#1534 Modern Fairytale
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Three generations, one brilliant mom: Ellishia nails timing-and-amount, buys a home, raising her fairytale family.
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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 to another episode of The Juicebox Podcast.
Elle 0:15
I'm Elle or Alicia for my long name, and I'm a diabetic. It's actually spelled phonetically. But you'd be surprised the amount of people that get it wrong.
Scott Benner 0:27
If this is your first time listening to the Juicebox Podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcast or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox Podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management. Go to Juicebox podcast.com up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. 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. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the twist AI D system, powered by tidepool that features the twist loop algorithm, which you can target to a glucose level as low as 87 Learn more at twist.com/juicebox, that's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. Get precision insulin delivery with a target range that you choose at twist.com/juicebox. That's t, w, i, i, s, t.com/juicebox. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour. Next.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by us Med, us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, get your supplies the same way we do from us. Med,
Elle 2:15
I'm Elle, or Alicia for my long name, and I'm a diabetic. Alicia,
Scott Benner 2:20
I was so excited when I saw your name this morning pop up in front of me because I pronounced it correctly in my head. Oh, I love that. For you, I was super excited.
Elle 2:29
It's actually spelled phonetically, but you'd be surprised the amount of people that get it wrong.
Scott Benner 2:35
I believe. Do you want me to call you? El though, whichever. Okay, so not first. Okay. Also, listen, my brain's obviously not right, because every morning I wake up to someone's name in front of me, and the first thing I have to do is type it somewhere else. So I look at it, and then I transfer my eyes six inches to the left and go to type it, and can't spell it. I don't retain what the name is. I just I look at it, and then I go, Okay, I'm gonna type it now. And then it's gone, and then I have to look back again. And for some reason I looked at yours today, and I was like, Alicia, huh? And then I was like, I think I said that correctly. You did.
Elle 3:11
I'll give you that you said it correctly. Thank you. And then
Scott Benner 3:14
when I went over to type it, I could type it. Whoa. So I saw anyway, here come the emails. Scott, you have ADHD, it's fine anyway. Tell me a little bit about yourself. How old are you now?
Elle 3:26
So I'm 24 I have a very ordinary life, other than obviously the insulin. I live at home with my partner and my four year old. Yeah, I'm quite a boring person. I'll be really honest with you, there's not a lot to me. I'm very one dimensional. I work. I'm a mum. Obviously, the reason I'm here is because of my diabetes.
Scott Benner 3:46
Yeah, I take this as a challenge, because I don't believe that you're a boring person. We're going to find out more. How old were you when you were diagnosed?
Elle 3:53
As I was 15 when I was diagnosed. Originally, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes, so yeah, it's like, it's crazy story, even just my diagnosis, my dad was a type one diabetic. Is all of his adult life, and because of that, he had this irrational, way, kind of rational, in hindsight, fear that one of his children would get diabetes, so he'd regularly finger prick us. And, you know, probably once a month my whole childhood. And one time he did my finger, and it came back at like 11, which, for all you Americans out there, that's like 200 so just on that cut off immediately took me to the GP, and after a barrage of tests and an oral glucose tolerance, and they said, Yeah, we think you've got, like, the very beginnings of type one diabetes. So they popped me on insulin. And fast forward a couple of years after being on a pump and all of that good stuff, I just kept hypering Like my sugars just couldn't come up one day, and ended up weaning off of insulin, and I was insulin free for about. Year after that,
Scott Benner 5:01
wow. Hey, I know you were just like 15, right when that happened, yeah, but do you think your dad was relieved because he caught it, or do you think he was like, decimated because it happened? No,
Elle 5:15
I think in his head he all. He just really had this feeling that one of his children would get diabetes. So his dad was also diabetic. So it really like runs quite heavily within his family. A couple of his siblings are diabetic. For him, it was just a no brainer that at least one of his children would get it. So I think it was more of a gotcha kind of moment for him, like he's caught it and he'd done something brilliant,
Scott Benner 5:41
yeah, got out ahead, didn't he didn't want you to say, How many siblings do you have? So
Elle 5:46
I've got two full siblings. And my dad had an older sibling. Well, he had an older child, who's my older half sibling.
Scott Benner 5:53
Okay, so there's he has four children in total. Yeah, he's got
Elle 5:57
four children, but I'm the only diabetic, so I must have got the good genes from him. Does
Scott Benner 6:03
your mother have any autoimmune stuff? She
Elle 6:07
does. She's got a condition that's very similar to lupus. No kidding, what's it called? It's called relapsing polychondritis. It's lupus, lesser known cousin. Wow.
Scott Benner 6:19
Congratulations on saying something on the podcast no one's ever said before. Oh, look at me. Tell your mom, thank you relapsing. What
Elle 6:27
relapsing? Polychondritis. It's basically, it's a mixture between lupus and arthritis, and in it, all of your cartilage gets attacked by your body, so all the cartilage in your ears, in your nose, in your heart, all in your veins, any passage in your body is slowly attacked and destroyed. Geez. In
Scott Benner 6:47
a world where you could be hot and rich, what a mixture to get, you know what I mean? Like,
Elle 6:54
yeah, very much.
Scott Benner 6:57
Hey, how would you like a little lupus mixed with a little bit of arthritis. Awesome. Two best things in the world. It's going to be great. Can I be tall and handsome instead? Is that possible? What's the impact on your mom?
Elle 7:11
Yeah, she handles it incredibly well. I think for her, she'd had health problems for years and years, but because she was looking after my dad. It wasn't until he passed away five and a bit years ago that she then had that sort of chance, like get in touch with her own health and start seeking out a diagnosis and talking to people. So now that she's got that she's obviously on medication, she is back at work. You know, she's just, she's just at a much better place. Medication
Scott Benner 7:39
helps her. Is it an
Elle 7:41
injectable? So she's on steroids every day, and she, I don't know if she still gets it, but she used to get these infusions done at the hospital, and I know that they were really, really good for her, because they helped with, like, keeping her bones, like, intact or something.
Scott Benner 7:55
Geez. How about your siblings? Any other issues there with them.
Elle 8:01
Sure, they're very, very healthy. My little brother's got his own problems. He's got autism, so he lives in supported accommodation. But health wise, they are both bright as rain, thankfully. How old was your father when he passed? He was 50. He was about to be 51 Oh, my God. Was it sudden? I'm sort of but not really. It was a weird mix. So because of his diabetes, he ended up getting kidney failure when he was in his 30s, but he wasn't diagnosed until he went to stage four kidney failure. So he went on dialysis, and he ended up getting a kidney transplant when I was 14 or 15, but then what people don't tell you about kidney transplants is the medication that you're put on is very, very harsh, and I don't want to put anyone off of it, because they're absolutely amazing things that save people's lives. But my dad got a rare complication where all of the immunosuppressants and everything he was on caused him to get cancer, or, well, become more susceptible to cancer. So then he got cancer, and he didn't go very well with that. And because of you, he was also an alcoholic, which didn't help anything. He got liver failure, and he got something called corsicoffs, which is an alcohol related dementia, and all of those things sort of came together and created this perfect storm where he ended up in hospital in DKA with liver failure. His kidneys had gone, and there was nothing they could do. I'm sorry. That's terrible. That was awful.
Scott Benner 9:39
Yeah, the other people in his family line with type one. Do they have similar like poor outcomes, or is it different for them?
Elle 9:46
No, no. My granddad, Bunny. He lived until he was 9697 he was very, very old when he passed away, and he'd had type one since World War Two. So they're all doing pretty good for themselves.
Scott Benner 9:59
Hey, wait, his name is bunny. Yes, that's like his like, that's his name, name, or it's what you called him. No,
Elle 10:07
no, his real name was something weird, like Edgeworth. Edgeworth, yeah, but he had a lot of kids, so people called him bunny.
Scott Benner 10:15
Oh, I got you. I see it now. Did he have all those kids with the same lady?
Elle 10:20
Oh, he had eight with my nanny, and then he had an unknown number with one of her friends.
Scott Benner 10:29
Did they call your nanny tired uterus and him bunny? Or what did they? Did they have a name for her? She was just nanny. Yeah. Do you remember nine minutes ago when you said you had a boring life?
Elle 10:40
I have a very boring yet slightly interesting life. You
Scott Benner 10:45
just said my granddad, Bunny, who lived to be 96 with type one diabetes since World War Two, had eight children with my nanny and a bunch of children with her friends. My Dad, hold on. Your mom has the thing I've never heard of before. Your father died of three different things that were trying to kill him all at the same time and everyone in your family has type one diabetes? Well, not everywhere. Well, I mean, a lot of them,
Elle 11:07
yeah, very prevalent in my family. Yeah, no,
Scott Benner 11:11
I'm saying you're not boring. You had to remember when you came on, you're on a type one diabetes podcast. This isn't a podcast about going clubbing. Yeah? On that podcast, you suck. Also tell people where you're from, because it sounds like maybe Nebraska or no.
