Scott Benner 9/16/24 Scott Benner 9/16/24

#1306 Defining Diabetes: Post Prandial

Scott and Jenny Smith define diabetes terms In this Defining Diabetes episode we post prandial.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to another episode of The juicebox podcast.

Today's episode is another addition in the defining diabetes series with myself and Jenny Smith. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. If you have type one diabetes, or are the caregiver of someone with type one and you'd like to help with type one diabetes research, but you don't want to leave your house or see a doctor. You can do that at t 1d exchange.org/juicebox, all you have to do is go over there, join the registry and complete the survey. When you complete the survey, you have helped T 1d exchange.org/juicebox, this episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Eversense CGM. Eversense is going to let you break away from some of the CGM norms you may be accustomed to. No more weekly or biweekly hassles of sensor changes. Never again will you be able to accidentally bump your sensor off. You won't have to carry around CGM supplies and worrying about your adhesive lasting. Well, that's the thing of the past. Eversense, cgm.com/juicebox,

Jenny, we are going to define something today, something that I'm kind of confused, that we haven't gotten to already. Okay, yeah, this happens every once in a while where I look back at

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:42
definitions, where you're like, oh, that word, yeah, I guess, no, we didn't ever tell people what that

Scott Benner 1:49
is. So this has been on my list for very long time, and I guess we probably kept skipping it. I probably kept skipping it because it's kind of a big nothing burger, but at the same time, I don't think it is okay. You have to, you have to pronounce it, because I can't even pronounce it. Post brand deal. Okay, now it's going to be one of those things that you hear your doctor talking about all the time, and I have just like, look. You could go Google it and look it up and whatever. But in a 10 minute podcast episode, we can kind of talk about what it means and and how it works into your life, but I think your doctor should probably just say what

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:26
all it means is after the meal. We're looking at, what happens to your blood sugar, obviously, you know, in the case of diabetes, but yeah, it just, it just means after the meal, really, post intake of food.

Speaker 1 2:40
So is it prandial? Prandial? Okay,

Scott Benner 2:44
so postprandial means they're usually saying it. How does your doctor just say it like you're seeing a postprandial spike? Correct? That's Yes, right? Will people say postprandial low? You

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:56
could, because really, it doesn't have anything to do with the value of the blood sugar in and of itself. It really just means that it's following a meal. It's after, after you've eaten something, right? So it has no definition to actual being too high or being too low. You could refer to, gosh, you're having a lot of postprandial low blood sugars. That must mean that your insulin to carb ratio isn't quite right, or maybe you are pre bolusing for too long, or maybe you're always going for a walk postprandial, and maybe that's causing the low. And so we need to adjust the bolus that you take at the meal time so you don't have that postprandial low. So

Scott Benner 3:41
yes, I'm gonna read a definition. So, okay, postprandial refers to the period after a meal in medical context, it often relates to the body's metabolic process following food consumption. For example, postprandial blood glucose levels are measured to understand how the body processes glucose after eating. This period is critical for assessing metabolic health, especially in conditions like diabetes. So now, interestingly enough, I did not ask for a definition specific to diabetes. Okay, all I said was define postprandial, and it went back to that. Now, what other terms the doctors use that they shouldn't be throwing around the doctor's office because they're confusing. This whole series started because, I mean, famously, I had a person tell me they didn't know that they were using basal insulin. They didn't understand that, right? And then we look at it, and basal means baseline, and all this other stuff that you I learned while you were explaining it to me. But I just think that it's, it's one of those situations you get involved with the doctor, they start throwing out terms, and they're rolling through them because they're daily terms for them, but they're words you've maybe never heard before. So here we are making the shortest defining diabetes episode in the history of the podcast. I think it

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:58
probably is because that. Yes, there's really not much more to it. The word just means after a meal or following eating periods or whatever, and that's it. There's nothing else.

Scott Benner 5:09
Well, then damage any we're done. I'm not going to stretch this out. I actually sat here and I thought, like, can I make this longer? Like, invaluable. And I'm like, I don't think I can. I think this is, this is what it is, but it's something. Hopefully it

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:22
helps clear it up for somebody who is clearly wondering what that what their doctor is talking about. I mean, could you potentially figure it out if the doctor's always talking about blood sugars around meal times, and then you're saying, well, it was fine before the meal. That must mean after I ate, my blood sugar's always high or always too low. But again, the word is just, I can't this. Just tell you after you've eaten, it looks like you're always high, right? I assume your

Scott Benner 5:51
context clues will help. For a lot of people, probably pick it up, but for those who just get stuck on I don't know what that means, then start to panic, which is what happens. Like, I swear to you, I sat in a doctor's office one time and they're saying this thing over and over and over again. I just raised my hand. I don't remember what it was. I was like, I gotta, I gotta stop you. I don't know what you're talking about, but I don't think a lot of people feel comfortable doing that, you know. So anyway,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:16
true. I think because there are also many people look at the doctor as the knowledgeable party, but people also don't want to feel like they're uneducated, and I mean that like in a broad sense, right? They don't want to feel like, gosh, I have to ask something about this. I've had diabetes for 30 years, and I don't know what this word means, and now the doctor's saying it, I'm gonna look like the quote, unquote, like uneducated or the dummy. And that's not by no means. I You should be able to raise your hand and say, You know what? You need to explain that in my terms, because clearly, you've got a lot of medical lingo in there.

Scott Benner 6:55
Don't get it such a good point. Because when I see adults, especially like you said, who have had type one for a long time? They'll, you know, you'll see them in the Facebook group. They'll learn something from the podcast when they come to say thank you, or they come to share a thing they learned so often, you see a little bit of an apology before they tell you, I'm so embarrassed to say this because I've had diabetes for so long, or that kind of feeling. And I don't want you to feel that way. I want you to hear post pray it, and they only go, I know that means. That means after, after meal, and then just yay, on with your life. All right. Thank you. Yes, this episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by Eversense, and Eversense is the implantable CGM that lasts six months. Eversense cgm.com/juice cgm.com/juicebox, have you ever been running out the door and knocked your CGM off, or had somewhere to be and realized that your adhesive was about to fall off? That won't happen with Eversense, ever since won't get sweaty and slide off. It won't bang into a door jam, and it lasts six months, not just a couple days or a week. The Eversense CGM has a silicon based adhesive forge transmitter, which you change every day. So it's not one of those super sticky things that's designed to stay on you forever and ever, even though we know they don't work sometimes, but that's not the point, because it's not that kind of adhesive. You shouldn't see any skin irritations. So if you've had skin irritations with other products, maybe you should try ever since unique, implantable and accurate. So if you're tired of dealing with things falling off or being too sticky or not sticky enough, or not staying on for the life of the sensor. You probably want to check out Eversense. Eversense. Cgm.com/juicebox, links in the show notes. Links at juicebox podcast.com. A diabetes diagnosis comes with a lot of new terms, and you're not going to understand most of them. That's why we made defining diabetes. Go to juicebox podcast.com. Up into the menu and click on defining diabetes to find the series that will tell you what all of those words mean, short, fun and informative that's defining diabetes. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The juicebox podcast. You.

#1305 After Dark: 12 Step Yang Yang

Tyler is 18, he has type 1 diabetes and at one point in this story he is homeless and using meth.

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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to another episode of The juicebox podcast. We have an after dark today.

I'm just gonna read you my notes for today, it says call this episode after dark, 12 step Yang Yang. At one point in the story, Tyler is homeless and on meth. Yes, he has type one diabetes, but I'm not. And then there's an expletive in here. I don't know if we talked about it or not. Nothing you hear on the juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the juicebox podcast. Private Facebook group juicebox podcast, type one diabetes, but everybody is welcome. Type one type two gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me, if you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out juicebox podcast. Type one diabetes on Facebook. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juicebox at checkout. That's juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com

this episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by AG, one drink. AG, one.com/juicebox when you use my link and place your first order, you're going to get a welcome kit, a year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs. Today's episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom g7 and g6 continuous glucose monitoring systems, dexcom.com/juicebox, today's show is sponsored by OmniPod five. Do you have fear of missing out on OmniPod? If you do, you have fomu, but I can get rid of it for you at omnipod.com/juice. Box. Hi.

Tyler 2:14
My name is Tyler. I've had diabetes for 17 years, and I was diagnosed when was 18 months old. Oh, no kidding, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was, I was diagnosed, young man, but my mom was a diabetic. So, you know, I got lucky there.

Scott Benner 2:32
Hey, tell me something your mom was, or she is,

Tyler 2:35
she? She is sorry, okay, no, she's she's not dead.

Scott Benner 2:42
So your mom, I made you laugh. Your mom's the type one. How old was she when she was diagnosed?

Tyler 2:48
She was 20, so she was pretty, pretty. Later on, Butler than me, at least.

Scott Benner 2:54
Yeah, well, yeah, compared to you were all later on. Like, any, like, I don't have diabetes, and I'm still later on. You know what I mean? Like, I might still get it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's something my Listen, my daughter was two, and I thought that was crazy, right?

Tyler 3:06
You know, yeah, well, because when I, when I first learned about this podcast, because, you know, I'm, I'm like, freshman in college, age, I don't know how old your daughter is.

Scott Benner 3:17
She's a sophomore. She's halfway through her sophomore year college.

Tyler 3:19
Yeah, all right, yeah, yeah. So my mom started listening to your podcast when I was, you know, pretty young, which she was the one who kind of turned me on to juice box. So that's pretty cool. So,

Scott Benner 3:29
yeah, yeah. How about in the rest of your family, other brothers and sisters, anybody else with autoimmune stuff?

Tyler 3:35
There's not really any. I come from a family where it's kind of like, oh, I broke my thumb. Better get some electrical tape, you know. So there's, there's nothing that I've heard of that's really diagnosed. Okay, my grandpa deals with, like, some some problems with his insulin immunity. So, you know, there's definitely that part of it, but there's no other type one diabetics, no celiac. There's some thyroid issues though,

Scott Benner 4:04
yeah. How about you or your mom thyroid?

Tyler 4:07
Yeah, you know, I, I've never been, like, diagnosed with thyroid issues, but I, you know, I have trouble keeping off weight. I'm not like, you know, huge or anything, but my mom has some pretty big thyroid issues as well as my dad.

Scott Benner 4:22
Okay, have you ever had your thyroid checked? I don't think I have. You have other thyroid symptoms besides weight.

Tyler 4:29
You know that that's kind of one of the only ones I've really noticed,

Scott Benner 4:33
anxiety, depression, yeah, yeah. And then yeah, that's, oh, wait, you have that?

Tyler 4:39
I do have those are both things that I've dealt with in the past, for sure, but I think that a big part of that just comes from different things that I've dealt with in my life as well, you know. So it's kind of hard to tell.

Scott Benner 4:51
Will we talk about those things?

Tyler 4:52
Yeah, okay, I'm I'm open

Scott Benner 4:56
your game, Tyler, you're 18, right? Yes. Sure. Okay, cool. Yeah. So look, first things. First, you go to the doctor, just have them check your TSH, okay. Or if they'll give you a full thyroid panel, that'd be great. But if the if they won't, just have them do your TSH, if your TSH is over two, then say to them, Hey, what if we tried medicating my thyroid and see if this helps me with my weight.

Tyler 5:23
Hmm, that simple? Yeah, no, that's a good idea. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And that, you know, that kind of thyroid issue thing is kind of just some that's come up a couple times in conversation. Okay, no, it's not something I really thought about too much until, literally, right now,

Scott Benner 5:39
yeah, dude, it's one pill. You take it. You just pop this pill in in the morning, and you're on your way. And that's kind of it. Oh, wow, so yeah. And also other, other again, like, do you ever sleep and not feel rested? Oh, every day. Oh, wait. Are you tired all the time?

Tyler 5:58
You know, I am.

Scott Benner 6:01
Listen to me, your thyroids messed up. Man, yeah, dude, your dad's got it, your mom's got it. You have a lot of the symptoms. Go get the blood test. By the way, when we're done today, you go on the little portal to your doctor's office and you say, Hey, I have a lot of hypothyroid symptoms. My mom and dad have hypothyroid symptoms. I need a blood test. Yeah, send me a script. Go out, get the blood test, start taking the pill. You might feel better in a week, really? Yeah, no, I'm not kidding. Wow. Wow. Good. All right, now, okay, now, now that I've, now that I've possibly fixed your whole life, let's talk about other stuff. So what's dude, what's it like? Like never knowing a world without diabetes,

Tyler 6:41
I guess I could turn that around. You know, like, what's it like knowing a world without diabetes? You know, kind of my whole life, but

Scott Benner 6:49
you're not, but you're not interviewing me. Tyler, so I'm interviewing you. So, I mean, if you want to start asking me questions, let me tell you something, man, I did an interview the other day. I don't go on other people's podcasts, but there's this, there's this girl, this young girl that comes on here. Sometimes she's like, 15, she's got this podcast. She's like, Would you be on my podcast? Absolutely, yeah. She asked me a question. Like, 20 minutes later, I was like, oh my god, I'm never gonna stop talking. So don't ask me. Don't ask me questions or we're not going to hear your story, no, but you know what I mean, like you your entire life, you've got it. Your mom has it. Like you don't have like, even like you can't think, like, Oh, back on my sixth birthday, I remember when I didn't have diabetes, you don't have any of that. So does it? How does it impact you? Besides giving me my daily dose of vitamins, minerals, pre probiotics, adaptogens and more. AG, one has given me a morning routine, a healthy morning routine that I didn't have before in a recent research study, AG, one was actually shown to double the amount of healthy bacteria in your gut. These healthy bacteria work together to break down food and are known to alleviate bloating, promote digestive regularity and aid in digestive comfort long term. Hey, ag one is made with bioavailable ingredients that actually work with your body. So start with ag one and notice the difference for yourself. It's a great first step to investing in your health, and that's why they've been a proud partner of mine for so long. Try ag one, and get a free bottle of vitamin d3, k2, and five free. Ag one, travel packs with your first purchase at drink. Ag one.com/juice, box. That's a $48 value for free if you go to drink. AG, one.com/juice, box. Check it out. You

Tyler 8:36
know, I'm grateful for the fact that I was diagnosed so so young, you know, simply because I just think there's a lot of things that I learned over my lifetime that, you know, somebody who's diagnosed at, you know, even 1516 would not have the ability to do. You know, I've been editing my own basals since I was, you know, 11 or 12, right? You know, because that's just something I grew up doing, you know, education about, you know, the disease we have, and all that stuff was just a huge part of my life. And so I'm really appreciative of that. So you

Scott Benner 9:13
have this perspective and you have this ability to take care of yourself that you think maybe doesn't come if you don't have this responsibility.

Tyler 9:20
Oh, for sure. Yeah, no. I mean, I was staying with one of my buddies recently and one of his roommates. She was diagnosed at 18. I mean, you know, even in the harder parts of my life, where I'm dealing with different things, diabetes, I mean, it's never a second thought, you know, like, it's always something that, you know, I'm conscious of, but it's definitely something that I don't have to put a ton of thought into controlling, you know. And then, you know, she made a comment like, you know, oh my a 1c, was like, 10 because I was depressed. You know, and I've thought about it, you know, like, even when I'm depressed, you know, like, I still have that ability to kind of just subconsciously, you know, bolus when I'm high, or, you know,

Scott Benner 10:13
see what you're saying, eat when I'm low. So you think that it's such a part of who you are and how you have to be, and that, because you've never had a moment without it, that even in tough times, you don't deviate from your management, because it's just what you do.

Tyler 10:32
Oh, for sure, yeah, yeah, it's kind of like making your bed, you know, like, if you never make your bed, you're, you're not gonna, you know, get up

Scott Benner 10:40
in the morning and think about do it, yeah? And people, and people who do it don't think I'm going to make my bed before I get going, they just do it. Oh, exactly,

Tyler 10:49
yeah. Okay, yeah. So that's

Scott Benner 10:53
so that's how that that strikes you, and that so that's valuable. You feel more responsible. You feel more capable,

Tyler 11:02
yes, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that definitely came into play when I started to get more into extreme sports as well. Okay, you know, like that. That's someplace that being diagnosed so early has helped me a lot.

Scott Benner 11:16
Is that because you you trust yourself Exactly,

Tyler 11:20
yeah. So I know, like yesterday I was, I was skiing in a in the backcountry, you know, and it's like it wasn't even a second thought to stop and get some Starbursts in case I go low, you know, yeah, or fill up my insulin the night before. You're

Scott Benner 11:37
not, I don't know what the word is, but you're not frightful, you're not always worried about diabetes or anything like that.

Tyler 11:43
Yeah, no. And sometimes that can be, you know, a bit damaging, but

Scott Benner 11:48
because, why? Because you'll ignore things exactly,

Tyler 11:52
you know, yeah, and not in, like, not in a bad way, necessarily. I mean, it can be in a bad way, but I think that sometimes when, like, things go wrong, you know, it can just be a little bit stressful, because, you know, things don't go wrong very often.

