#586 Body Fire
Carol is an adult lving with type 1 diabetes.
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Scott Benner 0:00
You guys should hear how many different ways I tried to start this show. But in the end I just like Hello friends, and welcome to episode 586 of the Juicebox Podcast. See it's simple and easy
on today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast Carol is with us. Carol's from the Canada, the Canada, the Canadian. I just mix Canadian in Canada together somehow I was gonna say Carol's Canadian, or Carol's from Canada. Instead I said cow's Canavalia Oh, it's too late now I would have made that the title. Damn it. Anyway, while you're learning about Carol, remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice. Medical or otherwise, I've lost my rhythm. Please. Really? What are you gonna do? I mean, oh my god. Please consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. I guess I don't know it as much as I can just say it after I started. It's interesting. Please remember. Wow, that's weird. I'm thinking about it. Stop making. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. Or becoming bold with insulin. That's it. Thinking is my greatest enemy.
This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash juicebox. This episode of the podcast is also sponsored by touched by type one. Learn more about them on their Instagram or Facebook pages. And at touched by type one.org
Carol 2:04
Yeah, I wish I was where you were. Why is that? It's cold here.
Scott Benner 2:08
I hate the cold. I don't know why you're anywhere cold. It's a ridiculous idea. You should leave right oh,
Carol 2:13
we had snow three days ago. Like where are you? Ish. I'm in northern like North East New Brunswick. Pretty much. Within an hour. I can get the code back. I mean, I'm on like the side of Newfoundland, but I'm originally from Halifax Nova Scotia. Actually.
Scott Benner 2:30
Those are all places. I'm just kidding. They are
Carol 2:33
actually if you know, Sidney Crosby parlor Park Boys, they're all from my hometown. Coldharbour. Yes, you got surprisingly Yes. You guys
Scott Benner 2:43
Sidney Crosby and the Trailer Park Boys. Yeah. It's a nice mix.
Carol 2:48
And actually quite couple other people like classify. A lot of people know his music up here. We all camp together as kids at the same campground. And yeah, kid actually is a pretty small place anyway.
Scott Benner 3:00
Okay. I'm from Philadelphia. I think I'm supposed to hate Sidney Crosby. So
Carol 3:06
it's okay. Most Canadians don't like him either.
Scott Benner 3:08
Oh, really? Well, you know, it's funny, we're recording, I'm just gonna tell you that I standing in a tunnel with my son yesterday. And he's hitting and we're getting done. And then we started talking about different things. And talking about how once you make it to Major League Baseball, you're basically one of the best like 1000 baseball players on the planet. And, and how we watch them and then just openly mock them for sucking and you're like, wait, what? There's so much better than everybody else. And then I just thought, like, I can imagine you starting when you're four or five years old, and you make it you're 23 you're standing out in the field, gets quiet for a second before a pitch and just hear somebody yell at you suck just like my whole life, you know? And then that made me think of it
Carol 3:59
just comes crashing down at that one person. Well, when you said like, you know,
Scott Benner 4:03
nobody likes Sidney Crosby as like, he's a good hockey player. Like what else? He
Carol 4:08
is a good hockey player. But I guess what a lot of people don't like about him is he's not as rough and rugged. So when Don Cherry kind of out of them at the start and called them a hotdog player, it kind of stuck with him. Because you know, Don Cherry before his whole outing there was, you know, everybody loved on Cherry. So when he said something, you know, and he was young, and no one really took them seriously. And yeah, it's just
Scott Benner 4:33
Can I thank you. Before we get started, and I got to figure out your microphones a little poppy, but you said about already, which I really appreciated. And if you can do that a couple more times during the hour.
Carol 4:43
Oh, don't worry. You will hear that multiple times along with other weird Canadian words. I'm sure.
Scott Benner 4:48
Thank you. What kind of a mic are you using? Because you're a little puppy like You're like it's weird.
Carol 4:53
I'm using the one that came with my phone. Oh, it paid. I paid $700 for the phone. So you would Send the microphone would be happy to.
Scott Benner 5:03
Do you have hair touching the phone by any chance?
Carol 5:05
Not at all. Okay. All right.
Scott Benner 5:07
We're good then. So, we record that, you know, you're being recorded the whole time. So, you know,
Carol 5:14
awesome. I hope you have a deeper because sometimes Yeah, I might drop the bomb.
Scott Benner 5:19
Oh, I'll just cut the word out. I are back. Yeah, I gave up on the beeping about a year ago. It just really is like you have to because you basically you're doing double the work you're cutting. You're cutting some of the audio out, right? So you can't hear
Carol 5:35
it would be kind of fun to hear someone like me go on a rant and all you heard was Beep boop, boop, beep, beep and beep to
Scott Benner 5:43
a couple of times, that
Carol 5:45
would be kind of fun for a moment.
Scott Benner 5:47
Alright, so you, you introduce yourself and then we start talking anyway, you want to be known meaning by the way, you don't need to use your full name if you don't want to stuff like that.
Carol 5:56
My name is Carol, I'm from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in your guys's northern neighbor there Canada. And I now live in a little place called neglect New Brunswick. How I found the podcast and how pretty much my story would be is I work as a chiropractor and a roofer. That's my, one of my multiple trades. Plus, I'm self employed. And all of a sudden, one day I started not feeling good. And then I have multiple autoimmune diseases. So for like, eight years, everything always got blamed on that even blood work, they would say, you know, a little off because of this, or because of this medication. And, you know, finally, something didn't match. So I kind of crashed and ended up in the ER, and, you know, went through the whole battle of our free health care, Canadian fun up here. And luckily, I actually found this podcast very quickly. Because I'm the kind of person who goes on Facebook and, you know, puts out that post and joins 1500 groups and pretty much, you know, finds everything and your podcast actually came up that a lot of times, so I figured I'd jump on. And honestly, compared to what we get up here in Canada for information, it was something even my doctors and my nurses didn't even understand is if you're an adult up here and you get diagnosed with diabetes, they automatically assume type two. And I'm sure it's the same way in America. But in Canada, we have very limited resources period, let alone if you get diabetes. So down there, I noticed you guys, you know, you have camps and stuff that that would be I think we should have adult camps where we all get together with a case of beer and you know, just bitch about our diabetes.
Scott Benner 7:56
Oh, can I stop you for a second? I have to ask you a question. You're not You're not building something right now are you
Carol 8:01
know, that's actually a woodpecker outside?
Scott Benner 8:05
I'm not hearing that. Are you maybe are you maybe touching stuff while you're talking or moving around or anything? Because I'm hearing like a lot of scraping and like, like little No, no, you're
Carol 8:14
I think in my microphone might have moved it but I'll hold it. So it doesn't move there. That's weird.
Scott Benner 8:18
No, I really, maybe it's just that you're so far away and in the middle of a frozen tundra. That could be quite possible. Yeah. Well, and we won't harp on it, but I just want to make sure that you're not some people get like they move their hands and they rub things they don't realize they tap on me
Carol 8:35
like get fidgety. No, surprisingly, I'm actually not too fidgety since you complained that you couldn't hear my microphone. Like all like still and still like talk. But unfortunately, I am a hand talker. So I might switch a bit. So I apologize.
Scott Benner 8:50
Just a little bit of noise while you're talking. And I don't want people to miss what you're saying. But there
Carol 8:54
is like four woodpeckers just going crazy outside in the woods right now. So if you're getting that as a background noise, but
Scott Benner 9:01
Well, I wish you wouldn't have said for woodpeckers going crazy this early in the episode because god damn solid title for your episode. Anyway, okay, so you let me make sure I understand. So you go in. And, you know, you said you have a lot of other autoimmune issues that came prior. So what other ones do you have?
Carol 9:28
I have a condition called ankylosing spondylitis. I'm being diagnosed for lupus. I have fibromyalgia. rheumatory arthritis. I have psoriasis. I have a condition called beulas pemphigoid. And I learned I had hash nietos thyroid disease right before I got diagnosed actually a couple months beforehand. When I have anemia I know I'm missing something. You
Scott Benner 9:58
just list my autoimmune diseases you don't have Would that be easier?
Carol 10:01
Honestly, I think it would be but some of them I can't even pronounce myself. Some of them like, there's a couple in there. Oh, I'm Renault's syndrome, the one where your fingers turn white. That's a fun one. How old are you? I'm 41. Right now,
Scott Benner 10:18
how long have you had these things? In the past 10 years, they
Carol 10:22
all started coming up about 12 years. Right after I had my middle child, baby birthing. And I said I honestly, I tell her all the time, she sucked the life out and she's a teenager. Now.
Scott Benner 10:34
May I say? I don't believe you're supposed to tell them that.
Carol 10:38
I do though. Unfortunately, where it's okay, though. She understands because she believes in herself. Like, her father agrees. Like, you know, she, she's fun. I'm very proud of her. She's on Team Canada for cheerleading. So she has, you know, even though she's been a pain in my bum, she has done big things.
Scott Benner 10:57
Very nice. That's, that's nice. Okay, so prior to this, this first thing happening into your 20s Nothing going on. You just broke nothing.
Carol 11:06
I was actually at the time working as an automotive mechanic. And life was great. I to smoke actually had my first kid very young. And after my second kid, I had always complained about back pain. And they checked me for everything. And they told me that my sugar's were kind of elevated. But when I was pregnant, they weren't too concerned. And life went on, I was very active. So nothing really came up just a lot of nausea, but they always blamed being pregnant on that. So had my baby went back to work. And yeah, everything was fine. And then about two years later, then I started getting, but not feeling right. And they told me I had anemia. And at that time, it was anemia. And they just told me I had arthritis, what they do for Aimia nothing, they told me to eat some more iron a lot more red meat. Pretty much no i I've always eaten, right anyways, not big takeout person. We do like me, like, we do a lot of home gardening and stuff like that. So if we don't get ourselves, we always get from a market, like, we're pretty healthy either. So I never really thought of food or anything. And, you know, again, life went on. So five or six years goes by and the pains are getting worse. Now they're telling me I after MRIs and stuff, and you wait a while up here for this, by the way. So if you complain about a pain today, and you're not dying, you wait about 12 months to get an MRI
Scott Benner 12:49
is that the free health care that everybody here wants
Carol 12:52
for free health care that everybody wants up here. So I mean, some provinces are better than others. But unfortunately, on the east coast, ours is not. So if you complain today, they just give you painkillers. And they'll usually start as naproxen or something and they know tell you to, you know, limit your daily you know, everything and wait for your appointment. So when the year comes up, you'll get your MRI or CAT scan or whatever it is you're going in for even simple blood work. Like if you get blood work today, we'll say it's about two months sometimes to get into a doctor to get the results of that blood work. That so now you think about it. If you complain today about your problem, you wait a year for an MRI, that MRI now takes about, you know, two months sometimes for the doctor to get back unless it's you know, really, really, really bad. And then to get into their office now you're talking anywhere between six to eight weeks to get an appointment to get bloodwork now you're up to two years for something started bugging you two years ago.
Scott Benner 13:56
And a number of different things going on in that process. Exactly.
Carol 14:01
And then you get you'll get to a doctor and they'll be like, ooh, that doesn't sound and you'll wait all this time and then there'll be like, that doesn't sound like me. You should go see this doctor instead. Oh, and then you got to do to get so to get to a rheumatologist to get diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, which is it's a deformity that will happen in your spine. It's kind of if you ever see people who are as they get older, they're very hunched over and they're human, their shoulders are pronounced. And you know, they have a hard time walking very seized up. That's what it is actually the lead singer of Imagine Dragons has it looking but he does have it.
Scott Benner 14:42
It's an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine and large joints. That sounds right. Yeah. More common among men usually begins in early adulthood. Typically,
Carol 14:54
I don't know why they say it's more common among men. Because women is women. Name of is called the working man's disease. So I've been doing trades since I was 18 years old. And when I say trades, like up here we call anything. I mean, like building or fixing anything, that's a trade. So I have multiple licenses in different kinds of trades over the years. So I started off as an automotive technician, I did exhaust fabrication, then I moved on to carpentry, cabinetry, roofing. And then now I kind of do art with carpentry. Plus, I run a small business based off of different art and stuff with which I made.
Scott Benner 15:39
But always working with your hands leaning forward, like exactly,
Carol 15:43
so on your feet, they never really with women, they don't really think of diagnosing as like women, it's very hard to get a diagnosis with it, they'll usually tell you at Fibro, or give me something, it's, it's a certain blood marker, I guess it's an HLA B 27. Marker, it's all on the same lines is diabetes with the whole HLA family. And, and autoimmune diseases come in pairs. So usually, if you get one, you'll get two. And if you get another one, another one's gonna come along. That's what I've learned over the time. But the problem up here is, is if you want to learn anything besides basic, you have to do it yourself. Okay. So example, when I got when I got sick with diabetes before I actually got diagnosed, last year, when COVID started. In the end of February, we all got really, really, really sick. But COVID wasn't here yet. So my spouse and our daughter, they didn't get as sick as I did. So I went into the hospital, and they told me I had an upper respiratory infection. And they gave me an antibiotic, and they told me to go home. So I went home with the antibiotic, but nothing really happened. But because of COVID, you don't want to go back in because, I mean, they make it seem like you shouldn't less you have COVID. So I sat and waited. And I guess, between the time the antibiotic ended, and when I actually went into DKA, I had a kidney infection, because my blood sugar was so high. But no one ever checked my blood sugar because I don't look. And this is what they told me is I don't look like a diabetic. Because for 40 at the time, I was just before my 41st birthday. I'm in shape. I work yeah, I mean, like I don't, and their eyes up here and adult who's diabetic, you're overweight, you're lazy. It's very stereotypical. And they automatically assume you're cute. So when I get really sick, no one really paid attention to they just kept telling me it was something else. So I called my doctor and said, I'm having a really hard time breathing, My chest hurts, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But because of COVID She couldn't see me in the office. So over the phone, she told me I had asthma. And then two days later, I drove myself to the hospital. And they told me my blood sugar was 20 that 28 was 28 point something. I don't know what it is. And your guys's American term. I'll tell you in a second. A one C was 18.3.
Scott Benner 18:30
Jesus, okay, hold on. I
Carol 18:32
didn't understand how I drove myself there, let alone waited in the waiting room for six hours. And was still coherent when I got to them.
Scott Benner 18:42
Yeah. What did you say your blood sugar was? 28 It was
Carol 18:45
28 point something and what they have your a one so yet 18.3. And I hadn't eaten in a day or so because I was so nauseous. Yeah. And
Scott Benner 18:57
it was like for people listening that don't use that scale. Her blood sugar was over 500. That's crazy. And she's like that a long time it for a once he was that high too.
Carol 19:10
Yeah, what he told me was is that because of my job, and because of the fact that I'm active, I was always burning the over amount of sugar off and keeping my body in a fight or flight mode. And then when COVID head, everyone lost their jobs. So even though I was eating good, I was still eating carbs,
Scott Benner 19:33
sitting still not moving around as much not working. Exactly. Because
Carol 19:36
we weren't allowed out of our houses. Like if you want to walk your dog, you had to stick in a certain block radius. It was and this was right in March. It was one person per family to go grocery shopping or anything like that. Like it was very you couldn't do anything. And at the time we live in the city and we had a very small yard. And when I say small yard like I mean it was literally our house. driveway and a pile of the sod for grass. So you couldn't do much. So going from working 12 hour days, five to six days a week. Plus coming home and being busy. That didn't happen anymore, so I wasn't. So I was just taking me tactically and just building up building up. So when we couldn't work in March, it was, you know, three or four months it was just building up. I guess that's why I was so high they told me right now it makes total sense. They describe it as I was really sweet is pretty much like,
Scott Benner 20:36
that's just those that's because of the sap the the what do you guys put on the pancakes? Mabel Sarah, that's it. That's what
Carol 20:45
you understand. Like, I put that on everything. Like I played on my rice like this is before I get diagnosed early. On bacon, I put it on rice. I put it on eggs, I put it on, I get my french fries in it, like literally like it. Everything like I love even in the wintertime if you know someone with a tap, you can pour it on the snow and you can make your own candy with it. So you roll it up on a soccer stick and it's like maple Taffy
Scott Benner 21:17
gonna move you people somewhere warmer, so you can find other things to do.
