you more?
Karen 42:04
When I got diagnosed, I just start putting ladder in everything. You know, I think I came across like a ladder Facebook group, and somebody in there said, check out, like the Juicebox Podcast. So I'm like, Okay, I'm not one to, like, sit down and just read things. Like, I retain stuff better by listening so and honestly, Scott, I almost stopped listening to the podcast when I first started because, well, nothing that you did, I mean, it was more so like, I think the terminology of like, basal and Bolus, I never left that endocrinologist appointment knowing what those meant. And I'm like, I don't get this. I don't know what, what this guy is saying, you know? So it I'm like, I don't know. Like, I'm MDI, I'm not on a pump, you know, at the time. But now it doesn't really matter, you know, just learning about it, like it's the same, like it's still your basal insulin, you know, and you need a Bolus, whether you inject or if you have, if you're on a pump. So, you
Scott Benner 43:10
know, if people start hearing Bumper ads for the defining diabetes series, eventually they're gonna be like, ah, Karen, now I gotta listen to all that stuff, because he's like, Oh, I didn't know that. You know, it's funny. Like, when I was in the middle of making all that stuff, it was in the feed constantly, so people knew it was there. But once you get done, you're like, all right, there's 60 episodes of defining, like, short 10 minute episodes that explain terminology to you. I think podcasting is the best way to deliver this information. Like, I haven't seen a better way to help people with their diabetes than these kind of longer form conversation so far, but the format and the way the players work, what you would like is to be able to open up that app and see like those series at the top and then the new episodes underneath of it. But that's just not how the apps aren't designed for me. They're designed to work for everybody who has a podcast, and it's more episodic, really, the way they're set up. I did find myself talking to somebody the other day. I think it's why I said, develop your own app. When I was joking about other things you should do, because I thought, why don't I develop an app that I can set up the way I want it to be? That's a podcast app, and the problem would be getting into people's hands. The ease of getting podcasts to people is because you buy an iPhone and the podcast apps on the iPhone already. So, you know, I feel like it would be one of those things that like, if I could accomplish it and then somehow force it onto all your phones, it would be awesome. And it would really, you guys would love it. If you can't get people to adopt it, then you just have this great tool that's not being used and ends up costing me, you know, I'm gonna guess, like, $15,000 to get developed or something. Or something like that. So I don't know. I'm glad so it worked out for you. Like, why did you not quit? I
Karen 44:47
think just dedicate it to figure it out. You know, I think I took a break for a little bit, and then I'm like, No, there's more. Like, there's more that I need to learn. The podcast was about. Best way to learn it, like I said, like it was, I could just throw, like, earbuds in and go for a walk and listen, you know, instead of trying to sit down, read a book about it with having three kids, like, juggling all their activities and whatnot, where I'm like, I I can just listen to this in the car. I was listening to it at work as I worked, so it was the best way for me to get that information, Scott,
Scott Benner 45:27
I guess I'm not going to change anything. Have you ever watched a chameleon yawn because I just happened to me, and he just looked at me and he was like,
Karen 45:36
does he just does he think I'm that boring?
Scott Benner 45:39
No, no, he just moved you and I have been talking for 44 minutes. He's moved six inches in that time. Oh, the other one's running in circles, like it's a crack addict. Just so, you know. Well, is it ridiculous of me to say, like, what did you learn that really, like, was there a thing that got you moving? Was it like, Oh, okay. Terminology makes sense. Now, other things are making sense. Like, there's no secret sauce to it, though. Like, right? Like, it's not like I heard this one thing and it all fell into place. It's just time and absorbing things,
Karen 46:11
yes, it's absolutely time, absolutely the time, and just really focusing in what, what does this definition mean? You know, it was language that I've never heard before. So, and I think I finally just, like, I just got to Google this. Like, what is this guy talking about? So there's no secret to it, Scott, it's just
Scott Benner 46:33
time, yeah, and it's funny, because you can say all things like, Well, Scott, why don't you put like, a dictionary on your website, and it would be nice for the people who would use it, but like, most people wouldn't, like, that's the that's the thing. Like, when other people try to help, like, when I'm, like, brainstorming online, I'm like, How do I help you guys? And everyone's like, I'll do this. Do that. I'm like, Yeah, I've done that. Nobody. It doesn't work. Like, you know, you mean, like, it's one of those things that sounds good, and it probably is right, but the leap of getting someone to actually do it is, is nearly impossible, because you can't make anybody do anything. I think that's why the podcast works, because it's passive and, you know, you can make the argument I'm doing something else while I'm doing it. Does that make sense? You know, you mean, like, I'll go for a ride and I'll listen, I'll go for a walk and I'll listen, while I'm working. However that ends up happening. But if I say to you, like, you know, every piece of terminology you needs it, like Juicebox podcast.com/terminology, and you're going to be like, I'm not doing that right? Yeah. It's just, I don't know, like, it's a it's a weird thing trying to get the information to people. It's not as straight of a line as you would imagine.
Karen 47:39
Sure, sure, yeah. And I don't know if, if I would actually have gone to look at the terminology, I don't think I would have thought of that. No, I, I probably would have just what I did is just throw it in Google and, like, explain this to me, Google, you know, yeah, yeah, I hear you. Okay.