Elle 11:29
So I'm from a little place in England called Northampton. Share for those who don't know England, it is just north of London.
Scott Benner 11:38
Very nice that your accents. Lovely. You making my day. Thank you. Absolutely I want to dig a little more in, though. So you said in your intake that you want to talk about your dad, so, like, this is good, right? You're okay with all this? Yeah? No, I'm absolutely fine with it. Okay? I actually said that so that the people listening would realize that this is what you wanted to talk about. And then I wasn't just digging through your father's death, like, just heartlessly. You understand what
Elle 11:59
I'm saying. Oh, you know, because you just love digging through people's trauma Exactly. It's
Scott Benner 12:03
my favorite thing to do, actually, on the list of other things I have to do today, this would be probably going to be the best thing I have to do today. So I see a lot of paperwork in front of me, and I think it's tax time, and a lot's going on here. So yeah, it's horrible. Nevertheless, if your grandfather, your father's father, had such an amazing outcome. Did his style of management not transfer to your dad? Like, how do you think it went wrong for your father? And do you think you're going to pick up a different style, or do you are you worried you'll follow in your father's footsteps? Contour next.com/juicebox that's the link you'll use to find out more about the contour next gen blood glucose meter. When you get there, there's a little bit at the top. You can click right on blood glucose monitoring. I'll do it with you. Go to meters, click on any of the meters. I'll click on the Next Gen, and you're going to get more information. It's easy to use and highly accurate. Smart light provides a simple understanding of your blood glucose levels. And of course, with Second Chance sampling technology, you can save money with fewer wasted test strips. As if all that wasn't enough, the contour next gen also has a compatible app for an easy way to share and see your blood glucose results. Contour next.com/juicebox and if you scroll down at that link, you're going to see going to see things like a Buy Now button. You could register your meter after you purchase it. Or what is this? Download a coupon, oh, receive a free contour, next gen blood glucose meter. Do tell contour, next.com/juicebox head over there now get the same accurate and reliable meter that we use 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/juicebox. 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 bolused. 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/juicebox. That's twist with two eyes.com/juicebox. Links in the show notes. Links at Juicebox podcast.com.
Elle 14:49
So I think so looking at my granddad bunny, because he was diagnosed in the 40s, and things were very, very different back then. So from what he said, they didn't even know that. Carbs affected your blood sugar, or at least, he didn't know if the wider community knew. Maybe you know, they didn't test blood sugar. They did insulin almost at random. There was no sort of titrating your doses or anything. Not saying it was luck, but I think for bunny, a lot of it was pure luck. He thought that he had an allergy to a lot of food, so he avoided them, and those foods were very high carb foods, so I think that helped a lot in keeping his blood sugar under control. And then when he had my dad, because he managed things in such a haphazard, Lucky kind of way, there was no good management for him to pick up on, if that makes sense, it does. Yeah, from my dad's point of view, Bunny just lived his life and, you know, diabetes was never a problem, and he somehow, you know, came out with no complications. Like, hey, the biggest complication Bunny got was his eyes were a bit messed up. That's to be expected when you're that old. Anyway, I thought
Scott Benner 16:01
you were gonna say a sperm work too well, but, I mean, it
Elle 16:05
did, which is quite rare in diabetes, yeah. So I think with my dad, he didn't have, like, a good role model to follow, and I think he just didn't want to accept it, you know, he was like, 20 or early 20s, when it first became a problem for him, you know, and at that age, especially as a young man like you, don't want someone telling you what to do, do you this is the last thing you want to suddenly be told that you're diabetic and you've got to test your blood sugar. And I don't know if carb counting was a thing when my dad was diagnosed, but let's say it was. Yeah, that's a lot to take on at that age, and he just decided not to take it on, basically.
Scott Benner 16:45
So when you're diagnosed, does he have a message for you around diabetes? No,
Elle 16:50
no. He was very laid back about it. Probably too laid back. He
Scott Benner 16:55
didn't know enough to impress upon you. Hey, my stuff's not going well, but here's what I've done wrong. He's like, I did what my dad did. It's not working out the same way. And then do you think he felt like it was luck of the draw? Yeah,
Elle 17:08
I think very much so. And I think there was so. For example, when I was diagnosed, my dad was still on mixed insulin, which is a very old fashioned type. He'd never moved to carb counting or anything nine
Scott Benner 17:20
years ago. Yeah, wow. Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. Go
Elle 17:24
ahead. No, he just refused. He'd never change. You know, the idea to him of car counting was so alien. So when I was diagnosed, and I was obviously put on a basal Bolus, like the rest of the modern world, you know, to him, that was brand new. That was nothing like he'd ever known before, yeah, and he didn't really take much interest in it, you know, I tried to encourage him several times to ask them about going on to it, you know, but it didn't match with his lifestyle.
Scott Benner 17:51
Does that weigh on you at all, that you had that knowledge and couldn't transfer it to
Elle 17:55
him? I used to, I think I used to hold a lot of anger to him, because I used to think, well, it's not that difficult to manage, you know, and it's not that difficult sort of ask for advice and ask for help if you're struggling with it. But I think the older I get, the more I realized that actually he had a lot of other stuff going on in his life, and the idea of managing blood sugars on top of it was probably just an extra thing that he didn't really need or want to do something
Scott Benner 18:23
that he wasn't brought up with he didn't understand. Yeah, it probably didn't seem necessary, because his dad's, I mean, I think
Elle 18:30
it didn't seem important. He always, as long as I can remember, he had this view that he was dying anyway, so there was, like, no point doing a lot of stuff. Like, there was no point. Oh, sorry. Tell people what it is. Okay, that's just my delivery. I thought you're gonna
Scott Benner 18:46
say parcel again. She said, go get it. I'll be I'll be here when you come back. Don't worry. She said parcel earlier, and I was so excited for her to say it again. Then she said delivery, which is very boring. All right, guys, while she's gone, I'm going to tell you that this chameleon is staring at me. He's just looking and looking. He won't look away. Look away. You're making me uncomfortable. I'm trying to talk to hell about her family. It's not my fault. You didn't want to eat yesterday. I gave this one a perfectly, perfectly good silkworm yesterday, stared at it. Now he's staring at me like, why won't you bring the silkworms?
Elle 19:19
Sorry about that.
Scott Benner 19:22
I was talking to the people. Am I allowed to know what's in the box? Oh
Elle 19:25
no, it's just moving stuff. We're getting ready to move house, so we've been ordering boxes and tape and bubble wrap and giant cling to film and all of that good stuff.
Scott Benner 19:36
Are you moving because you want to move and you're upgrading, or are you being booted out? What's going on? We're buying our first
Elle 19:41
house, so it's really exciting. Congratulations. Yeah, it just feels very nerve wracking because we've given our notice on the place we're in now, because that's rented, but we don't actually have a date
Scott Benner 19:53
to move into our new place. Can I give you some advice from an older person?
Elle 19:57
Oh, go for it. I'd love advice. It'll be. Fine. I'm sure it will keep
Scott Benner 20:02
doing it, keep making the best decisions you can day by day, and everything will work out.
Elle 20:06
Yeah, and then we'll be in our nice house, and we'll all be good. It
Scott Benner 20:10
will it be a cottage in the woods that has moss on the roof, like in all the stories about England?
Elle 20:15
No, do you know what? It's nothing like that. I didn't think it was. It's a new build pre bed detached in a brand new estate.
Scott Benner 20:25
Good for you. Hey. Why are you so successful at a young age? What's going on? I don't know. It just drew me and it's working out. It seems to be everything always works out. That's the funny thing about life. Then why are you worried about the bubble wrap thing I told you, if you see, you know it'll be okay. It'll
Elle 20:43
be okay. But it doesn't mean I can't stress. I'm gonna ask a
Scott Benner 20:47
question. It's my first question where I'm risking upsetting you. Okay, do you make that baby on purpose when you were 20?
Elle 20:53
Well, I got pregnant at 19 during the COVID lockdown, and we were very, very excited to find out that we were pregnant. It was a bit of a surprise, but very exciting surprise. Good.
