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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, welcome to episode 661 of the Juicebox Podcast.

On today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast, we'll be speaking with Laurie, a type one for over four decades. She is when I'm just speaking in sentence fragments aren't I? Laurie has had type one diabetes for over 40 years. And she's here to share her story with us today. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan, or becoming bold with insulin. Are you thinking to yourself, I'd like to do something nice today for people living with type one diabetes, but I also want to support the Juicebox Podcast, and I only have time to do one thing. Oh, if that's something you're thinking, you're in luck, because if you go to T one D exchange.org, forward slash juicebox. Join the registry, fill out the survey. This will take fewer than 10 minutes, and you will be done. And then you will have accomplished both of your goals. You will have helped people with type one diabetes and supported the Juicebox Podcast, you need to be a US resident who has type one or is the caregiver of someone with type one. Those are pretty much the rules T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries G voc hypo Penn Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. today's podcast is also sponsored by us med. If you're looking for a supplier for your diabetes supplies, US med is probably the way to go. Head over right now for your free benefits check us med.com forward slash juice box or Juicebox Podcast listeners can call 888-721-1514 get white glove treatment from a company who always provides 90 days worth of supplies, and fast free shipping us med

Lori 2:15
Morning everybody. I'm Laurie. And I've been a type one diabetic for 42 years. So I've written the path of the evolving diabetic world with technology from I feel like I was a dinosaur in the dinosaur age with diabetes. When I got diagnosed and it has progressed, it progressed kind of slowly for a while. And then all of a sudden, it's just I feel like the technology has just taken off and light speeds. So for all of us that suffer with a disease, that's a very good thing for all of us to take better charge and better control of it. And I'm really, really grateful, grateful that I've been diabetic for 42 years, and I have no side effects as of yet. And I don't see that I will ever have any because I'm pretty diligent about how I take care. And I thank you, Scott for doing what you do, because you're just a wealth of information for all of us. Thank you so. So that's when I found out about you, when we we've moved four times in three years. And so juggling around the United States, and my husband's been transferred, his company got bought out, and then he was trapped. They kept them but they moved them. So being juggling around the United States, that's been challenging because you, you know, you got to I feel like I'm my own doctor. And I don't necessarily always need a doctor to help me but trying to find somebody that can help you with just navigate. And when I ended up on the second move, I ended up with a doctor and the PA there. She was like you have incredible control. She said and you need to listen to this guy, because his daughter is a type one. And he goes about treating his diabetes with his daughter the way that you do. And I go really? And she goes yeah, she goes listen to him and check out these episodes and I was like, if I hadn't moved I probably would have never found out about you. That's amazing. I shouldn't say never, you know maybe somewhere down the line I would have found out about you but she that office that girl is just super intelligent and I like her actually better than the doctor and she's the PA.

Scott Benner 5:01
I thank you very much.

Lori 5:04
Yeah. So and they were the ones that got me on Dexcom. And so I didn't, I didn't understand why my doctor where we lived forever. Why she never recommended it. I had heard of you know those tools, but I was in good control, I thought you know that I've always been a decent control. So I just kind of, you know, how you just go along, you just go along and you go along, you go along, and then you get introduced to that, and you're like, your world changes. You know,

Scott Benner 5:39
Laurie, can I ask you a couple questions? Sure. First of all, do you have the kind of job where you're in meetings with other people and you lead the meetings?

Lori 5:50
Um, no, you're not. Okay.

Scott Benner 5:52
Did you really prepare for this today?

Lori 5:58
Yeah, I prepared.

Scott Benner 6:00
I'm gonna tell you why. Because, um, because I know, I've got you off balance here. And I don't mean to, I think right now, if I said, Everyone, this is Laurie. She's had diabetes for a while, I could take my headphones off and leave the room. And I'd have a good podcast when I came back. Because you're so you're, you have you really know your life with it. So I'm excited to pick through it. I really, I really am. I just, I, as you were talking, we're getting further away from some of the things I wanted to ask you. So I wanted to slow you down so that I could, so I can pick back through it. When you

Lori 6:32
start. I mean, I've been an I was a educator for a color company for 20 years. And so I was on stage and spoke in front of people for 20 years.

Scott Benner 6:43
Yeah, that's exactly how you feel while you're talking. You. I feel like honestly, like, you could hold my attention. And I could just probably kick back and, and close my eyes and listen. So so let me but let's not let's not we want to make sure that people who complain about me talking too much have something to complain about. Okay, so my first question was, when you began to introduce yourself, you You went directly to the advent of technology, and what a big deal it is to you. Can you give people some perspective? About what you've lived through? And why? Why you feel that way?

Lori 7:21
Oh, sure. Yeah. What do you want?

Scott Benner 7:25
Yeah. What is it about now? I've got you off balance. I'm sorry. Did you go ahead and talk? I just want to, you know, I want to know what you live through and why that experience made you pick that as the first thing to say when you started talking?

Lori 7:38
Oh, okay. Yeah, I will absolutely tell you, I'll tell you one. horrific story that happened to me. And it. I was really fortunate that it came out the way it came out. But when I was, you know, diagnosed and doing injections, it was that was a tough road. For me. It was easy, but it was unpredictable. And this story, I mean, that's why the Dexcom has changed in the insulin pump. The insulin pump changed my life first. And then the Dexcom changed my life second, so it was a game changer for me.

Scott Benner 8:20
So the unpredictability of not being able to see your blood sugars. And just I mean, you were doing regular and mph, or were you doing

Lori 8:28
Yes. Regular an MPH? Yes. And the mph? Do you want me to just talk?

Scott Benner 8:34
No, yeah, no, I don't let me stop you up yourself. I was just kind of teasing you a little bit that I felt like I felt like if I was like, and Laurie diabetes, right? I could just leave and come back in an hour. I put my headphones back on and you'd be finishing your story. That's not no, don't don't. I'm sorry. Don't inhibit yourself. But yeah, just go ahead, please.

Lori 8:53
Okay, so when I was diagnosed, basically, it was, I was losing tons of weight, and I'm a hairdresser. And so I work behind the chair. And when you work behind the chair, you know, you don't always eat when you eat you, you throw it down in about two minutes whenever you can throw a bike down. And so I just worked and I've always been really skinny and very athletic. And so I told my husband, I go, there's something wrong, I'm losing all this weight. I'm super tired. And we went he was in a bowling league. So we went to a Bowling Tournament with all of our friends, you know, to a different city and we went to dinner that night. And it was a Saturday evening and it was like you could put a hose of an outside hose like you would water your flowers with and just let it run constantly in down my throat because that's how much water I want it. Yeah. And our friend. I had never heard of diabetes. I didn't even know what the word was. And our friend, she worked in a doctor's office that she was at the Bowling Tournament with us, her and her husband. And she told my husband, she said, You need to get Laurie to the doctor as soon as possible because I think she's got diabetes. Wow. So I called her doctor's office because she worked in a primary care doctor office on Monday morning. And they got me in that day. And I went there, and I went straight to the hospital. And so, I thought I had, like a brain tumor or something. Because I was cutting hair, my vision was blurry, and I was losing all this weight. And I was like, I probably got cancer, you know, I mean, what is happening to me? And so I went into the hospital, and, you know, they gave me told me what I had to do. And I never looked at it. Like it was a terrible thing, because I didn't even really know what it was. I didn't even understand

Scott Benner 11:07
it. 19 and 1979. Laurie, is that about

Lori 11:10
119? A March of 1988. Yeah, okay. So I got married in October of 79. And in March, I was diagnosed I told my husband I go, you know, we never should have gotten married. We should have just together did you try to get I got married and I became a diabetic,

Scott Benner 11:27
get marrying him gave you diabetes.

