#1591 The Sweetest Irony
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Renee, 66, has lived with T1D for 41 years—ironically, her dad was a Louisiana sugar cane farmer. She wonders if childhood head trauma from a severe bike accident played a role.
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Scott Benner 0:00
Here we are back together again, friends for another episode of The Juicebox podcast.
Renee 0:15
My name is Renee, and I've had type one diabetes for 41 years.
Scott Benner 0:21
The podcast contains so many different series and collections of information that it can be difficult to find them in your traditional podcast app sometimes. That's why they're also collected at Juicebox podcast.com go up to the top, there's a menu right there. Click on series, defining diabetes. Bold beginnings, the Pro Tip series, small sips, Omnipod, five ask Scott and Jenny, mental wellness, fat and protein, defining thyroid, after dark, diabetes, variables, Grand Rounds, cold, wind, pregnancy, type two, diabetes, GLP, meds, the math behind diabetes, diabetes myths and so much more, you have to go check it out. It's all there and waiting for you, and it's absolutely free. Juicebox podcast.com. 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, a ID 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/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 Medtronic diabetes and their mini med 780 G system designed to help ease the burden of diabetes management, imagine fewer worries about Miss boluses or miscalculated carbs thanks to meal detection technology and automatic correction doses. Learn more and get started today at Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox
Renee 2:25
My name is Renee, and I've had type one diabetes for 41 years. I guess the most ironic part is that my father was a sugar cane farmer in South Louisiana.
Scott Benner 2:35
Your father, your father, farmed sugar cane. Yes. Were you eating it
Renee 2:40
constantly? I would say, every meal in our house had a dessert, lunch, dinner, almost
Scott Benner 2:47
Renee. You can hear the people sitting right now going, sugar doesn't cause type one diabetes. This lady, she's had it for 41 years. She doesn't they don't know you're joking. That is ironic. It really is. It is. What's it like growing up on a farm?
Renee 3:02
You know, when you're young, you don't like it, but in hindsight, looking back, it was really a great
Scott Benner 3:07
life. Yeah, were you involved in the farming at all as the cat? No, no,
Renee 3:12
not at all. I'm the fourth out of five girls. My dad is actually a fourth generation sugar cane farmer, but having no boys, he ended up selling the farm, so it's it, and he's deceased now, so it's no longer in the family, but
Scott Benner 3:26
you're the fourth out of five regrets that he has, because no one can take that business from him, right?
Renee 3:31
Absolutely not he. We always say that we were his princesses and he was our King.
Scott Benner 3:39
That's lovely. Were None of the girls interested in farming, or is it, like, it wasn't a thing, where he's, like, he didn't think, I didn't have a boy, so they can't do it, right? Like you guys just weren't interested, right? Yeah,
Renee 3:49
it's a hard I mean, farming is a hard life, and especially in South Louisiana with hurricanes coming through and, you know, wiping out your crops.
Scott Benner 3:58
So your father's had times where he's seeded an entire crop, brought it up. It's been ripped apart. He's got to take the field back down, put it back together again. You don't make money that time like that. That's happened more than once in your life. Yes, wow, jeez, that's not fun. I do know that I vacationed on St John once or twice in the Virgin Islands, and I think that's they used to grow sugarcane there too. What is it about the humidity? Is that what it likes,
Renee 4:23
it does have to be hot, so like Florida and I think Louisiana are the only states, and maybe a little bit in Texas, that grow sugar in the United States. Now there's lots of states that grow sugar beets, but that's a totally different sugar than sugar cane sugar.
Scott Benner 4:38
Sugar, yep, I want to say, right now, my sister in law's dog is named sugar. Oh, he looks like he's had too much sugar. I just want to say that very fat dog. As a matter of fact, sometimes I see the dog walking around. I think, how is she moving? But that's a different story. 41 years. How old are you now? I
Renee 4:55
am 66 so I was 25 years old when I was diagnosed.
Scott Benner 4:59
First No kidding, did anyone else in the family have type one?
Renee 5:03
No, nobody. My grandfather had type two diabetes, but nobody else in my family has had it
Scott Benner 5:12
other autoimmune stuff. No, not you even. Not any sister, nothing like that.
Renee 5:17
No, now I have. There are 37 first cousins on my dad's side of the family, and one of my cousin's grandsons has recently been diagnosed with type
Scott Benner 5:27
one. How old was he when he was
Renee 5:30
diagnosed? Like seven or eight?
Scott Benner 5:32
Younger child, I'm sorry, how many first cousins? 37 how many of them do you think you could name off the top of your head, if you had
Renee 5:39
to? Oh, well, probably all of them. We just spent some time with one in Switzerland. No kidding.
Scott Benner 5:44
Wow, that's lovely. I don't have that. You're making me jealous.
Renee 5:49
Well, I think growing up on the farm next door to my grandparents, the cousins who lived in California, Wisconsin, we saw them every summer when they would come visit for a month. So and everybody else lived nearby. Oh,
Scott Benner 6:01
so the farm was almost like a resort for the family. Yes, yeah. I guess you kind of come and hang out and do family things that's really, that's really something else that's great. Are all your sisters living?
Renee 6:11
Yes. In fact, out of the 37 of us, only one cousin has passed away.
Scott Benner 6:18
My god, you guys are strong. Yes, seriously,
Renee 6:22
yeah. And now I will tell you my dad, there were eight of them, and two of his siblings died of cancer, two females, two sisters, early in life, and then the rest of them have had Alzheimer's. But I personally think that it's we all think it's environmental, because none of us are showing signs of Alzheimer's.
Scott Benner 6:41
How did they grow up on that farm as well? Yes, they
Renee 6:45
did, but you did as my dad and his siblings grew up pretty much on the farm. What
Scott Benner 6:49
do you think is about the is it like chemicals or what do you think it is?
Renee 6:54
Yeah, I do. And I mean, I don't, haven't done a true study on it, but I mean, I think that when they were young, and they were spraying the fields. They played outside when we were young, and they were spraying the fields we were brought inside. We couldn't play while they were spraying the fields near
Scott Benner 7:10
us. Just that one generational of like, hey, maybe we shouldn't let the kids run through that. Yes, hey, that stuff we're spraying on the ground that seems to kill everything. Why don't we keep the kids out of that. Yes, yeah, no kidding, huh? Oh my gosh.
Renee 7:24
And, you know, Scott, one thing too, is, I don't know if you've heard that there's a correlation between head trauma and diabetes.