Scott Benner 21:08
How long did you know that boy before you got locked up with him? Oh, yeah, a
Elle 21:12
good little while. We started going out the November, moved in. In March, when the country went into lockdown, we had no choice, found out we were pregnant July. It's
Scott Benner 21:23
not an uncommon story. I just interviewed somebody last week that said the same thing, yeah,
Elle 21:27
and we're engaged now. Buying a house got a lovely little four year old, good for you. So the lesson is, meet random people off Tinder and invite them to your house and let them move in, because it's all good.
Scott Benner 21:39
If they don't kill you, you'll get married to them exactly
Elle 21:42
5050, chance
Scott Benner 21:44
there. Flip it. That's what you're well, I was gonna say that's what your dad did, but that didn't work out well. So like, let's just, let's keep moving. Okay, so you have type one. Gosh, when you move in with him, No, I don't,
Elle 21:55
actually, I don't have type one. Wait, what I I have type None. What are you talking about,
Scott Benner 22:02
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Elle 23:25
So I don't have any antibodies. No one in my family has ever had a single antibody to diabetes. Yeah, and then I don't have Modi, because they text for that, because my doctor was like, well, obviously, this is a case of Modi. You've got a strong family history. You've got diabetes at an early age. I don't have Modi, but then I don't have type two either.
Scott Benner 23:49
Well, wait a minute, how come no one's ever said this on the podcast either? I
Elle 23:54
don't know. There's loads of people like me walking around England. I
Scott Benner 23:58
like that. You don't think you're spec Why do you not think you're special at all? I
Elle 24:02
don't know. I just, I don't think I am. I think I'm just a very ordinary person. You're just a 24
Scott Benner 24:07
year old person who met a guy on Tinder, fell in love, had a baby, is buying a house, has got a little fairy tale? Yeah? I mean, a lot of people are out there, like, swinging for that fence. They can't find it.
Elle 24:19
I think the key is you just have to be, like, obnoxiously optimistic with life.
Scott Benner 24:25
I agree with that. How did you find this podcast, and are you in my Facebook group?
Elle 24:30
I am in your Facebook group. I'm always asking stupid questions on there. You'll probably see me at some point. You'll probably
Scott Benner 24:36
see me giving a stupid answer. So that'll be perfect. Wait, what did I ask you before that?
Elle 24:41
Oh, so finding the podcast. So after I gave birth to my little one in 2021 my sugar started going up again, because I've been off insulin for a year or so at that point. And then I went on Metformin. I went on, I can never say the name of it, but like glycoside, or however you say it. And. It didn't work, so I ended up back on basal Bolus routines, and I I hated it. You know, I absolutely hated it. I was very, like, upset with my life. I felt like what the doctors wanted me to do was just gonna kill me. That sounds very traumatic. I know. Why? How did that? Why did it feel that way? Do you think I think because of my dad's kidney failure, I've always had this fear that I'm turning into him. It's like this huge fear in like, the back of my mind that I'm turning into him, that my kidneys are going to fail, that I'll be dead by 50, that I'll get a bad back, and I'll become an alcoholic, and just all of these like thoughts. Then when the doctors were saying to me, like, oh, like, don't correct your blood sugar until, like, it gets to, like, 15 and stuff like that, and you should only do four injections a day, I was just getting very, like, frustrated. So I started, like, reading, like, books about diabetes. And so recommended your podcast, and I started listening to it. Like, when I go to work, I just have it on constantly. And I was like, Yes, this is what I need in my life. Like, I don't need to be scared of my diabetes. You know, it's about sort of working with my diabetes as part of me, yeah. So not that I stopped listening to medical advice, not saying that I did that, but I started to think, well, it's not their life. If they're not me, they're not the ones living with it. You and I can make sort of these decisions for myself. If I want to do a correction, I'll do a correction. You know. Who are they to stop me? You know? So I started doing that, and I feel a lot better about my management. Now I don't have so many worries about complications, and I feel like I can actually live my life like it doesn't. It's not sort of this overriding thing, like diabetes is just a small thing now, whereas at the beginning it was like this massive, all consuming thing. I was constantly checking my sugar. I was on finger pricks back then as well. So you can imagine my fingers were fucked and and
Scott Benner 27:03
all this came from just giving yourself more control, or,
Elle 27:07
I think it was a mixture of, like more control and like more understanding. It's very different from what I understand in America, like in the NHS, you know, we don't give our pumps that much. It's starting to change. We've just started to get artificial pancreas is like the closed loop systems for kids and some adults. We get given the bare bones. So it used to be you got given finger pricks, you got given carb counting, and you got given a physical book your carbs and cows, book that had all your carbs and then your calories, and then you're on your way, yeah, and you're on your way. And, you know, some people get more regular appointments, but I get once a year checkups with my consultant. And yeah, he's a lovely guy, but the issue is they don't always move as fast as the time moves. So like with CGM and everything, you can have a lot better time in range. But the NHS doesn't necessarily move with that. They're much more like risk averse and scared of hypos and things. Yeah,
Scott Benner 28:08
it's interesting how long it takes for institutions to come along with ideas. I don't think it's specific to diabetes or specific to a certain country or anything like that, but I was struck yesterday when a major diabetes organization sent out an email celebrating this idea. And I thought I've been saying that for 10 years. They said it as if it was an idea that just happened yesterday, and they can't believe how lucky they are to be coming and telling you about it. They said, after much research, I was like, research. You need a research to tell you this. I figured this out in my living room, like, 15 years ago. I've been saying on the podcast for a decade, and here you are today, the bastion of good information, and you're finally speaking up about it. Like, awesome, you know? Like, yeah, way to let a decade of people down.
Elle 28:58
And it's really sad. And I think, you know, diabetes, especially, like, yes, hypos and things are very, very bad. And, you know, we should all have, like, a healthy fear of going too low. But with technology nowadays, it's, you know, it's a tiny complication compared to what it used to be.
Scott Benner 29:17
Anybody can hear your dad's story and then say, people don't need CGM, and you don't have to worry about time and range, like, That's ridiculous, you know, yeah.
Elle 29:26
And I think if he'd have had access to things like CGM, so if he could, actually, if he was almost forced to confront these numbers and see what was going on, you know, was his outcome have been different. Possibly
Scott Benner 29:39
more information may have changed his his outlook on things, and it might have adjusted how he thought over time, maybe. And he could have done better, you know, yeah,
Elle 29:48
or if he'd had access to something, I know it wasn't a thing when he was first diagnosed, but even towards his later years, if he'd have had access to a pump, you know, so he didn't have to do injections, you know? That. In itself would have made a huge difference, in my opinion, right?
Scott Benner 30:04
This is going to seem like a left turn for a second, but I've been wondering for half an hour now, was your grandfather a handsome
Elle 30:09
man? He was a five foot six Jamaican guy, not the most handsome, but also not very ugly. Okay,
Scott Benner 30:17
this explains your hair, because I know what you look like, and I couldn't figure your hair out. But now I got, yeah, now I have it. Okay, awesome. Well, he got around, for sure. He knew what he was doing. The ladies loved him. Yeah,
Elle 30:30
they did. You know a Jamaican man in England in the 40s and 50s. He
Scott Benner 30:35
was just different, right? And he had, everybody was probably interested.
Elle 30:38
He had a very, very lovely accent as well, yeah, the type of, it's like a really low and slow way of talking, and just very, very nice, very relaxing
Scott Benner 30:49
about that. Well, listen, and you knew him your whole life, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, obviously he was my granddad, no. Well, sometimes people split up and you don't see people and stuff like that, but, man, your grandmother must have been tired. I just
Elle 31:03
tired for a lot of reasons. I think having eight kids in itself is very tired. That's what
Scott Benner 31:07
I was talking about. Like, just like, that's so many kids.
Elle 31:12
I do feel for
Scott Benner 31:14
no kidding. How long did she live? She
Elle 31:16
passed away when I was nine. I think she was 82
Scott Benner 31:21
the only way to live to 8220 years ago, or whatever, and it not seem like a long time, is if your husband lives till 96 and then, yeah, it's really something.
Elle 31:30
And now he just kept on going, though, no one expected it. Like,
Scott Benner 31:34
was he Spry to the end? Like, could he talk get around stuff like that? Yeah,
Elle 31:40
yeah. He was such a great guy. You know, there was something about him. He used a walking stick, but not until, like, the very, very end. You know, he could hold full on conversations with you. He lived alone, just like a perfectly, like, fully functioning, like all of his marbles were intact. He was a bit weird. But what old person
Scott Benner 32:01
isn't it's a bit weird. I'm a bit weird. Yeah, are you planning on having more children?