Lori 11:30
I would always call them be like he was an insurance agent at the time at the Sears store. And I would call him and I'd be like, can you bring me home some of those chocolate covered peanuts at the candy counter. I would always bring those home for me and I would just like scarf them down. Well, that all came to a halt. You know,

Scott Benner 11:50
I'm loving this. I love that you went to a Bowling Tournament. I imagine most people listening don't know that. Bowling used to be such a big deal. That every Saturday on ABC there were bowling tournaments on Oh, I

Lori 12:04
know we used to watch them. My husband was an avid bowler he golfed in a bowling league with his guys on Friday nights every week. And so here we are. We're at this Bowling Tournament. And they're really those guys are all suit. We're just with them this last weekend. They were all they're all super funny.

Scott Benner 12:21
That's a major. So fun. Yeah, it was a big it was it was ours and people would sit and watch like it was nothing. Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm gonna have a good time here. Okay, so you are diagnosed because your friend kind of sees it. But you realize something's really wrong. I'm assuming, you know, thinking, Oh, I have cancer or tumor or something like that. And then they say diabetes to you. But at a time when like there's not a lot of real understanding about I mean, it's not understand I guess the the insulin lacked and the technology lack so much that you were just shooting insulin in the morning and then in the evening, is that pretty much it? Yeah, I

Lori 12:57
did mph in the morning with regular. And then I would I took regular at dinnertime. And then I took NPH at bedtime. Okay. And it was I mean, I was so diligent about everything. But you know, we didn't even have I don't even know that we had a computer back that I don't think we I don't think we even had a computer because I think when my son was born, that's when we he was like few years old. That's when we bought our first computer. So we didn't even have computer life to research anything or do anything but I'm a foodie. And food has never been important to me. I don't care about food. I could if I eat because I got to eat really to be honest with you. Do I enjoy a good meal? Yeah, I do. But I'm not one of these. I weigh the same as I did in high school. I mean, I've been the same weight forever. And so that was never like a concern for me. It was just like, Okay, how do I make this work where I can keep my blood sugar's steady. And then I have no glucose monitor and all even to prick your finger to test your blood sugar. And I finally got years later I got I think it was called Life scam. It was like a notebook. It was so ginormous. And I hauled that thing around in my purse to check my blood sugar all the time. So and I would check my blood sugar like eight to 10 times a day because I was so anal about where am I at what's happening, you know? But I opened a hair salon in 1983. What was actually November of 82 and an 83. You know, it was really the first full year and I was diabetic at that time. And I worked I worked Like a dog, you know, but I loved my job. I never felt like I was working ever, even with running a staff and doing all this stuff with your own business. I just loved, loved my work. And so with doing that, my husband, this is the story that I would like to share, because this is how technology has truly changed my life. And I've got a few stories like this because the mph, I was a ritual, I did the same thing. Every day. Same thing, every day, I would eat the same breakfast, I would pack the same lunch I never ate out. I always pack my food and pack my own food. I would work 12 hour days at the salon. So I would have to pack you know, my snack, my lunch, my dinner. And my husband came in and I cut his hair one night. And then he said okay, I'll see you at home. And now I had taken my regular eat my dinner and I always had like a granola bar or you know, something we had a white hand right next door. So if I ever ran out of food at least I had a white hand next door to our my hair salon. So I would send one of the assistants i Can you go over there and grab me this because I got to have some food and I would be cutting hair. And I could feel myself dipping down and I'm like, I need some food. And that's what I did not that was a hard thing is that okay? I'm taking this much insulin, I'm eating this kind of food. And you could you just a day is a day, you know, sometimes you got stressed sometimes you don't some so your body is always juggling around and you can't see what's going on. And on your insides. You know how much sugar is actually in that blood? I wish I could see all those little sugar things jumping around in there swiping. But anyway, so he came in, and I cut his hair. And he said, Okay, I'll see you at home. And it was like the end of the day. And so I packed everything up, I had to pack up from the salon and got my car. And we lived about 20 minutes from where my salon was. And I was about halfway home and I could feel myself dipping down and I thought I just gotta get home, I don't have that much further to go. And I was out of food. I didn't have sugar tablets, I didn't have nothing in my car. And that's like a rarity. But you know, I didn't expect anything to happen in the next 20 minutes. And

so I got literally I was maybe like, a block from our house. And we lived the road in the back of our house backyard. It was all fields behind there. But it the I had to make like a left turn on this road before I got to my street which was you know, the main the main back road. So I'm just gonna give it a name because it was 95th street. That was the main back road. And I was on the street over from our street on book road. And I had to make a left hand turn and I was at a stop sign. And I was all confused. And I could not figure out where I was. And this man at the stop sign. I turned and I was driving and this man was just laying on his horn. And he he saw I was like frayed you know, because I did not now I'm like almost I'm nearing my house. But I did not know I was nearing my house. That's how my brain was not functioning because I had such a low blood sugar. And he goes, You're drunk. I'm calling the police. And I was like, I go buddy, I am not drunk. I mean, I noticed say that much right? And I just kept driving because I was scared. And I wanted to get away from him. So I kept driving. And I went past my house, the backyard of my house. I drove right past it because I did not really know where I was. And I just kept driving and I thought okay, now I kind of know where I am. And I just kept driving and I drove into you I don't know if you remember but we had handy Andes back then. Hardware stores or big like Menards or Home Depot now or whatever. They were Handy Andy so I drove into the parking lot there and the police, the police were there.

Scott Benner 19:55
Oh, waiting for you. Waiting. Yeah, I had I had to look Whitehead, I didn't know what that was. I think these are more local things. So that's the convenience store. Right? Yeah.

Lori 20:05
It's like a 711. You know? Yeah. And so I pull into the parking lot. And there's this elderly couple coming out. And I rolled my window down. And I said, You know what, please, can you go get me some sugar. I'm a type one diabetic, I'm having a really low blood sugar. And I have to get some sugar in my body. And they were so nice. They turned around and went in. And I guess handy, Andy might say, had a candy bar. And so they went and got me a candy bar and brought it out. And the police came up to me, because they're thinking I'm drunk, because this guy said I was drunk. And they came up to me. And I said, You know what, I'm having a low blood sugar. I said, I was confused. I could not, I did not know where I was. And so I sat there and ate this chocolate bar, which is going to send my blood sugar high. And I didn't have a blood sugar testing machine. But I knew that's what it was going to do. And I just sat there, and my husband now we didn't have cell phones, either. My husband was wondering, like, where is she? Like, what happened to her. She was supposed to leave after me. And she's not home. And so I sat there until my blood sugar, I felt like normal, the police said, We're gonna sit here with you until you get where you feel like you're normal. And those elderly people wouldn't even let me pay him for the chocolate bar. They were so nice. And so anyway, the police followed me home and tell I got into my driveway, and I was able to walk into the house. And that was, that's what having not having a, you know, Dexcom or a contour next meter or, you know, one touch Ultra meter or whatever meter you want to call it. That's what not having that stuff did. And I mean, it's happened to me more than once there. It happened to me at night when I was driving home from work. And it was winter, because we lived in the Midwest at that time. And it was winter. And I was all confused in my neighborhood just driving around, and I didn't have a cell phone. And I'm like, Oh my God, where am I? The bees? I gotta get home

Scott Benner 22:20
to these episodes. Come on quickly, or? Yes. They Yeah, I don't know where?

