#289 Wylde and Super Cruisey
Scott Benner
Fiona Wylde will amaze you!
Fiona Wylde is a competitive windsurfer, surfer, stand up paddler and type 1 diabetic who use the InPen insulin pen.
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Fiona Wylde on Instagram
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome friends to Episode 289 of the Juicebox Podcast. On today's show, Fiona Wylde will tell us all about her professional paddleboarding and surfing life, and her really weird graduation day diagnosis. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by companion medical makers of the in pen. To learn more about the pen, go to companion medical.com. When you get to companion medical.com, you're going to learn all about the in pen. It's America's only FDA cleared smart insulin plan, plus an app system. It's going to help your CGM talk to your insulin pen, talk to a wonderful app on your phone that's going to tell you about things like insulin onboard the temperature of your insulin, and a lot more you'll hear more about it in the show. But if you're on MDI or you're thinking of moving them di I think you want the companion medical comm
I'd be lying if I told you I knew a lot about competitive paddleboarding and surfing. But feeling a while does and I talked to her about it, along with her Type One Diabetes diagnosis and how she manages or type one while she's doing this sort of on that sort of, but there's really intensive activity, always in the water to you know, so kind of seems like it doesn't match up. But field a really makes it work. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan for becoming bold with insulin.
Fiona Wylde 2:19
My name is Fiona while I am 22 years old, I live in a really cool place called Hood River, Oregon. And I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes when I was 18.
Unknown Speaker 2:29
On my high school graduation day.
Unknown Speaker 2:32
Oh my god.
Unknown Speaker 2:35
Yeah,
Fiona Wylde 2:36
yeah, it was a very exciting morning and a very terrifying afternoon. But um, you know, sometimes those things just kind of come together like that, I guess?
Unknown Speaker 2:45
Well, I don't know about that.
Unknown Speaker 2:48
That's the way I tend to look
Scott Benner 2:50
that But anyway, my graduation day, I was just like, I see my dad's not gonna come. That's about it. Wow, they were divorced. And I didn't think he was going to come. But then I kind of thought he was going to and then I didn't and then I gave up on it. But the good news for me is that I did not have an incurable disease when that was over. Like, like happened to you. So I want to hear about this for a second. Um, so you're only 22 and you're dying. you're diagnosed for about four years ago? Like Actually, yeah. I was gonna say a little more. Right. So prior to your high school graduation day, was there any indication that something was amiss with your health?
Fiona Wylde 3:27
Yeah, for about the six weeks leading up to that I did Online High School the last three years, because I was already competing and traveling and need to define it a way where I could get my education while still, you know, traveling to all these different strange places all over the world. So I found online program that worked for me. So my version of a high school graduation day isn't necessarily like everybody else's, because pretty much for me, it was like, okay, completed all the coursework that, you know, was titled, and getting a high school diploma. And then it was like, you know, I'm done kind of thing. And, you know, my parents were awesome. They wanted to make, like, you know, a little deal out of it, because I hadn't worked hard to get there. So I just remember, like, running downstairs. So I was like, as long as I'm like, I finished I don't have any more work I can do. Like, you know, I guess this means that I, I'm done. And she was like, wow, you know, super excited, really happy for me, you know, I've been feeling off the last few weeks, I had gotten my first contract and signed my first contract the following or the previous fall.
Unknown Speaker 4:30
So when I was 17,
Fiona Wylde 4:32
I got my first contract from Star Wars standard powerboating, which they're pretty much the largest company that creates wind and water sports equipment in the world. So for me, it was huge. And then, you know, my mom was really pushing me to go to college, but I wanted to try and do this and just see where I could take it and why not and kind of when I signed a contract, it was only a year long contract, but at the same time, it was going to allow me to financially support myself through university Competition. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna do it. So, you know, I had obviously had to finish my senior year. And then I was gonna have a year to dedicate it to the sport. So I had a couple races, I had a race in April. And I was like, out in front doing amazing. This is like my first big race, kind of, you know, to show ourselves that, you know, deserving of the sponsorship and wanting to push it. And I was in second, like, all the race, it was a 13 mile race. And on mile 12, I went from second to sixth. I just hit a wall, something happened. And I was like, what, you know, I was so frustrated because I had it, you know, I had the podium doing super good. And you couldn't figure it out. And so I was like, Alright, well, you know, that really sucks. But okay, I need to train I need to, you know, figure out more things. And so I came back. Actually, no, I didn't come back home. I did two more races. I did a race the following weekend. And the follow up after that. And each week, and I was just feeling worse and worse. And I was like, what is going on with this? Like, you know, okay, instead of joining like in between the races, I'm going to rest now and see if that makes it better. Yeah, that that went on for about six weeks. And then it was my school graduation day.
Scott Benner 6:11
Oh, my fairy. You've said I have so many questions. There's not enough time. Okay, so I need everybody to slow down take a big deep breath. Okay. And and let me pick through what just No, no, no, because none of what you said was my expectation. Right? So So, okay. When did you start? Okay, I don't even know how to ask this question. So you are a competitive paddleboard? Or is that what you would call yourself if if, like, okay,
Fiona Wylde 6:39
you professionally and stand up paddling. I used to compete professionally and windsurfing as well. But now I pretty much focus on standard paddling. But I don't just compete in the one aspect I compete and stand up paddle surfing and stand up paddle racing. So there's two different world tours for that, and I compete on both sides, and
kind of one of the only few that competes some
Scott Benner 7:02
bolts that like an actor who's in a Marvel and DC movie. I see what you're saying. Yeah, so and and I done a little bit of my homework to try to figure this out. Right. So what is happening here there's a phone that's not supposed to ring. That's right. Here's how I want to begin. Most people listening who think about sports with younger kids are imagining like travel soccer, or travel baseball or softball or something like that. But obviously, you know, unlike most of us who can travel to a field, you need a body of water or, or surf I would imagine so what what how old were you when you started doing this and how did it begin?
Fiona Wylde 7:38
It all started with wind surfing for me. My parents were wind surfers and I grew up when surfing with them didn't have river we have amazing conditions here where we can go windsurfing, and surprisingly I don't actually live on the ocean. I live about three hours inland. Okay, the cool thing is I live on the Columbia River which is about a mile wide and some places and you know it's the headlands are up in the headwaters are up in Canada. And then they flow down through Idaho and then through the Oregon Washington border where the river enters the Pacific Ocean.
Scott Benner 8:13
Is this river where you do most of your practice.
Fiona Wylde 8:16
Yes, so this river is where I do pretty much everything and from windsurfing, stand up paddling. The only thing you can't do here is you can't surf. So for that I have to get a bit creative and just drive or fly or go some other places for some training.
Scott Benner 8:32
Okay, everybody, just I feel very overwhelmed by all the new things I know you don't need to be sorry, this is me. I'm not prepared.
Fiona Wylde 8:41
But no, no, but to answer your question. So I started with windsurfing. And I started competing in windsurfing, when I was like 11 I did the local races here in town. And then when I was about 13, I got some experience in the waves. And I was like whoa, this is so cool. I did a trip with my dad. And I was just like, this is absolutely amazing. I want to you know, learn how to win surf wave sail more. And so at the time, there was kind of this revamp of the wind surfing tour is called the American wind surfing tour. And it went all up and down or all North America and then eventually ended up going to South America as well. And so then I pretty much started doing that from when I was like 13 until I was about 19 and that experience of you know, learning a new sport in a competitive environment. got me into I don't know it just got me into all sorts of situations that I've had experience from that have taken me you know, to where I am today. Like I went to go to different countries. I got to travel with friends. You know when I I think I did my first trip without my parents when I was 14
Scott Benner 9:59
what the necessitates you going on a competitive trip without your parents? Is it just they're working? Or actually before I asked you that, so what would you kind of relate what you're saying to me to somebody out there who's listening who's like, Oh, my kid played like little league baseball. And then they got really good at it. So they started traveling to play it. And then they know somebody was interested. So they ended up going to college and playing is that like, it's so there's no college for windsurfing. I assume there's no maybe. Why not, by the way, but okay.