Scott Benner 12:10
Oh, I see. Oh, so when something gets out of whack, it's not, it's so much, not the norm, that you kind of don't know what to do. Do you not have enough practice of things being upside down,

Tyler 12:22
like, I definitely have practice with things being upside down. Like, sometimes I don't give as much attention to that as I probably should be.

Do you know why that's a really interesting question. I think that might have to think about that one,

Scott Benner 12:40
it's okay. I got time. I'll tell you Tyler, why this is interesting while you're thinking about it is because sometimes, when you speak to younger people, yeah, they don't know why they feel the way they feel, or they don't know why they even think what they think. It's so emotional, and they haven't had enough time to reflect, to see themselves like it's why those questions are really interesting, because you just like, I don't know. It's just how I am, you know, yeah, yeah. And the truth is, there's, there's a reason you're just not aware of it yet. So you know it's that's why I find you might not know the answer, and that's fine, but it's interesting to ask, like, why, when you get into that position, does that

happen? Right?

You really? You don't have a thought about it, do you really?

Tyler 13:36
I'm trying to kind of come up with a thought. You ever

Scott Benner 13:39
seen the Three Stooges. Oh, Lord. You know, in curly, that's not what I like to hear. No, you know, when curly says I'm trying to think, but nothing's happening.

Tyler 13:51
Yeah? Oh, man, I

Scott Benner 13:54
know how that is. Don't worry. It happens to me all the time.

Tyler 13:58
Yeah, no, for sure, I think it's just because I'm just so used to everything, you know, like it. I mean, like you said, you know, like, I don't know life without diabetes,

Scott Benner 14:08
right? That

Tyler 14:10
it's, I mean, especially like, I don't know if it's the fact that I am almost like numbed out to situations like that, or if it's I know, I'm

Scott Benner 14:24
trying to think of, I don't want to put words in your mouth, and so I'm trying, I'm trying to,

Tyler 14:29
like words my mouth right now, that's funny, though.

Scott Benner 14:34
I wonder if it's so commonplace for you that, yeah, when something is important. You can ignore it because it seems so blah. Like, average, like, like, almost like, your room getting dirty. Like, you're like, You ever have that where your mom goes Todd, you got to pick your room up? You're like, yeah, I will. Like, I got you got it. You got it? You and you'll go a week, and you'll just be like, I will, I will. And stuff starts piling up. You think nothing of it. And then when you actually step back and look at it, you're like, oh my god, this is a hot mess in here. Yeah, and like, and like, How did I not notice that this week? It's because it's, it's all around you, and it's something you're so accustomed to that you just don't think of it from another perspective. And I wonder if diabetes isn't that because you were diagnosed so young you don't have any other perspective?

Tyler 15:22
Yeah, that makes sense. No, that totally makes sense. When you said, like, other perspective, that kind of, like, that's interesting, you know, I kind of have a thought about that, you know, it's like, I mean, I get that question very often, you know, of like, wow. Well, how is it to have diabetes? You know, it's like, I don't have another perspective, right? I'm pretty much just repeating what you said right now. But, yeah, you're like, I don't know totally right, yeah, I don't know totally right. Yeah. It would be

Scott Benner 15:50
like, if somebody asked me, like, what's Mars? Like, I'd be like, I mean, I can philosophize about it, but I don't have any perspective firsthand. That's so interesting, exactly, yeah, yeah. I

Tyler 16:01
mean, the human body isn't meant like that, you know, like, there's a reason we can't, like, well, know if there's a reason, but, I mean, it's kind of like imagining infinity, right? You know, like we can only understand it under, you know, different, different terms, you know, like, oh, it's forever, you know. But can the human mind really comprehend? Like, what forever is, yeah. And I think that somebody who has experienced forever probably could Yeah, understand what forever is, yeah,

Scott Benner 16:29
no, I'm looking back now on your very first answer, like, I don't know any different. It's funny. I tried to help you pick through it, but there's nothing for you to pick through. It's kind of, it's kind of wonderful, honestly, like, it seems freeing to me. It

Tyler 16:45
is. It is totally, yeah, one thing i i like that freeing kind of terminology, because it's like, one thing I do think of is, it's like, I mean, somebody who's diagnosed later probably feels like they're stuck in a cage, you know, yeah, because it's been on the outside of the cage Exactly. And yeah, there's no way out. The lock is the lock is on the door, the keys in the trash.

Scott Benner 17:16
Is that how it feels?

Tyler 17:18
I mean, I'm sure that's how it would feel if, you know, to someone who's diagnosed later,

Scott Benner 17:24
yeah, even that, you'd have to wonder, well, you've ever talked to your mom about it? Because she was 20. That's, I mean, listen, that's, you know, 20 years without it,

Tyler 17:34
you know, I don't think me and my mom have ever really had a conversation about diabetes in any way other than like, oh, you know, like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna adjust my basil to this. You know,

Scott Benner 17:46
why do you think you haven't? I don't

Tyler 17:49
know. I honestly don't think

Scott Benner 17:51
it makes her do you think it makes her uncomfortable? Or do you think it makes you uncomfortable?

Tyler 17:56
I don't know if it's uncomfortable. I think it just hasn't really ever came up?

Scott Benner 18:01
No, to be honest, do you and your mom? Do you and your mom have a good relationship? Maybe this is why it doesn't come up. Go ahead, good. Maybe,

Tyler 18:11
yeah, yeah. I mean, we do, you know, I don't know. You know, I dealt with a lot of addiction, you know, and that that definitely made us, you know, our relationship pretty rocky.

Scott Benner 18:26
Tell me about that. Where did that start? Yeah,

Tyler 18:29
so when I was 14, I think either 13 or 14, I went to a athletic boarding school, and I it was pretty much just a frat, okay, you know, like our dorms, and I kind of just found a lot of a lot of comfort in partying, and it kind of just got worse and worse. My daughter

Scott Benner 18:50
is 20 years old. I can't even believe it. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was two, and she put her first insulin pump on when she was four. That insulin pump was an OmniPod, and it's been an OmniPod every day since then. That's 16 straight years of wearing OmniPod. It's been a friend to us, and I believe it could be a friend to you. Omnipod.com/juice box, whether you get the OmniPod dash or the automation that's available with the OmniPod five, you are going to enjoy tubeless insulin pumping. You're going to be able to jump into a shower or a pool or a bathtub without taking off your pump. That's right, you will not have to disconnect to bathe with an OmniPod. You also won't have to disconnect to play a sport or to do anything where a regular tube pump has to come off. Arden has been wearing an OmniPod for 16 years. She knows other people that wear different pumps, and she has never once asked the question, should I be trying a different pump? Never once omnipod.com/juicebox get a pump that you'll be happy with forever. The Dexcom g7 is. Sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast, and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warm up time that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7 till the time you're getting readings 30 minutes. That's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable and light. These things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7 a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this, up to 10 people can follow you. You can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances, and this might be the best part. It might be the best part alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juicebox, links in the show notes, links at juicebox podcast.com, to Dexcom and all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful, you know. Okay, what were you, I mean, can you look back with some perspective and say what you were trying to escape with the party?

Tyler 21:11
Oh, 100% what? Yeah,

Scott Benner 21:14
what was, what was it you were trying to get away from?

Tyler 21:16
You know, I think there were just a couple of moments in my life that I never really got past, you know, okay? And I don't know if I'm past them now, you know, but it was just, you know, to me, it just felt great, just to not feel anything okay, you know, because, I mean, when you're when you're high or when you're drunk, you you just don't really, I don't know, it's almost like separating yourself from what's happening.

Scott Benner 21:43
Sure, you know, I mean, I understand what being high is, but what is it you were escaping?

Tyler 21:48
You know, my my dad had a had a stroke when I was 14. Oh my gosh, yeah, no, it's all good. He's all right. He's all right. He's not dead. You know, it definitely changed our relationship a lot, and made it, you know, made my my childhood a little bit interesting. You know,

Scott Benner 22:06
tell me. Tell me how it changed your relationship.

Tyler 22:10
You know, I think there were a lot of ways that he couldn't understand a lot of things that were going on. You know, I don't mean that in the way that like he was a vegetable, you know, who was just, you know, not able to comprehend the world, but I don't know if he had,

Scott Benner 22:27
you know, the skills to just be able to so, so he had some cognitive impairments. Oh, for sure. Okay, and has he overcome them, or has he just learned to live with them?

Tyler 22:38
It's actually so it's been, it's been a bit since I've really talked to him about it, but from an outsider's perspective, I'd say that he tries his hardest. You know, like there, I feel like anger management was a big deal for both of us. You know, when that first started, because I've always had a bit of a short temper, and then, you know, with that

Scott Benner 23:02
he did, did he have it before the stroke or just after?

Tyler 23:05
He definitely did, but it was a lot worse after, you know, and so we'd get in fights. We were just pitted against each other for a solid two years. Do

Scott Benner 23:15
you have Tyler? Can I ask you? Do you have similar personalities?

Tyler 23:21
Oh yeah, oh yeah. All right, no, me and my dad are kind of like, we're kind of like photocopies, you know. And sometimes that's awesome, you know, if, if something's going on, you know, we're both on the same, on the same playing field there, you know, it's just like, oh yeah, let's do this. Yes.

Scott Benner 23:39
So very similar reactions. Oh, for sure. So if you two are, if you two are involved in a personal discussion, that makes one of you angry, it's very likely going to make the other one angry too. Exactly, there's no yeah, there's no Ying to anybody's Yang, everybody's Yang, or everybody's Ying. Exactly, yeah, oh, wow. We could call your episode Yang Yang,

Tyler 24:00
yeah. Yeah, yeah,

Scott Benner 24:03
that's an awesome thank you. I like that. It's part of my it's part of my charm. I'm gonna write that down. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you and Yang. Yang are fighting all the time. It gets worse when he has a stroke, because he probably doesn't have as many of the interpersonal skills and the desire to stop fighting and stuff like that. Plus you see him sick, which for a young kid, is hard, yeah, right. And then you don't know how to process that, process that feeling that, Oh, my God, my dad's not invincible. He could die. Then, yeah, by the way, Tyler, after you have that thought, your brain goes, Oh, I could die. Did you know that?

Tyler 24:39
Oh, for sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 24:42
So then sports, boarding school. What sport did you play? Was it for skiing? Yeah.

Tyler 24:47
So I was fed of skier, and then while I was over there, I got into whitewater kayaking.

Scott Benner 24:53
It's funny, you said whitewater kayaking because I thought this is the whitest story I've ever heard in my life. But go ahead,

Tyler 24:59
I. Oh yeah, no, 100% Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 25:03
You didn't know anybody with a tan at that school. I would even imagine, right, with a what? There was not even anybody there with a tan at that school, I would imagine, oh yeah, no.

Tyler 25:13
It was mostly gingers,

Scott Benner 25:18
kayaking, White Water white water kayaking. Yeah. Okay, so, all right, yeah. So to paint a picture, not to make fun, I'm somewhere where there's some kids who are reasonably well off, grew up pretty, like, comfortably that fair, yeah, okay, yes, yeah. And then we all get together with our different problems, we all feel a little above it all, because we're very good athletes. We're such good athletes that we get to go to a special school about it, right? Yeah, yeah. And then you're on your own in dorms. Then one kid goes, I have weed, and then the next thing you know, you're doing heroin. Is that about how it went?

Tyler 25:55
Yeah? And I heroin was never my thing.

Scott Benner 25:58
What did you do? Tom, what was your stuff?

Tyler 26:02
So, I was a big alcoholic, you know, okay, and then, from alcohol it, you know, I smoked a lot of weed. To this day, we're not, I'm not, you know, 100% sure exactly what it was. I started to go into a little bit of, like, almost a psychosis out of state. Yo, were

Scott Benner 26:20
you? What were you doing? Like, Turbo bongs. Like, what were you you doing, dabs? I'm being serious. How far were you going?

Tyler 26:27
Yeah, so, I mean, you know, there's, there's kind of a prediction among my family that I was smoking spice, you know, and I thought what you told them,

Scott Benner 26:39
Don't worry. We got at the gas station. It's fine. Oh, you're laughing because you've said that, because you've lied and sold somebody that before. It's Delta. What is it? Delta eight. Delta. What is that? Yeah, fake weed.

Tyler 26:53
No. You know, I had a lot of friends who were not getting their drugs through very reliable sources,

Scott Benner 27:00
really, you know, surprising, but go ahead,

Tyler 27:05
I'm gonna laugh my way through this episode, man. But I was like, legit homeless at this point. You know, this was a year after I left that boarding school because, you know, my parents saw me going down a dark path, so I went to a public school, you know, which was pretty interesting. You know, I had gone to public schools before, but not as like someone who enjoys substances.

Scott Benner 27:29
This is so interesting, how this moves around. Give me a second. You go to that school when you're 14, yep. How long did you make it before they kicked you out for drinking? I'm assuming,

Tyler 27:40
no, I actually, I left.

Scott Benner 27:42
You left on your own when I was 16. I see two years you gained a lot of knowledge about weed and booze while you were there, and then you and then you went back to a public school and spread what you knew to your new friend.

Tyler 27:56
Exactly. Yeah, they were meth heads. At that point,

Scott Benner 27:59
the kids in public school. Wait, the kids in public school are doing math. The private school friends were up to

Tyler 28:05
meth. Oh, no, no, sorry, the public school friends, ah, we're, we're all methods. So you

Scott Benner 28:11
were, you were a piker, like, when you got to back to school, you know the word piker? You don't know the word like, not a professional, an amateur, like you, yeah, yeah, your weed and alcohol looks like looks like Sunday in the Park to these people. Oh

Tyler 28:33
yeah for sure. Okay, yeah. Now,

Scott Benner 28:35
yeah. Now, Tyler, at that point, you say to yourself, I don't want to be like them. I'm not going to smoke meth. Or you say, No,

Tyler 28:44
I became homeless. Wow, holy,

Scott Benner 28:48
Tyler. Are you serious? And by the way, Tyler, no,

Tyler 28:51
I was never, I was never a method, okay, but one day, I got an ate the weed that smelled like straight Drano, and decide to smoke it fentanyl? No, I don't think so. So, so spice is like, it's like a synthetic weed, okay, but it's kind of turned to, like, it's almost like wet now, you know what they were getting, which is essentially just embalming fluid.

Scott Benner 29:21
Okay, that's great, yeah, yeah. Everyone should be really just they, I mean, my God, the world's a terrible place. Tyler, they say, I've got this weed, but if we mix it with Drano, I can sell more. That's a meth head thought, right there, by the way. Okay, so, okay, so you, so you are in private school. I mean, your parents are probably fairly disappointed you get kicked out of this thing where they were probably like, Oh my God, my son's gonna be the next white water kayaking champion of the world. Again, that's a white state. It. And then Dane Jackson's a pretty cool guy, yeah, okay, he's the one guy. I mean, it's not a thing to go after. So you so you come home, they're disappointed. You're obviously disappointed. You feel caught a little bit. You double down. You meet these kids at school, or literally smoking meth. And then how long until after you're 16, are you out of the house?

Tyler 30:21
It was like, two months into my senior year. Okay, so you made

Scott Benner 30:25
it at home for a year and a half or so?

Tyler 30:29
Yeah, I left my junior year from it's called CRMs school up here. I went to public school my

Scott Benner 30:38
Tyler. I'm sure they're thrilled for the shout out, by the way.

Tyler 30:41
Oh no, I hate them.

Scott Benner 30:43
I hate them. Okay, so Jesus Christ. Also, I'm realizing now all this whole story happened, like a year ago. This is like, not this is not like, are you clean right now?

Tyler 30:55
Yeah. So I'm eight months clean sober. Oh, good for you, man. Yeah, so I just got out rehab.

Scott Benner 31:02
Are you California sober? Are you sober? Sober? No,

Tyler 31:06
I have not touched a single thing. Yeah. I went to a kava bar the other night for an open mic. Did not drink a single thing at Kaaba.

Scott Benner 31:15
You went to a bar last night? What to test yourself? No, it

Tyler 31:18
was like two weeks ago, like tonight. I got out of rehab. Tyler, listen to me.

Scott Benner 31:24
If I gave you a cell phone, if I gave you a cell phone number, it's going to be a burner phone, don't worry. But if I gave you a cell phone number, would you run all of your decisions by me first, and I could just yay or nay them real quickly. You would. I think you need help with that. You got out of rehab and went to a bar.

Tyler 31:40
Yes, my buddy was hosting an open mic night at it's called, like, a cabo bar, so it's not like alcohol. And all my buddies were like, Dude, you're gonna, like, go there and get super fucked up on Cabo. And I was like, No, and I didn't, you know,

Scott Benner 31:55
well, Tyler, I'm fine. I'm proud of you for that. But could you make some friends that, like, read the kids at a library or something like that? I think that would be a better path for you. Oh, man, so I wish Are you? Do you think of yourself as an alcoholic or somebody who, at a young age, just drank way too much?

