#1612 Chemo Caused Type One
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Nicole shares her journey through breast cancer, thyroid failure, and type 1 diabetes, balancing resilience, humor, and family support while finding strength in community and technology.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Welcome back, friends. You are listening to the Juicebox podcast.
Nicole 0:14
Well, hi there. My name is Nicole. I live in a suburb of Chicago, and I'm pleased to be here on the Juicebox podcast. If
Scott Benner 0:24
this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts 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. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. Today's podcast is sponsored by us med. US med.com/juicebox you can get your diabetes supplies from the same place that we do. And I'm talking about Dexcom, libre, Omnipod, tandem, and so much more us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, today's episode is sponsored by the tandem mobi system with control iq plus technology. If you are looking for the only system with auto Bolus, multiple wear options and full control from your personal iPhone, you're looking for tandems, newest pump and algorithm, use my link to support the podcast, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, check it out. The episode you're about to enjoy was brought to you by Dexcom, the Dexcom g7 the same CGM that my daughter wears. You can learn more and get started today at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox,
Nicole 2:13
Well, hi there. My name is Nicole. I live in a suburb of Chicago, and I'm pleased to be here on the Juicebox podcast. Nicole,
Scott Benner 2:24
I'm pleased for you to be here as well. Thank you. Yeah, you have a very a Michelle Obama quality about your voice. Does anybody ever told you that before? No, never. I think it's the Chicago thing. It's possible, yeah, but it's coming right through like so have you always been in Chicago or not always?
Nicole 2:42
Yes, born and raised, I had a short stint in college, where I moved to South Carolina for a summer for an internship, but always have been here. No
Scott Benner 2:53
kidding, awesome. You like the area. No reason to leave. I do.
Nicole 2:58
My family is here, so I plan to
Scott Benner 3:01
stay Ah, I see it's too cold for you, but your family's there. Is that? What you're telling
Nicole 3:05
me I'm saying that, yes, because I just went to Clearwater Florida a couple weeks ago, and it was amazing.
Scott Benner 3:11
Yeah, the warm is nice. Sometimes clear water. What were you there for?
Nicole 3:15
Nothing, relaxation, eat, sleep, repeat.
Scott Benner 3:19
Very nice. I've only been there once, twice, maybe. And I went down for spring training for the Phillies, actually. Oh, wow. And we spent it for yourself. My son and I and my brother went down and we went to we basically went to spring training games all week, and then hung out on the beach and did other stuff. That's nice. Yeah, it was very nice. So what brings you on the podcast
Nicole 3:38
today? So I remember that about a month or a couple months ago, you got on the Facebook, private Facebook group, and you threw out a post that said, hey, my one o'clock isn't working out, or whatever time it was. Is there anybody who could record for an hour click this link? And so there were a number of us that click that link, and there were three of us with you at the time, and then you took the post down, and we had a chat.
Scott Benner 4:08
Yes, that one's gonna come out soon, actually, that one's almost done. Oh yeah, that was great. You know, what ended up happening for people listening is that, first of all, I underestimated myself. I thought like, Oh, I'll be lucky, like someone will be able to do it. And a lot of people were able to do it, and I was like, Oh no, no. There's already three people in here. So I just put a stop to it, basically. And then I wanted it to just be like, and I thought the conversation was nice the way it went back and forth between a number of people. But yes, as you guys were going online, it just became obvious that each of you would have made a great episode. So here we are. That's awesome. I appreciate that. Yeah, no, absolutely it was. It was a good time, but we're gonna have a better time right now. Okay, so tell me a little bit about your health background.
Nicole 4:49
I've been pretty healthy. I work out a lot, cardio, weight, lifting. I had not had any issues with my health. Probably. Me Up until late 2022, July or August, I found a lump under my arm and then one in my breast, and so I scheduled an appointment for a mammogram, and then several tests later, appointment with an oncologist, and I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in October of 2022 and then I started chemo in November
Scott Benner 5:31
of 2022 what's distinction triple negative? What does that mean? So
Nicole 5:36
it's negative for all of the hormone receptors, like estrogen, progesterone, whatever. The third one
Scott Benner 5:43
is, is that news we want to hear or don't want to hear? In that
Nicole 5:46
situation, you never want to hear any of it. I
Scott Benner 5:49
was gonna say, yeah, not that, not that you want it. But like, is there once you're there? Is there a you know, I don't know better. Is the right word. But like, more favorable for outcomes.
Nicole 6:00
I think that the hormone positive is better for outcomes, however, because once you're finished with chemo and radiation, if you go through it, then they put you on like five years of some type of aftercare pill to keep keep everything at bay. And with triple negative, there is no aftercare. You go through your chemo and radiation, if you choose it, like I said, and then they just kind of watch you. Every six months, I get a CT scan, okay, and then I follow up with my oncologist, and that's
Scott Benner 6:38
been going on for three years, almost. Yes, yeah. So I want to kind of go backwards so you get that news. I mean, I assume the lumps themselves are pretty worrisome, but, you know, I imagine you do your best to regulate yourself till you get back the diagnosis. But once the diagnosis comes, we know what mind frame does that put you into?
Nicole 6:59
I'm going to kill it. I I'm just gonna beat it. I'm gonna be successful. And that's that,
Scott Benner 7:04
yeah, you just felt right away like, Okay, I'll fight the fight. Absolutely Okay. So then what's the next step? What did you have done after you decided how you were going to handle it?
Nicole 7:13
They scheduled me to get a port, which is like a catheter in your chest, so that you so that they can get the drug infusion through that port instead of a different IV in your arm every time you come. Yeah. So they set up my treatment plan, which was 12 weeks weekly. And then once I finished with that, then it was four treatments, three weeks apart. So in total, that is eight rounds chemo.
Scott Benner 7:45
Okay, and are the lumps removed? Is the breast removed? Like? How do they handle all that?
Nicole 7:50
So then, once you finish, and I had a couple of hiccups here and there, my white blood count, I want to say, was too low. So they give you a I had to miss a week of chemo for that, and then they give you something to get it together, and then you can resume. So that pushed my treatment plan back a week or so, okay, and then we're at the end. My thyroid decided to give up the ghost. So the range for normal is like zero to four, okay, and mine was like 84
Scott Benner 8:26
your TSH, jump to 84 Yes, wow, it definitely
Nicole 8:29
stopped working, huh? Yeah, that was, like a first sign. So hadn't had, you know, many other fall off the cliff moments, but that one, so was
Scott Benner 8:40
the thyroid a thing they were tracking? Or did you just get so ill that you've they started looking for it?
