#1654 Born This Way
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Crystal, 33, T1D since 12, recounts DKA, insulin restriction for weight, congenital health challenges, and her turnaround—prebolusing, diet tweaks, and pursuing an insulin pump—with community support and hope.
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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
Friends, we're all back together for the next episode of The Juicebox podcast. Welcome.
Crystal 0:16
Hey, I'm Crystal. I am 33 years old. I've been a type one diabetic ever since I was 12.
Scott Benner 0:24
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Crystal 1:49
Hey, I'm Crystal. I am 33 years old. I've been a type one diabetic ever since I was 1212,
Scott Benner 1:56
so watch this. Crystal. Was that 21 years ago that you were diagnosed? Yep, it's been 21 years. No kidding, all right, 12 years old. What do you remember about being diagnosed?
Crystal 2:06
Well, I was at a checkup, and I felt fine and everything. I didn't feel sick, but they said my blood sugar was so high they couldn't read it, okay?
Scott Benner 2:17
And so you were just at a regular, like doctor's appointment at my regular doctor's office. Okay, and you you did or did not, I'm sorry you did or did not feel sick prior to the appointment. I didn't
Crystal 2:28
feel sick other than falling asleep a lot in class,
Scott Benner 2:32
you're falling asleep a lot. Is that why your parents took you to the doctor? Yep, okay. They said, Hey, this one keeps falling asleep. And they checked your blood sugar right in the office, and they couldn't even read it. Well, that's kind of cool that they knew to check your blood sugar, you know. So you were you didn't have any long, drawn out problems trying to figure out you had type one they told you right in the office. Do you remember what happened next? Did you go to the hospital? Or how did they handle it? I went to the hospital and got admitted. Okay, how long were you there? Three days, I think, three days. Okay, kind of fast forwarding a little bit you get out of the hospital and you have diabetes now, but 21 years ago. So 21 years ago, 2004 right around there. That sounds about right. Sounds about right. Okay. So do they give you pens or just needles? Does anybody talk about insulin pumps like how do you recall the management in the very beginning?
Crystal 3:29
Well, when I started, I was using the insulin syringes, but they didn't really talk about pumps or anything,
Scott Benner 3:37
nothing like that. Now, did your parents help you with your diabetes, or did they leave it to you?
Crystal 3:42
My dad was actually a really, a big hope before he died.
Scott Benner 3:45
Oh, gosh, when did you lose your dad?
Crystal 3:47
Four or five years ago, the lung cancer.
Scott Benner 3:50
Oh, I'm sorry. Were your parents together when you were diagnosed?
Speaker 1 3:53
My mom
Crystal 3:55
had died when I was eight.
Scott Benner 3:58
Crystal. How did your mom pass away? Kidney failure? Oh, I'm so sorry. So your mom passed away about four years before you were diagnosed. Then you were diagnosed. Did she have diabetes or any other health issues?
Crystal 4:13
My mom had it when she was pregnant. My dad's type two, and so is my brother, but I'm the only type one, okay,
Scott Benner 4:21
but your mom had gestational Yep, okay, kidney failure. I'm sorry to ask, but was that related to something or just out of the blue, my mom was only born with one kidney, like I was, oh, no kidding. Your mom had one kidney and I was born with one. You were born with one as well. Did something happen that precipitated her kidney failure, illness? Or is that? I don't understand, people live with one kidney, right?
Crystal 4:47
So I think she was just born with that. I don't think it caused her diabetes or anything.
Scott Benner 4:54
No, no. I mean, like her passing, was there an illness that, like, you know, what? I created the damage to the kidney that led to the failure. She wasn't taking good care of herself. Oh, okay. When did you know you were born with one kidney? Anything clicked when I was in elementary school? Okay. How many does your brother have? He has both of his. What a jerk. Okay. Well, I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your parents. That's terrible, but I want to go back to you're diagnosed, and your dad is really helpful with your diabetes. So what does that mean? Like, how was he helpful?
Crystal 5:30
When I was going to school, I would check my blood sugar, and then I didn't know how to do shots. If my blood sugar was high, he would go up to the school and gave me my shots.
Scott Benner 5:41
That's nice. That's very nice of him. When do you think, at what age did you become a little more proficient taking care of yourself? Maybe taking more of it on
Crystal 5:49
sixth or seventh grade? Okay, oh. How old is that? About? 1213, no, 1314,
Scott Benner 5:57
oh, so a little later, then a couple years after your diagnosis, maybe, yep, okay, does that then completely take him out of the care or just more of it's focused on you, and he helps, but he helps less,
Crystal 6:11
that really just focuses more on me, and he kind of helps less, but still helps.
Scott Benner 6:15
Okay, so now looking backwards as an adult. Now, how are you doing taking care of yourself.
Crystal 6:21
The last few weeks, I've gotten better, but I've still got a lot of work to do.
Scott Benner 6:27
So you're telling me that things are shifting for you, but only recently. So for the last 20 years, things have been shaky, very shaky, very shaky. Okay, what does that mean? What are your outcomes like? Do you see an endocrinologist regularly? What are your a one CS?
Crystal 6:47
Well, my last a 1c was a 10, but I'm supposed to go back on the 23rd of this month to talk about the insulin pump.
Scott Benner 6:56
Okay, you're not on a pump. Still not yet. Okay, so crystal, I want you to be like a little introspective, right? Is 10 a pretty average, J, 1c, for you,
Crystal 7:05
10 is average. It's been as high as 13.
Scott Benner 7:10
It's been as high as 13. Why do you think that is?
Crystal 7:13
Well, I wasn't Pre-Bolus thing before my middles or everything I'd eat like cereal and skyrocket.
Scott Benner 7:21
Gotcha, are you telling me that it's a little to do with how you're using your insulin, a little to do with what you're eating?
