#1492 Where Is Soho?

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Ruby, a 28-year-old Welsh voice and theater actor, overcame T1D anxiety; now she advocates on TikTok with her Medtronic pump.

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

Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juicebox Podcast.

Ruby 0:14
Hi, I'm Ruby Valentino. I'm from South Wales. I'm an actor and a singer, and I've had type one diabetes for four years,

Scott Benner 0:22
nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. AG, one is offering my listeners a free $76 gift. When you sign up, you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of d3, k2, and five free travel packs in your first box, so make sure you check out drink AG, one.com/juice box. To get this offer, don't forget to save 40% off of your entire order at cozy earth.com. All you have to do is use the offer code juice box at checkout. That's Juicebox at checkout to save 40% at cozy earth.com Are you an adult living with type one or the caregiver of someone who is? If you are, I'd love it if you would go to T 1d, exchange.org/juicebox and take the survey. So if you'd like to help with type one research, but don't have time to go to a doctor or an investigation and you want to do something right there from your sofa. This is the way t 1d exchange.org/juice box. It should not take you more than about 10 minutes. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the twist A I D system powered by tide pool that features the twist loop algorithm, which you can target to a glucose level as low as 87 Learn more at twist.com/juice. Box. That's twist with two eyes.com/juice. Box. Get precision insulin delivery with a target range that you choose at twist.com/juice, box that's t, w, i, i s t.com/juice. Box. Today's episode of the juice box podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now. It is incredibly accurate. And waiting for you at contour, next.com/juice box. The episode you're listening to is sponsored by us. Med, us. Med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, you can get your diabetes testing supplies the same way we do from us. Med,

Ruby 2:36
Hi, I'm Ruby Valentino. I'm from South Wales. I'm an actor and a singer, and I've had type one diabetes for four years. Four years. How old were you when

Scott Benner 2:45
you were diagnosed? Let me do that again. It's not been four years. Wait, what it has

Ruby 2:53
14 years. Oh,

Scott Benner 2:54
because Ruby, that's totally staying in just so you know. So how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Ruby 3:00
Nerves. Um, I was 13, so you're 27 Yeah, no, I'm 28 but I was like, a couple of weeks before my 14th birthday.

Scott Benner 3:10
Oh, I see. Okay, wow, all right, so 1314, years old, you've had it half your like, half your life, yeah, it's been diabetes, and half it hasn't been. It's weird thinking of it like that. Have you thought of it like that in the past?

Ruby 3:24
No, now I have. I've seen other people say, Oh, I've had it half my life, and I was, I've been like, wow, that's a long time, and now I'm at that stage. I've just realized that change.

Scott Benner 3:32
No kidding, how did you learn of diabetes? Like, did you get very sick? Did somebody in your family sniff it out? Or what happened?

Ruby 3:39
Yeah, my mum. So I lost a lot of weight, and kids in school were kind of bullying me, saying I had a Ed and saying that looked very skinny, but I was eating so much I was healthy. So my mum was like, oh, there's something wrong with her. So she spoke to somebody in her class, she's a potter, and they said, that sounds like type one diabetes. Does she going to toilet a lot? And my mum was like, yes. And so she got a home testing kit from boots, which is a pharmacy in the UK. She spent a bit of money on it. It was expensive, and it came back saying, hi, hi. So she called 111, and they were like, get her in immediately. It was a quick turnaround, and I got diagnosed with type one diabetes pretty much on the spot that

Scott Benner 4:24
quick. So your mom chatted with some people. Somebody said it sounded like diabetes test kit. You're diagnosed. Is there any type one in your extended family? No,

Ruby 4:33
no. My nan and grandad had type two as they got older, but no type ones. What about your family? Because I know your your daughter's got it right,

Scott Benner 4:41
she does. So my daughter has type one. She was diagnosed when she was two. She's 20. Now. I'm adopted, so I'm as far as I know, on my side, on my wife's side, there's a lot of autoimmune stuff, like sprinkled around people like, like celiac or Crohn's. There's. Some anxiety, there's some depression with people. There's a there's a person farther out that might have Bipolar, like, there's stuff like that that's like, auto immune or auto immune adjacent. My wife has hypothyroidism. Both of my kids do as well, interestingly enough, like some of the problems people have with PCOS, like that kind of stuff that seems to travel through some of the women on my wife's side too.

Ruby 5:24
Yeah, it can be interlinked, right? Sometimes celiacs have type one and things like that. So it could be something there. Now

Scott Benner 5:32
I think so I talk to a lot of people Ruby, and I ask everybody the same question about their extended family, and often they find sometimes people say, Oh, no, there's nothing. I think you'll chat with them for a while, and they'll say, oh my. My uncle has Viti Lago, for example. And I'll be like, Well, that's an autoimmune issue. And they go, oh. And then as they start to really, like, think about it, they find more and more.

Ruby 5:53
Yeah. No, nothing. I had chicken pox when I was young. My mom thinks that could be something, but we've all had chicken did you have it right before your diagnosis? No, no. I was like two normal age. Oh, but I think I had it quite bad. I don't know. There are other means that people think you can get it from too, like you can get it from trauma. Apparently, don't take my word for that. I heard that.

Scott Benner 6:13
No, I've heard people talk about that too, like a giant shock to the system. Kind of throws your immune system into overdrive. Yeah, listen, you're never gonna really know. I have a question, though, before we move on. Did you say your mom was a booter? And what the hell does that mean?

Ruby 6:27
A Potter, pottery? Oh, a potter, a booter.

Scott Benner 6:33
Oh, no, Potter. I'm sorry.

Ruby 6:36
Language barrier, accent. Barry, so we're gonna get over it. She,

Scott Benner 6:38
like, does that professionally, or she just does that, like, as a hobby. She's

Ruby 6:42
a ceramic artist, so she makes her own things and sells them, and then she teaches as well on the side.

Scott Benner 6:47
That's awesome. Very cool. Yeah, all right, so you're diagnosed, they take you to do you guys say to hospital? I don't say the in front of hospital, right?

Ruby 6:55
Some northerners do, I think. But yeah, the hospital, I say?

Scott Benner 7:01
You do say the hospital. You don't say hospital. Look at you. You and I are going to get along much better. What's it like being diagnosed? Do you begin to take over, like your management? Do you do it with your parents? Your mom? How does that work? When

Ruby 7:15
I was first diagnosed? Yeah, my mom went a bit mad and tried freighters to cure me the most loving way possible. We were trying cinnamon. I tried Reiki at one point, obviously she was making sure I was doing my insulin and doing it properly. But in the meantime, she was trying to find a cure and reading things online. But obviously there is no cure type one. Wait. So we went down. Hold

Scott Benner 7:38
on a second. Like she actually said, like, we're gonna go to our Reiki healer. Yeah,

Ruby 7:43
and you know what, my blood was amazing. It dropped.

Scott Benner 7:50
I was hypo. Probably you get super relaxed, don't you think? Yeah, there's

Ruby 7:54
something, something good, I mean, but I don't think it was type one, but it was definitely good for

Scott Benner 7:59
my levels that's awesome. Is your mom, what we would call a hippie. She was a punk back

Ruby 8:04
in the day. I guess she's very artistic, so maybe I

Scott Benner 8:08
unfairly know that your father was in a band. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I'm imagining your parents correctly, then, is that what you're saying?

Ruby 8:17
Probably, yeah, we're quite out there. Do

Scott Benner 8:22
you have other brothers and sisters?

Ruby 8:23
Yeah, I've got a sister. She lives in Sydney, and she's getting married next year, which is exciting. Congratulations. Yeah, really excited. Are you going, yeah? Well, you know what, it's in the bush. Have you ever seen I'm a celeb. Get me out of here. Yeah. So I'm terrified, because I'm a city girl. I'm obviously going to go and love it, but we have to camp for like, three days, so I'm going to be terrified, because I hate insects and I hate bugs, and I'm not looking forward to the insect side of it. Which one

Scott Benner 8:53
of your irrational fears has the hold of you? Do you think there's going to be a snake in the toilet or a spider or what is it you're worried about? You've probably heard me talk about us Med and how simple it is to reorder with us med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email, because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email, and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works? And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, us, med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your order's ready. You want us to send it, push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait, I think it lets you put it off, like a couple of weeks, or push this button for that, that's pretty much it. I push the button to send it and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it us. Med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get your free benefits checked now and get started with us. Med. Dexcom, Omnipod, tandem freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new islet pump. Check them out now at usmed.com/juice, box, or by calling 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at Juicebox podcast.com, to us, med and all of the sponsors. The contour next gen blood glucose meter is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox Podcast, and it's entirely possible that it is less expensive in cash than you're paying right now for your meter through your insurance company. That's right, if you go to my link, contour next.com/juicebox you're going to find links to Walmart, Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Rite, aid, Kroger and Meyer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips in meter than you would pay through my link for the contour next gen and contour next test trips in cash. What am I saying? My link may be cheaper out of your pocket than you're paying right now, even with your insurance. And I don't know what meter you have right now. I can't say that, but what I can say for sure is that the contour next gen meter is accurate. It is reliable, and it is the meter that we've been using for years. Contour next.com/juice box. And if you already have a contour meter and you're buying test strips, doing so through the Juicebox Podcast link will help to support the show. The brand new twist insulin pump offers peace of mind with unmatched personalization and allows you to target a glucose level as low as 87 there are more reasons why you might be interested in checking out twist, but just in case, that one got you twist.com/juicebox, that's twist with two eyes.com/juice. Box, you can target glucose levels between 87 and 180 it's completely up to you. In addition to precision insulin delivery that's made possible by twist design, twist also offers you the ability to edit your carb entries even after you've Bolus. This gives the twist loop algorithm the best information to make its decisions with, and the twist loop algorithm lives on the pump, so you don't have to stay next to your phone for it to do its job. Twist is coming very soon. So if you'd like to learn more or get on the wait list, go to twist.com/juice. Box. That's twist with two eyes.com/juice. Box. Links in the show notes. Links at Juicebox podcast.com. Rats. I hate Rats. Rats is your concern? That's awesome. Yeah, I

Ruby 12:44
love animals, and I think every animal has the right to live. And, you know, I try and be as meat free as I can, but I just don't want to see a rat.