Tyler 32:12
I think myself as an alcoholic. Okay, you know, I'm in the 12 step program. Okay? You know, I go into meetings and I say, Hi, I'm Ty I'm an alcoholic, you know, and that that's a really important part, just because, you know, I mean, nobody starts out, nobody, nobody goes out as an alcoholic. And just like, like, the the signs of alcoholism don't start when you're, like, 30, you know, it's, it's not

Scott Benner 32:40
like you have an addictive personality to begin with.

Tyler 32:43
Exactly, okay, yeah. And I let that manifest for, you know, a long time, not a long time, but couple years. And then, you know, I decided to get my together, and it's kind of where I'm at today, you know.

Scott Benner 32:57
So, help me with the timeline a little bit. You're, you go, you go to the private high school. You're there a couple of years. You come out. You're an alcoholic. You're smoking way too much weed. Like what I said earlier, like, I'm not kidding, right? Like you were like, like, hitting heavy bongs, doing dabs, like you were off the deep end there. And you, you talk about a little bit of a psychosis. I don't know a ton about it, but I have heard people say weed is so safe for people, unless you have a little something like a personality issue, like disorder or something like that, then too much of it could really take you the wrong way, and you could lose yourself. Do you feel like you're on your Do you feel like you're on your way to losing yourself? And you stopped? I

Tyler 33:37
think I lost myself. Man, oh, yeah, 100% you know, by like, the way, I know that is because I was not me, you know, I was homeless for it wasn't a ton of time, you know, but by the time I came out of it, I was, you know, like I was suicidal, you know, I, I mean, I wasn't, like, hearing voices, but like, I had, like, No, I would say I had, like, no regulation of, like, what I thought or what I was doing, you know,

Scott Benner 34:09
kind of live like an insect. Like, you wake up, you you seek drugs, you sleep under a rock, like, that kind of thing. Like, it's just over and over, like, over and over again, right? Like, you're just in this very simple like thing, what drug got you home? Like, what got you kicked out of your house? Did you leave? Or did you get kicked out?

Tyler 34:25
I left, which, you know, looking back, I mean, you know that that's kind of where it's it's hard for me to look back at that, you know, because I just don't see me in that period of my life. You know,

Scott Benner 34:39
if you now, would you now have counseled that kid to, like, just ask for help, not to leave?

Tyler 34:47
Oh, 100% Yeah, yeah. Well, because, like, you know, all my meth head buddies were homeless, so I was like, hey, I'll come, you know, roam the streets with you guys. And so that's kind of, kind of how it went.

Scott Benner 34:59
There. How old were the guys in this very sad gang you were in? Like, are they all your age, or were they older? Did they vary?

Tyler 35:08
Yeah, they were all my age. You know, kidding. They were, like, Junior seniors in high school. Tyler,

Scott Benner 35:15
can you tell me, without being very specific, because I don't want to know what town you live in, but can you tell me, like, what part of the country you live in?

Tyler 35:21
I'm in the mountains of Colorado, Colorado. Okay,

Scott Benner 35:25
I gotcha the weeds. Okay, there's that story of when we got legal in Colorado. There was a big Fortune 500 company there. They had to leave, and one of them, but like, when, like, internal memos, like the one guy's like, look, I ask a package to be FedEx, and three days later, like, my employees are like, Yo, man, I'm getting to it. Don't worry.

That before it was like, we had, we couldn't do business because everybody was so high. They weren't, like, in our they weren't there to work. Oh, yeah, so yeah. But

Tyler 36:02
do you are you in a legalized state? I

Scott Benner 36:04
am. I'm in New Jersey. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I could drive 10 minutes from here in two different directions and and buy weed, like, in two seconds, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tyler 36:15
I mean, that was a big part of it, you know, like, at a certain point I started selling weeds, you know, to high schoolers, because it's 21 plus, you know, and then I started, you know, making fake IDs that I could, you know, help other people buy weed. So weed was, like, a huge part of my life. Yeah, you're

Scott Benner 36:34
an entrepreneur. I understand what

Tyler 36:36
you're saying. You're an entrepreneur. Yeah,

Scott Benner 36:38
that's what you tell people. Say, I was an entrepreneur for a while, small business owner, but I've moved on now. And yeah, so, so, but I gotta go back. Also, I lost your audio. You're a little dim all of a sudden. And I don't know why. Sorry. No better, but you know, much better. Awesome. There was a group of guys your age. Guys are guys and girls, guys and girls your age who were using meth and or somehow, like, strung out and literally homeless, yeah. And how long did that last for for you? And are some of them still out there?

Tyler 37:15
Yeah? So, you know, I was only on the streets for like, a month before I broke down, and I was just like, screw this. Like, I'm done. You know, yeah, a lot of them are still out there.

Scott Benner 37:26
I almost called you a quitter. Tyler, just trying to be funny. Actually, that's not what. It first occurred to me. I know I'm like, 30 years older than you. This is inappropriate, but at first you were like, I was only out there a month. And I thought, pussy. But, but, I'm glad. I'm glad so you you couldn't deal with it. You got away from it. How do you get out of it? Then,

Tyler 37:48
you know, I, the way I really got out of it was when I got arrested. That'll slow you down. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, because it was just like, you know, we had this, like, group chat and, like, the day, you know, they all thought I would turn, you know, and like, be like, Oh yeah, blah, blah, blah, you know. And, you know, like, literally, the day after I got arrested, like, that group chat, just like, didn't exist anymore. And I was like, Cool. Well, you know, I've wanted to, you know, I don't want to say get out of this life, because it makes me sound like I was like a Crip. But, you know, kind of get out of this life. You know,

Scott Benner 38:29
Tyler, listen, no matter how horrible your story is, you still sound like a white kid from Colorado. So you're never gonna You don't sound that tough, trust me, I know. I don't try to sound so it sounds like you fell off your your surfboard and, by mistake, did some cocaine. But Are your parents addicts? No, they're not.

Tyler 38:53
No, I have a pretty strong, you know, history of addiction on my dad's side, but my mom's side is, you know, pretty clean cut. Does

Scott Benner 39:02
your dad have addictive tendencies that come out different ways other than drugs?

Tyler 39:06
That's a good question, like through process, addictions and

Scott Benner 39:09
stuff, yeah, oh, look at you using look at you using your your recovery. Words, go ahead. Yeah,

Tyler 39:16
no, I think that, um, really interesting. I'm

Scott Benner 39:20
not looking for you to out your dad, just that simple, like, yes or no. Like, you don't have to give me a story about how he, like, you know, goes to hookers or something like that, and like to be dominated or something like, I don't I'm not looking for personal details. I'm sure also, your father does not go to hookers and like to be dominated. But like, what I'm saying is, like, you know, what I'm saying is, like, do you see those tendencies in him that are coming out in different ways. And for you, it came out this way.

Oh, man, I don't, you know, yeah,

you just skipped a generation almost.

Tyler 39:49
I think that is skipped a generation for sure. Yeah, yeah, no. And that that's kind of something that, like, we've looked over, you know, like, especially like when I was in recovery. I'm like, Well, where does this come from, you know? Because, I mean, like, I was in sober living, that's where I was, where I spent the past, like, seven months, yeah, and like, all these people, you know, they're like, oh yeah. My, my dad was, you know, a heroin addict, or, like, oh yeah, my, my mom was a, you know, she was strung out, and she was a hooker, you know? And I'm just like, oh, well, my dad's a compliance officer, so I

Scott Benner 40:26
was going to be a whitewater Raptor. It's only if volleyball didn't work out, or bocce, yeah, like, so, no, no, I yeah, my,

Tyler 40:35
my professional spike ball tournament does, or ever, yeah, yeah,

Scott Benner 40:39
no, no, I play soccer, that's interesting. So my point, my bigger point, is, so when this happened to your parents, really did not know how to, like, they didn't have the tools

Tyler 40:47
for this, right? Oh, yeah, no, not at all. And I think that was, you know, like when I was earlier on in recovery, you know that that was that put a huge block in a relationship, because it was just like there were certain things that I knew that I couldn't talk to them about because they wouldn't understand. Do you

Scott Benner 41:09
find yourself angry that they couldn't help you?

Tyler 41:12
I think I definitely had a lot of resentment towards them. You know, whether it was, yeah, I think that a lot of resentment kind of built up over time, and you know that that's, you know, not, not a good thing,

Scott Benner 41:28
yeah, and it's just because you, you're a little boy, and you need help, and your parents aren't helping you,

Tyler 41:36
exactly. And I that's not because, like, it's not like they neglected me. It's, it's the fact that, like, I mean, I'm, I'm a homeless drug addict, and, you know, like, they, they've never experienced that. It's almost like coming back to diabetes, you know, like, you know, so some random, like, some random guy who has a working pancreas, like, can't walk up to a diabetic and, you know, explain to them, you know, how their basal works, you know,

Scott Benner 42:05
yeah, no, it's interesting though, that, you know, the anger, but you also understand it's unreasonable.

Tyler 42:12
Oh, yeah, yeah. And that's a huge part, you know, because, like, addiction takes people and it makes them not them.

Scott Benner 42:20
You know, yeah, if you don't go to the private school, do you think you get caught up in it in public school anyway? Or do you think that being like trapped in those dorms with all that just you didn't have a chance? It's

Tyler 42:34
an interesting question. Never really thought about that. I think that it wouldn't really matter, you know. Like, I think that, you know, like, I mean, there were definitely places where I kind of started, like, looking back on it, I can see addiction kind of starting to form even before I went to that school, okay,

Scott Benner 42:56
you know, maybe what it looks like is just different. Like, maybe at the if you stay at the private institution, you're a closet drinker and a weed smoker and you've got all these problems, but it looks all clean cut still, and it gets shined up because you're at that school and you're in a public situation where these kids maybe have fewer things to prop them up and Help them, and it tumbles quicker plus those. I mean, if you look at the social aspects of what it takes to pay for somebody to be in a public school versus a private school, you probably weren't going to private school with a bunch of kids whose moms had to hook you know what? I mean, yeah, yeah. No, not at all. Right, so you kind of like you shifted the social aspect. So no matter what, you were going to end up addicted to something and on a bad path, but the physical manifestation of it, public school to private school changes. Does that make sense? Yeah,

Tyler 43:52
oh, for sure. And I think that. I don't think I would be where I am today if you know, I hadn't gone from, you know, like private school kid to homeless, you know, in a matter of a year,

Scott Benner 44:07
yeah, the bottoming out so quickly was probably, I can't believe I'm saying this, but probably good for you, because if you stay, if you stay there, you're going to get propped up by the system forever. You're just going to turn into a 30 year old drunk that's hitting somebody. Oh, exactly, yeah. So those kids, those kids at those private school, aren't any better off than you are. You just crashed faster than they are going to

Tyler 44:30
Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. That Interesting. Yeah, no. I mean, I look back at, like, my friends from that school, you know. And like, you know, we're on like Snapchat, you know, and they post videos them, like, binge drinking on a beach somewhere, because that's, you know, what they have the ability to do. And by the way, you know, like, I'm, I don't come from like a like poverty, but I, I'm not as well off. My family isn't as well off as, yeah, most. To those people just because I got, you know, huge financial aid and scholarship, yeah, my,

Scott Benner 45:04
my son once said to me at college, like, we're not we're not uncomfortable, and we're not wealthy, you know what? I mean, like, I'm I'm okay, yeah, but my son once told me, my, my son once told me, I am the poorest person here.

Tyler 45:16
I was by far the poorest person at that school? Yeah, they had a scholarship program for, like, indigenous people. So I don't know if I was like, the bottom of the bottom of the barrel, but I wasn't. I didn't fit in with those people close enough, like, right? Not like, I don't want to name drop, so I'm not gonna say anything other than, like, my, one of my classmates was the heir to a very well known diamond company, oh, you know. And, like, I lived in the suburbs of Broomfield, Colorado, you know, like, wow,

Scott Benner 45:56
yeah. And, and, did you feel a pressure to kind of do what they were doing. Did they seem more advanced or fancy to you?

Tyler 46:04
Oh, yeah, yeah. 100% Yeah. Like for one of my roommates, you know, we, we did not get along, just because that, that barrier was huge. He was from China, and his dad would literally send him 1000s of dollars at a time just to do whatever he wants with it, really, you know, yeah, like, he didn't speak very good English, you know. And he would literally, like, have me order him. There was this sushi place in town that served like a wagyu steak with like gold on it. And it was like, I think it was, like, 150 bucks, like, completely ridiculous, you know. And he'd be like, you know, order me this, like, here's my dad's credit card.

Scott Benner 46:50
Oh no, yeah, that's not healthy.

Tyler 46:52
It's not, yeah, you're

Scott Benner 46:54
not going to be okay in that situation. Yeah. And he

Tyler 46:57
ended up getting kicked out of school just because he didn't, he didn't have those skills to really deal with real life, you know, like he would sit on his computer for hours on end, you know. And so he got, he got, they don't call it expelled there. They call it politely asked to leave the community, yeah, just because it's that type of school,

Scott Benner 47:18
no one gets expelled here. That's, expelled everyone. We have a 96% graduation rate. Don't worry, of all the people who were reporting that graduated,

Tyler 47:29
yeah, yeah, pretty much, pretty much,

Scott Benner 47:32
yeah. How about that? Problems like this, they can touch anybody you know, Oh, for sure. But how it manifests does sometimes have a lot to do with your your social setting and your financial backing.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, 100%

when I was growing up, kids at my school drank and the kids at my cousin's school did Coke, and yeah, they had more money and that, in the end, that's all it was like, my my friends could afford beer and his friends could afford drugs. Like, that was all it was,

Tyler 48:03
you know, yeah, no, 100% Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just to say a little bit about my hometown, they they did meth. So, yeah, that's, that's my town, yeah,

Scott Benner 48:14
Tyler's like, I'm just trying to say I didn't have a whole bunch of money, but you were a hell of a kayaker. Slash. What else was? It was the other ski racer. Oh, my God, do you still ski? Oh, yeah, competitively, or for fun,

Tyler 48:33
I don't ski competitively. I was on a team last year, but this year, you know, I was in rehab, so I didn't really, it's

Scott Benner 48:42
hard to see. Have you heard Have you heard Chris Freeman on this podcast? He's been on a number of times. Chris is an he's an Olympic cross country scare. His type one,

Tyler 48:51
really? Yeah, I don't think I've ever caught one of those episodes. I'm gonna have to listen to it. Though he's a

Scott Benner 48:57
no bullshit guy. Like, I like him, like he's got his the way about him, his attention to detail and excellence and stuff like that. Like, there's no, there's no question in my mind how he ended up in the Olympics. Like, 100% Yeah, I just made me think of that just now that maybe you would like to hear that anyway. Yeah, why the hell did you want to come on this podcast?

Tyler 49:19
I don't know. I don't know, Scott, that's a, that's a really good question. I heard the after dark episodes. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 49:27
think you qualify, by the way, really, I mean, dude, wow. You think the nice ladies that listen are going to want to be blindsided by an 18 year old homeless kid with like, in a roaming gang of meth heads, sounds like an episode of like The Walking Dead you're describing to me. Oh, man, I'm sorry to ask like this, because I feel weird because you're younger, but was there a lot of unsafe sex in that month on the streets? Oh,

Tyler 49:58
oh yeah. Yeah, 100% I had, I had two separate pregnancy scares in 2022,

Scott Benner 50:05
you thought you were pregnant twice. Just kidding. Okay, Tyler, you got to tell him. Like, not here somewhere else. You know what I mean. Like, yeah, you can't, like, you can't let boys treat you like that. Tyler, Oh, no. But so with another, with a homeless girl, yeah, yeah,

Tyler 50:24
yeah, no, I'm, I'm very surprised I don't have the clap.

Scott Benner 50:29
No kidding. Did you get checked out when you got off the street?

Tyler 50:32
Oh, yeah, yeah, even though I was on the street, you know, like I would go to school every couple you know, every couple days, you know? But I was, like, in the system, I think I had officially dropped out. They had this clinic that I would go and get tested at in my school.