Crystal 7:28
It is. And also, they had me on a sliding
Scott Benner 7:31
scale. You've been on a sliding scale for 10 years. Yep. Where do you live? I'm in South Carolina. South Carolina. I guess now you've figured out that you need to do something different, but before you knew that, did you feel like you were doing well during those years? Would you leave an endocrinologist office thinking, Gosh, I am not doing a good job. Or did you think this is going right? Like, what's your like takeaway when you leave those appointments?
Crystal 8:00
I knew I wasn't doing good. I even went into DKA last
Speaker 1 8:04
year. Okay? And
Scott Benner 8:06
when you know you're not doing well, what stops you from trying to figure out a better way? Well helping,
Crystal 8:14
listening to the podcast, asking people in the group
Scott Benner 8:18
you've just decided to, like, dig into it more,
Crystal 8:22
yep, ever since I went to DKA last year.
Scott Benner 8:25
Okay, that's the answer. So DKA kind of got you thinking, I got to do something. Tell me about the dka. How did it start, and what was it like?
Crystal 8:34
I tried to go to sleep one night, and I just kept getting sick. It was two o'clock in the morning, my stepmom called an ambulance. I got to the hospital, my blood sugar was like 918 I wasn't responding to their questions or anything. The last thing I remember when I got there was them shining a light in my eye to wake me up. Okay? I was in the ICU for
Scott Benner 9:02
three days. Were you conscious the entire time?
Crystal 9:06
I was conscious, but very confused the first three days.
Scott Benner 9:10
Okay, Crystal, tell me, how does that happen? Your MDI, right. Were you not taking your basal insulin? Were you not injecting for meals? Like, how does your blood sugar? Were you sick? Like, what happened?
Crystal 9:21
Well, I was skipping shots, and I had a bad infection too.
Scott Benner 9:26
So you had an infection, which was adding to your insulin need, but you're skipping Why were you skipping shots to lose weight a little bit? Ah, okay, so is that a thing you've done throughout your life?
Crystal 9:39
It is, but I haven't really lately, I've been taking
Scott Benner 9:42
them all. Okay, where did you learn that? Just by, like, Googling, okay. Now, do you know that's dangerous when you're doing it? I learned that the hard way. So, okay, so this is interesting, Crystal, and please don't be embarrassed like I appreciate you sharing your story. Okay? I. Huh? So was your weight an issue, and you were trying to find ways to do something about it, and you tripped across the information. Or, like, how does that first come to be the first time that you thought, I'm going to restrict my insulin, because I'll try to lose weight that way. Do you remember how you got to that information?
Crystal 10:16
I don't really. But when I was going to school, I was, like, always picked on about my
Scott Benner 10:21
weight. Oh, your whole life. Yep. Okay, and so you're looking for ways to deal with it, which wasn't really the healthiest way. No, no, no, no, let's not be unclear. Crystal, it's not a good idea at all. So you find out through googling. I would give anything to be there the day you were Googling and to know what you typed in to get that information, but like you're looking for ways to lose weight, and you come up with, if I don't take my insulin, I'll lose weight,
Speaker 1 10:49
yep.
Crystal 10:51
Didn't even think of the consequences or anything.
Scott Benner 10:54
You didn't think of what might happen. How old do you think you were the first time you did that? 1617, maybe 16 or 17. And you tell me again you're how old right now? 3333 did it work the first time you did it? Or did it work enough that you thought I'll try it again? How often did you do that
Crystal 11:13
it worked to where I thought I'd try it again?
Scott Benner 11:17
Okay. Was it a thing you did yearly, twice a year. How frequently? Like, yearly, once a year. Okay, don't answer me if you don't want to, okay. But would you tell me how tall you are and how much you weighed when the first time you try to
Crystal 11:33
do it? I have one, I think I was like, right at 200
Scott Benner 11:37
okay? And what's your weight now? 202.
Crystal 11:42
Now I gained like eight pounds.
Scott Benner 11:45
I see you pretty much maintained around that 200 weight, though, I assume you haven't grown. You're still five one, right?
Crystal 11:52
No, I'm still five one. I've been as low as 150s
Scott Benner 11:55
before, though, okay, what age? I think that was about two years ago. How did you get to that? Was it restricting insulin? Or were you dieting, exercising, or did you find something else
Crystal 12:08
I was not doing shots and walking a lot, okay?
Scott Benner 12:12
And while you're doing that, you think, I want to make sure I understand what you were thinking during that, during that you were thinking, Hey, I found a way to lose weight. This is great. Where you thought I'm potentially hurting myself, but I'm losing weight, so I'll go with it really. The second one, you did have some idea that this wasn't okay not taking the insulin.
Speaker 1 12:33
Yeah, okay. Would you describe to me
Scott Benner 12:37
a general idea of what you eat in the course of a day,
Crystal 12:40
usually in the morning will be like cereal, which I'm trying to not eat as much, because I'll wake up my blood sugar will be like 90, and it'll shoot right up to three, four hundreds before
Scott Benner 12:55
you eat or after you eat, before I eat, before you eat. So you wake up in the morning with a lower blood sugar. And do you shoot your basal insulin before you go to bed? I do like right before, right before. Okay, so overnight, you have a pretty stable overnight blood sugar normally. Do you have a CGM? I'm sorry, I have the Dexcom g7 okay, you're wearing a g7 so overnight, what are your blood sugars look like overnight you shoot your what is it? Levimir, Lantus, Toshiba, what do you use? I'm on Trujillo, oh, to Jero, okay, overnight. And then what are your blood sugars look like overnight?
Crystal 13:30
Well, last night, I kept having to wake up because they kept dropping during the night. And I woke up and it was at
Speaker 1 13:39
like 40. Oh, you're getting low last night? I ended up like with
Crystal 13:42
two juices last night. Were
Scott Benner 13:44
you particularly active yesterday? A lot of walking or out in the heat or something like that. I'm usually always walking or I go outside. I feed stray cats. Okay, take care of them. Oh, that's nice. Is that your job? Do you have a job. What do you do?
