Scott Benner 1/4/21 Scott Benner 1/4/21

#425 Wine, Beans, Babies and Q

Dr. Q to the Rescue!

Jill was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an adult. She is delightful and this story is crazy.

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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 Hello, should I welcome you to Episode 425? Should I say this is the beginning of season seven? Or should I wish you a Happy 2021? Yeah, who cares? This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod Dexcom and touched by type one. Find out more about the sponsors at Juicebox Podcast comm we're right there in the show notes of your podcast player. And of course, you can always type my omnipod.com forward slash juice box dexcom.com forward slash juice box or touched by type one.org in any browser that you have at your fingertips.

I've taken a couple of weeks off to celebrate the holiday with my family. And I'm back at it. You might not have noticed, because you know, I made sure that the podcast kept coming. But I am refreshed. I'm enthusiastic. I am happy to be out of 2020. And I have for you today an absolutely astounding story from a type one named Jill. You're going to love it. It's got intrigue and twists and turns. There's babies and odd diagnoses. There's even wine.

Jill 1:41
I never wear headphones. I feel like I'm yelling right now. Like, am I talking loud? Am I talking quiet?

Scott Benner 1:47
You're perfect. Just do what you're doing? Do you feel like you can hear your own voice? Or no,

Jill 1:53
I'm wearing like noise cancelling headphones. That's all we had. So it just feels like I don't know what my volume is. But if you say it's fine, then I'll just keep on going.

Scott Benner 2:02
We're terrific. Sounds great. Don't think about anything, we're gonna start right away. I'm super excited to talk to you tell people your name.

Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan. or becoming bold with insulin. We're gonna do a little thing here in 2021, kind of a book club I'm going to tell you about at the end of the episode, but basically, if you go, I don't want to give it all away here. But we're gonna go over the pro tip episodes and then have live chats about them if you'd like to be involved. There. That was a simple way of saying it. Let's listen to this. And I'll tell you about that.

Jill 2:53
My name is Jill Woodruff.

Scott Benner 2:56
Good, perfect. And Jill has such a great story. Like it's fascinating. This is gonna be early, mid 2019. You and I mean, is that right? Yep. Okay, tell people what happened to you.

Jill 3:12
Um, so I was sick for a little while, but I didn't really know I was sick. And then in January,

Unknown Speaker 3:21
I

Jill 3:22
went to urgent care for a yeast infection. And I was like, why do I have a yeast infection? I haven't had that since I was, you know, very young. And I don't know why I would have that. You know, so I I went to urgent care. And they did a pee test. In the pee test. Of course, the urgent care doctor came back and was like, you have a lot of sugar in your pee. And I was like, Okay, I don't know what that means. You should

Scott Benner 3:45
have said of course I do. I'm baking bread and my vagina.

Jill 3:48
Right. I was like, Okay, well, great. Like I'm it's super uncomfortable. Can we just get this over with?

Unknown Speaker 3:54
Yeah, yeah. The fun conversation, Joe.

Jill 3:58
Yeah, he just wanted to run some tests. I'm like, okay, so he goes, and then he comes back and just was like, you know, dropped. It was just like, yeah, you're, you're diabetic. And that was just like, totally out of left field. Because I just went in for something. I thought was just like, another simp. You know, like a woman thing. Just simple. Give me the antibiotics. So we can be done with this. And ended up being like a whole whole thing. Yeah, no

Scott Benner 4:22
kidding. So then do you go right to your primary care doctor, or what do you do then?

Jill 4:27
So I'm really irresponsible. I'm gonna say it's because I'm a millennial, but maybe that's not it. So at the time, I had just turned 30 like two weeks prior. And I feel like I just didn't have like a primary care doctor. I always had Kaiser Permanente, whatever they were before, I can't remember the name, but I always had that kind of doctor. We just kind of go in if you had something, you would see whoever was available. So I didn't have anyone that I had established care with. So I just had an urgent care doctor, I didn't ever really have a real doctor air quotes, right?

Scott Benner 5:05
Because whoever came out from behind the curtain when you were there,

Jill 5:07
yeah. And I didn't really have any health issues before. So I just went in when I had the flu, or you know, for little things, but I didn't have a regular doctor. So this stranger kind of dropped the ball on me. And I was like, Oh, this is why grown up. Like having like an a primary care physician that they know in case something happens,

Scott Benner 5:28
the tiniest bit of like, I know this person while they're telling you things. Well, you know, last week, I had a pinched nerve in my shoulder. And I didn't go to my doctor, I went to a urgent care too, because all I really wanted was like a muscle relaxer, because I was like, my shoulder was spasming. And I was like, I just need this to stop. Yeah, I would have called my doctor, he would have been like, yeah, we can see you in like, maybe 10 days. And you know, it's like, right,

Jill 5:52
it's a whole thing.

Scott Benner 5:54
I can drive up the street, there's a man with a prescription pad and the whole thing's legal. So yep. Now, so, okay, well, you have what was your understanding of diabetes, leaving urgent care?

Jill 6:07
Oh, no, no understanding. So, um, I do want to be clear, like, I'm not blaming my doctors, because now I do kind of understand. You know, like, not everybody's a specialist in diabetes. When I went in, my understanding was, you're a professional, you went to college, you should be giving me obviously, all the information about what you've just told me. I left in total shock. I was like, Okay, I have no idea what to do. He told me to make an appointment with a primary care physician to follow up, and I'm like, okay, I don't have one of those. So I guess I'll just pick someone on this list at this facility. Here wrote me a prescription for Metformin. They had just, they had diagnosed me as type two because of my age. And wrote me a prescription for the Lancet and like the finger prick or whatever. And that's kind of it. I didn't have any information about what to do with any of it. I remember I went to Target to fill my prescription in a total days, because I was like, What is happening? Like, what am I even going to do with this? And I remember, the pharmacist was asking me like, which, I'm sorry, what's the fingerprick are called,

Scott Benner 7:27
like the lance.

Jill 7:29
The Lance is out, as I call it, a finger picker

Unknown Speaker 7:32
was very sophisticated.

Scott Benner 7:33
You know what it is, when you're reaching for it? I think you're fine.

Jill 7:37
You know, there's different brands. And I remember the pharmacist asked me like, which, which brand was it that the doctor needed you to get? And I was like, I just looked at her. I was like, I don't know, what did what does the prescription? I have no idea. I know as much. I know, way less than you. Right? I was just so frustrated. And I just came home and I was like, What do I even do with any of this? I don't know. I don't even know how to prick my finger like am I supposed to? I had no information at all. So that was really frustrating. I ended up YouTubing. How to do it. Wow. It was just so dramatic. Because also like, I don't like pain. I've never I'm not like a tough cookie about anything. You know, if I am hurting, I'm hurting. And so even just a simple thing, like pricking my finger was just a whole ordeal. I remember hours in the kitchen, pacing back and forth, and now like cracks me up, because it's like nothing, but I remember just like, holding my breath before I would, you know, stick my stick my little finger and get the blood out. And there was just this whole 30 year old woman and I remember just feeling so embarrassed that it was so hard.

Scott Benner 8:51
Oh my god, I so far. All I can think of is that everything I've thought to call this episode is too wordy. But Joe can't pick a prick was one of them. You know, Joe's cookie isn't tough, you know? Or, you know, and you didn't even tell us if he gave you medicine for the yeast infection, which I'm still wondering about I don't even know why. Just like what about the vagina? Is that thing okay to like, What's going on there? Did you Did he at least give you something for that?

Jill 9:20
So apparently, yes. Apparently that was like not a big problem. But apparently he said that. Because of all the sugar. Obviously like that can trigger a yeast infection. I told you like I'm, I was so confused that I even had it in the first place. Like I think I've had one maybe once in my youth. And that's it. I was like, What is happening? Why do I have this and it was an aggressive yeast infection. It was horrible.

Scott Benner 9:45
Joe had an aggressive yeast infection.

Jill 9:48
That'll get everybody to listen. But apparently that's a common thing that happens if you have undiagnosed diabetes, you know, you have a lot of people sugar in your blood. And that's it. I don't know, it's all connected with the yeast nonsense. So it was just not a

Unknown Speaker 10:06
not an ideal situation at all. So you're

Scott Benner 10:09
a person who, you know has been healthy thus far, you're you're probably getting into that like really like space where you're like, I'm 30, nothing's ever gonna go wrong with me, I'll never even need a doctor. And then suddenly, somebody is telling you, and I don't even want to say half of what you need to know. They're, they're basically just yelling words at you. So there's no direction long. Here's Metformin. Here's the thing to test your blood sugar with. You have diabetes. See you later.

Jill 10:35
Yeah, and I mean, I also to give more context, no one in my family has diabetes. I know, nobody who has diabetes. So I my understanding of diabetes at that point was, this is something that you get when you are overweight. And that's it, and I'm not overweight, you know, I was I'm five, two, I was 140. Maybe when I went in, which is, you know, five, like average. It just didn't make sense, you know, a why I had it be what I was even supposed to do going forward. And every single doctor that I met after that, because I met many primary care physicians, quote, unquote, who were all like, Oh, wow. But you're not like overweight? You know? Oh, wow.

Unknown Speaker 11:25
How'd you get?

Jill 11:26
Like, why are you asking me that? You're my doctor, you know, was extremely frustrating.

Scott Benner 11:31
You live in the middle of a desert? Like, or where are you like, near civilization? Where do you know?

Jill 11:37
Yeah, I live 30 minutes from Seattle. In the city. I mean, I guess, maybe a little more country than city, but it's I live by a lot of stuff.

Scott Benner 11:48
The expectation that every doctor you bump into, should have no idea what diabetes is.

Jill 11:54
And I just feel like because they thought I was type two. Maybe they have like a very limited understanding of diabetes, like, Oh, it's this epidemic or not? Yeah, epidemic that we see across the country. It's a big deal. I'm sure everybody gets some kind of type two training. But it was just very general, you know, any information that I got? And everything that I had to learn how to do from finger pricking, to inserting my first freestyle Libra, everything I had to YouTube, everything. Nobody showed me how to.

Unknown Speaker 12:34
That's crazy.

Jill 12:35
Absolutely do anything at all. And so I still am a teeny tiny bit bitter about that.

Scott Benner 12:41
Don't worry, we can get it out here. Well, I, I really have to say like, enough people have said it to me over the years, that I'm not stunned when the doctor doesn't get it. But I still am a little like, I try to think about like, what if you went to urgent care and urgent care said, Hey, you have leukemia, and then you walked into a doctor's office said, Hey, Urgent Care says I have leukemia, and the doctor said, That's weird. You're not a blonde. Like, like, what? Like, is that your assessment pattern? Like? Is this what they taught you in school? Like? Yes. Oh, it's fascinating. It really is. Okay, so you had to go to n number of doctors to find one.