Scott Benner 47:57
All right, awesome. So now modern day. Like, how are things going and, like, what have you figured out and what are you still trying to accomplish? Yeah,
Karen 48:05
so I guess the other thing that I should state is that I did end up getting Hashimotos with it as well. So that was back in February of 2021, so symptoms
Scott Benner 48:17
at that time before you got the diagnosis, what was that? What were your symptoms? Losing hair, like, a lot of hair. So,
Karen 48:29
and I think being tired, although, like, I had a lot of tiredness when it came to, like, before I was diagnosed with type one, where I was just like, I'm not gonna go to the neighbor's house to go watch this movie or anything like that. I'm just gonna go to sleep. You know, yeah, you're beat up,
Scott Benner 48:48
just run down. Couldn't get rested, yeah?
Karen 48:51
And during that time, just extremely hungry. I remember eating like a rib eye and Scott, I was so hungry afterwards, and I was losing weight. I mean, that's all typical of type one, you know, but with Hashimotos, yeah, probably a little sluggish and losing a lot of hair. Okay, so which is, I guess, a little bit common in some of these colder states in the winter of I don't want to go outside because
Scott Benner 49:18
it's cold. Well, since it's negative 44 degrees outside. What if I sat here? Is there a lot of seasonal affective disorder like you? Is it a thing you guys talk about? Yeah,
Karen 49:28
yeah. A lot of times it's like, like, our sun goes down. I think the earliest is maybe 435, o'clock in the winter, and it's just like, oh, it's there. Seasonal Depression is a real thing. Scott, so we're all happy once, once the sun is out a little bit longer and we're getting that vitamin D from the sun. So let me ask you
Scott Benner 49:53
a couple of questions so that the Canadians don't get upset with me. Okay, what do you got there? Like, are there bison walking around? Island or moose, moose, moose. Me, is there a lot of, is it moose? Is moose? Is moose? Okay, yeah. Like, what you got, stuff like that. How about snakes? You got rattlesnakes? What else you got? Yes, we have
Karen 50:12
rattlesnakes around here. I think more west of me, we have those rattlesnakes. We have bull snakes. We have moose. Just going north of here, we have moose, the bison, they don't they don't just roam. They are international parks, although they have been known to escape before. So do you have any squirrels?
Scott Benner 50:31
Lots of squirrels. Could you say we have moose and squirrel please? You want me to say that? Do you not know Rocky and Bullwinkle, oh
Karen 50:41
yes, sorry not making the connection. You don't have to say
Scott Benner 50:44
it. I was just looking for it because you have that delightful accent that's not quite Canadian and not quite American.
Karen 50:51
I'm in between, right? Yeah, you're
Scott Benner 50:53
like, all right, but it's not, it's not so Wisconsin, it's more like, it's not. It's a great accent. But I just, it's, I just wanted to hear moose and squirrel, moose and squirrel. How's that? I appreciate it. Yeah, I'm just, you know, trying to keep things light. I hear bison, I hear rattlesnakes, and I don't hear moving van. Why is that? Why do you
Karen 51:15
we have a lot of family in the area and a lot of good friendships up here. We did live in Houston for a little bit, for about, I don't know, six months or so. We were helping a company relocate to the Houston area. They were working.
Scott Benner 51:31
Was that a ton of culture shock for you being in Houston? Or did you like it? It
Karen 51:35
was different. I tell you what. We ended up going through a hurricane at the time, and because we, I don't know, I don't know what we were thinking. Scott, we moved down there during hurricane season, and we moved back back north in December, when it was cold, so, but it was, it was definitely different, a lot busier. It was really fun just to experience a different place,
Scott Benner 52:01
you know, did you like the busy? No,
Karen 52:05
I don't like the busy. Sometimes the the town that I live in is a little too busy
Scott Benner 52:10
for me, you know, and it's not at all, right, no, compared to
Karen 52:14
Houston, no, it's not busy at all. So I
Scott Benner 52:16
love the idea that you're like, you know what we'll do this year, like, when there's hurricanes, we'll go to where there are hurricanes. Then when it's freezing cold, ungodly cold, where people shouldn't be. We'll go back then to there. You got the Snowbird thing backwards.
Karen 52:28
I know, right. I should reverse that. I need, like, one of those uno reverse cards to reverse it. Scott, we get this
Scott Benner 52:37
back. We're talking right now about like, maybe trying to go to Yellowstone for a vacation, like, to go that direction. And it sounds lovely, like, and I think I'd like to do it, but I know for sure that I would get the hell out of there. Like, I know if it was up to me to get from, like, Plymouth Rock to California, we wouldn't have got very far. I'm just I would have given up very, very, very quickly.
Karen 53:02
You should go to Yellowstone and experience it, right? You can see all the bison. You'll have bison traffic jams and whatnot. Well, I
Scott Benner 53:10
have to say bison when I'm there. Can I say it the way I say it? Or
Karen 53:14
what do you think I mean? You can say how you say it. So, what time
Scott Benner 53:18
of year would I be best off there? Probably the summer.
Karen 53:21
You can see old faithful and all the geysers and whatnot. We
Scott Benner 53:25
talk in So, August, July, June, when's best? I
Karen 53:29
couldn't tell you. I think anytime it's their busy time. So it's gonna be pretty busy
Scott Benner 53:34
there. But my daughter went to Manhattan yesterday to go to a museum. It's not busy for us. We'll be okay. You'll be okay. Can you imagine waking up one day and a friend calling you and saying, Hey, do you wanna go to the museum? You say, Yeah, sure. So you get up, you take a shower, you drive 20 minutes, you get on a train, you ride the train for an hour and 15 minutes, you get off, you walk through a city for 45 minutes to the museum. Does that sound insane to you? Yes, you know it's interesting. She was home by six. Oh, wow, yeah. She got up, left, went, did the museum back on the train, came back home? Like she Yeah, she was home by like, six or seven, wow, yeah. They literally just went to see that music to go through the museum, sure, wow. But you're like, oh God, that sounds horrible. We should not do that. Yeah, that
Karen 54:21
sounds too busy. I need to find somewhere else where there's not a lot of people, you know, yeah. Have you ever been to Manhattan? No, nope. I've been out to Baltimore for a work trip, but that's about it. Not man.