Fiona Wylde 10:34
There are some college. Yeah. For windsurfing, navasana, paddling, really? Okay. Yeah. So, so yes, in a way it is, it would be similar to that, you know, you kind of start at the beginning, you have a couple results, you kind of want to push yourself a little bit further and see kind of what that next challenge is, you know, and then I quickly got into the part where I like, Okay, I'm competing for, you know, the title of the tour. And so that is what made me travel more, because then it's like each event, you get certain points. And honestly, like, my parents have been awesome. They're never like, it's not about the result. It's about having fun and learning things. And kind of with that mindset, and that they've taught me since I was so little, it's been easy for me to just go and be like, okay, like, even if you completely bombed something, you're still going to be able to learn something from it. And actually, you're probably going to learn more than just from winning it. So, you know, the first few years, I didn't really win. You know, I want some events, but not consistently, or this and that, whatever. But the cool thing about the whole Windsor tour is, well, it's wind related, and there would be many mornings, because places typically the wind picks up in the afternoon, where we would have waves. Or we would have wind, and a few of the people there had stand upon awards, and that is one that's the side that I got in choose to stand up paddle surfing, was through this wind surf tour.
Scott Benner 12:00
Yeah, you made your own wind with the paddle.
Unknown Speaker 12:02
Yeah. But like when there wasn't the
Fiona Wylde 12:04
wind for windsurfing, I still wanted to go in waves because I live, you know, three hours from any kind of surf. So it was like, Okay, this is my chance to take advantage of it.
Scott Benner 12:14
Gotcha. All right. Okay, that'll make sense I'm doing. I really feel like I'm starting to catch up. Now. It's funny. I don't know if you heard me. I talked to Kate Hall a few weeks ago. And she's, you know, trying to, you know, to jump in the Olympics. And it's funny, because like she started talking about, like, some of the steps she had taken was like, Oh, this is where this sport sort of ends up differing from other sports. And when you say there's a tour for like windsurfing, for instance. It's not it's not you and six other windsurfing, kids who are all like always at the same thing. There's a lot of people at these events, right? Like how, like, how big are the Yeah,
Fiona Wylde 12:47
um, well, that's also a good point, too. There weren't really that many other kids, I was kind of one of the only kids within the windsurfing side there, you know, there may be like, you know, three of four of us kids or something like that. And then there's, you know, over 200 people in an event. So that was also cool, maybe grew up kind of quick. You know, being the only one there like my best friends are 1012 years older than me.
Unknown Speaker 13:12
And the same thing with stand up paddling.
Fiona Wylde 13:14
Most of the women that I am competing against and the races at the elite races, I think the girl who is closest in age is six years older than me, on the international stage, so I'm definitely one of the youngest racers at the moment, which you know, is changing, which is good, because we're having some more girls coming up. But within the standard panel events, it's pretty awesome. Because it's done upon events, we can get like 500 people to the race on a weekend, the elite field might only have like, you know, 50 but with the open competitors, then you have you know, mass quantity, which is spectacular.
Scott Benner 13:50
What do you what are you competing for, like when I say that? I mean, like I realized like when, when Mike, I've used my son as an example, right, like, so when he was really young, he just was playing like you said baseball to get better, right? And when you're playing High School, and you're trying to get better and then but at that point, now you're trying to prove to somebody that they should take you on a collegiate team, like it's trying to prove yourself like, and then when you while you're playing in college, you're hoping that you continue to grow and maybe somebody will draft you like that's the pathway when you're when you're competing. Are you competing for a trophy? Are you competing to turn to those people and be like, hey, how high one? Or like, what's the next step? Is it personal fulfillment, or is there something beyond that that you're shooting for?
Fiona Wylde 14:33
For me, it's definitely you know, pushing myself I'm in a comfort zone but then also outside of comfort zone and the see kind of how far my skills and fitness will be able to take me as well as controlling my diabetes along the way. But the reality is there's three tours that I ended up competing in the near the ATP World Tour for surfing, ATP World Tour for racing, and the European Championship tour. The start of my year basically starts in Europe. The spring, I ended up racing in five, six different races in Europe. And that is pretty much the best of the European centripetal racers in the world, plus many international riders. So there's people like myself from the United States that come over from Brazil, from Canada from Australia, pretty much everybody the sport focuses on the racing in Europe during the spring. And so that was about six weeks of racing and touring. And I ended up winning that this year. So pretty exciting. So yeah, to win the Euro tour, you have to have five really good results in order to go towards your final tally. And I won five races. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, for me, it was quite a quite an exciting thing, something I didn't really think that I could win, but I was able to do that. And then on the other side with the surfing and the ATP World Tour, you're competing for a world title. So within surfing and racing, they're two separate competitions. But I won the racing world title in 2016. And I have not won a surfing round title. I've been second a few years, but I haven't won yet.
Scott Benner 16:14
So basically, it's it's it's sort of broken up into two areas, like it's your competition, and just trying to be good and test yourself. And then the other side of it is I'm assuming if you're having good results, you'll start getting sponsored by companies, those companies will pay you to use their boards or something like that. And then that's how you can kind of finance your ability to exactly I see.
Fiona Wylde 16:35
Going back to kind of what I was saying at the beginning. I'm the year before I graduated, as I graduate in 2015. So fall of 2014. I got sponsored by star board, which is that big company, so they pretty much were like, okay, you're young, you're getting really good results. We want to support you to paddle our boards to go all over the world to continue to get good results and promote a good image for our brand, right? Because when because when Fiona comes cruising across the finish line on a star board, people there are a lot of people there and you stand up and hold the board and they're like, hey, Star board, that makes sense.
Unknown Speaker 17:12
Yeah, we get on the
Fiona Wylde 17:14
podium, they get all the accolades, everything like that, that helps them and it helps me as well.
Scott Benner 17:18
You're the you're the paddling equivalent of like a YouTuber or like, or a guy who plays video games and makes a living at it. We all like go. Did you hear about the guy who makes a million dollars a year to play a video game? And
Unknown Speaker 17:31
don't quite make a million dollars a year? Oh, no,
Unknown Speaker 17:33
no, no, I didn't mean I didn't mean to say that. A lot of questions like Oh, that's cool.
Unknown Speaker 17:37
I didn't even know you could compete in those things.
Scott Benner 17:40
It's it's a it's a very uniquely American economy story. it you know, it really is your 14 years. Now, when it was first happening when you were younger, was it just sort of like you, you know, you would imagine like hey, my dad played soccer in high school so I play soccer was just my parents when surf and so we wind surf together and then there was a place for me to do it competitively. So I went and did it.
Fiona Wylde 18:04
Yes, um, that was for the windsurfing side, but not for this on the public side because that is relatively new for you know, it's been around now more than she's blowing around like 15 years or so. And I got into it with one of the local shops here in town and they wanted to create a kid's team and so I was one of four journal
Unknown Speaker 18:25
kids and that was
Fiona Wylde 18:28
nine years ago and that was how I got introduced to standard pedal racing. And that program is still going on my dad then learn how to stand up paddle after I was doing it because I was having so much fun and he wanted to do with me and the cool thing is about that kids program is it's still going on and this last summer I got to coach the whole program so that was pretty cool returning
Scott Benner 18:51
starter coach the theme absolutely I it's it's crazy in my mind I imagine like a bunch of wind surfers standing around on a day when the wind doesn't blow and one of them going well do we go home or what are we doing somebody like if we had a paddle and we're just like oh my god a paddle changes. So now I have to tell you that I hope you understand that most people listening when you describing either surfing on a much bigger because it's a bigger board right when you write or your paddleboarding like I if you told me right now, Scott go out into the river, the one feeding from Canada and stand stand up on a paddleboard and say standing on it for let's say 10 seconds and I'll buy you a house. I would not have a house when the day was over. Right? Like I would just be like, I can't I can't accomplish that.