Carol 21:22
Yeah, but with the cold comes the fun. Like we have four wheelers up here like we ever land in the middle of play kind of like the back roads up here. So up here, I can jump on my four wheeler and I can go more places and I can in my car. Or if you have a snowmobile up here, you can literally make it anywhere like it. There's a good with the bat. But we also live in a fishing village. The ocean is right beside me. So I'm willing to almost freeze to death sometimes to be able to experience all that too. Is in the city. We didn't have that. So
Scott Benner 21:58
yeah. Well, that sounds nice. I mean, honestly, outdoors is nice. I'm teasing, but the cold is insane. And oh, you're in what? Florida? No, I'm in New Jersey.
Carol 22:09
Okay, yeah. And even still warmer than that. Oh, yeah,
Scott Benner 22:11
it's way warmer here. And I don't think warming off here. So that's, that's. So you've been on. Even on quite a journey for the last 10 or so years?
Carol 22:24
Oh, it's not even like the little bit. I told you. That's not even the start of it. So when I made it to emerge, I would like I said, I was they told me I was in DKA. But because of COVID. I was sent home within 12 hours with a prescription for Metformin. They had done a gad test, a C peptide, and something else. And they told me to go home and wait for results. So they sent me home with metformin, and insulin Lantis to Use as directed. But no one gave me any direction, because I hadn't seen an endo team. And then I had homologue again, uses directed. But again, no one get all they told me was 10 units at each of my meals. Hmm. But I don't always eat. I mean by weight. Food.
Scott Benner 23:18
I'm trying to imagine what you do. So you're holding prescriptions that say use this directed on them, which is what they all say. And then no one helps you with what that means when you're told to go home. Yeah, what do you do next? Because you're probably
Carol 23:30
well, I still was so they gave me I guess two bags of fluid and antibiotics for the kidney infection I had. And they sent me home like, Yeah, me too. And they told me if I have any more problems to come back it but I waited seven hours to get in there kind of thing. So
Scott Benner 23:50
how am I ready for this? Right? Wait a minute, had you been on antibiotic right before this as well?
Carol 23:55
Well, back in March, when I first got sick there with the upper respiratory infection,
Scott Benner 24:02
see it back to back antibiotics, this I'm sorry, I cut you off you sent they sent you home.
Carol 24:06
So they sent me home with it. And then it wasn't working like I was they gave me a play called a blood glucose meter. The one touch or whatever, they told me to go to the pharmacy and get it. And I was taken what they told me but my sugar wasn't coming down. And it just like I could get it the 13 but then it would go right up again. And it was crashing down to 1.8 I think I was going back up because no one had told me anything about Pre-Bolus carb counting, you know, write down your meals, figure out some stuff. It was just 1010 1010
Scott Benner 24:43
Well, that's the only issue count in my opinion. You can't you can't treat DKA with just the way people manage diabetes, like your you need to be hospitalized and that needs to be brought down kind of slowly,
Carol 24:58
I guess. Yeah. From what I've learned If I was a kid, I would have gotten that, like a little better. Hospital if I actually wrote the patient advocate in the Hospital Authority, and describe my experience and told them, you know, this is not right. And they guys
Scott Benner 25:21
is that they did, they apologized and said, you're free maple syrup.
Carol 25:25
God knows. So they apologized. And they explained that, you know, they understand that shouldn't have happened, but unfortunately it did. But because of COVID. Do there's sometimes things happen. But the kicker is, is at the time, we only had like four cases and their whole province.
Scott Benner 25:44
Here, they couldn't see they couldn't see DK because of COVID. That doesn't make
Carol 25:48
sense. What they told me it's right in the letter is because of COVID restrictions and the fact that they needed so many beds open in case the wave came that they were waiting for. They had to send me home and because I didn't present as someone because of where I have so many other conditions. I'm so used to pain and stuff that I hold it well because I always have a little bit so the body aches and the headaches and stuff. I wasn't in there crying and losing my mind because it was the first time I'd ever felt it. I can take it because I'm used to being in pain sometimes. So where I didn't present as someone in high distress, they felt that that was another reason to send me home.
Scott Benner 26:35
You have at the knees enough to stop like anybody like that. That's enough, whether it's type two or type one or you're complaining or you're not complaining.
Carol 26:46
Oh, it's not the firt like this is not the only if you if you think that's bad the rest of it's gonna blow your mind.
Scott Benner 26:51
Okay. G voc hypo pen has no visible needle, and it's the first premixed auto injector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is G voc hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G voc glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox. G voc shouldn't be used in patients with insulin Noma or pheochromocytoma. Visit GE Vogue glucagon.com/risk Have you checked out touched by type one.org? You haven't. Why? You trying to make me look bad? Is that what this is about? This personal between you and I? Because if it's not head over there, touched by type one.org Just pick around a little bit. Look at their programs, see what they do. Learn about their D box program. If you're newly diagnosed chicken I love it. I don't ask a lot. You know what I mean? Touch by tight bond.org Check it out. Follow me on instagram. Follow me on the Facebook machine. Alright, that's it. We're getting back to the show Quick, quick ads. You like it? Ah, Porsche do you say Scott, thank you for keeping the ads quick. My pleasure. Really? Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't say have you gone to T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box yet? Hmm, have you t one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice box for US resident who has type one diabetes, or you're a US resident was the caregiver of someone with type one, you can take a quick, less than 10 minutes survey that will help people living with type one diabetes and support this podcast, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juice bucks. And as the music winds down, I'll remind you to check out the private Facebook great grade private Facebook group, the did that private Facebook page for the Juicebox Podcast. It's called Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, over 17,000 people just like you talking about type one right there in the privacy of that page. It's just another lovely benefit of listening to the Juicebox Podcast. There's links in the show notes links at juicebox podcast.com. Let's get back to Cairo.
Carol 29:26
So after I got through all of that, and I finally I had to go back because my sugars wouldn't come down properly because then that forum was making me super sick. I couldn't keep food down but I'm on all this insulin. So I'm going super low. And I go back to the hospital and they make me wait and emerge again for another six hours. But every time I go into a merge because of diabetes, all the symptoms of diabetes are the same as COVID. So every time I go I have to get tested I have to get isolated and They started once it's only diabetes, they just quickly do something and they sent me home.
Scott Benner 30:07
So they kill if you even if you come back in the same process, I
Carol 30:11
came back crying the second time I came back, because I didn't know how much to use, right. And they told me that it was going to be, they told me to check my sugars and my sugars at the time, I think we're one at 21. And they told me that it wasn't that bad. My vision was getting kind of spotty. And I was getting the tinglies in my hands and feet. And they told me again, because of, you know, there's no beds, there's no doctors available that they couldn't help me. All they could do is just, you know, watch me while I wait, kind of thing
Scott Benner 30:46
this a people, right, this wasn't for elk and moose and stuff. And you just happen to be close to it this for people.
Carol 30:51
Well, this is our city hospital resolutions. And yeah, so I got pissed off and I left. Yeah, I mean, like is I'm like, Okay, this is and I sat in the parking lot of the hospital. And that's what I started looking at stuff. I'm like, Okay, if they're not going to help me, I'll do it. Like, I kept telling myself in my head, I'm like, girl, you can build a car, you can build a house. Yeah, I mean, you can do all this stuff. You can figure this out. I still didn't know yet. If I was type one, or type two, because, right, you have to wait 10 days for the results of these gad tests to come through. And I put up my plea on type one and type two groups, Canadian groups. And I found you guys. So I was reading a bunch of different posts and a lot of people's stories kind of related. But just obviously I'm a different age. And instead of just waiting for the doctor, I just started applying stuff. I'm like, either way, whether I'm type one or type two. Like if I just do this, what they're talking about, what's his Pre-Bolus they're talking about? Me trying this, this and just, I just started slowly chiseling away at it. And I started, you know, first day, not so much. day two, day three, I could see a little bit and I was like, huh, and then all of a sudden, they call me back and they're like, you're type one. That was like, okay, cool. What now? And they're like, Well, an endo should be in contact with you soon. So to me, when someone tells you, you know, they're going to contact you soon. And you just got diagnosed with up here. It's a critical illness, like I can actually claim it as a disability like me, so I can get a disability tax credit and stuff. So I waited for this call from this, you know, endo team that was going to help me if a week goes by No One, two weeks goes by no one. Now my spouse is getting mad. So he calls and he's like, you know, my spouse is, you know, waiting for a call from you guys. Because he knew if I call, I'm going to lose my mind on them. So he was trying to, you know, be the calmer person, right. And they said that they didn't have my file yet. And it would probably be about up to 30 days because of restrictions. I could only have so many people in office that day. And, you know, some of we get back to me. Well, that was I get diagnosed June 3 and 2020. When I had my first appointment with an endo team. It was November 15. I think 13th or 15th. That's five
Scott Benner 33:21
and a half months later. Yes.
Carol 33:25
So yeah, wait. So when people say that listening to your podcast was more than they learned, they're not joking. Because by the time I made it into my Endo, I got myself a Dexcom. From listening to your show. Wow. Because you kept saying get a Dexcom. And I'm very fortunate that my spouse is a veteran, like for Canadian military. So we have a very good medical plan. So I got my general general, like family doctor to write me a prescription for Dexcom just to cover me insurance was right. And I ordered the Dexcom. I started the subscription 299 a month and we just let it build up on our credit card. So when I finally got into the Endo, they were surprised at the fact I had a CGM. Guess where my blood sugar was from listening to your show? times 7.6 or 7.5? I think it was Wow. From 18.3. No kidding. Good for you. And it was an honest to God. It was no help at all. From any one up here.
Scott Benner 34:34
That's amazing. Yeah, I'm like stunned. I did not expect to hear this from you today. And so it really has put me back on my heels a little bit. I had no idea that did something like this. I guess I hear people talk about it. But having it laid out like this is really something else.
Carol 34:53
Oh, and it gets even better.
Scott Benner 34:56
Can't be crazy. What you've just said but nothing inland. I said it can't be crazier than what you just said. Unless it's somehow better. Are you gonna ride a polar bear at any point in the story?
Carol 35:07
I wish I could see a real polar bear. But so after I finally get into them in November, and I had to do blood work, I think it was like a week before I went, so they had something to see when I went in. And that was something I requested. Like I told my family doctors, okay, and I lock in, she's really close. Like she's, um, she's not only our family doctor, but she's from the same village my spouse's from, so I can message her and be like, hey, and I can get in a little quick with her, but she's very limited to what she can do. So I was like, Hey, I have an appointment coming up with my Endo. Can you put me in for some blood work? And you know, put this stuff on it. And at the time, they had me on 50 milligrams of Synthroid. And I asked for my TSH to be check because I remember you had said anything, you know, around anything to it was Yeah, over to you need. And you also had made an episode about your wife, you weren't sure, and just threw her on some anyways. So how I got the centroid was my family doctor. I said, Hey, I have all these symptoms, my tongue swelling, my hair's falling out. Can you hook me up with some Synthroid? I know, it's like, I feel like I'm talking to a drug dealer sometimes. I'm like, you know, can you give me some of this? So I can, you know, it's not going to kill me as you go. Sure. And even with that, 50 my TSH was still really low. So when I hit the Endo, she was surprised at the fact that my a one C was low. I'm already on Synthroid and she's like, holy, did you go to medical school? And I not even joking, I looked her dead in the eye. I said, No, I learned it from a podcast.
Scott Benner 36:48
Got to be embarrassing for the doctor.
Carol 36:50
She literally swallowed and looked at me. She goes, Oh my God. Like, are you kidding? I'm like, not at all.
Scott Benner 36:56
Yeah. Hey, you know what she should know she ever hears this. I didn't even go to college.
Carol 37:01
That's amazing. Because when I go into her office, there's all kinds of diplomas and stuff. Yeah, I barely finished high school. And I did trade school because I knew I could at least make some money and not have to go to school for a whole lot of time. And I literally, I am their unicorn patient because of you up here to get up here to get an insulin pump. So in order for me to go back to work, I had to have control of my diabetes because I work me up in like buildings and set me up for stories in the air monsoon booms, God knows what I'm doing. So my boss isn't gonna let me at work. If I'm roller coaster, and you mean like they have no empathy. I mean, like so. But being an MDI, it's very hard to do a vigorous job, because you have to overcome so you know, burn it, but then sometimes you'll do the work you think you're going to do so next thing, you know, you need insulin, but you're, you know, hanging up here doing whatever and you don't want to pull out your pen, you know, I mean, like, so it makes it very difficult. So, at that November appointment, I literally walked in with a notepad and I knew I own that room near me because I knew I was going in there fully loaded. And I told them straight out I want a pump. And they're like, you can't get one for usually two years. I said no. I said I've learned you know, like as long as you have control, you understand MDI in case your pump fails, you know, I should be able to get a pump as I have coverage, why can't I get a pump and they kept giving me you know what, we want to see it for at least six months. So I hit the six month mark and now my a one C 6.1 or 6.2 is almost below set. And I got my thumbs and they told me I am the first person that their clinic in Moncton New Brunswick has ever given a pump to under six year
Scott Benner 38:58
over two years maybe they should learn something from that instead of just
Carol 39:02
actually told by my nurse that I missed my calling. She's like you should have been a diabetes educator because they learned from me now because when you look at my we have Daya signed up here for my tea slim. And um, unless I have a cheat you'll probably see my posts on Facebook. Where like I had lobster the other night.
Scott Benner 39:26
Oh yeah, that's me. Yeah, I saw you look good with that
Carol 39:30
lobster the lobster was great. It was Protein A hit me a little bit later. But the potato salad the broccoli salad and all the other stuff that I overlaid on kind of put me up to eight. But they told me they have never seen someone with pump control that I have.
Scott Benner 39:45
Oh, this they were here they have a stroke. Like what am I actually
Carol 39:51
directed them to your Facebook group. And my nurses listened to a couple like just the part of the question. Tip series. And she straight up told me she's like, if I let my patients listen to that, they wouldn't know what to do I said, then that's a problem on your it. Yeah. Everything had the proper knowledge and education from you at the start going in. They wouldn't be so scared. Yeah, it's it's all fear it because you guys don't teach anyone anything.
Scott Benner 40:20
Right? Let me jump in for a second and say something. First of all, I Googled zoom, boom, they're really cool. Now I want one. And the other thing is this, a little story that I think you said that the the somebody in your office said, you missed your calling, you're better at this than we are that kind of stuff. It made me think of this. While my son was out trying to find a college to be interested in for baseball, he had to go to all these workout things. And they'd play sometimes for days on these fields and hundreds of kids would show up and everyone, you know, got the play. And you were being evaluated by all these colleges. And usually on the last day, at the end of the day, they would run out of pitching before they'd run out of kids that had to hit. So they go into the dugout and say, can anybody throw a couple of innings for so we can get, you know, get finished. And my son by then was exhausted and tired and wanted to go home. And he put his hand up and say like a pitch if it gets us out of here, you know, but I don't I just I'll do it, right? So we'd go out and do it. This would happen almost every one of these things, and then they would catch us on the way out. And someone were to grab him and say, hey, you know, you had one of the best velocities here today, or you threw harder than anyone else today? How come you didn't workout as a pitcher? And my son would say, just because I throw faster than them doesn't make me a pitcher. It makes them not a pitcher. And I feel that way about the story you told, like you know, you can't that is such a it's such a bullshit thing to say to somebody like wow, you went out learned more than us. You missed your calling. No, you're not good at your calling.