Jill 13:23
Yeah, because everyone was just kind of confused. And I don't really know. It kind of is a blur. It was like all a lot of information. I was told to go to a nutritionist right away. I saw two different doctors like mainly, and they kind of were, I think tag teaming with information. Like, I would see one and she was great. And she was super sweet. She reassured me we're gonna figure this out. But she also was like, I have no idea. Like, where to even start with you. I don't know why you're a type two diabetic. It doesn't make sense. You're taking the Metformin and nothing is happening. You know, I was finger sticking like every What do they tell you like three times a day or something? And every time I did it, it was like 300 300 300. And they were like, yeah, we don't know. But you know, don't worry, just keep like eating you need to eat well, and like go to your nutritionist. And I was just so frustrated. Because when I would go on the internet to Google anything, which you should never do when you're sick with anything. You know, everything on the internet says if your blood sugar is higher than 300, you go to the emergency room, like right away. That's that's a problem. And I didn't understand why every doctor would look at my numbers it would be like well, yeah, like just just go home. Like just see if it gets better. Like you just need to eat better. And I am a pretty healthy eater. Um, so I was also frustrated with that because I thought what else can I cut out of my diet? Okay, sugar. Fine. I guess I Don't eat bread anymore. Fine. I was cracking up. Britt like remembering this with my husband because I told him, you know, we're eating all these Christmas cookies just recently. And he was like you remember when you were afraid to eat anything with sugar because I literally would have like a panic attack. If I was brave enough to have like a teeny tiny piece of sugar at this time, the second it went into my body. I just I got so hot, I got super anxious. I just I was like, Oh my gosh, I cannot ever have sugar because I just felt so scared. I didn't understand why every time I would go to the doctor, they'd send me back with no information, just eat better. Yeah. You know, it was just nothing made sense. And I think that was that was like the biggest frustration.

Scott Benner 15:45
Why have a day where I can that I went through that I think I've grown up on here. So I'll I'll go through it quickly. But one day, I had to go to the dentist. And I showed up at the dentist's office and asked to use the bathroom before we started. Then halfway through the procedure. I was like, Can we stop for a second? I have to go to the bathroom. And then so I peed like three times in the in like 90 minutes at the dentist's office. So the dentist grabs me on the way out and says, Hey, I'm concerned, you might have type two diabetes. Now I'm like, it ended up being if you've been listening to the podcast that my iron was really low, and my body was all out of whack and everything but so. But for a day until I could get a doctor's appointment. I thought I might have type two diabetes because somebody said it to me. And I experienced exactly what you're talking about. I couldn't bring myself to eat food because everything felt super scary. Like I can't eat I just didn't eat anything. I just stood there for a day waiting to go to a doctor's appointment.

Jill 16:42
Yep, so that's it. I mean, it's just like this totally crippling food anxiety, of eating at all. I mean, I ate like a bear. That's what you know, my husband was like, remember, when you wouldn't eat any sugar? Like you were just eating like a bear? I would eat nuts and berries. And that's it. Because that's all the all these things on Pinterest. If you look up type two, you know, diets or whatever, say, Oh, you know, like, why would you have to eat berries, number one, like they have so much sugar, but I just ate nothing. I just ate little things here and there. My nutritionist was fine. But you know, another frustration was doctors and the nutritionist all made comments about my ethnicity. I'm Latina. And everybody was like, trying to figure out an answer. And everybody had to say, Oh, well, you know, some ethnicities are more prone to type two, it's probably in your cultural diet. And I heard that so many times, I was like, so irritated because what is my cultural diet? Number one, you'd have not asked me what I eat. Nobody asked me what I eat. Nobody asked me specifically like what my nationality, you know, that I identified with was so bright. I think what was happening was a lot of people were assuming I was Mexican. And I was eating like beans and like what you would get at the Mexican restaurants, you know, and I can only assume that just because of how many people said it in a row. And I was like, what are what are people thinking? But

Scott Benner 18:11
where? Where are you? Where's your family from?

Jill 18:14
My family's from Peru? Okay. All right. Um, and I don't know, I mean, I grew up here. So I don't know that my cultural diet, you know, was really an impact. Just

Scott Benner 18:24
imagine that the doctors in the other room going, Hey, Charo in there probably eats a lot of beans, don't you?

Jill 18:29
Right? Yeah, that's how I felt. I was just like, hmm, I'm not sure where these assumptions are coming from, but because they are professionals. I never said anything. I never brought anything up. I was just like, okay, I believe you when you say that. Certain ethnicities are probably prone to type two. That makes sense to me, whatever. But it wasn't until after that I had time to kind of mold stuff over that. I was like, Huh, well, there's no way they didn't ask me specifically, like what's in your diet?

Scott Benner 18:55
She probably just eats rice and avocados all day? I don't know. It's what I saw at the Mexican restaurant that one time? No, your story is just the first quarter of it here is fantastic. Because this is what I'm trying to tell people all the time. You can't just sit there and nod at your doctor and go Okay, okay. Okay. Okay, and just do whatever they say. Not that you shouldn't listen to them. I'm not saying that. But you have to make sure you have a good one before you start listening. Right. And that's just such a big part of diabetes. It's, it's not uncommon for people to be in the situation that you talked about, and you were just at a real disadvantage, because in all honesty, if your mom and dad didn't send you on your way already knowing who your doctor was, and you just didn't get sick. You were basically a 15 year old in that office that day. Yeah. Right, because it's the story. It reads just like what if I would have sent a 15 year old into a doctor's office to be told they had something that they didn't know about? And On top of that, your blood sugar is over 300 all the time. So you're probably whacked out of your skull, you know, it's probably you're probably like, did you notice a clearing of your mind when your blood sugar finally came down?

Jill 20:13
I think honestly, and I don't know enough about type one. I haven't listened to enough of the podcasts, especially with Jenny. Because I know she has a lot of, I don't know, just like different medical expertise, right? Every time I listen, I'm always like, wow, I need to write all this down. But I don't know enough about it to know how fast a person can become type one, I think that I was. My, my body was probably like, shutting down for a couple years before is what I'm thinking. Because I had a lot of things slowly kind of going wrong.

Unknown Speaker 20:53
Okay,

Jill 20:54
I peed a lot for a while. Like, it wasn't suddenly it was like, two or three years where I was like, Wow, my kidneys just suck. So I feel like I don't know how long my blood sugar was at 300 for for, you know, maybe years and like, I just got used to it. You know, I didn't notice that my mind was foggy. I didn't. I don't feel I mean, maybe now I would. But I didn't feel gross at 300 I felt gross when I was at 90. You know,

Scott Benner 21:22
you're high for a really long time, then.

Jill 21:24
Yeah. And that's what I think like, I don't even know like when, when it started, you know, I think it was a really long descent for me, like a couple years. And then suddenly it came on quickly, like at the end with that yeast infection. But we really think it was a long time coming.

Scott Benner 21:40
your entire life shifted in the last 18 months, two years in a number of different segments. But yeah, so you beat yourself. Yeah, you became an adult about your health. Right away. You were like, Okay, this is happening. And other things happen to which I can't wait to tell people about, but I like that you're stringing it out like this. I feel like you're a good storyteller. This is excellent. really seriously, like when you didn't say the other thing? I was like Jill's good at this. It's time isn't it? to take care of yourself to do the things you know you need? Absolutely, it is. Why don't you go right now to my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box and have Omni pod send you out a free, no obligation demo of the Omni pod to listen. So on top, it'll take you just a couple of brief moments to fill out what they need to know. And before you know it right there in your mailbox will be an omni pod. It's one it's non functioning right? So it's not dangerous. It's just so that you can wear it and feel it. See what it would be like take a shower, go for a walk. Live your life with an omni pod. To see what life with an omni pod may be like, it's incredibly easy to do. It's free. Again, there's no obligation, you might as well try my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. There's links right there in the show notes of your podcast player. We're at Juicebox Podcast comm if you can't remember them, but I'll probably say them enough that it will stick in your head. And eventually you'll be sending me an email that sounds like this. Oh my god, Scott fine. I tried the Omni pod demo. And it was terrific. And I use it now I get a lot of those emails, yours can be next. So if you're looking to get away from multiple daily injections, or you don't want a pump with that tubing on it, try it on the pod. This is a perfect way to see what you think my omnipod.com forward slash juice box. There are two ways to have diabetes. One is where you can't see what your blood sugar's doing. And in the other way, you're wearing a Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. And you can see everything, speed, direction and number in real time, right on your cell phone, that's Android or iPhone, or there's a little receiver like say you're one of the three people that don't have a cell phone, you just get a little receiver, it's fine. No matter what you need to see your numbers on Dexcom will have you covered and covered in a way that you can imagine opening you up to being able to make decisions about insulin and food that takes away the stress and anxiety that using insulin can bring whether you have type one or type two diabetes, the Dexcom g six is for you, in my opinion, head over now dexcom.com forward slash juicebox start picking through. See if you would like to learn more. There's a forum down there if you would like to just tell them a little bit about yourself what kind of diabetes you have, what kind of insurance and the next thing you know, you're on your way. And if you have Medicaid, or you're a United States veteran using the VA for your insurance, I think you might be very happy. With what you find out, and you can start getting those Dexcom alerts when you want them. What do I mean by that? How would you like to know when your blood sugar dips below? 85? I don't know, how would you like to know when it dips below 70 whatever you prefer, that's where you set the alert. Want to know if your blood sugar is rising, so you can use more insulin? do that to my daughter's high alarm is set at 120 yours could be somewhere else, whatever works for you, is what's right dexcom.com forward slash juice box. My Omni pod comm forward slash juice box and don't forget to check out touched by type one touched by type one.org. Or on their Facebook and Instagram pages. Thank you so much for listening to the ads. When you support the advertisers. You're supporting the podcast keeping the podcast free and plentiful. There's a list of all the advertisers right there in the show notes of your podcast player or at Juicebox Podcast comm I am genuinely proud of the companies who sponsor this show. We got a good group.

When do you finally get a handle on all of this? Like when do you get at least a base understanding?

Jill 26:22
So this all happened in January, my month of January was 100% diabetes, of course, I was continuing. I'm a busy lady. I like to travel a lot. I like to do a lot of things with my friends on weekends. And so I wasn't going to stop even though I was dealing with all of this. I we went to Whistler and I had kind of a diabetic episode and that was kind of hard to deal with went to Leavenworth, which is a small German town here. That's kind of a tourist attraction. also had a tiny diabetic episode. I was like, Okay, I don't I'm not really getting this right. This isn't getting better. I can't eat things and enjoy drinking without it being kind of scary. Yeah, maybe I need to find a specialist. There was no way I was getting into an endocrinologist for like six months, there was a huge wait for this one. And I didn't really understand that you could shop for endocrinologist, I was given a referral to an endocrinologist. In January, one endocrinologist, that one was busy for six months apparently. And then that's it never dawned on me not ever having to deal with doctors. Before that I could just shop for people like I could just get on the internet myself and find someone and I just waited. I didn't know. And so it wasn't getting better. In February, I flew to Sonoma with my best friend for a wine weekend. And, of course, the day before we flew out, she and I both got really sick. We both had the flu. And we were like, well screw this like we are not wasting we can't get our money back. So we're just going to take a ton of day quail responsible 30 year olds. And we'll be fine. We're not wasting our weekend in Sonoma. I was so sick. We came back a day early, just because we were both sick. But I had the flu with diabetes, right? And so I kept checking my blood sugar. And I was like What is happening? It's like 400, should I go to the urgent care here in California, like I had no idea what to do. I came back home. I went to Urgent Care here every single day for a week. And the fifth day. I'm not kidding. I went every day. And every day they sent me home and they're like, just keep checking your blood sugar. And the fifth day I was like bawling. And I was like I can't keep coming here. I have a full time job. Like I can't What is wrong with me. And so this one doctor, obviously took pity on me and was like, Okay, I'm gonna figure this out for you. I don't know how we're gonna do it, but I'm gonna call you tomorrow. And so she calls me and says I have a friend who works at this other clinic who might have a contact for you. So it was like this all you know, convoluted, like call this person call this person call this person. But I ended up getting hooked up with an endocrinologist who could see me a little sooner, so I had a month way instead. So February goes by March goes by. I'm still trying to do my best to keep my blood sugar under control. And then in let's see, end of March again and to see this endocrinologist. She's amazing. She reminds me of my mom. She is like a no nonsense. Indian woman who just is direct. So direct. She took like, one look at me and was like you're not type two. Why did they tell you or type two? I was like, I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 29:46
I just want to go drink wine.