Nicole 8:46
Yes, I had labs, I want to say weekly, because they wanted to make sure you're okay for the next treatment, right? So they were monitoring everything, and then the previous time, it was normal, but maybe trending a little higher, and then the next time it was way high. Is
Scott Benner 9:06
the common wisdom that the treatment causes the thyroid problem, or is it
Nicole 9:11
bad luck? The treatments are known to have several side effects. There is one particular drug. I hear the commercials for it now, and I, you know how they rattle off the side effects? And I was like, yeah, that happened to me.
Scott Benner 9:28
I got that one. Thank you. And so thyroid issues are. One of them is type one diabetes. One of them, or no, it is, is type two. Do you know, I don't know if they differentiate, oh, or if they just say, diabetes, okay, sorry. So you get the thyroid labs back. How do they manage that?
Nicole 9:46
I'm on levothyroxine. I don't remember what the doses was at the beginning, and it's gone up and down since that time. So that was probably in April of 2023, Three. Did that happen? Okay,
Scott Benner 10:02
that about a year after your treatments, or not quite
Nicole 10:05
six months. So we go from starting treatment in November of 22 to finishing in April of 23 okay,
Scott Benner 10:13
is that news? I don't know. Like, I guess a lot goes to your personality and your how you deal with things. But does that news of the thyroid feel like, oh gosh, another thing, or did it just feel like, okay, fine, I'll take the pill. Like, you know what I mean? Like, how did it strike you when you
Nicole 10:28
heard like, I didn't want to be on a medication for the rest of my life, so this isn't what I want. And they said, some people's resolve once they finish chemo, but mine has not yet.
Scott Benner 10:40
Okay, is it late enough now to think that it won't or is there hope there for that still,
Nicole 10:45
I always have hope.
Scott Benner 10:47
Nice, nice. That's awesome. Okay, so your levothyroxine, you must take a fair amount of it. If is, do you know what your dose is right now,
Nicole 10:58
100 microgram. Okay, all right, that makes sense. And I take that once a day, every day, except on Sundays. Now I take two pills.
Scott Benner 11:08
Oh, you got a good Endo. Well, oh yeah, you figured this out on your own. How did this go?
Nicole 11:15
I love my Endo, but I was really, really feeling fatigue recently, within the last three to four months, and I have been listening to the podcast, of course, and listening to you talk about your wife and your daughter, and how the range acceptable is, you know, from here to there, but sometimes you need to be north of the middle, etc. So I was like, I'm doing all the things I'm working out almost every day. I'm having a calorie deficit. Yes, by this time, I am using insulin full time. But something else is wrong. It can't be anything else but my thyroid. So we had a little exchange, and she wasn't willing, but then she upped my they had a cancelation in the office. She was able to bring me in. So I went and I met with her, and she said, Well, you know what? If you think it would help, I don't think it's going to you can take an extra half a pill. So that's how I got to having two pills on one day,
Scott Benner 12:17
once a week. Yeah, there's a lot of different ways to if you're a person, for example, who has trouble remembering your men. Remembering your medication. There are some doctors who will tell you to take seven days worth of it on one day, oh, and then just do it once a week. I mean, I definitely talk to your doctor about that first, but I've heard, I've heard people adjust or mess with how that medication goes in a number of different ways. So, but that's awesome, because, you know, I think my wife is on a schedule where she doesn't take it, like, literally, like one day a month or something. I've seen other schedules for Arden where she takes a second pill twice a month, like every two weeks. The doctors who know how to to dose that medication, the ones who really know her are impressive with it. So that's awesome. Yeah, so that helped, that little extra half a pill changed your the way you were feeling. It did awesome. Think how easy everybody it did, just timing an amount, right? Everything to some degree or not. Okay, so you have your thyroid. You're working that out. At what point do they tell you you have type two diabetes. In this process, I
Nicole 13:22
finished chemo in April. I went for my last scan. So about a month out from your last chemo, they wait for everything to settle. So in May, which is right after my last I went for my pet scan. I think I had a PET scan. They took my blood, they ran my labs, and my blood sugar was 424
Scott Benner 13:47
Ah, that's too high.
Nicole 13:51
And I'm like, what? Yeah, how's
Scott Benner 13:52
that happening? You said you're active, right? You're exercising. You stay in a calorie deficit at times, like you're doing all the things, yes, yeah, and did they just say type two right away? Or how does that process go? You can manage diabetes confidently with the powerfully simple Dexcom g7 dexcom.com/juicebox the Dexcom g7 is the CGM that my daughter is wearing. The g7 is a simple CGM system that delivers real time glucose numbers to your smartphone or smart watch. The g7 is made for all types of diabetes, type one and type two, but also people experiencing gestational diabetes. The Dexcom g7 can help you spend more time in range, which is proven to lower a 1c The more time you spend in range, the better and healthier you feel. And with the Dexcom clarity app, you can track your glucose trends, and the app will also provide you with a projected a 1c in as little as two weeks. If you're looking for clarity around your diabetes, you're looking for Dexcom, dexcom.com/ Juicebox. When you use my link, you're supporting the podcast dexcom.com/juicebox, head over there. Now let's talk about the tandem Moby insulin pump from today's sponsor tandem diabetes care, their newest algorithm control iq plus technology and the new tandem Moby pump offer you unique opportunities to have better control. It's the only system with auto Bolus that helps with missed meals and preventing hyperglycemia, the only system with a dedicated sleep setting, and the only system with off or on body wear options. Tandemobi gives you more discretion, freedom and options for how to manage your diabetes. This is their best algorithm ever, and they'd like you to check it out at tandem diabetes.com/juicebox when you get to my link, you're going to see integrations with Dexcom sensors and a ton of other information that's going to help you learn about tandems. Tiny pump that's big on control tandem diabetes.com/juicebox the tandem Moby system is available for people ages two and up who want an automated delivery system to help them sleep better wake up in range and address high blood sugars with auto Bolus.
Nicole 16:14
Unfortunately, yeah. Okay, so my primary care physician, yeah. Well, you know, looked at my history. I hadn't had any problem. My a 1c was in the normal range for the last few years. It's possibly, you know, type two. She gave me a prescription for Metformin. Off I went. Hopefully it'll resolve itself once you once the chemo gets out of your system, and by June, so like a month later, in that month, I was noticing my blood sugars really were not going down. I do believe I had a no I was doing finger stick at that time, I would check my blood sugars. I believe three times a day when I would get up, and then maybe before each meal. So I remember going to Aruba, and it just was not working. So I went in on the portal to the doctor's office, and I don't remember she might have been out of the office, but they connected me with a different position in the practice, and he put me, he gave me extra. So this must have been right before I went to Aruba. So he put me on glamempod. And I don't remember what the dosage was or if I was supposed to take it once or twice, but along the way, they were increasing the Metformin. It wasn't helping. So when I got back from Aruba, I went into the office. I don't remember a lot of anything coming out of that. But by July 16, I told my mother. I said, Mom, if my blood sugar does not come down, I'm going to the emergency
Scott Benner 17:51
room because you needed a different doctor, or because you thought you were medically in trouble.