Lori 22:25
Yep, they would come on very quickly, out of nowhere. And so. And another time my husband traveled, and my son and I were home alone, and he was in grade school. He was little but my husband always taught him if something happens with your mom at night, you call 911. And so my son, you know, he was little so he was sleeping in bed with me, right? And I, I woke up and I could feel my blood sugar going and I didn't have anything by my bed, which is unusual, because but I wasn't I was not smart enough that about at all. You know, I just I'm trying to figure it out really kind of on my own. Yeah. And so he was in bed with me. And I told him I said, Go get your Go get me a juice downstairs, orange juice or, and Steve out my husband. He always kept Coca Cola because you know, that brings your sugar up really quick. And so my son rent went down and brought me up Coca Cola, but he called 911. When he went downstairs in the kitchen, he called 911. And so the paramedics came and he went and answered the door, and he's in his pajamas. He's so cute. He was this little kid, you know, and they came in, and by then I was getting back to normal because the Coca Cola had taken effect. But I would have episodes, like at two three in the morning. This was before I was on an insulin pump to three in the morning, I would do the same thing I'd take my MPH at night, I'd have a bowl of Cheerios, and I would sit up and do my paperwork for the salon go to bed like around midnight, and I would think I would be fine because I took my MPH usually around 930 or 10 o'clock and eat my bowl of cereal and because I worked evenings so I didn't get home from work a lot of times till 930 And so then by the time I got situated at my house and did my insulin and ate my bowl cereal and did my paperwork, you know, it'd be midnight I go to bed. And my husband would be like I would he would have my head and he would be trying to get me to drink a juice. And when you're that because he I would do things in my sleep I guess where he knew and I woke him up. And so and that would happen probably a couple times. The year and so that's why he taught her son, that that's what he had to do because he traveled. And so it was my son and I at home alone, you know,

Scott Benner 25:09
were you ever were you ever able to make adjustments to the insulin to stop it from happening? Or how did they How did you address it just with the food and hoping

Lori 25:17
Yeah, just the food and hoping because my doctors you know, I would tell them and they, they, they didn't tell me to lower the dose you know, and looking back like I should have lowered the dose myself, you know, but I was just a good student. I did what everybody told me and I just bite it by the rules and thought well this is the way life is with diabetes and injections

Scott Benner 25:45
how? Tell me how old you are in 1980 2222 Wow, you're 62 now

Lori 25:53
yeah 6420 42 years Wow, that's crazy.

Scott Benner 25:58
Yeah, I I mean, listen, it's the it's the theme right? Nobody feels confident making adjustments on their own they just take for granted that this is what it is and then you know they have some burden they have to live with now and and that's it and if a doctor doesn't help them with it, they never change it. How what was the next most meaningful shift? You're gonna say getting an insulin pump probably when did that happen?

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Lori 29:01
while just not even getting an insulin pump by getting a glucose monitor where you could test your blood sugar's Okay, that was a game changer because then I I checked my blood sugars like you know, every while I was working. So I would always check my blood sugars like in the morning when I got up and then I would eat breakfast and if I wasn't going into work until a little bit later that day. Then I would check it again you know before I left for work because then it was like lunchtime, you know? So then I was going to eat lunch so I would have to know what it is but that and then I started then I started altering my insulin myself. Good when I could test my blood sugar's did that help it help out? It helped and my doctor told me he goes you know what you are in such great control but when they're working on an insulin Pump. And when it comes out, you need to get it. And he was talking to me about an insulin pump pry for two years before they even came out with that he goes, this is what's happening. And this is what you need to do when they come out with it. That's crazy. And I was like rally and he goes, Yes, I go. I think I do a pretty good job this way. He goes, nope, you'll do a better job this way.

Scott Benner 30:18
How old do you think you were when you got the pump?

Lori 30:20
I was it was back. My son was in college. So I think he graduated in 2003. So I would probably guess I think it was around 2005. Maybe

Scott Benner 30:32
yes. You 25 years without it.

Lori 30:36
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. At what

Scott Benner 30:38
point did you switch over to a faster acting insulin? Do you remember? Like, I mean, like Humalog went on to next

Lori 30:45
human log came along. I think that came along when I went on the insulin pump. Really? Okay. I think that's when I went to unhuman log, if I recall,

Scott Benner 30:57
what you're saying you did regular an MPH for 25 years.

Lori 31:01
I did regular an MPH for like a long, long time. Okay, maybe he changed me. Before that because I was on human log. Then I had to go on Nova log. And now I'm back on human log again, in my insulin pump, but I'm, you know, researching these other insolence now, too, because I'm like, I'm going to, I'm going to talk to you that I have back in the city with the PA that told me about you. So I'm really happy because I'm gonna have a conversation. Well, listen,

Scott Benner 31:33
I just did a little googling Eli Lilly began producing began production of the insulin product human blog at its new bulk manufacturing facility in Carolina, Puerto Rico in mid 2005. Your memory is pretty good on that. So Oh, yeah. Exists prior to that.

Lori 31:52
Yeah. So then I was on regular until the insulin pump. So yeah. And that, and then the insulin pump. You know, that was another big learning curve for me, because you still had to test your blood sugar. But then, and I was on med tronics insulin pump. And so I was, I mean, I got that thing working like a smoothie operating machine. And I got rid of my lows in the middle of the night never happened. Well, they were they were gone. And my husband, you know, he was so relieved, because he didn't have to worry about me when he wasn't home. You know, he always worried about me driving.

Scott Benner 32:41
How did it affect your son? Did he? Is he kind of like a caregiver person now? Is he is he paranoid? How does it affect them grown up? Or do you think?

Lori 32:50
No, I don't think he's paranoid because he knows how disciplined I am. You know, and I would always just tell him, I said, You know what, this is the way this disease is. And when you do injections, you can't control what the insulin is going to do in your body all the time. You just can't control it. And so I said, That's my mom has to, you know, I always have to travel with food. And we would, I mean, when we, him and I, I'm a big rollerblader I've rollerbladed for over 40 years. So, I mean, I'm a hockey person. So like, I was a hockey cheerleader. So I've always been that person on to things on your feet that move and work athletically. And so my son when he was two, I took them to the ice rink, because I'm like, You're gonna play hockey. And so once he got, you know, decent on ice skates, then I'm like, Okay, we're going to rollerblades and our buddy. So we went to rollerblades and we would rollerblade together and I would always have to have a backpack because I didn't have a fanny pack them. You mean I didn't even know about a fanny pack them but I always had to carry a juice box because I would wrote we'd rollerblade long and hard and, you know, at this point, I wasn't on an insulin pump. I was still on injections, you know. So it, it was like you couldn't suspend or lower or Temp Basal or whatever, you couldn't do any of that. And so I always have to carry a juice box or you no sugar with me all the time, because of that exercise level. So he was always aware, you know what I mean? So because I would have to pack that backpack and he was never really afraid, but he could tell. He always knew when I was dipping down Have you always tell

Scott Benner 34:50
Have you spoken to him as an adult about growing up like that?

Lori 34:54
No, I never really I never really have spoken to him about that. Okay, My husband tells stories, you know, because to all of his guy friends, you know, when we get together, you know, is he's, he's, they're like, Yeah, we heard the stories about you driving the car and they thought you were drunk. And so my husband has told his friends about what he's gone through with those kinds of stories, you know, cuz it was always a worry for him. But hey, man,

Scott Benner 35:23
did you have any issues growing up that way? Like through your 20s 30s? Like, did it have any impacts on you, socially, or psychologically, or anything like that? You feel pretty good, right?