Scott Benner 50:50
There's a VD clinic at your school, yeah, yeah. I think when you get to that point, you have bigger problems. You just start, like, looking into like, you know what? It reminds me of? This girl came on one time, it's an after dark, and she talked about, like, how important it is to test your drugs before you take them. Oh, yeah. And I let her have that conversation because I thought, you know, if somebody's in that situation, I would want them to test your drugs. But there was that other voice in my head that was going, Hey, is this not a red flag for you? Like, you know, you live in a world where you're constantly going, I wonder if this is going to kill me, and your answer isn't leave the world, it's, I'll get a test. You know what? I mean? Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is weird. No. I

Tyler 51:34
mean, I know a lot of fentanyl addicts, a lot of fentanyl addicts, yeah, you know? I mean, it's kind of one of the misconceptions, you know, is it's like, you know, fentanyl is an incredibly deadly drug, like, so is heroin, and there's a reason that people like heroin. Yeah, no,

Scott Benner 51:50
no. Did you hear the did you hear the after dark with the with the girl who was an exotic dancer stripper, and she said her father, like, died from a fentanyl overdose, like recently, like, when she was recording it, yeah, yeah,

Tyler 52:04
yeah. It was a bit ago. I don't know how long it was, probably a month or two since I've heard that, but yeah,

Scott Benner 52:12
Kyle, let me ask you a question that I know. Yeah, I know you're not gonna, like, know the exact answer to but every 100 kids in a in your public high school? How many of them are doing drugs out of every 100? Oh,

Tyler 52:27
well, like, define drugs, even

Scott Benner 52:30
that's a problem. That's like when I just said the other thing, define drugs. How many people smoke weed now?

Tyler 52:38
Oh, I'd say, well, like at my school, probably 75 80%

Scott Benner 52:45
they smoking to get higher. They smoking because they can't sleep or what do they say?

Tyler 52:49
Most of them smoke to get high. Okay, so I grew up, well, I didn't grow up here, but you know, like I've spent, you know, where the school was, where I went to or I went to public school is like an extremely, you know, underprivileged community, just because we're right near a huge, really rich, really famous ski town, you know. And so it's all immigrants. And, you know, I mean, I've met some of the best people I've ever met are immigrants, you know, but there's also a really hard way of life, and there's a way to deal with that hard way of life, you know. And drugs

Scott Benner 53:27
gotcha, yeah, okay, so 75 to 80% of kids smoke weed. How many of them drink?

Tyler 53:34
Oh, geez, I'd probably say 70% okay,

Scott Benner 53:38
so weed's more popular than alcohol at this point. But when they drink, they drink

Tyler 53:42
the blackout, you know, I'd say, like, casually, probably like 50% but like actual, like hardcore drinkers, I'd probably say falls more into like, 10% okay,

Scott Benner 53:56
so some of the Okay, cocaine, pretty easy to get at school.

Tyler 54:01
It was, I don't think a lot of people were doing coke. Okay, are there? Are

Scott Benner 54:07
there kids doing heroin? Even

Tyler 54:09
my meth head buddies didn't screw around with heroin.

Scott Benner 54:11
Isn't that interesting, okay? But meth was big.

Tyler 54:16
Meth, all right, yeah, so meth is like, meth is like the, I don't know how to describe it. It's kind of like the PBR of drugs,

Scott Benner 54:30
okay, cheap and readily available, that kind of feeling. Oh, exactly.

Tyler 54:35
It's, yeah. I mean, you know, you can get an eighth of meth for, you know, 50 bucks. I

Scott Benner 54:43
like, I like that. You think 50 bucks isn't a lot of money. I'm over here. I'm so old. I'm like, 50. Oh, my God.

Tyler 54:51
I mean, you can, you know, an ounce of wheat is 120

Scott Benner 54:55
so is it really, yeah. Oh, because you have to buy, you know. Buying it legally, though, right?

Tyler 55:02
Well, when I was selling it, I'd buy it legally and

Scott Benner 55:05
then resell it to underage people that couldn't get their hands on it. Exactly.

Tyler 55:09
So, like, that's good business. Like an eighth, you know, I could buy an eighth for probably 20 bucks, and I would sell it for 40 to 50. Okay,

Scott Benner 55:16
they just keep doubling up your money. Yeah, exactly. You are an entrepreneur, Tyler, see,

Tyler 55:23
I know, yeah, I need to put that on my resume. Yeah, drug dealer.

Scott Benner 55:30
You say you're an investment counselor, that would be the way to put it. I think, Okay, put a percentage on not your not the ones you just knew, but the whole student body. What percentage of them using meth, I think that more or less than the blackout drinkers.

Tyler 55:46
Oh, definitely less, less. Okay, yeah, okay, no. I mean, I was like, I'd say that like 90% of the students that were doing like meth at my school were in that, in my friend group, you know, just because it's like, you know, I mean, it's not really a thing, that we're not going to the party, and someone like, pulls out, and they're like,

Scott Benner 56:09
Oh my God, finally, It's finally Friday. I had such a tough day, uh, today with my testing, thank God I have my math as

Tyler 56:16
well. Stay up for five days. Yeah,

Scott Benner 56:21
get you laughing about it. So there's like, a handful of people, a fewer than 30

Tyler 56:27
there. Yeah, there were probably 15.

Scott Benner 56:29
Okay, that's still a lot of people in one high school.

Tyler 56:33
You know what? I mean, yeah, yeah, for sure. Wow, yeah. And, I mean, at the school I went to, like, my freshman year is, like the covid year. That's why I went to the boarding school. Yeah, I definitely say that Coke was a much bigger thing at my old school, just because it was just, it was, it was like the, the future frapros of America over at my old school.

Scott Benner 56:56
Yeah, no, I know they're all gonna, they're all gonna work in, um, in finance one day, right?

Tyler 57:02
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, right.

Scott Benner 57:05
Math majors gonna have a bottle of gin on

Tyler 57:07
their on their desk. Their boss is gonna be screaming at them all day, and that's the but they can say that they went to an athletic boarding school, so it's okay, yeah, yep,

Scott Benner 57:17
I know this story. Okay, all right, did you manage your diabetes while you were homeless?

Tyler 57:23
Yeah, that was another thing i i think we haven't gone over yet. No, yeah,

Scott Benner 57:29
you're like, No, I was not, by the way, if you were, I would have been so confused by that, like, no, Scott, I was having unsafe sex with homeless women and doing meth, but I was very careful to pre bolus whenever we ate out of a dumpster. And like, you know, so you were you doing anything? You're taking your basal? I'm sorry I'm making you laugh about something so serious. But did you, did you take your basal? At least? Yeah,

Tyler 57:53
yeah. So I have a Teasel next to and at that point the kind of control IQ thing was, was in existence, yeah, you know. So I think control IQ definitely, you know, played a big part in my ANC not being 15. I mean, it was tough, you know, like, I kept, like, a box of supplies with me, and I had like, two or three vials. So, you know, it wasn't like, you know, throwing away my insulin pump and smashing my insulin bottles, you know, like, you

Scott Benner 58:26
didn't want to die. I didn't want to die, right, right? Yeah, I was going to make a stupid joke about, like, wild tandem. Can use that in their marketing, the official pump of roaming meth head teenagers everywhere, but, but instead, I, I take it very seriously that it sounds like it it kind of like saved you when you weren't able to take care of yourself, at least you had that pump and that algorithm was running, oh, 100% Yeah,

Tyler 58:50
yeah, yeah. I I'd say that control IQ was just like, a huge thing for me. I didn't see an endo for five or six months. If

Scott Benner 59:01
only we could have got one of those endos hooked on meth, you probably could have seen him every day. Yeah, that's all we needed. Yeah.

Tyler 59:07
All he needs is a key to a pharmaceutical closet. Five

Scott Benner 59:11
months didn't see an endo. One month didn't live at home. We're still bouncing in and out of school, which I found a little confusing, but not in and out of your house. Where did your parents think you were and were they actively trying to get you back?

Tyler 59:23
Yeah, and that's kind of one of the big things I remember, like, I met with my parents, like, once while I was like, homeless, you know, it was kind of just to talk about, like, hey, this, this kind of sucks, like, we repair this relationship a little bit, you know. And I was drunk and probably high out of my mind, but that, you know, which I think made him really sad. But, um, yeah, it was definitely, you know, pretty it was hard on them, you know,

Scott Benner 59:53
is that part of your 12 steps? Have you apologized to your mom dad? Yeah, it's,

Tyler 59:57
it's step nine. Okay. You know, make a list of all all persons you've harmed. Make amends to them, except when to do so would cause personal injury to them or others. Okay?

Scott Benner 1:00:08
And you've done that with everybody in your life already. Yes, wow, yeah,

Tyler 1:00:13
yes. That was one of the things that I kind of went through in in rehab, is just working through the steps. You know, it's kind of a joke, you know, like, oh yeah, I go to the 12 steps. But it works. It works when

Scott Benner 1:00:27
you need something, you need something, you know, to, you know, I know people, some people bitch about it, and some people love it, but, you know, help a lot of people. So I can see the value in it. For short, do you think you're so. So it's funny because you've told a story that has, like, you should be 48 years old, you know what I mean? But, but instead you're, like, you're barely Are you in college right now?

Tyler 1:00:52
I, uh, my first semester is coming up. Good

Scott Benner 1:00:55
for you. Hey, can you do something real, not some white kid thing, like, like, skateboarding or something like that. Like, actually, like, do something

Tyler 1:01:01
science major.

Scott Benner 1:01:02
There you go. Thank you. I'm gonna do philosophy Scott and figure out why? Like, oh, god no, that's okay. I'm going into politics. So you've got your start. Gonna start college. My question was, can you, like, fast forward yourself, make yourself 60, and look back and think, like, this is all just gonna be like, a weird blip in my journey one day the like, a story I'll tell people, and they'll be like, God, really? Tyler, that's crazy. Or, do you think? Or are you very worried you'll backslide and that there's no chance you're going to escape this like, it feels to me like you're at the brim of a black hole in a science fiction movie, and we're not sure if your thrusters are enough to get you out of it, or if you're going to get sucked back in. Like, but where do you where do you think you are you're referring to, like, relapse, yeah. Like, do you think this is, do you think that's who you are? Do you think this is who you are?

Tyler 1:02:01
I think that, you know, I mean, it's definitely something that has crossed my mind, you know, a couple times it's, I mean, that that's kind of one of the things, you know, is like, addiction, you know, like most people, kind of like, tend to, kind of like, walk lightly when it comes to things that, like, can ruin your life, you know, like, you don't, like, ask people about, like, if they're going to be able to pay their mortgage this month, you know. But an addiction, it's like, that's something you talk about, you know, it's like, something that, like, you you get out in the open so that you can deal with it.

Scott Benner 1:02:36
Gotta be ahead of it. I would imagine Exactly, yeah, if I gave you $1 and I said, You got to bet Tyler, are you going to be this? Tyler moving forward? Are you going to be that? Tyler moving forward one day, like, Do you know what side you bet on right now

Tyler 1:02:50
I put all the money I have to my name right now on the side that I'm going to be my true self. Good for you. That's

Scott Benner 1:02:57
excellent. Well, I believe in you. You believe in you, that's for sure. And

Tyler 1:03:01
I think that, you know, I say that, you know, because, I mean, if I'm in this mindset of, it's just like, Oh yeah, well, you know, I'll probably relapse someday and be homeless again, and, you know, this time, I might get into fentanyl. You know, it's like that, that's, that's something that's on your mind. It's something that you know you're, you're thinking about and considering, yeah, you know, because, like any normal person, they wouldn't be like, oh yeah. Like, going and grabbing some fentanyl, sounds really nice, right now, you know,

Scott Benner 1:03:32
I don't Tyler, I don't know, but I'm with you. I understand what you're saying. Like, you know, when people are like, you know, and they're like, Yeah, I know. Like, yeah, I know. Like, you just said, you know? And I'm like, No, I don't. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have that piece. Like, do you think about getting high and you have to actively work not to? Or is it not a thing that's burdening you at the moment? Oh,

Tyler 1:03:52
every day you do think about it. Every day, okay, yeah, if somebody comes up to you and they're like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm an I'm an addict or I'm an alcoholic, but I never think about it, they're lying. You know, either that or they're not an alcoholic or an addict, you know, simply because that's the divining. The difference between somebody who has never dealt with addiction and somebody who has is craving. You know, okay, you know. I mean, once you've, once you've had that, you know, I mean,

Scott Benner 1:04:21
it's almost like you're like, your body's wired for it. Then, right, exactly,

Tyler 1:04:26
yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like,

Scott Benner 1:04:31
like you're like, almost like eating sugar, like your receptors are wide open for this sugar, and, like, exactly, okay, yes,

Tyler 1:04:37
oh, that's a perfect example. Because, like, everybody in modern culture is, like, addicted to sugar. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:04:44
that's the thing you can understand. Or, like, coffee drinkers who, like, you ever heard somebody's like, I can't get my day going without coffee. I'm like, Oh my God, you're addicted to it. And, you know, I just like it. Okay?

Tyler 1:04:54
So I can stop anytime I want. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:04:59
right after these three. Two liter bottles of Diet Coke. I'll get right to it. So you like the cafe? It's always the Diet Coke. Yeah. Do you like the caffeine? No, I like the flavor. Okay, so, yeah, why do I have such a headache? I haven't had a glass of soda in three minutes? Yeah, I hear you. Oh, man, it's a lot. You have your brothers or sisters or anybody close to you that can help you. I'm an only child, are you really?

Tyler 1:05:22
Yeah. I mean, I consider every single one of the guys that I want to recover with, you know, brother,

Scott Benner 1:05:28
good, good. You feel like you have somebody to lean on if you need it. Oh, 100% okay, yeah. Can I just say please don't go to a bar like, please.

Tyler 1:05:40
I won't. Thank you. I won't. I feel like that's not a good idea. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:05:44
like, so you know, I agree. Yeah, yeah, boy, man, that's a hell of a story. You got a lot, a lot to say in a short time of being on this planet. That's really something. By the time I was 18, if you would have been like, tell me about yourself, I'd have been like, I like movies. I don't know what I want to do. Like, I'm not sure about what I want to do for work. I just graduated from high school. I'm trying to get this girl to go out with me. Like, that's about the most I could have said about my life when I was 18. Yeah, man, you've been through, I wonder if you won't have the same experience with life that you had with diabetes, like you, like you, experienced so much of it from such a young age that your perspective is just so much different than other people's. Because even talking to you like Tyler, I don't know that this is lost on you or not, but you do sound like a background player from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. But at the same time, you're really intelligent and thoughtful and and you know what I mean? And you have a ton of like perspective already about things that most people do not get to gain perspective about at this age, or if it ever, you know, oh, yeah, yeah, no, 100%

Tyler 1:06:51
I remember, there's this question one of my buddies asked we were in like group, you know, and he was, he was basically just like, you know, like, if you could never be an addict, would you, you know? And that the answer was almost collectively, no, you know, like, I would stay in that, you know, I would keep the experiences that I had, you know, simply because, I mean, it's just like, it makes it's what makes you you you know, it's like,

Scott Benner 1:07:21
yeah, it's a defining gathering of information that you, you gave it away, you'd feel like you were a neophyte, like an amateur at life. Oh, exactly, yeah. So there's something like, like, you I was gonna use, I was gonna use a phrase I don't think you know, but, um, but like, like, there's like, this hard scrabbled nature to your existence that you wouldn't want to give away hard stress. Oh yeah, it's hard scrabble. Like, is that a word anybody knows? Hold on.

Tyler 1:07:49
I don't even know it isn't.

Scott Benner 1:07:50
I don't even know I know how to define it. Hold on. A second. I know what it means. People are like now he's using phrases he can't define hard scrabble, uh, defined out as involving hard work and struggle. That's it. Yeah, I used it correctly. I just didn't know how to define it in, like, in a split second. Yes, you don't want to feel like you want to get high, but it would also be difficult to give away all this perspective that you've gained.

Tyler 1:08:17
Oh, 100% Yeah, I hear that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, I I know that. I don't think I got a lot of addiction, you know, yeah, I got a hell of a lot of recovery,

Scott Benner 1:08:29
though. Okay, it's how I feel about growing up broke actually. Like, it would be easy to rub a genie's lamp and say, like, take me back. Don't make me flat broke, but then I don't know who I am. Then if I wasn't, maybe I'm that kid off pretending I'm a championship Kayak or getting blackout drunk because my dad sent me $1,000 for an expensive steak he had, you know what I mean? Oh yeah. 100% Yeah. Nobody bought me a steak. Once, never. No one was ever like, Here, have a steak as I was growing up, no one ever said, here's $3 and because yeah, and because of that, I have, I have a different experience and different

Tyler 1:09:08
next box. Can you pay for it? Yeah?

Scott Benner 1:09:11
Oh my God, dude, you know how young you are, that you said Xbox trying to make me feel like pick something a little older. Atari, 2400 my friend,

Tyler 1:09:23
that's one and 64 Oh, boy.

Scott Benner 1:09:25
That was fancy. When I grew up, I just wanted an authority. That's all. I remember when the joystick and the Atari would break. Oh, red, yeah, Tyler, real, real story. My grandmother bought an Atari because my parents couldn't afford it. She kept it at her house so we could play it while she was there while we were at her house. The joysticks, if people can picture them, this little square thing you held in your hand had a red button on it. And this thick, you move back and forth, they would break, and they were $8 and when they broke, we couldn't play the Atari anymore. Oh, geez, because nobody had a. Dollars to buy a different joystick.