Nicole 17:56
I just felt like something else needed to be done because the Metformin wasn't working and the other medication wasn't working, something was wrong, and it needed to be addressed. Nicole,
Scott Benner 18:08
our AI overlords say that a 400 blood sugar, even with chemotherapy, is likely diabetes, not a result of chemotherapy. Apparently, the the the level of your blood sugar. Should have told them that maybe it's not as easy as like this is going to go away, maybe when, when your chemo is done. Yeah, it's interesting. And And how long were you on the the oral Med and not seeing any relief from it? When? What were they telling you during it?
Nicole 18:37
Probably a month. Okay, at one point it increased, and I want to say I didn't like the increase because it was taking my appetite.
Scott Benner 18:47
Oh, okay, and that's, is that already an issue with chemo?
Nicole 18:51
I think that's an issue with metformin, because I was finished with chemo by then
Scott Benner 18:56
I got you Okay, did you experience it with chemo, the not being
Nicole 19:00
able to eat. Oh yes, yeah, yes.
Scott Benner 19:03
Is that because of nausea or just because of lack of hunger or a combination, a combination combination? Okay, so you're on this for a month. They up it. It takes away your desire to eat, which is terrible. But those blood sugars are not moving,
Nicole 19:18
not very much, they would, you know, go down to something, go up to three, something, you know, back and forth.
Scott Benner 19:26
I gotcha, okay, so you told your mom that. Then what ended up happening,
Nicole 19:30
I checked myself in, and they did like an EKG. They took my vitals after a while, they took me back, they put me on like a hydration. What does that cost? IV and an IV with the bag. So then they kept doing finger sticks, and think they took blood. So hourly, they would come in and check on me, and it was late. And then I believe I had the on call endocrinologist to come in and say, well. We check, then you have one of the well, basically that you have type one because you have one of the
Scott Benner 20:07
antibodies they said you had. We checked and you had an antibody and positive that looks like type
Nicole 20:12
one. Okay, yes, well, that means you're going to have to take insulin.
Scott Benner 20:17
Okay, so I'm going to keep asking this question along the way. How does that hit you? You didn't want to take a pill, and you're doing that under protest. So what happens when somebody tells you insulin? You've probably heard me talk about us Med and how simple it is to reorder with us med using their email system. But did you know that if you don't see the email and you're set up for this, you have to set it up. They don't just randomly call you, but I'm set up to be called if I don't respond to the email, because I don't trust myself 100% so one time I didn't respond to the email, and the phone rings the house. It's like, ring. You know how it works? And I picked it up. I was like, hello, and it was just the recording was like, US med doesn't actually sound like that, but you know what I'm saying. It said, Hey, you're I don't remember exactly what it says, but it's basically like, Hey, your orders ready? You want us to send it? Push this button if you want us to send it, or if you'd like to wait. I think it lets you put it off, like, a couple of weeks, or push this button for that. That's pretty much it. I push the button to send it, and a few days later, box right at my door. That's it. Us. Med, Comm, slash, Juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, get your free benefits. Check now and get started with us. Med, Dexcom, Omnipod, tandem freestyle, they've got all your favorites, even that new islet pump, check them out now at us, med.com/juicebox, or by calling 88872115, 888-721-1514, there are links in the show notes of your podcast player and links at Juicebox podcast.com to us, med and all the sponsors.
Nicole 21:50
I don't know what that meant to me in the time and space me being in the hospital. I'm not sure that it really registered, but I do remember him, you know, like, I can't remember if I was in my room by then, they fully got me a room, or if I was still down in the ER in the cubicles. But he explained about the insulin pens and the long acting and the short acting, and that I would have to get an appointment with an endocrinologist in a couple weeks, and I think he helped to get me in quicker with one of the endos. But, yeah, no, I was resistant.
Scott Benner 22:30
Did you have that feeling of like, no, it's, I could probably manage it with this Metformin. You just didn't give me enough of it yet. Were you resolved and understood it wasn't type two? Yes, okay, but resistant in the idea that, like that this is going to be your process. So then, like, explain to me, then what the next couple of days and weeks look like when that's your feeling you're leaving the I mean, you're a grown person, you know what? I mean, like you're You're not going home. I mean, maybe you'll call your mom to check in, but like, You're not going home to a to an adult who oversees you, who's going to help, right? It's on you. Are you married? I'm sorry. I don't even
Nicole 23:05
know. I am not. I have a 17 year old son, and my mom have, you know, small family, but a host of friends took really good care of me, all of them very nice while I was ill and going through so I was kept in the hospital for two nights because I was in, I'd say a mild DKA, but they hydrated me, test, test, test, something came back odd with my heart, and the cardiologist wanted put me on something I'm like, I'm not taking that. There's nothing wrong with my heart. They then did a stress test, and all that came back fine. This is
Scott Benner 23:47
all in the course of how much time, a year and a half, maybe, like from the beginning of the lump to this moment,
Nicole 23:53
almost a year, maybe nine months. A lot happening in your life. I did chemo, was six months, and then right after that, the thyroid, right after that, the
Scott Benner 24:05
diabetes, right? And you're raising a 17 year old at the same time.
Nicole 24:09
Yeah, he's 17. Now, he was 15. Then, oh, gosh,
Scott Benner 24:12
that's a that's an age, right? There, he's looking for you, right? So, yes, so you have that pressure as well. Your mom, yes, live with you. Helps you with that?
Nicole 24:21
No, she lives nearby, but she did move in for a few weeks.
Scott Benner 24:24
Yeah, I bet I would have moved How old are you now? I am 55 Yeah, I still would have moved in. I would have been like, guess what? I'm going to hobble my over there and sit that house for a while with you. Oh my gosh. Did you guys ever talk about it you and your mom quietly about which part, just that your health was, you know, going to be the main focus for a while, and that you were going to need assistance with raising your son and and probably, you know, taking care of the, you know, life in general. Did she like? Did you ask her to come or did she offer herself? I guess I
Nicole 24:59
would say she. She did both. At first, she was like, Well, how can I help? What do you want me to do? You know, I can get all my things. I can come over. We can stay, you know, and it just That's my best friend, you know?
Scott Benner 25:11
Yeah, that's awesome. That's really great. Any point during this first year, are you thinking about your own mortality, or you are locked pretty much in on I'm fighting. I'm winning.