Lori 35:33
I just I just took the bull by the horn and did it and never looked back. I never worried about it. I never. I just, I'm a disciplined personality. And so when I know I gotta do something. I do it. I don't, you know, I don't look at it. Like, oh, I'm just gonna fly by the seat of my pants. Even though I was flying by the seat of my pants. I didn't know I was flying by the seat of my pants. I was just doing what I thought I was supposed to do. But it it wasn't always a perfect world. You know? And whilst I still isn't always a perfect world, as you know,

Scott Benner 36:15
no, of course, I don't even know what I'm getting at. I just, you seem I mean, it's obvious you're from a different generation is how it feels to me. Like, you know, like you grew up in a time of you're born in the 50s. I imagine, right? Yeah, yeah. And 57. Yeah, you grew up in a you grew up at a time where there was no real expectation for like, constant happiness or contentment, or something like that, like you were just you were living and staying alive and doing the things you were supposed to do.

Lori 36:41
Yeah, I mean, that's I was I, while my father passed away, have a massive heart attack when I was 11. Oh, my God. He was 46 years old. And I saw my mom. She was just devastated. We had just moved to a new house on the lake and lived in Lake and, you know, the Midwest and my dad, that's always what he wanted. We moved there in October, and he passed away the night before Christmas. That year. And after that, I always I always knew that I had to be able to just take care of myself because I saw my mom have to just, I mean, she did. She wasn't working. My dad worked, because that's what happened back then. Right? Your dad worked and you're supported the family. You had one car, you lived in a simple little house and you live life and you went to church every Sunday. And you know, that's what you did. So after that experience, I mean, that was, that was a game changer for me. I was in sixth grade. And after that, you know what I was always a go. I was always independent. My mom said she goes, You're stubborn and independent, always. But I was like a go getter. And I always did what I was supposed to do, because I was like, I am not going to tip over have a massive heart attack. I'm gonna be athletic, I'm gonna eat good. I'm gonna do all this, you know. So, I think that, you know, being raised with my mom and that situation. I got a job as soon as I could work, because, you know, we didn't have money because we lost my dad. My mom never worked. And then she went to work like in a dime store in the town, you know, because she didn't have education. Yeah, other than high school. And so when you grow up in those kind of times, it shapes what you become in the future, right? 100%

Scott Benner 38:50
Yeah, I can't imagine not. Wow, that's a that's a probably a pretty common story for then. Did your dad smoke?

Lori 38:59
He was a smoker. Everybody was a smoker. That's why Yeah, every my mom's smoke, my dad's smoke, my smoke. My uncle smoked. Everybody smoked back then. Right. And that was just the way

Scott Benner 39:11
have you identified any type one or other autoimmune issues in your family line?

Lori 39:16
Now, nobody, that's what's bizarre. My mom, it was hypoglycemic for a number of years, and then it just all of a sudden went away. But she followed her diet. And I followed her diet that she's supposed to follow, being, you know, she's and so that's the only link that we can find. There's, there's nobody else

Scott Benner 39:40
nobody that anybody knows about, I guess. Also that my

Lori 39:44
cousin, his daughter, she was 22 and in college, and she found out she's a twin, and she became type one diabetic.

Scott Benner 39:51
How long ago was that?

Lori 39:54
Oh boy, she's in her. She's got to be in her early You 30s Now probably interesting. So but they but my cousin called me and he goes, Oh my god, Emily was just diagnosed we she came home for Christmas break and she was not feeling good. And we took her to the doctor and they checked her and she's type one. Now Claire, her twin nothing. Yeah.

Scott Benner 40:20
Well, I mean, that's not I mean, it's not surprising, I guess I just I don't know I got all wrapped up in your in your life and growing up in that time. That's really just a simple, a simpler way to live. You know.

Lori 40:34
I mean, literally, that's the way everybody should be living nowadays. I mean, I grew up I worked at the NW i Water skied every day, we were at the beach all the time. And, you know, my friends, like they would have a lake house, you know, up in the woods somewhere and we get in a car when we were 16. And we could drive and we go up to that lake house and hang out there and go to the outhouse. I mean, they didn't even have a running bath toilet, we go the outhouse. And you know, and so it was, I mean it, big bonfires in the fields and high schools. And you know, when you're in high school with all your friends, and you know, you're outdoors, we snowmobile, we've snowmobile, to the hockey rink, and then cheer for the game that was going to be there, you know, beyond that night, because we were cheerleaders, me and my friends. And it's, it's just, you know, it was just different.

Scott Benner 41:29
I didn't know there were cheerleaders on skates, you've taught me that. I do have a question. I if this seems inappropriate to you, don't answer me. Just tell me to move on. Okay. But 16 years old bonfire kids? What was the level of Hanky Panky where you kissing? Drinking? Smoking? What what did you do in that time?

Lori 41:48
Well, there was always a keg. Okay. There was always a keg in the field. So we call them keggers. And so you know, but you'd have all the athletes there. You know, I mean, we're I was a cheerleader. You're not supposed to do that, or you can get kicked off the team, but everybody did it. So we always, you know, we go out in the drive for miles out in the country because my friends, their parents had farms and fields and we get a CAGR gone. Okay, everybody after the game, We're Gone To The Gager. You know,

Scott Benner 42:21
there's no kid like your parents didn't know where you were. They didn't know. I mean, they

Lori 42:25
knew that I'm going over to so and so's and they just okay, you know, okay. And

Scott Benner 42:33
smoke cigarettes. Good. Oh, my God. Yeah.

Lori 42:36
So this one, this is a funny story. But my girlfriend, they had a lake house up in the woods. That's when I was telling you about what the outhouse and. And it was the waters just, I mean, all the water where I lived was pristine and crystal clear. And we would go up there and hang out. But our other high school friend, his parents had a resort that wasn't far from there. And so there were two guys and high school brothers that their parents are on this resort and every spring, they would have a weekend long cager at the resort. And so we would go up and stay at my girlfriend's cabin, and then we drive over to the CAGR because it was like started, people would start arriving Friday night, and they go home on Sunday. And everybody would just take a bath and brush their teeth in the lake because it was clean and nobody cared. And you know, you'd go the bathroom in the woods and nobody cared. And it was sounds, it was like caveman style of partying fun. But you know, those are all just great memories that we you know, there it it was just a great time and place to grow up and live and experience life and I'm a water person. We've, my husband and I have lived on the water. While we got after I opened my salon. I did very well and we bought a lake house. And so we traveled to the lake house every weekend. Because I had my own business, I could do that. And so we had that for 15 years. And then we sold our house that was in town. And we moved up north and bought a house on the water where we lived full time and then we got transferred three you know we got transferred all these times. So it's just you know, yeah, it's it's just kind of weird how life changes do you need to look so anyway, now I'm by the ocean but so it's still water.

Scott Benner 44:46
Do you need to you need to look at your blood sugar. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm

Lori 44:49
fine. If you know your Dexcom goes off at 80 So

Scott Benner 44:53
yours is the Navy. Okay, yeah, gotcha. And now you're on one of the shores you're on. You're on a.

Lori 44:58
Yeah, Lana? Sure. Yeah, so that's that's good. Yeah. Went from the lake to the shore to the desert to the shore. Like, gosh, you've

Scott Benner 45:07
been? You've been all over the place, though. Yeah. You held on to your Midwestern accent, so you're good. Oh,

Lori 45:15
yeah. So anyway, that technology has the insulin pump changed my life in a huge, huge way. And then, two years ago, is when I found out about Dexcom. And that is changed my life in a big way. And then I found you. So and I just, it just confirmed with me that, you know, I've been pretty doing pretty damn good. Raising myself kind of in the dark on my own with my diabetes, because I've been bold with insulin, my diabetic life. And, and I didn't, you know, I would just do it. I just do it. And, you know,

Scott Benner 45:56
no, I think it's amazing that you were able to to do that. I mean, like you said, just, and looking back, just just getting the meter and just being able to get enough data to start making reasonable decisions about things. It's yeah, now now look at it like, right. Oops, sorry. I'm saying sorry. Now, you've got this, how did you sort of the Dexcom was given was told to you by a doctor's office?