Scott Benner 12:51
Hey, listen, I'm with you. I interview a lot of people from all around the world, and I'm constantly asking people in Australia. I'm like, There's snakes and spiders and like, yeah. Some people act like, Oh no, no, no. But then once in a while, you'll get them to tell a story of, like, no kidding, like, the time they sat down on the toilet and there was a snake in the toilet or something. Yeah, I'm telling you, look in the toilet before you use it in. Haven't got anything

Ruby 13:15
like that here, hopefully. I mean, today I've seen a tick tock video of a rock coming out of the toilet in New York, and I was like, Okay, I'm never

Scott Benner 13:22
going our rats over here on the East Coast are pretty, uh, stout, I would say, All right, so you have a sister, she doesn't have type one or anything else, right? No, no, okay. What's your management like when you first start out that they give you just like needles and vials. Do you get pens? How does it work? I

Ruby 13:39
was on Nova rapid pens. And I did that for 13 years with a blood kit, the old fashioned blood kit. And then I didn't switch to a CGM until 2017 which was the Libra, yep, and it was good, but I was very self conscious of the Libra at first, because I wanted to hide my type one and, you know, not speaking for you, but probably your daughter did too, right? Because I feel like I feel like a lot of young girls are a bit self conscious

Scott Benner 14:05
of it. She was so young Ruby, I don't think she she didn't know any better. She doesn't think about diabetes that

Ruby 14:10
way. Yeah, amazing. That's good. I get so many people on my content, on my videos, saying, oh, you know, I'm embarrassed. I take it off and I pretend I don't have it. And I think now I don't think like that at all. I think maybe because I was diagnosed as a teenager when I started to go out, that's why I was trying to hide it. Maybe, yeah, so I was embarrassed to wear the Libra at first, and nowadays you get all sorts of influences choosing to wear them. It's cool. Yeah.

Scott Benner 14:38
Does that even help you as an adult? Does it make you feel more comfortable when you see other people

Ruby 14:42
doing it? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I love wearing it now. I'm really proud to be a type one diabetic, because it makes you you, and it makes you unique, and gives you a sort of strength, an image of strength. What do you do professionally? Tell people I'm an actor. I do a lot of. Voiceover acting. I did Macbeth last year on tour, which was fun across the UK, and just in a radio play,

Scott Benner 15:08
I keep thinking, I want somebody to come get me for a voiceover. I don't know why they want. I have a lovely speaking voice. You do, yeah, and it's not never does someone come. Like one time I got teased. I'm not calling the guy out, but I had the creator of a like, a Netflix cartoon on last year, and his daughter has type one. His daughter, by the way, it's the weirdest story. My daughter's name is kind of different. It's Arden, and there's not a lot of Arden's, and there's not a lot of people in the world with type one diabetes. And this guy, who I really did enjoy, his daughter's name is Arden, and she has type one. It was crazy. Oh, my goodness, yeah. But anyway, he's like, I'm gonna come get you for season two. And then he didn't call. I

Ruby 15:46
just want to say it's okay. What about me? Yeah.

Scott Benner 15:49
Oh, trust me, Ruby, if he would have known about you, you'd be in the fairy show. For sure, you would be, as a matter of fact, I probably just got you a job in season three of fairies. But not me, is what I was saying. One day, one day, he did hire a number of type one actors.

Ruby 16:03
Oh, I love that. Well, they've got that type one diabetic film coming out, right?

Scott Benner 16:07
Yeah, Kelly, what's Kelly's last name? Damn you know, I don't It's okay. She, yeah, she's a type one. And I think she wrote it and is directing it. Kelly, bacon, you got it right, damn it. Kelly, hold on a second. I'm sorry. I know she listens, and now I feel bad. How does diabetes intersect with working is what I was wondering. This

Ruby 16:28
is what I'm a little bit stressed about with my pump. So when I did my first film two, three years ago, actually, sorry, let me backtrack when I did a film 10 years ago, say when I was a child actress. It didn't affect it. Obviously, I had to check in between cakes and things like that, because I was on insulin pens three years ago when I did a new film, I was on the Libra. So they were very, very supportive. And I said, Oh, my Libras on show, is that okay? And they're like, yeah, why not? Why wouldn't she have type one diabetes? And they were, they were amazing in costume, nice, but, but now I'm on the insulin pump. I'm I'm not, I'm not filming anything as of yet in the pipeline, but I'm slightly stressed because I'm like, is that going to interfere with wires and things like that? So I'm hoping it. I mean, there are loads of actors with type one, with insulin pump, so I'm hoping it doesn't, yeah.

Scott Benner 17:17
I mean, I would imagine they could hide it if they wanted to. I would think you'd be more worried about alarms than anything else. Oh, yeah, I turned this off. Yeah. By the way, Kelly's last name is Bascom. It's, I think we both had a little bit of it. It's B, A, S, C, O, N, I'm thinking of Kevin Bacon. It's awesome. If we had time, we could see how many degrees of Kevin Bacon. Kelly is from Kevin Bacon. But her film, it's a feature film. She's the writer and actor in it. It's called quarter amazing. I don't know when it's coming out, but I hope she comes on to talk about it when it does.

Ruby 17:47
Yes, that. I literally can't wait for that. I'm so grateful that they're making it, and they've made it, and it sounds amazing, and they've got type one diabetic actors in it, obviously, Kelly and Brooke Shields, his daughter. Oh, is she in it as well? That's awesome. Yeah, she's a type one

Scott Benner 18:02
there. Yeah, she is, um, who else? Who's the models? There's a model, Kate Moss, her daughter. Yeah, right. There's a lot out there. Even now, when you go online and go clothes shopping and there's models, there's a lot of models wearing diabetes devices. Now, I've

Ruby 18:15
not seen that here yet. No, we have stoma bags and things and things that are represented on telly and modeling shoots, which is so amazing, but I've not seen any type one diabetic representation in our media yet in the UK, except for adverts, advertising Libra, obviously. Yeah,

Scott Benner 18:31
right, right. How about dating with type one? What is that like? I've

Ruby 18:35
got a partner now, but before I just hid it, I'll be honest, it was awful. And I did a video quite recently on Tiktok. Reason number 942, to tell people that you're on a date with that you've got type one. I went on a date, and I didn't tell him, and I was injecting under the table, and he saw it, and he was like, what's that? And I was like, it's a pen. It's a pen. And then my blood went super low, and I didn't tell him, so I was just scoffing a bag of Harry bows after a three course meal. And he was like, Are you hungry still? And I was like,

Scott Benner 19:06
yeah. He's like, I can't afford. I don't think I'm gonna be able to afford this girl.

Ruby 19:12
So I would definitely recommend telling people. When I first got with my partner, he cracked a diabetes joke when I told him, I went, Oh, yeah, I've got type in diabetes. And he said, he said something like, diabetes, you know that American meme, that man. And I was like, it's actually really serious. And I scared him. Then

Scott Benner 19:29
he hung around while you were you pressured him lecturing. He did a Wilford Brimley impression. Is that who that guy is? Yes, yeah, it's awesome that you know of him, but not who he is.

Ruby 19:41
No, I've just seen his face, diabetes,

Scott Benner 19:44
diabetes. It's actually like kind of a southern thing in America. So it's, yeah, I've had a doctor on this year who was just brilliant with his understanding of, like, GLP medications, for example, and I had him on to talk about it. But when he's an older. Gentleman. He's from Texas, and he says diabetes. He just, that's how he says it. I love

Ruby 20:05
that accent so much. It sounds so nice. Makes me want to buy something. I'm like, Are you selling me diabetes?