Jill 29:48
I don't know. Just fix it. Like, I have no idea. And so she's like, there's no way you're type two. They should have done a blood test on you and she did this blood test and yeah, she Like, yes, look, look at these numbers Jill, like, like, I'm a doctor, look at these numbers. This doesn't make any sense. You're type one, you've been mis diagnosed, you know, you should have never left that Urgent Care without this simple blood test that any doctor can do. And I was like, okay, that doesn't help me.

Scott Benner 30:16
It was like, Listen, I let's be clear for a second. I drank a quill with diabetes and got on a plane, so I could drink more wine than a person should. I'm not you shouldn't be leaving me in charge of these decisions. Jill, were you a huge party girl through your 20s just asking.

Jill 30:33
I'm not a party girl at all. I just am really into wine. And like, we're we can be very bougie about our wine.

Scott Benner 30:40
I just I thought it was fantastic that in the middle of what seemed like a life or death health crisis, you were like, we're still going.

Jill 30:47
I mean, the wine never stops. It's just you know. We're gonna figure it out around the wine.

Scott Benner 30:54
Doctor, while you're considering my diabetes, remember, there's going to be mirlo Okay, like that. Right here? No, but I mean, it's just I guess it really does go to how little you understood about what was happening. Oh, that's that's the kind of the fascinating part. So

Jill 31:09
yeah. So then at least there was the correct diagnosis. Right, then at least she was like, obviously, you're a type one. Your doctors are all idiots. It was basically.

Scott Benner 31:19
So not not to pick your psyche apart too much. But it's interesting that once you found a doctor that was more like a parent, it worked out for you quickly. Yeah.

Jill 31:27
1,000% 1,000%. And I do like attribute the cultural bit a lot because she just, I just don't want to screw up in front of my endo. Like she is the most cutthroat lady. She might not be where I go for like warm and fuzzy, you know, feelings, but she cares about my health in a way that a parent would, you know, yeah, she tells me absolutely. Like, you cannot do these things, XY and Z. And I think that's not for everyone. But that's for me. You know, it worked out really well. I appreciate that. She's honest. And, you know, just gives me the truth. And so, anyway, she diagnosed me type one. She gave me kind of a little plan, but she was like, you need to come back, like in two weeks, for sure. We're gonna get you set up with everything that you need. So I had a physical scheduled with my primary care physician. I go back to her. Between these two weeks. I told her Oh, yeah, I was diagnosed with type one. She was like, oh, okay, great. She obviously didn't know like, what anything about type one, she was just like, Oh, I'm so glad that you have answers. And in that appointment, I had asked like, so my husband and I are like, trying to have kids, we would like to start trying. I have all this medical stuff happening. Like, is it safe for us to start trying? Or should? Should I wait? And I remember, she's just like, Oh, yeah, you're gonna be fine. Like now that you have an endo and everything like, Yeah, go ahead, like, definitely try

Scott Benner 32:56
it. Can I tell you for a second? Also, you're on the pods on the side of insulin? Oh, yeah, sure is. How in that situation where the doctor who couldn't help you, like figure out you had type one diabetes? Did you like consider to ask her another question and take her serious?

Unknown Speaker 33:17
I don't know, okay.

Jill 33:22
I have no idea. I thought she was in charge of like, my general body and the other lady was in charge of just my diabetes. So I was like, okay, she's gonna know, in my physical, for sure. If like, I can have children. I just wasn't equating all these things as like, together. You know, I was just, diabetes was such a thing outside my body that I just wanted to get rid of. Does that make sense? I just was like, okay, someone's handling that over here. Like, I want to continue with my life and keep, keep doing my things and keep staying with my plans. You know, so

Scott Benner 33:53
you didn't think of you kind of thought about diabetes, like a bankruptcy. You're like, Yes, I spent way too much money and can't pay it back. But let's compartmentalize that. But over here. I'm going to send $700 a month to that bill. And I'm still going to pretend that I'm me. And there's nothing going on. Like you were trying to, to, to split the two apart you in the diabetes, right? You weren't letting it merge together. Okay, you're there now though, right.

Unknown Speaker 34:21
I'm,

Scott Benner 34:22
like, you know, you're a person living with diabetes and all that stuff. And you don't know Yeah, no, I don't want people like to be like, you know, Jesus, Porter. It's not learning anything. We're just telling the story. That's all

Jill 34:32
that's right. Along along learning.

Scott Benner 34:36
Okay. Wow, I am still I'm stunned that you asked that doctor if it was okay. It

Jill 34:43
was all kind of happening so fast too. And like I wasn't used to going to doctors, you know, in general. So I was like, okay, every week I'm seeing a nutritionist and then I'm seeing the regular doctor and then I'm seeing this endo and like, somebody's got to have answers. You know, I just wasn't something I wasn't skeptical of doctors, but I was just so desperate to trust somebody to give me good news. I was like, please somebody,

Scott Benner 35:06
I gotta do what I want you to I gotta be honest with you. This is the second story in 2020. I've heard that makes me not want to go to the Seattle area.

Unknown Speaker 35:13
Oh, no.

Scott Benner 35:17
So, okay. All right. So now you have type one diabetes, you have this lovely Indian doctor who's yelling at you the way you need to be all that. And then there's the other doctor who I'm not sure what she does still. And and are you? on? What part do you and I intersect?

Jill 35:36
When did I win that thing? Probably.

Scott Benner 35:39
August. July. Okay. But you, you and I spoke on the phone once.

Jill 35:45
Right, but it was for the prize. It was. Um, so I think you did that. You had a contest in July or August or something like that. And then when I won, I called you, or you called me? Why was that?

Scott Benner 35:59
Oh, part of it was you? Oh, part of the prize was talking to me, which I now hear when I say out loud. Sounds like I'm an assault, but I get what you're saying.

Unknown Speaker 36:09
But that was

Jill 36:11
your expertise. That's all right. It's a great.

Scott Benner 36:14
Honestly, what I just said out loud. I was like, Oh, that sounds douchey. But, but Okay, well, I'm flush now like you are hilarious. So I got it. So we're on the phone. And at that point, are you? Did you get knocked up yet? When is that Parco? Oh, yeah, I

Jill 36:34
got knocked up immediately, right away when my doctor said, Oh, yeah, go ahead and start trying. I was like, dope. We're doing this ran

Scott Benner 36:40
out the door legs first.

Jill 36:42
And then knocked up the next day. I'm not kidding. Like, right away. And by the time that I saw my endo, for the second time. I was already like, a teeny tiny bit late. And I was like, Oh, my also be pregnant. And the way she looked at me.

Scott Benner 36:59
Oh, my gosh, I thought I thought you're gonna say she punched you like,

Jill 37:04
she looked like she wanted to I'm not kidding. She was like, what I was like, well, like, I was told that it was fine. And like this was already in my plan. I'm a teacher. So I really like to stick to my plans. Like a disgusting amount. It just is one of my things. I have a strict itinerary. And this was part of my plans. I did not want to give it up. And so when she looked at me, I was like, Oh, crap. Maybe it wasn't a good idea. And she said, like, you better hope that you're not pregnant. Your diabetes is completely out of control. You were just diagnosed. Forget everything that you've gone through since January, you were just diagnosed two weeks ago, you know, like with a brand new illness, type two and type one are completely different. So you better hope that you're not and I was like, okay, not great. I totally was, of course, right away. So by the time you and I talked, I think I was probably like four months pregnant. Wow.

Scott Benner 38:09
And, and so my recollection of talking with you back then, excuse me, was Hold on a second.

Hello. That'll get cut out Hold on a second. We're all just get lazy and leave it in, it's hard to know

is that I remember going downstairs after we spoke, and I said to my wife, I just talked to the person who won the giveaway. And apparently she's like, was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes and got pregnant. Like, in the same like couple of weeks or something. Like I said, she basically found out she really had type one diabetes, and she was already pregnant. And I don't think things are going great. And my I remember my wife and I were like, Oh, that's I hope that goes okay. And then I kind of started keeping after you on Instagram a little bit. And like following along, and you're just you know, you're adorable. Like you're just like little and like you have a bright smile and a pretty face it gets You're adorable. And so like you always look okay, is what I'm saying. Like, I'm assuming in some of those pictures. You've just thrown up from wine and you're still look adorable. So I can't I can't tell how you're doing from your Instagram. Actually, I guess nobody can tell how anybody's doing from social media. But that's

Unknown Speaker 39:24
Yeah, right.

Scott Benner 39:26
Yeah, right. But then the baby came out. I was like, hey, right on because I assume you understand now that like there's a high likelihood that you would have ended up having a miscarriage if your blood sugar stayed the way they were.

Jill 39:37
Absolutely Yeah. If I hadn't found that endo. I mean, that really was the game changer. Of course, like I had no idea how, how serious it was. I knew it was serious to have diabetes, of course, but like not having any real context or having anybody at all in my life who has had any serious disease, you know, for a long period of time. I just didn't really get it like internally, right. So once I got this endo, and I got the correct diagnosis, and she just kept hammering into me like how serious it was that my blood sugar stay in control. It really all fell into place. I mean, I met her in a, you know, end of March beginning of April ish. And honestly, by June, I was like 100%, I don't want to say in control all the time, but I had a really good handle on like, how to manage the diabetes, because she and her team were phenomenal. I mean, I went to see them every week for probably like four or five weeks, and worked with these diabetes educators who are like Omnipod reps, and I got the Dexcom. And the Omnipod, immediately because I was pregnant. Like immediately, I mean, I think I waited for like three weeks, maybe where I still was finger sticking. And after that I had everything bells and whistles, ready to go. So I really have never experienced a life of diabetes. difficult, if that makes sense, right? Like the beginning part, obviously was difficult, but I didn't know what I was experiencing. So I don't count that. And when I hear all these other stories on the podcasts of people who like, just maybe don't have all the technology or choose not to have the technology or you know, just there's all these things that we get to make diabetes management easier. I didn't really have to deal with that. Because my endo was just like, you're having this, you're having this, put this on your body, I don't care how you feel about it. You need all these things. I've never had to really struggle in that same way, you know, to figure things out, she made it really, really easy to kind of manage my diabetes, and she was checking on me constantly. So the entire pregnancy. I mean, I probably went there every two or three weeks. Yeah. It was really tight control. And I really think that made all the difference.

Scott Benner 42:04
It sounds like she decided to take personal responsibility for your baby being okay. And you know,

Unknown Speaker 42:10
what a wonderful lady, right?

Scott Benner 42:12
You know, it occurred to me just now, while you were talking, I've recorded I mean, I might have recorded close to 500 of these at this point. And yours was the first 30 minute diagnosis story. No, no. But when you really think about it, it really was like, all of that that happened for those months and months and months. That's all part of you figuring out you have type one diabetes, and how many doctors did you have to run into? Like, that is not, that doesn't warm my heart? How many doctors you had to run into before one of them was like you have type one? Like, what? What's going on here?