Elle 32:06
I think we'll just have the one. My little girl was born quite premature, and there was, like, some complications. And, you know, realistically, I don't want to go through that again when I've already got one child. I don't think it's worth that risk. Is she okay? Now she's perfectly healthy. She is so happy, like when she was born, she had a heart defect as a result of her prematurity, so she had something called junctional tachycardia, which is like where your heart beats wrong, and then she had these two little holes in her heart just from being premature. But they've all sorted themselves out now, and like she's doing really well, but I think that trauma for me is her mum is still there. I was
Scott Benner 32:47
gonna say the process of that really impacted
Elle 32:51
you, yeah, and I think it really messed with my head. Do you think that could ever change? No, no. I think we're very stuck on that decision, because we know if we have another one, that they'll also be born very early. And
Scott Benner 33:04
how was your pregnancy with type one? Was it difficult? Were you able to keep your a 1c? Where you wanted? Yeah,
Elle 33:09
so my pregnancy was actually perfect. So when I was pregnant, I was in that weird gap where I was, like, some doctors say it's like an extended honeymoon or whatever, where I wasn't on insulin, and my whole pregnancy, it was brilliant. And then, like, a month or two after I gave birth, my blood sugar started creeping up,
Scott Benner 33:28
okay? And then that's where it kind of all took off, yeah.
Elle 33:32
So then that's when they started me on Metformin, on, like, the glycoside, and eventually went back onto the insulin, which
Scott Benner 33:40
was what, I'm sorry,
Elle 33:42
which was not very fun,
Scott Benner 33:43
because you had newly given birth, and there was a lot else going on.
Elle 33:47
Yeah, I think when you've got a new baby as well, and you find yourself a routine, don't you, when you've got a new baby, and you're sort of in the throes of it, and then all of a sudden, you spend months and months just feeling awful, because the issue is, despite the medications, my blood sugars were just climbing and climbing, you know, like they weren't controlled at all on them, so I wasn't feeling any better, and then I was getting side effects from the drugs that they were giving me. I ended up breaking down to the consultant and to say, I could just can't do this, like I just physically can't do this, you know? And he said, Well, we'll do a C peptide. And she's like, attach your insulin levels and see what's going on. And then they found I've got quite a low C peptide, but it's a bit higher than a type one diabetic
Scott Benner 34:35
low C peptide, but higher. What was it? It's like, 0.4 Okay, How involved is your soon to be husband in your diabetes? Oh, I would say, like a zero. Is that your doing or his? I
Elle 34:49
think it's just how we've both fallen into it. If I have, like, a hypo or something, he knows about it. He follows my Dexcom so he can see all my readings. But it. General, there's not really a reason for him to be more involved. Have
Scott Benner 35:04
you been taking care of it by yourself your entire life? I mean, your father didn't have knowledge about it. Was your mom helpful?
Elle 35:10
No, I don't. My mum wasn't very helpful with I don't think she ever saw a need to
Scott Benner 35:15
be. Did you see a need for her to be?
Elle 35:18
No, because I, I think when you're 15 as well, it's a very awkward age to be diagnosed. You know, I know like looking back at how I was, how I thought I was this really small adult who could do everything. And I think it would have been nice if my parents supported and helped a bit more. But at the same time, I do get it that if your child saying that they like they've got this, and they know what they're doing. You do? You just sort of leave them to it, don't you?
Scott Benner 35:46
Not me. I'm a bit of a hard head. What happens if, 10 years from now, God forbid, I hope this doesn't happen, right? Your daughter gets type one diabetes. Says, Mom, don't worry. I don't need help. I've got this. What do you say?
Elle 35:57
Oh, I don't think she's got it.
Scott Benner 36:01
Did you have it when you were 15? No, I
Elle 36:04
don't think I did. Put it in perspective, one of the first things I did came out of hospital at 15, and I just announced to everyone I was like, but that's it. I'm not eating carbs anymore, and I put myself on a low carb diet. And no one, like battered an eyelid, no one thought to have, like, a conversation with me about it, or, you know, challenge those ideas in my head and I stayed on this low carb diet for three years.
Scott Benner 36:32
Wow. How low? How many carbs a day? Probably
Elle 36:36
not as low as I thought I was eating. Being a teenager,
Scott Benner 36:40
I'm eating a low carb. Give me a biscuit, and we're gonna put that with this little gravy on that. Yeah, but I would say, like,
Elle 36:46
still, probably under 50 carbs per day.
Scott Benner 36:48
Still, I mean, that's, that's, it's not pretty low. You're holding yourself up against people online who are, like, I had four carbs today, but like that, yeah, 50 is a small number. It
Elle 36:58
was nowhere near as much as some people who are really good at it and take it very, very seriously, like, I still eat, like fruits and things like that, but I didn't eat any sort of like bread or pasta or rice, you know, those sort of typical starchy carbs. What
Scott Benner 37:12
happened three years into it? Did you see a piece of bread again? Or what happened?
Elle 37:16
No, no. So three years into it, I just gave up one day. No, as teenagers, do you just sort of wake up one day and you think, what the am I doing?
Scott Benner 37:28
I haven't had a pastry in three years. I haven't had a Starbuck.
Elle 37:32
Like, why am I doing this to myself?
Scott Benner 37:35
And why were you like, once you ate more carbs? Did it change anything? No,
Elle 37:39
not really. I don't think my life, like dramatically, got better or worse. What
Scott Benner 37:44
about your management? Did it get easier or harder? Neither,
Elle 37:47
I don't I think it just changed. Because even when I was doing low carb, I was still doing, like, my Nova rapids for things. Yeah, I was still very, very cautious. I was still having to correct seemingly all of the time. And I can't remember, I might have been on the pump when I stopped low carb
Scott Benner 38:06
already. Oh yeah, we haven't even talked about that. How do you manage today? So
Elle 38:10
today I'm on just a simple NDI so venal injections I take levemir and something called FIAs. Do you guys get FIAs in America?
Scott Benner 38:18
We do. How come you're using lever mirror, though, I would love it. If you're using something more modern for your basal insulin,
Elle 38:24
that's actually that's a personal choice to do. Levemir, why tell me? So I tried procedure in the past, which is like that ultra long act thing, and it works quite well at like, keeping things very steady, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. And then I tried something called sembly, which is the same as Lantus. It's just an off brand version, because the NHS loves its off brand stuff. And I just, I really hated Lantus, like, I absolutely despised it.
Scott Benner 38:53
Levemir, you like, do you split it? Do you shoot it every 12 hours? I do a
Elle 38:58
split dose of levemere. What I love about it is I feel like it just gives me so much more flexibility. I found that a lot of people, they have, like a basal dose, and then they just keep it as that. So every day, they'll take however many units, and they'll do that forever and ever, until they have to change it, whereas I constantly change my 11 minute dose. So if I know the for example, Christmas is my biggest one, I upped it by loads. I'm not recommending that to anyone, but for me, I know that I eat an awful lot over Christmas. You know, I'm constantly snacking. I'm cooking and eating as I cook. So when I up my morning leather Moon, I have that sort of flexibility to be able to do that without worrying so much. And then if I know that I'm going to be doing a lot of exercise, or if I've got things, I'll drop my left mirror. If I've been ill, I can up it, you know. And it just gives me a lot more flexibility, whereas, like tracebo, I couldn't do that at all. That's
Scott Benner 39:56
so thoughtful and and I'm. Really pleased that you shared that and at the same time, what strikes me more probably because you're half my age and you're like, my son's age, I'm like, proud of you. I know that's not my place to be proud of you. But like, you know, being brought up by someone who wasn't paying attention to his diabetes, who was brought up by somebody who wasn't paying attention to his diabetes, that's an incredibly thoughtful way to manage.
Elle 40:21
I think it's because of that, you know, if my dad hadn't died and he hadn't had his issues with his kidneys, you know, I would have fallen into that same trap as him as of it doesn't really matter that much. You think
Scott Benner 40:35
your dad's passing broke the cycle of how your family takes care of type one? Yeah,
Elle 40:40
I think it massively has, you know, I see things very different. I'm not compliant with it. You know, if I notice that my sugars are higher than they should be, or if they're lower than they should be, you know, I'm taking action to correct that. I don't just accept it as well. This is diabetes. What do you expect? You know, I'm not striving for 70% in range. I'm striving for 100% in range in a straight line. You know, that is my goal. And you
Scott Benner 41:07
don't feel burned out or overwhelmed. This seems very natural to you.