Tyler 1:10:01
Yeah, go mow some lawns, dude.

Scott Benner 1:10:05
Four weeks of mowing lawns to replace the joystick. $2 $2 to cut the grass. Do it again next week. Do it again. The following week. Do it again the following week. All right, I'll give you a ride to the store to get the joystick, not not Amazon, by the way, like I had to drive somewhere. Yeah, the whole world is completely different.

Tyler 1:10:22
Mail was for like, texts and stuff. What was that? Say it again, mail was for like, texts on paper. Mail

Scott Benner 1:10:31
is the mail was text on paper. That's where they call them letters, Tyler. Now, paper is the thing you just roll your weed in. So what do you I'm gonna ask you one final unfair question that there's no chance you have an answer to, and then I'm gonna let you go, yeah, if we've covered everything you want

Tyler 1:10:48
to cover, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna move

Scott Benner 1:10:51
you into the future. Your Tyler now. You're married, you got a kid, you own a house like your life went the way you expected it to your little tylerettes on its way off to school. Are you immediately thinking a kid's gonna end up meeting somebody and doing math?

Tyler 1:11:14
You know what? I don't think I would be,

Scott Benner 1:11:17
you know, tell me why. Because,

Tyler 1:11:19
you know. I mean, that's one thing I definitely learned, you know, gained some, like, personal wisdom on is just the fact that, like, say, Tyler Rhett goes out and finds a meth chick, you know, like, and he's doing meth, you know, what? What am I gonna do to stop him? Yeah, you know.

Scott Benner 1:11:39
So the idea is, what, what comes, comes, and then we deal with it afterwards, exactly. So you give them a good I've thought about that. Yeah, sorry, no, no, no, no, please. I'm sorry. You give them a good, a good start, and you just hope for the best. You're not gonna blindly just send them out in the world and say, good luck, but you're gonna do your best to prepare them and then see

Tyler 1:11:59
what happens. Yeah, and just by the way, like, I don't know, you know, like a child of my own, you know, that comes from my DNA, you know, simply because of the things that that DNA contains,

Scott Benner 1:12:11
between between diabetes and addiction,

Tyler 1:12:15
between diabetes and addiction and a love for adrenaline.

Scott Benner 1:12:20
Okay, oh, that that skiing thing wasn't by mistake.

Tyler 1:12:24
Oh, yeah, not at all. Not at all. Yeah, no. I've been begging my dad to go skydiving since I was 14. Oh,

Scott Benner 1:12:32
let's do it. Yeah. So you said something a second ago that made me want to ask a question on how to ask it, but is there something about those meth girls? Are they exciting? Yeah,

Tyler 1:12:45
I've definitely, I definitely had experiences with meth girls that I don't think I will ever have again. And I'll just leave it at that. You

Scott Benner 1:12:53
think that's gonna make Do you think it's gonna make regular life, boring or difficult? Regular life?

Tyler 1:12:59
No, no, I had a non meth girl. She was more of like a, you know, Xanax girl. You

Scott Benner 1:13:09
were gonna say, finally, I thought we were gonna get to a girl who rented the kids at the library. But no, she was just more into pills.

Tyler 1:13:17
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, she was, like, my girlfriend right before I went to rehab. And, I mean, there was definitely something missing, you know, like uppers. Uppers make life more exciting for everybody around you. Wow. Yeah, it's

Scott Benner 1:13:34
a very interesting conversation. I could have this conversation for 20 hours. So I'm going to ask you if we've talked about everything you want to talk about and stop, because I'm going to keep asking you crazy questions, and we got to get on with our lives. Yeah,

Tyler 1:13:45
not gonna lie, man, I have a job interview at 330 so I would love to hop off, and that's in 30 minutes here.

Scott Benner 1:13:51
No, let's go. What's your job interview? What do you what are you trying to do, dude,

Tyler 1:13:56
just until I go to college, you know, like not saying my dream job, this is gonna sound so sad. I'm not saying My dream job is Domino's delivery driver, but like it is kind of that's all I want to do. Good for you. So that's great. I want to go

Scott Benner 1:14:10
online thing. Or do you have to go down to the Domino's and meet them? I gotta go down here. Go, go, go. Thank you. I appreciate you doing this very much. Go ahead and go. Yeah, thanks, Scott. All right. Tara, this was really wonderful, man. Thank you. Yes, sir. All right. Bye.

Today's episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 which now integrates with the tandem T slim x2 system, learn more and get started today at dexcom.com/juice. Box. If you'd like to wear the same insulin pump that Arden does, all you have to do is go to omnipod.com/juice. Box. That's it. Head over now and get started today, and you'll be wearing the same. Same tubeless insulin pump that Arden has been wearing since she was four years old. I'd like to thank ag one for sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast and remind you that with your first order, you're going to get a free welcome kit, five free travel packs in a year's supply of vitamin D that's at AG one.com/juice box if you're living with type one diabetes, the after dark collection from the juicebox podcast is the only place to hear the stories that no one else talks about, from drugs to depression, self harm, trauma, addiction and so much more. Go to juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and click on after dark there, you'll see a full list of all of the after dark episodes. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The juicebox podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongwayrecording.com. You.

#1304 Flat Crush

Erin talks gestational, type 1 and pregnancy.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to another episode of The juicebox podcast.

Let's see what we've got today. This is Erin. She's 38 she's only had type one diabetes for about a year. She was diagnosed with gestational diabetes when she was 36 there's some type one in her family, but mostly, we talk a lot about her gestational and then what happened afterwards. At the very end, we chat about her diagnosis story. Don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com All you have to do is use the offer code juicebox at checkout. That's juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com when you place your first order for AG, one, with my link, you'll get five free travel packs and a free year supply of vitamin D drink. AG, one.com/juicebox dot com slash juice box. Hey, do you have type one? Or Does your child have type one? Would you like to help with type one diabetes research? If you do and you are, please go to T, 1d exchange.org/juice, box and spend about 10 minutes completing a survey that will help type one diabetes research to surge forward, T, 1d exchange.org/juicebox,

this episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next.com/juicebox this episode of The juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Eversense CGM. And sure, all CGM systems use Transcutaneous sensors that are inserted into the skin and last seven to 14 days, but the Eversense sensor is inserted completely under the skin, lasting six months, ever since cgm.com/juicebox, did you know if just one person in your family has type one diabetes, you are up to 15 times more likely to get it too. So screen it like you mean it one blood test can spot type one diabetes early. Tap now talk to a doctor or visit screen for type one.com. For more info.

Erin 2:23
I'm Erin, and I was diagnosed with type one in January of 2023 that's not long ago. No, not long at all. So really, I guess my whole journey actually, really started in March of 22 when I was pregnant, I was diagnosed with gestational it evolved, obviously, from gestational diabetes into type one. And so it was quite the journey. And that's kind of why I wanted to come on the podcast. Was because I was diagnosed like, I don't remember them really talking about the possibility that it is type one, or that it could be type one, I just really remember them saying you have, like, a 50 to 60% chance of becoming type two later on in life. So that's really what kind of drew me to the podcast. Was because, and I'm actually the more and more I see on Instagram, and I, you know, start meeting more and more people that way or through social media, is actually rather quite common, surprisingly, of women having GDM, which actually is just the early onsets of type one.

Scott Benner 3:41
Okay, how many pregnancies Have you had?

Erin 3:44
Just one, one. And I am old right now, 38 I guess. And so I was 36 when I was diagnosed with the gestational and I was diagnosed with type one at 37

Scott Benner 4:04
Okay, 36 years old when you were pregnant, how far into the pregnancy?

Erin 4:09
So I would say, I think I did the glucose test about 25 or 26 weeks into the pregnancy. Is that test unpleasant? The drink is not great. I will say that it's not terrible. It really. I lucked out and I was able to choose between orange and lemon lime, I think. And I picked the lemon lime, and so just, it really just tastes like flat Sprite or flat summon up. I've heard that the orange tastes like flat crush you drink it. And I kind of had this feeling after the fact, like after they did the blood work and everything, that something wasn't like quite right, because boy was, my little boy, very, very active for. Few hours after drinking the drink like way more active, like doing somersaults, it

Scott Benner 5:06
felt like so you and he were on the sugar high after that exactly. Yeah. Okay, so you did the glucose tolerance test. You failed it, obviously, yes, yeah. They tell you you have gestational and then what happens so,

Erin 5:18
and I can actually tell you what my number was because I looked it up. So my number was 297, after the one hour glucose test. Is there a range? Do you know? Yes, and they want you between, I think it's like 100 and 130 or 140 and then they consider you pre diabetes at, I think 141, I don't remember exactly the number, but yes, there is a range, and I think I was almost double. I'm at 297, I was almost double that range. You left

Scott Benner 5:49
the range and you were on your way to Mars. Okay, so they say to you, you have a coin flip chance of being a type two later in life. Is that right? Yeah, okay, and that's right after the glucose tolerance test, yes. So

Erin 6:02
in all of the training for gestational diabetes, my insurance company is both insurance and like the medical system. So I did the first glucose test, and then I actually had to go back and do a three hour glucose test to confirm that it was gestational and I fail the fasting test because my fasting glucose is 121,

Scott Benner 6:27
what is the longer test entail?

Erin 6:29
You do a fasting glucose, they check it if your number is below 95 then they go ahead and have you drink the drink again, and then they take your glucose, or they take your blood every hour for three hours afterwards to see make sure that your body is actually processing

Scott Benner 6:48
the glucose. Gotcha? You hang out in the office during that

Erin 6:51
yes, so yeah, I would have had to hang out in the lab the entire time, good

Scott Benner 6:55
times. So once this this diagnosis happens, do you manage with insulin? Or what did they do for you? Once

Erin 7:03
they sent me home, I was they got in contact with me for classes, and they got me set up with a glucose monitor, and for the first like week or two, they just had me try to do monitor it with diet. And so I ended up going super low carb with it, where I was just eating, like protein and veggies for most meals, and then walking right after walking for a minimum of five minutes after eating, depending on what I ate, also Okay, and I was able to manage my daytime numbers with exercise and diet, but nighttime, after about two weeks, my nighttime numbers were 120 plus, and so I ended up having to use NPH at night,

Scott Benner 7:56
so they had you should do one injection before bed or after dinner or when before

Erin 8:01
an injection, before bed, and I was absolutely terrified of giving myself an injection. My husband ended up being the one that had to do the injections. I couldn't even get the needle to my skin. I was so terrified of it.

Scott Benner 8:18
So did he actually do it for you through the entire pregnancy, or did you eventually take it

Erin 8:23
over? No, so for the entire pregnancy, he did it, which was really all of six weeks, because my son came at 36 weeks, six days, and so we really only had to do the insulin for like, six weeks.

Scott Benner 8:36
Okay, so you felt like you had diabetes for six weeks, and then you give birth, do you just imagine it's over at that point? Like, like, what's your they

Erin 8:44
told me, yeah. They were like, now that the placenta is out, out of you, like, it's done, you don't have to do any more finger sticks. The only thing you need to do is do a follow up blood work. I never wanted that the follow up blood works or, shame on me, you

Scott Benner 8:58
were just like, I don't have diabetes anymore. It came out with the baby,

Erin 9:01
kind of, I think part in the back of my mind, part of me, was like, I think part of me kind of knew early, like before I ended up, that something wasn't right a few months after I had my son, because, you know, I was so thirsty, like everyone talks about and but it wasn't thirst, it was like, dry mouth. So I was constantly drinking, because I just had this, like, dry throw, dry mouth feeling okay, and I was ravenously hungry, and I just kind of attributed it to the fact that I was breastfeeding. You know, I was postpartum. I was breastfeeding. That's probably all it was. I do remember, I think, at the end of August of 22 maybe September of 22 I remembered one day looking at like a street sign and going, wow. Wow, that's kind of blurry. So I, of course, I Google, you know, is it possible to have blurry vision while postpartum? Not thinking, just to type, what can cause blurry vision?

Scott Benner 10:15
You're like, if it's not postpartum, then I'm not really seeing blurry. That's fine.

Erin 10:18
Yeah, that's fine. I'll be fine. And then actually, it went away.

Scott Benner 10:22
Did you know if just one person in your family has type one diabetes, you're up to 15 times more likely to get it too. So screen it like you mean it one blood test can spot type one diabetes early. Tap now talk to a doctor or visit screened for type one.com, for more info. So

Erin 10:43
I had it for, like, I don't know, maybe a couple days. And then the blurriness went away, and I was able to see just fine. Again. In October of 22 I ended up contracting covid. And then, of course, I was breastfeeding, so my son got covid and said, then my husband was helping me with my son, so then my husband got covid. So we all got covid In the beginning of October of 22 I like how

Scott Benner 11:10
you said contracted covid. Yeah. Isn't that funny? Prior to covid, nobody would have said, Hey, I contracted a cold this week. No, the new words to it, okay, you can give covid through breast milk.

Erin 11:24
So I know, I think what happened is I gave it to him just by breastfeeding, yeah,

Scott Benner 11:30
he's down there, and you were like, just pouring them right on his head.

Erin 11:35
Don't even think I thought about, oh, I should wear a mask while breastfeeding him when I was sick, it just didn't even cross my mind. I think at that time, did

Scott Benner 11:45
you know it was covid? At first?

Erin 11:47
No, at first, I just thought that I the flu. Maybe I because the first symptom I had was a fever of 102 and so I didn't think anything of it. And then a couple days later, I was like, Maybe I should do a covid test, and it was positive. You know, a lot of people

Scott Benner 12:07
are talking about this covid thing. I'm hearing about it everywhere

Erin 12:11
I you know. I mean, I'm in human resources, so I'm having and I live in California, so I have to send out notifications. When, at that time, I was sending out notifications when anyone contracted covid and was in the office, and so I was like, maybe

Scott Benner 12:28
just spitting on that baby while it's breastfeeding. You'll be fine, good. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine. Yeah, okay, so sorry. Do you think so because you didn't get the blood work done after the pregnancy. You don't know if your blood sugar stayed up or if the covid kicked in, type one. So you don't really know what happened, huh?

Erin 12:51
Yeah, so I don't really know what happened. I mean, I did do, you know, I did a finger stick in the morning just to see kind of where I was at. And I want to say I was probably around 100

Scott Benner 13:05
or so. Did you do that thing where you were like, this thing's probably not even accurate. I'm probably actually 85 Hold

Erin 13:10
on just one second. Let me my work. I'm on my work computer, so I don't want my Outlook constantly Oh, dinging, dinging. So bear with me while I try to get out of everything. As

Scott Benner 13:23
a podcaster, I would like to thank all of you suckers who let people work from home, because I have absolutely no trouble recording with people during the daylight hours because of you, and I think you should make all these people go back into the office. They're stealing from you. What do you think of that?

Erin 13:40
By the way, I'm actually sitting in my office. Yeah,

Scott Benner 13:42
no, of course, you're like, Oh, now I'll record a podcast, then I'll get back to work.

Erin 13:46
Hey, you know what? It's fine. I just

Scott Benner 13:50
watched my wife get up and decide to make a sandwich in between the time, where I believe the company she works for expected her to be doing something. So you know

Erin 13:59
what, they it's fine.

Scott Benner 14:05
So you're in human resources, let us, like, go off track for a second here. Do you think at some point this is just going to stick, or do you think companies are going to like, go, Hey, we're not getting the same productivity out of people. We need to get people back into a job like setting

Erin 14:20
I really think it depends on the company culture, but I do. I have been hearing more people saying that they've been going back into the office more frequently. But I do think that there's going to be more of a hybrid. You know, we're going to get a couple days more flexibility. Yeah, it's just more flexibility. Yeah,

Scott Benner 14:38
there's no doubt that the lack of commuting is it's valuable for everybody. You know, you're not as tired when you get to work. You have more life to live. But I also see what my wife does is like, in the beginning, I was like, oh, no, commuting. She'll have, like, more out because my wife used to drive a long ass way to work and and instead, she just works. Do. During the time she saved commuting. So it's not like, I think there's part of me that thinks the company's getting more out of her by not making her go in. And yeah, yeah, right,

Erin 15:08
I am that way too. So if I don't have to go, like, if I'm working from home one day and my husband's taking our son to daycare, I'll work from the time that they leave until either the time I have to go pick up my son from daycare or the time my husband comes home, but I would say, during covid, my husband's company that he was working with at the time, they saw to go in the office a couple of days a week. And so I would start working from whenever he would leave the house, and then I would work until at least an hour or so after he got home. So I was doing at least nine to 10 hours a day, five days a week. I

Scott Benner 15:45
see all the value. I'm not unaware of it, but I'm just old enough that part of me just thinks, like, go to work. Like I know that's like when Elon Musk told his employees, if you want to work at Tesla, you're coming to your job. And if you don't want to come to your job, you don't work at Tesla, which he did, I think during covid, like, he was just like, you know, I was like, privately, I was like, that's cool. I would have said that, if I was him, I would have been like, I'm paying you show up and do this thing. But at the same time, I do think my wife does more work when she doesn't have to commute. I do. I think the company's making out by not bringing her into the office, and they're not paying for that building or whatever else they have to do. You know what I mean. So I don't know how to like fall on it, but I can tell you that my son is fresh out of college, and one of the first things he looks for is either a remote or a hybrid. Like offering, you know what I mean,

Erin 16:36
it totally and I think it's a culture thing too. So like the company I work for now, what we do is very abstract. You need the ability to say, to go into somebody's office who might be more of an expert than you, and ask some questions. And it's a lot harder to do that when it's only through teams, but when you have the ability to walk over and be like, Hey, can I pick your brain for five minutes? And there's value in that, you know, then they get they like, answer all of these questions, and they actually come to a conclusion that they would have never come to before. They

Scott Benner 17:17
weren't together without it. And I guess the other problem could be, is, if you're hybrid, what if I'm there on Wednesday and you're not there on Wednesday, and then,

Erin 17:25
yeah, you have to schedule a meeting. So it's more Yeah, you know, it's less impromptu and more scheduled.