Carol 42:02
backtracked on it. So, you know, once I got my Dexcom and I allowed them to see my data. No one's really taught me how to care care yet, like I've gone to dieticians, but they're still telling me the same you know, free foods this is where they killed me at the start was vegetables are free meat is free, and only read the labels. And you know, if it's not if it's a fiber, just take away the fiber. You mean they never ever talked about that and protein, like, oh my god, like if they would have told me about fat and protein besides just carbs. I think I would have brought my a one C down so much quicker, because I don't eat a whole lot of carbs, right? Like we're not like a Keto low carb hosts. But we like to eat well, like I said, so. But to me eating well was eating chicken eating, you know, pork, beef, avocados and stuff. But I didn't realize that all that fat and protein was affecting my diabetes. Yeah. I couldn't figure out why. I'm counting the carbs and a Pre-Bolus thing. I'm doing everything. But I'm just getting that right. And they kept telling me, Well, you're doing something wrong. And I'm like, No, I did everything you told me to do. It's not working. That's horrible. But thankfully you and Jenny did the episode on fat protein. No, I'm glad you like so I started listening to it. And then all of a sudden now I'm 90 95% and range, like I still got a spike. And you can't be flat all the time. But I had my ranges set between 3.9 and 9.5 at the time, and I was still in range like very well. But every now and then I would go low, because they were just telling me to carb count one to 20 and that's that. And that was it. Yeah, one to 20 and it wasn't working for me. So I had to start playing with it myself. But anytime I called them for help. I had 22 appointments cancelled between June and I think it was February the last time I counted like February of this year. And it wasn't just in person appointments like it was phone calls, Zoom calls, like in person like 22 appointments cancelled. So I just I gave up on my endo team and I just took everything in my hands. I think I drove my spokes nuts because I would listen to like your thyroid podcast. That one. That one was good because that's how I got 250 milligrams of Synthroid and got my TSH down to I think it's one 1.5 or 1.6.
Scott Benner 44:49
That's excellent and he would be very happy with that number. Exactly.
Carol 44:53
But doing all this stuff. My doctors are getting mad at me because first it was you brought your a one C down to quick. And then they got mad at me because I had a low here in there. And I'm like, instead of highlighting how good I've been doing, you call me to pick on me about one thing I said, but on top of it, you didn't teach me anything, but you're getting mad at me if I make a mistake. And if I wouldn't listen to them, I would have been high, but according to them, as long as I was between eight and 12, they were okay with that.
Scott Benner 45:28
I have a, an email here that came this morning from a pediatric endocrinologist. And I am hoping that they'll come on the show. And I can't I don't want to tell you what it seems wrong to just use her words. But it really makes me feel like you can reach these people. And that they that if they're in the right mindset to see it, that they might go, oh, wow, the thing I'm doing for people isn't really all that valuable. Maybe I should think about this a little differently. I'm beginning to wonder as you're talking if the sad part of your story, which was, you know, because of COVID. They kept like giving you the bum's rush out of the facility over and over again. If that isn't what maybe eventually saved you like is forcing you to pay attention to yourself. Well, I
Carol 46:22
think it did like that was kind of the silver lining of it. But what makes me wonder, too, is, I'm sure even beforehand, like most adults, I talked to you with type one. Up here, they don't know a whole lot, because they asked me all the time. They're like, Oh my god, like how are your numbers so well, because I'm in like, you know, type one Canadian groups. And we always do the number share and stuff like that. And I mean, I I'm not perfect, but you know, I keep some good lines. And they wonder you know how you do it. And it's amazing how it's pretty broad up here, the lack of basic education and knowledge, they kind of cookie cutter everyone up here. So people like me, when I asked questions and stuff, I've actually been written up as non compliant. Because I asked too many questions. And I didn't just do as I was told, I actually had one team tell me I was going to kill myself by making my a one see, as low as I was six. Below six, like right now I'm at 5.8. And they told me anything below 6.5 is dangerous, because that means you're having too many lows in their eyes. But my low percentage on my Dexcom is below 1%.
Scott Benner 47:42
Wow, are you doing great. And it's usually because
Carol 47:45
I'm at work and you know me like birth through more CareOne it's usually a car birth thing. I'm still kind of learning that. But yeah, sadly, only my nurse really sees how good I'm doing. But the problem that they so I'm trying to think I could work it by being me the problem that they over the years, they've given everybody such little help and information, it would be kind of hard to take everything you guys do, and start giving that to people. Like I have an ex boyfriend who long before I had diabetes, actually, I was dating him when I first started getting sick back in 2011. And he was a type one. And when I was with him, I cared about his diabetes to the point where I made him start eating right like me eating at the market and really helped him in the three and a half years I was with him. So I find that that really helped me when I get diagnosis pipeline. But I'm terrified of needles. So that was always my biggest fear. When I get that like when I get diagnosed that when I cried because I could not wrap my head around the fact that I had to give myself a needle now, multiple times a day,
Scott Benner 49:02
you know, count, let me say it's incredibly interesting through 45 minutes of talking to you. You have never once complained about having so many ailments. No,
Carol 49:14
that's because honestly, how I take it is I luck in that I'm one of them people that I don't succumb to it. I own it. So even I was talking to my died patient last week because of the Warsaw method. So that really worked out well for me along with like using because like I said I eat a lot of fat and protein. So when you guys did that episode, I was like, oh, like oh my god. That was the puzzle piece I was missing. Yeah, I mean like to finally nail that spike I couldn't get rid of
Scott Benner 49:51
did it feel good? Because Michelle was Canadian by any chance.
Carol 49:55
And when she was Canadian, I was like yeah so When I you know, I used it for like almost a week before I call my dietician, because they're kind of I know they want to believe what I do. But the problem is, is, if they do, they'll probably be outed for doing it. Do it. I mean, like to think outside the box up here is really taking a chance. Because if everybody did what I did, they wouldn't know what to do. I don't think I
Scott Benner 50:32
have to say to anyone listening who's in the profession, if you are knowingly not helping someone, you are willingly hurting them.
Carol 50:39
Yes, thank you. Because they are, because they make us feel like we're overthinking. We're crazy. We should just sit back and wait and listen. But we know our bodies. And especially when someone who has multiple conditions comes in and tells you, I don't feel right, listen to them. Because they've already been living with issues. For times beforehand. You've been paying what we've been doing for these past couple years that was working, all of a sudden, they come to you and they say, Hey, this isn't working anymore. Don't just push it aside and try to up a payment. Like, listen, because I can tell you that if I would have they told me I probably had like type one diabetes back they said for probably at least two to three years. But not really, really bad until probably about they said probably eight months is when like the honeymoon in ended enough to where my body couldn't keep up anymore. But during that time, no one listened to me. So when I was complaining about pain, they were like, oh, no, it's that. So no, it's that. But I never changed any of my payments. All I did was get my blood sugar in control. And I can tell you that between getting that and my thyroid in check. I feel better now. But I did. Before I ever complained about getting sick man,
Scott Benner 52:00
I say something. I think that the next step for me if I'm you is is your iron still bad?
Carol 52:08
Well, actually, my iron how I got control of that was during this time period. No doctors were listening to me like they were just, you know, pretty much treat me like I was just looking for pain meds because I'm a medical marijuana patient. So I have been for 12 years for pain, because I know, they gave me a lot of narcotics when you know the opiates were first introduced and are safe to use, they said and then when I started getting addicted to them, they blamed me. So when I called them for help, they were like, Well, you asked for them. Now I'm like, Oh no, you are not pulling me
Scott Benner 52:44
out. Canadians are supposed to be friendly. What's going on here?
Carol 52:48
Well, we are two other people, I guess. Other people, but so I was like okay, and I was already smoking weed recreationally because I was a single parent of two kids. And I'm not a drinker. So it was oh my god, like some women use. I use wine Xanax, you know, walking the dog. I need to join.
Scott Benner 53:14
I have to stop you for a second was walking the dog a euphemism? Or did you really mean going out walking the dog?
Carol 53:19
No, like really mean walking the dog like friends or like a dog for watching? I feel so much better than like, No, I own a bulldog. So I don't have to walk it.
Scott Benner 53:27
I totally. I totally thought you mentioned and I'll just bleep that. 100%
Carol 53:35
Well, you can after deck that part if you want. But so where I was a medical marijuana patient, a lot doctors didn't like that either, because I wasn't taking the payment. So it was kind of a catch 22 Because I knew it worked. But it wasn't because as you know, we only became legal here. I think what like five years ago six years ago when Trudeau got voted in which I didn't vote for by the way yeah 2014 I think it was so
Scott Benner 54:06
I took his weed but I didn't like him Yeah, well
Carol 54:09
well it's not even paid for is the worst part like even though I have a medical prescription for pain. I have to pay full price for my wheat. Oh, they won't cover no I have a prescription for it the only way in which I can get help as I can claim now my taxes as a medical expense. Okay. But if I had cancer, I would get it paid for and if you're a veteran in the military, you get a paid for. It's interesting. If you don't use it for anything, I mean, like it's very limitedly paid for up here. It's supported for use but you have to pay for it. So they would pay for all my pills and stuff but they will pay for my CBD oil but with the pills I take the pills I need another pill. I now need a pill to sleep now. I need a pill to heal. I mean like yeah, they're happy to pay for the CBD oil. Yeah, so CBD
Scott Benner 54:53
oil companies to get a better lobbyist and then that would be covered too.
Carol 54:58
Yeah, so I'm hoping one happens, but not yet. Gotcha. So I take a drug called cosentyx. It's a biological drug. That's how I got around having to take a lot of payments, because it's one injection. But I've learned now being diabetic, it causes a lot of insulin resistance. So I have to make a special profile double my Basal and my doctors thought I was crazy. So I got diagnosed with the pain conditions and everything, and they wanted me on this biological drug, but I just got diagnosed with diabetes, and I didn't want to do you know, deal with diabetes, throw this biological drug in, you know, I mean, like, just Yeah, I am. I dumped that much into my body fire at the time. So I just dealt with the diabetes. And I was like, I'll get to the pain because I've already been dealing with pain so long. I mean, like, I can wait a little bit longer just
Scott Benner 55:49
name the app. Oh, did you hear yourself? Do it? DIY you just named the episode. Did you hear yourself do it? No. Body fire. Nice. Yeah, that's it, you just on your own. I have a
Carol 56:01
second thing was is after once I started getting my diabetes and control. I didn't have as much body pain. So I went from meeting like, I think it was 600 milligrams of this drug. Now I'm down to 150. Because having my blood sugar in control and my thyroid in control, really lessen my pain.
Scott Benner 56:21
We didn't answer the question. Did we about your iron? Where's your iron level at now? Your ferritin? Do you know?
Carol 56:27
I don't know. But they told me it's perfect. They don't listen to them. Because, well, I listen to this stuff. There's a reason why I listen to this certain doctor is because he's the one who found it. When no other doctor would listen. He was a pain clinic doctor and he's like, look, he's like you are on enough medication to kill a small animal if you add it all up. Really? Yeah, he's like something else is fueling this fire. Let's do a full blood panel. We're gonna check your iron. We're gonna check everything. And he put me on an iron infusion.
Scott Benner 56:58
Oh, good for you.
Carol 56:59
That's what I was gonna so but I laugh because where you keep doing the maple syrup reference is it looks like maple syrup. In an IV bag up here.
Scott Benner 57:07
I think it looks like rusty water to me.
Carol 57:09
Well, up here just when I first seen begins with a V. I can't remember the name of it. venofer That's it. And yeah, when they first hooked it out to me was like, oh my god, it looks like maple syrup and a bag and she kind of laughed. I was like, It's my Canadian super sauce. I just think like,
Scott Benner 57:24
I don't want to inject it. Can you mix it with snow and I'll eat it like a lollipop.
Carol 57:29
But after I got three injections of that, yeah, that was a that was last summer. So it's been almost a year. My iron has been it's him that's checking it. Yeah. I mean, not just my general practitioner. It's that doctor. Yeah, I mean, so I think he was the one who found it. I really trust you mean him looking? I see so many other doctors I lose track sometimes. Who? You I mean, like what what is sometimes he told me he was like you are like right where you where you need to because I was borderline going to get a hysterectomy. Because I was getting such bad periods that they were saying, Oh, it's it's your period causing your anemia. So I did the Appalachian first and then that didn't work. Because I still got one in a way.
Scott Benner 58:15
Wait, you laser. Oh, you laser lady business. You still got your period?
Carol 58:19
Yeah. Wow. And that's when this doctor was like, Okay, no, like something's wrong. Because they told me if I were to go get a hysterectomy, my blood levels were so low, I would have had to get a blood transfusion before and after the surgery and I was like, Okay, I'm not comfortable. Like, give me something. They write that sounds pretty risky. And he goes, No, no, he goes before we do that, like let's try this. And after I did the iron infusions he came back in, I think it was like two months and four months later and did follow up bloodwork. And I didn't have to get the hysterectomy I would have to get the blood transfusion.
Scott Benner 58:54
I'm not a doctor which I think is obvious to anybody who listens. But if you have any kind of autoimmune stuff going on or in general you're a lady and you feel rundown tired a little snappy with people confused foggy get dizzy, anything like that I get your iron jacket your iron check and don't take it's in range as an answer. Listen to what Addy so in the thyroid episode if you're a if you're a woman of baby making age over 70 At least. And if you want your you know if you want to feel well. I'm a huge proponent after I found out that my iron was low and saw what havoc it was wreaking on my life and now you know, every day I walk around here like a pill pusher with vitamin D. O iron, a sorbic acid, a couple of different vitamins. I just walk around and just leave
Carol 59:47
them I take the men Centrum, because the women Centrum has extra iron and where I got the infusion I didn't want to like give myself too much
Scott Benner 59:58
right? Oh no, I understand. It's like It's like gassing up your car. And you don't want it to get to. But you don't want it
Carol 1:00:03
to over octane boost in your body like every now and then you see people pour those little additives in your car I find it's like the same thing. Your body is only what you put in it, you immediately get out of it what you put in it.
Scott Benner 1:00:15
I just watched an iron infusion bring Arden back to life again. So we got crazy. Yeah, it um, what what had happened to her was low iron. We got an infusion didn't realize the low iron was because of like crazy periods. So we pumped our iron back up, watched her feel better. And we're like, we fixed it. And then it went back down again. Yeah, we're like, Wait, what happened? Then we started really talking to her. So she was young. And she wasn't really saying a lot. But we started noticing like she was going through like a lot of like, like, accoutrements for a period of time. And, and we were like, what's going on, and it was turned out, she was getting her period for 11 days in a row, and then get up getting a break for a couple of days, and then getting it again. Wow. And it was just happening over and over and over again. So girl, oh my god, it took us a month to figure out what to try to do. Then we decided to put it on birth control than the first Bearskin first birth control they gave her wasn't strong enough, they made us use that for two months before they said up it. So by the time we got to the birth control, that was right, we were four or five months into it. It took a couple of months on that birth control to regulator periods, and then we got her another infusion, and then the infusions don't work right away. So now just in the last two weeks, has she started feeling she's starting acting like herself again, she's not dragging all over the house and stuff.
Carol 1:01:35
It's crazy. Like low iron can do do
Scott Benner 1:01:38
Yeah, it's literally like you're dying. And yet, it's not enough that you would notice it because of that. It's that slow fall that you don't notice you're falling. You know, you just you get a match until you're at the edge and you can't fall anymore, right? And then you just out of your mind. And then people are like,
Carol 1:01:57
when I got my iron infusion, I got my first one June the first. And I went in to emerge in DKA on June the third. And part of what my pain clinic doctor said what happened was is my body was so dead. You mean like it was just I was they told me I was borderline of a coma. And when I got that iron, he said, I gave myself something good really fast, and my body didn't know what to do. And that was kind of the the straw that broke the camel's back, even though it was healthy health. It's still my body just didn't know what's
Scott Benner 1:02:32
going on. You know, you really might a year from now be a different person? I think so. Yeah. It's interesting. You, you don't I mean, like you put out the body fire. And now like, let's wait and see how because even like when you get an infusion, it doesn't work immediately because your body has to your body's constantly making red blood cells. And prior to you having enough ferritin iron in your system, etc. Your body was making these cells with incomplete building blocks. And now it makes new ones with the correct amount of ferritin in your system. But he
Carol 1:03:07
told me that's why he did it at two, four and six months was to watch the progression of it, I guess. Yeah. Because he would be because some people need it for more than three months. I did three months. And luckily I haven't needed any more. You mean Yeah. And my iron still good. Like I just had my blood work done about two weeks ago at the clinic down here and my like they told me my iron was still good. Yeah, my TSH is below to my a one C is 5.8. And, yeah, but compared to what I was last year, like I already feel like a whole different person.