Lori 46:23
Correct? Yeah. Because I'm in you know, I'm in the city where they make it. So um, so the, the doctors here are all about it, because it's local. So, anyway, they, the doctor mentioned it to me, and then I went in with the PA, so she could train me on it. And so when I went in with PA, she trained and they got me, they told me I needed to go on a tandem pump, My God, why? And they go, because they will communicate with each other. And you like to have such tight control that I think this pump can give you tighter control. And so I switched. I went on the Dexcom first, and then I went on the tandem pump. And so with doing that, it it literally like learning tandem was a whole nother way of life on that insulin pump compared to Medtronic. And I actually liked Medtronic better, he did like the Medtronic better, I did like it better. So I went off of the tandem and went back to the Medtronic because I could not get my sugars to buttoned down on the tandem correctly to do it. And so, so my doctor, she said, Okay, so now I'm in a new state, right, I was leaving this state. And she said, I think you should give tandem another try down the road. And so I went to the other state. And I ended up through Facebook group, because I talked about the tandem and the issues I was having with it. And that I was just gonna go back on a Medtronic, I didn't know what to do in a diabetic group. And there was a tandem representative somehow found out and he called me. And I explained to him what I was how I had it. I will say I'm, I don't try to criticize people. But I've been a trainer, you know, for years, because I had a staff and worked for a color company and daughter, but she came to educate me on the tandem pump. And she said, Well, we're gonna learn and do this together. And I was like, we're gonna learn and do this to get her a

Scott Benner 48:56
little worried. She didn't understand that already. While she didn't,

Lori 48:59
it was obvious. And so when I went on it, I was struggling and struggling and struggling. And I just said, Forget it. I'm going back until I can get somebody that knows how to train you on this machine. And I called tandem on a regular basis trying to make it happen. So when I got to the other state, I decided that I was going to try it again. And so I gave it a try, and I've been on it ever since. And I had a really, really the guy that I talked to he hooked me up with one of the top trainers and we did it all over the phone.

Scott Benner 49:36
Good. So are you using it more like you know,

Lori 49:41
I do use Control IQ the one thing that I that is, you know, because I don't eat white food. I just I don't care about it. It doesn't matter to me. Wow. Are

Scott Benner 49:57
you saying stuff like that? Yeah, I

Lori 49:59
don't need I haven't had a piece of pizza in I don't even know how many years. And so it's like, I just don't eat that stuff. But I used to. And I used to do it on the Medtronic, you know, with, you could do the Temp Basal settings, and I would do it for like, hours, you know, because pizza breaks down in hours, right? So you got to change your gotta change your insulin ratio, you know, to accommodate it. And, and this one, you got to turn the control IQ off to make that happen. So, you know, even with protein sometimes, so it's got the two hour window where you can do the extended Bolus, then I, you know, I go back in maybe sometimes, like, after an hour and a half, and I set another one. Okay, to extend out again. Yeah. So that's kind of the, I think that there's, if they had a diabetic talking to them, when they design an insulin pump, I think they would get a lot more information, how to design it to make it work the way diabetics want it to work.

Scott Benner 51:07
Well, what do you what do you wish the control IQ would do that it doesn't do?

Lori 51:11
Well, I wish that you could just automatically have an extended, you could have that extended time where you wouldn't have to turn it off. You could just go in and do what if you needed four hours or six hours or eight hours, what if you get sick? You know,

Scott Benner 51:29
so you can't explain to it that the food you've just eaten has a longer impact than the algorithms ready for you can't Yeah, you can't tell it. This is listen, this is pizza, we're going to be doing this for the next five hours. Right?

Lori 51:42
I got you, right, you got to turn the control IQ on go back to regular pumping, go back to just doing like what my Medtronic pump did, you know, and my doctor told me, she goes, Well then do that. If that's what you need to do, then just do that. But I make it all work. You know how it works now, and I just don't want to be pushing all these buttons all the time and fussing around with it all the time. And you know what I mean?

Scott Benner 52:05
Yeah, you would like it to work without you having to be involved so much. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, I have a question that I can uniquely ask you, because of your age, do you have concerns about as you age, the management of diabetes? Do you ever think about that? Yes. What what's, what's the thing that sticks in your heads most?

Lori 52:29
Well, I mean, you know, as I age in the management, you know, I've had it for 42 years, and it really doesn't matter how you I mean, it does matter, I shouldn't say it doesn't matter, because it totally does matter. But if you're so diligent about your care for all these years, you know, when you hit have, let's say, I make it another 20 years, that puts me at 84. You know, what? It? What are the insides of my body going to be like, you know, what, are my eyes gonna be like, what are my kidneys gonna be like, you know, I'm not going to be running a marathon at 84 I doubt you know, or rollerblading, like, you know, around the country. So, you know, so I just, you know, that's what always concerns me, because I don't ever, I hope I go like my father before that, before I ever have any side effect from diabetes. I would rather just go ding, and tip me over. And don't let me have any side effects. You know. So the side effects there. I mean, I did hair for a living trust me you talk to you get clients that are diabetic. And I was like a nutritionist for all my clients. They loved coming to me because I always talked about food and how I cook and recipes and what I do, and they're like, Oh my God, I've never met anybody that takes such good care of themselves. And it shows. And you are you do so great. And I go I love. I'm diligent, you know, and I love food. And I love good food. I love healthy food. I love fresh fruit. I don't like processed foods. So. So that's just the way I've operated. Forever. Yeah, you know,

Scott Benner 54:17
I always think about like dexterity and cognitive stuff. Like what happens when you Oh, slow down a little better. You can't use your fingers as finely those sorts of things.

Lori 54:27
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the whole you know, cuz dementia is way more prevalent diabetics, you know, so I'm always like, Oh, God, don't put me there. I don't want that. That's for sure. My husband always goes Oh, it's Laurie in the kitchen, because there's always something that happens in the kitchen cooking. You know, it's just stupid stuff. And he always makes jokes you know about me, because I'm blind and he's like Laurie the blonde. She's in the kitchen again. You know?

Scott Benner 54:58
I just I just I I don't know, I know it's a long way off, and I'll be a long way dead. But I don't like thinking of art. And, you know, as an older person now not sure about how much insulin to give herself or to make a mistake, because she thinks she's already or didn't do it already. Yeah, you know that that bothers me.

Lori 55:17
Yeah, but you know, by the time Arden is older, it's going to be a way different playing field for diabetic. Yeah, I hope so. That's gonna be Oh, my God. I mean, when you look at 42 years, and you look at just since 2005, when I got on the insulin pump. And you look at from 2005 to now. Yeah, I mean, that is 16 years. And look at what spend

Scott Benner 55:42
on. It's amazing. The LEAP is really amazing. It's

Lori 55:47
I mean, so you put Arden What is she 15 or 1617. Now? Oh, 17. So, you put 15 years on that? You know, she's going to be what? 32? Yeah, yeah, no kidding. And so you look at at 32 how it could be different for?

Scott Benner 56:05
I hope, so I hope I get to see it. I really do want to see what happens next.

Lori 56:10
Yeah, I mean, I'm just, I spoke to diabetics, my doctors in the state where we live forever on the water. She was just like, you know, what, I, I want you to talk to the diabetic support groups, because you are your, I would bring her like my loaves of bread that I would make, you know, with almond flour. And you know, I'd make a cinnamon bread and, and a white bread and an Italian bread. And I would bring them to my doctor and I go, you should try these because they're really, really good. And they're really healthy for you. And she's like, Oh my God, you make the best food. And so I would go speak at these diabetic groups. And I would bring like my food, like my bread so that because it was in the morning, and they could have like coffee and bread in the morning. And it's all blood sugar controlled bread, you know, so they just loved me, they loved me speaking to them about how I take care of myself, because I could only talk from my standpoint. And they were like, God, I wish I could just be more like you and I go Why can't you? Yeah, so they go, you don't need to wish about it. You just need to do it.