Scott Benner 54:35
One of my favorite things in in the world is to come up out of the subway with a person who's never been in Manhattan for the first time. Like to see them, like, walk up the stairs, or come up the escalator and just be like, Oh my God, to watch it hit them for the first time is it's really crazy. Like to see when they see a skyscraper, like, not like a tall building, but like a skyscraper to watch their. Brain try to make sense of all of it in the first couple of minutes, is really something
Karen 55:04
I'm sure. I'm sure I would look like a deer in headlights walking up there. You know, I've
Scott Benner 55:10
probably said this on the podcast before, but my sister in law got off the plane. I picked them up in Newark the first time. She was like, here and we get out in the parking lot of the airport. I should probably be so embarrassed. And she points to this building. She goes, that's the biggest building I've ever seen in my life. It was the Comfort Inn at the at the airport. It was like, 12 stories high, you know. And I was like, get the hell out of here, really. I said, Wait, do we get out on the highway? And we got out on the New Jersey Turnpike. And she basically, like, just shut down, oh my gosh, because it's like, I don't even know it's like, four lanes going in each direction. Everyone's driving 8590 miles an hour. Like, you know what I mean? Like, she's like, I've never seen this many cars before. I was like, well, they're all trying to kill us. So, close your eyes, we're in this game too, by the way. We're trying to kill them. Just so, you know, this is, it's, you know, it's like Mad Max, is what I'm saying, not the one with Mel Gibson. The new ones are really good.
Karen 56:08
Sure, we, we've been to San Diego before, and traffic there, I thought was crazy, with four lanes and everything, even Houston a little bit, but San Diego seemed worse.
Scott Benner 56:18
Yeah, hey, listen, I grew up here, and when I got out on the road in LA, I was like, Holy Hell, yeah. Like, it seemed like a lot to me. So, yeah, it's just really interesting, like to grow up in different scenarios. Like, obviously, you can walk outside when there's wind chills and you don't think anything of it. And my kids, when they were 18 years old, could drive 90 miles an hour, sure, yeah. You know, it's just different skills, really. Yeah, yeah. What have we not talked about that you wanted to talk about? Because I feel like you have a lot to say, and I feel like I'm I'm very chatty this week. You guys will notice when you're listening back, you're like, holy heck, I talked a lot this week. So what do you want to talk about? So
Karen 56:55
I took notes, Scott, like, I, like, jotted all this stuff down. I guess the you had asked, like, where am I now? Like, how am I? I don't know if he said coping with it, but, like, whatnot. But to kind of answer that question for you, like, I started the Omnipod five awesome January of 2023, and I was very resistant to it, so, but now, like my husband asked me the other day. He's like, Would you ever go back? But no, I never go back, you know. I will always have, like, a pump, and that's just what it has to be to keep me alive, you know. But really resistive to it. It was actually my diabetic educator who was like, let's try the in pen, you know. And slowly, kind of March me there. Like, okay, tried it. It worked, you know. And she's like, we should try the Omnipod or a pump, you can decide, Karen. And I'm like, Well, no, like, I started a new job. I just don't want to learn all this new stuff. And I'm like, maybe in like a year. She's like, maybe in like six months. I said, Fine, maybe in six months, we'll look at it. She was really she knew that I could do it and I would never go back to MDI.
Scott Benner 58:08
And that was your resistance. Is change was your resistance. You just didn't want to
Karen 58:13
change. I think Scott, it was because I didn't want another thing on me to make me stand out. I'm not one to really stand out or anything. And, like, I just don't want people to think, Oh, she's fragile, you know. Like, we can't ask her to do that, you know, because she, you know, she has a pump on her. And like, what's going on? What kind of work do you do? I work for the state government under a federal grant that helps people transition from nursing homes back into the community. So as long as it's safe transition,
Scott Benner 58:49
they're still letting you do that. It's a that hasn't been shut off yet. It hasn't
Karen 58:55
been shut off yet. There for there, for a while, I'm like, Oh, am I gonna have a job? But no, we're still going. You were worried you'd look fragile to people. Yeah, I did. I did. That's not a concern now. No, not as much. I mean, Scott, there's times that I will purposely, like, put my pump somewhere that people can't see it, and there's other times that I will show, show it like, if we have, like, some sort of, like, a bike race or something that pump is showing because if, for some reason, I crash, like, as far as having a low or maybe crash as well out there that somebody can see, like, this lady has something on her arm, like, no, yeah, maybe to, like, alert them, and I have, like, something that says, Like, hey, I'm a type one diabetic. Go get the see me in my jersey pocket. And, you know, use that on me. So
Scott Benner 59:47
trust we went over earlier. You probably shouldn't trust people. But okay, like, let's hope that happens. This is going to sound ignorant and but whatever, how many people like you actually lay eyes on in the course of a regular day? Not can. Surrounding your family,
Karen 1:00:00
oh my gosh, not much at all, because I work from home, and everything is through, like, teams, Microsoft, teams, meetings and whatnot, but it's going out into
Scott Benner 1:00:11
the world. Like, like, I had to go pick something up or something, and it's even that easy. Like, are you, how close are you to your groceries?