Jill 42:47
Yeah, the biggest thing was just that I was older, you know, like the I that's the only thing people were looking at, like, Oh, she's 30. So Oh, well, don't forget possibly have type one. You know,

Scott Benner 42:58
don't forget also that your your people eat beans. So, you know, like, whatever. Right? Yeah. Like, seriously, I hear, you know, black patient advocates talk all the time about, you know, people look at my skin and make assumptions about how I take care of myself immediately. Yeah, and so you know, that this is another example of that really, like they see they see you, you know, as your background, and your heritage and your race and and they're just like, oh, obviously, she doesn't eat well, and this is why she has type two diabetes.

Jill 43:29
Yep. I mean, even though I like I said, I wasn't overweight at the time, you know, there's, I told my doctors, like I run every day and like, I work out, you know, I'm not, I'm not super, like slender all the time. That girl likes to eat. Right. But, I mean, I take care of myself. So it was Yeah, it's just I hope that people don't continue to have this problem, where they're told, like, Oh, it's something that you did to cause this, you know,

Scott Benner 43:54
I listen, I would, I would have no ability to look at you and think that you're an unhealthy person. So you know, it's just, you know, until we talk to you and find out about the wine and everything else. We could start thinking

Jill 44:07
that's my one serious vise.

Scott Benner 44:10
Hey, listen, can you tell people right now? How do you hold a bottle and a baby at the same time? What's the balancing act?

Jill 44:15
bottle and a baby? Oh, no problem. Just got to work out a little bit before and

Scott Benner 44:21
that way you can keep the balance. We should probably tell typhus now that you're you don't drink wine while you're caring for your baby at the same time, right. You know,

Jill 44:32
it's nap time.

Scott Benner 44:35
So, how long have you had type one diabetes?

Jill 44:39
So now it's been since April of 2019. So a

Unknown Speaker 44:48
little over a year.

Scott Benner 44:49
Can you tell me what your current a one C is? Are you willing to do that? Yeah, it's

Jill 44:52
I think it was 6.1. Wow, that's amazing. It was you know, in the fives and then of course, my endo was like, that's too low. You need Have a little bit more.

Unknown Speaker 45:01
Did you think it was too low?

Unknown Speaker 45:02
Huh?

Scott Benner 45:03
Were you having lows when it was in the fives?

Jill 45:06
Um, yeah, because I still, I'm still trying to manage like being active. So like, I do work out, I run, I walk. Now I walk a lot more with the baby. And I hike. And so I do tend to get a lot of lows during that, during any of those activities, no matter what I do to prepare. I'm still trying to get, you know, figure that out. So I think that definitely, like increases my chances of having, you know, a lower frequency. But, you know, I guess I just got to eat more.

Scott Benner 45:36
I like talking to you because you are, you're not the person that I imagined in my mind listening to the podcast, because you listen to it more for like the community stuff and hearing people's stories and not for the management stuff. And you know, in my default in my head, that the podcast is about using insulin, and so but I know there are people like you who don't listen to the, to the management stuff, as much as I tell people all the time in the private Facebook group who are very focused on management, usually, that I was like, you guys are a subs, like you're just one like sub set of the listeners. I was like, there are plenty of listeners who don't care about the stuff you care about. It's really interesting how how it gets split like that. But you should try the pro tip episodes, they might help you not get low when you're active.

Jill 46:24
Yeah, I have listened to a lot of them. It's just I was listening to the podcast, I think more frequently, like when I was pregnant, and I had time. And I was really still like trying to manage a lot of things I need to get back into it. But I did take a kind of a break from anything joyful and listening to my own things for a little while here. Because anytime the baby's asleep, I'm like, Okay, what can I get done?

Scott Benner 46:51
Well, what did you what kind of a baby ended up having to end up having a boy type or girl type?

Jill 46:56
I had a boy he is the cutest child in the world. I'm sure a little chunk. Yeah, everything. Everything turned out wonderfully. I mean, it really. I couldn't have asked for a better pregnant experience. And even being diabetic. Like That was my one. My one like difficulty, but I never got sick. You know, I was able to eat pretty much what I wanted to eat. There was there was really nothing difficult. So I feel like that was a in my mind. That was like the universe's trade off. Here you have diabetes, but you're gonna have a really easy pregnancy and delivery.

Scott Benner 47:35
Especially at five to because you're a smaller person. So how big was the baby when it was born?

Jill 47:41
He was like eight pounds and a half.

Scott Benner 47:44
That's a big baby.

Unknown Speaker 47:45
That's what I hear.

Scott Benner 47:48
Listen, it makes it a

Unknown Speaker 47:50
little to me.

Scott Benner 47:52
I know, right? It's, it's crazy how small they are. I am. I don't know, I just I saw a baby picture of my son the other day, you know how, like, I have a widget on my computer and it pops like a picture up like right now I just clicked on it. It's a picture of Arden when she's like a year old. And so they kind of pop up on my desktop once in a while. And then I get all like, sappy and I sit here for a couple months. And I'm like, Oh, look at how small he was. And now Arden's like in this photo just staring at me in this picture, which I can't share with anybody because Arden does not want to be portrayed as a baby on the internet. So, but she's adorable in this in this photo. So I know how you feel. But the busy so how you managing taking care of yourself with the busy? Have you found the split, like you turn into like a real adult out of nowhere. Like you're managing diabetes and a baby and you still work I imagine.

Jill 48:40
Yeah. I mean, I feel like with my health, I totally was a 15 year old, I still am a little bit like I have to that's something that you take for granted if you've always been healthy. So I definitely in that aspect had to, you know, grow up very quickly in that area. But I think everything else I'm, I'm a pretty organized person. Like I said, I'm a teacher. So like, I'm all about checklists, and lesson plans, itineraries and getting things done. So I think that kind of helped also with like diabetes and balancing everything. And luckily, the only I only had issues with diabetes, when he was really, really little like when I was still trying to breastfeed. That was a challenge with blood sugar. I hemorrhaged when I was giving birth. And so that was a problem because it impacted I don't know, it impacted like the iron in my blood or whatever. So that impacted my blood sugar. And then I had some insulin resistance that I had never dealt with that before. Really. a month three and month six postpartum that was annoying, but they really are like little things. It's not really even mentionable. It's like little things. They all went away. And now it's just fine. I mean, luckily, you know, knock on wood, right?

Scott Benner 50:00
Have a terrific attitude like you really do your you've a really kind of joyous personality and you know, a great attitude. So I'm sure that goes a long way to helping you. I hope you'll find out give it away for a week and see if everything doesn't seem all doom and gloomy. All right, but no, but that really is. I've just been waiting for so long to talk to you. Like I remember when I said like, come on the podcast, but let's push it way out into the future because I want you to have some distance from the story so you can tell it that made me anxious. I was like, I would like to record this one now. But I thought it'll go so much better if I push it off a little bit. And I did I make you like I made you push it off like a year. Basically. I was like, pick something way out in the future. And and we'll do it because it's December now and 2020. So it's been oh my gosh, yeah. It's been over a year since we talked on the phone even. Yeah, how old is your son now?

Jill 50:53
He just turned one just like a couple days ago.

Unknown Speaker 50:56
Congratulations. Thanks. It was exciting.

Scott Benner 50:59
Did you have a big party for him?

Jill 51:02
We had we did some drop bys. So I still did like a little brunch thing with all these like treats to go that people could come take and then people came you know, with their masks and just dropped off their gifts. I wanted my gift Scott came and dropped off their gift. And then had some treats to go.

Scott Benner 51:21
I didn't make this baby not to get free stuff.

Unknown Speaker 51:23
Well, hello, this first birthday.

Scott Benner 51:26
Oh, that's very cool. Oh, that's excellent. Good for you. I'm excited for you. And are you teaching virtually? or How do you do?

Unknown Speaker 51:32
I am?

Scott Benner 51:34
So do you, like just put the kid right on your lap and teach her? How do you I have

Jill 51:38
my mom downstairs who just watches him for, you know, a couple hours while I teach. I mean that that's a another thing I think that helps the diabetes go smoothly is that I'm home and I have a lot of control over what I can eat. And I'm sitting in front of the computer. I've been a kindergarten teacher for nine years. And then this year, I switched to first grade so that I could only work in the morning. Okay. And so I have a partner that teaches in the afternoon. And when I was teaching, like live in person with kindergarteners, I mean, I was always low, like, my blood sugar was so annoying to handle because there's 25 people that need you, they need you to tie their shoes, and they need you to help them use the bathroom. And yeah, you know, they can't do this. And this person hit me and this person, all these things, and my blood sugar would be you know, Beeping Beeping Beeping and I'm like, right, okay, I'm gonna get it one second and eat something Hold on. But I'm like running around. And I just, it was so much harder to to manage while I was working. You rarely sit as a kindergarten teacher. Really any teacher, right? You just are not sitting you're walking around helping the kids and talking and making copies and the list is endless. And so I think being home really has helped it be manageable because I'm just sitting in front of the computer interacting with my kids. And if I need to grab something to eat to correct a blood sugar, you know, low I'll just go get it you know, it's not a big deal versus being at school. I can't always do that I have to sometimes wait until lunch or I have to grab a juice really quick is not the best management.

Scott Benner 53:14
So this setup is eliminated a major variability in your blood sugar, which is activity and and not having time to look at yourself. So when you go back eventually you're going to have to find basil rates that are that are different. I would imagine going back to work it live will make your basil needs go down.

Unknown Speaker 53:34
Yeah, probably

Scott Benner 53:36
ardens went way down leaving school. So when Oh, really? Yeah. So I because like, I don't know why exactly. But my, I've been thinking about it more and more. And I think part of it was you get up in the morning, and it's right away, it's that race in the clock, you know, you're like I got to get up and get a shower and do this and get out the door on time or I'll be late. And that whole thing so you, you get feet on the floor, you know huge where your life is just coming at you. And then you're at school and you know you're interacting with people and all that stuff's going on. You know, I don't know if there's any anxiety or stress being in high school for her. But her basil went down from like 1.2 to point nine an hour. Like just coming home from not being at high school. So she she's gonna have like an opposite of you. But you're gonna go back and be an attract meet with little kids again, although your first grade now might be a little better. Maybe they won't hit each other quite as much.

Jill 54:33
This whole pandemic thing, it's just gonna be a kindergarten, kindergarten minds and in bigger bodies. I think

Scott Benner 54:43
the only the kids learned anything in kindergarten this year.

Jill 54:46
I mean, I'm sure they have learned stuff. But the stuff that I think is like why you go to kindergarten is socially you know how to learn how to line up and how to, you know what I mean? Like all those social skills, how to sit at the carpet for a long time, and all this stuff. You physically have to herd cats for basically, as a teacher, they might all be like, at grade level of hope. But I think it's gonna be just as much being on my feet.

Scott Benner 55:11
So funny you say that I recall the first couple of seasons of Cole playing baseball back when he was like, a co star when he was four. But when he really started being on, like, teams when he was six, I remember thinking back then, so much of this is just getting them to stand in a line. Yeah. And then. And then I remember as that kind of like youth baseball time ended, when he was 12. I remember thinking, wow, look, now they say something and they go run over and getting that line took like five years to teach them how to do. It's fascinating.

Unknown Speaker 55:51
And teaching

Scott Benner 55:54
really was what was what was going on. It's like this. There's this whole, just like, Where do you go? Where do you stand? It's funny, you said something earlier, too. That made me think about something I just said on the podcast recently, which is, when Cole was that age, he was a really good, he always has been, and is today a really great outfielder, but he was when he was younger, too. And he described it to me as that he didn't want to let his coach down. And I feel like that's how you feel with your doctors a little bit too. Like you're kind of like in a teacher student or a coach player. situation with her. Does that ring true for you?