Nicole 25:22
I think that I never, you know, you think about it, sure, but it wasn't like I'm going, I'm fighting this. I'm riding continuously and still to the wheels follow. So I do what I think I need to do. I'm prayerful. I'm, you know, I try still to be healthy. And what I fought Scott was the pump.
Scott Benner 25:45
Really, yes, okay. So somebody said, Hey, an insulin pump might be the way to go. And you were like, This is my line. I'm not going farther than this.
Nicole 25:55
It was kind of that. So, June 16, 17th or so, I was in a hospital. I probably got my indoor appointment at the beginning of August. They also set me up with a really great diabetes educator. They had a Diabetes Center at the hospital close to me, so I had support. But you probably know how it is I'm drinking from the fire hose, and all I want is information. So I get on the internet, I'm like, I'm on Facebook. You know, there's got to be some groups. I need some education. I'm googling everything. They're telling me these things, and I just information comforts me. So that's how I found the podcast, and it's been immensely helpful, but I did not want to pump. I got the CGM. I was on the g7 to begin with, and diabetes office, my endocrinologist office, she had a pharmacist who could work with people longer than she could, so she and I would talk periodically, like when I would have my appointments, they could be for 30 minutes. 45 minutes, they could be an hour. And she was just educating me and listening to how I eat, and, you know, how I was processing, and how I was doing with the MDI and all of that. And a couple of times she would say, I think you should get on a pump and you have to carry this little controller, and I'm like, I'm not carrying two phones, and I don't want to wear two devices. And I cried and cried, and I said, You know what? I got to do it because I'm not managing well on my own.
Scott Benner 27:32
What do you think the resistance is? Is it looking for control, or is it not wanting to be controlled by something? Or do you have any hindsight on the not wanting the pump, feeling,
Nicole 27:44
probably thinking I could do it myself, the pump made it so much easier. So you know how you're kind of kicking yourself for not doing it sooner. But the process, your process is yours. Yeah,
Scott Benner 27:57
no, for sure, it takes a little while to get through it. What got you through it was it time? Was it seeing other people the counsel of the person that was helping you, like, what got you over the hump?
Nicole 28:07
I think it was that I couldn't manage it myself and be within range. I was always high and, you know, I was documenting everything. All my meals go in an app, and I would look at the carb ratio, and I would give my lighting scale, whatever that was at the time, and it would do what it did, and then I would report back. So they just found me to be very meticulous with my health and my eating. And just thought I would be a good candidate for the the omnipot Five, because also I'm still active, so tubeless was the way for me. But I think the education and just realizing I need some additional help,
Scott Benner 28:49
yeah, I remember you popping up in the group in the beginning, and I think it's something to do with, like, you have, like a hyphenated or, like a three name, name. I don't know if something stick to my head differently. I don't know why. I don't know why. Anyway, I remember you were, you were just voracious for information, like always, like if I was there, like if I popped up, you were there absolutely and you had a question, and I saw you interacting with people and asking questions and talking back, and you used that space, I think exactly the way people should use it would. Is it fair to say that it propelled you through fast forwarded you through the process. I
Nicole 29:24
think it did. It was exactly what I needed in perfect time.
Scott Benner 29:28
Good, good. I'm glad, and I'm glad that you found a way to the pump so but talk for a minute about what struggling looked like. Were you honeymooning at that time when you were struggling an MDI, or was it just your lack of understanding? Like, what do you attribute that time of struggle to?
Nicole 29:44
I doubt that I was hunting Mooney, like I said. I think the pancreas just gave up the ghost, yeah, and then so they were running around. You're such a brittle diabetic. No, you don't understand, and I don't understand, but we're gonna get to
Scott Benner 29:58
it. The endo called you that. Yeah. Yeah, okay,
Nicole 30:01
yeah. You know, listening to a lot of what you were saying on your podcast and whatnot, it's not that you're brittle, it's just that you don't have the knowledge, you don't understand, perhaps the timing and the ratios, and we were getting all of that under control. So one time, I was like, Hey, I'm not brittle. She stopped saying that. You got her to stop, yes, yeah, on her own. Like, hey, stop saying that. Yeah.
Scott Benner 30:30
It's such a shame, because, I mean, obviously I think what you just said, but timing and amount is so much of insulin use, and just thoughtfully putting insulin in the right place is understanding the different impacts of different foods. And you know, if you have those levers pulled, you know, slightly wrong, you're not your knobs dialed a little incorrectly. Everything seems like it's happening for reasons you can't wrap your head around like so much so that it's a joke throughout the diabetes community, right? I can do the same thing today that I did yesterday, and I get a different outcome, except the same thing didn't happen. You're just not seeing what's different. And once you can step back far enough to see the differences, whether just be I injected my slow acting insulin in my thigh yesterday and today I put it in my stomach, or I'm on the third day of a insulin pump infusion set versus a fifth day, or a second day or the first day. Like something there is something different. Are my hormones different, right? Is my sleep different last night? Do I have more adrenaline happening? Like, there are a ton of variables. And yet, the way people will kind of colloquially talk about it. It's like, Oh, I did the same thing and, you know, blah blah, I ate the same foods and the same thing. I'm like, No, it's not the same. You just, you're not seeing it. But to leap over all of that, as a physician, to leap over all of that, and then just look at somebody go, you're brittle. I mean, it's a give up on their part. I think they're saying, like, I don't know how to help you. You're just, you're brittle. The word is incredibly insulting, just in general, I would think, takes away a lot of your confidence. I mean, imagine if someone called you brittle. Forget diabetes for any reason. You're at work, and you say something and someone goes, Oh, you're brittle. You know, like, how you supposed to rebound from that exactly? Yeah, but you knew not to take that seriously, because of the conversations and listening to the podcast, yes, that's awesome. That's really great. Makes me happy. Awesome. So okay, so she stopped saying brittle, and what happened next?
Nicole 32:32
So, you know, I have to be honest, it's been two years that I've been type one and had to use insulin. I'm still getting an understanding, but it comes in waves. I got the pump in October of 23 Yeah, it's wearing two devices. But, like, I'm so grateful that the technology is here and different than what it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago. Not that I have it so easy, but technology is my friend, and I'm I'm grateful for all the of the all of the advances that they have made to help us to live a normal and healthy and productive
Scott Benner 33:14
life. Yeah, no kidding. I mean it this industry. You know, you hear people complain sometimes like, oh, you know, they're making money off of my off of my illness, and I take your point, but at least they're making the stuff. I mean, the alternative. You don't want to think about the alternative if there, if there wasn't money in this, no, these companies wouldn't exist. And everybody be running around still, you know, with a meter and, you know, some needles and hoping for the best. And you do those interviews with those older folks that have lived through that and that didn't end well for people most of the time. So yeah, this is, this is an awesome time. Also, I want to ask you, maybe I'm, of course, I'm inferring from having spoken to you for a very short amount of time and just watching you online, but you strike me as a bright, thoughtful person who is never going to feel like enough information is enough. And at the same time, I imagine you as a person who is, I don't want to say hard on themselves about outcomes, but I think you have high expectation, I guess, for yourself. Is that fair?