Scott Benner 20:11
I'll take three, please, and

Ruby 20:15
such a nice accent. So dating with

Scott Benner 20:17
it, you just, can I ask? Can I dig a little deeper there? Yeah, did that cause trouble with you trying to form bonds with people, because you were always hiding something,

Ruby 20:26
not really. I did eventually tell them if we became an item, but never told them on dates and things like that. But I do think is important, especially if you're going out drinking and things like that. If anything bad happens, they need to know,

Scott Benner 20:36
yeah, what's your plan when you drink? How do you handle it? I'm

Ruby 20:40
going out tonight, actually, so I'm glad that this isn't a filmed one, because I have my hair in rollers. So we're going to go out, and I just make sure I eat when I come back. Just check your levels. I'd rather be a little bit higher going to bed, not high. But you know, around 10, which for you is, what's that? 200

Scott Benner 20:59
is liquor easier than beer? Are there easier ways to handle things?

Ruby 21:04
I like wine because wine doesn't have many carbs in but I didn't even think about this until quite recently. But when you have beer, or, you know, like record big, do you have that there? It's like, fruity ciders and things like that, yeah,

Scott Benner 21:17
but I don't What did you call it record lake? I definitely don't know that word, but go ahead, yeah,

Ruby 21:22
yeah. They're really nice, but they're full of sugar. And for years, I used to drink that and be like, Why is my blood high? And that's why, see, obviously, you can drink what you like and eat what you like as long as you dose for it, but it's just easier for me to have a little bit of wine. Yeah.

Scott Benner 21:35
Do you have any other autoimmune issues? No, I wasn't sure if you're gonna say Not yet. No, don't see that judgment. Did they test your like, thyroid levels there yearly and things like that.

Ruby 21:45
No. I mean, I think my mom's got a thy Well, she did have a thyroid issue. I'm not sure, overactive. I think she said

Scott Benner 21:53
no. So your mom might have an autoimmune issue. Maybe see how it works. Ruby, we talk for a while, and then the next thing you know, you're like, my uncle has type one diabetes. I forgot. I

Ruby 22:02
mean, I don't think I have I should probably get tested. I mean, I'm allergic to oysters, and I have a lot of allergies. I

Scott Benner 22:07
think of allergies as your immune system being overactive. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, nobody's gonna call an allergy auto immune. But I mean, it's your immune system being overactive and coming after your body. I don't know, sounds like your immune system not doing what it should be doing. No. It's awesome that I asked you earlier if anybody in your extended family had it, and I explained to you that people often will say no and then be I did exactly that, and that you still told me the truth 15 minutes later. I thought that was really nice, because that would have been a perfect time to lie,

Ruby 22:39
by the way. I mean, my mom has anemia. She's anemic as well. I don't know if that's one as well. That an autoimmune? Well,

Scott Benner 22:46
it's not autoimmune, but it runs pretty heavily through this community, right? Yeah, a lot of anemia. Do you have any trouble like digesting food, bread? Yeah. Do you think you have celiac or no, I've been wheat

Ruby 23:01
free for I'm wheat free a lot. Sometimes I'm not, but I'm I'm careful, because I just have trouble digesting it. I don't think I'm allergic

Scott Benner 23:09
interesting. I ask because it's another thing that your pancreas is involved in that sometimes goes kind of caplu. For people with type one is just digestion. So a lot of people find themselves taking, like, a little digestive enzyme with some, like, more difficult foods, and it seems to help them. I feel like we could pick around that I could find out a lot about you that you don't know. Yeah, how did you end up here? Did I reach out to you? Did you reach out to me? I

Ruby 23:32
reached out to you a year ago. I've been waiting every day

Scott Benner 23:36
I got right on it. Ruby, here's the good news, though, and let me be like, incredibly Frank, you have a really nice following on Tiktok, so I'm going to put your episode out really quick. I had

Ruby 23:48
to message you recently because I was like, what is the date we have? Because I cannot remember,

Scott Benner 23:52
yeah, because you were afraid they might cure diabetes before we got to do the podcast. Yeah. And then there's no point. Usually, people are six months out to record, and then six months out to get their episode up. It usually takes a year from the email, but I am putting yourself in a couple of weeks you reached out. Because why forget me for a second in the podcast? Like, when you're interacting with people through social media with type one diabetes, like, what is that like for you? Like, what do you get out of it? What do you think they get out of it. That's

Ruby 24:20
a good question. I think, like, we have very different views. You're so far away from each other in the world. Yeah, we agree on so much, and we relate so much, especially me, with your daughter as well. So we have so many similarities, but also we probably have dissimilarities. Might disagree on some things, but I reached out to you because I thought you were the best diabetic podcast I could find, and I thought you were great You were great.

Scott Benner 24:43
Oh, thank you. You just wanted to come out and say, Hey, I just wanted to join Yeah, that's awesome. No, thank you. I wondered, like, because you talked about, like, having interactions with people online about diabetes, and I get what they get from you. You're a public figure, and Ruby, I might be three times your age, so just. Make this with where I mean it from, please. But like, You're a very attractive girl, right? Like, do you think that people look at you and think, role model? Do you think they think I'd like to, like, look at her, she looks like she's killing it. Like, oh, are you killing it? Like, you

Ruby 25:16
know what I mean? Oh, God. I wanted to make content a year ago, and I thought, well, what am I going to do it on there was over a year ago. I thought, why don't I try diabetes? I never speak about it. So I started doing it, and I just started doing relatable things. And then I grew a following, and I was like, Okay, there's loads of us out there. This is amazing. Mainly, I get a lot from other people. I've never felt less alone in my life with type one diabetes. My Health's the best it's ever been. I reverse diabetic retinopathy because I started to look after my health more, and my eyes awesome. My HPA 1c went to the best it's ever been. I've made so many friends, so many opportunities. This year alone, I went to Madrid and Florence because of diabetes, and I've got so much from it in return. And I think doing something good, like, I'm a very positive person on Tik Tok, and I don't want to talk about the negatives. Obviously, there's so many, you know, diabetes is rubbish. There are so many, you know, ups we can get from it too. Like, you know, you can go on your phone in class, you can eat sweets when you can bring in food to concerts when other people can't. You've got to look at the positives. I just did a video quite recently, and I think type one diabetes are some of the most empathetic, strong people in the world. They go through so much on a daily basis, and I love that we're so supportive in the community. Yeah.

Scott Benner 26:32
So even though you've had type one for 14 years, like this experience of going out online and meeting other people, it's been kind of transformative for you, and by the way, I would say, not dissimilar to what other people find like. I think a lot of people use the podcast for community. I have a private Facebook group that has, I think, like, 57,000 people in it. Now you can see that, well, I can see that community and support is maybe more important even them learning how to manage their insulin better, but that when you're connected to diabetes and other people with type one so frequently, I think the outcome you had where your a 1c got better. I'm sure your time and range got better, and everything else. Oh yeah, yeah, those things come from being aware, you know what I mean, and having the the community keeps you aware in a way that doesn't make you feel like you're just staring at your meter. Does that make sense? Absolutely,

Ruby 27:30
because in my everyday life, there are no diabetes in my day to day life that I see, and no so online. That's why social media is so great in so many ways. Obviously, there are negatives to it, but it's so great if you use it, right? No,

Scott Benner 27:43
I I'm old Ruby. Like, I'm not lying. I'm like, 53 and so somebody said to me recently, like, you're an influencer. And I was like, That's ridiculous, yeah, law the land, you know, letter of the word like you are. And I was like, I don't see it that way. I'm like, I just talk about diabetes with people, and I put their conversations out in the world, and then the person's like, Well, yeah, and then those people write to you and say that they did better, or that they found community, or that they're happier, like you influenced that in their lives. I don't like the word because of the connotation it has when it started for me, but I don't know that it's the same connotation today. And like, it's interesting that, to me, that you were just like, I'm gonna do what, you know, people put content out in the world. I'm gonna do that. But like, what am I gonna do? And then you found a world that I've known about, you know, my daughter's had diabetes for 18 years. I've been writing a blog for 17 years, like, about type one. And you just were like, oh, there's this whole thing out here. I didn't know about, Yeah,

Ruby 28:39
it's awesome. I never, I never searched it on, on tick tock, and I was on tick tock for years, and I loved it, Yeah, isn't that

Scott Benner 28:45
great? And then just all of a sudden you're just like, Oh, I'll look into this and look at, look at all it brought to you. Now, do you think you're bringing that to the people who are are following you? Hopefully, yeah, I think you probably are. I would guess that, from my experience, that that's what happens, is that now suddenly somebody, through you can find that same feeling of community and be more connected to their diabetes and hopefully have better outcomes in the long run as well.

Ruby 29:10
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And if I hadn't have searched it, I wouldn't have come across, you know, my my online diabetic friends like Ryan, who you interviewed on here. Yeah, you

Scott Benner 29:21
can understand Ryan when he's talking like, like you're laughing, you're sometimes okay, because, like, what's the movie where the guy from The Walking Dead tells the girl he loves her with the cards? Love? Actually, yes, talking to you is just love. Actually, I can follow you, no problem, Ryan. I had both my hands on the desk, and I was staring at a spot on the desk, just listening to every sound so that I could keep up with him. And it might have taken me like, 15 minutes speaking with him before I was like, I hear him now I know.