Unknown Speaker 56:30
Yeah, for sure. I

Jill 56:31
mean, I, I feel like this is kind of how my mom raised me. But like, if people are spending their time on you, you know, you show them respect by like hearing about what they're talking about, or trying to do what they're obviously teaching you even if you don't like it. And that's kind of how I feel. I'm like, Well, she's trying so hard to teach me things that are useful, then the least I could do is actually try it and listen to her. And there have been some times where I'm like, she doesn't know what she's talking about. I get irritated with like little things. And then I try what she says And I'm like, Oh, look at that it worked. You know, so it just yeah, it is kind of like coaching.

Scott Benner 57:09
You found a good one. It sounds like should she be on my list on the juicebox Doc's list this year. Oh, good endo.

Jill 57:14
I mean, I think she's amazing, personally.

Scott Benner 57:18
Cool. That's excellent. She saved you. It sounds like honestly. Yep.

Jill 57:22
She's amazing. And I even had two years ago, I had a student in my class. He, you know, came in for open house and his parents were popping in and his dad stopped me and was like, hey, you're diabetic? And I was like, Yeah, like not. I was like, Well, how do you even know that? He's like, Oh, yeah, I see your Dexcom. And I was like, Oh, are you diabetic? And he's like, yeah, and he like, shows me his Dexcom, you know, and come to find out, he goes to the same. And oh, and it was just kind of a funny thing. Every time we would see each other, he'd be like, Oh, I have to go see Dr. Q. Today, I'm going to be in trouble. Because you know, X, Y, and Z. And I'm like, Oh, no, I totally feel your pain, you know, and it's just, even. Even just those little interactions, you know, knowing that, like, you have the same endocrinologist, she's like, one of the best in our area. That is just like such a big community piece, you know, too. So the fact that she can she has that presence to tie people together because of how she is.

Scott Benner 58:15
Excellent. That's really terrific. I yeah, I actually go to that link and send me the information when you get a chance. It's juicebox docs.com. Oh, yeah,

Jill 58:25
definitely. And they're the ones that told me about the podcast, actually.

Unknown Speaker 58:29
Really?

Scott Benner 58:31
Well, thank you, Dr. Q. I like Seattle a little better. Look at that. I'm such a cheap horse, you could just easily swim.

Unknown Speaker 58:43
It's not all terrible. I live outside of Seattle. So it's like, you know, all the

Scott Benner 58:48
while I'm just saying didn't those crazy people take a few blocks of Seattle this year? and demons? Oh, yeah. But I mean, just some hippie stuff. That's

Unknown Speaker 58:57
just good. All the good all the good old crew keeping things interesting.

Scott Benner 59:02
I'll tell you from a distance, it seemed pretty crazy. Just they're gone. Now. They're gone. they disperse back to their lives. That's right. Oh, my God. This, this episode is terrific. First of all, you're great. You you I don't even think you needed me. I think I could have gotten on and been like, hey, Jill, tell people what happened to you. And then I could push the mic away and gone and had a sandwich and come back and you wouldn't be talking still. So I appreciate that very much. I'm glad the baby's healthy. Your husband's okay. Everybody's good with everything. Excellent. So I want to say that you are a great example of a quick transition. And the people who have been struggling for a long time. I think they should see you as a real like, a story of like hopefulness because all you all you really did was bump into the right doctor. Find a little bit of information, listen to a podcast. Get a huge Video, and then you're here you are, you have a 6.1 a one C, and you're living your life again, I think that everyone sometimes can believe that it's just such a long process. But the long part of the process is what you described in the beginning. It's the part where you're so. So my point is the process doesn't have to be long, it has to be focused on the right things. And that becomes difficult when you don't know what the right things are. Right, right. Because had you met Dr. Q, on day one, at that urgent care, you wouldn't have this long story and your process to type one diabetes would have felt very quick and easy. So it's not about diabetes takes a long time to figure out. I think it's more about sometimes it takes a long time to find people that can help you with it.

Jill 1:00:53
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, like all of the all of those little things that you mentioned, and like having Instagram and having the Facebook community and all of those things, like, they just add so much to the experience to make it easier. Because all I mean, I can't imagine being a type one diabetic, even 10 years ago, right? Where social media was like a thing, but not how it is now. I mean, there is so much information on how to do, how to manage your diabetes, and how to live your life and how to eat normally. Just at the tip of your fingers. You know, if I ever have something that pops up, I just get on my Instagram. And I'm like, okay, who has this? Let me make a post about it. Let me see if I can tag some people, right. It's just, you have so much more control. And I think finding, finding those little things just to make your life a little bit easier, even though it might feel frustrating at first. I mean, it just makes all the difference, you know, taking taking more control of your own health rather than waiting for doctors to figure stuff out.

Scott Benner 1:01:54
Yeah, well, because as you prove today, you could wait forever if you don't meet the right person. Yep, that's right. No, seriously, you would, you could be dead now if you didn't meet that woman.

Jill 1:02:04
serious. I think that all the time, Scott. I think that all the time. I have so many from January to April. I had a lot of really scary, scary incidents happen. And every time I took back the incident to a person in charge in my mind, I was just at home, you know, they're just like, yeah, that happens when you're diabetic. Now, you know, it just was so ridiculous.

Scott Benner 1:02:27
And now you know, no, it doesn't like that stuff doesn't actually have to happen. Yeah, I mean, at some point you you mixed air travel wine and DK together basically, you know,

Jill 1:02:39
oh, yeah, snowshoe I went snowshoeing all by myself. Which is intense. I had no control over my diabetes. I was like super shaky. I had a very intense low had no idea like that. That was a thing. Like, you know, I was just like, Oh, my blood sugar's low. I'm holding right now. Like, I had no idea what to do. I had nothing holding you know, laugh

Scott Benner 1:03:03
and wanting to say, What is wrong with you?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:07
I just had no information

Jill 1:03:09
I didn't know like, how to connect the dots. You know, I just was not getting anything. You know, all I knew was being high was scary. Yeah, you know, and that's it because for a type two that's the big Yeah, you're scared a big thing was being being high not being low and so it just is just a child. Pretty much

Scott Benner 1:03:30
this really is fascinating because aside of that time when you didn't understand about diabetes decided that time you're reasonably together person sound like it you don't mean like there's nothing about you that says snowshoeing with undiagnosed Type One Diabetes like it you don't seem like that person now. And and I assume you weren't that person outside of this bubble that existed which was a bubble of having diabetes and not knowing

Jill 1:04:00
and right If I had known you know, if I had truly understood all of the dangers I would have never done all the things that I was doing but I just didn't have the information that's it you know, it's just ridiculous.

Scott Benner 1:04:13
So you would tell people keep moving till you find a good doctor, first of all, right? And what other things have you learned that are valuable?

Jill 1:04:23
Oh, just get a community that was that was a game changer, right. Like, again in April when I met Dr. Q's team, one of the girls Monica, who is a diabetes educator and also an omni pod Rep. She is so kind and compassionate. I was like bawling. They were trying to get a Dexcom on me and I like didn't provide consent. They're just like, we need to put this on you. And I was like, I don't want that. I don't know what that is. And they're like, you need to have this on your body. Right? So they put this Dexcom on me. I feel like I'm a horse being branded like did not want anything on my body. didn't know what it was. And she's so sweet. She takes her hands in mind and she's like, everything's gonna be fine. You're gonna go home, you're gonna download the Juicebox Podcast. Okay, what is that called, like, repeat after me, you're also going to get yourself an Instagram, and you're going to get yourself people that also have diabetes. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:20
Wow.

Jill 1:05:21
I mean, that was the best advice that she could have given me because I was so emotional. And it had been four months of nonsense, right. And I did exactly what she told me. And those were two really simple things that I could control, you know, everything that the doctors are doing, I couldn't control, I just had to trust that they were giving me good advice. But you got to get yourself a community, that Instagram thing, you have to watch other people struggle and fail and get back up again. So that you can learn how to manage your failures, because that's, that's diabetes, you know, you're gonna screw it up sometimes. And you have to get to know your body. And there's no way to do it without watching other people do it.

Scott Benner 1:06:01
I had a guy reach out to me an adult, male, a week ago or so through Instagram. And it just seemed like he had been watching the account my account for so long. And he just finally had the nerve to say like, hello. And he's like, I don't know what to do, I need help. And I looked at his graph, and I was like, Hey, man, If I was you, I'd look at this, and this and this. And he's starting to, like, get control of it. And he should see how happy he is. Just it but but it was his, um, he got over the hump of like, not of not saying anything to anybody just imagining that his blood sugar had to stay in the two hundreds all the time. And I just had never been happier for a person who I've never seen before. Like, he doesn't put his face in his Academy where I don't know him. But I've never been happier for a person that I don't know, because he made this big. You know, he made a big grand gesture for himself. And for him, it was just reaching out to somebody and saying, I don't know what to do that and

Jill 1:07:04
I have found that so many people in this community, of course, your self included, are just so willing to help, you know, like, it's, it's, it's your health, if you're not willing to ask and say, Hey, I need help with this. I don't know, man, it's gonna be a lot harder, you know, and there's so many people out there with the knowledge who are happy to at least point you in the right direction. You know?

Scott Benner 1:07:25
Yeah, no, I've found that for sure. Well, I think we've learned that in this hour. You've talked about a lot of projects, but you only didn't avoid one of them. So the rest of us are pretty good at running from that's all I heard. Also, I have a image of you in a doctor's office, like a like in a horse bridle having a Dexcom put

Jill 1:07:47
on you for that was traumatic.

Scott Benner 1:07:51
I liked it. You were around people now that are just like, yeah, we'll worry about what Joe wants in a minute. He really well, because here's why. And I'll let you go in a minute. I know we're up on time. But it illustrates for me, like when people say about their kids, like, oh, he doesn't really want that. Or she I don't think she would like that. She said she doesn't want that. I'm like, yeah, no one wants that. No way. No one says to themselves, you know, it'd be cool. I'd like to wear an insulin pump. But then you guys run diabetes. You know what I mean? You go Okay, and then my, my thing to people has always been, what other life and death decisions do you let your eight year old make? Like, they're always like, well, it's their body. And I'm like, I get that. I was like, but try it anyway. Because, you know, in a week, they're not going to notice that I wore a G six last week. And the only problems I had with my G six was forgetting where that I had it on. When I was showering. Like that sounds I kept banging into with my hand and going, Oh, I'm wearing that I forgot. Like, and I've worn it on the pod demo. And the same thing happens. You know, a couple days later, you just you don't know what's there anymore.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:09
All right, you just get used to it.

Scott Benner 1:09:10
Yeah. And it's been and listen, people don't have to pump. They don't have to use the CGM. I'm not saying that. But if you're a parent sitting around thinking, Well, I do think this would be really beneficial. But you know, Billy doesn't want it and Billy six years old, maybe, you know, channel your introductory cue and just be like, shut up, Billy.

Jill 1:09:32
Yeah, sorry. Sometimes we have to do things that are hard. You know. That's just that's just how it is. Diabetes is not something to mess around with. You know, and if you have something that's going to make it that much easier, that you are going to kind of forget about I mean, you don't remember that you're wearing and unless you knock it on something and it comes off. Right yeah, I don't. I don't see what the what the weight is for. Those things are game changers because Am

Scott Benner 1:09:57
I Rachel in fairness, if we left this It's up to you, you wouldn't be wearing those things.