Fiona Wylde 19:46
I would be nice. I mean, maybe if I had to buy your house, I'd put you on like the most narrow board I could find.
Unknown Speaker 19:51
Yeah, right, right. Cuz you're
Fiona Wylde 19:53
like, Okay, let's go out you know, for an ice cream or whatever be like excellent. I'll put you on the biggest board. You know, you Start, it's just like anything. When you're learning to ride a bike, you have a different kind of bike than, you know, a professional cyclist.
Scott Benner 20:07
You're telling me if I had the right tools, I could stand up on a paddleboard?
Fiona Wylde 20:10
Absolutely, that's the cool thing about it, anybody can do it, you know, you can, all you have to do is you just get a bigger board. So I race on a board that's 14 feet long, 21 and a half inches wide, and you most likely wouldn't be able to stand on that. But if you were to go paddling for your first time, I would give you a board that, you know, is maybe 12 and a half feet long and 30 inches wide.
Scott Benner 20:37
Either you're gonna say 12 and a half feet wide, because it's got we're gonna throw up a picnic table out on the end, you'll be now Be honest with me, I'm 48 years old, How far would I paddle before I had a stroke or an aneurysm? A couple of feet? A couple minutes? How far do you think I'd make it.
Fiona Wylde 20:54
So you can go as far as you want to go? That's a good thing is that you know it, it doesn't really matter. You don't you know me, okay, if you were to, you know, jump off the start line and try and go sprinting, you'd probably be out of breath kind of soon. But you can jump on a board, you can go with your friends, your family, if you have a dog and put your dog on the board go cruising around, like,
Unknown Speaker 21:16
there's all sorts of different things you can do.
Fiona Wylde 21:18
It's like, it's like a bicycle, you know, you have your people who go out and ride 100 miles, you know, in the weekend, and that's what they do for fun. And then you have some people who have cruiser bikes, or even ebikes that you know, put a picnic basket on the front and go, you know, cruising around, paddling is the same in that sense. Like you can, you know, have top line race equipment, go, you know, for speed, or distance or whatever. Or you can just grab more of a cruisee board and go have fun, go exploring, maybe you know, paddle into a different place that you've never seen before. Or, you know, it's cool to paddle out and look back at what you're looking at every day, see and just get a different.
Scott Benner 21:58
No, see, you're saying this is where people like you who are super athletic, don't understand that other people don't have brains like yours. You're saying I would paddle out to get a different perspective, which does sound neat, except I would paddle out and then have a panic attack that there's no way I can make it back again. And then I would start imagining what giant Canadian fissure in the river that will eat my body when I sink to the bottom. Like that's, that's how it would occur to me.
Unknown Speaker 22:22
Yeah, that just crossed my mind.
Scott Benner 22:25
Wouldn't it be great if if Fiona's entire career was killed today as she can't get over the anxiety of thinking about whether or not salmon could eater? And she's like, I never thought of it before? I can't go back and
Unknown Speaker 22:40
yeah, I'm okay. All right. Yeah. Okay.
Scott Benner 22:42
All right. So So, so first of all, it's amazing. And you said something a while ago already that I jotted down and I don't make a lot of notes when I do this. But did you say that there was a paddleboard race? That was 13 miles? Yeah. Okay, so when when they say go, first of all my I have questions. Does everyone finish? You start?
Fiona Wylde 23:06
Um, pretty much in the elite field? Yeah. Okay. In the open field, there might be a couple that pull out. But, um, it's just, it'd be more like a marathon in that sense. You know, it takes a while. Some people, some people, you know, don't, maybe some people just get tired or fatigued. And then yeah, you have to pull out for that. But for the most
Scott Benner 23:28
part, especially within the elite field, pretty much everybody finishes how, how long does it take to go? Like, like, the person who wins? How long does it take them to go 13 miles.
Fiona Wylde 23:40
With that particular race, too. That's the other thing with water, it all depends on the conditions. If you have 13 miles with wind at your back, and you're going what we call downwind, which you can kind of surf little bumps that the wind is generating the whole time, you're gonna go a lot faster than if you have a headwind or completely flat water. So it depends, but in that specific race that was in North Carolina, around Wrightsville Beach, and that was about a two and a half hour race.
Scott Benner 24:10
So I'm going to tell you that I'm not 100% certain I could stand on the board for two and a half hours. Like take all the retrace Where's a
Unknown Speaker 24:17
lot of training? I'm not kidding. Like,
Unknown Speaker 24:20
aren't you legs like super tired?
Fiona Wylde 24:22
Your legs are exhausted? Yeah, most people think that all paddling comes through, you know, your arms and your shoulders and all that, but there's so much balancing involved. And your legs are your bigger muscles. So you might as well use them more. So by the end of it, my legs are shot.
Scott Benner 24:34
Yeah. And you're not strapped into the board, right? Like you're free balanced on the board. So when you when you drive with that paddle into the water, you really are anchored by just the grip of your feet on that board. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. See, I'm starting to really think about this now. And as bad of an idea as I thought of this. At the beginning, I'm thinking it's even worse idea now that I'm really thinking it through but because at least if you were anchored to it, you don't mean like you You didn't have Like a fulcrum point that was like fixed and now you're but you're basically like digging in, like while you're doing that to do you lean forward while you're paddling, do you stand straight up? How does that how did you
Fiona Wylde 25:10
lean forward, you lean forward and you have a lot of bend in your knees. So you can have that drive. And kind of what you're thinking about would be more similar to like paddling a canoe or rowing in the sense because then you would have a fulcrum, you know, coming from your hips because you're seated, but because we're standing up, you really do have to use your legs and it actually is beneficial to be able to move your feet around the board.
Scott Benner 25:35
Okay, so you can kind of reposition, so you can stability, and I'm imagining drive from different angles for steering purposes and things like Yeah, exactly. Yeah, look at me. You got it. Intellectually. I understand what is getting narrower. Now we can give you like a 28 inch wide board out of your mind. I saw jaws when I was five. I'm not getting in any water on a board. Okay, so and I know there's no shark in that river and I don't care
Unknown Speaker 25:59
why it's fresh
Scott Benner 26:00
water. doesn't listen, if someone would have taken you to jaws in the 70s when you were five years old. By the way my parents a huge mistake. I you would you would have the same concern I have right now. You'd be like no, but that mechanical shark will eat me. It's so okay. I'm seriously there's people my age right now who got drugged into that movie are like yeah, damn right, man. There's no reason to go into the water. Okay, so 1313 miles over two and a half hours. And do you know for that specific race, the person who finished dead last how long it took them? It
Unknown Speaker 26:34
took them about three and a half, four
Scott Benner 26:36
hours, another hour and a half for me. Oh my goodness. If you want to quit someone comes gets you just raise your hand and start crying. What happens? What do you do?
Fiona Wylde 26:45
There are support boats that are you know, all up and down the course and jet skis and all that. So that's, that's good. That's important. Safety is huge, you know, being on the water. Yeah, so there's all sorts of different watercraft that are kind of patrolling the area. So you know, the best thing to do in any situation on the water, if you're in trouble is to sit down on your board and stay with your equipment. She is the thing to float on. And then you can wave your hands over your head.