Karen 1:00:17
For example, it's just down the street, yeah,
Scott Benner 1:00:21
right. So, like, if you run out, like, is it like, a situation where you see 20 cars and, like, you know, less than a, fewer than 100 people, or, like, how does that like, what's it like? Yeah,
Karen 1:00:34
so definitely more than 100 people. It's, it's a major city that I live, live in. So I couldn't even tell you what her population is, which is kind of bad. I mean, there's 1000s of people, like, within, within the city or town, whatever you'll call it. Like, I have to
Scott Benner 1:00:50
tell you, I went to Kansas City to do a talk one time, and they and the guy was like, we're going to take you to the city. And as we were going into it, I was like, what I'm not even trying to be funny, like, Do you ever play Sim City where you build a,
Karen 1:01:02
like, a world? Yeah, I remember that back in the day, yes, okay, yep. Like
Scott Benner 1:01:05
it felt like after you planted the first four blocks and it popped up and everything around it was dirt. I was like, that's the city. Like, it was like an oasis of, like, small buildings, it looked like to me. And then I got there, I just went to the desk after I checked in, and I was like, I want to go get a meal. Like, you know, where can I go? Where can I eat? And the guy's like, oh, you know, go here, here, here. And I walked six, seven blocks. I didn't see 20 people. And I was like, What the hell is happening? I'm like, I thought this was the city. It's such a different world, like, from what I'm accustomed to. So, sure, but you are around a fair amount of people. When you go out and you're saying, That's too much. You're like, you wish there were few, yeah. Are you one of those people that sits around and goes like, I'm gonna get these kids out of here, then I'm gonna buy a two room cabin and die in it? Is that? Like,
Karen 1:01:50
No, maybe not, not a two room cabin? No, like, that would be a little too small for me. But to answer your question, like the city that I live in, I just googled it here. We have 75,000 people that live here. Okay, so if that kind of helps you a little bit, I think I don't live in like a small town of like 100 people, you know,
Scott Benner 1:02:10
yeah, my problem is, I'm watching 1923 right now. So everything feels, everything feels like Yellowstone, but like 100 years ago? Oh, sure, yeah. So it's not like that. You're saying, no, no, not like that, not like that. Are there places like that around you? Yeah. I mean,
Karen 1:02:29
we have some pretty small towns around here. I mean, there's for my job, like, we get referrals of people who are wanting to transition back home, and I'll get like, this name of this town. I'm like, do we have that in the state? I've never heard of this town before, and there's like 24 people that live in this town. You know, I just for
Scott Benner 1:02:50
fun, googled the town I live in. Uh huh. I live in a town that is 20 square miles, and we have a population of 16,000 people, like so, because I was like, 75,000 sounds like such a big number, but I'm like, I don't think it is, uh huh, because you just googled Google, like, square miles for where you live. Like, how many that there's 75,000 people are in? How much space? 35 square miles? Okay, so not, yeah, okay, so there's a lot of people there then, or is there a lot of people here? Which is it? I don't know how to think of it. I'll figure it out later. People are like, people are like, Hey, don't figure it out now, man, we're trying to listen to a podcast. Figure it out later. Yeah, don't you do that on your own time. How involved is your family with the diabetes. My
Karen 1:03:42
kids are well aware about it. In fact, I think there's one evening, Scott that I didn't feel good. I think I got up that morning to go work out, and I wasn't feeling good. I put my head on the table, and I was having a low at that time too. And I took something for the low and kind of recovered from that. But my now 11 year old, he was, he checked on me twice. He's like, Mom, are you okay? But yeah, I'm just tired, you know. And then he came back again, Mom, are you sure you're okay? I'm like, yeah. So they, they're all in tuned about, like, what I would need if, if something dramatic happen, and I couldn't respond. In fact, my six year old now she'll hear the alarms go off on my Dexcom and Omnipod, and she's like, Mom, you're low. I'm gonna go get you a snack. And like, she gets it. And she gets that. If I say no, my blood sugars are high, she'll be like, I'm gonna get your phone and you need to give yourself insulin. And, like, for a six year old, you get this pretty good.
Scott Benner 1:04:48
That's cool that she gets it. Does it make you feel bad?
Karen 1:04:51
Sometimes I think, like, okay, like my kids shouldn't have to worry about me at this age. So, like. Yeah, when I would do biking events, I would bike with my oldest, who is now 16, and he can out bike me. But I remember at that time he was 12, and saying, Hey buddy, if this happens, this is what you need to do, and dot, dot, dot. And I was thinking to myself, he shouldn't have to do that, though, you know, yeah, you shouldn't have to be responsible to keep me alive.