Jill 1:10:02
No. And I think I mean, I don't think I'm alone in that if you're an adult, who has lived your whole life without a device on your body, not looking not, you're not gonna want to wear a device. I mean, shocker. You know, like, it's not comfortable to have something stuck on you. At the beginning, people don't always like change, right? It's a that's a big life thing that you have to get used to. And especially as a woman, I think if you know, society pressures have so much to think about what we look like, it is a big mental step to think, Okay, I have to put this on my arm, or I have to put this on my leg or in a place where people could possibly see and ask questions. If you're not at that mental place to want to ask answer questions of people like what is that? It's a big thing to put on. I think if someone had just handed me the Dexcom, and said, Here you go wear it when you are you ready to wear it? I probably would have continued finger sticking for a while, because it's just a big step. And I'm so glad that I'm not still doing that. You know, there's some times that I run out of Dexcom supplies and I'm like, man, I have to go back to the old way. Like, this sucks.

Scott Benner 1:11:08
I remember interviewing Victor Garber. And he said, I have a I think it was a Dexcom around the pub one. I might have been in the party. So I have that it's in a drawer. I can't bring himself to do it. Now. He wears it. whichever one it was I forget which one it was. Now he now he wears it. And so you know, that's not the he's not the first person has told me I have the device. I put it in a drawer. Yeah, yeah. And so I get it. Like, you know, I listen, I remember taking Arden to the Children's Hospital for her first Dexcom insertion. And she said, going in there. I don't want this. And I was sure yeah, I was like, I know you don't. I said, I think it's going to help you. So let's try. And you know, and it's probably been the best decision we've ever made. Yeah, but and I'm not saying forced by the way. I'm not saying force your kids to do something kicking and screaming. But I'm saying there's a way to continue to the conversation. And you know, talk them into doing it at some point just you know, the trying it at the very least. Yep. Yeah. You Joe. Thank you. For for this thank you for basically creating like a two year relationship with me so I could get a cool podcast episode out of you. Because I just knew if we talked last year, this wouldn't have been how this couldn't have gone better, in my opinion. Just what I'm saying. Right. Thank you so much. I'm so happy. What did we name the baby?

Jill 1:12:32
zombie? His name's zavier. But we call him zombie.

Scott Benner 1:12:35
Not Scott. Okay, I got it. That's all you could have just said not Scott. I don't really care what your baby's name is. You understand?

Jill 1:12:43
My baby is adorable and any kind of attention he gets he's getting. I'm still a new mom. Okay. Oh, no,

Scott Benner 1:12:50
it's got to be the most exciting time. It doesn't end. By the way. If you're using my wife as an example, I still think my wife's ovaries twitch when my son his or daughter, like in trouble or sad or upset or anything. I don't think it goes away. Just so you know. You're gonna be tormented by that kid forever. Your mom is somewhere right now. tormented by the things that bother you. Just Oh,

Jill 1:13:12
she's downstairs? Yes. Our bed watching zombies.

Scott Benner 1:13:17
Is the Is he a handful?

Jill 1:13:20
He's becoming a handful right now because he just took his first couple steps. So yeah, he is becoming a little, a little nugget, that's for sure. But nothing I can't handle.

Scott Benner 1:13:33
You just made me think of the first time Arden ran across the room and almost made me cry. Isn't that sounds good? Ah, and she's 16. So just, you know, it's not gonna stop just so you know.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:42
I believe it.

Scott Benner 1:13:44
Thank you so much for doing this. I hope you have a Merry Christmas. I gotta tell you I really like this one. It's probably gonna go up pretty soon. A huge thanks to Joel for coming on the show and telling what I thought was an incredible story. Thanks also to Omni pod makers of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pump for being longtime sponsors, and another longtime sponsor Dexcom, makers of the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. And never forget about touched by type one.org. Learn more about the sponsors and give them a look. My omnipod.com forward slash juicebox dex comm.com forward slash juicebox touched by telepon.org this was a good first show, isn't it? Right? We're starting off 2021 with a vibe that I liked. Let's keep it going.

Okay, so pretty soon, pretty soon, first couple weeks of January, on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I'll be putting up information and it'll basically say this we're gonna and basically here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna figure it out probably one or two episodes of the pro tip series at a time, you'll listen to it in your own time. And then there'll be a scheduled time with a zoom link that you can come and talk about it with a bunch of people. So, like a book club, we're gonna listen to something, then come together and talk about it. I thought that was a nice idea. I ran a pass and people, they seem to like it too. So we're gonna give it a shot. And if it works, we're going to go through the entire pro tip series. If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say pro tip series, there are episodes within the podcast called diabetes pro tip and then an extension of what that episode is about. It begins at Episode 210. with diabetes pro tip newly diagnosed are starting over. And you can see all of those in one place at diabetes pro tip.com. Or you can just scroll back in your podcast player and listen to them there. So if that sounds good to you keep an eye out for the social media. I'm on the Instagram, and Facebook. Let's see on Instagram at Juicebox Podcast on Facebook, the public group is at bold with insulin. The private group is Juicebox Podcast, type one diabetes, the information will be there very soon. I hope you're having a great start to your new year. I am genuinely jacked up about this next season. I can't wait to bring you all the things I have planned out. Oh, and I probably should say because so many people right now are trying to take advantage of others with their Instagram you know I'm a I'm a what was the one thing I saw that cracked me up I can't say are the personal note I am. Anyway, there's a lot of people charging money to get together and private Facebook groups and talk about things or have access to certain content. I do not do that this book club thing is completely free. So you'll never be asked to spend money to listen to this podcast. Keep that in mind. Anyway, I'll get you more details as soon as I have them. I'm looking forward to doing it. I think the first meeting should definitely be in January. And I can't wait for this next season of the podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for leaving amazing reviews wherever you listen, subscribe in a podcast app and support the advertisers. If you do those things, you make the inside of my heart happy. I'll talk to you soon.

#424 Kibitz with Jenny

Scott and Jenny talk about stuff

End of year conversation

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:10
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the last episode of season six, the last episode of 2020. This is Episode 424. And did I don't know if it has a title, I just invited Jenny to come on and chit chat with me. And we just talked for a while. It was nice. 2020 actually began with an interview with Jenny. And I thought it would be nice if we ended with one as well. You know if you want to know how prolific 2020 has been for the podcast, that episode with Jenny, that went up on January 2 2020. That was Episode 293. And this is Episode 424. It's pretty crazy. This year is going to end with almost a million and a half downloads. That's just in 2020. So the podcast is taking off. And it's all because of you and how much you share and how much you listen. And I appreciate that. Give me just one second to shout out the sponsors. Although this episode is not sponsored, I fulfilled all of my sponsorships for 2020. But I still want to thank Dexcom Omni pod, the Contour Next One blood glucose meter, g Volk hypo pen and touched by type one. And I don't want to forget to mention the T one v exchange support from the sponsors is why the podcast is able to exist. It's why it's free. It's why it's plentiful. And I think it's why it's good. Sometimes I get emails from people, and they're like, can you please tell the host? And I laugh because I am the What do they call me the I do it all. This podcast is just me. editing, scheduling, recording technical stuff, making backups of the show. It's all a one man show. And it's supported by the ads and the advertisers. So thank you very much all of the great advertisers of the Juicebox Podcast. And a special thanks to all of you who have clicked on the links and check them out. dexcom.com forward slash juicebox learn more about that Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Don't forget, if you're getting your insurance through the United States Veterans Administration, the VA, go check it out. You might be really happy with the coverage you find the Contour Next One blood glucose meter is my favorite blood glucose meter ever. It's the best one Arden's ever used. It's the most accurate, it's the easiest to use. And you can find out more about it at Contour Next one.com forward slash juice box. And of course my daughter has been using an omni pod tubeless insulin pump since she was four. She is in the other room right now 16 years old and still using Omni pod because it is absolutely terrific. On the pod we'll send you a free no obligation demo. And all you have to do is go to my Omni pod comm forward slash juice box to request it. Touched by type one is a fantastic organization doing great things for people living with Type One Diabetes. They're a sponsor of the show. And you can find out more about them at touched by type one.org. And of course, g vo hypo pet. It's the glucagon my daughter Karis. And you can learn more about it at chivo glucagon.com. forward slash juicebox. And if you'd like to take just a few minutes to add meaningful data to great work that's being done for people to type on diabetes, go to T one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox. You can help support Type One Diabetes Research. It's super easy to do right there from your home. If nothing else, you don't have to go to a doctor. You can actually be part of something p one d exchange.org. forward slash juicebox links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com, etc, etc, etc. Thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting the show. Here's my conversation with Jenny.

I thought it might be nice if we just had a relaxed conversation. Not about anything specific.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:45
Not about anything fun.

Scott Benner 4:47
Yeah, well no, no, we don't have to do any like hardcore diabetes stuff today. So like I said, I'm recording. So like I said to you when we spoke about recording today the very first episode of the season. Season Six was with you. And I and we basically had like a almost individual a little bit. Right. And, and this is gonna be the last episode of 2021. So I thought it would be nice to do the same thing. See? Yeah, right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:15
I agree.

Scott Benner 5:15
Well, I guess we just have to chill out and relax and do something good. Plus, you don't get to hear about, you know, the people who are asking about you all the time. You know? So? No, yeah. So I get the notes. And it's always like, thank you. And at the end, just like don't thank Jenny to it, or on the Facebook page, where, where people, you know, I saw someone yesterday, say, you know, I went to integrate a diabetes to work with Jenny. She wasn't available. So they put me somewhere else. And I said, I think I answered back. And that might be my fault that Jenny doesn't have any room on her calendar. I told somebody recently, how, when you're telling me about emails you get from the podcast, people are like, Oh, your people? And I was like, Yeah, they're just the people listen to the podcast, that there's much your people as they are my people.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:06
Right?

Scott Benner 6:08
I don't know. I just wondered 2021 that needed to be wrapped up somehow. So how was your year?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:17
My year was, I mean, all around. It was a fine year. I mean, it really was I, you know, nothing major. Thankfully, in our family, we didn't have any, you know, disruptions in any weirdness. But it is what it is. And we made it through and hopefully next year is better. Other ways. Like I really, I think this this year, like everybody sort of missed travel and that kind of stuff, you know, the conferences and things that I was supposed to speak at, and a couple of them. Usually I bring my husband and my guys along with me, and they kind of go and explore the city while I'm stuck inside a freezing cold conference center. So we didn't do that this year. But, you know, hopefully next year, that'll be back on the agenda. Maybe and

Scott Benner 7:09
so I missed my speed here. Yeah, I missed this stuff. I was supposed to speak out. I wish I could have. It would have been nice. My family never offers to come with me. That's one third just like goodbye. I think they're trying to get away from me. And, hey, we don't even have to run away. He's gonna leave this is perfect. But I do, I did miss like that conversation, meeting people. Right, who found the podcast and came out to say hello are watching the faces of people in the audience. As you say something, it clicks in their head, and you can see them think like, Oh, right, why did I never think of that, you know, at this, at this moment, I'm not 100% sure if you stood me up in front of people, if I'd remember any of the things that I used to say, I might have to go back and study up a little bit because it Yeah, I'm not I'm not certain.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:56
In fact, I think the travel I don't know if it was the last travel you had to but was literally like March 1, oh, no, I came home from Atlanta was when we were at the jdrf thing in Atlanta together. And that was the last literal travel that I did.