Scott Benner 7:31
Really, I know head trauma and like, like behavioral stuff, but about between in type one, yes.
Renee 7:38
And I had a nurse tell me that who was drawing blood. This was years ago, like, probably 30 years ago, but normally it's a quick court like, you know, you'll and Mark, my husband has had two patients who, like, one was hit in the head with a golf club, and a few weeks later, diagnosed with diabetes. I can't remember the situation of the other one, but I mean, I did have head trauma. I was in a bike accident, and I had an eyebrow bone shatter into my brain. I was in the fourth grade, and then I didn't have diabetes until it was 25 so I don't know if there's a correlation, but, you know, the nurse shared that with me, and I thought, hmm,
Scott Benner 8:18
I'm watching our overlords go through it right now. It's going to give you an answer in a second. I found a range of articles. Hold on. Let's see what chatgpt comes up with. It's doing a deep dive on the question, What did you run into with your
Renee 8:30
bike? Our little town of Franklin was having it sesque continuum. I was in a bike racing. Somebody's front tire hooked onto my back tire and threw me onto a parked car, and that's when bumpers were made. That's
Scott Benner 8:43
when they make cars out of metal, not now, this is plastic and plastic, and there's like some metal in the middle, and somehow they're stronger. Now, isn't that crazy? You can have an accident in a car now made out of plastic and be better off than when you were in one of those tanks. Don't get me started, Renee, like I will, just because of your age, I will start a 10 minute conversation with you about how much better automobiles are now than they were before, because I think people who are younger deserve to know what it's like to drive in a car where air is coming up from the ground
Renee 9:15
and and you're sitting facing backwards,
Scott Benner 9:20
air just coming through the cracks the doors, like, right now, I hear people say it's almost silent inside of my car. I'm like, Yeah, imagine you would drive on a rainy day, and you'd look down, there'd be water on your hand, you know? And then it'd be like, Why didn't you guys go anywhere? Go Anywhere. Here's what chat GP came up with. It wants you to know that it thought for one minute and 24 seconds. Oh, does seconds. Oh, physical head trauma, concussions, PBI, skull fractures, etc, has not been shown to trigger the autoimmune attack that causes type one diabetes. Head blows can cause a different disorder called Central diabetes insipidus, a water balance problem that happens if the hypoth. Thalamus, posterior pituitary or damage CDI shows up in about one in six acute head injury cases develop hormone problems. It has nothing to do with insulin or blood sugar control. Psychological trauma or extreme stress is another story. Several population studies, including a 10,000 child Swedish cohort, Link several life events, near death, death in the family, serious accidents, with roughly a three fold higher risk of later type one diabetes, presumably by revving up stress hormones and immune pathways in kids who already carry the right genes for type one Okay, there you go. That's a bit of a cancer, yeah, of course,
Renee 10:37
because I will tell you, I think extreme stress is what triggered mine.
Scott Benner 10:41
Renee. A lot of people come on here and tell stories like that, seriously, a 10,000 person study linking death in the family, serious accidents with roughly a three fold higher risk of later type one diabetes, and that's pretty
Renee 10:55
significant. Yes, yeah, I think I mentioned to you I had just moved back to Louisiana from living in Washington, DC, and it was such a stressful time really, in my life, and that's when I was diagnosed. What
Scott Benner 11:06
were you in DC for? For school? Were you lobbying the sugar lobby? What were you doing up
Renee 11:10
there? No, my dad did that. I was up there. I worked. I moved there after college, and I worked on the Hill for two years, and because my dad was up there so much, this is funny. He said, If you're not married in two years, you're coming home. So guess what? Found the guy, I wasn't married in two years and I moved home, you had to come home. Did
Scott Benner 11:33
you look? Did you take that seriously? Do you like it there enough to think about marrying somebody just to stay
Renee 11:38
No, no, okay, no. That's a whole nother part of my journey, Scott, that I'm just not going to share
Scott Benner 11:43
with you. Oh, okay, that's fine. You don't have to. We'll let it go. I'm sure this is gonna be the best part of the story that nobody hears, but it's okay. I'd love to know what this boy did. Do you have your own kids?
Renee 11:56
I do not have children. Okay? On purpose? Yes, it was a choice because of diabetes and the age that I was, and my husband actually had an Air Force commitment and was sent to a small base, and they said they just couldn't handle somebody with a pregnancy with diabetes, that I would have to go to a bigger base. I was probably, I guess, I was 34 and then by the time he got out, I was 39 so, but that's a whole nother story, and I'm fine not having children. I mean, it's what God has given me. But I do think that knowing how well I've done with my diabetes, that I would have taken that chance you would
Scott Benner 12:38
have done is it a disappointment for you? No, no, okay,
Renee 12:42
no, I have plenty of time to invest in other people's children, and it's just so fun for me. Well, you also have
Scott Benner 12:49
plenty of children to invest in. It sounds like running around there. So it's a lot of kids and cousins, and they must have kids. And, my gosh, okay, all right, now that's fair enough. So talk about being diagnosed 41 years ago. What was management like for you? 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 Meijer. You could be paying more right now through your insurance for your test strips in meter, then you would pay through my link for the contour next gen and contour next test strips 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/juicebox 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/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 the. 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.
Renee 15:19
Wow. Wow. It's so different. Scott, as you know, I mean, it was injections. I called it the insulin cocktail. You were supposed to test yourself all the time. In all honesty, I only tested myself about three times a day. I was terrible. I would give myself injections through my pants, and unfortunately, I never developed an infection. But it is so different than having type one diabetes now and how we manage it.
Scott Benner 15:50
Yeah, so you're doing what, cloudy and clear are you mixing like, drawing a little of this up, little that up, shooting it, what, once, twice a day
Renee 15:58
you would combine a long term in a short term,
Scott Benner 16:01
yeah, pop it in, and then you're not really testing, right? You said I tested
Renee 16:06
three times a day with, what, with a testing machine, the good old finger pricks, you
Scott Benner 16:12
needed a bunch of blood. It took a while to come up with it. Like, are we talking about that far back? Yeah, yes. I mean, do you look back now and think, were those devices accurate, or were they good enough? What's the only thing that you knew? Yeah. How would you know? Yeah. Do you know what your outcomes were like back then? How were they keeping track of your health? Well,
Renee 16:31
I mean, we still had hemoglobin a one CS, right? So I'd say back then, my hemoglobins were probably more like, I think the highest my hemoglobin agency has ever been was 8.8
Scott Benner 16:44
Okay, that's not bad at all. I mean, considering the time, right?