Ruby 29:52
Yeah, he's got a strong accent in me. Yeah.

Scott Benner 29:53
Well, that's one way to say it. I guess mostly people who come on here from. The UK end up sounding like Adele, and then they take that as like an insult. If you tell them, why is that? I

Ruby 30:06
don't know she's from London, right? I don't know Ruby you lived or don't talk like that, though. No, yeah. Oh,

Scott Benner 30:13
so there's more that. Oh, I see you can do it if you need to. I

Ruby 30:16
gotcha. What do you what do you think I sound like? Do you think I sound like Adele? No, you sound

Scott Benner 30:19
you sound like that little, skinny girl from the pirate movie, Keira

Ruby 30:22
Knightley, yes, I've been told that I'm from Wales, so I'm from I should be really relish like that, but I lost my accent because I went to drama

Scott Benner 30:32
school. Oh my gosh. That was like, is that was awesome? Yeah, it turned into a leprechaun from a bad cartoon all of a sudden.

Ruby 30:40
Oh, I missed my accent. And when I go back, they're all like, oh, you sound English.

Scott Benner 30:43
That's crazy. So where were you born?

Ruby 30:46
Wales. I'm born and bred, and I should be, I should be Welsh, and I have still got the accent, but I've it's been melted a little bit because I've lived in England for so long.

Scott Benner 30:55
I have to tell you, if that's your lineage, I think if you dig around in your background a little more, you're going to find a lot more. Autoimmune stuff. I'm serious, if you don't find at least, like, Crohn's or colitis, I'd be stunned.

Ruby 31:08
I don't think there's anything like that. What's colitis? Like, you know, like your belly

Scott Benner 31:13
gets upset after you eat and stuff like that. Oh, right, yeah. And it comes out not pleasantly. You understand. I can't wait for you to, like, go home for like, Christmas and start asking people like, Hey, does anybody have anything going on? Because people like, look you, you tried to hide it a little bit like people hide things. Yeah, you know, yeah. All right. Okay, listen, what should we actually be talking about instead of this bullshit that I'm like, digging around in your life? What did you want to talk about when you came on? Just everything. Yeah, you're right with this. There's five. You're good. Okay, so you mentioned in your notes a little bit about stigma, like, what have you interacted with daily?

Ruby 31:47
I get comments saying, just reverse it really daily.

Scott Benner 31:54
That's from your mom.

Ruby 31:57
Try some cinnamon, and I'm like, one. How thick Do you think I am? If it was just cinnamon or, you know, eating less sweets, I think I would have just done it. But how? I mean, a hell of a lot easier. So

Scott Benner 32:09
you interact with a lot of people every day who think that you have made a lifestyle choice or aren't doing something that caused you to have diabetes. I

Ruby 32:17
get so many trolls. I get so many amazing, lovely people, and you can have 100 nice comments, but when you get one horrible comment, it sticks with you. And I get so many. I don't know why people are so like, upset when you talk about type one diabetes online, and if you look at the top performing videos on Instagram and Tiktok about type one comments are vile. Top comments are vile. I don't know what on earth going on, if you

Scott Benner 32:40
want. When we're done, I can read you some of the worst reviews I've ever gotten. Yeah, listen, Ruby, between me and you, you can't let them stick to you. It just like, first of all, you shouldn't read them. Yeah, you should do a thing that they call post and ghost, but it's difficult to do. There's different kinds of famous people. There are people who are not really famous, but they have a relationship with the people who follow them, and you have to go back and forth, like, that's part of the agreement, really, you know what I mean. And so you can't do that. But when you read and you're like, oh god, that's horrifying. I mean, I know how you feel. Like my best example is that in I think 2013 I wrote a book, and it went out for professional review, and like, the first seven professional reviews that came back were really good. And because of that, I was, like, rolling. I was like, This is it. I'm a genius. Everyone loves it. Like, you know what I mean? Like, then a bad review came the way I joke about it is, like he didn't just dislike me, he hated people who loved me. He hated letters for existing so that I could turn them into words. Like, you know what I mean? Like, he really didn't like that book, and I have to admit, like, it rolled me up, yeah, like, for a week, I was like, whoa. Why does this person hate me so much? But I've learned to get past that, and so I don't feel that way anymore. And there's still people who listen to the podcast and are like, I'll tell you my top ones, right? Yeah, there's a very small sliver of a group of people who eat a certain way, and they hate my guts, vegans. Well, no, they're like, low carb, like, very low carb pain, right? Yes, by the way, I also have interacted with a ton of people who eat that way, who are lovely, but just like the rest of the world, like, there's a side of that side, and I am the devil to them. I push insulin on people and, you know, I don't care about people's health. And I say things that they're like, you know, you can eat whatever you want. And like, of course, I don't think you could eat whatever you want. I think that, you know, if you want to be healthy, there's healthy ways to eat. But what I also think is that if you're not aware of that, if you're not a person who understands like the nutrition that they're taking in, and you have type one diabetes, you shouldn't get poor nutrition and bad blood sugars like you should at least understand how your insulin works so you can manage your blood sugars that and then hope. Fully. You know, along your life, you'll figure out how to eat in a healthier way. But I don't feel like that's a thing I can make somebody do, yeah, yeah. So those people definitely don't like

Ruby 35:10
me. I did keto for about a month, and my blood was amazing, but I found it very hard to keep up, especially when I was a teenager.

Scott Benner 35:18
Did you get angry with me, like, three

Ruby 35:19
weeks into it. Yeah, that was me. Sorry.

Scott Benner 35:22
He's like, Listen, you idiot. I got one last night. It was horrifying from a from a low car person, but what I did was I blocked them. I was just like, you don't exist anymore, and then they can go hate me somewhere else. That's fine. Were they type

Ruby 35:39
two or type one one, right? Because I, I went to a Daphne course, which is basically diabetic health and and the nurses told me that it's really bad for type ones to be keto. And I always thought it was the opposite. I always thought that it was great for type ones to be keto, because I know an Olympian that is keto, and she's had, like, amazing levels her whole life.

Scott Benner 35:57
Yeah, I don't think that. I think, I guess, low car people would be stunned to hear me say this, but I believe the thing that they throw around in your face online, which is, you know, the fewer carbs you eat, the less insulin you're going to use. The less insulin you use, the lower chance you have of a, you know, having too much insulin on board. Local that's where

Ruby 36:14
the nurses are saying that's really bad for you, because they're saying that that could lead to ketoacidosis. I don't know if this is true. This isn't my words. This is what the nurse said, because you don't get ketones from high blood, you get ketones from the lack of insulin. So

Scott Benner 36:27
I would tell you that's 100% true. If you don't have enough insulin, you're going to get ketones. But I think there can also be confusion between the ketones that come from like starvation, which are not the same as not having insulin, and a lot of people, well, not a lot of people, but many people who are low carb are still utilizing old, like, types of insulin that kind of stay in your system, in the background, and right? And I think again, low carb people who hate me would be stunned to know that I think what they do is cool, and, yeah, that it works for them. Like, I just don't think you should be running around yelling at everyone who doesn't do what you do. That's all, yeah,

Ruby 37:03
especially when there's little kids out there, if they want to have an ice cream, they can have an ice cream. Well,

Scott Benner 37:07
I mean, it's up to them and their parents, that's for sure. Not a guy online who gets to yell at them about it for some reason and call me a bad guy in between, I've had it happen. What I've learned, and I hope you take from this conversation is that I also see all the people who are helped by the thing that I make and I focus on them. That's all, yeah, yeah.

Ruby 37:29
It's a Larry David. He said that he can have like, 100 nice comments and then he will focus on that. Mean, one, it's just because we're not used to it. In real life, people don't, don't go up to you and say, I hate you.

Scott Benner 37:39
Oh, in your life, they don't do that. You're right. Nobody does that. In real life, I'd have a

Ruby 37:45
meltdown. And then daily I get it online. I'm like, Oh, I'm such an easy like, my content is so like, it's just like, memes, me joking around, so I don't know how, like a video of my boyfriend drinking diet coke to prove that it's Diet Coke that, for some reason, got 100 horrible comments. I'm like, What is wrong with that?