Scott Benner 1:03:47
You almost made me cry. And this the conversation was not going like that you just rattled off your numbers, and I got a little misty here. Um, so
Carol 1:03:54
it's crazy that and my doctor team, like my team knows it that if I would have listened to them, I would not be where I was. Yeah. So if I would have you I mean, like if I would have did the 1010 and 10. Now I gotta wait three months for a follow up appointment to make a change. Then you gotta wait. You mean wait, wait, wait. So in order to get where I am listening and waiting for appointments, it would have taken me a couple years. Yeah, I did it. But I got to where I needed to be without before I even got a chance to see them. I demand
Scott Benner 1:04:27
that those people send me two months of their salary. What do you think of?
Carol 1:04:33
This Well, the end even worse, but you're really up here on this side of Canada. Not a lot. A whole lot of people have type one because I mean, there's not a whole lot of like a big population here. But no one in my clinic had a T slim so when I did my training, my endo nurse sat beside me and did hers two
Scott Benner 1:04:54
guys did it together. Well that's nice. Yeah, at least it was
Carol 1:04:57
funny cuz well it was funny because before you do it They send you a thing that says, watch all these videos. And I was already like, I mean, oh my god, I already listened to your podcast three times over. And I mean, like, I was ready for this pump. And we get in there and the woman's talking and she's asking, like, you know, page six questions, and I looked right at her, I'm like, Girl, I had an hour, did you read the book and watch the videos like she told us to, like, You're messing with my time here.
Scott Benner 1:05:27
I have an hour. And then it takes me four years to come back and see you again.
Carol 1:05:30
Pretty much like God. And the trainer, just laugh because she couldn't believe from listening to your podcasts, how advanced I was, like, we got to talk about, you know, really in depth stuff. Because for my training, because of COVID, it was done by zoom. So they sent me my pump, I didn't get the, you know, the, the saline pass or anything, I was literally just, you know, sent it, they watched my Dexcom they looked at my blood work, the doctor did up her numbers. And that was what I had to wait for. And they took two and a half months to get her to do that. It took so long. But literally, I get tired of waiting. And I started looking up how to do it yourself the whole math theories of your times and things by 1800. And dividing by this and figuring out my own correction factor was my first pump. So I needed to figure out correction factors and hourlies. And the only all that stuff and I just for curiosity, I made a list of what I thought it was. And I'm closer to because on now I got my pump March 11. So I'm two ish months in, and my pump is closer to the values that I figured out that were my endo team had me,
Scott Benner 1:06:48
I'm glad for you. That's really lovely. But
Carol 1:06:51
again, it's one of those lack of education. And doctors always tell you don't listen to what you hear and find on the internet. But if I wouldn't listen to what I found on the internet, I would have died.
Scott Benner 1:07:05
Well, let's be fair, a lot of things on the internet are ridiculous This podcast is
Carol 1:07:09
they are but if you have common sense, you can figure out the difference. You can figure out the difference between facts and
Scott Benner 1:07:15
bullshit. No, but now we're asking for everybody to have common sense that might be
Carol 1:07:18
that's the thing, like I know, say 1000 People watch the same thing, you know, maybe 10 of them are gonna have common sense. But doctor should be able to kind of tell the difference. And a little bit to like, if you're scared that your patient knows more than you. Don't ignore your patient, and maybe try to figure out what they did to me. Like when I was doing things that they couldn't believe how I got there. But I didn't do it their way. They just ignored me when I would call or I get the you're doing better than we could help you with Why are you calling us?
Unknown Speaker 1:07:52
Yeah, okay.
Carol 1:07:56
I have ADHD. So it's one of those. I strive for, like, a very competitive. So my time in range, it has 100% possibility. So if I only have 90%, that means I have 10% failure. Like that's how I look at it. So to me, that means I can do better. There's room for exactly. But when you don't have the support, like I understand that, not everybody cares as much as I do. But there should be help or resources available for the people who actually do care. Treat everyone and educate everyone
Scott Benner 1:08:36
like they don't care. Well, there should be resources for everyone.
Carol 1:08:39
And but there's not really like when you leave up here as an adult. Like I said, I was sent out within 12 hours, I was given no follow up, no courses, no counseling. I was given a pamphlet in November when I finally made it in. And it had very basic stuff in it. And it had all these free food ranges where you know, these, you can eat these Neopia to worry about it. And everything in that book to me was bullshit. Because I had learned and proven to myself that that isn't right. But if I questioned it, I'm non compliant, it
Scott Benner 1:09:14
would actually write you up. That's it. Like a slip in your file.
Carol 1:09:18
Yeah, so it got to the point that I guess I don't really I call them I just call them if I need prescriptions.
Scott Benner 1:09:26
You should start writing them up. You should.
Carol 1:09:29
Well, doesn't really do any good up here. Like I tried on other issues I have and yeah, you're better off just to pat pat yourself on the back and realize that you know, you figured it out before you
Scott Benner 1:09:41
let the rest of it go. That's That's good advice.
Carol 1:09:45
But yeah, that's her. Yeah. That's why sometimes I'm like, everyone's like, oh, we need health care like Canada. I'm like, Oh, if you guys do it, please do it better than we did. Well, we have great insurance, but there's no private here. So if I In Quebec, I could get better care because there's a private clinic. If I lived in Ontario, there's a private clinic. But on the East Coast, there's no private clinic. So even
Scott Benner 1:10:09
in a scenario where they are providing free health care for everyone, you're saying that where you can spread some money around you find more competent people?
Carol 1:10:16
Yes, yeah. Well, you find people who are more like your thyroid doctor. Remember the one you had on who actually like, Addy? Yeah, she's up here. When you get into see a doctor. It's not like, they even read your file, because I've even had to like, ask them, you know, like, have you read my file? Like, if you try and give me that I know, that's going to go against this other medication, Amman. And they're like, oh, yeah, no, like, it's so rushed here. And it's so overbooked and stuff that you can't completely blame the doctor. It's the structure of the healthcare system itself. Because there's so little doctors and nurses hear that they don't have time to give. Because they only have 20 minutes with you. And if you're lucky, you get that 20 minutes because usually, if you go to a doctor's appointment, say your appointments for one o'clock, I get there 10 minutes early, I probably don't get in until quarter after 20 after one. So now I'm going into someone else's appointment. But yet at one o'clock they booked in someone else too. So that doctor is expected to see two people in that timespan. How do you get adequate help and service with someone who doesn't even have time to read your file before you
Scott Benner 1:11:30
talk to them? When you come back? Do you see the same person or do you see a different person
Carol 1:11:33
you see the same person but it's another one of those unless you stick out? It's just a cookie cutter. You open the door? It's bad, but like, yeah, sometimes I don't even have time to look you in the eye.
Scott Benner 1:11:45
It's a difficult job. I mean, I wouldn't want
Carol 1:11:50
a lot of people always want to blame the doctor. But I know it's not all because the doctor I have now the end know she's awesome. But the problem is, is she's it took me a bit together. But she's so overworked that I get calls from her at seven o'clock at night. She emails me I have her cell number, because she knows that I don't mind the after hours help. And she knows that when she helps me. I'm going to use it. Right? Plus she knows I appreciate the time she has to give me but it's so bad up here for appointments. And this was before COVID that thankfully, because of COVID Doctors can call you now instead of always seeing you in office. My rheumatologist the other week calls me at 830 at night. Because I agree to an after hours call at 830 at night. Yeah, I mean, I'm not expecting a call from my specialist. That's the only time he had time to call me. But I had time to talk to him. It wasn't rushed. You mean like I got a 40 minute call with him. Wow. So it is one good thing, but not every doctor has that time either. Because up here like everyone, you know, I think everyone thinks like, our free health cares is big. Like, you know, you just go in and you get help whenever you want. And to me like it's it's free. Yeah, we don't pay for it. But you have to wait.
Scott Benner 1:13:20
Everybody wants to imagine that something that sounds better is better. And I'm not saying I am genuinely not saying healthcare shouldn't be, you know, free? I think I think it should. And but I think you're also being crazy. If you don't imagine cool. Yeah, you're you're also being crazy. If you don't imagine that people who have more money to throw around aren't getting better service, like forget health care for a second. You know, if I go into McDonald's,
Carol 1:13:47
I know a personal experience where I know someone who needed an MRI. Now me I can't afford to pay for an MRI out of pocket dirt. I think 15 1800 bucks out of pocket. And then if you have insurance, you know, I mean, like you can submit your receipt or whatever. So if you go into a doctor, and they're like, Okay, you need an MRI, but we can't get you in for six months, if you can't afford to go to the private place here in New Brunswick, and pay that you gotta wait that six months. But if you're the person who can go in and the doctor says you gotta wait six months, and you're like, No, no, no, no, I'll just go pay for it. Next week, you'll have it, they will actually call the MRI office. And you'll get in, they'll squeeze you in because they know you're serious. That's how they take. Like, I find in my own personal experience that when I threatened to pay for something or do it on my own. They take that as oh my god, she's serious. And then they kind of rush it a little bit more
Scott Benner 1:14:40
interesting. It's the version of giving $20 to the maitre d and saying please don't put me near the bathroom.
Carol 1:14:45
It is but when they say you know, like, it doesn't matter whatever but in a way it does is if you threaten to do it yourself. They don't want you to do it yourself. Don't find a way to get you in like I've gone from having to wait six months being told we can get you into
Scott Benner 1:15:01
just seems like if it takes six months to get an MRI, if you bought one more MRI machine and hired a few more people than it would take three months, which then would make me think if we bought another MRI machine, you know, like maybe just a couple of MRI machine system technicians is the answer.
Carol 1:15:16
It is right. I don't know if you pay attention to how Canadians waste money on absolutely the stupidest things ever. But um, yeah, that's why we don't have money for those said MRI machines because we give away a lot of money and spend a lot of money on stupid things.
Scott Benner 1:15:31
Are you talking about that game where you push the thing on the ice? Like, oh, hockey? No, not that one. What's the one that um, that was funny, but that's not what I mean. What is it a shoot, what is it carrying it? I don't I mean, you can keep guessing if you want, but let me it's an Olympic game.
Carol 1:15:51
We have lacrosse, but you'll play that ice I guess.
Scott Benner 1:15:56
Oh, wait, here it is. I found a picture of it. I'm gonna click on the picture and see what they call it. That by the way, everyone, that's how the internet works. It curling.
Carol 1:16:10
Oh, curling. Yeah. Roxanne's and stones around and tried to get in the circles there at the end.
Scott Benner 1:16:17
It's mesmerizing to watch on television.
Carol 1:16:20
But it's one of those sports you're like, it's kind of like watching to me. It's like watching someone play poker or play pool like or darts. You're just like, why, but you can't help but watch. Because it's so cool how they can actually, you know, glide that stone thing right where they needed to go.
Scott Benner 1:16:36
It's amazing. It really is. I'm assuming we wouldn't have this if it wasn't for Canadians. It looks like two kitchen mops and a stone with a handle on a nice thing. It's fantastic. I
Carol 1:16:46
like sliding the kettle like one of those old titles used to see on like windows back in the day like slide one.
Scott Benner 1:16:52
It's wonderful. It really is.
Carol 1:16:55
kourlis, the news, Canadian?
Scott Benner 1:16:58
Yeah, I want to thank you for doing this. You were terrific. I thought you did a really good job of presenting what was happening to you. i There's something about our connection where I couldn't talk too much. Because you would talk she would like just keep going. Or that was your ADHD. I'm not 100% sure which one it was, but a little bit of column A and B, but it worked fantastic for this because you just did such a good job. And you were answering questions as I like I'd get a question in my mouth that you would keep talking. I was like, Oh, she's got this. So is there anything though, that we didn't talk about that you wanted to that didn't come up? I want to ask before I let you go.
Carol 1:17:34
Not really just to I don't know I just to remind people that if you are like if you're a parent or say you're listening and you're like a friend of someone, don't think that you can't get diabetes, type one diabetes, just because you're not under 21. And you're not in perfect health or whatever. Because I think I got it because I had a serious infection and stuff. And if you have other autoimmune diseases, always watch for piggyback diseases. Yeah. Because everything's an umbrella from what I learned, like, it started off as one then it developed into two, and everything's related. So don't ignore anything. And don't ever let your doctor like dismiss you like if you honestly believe it, fight for it.
Scott Benner 1:18:32
A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, GE voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Kaipa pen at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. I'd also like to thank touched by type one and remind you to go to touched by type one.org and find them on Instagram and Facebook. And of course, T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox. Go take that survey. squared. You take your lesson take eight minutes I can do it right there on your phone. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
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#585 After Dark: ADHD, Cocaine and Abandonment
Dlaine is here to talk about her life with type 1 diabetes.
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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 episode 577 of the Juicebox Podcast.
Well, today's episode is with Cindy, and she's had type one diabetes for 50 years. Now, this one's an after dark but interesting story. I put the edit on this one, maybe a month ago. And at this moment as I'm putting on the ads, I don't remember why I made it an after dark. I just have a voice note at the end of this to myself that says, Make the length of sentence. How do I forget how I put it something about the episode title is the length of Cindy's time with type one. And this is an afterdark that's it, and I don't remember why. So we're gonna find out together. I'll listen when it goes up to while you and I are listening. Let's both remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan. are becoming bold with insulin. Have you filled out the T one D exchange survey? I'll ask again T one D exchange.org. Forward slash juicebox US residents please. Alright, here we go. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries. G voc hypo Penn. Find out more at G voc glucagon.com. Forward slash Juicebox. Podcast is also sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Learn more contour next one.com forward slash juicebox.
Cindy 1:53
My name is Cindy and live in Washington DC. Everybody asked you at happy hours in Washington. What do you do? That's like the first question. So probably doesn't really apply to the podcast. But I'm the managing editor for scholarly publications. And I have been type one for many, many, many, many, many years.
Scott Benner 2:12
Do you mean that when people find out you live in DC, they imagine you're involved in government or lobbying or something like that.
Cindy 2:19
It's a DC thing. Like anywhere you go. Hi, I'm Cindy. What do you do? It's a DC thing. It's all about work. This town is work, work, work, work work.
Scott Benner 2:29
You think it's Hi, I'm Cindy. And then the person wants to know how they can how you can help them in their career. Exactly. Gotcha. Okay. Can you be valuable to me Sunday should be the next statement. Not what do you do?
Cindy 2:43
Probably not know, I'm sorry, Scott. I don't think that's gonna happen. You
Scott Benner 2:48
don't think it'll work for me? It's funny.
Cindy 2:51
I mean, that unless you want to start editing or writing or you do plenty of editing, and I'm sure,
Scott Benner 2:56
I have to tell you, I'm a terrible writer. And in that I just didn't. I paid no attention in school. And then I wrote a book, which is the oddest thing. And as I was writing, there were just times where I just couldn't, I'm like, is that a coma? No. You know, like, I just I'm, structurally, I'm terrible. I got a lot of nice feedback about the book and the way it flowed and how it read, but I didn't know the first thing about what I was doing. So
Cindy 3:30
I actually have your book. Do you really? Yeah.
Scott Benner 3:33
Thank you. You know, does it need to be re edited? Is that what you're thinking? No, I
Cindy 3:39
think it's okay.
Scott Benner 3:41
Thank you. So, how old are you now and how old were you when you were diagnosed?
Cindy 3:46
Oh my goodness. I'm 59 and I was nine when I was diagnosed.
Scott Benner 3:51
Wow. Did you get like one of those metals, the lily metals.
Cindy 3:55
You know, my family's kind of flaking out on me. For the Johnsons metal you have to since obviously, I don't have any records of when I was diagnosed, you have to have family members write letters and so I drafted letters for my family to just fill in the blanks and sign nobody did it. Man So nificant other really wants me to get the metal because he's really an all about recognition. He's very big Washingtonian that way. And so he's like, alright, the letters for you. I'm like, No, I've got to live I'll sign them like no. City. What
Scott Benner 4:29
are you touching? Oh,
Cindy 4:31
sorry, my palm my bracelet is okay. I use my hands Okay, no,
Scott Benner 4:37
no, I listen, I talk with my hands. When I'm not it's odd when I do the podcast I do a little bit in person. I do it a lot. And I think I've stopped myself because I know I bumped the microphone and cables and things like that. But that's that was just so funny because people won't understand that right before we started recording. We set you all up so that you wouldn't touch anything that you I can hear you getting excited and tell the story I was like, did she find something to touch?