Scott Benner 17:32
Meanwhile, people who have, like, what I'm gonna call real jobs, are like, Yeah, okay, well, I can't change someone's tire from my house, so I go to work every day. But right? You know, I see both sides of it. I'm just old and crotchy enough to be irritated by people who don't have to put in a lot of effort. I don't know. And by the way, I want to be clear, I make this podcast 25 feet from where I sleep, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite on this one. And me going somewhere wouldn't make this any different. So anyway, no, I

Erin 18:00
would still be the same regardless of if you went into because you'd end up going into a studio, it would be exactly the same thing. It just happens to be your spare room as your studio. So,

Scott Benner 18:10
yeah, I my accountant one time said, Why don't you rent a studio space that you have to get up and go to it. We can write that off. And I was like, you want me to spend more money, to save a little bit of money? And he was like, yeah. I'm like, I don't understand what you're saying. And I still don't understand, like, I don't understand anything accountants say to me, if I'm being clear, nothing at all. Anyway, we're pretty far off the track. You. Let's go back through it. You got the you get pregnant on purpose, by the way. Are you trying to have a baby?

Erin 18:37
Yes. So we decided after the first year. So after 2020 my husband and I decided we're like, Hey, let's go ahead and try if we have a baby. Great. If not, that's totally okay too. It took me about nine months to get pregnant from when we made that decision. I need

Scott Benner 18:57
to ask you, though, like 36 is like, did you get married later? Or did you just wait a long time to to get have a baby?

Erin 19:04
We started dating in 2010 we got married in 2015 So, and I was almost 30 when we got married, and then we just waited a little while longer, the mindset that we didn't really know if we wanted to have kids or not so and then covid happened, and then we decided, hey, why not? Let's try having a kid. Crazy

Scott Benner 19:29
question, if you knew that having a baby would lead to you having diabetes, would you have done it?

Erin 19:37
Yes, because I absolutely love my son so funny that you that you asked that question, because not was it yesterday or the day before? So just three stories, I just went from MDI to the Moby, and so my son is kind of still very freaked out about the infusion set. It and seeing all the tubing and, you know, the pump and all of that. So at first, was upset by it. Now he's quite fascinated by it and wants to see it all the time. And so I was showing it to him, and then he picked me or something. And I was like, don't, you know, be careful, bud. And I was like, Don't kick that, because that's, you know what keep it is keeping mommy alive. Granted, he's 22 months, so not like he actually remembered and understands what I'm saying. And I don't know, I said something like, you're part of the reason why Mommy has that. And then I changed my thought, and I went, most likely I would have ended up type one at some point in my life, it just happened to be that the pregnancy is what triggered it.

Scott Benner 20:47
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Erin 23:49
mean. And then the internal, my internal Donald don't dialog after that was, don't say that to him when you're older, he doesn't need to know that. That's what triggered you to have type one. Yeah,

Scott Benner 24:02
that's fine. Yeah, no, I know it's interesting, because you definitely can't do that. I mean, you and I,

Erin 24:09
exactly, I was like, you said it now he'll never remember that conversation and move on.

Scott Benner 24:14
Yeah, let's not do that again. It's interesting, though. It means very, very interesting. Actually, I'm, I'm impressed that you said it, and then thought, why am I? I should not do that. You know, like a lot of people say things and just blow right past it, so it hit you right away. Was it instantaneous?

Erin 24:29
Yes, it was like, once I said it, I was like, Oh, I shouldn't let him ever think that he's the reason that I have this.

Scott Benner 24:38
Yeah, no, that's good. I'm glad you're thinking that way. And

Erin 24:41
I think part of it is, is that, you know, and kind of, going back to the GDM, I was ashamed of it. I didn't tell anyone. Like, when I had to do my finger sticks, I hid in my office and, like, turned my back so nobody could see through my window that I was doing it. It, I only told a handful of people that I had it, and because I felt a lot of shame for it,

Scott Benner 25:09
can you tell me about that? Why do you think you felt that way?

Erin 25:13
I think I felt that way because I saw the statistics that, like only 10% of women have it. And how could it be me? Like, I think it's just you that kind of internal, not like grieving process. I

Scott Benner 25:29
guess you didn't feel like you did something wrong.

Erin 25:31
I did, I guess feel like I did something wrong, but then at the same time, I was like, but I didn't. And so everyone was telling me, You didn't do anything wrong to have this happen to you, but it just I, I just remember not wanting anyone to know and just feeling ashamed of it. And I remember when they told me, you know, they sent me home from the fast, from the glucose test, that I started to cry because I was so ashamed, a bit, not because you were kind of like, why is me? Why me? Like, why am I the one that has this, yeah,

Scott Benner 26:10
not not angry or confused or even sad, but specifically ashamed,

Erin 26:18
yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Has that gone away? Yes, now it has. It's gone from, you know, and I, I know I mentioned earlier that I don't care about, like, Instagram and that kind of stuff, but, and that's not why I'm on here, but I feel like I've used that as kind of a platform to talk about it and feel less ashamed over it. And once I got out of the hospital, I felt inclined to share my story and to, I mean, I don't share every day, but it just kind of blips and, you know, stories and Instagram and things like that, and just kind of talk about my journey and what's going on. And once I was diagnosed, I think that's where I was, like, got over that kind of shameful feeling, and when this is my new normal. So let's just go on and accept the fact that I had GDM, and now I have type one, and now what am you know? What am I going to do moving forward to in this new

Scott Benner 27:26
normal as a question, sharing digitally about this? Did it help you in real life? Yes. Okay, so it's not just that you abstractly don't have a problem with anymore. You can tell people about it through Instagram, for example, but that's translated over into what they call IRL, yes, exactly.

All right,

good. Well, that's I was that's interesting because, you know, so often people tell you what's wrong with social media, and this is an example of something where it helped you. Yes, I just didn't know if it would have been interesting if you were able to share online, but not in person. You turned your back so people wouldn't see. I'm sorry,

Erin 28:05
and now I have no problem. I mean, in the beginning, I definitely struggled with doing my injection, so like, if we went to a restaurant, I would typically pick out what I was going to eat ahead of time inject, either right before we went in, or I would order, and then I'd go out to the car and inject and then come back. And then probably about a month or so after being diagnosed, I was like, I'm not going to think I listened to one of your episodes where you, you know, stopping and saying something to I think it was a little girl who was injecting at a table. Yeah,

Scott Benner 28:44
that got me out of jury duty years later. I'll tell you how. Finish your story. I'll tell you how.

Erin 28:52
So I think hearing that made me go, it's okay. People aren't really paying attention to you. Anyways, they're paying attention to themselves. And from then on, I had no problem with it. I think around work and around coworkers, there were very few people I told at first, and now I'm much more open about it. And

Scott Benner 29:15
what was the reaction? Was it what you expected? A lot

Erin 29:20
of people start with, I'm so sorry, you know, and things like that. And I think part of it is the majority of people don't understand type one, right? They understand the concept of diabetes, but they have no concept of what type one means. And I think that's also why I started kind of posting more on social media too. Is a lot of my friends just didn't understand. And I was like, well, I might as well use this platform as a way to help inform people that I know, and I can do it as a whole, instead of telling everybody individually.

Scott Benner 29:59
Yeah, good. For you. So I was in a Red Robin with my children. I feel like, if you know what Red Robin is, it's like, yes, yeah. It's like, I don't know, slightly better cheeseburgers, but not really good. We were leaving, and there was this little girl giving herself a shot at her table. And I just happened to be walking by as we were leaving, and I made eye contact with the mom, and then I said to the little girl, I'm like, good for you doing that at the table. I said, I'm proud of you for giving yourself your shot here. And I said, my daughter has type one too. And my daughter waved. And we kept going. It was like that quick. And years later, and I mean, years later, I got called for jury duty, and I was still like the one like very much taking care of Arden's blood sugar while she was at school. And I was worried that if I got called for a jury that I wouldn't be able to interact with her and manage with her. So I called the courthouse, and I started explaining this to this person on the phone who ends up being the mom from the restaurant. How funny, and she let me out of jury duty. And that great. That's fantastic. Yeah, I didn't know. See, acts of kindness can't get paid back right away. You gotta wait exactly it all comes around. How insane is that? Like I was explaining to her, like, look, this is how I do this thing with my with my daughter. And like, you know, and I don't know if you know what type one diabetes is. And she's like, I do, my daughter has type one diabetes. And then we started talking a little more, and she's like, are you Scott from the podcast? And I went, Yeah. And she goes, Oh, my God, you're gonna think this is nuts. Years ago in a Red Robin, and then she told me the story, back to me, and I was, like, unbelievable. Like, that's really crazy. I think it's a big deal when you're bold in public like that, because I think you don't know who else is going to help, you know? And

Erin 31:54
that's kind of, I think, why I started to do it more in public, too, and just not care about it so much. And it was, I remember the first time I was at a work event, and, you know, I the one of the people sitting next to me, he already knew that I was diagnosed with it, but other people at the table didn't necessarily know, and so I just kind of leaned over to him, and I was like, Hey, do you mind if I take my insulin. Now I can go to the restroom if you know, it makes you uncomfortable. And he said, No, it was fine. So I, you know, of course, calculated how many carbs I was going to eat, and then gave myself the injection. And and then the people around me started asking questions. And so then it actually, you know, I started talking about it. And so it actually ended up being kind of a learning opportunity for other people, and since then, I've become less, I guess, concerned at work. I'm good, not that I was concerned, but I just now, there's

Scott Benner 32:53
two ways to think about it, and you're interested, like, have you heard the cold wind episode with the human resources professional? I have Okay, so what do you think? Do you think your job could be in jeopardy for knowing, for somebody at your company, knowing that you cost more money than other people do?

Erin 33:12
No, I don't think so, because my I have to say I I love my company and my direct supervisor, direct manager, is incredibly supportive, and she's great in so, no, I don't think so, but I have learned listening to the podcast. So I'm actually on my husband's insurance, and there was something, oh, I know what it was. It was gevok. So gevok is was not part of the formulary for glucagon options. And so I actually ended up calling his insurance and talking to them, because they're self funded, asking them why it wasn't covered. And I think I need to call back and double check to make sure that they put it on the formulary, but they actually looked into it and they were going to see what they could do to get it added as an option on the formulary. Your husband's company is a self pay they're a self funded insurance.

Scott Benner 34:19
Can we take a detour for a half a second. Can you tell me what was your impression of hearing that? Because cold wind is an anonymous episode, so the person's not just anonymous. Their voice has been changed. And she came on having been a human resources person for, I mean, decades, and she talked about the people that her company would have her come up with reasons to let go of because they were costing them too much in healthcare and obviously completely illegal and immoral, but she shared the stories nevertheless. How did you interact with that episode?

Erin 34:53
It actually didn't surprise me any so in my tenure as an HR professional, I have worked. Worked for software development. I've worked in healthcare. I've worked for pharmaceutical distribution company. I've worked for a union, and now I work for a conservation and mitigation company. So honestly, a lot of the cold wind episodes don't surprise me a whole lot, and I think it's just from my time in healthcare, because prior to becoming a HR professional, I actually worked in a doctor's office right out of college, and so there's a lot of things that I think just don't surprise me anymore. Yeah,

Scott Benner 35:43
but does it change your mind? Like, if you So, here's the question, if you change jobs again, or say, your husband, I'm trying to make up something that forces, forces you off of his insurance, right? And you have to get your own and you change jobs, would you keep it to yourself then? No,

Erin 35:59
I don't think so, because I think for safety reasons, for me, people need to know.

Scott Benner 36:06
Yeah, no, I agree. It sounds like that in some scenarios, scenarios in which you're not going to know you're in or not in, you could end up being on the chopping block later for your health reasons. And

Erin 36:21
if that's the case, I think being in human resources, as long as I have that, if I felt like I was let go for an unethical or like an immoral reason, I would probably file a complaint. You would fight back. I would fight back, because I think that that's, unfortunately, there are employers that are out there that are still doing things like that, but in my opinion, or in my experience, there's a most employers do actually care about their employees, or to an extent, I will say, to an extent, you know, because they care about the bottom line, and the employees are usually what help the bottom line. Yeah,

Scott Benner 37:05
I understand. Okay, all right, thank you. I appreciate that little flight of fancy. Yeah, of course. So today, you're managing with the Moby, and I'm going to be remiss if I don't ask you about it. How is it I

Erin 37:18
am loving it, since it's my first and I actually so funny things got I got it less than a week ago.

Scott Benner 37:26
Oh, okay, so you don't know what the hell you're talking about, but still, I

Erin 37:31
mean, I've, you know, I see a difference already, okay, but I love the ability to not have to inject all the time, and because I'm if my blood sugar gets over, you know, I have my eyes set at 180 at the moment. If it starts creeping to 180 I want to inject, even if I've just injected like, I want to take more insulin. I'm like, No, you need to let your insulin work and see where it goes. Let's keep an eye on it, and then in 45 minutes, if it's still half an hour, 45 minutes, if it's still high, then we'll see what we need to do. But I love the control IQ, doing the correction boluses and things like that, because otherwise, yeah, it's just, I love the less than a unit corrections that it does, because that's where I was struggling with is I was doing, you know, I had a vial and a syringe while the syringes are in unit one unit increment, so I would be eyeballing if I try to do anything less than a unit, Yeah,

Scott Benner 38:35
but you're in such an interesting situation because you haven't had diabetes that Long, and you've jumped onto like a completely brand new pump, right directly from MDI. What made you choose that pump over Medtronic 780, G OmniPod five or even the the x2 from tandem?

Erin 38:56
Well, my two choices, I think, through my insurance, were primarily tandem x2 or OmniPod. When I was initially diagnosed, especially after listening to your podcast, I was like, Dad said, I want OmniPod. That's what I want. And I even got the sample that you can order through OmniPod because I was just fascinated by the fact of not having to have tubes, and it's all self contained. I don't know, summer last year, I started looking at cost for insulin insurance, or my endo team told me I had to wait until, you know, essentially, six months after being diagnosed. Think that's pretty common for most people, and the only reason I didn't go on a pump earlier was because in June of last year, I decided to go with the g7 because my original CGM was the libre two, and then I decided to go on the g7 In. And so that kind of stopped my team from saying, hey, let's get you on a pump. Because, you know, it's barely, at this point, barely integrated with the x, with tandems, other pump, right? And so I started looking at pricing and tandem while was more expensive up front, it is cheaper overall throughout the year, where OmniPod would have cost me significantly more because of the I think, co insurance that I would have had once I met my deductible,

Scott Benner 40:37
the way your insurance is, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, you're fine, yeah, it's just the way your insurance is set up. Put you in that situation,

Erin 40:46
exactly, okay, exactly. And then I think at my October appointment with my endo nurse practitioner, because my endo team is a nurse practitioner and a CDE and then an MA within the group. And so my nurse practitioner at my October appointment was telling me about Moby, and she said, I really think that that's going to be a good fit for you and your lifestyle and the things that you want. And so I was super excited when she said that. And so that's kind of how

Scott Benner 41:19
it all happened. Well, yeah, I mean, if the OmniPod was out of your reach for cost reasons that I think the Mobi makes this the next best sense, right? And it runs the algorithm, the the tandem control IQ algorithm, so you just didn't go from you literally went from not being able to inject less than a unit of insulin to an algorithm taking care of your blood sugar. And I'm interested to know, like, what's have, has there been an improvement, like, in your like, what do you see on your clarity report?