Renee 16:48
Yes, yes. But also, I'm fairly active. I think that helps too. But the hard part too is not knowing when you're having a low, because even now, I will be 44 and still fully functioning.
Scott Benner 17:05
You don't have any feeling that you're low that your whole life,
Renee 17:08
none. So that's why the continuous glucose monitor is probably a lifesaver for me at this point. But back then, I would be 40, you know, whatever. I don't even know how low I would get when. Then I couldn't see, I couldn't think, you know where I am. So that was probably, to me, the most scary part. It was the lows, not the highs that were so hard on me before the continuous glucose monitor came
Scott Benner 17:33
about. And how long have you had a CGM for? Oh, gosh,
Renee 17:37
I don't know, maybe just five years.
Scott Benner 17:40
No kidding. Do you think some of the way you came to an eight a, 1c or a seven a, 1c was by being low all the time and not realizing it? Yes, yeah. And I learned that from you. Oh, geez, sorry. Must have been a sad day. No, no, seriously, what does it feel like the day you hear that and go, Oh, I thought I was doing okay.
Renee 18:00
Yeah, I mean, that was an eye opener when you said that.
Scott Benner 18:04
Oh, geez, I feel bad about that, almost. Was it? Did it stick? No, no. Do you have any complications?
Renee 18:11
I have no complications. I was diagnosed in Baton Rouge, and then I moved to DC, and I had a very kind of crazy job there, and my doctor, my endocrinologist there, said, Renee, diabetes is a game, and I can teach you how to play to win. Interesting. What did he teach you? Well, he said, I know. He said, I want you to eat whatever you want. Now, this is probably different than how we would approach it now, but it worked for me back then. He said, I want you to eat what you want. I want you to do. I want you to eat when you want. You should continue being active, he said, but I want you to test more. Wink, wink. And he said, so. I mean, if I was having a late meal at eight o'clock or nine at night, I would wake myself up later, at midnight to see what my blood sugar was. He said, If you're you just need to be testing more after these events to be able to bring it down. Because there was, you know, I mean, it was all testing and adjusting with insulin.
Scott Benner 19:17
So his idea was, live your life, but a couple of hours after you eat, test your blood sugar, and if it's high, give yourself more insulin. Yes, that's pretty thoughtful for back then actually, are you at that point on a faster acting insulin when you or with this doctor, I'm sorry say that again, which insulin were you on at that point? Oh, I was, I was on the cocktail, still the CO Oh, so he would just have you give more of the mix. Yes, okay, yes. This was not like he wasn't talking about Humalog or something like that. Yeah, no, okay, I don't
Renee 19:49
think I went on Huma log until I went on the pump.
Scott Benner 19:52
Really. What would that be like around the 1990 or something like that?
Renee 19:56
See, we had moved to Greenville, so you. No, that would have been probably like 1998
Scott Benner 20:04
No kidding. Okay, so pumps were available for a bit, and that fast tracking insulin was available for a while, and you still weren't using it right. Interesting. So there was no feeling of like I should move up to a faster insulin for the only reason you did it is because you moved to an insulin pump. Yes, interesting, and so did that work? Did the I mean, obviously you're doing well, but like you know, did you keep up with that? I mean, did you wake yourself up after dinner every night? Did you keep testing? Well,
Renee 20:31
not every night, but if it was a late night, there was a big event, and I ate a lot more than I would normally eat. Then, yes, I did.
Scott Benner 20:39
Did you find yourself needing more insulin? Usually, yes, okay, and you gave it to yourself. But did you get low later? Would you wake up in the morning? Low? Usually not. Okay. So not enough to, like, crash down? Yeah. So now, in a more modern world, in 1998 when you get a pump and you're using a fast track to insulin, what's the transition like? Because you did that a good long time with that cocktail. So what's the transition like about counting carbs and covering meals that way? Today's episode is sponsored by Medtronic diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the mini med 780 G system. The mini med 780 G automated insulin delivery system anticipates, adjusts and corrects every five minutes. Real world results show people achieving up to 80% time and range with recommended settings, without increasing lows. But of course, Individual results may vary. The 780 G works around the clock, so you can focus on what matters. Have you heard about Medtronic extended infusion set. It's the first and only infusion set labeled for up to a seven day wear. This feature is repeatedly asked for, and Medtronic has delivered. 97% of people using the 780 G reported that they could manage their diabetes without major disruptions of sleep. They felt more free to eat what they wanted, and they felt less stress with fewer alarms and alerts you can't beat that. Learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes by visiting Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox,
Renee 22:14
so I went on the mini med originally. I mean, it was just, it was a game changer, Scott, and that was before the continuous glucose monitor, being on a pump was a game changer for me. How just knowing that my body was constantly getting that basal rate of insulin there was it was just a comfort level, I guess, I don't know. I guess I really haven't thought about it, except that, now that you asked me, but it just changed
Scott Benner 22:50
my life, things were easier. Yes, absolutely, yeah, you feel more in control and less like it was happening to you.
Renee 22:58
Yes, and then also, I mean, you know, you're not carrying insulin around with you and syringes all the time because it's on. You get
Scott Benner 23:05
a little pharmacy in your pocket when you were, yeah, before and all that goes away.
Renee 23:10
So much freedom. I just felt there was so much freedom when I moved, even
Scott Benner 23:16
just not having to inject, I would imagine, would have been a big deal, right? Yeah, just to push the idea of pushing the button was probably exciting. Probably exciting. Yes, yeah, I know I hear that. Okay, so that's 98 when do you find the podcast? Oh, gosh. When did you start? I started making the podcast in January of 2015,
Renee 23:36
2015, okay, so let's see. So probably, actually, I think your first podcast I listened to was the third episode. No kidding, a neighbor told me about it. Yes,
Scott Benner 23:50
you've been listening for that long, or you'd started at
Renee 23:52
now, okay, I binge listened. So I listened for a while, then I stopped listening, and then I've listened so but yes, y'all had just, you had just started when I first started listening, and in all honesty, I probably listened a couple of times, and then I didn't listen for a couple of years, and then I would listen again. And I think I told you that I was interested in moving to a keto diet, and I did some research on keto and diabetes, and your podcast was the first one that came up, and that was a year and a half ago, I guess. So I listened by I really binge listened for a couple of months.