Nicole 34:14
Okay, it's true. You are psychic. I do have high expectations for myself, because between the diabetes educator and my endo and the pharmacist, you're doing a really good job. Well, no, I'm not, and I could be doing better. And I want a better a, 1c and I want a better time and range now, my time and range now is pretty good. It's maybe 85% I'm trying to dial all of it in. And so, you know, with the variables with driving to work in Chicago, rush hour traffic like I just heard you say, or I just saw you say to someone in your post Pre-Bolus, for the adrenaline, what can. Thank you, Scott.
Scott Benner 35:02
Oh, that was today. Somebody asked about, yeah, hour ago, how do I handle my kid going off to school? I'm seeing, like, adrenaline spikes. And I was, I was like, I would first make sure, you know what's gonna happen, and then I'd Pre-Bolus for the adrenaline. And that's how I did it with Arden, when she, you know, was in high school, and she would get, I think, I don't know, nervous or whatever. On our way to school, we were bolusing. I used to drive hard in the morning. Like, the last thing I would say to her, probably, when we left the house, is like, okay, like, it's time to like Bolus for the day, and she'd have to give herself insulin for whatever that rise was coming. So
Nicole 35:35
sometimes I creep when I'm getting dressed. I'm like, What is this? Yes, you're
Scott Benner 35:39
not wanting to go to work. Probably Wow, or thinking about life or whatever in the back of your head. But I do want to go back just briefly. I don't do this enough anymore, where I get smug for a second, but I only know Nicole from like her posts on Facebook and maybe 20 minutes that I spoke to her in another recording that you guys probably have heard already by now. If I tell you online, You're crazy. You're crazy. If I tell you you're something. Just trust me, I'm good at this. I'm very good at seeing people. I don't know if I see myself well, but I see other people really well. You strike me as a go getter. You strike me as a person who wins usually at things they try to do, does not give up easily, and someone who's gonna take an 85% time and range and wonder how this could be a little better, but without and again, you stop me if I'm wrong, but I don't see you as a person who beats yourself up about it. I just see you as a information in, information out, person.
Nicole 36:33
I would agree. I would agree. And I think you're a good judge of character. I see it. You know, periodically, when I see something for your post. I'm like, Okay, so who went bananas in the group? It doesn't matter, but listen to what's guys saying here, and stop it.
Scott Benner 36:48
I'm not, nowhere near perfect, but I am a good parental figure. Like, I don't know, like, how that worked out for me Exactly. Like, again, I'm, I'm, I've 1000 things I could do differently or better, but when I'm assessing other people, I'm incredibly accurate. Usually, I don't know where that comes from. I don't even know if I want to call it a gift. It just it comes in very handy with the job I have. I guess it
Nicole 37:13
does. And I just want to say thank you for just saying that. I appreciate that.
Scott Benner 37:17
Oh, of course, Nicole, as well as the person could who has never met you and only sees you through internet writings, I feel like I see you. You give me a lot of hope when I'm doing what I'm doing, because you are a person who I see show up and say, I can figure this out like I know the answers are here. I will mine them out myself and put them into practice, because that's the last step of this that I can't do for people. Yes, you know this is true. I had a conversation, a business conversation, this morning. I don't know if it's gonna work out. I feel like it might. I don't wanna use any names yet, but there's this company that is, they're basically offering like direction for children, for a lot of different things, but diabetes is one of the things they're doing, and they've kind of gamified it a little bit, right? Like the information that they want people to have. You know, what would your endo want you to know? But they don't have time to tell you, like, that kind of stuff. But how do you actually get people interested in it? And how do you get the kids to listen to it? How do you get the parents to listen to it? So this company has set up this situation where you get a like, you should get a backpack and a Chromebook, and the Chromebook is locked down, and it has this, this gaming system on it, and the kids need tokens to play the game. And they get the tokens when their parents complete training stuff. So it's set up so the kids will bug the parents to go do the thing they're supposed to do, so they can get the tokens to play the game. And when you stop and really look at it, it's a it's somebody saying, we know that there's information people need, but it's hard to get them to go get it. And how do we get them interested in it. And, you know, parents are busy and they're tired and they don't have time, and that's probably how a lot of these balls get dropped. But what if the kid was coming to them constantly and saying, like, Look, you just have to watch this 15 minute thing, or listen to this 10 minute thing, and I'll get another 1000 tokens that I can keep playing with. And then the playing is also informative for the kid, and if it works, it'll, you know, I mean, they already, they've tested with it. They see it works. When I say works, it's, how do you get it into a lot of people's hands, right? Like, that's always the problem with everything. They wanted to know if they could start off by putting, like, the small sips, episodes of the podcast in there. And I was like, awesome, because this is my biggest problem too, right? Like, you know, how do you get people to do what's best for them? Yeah, that's really hard, and not just around diabetes, around everything. And anyway, you're a person who I feel like is out there trying to do that for yourself. And. In a world where I can only take everybody's I can only lead the horse so far towards the water, right? It can get frustrating for me at times, just like I imagine for the people who made that game. They must have been frustrated at some point and thought, how do we get these people to take these last two steps anyway? When I see people doing that, it makes my efforts feel valuable. You taking care of yourself helps me to continue to do this thing. I don't know if that's obvious or not, but, like, it's very valuable for me too, and I really
Nicole 40:28
appreciate it. That is awesome. Yeah. Well, good luck with that.
Scott Benner 40:32
Thank you. Well, just in general, too, a side of the game, like just making the content for the podcast, keeping up with the Facebook group, coming up with different ways to say things, trying to keep up with how people want their content, having to go out in the world and do trips and business things like I just got done, you know, doing like, three different trips in like six weeks. And, you know, I got home yesterday and I was just telling, like, we just put our bags away, you know. And I got a call yesterday, and the person says, Hey, I'd like to team up with you for ADA, friends for life. And what is it? Ad CES, the Diabetes Educators Conference all next year, and I found myself putting it on my calendar. I was like, oh, no, I just got my bag put away. Like, you know, you're making me think about this again. I think that's what needs to be done if you're going to reach people. And anyway, so that's what I do, and I need that energy from somewhere, because I am trapped in this room. You know, most of the time so well I don't sometimes get the feedback I need to motivates the wrong word, but like, power myself, I guess. And anyway, thank you. It means a lot to me.