Cindy 5:03
It's my it's my dog tags on my wrist bumping against my punk. It's okay, that just yell it's. So my arms crossed. Now let's see if that works.
Scott Benner 5:13
You'd be sitting on your hands by the time we're done. So I, so that's interesting. I didn't know we'd be talking about this right away. But so you understood that family members, probably, these weren't the people who you could just say, hey, I need you to write a letter. So you said, look, here's a letter explaining my diabetes, can you sign it and mail it?
Cindy 5:32
Again, no response? I don't know why, I don't know. I mean, maybe things were going on in their lives that I was really pretty disappointed was like, Oh, come on you guys. Because you need somebody to say this is what was happening. And I did all the Googling, like, who was president and just so you have to sort of be able to account for current events at the time and the tests that they knew you when you were diagnosed, and I made pursued again, my mom's 95 Though now, so I'm not sure she's really up for it.
Scott Benner 6:03
Gotcha. But if you need me, I can sign your mom's name and mail it for you. Okay, well,
Cindy 6:07
I think about somebody I mean, he was like, I'll, I'll sign it for you. Authenticity,
Scott Benner 6:15
I'd be happy to sign your mom's name is what I'm saying. So you just send it over. It's how I got through middle school. With tests, I found a lovely girl named Karen, who, I just decided she would be my mom. And so I just had her started. This is very devious, but I pre planned knowing that I was not going to do well in school, and that they would make you get these tests signed, if they didn't go well. So instead of ever having my mom sign one of them, I just went to this girl named Karen. And I was like, Karen, I'm gonna need you to be my mom throughout school. So four years, Karen was my mother. You got to think ahead, if you know you're gonna mess up is that that's a that girl did it. She was so nice about it. I think it was frustrating at some points, because I really didn't do well.
Unknown Speaker 7:02
Thank you.
Scott Benner 7:03
I don't think so. She was so proud. I like she was definitely one of the girls that as I think back, I would have been nervous to talk to I and so I just was, you know, it's like, Hey, can you sign this? Eventually, a girl named Julie also took it up when Karen moved on. So I had to go to different people helping me. Okay, so tell me a little more about I mean, how far back can I don't just doesn't, it's not pejorative? I'm just how far back can you remember?
Cindy 7:31
Remember when I was diagnosed yet?
Scott Benner 7:33
Because I'm 50. And I don't know anything about the beginning of my life.
Cindy 7:39
I think my life started when I became diabetic. That's one of the first things I remember.
Scott Benner 7:44
really well, and how much of that can you put together for me here like, when
Cindy 7:49
it's pretty good age, right? I was nine and I know other people can remember before that age, but I don't know if it was because it was such a big shift. Because it's so heartbreaking because of how my family dealt with it. That feels like my when my life really started. I don't remember a lot going on before then. It's a weird dynamic. I'm not quite sure what that's about.
Scott Benner 8:13
Well, so 50 years ago, management, what did it mean? Like you're a nine year old and suddenly this has been thrust on you. What what is it that's been thrust on you?
Cindy 8:23
The thing that really stood out for me is that you can never have sugar candy again.
Scott Benner 8:30
That's what they told you just no sugar, no candy. What did you eat growing and you'll
Cindy 8:34
go blind if you do. I mean, it was really very scary in my bath. So my sister said, Does this right? Is this what I heard or am I just, you know, making it up? And she said, No, they pretty much told us no sweets. And I was heartbroken because my father used to bring me candy all the time. He'd come home and he'd bring me candy, candy, candy, candy, candy. And so to hear that I was never gonna get eat candy again. Like it was not cool. I was in the holidays. I think we're kind of ruined for me because the holidays have so much food and candy associated with a minimum of my first Easter basket. This is going to be a woe is me story. And I thought for sure my mom would put a chocolate bunny or something in there. No, she put tried it sugarless gum.
Scott Benner 9:26
That's not the story. No,
Cindy 9:28
I was like really a number being really disappointed. I tried not to show it because she was doing what she was supposed to be doing it.
Scott Benner 9:38
Yeah. Well, so it wasn't hyperbole either. Right? They were, that might have been true. On some level at that point. Like you they needed to cut carbs out of your life. Or you were going to suffer some long term effects because that's just was that just the honesty of the treatment at that time?
Cindy 9:58
I think it was um, Because I don't think they really knew how to manage it. I mean, remember this was on one shot a day. Yeah. In the morning was very old beef, pork and sling, it was similar day and limp day with the names of the insulin wasn't multiple daily injections, certainly no pumps didn't know what your blood sugar was have been testing your urine. And we know that that's not very helpful or effective. So yeah, I think at the time that that's just how management was, you just didn't think to take more insulin for eating more carbohydrates. In fact, it was very hard for me to get my head around adjusting my insulin to a sliding scale. When I got older, that was a really new concept for me, I was used to taking this 138 Was 38 LMT and eight units of semimonthly for years and years and years and years and years and years and years. And that's all I took,
Scott Benner 10:51
just get up in the morning and shoot that and then try to eat a certain amount of carbs at certain times a day, or was it?
Cindy 10:58
Well, for a while we tried that. But that didn't last very long. Once I got a little older, I just saved anything. But yeah, we tried that. And it was the exchange diet, which I'm sure you've heard of. So it was different than carbs. It was counting exchanges one bread one through one vegetable. One milk, so I think of it more like almost like counting calories instead of cars, but I guess it was cars, but that's not what we called it in.
Scott Benner 11:25
Because that doesn't take into account any of the glycemic load of the foods that you're having.
Cindy 11:30
No, not at all, which I think is is part of why they really made the hard and fast rule. No sweets, no candy. No. I mean, they had some allowances for your birthday. You could have angel food cake.
Scott Benner 11:45
You're a great sponge cake for old ladies for my birthday. Great.
Cindy 11:48
Exactly. And I hate angel food cake. To this day. I just
Scott Benner 11:53
I bet you do. I remember my father wouldn't eat chicken. And one day I just asked why? Because it was odd. We'd have chicken for a meal and my mom would make my dad a piece of liver every time. And it turned out that his dad had a job that on Fridays, if you had a good week of work, they'd send you home with a live chicken. And that was part of the like a bonus for working there. So my dad got chicken constantly as a kid and then couldn't stomach as an adult.
Cindy 12:22
Couldn't see. Yeah.
Scott Benner 12:23
So are you seeing that? I want to make sure I definitely understand that all the way back in the beginning. You weren't even using regular an MPH you were using something even more ancient ancient they I was looking for the word. Thank you then that.
Cindy 12:38
Yeah, no, it was called similar thing. Monday was beef pork. I'm sure it wasn't very pure. Fact I used to get a fair number of skin reactions from it because I just think it wasn't very pure insulin. So yeah, that was a long time ago because it was 1971.
Scott Benner 12:55
That was the year I was born Sunday. Yeah, now. Listen, it's making me feel old. How do you I mean, what do you you can't just do the woe is me here, right that far behind you. But that's crazy, like and like to listen to now in 2021. And so how long did you do those those first insulins again?
Cindy 13:15
What's a long time well into my teens? I don't know, when I went on to regular an MPH might not even have been until college. I didn't have the best of care. Well, part of is I didn't have the best of care. But I also didn't take very good care of myself. So I may have not gone on to mph, right? Maybe in high school. But then they wanted me to take two shots a day. And I was like, Oh no, this, this now I don't want to do this. And eventually I did. And that was quite a while before. Maybe I was in college, they wanted me to do even more shots. And now. Because really, even though it was terrible control, one shot a day was pretty simple. You took your insulin and that was it.
Scott Benner 14:02
Right? So you weren't really thinking about outcomes. You were thinking about livability?
Cindy 14:07
Yeah, only when, at that time, I just figured I would die and I want to see and I would go blind and I just sort of took that like, okay, I guess that's gonna be how it is. I mean, I never thought I'd make it to 50 years. That's not it'd be long gone or I'd be sick. So yeah, I just started like, Well, yeah, I guess I'll go blind. I guess I'll mean, as I got a little older, I got a better grip on that. It's like no, no, you don't have to you can make better decisions. But when I was younger, and I didn't have much control over what was going on around me it just sort of, well, okay. When you
Scott Benner 14:45
said a minute ago that you didn't do a very good job. What does that mean to you?
Cindy 14:51
Well, compared to what I do now, um, I eat pretty well and obviously we test our blood sugar and I'm on a pump and I have a CGM. But then you didn't know what your blood sugar was. And when I became a teenager, I just ate and ate and ate and ate all the bad things. Nothing that was wasn't like vegetables and broccoli. It was like pizza and sugared sodas, and I will said pop up for a long time. In Colorado, you save pop instead of soda. But so I didn't take very good care of myself in terms of my diet. I always took my insulin. I never was someone who didn't take my insulin, but I didn't abide by my diet very well when I became a teenager.
Scott Benner 15:37
And so is it fair to say that you were probably only abiding that diet in the beginning? Because you're young enough to be controlled by the fear?
Cindy 15:49
Yeah, I think so. Plus, you know, when you're nine other people are generally feeding you. Um, and that lasted for a little while my family, it's interesting, my family, not getting told my family, but they didn't deal with me becoming diabetic very well. And they tried initially, and thank goodness or my sister who's 10 years older than me, she she was only 19 At the time, but she really did make a good concerted effort to watch my diet to teach me how to take my insulin. She was really great. And thank God I, I had her but my mom. Initially she was pretty engaged. But then she sort of checked out. And actually my father never learned anything about my diabetes, you'd always just say, Oh, he was too stupid to understand it.
Scott Benner 16:38
He just didn't want to be involved. Right? How many how many kids? Did your parents have?
Cindy 16:42
Three, and I'm the baby. Wow, Cindy, I'm
Scott Benner 16:45
gonna do something I don't normally do. But I need to take a break for one second, and I apologize but I will be back in two minutes. Okay. I'm so sorry. I'll explain why as soon as I get back.
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I'm back. Just make sure I've got my recording going again. So are you there? And yeah, I apologize there. So they're keeping in mind that I'm doing this. My wife is working downstairs, she's on a call with France. And I have two young people here cleaning up the house, like kind of outside a little bit. And I said to them, Hey, between 11 and 12, no, no loud stuff. And they're like, Okay, no problem. And then another person showed up to help them and didn't get that message. So. So there's this noise, that then my older dog is is responding to so my wife just texted me and she's like, Please do something. Alright, so I see a guy got something accomplished here, I asked him to move to a different place for a little while. So hopefully, the dog will calm down in a second anyway. I want to jump right back into it. Because I, I'm kind of fascinated by this, that you have this good recollection of the time. I want to go back to you saying you just thought you were probably gonna die. And I realized that that that's such an odd thought now, because management looks so different insulin, so different. Technology, so much different. But is, is that a freeing experience? Or is it a limiting experience to be told that your life's probably going to end short? And you will be blind when it's over?
Cindy 22:16
I think for me, it was limiting.
Scott Benner 22:20
I mean, I would imagine that I just I, I've also heard people just say like, Oh, I just thought, well, this is my lat. And then they ran forward.
Cindy 22:28
Yeah, and I think for me, it was limiting that I made certain assumptions that now are being challenged, I assumed that I would be the one who got sick, and my sister would be taking care of me. And that hasn't been the case at all. And I really worry about losing her first. And that just breaks my heart. I'm like, Oh, my goodness, like that. I didn't realize I had that assumption, when I was a kid, that I would be the one who would get sick. And I would die before my sister. So I kind of had that that was just the cosmic way. That was the way it was supposed to be. Sure it's gonna work out that way. Now. Here I am.
Scott Benner 23:06
Well, you know, you take this, this number, this 50 years number. And if you go back another 50 years, beyond 1971, you're coming right in at the advent of insulin. So being born another 60 years prior or being diagnosed 60 years prior to when you were you would have just died? Like they didn't even have insulin, it just would have been like, Hey, we're sorry, your kid's pancreas doesn't work anymore. They're going to die.
Cindy 23:32
Oh, yeah. I mean, it would have starved me to death, I would have died. So
Scott Benner 23:36
and so this is such an incredible improvement over that. And yet, your experience is still not what we would expect is expect the right word, not what we would hope for for a human beings life experience, except you somehow made it to a point where things changed. And you're seeing an incredible, I really feel like you're you're an interesting conversation because you have real world knowledge of both sides of this, it feels like to me was regular and mph. Not much of a difference. When did you get the faster acting insulin?
Cindy 24:13
Can you know I couldn't tell you for sure. I think it was maybe a little purer than the semi Wednesday and Monday. And I don't remember what the peaking time or anything like that. So my Wednesday, Monday was the thing I didn't like about regular and NPH was the absolute must eat lunch, you absolutely had to eat lunch. And even when I was in the sixth grade, I had to eat with a second graders because they ate earlier. And that was terrible. I mean, new sixth grade you want to be eating with the second graders so I never liked regular for that or even semi live day because you had to time your meals so closely to the insulin and that was problematic when I was in school. And when I was working. That was always Jag,
Scott Benner 25:00
what kind of? It's interesting, right? Back then nobody cared about kids. I know, like younger people don't understand, but nobody would think like, Oh, we're gonna make Cindy go to lunch with kids that are five and six years younger than her. She might not like that. They would just think that fixes the problem. And then that way,
Cindy 25:16
right? Definitely, yeah, no, there wasn't any of this touchy feely.
Scott Benner 25:21
But now, so let's, let's ask, what was it negatively impactful on you to sit? Because I assume everybody in that room thought of you as the sick kid who had to be there?
Cindy 25:32
Probably. Yeah. I mean, I was, I was more embarrassed. Because you know how the kids started to get that age, it was just just wasn't a lot of fun. anybody to talk to and then, and then what and then when my class would go to lunch, because I'd already eaten, they'd have me like, you know, work on the bulletin board or something like that. And interestingly, this is when I think my relationship with food started to really go south. I used to, because the teacher, one of our teachers used to give out candy to kids for rewards, while they couldn't obviously give it to me, but I used to steal her candy when I was working on her bulletin boards when everybody else was at lunch.
Scott Benner 26:15
And that's the first step in this adverse relationship with food.
Cindy 26:21
So mean actually as much candy as I was fed before I became diabetic. I'm not sure that was a great setup to begin with.
Scott Benner 26:29
Because it really felt like something got taken from you.
Cindy 26:31
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I even remember being in the hospital. When I was diagnosed and stealing Lemonheads from the little girls nightstand next to me in the room. I was in for a kid, right. So yeah, even remember, the Lemonheads to this day, though. Um,
Scott Benner 26:49
but that's a connection. So again, to kind of look backwards. You know, parents and their involvement with their children has grown over the decades. So this candy your father would bring home was probably a major connection point for the two of you, I would imagine. I think so. I think that's a good insight. Yeah. Yeah. And it's probably one of the only ways he knew how to show you. He cared about you. i I'm guessing because a guy in his 70s with kids is born in the 40s or 50s. I'm assuming born in 1913. Oh, my goodness. Excuse me. Yeah. So I'm not assuming he's, um, had some very warm upbringing coming through that time either. No, I
Cindy 27:33
don't think so. I think it was pretty rough.
Scott Benner 27:35
Do you have kids? No, I
Cindy 27:37
do not even have cats anymore. Like I can't. I'm a reformed cat lady. So I don't have no cats. I didn't have a significant other. And that's cool.
Scott Benner 27:47
So you might have just named this episode. And not meant to so you had to say something more interesting than reformed cat lady before this hours over? Thinking about that, oh my god, yeah, you're gonna be pissed when yours goes up, you're gonna be like, Oh, no. So Okay. Wow. Now, how was your health through that time? Like, or how was it measured? I guess?
Cindy 28:16
Um, that's a good question. I mean, we did the urine testing. And was actually my sister who found a doctor who was not just our general GP, who had some specialty in diabetes, but he wasn't endocrinologist by any mean. And his care was actually pretty mean. You know, you're gonna get your legs cut off. It wasn't real, effective. But it didn't make me want to try a whole lot harder, I must admit. Um, and I guess it was just by urine testing. And if you weren't losing weight, I don't really remember them paying a lot of tension and all of you, you took your insulin and you were on your way
Scott Benner 28:58
do not being dead was the measure of success. Yeah, I
Cindy 29:01
don't remember anything other than testing your urine. I don't remember them putting a lot of focus on anything else. It's different than it is now. Yeah.