Erin 41:49
I haven't actually, I should probably look at my clarity report. I've been trying to kind of give it a week or so to see what the difference is. I definitely have noticed that there are times that I'm less in range in the last 24 hours. But I think some of that has to do with I always tend to get evening highs. And I think it just has to do with I'm really bad about eating higher protein and fats, because I like to not have to bolus for a snack sometimes, but then it's like, Okay, now it's catching up with you hours later. Get

Scott Benner 42:28
the rise anyway, yeah. Do you know how to bolus for fat and protein?

Erin 42:33
Kinda, yeah. I think I just choose not to. Sometimes. I

Scott Benner 42:38
gotcha, you're trying to see if the algorithm will take care of it for you. Yeah, I

Erin 42:42
think part of is that some of the evening stuff, I am trying to see what the algorithm will do, and just trying to understand better of what it you know, where it needs my help. And then sometimes I just go, Okay, enough is enough, and I'm going to do a correction. And then it says, Oh, you have too much insulin on board. You can't do a correction. I'm like, Okay, well, I guess I'll just wait then.

Scott Benner 43:04
So, yeah, you're in the very beginnings of this. There's an episode called control IQ ninja you should listen to. I

Erin 43:11
think I've listened to it once, but I wasn't, obviously, it wasn't yet. I do need to go back and listen to

Scott Benner 43:17
it again. And there's fat and protein episodes in the Pro Tip series. And if you go to the Facebook group, in the feature tab, there's a whole list of fat and protein episodes, if you want to get involved in them. Okay, cool. You haven't had type one that long, but you seem really well versed in the podcast. Like, where did you

Erin 43:33
find it? So right after I was diagnosed, and I think it was like a, I don't know, within a week or so being diagnosed, a friend of mine actually sent me a link to your podcast. And once she sent me that link, I just started listening. I actually started listening. I listened to the episode she sent me, which I think was episode it was in the eight hundreds. It was one of the ones where you reposted an older episode. You know, how do you talk about diet type one or something like that? And then I went back to Episode One, and I listened to from episode one until about 75 to 100 I don't remember where I stopped. And then after that, I was like, Okay, let's jump to some of the newer stuff. So I skipped some of the other episodes I have listened to the defining diabetes and the pro tips multiple times, and a few of the other ones, just because I feel like most of my management comes from what I've learned. Oh, I'm

Scott Benner 44:46
glad that's great. So, so what does that translate to for you? Like, what are your outcomes? Like,

Erin 44:53
I definitely am way more bold with insulin than I. Think I would have been had I not listening to the podcast. I feel like I have a lot more confidence than I would have, or than I did nice. And I also think that I'm kind of at the point of starting to come out of the honeymoon phase too. I've definitely noticed needing an increase in insulin over the last couple months so and also, the other thing too, is, is I just kind of do things, I think, and I think the podcast gave me the confidence to go, let's just try increasing so when I was on MDI, I would wake up and my blood sugars would be 121 30. And I'm like, I don't love waking up fasted at 121 30. So I was like, okay, tonight, let's try, you know, we'll eyeball a half unit more and see where that takes me. Yeah, and then after a couple days, I'd still be on the higher side. So I was like, Okay, well, let's try a little bit more. And I kept doing that. And so, you know, of course, my endo team. I love my endo team. She my nurse practitioner would be like, just remember, you don't want to fall more than 30 points. And I was like, I know she's like, and I see you falling at more than 30 points, somebody like and if you notice, I've also taken fast acting insulin about the same time that I'm taking my Lantis at the time, because I was seeing the trend of the rise, and I'd be trying to catch it at like 121 30, so it didn't hit 180 200 plus, where then I would stick there all night long, right?

Scott Benner 46:34
So the way I talk about this, it vibes with how your brain works. Mm, hmm, yeah. Now I can tell, like, you seem it's interesting, because I don't know if people are noticing or not, but your overall general attitude about diabetes, and the way you talk about it, comes off more like you've had it for 15 years, yeah, but you just got it, and you're not being, it's not like you're not being careful or thoughtful about it. You just seem to have a more kind of like a, you know, I wonder if it'll cover the fat on its own. I'd like to see if it's going to do this. I put in extra insulin here because I don't want this number, like, it's all very, um, I don't know. I like it. I like how you're talking about it, I guess is what I'm trying to

Erin 47:15
say. Uh, thank you. And I think part of it just has to do with the fact that I, you know, I look at my a, 1c when I was first pregnant, and it was 5.5 so there's no reason why I can't have three, you know, pre type one, A, 1c numbers. There's no reason why I can't have a, you know, be fasting at 100 there's no reason right that I shouldn't be. And so it's just finding the balance between too much insulin and not enough insulin. And where is that kind of sweet spot? Yeah, you know, I remember when I was first diagnosed, and the first time I met with my I think it was during my intake, my nurse practitioner, she said, you know, at some point, you're going to know more about how to manage your diabetes than I ever will, and so I think that's why I also kind of take it into my own hands, because at the end of the day, I know she has my best interests at heart, but She also has to make sure she's doing the right thing and taking care of her, you know, covering herself and all of that, and, you know, and so I also take that into consideration too.

Scott Benner 48:30
Yeah, that's great. That's fantastic. And thank your friend for me for sharing the podcast with you. That's how it all Yeah, I was having a long conversation the other day with somebody about that exact like, I don't know how to put it exact. I have a couple of jobs. Like, making the podcast is one of my jobs. You would think that's my job, but then promoting it and working with advertisers and worrying about numbers and downloads and long term, you know, viability and stuff like that, that takes up a lot more of my time than I care to I care to believe is true. I just like the struggle every day is, how do you get more people to know about it? I had a at a meeting last night with an AI company I'm considering basically leasing the the podcast to an AI company who is going to like, it's basically an AI doctor, okay? And so it's an app or a web portal where you go and ask questions and get, like, real answers about your diabetes that's actually connected to your live CGM data. I've seen a couple of samples of it, and I've done some live, you know, like last night, I messed around in it for about an hour in a meeting where actually connected to a person. And I said, What's my blood sugar? And it said, right now, your blood sugar's 78 but you should see. The information it gave back. And then I said, Okay, do you think I'm going to get low and like, what should I take right now to, you know, stop that from happening? And then it gave back a thoughtful answer. I said, Okay, I'm gonna have a meal right now. How much should I bolus and when should I How long should I wait before I eat, and it told me those things. And the the the creator of this, you know, the founder of this company, it's a very new company, still said, I would like it if the users could talk to the podcast and, and he's like, you know, there's a world in the in the future where, you know, it'll respond back. And he's like, we have so much of your audio. He's like, we could it could respond back in your voice, like you digitally, could talk back to people through the podcast. I'm like, that's insane. Like, he's showing me all that, right? And I'm trying to like, like, is that something I want to do, is something I want to be involved in? Like, I think it is. And I'm going through all of it, and, and, and in the course of this conversation, he asks me, what's your dream? And I said about my business, because, I mean, the podcast is a business, right? And I, and I said, my dream is scalability. And he he seemed confused, and because I didn't say, like, I want to make a bunch of money, right? Like, I don't think I don't think I said any of the things that he expected me to say, right? Yeah. And I was like, I said, Listen, I try not to say this out loud, because I don't want people to take it the wrong way. And I was like, but there's this scene, and this is not an apples to apples comparison, but there's a scene at the end of Schindler's List where Oscar Schindler realizes he still has a piece of jewelry, something that he could have traded for a person for their life, and that he, you know, almost mistakenly, didn't, didn't do this and and now he's looking at this piece of jewelry that he's wearing and realizing it's, it's, it's Another person. It could have been another person. It shouldn't be lost in anyone looking at about how many people he helped, like, like so many people, but what he was focused on was the one person he didn't get to. And I swear to you, and again, the Holocaust and my diabetes podcast have nothing to do with each other, but that feeling, I feel like that all the time. I constantly think there's this information here, and I see it help people, not just once in a while, and not colloquially. Or somebody emails me now and again. I'm talking about dozens of people every day, telling me directly, I listened to that Pro Tip series, or I heard bold beginnings, or this happened, or that happened, or, you know, and I'm doing measurably better because of that, and as heartened as I am by that, or by hearing you tell me how valuable the podcast has been for you. The right after I get that nice little burst of, oh, this is helping. That's nice. There's a voice in my head, or a devil on my shoulder, or whatever it is, who just says, Why can't you reach more people like, like, and so I constantly feel like I'm failing.

Erin 53:12
That makes sense. And solely, yeah, I think it's so I totally hear, like, get what you're saying and, and I think that's just, we always look for, what can we do? Be doing better, and how can we reach more people? And, I mean, I will, I definitely share the podcast and the Facebook group with you know, because on Facebook, I'm in a couple different like, adult diabetes groups, and people are like, I'm newly diagnosed, and I go, Oh, you have to check out the Facebook group, and you need to check out this podcast. It is super helpful, and it's helped me. And I will send them links of, you know, the defining diabetes, the pro tips, a link to the group, and because I, I agree with you that we all, like those of us in in this realm, it's all about how we share the information with others that are new and coming into it, but then also, How do we reach those that are already, you know, in it and doing their own thing, and think that they're doing great, but don't realize that they could probably be doing a little bit better.

Scott Benner 54:29
They're struggling, yeah, and they know it or don't know it, so it that's beyond me, like so I said to him, so My dream is that there was a way to accomplish that, because right now, I am completely hamstrung by the idea that it is a word of mouth medium. There's not much more I can do about it, and I don't think everybody would enjoy listening to me. I don't think everybody would maybe even understand, but I've seen such a response that I feel like I would like people. People to have at least the knowledge that it exists, so that they can make the decision, yes, I'd like to try this, or no, I'm not going to try it. And that way I'd feel more confident that I did more and and that more people could possibly be find value with it. That's pretty much it. So anyway, it's nice of your friend to tell you about it, and that's what made me think of No

Erin 55:27
absolutely. And I find it fascinating. You know, if you Google type one diabetes, I think your podcast is usually one of the first things that pops up now, so, or at least when I google search it. So I just find it fascinating that it's it's definitely there, and that feel like I hear a lot of parents talking about that. You know, when they're in the hospital with their child, they start Google searching, and all of a sudden, you know your podcast comes up and they talk about how the podcast has helped them, too. So I just find it kind of interesting how it all comes together, not

Scott Benner 56:09
fast enough for me. I'm also very competitive, so there's that's mixed in there. But you know, as I was talking to this, this gentleman in, I don't know, our third or fourth meeting, and you know, he said to me, he goes, Look, Scott, he's like, that your podcast is in the best I can tell, the one of the most valuable things for people with type one and, you know, really well known and respected and etc, and the rock solid information, like all that stuff. And he and he's like, I'm I'm a little confused that you think it's a failure. And I was like, oh, it's not a failure. It's a huge success. I think the way he put it was, nothing else touches you in this space, like you're he's like, you're so far ahead of everybody else as far as like, connections to listeners and followers and stuff like that. And he's like, but you don't see that as success? I said, No, I see that as a massive success. That's not the thing that keeps the fire burning, like, right, right, that I expect, but I expect to get 15 notes this morning from people who are doing better. I don't get that same Jolt from it like, I appreciate it and I respect it, and I'm happy for those people sincerely, but it they just makes me think, go find more people and help them too. And if that doesn't happen for me, I can get melancholy. Is the wrong word? I it can be hard for me to get motivated, right? Like, yeah. Like, I almost, I don't know this is a bad way to put it, but I feel like it's got to be somewhat similar brain wiring to betting on something like, you know, like people bet on sports, for example. It's not even about the money, right? It's you're chasing whatever that feeling is, and, and, or from Russia, yeah, yeah. And I, I want to help more people. And that's, that's my only goal, is to help more more and more people, but me the bag of meat who has a job and a life and everything, who has to get up every day and sit down here and, like, rev their brain up and, like, spit this stuff out. Like, I need, I need something to chase. If that makes I don't know if that makes sense or not. No, it does, yeah, so I'm, I'm always looking for that. And it's nice that the podcast is like, I mean, I looked at it this morning because he brought it up last night. I don't normally look at the rankings, but it's just like, it's crushing in like, 48 different countries, and that's fantastic. Oh, my God, it's amazing. Like, it's crazy to think that there's like, like, you know, you remember the little girl from Russia? Have you ever heard that episode? I don't know if I have, oh, find from Russia with sarcasm, okay, okay. And great episode of like this. At the time, 14 year old little girl who got type one diabetes in like, she lives in Russia. She found the podcast and then went to her mother and said, I need a CGM and a pump and, like, put it on her mom to figure out how to get it for. And then I think, her mom, I don't have to travel to America, so I forget how they did it exactly, but they got it for. And then that girl, like, managed her a 1c to within an inch of its life by herself with just the information she got from me. That's crazy. That's insane, right? Like, I think that's that's amazing, people in Australia, New Zealand, God, I have listeners in everywhere, like, literally everywhere. And still, when I get up in the morning and I look at my whiteboard, which, right now is saying to me, so here, I don't usually say this stuff out loud, but why not? I have an idea for a series of shorts, and I'm going to call it small sips. I have an idea for bitch sessions where I think people should come on and bitch about one specific topic, about diabetes. I have an idea called I don't understand, where somebody comes on and just says, Scott, I don't understand. And then. Makes a statement, and then we try to figure it out together. And all this stuff, like, ways to use AI, and all this stuff, like, I need to, like, I don't know, like, it's hard. It's not hard to get excited. I'm excited about the podcast. It's hard to work as as long and as focused as all these ideas need when it's just me. And so it helps me to turn on a computer every couple of months and look and go, Oh, I'm winning. And that sort of makes me feel like I don't know that's where I get my energy from. So anyway, that's probably too long of a look into my weird psyche, but that's why you guys are all being helped, because I'm incredibly competitive, and I want to win everything. So

Erin 1:00:42
no, but I think that's I think it's fascinating, because it just goes to show how much you care about it and that you want to reach more and more people. Now that I'm in this, I don't know if you want to call it a club, but club, it feels like there's so many people with it. But then at the same time, when you actually look at the numbers, you're like, there really aren't that many people, not even in the grand scheme of things, yeah,

Scott Benner 1:01:07
a couple million people out of three, 30 million Americans, or something like that, right? Or, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's an incredibly rare illness. It doesn't feel like that because of the podcast makes it feel like everybody has diabetes, absolutely, which is part of the choice. Yeah, that's what. It makes you feel good about it, because everybody you talk to us type one.

Erin 1:01:29
And I think that's the same thing with like the Facebook groups too. It makes you feel like, oh, there are a lot more people out there that experience the same things you do every day. It's comforting. It is, it is comforting. And it's also kind of going back to why I started, or when I started sharing on social media, I think one of the very first, like stories or posts or anything that I did when I got my CGM, was I, you know, posted a picture with my libre two on the back of my arm. And somebody that I knew, you know, years ago, that I used to do ballet with when I was younger, she sent me a message, and she's like, kind of like, why are you wearing that? Like, are you wearing that just because, for health reasons? Not. She didn't say it that way, but, you know, trying to understand why I was wearing them, and I explained it to her, and so she told me she actually was diagnosed with type one a few years ago, and and so that we've totally reconnected because of type one. And so it's just really interesting. I like how

Scott Benner 1:02:33
she approached you, like you're not doing that, like bro science thing with the CGMS, are you right?

Erin 1:02:39
I now looking back on it, I see how she could totally think that. But yeah, I was like, no, no, no, my

Scott Benner 1:02:49
baby gave me diabetes,

Erin 1:02:52
exactly. But you know, in talking with my parents also, my maternal grandfather had diabetes, and so I already always knew about that, and I always kind of had this inkling that maybe one day I would end up with type two.

Scott Benner 1:03:10
The grandfather had type one or type two.

Erin 1:03:12
They don't remember because he's actually no longer with us. He passed away in the early 80s, but he was diagnosed, think, in his late 40s, so it was like the 60s or early, late 60s, early 70s? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:03:28
no,

Erin 1:03:30
so they did shots.

Scott Benner 1:03:33
How about other autoimmune stuff in your family?

Erin 1:03:35
So on my dad's side, his uncle had type one and passed away when he was in his 30s from complications. And then, I don't know, oh, there is arthritis on my mom's side of the family too. Both my mom and my grandma have

Scott Benner 1:03:54
arthritis. They have RA. Is it autoimmune? I

Erin 1:03:57
don't know if it's RA or not, but they both have it.

Scott Benner 1:04:01
What about hypothyroidism, celiac, none

Erin 1:04:06
of that that I know of for sure. Has your digestion changed since you were diagnosed? Not really. I mean, maybe a little bit, but not a ton. I did start taking in January, I did some digestive enzymes, and boy, did that change my insulin sensitivity? Oh, it made me way more sensitive to insulin at the time. I actually kind of stopped taking them for a while, and I haven't taken them in a while, but at first, boy, was that an adjustment with insulin needs? Yeah, it was. It was actually quite fascinating to see it change like that. And it was like overnight, too. It didn't take much,

Scott Benner 1:04:49
yeah, because the food's not sitting in your stomach as long. Yeah. Scotty takes this every day. Okay? I hear from other people. I hear from other people. I can't remember. I'm like, you know when you remember when you're on the toilet? You're like, I should have took that thing. I'll tell you what I've done that thing. I haven't said this out loud yet on the podcast. Am I gonna tell you? Why not? I'm, oh, my god, slippery elm bark.