Scott Benner 38:03
The people fly in and they're like, if you just would eat one carb a day or drink cinnamon water. Listen,

Ruby 38:08
I can't even have Diet Coke. I can only drink water. What? For 14

Scott Benner 38:12
years you can't have Why can't you have Diet Coke? But they say,

Ruby 38:14
Oh, I don't know, aspartame. I'm sure that it's not great for you, but you know, you only live once. Listen,

Scott Benner 38:19
I do a fair amount of public speaking, and there's no doubt that if you look out into the sea of people, and someone seems like they got a face, like they're sour, you're suddenly I you start performing for that one person. Like you start thinking, like, if I can get that guy to like me, then everything's gonna be okay. Now absolutely, I guess the secret is, is that I pick a couple of people in the audience in different locations, and I only talk i I'm basically in my mind. I'm talking to them. It's a great advice. Yeah, so you just like, you find a smiling person in the center, you find a smiling person on the right, a laughing person on the left, and then you go, okay, happy people. And they think, I'm funny. This is awesome. How does it work when you're acting or doing any kind of work where you're being recorded or you're in real time, and your blood sugar gets funky, like, there, you must keep it a little higher to work. No,

Ruby 39:13
yeah, I would keep going if I was, like, going low, but not, not, not low, low. So if I was four, I'd probably keep it going for another 10 minutes, and then if I was below four, I would treat it. I would just say it's happened on stage before, and I had to get through it, and then I rushed off. And had, I always keep dextro tablets on the side, and, yeah, definitely important to always have something there. But

Scott Benner 39:35
you've never, like, hit a trolley in the middle of Macbeth or something like that. No, no, I think

Ruby 39:40
it has happened on stage, yeah, with Macbeth and I just had to get through the scene, because obviously you feel when I'm hypo I feel drunk. So I was just like, just say the words and get off. Probably not my best performance.

Scott Benner 39:51
My daughter has this like spot. She doesn't get low. Like this, actually almost at all, but very often. But you can get. Her into that place where, if she's falling through the 70s into the 60s, which is, let's see if she's falling through that space, like, let's say she's going under, sorry, I'm doing the thing for you. Let's say she's going under 3.9 right? And she's heading down in that way. If you're like, hey, you know, Hey, your blood sugar is falling, you should do something before it gets out of hand. If it keeps falling, she can get into that place where she's like, like, it the vibe from her is almost like, free and easy. Like, whatever, you know, I mean, like, if I die, I die, it's okay. Like, it almost hits that. Do you is that the drunk feeling, or is that something different? Sometimes,

Ruby 40:36
for me, it's like, when you're tired, when you're really tired, you're just like, oh, hopefully, just fade away and I'll be okay. But, and also, 3.9 you're not dangerously low. So you're like, maybe it'll go up.

Scott Benner 40:47
Oh. And so that thing happens where you think, like, maybe I can not do something about this, yeah,

Ruby 40:52
but I definitely recommend doing something about it. But I think it's part of the burnout, probably for having it so long.

Scott Benner 40:58
I was talking to Erica. Erica is a therapist who has type one, who comes on the show a lot. I was talking to her about a little bit of the frustration I have sometimes when my daughter, like, rides her pump down to, like, the last drop of insulin, and Erica goes, she starts laughing. She goes, I I do that. And I was like, oh, okay, maybe that's just the thing. You know, waste it for Arden. She's just trying to put off the change as long as possible. Like, she doesn't have any trouble doing it once it's done. But she's like, Hey, the thing's working and it still has insulin in it. I'm not changing it yet.

Ruby 41:32
What is she on? Insulin pump wise, Omnipod. Ah,

Scott Benner 41:35
yeah. So she just rides it to the like, end, but she'll do that, like she does the math where she's like, Oh, this will make it till tomorrow morning at 8am and I'm like, just, it's like, midnight, you know? She's like, I'm like, just change it now. Like, you know? She's like, No, it's gonna make it. I'm like, does she make content? You know, she doesn't. I mean, she's got, like, a personal Little Thing She was for a couple of years in school learning how to create clothing at fashion school, and she was making content then, just because she felt like she had to, but she pivoted away from it. And so she hasn't been doing that for a while, but she's got insane style. My daughter

Ruby 42:15
amazing. One day she can work with Lila Moss, Kate Moss in store.

Scott Benner 42:19
I think that would be lovely, except she doesn't appear to love the sewing part of making clothing, so that kind of threw her off a little bit. But she has, I'll send you. I'll send you. Can find her, and she always has, too, by the way, like, like, since she was little, like, she's picked out her own clothing and put things together that you would just never like no one would think to put together. So that makes me wonder, have you been like theatrical your whole life?

Ruby 42:44
Yeah, always. I've never wanted to do anything else. Not good at anything else.

Scott Benner 42:49
You must be good at something else. No, I

Ruby 42:52
can't. If I'm not amazing at something I don't want to do

Scott Benner 42:54
it interesting, because why? Because it's hard, or because it's not fun, because I'm

Ruby 42:59
not the best, and it'll take years. I've been an actor. This sounds ridiculous, but I was on stage when I was

Scott Benner 43:04
two. Ruby, are you type A? Are you all like, I gotta be best. Yeah,

Ruby 43:07
I'm a little bit, I think so maybe I'm type A. Does it

Scott Benner 43:11
come with any anxiety? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Do you know that? I have a theory that a lot of people who have autoimmune issues have anxiety as well.

Ruby 43:23
Yeah, it's always there in the back of your mind. That's why, probably, I

Scott Benner 43:28
think it's got something to do with, like, inflammation, really. I mean, again, I'm a guy making a podcast, so I, like you said earlier, I wouldn't listen to me. I feel like it's, I mean, it's not classified as auto immune. Like, don't get me wrong, right? It's classified as a mental health condition, anxiety and everything else. But a lot of people would type one, come on and talk about anxiety.

Ruby 43:50
I had it so bad yesterday in London, Oxford Street, and it was just so busy, and I just wanted to go into a corner and just scream

Scott Benner 43:57
so you're out on the street and it just hits you. Tell me about it. Yeah,

Ruby 44:01
it was just because it was so busy. I don't know if you've seen the videos online, but people are stealing phones constantly, and I was lost, and I needed to get to Soho, so I needed to go on my phone. I was scared, because if somebody stole my phone, I would be, oh, can I say the F word?

Scott Benner 44:15
Yeah, go ahead. Please paint in that lovely effort.

Ruby 44:17
I would be because imagine someone nicking my phone on the street, and I no way to get home and no way to pay for anything because I don't have a debit card, physical debit card, because we're living in a digital age, and my insulin pump and my you know, it needs to be connected to my phone.

Scott Benner 44:35
Yeah, it's not just your, it's your. Your life is literally that phone, literally

Ruby 44:38
on my phone, right? So I just had like, an anxiety attack in the corner. It was so busy. I've definitely got ADHD, but I think I might have some other traits as well. I need to get diagnosed.

Scott Benner 44:48
I believe you and my daughter would get along very well. So you're out and about. You need to get somewhere. You don't know where it's at. You think, Well, I can figure it out with my phone, but people are stealing phones. I can't. And take my phone out, because my phone is how I take care of my diet, my life, and I can't pay for anything. And what if I get like, what if I get low, and I don't have my phone and I don't even know if I'm low, and I don't have a way to pay for it, and that just like, snowballs, yeah,

Ruby 45:11
absolutely. And it was just so busy, and I just everywhere you were walking, you were bumping into someone. It was like, awful Oxford Street at Christmas. Don't do it.

Scott Benner 45:19
How do you get through it? What anxiety? Yeah, well, that moment yesterday, what did you do to like, did it just pass? Did you bump into Soho by mistake? Like, what happened? It

Ruby 45:28
didn't pass. I just needed to get out of there. And when it was a quieter Street, it was much better.

Scott Benner 45:32
So literally, getting off of that street helped you. Yeah? Yeah.

Ruby 45:35
I was overstimulated completely. I knew I was meeting with a friend. As soon as I was with a friend, I was okay. I was still a little bit hyper aware, but since I met my friend, I felt like the load had, like, lessened a bit, and if my phone got stolen, then he'd help me with other things.

Scott Benner 45:48
Oh, no, kidding. Like, that's the Oh, and this has been your whole life, yeah, but

Ruby 45:53
I do feel like it's gotten worse since COVID. Okay. Like, like, maybe we all got adapted to staying in all the time, and then I started going out, and I was freaking out. I couldn't even go to Tesco. Wait, what is that like Walmart? Okay,

Scott Benner 46:05
let's dig into that for a second, because I've been really interested in this lately, because over here, the social media news is that there are drones flying in the sky, and there are theories all over the place about Russian nuclear like waste, like uh, dirty bombs, and there's warheads and, like, people like, and it's social media, like, it just is, you know, people take videos so worried about your tick tock, but, yeah, but that's what I'm saying. Like, social media, like, tick tock, Instagram. Like, both of my children have come up to me in the last week and said, Hey, are we gonna blow up? And I'm like, maybe you guys, like, should get rid of it, is what I'm saying. Because I haven't once thought this week, I wonder if I'm gonna blow up. Like, don't get me wrong. Like, I think there are things happening in the world that I'm unaware of, right? I'm not saying. I'm not, I'm not like, a head in the sand person. Like, I understand that. Like, governments lie and, you know, there's things happening that I don't know. I also think that everybody online who's trying to get clicks and likes because it generates money for them, or hopefully a brand will come to them and pay them to say something, and they're trying to build their channels up. They see stuff like this out in the world, and then they'll do almost anything to amplify their signal and use this as an example. But I've noticed that younger people don't know how to like, I don't know like, separate those ideas. Like, yes, there's something going on in the world, but that guy right there is just showing me a fuzzy picture of Christmas lights and saying it's a drone. You know what I mean? I see what you