Elle 41:11
No, it doesn't. It overwhelm me at all. Where'd
Scott Benner 41:15
you learn to split the lever mirror? So
Elle 41:16
in England, we usually do split. Levemir, good. You know, that's how, like, the sort of standard, but yeah. And then I just sort of work out how much I want to take based on me. Your dosing is up to you with the NHS. Like, you've got nurses and doctors that can support you with it, but once you've learned the basics, you know, it is up to you how you dose and when and how.
Scott Benner 41:38
It's clear to you that you're allowed to adjust doses. Oh,
Elle 41:41
yeah. Like, no one really cares, because here
Scott Benner 41:45
the idea from, from a lot of people, is like, you don't touch it. We'll tell you when to touch it.
Elle 41:49
Oh no, you would be dead if you left the NHS there. I mean, I only see someone once a year. Yeah, my doses change way more than yearly. Arden
Scott Benner 41:58
used levemir when she was first diagnosed, we used to split
Elle 42:01
it. I love it. I think it's the best insulin. Wow. That's awesome
Scott Benner 42:05
that you found something that you can use like that takes more effort and some paying attention, but
Elle 42:11
it takes getting used to. But I think when you're on daily injections rather than a pump, it gives you sort of the closest to that flexibility of a pump. Obviously, with a pump, you can adjust your background, you know, freely whenever you need to. Yeah,
Scott Benner 42:27
I was thinking earlier, you're acting like your own algorithm with your basal, like, I'm going to eat more this week or today, or I'm going to go running or whatever, like, and you're making adjustments to your basal that
Elle 42:37
way, yeah, and it's one of the reasons I wanted levemir, I think, yeah, I've listened to your podcast so much, and obviously most of what you talk about revolves around insulin pumps. And at first I thought, Oh, well, this is so frustrating, because I don't have a pump and I can't get a pump because we only get pumps in England if your diabetes is like, what they say is like, uncontrolled. So if your HBO and C is quite high, and mine wasn't, and I used to get very frustrated, and then I thought, Well, why am I getting so frustrated? The principles are no different. It doesn't matter if I'm on a pump or if I give myself insulin. You know, the key is making it so I can have that flexibility. All a pump does is give you flexibility. Yes, you can't have it as much when you take injections. You know, I can't do really tiny doses, but I can still do point five unit corrections. Now this is the closest
Scott Benner 43:31
anyone's coming to making me cry so far this week. So thank you, because I've been saying this forever, like, I know that if, if you're listening, and it's like, oh, everybody's talking about pumping. I don't think we are like, I think we're talking about insulin timing. Yeah, yeah. I think we're talking about the amount of insulin you use and when you use it. And I genuinely believe that you can do that with MDI. You just have to be willing to shoot a little more frequently. Exactly,
Elle 44:01
you know, I take probably seven to 10 injections every single day. You know, it is way more than you know, when the NHS says you should do four, if you do four injections, you're not going to have good control. It's impossible. Yeah, we smack. We're humans. I don't know anyone that doesn't smack. For example, if you don't inject for your snacks, you're going to go high. I
Scott Benner 44:24
swear to you, this is the happiest I've been in a while, making the podcast. Bless you. I'm seriously like to hear you say that at your age too, which I know you've been a fully formed adult who knows everything that they need to know since you were 15. You mentioned that earlier, to hear you at 24 from where you came from, from diabetes, to say that I just, I found that very fulfilling, honestly, like, I think I'm gonna have a really great day. So I appreciate it. Thank you. I know it's the end of your day, but it's, it's just the beginning
Elle 44:51
the end. It's only it's coming up to 2pm over
Scott Benner 44:55
here. Oh, is that
Elle 44:56
it? Yeah, I'm on my lunch
Scott Benner 44:57
break. Oh, wait a minute, you're only four. Four hours ahead of me. Why do I not know that? Hmm, all right. Well, now I know I'll try to remember seriously, like, that was awesome. Like, people who listen to the podcast a lot will listen back now and realize I didn't say a word while you were talking about that. Because I was just like, yeah, say it. Say when you started. I was like, oh god, she's gonna say it. And then you said it. I was like, oh my. And then you, as you elaborated on I was like, she really understands this. How long do you think you've really, really deeply understood your diabetes? I'll
Elle 45:27
tell you exactly. When it was. It was August 2022 you know. And I was listening to one of your podcasts, and I was walking around Asda at the time, which is like your wall marked. And I was listening to one of your podcasts, and I was getting frustrated someone was talking about a pump, and then it suddenly clicked in my head, you know, where I thought it doesn't matter that they're talking about a pump, like, that's not the important thing. Like, I can still do Sally. I can still do everything. It doesn't change it. I can't have that level of flexibility, but I can still have flexibility. That's
Scott Benner 46:01
awesome. I'm literally speechless, but I'm only talking because it's a podcast. I'm just I'm so happy. I'm just so happy for you, and that that message got to you is, is just awesome. You know, I spend too much of my life having to answer people who are like, well, I try to listen to your podcast, but it's for people who pump. But I'm like, I think it's for people with diabetes. Like, listen closer, yeah,
Elle 46:24
yeah. And I think that does need to be more representation in the world for people on injection. Yeah,
Scott Benner 46:29
of course. But the problem is, is the people like you don't step up very often to be on you know, yeah, even at that, it took us 40 minutes for you to say that you were MDI, right now,
Elle 46:38
yeah. And I guess it's because when you're MDI, it's just it's normal for you, like, it's not a big part of my diabetes management. And I forget that for other people, it can feel very scary. Yeah.
Scott Benner 46:50
Now I imagine you are wearing a CGM, obviously. Which one? So I
Elle 46:54
wear something called the Dexcom one, plus, oh, really, the NHS, the beautiful, lovely thing that keeps me alive, looking for a deal. Are they what's going on? So they look for a deal. And a couple of years ago, the NHS said that all type ones, or people like myself that aren't quite type one, but the closest that we fit in, need to have a CGM on the NHS. And the NHS said all that that's very, very expensive. So they went to Dexcom and they said, Do you mind making us some some cheap CGM? So they came up with the Dexcom one, which was basically the g6 but didn't have some of the special features, like you couldn't share it, you couldn't calibrate it, just a very paired down version. And now we have the one plus, which is the g7 but it's paired down, but we can still share that one. We can calibrate it if we want, but you don't need to, and it looks the same as a g7 you have
Scott Benner 47:51
a Dexcom, but it doesn't have leather seats or interior lighting or anything like that. Yeah,
Elle 47:56
it's just the basic one. And the benefit of it is, you know, it's completely free of charge. To me, I don't pay for my prescriptions. Yeah, all my Dexcom are free. My insulin is free. And you know for that, I will take a budget version. Yeah, I
Scott Benner 48:11
want to be clear, I would too. If somebody would like to offer free ones,
Elle 48:16
I would take a budget version. I do not need the Dexcom g7 and I cannot afford to pay for that privately anyway.
Scott Benner 48:23
Yeah, no, okay. Well, listen, how could you you're 24 and you're buying it. Do you ever step back and say, We're 24 and I'm buying a house? I
Elle 48:30
do. I say it's my partner. Sometimes. I'm like, Oh my God. Like, how did we get to this point? Yeah,
Scott Benner 48:36
is it easier to own a home there than it is here? Like, what is it? I'm not understanding. Why
Elle 48:41
don't I don't know how much houses cost in America, but it is. It's very expensive over here.
Scott Benner 48:47
No, I mean, it's expensive here too. I don't know what the median house cost is here, but like, you have to put 20% of your purchase price down in cash when you buy.
Elle 48:56
Oh, no. See, in England, we only have to put a minimum of 5% that would be easier. So that's probably a big difference there. So we do 5% deposits or 10% deposits as, like the standard, and then you just pay, like, your mortgage and everything. How long does the mortgage go for? So we've got a very long mortgage. We've got a 36 year mortgage.
Scott Benner 49:18
Oh, wow, yeah. Here. 30 is typical? Yeah, I think
Elle 49:22
30 is quite typical over there as well, but we've gone for a longer one just because of
Scott Benner 49:27
finances. How much does your daughter know about your diabetes? Do you know
Elle 49:32
what? She's actually extremely adorable with it. So when she was very little, she used to pretend to give herself injections, but had, like no sort of concept of it. And then she got to a point where she thought that all mummies had diabetes, like when you became a mummy,
Scott Benner 49:47
oh, you got diabetes with the baby,
Elle 49:49
yeah, basically, which I thought was very, very cute, but now that she's just turned four now, so she understands that sometimes mummy's poorly, and that means that mummy needs sugar. Her, and she's very, very good with that. If she notices me lying on the sofa, even if I'm just relaxing, she'll go into our snack cupboard, and she'll appear with like, a cookie or something, and she'll be like, for your diabetes. And I'm like, Oh, I'm not gonna say no.