Nicole 41:40
You're welcome. I know you can't hear me nodding my head, but hopefully you can hear me smiling, and I'm very encouraged by the things that you've got going on for you. Thank you.
Scott Benner 41:50
Thank you. I really welcome. I feel good about the thing I decided to do with my life, you know, as an adult, and I would like very much, I want to finish up with this. I don't want to look back and say, Oh, I used to do a podcast. I'd like to, like to do this for as long as is, it's valuable for people. So it is, yeah, it is. It's really awesome. Thank you. Well, okay, so where are you at? And we, I think we understand where you're at with your diabetes. Sounds like you're doing well and you're still learning, but how does the cancer thing go? I asked a question earlier. I don't know that you answered me like, did you have to have your breast removed? Or is it? How did that work?
Nicole 42:24
So yes, I finished chemo, and then I had some things happen, and I decided to do a double mastectomy. So after that PET scan that I had, I think they said it everything looked like it resolved, but then there was something in the other breast, and I was like, nope, not doing it. Take them both. Yeah, we're not doing this again. There's no more. Yeah, I don't have anything else to give. So you
Scott Benner 42:51
don't regret, you don't regret that decision. I imagine, not at all. Okay, how long ago was that?
Nicole 42:56
At least, that was August 16 of 2023 that is my anniversary of being cancer free, so I'm a few days away from that today. Oh,
Scott Benner 43:06
congratulations. That's lovely. Thank you. Yeah, I was worried a little when we started talking today, when I heard your Chicago accent, actually, more than anything, because I just had my experience with cancer is limited to my mom, my family and I were on vacation last week, and we're returning home on a late night flight. We were out on the West Coast, and this older woman, I'm gonna guess, in her late 70s, is with her adult daughter, and the daughter's taking the mom to the restroom on the plane. And the mom's like, you know, she's struggling down the aisle. The daughter's behind her, like, half apologizing to everybody, half hoping her mom doesn't fall and it just strikes me that when my mom got her okay to move after her chemo and she wanted to move out with my brother in Wisconsin, we couldn't figure out how to get her there. She couldn't do the car ride. It was too long. We were very afraid of a plane because of this situation. And my mom and I ended up taking a train, an overnight train, from New Jersey to Chicago, where my brother then picked her up and took her the last bit of the way. That's awesome, you know, we're on the train that night, and we and she got hungry, and we had to make it two train cars to the car where the food was. And that walk was so difficult and reminded me so much of the woman going down the aisle. And it took me to that place in my mind, but I did a good job with it. I was like, I was okay. And then I could hear the woman behind me talking through the door of the bathroom, Mom, are you okay? Yeah. And then I started getting really upset. Oh, my wife is across the aisle from me, and she and we're a very light hearted group of people. And my wife looks over and goes, Are you crying? Oh, and I was like, Yes. And I was like, just give me a minute. Cut me a break, but something had happened just before that, and she thought, she's like, is this dumb? Crying about that? Like, you know what I mean, and, and so I'm like, give me a second. I was like, trying to collect myself, and I told her, you know, I kind of told her, I said, that lady, she just reminded me of being on the train with my mom, walking to dinner, and she's like, and that made you cry? And I said, No. I said, What made me cry is I realized that sitting on that stupid train is the last time I ever sat and had a meal with my mom that and it just like it snowballed like that. And the amount of times that that my mom's cancer experience has made me remember something emotional. Made me want to ask you, how is it getting back to life, or does it pop into your head? A lot? That was actually my question. I told you all that to ask you that question, I
Nicole 45:51
don't think about it a whole lot, except for when it's time to be with my oncologist or have a scan, a CT scan, and the other thing that I want to say is I mentioned that I went into DKA in July of 2023 Yeah. And so I was finished with my treatments, and so surgery was scheduled for August of 2023 since I was diabetic, most people have their mastectomy, and then they go either direct to implants or they start the reconstructive process then. But because I was recently in DKA and they didn't know how I and my body would handle the diabetes and healing, I was not able to have immediate reconstruction. Oh, okay, I felt horrible, because the plastic surgeon is the one who had to tell me, and I just Boo hooed in the office. And I was like, Are you kidding me? So I had a six month delay, and there are a lot of people who choose to not have reconstruction, so they have their mastectomy, and they stay flat. They may or may not wear prosthetics. Have the form of having breasts, but
Scott Benner 47:15
I'm so old that the word falsies popped into my head. That was ridiculous,
Nicole 47:19
but Scott, I'm older than you.
Scott Benner 47:23
Were you fighting around that word too when you were looking No,
Nicole 47:29
but I did that too, so you never know how you're going to deal with something until it presents itself. Yeah, and then you have a choice to make. The choice is, are you gonna sink or are you going to swim? And how you swim depends on you?
Scott Benner 47:50
Yeah, no, I agree with you. I really do. I think some people have sometimes, you know, implications that that stop them from being positive. But for the rest of us, like I do think you go where you point yourself, usually, there's a lot of value in not giving up and waking up every day fresh, making a good decision, following through, doing it again. What did you end up doing? Did you get reconstruction or implants?
Nicole 48:16
I did six months later. So I was flat for six months, and then in February, I got started the reconstruction process. So they put these expanders, they're like flat implants, and then they put saline in to them every every week or every other week to expand the tissues again, because they take all the tissue and the breast tissue right, and the skin is what I'm trying to say. They take all of that
Scott Benner 48:47
that skin's right on your breast bone when that starts right, and then it has to just expand to make space Correct. Okay, my question here is, it might seem like a tiny bit of a pivot, but you have such unique knowledge from like, taking the health out of it aside, but just from a, like, a feminine perspective, sexuality, etc, like, what was your findings living one way, and then, you know, having lived naturally, having lived before, the reconstruction, having lived afterwards. Is there lessons in there that that are worth sharing.
Nicole 49:20
I'm not certain. In some regards, I'm very matter of fact, kind of it is what it is. Did I like being flat? No, but it was a means to an end, and I got through it. So I felt like I wanted to have the prosthetics so that I could have that femininity. And I'm not, you know, if people ask, I tell them my story, because it can help someone else. There are people around me, family members of friends, who are going through it, have been through it, so we all try to share and encourage one another. Yeah, and I think that's important, because if you're scared, you're looking for resources to be re. Structured, and if I can provide that to someone I want to. But
Scott Benner 50:04
you were aware? You keep saying flat it strikes me oddly, but it's your word, so I'm gonna go with it. So with that flat time, were you aware, dressed, going out in the morning, like, did it strike you like, I wish this isn't how I looked? Or did it make you feel any sort of a way? Did you feel like people noticed or that somebody wouldn't be I don't even know if this matters, but somebody wouldn't feel the same way about you when they saw you. I'm really interested in how that, how that made you feel.