Ruby 47:32
mean. Because, you know, people, some people do believe everything they see online. But at the same time, I think Tik Tok is amazing, and I think that they give you resources and videos and news that you don't necessarily get on your own news outlet, which is why American of Americans are banning tick tock, right? Well,

Scott Benner 47:47
it came up again. It's never going to happen. It's scary. I don't talk about a lot of political stuff, but if they're going to ban tick tock, the reasons that they're looking at tick tock, those reasons exist with Facebook and Instagram and every other thing else. So I know what they're trying to say. They're trying to say because it's a Chinese owned company and like, that's the road they're going down politically. I mean, Tik Tok is not doing anything with your I'm going to stop myself, because I'm not sure that that's true. Facebook is doing the same things that Tik Tok is doing with your

Ruby 48:18
data. I'm not that interested in though. What happens. Well,

Scott Benner 48:21
people say that all the time. You're not interested. But, like, that's not, I don't think that's how they I don't know

Ruby 48:26
what they get all my information on. Like, what information do you want? Selfies? They don't care about me. Ruby's

Scott Benner 48:33
like, as long as I could see my blood sugar, I honestly don't care about anything else. Yeah,

Ruby 48:38
with, with tick tock as well. You can't post, misinformation. So I posted a video once talking about a cure for diabetes. Somebody said, why didn't you just cure it? Stupid? And I did a video back, going, oh my god, I had no idea. Wow,

Scott Benner 48:51
sarcastic. Yeah, the sarcasm didn't play through.

Ruby 48:55
The sarcasm didn't play through, and it got taken down from misinformation. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 49:00
actually just had one of these conversations in my Facebook group, because inevitably, laboratories who are doing research, they need funding, so they put out news of the things that are going right for them, and then somebody says, Oh my God, look, there's a Chinese like, literally, this one was, there's a lady in China, and she doesn't have type one anymore, and they, they cured her with stem cells or something like that. And so that story gets around, and then everyone starts talking about it, which is great. I'm glad people talk about stuff, but then eventually you're gonna get 54321, there's already a cure. We don't have it. They're hiding it from us. There's more money in keeping us sick than there isn't helping us? Like, like, that whole thing starts and, I mean, on that point, yes, there's greed in the world, but that same greed will lead somebody to say, Hey, I've got the cure for something here. I'm gonna go make a bunch of money off of it. Like, I think people are confusing the idea with the cure being readily available and free in America. Yeah, trust me, if a greedy person has the cure for type one diabetes and wants to go charge like, $5 million for it somewhere, there's got to be five or six billionaires who have type one in their family. You know what? I mean, they're going to sell it somehow, like, it's not necessarily going to be like, you know, a thing at Walmart that you buy off the shelf and, like, inject on your way out the door and you don't have diabetes anymore. And I just think that people get so caught up in that, like, the worry that they're being screwed. I don't believe in humanity enough to believe that they have a cure for something yet, like my example online was that people can't make a left turn without confusion. They can't walk through a supermarket without bumping into somebody like, I don't think they cured diabetes, and I definitely think that if there was a cure, that people couldn't keep their mouth shut. You know what I mean? Like, it's somebody would open up them. Don't you think somebody would blow the whistle on that? If that, if that existed,

Ruby 50:54
I don't know. I don't know a lot to think about it is Ruby. I don't have the resources or the information well and

Scott Benner 51:01
I and listen, I don't either. Neither do the people online. So my point to them was, I would stop torturing yourself believing that this thing is exists and it's being kept from you live your life like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know Anyway, I think social media makes people paranoid sometimes, yeah, yeah, that's all, but you don't think you're younger. Like, it definitely like you said something a second ago that, if I would have said, when I was 27 my dad would have, like, gasped and fell over, what are you going to do with my data? My father would have talked to you about personal privacy and for an hour and how important your privacy is. And like, you know, but you're just like, Yeah, whatever. Who cares? Because I'm

Ruby 51:43
not important. Like, nobody wants to. What if I got a picture of me sitting on the toilet by accident?

Scott Benner 51:49
Would there be a snake in the toilet by any chance?

Ruby 51:54
No. But like, I don't have any thing, like, interesting, or any anything, anyone can blackmail me. Not yet. I don't even have that much money.

Scott Benner 52:03
Ruby. I just want you to know that I believe that at some point around your sister's wedding, you are going to reach down to open a toilet seat. Pause and think, Scott, put this in my head, that there's

Ruby 52:19
a toilet in here, toilet seats there. We'll be going in the Bucha. You're

Scott Benner 52:22
just gonna be like, you son of a bitch. Why did you put this in my head?

Ruby 52:30
No, my Instagram companies have fallen out.

Scott Benner 52:33
How are you gonna handle, like, How long's the flight to Australia? Don't

Ruby 52:36
know. I've never been I think it's like, 24 hours or something. I think it might be longer

Scott Benner 52:41
than that. How do you do flying? How does your blood sugar act? I'm okay.

Ruby 52:44
I've not done a flight that long with a pump. Yeah, nervous. I have to make sure I over pack, just in case. Always over pack, because you'd rather have more than less if you go away. Oh, I'm nervous, but we get an extra bag on board, right?

Scott Benner 52:58
Yeah. No, you just have to bring enough insulin and supplies in case something goes wrong. But there's other stuff to look into. Like, sometimes with the air pressure, right? It can, like, force a little insulin through the tubing. So you sometimes people get low because they get a little extra insulin. I did go low, yeah, when I went to Madrid. Also, people tend to get low at the baggage claim afterwards, like and it's got something to do with the air pressure. I honestly, I think I have an episode on it, but I'm just not remembering it

Ruby 53:27
right now. Interesting. And obviously you're running around at the airport and you're stressed and things like that, that'll

Scott Benner 53:32
affect you too. Yeah, some people find themselves a little more resistant in the air. And then the idea is they Bolus, Bolus, Bolus, and then they land. The pressure changes. The sometimes people are stressed by flying, and they don't realize that that changes. Then they start running around the airport with all that extra insulin

Ruby 53:49
on board. We can't get away with anything diabetics. That sucks, right?

Scott Benner 53:53
Like it really does. How often do you think you think about your diabetes

Ruby 53:56
with an insulin pump? So much less. And I'm so grateful for it. I only went on it this year. Before that, I used to think about it all the time, but now it's so much less.

Scott Benner 54:06
What do you attribute your improvement in a 1c to? What did you do differently just

Ruby 54:11
thinking about it more, and I learned about the complications, which scared me, and we've all been triggered and scared about the complications with eye health and things like that. And you get people saying, oh, you know, my my grandma lost her foot from diabetes and things like that. The scare the life at you when you're a child, you don't want to hear things like that. So, yeah, I just started really taking care of myself. And it doesn't matter about your past. You can't change the past. You can only change the now and the moving forward. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:36
I agree. I tell people that all the time, like, you know now, like, don't spend any time beating yourself up about before, but yeah, why do you think you didn't know what educated you recently, and why was that not information that you had when you were younger? I knew

Ruby 54:52
about the complications, but I kind of forced out my mind. I was like, Oh, what happened to me, even though I didn't look after myself when I was young? Well, I did, in a way, but I you. I heard that some people just took their insulin pumps out and didn't, didn't inject at all, but I did to some extent, but I nowhere near as healthy as I am. Now,

Scott Benner 55:09
your mom not involved when you were younger, or dad, she

Ruby 55:11
was, she was very helpful. There were just things I didn't know, like I used to inject after I ate, and I only started bolusing before I eat. Now, wow, don't think about, where did you learn about Pre Bolus? That was Ryan Taylor, really, yeah, like

Scott Benner 55:24
knowing him personally or watching his videos,

Ruby 55:26
both, I think knowing him personally. The first time I met him, he told me that, yeah, it's awesome. I

Scott Benner 55:31
have to tell you that, of all the things that people give me credit for that stun me, it's telling them to Pre Bolus their meals. Yeah, I don't know why. I wasn't told that. No one ever explained to you, like the action of the insulin and the timeline that it works on, or anything like that, for years, it's

Ruby 55:47
mad, crazy. I mean, we're learning new things all the time. Maybe when I was diagnosed, it wasn't as talked about. Maybe they get told it now, I'm not sure. Oh, 14

Scott Benner 55:54
years ago, they knew Arden's had diabetes since she was two, and she's 20, so she said diabetes for 18. Yeah. I mean, that's not a new idea. It's just the thing that people, just like doctors, don't talk about it, yeah. By the way, I've had a lot of people go through that Daphne program and tell me that it was really valuable for them. It was really valuable. Yeah, yeah. But nobody mentioned that there.