Scott Benner 27:10
I have a good friend who lives on the water in North Carolina and she paddled. I think she paddleboard is pretty much constantly. And I know she heard this, she'd be like, you could do it like that. I don't think I can. Okay, so now,
Fiona Wylde 27:22
all races are that long. Um, we compete in all sorts of different types of things. There's different races, like surf races, where you go in and out of the surf, there are distance races, which are pretty much anywhere from like, nine to 13 miles. There are flatwater, bumpy ocean, pretty much everything. There's some races that are more like 4k races. And then there's even races that are like 200 meters. So right now I'm training actually for a 200 meter race, a 4k race and an 18 k race, what's training
Scott Benner 27:57
look like? How do you train.
Fiona Wylde 28:00
So for me, I'm actually really lucky right now to have three weeks at home, this doesn't happen very often.
Unknown Speaker 28:08
So
Fiona Wylde 28:09
I've basically broken down the three weeks I have into different training days for a specific goal. So if there's something I'm going to China for the ICF World Championships at the end of this month, and so the first day, I will be competing in 200 meter sprints. The second day, I'll be competing in the, like a 4k technical race. And the third day I'll be competing in an 18 kilometer distance.
Unknown Speaker 28:35
So
Fiona Wylde 28:36
when I take a look at that I look at Okay, what are my strong suits and what are my weaknesses. And the weaknesses are what I focus on in the training leading up to it. So I've broken down each week into basically, six out of the seven days, I'm on the water, doing different drills and intervals and workouts that are building up on certain weaknesses. And then I have Monday, which is today, which is my like, complete off day. So today I will be on the water. I won't go wrong or anything like that. And it's been fun. It's been fun too. Because it's it's hard. It's hard to focus on something that you're not really that great at or you know, even if I'm decent at it, it's definitely, you know, I'm not as strong as my strong suit. So and I'm learning a lot, that's the thing that's crazy. It's like, okay, even if I'm, you know, leading the tour at the moment, or in the top three or whatever, like, you know, some people would be like, Oh, well, you got it. And it's like, No, you can constantly be learning new things.
Scott Benner 29:32
It's fascinating. I journey dry land training, like, Is there anything you do in a gym that's specific for this? Or is it really yeah.
Fiona Wylde 29:41
I mean, you have to be on the water. That's pretty much where it comes from, because like you can do all sorts of different fitness to get your base up, but it's also so much technique involved, that you really have to spend the time on the water to focus on that. But I'm I'm going to spend I last week, two days and then this week, two days in the following week. Two days as well in the gym, and that's going over a lot of like plyometric stuff. agility, balance, trying to get fast twitch muscles going faster. And then normally walk out of those days so personally, but yeah, beyond that I liked I love running. So any chance I get to go for a run? I go for a run or bike rider. It's just such a beautiful place that I live that if I can be outdoors, I want to be
Scott Benner 30:25
here. I that's I mean, listen, I'm not. I'm not judging you. I know that I'm just got this guy.
Do you think she just ran outside?
Unknown Speaker 30:43
Oh, you were like, I
Scott Benner 30:44
don't know. You're like I if I can be outdoors, I'd love to be outdoors. Then it hung up and I thought maybe she just probably went outside
Unknown Speaker 30:53
my computer just on black.
Scott Benner 30:55
So sorry about that. No, no, no, no, it's it's, you know, it's absolutely fine. Don't don't think anything of it. I okay, so I think I understand. I mean, listen, I understand academically, all that what you've explained to me and even though I'm still in my mind thinking, am I gonna ask her about like doing this to the ocean? Like, do you just paddle out and then ride and like you're surfing but you have a paddle with you? Yeah, pretty much. Okay. So what's the difference between surfing and paddleboarding in the ocean?
Fiona Wylde 31:25
When I go and I compete and surfing, you know, the big difference is when your traditional surfing, and you are, you know, land down on your stomach, you don't have a paddle in your hands, and you're prone paddling, so you're on your belly before you pop up. My board looks a lot like a surfboard. And most people would say that is not a stand up paddleboard because it's really small. So my standard puddle surfboard is very small, because it just has to be thick enough just have to have enough volume. So I can stand on it without falling over. So then I basically I'm paddling in already standing up when I catch waves. But like, for example, most people you know, a shortboard on like a five, eight or 510 or something like that. My standard paddleboard is seven oh, and when I stand on it, it pretty much thinks
Scott Benner 32:18
underwater. Okay. I would like you to do something for me if you ever can teach yourself to do it. While you're surfing, I'd like you to reach up with one hand and spin the paddle with one hand over your head like
Unknown Speaker 32:30
you would be surprised.
Scott Benner 32:32
You can do that I now I understand why you have sponsors? Because can you get to that? Do you think or do you think it's not? I think I
Unknown Speaker 32:41
might have done that a few times.
Scott Benner 32:42
No kidding. See? That's excellent. And that that I would just be like, that girl wins. And like, no, she's actually in fourth place effect. No, it doesn't matter. Look what she's doing with this file. Yeah, there are no points on this.
Fiona Wylde 32:57
Okay. Well, I mean, it's I think it's more about the surfing at that point. But we actually have some inside jokes and some other competitors, where it's a lot of people think that Oh, just pushing the paddle around is what gets you points when in reality, you have to surf. So it's kind of funny that you mentioned that.
Scott Benner 33:14
You've been involved in water sports, so long that you went to high school online, and you came out and now what's your life span like in this? And it sounds like with the people you're competing with? You could do this for a really long time. Is that how you think about it?
Fiona Wylde 33:29
Absolutely. Yeah, so I did Online High School. And then I got sponsored. And my mom was like, you know, you have to go to college, like, you know, and then I got this sponsorship that came with a contract. And she was like, okay, like, one year, you know, let's see where it goes. So that was the year that I got diagnosed with diabetes. And then I was like, Oh, great. Here's my first year of being a professional athlete, somebody or something I really wanted to do and be since I was, you know, super small. And just,
Scott Benner 33:59
yeah, I understand it from a parenting perspective, right? Like the idea of like, Hey, everybody needs to go to college. So once you get a job, and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be alive forever. And I need you to know, I need to know you're going to be able to take care of yourself when I'm old and gone. Like I think about that with my kids. So now, now, though, you have a little success. I imagine you must have walked in the house with the first contract held up over your head and said, Oh, who has to go to college? Not me. Because I'm making money. Like, did you run around? Like was it like a rap? It wasn't so
Fiona Wylde 34:28
much like no, so much like that. It was more of like, Look, I got this chance to do it. I will go to college. But for right now, let me just try and focus on this
Scott Benner 34:39
right. I can't argue with it. I can't argue with it. I don't listen, very few people get drafted to play professional baseball and I don't imagine my son will be one of them. But if it but if it if it happened, I would not know how to stop him. Like, yeah, you know,
Fiona Wylde 34:54
it would be something slightly similar to that. Um, so then I was like, Okay, great. Now I have type one diabetes and a professional contract. But I kind of wanted to keep racing and type one just came at the wrong time. I don't think there ever is a right time for it. But it was like, Okay, I'm just going to keep doing this. I'm going to figure out some systems and how to, you know, get sugar with me out in the water, and you know, learn all the feelings. Yeah, it took a little bit. But that year, I basically finished the season. And the next year, I won the racing world title. It's amazing. So then it was kind of like, Okay, this is going well, I
Scott Benner 35:33
can do this. Right. So let me let me pick through that a little bit. So when you're first diagnosed, I'm assuming you leave the hospital with like, like pens or syringes and insulin and a meter. Right. That's about it.