Scott Benner 1:05:24
But new reality, right? Like, it's just, it's
Karen 1:05:26
what it is now, yeah, yep, absolutely, to
Scott Benner 1:05:30
me, it's, it's, it's like, a movie, you know, an Armageddon kind of movie, or, you know, the zombies come or something. You're like, this isn't fair, but the zombies are here now. So this is what we do now. Like, you know, I mean, like, it's very abrupt and not fair, obviously, and certainly not what you were looking for, but you got to adjust. And there's just no doubt it's going to impact everybody. There's nothing you can do about it. Like, I hear people all the time saying, like, I don't want this to impact my kids. I'm like, well, it's gone. It is, yeah, right, right. Like, I don't want this to impact my whatever. I'm like, well, it's going to like, it's not going to like, you're going to find your way through it. It's just not going to look. Life isn't going to look the way you thought it was going to it doesn't make it bad. It's just different. And I think if you can get past that, then it is what it is like, you know, I hear people all the time say, like, Well, I'm just very worried about what this is doing to my like, you know, I have a type one, and they have a sibling, and I'm worried about how the sibling is, like, you know, I don't want it to affect them. And I'm like, well, wah, wah. Like, that's, you know, it's going to, and I don't even know how, and either, do you like, you're gonna, you'll find out, you know. But I don't think it's worth being sad about. It's just, you just got to adjust,
Karen 1:06:37
right, right? Because there's nothing that we can go back and change, you know, like, there's not a cure for it right now. And I think in some ways, Scott, it's like, hopefully I can be a role model for them to say, like, you know, when you go through hard things, like, you keep on moving, you know. And hopefully they're inspired by it. I don't know, maybe, maybe once they're past their teenage years. I don't know Scott, but
Scott Benner 1:07:04
it'll inform them. I was interviewing somebody, and they said a way they were handling something. And I just thought, that's not right. Like, you're giving your kids the wrong feeling here. Like, you know what I mean? Like, and I don't want to be too like, specific, I guess. But like, Sure, it's everything is attitude, and whether it works or not is, I don't know. Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. You can't have something bad happen and throw your hands up in the air and be like, Oh, that's it. See, it's over. We're dead, you know. Like, and then show people hopelessness, because then they're gonna model hopelessness, whether it's real or not. Like, you gotta fake it till you make it a little bit. And you gotta give your kids the idea that, like, we can do this, like, even if you can't, I think you have to say that you can, and then just do your best, because then the attitude you leave with is something hard happened. We tried. We're still alive. We did. It seems kind of obvious, I guess, but I don't, I don't know. Like, some people just get knocked over by things and they don't respond well,
Karen 1:08:01
right, right? And that's, that's my thought, like, definitely hope that they look at it as like, are things are going to happen in life like it? It doesn't matter who you are. You're going to have challenges, but it's how you respond to those challenges that is going to make your life different and and it
Scott Benner 1:08:22
sounds cliched and goofy, but it's really true. So yeah, everything's not going to be perfect, but, you know, there's versions of better, and you should be reaching if I've been helping somebody personally with their finances recently. Like, I forget how they put it, but like, the vibe was like, I'm never gonna be rich. And I was like, Yeah, well, most of us are, aren't going to be rich. Like, I was like, that's this. I was like, is that your goal? I was like, because if that was your goal, you probably shouldn't have gone to college for this. You can't just wish out loud, like, you know, I want to make tie dye T shirts. I'd also like to be a billionaire. Well, you know, that isn't going to work out like that. Like, I just kind of adjusted their thinking. I was like, Look, I said, you know how much money, like, would make you comfortable? Like, like, where you weren't worrying, and they gave me a number, and I said, Okay. I said, I think there's a way where 18 months from now, you could have that much money in savings. Like, here's how I would do that if I was you. And I said, and then, you know, 18 months from now, you can readjust your goal and make another goal. You keep moving, but so quickly, the this isn't what I wanted, this isn't what I wanted. So it's bad, so it's wrong. So I'm done, like, I can't do it. I'm like, so you're thinking about this way wrong. I'm like, you have to step back and see, see a bigger picture here. Like, I think even with the diabetes, like, there can be too much, you know, too much staring at the floor, just thinking about right now, and not enough big picture stuff, you know, right?
Karen 1:09:46
Yeah, well, you have to do something to change it, you know. So little steps, yeah, little by little, changing a little bit every day for the better, like it will get you there. It's like tortoise and the hare, you
Scott Benner 1:09:59
know? If you have a bad day, you don't give it's not over. You know, you don't go, no, go. Well, see, I didn't do, I didn't do a little better today. So I'll just, you know, just gonna throw myself on the floor. Now, I don't know, like, I don't want this to sound like a bro podcast where I'm just like, succeed. Get out there. This is just kind of how it works. You got to get up hopeful, and you have to, you got to keep trying. And doesn't always go well. And you can't be judging yourself moment to moment. It's got to be, got to be big picture. Like, I love somebody telling me, Hey, listen, my a 1c, was seven, seven. And three months later it was seven four. And I'm like, awesome. I bet you it's going to be seven next time. And then they keep, they keep, you know, like clunking away, and then one day they come back to you and they go, Look, I was seven seven, then I was seven four, then I was six, five, and now my a one c6, and I'm like, Yeah, it's awesome. It only took a year. But the problem is, for some reason you go back a year and say that to somebody go a year from now, your a 1c is going to be six. They go a year. Ah, it's forever. But, you know,
Karen 1:10:59
do you think that's because of the fast paced society that we live in, of, like, all right, I'm hungry. I'm just gonna go through. I'm just gonna run through, through a drive through, or something, you know, where we want everything, like, right now,
Scott Benner 1:11:12