Nicole 50:31
I didn't want to go out without anything. I didn't go outside flat. Okay? My insurance, I have some pretty decent insurance, and they had a contract with Nordstrom. And so you go to Nordstrom and you get it fitted for your prosthetic, okay? And so they get you bras and try on a couple of sizes, and you like what you like, and then they send that home, and then they make a pocket with the bras, for the prosthesis to go in there. So, you know, it's a few weeks deal. I took the time to do that. Some people are okay without. I think that's part of who I am as a woman. So, yeah, I was, it was important for me to have that in the gap. My
Scott Benner 51:17
last question is, did you do the tattoo for the nipple, or was that not necessary? Or did you opt out of it? I
Nicole 51:23
have not done anything yet. It's been a full year since I got my implants, and so I'm, I guess, waiting for the scars to fade a little bit more. But I want to do the tattoo. I don't want to do the reconstructed
Scott Benner 51:38
nipples. Okay? And will that be covered by insurance?
Nicole 51:41
Technically, no, yes, and no, it has to be a certain amount, and it by the time you pay for it, they're gonna pay so little, but everything else was covered,
Scott Benner 51:52
right? Well, that's something. How long do you think until you do that?
Nicole 51:56
I don't know. I'm not in a rush. It's not a big deal.
Scott Benner 51:59
Gotcha. Okay, that's actually next year though. I got you so you're not in a rush, but you're doing it. Yeah? I'm gonna do it absolutely. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you sharing that. That's just not information a lot of people have to share. So I appreciate that. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should have?
Nicole 52:15
I don't think so. I just it was a wacky way to get to where I am. There has been I asked you, early on, had you heard of anyone else who had a similar situation to mine, and you didn't remember someone else, one of the group experts might have been Nico or Sylvia, came in and said, Well, yeah, and I listened to an episode that you recorded with another woman with a similar story, and while it is not prevalent, we are out there. Yeah, you know, I'm fortunate. I guess the medications help so many things. So what's the what's the takeaway your life, or diabetes?
Scott Benner 52:58
In retrospect, now, if somebody would have said, You look, here's the medication, you're gonna have. Medication you're gonna have to take for the cancer. It's gonna give you type one diabetes, but you're gonna be alive, you would immediately say, Oh, okay. Like, yeah, let's do that. But as it's happening to you, slowly, it feels like it's happening to you right, like this went wrong, and then this went wrong, and this went wrong, and then this one, I mean, you had four things go wrong in pretty short order, as far as I can tell, like you got cancer, you you know, chemo that probably destroyed your thyroid function, then somebody tells you have type two diabetes? No, no, it's not type two diabetes. It's type one diabetes. That's four things, pretty, pretty rapid fire happening to you, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, aside of all the other stuff that we're not talking about, which is you have a job and a child and things you enjoy doing that probably got ignored for a long time while you were were making your way through this and just generally feeling terrible. You know, people don't talk about it very much, but like chemo did. Did you get the bone pain from the chemo?
Nicole 53:56
No, no, I did not. They give you a couple of things like this 24 hour patch or something. I think it's called New last. And there's things that they give you to take so that you won't perhaps be plagued by it. But I didn't have a whole lot of
Scott Benner 54:15
that. Did you get that, that follow up medication after chemo that comes in an Omnipod?
Nicole 54:19
Yes, I think that's what the new last Yeah, right. I remember my
Scott Benner 54:24
mom called me. She's like, I'm wearing a pod, just like, Arden. I was like,
Nicole 54:28
All right, I don't remember it being as big, but it might have been, yeah,
Scott Benner 54:32
it's made by insulin. I don't know that it's the exact Yeah, that's an insult. That's the other thing they make, actually, is, is for that medication, that's a delivery system. Did you get restless leg syndrome? No, no, that's great. It's great that it worked well for you. Like that. My mom probably had restless leg before, but it got significantly worse
Nicole 54:52
afterwards. And I didn't have much. I didn't really have any neuropathy. Sometimes I have in my right arm, like. My index finger and my thumb, I have a little tingling, but I haven't like determined what that is. I don't have any other after effects other than creaky joints, but I say some of that is age, and my chiropractor and my acupuncture doctor have helped tremendously, and I'm feeling a whole lot better lately.
Scott Benner 55:23
It's awesome. Hey, listen, we didn't I didn't ask you, we? I almost said we, like, there's a group of people over here that failed to ask this question, but the chameleons, I didn't ask you. Is there any autoimmune in your family? Or do you think this is all generated by the chemotherapy?
Nicole 55:37
I personally think it's generated by the chemo. My great grandmother, my mother, remembers a little something with her blood sugar dropping when she was older. They had moved her here to Chicago, so it was maybe, you know, maybe the end of her life. I'm not sure how old she was, but they remember that her shaking and having to have something sweet, but they don't recall, like, being a full on diabetic, and she was elderly, so hard to know. I don't know if it was really
Scott Benner 56:08
diabetes, other thyroid with people in your family, no. So just uh, some bad luck. Then, okay, yay, yay. Bad luck. Your story is makes me feel good, because the way you're talking about it, the attitude that you bring to it, the effort that you put into it, it makes me feel like other people could do that as well. And that's what I need here on my end, is I need the hope that people are out there fighting for themselves the way you are.
Nicole 56:35
I think that they are. I think fear is a is a motivator, good and bad. Some people let fear stop them from moving forward, and some people take it as motivation to move forward.
Scott Benner 56:48
Yeah, I think it's an interesting position to be in the one I'm in, where I don't know who I'm talking to when I'm speaking. I feel like it's very important to say I know that everybody doesn't respond the same way to something at the same time, I don't think that it helps anybody not to say what you just said, which is, you know, sometimes people are faced with something and they rise up, and sometimes they don't, but if there's a pathway to rising up, I think we should share it with everybody so that as many people as possible can take advantage of the idea that you don't have to give up and give in. You don't have to take the first thing it said to you, you're not brittle because somebody told you you were, and everything else in between. It's important to keep educating yourself and keep demanding help, not letting people just draw a line on a piece of paper and go, Okay, we will. We give up on this one because they're, I mean, brittle is the one that's sticking out from my, you know, from your conversation. I mean, you could have heard that and crumbled and just stayed there. Can you imagine you'd be living right now with your blood sugar bouncing all over the place like it was, like, still, yeah, that could have happened. It, because it does happen to people. It could have happened to you. So anyway, I want everybody to take, take Nicole's energy and go throw it at whatever is trying to get you today. Absolutely. Yeah. Where do you think you got that from? Is it? Do you think it's upbringing, just how you're wired? Do you have any idea? Did you go through something hard that taught you how to be hard back?