Scott Benner 57:21
Yeah, I try that all the time. Like, I'm not doing anything particularly special. I don't have any great, you know, abilities that you don't have. I'm just making some pretty specific decisions at the right time. You know, so,

Lori 57:35
I mean, that's all it's a balancing act. Yeah, you know, that's all it is, you're balancing every minute of the day. It it. I don't care what it is, you know, you got when I would stand behind the chair and work and I would be like, Okay, I gotta have a juice box, I'd be like, Excuse me, I go on the back room, I'd grab a juice box, I'd come out, I would drink it down in front of my client, they go yo, can I go, you should know me by now. I'm fine. And so you know, it was just always balancing, you know, it was always balancing. But I taught you know, for a hair color company also for 20 years. And I would I traveled all over I lived in a really big city in the Midwest and big city. And so, I mean, you could travel two hours and still be in a suburb, that city. So I traveled all over and then I had to fly and travel the United States. So, you know, until I was on an insulin pump, you know, you if I traveled around the United States, and I would you know fly in the night before teach the class the next day and fly out that night. So it was like an overnight but you would I always would go through the airport and I would bring my juice boxes with me and I would be like, you know, you gotta let me through with this because they were always laying now you can't take that or whatever. And I was like, No, I'm a diabetic do Okay, so I'm gonna get on the plane and if I have a low blood sugar, then you guys are gonna have to take care of me instead of me taking care of myself. So they would always let me through with it all but I had to travel with all that gear, you know, and manage it all and then you're teaching a class and when you're teaching a class if I felt myself dipping down and this was before insulin pump time, right? So you feel yourself dipping down I always had a juice box and all my you know, color containers that I have to bring into the salons and to train their staff and you know, so I would always just pull it out and I would say you know let's take a break for a couple minutes pull it out drink it down and everybody come back reconvene and away we go again, you know, so simple is is just you just have to balance it and navigate it however you have to navigate it because no diabetic is like no two are alike. I mean it's different bodies different key insights. So it's just a way of how you manage and get along and navigate. But I drove from one state back here to the state that I'm in when we got transferred. A year ago, we got transferred, you know, every year. So in June of 2020, I was in a different state than I am now. But I would drive back to this state that I'm in because our son lives, like two hours from here. And so I would stop and stay up my friends here, but it's a 10 hour drive. So I would get in the car, and I would listen to you for the whole 10 hours. And I was like, That is like the best thing. The Time just flies.

Scott Benner 1:00:44
So good. I had been dying to ask you about that. How do you 60 years old? Like, I know, somebody, you know, tells you about the podcast, but I mean, had you ever used your podcast player before that?

Lori 1:00:57
Oh, yeah, I listened to podcast before them. But I never. I didn't even think about searching for a diabetic podcast. I mean, it just never came to I mean, I knew about Facebook groups, but I didn't know about podcasts. Right, that there was stuff out there for podcasts, you know, so yeah, so once I found that I just found, you know, like, I would I play in the kitchen when I'm cooking I listened to you.

Scott Benner 1:01:28
Is is it helping? Is it like, I mean, cuz you're

Lori 1:01:31
well, it just what it what you've done a lot for me is it's confirmed a lot of things that I do. Okay. It's been confirmation of a lot of things that I do, and, and just getting better at dialing it in even more, you know,

Scott Benner 1:01:52
so even though you're, even though you're doing those things, do you have a did you have a level of uneasiness that you were breaking a rule or something like that,

Lori 1:02:00
or no, no, just not? Not at all? No, I've never been I've never had an uneasiness about breaking rules, if it's gonna help me, yeah, never. That's a good, that's a good way to break the rules all the time. If like, my husband goes, God, you he was always even with the injections. He's like, you know, you gotta watch it. Because we'd have my whole family up at our lake house, the 25 of us and the way it works, so you got to feed 25 people, right. And so a couple was assigned kitchen duty every day. So my cousins, my aunts and uncles, my mom, you know, my sister, my brother were I mean, my mom had 11 siblings. So we all grew up going to the lake together, all my cousins and all the her siblings and spouses, and we'd all have cottages. And so I wanted to do that when I got married. I wanted to lake house, so I could continue that whole, you know, tradition. And so anyway, we would have my cousins and everybody up there. And so everybody would cook and we had a menu. We did a menu every year, a menu. And so it wasn't always like the food that I could really eat because it's just it's carbohydrates. Let's face it, right? carbohydrates. But I would just eat my cereal in the morning because they always have cereal, because of kids, all the little kids that we had, you know, love cereal and have my cereal and at lunchtime, you know, because back then, it's like, I really didn't. I didn't know because I was just doing this injection that injection. But when I was at the lake, and I got my blood sugar machine and I could check my blood sugar's then it was way better because then I could eat the stuff. Then I was eating carbohydrates. I was still skinny. But I was eating carbohydrates. And but you know, I was waterskiing. I was swimming we were to being I was always cleaning in my house because you got 25 people there, but we would assign cleaning duties, you'll laugh. So we had food duty. So you were in the kitchen one day, that week. And that was it, you're done cooking. And then all the guys always got it. They go golfing in the morning, they get ice for all the coolers, they come back and take care of everybody had their own cooler. So you came back to carry your own cooler. We had a treat table. So there was a treat table that was like a big coffee table that we had sitting with all the treats because everybody would bake and bring treats and then we'd bake during the week. And all the little kids you should have watched um, they were so funny. They go over to the treat table and they try and sneak a treat without asking the parent and the grandmas would catch them and they'd be like, you know, Darren, did you? Did you ask your mom, you gotta go ask your mom. And he be like, okay, you know, little kids. So we had all that kind of fun. Would up there and I would eat it. But I would I did pretty darn good. But there were times at night because we'd stay up until late all of us cousins, and we, you know, have a few beverages and we'd go to bed and get up the next morning. But there were a few times where in the middle of the night I went low. Probably because I ate, you know, my regular had worn off by them, you know, from dinner. But I don't know, my husband goes, it always happens when we have this vacation. Because your schedule is different, you're up late, you're you sleep in a little bit later in the morning activity with the different you take extra insulin because you're eating different and you do that. And so he always he had a couple of times, while a couple of times throughout, we did it for 15 years. So before we sold it, but we had a couple of times, where in the middle of the night he was or like in the morning when I would sleep in even he would come up and check on me. And he found me where I dipped down even in the morning. So he just come up there and give me juice and you know, then my mom comes up and my sister comes up and they all there you wake up and they're all staring at you. And you're like geez, what did you have to call the troops and forgot? Leave me alone. Ya know? So anyway, that's that's the way life was, you know, before anything came around like a mortar now.

Scott Benner 1:06:34
That's excellent. Did we talk about everything that you were hoping to talk about? Or do I leave something out?

Lori 1:06:40
Um, the one thing that I will say is that that I'm hoping you get your person on your podcast and that I know when it's gonna happen is that three years ago, yeah, three years ago before we got transferred the first time I was seeing like a naturopathic doctor and she I did blood you know, I do my diabetic bloodwork. And she goes Laurie your thyroids, like Lo, she goes, I think you should be on thyroid medicine. And I go, what? She goes, Do you feel oh, can I go? You know what, I've always felt fine. I've always had tons of energy. And she goes, Well, I'm going to call your primary care because I think you should be on thyroid medication. And I'm like, Really, my endocrinologist I always did bloodwork and every year you know they check all that stuff, and I never knew nothing. So I was like borderline low. Well then I went on the thyroid medicine and then I went to my endo and talk to her about it. And she goes you know what, if you feel fine, don't take it. So I didn't take quick taken and I go you know what? I don't.