Scott Benner 8:11
Well, the first thing you and I ever did together was the last thing I've ever done. So right,

Unknown Speaker 8:15
yeah. That's weird. It

Scott Benner 8:18
was really strange. I just, I feel like I feel I felt like back then. There was this talk of like, people are getting this thing and they're calling it comme Coronavirus. And it seems like it's getting serious, like that was the vibe around it. But I'm just gonna go to Georgia, because it's probably nothing and, you know, then by the time I got home, it was just like getting your homes, alarms going off and

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:44
close the doors

Scott Benner 8:46
through the street with pitchforks, and, you know, lanterns and I was like, Oh, wait a minute, I just made it back.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:52
Right. I can remember being at the Atlanta airport, you know, flying home actually is more like where I remember seeing a lot of people already like wearing masks in the airport. And, you know, my silly brain was just like, we know something is going on. Right? And I wasn't like being I mean, I always wash my hands. I was very cognizant of what I taught when I'm in a very public place like that, or even on airplanes. Yeah. And like wiping things down. But like the people with the masks on in the airport, I was sort of like, Hmm, maybe I should be a little more careful. Maybe not. And then of course, like two weeks later, everything got close. So

Scott Benner 9:33
yeah, suddenly you're running around going I need a mask.

Unknown Speaker 9:36
Where's Right, right.

Scott Benner 9:38
And that was a great event. They did a really nice job with that one. Kim ran that I think,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:43
yeah, it was a really they did a wonderful, wonderful job. In fact, I met several people actually who came there specifically for your presentation, which was awesome. had literally drove in from like other states to be able to come in Then called to do some work with

Unknown Speaker 10:03
me nice.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:04
So it was kind of nice because I'd actually gotten to meet them in person at that conference, and now I've gotten to know them. And they're lovely people. And

Scott Benner 10:14
it's so nice. I just interviewed the husband of one of the adults living with Type One Diabetes, that they'll be met there. And I think it just went up a little while ago. Awesome. Yeah, it just it was a great, it was really interesting, too, I thought. So let me say something nice about you. Oh, so aside of your knowledge of diabetes, and how you think about it, which I think jives very closely with how I think about it. You're really good at being on the podcast, you probably don't even realize that, but you're very comfortable to talk to you wait, and jump in at the right times. I don't think we ever talk over each other while we're talking. Nothing's planned, which makes it even more kind of crazy that it works. But when we got to Georgia, we did like, I think you did a room while I was doing a room. And then you came into my room. And then we did one together. Yep. didn't practice it. I didn't tell you what we were gonna talk about. I just grabbed the microphone, I started talking. And when it felt comfortable, I threw it to you. And when it felt comfortable, you threw it back to me. And I really thought it worked amazingly. Well. You were like the best partner for talking about diabetes was so thank you very much.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:25
Oh, thank you. Yeah. And I think actually, we have literally only talked in person, like five minutes prior to me coming in on kind of the second half of your whole presentation and talk and everything. So yeah, you had come in before I was doing sort of a breakout in another room about I can't remember what the topic was. But yeah, it was kind of fun. Because then I just got to chat with you on

Scott Benner 11:50
stage with everybody. We basically just met there. And then it gets crazy. Again, you can't find each other. Like I was like, well, I'll have lunch with Jenny. And then when it happened, I couldn't find you. Yeah, you know, and that was I think we said goodbye, maybe. And then we were back recording again a couple weeks later. But no, it's just you have no idea because there are people I have on throughout the years. And I think this person's very knowledgeable about this. And there's more to say about it. But it was just too hard to talk to them. Not that they did anything wrong. It just there was there's no there was no comfortable back and forth. It didn't work right. And I ended up not doing it again with them. So I'm just think I'm lucky. And everyone listening is lucky. Because you're just very good at this. And have you ever done anything like this prior to being on this podcast? No,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:37
not ever I need my other are much more professional, like, prepare it ahead of time put the PowerPoint thing together. You know, I think the the closest to this would be I've done some webinars for some type one adult groups kind of more on like the West Coast that I've done sort of in an evening kind of program for them. But again, it's more of a pick a topic, put some information together and then have some some discussion with the people who were joining in to learn. But it's never been this. I know I never think of like I always think that this is like a little bit of a break from my work day. Whenever I get to like talk and do this with you. It's very enjoyable. I totally I love it.

Scott Benner 13:23
I completely agree. Oh, no, no, I 100% agree. I always leave. I always come in the room smiling and leave the room smiling. And then I say your name a couple of times during the day. And my wife's like, Did you have a good time with anything? I was like we did. And then I start talking about it. And I realize she's making fun of me and then I stop. So

Unknown Speaker 13:39
that's funny. Yeah,

Scott Benner 13:40
it just is a really, it's a stroke of luck. Because, I mean, honestly, the podcast does really well. But it does better because of you. Like there's just no doubt about it. Like I could get on the microphone and talk through those ideas. But it just wouldn't have the same feeling. And I think it wouldn't be as engaging. I think it might taste like medicine a little bit when people are listening. There's something about our conversation that makes it, you know, easy for people to pick up. And because of that, and I'm sure you do too. But I'm up to about 10 to a dozen notes a day about people's lives getting better. And that's just a really big deal. I mean, I used to write about this stuff on my blog, and I would get them I'd get a letter like once a month, you know, a couple times a month, hey, this is really helping me. But the podcast just it's at a different frequency. And I really think it's got a lot to do with the fact that I found you so I'm glad that you think of it as a break. That's really nice. Like you're talking about diabetes all day.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:47
I do I think of it it's it's kind of like whenever I see it on my calendar for the weekend, like oh yeah, I get to talk to Scott this week. It's it's always fun to have a conversation even as in depth in some of The topics as we get, I think, the nice thing is that there's a, I know, there's a, there's a comfort level from both sides from your side and my side in terms of the discussion point. And again, like, I usually don't know what you're going to bring up for the day, which is even, I think nicer to keep it more conversational. But it's, we have a very easy like back end flow of information. And I, the big thing is, I never really feel like I'm like educating you. Which I guess is the reason that I like the conversations, because even though you ask some questions for me to elaborate on, right. And I know that it's helping so many other people when they're listening. It's also nice to have your sort of background and whatnot along with it.

Scott Benner 15:53
Well, I see. That's right. I feel like you just referred to me like as almost appear. And that's way too kind. But I very much appreciate it, I have to say that some of the nicest things around this diabetes stuff that's been said to me over the years is by you. When you once told me, if you once said if you had a degree, you could do this, like you could do my job. I was really touched by that. And very similarly, when you said that my tug of war description for Pre-Bolus Singh was like the best way you would ever heard it explained,

Unknown Speaker 16:31
is Oh,

Scott Benner 16:32
no, no, that really makes me that makes me uncomfortable, even now that you just said it again. But it. But that meant a lot to me. Because I don't know, I just I don't know why it's surprising to me, other than to say that if you could get into a time machine and go back 30 years, and find 19 year old Scott, and you could really get to know him. And then I pulled you aside and said that kid, one day will be the person that people listen to about this, this this, you'd go No, No, that can't be right. I just met the guy and I don't think I think you've got the wrong person. There's no way it just, it is to this day. shocks me that I'm the person who runs this podcast. It doesn't Yeah, I don't. It's weird that it's me. And I don't I recognize that. What I'm what I'm good at. And, like, I'm not shocked on that level. Like, it's not false modesty. It's not like, it's not like, Oh, I don't really know that stuff. You shouldn't say that. It's not that I don't feel like an imposter. It's just if you could have seen the trajectory of my life. It just didn't. It wasn't I don't know how it ended up being me other than Arden got diabetes, you know. So, yeah, it's very,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:49
I think, I think life experiences

Unknown Speaker 17:53
shift people often.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:56
And I, whether people choose to keep moving along with that shift or not, sort of is the difference. I think, you know, I mean, when I, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I had wanted to be a veterinarian, since I was like, a very small child. My grandpa had a farm I loved like all the animals, I always ask big questions. We had cats when I was growing up, I always wanted to go to the veterinarian office whenever we did ask lots of questions. And then when I was diagnosed, you know, I had really good educators, thankfully. And in high school, then just sort of like shifted, I realized I was really good at science. And I really also started my mom is an amazing cook. She just, she's awesome. And I kind of realized that because food was such a big part of diabetes management, that maybe I should kind of switch gears and sort of go the route of in a different didn't want to be a nurse. I don't do some of nursing things very well. They bleed all over me. But like the whole, like mucus angle can do that thing. So I was like, Oh, I like do I like nutrition anyway, so let's be a dietitian. And then I knew that I didn't want to do that. Like I don't want to teach people about low cholesterol diets. That's just not for me. Right. But diabetes was the thing. So again, I I kind of think, you know, I don't know, who knows, maybe if something else had happened in your life with kids, maybe you would have had a very different angle. But this was the course that you were supposed to have. And you've done an amazing thing for so many people starting this you have,

Scott Benner 19:39
I just feel like I thank you. I just feel like I saw its value. And so I leaned into it. But I mean, there's a part of me, I won't lie to you. There was a part of me at one point that thought, This is what I'm going to do. Like I'm going to write about and talk about diabetes in my free time. Like I don't even have diabetes. Have you been watching my blood sugar's online? I definitely go. I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:03
haven't. Actually I should I definitely

Scott Benner 20:05
about it. I definitely don't have diabetes. So good. Yeah, yeah, you actually, isn't it funny the irony of what I'm doing? I haven't even taken the time to like, celebrate that I don't have it. There's a couple times I'm like, Oh, this isn't not very exciting for the people watching. Instead of just thinking, this is great that I can walk past that candy dish pull, like, three candies out that total like 30 carbs, it's just pure sugar. And Ethan, and my blood sugar doesn't move. And I haven't had I haven't even had time to be like, yeah, that's exciting. But to what I was saying, there was a moment where I was like, This is what I'm gonna do, because my trajectory was, I wanted to be a screenwriter, like I wanted to write movies. That's how I, that's what I thought about when I was growing up. And then I was in a poor family, I didn't get to go to college, I had to go right to work. And I just had terrible jobs. I mean, like, I worked in sheetmetal, shops and paint rooms, and just terrible things. And the entire time I was there, I would just feel like, I'm not supposed to be here. Like, this isn't my I didn't, I didn't I love the guys that I worked with. And that whole part of it was terrific. But I just kept thinking, like, I have these things in my head, I should, okay, and but I'd get home, I'd be so tired, it wouldn't matter. And I was still broke, and just kept going over and over again, like that. And one day, I just thought, I've got to get out of this, like I can't, you know, I can't keep doing this forever. And a friend of mine was collecting debts. And she's like, you can talk, you can, you could do this job easily. So then the next thing I knew, I went from like, a sheet metal shop to sitting in a cubicle with a screen in front of me and somebody whose information would pop up, you'd have 10 seconds to familiarize yourself with this data on the screen. And trust me, it didn't look like computers. Look. Now it was you know, wasn't easy. And then you'd hear a voice and they'd be like, hello. And they were there. Hi, Jenny. My name is Scott. I'm calling from I forgot what it was something bank. You're 28 days late, on your on your payment, you're in jeopardy of going to 60 days late. We really need you to make a payment right now. I was Dunning people. And wow, I didn't know that I was so good at it. I quit the job. Because it made me feel bad how good I was at it. Like it was a job you didn't want to be good at. Right. You know, and, and so I used that experience to move to a credit union doing the same thing. And then the minute I could get out of it, I became their graphic designer, which I had no background in whatsoever. It was it was a little tiny credit union. And the job came up. And I went to the Human Resources person. I said, I can do that. Like I've seen the things that you guys produce here. I can make them all. And they just what would it hurt them? Like I wasn't making very much money. So they took a flyer and I did well at it. And did it for a number of years until Kelly got pregnant was cold. And then I quit my job and I had been a stay at home dad for I quit my job at the end of 1999. Wow, yeah, I haven't had a real job since then. And but I never, I would write things I would try to write things and never had enough time, I was always exhausted. And then Arden got diagnosed. And I was I didn't know what to do. So I wrote a blog about diabetes. You know, I just didn't, I didn't want her to struggle at some point. And I really felt like she was going to and I wasn't understanding it. And I don't have the kind of brain this is gonna sound strange. Maybe I can't I couldn't figure it out. Like I couldn't step back and look at it and figure it out. I had to like live through it, and then go back and write about it. And then like little lights would get turned on as I was going. That's why some people are, you know, I see some people online, they're like, I'm not getting this quickly enough be very upset with themselves then, like your kids had diabetes for six months. Like it two years, I was still crying in the shower, you know, like it's only six months in, and your kids a one c seven, and I can see it coming down consistently like you're, you know, three months from now you have this? Right, you know, it took me a lot longer to figure it out. And it really wasn't until I wrote something on the blog, one day when it really just hit me I was like, there's a system here. I didn't even realize it at first. And, and I didn't even know what it was. I just knew it was there. So I picked through everything that I wrote and it was like that and that plus that and that equals a good outcome. And you know, and then I picked those pieces and I refined them down

Jennifer Smith, CDE 25:00
It's kind of like data analysis, really. But you just did it in a different way.