Fiona Wylde 35:47
Primarily, because I didn't really think that anything was, you know, that wrong? I knew I wasn't feeling great. But basically, I just went into my family care doctor. And, you know, I explained that, you know, I hadn't, you know, had dry mouth, I've been losing some weight, you know, I had the infection and this and that, whatever. And he looked at me, and he's like, has anybody ever tested your blood sugar? I was like, no, what, what is that? You know? And I was like, you know, thinking, Okay, all sorts of tests, you know, what's involved? And he just pulled out a meter. And he said, let me prick your finger. I was like, No,
Unknown Speaker 36:21
thank you.
Fiona Wylde 36:23
Okay, and then he pricked my finger. And the number that popped up on the screen was 586. And I was all happy, because I just graduated high school that morning. So I'm like, great. What's that out of like? 1000? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 36:35
And he goes, No.
Fiona Wylde 36:39
Yeah, I'm really sorry. But you pretty much have type one diabetes. And I was like, you know, tears, and I didn't know what that meant. And, you know, I had no idea what diabetes let alone type one was. But I live in a small town. And he pretty much said, Go home, because I just went to the doctor's office on my own. He was like, go home and talk with your parents. And he gave me his personal cell phone number and was like, have them give me a call. And I can talk and you know, help you guys out if you need anything. So then, that night, pretty much I didn't get any insulin didn't do anything. I actually never went to the hospital. Because I was 18. So I wasn't an adolescent, I guess. More just kind of strange. But, um, yeah. So then I went, and the next day got connected with a diabetes educator. And she went through absolutely everything and you know, explained how insulin works, what diabetes is, and she was spectacular. And she's the one, you know, who showed me how to prick my finger and how to, you know, calculate carbs and give myself insulin for that. And that's when it all started. But the problem was that I was supposed to go to Europe to race for the first time. Five days later, that was like, oh, my goodness, you know, like, the first go diagnosis, I was bummed because I was like, okay, like, obviously, I'm not going to go like, this is not my priority, right? Now. My priority is my health. But then after getting insulin started, and like, you know, immediately coming out of the 500, so it's just good.
Unknown Speaker 38:12
To range.
Fiona Wylde 38:14
We went and spoke with my doctor. And, you know, I was sitting there with my parents, and I was like, Okay, so, here's the thing, like, I was supposed to go to England to race. My dad was already planning on coming with me. But you know, if it's going to be any problem for my health, like, you know, please tell me and I absolutely will not go you know, that's, I don't want to put myself in any harm. And he looked at me and he goes, that is not a decision for me to make a it's not gonna hurt you. So I think you can make that decision as a family. And I was like, okay, we're going to England. And then we got on a plane two days later.
Scott Benner 38:51
And what did you have with you just the Beatles and like a meter. And yeah,
Unknown Speaker 38:54
so I had
Fiona Wylde 38:56
when I went on that first trip, I had lantis. I had cumilla and quick fence, and I had a box full of needles, a box full of test strips. I had a sharps container, I had an extra meter. And I have a lot of gummy bears. All sorts of I found these goo jobs that I could bring with me on the water and my mom sent us on the plane with like, the biggest cooler full of food and snacks and everything it was it was amazing. I'm surprised they even let it on and carry on. It was so big, but she was like you're not going anywhere without food.
Scott Benner 39:36
Probably probably thought you were like trying to start a grocery store in Europe.
Unknown Speaker 39:39
Probably.
Scott Benner 39:41
Well, that's so now looking back. Was that incredibly brave or incredibly stupid? Like when you look at it now do you think knowing what you know now would you have still gone?
Fiona Wylde 39:51
Absolutely. Okay. For me, it was exactly the thing that I needed to do, and needed to hear from my doctor. He knew me he's been my family doctor for ages. And, you know, he's seen what I've done competitively and could also see how, you know, a diagnosis of type one can, you know change your life in many ways. And so for him to say, you got to do what you want to do, and you will figure this out. As you go, doesn't have to hold you back. It was the they were the best words that I could, you know, ever ask to hear without even knowing that's what I needed to hear. Because that just kind of gave me a little bit of confidence to go and do what I actually want to do, which was go to Europe and go race. So do what I love
Scott Benner 40:34
the water joking around aside, I think that's amazing. I I'm a big proponent on the podcast of giving people giving people what they need as far as tools up front, so they can make good decisions. I don't like the idea of slow walking people into the information, let them learn it slowly. Because eventually, inevitably, excuse me, something happens, then you need some information, you don't have it, then the fear starts building up. Yeah. And then before you know it, you're kind of overwhelmed by the fear. And then even when you get good information, it's hard to take it. So I think that's Yeah, really amazing. I mean, for me, my life
Fiona Wylde 41:06
didn't really stop when I got diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.
Unknown Speaker 41:10
I like was up and running, and it
Fiona Wylde 41:12
was just gonna be something that I, you know, have to figure out and continue. You know, I'm sure today, there's gonna be something that
Unknown Speaker 41:17
I'm gonna learn from it. Well,
Scott Benner 41:19
yeah, I'm gonna say something. I'm gonna say something I told Kate Hall. And, and I think it applies to you as well. And I don't know that all the time that people who have that competitive athletic nature, like you do understand that it doesn't exist and everybody else but you know, I use I always use Chris Freeman as my example, like Chris sees like snow and these two tiny skis and thinks to himself, oh, I will ski a long distance with only these two poles to propel me. And you and you look at water and a small board and think you know what I should do go on a 13 mile race on that water standing. There's What I'm saying is, and it's probably not like life threatening, but you have a mental illness and you don't realize it.
Unknown Speaker 42:02
But, but seriously, but seriously,
Unknown Speaker 42:05
don't deny it.
Scott Benner 42:06
Seriously, it's a way of thinking that lends itself to the challenge of diabetes. Like, you know, like, right, you're just you look at the diabetes, you're like, well, I've got I've got these needles and this insulin, how do I get to the other side? And and that's, that's really cool. It's amazing. And it's why you're a great role model for it. So, so tell me when. So now, nowadays, you are a Dexcom user using the G six. And when did that start? When did you get your CGM?
Fiona Wylde 42:35
I got my CGM about eight months after I was diagnosed. Um, and it was the Dexcom for the beginning. And when that thing came out, I was like, Oh my gosh, this thing is the coolest thing ever. Like, are you kidding me? I don't have to prick my fingers. And I actually know my blood sugar is. Yeah, and pretty much I have not not worn a dexcom since then. Um, so yeah, about four years. Yeah, my daughter index common.
Scott Benner 43:04
My daughter's had daily wear to like, wait, she doesn't take breaks from her stuff like that?
Fiona Wylde 43:08
No, no, for me, it's just a safety thing. You know, I'm just being able to constantly monitor and know where my blood sugar is. Helps me and everything. I mean, it sucks, you know, if you go super high, or if you're going really low, it affects everything else you're trying to do during the day. So yeah, just to be able to have a monitor on it and, you know, catch crashes or catch cut highs, you know, before they get to the point where, you know, you get tired or you get exhausted or you have to take time, you know, out of your day to manage your diabetes, rather than focusing on what you're doing. If you know, things like that can be monitored better and alleviated, then there? I don't see any reason why I wouldn't wear one.
Scott Benner 43:46
Yeah, I agree. I have. So I want to I want to use up the rest of our not use up but I want to use the rest of our time to talk about your management because you are in such a significantly different situation than most people as far as like the intensity and the load and the work on your body. Right. And so everyone Yeah, everyone listening, you know, as well, the people listen to this podcast, probably don't think of it the same way. But a lot of people with diabetes would think I can't paddleboard because I'll exert myself, and then my blood sugar is gonna drop and I'm gonna, you know, it's gonna be up and down. I can't possibly do it. So my expectation is, and I don't know this before I asked you that you don't have a lot of variability in your blood sugar. I'm assuming you're not going from 40 to 600 and jumping around like that?