Scott Benner 29:11
When do you remember it? Shifting to a one CS and that kind of stuff.
Cindy 29:19
When I was in college, I don't think I had my first a one. See, John until I was in college.
Scott Benner 29:23
Do you have any idea? What was your sense? 11%? Yeah.
Cindy 29:27
And I think that hadn't been drawn. When I was a teenager. I could have very well been even higher. Yeah. So like I say, I'm pretty lucky than I'm here.
Scott Benner 29:38
And that wasn't shocking. It was just matter of fact, right? You're just like, hey, everyone's he's 11 Did they say that do something about it? Or,
Cindy 29:44
um, they were pretty dismayed. But I didn't really have anything to compare it to.
Scott Benner 29:49
Yeah, I can't imagine a 11% is an average blood sugar of 269.
Cindy 29:57
I know. Imagine how crappy I felt.
Scott Benner 29:59
Yeah. Well, that was my Next question is at some point, do you have hindsight for how it affected your mood and your overall life?
Cindy 30:07
Yeah, I think this is gonna be it's gonna sound like I'm really exaggerating, but I think I probably felt really physically bad like most of the time. And sometimes I wonder how it affected my outlook on life because I'm not necessarily the sunniest and curious person. But I wonder if you feel bad all the time, if that affects how you experience the world.
Scott Benner 30:32
Yeah. And just the cloudiness that comes with in the brain function that is limited by the blood sugar being higher all the time.
Cindy 30:40
Yeah. And I didn't even really realize that, that that had such an effect until the last few years until I mean, I've been controlling my blood sugar's pretty well for quite a while. But really, so to pay more attention because I can loopiness last two years. Yeah, I guess I'd never really put it together so much. How my moods were really dramatically affected by my blood sugar.
Scott Benner 31:02
Does it make you sad?
Cindy 31:05
Yeah, it does. I look back and think, oh, yeah, that wasn't so good. That was kind of rough. And not a great way to. I mean, I love seeing these parents now. Like on the, on the Facebook group, just being so proactive for their kids and so concerned. Conversely, sometimes I feel like they're a little tortured by the numbers. But still, I just am so pleased to see parents really stepping in and trying to do the best for their kids. That just makes me feel like, that's gonna Bode so well, for the kids will just like with you, and Arden too. It's like, oh, that just warms my heart so much to see parents trying so hard to manage such a difficult and frustrating disease,
Scott Benner 31:48
do it the way I kind of see it, I think is, is shifting the burden from the physical of the child, like in your example, to more of the stress and mental side, and at least it falls on the parents then. And not the kids I have to say to your story hits me right in. I mean, I don't know how long you've been listening, but I am, I have a real hard time with with the idea of wasted time. You know, like I I really upsets me to look back and see that days, weeks, months, years were spent in a way that they didn't need to be and that there's no way to go back and fix them or get you know, get that time back again. And your story just makes me feel like that. It's just that. That idea of like, I wonder who Cindy would have been without this kind of feeling. Yeah, yeah. And if you don't feel that way, I'm not trying to bum you out.
Cindy 32:45
No, it's it's an In fact, it. My diabetes is me, it does not feel separate from me. In fact, it took me a long time when I would go to see a new doctor and they'd say what medications you're on, I tell them what medications I was on. And they say, Aren't you on insulin to? Oh, yeah, that's right. So for me it's a big part of my identity. So I don't even know that I can go back and say well should have coulda woulda. And the thing is, Scott is if you didn't know how to do differently at the time, you just didn't know it was
Scott Benner 33:19
the best that they had. Yeah, no, it's all hindsight that allows you to feel that way. It's you know, I'm not saying that I'm curled up in a ball bemoaning every every bad decision I've ever made. It's just it's a sad idea that that to be born, then instead of 30 years later, leads you to say I'm not a person with a sunny disposition. And I wonder how much of that has to do with that? Because you you are, you seem like a well thought out reasonable person. Otherwise you're not. You don't seem like you're depressed. You're
Cindy 33:55
you haven't heard the whole story? No, I've worked for many, many, many, many years getting my head together I really have. So I feel like I'm pretty self aware. I'm pretty self observant. I've come a long ways.
Scott Benner 34:06
What did that path that you traveled look like?
Cindy 34:10
Pretty rough, and graduated high school, which was no big deal, because that was expected. And then I went to school in Boulder and took terrible care of myself. And I don't even know if I should mention this. But Boulder, University of Colorado was a big, big big school and I was really overwhelmed by it. I just wasn't ready for a state school. Not at all. So I got proselyte I was proselytize and join this church that was a near cult. And it was just crazy in retrospect. And I was in it for a couple of years. And I just decided you know, I don't like what these people are doing. This is this is not cool. And so I left and they all ostracize me. So all these kids who I thought were my friends wouldn't have anything to do with me. So we're we're stuck in this big state school with all these kids who were acting like I was just, you know, something terrible that shouldn't be dealt with. And I wonder if that's part of what sent me into my first depression. So I was actually hospitalized when I was in college when I was a senior, so I had to go to the five year plan. But I've graduated, and got myself together for a couple years, but then I moved to Washington DC, from Colorado, and the East Coast is very different. I think you grew up in Philly. So I did not be able to relate to this. But the East Coast is very different than the West, it's just different. It's more fast moving, and people aren't as friendly. Um, so there was a bunch of other circumstances that happened at that same time, and just an attack that had really severe retinopathy. I discovered about a year after I moved here. So I actually got really depressed again, and was hospitalized again. So that was a really bad time in my life, I had really severe retinopathy, and I was hospitalized for a long time. And unfortunately, I made a couple of attempts, which I'm not crazy about. But I'll tell you this, that since then, it's so lucky that I was able to go to the hospital that I was able to go to, though surance company would pay for that now, because it really, I got better. And I've not been hospitalized since then. And I've just been able to incrementally make my life better, better and better with each passing decade. So I think had I not gone to that hospital when I was 30. That's actually where I had my 30th birthday. Um, I would never have gotten better and might not even be here. Wow. So
Scott Benner 36:40
Cindy, you just got rid of your reformed cat lady title, you did a good job there that was thinking you're like, wait a minute, I can get out of this. No, wow. Okay. Let me make sure I understand that picture a little bit. So as a senior in college, did you have what I guess they would have referred to back then as a breakdown of some kind?
Cindy 37:04
Yeah, I got really, really super depressed and it's hard to quite figure out now I did make a pretty serious attempt. And that was really scary. And in retrospect, now, it makes me really sad. Looking back at that young woman, I'm like, what a rough way to get started on your adult life. You know, like, that's, that's not great. But I got through it. And I was hospitalized a couple of times, maybe two or three times. Didn't the longest at the time was a month. But then I got out and moved back to Denver and pretty much got my act together and got my first job and did really well until I moved out here. And then things kind of went all the heck, then
Scott Benner 37:47
what do you have any idea what precipitated the first hospitalization?
Cindy 37:52
I think it was really leaving the church and having everybody just just kind of shun you. Yeah. Plus, my family was a bit of a wreck too. So I don't think that helped is really hard for my mom from for her to lose me to have me go to college and be independence. And so I think there's a combination of things.
Scott Benner 38:14
And then you did finish up school. You traveled east? And then and I'm sorry, but when you say attempts, you mean suicide, right? Unfortunately, yeah. Okay. And then and so you had a couple of more goes with it there. And then were hospitalized a couple more times, I would imagine around the attempts.
Cindy 38:34
Yeah, yeah, I was, I was pretty sick. And so I was having I couldn't work. I was having a really hard time working. But I was also going blind at the time, not blind, but it looked like I was going to go blind because I have really significant retinopathy in both eyes. And so I was having a lot of laser treatments. And somebody who had promised to move you for these sorts of for somebody who promised to move here with me didn't. And so that sort of broke my heart. And then Washington was, was different than Denver. And it was really hard for me to sort of scale up to me now, I could do it because I know what cities are like, but then I didn't know I mean, I grew up in suburbia, almost a rural area. So it was very different moving here. It was hard and then almost going blind didn't help either. So it's like a confluence of things.
Scott Benner 39:23
Yeah. No, just a lot of stuff that all felt like it had no exit. I feel like
Cindy 39:28
Yeah, I mean, it was scary thinking about going blind. I mean, I felt like I dealt with it pretty well. Like I went to the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and saw their apartment that they had you stay in and things that they could teach you and so I felt like I've dealt with it pretty well, but it didn't mean it wasn't scary.
Scott Benner 39:45
Well, so you were really oh gosh, okay, so you were headed towards blindness and preparing for it. And yeah,
Cindy 39:52
oh yeah, I thought for sure. My my, my retina guy who I love Oh, thank God for this guy. Um, he saved my vision. He didn't say anything at the time. But many years later he said, Yeah, your retinopathy was pretty bad. And for a doctor to admit that even many years later is usually means it was pretty bad. You know, usually they're not that forthcoming. So yeah, it was really bad. I have like 18 laser treatments, because this is the era of lasers and for have attracted me is I guess,
Scott Benner 40:25
oh my gosh, Is it painful to have worked on your eyes like that?
Cindy 40:29
Yeah, well, the creepy thing is if you have an ocular block, it's not so bad, but ocular blocks. In fact, you can't feel anything if you have an ocular blood. But the ocular box really creepy because they have to inject anesthesia in your face so that the needle gets back to your ocular nerve. And you can't close your eye. So they're coming at you with this big needle. I mean, I'm sure people who are getting shots of their eyes now from for retinopathy, I'm sure they have similar stories. I don't know what the shots are like now. And the attractive bees. They're just a pain because I couldn't drive for a long time. For a while I couldn't see people's faces. And that was really dismayed. You take for granted how much you information you gather and how much connection you have to see people's faces.
Scott Benner 41:17
Yeah, I have to tell you, the short story is still I can't quite get the tightness in the chill out of the top of my spine, but I'm working on it because I think I drew myself a picture while you were talking.
Cindy 41:28
Creeps people out that story does and it was pretty creepy. Don't close your eyes. That's a really big needle. It's right under your eye to get back to your ocular nerve.
Scott Benner 41:38
Okay, okay. All right. Good. What we're gonna skip over that. Oh, my gosh. What? So I'm assuming, you know, the control is what set you towards the retinopathy. So is, is that the moment where you figure out how to manage in a different way or not?
Cindy 41:58
It did bring me up short, I really do. And at the time, 20 years out from diagnosis was usually typical for getting retinopathy or being diagnosed with retinopathy. And once again, I had thought, oh, once again, I met the milestone. 20 years, there I am. But that's when I started to think, no, maybe this could be different. You know, maybe you don't have kids and that next milestone, which is the kidney failure, maybe you can promise I didn't have the best relationship with food. I used food a lot to comfort myself. So it was difficult to sort of get around that. And it took me quite a few years to stop using food to comfort myself. And then the other thing is I have wicked sweets. It's just a wicked, sweet tooth. So that's always been problematic. being diabetic, too.
Scott Benner 42:47
How did you how did you overcome the food discomfort?
Cindy 42:52
I think I, some of it's just gaining mental health. Okay. I think introspection and connection is support. And I think a lot of it is just mental health. Oh, I'm using my hands again, my bracelets bumping against my watch. So let me stop doing Thank you.
Scott Benner 43:09
You see, you just you sort of found more clarity in your life overall, and then didn't have to go to the food in the same way.
Cindy 43:17
Exactly. Yeah. Okay.
Scott Benner 43:21
I have to collect myself for a second. Like I remember your email, but I wasn't 100% ready this morning. So there's a lot going on here. And so I didn't have I usually take a couple of minutes to like, gather what I'm thinking about before I sit down, but you and I just sat right down. And there were a couple of technical problems. And then like 30 minutes later, you have a needle in your eye. And it's I want to make sure I do do justice to your story here. Okay, let's see. So, so the shifting your relationship with food, does that coincide with a better understanding of insulin? Or was that in itself just a big improvement for you?
Cindy 44:03
It's a big improvement. I think it just gave me more just mental health so that I wasn't turning to food for comfort. I was turning to other things. And you know, I'm, I'm not you talk a lot about knowing about how insulin works. Still not sure I know how insulin works. I mean, I know how it works. I understand how it works and I understand peaking and all that good stuff but sometimes I still feel a little flum expire, like what is this about which is jumping far ahead but I'm actually experimenting with eating and low carb because I just can't get this carbohydrates thing down I Pre-Bolus I do all kinds of things. Now my budget gets high and then it gets low and then I get frustrated and then I you know start griping about it and some really trying to low carb things like blood sugars are just so much better and they're not. It's just
Scott Benner 44:54
easier. I would do whatever is best, especially when you have advanced it shoes. I mean, that just sort of makes sense to me. And you're willing to do it. And it's not causing you any kind of emotional trouble to Ed that way. So I would do it.
Cindy 45:12
Yeah, I'm working on it. Because I really I think that needs a little bit of help, though, because I keep having lows. So I got to kind of figure that out. But I'm pretty on top of everything.
Scott Benner 45:20
What is it? We need a little good news here? What is your agency right now?
Cindy 45:25
Oh, I'm so proud of my agency. This last one was 6.3%. And the one before that was 6%. So really excited about those because that's the first time I've been able to break seven. Well, no, I broken 10% A couple times, but only like 6.8. So that 6.0 I was so excited. I posted on Facebook, this is what my human will name once he is wow. I was really excited. So and actually looping and being exposed to your group. And a lot of the things that I've learned just in the two years that I've been looping have also really helped me gain better control. What pump are you using with the loop? I'm using old Medtronic pump. Okay, cool. Oh, that's
Scott Benner 46:07
amazing. Good for you. That's just so that is so exciting. So you're telling me that this, this improvements, only a couple of years old for you?
Cindy 46:17
This market improvement? Yeah, yeah. No, I've always really struggled to break that. 7%. And there's also something that I've picked up from you. And I wonder if it wasn't part of my thinking is that well, that's just the way diabetes is. Is if you think about it, that's kind of how I grew up, right? Yeah.
Scott Benner 46:37
No, every step of the way it was don't eat sugar, or you'll lose your eyes. That's what happens. And and and other messages like that. And then by the time you're 30, your site is impacted. I don't see how you wouldn't believe that.
Cindy 46:53
Yeah, so it's been interesting to sort of recognize that be like, Wow, that point there.
Scott Benner 47:01
Thank you. This makes me feel nice. Thank you. I, I have to say that has always, just from the beginning, robbed me, oddly, from the very start of my daughter having diabetes, and a doctor, intimating it and then being, you know, starting a blog and having more contact with people who had type one and seeing other people who were writing about it. I just, I just really much rub up against that idea of like, well, this is it like this is it, there's nothing you can do about it. I hate it when people say that's just diabetes. In even when they're just being flippant about it, which I understand completely, when you're just joking a little bit, it still makes me uneasy, because I think someone's gonna see that. And that's going to be their thing that they use to give up and say, say, somebody else agrees with me. This is the best I can do. It's not my fault. It's not because I don't understand something. It's because the magic diabetes fairy has controlled my life. And so this I'm just on a wild ride to the end now. And, and I don't think that needs to be I mean, your example, proves that out over and over again. Do you have any other autoimmune issues?
Cindy 48:20
A little bit of hypothyroidism but really lucky, I have some other complications, but they haven't been debilitating anywhere bilateral frozen shoulders and getting the tendinopathy type things like the trigger fingers and that dupa Chin's contracture, I think it's called some getting more of the sort of tendinopathy stuff, but it's not so terrible that I can't and the frozen shoulders are pretty bad, but they're not like going blind or being in kidney failure or having your feet amputated or anything like that. I mean, they were a pain, but no pun intended. But I, you know, I've got through those,
Scott Benner 48:59
you go through them real quickly with me, frozen shoulder, how does that present?