Ruby 56:18
No, I asked, I asked that question there, and they did tell me, yeah. Oh, okay, yeah, quite recently. Oh, I'm sorry to the pump, yeah. Oh, Ruby,

Scott Benner 56:26
I'm sorry the Daphne course you took very recently, yeah, because I had to do it before the insulin pump. Oh, I see that's what pump did you get? Medtronic, the seven ADG, yes. And you're in automation. How do you like it. I love it. It's so good. That's awesome. That really is awesome. I hear, Oh, and you're in Europe. Are you using their new CGM, the little round one,

Ruby 56:49
you know, I just switched two days ago. Did you really? Yeah, it's so much easier, because the other one was great, but I just struggled to put it on because I felt like I needed my partner to help me. But with this, it's, you know, kind of similar to the Libra in a way, because you just one step,

Scott Benner 57:05
yeah. How are you finding the accuracy? It's perfect. The first time I

Ruby 57:09
put it on, I was a little bit up and down, because every time I changed my sensor, and I have to wait in that two hour warm up period. I don't know what I am, and I usually go high. So I was a little bit high to begin with, and it was getting used to it all over again. But now I'm absolutely fine, and it looks great too. It's so small. It

Scott Benner 57:24
is tiny. It's in your picture of you that I'm looking at now, yes, or is that a libre? That's a Libra, that's from a few years ago. Oh, that's from a few years ago. Okay, yeah, no, I can't believe you just switched. That's awesome. They're, uh, sponsors of the podcast, so, oh, amazing. Yeah. Medtronic Scott, that system has been overseas for me for a while now. I've been hearing people telling me overseas about how great it is. It just isn't. Didn't catch on here as quickly, and so trying to get the word out about it for people as well. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Are you a citizen or, like, how do you pay for your supplies?

Ruby 57:57
So we have the NHS, so I get it all through the NHS, luckily, crazy, and it's free, yeah? But, well, when we get paid for work, money comes out of your taxes for things like that. So I get, in a way, it's free. I don't know if I've explained that. Well, if British people are watching out, yeah? So in a way, it's free. You can't it kind of comes out of your paycheck,

Scott Benner 58:15
if that makes sense, yeah? Oh, listen, Ruby, I pay taxes, and then my healthcare is not free after that. So, yeah, that's okay. It's

Ruby 58:23
so unfair that you have to pay to do you think so have a medical condition? I do you don't choose diabetes? Do you? No,

Scott Benner 58:28
but this is an, I think this is an interesting question. I might not I'm gonna play devil's advocate for a second. What should I pay for? Like, what shouldn't be free?

Ruby 58:38
Like, luxuries? No, I think a set like living should be free food I should pay for No, no, because that's, that's food that's been you've had to pay for that for 1000s of years, okay? But diabetes, you know, you would have been dead in a few years. Unfortunately, that's an opinion.

Scott Benner 58:54
So if I have a heart issue, of my heart medication should be free.

Ruby 58:57
Yeah, absolutely. That's my opinion. I might want to live in your place better. Why should you have to pay for it? Because if somebody else has a healthy heart, yeah, I mean, I hear you, but yeah, all

Scott Benner 59:07
right, I'm not arguing with you. I'm just saying. I'm just trying to get your world view so cool. So like, if I take, let's really dig into this. I get a hang nail, and I buy a pale and narrow clippers to clip my nails. Should that be free?

Ruby 59:18
No, because if you, if you don't do it, you're not going to die.

Scott Benner 59:23
Okay, so if I'm going to die and I need to be medicated or get a device, that should be free,

Ruby 59:28
do you think that you should have to pay because diabetes is a disability as of the Equality Act 2010 in the UK, rather than so it's a disability. So do you think you should pay to be disabled? Let me spin that question on you. Scott,

Scott Benner 59:39
no, I'm going to answer you. I'm trying to, I'm trying to decide who pays for all this, if everything's free.

Ruby 59:45
I think the NHS is a great idea, and it's there are ups and downs, but I think it's great at the moment. But you know, you kind of pay your way, and then if you need to go to hospital, things like, you never know what's going to happen,

Scott Benner 59:58
right? So these things are paid. For through taxes? Yeah, what would happen again? Just devil's advocate. All you with diabetes, don't get mad at me for a second. My kid has the two I would like free insulin. Relax. What would happen if the tax burden went up to, I don't know, 80% so every dollar I make, I lose 80 cents of it. But everything's free. But it's not because food still costs money and housing and those sorts of things like and then wouldn't a person who doesn't have diabetes or doesn't have a heart issue, I know they don't understand, like those people generally aren't gonna understand until they're sick, that the impact of it, but don't you think they're gonna raise a red flag and say, Why do I have to pay for your diabetes? No,

Ruby 1:00:39
because they're not paying for your diabetes, they're paying for their health care too. So for example, if my boyfriend breaks his leg and needs to go to the hospital, needs to get a cast, and

Scott Benner 1:00:47
he'll get it for free too, yeah? But you don't break your

Ruby 1:00:49
leg every week, yeah? But you never know. Everybody goes to the hospital at one point in their life when you die.

Scott Benner 1:00:54
I'm saying I like your vision. I don't think it's as easy as it sounds.

Ruby 1:00:59
I mean, for me, I'm like, It's not about us at the end of the day, it's not about me. It's about if you, let's put it into the shoes of little kids, right? Yeah, two little girls, AJ, one's got diabetes. One doesn't. So how much in America are you paying for diabetes every month? It depends

Scott Benner 1:01:16
on your insurance. A lot of it depends on how much your insurance covers. So I can. I'll explain back to you that I raised a family with two children, so four people in a family, and currently I'm still insuring all of them for health insurance. They're still young enough to stay on my insurance. I believe that I pay between seven and $8,000 a year just to have the insurance. Then there are deductibles that I have to pay out before the insurance starts to cover at 80% my rough guess is, is that it costs me, if nobody has anything tragic happen, it costs me and my wife about 10, $11,000 a year to have health insurance and to cover everybody. So

Ruby 1:02:02
I can't speak for I'm I don't know enough about it, American health insurance. I can't speak about it, but I do think here we've got it pretty good.

Scott Benner 1:02:10
Yeah, no, I also, and in fairness, and I don't know, like, I'm sure you can make an argument for scaling, but your country is like, the size of, like, one of our smaller states, isn't it, like, how rails? Is tiny. Is it really teeny? Tiny? Yeah,

Ruby 1:02:22
I can't think of a state that's the same size as it. I'm sure there's one. What's the smallest state? I'm gonna

Scott Benner 1:02:26
find out how many people live in Wales, and I know it doesn't have an h in it, like that. Probably a million. Okay, estimated population of whales in 2023 was 3,164,000 Wow. A lot of people. What US state is it sized like. Sized like is not English, but it's gonna work. It's gonna work. Chat. GPT, actually, chat. GPT was like, hey, use more English. No, hold on. Said, Oh, Wales is about the size of New Jersey, the state I live

Ruby 1:02:58
in. Oh, wow. And that's quite small. No, 22

Scott Benner 1:03:01
and a half 1000 square kilometers, 8700 miles.

Ruby 1:03:06
I could hear the New Jersey. Then when you

Scott Benner 1:03:09
said, Here, I'm actually from Philly originally, but it's all mixed up now. All right, so you get your stuff and you're managing well. You just made a switch because you're learning more about taking better care of yourself. Do you feel differently today than you did before you made these switches in your care?

Ruby 1:03:27
Oh, yeah, I feel so much happier with myself, and I'm proud of myself, and I'm proud to be a T 1d now, whereas before, I didn't even think about it. And do

Scott Benner 1:03:36
you think that not thinking about it was partially defensive because you knew you weren't doing what you're supposed to be doing. Yeah,

Ruby 1:03:41
yeah, it's a shame to be different. And like now, as you said, in the world, we're all about diversity, and it's great to be different and to show off representation, but at the time, I guess we weren't as inclusive back

Scott Benner 1:03:56
then, or you just weren't ready to be seen, maybe, but

Ruby 1:03:59
also the media as well. Like, you never saw it talked about,

Scott Benner 1:04:02
and that really does impact you, right? Like, the things that, yeah, no, I think that's generational, by the way, too, because I don't need, I don't need to be represented somewhere. That's not a thing that I care about. Like, but I just grew up in a completely different

Ruby 1:04:15
time. Yeah, you're represented enough, Scott, don't we?

Scott Benner 1:04:19
I think white guys in their 50s are being well represented. No comment. Well, now what you've caught me there. Look at that. That was, that was good. So you're saying I was being represented the whole time. I just didn't know it. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. My favorite thing has happened this week, making the podcast. That was great. I just meant like me, like my little personal like my personal idiosyncrasies, like the thing,

Ruby 1:04:44
it's not about, like, representation. I don't want, you know, to scream from the rooftops, but it makes a child's life, for example, in inside out. You know that Disney, Disney film? Sure, I've seen it. Yeah, yeah. Like having a CGM in the background of a character, one that's more inventive and more imaginative for creators to create. Eight and two. If there's a little diabetic kid watching it in the audience, that's going to change their whole bloody life. Yeah, no, I hear you. What difference does it make sticking a sticker on a little character in the background of the film?