Scott Benner 1:07:50
Okay, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.

Lori 1:07:53
I don't even know what it was at the time. But I found out now those hypo hypo okay, I was. So for I moved. And then when I went and saw the Endo, and I went and saw a hormone doctor because people told me go see a hormone doctor, they know how to regulate thyroid. So I went saw him and he started me on can I say the? Okay, Armour Thyroid and like a high dose of it. He goes, your thyroid is really low. And I don't really. And so he's the one who started me back on the medicine again. Okay. And so then I talked to my endo about it. And she goes, Well, just, you know, keep going to see him and do it. So then when I moved again, and got to the next endocrinologist, she's like, boy, you're on a lot. And I quote, I know, I don't understand it. And so every two months since I started seeing her last November she's done bloodwork for my thyroid, and my dose has changed every two months. And I still I don't even know

Scott Benner 1:09:06
what's the number What's your TSH at you know?

Lori 1:09:10
I would have to dig out my test results. Yeah, but so anyway, now I'm going to see a deal here because they do thyroid and I'm going to go bring my I'm gonna bring all my labs with from the previous state and these last laps that I had done. Yeah, and because my doctor back there in the other state, I was supposed to do a video visit with her but I had to cancel because we were flying out to back home and I couldn't do it. I told the nurse you know that I needed her to look at it and all she's got to do is just put a message in my chart right? And so she they just called me like yesterday, I think it was and said the doctor said to keep your dose this I'm okay. And I'm like, Okay,

Scott Benner 1:10:02
well, I think Dr. BENITO would say that she, she would treat people over a two TSH, and I think you're the goal was to get it as low as you possibly can with stability without causing hyper symptoms. So,

Lori 1:10:16
yeah, because I, I don't mean to interrupt you, but I saw a primary care doctor here trying to get hoping to get this bloodwork stuff figured out. And he said, Well, this is weird, because your last blood work. Looks like you're on the edge of hyper. And this is hypo he goes, it's like you're sitting in between.

Scott Benner 1:10:41
Yeah, I mean, if you're hyper than the medications too much, and you'd have Oh, have you checked? Have you felt any different taking it?

Lori 1:10:52
Um, no, I have to say that I really don't feel any different. Right? I have, I'll tell you what's happening. That has not happened. You know, like I, I got, when I first started taking it, I was having such like hot flashes. And I went through, you know, the change at age 50. And it was a piece of cake. I never had an issue. And I feel like I'm hot. I'm living in a state where the climate is beautiful all the time. And in a city and I, I should not be sweating the previous state. I should have been sweating. And I don't sweat where I get dripping sweat. But I get like this heatwave in my body. And that goes away. And it's not hot

Scott Benner 1:11:40
right now. Right? It could well, your thyroid controls your body temperature. I know. How about your maps? Is your hair growing better? How about your nails? Anything? Any? Yeah,

Lori 1:11:51
I mean, my nails are kind of the same. I will say that, you know, I noticed like my eyebrows got different, thicker, thinner, thinner. But now they're now they're kind of like they're back to normal and just a little thinner on the ends of them. I had thick eyebrows.

Scott Benner 1:12:10
Laurie Can I tell you one thing? I got my eyebrows threaded recently. I went with our don't laugh at me. I went with Arden. She gets her hers threaded. And my family makes fun of my eyebrows all the time because they curl down on the outside. And they always tell me it looks like my eyebrows are frowning. So I looked at the lady and I was like, Can you fix these? And my daughter's like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm gonna try this. So it hurt.

Lori 1:12:37
Oh, yeah, it does. I've had mine threaded before. And I said I would never do it again. Because she totally botched my eyebrows. And I was like, and I'm in the hair world. Yeah. And I was like, No, you didn't, I'm gonna be in charge of my brows.

Scott Benner 1:12:52
Nice job. So we went that I somehow I go with Arden for her threading. And so the next time she went, I didn't think anything of it. And then she went back at another time. And I was like, I looked at the woman. I was like, Does this need to touch up? And she's like, Yeah, sit down. Okay,

Lori 1:13:07
well, it's easier as you do it, you know, because then you don't have the bulk of the brows you get where it's just maintaining the brows.

Scott Benner 1:13:14
She's unrelenting. She pulls them out. And it's like, it feels like it's like you're pulling out piano wires, you know? Gosh,

Lori 1:13:22
oh, my God is so funny. I mean, we did waxing at my salon, you know, forever. And so people would get their eyebrows waxed. And I was like, Oh, God, that would hurt when you rip that hair out. Like

Scott Benner 1:13:37
I said, I think I'm gonna keep doing it. So. But anyway,

Lori 1:13:44
threading is probably better than waxing.

Scott Benner 1:13:46
Well, I'm not getting my eyebrows waxed, I have to draw a line somewhere. Anyway,

Lori 1:13:52
well that you could do at home yourself. You just put the wax on, put the strip on and you just press it down and you tear it off and you're done.

Scott Benner 1:14:00
I would I would question myself if I was doing but you know, you started talking about your thyroid by saying something about the doctor but you never asked me the question. It was a great story. But you know,

Lori 1:14:10
yeah, but I know you have talked about art and having a thyroid issue and your wife having a thyroid issue. And you're and you finally got this doctor that has helped them and I thought I need I need somebody that kind of know cuz I've been bouncing around for like three years with this stupid thyroid thing and it's like, do I even really need to do anything or do I not need it? Do I need to do any I think I don't

Scott Benner 1:14:34
think you should. I don't think it's not a big deal. I mean to get that hormone like level right? It's the problem is finding a doctor who's really thoughtful and good at it. And I I agree. Yeah, I got lucky find and Addy. I took advice from a friend of mine who's been a guest on the podcast Vicki and she said you can't trust the end. Oh, to do this. You have to find somebody who really do This is great at this. And I asked another I asked a bunch of doctors about it and I got a bunch of recommendations and I found the one and it and thank God because she's really been terrific. She's actually just helped my son and my daughter with they're checking their guts for to make sure like the like the the bacteria in their gut is, is healthy. Yeah. And they both need some help. So we just got the results back last night. We have an appointment next week with Addy and she's gonna go through the protocol for the next couple of months to help them get balanced. And she thinks that Arden's acne and joint pain might go away after we do this.

Lori 1:15:43
I think it will, I'll just tell you that I, well, the diet, the fight the person, I'm gonna see about the thyroid, they do the God they it's a naturopathic like she's a deal, but they got naturopathic doctors that work there. So they do all this natural, you know, stuff to try and help your gut get regular and all this. I, when we lived in the same state two years ago, I Mike, I was I've been a rollerblader for years, you know, on my hip is kind of bothered me for 10 years. And I was like, I have this pain down the side of my leg. And I went and joined a walking group and I was power walking. And then I was having a hard time and I had this my gut hurt. I was like, my groin hurt. And I was like, What is going on. And so I quit the walking group, and it all kind of went away. But I changed. I never have been a big fan of gluten anyway. But I went on, I went and saw this, that hormone doctor that I saw, there was a nutritionist in there and she's a natural like nutritionist person. And she told me, she goes your gut, you gotta get your gut, healthy. She didn't do tests. But she said this, I told her the way I ate, and she goes, You got to get some good bacteria in there. She said you could get Kim Chi or something like that. So I started making my own homemade kimchi. Because that's the way I am. You know, I'd rather make it myself. I know what's in it. And I can, you know, eat it. And so I did that for months, like months, and my whole I like, everything, everything just kind of subsided and went away. And then we were still living in the same state. And in April. Now, I had gone rollerblading again. And in April, I got up and I could not walk, okay, my leg what I needed crutches. And I was like, Oh, God, this is not good. My hip was dying. And we moved. That's April. And we moved in June, the beginning of June. And I was getting trigger point injections in my muscles. And that was helping me and it helped me make the move. And then after we moved, I we had stairs in this house. We were in a ranch in the other state. And we had stairs in this house. And I could I got where I could hardly walk the stairs. And I ended up having a torn took them from April to December to find out I had a labrum tear in my hip. And they think that's so anyway, this was interesting is that I thought I was going to come back to San Diego. I said where I'm at, I could take California to get it fixed. Because they told me in the other state that there weren't doctors there that did that. I was like, what? How can you live in a city? It's a big city where you don't have a doctor that does labrum tears. And so anyway, I converse with the doctor back where I'm living now. And