Scott Benner 50:14
I'm not gonna say no, I am actually not feeling poorly, but will take this cookie. Thank you very much.
Elle 50:19
Yeah. And in the morning, she started a new thing where she asked to see what my sugars are. Oh, really. So, like, she'll wake up and I, obviously, I check my sugars. I do a finger prick every single morning, even with my Dexcom, just to make sure, like, force a habit. And then she started asking. She's like, Oh, money, what's your sugar? She's like, are they white? Are they yellow? Oh yeah. And then I'll show her. And then she's always so, like, proud of me and pleased. She doesn't know what it means, right? Do you guys have glucagon? There we do, but I don't actually have one because, because the NHS doesn't provide them anymore. They used to. So when I was 15, I had one, and I'd have one on me at all times, one at home and, like, one at school or something like, however it was. So then when I went on insulin again, I was like, Oh, can I get a glue gun? And they were like, No, you can't. We don't
Scott Benner 51:12
care anymore. Sorry, yeah, they only
Elle 51:15
give them to children and people that have either, I think, had a really bad hypo, or at risk of a bad hypo, interesting. I don't know why. I don't know if they're expensive or maybe some idiots did something stupid with them. I don't
Scott Benner 51:30
know if it's cost or dummies, but it's one of them. I guarantee it.
Elle 51:33
Yeah, it'll be one of them.
Scott Benner 51:36
So I learned with Google that the average, like the median home price in the US is $420,000 yours is about 290 pounds sterling, which equivalent is about a $376,000 equivalent. So your average price is like $50,000 less than ours. That
Elle 51:56
is crazy. And our houses are built correctly. They're not made out of wood or anything. It's
Scott Benner 52:01
nice that they're cheaper, but they're not, like crazy cheaper. I mean, you're talking about $400,000 50,000 is not really, you know, a ton. I think
Elle 52:10
the thing I also I've never been to America, so I am purely just guessing of television that I've watched. I think American houses are quite a lot bigger as well.
Scott Benner 52:19
How do you measure your house? Uh, square feet? How many? How many is yours? So
Elle 52:23
the one that we're buying is 1100
Scott Benner 52:28
Okay, so that would be around here, sort of like what they call a, um, gosh, I can't think of it. Is it like one simple footprint, one level? No, no.
Elle 52:36
So it's a two story house. It's a, like a three double bedroom, detached house. It's quite a nice house for
Scott Benner 52:43
England. That's awesome for England. No, it sounds lovely we're in at the moment, which
Elle 52:48
is a two bed and like terrace tiles, it's like 600 square feet. It's a big upgrade for you then, yeah, so I think in America, your guys houses are quite a lot bigger. You've got way more space, haven't you? Let
Scott Benner 53:01
me see average home size in us, 2300 square feet is an average home size here. Gosh,
Elle 53:09
so like, double, yeah, that is crazy. That's huge. Yeah,
Scott Benner 53:13
Tinder boy, what does he do for a living? Is he out? Is he selling crack? Or how's he making this money? What's he doing? No,
Elle 53:19
no, he can't sell crack. I work in the drug and alcohol service. Don't say that. Wait, what do you do for a living? I support family members who are affected by people living with addiction. Oh,
Scott Benner 53:30
my god, yeah, that definitely wouldn't be a good job for him. Then you imagine the conversations you'd have at dinner be terrible. But
Elle 53:36
yeah, he's an engineer.
Scott Benner 53:38
Oh, smart kid.
Elle 53:39
He's very, very nerdy, socially awkward, that kind of smart. Is that what you liked about him? Yeah, he's such a lovely guy. Because when I met him, he was working as an engineering officer on cruise ships, so it was pretty cool job. And I think that, like, drawed me in, and now he works in like, a food factory, working with, like, dried nuts and dried fruit and stuff. This sounds interesting.
Scott Benner 54:06
Did you go through any boys with different attitudes? Or have you always been attracted to guys like that? I've
Elle 54:12
dated some very interesting people in the past, but he's definitely the nicest. I think that's why I'm stuck with him. I was gonna
Scott Benner 54:21
say that's pretty important. I would tell my daughter the same thing, like, but try look at the person not like what they would look like in your Instagram photo
Elle 54:28
Exactly. And it's about someone as well. That, for example, I had a conversation with Harry the other and it's quite a depressing conversation I had where it suddenly hit me one morning that one day, I'm going to be 80, and I'm going to be living with diabetes, and you know what if I can't manage it? You know what if I go into hospital and you know, for whatever reason, I can't manage my diabetes, and I don't like the way that hospitals manage it. And me and him had this conversation, and he was so like reassuring and so lovely that. Something like that was to ever to happen, you know, he would make sure that people knew my wishes and my views, you know. And it's things like that that I think you know, when you're looking for a partner and when you're with someone like, that's what matters. Like, yes, all the good stuff matters, and all of that's brilliant, but it's someone that I know, and I implicitly trust him that if something was happened to me, you know, he would not only look after me, but he would advocate for me, and like, that's the important thing.
Scott Benner 55:28
That's lovely. But do we not want him to know more about your diabetes so that he can do that better?
Elle 55:33
I think he has an idea of it. He just doesn't get involved.
Scott Benner 55:36
Oh, I see. So you think he understands it, but you guys have a, like, a healthy separation there. He knows
Elle 55:43
what my blood sugar should be. He knows when it's not bad. He has a good understanding of what to do in, like a medical emergency. He knows about ketones and things good, good. That's all we want. Does he know my doses? He wouldn't have a clue, gotcha.
Scott Benner 55:59
And you're not just comfortable with that. You like it this way, yeah, and
Elle 56:03
I think as well, like, sometimes we all have bad days, yeah, we have days where our sugars are way too high and we can't get them down. And, you know, I like the fact that he doesn't always understand that. I like the fact that sometimes, you know, like, let's say we go for a meal, I can eat what I want, and sometimes I won't do insulin, or I'll do it after my meal. And there's no raised eyebrows, there's no judgment, because he doesn't know if I'm meant to do that or not.
Scott Benner 56:30
Tell me more about that. I'm super interested in that. Like you, like that he doesn't know in that situation, because dig into that more.
Elle 56:36
It's hard to put into words to explain it, but like, let's say we go out for a meal, like, to a Chinese buffet. Yeah, it's one of my favorite places. Now that is a diabetics last night, minefield. Yeah, the way I deal with a buffet is chaotic, to say the least. So what I'll do to start off with is I Pre Bolus with just a bunch of incidents, just a random amount. Yeah, there is no like, rhyme or reason to how much I give, you know. And then I just eat whatever I want, and I turn the alarms off of my Dexcom so it won't tell me if I'm going high. And then when I get home afterwards, I'll just correct and I'll correct myself down, you know. And I like that with Harry, because he doesn't, he doesn't know what the numbers mean. He doesn't know he knows when something's high, but he doesn't know if it's like a normal high, like, if that's to be expected with diabetes, if that makes sense. So he doesn't think about it too much, and he doesn't become a conversation like, he'd never pull me up and say, Oh, shouldn't you be doing some more insulin for that cake. Have you done that? Have you checked your levels? Like, are you sure that you're not too high to be eating that? And I like that. I can just go out with him and enjoy a meal when you know there's no comments, and I can just do whatever I want, like, with my control.
Scott Benner 57:55
Has there ever been a time where you wished he would like, Have you ever gotten stuck and wish somebody would push you.
Elle 58:01
No, no, not really. I think it's very much my own responsibility to deal with it. This is really interesting. Yeah. I think if we rely on other people as well, like, we need to have that motivation within ourselves. Like, if we're not motivated, it doesn't matter how much other people push us, we're not going to want to deal with it, yeah. And then that's when you get into that territory of, like, secret eating and things where you're not dosing, or, you know, dosing too much, but not caring, yeah, that's
Scott Benner 58:32
really interesting. I think that's going to help me. Your insight will help me with Arden, I think. And
Elle 58:36
it being a like a teenager and a young adult with diabetes is awful. There is no getting away from it, but you find a way, you know, and there's always a chance to fix it. Yeah,
Scott Benner 58:51
no. I mean, you have to remain hopeful. That's for sure. You have that, like wake up every day, like renewed right? That? Yeah, yeah, it's a new job. Have you been listening to the small sips series as they come out? No,
Elle 59:03
I haven't. I've been so busy with everything that I've not listened to the couple of months. It's really bad. No,
Scott Benner 59:08
no, no, no, I I just asked, because I took all of the Well, what I did was I went back to the audience, and I went back to the content that I know really helps people, and I asked people for, like, foundational ideas, like, tell me, okay, a thing you heard in the podcast, right? That really, really helps you. I think it's 20 or 21 they're like, little short, like, 10 minute episodes, right? But the last one of the first set was wake up hopeful. Like that was one of the things that people came back and said from the podcast. What I learned was that I need to get up every day and just have a renewed sense of like it's a fresh start. Yeah,
Elle 59:46
and that's the beauty of diabetes. You know, every day is a fresh start. It doesn't matter what was going on yesterday or last week, you can always make changes. And sometimes it is simply, as simple as if your sugar. High you need more insulin?