Scott Benner 24:31
Oh, so wait, so you listened for a while, stopped, but then, like, looked for information, then found the podcast again and went back to it. Yes. Oh, interesting,
Renee 24:40
yeah. And I do recommend it to anybody I meet with diabetes. I'm like, You need to listen to
Scott Benner 24:45
thank you. I appreciate you running around acting like a crazy person, telling people listen to my podcast. You ever think about it from the other side? They're like, Oh, I have a diabetes. I've had it for 30 years. The lady says a podcast will fix it.
Renee 24:59
I. But you know what, Scott, I think I had told you that, you know, the thing about having diabetes is that it's a disease that you can control. But I want to correct myself on that, because it's a disease that we can manage, not control. Yeah, no, you and Jenny have, I mean, y'all have given me so much insight on the advancements of diabetes and diabetes care and how to play the game to win, you are helping me so much. Just manage the disease in a new way.
Scott Benner 25:38
I'm very glad don't make me cry it's early in the morning. Okay, that's wonderful. I think my motivations, they exist in different spaces, obviously people with kids. I think about us being young and art and being young and us not knowing what we're doing, and I think like, maybe this will stop people from feeling so lost the way we did, and and propel them more quickly into decent information that they can they can figure out and apply to their own lives. But for older people, or people who had type one for longer times, especially those of you who've come out of like, regular mph, cloudy like that world before, CGM before, pumps who were told things like, you know, just shoot it in the morning and then go head up out your day if you get dizzy, you know, drink a coke. Like, if that was your whole life for you guys, I think about my friend Mike, like all the time. Like to hear what you just said is so touching and fulfilling for me, and at the same time it will, like later today, make me feel like, how come I couldn't get Mike to listen to me about this? It's not that I was trying so hard, and he just was like, I'm not listening. I tried a couple of times, and he seemed resistant, and because we had a personal relationship, I did not continue to push him. But I have no trouble jumping on this microphone and being pushy to 10s of 1000s of people listening that I don't have any trouble with, but with him, I I just stopped, you know, like I'd bring something up, I'd give him some good information. And I look back now through the lens of all of you and your and your stories, and I realize, like he wasn't being resistant, like he lived his whole life like that. He didn't know any better. I was saying completely foreign stuff to him, and he wasn't ready to try to do it. And, you know, caught up to it,
Renee 27:21
that's so hard to understand too, because I think I told you that as far as chronic diseases, I just can't complain about having diabetes, because it is one that we can manage. And my friend who diagnosed me when she was in medical school, she ended up dying of lupus. She was diagnosed six months after me, and spent most of her life on disability. And then our 38 year old neighbor next door died of cancer. I mean, those are diseases that you cannot manage, but Scott, you can manage diabetes. Yeah, you
Scott Benner 27:59
have a different perspective. Renee, you have a mixture of personal experience with your friends, and you have the knowledge of like, that hard work that it must take to run that farm. Those are different perspectives, I'll tell you. Like one thing, I was always stunned about Mike. He was so bright and articulate and a reader but but also extroverted, like, he wasn't, like, lost in a book, kind of a guy, you know, like, but he, he read voraciously. Was very intelligent, thoughtfully, had all kinds of good ideas. He never really tried for much. And I think that's the diabetes, and because it hit him when we were, like, right, coming out of high school, and I thought, man, like, Mike was on his way to something, and then all of the sudden, we're adults, and he's working, like in a laboratory, moving results around a computer. And I was like, God, it's weird that this is him, but I wonder how much of that was. Well, there's health insurance here, and it's steady, and I work inside, and I don't have to, like, you know, you mean, like, I wonder, I have always wondered, how much of his diabetes, like, re focused him, you know, and maybe the dumb luck of just when he was diagnosed, right? Like, you're what, you're 19 years old, you don't know what you're doing, like, you know, you're just starting to get out into the world trying to figure stuff out. This gets run over. I remember what he was told, which was nothing. You know, he shot his regular mph twice a day, and Mike was the guy that got dizzy, and we didn't let him drive after five o'clock if we all went out together, because he would inevitably, like, swerve off the road. He just wasn't that person prior to that. And then, you know, there's no, no real good advice from his doctors, no real good advice from his family. They don't know what the hell like. You know, they're not they're not. They don't know what to do. And he just like, I don't know. He just his life changed. And I take hear you say that you know you heard something here that helped you. Makes me think that other people will too.
Renee 29:54
I mean, I think I have a huge responsibility to take care of myself, to be healthy.
Scott Benner 30:00
Healthy, right? I agree.
Renee 30:03
So, yeah, I'm part of that right now. Is listening to your podcast
Scott Benner 30:06
awesome, but, but again, do you think maybe you feel that way because your close friend got lupus and passed, and you've seen disease take people where there was nothing they could do to slow it down? Like you feel like you have an opportunity here that they didn't have, is that, right? Absolutely? Yeah, well, that's
Renee 30:23
perfect, absolutely. And, I mean, I know that there are a lot of complications with diabetes. I told you, I'm 66 and I have no complications. I mean, I've been going to the same ophthalmologist for 3030, years now, and I saw him two months ago, and he goes, wouldn't know you were diabetic. Renee, by looking in your eyes.
Scott Benner 30:45
Say, Thank you. I appreciate that. That's what we're shooting for over here. Yeah,
Renee 30:50
and you know, Dr Weber, when I turned 60, so you know, six years ago, she walked into the room and she said, Hey, I bet when you were diagnosed, they told you that you wouldn't live this long. And I was shocked when she said that, because that is what I was told. And I just looked at her and I said, Yes. And she goes, Well, I'm just telling you, you and Mark, need to continue planning. You've got a long life to live. That's
Scott Benner 31:13
awesome. Hey, listen, there's an episode in this podcast where a lady was, you know, long time ago, decades ago, at college, when she was diagnosed, and her doctor that diagnosed her told her to quit school and go home because she wouldn't live very long. Wasn't going to be part of the workforce, and no man was going to want her. Those are like quotes that's in our lifetime. It's in your lifetime that somebody was told that. So it's just that things change so drastically, you know, and people's understandings, I mean, it's what it is. It's the it's the faster acting insulin, it's better delivery system, and it's glucose monitoring. Those are the things, right? Yeah, yeah. And then now, the idea now is to, like, you have to get that out into the world so that people understand it. That seems to be the slipping point, because, you know, for you and the other people listening, you know, it's great, we all know, but there's far more people living with type one diabetes who don't know anything about this. Like I'm continually stunned by the sheer number of people who tell me that just the idea of pre bolusing for their meals, that how much that changed their life, and that no one ever said that to them before. That means that no one ever discussed with them the timing of their insulin. So they don't know how the insulin works, and they're using it multiple times a day. I don't know how that happens, you know, but it does,
Renee 32:33
right? One of your tips that I use is work from home. I'm not working. I've retired now, but after lunch, if I would get a little bit high, and I would go for what you call free insulin, I would just go for a walk around the block a few times. Yes,
Scott Benner 32:49
take a walk. Let's see the blood sugar come down a little bit. That's something that I'm sure I would have picked up along the way. But I remember the first time somebody said it, and I thought, oh, that really works. That's crazy. Like, I didn't know, like, I didn't know any of the things when it started. You know what? I mean, it's a completely new world. But then there was this guy, Manny, and he starts this thing called the Big Blue Test. And he just went online, said, everybody test your blood sugar, and then go for a walk and then come back and test it again, and then come back online and write it down. And everybody did that. And I was like, Oh, now walking around, major blood sugar go down. Awesome.