that doctor said, Well, you got to go to you got to talk to this doctor because I just do hips. And I'm like God, does anybody do like more than one thing anymore? And so I talked to that gal and she told me she said we don't even do them, repair them on women your age because there's only a 50% success rate. Okay, and I was like, why? And she goes, yeah, she said, I You just got to go to a Hip, hip guy and get a hip replacement. That's what we do. I won't even do it. She said And so then I went back to the other state and talk to the other doctor there. And he did do labrum tear repairs, but he told me the same thing. So I got kind of two of the same opinions. And he said, the labrum tear. I just did two labrum tear repairs eight months ago. And they're both back here getting a hip replacement because it didn't work. So he said, I can do it on you save your hip joint, but you got arthritis in your hip. I go, it's 40 years, rollerblading, probably. And so I just did the full out hip replacement, June 10. And we moved July 2. And I stayed back in that state because I couldn't leave and with three weeks into the surgery, and go to a house where I mean, we weren't even going to have our stuff. So I wasn't even going to have a bed. My husband slept on a blow up bed in the house that we got. And so anyway, now I'm in hip replacement recovery, but the doctor told me my first question was, will I be able to rollerblade again? And he said, Absolutely not. And I go, what? He goes, No, you can't do it. You need to sell them. And I was like, Are you kidding me? That sucks. I was so I was like picturing myself rollerblading the boardwalk, you know? Yeah. Oh, wow. That's life, you know, so I'll find another athletic activity to

Scott Benner 1:21:37
do. Yeah. Well, Laurie, I've had a really wonderful time talking to you. I have to go spend the rest of my day cooking. It's not my day at the beach house. But my son's college, because of COVID is having a terrible time staffing. And because of that, there are long waits for food, and my wife and I are going to cook up a bunch of different things and take them to him so that he can eat in his room a little better. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, so this is the rest of my day. Now. We're gonna be down there. Like, it's gonna look like we're preparing because we're gonna have to bring enough errors, roommates and everything else. So it's, yeah, I'm gonna be making some Yeah, you're

Lori 1:22:15
gonna be a cafeteria and your kitchen. That seems like but anyway, if you can get that thyroid person on, that would be awesome. Because I would totally love to hear.

Scott Benner 1:22:25
Oh, well, she's been one. Was that okay? Yeah, hold on a second. Let me get you the episode number. Is that all you wondered? Hold on a second. I like talking to you. Because you asked the question that never asked it. Hold on a second. I'll find it. She is. Episode 413. thyroid disease explained. Okay, there you go. She's really good till you'll love it.

Lori 1:22:53
Yeah, I'll listen to her. So I'm going next week to see my new my new person now in the

Scott Benner 1:23:01
Yeah, fourth move. Listen to her before you go to the appointment.

Lori 1:23:06
Yeah, well, I listen to her today. Great.

Scott Benner 1:23:09
All right. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you doing this. Well, I

Lori 1:23:12
appreciate what you do. I mean, you do a lot for everybody. And I commend you for the care you give your daughter because your daughter is really, really lucky to have you. You know, that's very sweet. I mean, she's really, really lucky. Most of us got to figure it out on our own, you know, and it's great to have a community.

Scott Benner 1:23:33
Yeah, no, I'm glad. I'm glad that what we're doing here at home that's helping other people to

Lori 1:23:38
Yeah, makes a difference. You know, a big, big difference. If I would have had something like this when I was diagnosed, I would be like, geez, you know, way better.

Scott Benner 1:23:47
I really do see that. My mom is sick right now. And I we particularly kind of rough day yesterday. And at the end of the day, I realized I hadn't been interacting much with the people on Facebook. And I went in there and I was kind of melancholy. I was like, you know, just like I said, Tell me something good. And the hundreds of replies that came back. Were people just sharing good things in their life. I thought, wow, look at this amazing community that, that this whole thing together, you know, people were there. Some of them didn't realize that I was upset. They were just like, here's something great that happened to me today. And they've told me something about their kids or their life or got a new job or something just never stopped. And you know, when you translate that over to talking about diabetes, it's amazing. Someone can go on there and ask a question about, you know, a Pre-Bolus or something like that. And then right. Oh,

Lori 1:24:39
yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's just awesome. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you something good. That happened yesterday. It wasn't my anniversary of 42 years to my husband. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:24:49
happy anniversary. Yeah. And you just you just saved yourself. Because now now I can call this episode tell me something good. Because I was gonna call it Handy Andy.

You just got you just saved yourself at the very end.

Lori 1:25:12
Yeah, he's a great guy to ask for anybody better.

Scott Benner 1:25:15
So wonderful. My best to both of you. That's really wonderful.

Lori 1:25:19
Yep. All right. Thanks a lot, Scott. It's been great. And I wish you and Arden and your family and your son well at college, and, you know,

Scott Benner 1:25:28
I really have a lot to me.

Lori 1:25:30
Hope he always has a full belly.

Scott Benner 1:25:34
He's at least going through this week.

Lori 1:25:36
They're eating machines of that age. Oh my god, you

Scott Benner 1:25:39
can tell how angry they are. You get like these angry texts with pictures of lions in the cafeteria. Like, I can't even get in here. And he's like, even if I got in, it would take 45 minutes to get to the food. I gotta get to my next class. And he's getting irritated. So we're gonna we're gonna help him out a little bit.

Lori 1:25:53
Yeah. My son Rodney. Just a quick little note, my son when he was in college, he had a credit card for emergencies. And I would always pay the bill, right? And I would be like, What is this like? $300 on here for food. He played roller hockey. Because he played hockey all his years growing up, and he still plays hockey. He actually plays three nights a week in a men's league, but and I'd be what? And he goes, Mom, do you have any idea how hungry? I am? Like, I'm hungry. And I go, but are you buying for the whole floor? Or the house? Or what? Cuz it's like $300 He goes, No, he goes, You know, we play hockey. We go out, we eat and I go, Yeah, you must be buying for everybody at the table. But they're hungry boys. They eat lots and lots of food and you gotta supply for the friends. Like, oh my God,

Scott Benner 1:26:54
that's gonna be it. I'm gonna go get a couple of pounds of chicken breasts and smoke them all. And we're gonna make a bunch of rice and a bunch of other stuff and just take them so Alright, well, thank you. Okay, well once I

Lori 1:27:05
have fun on the kitchen, thank you

Scott Benner 1:27:16
a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon. Find out more about Chivo Capo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box. you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com. Forward slash juice box. And I'd also like to thank us Med and remind you to go to us med.com Ford slash juice box or call 887211514 To get your free benefits check. It should not be difficult to get your diabetes supplies. It also shouldn't be a headache. Check out us med. Hey, do me a favor. If you're listening in Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music or anywhere like that, hit subscribe or follow in the app that you're currently listening in will take you just two seconds, but it will help the show immensely. Subscribe and follow in a podcast or audio apps. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.