Nicole 58:12
No, my mom, my dad, and some religious upbringing, but yeah, it's been
Scott Benner 58:19
good. Just kind of how you react. So you react to other things the same way I do. You do. Okay,
Nicole 58:25
all right, this is awesome. I've heard that one thing that you said, it was something about you. You come out a winner most times,
Scott Benner 58:34
yes, yes, I have said that. But it's different when you hear somebody say it back to you, though
Nicole 58:41
you might say it in a slightly different way, but first time I heard somebody say that, I was like, that's not true. You don't know what you're talking about. You do too, and so it's not a bad thing, but I'm very grateful for it. Yeah,
Scott Benner 58:53
I really do believe that when I try, most times, things go pretty well. You can philosophize about it and go deeper and say, I think I'm making reasonably good decisions along the way, and that's why things are going well. But I also think that just doing things, you know, moving forward is success, and it can be easy to look at the things that went wrong along the way and say, everything's out to get me. I can't win like, you know, whatever would come with that. And I have plenty of those things, if I chose to focus on them right now, and listed a ton of my failures for you, you could easily make the case that, like, look, this guy just fails at everything, but, like, it's not the case. And I think it's as simple as that. When I was growing up, I know we don't think of people making money as successful anymore. Everybody's mad at everybody who has, you know, made a million dollars. But when I was growing up, like, that was the that's the line, that was the Mendoza line, like, if I'm gonna win in life, I have to make a million dollars. Like, that's I was poor, and that's how it occurred to me. And I heard somebody say one time that they, I think they started three businesses and bankrupted each. One of them before they made a success, and now they made a million dollars. This is back in the 80s. And I was like, oh, like, so the person tried something and failed, and didn't just go, Okay, I'm a failure. They tried it again. It went bad again and again. It went bad a third time, and they still kept fighting and and that struck me back then, even as, like an early person in my early 20s, like the failures, just data in right and even the trying is moving forward. Even if you try and fail and try and fail, you still learn something along the way. Absolutely, yeah, 20 years later, I watched one of my kids, you know, working out for all star baseball or softball. I forget which team it was. And every year the kids would get these practice shirts because they practiced every day. So they get, they give them all these T shirts to practice in, so that you can keep them laundered, and they get a saying on the back of them. And I think one year it was, we never lose, we either try and we win or we fail and we learn, or something like that. It was, like, this long saying on the everyone else's sayings were so nice and, like, short, but that they had the, like, a book on the back of their shirt one year. And I thought, that's what those that's what that rich guy was telling me on the, you know, 20 years ago. He was like, Hey, listen, it's you're alive anyway, you might as well try. You know, I mean, like you're gonna get up anyway, you're gonna live a whole day. You might as well put some effort into it and see where it gets you. That's kind of how I think about it.
Nicole 1:01:29
So, yep, yeah, Andy, I was taught nothing beats a failure, but a try,
Scott Benner 1:01:33
really, that's simple. Gotta try. That would have been nicer on the back of that shirt. I don't know where you were that day, but, uh, that shirt was wordy,
Nicole 1:01:48
but it had impact. So that's all that matters. I
Scott Benner 1:01:50
think the next year just said down and dirty. So somebody gave up. They were like, Oh, we wrote a book last year. Let's keep it simple this year. Oh my gosh. Also, while, while we're talking about this at the very end, I'm gonna throw out there that Erica's daughter made all star softball this year, and I hope it went well. So if anybody knows Erica from some of the mental health stuff, her daughter's out there playing softball this summer, and I haven't checked in with her, but I'm going to All right, I'm not going to ask you why you think deep dish pizza is pizza, because that's reductive. We all know it isn't.
Nicole 1:02:23
I don't eat deep dish pizza. I have diabetes. I don't have the hang of that
Scott Benner 1:02:29
yet. You haven't figured that one out. No, no, all right. Well, come to come to New York or Philly or something, you can have a nice, you know, thin slice of pizza. It's pretty easy to Bolus for all right, Nicole, thank you so much for doing this with me. Will you hold Will you hold on one second? Please? I will thank you.
Head now to tandem diabetes.com/juicebox and check out today's sponsor tandem diabetes care. I think you're going to find exactly what you're looking for at that link, including a way to sign up and get started with the tandem Moby system. A huge thanks to us, med for sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Don't forget us, med.com/juicebox, this is where we get our diabetes supplies from. You can as well, use the link or call 888-721-1514, use the link or call the number get your free benefits check so that you can start getting your diabetes supplies the way we do from us. Med. Dexcom sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Learn more about the Dexcom g7 at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox, I can't thank you enough for listening. Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app. I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of The Juicebox podcast. Hey kids, listen up. You've made it to the end of the podcast. You must have enjoyed it. You know what else you might enjoy? The private Facebook group for the Juicebox podcast. I know you're thinking, uh, Facebook, Scott, please, but no, beautiful group, wonderful people, a fantastic community. Juicebox podcast. Type one diabetes on Facebook, of course, if you have type two, are you touched by diabetes in any way? You're absolutely welcome. It's a private group, so you'll have to answer a couple of questions before you come in. We make sure you're not a bot or an evildoer. Then you're on your way. You'll be part of the family. If you're looking to meet other people living with type one diabetes, head over to Juicebox podcast.com/juice, cruise, because next June, that's right. 2026 June, 21 the second juice Cruise is happening on the celebrity beyond cruise ship. It's a seven night trip going to the Caribbean. We're going to be visiting Miami, Coco, K, st, Thomas and St Kitts, the Virgin Islands. You're gonna love the Virgin Islands. Sail with Scott the Juicebox community on a week long voyage. Building. For people and families living with type one diabetes, enjoy tropical luxury, practical education and judgment free atmosphere. Perfect day at Coco Bay St, Kitts st, Thomas five interactive workshops with me and surprise guests on type one hacks and tech, mental health, mindfulness, nutrition exercise, personal growth and professional development, support groups and wellness discussions tailored for life with type one and celebrities, world class amenities, dining and entertainment. This is open from every age you know, newborn to 99 I don't care how old you are. Come out. Check us out. You can view state rooms and prices at Juicebox podcast.com/juice cruise. The last juice cruise just happened a couple weeks ago. 100 of you came. It was awesome. We're looking to make it even bigger this year. I hope you can check it out. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong wayrecording.com.
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