Renee 33:22
Yeah. And Scott, you know, of course, you're always talking about Orton's blood sugar, you know, because you follow it. And my husband follows mine too. So he would be at the office at work, and I'm here, and he, he'll text me, your blood sugar's high. You need to go outside for a walk. He's
Scott Benner 33:38
trying to stay alive and do some stuff. I mean, you're you're retired at 66 That sounds nice. I might do that. Can I do that? I would like to do that. How, when did you How old were you when you retired? I was 64 did you do it willingly, like, excitedly, or was it a thing where they were like, Okay, that's enough of you. Renee, no, yes, I did it willingly. Are you enjoying the time?
Renee 34:00
Oh, absolutely. And my husband just retired. Nice, that's lovely. Yeah, yes, he retired a little bit early, just because you never know what's going to happen, right?
Scott Benner 34:11
Yeah, you want to spend time, right? Like times, most it's the only thing you really have. Are you guys traveling? Or are you what are you doing? He
Renee 34:19
retired in March, and we just got back from a three week trip to Switzerland and Germany.
Scott Benner 34:24
See, that's what I want to do. That sounds right. Okay, all right. That's
Renee 34:28
my did. Okay. We walked about 20,000 steps a day, so I did pretty good with my
Scott Benner 34:34
blood sugars. Did you have lows you had to work on? Yes,
Renee 34:38
and some highs, just because, just eating different things that I normally don't eat wasn't quite sure about the carbohydrates and so but it was good
Scott Benner 34:48
41 years later. Does that hurt your time, the time you had on your trip? Like, what do I mean? Like, do you sit down at dinner, at lunch in Switzerland and think, oh, here we go. I don't. Out of Bolus for this. This sucks, or Does it almost feel like a game? Are you sort of, like, I wonder if I get this right, like, is it still, is it impacting you? I guess
Renee 35:08
again, I know I would make, I would try to make good decisions about what carbohydrates I was going to eat. I did. It's hard to stay away from breads
Scott Benner 35:19
because you love bread? Oh, I did,
Renee 35:21
but I wouldn't say it's a constant reminder every time I have to Bolus, but I mean, it is part of what you have to do, right?
Scott Benner 35:30
I'm wondering, is it like, is every meal still like, oh, I have diabetes, or do you not think of it that way? No, I don't think of it that way. Okay, Arden and I sat down to eat yesterday together, and we were talking, so, you know, we were just chatting, and, you know, like you would, and we got caught up in the conversation. And the food arrived, and she picked up her fork and she started eating. And I watched her go, uh, and let not like, disgustedly, just like she remembered. And she picked up her phone, and I said, What's wrong? She goes, I have diabetes. I forgot. And and so she gave herself some insulin and put her phone back down, and then we started eating.
Renee 36:07
That's a beautiful thing. I have diabetes and I forgot. Yeah, it doesn't
Scott Benner 36:11
seem like it burdens or now there are times when it does, like, you know, like, there's times when I
Renee 36:16
Yeah, right. I don't want you to think every day of my life I'm like, I have diabetes. I mean, there are definitely times where it's like, Ugh, this grind, right? And it's that's usually spells of, you know, when I'm high for a few days and can't figure out why, or, you know, whatever. But I mean, overall, again, I'm not going to complain about having diabetes, I try not to complain. Try not
Scott Benner 36:44
so you had a nice trip. You walked around. What'd you keep with you? In case you got low glucose tablets, you just go with the tablets,
Renee 36:50
tablets. And I did, I mean, depending on where we were going and what we were doing, I did have protein bars. Okay, okay, I'm gonna conf. I do have a confession? Okay, go ahead in Europe. So I talked to my endocrinologist, I mean, long discussions about, what do I need to bring in case there's failures of anything? So I do have a backup controller. I always have that with me. And we talked about, you know, she said, Now, Renee, if your pod malfunctions, you've got two hours. So she said, if you're going to be hiking, I want you always to have an extra pod with you. So I'm like, okay, so bought a special purse so that I could, you know, have that with me at all times, Scott, we were going to something called Young foul, and it was a two hour train wide up there, and we were going to spend an hour, and then we were coming back down. We were on the last connecting train when my pod malfunctions, and I realized I had switched purses and forgot to put an extra pod. Why
Scott Benner 37:57
do you ladies switch purses so often? I don't understand.
Renee 38:02
So I told I said, Mark, and it's pretty it was, it's expensive to go up to young foul. And I said, Mark, I mean, he heard it. He's like, is that your pod malfunction? I said, Yes. And I said, we need to go back down.
Scott Benner 38:15
And he said, there's a doctor.
Renee 38:19
You we've spent too much money on these we're going up. He said, You're going to have to figure out a way to stay active. Okay, so, Scott, we get on the train, and there's these three steps to the train. For an hour up the mountain. I just walked those steps, and my blood sugar was 140 when I got on that train. It was 80.
Scott Benner 38:42
You're like, I'll get it down, even without the insulin.
Renee 38:45
And I told him, I said, Okay, when we get to junfrau, we're not taking any elevators or escalator like we're taking stairs. I mean, it was crazy. Scott and I was not scared, for some reason. It was probably the stupidest decision we've
Scott Benner 39:02
ever made in my life. How many hours were you out after the pot expired? About three and a half. Well, so listen, had you had insulin recently before the before it aired?