Fiona Wylde 44:29
No, I'm not 40 to 600. But you know, I could have 80 to 200 you know, occasionally 250 or something like that. Sure. Um, I think the you know, before we go into specifics of what I do on the water, for me, exercise helps in every way. You know, even if I am high and you know, I've just been giving myself insulin and haven't been able to go down or whatever, if even if I just go for a walk around the block or like 10 minutes, you know, cruzi or something like that, I will be able to drop my insulin and it just makes me feel or my blood sugar and it just makes me feel better.
Unknown Speaker 45:08
But for being on the water,
Unknown Speaker 45:11
I've been using
Fiona Wylde 45:12
the in pen from companion medical Yep, for the last year, just about. And that has helped me a ton. Because you can actually see how much insulin is still in your system. And you can remember what, how much was in your last dose and when your last dose was, because sometimes, you know, if you're, you know, running around and Okay, it's time for dinner and you give yourself insulin you keep, you know, you're cooking the rest of it, and I'm like, Oh my god, did I give myself insulin. So in fact, is really helped me because I, um, you know, can see how much insulin is in my system. And that also helps me plan for going out in the water. So if I, okay, if I have extra insulin in my system before I hit the water? Maybe I should eat a little bit of something before I go out and paddle.
Scott Benner 45:56
So you got when? Good? Yeah, no, I apologize. No,
Fiona Wylde 46:00
no, no noise. So when I'm on the water, I, this is for racing, or you know, even just for going running, or, you know, anything like that, I pretty much always wear a hydration pack, which has water in it. Because, you know, it's just good to stay hydrated out there. And it has a couple pockets as well. So my impact can go on the back, I take it with me just you know, in case for whatever, I have one pocket that has my phone, and the other pocket that has some type of sugar, like I use a lot of time like Clif Bar good jobs, because they're individual squares, and I know how many carbs are in each square, and how much each square will raise the amount of
Unknown Speaker 46:43
raise my blood sugar. Okay,
Fiona Wylde 46:45
that being said, when I'm paddling, yeah, blood sugar typically does drop. So I try and aim to get my blood sugar up, you know, around 181 65, somewhere in there, before I get out in the water. And then I'm monitoring it pretty much during the whole panel, I have an Apple Watch. So I can see my blood sugar there. And you know, just keeping an eye on where things are, I have sugar if I need it. But at the same time, you know, I I'm focusing on the paddle, I put some electrolytes in my hydration pack so I can stay more hydrated, and keep everything kind of, you know, flowing a little better. But it's pretty much those two things, having water having my gu chomp there and having my phone connecting my Dexcom. So while I'm on the water, I can actually see what I'm doing. And if I need to eat, I figured out a system where I just open the little pocket before I even start a race. And if I have to eat during the race, it's just like a one second motion of grabbing a good job and eating it. And continuing to bottle.
Scott Benner 47:49
I'm dying to know, have you ever had to pull out your head and give yourself insulin while you're on the board.
Fiona Wylde 47:54
I have not had to do that during a race. But a lot of times after a race, I find that even if I was going down during after the race, I'll end up spiking, you know, whether it's excitement because I've won or just because I was going through a lot of the carbs that were in my system. And now I've stopped and I'm stationary and all those carbs are now sitting there and I start going back up. So I keep it with me. Because sometimes you finish your race and your you know, your bag or whatever is a little ways away. And so then yes, then I have given myself insulin on my board at the finish line to you know, prepare for that spike that I know is going to be coming after
Unknown Speaker 48:37
right you would
Scott Benner 48:38
I think you would really enjoy a couple of episodes that I've done with us CD named Jenny, who comes on the show a lot. And we've we did a lot about exercise and that kind of stuff. Cool taught you. I think I'll give it to you personally afterwards. And I think that'd be great. Thank you. I can't please. So okay, so. Okay, that's crazy. First of all, what you just said all of it is absolutely cool. But so, so the pen keeps track of when you've used your insulin, which is helpful. It also keeps track of insulin on board, right. So like, yeah, it's telling you, so I'm assuming you're just a person who didn't want an insulin pump. Is that right? You just weren't looking for an insulin pump.
Fiona Wylde 49:19
I like the fact that with the impact, I can always have insulin with me and I'd have to travel with extra cartridges. So for the ease of that I'm not a big fan of having multiple devices on me just because I typically have wetsuits or, you know, like hydration packs that are kind of squishing around my midsection and then up on my back and all that and for me, this is the system that I've come up with that works for me. You know, it doesn't mean that I you know, don't try an omni pod every now and again to try and Okay, Lena, let's see if this helps me study. Yeah, just to try the different things that are out there. There, but for right now, this is the system that I like that's working with me that I've figured out how to manage with my training and sports and all that. And for that, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 50:13
It works.
Scott Benner 50:14
It's excellent. No, it's amazing. So, obviously, everyone's their own person. And, and you're saying to yourself, look, this is a fear for me, if I lose my infusion set from a pump, I'm really afraid. Now all of a sudden, there's no slow acting insulin happening. And I don't I don't want that fear. And so what's the next best thing? And I think we're, a lot of people are just like, well, I'll just inject and I'll do this, that's fine. You actually found a piece of equipment that helps you even more, and yes, spectacular.
Fiona Wylde 50:43
That was the only thing that I was bummed about is it's like, okay, you know, if the qumulo quick, Ben's like, great, it's easy. But I don't have any of the data that I would have from a pump. And I mean, daily, it is so much about numbers and changing and trying to adjust to all these different things. And so when I found in pen that was like, Okay, well, this is a pen that I can just inject. It's simple. But it has all the data of a pump. I was like, Mind blown. Yeah,
this is a this is a win win. Like Where can I
Unknown Speaker 51:13
get this thing?
Scott Benner 51:14
Should you actually whip out like your in pen app and look at your data and make decisions about your next race and things like that? Oh, all the time.
Fiona Wylde 51:21
Yeah, it sits right next to my Dexcom app on my home screen. And I just kind of flip back and forth between the two. I'm like, Okay, this is how much insulin I have on board right now. This is where my blood sugar is, this is the activity I want to go do. Or maybe this is the homework that I have to do. You know, so I'm going to be sitting here for the next, you know, four hours, and I'm not going to be doing exercise. How do I plan all those things? Yeah. And that is where the in pen has really helped me take all of that into consideration,
Scott Benner 51:51
like so I'm trying to imagine you're getting ready to go on a, you know, a race, and your blood sugar is lower than you want it to be. You didn't then you check the pen app, it tells you how much insulin you have on board. Do you ever then just say, Well, I'm going to take a little bit of this these carbs right now because I think I'm gonna fall no matter what. Absolutely, yeah, this month? Yeah.
Fiona Wylde 52:10
Yeah, absolutely. Like if I am, you know, below, a certain number, or even if I am dropping, I'm saying I say I'm at like, you know, 165, but I'm dropping, and kind of quickly, you know, I'd love to start a race at 165. But if I'm dropping, then I'm not going to be at 165 for very long. So I will definitely eat a bit not, you know, if the reasons in an hour, I won't eat that much. If the race is in five minutes, and I'm paddling out to the start line in my deck spam shows an arrow starting to go down. That's when I start. Okay, it's time to lunch. It's time to have some food, because the worst thing is going into a race with arrows going down.