Crystal 14:01
I don't so pretty much. My stray cats, I'll take care of them. When they have kittens. I'll find the kittens homes.
Scott Benner 14:11
That's so nice to you. Live with your stepmom. I do and my brother. Okay. Are you not working on purpose, or is there a reason I'm really not able to tell me about that
Crystal 14:24
I have, like, so many health problems on SSI and everything.
Scott Benner 14:30
What are some of your other health problems? I'm missing a heart valve. Wait, you have one? What'd you just say you have a single heart valve? This episode is sponsored by tandem Diabetes Care, and today I'm going to tell you about tandems, newest pumping algorithm, the tandem mobi system with control iq plus technology features auto Bolus, which can cover missed meal boluses and help prevent hyperglycemia. It has a dedicated sleep activity setting and is controlled. Controlled from your personal iPhone. Tandem will help you to check your benefits today through my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, this is going to help you to get started with tandems, smallest pump yet that's powered by its best algorithm ever control IQ. Plus technology helps to keep blood sugars in range by predicting glucose levels 30 minutes ahead and it adjusts insulin accordingly. You can wear the tandem mobi in a number of ways. Wear it on body with a patch like adhesive sleeve that is sold separately. Clip it discreetly to your clothing or slip it into your pocket head. Now to my link, tandem diabetes.com/juicebox, to check out your benefits and get started today. I have always disliked ordering diabetes supplies. I'm guessing you have as well. It hasn't been a problem for us for the last few years, though, because we began using us Med, you can too us med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514, to get your free benefits. Check us med has served over 1 million people living with diabetes since 1996 they carry everything you need, from CGM to insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies and more. I'm talking about all the good ones, all your favorites, libre three, Dexcom, g7 and pumps like Omnipod five, Omnipod dash tandem, and most recently, the eyelet pump from beta bionics, the stuff you're looking for, they have it at us. Med, 888-721-1514, or go to us. Med.com/juicebox, to get started now use my link to support the podcast that's us, med.com/juicebox, or call 888-721-1514,
Crystal 16:47
no, I am missing one.
Scott Benner 16:49
You're missing a heart valve. I was like, I don't think you're gonna be okay with just one. So you're so there's a congenital defect. You you're missing a heart valve. I was born that way, right, right, right. And you have one kidney.
Speaker 1 17:00
What else
Crystal 17:02
I was born without a uterus.
Scott Benner 17:05
Get the hell out of here. Seriously, yep, did your mom crystal? I almost said the dumbest thing that anybody could possibly say. I almost said, Did your mom have a uterus? I wouldn't be here. I know crystal. That's why it's to be the dumbest thing anyone could have ever said in that situation.
Crystal 17:27
Oh, my gosh. Okay. Made my face like, turn all right,
Scott Benner 17:31
yeah, made me mine too. I was like, Oh, I don't have to tell people this, but I'm just gonna say it anyway. I almost said something so stupid. I'm sorry. Any anything else, the heart, the heart, uterus,
Crystal 17:44
kidney, well, I have high cholesterol, okay, I had high blood pressure, but that's actually gotten more normal now, and I've gotten taken off for the pills.
Scott Benner 17:59
That's good. That's awesome. What did you do in school? What did you enjoy in high school?
Speaker 1 18:04
Well,
Crystal 18:06
my favorite class was drama class. I love the stage
Scott Benner 18:12
and chorus. Okay, did you go to college? I did not. Did you consider it? I did consider it, but
Crystal 18:21
it's like, so expensive,
Scott Benner 18:23
yeah, no, I understand. If you went, what do you think you would have gone for?
Crystal 18:27
Maybe nursing. I kind of like to help
Scott Benner 18:29
people. You like helping people. Okay, so you don't see yourself in the future having a job
Crystal 18:36
I do, and I've been kind of looking around, what do you think you might look into, maybe, like working at the hospital or with pets, children?
Scott Benner 18:46
Yeah, stuff, helping people, helping pets. You enjoy that because I'm good with kids too. Yeah, you are. Oh, that's awesome. I am too, by the way, kids love me.
Crystal 18:57
It's funny. I'll go swimming and stuff, and a kid will randomly come up to me and be like, hey, I want to play tag in the water.
Scott Benner 19:05
Oh, that's lovely. Do you have something called Have you ever heard somebody call, my gosh? What is this? Muller Aryan, agnesis. I've actually never heard those words. A female born with no uterus. Mayor, my gosh. Why would they use something, something Houser syndrome, one kidney called renal agnesis, missing a heart valve. Oh, and I do have another condition get out of here. What else trying to think how to
Crystal 19:35
hydro something supera, the skin condition.
Scott Benner 19:40
Okay, hold on, skin condition. Let me see if I can figure it out. Skin condition, hydro, H, hydro, what
Speaker 1 19:49
hydro? I don't know.
Crystal 19:53
Superior is at the end, I don't know the ER told me one day I got it,
Scott Benner 19:58
he found it. Hydro. Written, okay, hold on. Hydronetis, superlative, yeah, that one abbreviated HS, chronic skin condition that causes painful lumps or nodules under the skin, often in areas where skin rubs together, like armpits, groin, under your breast, buttocks, lumps can become inflamed and swollen, rupture and drain, form tunnels or tracks and scar over time. It is not contagious and not caused by poor hygiene. This is a thing you have.
Crystal 20:27
I got that diagnosed with that when I was in the hospital with the
Scott Benner 20:33
infection, oh, the infection in the dka. It
Crystal 20:36
was like under my arm, under your arm, where was the infection? I have, like, two cysts under my left arm, and they got infected, and I didn't even know I had it until they said, I got you because
Scott Benner 20:48
you slipped into the DK, and they took you to the hospital, and then they found all that stuff when they were trying to figure out what was going on.