Scott Benner 1:00:02
Yeah, no. I mean, obviously, like, yeah. I think one of the episodes is called more insulin. It's one of the things that somebody said, you said one time. And I was like, oh, that's brilliant. I'll do that. It's interesting to reach out to a group of people and say, Tell me the sentences, just the simple sentences that you heard that were so valuable for you. And then, you know, have people vote on them, and you collect them up, and it's not just somebody said, Oh, this. It's 100 people said, I heard this, and it was great. You're like, Okay. And then when you collect them and look at them, I look and I just think, oh, it's not, it doesn't feel that special to me, because it doesn't seem any great secret when I look at it. Does that make sense? I think
Elle 1:00:39
the beauty of your podcast is it puts things in such a basic way where it all seems so simple, just like simple things that you come out with, you know, like with the more insulin, is such a simple concept, an idea, that obviously, if your sugar is high, you need to take more insulin. But I think there's such a anxiety when it comes to diabetes and diabetes management, that you don't want to correct too much, you don't want to change your ratios too much, you don't want to over treat a hypo, and you don't want to do this and that and the other that, when someone sits there and really just brings it back to basics and goes well, if your sugar is too high, you Need more insulin. You know, if you're peaking too much after a meal, then take your insulin a bit earlier. You know, just having someone else say that and almost confirm what you think or what your views might have been, it creates, like a light bulb moment where you go, I can, I can just do more. It's not the end of the world if I do more, or if I've already done my correction, and three hours later it's not coming down, I can just take more. There's physically nothing stopping me. And if I hypo, I'll just eat some carbs. Yeah, I'm
Scott Benner 1:01:53
going to go through these with you, because I'm really interested in your opinion. And then I want to ask my last question, which is wrapped around why I'm asking you the first question. So I'm looking at the I brought the list up in front of me. I'm sure there'll be more small sip episodes, because they've they've become very popular, and people like shorter content sometimes. But these are the topics, right? It's diabetes. Is hard. Insulin used now is for later. The difference is your fear you get what you expect. Tug of War. Are you stacking insulin? All carbs aren't created equal timing an amount, using a CGM. Well, stop the arrows, swag, meet the need. Blanket of insulin. More insulin, low before high steal a 1c overnight, that's just diabetes. Avoid hot takes. Trust will happen. Just smile and wave and wake up hopeful. Did I just encapsulate the entire podcast to you? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Isn't that something? Because, yeah, but when I look at the list, it's almost underwhelming to me. But I don't feel that way anymore because of the explanation you just gave me. Oh, in the end, like, I broke it down. I'm like, That's it. Like, that's the genius in the podcast. You know what I mean. But like, I think it's because it's broken down so simply that it seems so simple when it's delivered. This is going to sound crazy, but when I put the list together, I was underwhelmed by it. I was like, Oh, I thought. Like, the cumulative knowledge of the diabetes podcast that everybody finds so helpful would have been more,
Elle 1:03:35
I don't know what groundbreaking and Earth shaft, yeah.
Scott Benner 1:03:39
Like, it would have felt like, yeah, it would have felt like, Oh my God. Like, I can't believe this is awesome. Like,
Elle 1:03:45
I'm a genius. I need to write a medical research study right now. Lightning
Scott Benner 1:03:49
strike, and God's talking and like, this is what the people found to be. But in the end, like, the reason it doesn't feel that way to me, and the reason it also works is because of what you said a moment ago. And it leads me to my last question for you. And if you have more to say afterwards, that's fine. But my last question for you is, why in the hell are you so like mature?
Elle 1:04:10
I think that's a very complicated question, and there's not a simple answer to that. Yeah, growing up with a dad that he is very ill, makes you grow up early. Yeah. To put it in perspective, I was seven when my dad got kidney failure, yeah. So I, I never really knew him as a well person. He was pretty much bed bound for several years. And, you know, I had to become, I wouldn't say, care at him. I think that takes things too far. But, you know, I took on a lot of responsibilities at a very young age, and I think just having that experience, it makes you grow up in all areas of your life. You know, you grow up with this kind of fragility around you, where you're very aware at how easily life can change, and how important it is to hold on to that optimism. And, you know, to the good things going on around you, yeah. And then I could go on for ages about other random stuff that's happened that makes me very grown up and but I think that's the main thing. I think just growing up in that environment. Give
Scott Benner 1:05:14
me one example of a random thing that happened,
Elle 1:05:17
oh, well, you know, obviously having a child at 19. And well, getting pregnant 19, having her at 20. And, you know, my little girl, she was born very premature, as I mentioned. And the birth and everything was such a shock. I labored for less than an hour. So it's very much like, boom, all of a sudden you have a premature baby. You know that in itself. You know, that makes you grow up. You know, dealing with my dad's death, I I just turned 19 when he passed away. And, yeah, he was out in France at the time because he was on holiday. So with that came a bunch of complicating things.
Scott Benner 1:05:58
He didn't see your daughter ever. No, no,
Elle 1:06:01
no, yeah, you never met Harry either. So my dad passed away in the October. So I turned 19 in the September. Was moving into a my first ever flat, got the keys to that September 30, went to call my dad to tell him. My mum answered the phone to say, well, he's not breathing. I can't wake him up. I've tested his sugars, and they're just saying, H i, what do I do? And I said, call an ambulance, crazy lady. And then he was in a coma for nearly a month. Then the end of October, he he pulled out his breathing tube and died. And then November, I, I got with Harry. Hell,
Scott Benner 1:06:40
you have an insane amount of perspective that a person your age usually doesn't have. That's what this is.
Elle 1:06:46
I think you have to, I think when you've grown up in that environment, you have to have a level of perspective, because otherwise you get very depressed with your life, and that doesn't help anything. So that
Scott Benner 1:06:57
was my question. Like, is this a decision you made, or is it just how you're wired?
Elle 1:07:01
Well, after my dad passed away, I got very depressed for several months. Yo, I really, really struggled. My dad wasn't just my dad. He was my best friend in the entire world. Yeah, we had an extremely close relationship, and I wasn't very close to my mum for various reasons. We have a much better relationship now, but at the time, we weren't very close, and we didn't talk. So it was like I lost not only my dad, but my best friend and, you know, my biggest support and cheerleader in my life. So I got very, very down, and then I found out I was pregnant with my little girl, and I thought, well, this can't be our life. You know, this can't be my life, and this can't be her life, because she doesn't deserve this. And what is the point in spending all of my life just moping around and going to work and laying in bed and crying all the time, it's not going to bring him back, is the truth. Nothing will bring him back, and all I'm doing is wasting my happiness. And it took me a good while because I used to feel very guilty about being happy and enjoying life. I felt like his life had been robbed from him, like he's not got to enjoy that. And how could I be moving on with my life and enjoying things? And it sounds very cliche, because, you know, everyone always says it, but I think I started thinking, Well, you know, he would want me to enjoy my life. He probably wouldn't want me to be sat here moping, you know? And it is cliche, but it's true.
Scott Benner 1:08:36
I don't know to call it cliche. Maybe it is, but you were able to break free of it and follow that like, that's the impressive part, and you weren't always that person. Is that? Right? No,
Elle 1:08:48
no, not at all. Wow. I was a very, I was a very pessimistic person once upon a time, not anymore. No, it's one of those people that walked around with sort of a chip on their shoulders, really.
Scott Benner 1:09:00
Yeah, 100% I know what you look like. You're like an adorable little person. It's hard to think of you that way. Oh, stop it. No, you are. It's hard to think of you that way, like you just you just seem like a pleasant person. It's awesome, but I'm so proud of you and happy for you and thank you. No, no, it's a pleasure to say that to you. I mean, because the alternative would have been terrible, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bluntly, bird would be Yeah, and you just didn't do it. Boy, that's interesting. You didn't go to drugs or alcohol.