Renee 39:13
No, but I had just bought a sandwich for us to eat on the train up, but I was waiting, you know, we were waiting to get on the train, and so fortunately, more importantly, I had not had any food. Oh,
Scott Benner 39:25
okay, so is it earlier in the day you hadn't eaten yet? No,
Renee 39:29
that was going to be our lunch. So that this is probably because about 1231 o'clock,
Scott Benner 39:36
yeah, which pump are you using, dash or using Omnipod five? Omnipod five. Omnipod five. Okay, well, I mean, listen, you have some active insulin going, I would imagine, right? And you're active and you didn't eat anything, so that doesn't it makes sense to me, but
Renee 39:52
by the time you malfunction, you can't see how much active insulin you have. That goes away. Oh,
Scott Benner 39:56
okay, so you're just like, Well, I hope there's some in there that's worked. Me, yeah, so
Renee 40:01
anyway, I mean, I stayed real. I mean, we took stairs. I was like, you know, if we were waiting for something, I'd run up and down the stairs a few times. It was crazy. And then when we got back on the train, coming down, I think my blood sugar was about 120 and I told Mark, okay, we're two hours. I'm just gonna let it go. And once or twice I did get up because I was like, oh, that's creeping up fast. But I was 220 when I got back to the hotel.
Scott Benner 40:28
Okay, I mean, and that's without and now you hadn't had insulin a number of hours at that point. Yes. And how did you feel? I
Renee 40:34
felt fine. I was actually kind of excited to tell you the truth that I was able to keep it down
Scott Benner 40:39
and manage all that. Yeah, he felt, felt accomplished, I imagine, yeah, yeah. Hey, listen, I've seen Arden do that before, like, half an hour left in a movie, and she's got a good blood sugar, and you get a failure. And I'm like, we can go, and she's like, it'll be all right. And I'm like, yeah. She goes, No, yeah. And I've seen it be all right. I've seen it be, you know, you get home and, you know, you change a pump, and it wasn't bad. And I've, I've also seen it like, you know, in different scenarios, like shoot up, not so good. But in the end, I mean, I'm not, I'm not a person out there advocating for you not having insulin. I want you having insulin constantly. But there's a lot of people on this podcast don't take insulin for days, you know what I mean? And it's not a thing that I would tell them to do, but a couple hours maybe, and you're heading up to the thing, and I think you did okay. You know, were you nervous
Renee 41:30
at the very beginning? I was, but until I started doing those steps and I realized, Okay, I can't keep it down if I stay really active.
Scott Benner 41:39
Like, keep out the carbs stay active, right? Like and do your but hey, it worked out for you. That's
Renee 41:43
awesome. I'm sure people were going, what is that old lady?
Scott Benner 41:48
We were on the train, and a crazy old woman just kept walking up and down these three steps. Her husband just glared at her, like, he must, he must see this crazy activity all the time. You're like, over there trying to stay alive. Where's your next trip to
Renee 42:02
well, I'm heading to Louisiana next week to take care of my mother, and then we're going to Michigan this summer for a month. Nice look at you getting around escape the heat of South Carolina.
Scott Benner 42:13
Honestly, my only goal in life is to just be able to escape the weather. As I get older, I think that really is like the thing I'm working toward. I put no pieces in place yet, but I would like to be able to be somewhere slightly warmer when it's cold and slightly colder when it's hot. These are my only real goals. Obviously, you're retired like but what do you do for insurance? Then, once you're retired? Is it Medicare?
Renee 42:35
Obama, Medicare now, Scott, which, sorry, I'm not giving a plug for Medicare. It was the hardest thing. I wish I had stayed on my husband's insurance until
Scott Benner 42:44
he had retired. Not a pleasant experience. And
Renee 42:48
so I've been on my husband's insurance. And yeah, oh, it was, it was, it's been a nightmare.
Scott Benner 42:53
Why? Dealing with them or what they cover, or what they don't,
Renee 42:57
dealing with them, and it was definitely more expensive, the supplies more expensive than staying on my husband's income. But now the continuous glucose monitor is considered durable medical so now I don't pay anything for it, so that has helped. But the pods, I used to pay $100 a quarter, and now I pay $800 a quarter.
Scott Benner 43:20
Really, wow. Medicare. Way to go. You turned your $400 insulin pumps into $2,500 insulin pumps. Thanks a lot. Is that a thing you found yourself thinking about through adulthood, like, I'm gonna retire one day I'm gonna need like, were you saving money? Like, just for this, or I don't know what your situation was. No, no, I'm sorry I will
Renee 43:42
tell you I have a great supply of diabetes
Scott Benner 43:45
supplies. You've been stuffing stuff in a closet for a while. Yes, sir. You know, I don't know anything about anything, but like I hear you Dad sells the sugar cane farm. I figure you're all just rich southern ladies now running around, but that's not the case. No, okay, you're not in big camisoles, holding umbrellas and sipping tea on the patio. No. Renee, what happened to the American dream? Your dad was not able to sell that to a giant conglomerate.
Renee 44:19
I've had a very good life. Scott, no, I imagine that's one thing I will tell you. When I was diagnosed, I remember the doctor saying, telling my dad, he said, you know, Pete Renee is very fortunate, because diabetes is an expensive disease. To have it, you have to have the knowledge on to be able to manage it, yeah, and, and she has both, so
Scott Benner 44:40
a little bit of luck along the way doesn't hurt. I mean, the expense part, I don't know what to say about that, or what to do about that. You know, like I said earlier, there are people who, you know, don't know anything about the stuff we talk about in the podcast, but some of those same people also don't have any access to insulin pumps or, you know, CGM, but if
Renee 44:59
they're on. Medicare. I mean, Medicare does have a program for low income people, yeah, so if they want to be on it, there's a way for them to I think, but I don't
Scott Benner 45:10
know, yeah, I don't disagree with you. I just think that when things are difficult to accomplish, that a lot of people will throw up their hands and stop before they get to it. So
Renee 45:18
it's a fight. Medicare has been a bite. Yeah, I mean, it's perseverance to say
Scott Benner 45:24
the least. So I want you to be able to go to the doctor and the doctor say, hey, look, you should have a CGM. You should have this insulin pump. I have insulin, and this is just going to happen. Now. You don't have to call an office or fill out a form or, like, you know, like, do a, like, jump through a bunch of hoops, like, just here, here's the CGM. So, like, we'll pay I don't know why things, I mean, I guess I do understand why, but it would be nice if things were just set up in a more automated way.