Crystal 20:54
And I have another one too.
Scott Benner 20:56
You have another what condition Go ahead? Gastroparesis. You have gastroparesis, stomach damage? Yeah, from the high blood sugars all those years,
Crystal 21:06
they told me I could still have breakfast in me by dinner time. That's how slow my digestive system is.
Scott Benner 21:13
Oh, gosh. Have you ever tried a little over the counter digestive enzyme to put along with your food to help it break down. I haven't I wonder if that helps it might you can find them. I mean, pretty much anywhere you can get them, on Amazon. Amazon comes to South Carolina, right? Oh, yeah, I love Amazon. Who doesn't? Let's see, hold on, digestive enzymes. I'm gonna look for you. There are probably a ton of different kinds. I would try pure encapsulations. Is one company that makes digestive enzymes. And if you want something that might be a little better priced, there's something, something called Super enzymes by now also should be pretty valuable, based on how I'm seeing them formulated here. Yeah, that 112's bucks. Listen, you know, I mean, everything's expensive. Now, 90 of them for $12 let's see it. Has the beta team, HCI, the ox bile, yeah, this ought to be okay, yeah, like take a capsule with a meal and see if, um, if, if you don't, maybe experience, uh, some better digestion does. Does the slow digestion cause problems on the other side, when it's coming out,
Crystal 22:35
it does. And I'll I get, like, a lot of stomach pain,
Scott Benner 22:39
yeah, this might help with that. It's worth a try. It's worth $12 to try. I think
Crystal 22:43
I'll get that. And leg cramps, a lot leg cramps.
Scott Benner 22:47
You could address the leg cramps with magnesium. Uh huh. Hold on a second. Are you taking any vitamins in general,
Crystal 22:57
right now? I'm not, but I'd be open to it.
Scott Benner 23:01
When you say problems going to the bathroom comes out too much or not enough. Not enough. I like you trying a magnesium oxide and the digestive enzyme. This should be, maybe there should be a pretty cheap magnesium oxide. Hold on a second. I'll send these to you when we're done. All right, so I like twin lab. They sell a two pack for 20 bucks. That's not bad, but you can get cheaper if you want it, but it has to be oxide, magnesium oxide. I would try one of those a day for going to the bathroom more consistently. And I would try the digestive enzyme with meals to see if you can't get your digestion to work a little better. Now that we've kind of gone all through that, and I feel like we have a good idea of who you are and how you got where you are, I need to ask you the DK, happens? You come out and you say to yourself, I gotta do better. What's your next step when you realize you have to do better?
Crystal 24:05
Well, right now I'm trying to get the Omnipod, but my doctor wants me to see her first
Scott Benner 24:13
before you can get a pump, before you get any pump or Omnipod. And you looking for Omnipod five, you want some automation or you What are you thinking
Crystal 24:21
about? I'm trying to decide between the Omnipod five and the tandem tea
Scott Benner 24:26
slim control IQ. Okay. I mean, I think either is a good option for you. Do you prefer the tubeless part, or do you not mind the tubing? Which one do you think you'd have an easier time with? I don't really mind the tubing. You don't mind the tubing. Okay, so you're looking right now at tandem control IQ, the x2 probably, or the Omnipod five.
Crystal 24:47
The only thing I would worry about is going low during the night.
Scott Benner 24:51
Well, both of those systems are going to do their they're going to try to keep you from getting low overnight. I don't think it's always going to work, but they're going to they're going to try. They're. What's your a 1c, right now? Did you say it's 10 right now?
Crystal 25:03
It's right at 10, and that's down from a 13.
Scott Benner 25:08
Okay, you've gotten it down since the dka, yep, by doing what,
Crystal 25:13
just trying to watch what I eat more, and Pre-Bolus thing that's been a really difficult where'd you learn about that Ryan's actually helped me a lot. Oh, you
Scott Benner 25:23
mean in my Facebook group, yep. What's up, Ryan? Good for you, man out there, helping people. That's awesome.
Crystal 25:29
He's awesome. He is, isn't he? I'm not. Nico. Are really good.
Scott Benner 25:34
Nico's awesome too. Yeah, no kidding, Crystal, look at you. Like so how did you find the Facebook group?
Crystal 25:40
I was searching diabetic groups on Facebook once, and that actually came up,
Scott Benner 25:44
got your attention, and you went and checked it out. Yep, you found all the lovely people inside trying to help each other. Benner, I didn't need the other groups. Well, the other ones, of course, are, you know, what do you need when you got the best you don't need the rest.
Crystal 25:58
And so many that are helpful in this group too.
Scott Benner 26:01
Really awesome people. No kidding, right? Yeah, that's that's excellent. I want to ask, though, at the hospital, did someone in the hospital, or a family member, your brother, or perhaps your your stepmom, did someone direct you and say, hey, you've got to get help, or is that something you came to on your own.
Speaker 1 26:20
That's
Crystal 26:21
really something. I came to on my own. Okay, awesome. And then when I saw the 918 I'm like, Yeah, that's not
Scott Benner 26:29
good, yeah. So listen, I'm not your dad, right? But I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you something. Okay, restricting your insulin is not okay. Don't do that. Okay? You're right to decide to eat differently, because when you take in fewer calories and use the correct amount of insulin, if you eat the calories that you should in a day and take in the insulin, you're going to lose weight. And it'll take a little bit of time, but it will, it'll work. I would also say obviously that keep going with, like, moving around, getting outside, walking all really great stuff. Make sure you're drinking, you know, a fair amount of water.
Crystal 27:09
Yeah, I'm kind of bad at not drinking water.
Scott Benner 27:11
What do you drink when you're thirsty? Diet soda, all right, so no sugar in your drinks, right?