Scott Benner 1:05:12
Well, what is going to happen then, if everybody needs to be represented in inside out, next time, it's just going to be like every character has a thing. I'm

Ruby 1:05:20
going to be more interesting. Not, not that a thing, but like, I don't know. I've not, I'll be honest, I've not seen inside

Scott Benner 1:05:29
out. It wasn't inside out that you're thinking of. I think it was, No,

Ruby 1:05:32
it was, it was inside out too. But there's another one called turning red, which I have seen, yes,

Scott Benner 1:05:37
with the with the red panda, yeah, yes. And the kids wearing a CGM in that, right?

Ruby 1:05:42
Yeah. And it's only, like, in the background for like, two seconds. But I think it's great idea. No,

Scott Benner 1:05:46
it's lovely. It really is. Have we not talked about anything that you wanted to talk about? I want to make sure I don't

Ruby 1:05:52
miss anything for you. No, it's been fun. I think I've spoken about everything. Yeah. Did you actually have

Scott Benner 1:05:55
a good time? Are you just like, I'm getting through this? Because, no, I did. It was interesting,

Ruby 1:05:58
because I didn't know what was going to come. I was like, Oh, what are we going to talk about? So it's nice and natural

Scott Benner 1:06:03
conversation. Which was nice. Oh, awesome. Did you feel anxious when we started? Maybe

Ruby 1:06:07
when I spoke about myself and I messed up how many years I've had diabetes? I've had

Scott Benner 1:06:11
diabetes for four years. You were like, wait, no, that's not right. Yeah, you're not the first person to do that, Ruby. Don't worry. I just have a question about doing voiceover work. So like, you have an agent, I imagine, yeah, is it recorded? Or is this for your own personal gain? No, no, this is recorded. I think people would find this interesting. Here's what I think people would find interesting. You're a 27 year old, living, breathing person who acts and does voice over work, and I'm assuming you're paying for yourself to stay alive. Is that right? What do you mean? I mean, like, you can afford your bills. Oh, right, yeah, yeah. Like, so you're making a living doing this. I just think it's interesting and not a way that most people know about making a living. So, like, do you go into a studio to do this? Is it done in your home? How do you do it?

Ruby 1:06:53
A bit, both at the moment, doing a lot of stuff from home, but yeah, you just audition for things, and then it comes through, and then you get it hopefully.

Scott Benner 1:06:59
What do you give them? Like, a ton of different reads, and they choose

Ruby 1:07:02
with auditions. I usually just send to no

Scott Benner 1:07:05
kidding and then, and so you cut something, send it back to them, and do they give you notes and ask you to recut it? Or, like, unless,

Ruby 1:07:12
unless they want you, and they want you to try a different part, or something like that, most of the time you don't even get a rejection. It's harsh right now,

Scott Benner 1:07:18
oh, you just apply and you'd never even hear back sometimes. Yeah, that's how looking for work here is, by the way, too. Yeah, yeah. My son spent nine months looking for a job and, and he's like, by the time, and he's got one now, and it's, you know, going really well and everything. But like, he's like, that, I don't know. I might have applied for 500 jobs online and, and he's like, and you do not hear back from 98% of them at all. Yeah, and then, yeah, that's crazy. Do you live with this person who you're partnered with now? Yes, yeah. Was there any adjustment there with diabetes stuff? Or had you been together long enough that it all just kind of blended together nicely? Yeah,

Ruby 1:07:57
pleasure to get nicely. As long as I've got my shelf on the fridge wicked and my cupboards. He doesn't need much, but we do fight over wardrobe space. You fight

Scott Benner 1:08:04
over water. No, wardrobe space. Oh, wardrobes. Oh, yeah. Is he a handsome boy? Yeah,

Ruby 1:08:13
he's an Italian Stallion.

Scott Benner 1:08:17
Ruby, I might call your episode Italian Stallion. Why

Ruby 1:08:21
is everything I do about him, you'll love that. Like, yes,

Scott Benner 1:08:26
I was also thinking of calling it, where is Soho? Oh, this is interesting. Like, my wife does not have this problem. I barely take up any space for my clothing in the house at all. Well, wow, I guess it's nice. Is it weird? Do other girls look at him? Is that strange? I think I'd be offended if

Ruby 1:08:46
they didn't. I don't know. I didn't really notice. We got stared a lot in Disney this year, you know. And I got recognized for the first time ever in Disney, which was amazing, no kidding, yeah, by a little diabetic girl, and she was lovely with her dad. But we got stared a lot in Disney, and I think that's because we had, I don't know,

Scott Benner 1:09:03
wait, you were walking around Disney and a little girl knew you from tick tock. Yeah, that's insane, isn't

Ruby 1:09:09
it? I knew, and we were chatting over how we could skip all the cues. It was amazing. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:09:14
do you know I've been recognized in public by my voice? Really? It's insane. Yeah, that is cool. I make a diabetes podcast, and people will turn like, it's happened so many times, I've lost count, but they'll turn like, shocked, oh my god. And I'm like, Hey, what's up? And they're like, you're the guy from the podcast. And I'm like, I am like, that's insane. That's happened a number of times. I once was in an airport, I was I had my headphones on, and I was listening to music. I couldn't hear another thing in the world, but across the seats. And I mean, like, I know I'm gonna say yards, and you're not gonna how long that is, but like, 50 yards away from me, this woman stands up, and she catches my eye somehow, and she's making like she's walking in a pattern, and it feels like she's walking right at me, but that's. So insane to think in a room full of that many people that large, and then she ends up right in front of me, and I like, take my earphones out, and I'm like, hey. And she goes, You're Scott from the Juicebox Podcast. That's amazing. And I thought, How do you know that you didn't hear me talk? She's just like, I recognize you from your website. I was like, Oh my God, you go on my website. Like, the whole thing just seems strange to me, but I liked it in your I mean, I'm sure it was shocking, but, like, I was genuinely like, I don't know, knocked over by it. Did you feel that way?

Ruby 1:10:30
Yeah, I did. I felt fuzzy and warm inside. Did

Scott Benner 1:10:35
it give you the feeling of like, hey, my my channel is working? Or did it give you the feeling like, wow, people are really out there and connecting. It

Ruby 1:10:41
was it was nice, because a few weeks before somebody else commented on my Tiktok videos, and I think I saw you today, were you in Warwick Castle? And I was like, Yeah, that was me. So I was like, Maybe I should I was getting a bit scared, to be honest. I was like, Oh no. How am I gonna go to the supermarket?

Scott Benner 1:10:54
Does that freak you out? No, no. I was at a gas station one time and a person walked up to me and was like, hi, and I'm like, hi, she goes Scott, right? And I was like, Uh oh, but she ended up being lovely, and she's been on the show, and she shared an amazing story since then. But like, there is a moment where you're like, Oh my gosh. Like, I guess I can't pick my nose anymore.

Ruby 1:11:22
Don't get too big headed.

Scott Benner 1:11:24
Well, if the people that hate me see me, they're gonna have a field day if I have my finger in my nose, you know what I mean? All right, Ruby, you're awesome. I this is my fault. We're doing this on a Saturday because I had a technical problem the other day when we tried to do this. I really appreciate you being flexible like this. It's

Ruby 1:11:40
been amazing. Thanks. So hopefully I'll meet you one day, if there's an event on,

Scott Benner 1:11:44
Oh, that'd be awesome. Yeah, I think I'm I think I might be going to, Oh, should I float this? Yeah, why not? I think I might be going to friends for life this year in Orlando, this summer. How do I get invited for how do you get invited? Just be, only be yourself and get invited. You can do it. Okay, listen, you wear the Medtronic 670 G, yeah, Medtronic, fly this girl to friends for life and let her stand at your booth.

Ruby 1:12:10
Orlando. I love it. Disney, yeah.

Scott Benner 1:12:14
All right, we'll go on a roller coaster. If this works out,

Ruby 1:12:16
let's do it. Awesome. Total crush. Hold on one second.

Scott Benner 1:12:26
The episode you just enjoyed was sponsored by the twist A I D system powered by tide pool. If you want a commercially available insulin pump with twist loop that offers unmatched personalization and precision for peace of mind you want twist twist.com/juice, box. The conversation you just enjoyed was brought to you by us. Med, us. Med.com/juice, box, or call 888-721-1514, get started today and get your supplies from us. Med, having an easy to use, an accurate blood glucose meter is just one click away. Contour next.com/juice box. That's right. Today's episode is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts. Please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcast and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend, and if you leave a five star review, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? The Diabetes variables series from the Juicebox Podcast goes over all the little things that affect your diabetes that you might not think about travel and exercise to hydration and even trampolines. Juicebox podcast.com go up in the menu and click on diabetes variables, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way. Recording, wrong way, recording.com, do.

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