well, there is an expectation that everything happens immediately. We've tricked ourselves, you know, with, like, with digital stuff, with stuff on your phone to think that, that I want something, and it comes immediately, like, That's it, like there's nothing you could say to me right now that I couldn't see in 10 seconds. Like nothing, like when you have that expectation then, yeah, stuff that takes longer probably feels like, you know, what the hell I'm never gonna get there. But I found that after being alive for a while, when you realize this is gonna sound strange, but when you realize you're not gonna die, you know what I mean? Like, this is it? I'm here. You can get a bigger view of things. Like, every everything doesn't feel to me at least as like, like so important to happen right now. Like, I It doesn't matter if it happens now or if it happens three years from now, or if I plan for it, and, you know, it dropped dead before it happens like it's none of that matters. I think what really matters is just good, positive direction, and, you know, incremental change,
Karen 1:12:15
yep, and knowing that you're going to have a bad day, but you're going to get up the next day and do better. It doesn't make for a bad life. Yeah, and
Scott Benner 1:12:23
listen, if something catastrophic happens to you that's different. Like, that's not what I'm saying. Like, right? Like, if that happens, then that's, it's, it's a shame. But then I think you navigate that the same way, like, we're all just navigating ourselves to death, like, so, like, it, you know, you either are going faster or slower, and you either have a lot of time left or a little bit of time left, you know, hopefully, so in the meantime, like, why would I want to make the time I have unpleasant that's like, odd to me, like, so I don't know. I guess when I was younger, though, I probably did it, you know. So it's easy for me now to say, like, oh, like, have big ideas and step back, see macro. But when I was 20, I was probably like, oh my god, I'm broke. This is never gonna work out. You know, yep,
Karen 1:13:09
yep, looking a lot of the micro instead of the macro, yeah,
Scott Benner 1:13:13
yeah. How am I gonna get a girl to talk to me? That's reasonable that you get one to talk to you, and you're like, Oh my god. So it's crazy. Probably thinking the same thing about me, you know what I mean, like and, and you're like, Well, that wasn't right. I just put six months into that. Everything can feel like, ah, but you could, you could just choose to look at it differently. Like, look, I spent six months with her, and we did some things that were fun. You know what I mean? Like it, and I've learned stuff about myself, and I'll just move on and do it again. Like, so sure. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. I am super chatty this week, though. I wonder what that's about. I don't know. Probably feeling better. Have my nose fixed. I'm breathing well,
Karen 1:13:52
oh yeah, that's going well for you. Oh, awesome.
Scott Benner 1:13:55
My nose was so impeded that after the surgery, and I'm talking about an hour after the surgery, while I'm at home and Arden and I are eating cheeseburgers because she's like, are you hungry? I'm like, let's get a cheeseburger. She was like, I'm still messed up on the you know, from the whole thing, I have basically the equivalent of a giant tampon strapped under my nostrils, right? And, so I'm wrapped up. My nose is just bleeding. It's just bleeding. Like, you just change the thing. It bleeds again. Like, the whole thing, I'm, like, stuffing this cheeseburger in my mouth sideways and like, I'm like, oh, a friend. I haven't had a friend trying forever. It's like, so salty. It was awesome. And I stopped and took off the dressing at one point. Like, you're not allowed to blow your nose. So like, you just kind of, like, I'm sorry for people, but, like, you just jam some stuff up there and absorb as much odd as you can. And then you reapply your tampon, and you go back to it. And I put the thing back on, and I said to Arden, I'm breathing better right now than I was before the surgery. Like, if you're looking for, like, an indication of how poorly. I could move air through my nose. I was breathing better two hours after the surgery than I had prior to it. Wow. And now, like, a month later, and like, it's still healing, like there's, if you press on the bridge of my nose, still it's sore, like it's, like, not bad, but there's soreness. I know it's not healed yet, and I still can't, oh, you're gonna get me to say this out loud, Karen, I can't really pick my nose perfectly yet, which you don't realize how much you want to pick your nose until you can.
Karen 1:15:34
Sorry, that's great,
Scott Benner 1:15:37
right now, I still have to, like, put schmutz, like, I don't know what this is called Isabelle sent me this a Y r, it's like a gel spray, and it kind of keeps it moist, so you keep the inside moist. Then every once in a while, like, you know, you you go mining and clear it out, but you don't want it to bleed or anything, and it's still sore. But I'm super excited, because I think, like, a week from now, I'm going to be able to blow my nose without, like, without going out that didn't feel good, and I think that's when I'll be able to really assess what's going on, but I can breathe in and out through my nose. Like I mentioned this on the podcast, people will have heard it by the time they hear this, but you haven't heard me say it, okay. I very embarrassingly, ask the surgeon how people breathe like I was super serious. I was like, Hey, can I ask you a question? Is going to sound strange? And he's like, yeah. And I said, Do you breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, or out through your mouth and in through your nose? And he goes, most people just breathe in and out through their nose. And I was like, Get out of here. Really? Oh, my, yeah. I was like, I was I was like, seriously. He goes, Yeah, he goes, he goes, like, when you're like, driving in your car or sleeping, most people just breathe through their nose. And I was like, oh, that's insane. And I actually said, Do you think I'll have to teach myself to do that? Like, I felt like I felt like an idiot, but I also felt, I felt like a child, you know, yeah, how long it's been,
Karen 1:16:59
wow. So you couldn't breathe that all through your nose.
Scott Benner 1:17:02
I would never move air through my nose. Wow, almost ever. No.
Karen 1:17:06
Gonna be a game changer for you. Scott,
Scott Benner 1:17:08
I know, right. I hope this makes me taller. I really feel like this could be the thing. That could be the thing. Can you imagine if I just got taller? You're like, Oh, my God, I just didn't have enough oxygen. Poor guy. But seriously, like the one thing that, I mean, the thing that pushed me over the edge was my dentist, believe it or not, but the thing that got me thinking about it, two years ago, I stopped being able to sing in the car. I was getting out of breath singing while I was driving.