Crystal 27:18
No diet soda or tea, but sometimes a sweet tea.
Scott Benner 27:22
Okay, no, sweet tea. Okay, listen to me, don't drink sugar. Okay, simple thing to do, don't drink sugar. That's going to help you a lot, lot of calories, lot of sugar, a lot of need for more insulin. If you take in too many calories, and you know you're you're going to gain weight, so you're going to have to restrict your insulin a little bit. Look for foods that are easier to digest. I would mix cereal. Is that one crystal? I haven't gotten to that yet, but please stop eating cereal. Okay, yeah. What kind of cereal you're
Crystal 27:54
eating? Like the rice krispies, the sugar cereal, basically
Scott Benner 27:58
not good. Hard to Bolus for lots of calories, lots of sugar, right? What if we had, have you? Have you? Do you like an egg? Have you had an egg? Ever hard boiled eggs? You like a hard boiled egg? Have you ever, have you ever poached an egg? I haven't, but that actually sounds good, a little bit. A low rolling boil, a splash of vinegar helps it stay. Crack the egg right into the water. Then you just you decide how much you want the the yolk cooked. You leave it in till it gets as firm as you want it. Take it out. Lovely salt, pepper. You're gonna love it. Okay? Scrambled egg, perhaps fried egg, even tiny bit of butter, I don't mind that in the morning with some sort of protein. You know what I mean? Mix it with, I don't know, anything you like really. You know, you like bacon, have some bacon. You you like a sausage, have a little sausage, chicken, anything at all, like that. Pro, try to stay higher protein in the morning, like that. It'll help you lose weight, to give you energy for the day. Won't be hard on your blood sugars. Do you like a salad? What do you have for lunch?
Crystal 29:06
Lunch is usually just pretty much a sandwich,
Speaker 1 29:10
okay, what kind of sandwich you enjoy?
Crystal 29:12
Ham, roast beef,
Scott Benner 29:14
okay, is that like a deli meats that you get from the grocery store?
Crystal 29:18
Yeah, like a Walmart. Okay, all right. And I'll put cheese on it sometimes.
Scott Benner 29:23
Not bad. What do you what do you bread? What kind of bread you like?
Speaker 1 29:26
White bread? All right, I know that
Crystal 29:29
one can cause your sugar to go up too.
Scott Benner 29:31
No. But let's just make sure that we're buying white bread that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it. So you, you're gonna look on the label for no high fructose corn syrup, and that's extra added sugar that you don't want. And there are plenty of breads out there that you can get that don't have that that would be a big help for you. And then what are you having with that sandwich?
Crystal 29:51
Usually I'll have, like, some chips. I'm bad at having Pringles. Pringles.
Scott Benner 29:57
Which ones you like, the red or the green? I.
Crystal 30:00
Like the sour cream, one with
Scott Benner 30:04
the the orange can you're telling me, yep, I hear you. Okay. Is there a world where I could have you replace the Pringles with maybe just a nice tortilla chip that would probably work? Yeah, of course. It would just a nice, simple tortilla chip. Gonna try to take some of the processing out of that, of those Pringles. I mean, I listen Pringles, awesome. I know what you're talking about. It's crunchy and it's salty and it's Gail zing from it, but not good for you. These are the things. You remove these things from your diet, you're gonna use less insulin, you're gonna lose weight. You're gonna be in a completely different situation. And you know, how much weight would you like to lose?
Crystal 30:45
About 20 or 30. Nothing too crazy.
Scott Benner 30:48
Okay. Well, listen, you'll never know where it lands. You know, when you you adjust your your intake a little bit, you're going to use less insulin. And then, you know, you have no idea where it'll, where it'll, where your body will kind of find its spot where it wants to be once you're taking in kind of an appropriate amount of calories in the day. How about dinner? Your mom cook, or your stepmom cook or or do you cook?
Crystal 31:11
Does dinner kind of usually varies.
Speaker 1 31:16
How last night was? Beef stew.
Crystal 31:21
Okay, I will do like spaghetti, some night stormy tacos. All right, all
Scott Benner 31:27
that sounds great. Do you know how to Bolus for that stuff? You learning?
Crystal 31:31
Learning? It's a process. Yeah, it
Scott Benner 31:34
certainly is. No it takes time to figure it out. Your stepmom helping you with any of this, or are you pretty much leaning on the people online. Pretty much just leaning to the people online. Yeah, does she have any health issues? Your step mom? How old is she?
Crystal 31:48
I think she just turned
Speaker 1 31:49
60. Okay, that's nice, nice age. Did you have a party?
Crystal 31:55
No, just a stay at home day.
Scott Benner 31:58
How about a card? Did anybody get a card. I made her a card. Hey, that's very nice. Did you draw something on the front? I did, but nothing fancy. I'm not a good drawer. I'm not either. I want to tell you very, very bad with the drawing. If people who are good at drawing are considered talented, I don't know what I'm considered not talented. At the very least, I'm terrible at drawing. I can barely write and read my own writing when I'm done.
Crystal 32:22
I have that problem too. Then it's like, Okay, what does that say? What did I write there? Oh, that
Scott Benner 32:27
happens to me a lot. I throw away a lot of notes. And the last thing I think was, huh, I wonder what that said. Do you use, like, a lot of white out? No, not anymore, but yeah, I used to, do you use white
Speaker 1 32:39
out? I do all the time.
Scott Benner 32:42
Awesome. I didn't even know when I
Crystal 32:44
was in school doing homework and stuff. I'm like, okay, that doesn't sound right, yeah. Do you have a computer? I do. I'm in the process of trying to save up for another one too.
Scott Benner 32:54
Okay, all right. How much do you think you'll need to get a new computer? 500 600 they're expensive. They are, they are, what do you use it for?