Renee 45:48
Yeah, and Scott, why? Pre authorization every year? That's ridiculous. I've hit diabetes for 41 years. It's not going to go away.
Scott Benner 45:55
Yeah, every year you have to tell somebody you have type one diabetes again, as if ridiculous. Yeah, now that that's the little stuff that I mean. Like, you think about the people who don't have the tools or the time to fight the fight, and then they don't get a CGM, and look at what it did for you, you know, like, look what that CGM did for you. It showed you a world that you didn't know existed and allowed you to completely change how you took care of yourself for the better, to the point where your doctor's telling you, like, hey, you know you're going to be around a really good long time. Everybody deserves that. Yes, you do. You know, I don't. I'm not a person who thinks everything should be free, but at the same time, like, what is there, like, 1.8 million people that have type one diabetes? Like, we can't just get them CGM. Is it that crazy? You know, everybody's got a goddamn, uh, DVR. Everybody on the on the planet's walking around with a cell phone. We can't get, like, you know, a couple million type ones, CGM or pumps or whatever they want. And if they don't want it, then fair enough. But they should have the opportunity, and it shouldn't be. It just shouldn't be a fight to
Renee 46:59
get to it. Now, I have an acquaintance who she's a little bit older than I am. She's probably 68 and she has had type one since she was a toddler. And Scott, she refuses to get on a continuous glucose monitor and a
Scott Benner 47:16
pot or a pump. Why do you think? Has she told you why? And she is, has
Renee 47:21
every complication that you can think of. And again, she's an acquaintance. I haven't I've had only brief conversations with her, but she's just not interested. She goes, this is how I've managed it my whole life. It's how I want to continue to manage it. Well, okay. Like,
Scott Benner 47:35
I don't get it. Well, yeah, but her perspective is different, like, so she thinks likely that the things that have happened to her, her complications, are what what happens? I bet you, if I talk to her, she'd say, Well, I have diabetes. So this is what happens. Because to her, this is what happens. She just didn't have the same dumb luck you had for a while. Like she didn't get the doctor who said, Hey, why don't you test after you eat and give yourself more insulin? That's probably the whole difference. Like that guy probably saved you back then, just saying that
Renee 48:04
he because he was my endocrinologist for only two years. But I guess that
Scott Benner 48:09
one statement that probably something pretty impactful, right? That's what I think. I think that one statement saved your bacon. Like, the whole way, like, because you didn't, you were bringing high blood sugars down when, when she probably wasn't. And now all these years later, she's like, look, what am I gonna do? Put this sensor on and find out this thing's all over the place. I've got these effects. They're not gonna go back. She probably thinks there's no way to, like, turn the clock back. And there probably isn't, for most of it, although there have been people on here before, older people who, you know, I think a Mike who came on and talked about, you know, his his vision was just shot, and now he He's fine. He said, All I did was find the podcast, learn how to use insulin, you know, got my blood sugar down and, you know, now my site's better, like that kind of stuff is, you know. So maybe she would get some help from it. But, well, thank
Renee 48:57
you for helping me see her perspective. Because, oops, you hear that?
Scott Benner 49:03
Oh, I didn't hear the beef, but something Did something go wrong. I'm 151 I'm a little high. Are you nervous? No, no, well, yes, so I was nervous at the beginning. Yeah, might be a little adrenaline, damn.
Renee 49:16
Was very nervous at the beginning. Now
Scott Benner 49:19
you feel okay, yeah, okay. Well, go back. Then we're ending. Now that it's almost over, I'm like, this is easy. No, but go back. You were, you were congratulating me on helping you. Go back to that.
Renee 49:30
I tend to see everything through my lens, and didn't even think about her lens. So it gives me a I'll just use the word a little bit more compassion for her,
Scott Benner 49:40
I think it's easy to think that people who aren't doing something are willfully not doing it because they don't care, or as much as I care, or they don't understand the way I understand, but everything is perspective, and I think everything is just luck, like who you intersected. I'm telling you you intersected that one Doctor Who. Who told you not to sit around and stare at high blood sugars, get up and test and give yourself insulin if you're high, I guarantee that saved you. And nobody told her that, or they told her. And she was like, ah, you know, like, That's not important. And nobody knows my friend Mike's not like, he's not running around trying to kill himself. He was working really hard at having diabetes. It was a thing he was constantly putting effort into. I never saw him ignore one time he did it. One time he almost went on strike. I don't know another way to say it. I just got a call from his mom. Hey, Mike's in the hospital, and I went and saw him. I was like, Wait, what happened? And he just told me he goes. I just, I didn't want to have diabetes, and I just, I just stopped for a few days. He just didn't take any insulin, and it obviously put him in DK, and caught up to him pretty quickly. He didn't do it again. But, you know, other than that, he was always working at it. He never went out without his kit. Always had his insulin with him, took care of himself, did what he was supposed to do, was doing everything he was being told. The problem was the things he was being told were not helpful. Maybe they were the best that the doctor had at the time. I'm not saying that otherwise, but it wasn't enough, like you got that one extra thing, that one silly thing. And like, now, I hope the podcast is doing that for other people. I hope they're hearing things that just give them another, you know, another chance or another, you know, five years of not having to worry about something down the road, or maybe there'll be a bunch of people one day or being told like, Oh my God, you're doing great. You're 66 go enjoy your retirement. And maybe one of those people will sit there and think like, I found that dumb podcast all those years ago, and it helped me being in the position I'm in, which is trying to deliver and try to imagine this like you're wherever you are right now. I'm in New Jersey. I'm just in a spare room in my house, right? And I'm trying to, like, find a way to find people, to get them to listen, to have them understand, to let them absorb, so that hopefully they'll fold some of these ideas into their day to day, so that hopefully they'll have better outcomes or an easier life. Like the pathway just to try to get somebody to listen is impossible once they listen, to get them to understand once they understand, to get them to incorporate. Like, I don't know how you're supposed to do all that. And you think back 40 years ago, you went to the doctor and what they said a couple of things to you, and it stuck to you, or it didn't, and it was valuable or it wasn't, and then you go off, and the randomness of the world, you know, writes your story for you. So I don't know, you got lucky. What was that doctor's name Weber?
Renee 52:34
Well, no, Dr Weber is my endocrinologist here, and you know, it's as you've been. And I thought, Oh, he was probably in his 60s at the time, and this was 30 years ago. Oh, okay, so no longer than that, probably 35 years ago. So, but I don't remember his name. He's the one endocrinologist that I don't remember his name. Isn't that funny?