Karen 1:17:37
You must enjoy singing, huh? While driving. I mean a little
Scott Benner 1:17:42
bit, a little bit, when I go off on, like, tangents on the podcast, I wasn't breathing.
Karen 1:17:49
Oh, you're gonna pass out, Scott. You've
Scott Benner 1:17:51
no idea. Like, it got so bad that Rob was, like, I had to start editing out where you gasped for air after you spoke. Oh, wow, yeah. So like I was talking and then ending and going, and he was editing that out so people wouldn't hear it. Okay, yeah, so, but anyway, the what really got me was my dentist, like, unlike you going to your eye doctor, I got decent advice, and it's probably because I live in civilization, but that's neither between here and there. He's like, there's so disgusting, but I already talked about picking my nose, so like, let's just finish strong. He said, There's a bacteria in your mouth that doesn't belong there. And I was like, what now? It's like that, that doesn't sound right. And he goes, No. He goes, we're gonna have to, like, kill it with an antibiotic. And I was like, I like, what the hell? So I took his, I took his, his medicine, man, medicine, you know, to kill my bacteria. But I asked him, I was like, How can this happen? And he said, I don't know. Like, this is a bacteria that's killed by the, like, the natural process of breathing. It really shouldn't be in your mouth. And I just stopped, and I said, I don't think I breathe well. And I explained to him how I breathe. And he goes, Are you serious? And I was like, yeah. I'm like, Have you ever noticed, like, sometimes, like, when you're working for a while in my mouth, like, I need to like, like, I need the suction to work. And he goes, Oh, I have seen you, like, kind of panic, like that. I was like, yeah. I was like, because I can't breathe through my nose. And he was like, oh, go to an ENT and I think between the not being able to sing in the car and the scary bacteria in my mouth. I don't remember what it was called, or I would tell you, I just literally, like, I left his appointment. I went out in my car and I called an ENT sure I got an appointment. I forced my way in the guy, like, you know, he numbs my nose because I'm gonna check your nose. I'll numb it a little bit. He sprayed something up there. I was like, okay, and he takes this metal rod and he goes way up my nose and just pushes off to the side, and he goes, breathe. And I went, Oh, that's awesome. And he did the other side. He goes, your nose is deviated on both sides, it's blocked pretty significantly. And I said, Yeah, I said I fell when I was a kid. Right? And he goes, Is this been your whole life? And I was like, I think so. So, so that's what caused it is from you falling my parents bought me a new pair of dress shoes. When I was five. I was upstairs, trying them on, getting dressed. We were going somewhere. My uncle was downstairs. I was a third of the way down this I remember this very clearly, I was a third of the way down the stairs. I could now see him like, you know how kind of the stairs kind of open up. He was sitting on the hearth. Do people know what that is you do because you live in the wilderness, but like the thing in front of your fireplace, and he was sitting, he was sitting on the hearth. And I was like, I saw him, and I was super excited to show him my shoes, and I lifted one of my feet up. And, of course, in 1976 shoes were made out of like, you know, wood and unbreakable, unbendable leather, and they were brand new. And my foot slipped out, and I went down this I fell down the stairs, and I like, I cry. I smashed my face going down the stairs. Oh so awful. Yeah, it was, I mean, listen, I don't remember a ton about being a kid, but I remember that and so, like, I remember being bloody afterwards, and my mom being panicked and all that stuff, and I've just never really breathed correctly after that. Like, we didn't do anything crazy, like go to a doctor or anything. Like the five year old just slid down wooden stairs on his face. He's probably all right,
Karen 1:21:21
you know, just put a band aid on it.
Scott Benner 1:21:24
Stop bleeding. Bad parenting is why I couldn't breathe for like, No, we were broke. Like nobody was, you know what I mean? Like, if I wasn't dead, nobody was going to it to a dog. Yeah, it's ridiculous. Yeah,
Karen 1:21:37
that was my family, too, growing up. Yeah, no, I think I had influenza for like, two weeks and didn't go to the doctor. I I remember trying to go upstairs to my bedroom to go to sleep, and I couldn't make it all the way upstairs. I had to stop halfway through and like, rest on the stairs, because I was that that week.
Scott Benner 1:21:56
She's no teenager. Did you have brothers and sisters? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were older. There's others. If she doesn't make it, yeah, you
Karen 1:22:05
know she she's a baby of the family. It's fine
Scott Benner 1:22:08
all these kids, looking back, it was a huge mistake,
Karen 1:22:12
right? It's fine if she just dies on the stairs.