Crystal 33:03
Mostly, mostly, I'll play games, listen to the podcast, listen to YouTube,
Scott Benner 33:09
gotcha, and reach out to people online, but in the Facebook group too, I would imagine.
Crystal 33:14
And I'll watch peacock and Hulu on here too.
Scott Benner 33:17
Hulu, do you watch that murders and only murders in the building show. Oh, I do, yeah, the new the new season just came out the other day.
Crystal 33:25
I actually just got Netflix. I started watching Wednesday.
Scott Benner 33:29
Oh, I think there's two seasons of that available right now. I'm only on episode three. Yeah, are you liking it so far? I am. She's Interesting, yeah, no, no, she is. She's got a weird look, right? All right, so crystal, you're doing a good job here for yourself. You're trying to get the pump, like, How long till you think you're gonna have a pump in hand?
Crystal 33:49
Well, I see her on the 23rd and she said she'll send a prescription, and from there, I've talked to the pharmacy, and they said it would only take three to five days to get to me. Okay, so
Scott Benner 34:01
this is going to be covered by your what do you have Medicare? I do okay, and they're going to cover that.
Crystal 34:08
And then I'd have to set up training and all that. Yeah, I hear
Scott Benner 34:11
what you're saying. You're definitely going to need training. They're going to switch your insulin, you know, what's your fast acting insulin?
Crystal 34:17
Now I'm on Humalog. I took Novolog a long time ago.
Scott Benner 34:22
Okay, well, Humalog will work. The Humalog will go into your pump, and then there won't be any more of the to zero. That'll be gone. You won't need
Speaker 1 34:30
that anymore once, that'll be a whole lot easier.
Scott Benner 34:32
Yeah, right? One insulin, the pump will take care of it. But now you know, when you're using a pump, you we don't want you back in DK ever again, right? So, like, you the pump can't run out. You can't go like, Oh, I'll put another one in an hour or something. Like, you got to keep your pump on. Keep things going Bolus, your meals, keep Pre-Bolus in the way you're doing. You know, always have that pump on. That's going to be very important, okay,
Speaker 1 34:56
yeah, and make sure
Crystal 34:58
it doesn't like, fall off or anything.
Scott Benner 35:00
And, yeah, right, you know, hopefully it'll stick to you nicely if you get the Omnipod, and if not, like, if you have trouble with it with your skin, you can get, like, overlay patches that help hold it down. If you go with the tandem, the control IQ, it'll just be your infusion set that'll have a little sticky on it. And people don't normally have too much trouble with those that'll help when I go swimming and stuff. Yeah, exactly. Do you swim a lot? Very rarely. No, well, where would you swim in South Carolina? Pool. I got to a public pool. Usually was gonna say public pool, or a lake or something. Are there lakes in South Carolina, or are there alligators in those lakes? We've got a couple of lakes. I don't know much about South Carolina. I've driven through it, but that's it. They do have that one thing out on the highway the south of the border. Have you ever driven past that? I've driven past that a couple of times. Okay, do you drive I don't something I'm working on too. Okay, trying to learn. Yep. Okay, that's awesome.
Crystal 36:01
Instead of having to ask people to take me to the doctor and all that, yeah, do you date? Actually, I am in a long distance relationship. Are you now? We've been dating seven
Scott Benner 36:14
years. He lives in New York. No kidding. How'd you meet? We met online. Actually, very nice. What's his deal? What's he do right now? He doesn't have a job. He's looking for a new one. What did he do before corrections? He's a corrections officer. Uh huh. Oh, interesting. Ad. Do you get to see each other in person
Crystal 36:34
ever? About once a year?
Scott Benner 36:38
Maybe no kidding. Do you think you'll ever move to be closer to each other.
Crystal 36:42
He's actually thinking about moving to Florida.
Scott Benner 36:46
That's a little closer than New York, about,
Crystal 36:49
I don't even know how much closer,
Scott Benner 36:52
no, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say about 500 miles. Come off the top, then it's probably like 300 miles closer than not, except probably a lot closer by car all of a sudden. You know, that'd be exciting and be
Crystal 37:05
very doable to come visit. Yeah, of course,
Scott Benner 37:08
that'd be lovely. What are your goals around the diabetes? Like, where do you hope to put your a 1c, if and when you get it to a point where you're like, This is awesome. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Like, where do you imagine that
Crystal 37:22
being the lowest my a 1c has ever been was 7.5 I'd like to get it there or lower?
Scott Benner 37:31
Yeah, I think you put a pump on and you get good settings and cover your meals. I think a sevens very doable.
Crystal 37:41
Might have to, like, tweak the settings, maybe a little bit, yeah.
Scott Benner 37:43
I mean, along the way, that's gonna, that's definitely gonna be true. You're gonna need to get, you know, the doctor's gonna have to help you get set up in a reasonable way. You'll see what's going on, right? Like, there might be times where I don't know you might, like, you know, around your period, for example, oh you don't have a uterus. Do you get a
Crystal 38:01
period? I don't actually,
Scott Benner 38:04
awesome. That's good. Now people are jealous.
Crystal 38:08
I don't want one of those.
Scott Benner 38:09
Yeah, nobody wants that. Do you get, like, a hormonal shift every month, even though you're not having a period?
Crystal 38:16
I do a little bit, and I'm on birth control.