Elle 1:09:31
No, no. I'm very, very straight laced, and always have
Scott Benner 1:09:35
been something. And the boy doesn't do any of that stuff now. He's
Elle 1:09:40
never been in Harry is a very straight laced person. He grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, and he's very prim and proper and
Scott Benner 1:09:48
lovely when he ever acts up. You ever call him Prince Harry to make fun of him? No, he never acts up. So, oh, look at you. He's got this boy. Got this boy walking the right line. This is awesome. Do
Elle 1:09:59
you know. He's, he's an absolute gem of the person. Look at
Scott Benner 1:10:03
that Tinder, huh? Yeah, look at that. Good for you. I know you're just a modern success story, modern fairy tale. Seriously, you want to call your episode that? Because I was going to call it Elle's best friend. But do you want to call it a modern fairy tale that is
Elle 1:10:18
so cute, I love it. Which one modern fairy tale? Okay, that's
Scott Benner 1:10:22
what we're calling this episode. You're done. That's it. I have to tell you something. I hope you feel the same way, or otherwise, it's gonna feel ridiculous. I feel like I could make a podcast with you every day. Ah, that is so sweet. Seriously, this, did you have as good a time as I did?
Elle 1:10:37
Yeah, I quite enjoyed it. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. You thought this was going
Scott Benner 1:10:41
to be scary. You just told that whole story about your boring life, and you thought this was going to be scary.
Elle 1:10:46
Yeah, I thought it'd be very, very scary. And, no, yeah, it wasn't
Scott Benner 1:10:51
you. More than anybody I've spoken to recently. Know how you feel and know what you think in such a comforting and steady way. The truth is, is that, because of your accent and how you speak, if you told me you were 45 I would have believed you. It's not an old soul. You have a thought process that I wish I had
Elle 1:11:13
seriously. I think my work helps with the way. I sort of think, because I'm talking to different people all day, every day, about very complicated situations in their life, you know, I think I have to be very sure of what I'm saying and sort of the message that I'm conveying to people. And because of that, I've changed the way that I sort of think, because otherwise I end up rambling to them, and people don't want that. They don't want to come talk to me to hear my weird rambles.
Scott Benner 1:11:43
Like five minutes into their problem, you start telling them about your
Elle 1:11:48
they're like daydreaming. I'm in another world.
Scott Benner 1:11:51
Awesome. No, I don't want to talk about would be awesome. What helps me? For God's sake, I don't know how to exactly put it, but there have been a handful of people who've come on this podcast over a decade where I thought I wish that person was my child or my friend, or I wish I would open this microphone up every day and be talking to this person. You're one of those people, and we just met an hour and 12 minutes ago. It's really crazy.
Elle 1:12:14
So sweet. And guess what? I actually have an opening for a dad, and
Scott Benner 1:12:20
you have a great sense of humor, because that's very dark. What you just said, Are you not looking for me to pay for stuff, right? Just like,
Elle 1:12:28
Well, I mean, if you have the money to pay, why would I say no? I just thought maybe you'd want advice once in a while, or something like that. Yeah, that would be nice as well. Like, general life advice would be a huge bonus. That my dad wasn't very good at giving life advice anyway, so I'm
Scott Benner 1:12:43
awesome at it, and yet my kids don't care. It doesn't matter. Like, no matter what you are, people want something different. You know that, but
Elle 1:12:50
one day, your children will be very, very grateful for life advice. It'll be the point when they stop needing it, and then they realize how good of advice it was. I
Scott Benner 1:12:58
swear I'm so good at it, they don't even know. They just make fun of me. They made fun of me last night. The boy did at least and my wife, by the way, I was trying, was trying to never mind, I don't want to sound like a I we were talking about, like social things. And I have a perspective on one of these things, because I oversee, I mean, a Facebook group with 60,000 people in it, right? So my life is sort of like a probably not much different than yours. Like you see a lot of people, they come and they tell you about their things, and you get a different perspective on the world, how people think and everything. It's
Elle 1:13:38
really interesting, isn't it? Like the little insights into people's brains and their lives. Yeah, it's like taking
Scott Benner 1:13:44
a Master's class on how people think, but all in one second, like, just watching people respond. Like, there's nothing you could write online that I won't know how, like, how many groups are going to come back and respond, and what they're going to say, what their perspectives are going to be, and how they're going to fight with each other, like, I know instantly from that. So I start to say that, and somebody, like one of the two of them pauses and goes, Oh, where is that? How do you know about that? What's that from that? You know about that from is that from your is that, Oh, you must have a Facebook group. And then, like, and it went like that. And I was like, stop making fun of me. I just have a very specific experience. And then they just made fun of me until we stopped talking
Elle 1:14:22
about it. Oh, that is so funny. Yeah, this is gonna really make you laugh. So obviously my partner knows about Juicebox and like your podcast and your Facebook group and everything, and he refers to it as my diabetes
Scott Benner 1:14:34
cult. Hey, that's fine. I'm good with that.
Elle 1:14:37
Oh, he finds it absolutely hilarious.
Scott Benner 1:14:39
I don't know that it's inaccurate, just so you know,
Elle 1:14:43
no, he reckons it is very, very cult,
Scott Benner 1:14:45
like, how? So what does he say? Well, he
Elle 1:14:48
basically just makes fun of it being a cult. Oh,
Scott Benner 1:14:54
I'll take I just feel like that means a lot of really passionate people, passionate advice. Followers of an idea that's all and all. And what's the idea? Take care of yourself. Like, you know what I mean? Like, don't let somebody else tell you your health is okay where it is, like, check and make sure that's right. First, you know, if somebody says you're a one c7, and a half, that's great. You don't have to do anything else. Maybe you say to yourself, maybe I'll check and make sure that's right. Yeah, maybe
Elle 1:15:18
I'll see if I can improve it. Like with diabetes, there is always room for improvement. I don't know a single person that's insulin dependent who can put their hand on their heart and say there is nothing that I could do better.
Scott Benner 1:15:31
Yeah, exactly. Tell them I take that as a badge of honor. I will.
Elle 1:15:36
I let them know that the cult leader is proud to be a cult leader.
Scott Benner 1:15:42
I Oh, my God. Well, this diabetes thing ever blows up, maybe I'll try starting an actual cult and see if I can
Elle 1:15:47
do that. Oh, you probably don't want to say that. Oh, yeah,
Scott Benner 1:15:51
yeah, it's joke. I was kidding. Are they illegal? They're illegal, right?
Elle 1:15:56
They have to be illegal. Yeah, I
Scott Benner 1:15:58
don't think I'd be comfortable with a lot of like, the rules of
Elle 1:16:02
you know, you'd set them up, you'd make the rules. I
Scott Benner 1:16:05
know, but don't you think eventually they all just evolve into having 20 wives? Like, isn't that how it eventually and then everyone's dead at the end? Like, isn't that how it eventually
Elle 1:16:14
goes? Is some reason it's very odd they start off so normal, just like a little diabetes podcast.
Scott Benner 1:16:22
Oh, we'll just, we'll plant, we'll plant some vegetables, and we'll live out here in our yurts. And then at the end, everyone's running and screaming and there's 33 wives and the guy's naked in a tree. And never, never ends well, yeah, so that's my goal in life. I'm gonna endeavor not to end up naked in a tree at the end. That's
Elle 1:16:40
a good goal. I like that goal. I think I'm aiming for a little bit higher
Scott Benner 1:16:44
than that. It's simple. Oh, you're really awesome. Hold on one second for me.
US med sponsored this episode of The Juicebox Podcast. Check them out at us. Med, Comm, slash Juicebox, or by calling 888-721-1514, get your free benefits check and get started today with us. Med, I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the contour next gen blood glucose meter. Learn more and get started today at contour next.com/juicebox and don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have, then you would pay for the contour next gen in cash. There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now, and links@juiceboxpodcast.com to contour and all of the sponsors. The episode you just enjoyed was sponsored by the twist a ID system powered by tide pool if you want, a commercially available insulin pump with twist lube that offers unmatched personalization and precision for peace of mind. You want, twist, twist.com/juicebox, thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend, and if you leave a five star review, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card if you or a loved one is newly diagnosed with type one diabetes and you're seeking a clear, practical perspective, check out the bold beginning series on the Juicebox Podcast. It's hosted by myself and Jenny Smith, an experienced diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal insight into type one our series cuts through the medical jargon and delivers straightforward answers to your most pressing questions, you'll gain insight from real patients and caregivers and find practical advice to help you confidently navigate life with type one. You can start your journey informed and empowered with the Juicebox Podcast, the bold beginning series and all of the collections in the Juicebox Podcast are available in your audio app and at Juicebox podcast.com in the menu, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong wayrecording.com you.
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