Scott Benner 52:54
Yeah. Well, a nameless Doctor, I'm telling you, he helped you, and now you're like, you're awesome. Now he helped you. You're helping yourself. The technology is helping you. Know you're helping Scott I didn't want to say that because it sounds self serving, but obviously I'm helping Renee, thank you. Yeah, I don't know if you hear my sarcasm or not, because you're from the south, I can't tell I hear it awesome.
Renee 53:17
I hear it. I hear it on the podcast.
Scott Benner 53:19
Awesome. Yeah, you. Like the show, right? Yeah,
Renee 53:22
awesome. That's great. I really appreciate it.
Scott Benner 53:25
I appreciate that you that you found it. Hey, can you drive a tractor? I'm sorry, can you drive a tractor? I've never driven a tractor. You've never driven a tractor. You just point out there. You're like, that, man, he he makes the sugar stuff come in the house, and we're all good to have a lot of pets growing up?
Renee 53:42
Not. We had an outdoor dog and two outdoor cats to keep the mice from coming into the house.
Scott Benner 53:50
That was it. How about horse? Were there horse around? We
Renee 53:53
had chickens and cows when my grandfather was alive, but when he passed away, that was that the pasture pretty much sat empty. Gotcha,
Scott Benner 54:03
you were not that connected to the farm, other than living on it. Is that right? Right? Yeah. Okay. How about your mom? Did she care? Like, or was she busy, like, doing the things like, did you grow up in that world where your mom was cooking all the time and taking care of your father and that kind of stuff?
Renee 54:19
Yes, like every day when we got home from school, there was a fresh baked, hot out the oven snack.
Scott Benner 54:27
Every day, every day I would take that, that sounds nice,
Renee 54:33
yes. So my mom was a stay at home mother, and yes, and
Scott Benner 54:38
she's alive today. She is. How old is she? 95 Wow. Like, got her wits about her 95 or he
Renee 54:46
does. Yeah, she has arthritis, kind of head to toe, but, I mean, she's pretty sharp.
Scott Benner 54:51
No kidding, they got her loaded up on stuff. How does she deal with the pain? It's your mom, high as a kite. What's going on over there? Renee,
Renee 54:57
well, actually, I will tell you, it's funny, mom can. She thinks me having diabetes is her fault, and still, I'm like,
Scott Benner 55:05
Mom, really, yes, I'm like, Mom, it's not your fault. 41 years you're gonna go visit your mother, and she's gonna be like, I'm so sorry about what I did deal with the diabetes.
Renee 55:16
Yes, she just can't understand that it's not genetic.
Scott Benner 55:21
Oh, Renee, I'm going to tell you right now that every mom listening right now who thought one day that mom guilt they had was going to go away, they just deflated in their car. They just went, Oh, it's not going to stop ever. Sorry. Sorry, ladies, you'll be 95 blaming yourself for stuff. Go enjoy yourself. Oh, my God. Oh, the one reason I'm happy to be a boy is because I don't have that seriously, I see you ladies struggle with that is, it's terrible. Like, I watch my wife all the time. Are they okay? Is everything fine? I'm like, Kelly, they're fine. Like every day she asks me, like like, every day she asks me about my kids, as if they're two years old and we lost them at the park for an hour and a half. Are they okay? Did anybody say anything? Like, I'm like, no, they're fine. I say he went to work today, he came home. He's okay. How's Arden? She's fine. Did she say anything? Is she all right? Like, I don't that guilt. Dear God, You dodged a bullet on that one. Renee, I'm gonna tell you that right now. Also, I had an aunt Renee. She never had kids either. Think it's the name, maybe it's the name. Wow, does she spell it R, E, N, E, E, she spells it exactly like yours. Okay, good, good. You're like, there the way it should be, damn it.
Renee 56:42
Spell it, that's right. R, E, N, E is masculine.
Scott Benner 56:46
Spell it, right. I'm gonna let you go in a second. But what made you want to do this?
Renee 56:50
There was a stretch where I was listening and everybody was so doom and gloom about having diabetes, and I just wanted, I just want to share my story with you, but again, I feel like it's a disease that we can manage, and there are so many that you can't. And so I just wanted to encourage other people who have the disease to take care of themselves the best that they can, so that they can have a long, full life.
Scott Benner 57:17
So just get out there and keep trying and get good information and do your best to apply it and keep going, yes, yeah, oh, it's lovely. I'm glad you did that. Thank you. I hope you appreciate that. I didn't ask you any of the questions I had about lobbying for sugar, because I had real serious questions about it, but it didn't seem like a thing you would want to share. So I didn't ask you, but I would be super interested
Renee 57:40
sometime. We can take that off record if you want. Excellent. All right, hold on one second for me. Thank you.
Scott Benner 57:52
Thanks for tuning in today, and thanks to Medtronic diabetes for sponsoring this episode. We've been talking about Medtronic mini med 780 G system today, an automated insulin delivery system that helps make diabetes management easier day and night, whether it's their meal detection technology or the Medtronic extended infusion set, it all comes together to simplify life with diabetes. Go find out more at my link, Medtronic diabetes.com/juicebox having an easy to use and accurate blood glucose meter is just one click away. Contour next.com/juicebox That's right. Today's episode is sponsored by the contour next gen blood glucose meter. It was sponsored by the twist a ID system powered by tide pool, if you want a commercially available insulin pump with twist loop that offers unmatched personalization and precision or peace of mind, you want twist, twist.com/juicebox,
okay. Well, here we are at the end of the episode. You're still with me. Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribe in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me, or Instagram. Tiktok. Oh gosh, here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page you don't want to miss, please. You not know about the private group. You have to join the private group as of this recording, it has 51,000 members in it. They're active talking about diabetes, whatever you need to know. There's a conversation happening in there right now, and I'm there all the time. Tag me. I'll say hi. My diabetes Pro Tip series is about cutting through the clutter of diabetes management to give you the straightforward, practical insights that truly make a difference, this series is all about mastering the fundamentals, whether it's the basics of insulin dosing adjustments or everyday management strategies that will empower you to take control you. I'm joined by Jenny Smith, who is a diabetes educator with over 35 years of personal experience, and we break down complex concepts into simple, actionable tips. The Diabetes Pro Tip series runs between Episode 1001 1025 in your podcast player, where you can listen to it at Juicebox podcast.com by going up into the menu, the episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com, you.
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