Scott Benner 38:20
Okay, so you do have that birth control for. What's the birth control for? To help with hormones, keep your hormones more stable. How long have you been on those
Crystal 38:29
since high school? I think it's been a while. Why did they put you on them originally? Honestly, I don't even remember. I'm saying,
Scott Benner 38:38
Crystal, why don't you talk to your doctor about that, because couldn't that be I mean, I'm not a lady, but couldn't the birth control help or be part of your issue with weight? Maybe, hold on a second, I don't know, so I'm gonna try to find out birth control can affect weight, but the relationship is more nuanced on a second, water retention, hormonal effects on appetite, estrogen and progression and birth control can increase appetite in individuals, potentially leading to increase the calorie intake. Small portion of users may see shifts in where their body stores fat, like hips, thighs, breast due to hormonal changes. Most large, well controlled studies find little to no significant long term weight gain from birth control. Anyway, I would ask a doctor, I don't really know, but I would say, Hey, I've been on birth control for 15 years or more here, and I got to be honest with you, I don't have a uterus, and my boyfriend's in New York, so is this a thing I need to be doing? Could this be part of my issue with my weight? Ask the question, see if you can get an answer from a doctor on that
Crystal 39:49
yeah, because I was just at the doctor the other day and she said I gained eight pounds.
Scott Benner 39:54
Yeah. I mean, what was her advice? The only thing she really,
Crystal 40:03
pretty much, only told me was stop eating cereal.
Scott Benner 40:06
I mean, it's good advice, but it makes me wonder why she didn't wonder about the about the birth control too. I'd want to, I'd ask about that. If I was the doctor, I would, I would kind of dig into that a little more, because eight pounds kind of seems like a lot. It is, right? I mean, like 5% of your weight, actually, so it's a, it's a big number for that. And did you change anything? You're using more insulin, right?
Crystal 40:31
Yeah, I'm using more insulin, just Pre-Bolus thing, and I didn't really change much.
Scott Benner 40:35
Okay, so crystal, I'm going to tell you this. I think, like you said, if we if you eliminate the cereal and, you know, go with something like something more natural in the morning, like I said, eggs, some sort of protein, like meat, you know what I mean, bacon, sausage, I don't know, anything like that. You know, try to stay away from bread that has a lot of sugar in it, so no high fructose corn syrup. Take a look on the label. Just make sure it doesn't say high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients. Drink a little more water. Keep going outside, moving around, walking, you know, finding exercise. But I would just try to cut sugar out of my diet. Sweet tea. No, you know that's just, yeah, not really healthy. Yeah, that's empty calories and a lot of sugar you don't need, and more insulin, because you're gonna have to Bolus for the sugar in
Crystal 41:27
it. Think I drink too many diet sodas? I'm like, hooked on those.
Scott Benner 41:30
Yeah? Well, listen, I prefer if you didn't drink too much soda, but over sweet tea, I'm choosing the diet soda over the sweet tea, yeah, whether the sweet tea, yeah. I mean, there's other stuff you could do. There's some, oh gosh, like, there's like, no sugar, like, cranberry juice. I don't know if there's other things you might find that you enjoy. I don't know you have to cut.
Crystal 41:50
I like those. I don't know if you've seen them, those Starburst flavored waters.
Scott Benner 41:55
I have not. But that does not sound like it's gonna be. Hold on, Alexa, do they have sugar? Actually zero sugar. Okay. Well, listen, anything zero sugar, I think is better than sugar for you. Uh huh, you're telling me there are Starburst waters,
Crystal 42:09
flavored water.
Scott Benner 42:10
Yep. Come on a second. Where do we live? Oh, yeah, there it is. How about that Starburst ice? Yep, they're actually good. I imagine they might be tasty. Strawberries, zero sugar, okay? Well, like four or five flavors, I think. How much are they? Expensive?
Crystal 42:30
$1 and stuff at Walmart.
Scott Benner 42:33
Okay, I was looking at the Walmart right here because I knew you said you went there 12 pack, a 12 pack of variety, 17 ounces, 12 pieces. How much? Why won't you give me a price? You would think I would give you a price. Yeah, you know, on it, don't they want me buying? Oh, $24 everything's gone up. You're not kidding. So that's $2 a bottle. Well, you know what they say about water pre Yep, yeah,
Crystal 43:06
and I prefer bottled water because I've got well water.
Scott Benner 43:11
Does it taste like minerally? It does? Yeah, icky, a little icky. I hear you. Well, then, okay, then bottled water, it is all right. Do you know what you're doing now. You have a good idea, a plan
Crystal 43:24
I do, and hopefully that ANC will get down soon.
Scott Benner 43:28
Listen, you're paying attention to it. Crystal, that's the biggest deal. Okay, so you're paying attention you have a goal. You know what you're you know, you know what you want to get done. You know, you've outlined all the smart ideas eliminating sugar and junky food from your diet, you're already getting outside, moving around a lot. You keep doing that. Do more if you can. You know, be careful. You know, as you're changing your diet, we don't want you to have in a bunch of low blood sugars because you're using more insulin. You know, you're using the amount of insulin that you usually use with the junky food, and then you take it away. You know, you might see some need to adjust your, you know, your basal insulin, if you're getting low or seeing lower blood sugars. So keep an eye on that. Talk to your doctor about it. I'd let them know, you know, the first time it happens, you know, you see a low, it's hard to deal with, and you've changed your diet. I'd call and say, hey, look, you know, I've cut some things out of my diet, but I'm seeing some low blood sugars. Do you think we should adjust my basal? You know, maybe my insulin sensitivity for corrections.
Crystal 44:29
One thing I'm trying to get better at when you wake up in the morning and your blood sugar just rises foot on the floor,
Scott Benner 44:36
yeah, you get nervous in the morning, or adrenaline, excited. How do you feel in the morning when you wake up? I get like, excited, yeah, yeah, to get the day going right,
Crystal 44:46
and then it'll shoot up. Then you're like, uh, really?
Scott Benner 44:49
Have you tried, like, waking up and giving yourself a little insulin right away? I have, like, 10 minutes before I wake up. How does that work? That's actually how. Helped a whole lot better, good, yeah? Just kind of get in the way of that rise with some insulin.
Crystal 45:06
I kind of freak when I see double arrows up, though, yeah.