Cindy 49:04
Your shoulder freezes, actually, it was really incredibly painful, usually to non dominant side. Really, really painful, you lose range of motion. Now, they, when you look online, it'll say, oh, usually resolves in six months or 12 months or 18 months. For me. It started in 2006. And I was just able to swim again, with both arms across the pool last summer.
Scott Benner 49:32
So we swimming in a circle up until then,
Cindy 49:35
exactly, it was one arm. Yeah, um, but then it happened to my other arm too. And that I was really unhappy about because it was so painful. My left shoulder wasn't happened to my other shoulder on my on my shoulder. And I just knew my shoulder was never going to be the same and that really frustrated me that I was really cranky about it didn't get as bad as my left shoulder. So that's encouraging, but it's still not bad. So what it was before it froze, I'm
Scott Benner 50:02
sorry. Is There A Treatment For or
Cindy 50:06
physical therapy, which I found to be well, actually a full honestly. And I wish I'd done more research had it manipulated under anesthesia, where they just manipulate your arm and terrible the scar tissue. I really regret doing that, because it's really painful. And they couldn't give me cortisone. And they sent me to physical therapy the next day. It was good. It was terrible.
Scott Benner 50:29
So you're telling me that they shot you up? So you couldn't feel it? And then manipulated your arm in a way that broke up all that? And then there was no medication afterwards? Exactly. And then wanted you to keep moving it?
Cindy 50:40
Exactly.
Scott Benner 50:41
How long was that process?
Cindy 50:43
Quite a while. Um, I think I did physical therapy for a while. And that was incredibly painful. I think we've time it would have gotten better on its own. I don't think that going through all that made it better any faster. I think with time it would have resolved I say,
Scott Benner 51:01
what were the other two things you mentioned, there was something about your hands, I feel like
Cindy 51:05
your finger your finger gets locked. Okay. It's a tendon thing. And pretty typical with type one, I think, well, what diabetes in general, and then is new for me the stupid Chin's contracture, it does what it's called. So you get these lumps in your hands, and then doesn't have everybody doesn't progress, the same for everybody. But you get cords that extend from these lumps in your hand, and they draw your fingers in towards the palm of your hand.
Scott Benner 51:35
Oh, no kidding. A gradual thickening and tightening of tissue under the skin. And the hand condition most often affects the fourth ring, and fifth little finger over time, can cause one or more fingers to stay bent towards the palm. This can complicate everyday activity, so it doesn't like you can't make it go back.
Cindy 51:56
I can't Well, my hands are not so bad now. I mean, I have the bumps in my hands, the lumps, but my fingers are fine.
Scott Benner 52:03
And did they did these did that get better as your blood sugar improved?
Cindy 52:08
This is a recent thing. Oh, it's recent. Started? I'd say within the last year six months. So seems is that it's kind of frustrating that I have an A one C 6%. Yet I'm still getting these. What are considered complications.
Scott Benner 52:24
That sucks that it sucks that? I don't know if you've, you know, Jenny from the like, the pro tip episodes and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. She always makes that point that she wants people to understand that. You can't bank good health. And that and I just, it sucks because you put all that work in and you came all this way. And you figured out so much. It just sucks that there's not a there's not a not a trophy at the end full of like, I don't know, you know, no complications or something like that. Yeah, it is unfortunate. Yeah, you don't you don't win a you don't win a prize like that. You do win. I mean, feeling better. Do you see yourself as a different person now? Like, forget the depression and the emotions and all that stuff. But just clarity wise, do you feel different?
Cindy 53:13
Yes, yes. And people have told me I'm different to well, Q is told me I'm different. He's like, Oh, this low carb thing must be great. Because you're so nice. What am I like, what? I'm not nice? You've been so sweet lately, like, okay, I guess I'm really reaching when I'm not like,
Scott Benner 53:31
you gotta you gotta throw a special shout out to all the significant others in the world who who are with somebody who's impacted like that, because it's difficult to love a person who is I don't know what the word is, but not always the way you expect them to be. And yeah,
Cindy 53:51
here it's tough. I mean, it's hard for me to relate to you because I'm the one who happened to low blood sugar. Right? So no, right. I used to be in pain since and I know it can be really hard on him sometimes, particularly when it's like, what is this about? And if I don't recognize it's low, you can get pretty pretty. Yeah, pretty quickly. And then I always feel so bad, but then part of me doesn't feel bad because I'm like, Well, I didn't.
Scott Benner 54:17
It wasn't me. City. Are you? Are you I mean,
Cindy 54:21
that doesn't quite slide that I mean, it's true. That that I don't know.
Scott Benner 54:27
It's true for you. And not that important to him. Exactly. Yes. Right. It's everybody's got their truth in this and not one is more more deserving of attention than the other it's just it's what it is. It's what it means to be with somebody who you know might get a low blood sugar and you're the mean drunk equivalent of getting a low Are you like personally mean when you're
Cindy 54:51
like candy? Yeah, I can really, I just lose all reason. You know, they just, they just think that oh, things that shouldn't set you off are things that are not a big deal. And he was so sweet the other day he make breakfast. And that's kind of a rare occurrence. And so he was really proud of that foolish me, I took my insulin much too far ahead thinking I'd Pre-Bolus thinking he'll be done and he wasn't done. And so a bunch of got really low. And I blamed it on him. I said, you took too long making breakfast? Well,
Scott Benner 55:25
that ain't gonna get your breakfast again anytime soon.
Cindy 55:31
So, so that was that was not a good diagnosis. If
Scott Benner 55:34
you're lucky, you didn't have to catch a box of Grape Nuts coming into your head in that situation.
Cindy 55:39
I you know, later, I felt really bad. It wasn't his fault. You should have you know, had, we should have asked him when is this going to be ready? When's your best guess? But I took my insulin thinking that I was making breakfast and it would take me this long to finish breakfast. Not Hello, it would take him to finish breakfast.
Scott Benner 55:58
Yeah, I know, this isn't diabetes. But I have mentioned on the show a number of times I, I found out that my irons been low for a fairly significant swath of my adult life. And that I have it up now where it belongs. And the same exact things, you're talking about just having reactions to things that aren't commensurate to what's happening. Like, it could be like getting upset about just nothing. And it feels completely legitimate while you're doing it. It does not feel like it doesn't feel like Oh, I'm now upset about something that I shouldn't be, you're like, This thing feels incredibly important in that moment, and every one of your reactions feels warranted. And the people around you don't know your irons low, at least at least they can look at you and think like, I bet her blood sugar's low, you know, I for until it was identified, no one knew it. And then even after it's identified, the thing that I noticed that was kind of crushing from my side, but I think relates to what you just said, and is understandable, is that it didn't immediately wipe the slate clean with the people around me who had to experience it.
Cindy 57:09
That's probably true. Yeah, it's not like you're given all of a sudden, okay, we understand,
Scott Benner 57:15
right? It's hard to give away. You can't just give away feelings that you've had in the past, because you now understand why they happen. You can't just forget them. Now, that's a good point. Yeah. And it's, it's, um, anyway, that's, it's sad to me that that happened to me or that it happens to other people. Because I do have that feeling of like, I wonder how I would have been in these scenarios. Like, I wonder how much of what my children think of me would have been different if my iron level was 30 points higher, which is so ridiculous. You know, because I am definitely different now. And just by different I mean, like, I don't find myself being irritated by things or upset or gruff. nearly as much I still, you know, like, sometimes something just makes you upset, but the threshold for it is so much higher now.
Cindy 58:02
Have other people noticed it too? Or have you just mainly noticed it
Scott Benner 58:06
in my family? Everyone here knows. Good? Yeah. Good. So,
Cindy 58:10
Jamie, it's nice to have that positive. You know that what's what's the word? I just like? Just like so much validation, validation.
Scott Benner 58:17
You don't like the word validation? No, no. It's because you're, it's because you're gruff. Cindy. Don't be talking about positive stuff. All the soft kids nowadays. You know, I'm just Well, I mean, you've been through Cindy, and I made a cursor, you've been through a hell of a thing, really is something else. And you You seem really good natured about it now. And try to be pretty
Cindy 58:45
open about it. I'm pretty. I mean, this is a phrase that I'm not crazy about, but it is applicable many times it is what it is. It's like well, that was my history. And not a lot I can do about it. Now. Like you were saying earlier, there's me you can't go back and change things. And maybe it's part of what's me. Me Me now.
Scott Benner 59:10
Yeah, I have to say that I had no intention of this when we started talking, but this is an after dark episode.
Cindy 59:17
I thought it might be the other day you posted on Facebook. Like I'm looking for people for more after dark episodes. And I got you. I almost posted we have a date. Just wait.
Scott Benner 59:30
I held off. No, it really is. And I'll tell you these, like I find this conversation with you. enlightening, and it feels it's a little difficult for me because I don't have the ability to talk about things preferentially. You know, like I can remember like a friend of mines father passing away and you know, he's crying and I'm joking about it at the same time. Like I don't know how to I'm not good. That, like, I'm not good at just, I also don't think anybody would listen. By the way, if this was an hour of you just recounting a horror story after horror story, I don't think people would be able to get through it. And I think I was gonna say a lot. But I think everything that you just said, is incredibly important to hear for people. And I want them to be able to get through it, and and to listen to it and to hear that you're still a person who has a life. You're not. You're not a case. You don't I mean, yeah.
Cindy 1:00:25
So I mean, that's part of the reason I, when you said, you know, you think you'd be a good candidate for the podcast, I thought, well, you know, it's been 50 years, and I want people to know that you can make it that long, even if you were diagnosed in the dark ages. And just to just to give people a sense of like, yeah, you can get through. And so that's part of the reason because I thought, well, you know, maybe people can glean something from my experience. And if that's the case, that's great, right?
Scott Benner 1:00:52
Just imagine, and just, well, first of all, I'm sure that that's the case. But just imagine 50 years from now, I'm 100 years old, I'm doing this podcast, and and I'm interviewing somebody who was diagnosed, you know, this year, and that how much different their story is gonna be, they're gonna, they're gonna, they're gonna have a story that sounds like I was diagnosed. My parents were scared. They got me a continuous glucose monitor. A year later, I get you started using an algorithm that kept my blood sugar stable. And to be perfectly honest, I didn't notice it. I mean, it sucked having diabetes, but their story is gonna not mirror yours in any way. Hope. So I really hope that's the case. At least, it could be I guess,
Cindy 1:01:35
I hope so. I really do. I think it could be I think just even within the last 10 years, I mean, CGM, and comps and it was on a pump quite a while before I was on a CGM. I'm not really sure how I ever did it. Didn't have very good information to be on the pump. And I would rather be with if I ever had to give up one of the one of the other I'd give up my pump before I'd give up my CGM. I always tell everybody that
Scott Benner 1:01:59
well, yeah. And I would say I was gonna ask you as a person who's had diabetes, this long, greatest adventure ever for diabetes. What's a CGM is the greatest Advent for diabetes that you've seen. Yeah,
Cindy 1:02:11
yeah, better than the better insulins better even then the pumps. I think the CGM is just I know everybody uses this phrase. But as a game changer, I really do think it's just, it's just, it's just remarkable. It's probably the best thing that's come along, in my opinion. Yeah,
Scott Benner 1:02:27
I have to agree. I don't have nearly as much time with this as you do. Being around it. But I, I haven't seen anything that's more impactful than this. There's ways around some of the other stuff. But this thing is just it just allows you to make decisions that are are so much more accurate and thoughtful.
Cindy 1:02:46
Yeah, I'm also curious about algorithm pumping. Loop has made a big difference. I did looping for two years now. And what you will hear so many people mentioned if you've mentioned is sleeping through the night, in fact, it was cute. Not too long after I was on loop. My significant other said, How come your alarms not going off in the middle of the night?
Scott Benner 1:03:11
Yeah, excuse me, um, you know, harden has been using loop for a long time. And I'm still very excited to try like Omni pod five, because sort of like what we just talked about is, is that if, if if if Arden can get on on the pod five, and it works, the way loop works, it still takes out that little piece, there's no connecting that Riley link ideas gone. And that just makes it incrementally better again, and so I have my fingers crossed for it. I can't wait to try it. And see. Well, I
Cindy 1:03:39
think there's a lot of good things coming down the pike. Yeah, control
Scott Benner 1:03:42
like you from tandem. People seem to love Medtronic is going to refresh their algorithm, I would imagine sooner than later. You know, it can only get better. Like, I really feel like when Arden's in her 20s I might even be shocked by what's going on.
Cindy 1:04:01
I hope so. I really do. I hope so. I mean, I really, I really want the kids who have been diagnosed down kids, the parents of the kids I see. Like in the Facebook group, I really want those kids to do well. And it just warms my heart so much that people are looking out for their kids. And this sounds silly, I know. But it really does just because parents should look out for their kids, but it is a different era. And I really love it when parents even though I feel bad for them sometimes because it is it is a burden for sure. And I do feel like they can be a little tortured by the numbers and see that's one thing that was easier. There were no numbers when I was a kid. But it wasn't healthier. So I would I would take the numbers over not knowing the numbers.
Scott Benner 1:04:46
I enjoyed listening to you talk yourself through that just now. Honestly, I really did because because you have like a you have there's some romantic feeling about diabetes prior to understanding the data where you're like I didn't really have to think about it. But then you're like, but look where it led. Maybe it would be better if I just had to have thought about it. Which you you agree with, because you said to me earlier, you know, when you heard me say, you know, don't listen when somebody says, Oh, that's just diabetes. I feel like those two things connect somehow. So it's very cool. Did this podcast help you, Cindy?
Cindy 1:05:22
Oh, yeah, no, this has been great. It's really nice to be able to tell my story. Because probably not the best story ever. But I do, I just want to give people some hope that I have made it 50 years. And yeah, that's some complications. But I also didn't take very good care of myself, and had I taken better care of myself. And I also think I'm very lucky. I think I may mention this in my email, but a friend that I went to summer camp with died when she was 35. And so I feel very, very, very fortunate to be here. And she did not take very good care of herself. Plus, her mother had died, and she had been type one. So I feel really, really fortunate to still be here. And I need to remember that on my cranky days are on my sort of very lucky,
Scott Benner 1:06:08
I think the thing, the nicest thing you've said in the last hours that you feel lucky. I think that's great for people to hear. Because you maybe did just get a little lucky. Like, that's a great example, like things go a little bit different one way or the other. And your friend, you know, loses her life in her 30s diagnosed around the same time, as you imagined. Yeah. And so starting from that point, you had as much chances not as being that way, too. I would assume as many people probably were, who were diagnosed back then. And yeah, and instead, you've got a you things, as much as your description makes it sound like things didn't go well. They at least went into a way that you're here. And you have this new clarity, and an opportunity to take better care of yourself. So when absolutely
Cindy 1:06:59
no, I'm very lucky, and also helps with my mom's 95 I think I've got good genetic loading too.
Scott Benner 1:07:05
I was gonna say you might be a little bit of a genetic badass and not even know. Badass or like, no, seriously, like, your body might just have like, its own pseudo armor or something. And that's my Yeah, it's important for people to remember too, we all don't get the same. The same go. So that's another great reasons to take incredible care yourself.
Cindy 1:07:26
Yeah, I agree. I agree. And the playing fields, not even our level what I knew for tificate those things, right? I'm always like, throw rocks at brick.
Scott Benner 1:07:36
level playing field was the right way to go. I should have said that I used 1000 words, instead of just saying everyone's playing fields, not level. But I think that's important cuz you don't know when you're diagnosed. If you've got Cindy's constitution or somebody else's. And you know, so taking the best care of yourself, you can is going to give you the best opportunity. And I think that's really all you can do. Like, I feel like if that's what you did, then whenever things go wrong, if they go wrong, at least you can say to yourself, there was no better way for me to have done this. Oh, I
Cindy 1:08:09
agree. I think you should give yourself a fighting chance. I really do.
Scott Benner 1:08:12
Wow, you're really but this was wonderful. Did we not talk about anything that you were hoping to talk about?
Cindy 1:08:17
No, I think we've covered it. Wow. You were delightful. Oh, thank you. I was hoping for that. I was like, I wonder if that's gonna say I'm delightful.