Scott Benner 52:52
Yeah, and I'm, so I'm assuming you can see, you look on the next con is, hey, look, I'm going down. But not only do I know I'm going down, but this pen is telling me I still have two units left in me, right? So I have to I have I have to feed that insulin right now before I get on this board, because I'm gonna have exactly I'm gonna have like the, the the impact from the paddling. And the impact from the insolence out there. And if you had a regular pen or needles, you would not know how much is left over, you would just think, oh, maybe this is the end of the Bolus or whatever. And you would write that same information. Yeah, I, you know, I always say to people that the difference between pumping and and injecting is just you know, with injecting you lose the ability to manipulate your basal insulin. And that's, that's sort of it. But the truth is, if you have an impact, that's not sort of it, you don't, there's a lot more you get within pen that you wouldn't get with a regular pen. If your insulin gets too warm in the pen, does the pen tell you?
Fiona Wylde 53:46
Yeah, it does, which for me is awesome, because I've have a lot of races in Asia, and you know, they're super hot and humid. And that's difficult. You know, it tells you if your pen is too warm or too cold.
Scott Benner 53:58
So for the people listening, I think we now need to know your dog's name. So sorry, don't be sad. Don't be Don't be sorry. I wouldn't want to know what her name is. Some people get her name is Sharky. Sharky, because I have to tell you, you have used the word twice. While we've been talking that I thought I wish I was cool enough to say cruzi but I'm not. And you've said it twice now and twice I've thought that is such an amazing word. And I don't want to spell it and I'm fascinated by your use of it. It's so perfect. I just like oh cruzi should be someone's nickname
Unknown Speaker 54:33
to get one shot he's not
Fiona Wylde 54:34
so much of a cruiser but she
Scott Benner 54:38
can I say something here and I only want 2% if this works out but I think you should start your own like wet gear line called crazy.
Unknown Speaker 54:45
Crazy.
Scott Benner 54:46
Crazy by wild. I'm telling you right now or wild cruzi or so there's something in there. I think it's it's fascinating, anyway and your dog sounds like a wolf by the way. Is that a giant animal
Fiona Wylde 55:00
She's actually quite a medium sized Husky mix. But see weren't too far off with that one was really about 40 pounds. I thought
Scott Benner 55:08
she was chasing a bear away from your log cabin or something like that what it felt like?
Fiona Wylde 55:12
Yeah, I mean, I'm in Oregon. I'm not that far out.
Scott Benner 55:16
Right now people on the East Coast are like, how come he makes fun of places like Maine, but he hasn't made fun of Oregon yet? And the truth is, I don't know. Because I've thought of it a couple of times, but I just haven't done it. So I there's something about Oregon. No, no, I like I like, Oregon seems like a place I would want to be. So
Unknown Speaker 55:34
it's definitely a place I like to be. So tell
Scott Benner 55:36
me a little bit about using in pen while you're traveling like airplanes, hotels, that kind of stuff.
Fiona Wylde 55:42
The nice thing is, you know, traveling with time zones, and all that stuff is really difficult with you know, diabetes and insulin management because, you know, especially if you are going to be doing, you know, you're giving yourself long acting insulin in addition to, you know, your short term insulin for meals. That gets a little bit tricky. Okay, being able to keep track. I mean, my favorite thing about the infant is probably its most simplest function of just being able to see how much insulin is on board and being able to have a device that helps me calculate. Sorry, don't be
Scott Benner 56:17
sorry. Don't be sorry, people miss people actually miss my dog on the podcast, I moved to a different part of the house to set up a more permanent place to do the podcast from and because of that our dog bazel does not snort and, and snore in the background anymore. And I get notes sometimes, like, I miss bass on I was like, Yeah, I don't because all I would do is sit there listening and think God the dog so loud, it would make me nervous the whole I'd like to understand what the circle of life is there between the pen and the Dexcom and the app. Like so. If you want to take care of him first Sharky first and don't feel don't feel any pressure.
Fiona Wylde 56:59
We had the doorbell go off. So it's an exciting morning over here. How can
Scott Benner 57:03
there be visitors so you don't live in the middle of like,
Unknown Speaker 57:07
like, I don't live in the middle of the woods. I actually I
Fiona Wylde 57:09
have a bunch of neighbors that live all around me
Scott Benner 57:11
people. Alright, so you're like the doorbell? I'm like, Oh my god, the doorbell that was probably Sasquatch. She's gonna be dead in a sec.
Fiona Wylde 57:19
Yeah, and if it's okay, if you don't mind giving me one minute, I can just put you on mute and come right
Unknown Speaker 57:23
back. I'll do a chat.
Scott Benner 57:26
Hello. Hey, she's back. How are you?
Fiona Wylde 57:29
We're back. Sorry about the interruption.
Scott Benner 57:33
Please, please don't be sorry, you sound terrific. explained to me how in Penn integrates with the Dexcom CGM and the app on your phone.
Unknown Speaker 57:41
The two apps are
Fiona Wylde 57:42
separated, they're next to each other on my phone.
But the companion medical app that shows me all of my in pen data, that app has also my dexcom data on it. So it helps. Like basically when I give myself insulin that will come into, you know, show up as a little.on my screen. And on top of that, it'll also show me my Dexcom data as well. So I now I can see like, okay, I just gave myself three units at 130. And then as the information goes across the screen that.of my Dexcom Okay, where my you know, current blood sugar was when I gave myself that insulin also moves with it. So then you can have an idea of like, Okay, how much insulin you gave yourself? At what time? And, you know, okay, did I get myself the right amount of insulin? Or do I give myself the wrong amount of insulin?
Scott Benner 58:38
Does? Does the pen have a dose calculator?
Unknown Speaker 58:42
Yes. I use it all. Yeah,
Scott Benner 58:45
so it does that. So it so you're, you're in pen app has information from your Dexcom on it. So you open up your pen app, it knows what your blood sugar is, because of your Dexcom do you then just tell it This is how many carbs I'm thinking of having and it tells you it's suggested amount of insulin?
Fiona Wylde 59:02
Yeah, so I've set prerequisites of Okay, you know, this is my carb ratio, and this is what I'm planning on doing. And it'll Yeah, you pretty much put in, you know, how many carbs that you want to do and, or want to eat? And then you give yourself, okay, you know, it's suggesting this amount of insulin, you're like, Alright, I think that's about right. Or, you know, maybe I'm gonna have a little bit more food than that. So I'm gonna give myself a little bit more. Um, but it's nice because you can, you know, you can think of, Okay, what, what do I want to eat? Um, you know, how many carbs are in it roughly. And then it's nice, because I would normally just be like, okay, that for me, that's this amount of units, whereas we using that it definitely gives you more precise,
you know, just gives you a more precise number, like, no,
if you're not, you actually need more insulin than that you're going to go high. And so that's been a that helps me kind of alleviate a lot more of the like, big swings of up and down.
Scott Benner 59:56
That's excellent. Um, but yeah, that's one of the Major things that's missing when you're injecting, right? Yeah, that whole piece of it plus now. So now the pen app knows how much insulin is on board. So in the similar situation in the same situation, except, say you've had a, I don't know, say you had a snack at 11 o'clock and you gave yourself some insulin, now, it's just an hour and a half later, and you're going to have a meal. When you put in your, you know, I'm going to eat 40 carbs, it takes into account the insulin still left from the snack and it gives it gives you a different dose. If that insulin still active, yeah. Oh, my gosh, and and how valuable Do you find that information?
Fiona Wylde 1:00:37
Well, for me, it's huge. Because, you know, a lot of times I, you know, it's easy to just look at a meal and be like, okay, that's, I know how many carbs are in here. And that's how much insulin I'm gonna eat. But it's harder when it's like, okay, I already gave myself some insulin for food a little while ago. And I don't necessarily know how much you know, insulin is left or how much has been absorbed. And so then you end up stacking insulin and for me, well, for anybody really, I think stacking insulin is one of the things you want to try and avoid the most.