Scott Benner 45:10
I mean, listen, I understand you don't want that, but you don't have to freak out. Also, I think with either of the pumps that you're talking about, they, you know, both have, you know, automated systems that should help you with that. As that rise starts to occur, it should start pushing back, even before you you're awake, to push the button and ask for more. So that can help as well. Maybe I didn't even think of that. I think you're going to be in a much different situation in six months from now. You know, because you got a different focus, you're going to have different tools that should give you enough time to figure out, you know, your settings and how to use your pump and everything. And I think you're going to be really pleased with with yourself and all the work you've put in, you know, a few months from now,
Crystal 45:53
and it'll be a lot better than using shots.
Scott Benner 45:56
You prefer to get rid of the shots if you can. Yep, yeah. How many shots you have a day usually. Right now
Crystal 46:01
it's three to four shots today, but lately, it's been more with corrections.
Scott Benner 46:06
Okay, yeah, is that counting your basal or plus basal? The plus basal? Yeah, three or four shots. Are you injecting just when you're eating meals? I do just before I eat? Okay? But now you're starting to do more corrections for high blood sugars. Yep, that's a great idea. That's very good. You don't want to sit and stare at your at high blood sugars, right,
Crystal 46:30
and waiting for it to go down before I eat. But I'm just kind of struggling with still. I'm used to just eating.
Scott Benner 46:37
Yeah, well, listen, may I say something between you and I feel like we might be friendly. Now, I'll be honest with you, okay, you're not working just, you know, chill out and wait. Pretty busy, you know, I'm saying, yeah, just like, you know, I know it's tough, but find something to distract yourself with. Just don't get so distracted that you forget to eat. I've actually done that before. Yeah, of course you have everyone has I've made full plates of hot food and never touched it. You ever done that?
Crystal 47:05
Ridiculous? And one day I went there to go lay down, and I'm like, oh, it's dinner time. I need to eat. And my step mom goes, you don't remember you already ate dinner? No kidding. I'm like, wait, I don't remember any of them. Were you just tired? I think I was just exhausted that day.
Scott Benner 47:24
Yeah, you know, you're not gonna feel as tired when you get your your a 1c down, when your blood sugars are lower and stable and they're not fluctuating up and down all the time, you're gonna feel better. You really are. It's gonna change a lot of things for
Crystal 47:36
you. And I won't almost faint, like I almost fainted in church or Walmart once
Scott Benner 47:41
wait from low blood sugars or from high
Crystal 47:45
from, I guess, high blood sugars, that went really low when I was in the store,
Scott Benner 47:51
Oh, I see, start walking around the Walmart, and it crashed. Well, I was in
Crystal 47:55
the pet food aisle, and I started getting dizzy. I looked it was dropping. I go, Oh, I'll feel fine. I get to the cash register and at least start feeling worse. And almost passed out, and a nurse was right behind me.
Scott Benner 48:11
She help you out. She gave me a regular Coke. Nice. What kind of pets you have? Besides the cat? Were you there getting cat food?
Crystal 48:20
I was getting cat food, and I have two birds too.
Scott Benner 48:23
What kind cockatiels? Oh, did they go in the same cage, or they? Did they stay together? Do they have to be separate? They stay together, a boy and a girl? Do they make any babies? Not yet. How long have you had them? It's been five years, they haven't made a baby yet. Nope. Are you sure it's a boy and a girl?
Crystal 48:44
I think not 100% sure.
Speaker 1 48:47
How do you check? I don't even know.
Scott Benner 48:51
Just like Cockatiel or cockati Yeah, cockatiels, they're like, they got the little yellow, they're white, and they have a little yellow up on their head,
Crystal 48:58
right? Yeah. The boy, he is white with like blue, and the girl's really dark.
Scott Benner 49:06
Oh, she's dark, like a great green, gray. Yeah, my friend's mom had them. Actually, he had diabetes too. Did he? I didn't know that. I know, yeah. But do you think cockatoos heels give people diabetes? Now, probably not, right? No, I don't think so. Do you think people with diabetes just like cockatiels? Hmm, there's no way for us to know this. Okay. Do you have any questions for me or anything that you'd like to talk about that we haven't talked about so far? Um, I don't we did a good job. We did you awesome. Oh, you were awesome. I was just okay. You're just okay, yeah, I mean, I did my best, but you were really the star of the show. You really, you really made things work, and
Crystal 49:47
I'm glad this phone works a whole lot better to understand me. Yeah,
Scott Benner 49:50
no, your headset, people don't know this because it was before we started working, but your headset, it sucked. Yeah, I need a new one. That what I tell you. I said, throw that thing in traffic when. You're done. There's nothing good about that thing. But no, this worked out really well. You sound awesome, and you were able to hear me. Okay, right? Big time. Yeah, okay. Well, I just want to tell you that I'm super happy that you found the Facebook group and those people and that they've been helpful for you. I'm really proud of you for taking control of your situation and already getting your a 1c down as much as you have. I really do think that if you keep on the path you're on, and stay focused the way you are, that you're going to learn a lot of new stuff over the next couple of months. And I guarantee you're going to have an A 1c in the sevens when you get that pump. That'll be awesome too. It's really going to be wonderful for you. I hope it, sincerely hope that it helps you with some of your other issues. I think it's definitely going to make you feel better, give you more energy, mental clarity. I hope that you're able to give the magnesium oxide and the digestive enzymes a try, because I'd like to see and not have so much stomach pain, especially when you're eating right and I'd like to see you go to the bathroom every day. Everybody should poop every day. I know, right? Yeah, they say everybody poops, but they didn't meet you. Crystal, you know what I mean? Yep, yeah, you seen that book? Everybody poops. I have that's been a while. It's because it's a kid's book. All right. Well, Crystal, I'm gonna thank you for doing this and say goodbye, but I really appreciate you doing this. Will you hold on one second for me? All right. All right. Hold on one second. Let me hit stop. Okay, where is stop? Oh, it's in the same place. It always is, right there.
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