Scott Benner 1:22:14
Oh no, yeah. Well, we'll blame the flu. It'll be awful. In a long line of things in my life that I think, Oh, God, I should have done this a long time ago. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, just like, Why did I wait so long to do this? And I have one more thing on my list, like that, and when I after, I take care of that, I'll be okay,
Karen 1:22:34
sure, sure. I guess maybe, um, mine wasn't as long, but that's how I feel about a pump. Why didn't I do this sooner? You know, as soon
Scott Benner 1:22:43
as it is as you get it like I actually, I heard the podcast this morning. I don't sometimes hear it in its full like finished form, but somebody asked me to listen to it. So I listened, and an Omnipod ad came on, and I listened to it because I'm a good podcast listener, and I know that I should listen to the ads because it helps the podcaster. I heard myself say, my daughter's been using an Omnipod every day since she was four. And I thought, and that's really something, like, she's, she's gonna be 21 this summer, you know. And that ad is as, like, it's not an ad like, that is really, I mean, it is, but like, it's, it's me being really honest. Like, that thing has been like a real friend to her, you know. And I don't know where she'd be without it, so,
Karen 1:23:25
right? It's, it's been great, and I love the fact that it's tubeless, you know, yeah, I'm not getting caught up on door handles or other things because of tubing. And I think, just like the biking and the hiking and that kind of stuff. Like I, I wouldn't want to be kind of tethered to something like that. You
Scott Benner 1:23:46
know, also, if a different pumps right for you, then the different pumps right for you. Now, let's hope it's a different pump who also buys an out of the podcast. So we're talking about Medtronic tandem and maybe twist actually. So use the links in the show notes. But like, you should figure out what works for you. Like you, like tubeless. Other people I've heard say, I don't care about the tubing, you know, I like this about it more, like whatever works is, Listen, I'm not telling you you have to have an insulin pump. And if you look at the numbers, the vast majority of people with type one diabetes don't use an insulin pump. But I think they should. And I think that you would find, like, once you got over the Oh, like, I don't know how to use this. And like, once you got past all that, I think you'd say, oh, I should have done this sooner, yeah. And I anyway,
Karen 1:24:34
agree. Yeah, totally agree. And
Scott Benner 1:24:36
seriously, if you don't have a CGM and you have type one diabetes, like, I don't even know what to you, like, please, if you can afford it, like, please get it just it'll
Karen 1:24:44
change it. In her life, I'd be lost without a CGM. Let's just say that if I had to pick between an insulin pump or CGM, it'd be a CGM. I Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:24:54
absolutely 100% it would still be. Arden got up yesterday. She's on like, she's got a spring break, right? She's going. School from home now, like, Spring Break gets out of bed and she's like, Hey, you know, sent me a text. She goes, can you just look after the dog a little longer for me? I'm gonna jump in the shower. And I was like, All right, I look and her blood sugar's like, it's like, 110 and I don't know what happened. Like, usually the shower doesn't hit her like that, but her blood sugar, like, started, like, zooming up. Like, I'm not kidding. There's that algorithm just bolusing and pushing extra basal and bolusing and like, and it stopped her like, 190 and it brought it back down again. But if she wasn't on an algorithm like, her blood sugar just would have kept going up and up and up and up. And if she didn't have to CGM, we wouldn't even known about it, she would have, like, imagine if she got out of bed, tested and was like, Oh, I'm 110 This is awesome. I'm taking a shower. And then all that other stuff happens, and you're blind to it. And then the next time you go, maybe you go to eat 45 minutes later, and you probably think to yourself, I'm going to Bolus based on 110 right? But now your blood sugar is, I mean, she was 195 with the insulin that the algorithm was giving, she probably would have been 250 300 bolusing, bolusing for and you can say, Oh, well, she should have tested again. I'm like, and that's not wrong, but like, probably not how it ends up going. So she boluses for 110 or food when she's 250 or so, and then maybe what, like, starts feeling a couple hours later and checks your blood sugar and goes, Oh God, I'm 300 how'd that happen? Yeah,
Karen 1:26:25
you know, yeah. I mean, I same story here. I take a hot shower at all. I am, like, cruising up, you know. And I absolutely, I probably would have bolused off of like, a 110 blood sugar if I didn't have a CGM. And
Scott Benner 1:26:40
I'm just saying, like, let your mind tumble through that, like, because now you're you don't have a CGM, you don't have an algorithm. You figure out, like, four hours later, you're 300 and now your brain goes, Oh, I probably I didn't Bolus right from my meal, but maybe you did. Maybe it was the rise earlier. That's this problem, or maybe it's like, your basal is wrong. Like, who even knows? But then that's what happens, is your brain starts running in 1000 directions. It probably picks the wrong thing to think about. And now you're just, you know, you're sure that you know what went wrong. And it turns out it's something completely different, but you don't know, because you don't have the data. And it's, I'm just saying, like, I know everybody can't afford it. I know some people don't have insurance. I know some people's insurance doesn't cover stuff, but if you can afford it, CGM, and then, if you want to keep going, my opinion, an algorithm based insulin pump, and then get good settings in it, and learn how food impacts you, and then go live your life with your six a one say, you know, Yep, yeah. Anyway. All right, absolutely. Karen, this is going to be another text I get from Rob, where he goes. Hey, can you What are you doing? Going for 90 minutes like I'm I'm trying to live over here. Let me say goodbye to you, and thank you very much, and I appreciate you letting me be chatty. And for everybody listening, I'm sure next week I won't talk as much. Sorry. And if you don't like it, you it's my podcast. It
Karen 1:27:59
is your podcast. Whatever I want, damn it.
Scott Benner 1:28:02
People are like, Listen, I don't have to listen. Fair enough. Hold on one second for me.
Touched by type one sponsored this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Check them out at touched by type one.org on Instagram and Facebook. Give them a follow. Go check out what they're doing. They are helping people with type one diabetes in ways you just can't imagine. I'd like to thank the ever since 365 for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and remind you that if you want the only sensor that gets inserted once a year, and not every 14 days you want the ever since CGM, ever since cgm.com/juicebox, one year, one CGM. The podcast you just enjoyed was sponsored by tandem diabetes care. Learn more about tandems, newest automated insulin delivery system, tandem Moby with control iq plus technology at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox. There are links in the show notes and links at Juicebox podcast.com.
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