Scott Benner 1:01:09
Yeah. Now, you do not want to have more insulin than you need in your body, that's for sure. No. Have you had any experiences with the M pen app telling you, Hey, your insolence getting too hot or too cold?
Fiona Wylde 1:01:20
I haven't had it where it's too cold. A lot of the times I'm traveling to warmer places, which is kind of nice. But I definitely have it where it's been like, Hey, you have
Unknown Speaker 1:01:28
an alert, you
Fiona Wylde 1:01:30
definitely need to, you know, cool your insulin down, or pretty much like, Hey, your insulin is too hot, you know, replace it.
Scott Benner 1:01:36
That's, that's excellent. And that's probably incredibly handy for people who are traveling or I mean, your sport thing is so like, different than most people's. But in a similar vein, people go to the beach all the time with their insulin. Yeah. And so if you think, you know, maybe I guess it's just so simple that you're like, oh, I'll put it here in this bag, and it'll be okay. And then it ends up not being you would never know that. And this thing just sends an alert to your phone is like, hey, the pens too warm, and you move it somewhere cooler.
Fiona Wylde 1:02:03
Yeah, it's cool. And you know, the, the great thing about that, too, is it'll, it'll give you reminders of like, hey, you've used your pen for 28 days, it's time to replace it. You know, even if you still have insulin remaining. Stuff like that, you know, I used to write and Sharpies on my pens like, Okay, I need to, you know,
Unknown Speaker 1:02:19
go ahead. And,
Fiona Wylde 1:02:21
yeah, I can only use it, you know, until the 21st, or whatever, and then I'd have to toss it out. But now it was all, you know, reminded, I know how Sharpie marks all over my pens.
Scott Benner 1:02:29
How does that work? When you pop in a new cartridge? Does it reset on its own? Or do you have to tell it like I put a new cartridge? Oh,
Fiona Wylde 1:02:36
no, when you put a new cartridge into it pretty much knows that you put new cartridge you have to, you have to say that you're putting a new cartridge in just like kind of how you would with a Dexcom where you're like, Okay, I'm you know, bearing a new Dexcom. You don't have to take a picture of it or anything like that, like you would with the G six. But you do have to just, you know, put a new cartridge in. And you have to prime it a couple times. Just so you know that. Okay, your meal isn't blocked or anything like that. Yeah. And then it starts recording, and you're good to go.
Scott Benner 1:03:06
That's amazing. What do you use the information? You said earlier in the interview that you use the information to make decisions about like what to do next and stuff like that from the internet. But does the app also lend itself to you talking to your endocrinologist with the information? Oh
Unknown Speaker 1:03:22
my goodness,
Fiona Wylde 1:03:23
yes, that is the best part actually. Because it prints out massive charts. Like I can print out like four page charts from months and months and months of data of using the input pretty much as long as you're using the input and you can print out a chart that shows your Okay, average time and range. The average insulin that you're giving yourself the most amount of insulin you're giving yourself what to expect in terms of like targets and all that stuff. And it has helped my endocrinologist night a lot trying to figure out okay, hey, look, you look you have this pattern here. Let's try and figure out how to solve this pattern that helps me alleviate some of the highs and lows.
Scott Benner 1:04:07
So you and the doctor find the the charts and the graphs that the pen app gives you like relatable and easy to understand. It's not.
Fiona Wylde 1:04:15
Yeah, they're all color coordinated. And all that which is really nice.
Scott Benner 1:04:19
I like pretty colors. Colors are cruzi
Unknown Speaker 1:04:24
definitely crazy.
Scott Benner 1:04:26
Is there anything about the pen that I haven't asked you that you really think, wow, this is what people should know about it.
Fiona Wylde 1:04:33
They also give you your long acting reminders. So I take lantis. So it'll give me a reminder of like, Hey, you need to take your lantis and then you can record that in the pen or sorry, in the app as well. So it says okay, I just gave myself X amount of units of lantis. Like it's all recorded in there. And that's good too, because that kind of goes back to my thing of Oh, oops, yeah, I forgot to, you know, give myself this or give myself that
Unknown Speaker 1:04:58
and it basically Because with
Fiona Wylde 1:05:00
pens, it is kind of easy to forget. Or it's easy to just like give yourself insulin and then walk away from it is you don't have something attached to your body for the constant reminder to, in a way, like, I definitely feel a bit more free, which is really nice. But it's easier to skip some things too. And that's where the in pen, make sure that you don't skip steps that, you know, maybe are easy to forget, but helps you plan for the steps that you didn't forget. And then it helps you plan for the future as well, which is good. Hey, everybody
Scott Benner 1:05:29
can use somebody on their side to go Hey, don't forget to take your insulin right now. Or, you know, this is happening like it's diabetes has a lot to remember. And I think
Unknown Speaker 1:05:39
so many moving parts. Yeah.
Scott Benner 1:05:40
Right. And so if there's an app, that's, you know, listen, it's it's really kind of fascinating when you stop and think about like, you're young. So you think the whole world works like this. But for most of us, an insulin pen that attaches to my an app on my cell phone that's talking to my continuous glucose monitor that's reading the interstitial fluid and telling me what my blood sugar is or how fast it's going. And then tells me Hey, you know, I know you probably think that this lunch is four units, but you forgot that you gave yourself insulin an hour and a half ago, so we're just gonna do three and a half instead. That's a lot of cool. All in one place. Yeah, it was more
Fiona Wylde 1:06:13
than cruzi. Yeah, no, that's just like, super cool. Exactly.
Scott Benner 1:06:17
Yeah, it's really it's mind blowing. And I'll tell you right now, for people who've had diabetes for 10 years. They're like, Wow, that's really great. People have had it for 20 years are just blown away by this idea that this is this is an entirely different world for them. And you know, it's just it's very cool that you came on talked about it, I really appreciate it. Well, Fiona is just a another in a long line of people living with Type One Diabetes doing what seems like amazing things to me. I'm sure those of you who have ever served or stood up on a paddleboard or like, Scott, it's not that amazing. But first of all, she's competing at a very high level at this, you're just doing it for fun on vacation. And B, I don't want to do that. So it all seems very scary to me when people are like, I got up on a big wave and came flying down to the earth. Hmm, no, I don't want that. But I love that she likes it. And I love how well she does with her diabetes. While she's competing. I hope you enjoyed listening to Fiona. And I hope you enjoyed these last number of episodes, or I think the last three months on Fridays that have been sponsored by companion medical, I want to thank them very much for their support of the Juicebox Podcast and say that I think there'll be back in 2020. You can check Fiona out at Fiona wild calm. She's also got a really great Instagram account, because she's doing like cool stuff on it. So let me see if I can find it for you real quick. It's just Fiona underscore wild. And she's always standing on something that looks like it shouldn't really float or laying on something that looks like it shouldn't float or standing and laying where she's got it. Anyway, she's just always balancing on something in the water, which is really cool, you should check her out. And if you're thinking of taking a pump break, or you're using MDI right now, you really need to take a moment to check out the pen. Not only does it do amazing things and give you a lot of the functionality that a pump can give you. But the cost of it will surprise you. So check out the in pen go to companion medical.com right now. There are links in your show notes and at Juicebox podcast.com. If you can't remember companion medical.com but I feel like you can
Unknown Speaker 1:08:27
bet Juicebox Podcast is super crazy. Thanks for having me on the show today.
Scott Benner 1:08:32
The first person to leave a review of the podcast that indicates that the show is supercruise he gets a shout out on the show. Just make the review somewhere send me a link to it so I can see it. I just want to see it in print somewhere. Make sure you spell cruzi correctly.
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