Erin 1:05:17
I don't elm bark. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:05:19
yeah. You're gonna hear about that on the podcast. Eventually, when I I'm doing an episode with a digestive kind of guru, and I got on with him, explained all my digestive issues, and he was like, I want you to take slippery elm bark. And I was like, Okay. And the it took two days, but two days later, I don't know how to I like a king, Aaron, like, like, I imagine a king goes to the bathroom, and the guy texts me, goes, how's it going? And I, of course, texted him back and said, I'm like, a king and, and he's like, Oh, I knew it. Now I have to take a test like, to like. So he masked something with the slippery elm bark. And he's like, now we'll figure out what that is and see if we can't correct that. I was like, okay, right on. So he sent me, I have to take this, like, urine test. I think I have to pay like, $300 for it, but I'm gonna do it. Because he was like, he was so right, just from listening to me that I'm like, I wonder what I wonder what else he knows. So anyway, it's been really interesting. Like, yeah, slippery elm bark. It just, I guess it coats it, coats your insides with, like, more of a mucus layer. And I even hear online that women use it for other dryness. Does that make sense? Interesting? Uh huh. Case your who isn't hot enough, I guess. Like, anyway, who the hell knows? I don't care. I'll try anything

Erin 1:06:45
that's fascinating.

Scott Benner 1:06:45
I was like, Whatever, man, I'll do it. He added a instead of the digestive enzyme I was using. He's like, use this one that has HCl in it. And I was like, which is hydrochloric acid, I guess. And, and he's like, you know, it turns out that it's possible, if I would have met this guy 25 years ago, I wouldn't have had, like, reflux and all this other stuff. It was a, it's fascinating. It just really amazing. Anyway, there'll be a whole episode on it at some point. But anyway, is there anything we didn't talk about that we should have?

Erin 1:07:15
I think I wanted to talk about kind of my diagnosis experience a little bit please do after covid, in November of 22 I ended up having mastitis, and I took antibiotics for it, and then in December, I was speaking of having to the bathroom, was starting to really have the experience of not being able to and in my mind, I was like, oh, it's the antibiotics that's, you know, All I need is in probiotics, and I'll be fine. No, no. But got worse and worse, and then the week between Christmas and New Year's, I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed. I would try to go get my son out of bed, and he like, I couldn't make it from my bedroom down the hall to my son's room without stopping and like catching my breath and then making it into his room. Like the day my husband took me to the ER. He actually happened to be out of town for work, and he left the night before, and I called him, and I was like, Hey, I just ate, I don't know, I think it's like, some watermelon or something, and then, like, 10 minutes later, I threw it up. And he was like, great, that's fantastic. I'm not home, and you're getting sick and you're taking having to take care of our son, who is, you know, seven months at the time, yeah. So he called his mom the next morning and had her come and help with our son, and I'm trying to breastfeed. And mind you, in October, I was at a wedding and noticed I had lost some weight. But then in December, right before Christmas, I, you know, put on some of my work clothes, and I was like, Whoa, these really don't fit. And I was almost embarrassed by the fact that my clothes were so big, and so, of course, didn't think anything of this time. So finally, my husband comes home, and he's like, I'm taking you to the emergency room. So he takes me, mind you, I had thrown up again the next that morning after eating. I think I don't know. I all I really wanted was like peaches and like Activia yogurt and like all the bad things that don't help you when you have high blood sugar aren't produced, yeah, you are producing insulin, yeah. And so again, threw it up within like five minutes of consuming it. So obviously, something was really wrong. I'm glad he made me go to the emergency room when I got there, you know, they This was covid time in the hospital, and so they had, like, a nurse sitting at the front door who did, like, kind of a pre check in. And, you know. Told her, Hey, I'm not able to go the bathroom, and, you know, I'm just not, like, I'm super nauseous and I don't feel good. And she told my my husband told me later that she told him that she doesn't think that it's what I think it is. She thinks it's something else. They wheel me over to the intake area. They get me on the scale. I look down and I'm like, I just lost like 30 pounds in like three weeks. Wow, yeah, wow, wow, yeah. So I lost a lot of weight in three weeks. How tall are you? Six foot and usually about, think, like three weeks earlier, I was about 155 I think at the time when I was checked into the hospital, I was about 130 and I had, you know, obviously had clothes and boots on and things like that.

Scott Benner 1:10:50
Aaron, I'm sorry, you're six feet tall. You had 155 How come you're in human resources and you're not like a runway model or something like that? What's going on?

Erin 1:10:59
You know, it's funny, I get asked. I used to get asked that a lot. I don't know.

Scott Benner 1:11:04
I just never, you never went that way. Well, I

Erin 1:11:07
think part of it was when I was younger, I would have been considered a plus size model, like I wouldn't have, because I was never the, you know, real thin

Scott Benner 1:11:17
back in the day, yeah, when back in the day, yeah, you know, right? Yeah. So

Erin 1:11:21
that was interesting. You lost 30 pounds

Scott Benner 1:11:24
in three weeks. Did you in? In your heart of hearts? Did you have weight to lose? No, no, you were happy at 155

Unknown Speaker 1:11:33
Mm, hmm, yeah.

Scott Benner 1:11:34
Are you like, a tall and like straight, or are you curvy, tall

Erin 1:11:39
and pretty straight. I mean, I definitely have some curves, but nothing crazy. Okay, you know, people look at me now and I'll be like, Oh, I could, you know, I feel like I could use to lose a few and they're like, You look fantastic. Did

Scott Benner 1:11:55
your mother in law notice it when you were busy showing your moves to your mother in law when she came over that day? Were you like? Did she say you, honey, look like you lost weight or anything like that.

Erin 1:12:03
So after the fact, everyone told me that I basically looked like crap.

Scott Benner 1:12:10
It didn't tell you what, it would have helped

Erin 1:12:13
you. I mean, I look back on pictures and I look looked dreadful. I literally looked like I was dying right right at Christmas, about that eye sockets were all sucked in, like, I just looked dreadful,

Scott Benner 1:12:29
and you didn't notice it was as it was happening. Either,

Erin 1:12:32
no, no, I didn't notice it. And, you know, I didn't think anything I was I think I remember asking one of my friends like, Hey, did you lose a lot of weight when you were breastfeeding? Because that's where my brain went. My brain went, Oh, it's postpartum. It's just breastfeeding.

Scott Benner 1:12:49
You know, has the weight come back for you? Oh, yeah,

Erin 1:12:53
it came back with a vengeance. Because once I started on insulin, I was ravenous.

Scott Benner 1:12:58
You don't realize either that that the high blood sugars were also helping you keep weight off. I mean, obviously, because you lose it, you you realize that at the time. But like, you know, once you start taking insulin, and you were probably eating so much while you were losing weight too, right? Yeah,

Erin 1:13:16
right. Well, to produce milk too, yeah, your

Scott Benner 1:13:19
body was trying to do a lot of different things at the same time, while it was shutting the was shutting down. Exactly,

Erin 1:13:23
interesting. So really, actually, the whole kind of the crazy part of my diagnosis story is so I was in the ED for, I think, like, six plus hours. They finally take me back, my husband again, covid time. My husband's not allowed to be in the ED with me, which, in hindsight, I wish he would have just been like, I don't care what you have to say, I'm staying with my wife. Because the doctor, like, I don't really remember a ton of my time in the ED, oh, other than I remember the, you know, them taking me back. I had to do the tests. I think I did a urine test. They did a stomach X ray to make sure I didn't have a blockage, and then they did blood work. And once they did all the tests, the doctor's like, well, you know, there's nothing that I see at this point. And so my husband finally came in when they were getting ready to discharge me and and he's talking to the the ER doctor, and he's like, she needs fluids, like, she's dehydrated. And he just was like, Well, do you want to wait like, an hour or two to, like, be able to get fluids? And so he's like, if not, then you know, you can just go home, keep drinking the Pedialyte that you're drinking. It'll be fine. You'll be fine. And he sent me home with, like, a bunch of, like, laxatives and wait,

Scott Benner 1:14:41
did you get discharged without a diabetes diagnosis? Yeah,

Erin 1:14:45
yep. So I didn't thought this is where it this is the kicker. Go ahead. So they discharge me. They send us to the pharmacy. We collect all the things that he ordered. We get in the car. We drive the 20 minutes. Home. I get we get home, I get back in bed, and then within 10 or 15 minutes of getting home, the ER, doctor calls me and goes, we need you to come back to the ED, your blood sugar was over 500 Oopsie. Yeah, our fault. So, yeah, you shouldn't have let me go.

Scott Benner 1:15:21
They let you leave without seeing the blood work they took. Did they take the blood work for them?

Erin 1:15:27
Right? I don't understand how no one could think I

Unknown Speaker 1:15:30
know. Okay, all right, it's fine. So

Erin 1:15:32
we go back and mind you, you know when we leave, I'm still drinking the highlight that I had with me. And so we get back there, and nurses are livid that he let me go, okay, and they do a finger stick, and I read over 600 Wow, yeah, so because, I mean, obviously I'm drinking Pedialyte, so of course, my blood sugar is going to keep rising. So the that particular doctor ended up getting off the shift by the time I got back, so his colleague checked me out, and you know, he had me, of course, again covid time, so I had to have a mask on. So he had me pull down my mask, and he's like, I can smell the ketones on your breath. So he's like, we're gonna get you in a bed right away. Right away is two hours later, because, you know, it was right after it was the beginning of the year. So I think it was like the first full day covid January, 3 or fourth. Yeah, it was covid Palooza, yeah. And there were over 200 people in the ED at the time. And so finally they get me in. He sees me still in the hallway, and he gets mad, and they finally get me into a room and get me on a insulin drip and an IV and all that and so, so I'm in the Ed, I don't know, almost 24 hours, I think, before they get me into a bed upstairs in the hospital, you know, because ICU didn't have a room for me, so they had to get me to a point where I could be in a non ICU room, because I responded to insulin pretty quickly. So they get me upstairs. The first room that they put me in was a room that was made for one patient, but because of covid, they had two beds in the room. I was in the bed that was in the corner with no call button, like they had a extension cord, basically, that I could, like, push the call button, but it would go to the bed to the main bed in the room. Yeah. So all my belongings were on the bed with me. Mind you, I also had a breast pump. You know I was they got me in one of the hospital breast pumps. I hadn't pumped in over 20 nurse or pumped in over 24 hours. At this time, they put the pump at the end of the bed, so now I'm getting mastic really bad mastitis. Can't pump because the pumps at the end of the bed can't really reach anything. I watched one of my nurses trip over my IV pole trying to be able to log all of my information because you just jammed in the room. This is just a really tight space, right, right?

Scott Benner 1:18:15
But did you think you were in trouble? Like, did you think I'm not okay? Like, like, What's your understanding of your health?

Erin 1:18:22
I don't really remember the doctor talking to me in the ED about anything, because I was still kind of so out of it at that point. It wasn't until a good solid 24 hours after being in the hospital that I started actually having memories of things and was more kind of in tune of what was going on, I think. So I remember looking at the whiteboard, you know, with my information, and it says insulin dependent. And I so I Google, I'm like, insulin dependent. What does that mean? And so then I see that it says type one. And somehow, for some reason, like this, like relief came over me and was like, at least it's not type two. And then I was like, You don't know anything about type one or type two. Why? Why is that a thought that you had? I don't know. It was just

Scott Benner 1:19:11
your blood sugar was over 600 so, you know, yeah, probably not thinking very clearly either. No.

Erin 1:19:17
And they did a covid test. And so, you know, my husband stayed with me until, I don't know, 6am the next morning, he went home to go take care of our son because my mother in law was still taking care of him. And then they come back to bring me some things, and they're not allowed in my room. And the nurse was actually rather angry that the security let them back to see me because I tested positive for covid. Oh, okay, I didn't have covid symptoms. I had had covid in October, and the hospital said no that they would not retest me. So. To see if it was a false positive. Yeah, they had the positive. They were going with that then, yep. And so I didn't get to see my son for like, four days straight because of it. Wow. Oh. What fun. Yeah, Jesus, yeah. And then I had a nurse one, one of my first nurses, I was more awake at the time, and you know, they were doing all the the injections in your stomach. And I kind of pushed her hand away on accident, you know, a total subconscious thing. And she's like, You need this. You did this to yourself. Wait, what did you do to yourself that I gave myself diabetes? Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. But I did it to myself. So mind you, I filed a complaint about

Scott Benner 1:20:43
her when I got out of the hospital. Does anything happen when you do that, or do you never find out about it?

Erin 1:20:49
I filed the grievance. I think they said that they asked me, like what I wanted, and I just said, you know, I just want somebody to have a conversation with this nurse, so that she understands that patients don't always, do you know? They don't know what to do, not to do, and like, have a little bit more compassion and empathy for your patients. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:21:12
this is real life. It's not a podcast she's listening to where everybody who doesn't agree with her is wrong.

Erin 1:21:17
Yeah, exactly. But then I had some AB. So once I got out of that room with two people, I was able I was put in a room by myself, because I requested that right away so that I could pump more easily and kind of take care of those kinds of things. I ultimately didn't want to lose my milk supply at seven months postpartum. And so my first nurse that I had in my second room. He was fantastic. He was the one telling me about having a CGM, and he was the one that, he's, like, talk to your Endo. They're really great, like, you can get a CGM. And he was telling me about it, it's, he's like, it sits on your skin, it'll read your glucose, you know, continuously. And he's like, you want that for what you have. And so he was great. And I just couldn't, honestly, I am so grateful for him. The one thing I wish is that I could get in contact with him now and tell him how impactful he was for me. And also tell him, if you have other patients that are in the same boat as me, tell them about the podcast.

Scott Benner 1:22:29
That's nice. Well, I hope you get in touch with him. Then if you're going to

Erin 1:22:35
help me, no so. And then I was on the CGM within a week of being released from the hospital.

Scott Benner 1:22:41
Okay, yeah, it's fast. It's excellent, yeah. Well, you're on a good path. I mean, and you think you might be honeymooning a little,

Erin 1:22:47
maybe a little, so I don't think, honestly, I don't think it's much anymore, if at all. But I do think for the first year, I definitely was honeymooning. I was honeymooning, probably hardcore, until about September, and then I could see it starting to kind of taper off a little bit, right? But, you know, my insulin needs just kind of started to increase a little bit. And so I think that's what's making me think that I'm kind of almost done hunting meeting, if not done hunting meeting, I

Scott Benner 1:23:14
gotcha All right. Well, Erin, I very much appreciate you sharing the story with me and having this conversation. I, as I told you before we started recording, I'm going to go pay my taxes now, and I'm getting a blood draw today. So my day is just all about vampires and what I'm giving them. It's a full day today. Full Day talk to you. Gonna put some go to the post office and say, Hey, can you postmark this? Because I don't want it to be late and and then I'm going to go to a lab and let somebody stick a needle in my arm. So, yeah, big day for Scotty, yeah, good

Erin 1:23:49
luck with that. Thank

Scott Benner 1:23:50
you. It's time. I've been it's I'm getting a checkup with my doctor now that I've been on GLP for a year, so it's time for a checkup.

Erin 1:23:59
Well, good. And I, you know, i Congratulations on everything that's happened with that. I, you know, I listen to your diaries and everything.

Scott Benner 1:24:07
Oh, thank you. Yeah, well, the next one that comes out, you'll hear me cursing at the end, but it's going very well. It's hard to hard to be upset, but I had a setback last week that I it just surprised me and pissed me off, all at the same time as and it landed on the day when I had to make the diary. And I'm making the diary, I'm like, God, I'm mad. So anyway, work in progress. But thank you. It's very, very kind of you. Hold on second for me and I will.

Did you know if just one person in your family has type one diabetes, you are up to 15 times more likely to get it too. So screen it like you mean it one blood test can spot type one diabetes early. Tap now talk to a doctor or visit screened for type one.com for more info, I want to. Thank the Eversense CGM for sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast, and invite you to go to Eversense cgm.com/juicebox to learn more about this terrific device, you can head over now and just absorb everything that the website has to offer, and that way you'll know if ever sense feels right for you ever sense? Cgm.com/juicebox, a huge thanks to the contour next gen blood glucose meter for sponsoring this episode of The juicebox podcast. Learn more and get started today at contour. Next.com/juicebox if you're not already subscribed or following in your favorite audio app. Please take the time now to do that. It really helps the show and get those automatic downloads set up so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The juicebox podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com, do.