Scott Benner 1:08:25
Oh, I'm delighted. That's how I know you were delightful. Can I be honest, maybe you weren't. But I'm delighted. So maybe that's what I just touched like people. Like do you think people who we get to the end and I don't say their delight for do you think they're let down? A lot. Do I? I don't know. I really found this delighting.
Cindy 1:08:44
I look good. That's a compliment. Thank
Scott Benner 1:08:46
you. Oh, 100%. I am. I used to find myself at the beginning of new episodes. When I set them up to put them out. I'd be like, I love this episode. It's my favorite one. And I thought that sounds disingenuous. So I stopped saying it. But I do feel like that. Like, I never put out an episode where I'm like, This is crap. You know, like I,
Cindy 1:09:05
I think that comes through so that I think people can tell that I hope you can tell that you've put thought into it and that you've engaged people and the only thing that's been hard for me is I keep wanting to ask you questions, but I had to remind myself No, no.
Scott Benner 1:09:19
Well, you want to ask me a question asked me a question.
Cindy 1:09:21
Well, I'm just curious, like, what's gonna happen when Arden goes to school? Just those kind of questions. I just think about these things. I don't know that is thinking about your family. It's none of my business.
Scott Benner 1:09:31
I'll feel a couple from you. But so the first one you just asked, that is the favorite question of long time type ones. Really? Yes, people who have had diabetes for a long time, who experienced it? This is me in firing, but experienced it prior to glucose sensing and blood glucose, blood glucose meters that could be used more frequently with more accuracy. People who were just in that like take a shot in the morning try to eat around Hear sliding scale, anyone who grew up through that, I imagine didn't have as much connection with their parents and their care. And so this amount of connections seems this is a lot of me in firing, but I feel like this amount of connection feels like it's not real, or it's too much, because it's not as it's way more than what you got. And therefore, it feels like Arden must have no grasp of diabetes, and will be lost when she's like, set free into the world does that about how it makes you feel?
Cindy 1:10:36
Yeah, I confess that I do worry about that. I have thought about it. But I wonder about both of you just like how the dynamics dynamics are gonna change. I don't know why think about
Scott Benner 1:10:45
well, when she leaves, I'm just gonna have to go adopted another kid with diabetes to give me something.
Cindy 1:10:49
I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta have some fodder to so no, I think she'll do great. I just interesting to hear and to think about just like, wow, cuz I know, she's, she's getting pretty close
Scott Benner 1:11:01
to be 17. This summer. Again, she's looking at colleges. And she's gonna, at some point, we're going to do some interviews on the podcast weather, and I'm going to try to talk her through some of the ideas that I think she's gonna need to know. Like, I'm gonna talk to her. Yeah. And at the same time, it's not like, it's not like when she goes to college, I'm going to tell her never contact me again. So that we could do that. No, I'm
Cindy 1:11:21
sure that's true. I just think it's, it'll be interesting. And I won't be seeing because I'm not in your household and not living next door. But the dynamics will be interesting to see how they play out. I mean, I think she'll do really well. I don't have any doubt about that. I'll be curious to hear where she goes to school.
Scott Benner 1:11:37
I can't wait. I can't wait to talk about it. Like I already told her. I was like, I'm gonna keep doing the podcast, even after you move out, you know, and she's like, why won't even be here? I'm like, I still think we're gonna talk. And if not, then we'll talk about the disillusion of our connection around diabetes. Like, there's, there's plenty to talk about still?
Cindy 1:11:53
Well, there's plenty. And I've been thinking about it. She was like, No, you know, even when she does move out, and she's not under the same roof, or when she goes to school, she may be under the same roof sometime. There will still be plenty of things to navigate with diabetes. Yeah, I mean, so you guys, you'll have plenty to talk about, I'm sure.
Scott Benner 1:12:12
And on top of that, just between her and my wife and I, I have a unique situation here. I've talked to more people with diabetes than maybe some doctors have, right. And so I'm fairly aware of the pitfalls that lie ahead. And I hold no illusion that they're going to miss Arden because I'm the guy with the podcast, who knows how to make your agency stable? Do you know what I mean? Like that? I don't feel like she's gonna miss those things about having diabetes just because of her connection to me. So I want to be sure, yeah, so I want to be there. And as much as she wants me to be is the other thing too. Like, you know, I'm not gonna infringe on her life. But I'm trying to set up a relationship now where she'll feel comfortable reaching out and saying, Hey, Dad, I my blood sugar has been 200 for three days, and I don't know what I'm doing, you know, like so. Because that's
Cindy 1:13:03
just what I've been able to infer from fi I think you've set your kids up like that. Anyway, I hope so aggressively, be more independent. I think you've done a good job there.
Scott Benner 1:13:12
And at the same time, be willing to just like, I got a note from my son the other day that, you know, it felt like a 12 year old Senate to me, but I thought that was good, because it felt like he bumped into something that he just didn't understand. And instead of just ignoring it, he's like, Well, let me get some more context for this so I can deal with it better.
Cindy 1:13:30
Oh, that's great. That'll do it really well. Oh, so you're both of them as adult? I've
Scott Benner 1:13:34
all my fingers crossed right now.
Cindy 1:13:36
So you know, you're sure me
Scott Benner 1:13:37
too. What else? Oh, God asked me something else.
Cindy 1:13:40
That now It slipped my mind. It's made me curious about Arden. And how the dynamics were going to change because I can't think of the other question I had. So I guess I can't ask any more questions.
Scott Benner 1:13:49
Well, if you think of them, you let me know. I really appreciate you doing this. I really thought I thought this was wonderful. And I and I think you dug through a lot of personal stuff over a lot of decades, which can't be easy, and I really appreciate your desire for other people to hear it. So thank you very much.
Cindy 1:14:07
Well, thank you. I've really enjoyed myself.
Scott Benner 1:14:08
I'm glad this is an after dark use the length of time she's had diabetes. That's the title. A huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, G voc glucagon, find out more about Chivo Kaipa pen at G voc glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox you spell that GVOKEGL You see ag o n.com. Forward slash juicebox. Also want to thank the Contour Next One blood glucose meter remind you that you deserve an accurate and easy to use blood glucose meter. Find out more at contour next one.com forward slash juicebox and take the T one D exchange survey T one D exchange.org forward slash juice box you just have to be a US resident have type one or care for someone with type one thank you so much for listening I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast
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#584 Diabetes Variables: Walmart
Diabetes Variables: Walmart
Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE share insights on type 1 diabetes care
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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 episode 584 of the Juicebox Podcast.
Today, I have a brief diabetes variables episode for you with me and Jenny Smith. I'll be getting to it in just a few moments. Before I start, please let me remind you that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan are becoming bold with insulin. if I'm remembering correctly, there's three more variables episodes left, and then they're done. Took all year but I thought it was a really good idea. And I hope you enjoyed it. For today, I have one for you that is very real, and yet may be misunderstood by some people. My friend Jenny Smith has had type one diabetes since she was a child for over 30 years. Jenny holds a bachelor's degree in Human Nutrition and biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a registered and licensed dietitian, a certified diabetes educator and a certified trainer and most make some models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. I don't usually put so much effort into timing the episodes, but this one's for Black Friday.
This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by trial net. And trial net offers type one diabetes risk screening at no cost to relatives of people with type one diabetes, you can sign up right now at trial net.org. Forward slash juicebox. I don't know if this is just a thing from online. But how many times have you heard someone with type one diabetes say that Walmart makes their blood sugar? Go low? Yeah.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:03
Or any really I mean, it doesn't have to be that brand name place. But yes, but absolutely. But
Scott Benner 2:10
online. It's it's a moniker right? I went to Walmart, my blood sugar, I'm on my way to Walmart, I know my blood sugar is going to get low. Okay, so is it as simple as people are maybe sedentary in their day to day life. And now all of a sudden they're up, they're moving around, they're driving, they're getting out of their car, they're walking through the parking lot. They're walking through Walmart, they've added activity, probably with an insulin on board that's meant for sitting around.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:37
That's the simplest explanation of anything. Yes. I mean, that's it's not rocket science, quite honestly. And it's, it's longer term lingering. It's not that you for the most part, people aren't running in and getting batteries at Target. And then they end up back in the car. And then they're low. That's this is like, Okay, I'm planning you know, the trip to Walmart or wherever it is. And it's a trip, it's you're doing your errands, you're getting things done, it may not just be there, you may also be going to the grocery store, you may love be lugging bags and think of I mean most big places like a target or a Walmart these days, or not just go in for like underwear, right? They are like the super targets. They are the stores, you can buy your water jugs there. You can buy gigantic things of totally lit paper, or whatever it is. So you might be doing a little bit more activity than just walking around popping things into your car
Scott Benner 3:39
doing a bit of an excursion. You're lifting things. You're right. Yeah, maybe you're doing the like, Oh, let me look at the shower curtains before I go buy milk because it's all in place. And you're humping around. And then you get low at Walmart. All right, correct.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:55
Yes. And, you know, quite honestly, if you're a parent of a child, and you're the person with diabetes, and your children are young enough that they won't sit in the cart anymore. And then they're running around and they're in between all the aisles. You're not only putting things in your cart, you're now chasing around a lot more in terms of, you know, activity.
Scott Benner 4:17
It's it's interesting that anecdotally, I mean, I understand that it's joking for the most part, but then you do see a couple of people say very earnestly, like Walmart makes me low. Like they like they don't see it as well WalMart where I shop, it's not Walmart, it's this is where I'm going shopping, and they don't make the connection between the exercise. And the thing like it's such a weird A B that the people's minds have some time
Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:44
right it's just it's the store right? It's the stores fault that I went low. I mean, it's it's funny because quite honestly, I mean everybody in terms of like, nobody's perfect with diabetes. And myself. I have had to like grab a bag Have like gummy bears the middle of target shopping because I was like, I started out fine. I planned that, you know, like all the things that you would plan knowing what was coming. And it still didn't work out the way that you did. And now with, you know, like wearing masks everywhere. Now it's like popping them under the mascot. It looks like you're chewing on something. But she doing like, you know, the fun stuff.
Scott Benner 5:24
I mean, Arden was younger. And I didn't have quite a grasp on this. This would happen to us and I never get back then I didn't have to and to to even put the I didn't even know what to into was let alone right. I couldn't add them up, you know. But it would be interesting that if she got low in a public place where they sold food, and you grab something off the shelf, she was too low to be okay with. She felt like she was shoplifting the food. Right? I wonder too. If that happens if people's mind start going down weird paths, like I can't eat this. I haven't paid for it. I'll go pay for it first. Like you ain't got time to pay for it. Like explain it to the security guy. Yeah, you know, when he catches you down in the Gatorade, and I'll 16
Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:05
Yes, I mean, those are all my internal monologue. I could care less if you're gonna ask me why I'm eating gummy bears right now. Have at it. I got a whole load of stuff to talk to you about. So don't bug me.
Scott Benner 6:16
I'll pay for it. Calm down. Yeah. But But it happened to her more than a couple times where she's like, I can't eat this. I haven't paid for it. Oh, Arden. That's sweet, honey, you're just gonna eat it. And we're gonna pay for it afterwards. It's fine. You know, I think because if we wait, and now I'm explaining it like now and you have to remember to back then probably no CGM. I just got this little I'm looking at this number on this little freestyle meter, you know, and I'm like, Oh, honey, we'll pay for it later. Eat the food. Eat the food. Eat it, just eat it. Right, right. Because there's that other thing that happens to her too when she if she gets too low. She goes, I don't want juice. And I'm like, But juices the thing that works the best right now liquids, the thing that works the best right now. And then she starts turning into a food connoisseur. She's like I would prefer to have and I was like, yeah, no, not right. Now. If you eat that, you know, you're gonna pass out before you wake up. So can we get to it, please?
Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:11
Right. That's the point at which she's like, I'd rather have a boiled egg Daddy, you're like, No. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
Scott Benner 7:17
She once said to me, can I get avocado toast? And I was like, as soon as we're done fixing this low blood sugar, you can now write avocado says great.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:27
But as a variable. I mean, you're right. And in terms of like, it just takes planning. Like if it's if it's commented on often enough, clearly people know that when they're going to go out whether it's grocery shopping, or Walmart or wherever. You're going for it. Yeah.
Scott Benner 7:44
Well, let me let me ask you a question as a person with type one your whole life basically. What is that mechanism there that makes the idea of Pre-Bolus thing so difficult or setting a Temp Basal to go grocery shopping? Or, you know, like, I mean, I mean, how many people stand up randomly at 1115 and go I'm going grocery shopping right now. Like you don't think you're you at least know you're going grocery shopping today. Right? Like, set a Temp Basal if you get low at the grocery store,
Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:13
right? Or if you don't, if you can't think that far ahead. Again, if it wasn't really a plan, you're driving and you pick up your kids, you're like, Oh, I really needed this at the store. So and then you stop off. Okay, fine, unplanned but at that point, then you know, what's going to happen? Yeah, so take a snack. Right?
Scott Benner 8:34
Like have some sort of like stabilizing snack before you leave or something. Right. Yeah, I actually it's funny you said like that, because what I was thinking was that somebody recently I asked what episodes of the podcast are really helpful and she's like, she said, trust the trust episode. It's called trust what you know is gonna happen it's gonna happen. And that's what I wrote about like, I mean, how many times you have to get low at Walmart before you go. I got to do something about this. I'm going to Walmart can't possibly be Walmart's fault.
Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:03
Hey, or maybe you plan your Walmart trips around the around the fact that when you're high, I have to go out the door. to Walmart,
Scott Benner 9:11
you see your blood sugar 180 Diagonal up. You know what, it's time to go grocery shopping. That's right. There you go. Hey, what's up everybody? I'm going to explain TrialNet to you in some detail. As I mentioned before, trial net does type one diabetes risk screening at no cost to relatives of people who have type one diabetes. Here's who's eligible, immediate family members under the age of 45. And second degree, family members under the age of 20. I'm going to break that down for you. If you're between two and a half and 45 years old, and you have a parent brothers Sister or child with type one, you are eligible for trial.
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Trial net.org forward slash juicebox when they ask you where you heard about them, say the Juicebox Podcast and when you get your kit, you have to complete it and send it back in order for the podcast to get credit for you. Trial net.org forward slash juicebox Alright guys, so like I said there's a couple of more variables episodes coming up. But they began back on episode 491 With trampolines after that there was temperature, travel, exercise hydration, food quality, leaky sites or tunneling video games stress masturbation school, bad sites, growth hormones, sleep pump site placement, a full moon weight change this one today, Walmart and there's a couple more coming before this series wraps up for 2021 I hope you've enjoyed it. Go back and check out the ones that you might have missed. They're all available at Juicebox Podcast comm we're right there in your podcast player. I'm putting this one out specifically on Black Friday in case you're out there in the thick of it trying to get yourself a cheap TV or something like that. Just wanted to have this one for that. There's also a diabetes pro tip episode of episode 231 all about variables. If you don't know what the diabetes pro tips are, you should check them out at juicebox podcast.com or diabetes pro tip.com A pro tip series begins at episode 210. Hey, thanks so much for everything. You guys are absolutely terrific the way you listen download, subscribe, share the show with other people. The support is amazing. To be very clear with you the week of Thanksgiving is normally one of the slowest downloaded weeks, all year and yet this year, I didn't even notice a slowdown. I was really touched Honestly, I know there are a lot of things you do with your time. You're busy. You could be doing anything and listening to anything. And the fact that there was no downturn this week. I mean, it really blew my mind. I really appreciate it. Seriously, this is the end of the seventh season of this podcast. And to think that it's on the uptick is, it's just mind bending to me. I really love you guys. I appreciate your support. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Happy Thanksgiving. To those of you who celebrate. And to the rest of you. I hope you enjoy your Thursday. Oh, that reminds me, the private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes right now it's really late on Thanksgiving night. While I'm doing this. Don't ask why I didn't do this sooner. I messed up. It's just full of people celebrating and sharing their graphs about how they handled Thanksgiving. Some people had some tough times. If you want to see great examples of how people Bolus for a big day full of food. You should check it out. Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes. It's a private Facebook group with now I think over 17,000 members. It's absolutely an amazing place to either watch other people talk about type one management and living with type one, where to get involved yourself and have one of those conversations that you need to have
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