Scott Benner 25:03
Yeah, trust me, because I can't analyze data. And so and so I kept distilling them down. But I, I understood them already. I didn't need I was distilling them down so I could write about them. Right, because I have a real belief about communication. And I don't think that people like to be talked at. And I don't think people like things that sound like medicine, especially when they're already, you know, upset. And so I just kept going. And I just kept telling myself, like, if you can make these ideas, t shirt, slogans, and people will be able to remember them. And that was it. And, and then I guess it's just lucky that I wrote that book. Because I got to write a book called Life is short laundry is eternal. And it was about being a stay at home dad. That got me. I can remember the exact day that I decided to make a website for myself, like Scott Benner calm, which is don't go look at it. It's, I haven't looked at it in like 10 years. But because I made that around the book. Katie Kirk's producer found me looking for Father's around Father's Day. Wow. Right. And so the next thing I knew, I was on a soundstage in in New York, doing this interview with Katie Couric. And when it was over, she grabbed me and she was like, you're so good at this. And I was like, What is it? I'm good at, like, cuz I didn't even know. I didn't know what she was talking about. She's like, you're just so entertaining. And you speak so freely. This was wonderful, as like, thank you. And then I left. And like two weeks later, a different producer called me and she said, I'm Katie Kirk's producer. And I was like, No, you're not. I already spoke to Katie Kurtz producer. She's a different person. She does know that her web producer, I'm her television producer. And I was like, okay, and she goes on, we have a slot. In a couple of days. We're having some single dads or some stay at home dads, come on. And we'd like you to come. I was like, yeah, I'll do that. You know. So the next thing Oh, awesome. It was so cool. But I got there. And she looked at me and smiled. Like she knew me, like, recognize me, which was nice. And I sat down. And Jenny, it if one of these things is not like the other ever existed, it was me. Right? Like, I was like, much older than these other guys. These guys were all like very kind of like metrosexual guys from like New York and stuff like that, right? Who are just like, you know, taking care of their kids. And, and I'm just answering the questions that come along. And then this one guy starts talking about this whole experience is making my wife and I closer, and he's just it was so pie in the sky and like happy and I just, it wasn't my turn to talk. But I leaned down, I looked down the line. I was like, Hey, I interrupted him. And I was like, how long have you been married? And he goes, Oh, we've been married like a year. And I laughed. And then I could see on the monitor, the cameras swung over to me. And I was like, You don't have any idea what you're talking about. You're not even married yet. Like I said, Come back 15 years from now and tell me that story. And then I'll tell you, you're doing a great job. And then I said something old

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:15
are your kids at this point?

Scott Benner 28:17
It was eight years ago. So Cole was like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:20
Oh, so it was a long it was Yeah, they were old enough, like well, old enough that you had been married and had life with kids. And I

Scott Benner 28:28
had already been yelled out a couple of 1000 times I knew what like what it was like to be married. And so and, and I don't remember what I said next. But whatever I said next made 500 people who were in the studio audience laugh at the same time. And I have to tell you that that is a feeling that is difficult to duplicate. Because now you feel like you feel like a puppet master. Like I wonder if I can make them do this. And what if I could try and write you know what I mean? And then, and then Katie pulled me aside again afterwards and said, Wow, that was terrific. She's like, you were this whole thing. And I said, Thank you. And she's like you, this was going nowhere, and you absolutely saved it. And it was just such a nice moment. And then she's awesome. And that made me think about making a podcast. So that's it. I never would have leapt from the diabetes blog to a diabetes podcast. It didn't occur to me to do that. So sure it was her so if you're all happy with your agency's thank Katie Clark.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:33
Well, I think you know, the big thing too is like I and maybe this is just sort of like reading into but like the feeling you got when the people laughed, and you knew it was an honest laugh. Like it wasn't a generated like, audience please laugh kind of signed up above like, they thought it was hilarious.

Scott Benner 29:52
Yeah.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:53
And you kind of took that even if it was on like a subconscious level and said, you know, if I can make people laugh Why can't I take what I know? And like, give that to more people to just be able to feel like they can do better to, like, I don't want to be the only one doing a good job at this. And I mean, that's kind of myself too. Every time somebody sends me a message that, you know, I got my agency down, and now my doctor has given me a go ahead to get pregnant. Or, you know, my child's endo team is astounded at what we're doing together. And they're amazed at his agency being here. And they're usually happy if it's just at seven and a half, you know, I mean, then the notes and things that's my like, audience happy laughing to me, like, I just, that's why I like doing what I do.

Scott Benner 30:48
So I appreciate that. And I feel the exact same way. When the first person told me that their doctor told me to listen to the podcast. I was like, Ooh, I'm doing I'm onto something. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that same kind of interaction where the audience laughed? Is, I tried to, I don't know how to say I don't. I don't. Is it funny? I'm not trying to insult anybody, because I'm definitely not I don't have those feelings. But I know how your blood sugar can be stable and steady. Right? And it's, I see it as my job to get it across to people. Anyway, I can. And I know that the picture you paint for one person that makes them go, Okay, this is it isn't the one that works for someone else. Right. Right. And so while I think most people make podcasts thinking, well, I am tangentially related to this subject. And I'll have conversations with people about it. It'll be interesting. And those people are always wrong, or not always wrong. But podcasts are interesting. There are a lot of podcasts, I believe that at the moment, there are 1.5 million of them. Of those 1.5 million. I forget what it is, maybe only a half a million, put up an episode a month, have only 50% of them get like 140 downloads per episode. So the truth is, it's easy to have a podcast like it used to be easy to have a blog, the large majority of them are either aren't being produced regularly or no one's really listening to them to begin with. Sure, like for perspective, while you and I are recording this, I should have a couple of 100 new downloads. By the time I put this down again, this podcast gets a lot of downloads. So there's this very finite amount of podcasts that anybody's actually listening to. And I realized that not everybody hears the tug of war story and then goes, Oh, Pre-Bolus thing, I got it. And you also have to realize that not everybody's hearing every episode. So right, my job's not just to do it once. It's to do it over and over and over again, in a way that hopefully doesn't take the people who found the show five years ago, and and bore them. Like I want them to stay for the community aspect. And because in truth if they stay, then the podcast gets more downloads of the podcast gets more downloads, then it's easier to sell ads. And if it's easier to sell ads, and I get to keep making the podcast, right like this thing kind of like all ties itself together. But I am working the strings of the puppets a little bit like I do say things to trick the people listening to into understanding diabetes. It's it doesn't it's not that's not the intention, but it is a positive trick. Yes, it's a very positive.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 33:41
It's, it's a positive reasoning trick. There's not like anything, you know, malicious.

Scott Benner 33:48
Right. Now what I've basically done is I've taken my superpower, and I've turned it to good. Like, really, unless you ever seen the boys on Amazon, some of these guys get superpowers and they just do terrible things with it. Not me. I've decided to do something good with it. So yeah, it makes me think of the last day of ninth grade. I have very few memories of school. But I'm going down the hallway. And my guidance counselor comes out of his office and grabs me and it's such an impactful moment that I I remember his name and I remember no one's name, and I'm sure he's got to be long passed, but his name was Mr. Wiley. He pulled me into a like a little nook, which today I think would be assault. And he goes, What are you gonna do in high school? And I was like, What? What do you want to be when you grow up? And I'm like, I, my brain. I'm like, Well, now we're talking about this, oh my god, we're out of here in three hours. I'm never coming back to this building. I said, I don't really know. And he said, You should be an attorney. That's what I think. And I said why? And he goes, you're just very good at talking to people. You should be an attorney. And I remember feeling very filled with like, I came from a divorced family. Nobody ever told me nice things about myself. You know, there was no time for that. And I think Felt good that he thought I could be an attorney. And then I said, I couldn't do that. And he said, Why? I said, Well, then I'd be an attorney. And he laughed, because I think he thought I was making like casting aspersions at the law profession. But what I really meant was that I'd be an attorney every day for the rest of my life. Like, and I don't want to do that. I don't want to do anything every day for the rest of my life. I feel like there's a lot of things I could do. And he laughed, I laughed, we were like, hey, and then I, you know, I walked out. I remember it because it was a positive impact because somebody, an adult, said something to me as a child that was positive. But then I did exactly the opposite of his. Like, I didn't lean into my education at all, like I looked at high school as something I had to get through. Right, which was a huge mistake. But I just negotiated my way through that. Just every I got to high school. They put us in this auditorium, and said there was a technical school that was a few miles away, where you can learn to weld or, you know, do all this stuff. And there was a field trip, you could go look around. And I was like, that sounds like for losers. That's how I write. And then they said, and the way the schedule runs is two weeks a month, you go to tech school full time and two weeks a month, you go to high school full time, and I thought, so I only have to go to high school for a year and a half. If I go to tech school, put me on that bus. So I went over, went through every room. No small engine repair, making the food for the cafeteria, there was hairdressing school. I don't want to do any of

Jennifer Smith, CDE 36:36
that way to come in handy. This past separate. See my

Scott Benner 36:39
hair right now, by the way if I could cut my own hair. So I made the decision to go to baking school. Because that had the most pretty girls. Listen, if I have to come to avoid a year and a half of high school, I'm gonna come I'm doing this. My parents were like, whatever. Like they just nobody cared. And, and I just picked the room with the most pretty girls. And now I can bake like you wouldn't believe.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:11
I'm glad you learned something out of it besides just looking at pretty girl. Yes,

Scott Benner 37:15
yes. Where you can make a cinnamon button six at a time. I can make 600 of them at a time. So I'm, that's the kind of baking I learned to bill. But I really I got out of that. I got a job in a bakery. You had to start at 130 in the morning. I did it for a week and I quit. I was like I'm not doing this. Yeah. I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 37:37
was so happy during my my dietetic internship, the food service aspect of it. I mean, I knew that I was never going into food service. I'd never wanted to do that. But we had to do that type of a rotation. And I too had to be in the bakery of the hospital system food service area. I think it was like 230 in the morning. And I was like,

Scott Benner 38:01
I couldn't do

Jennifer Smith, CDE 38:02
glad this four weeks is done. Bye. Bye. I will not be

Scott Benner 38:08
I texted my brother last night around six o'clock to wish him a happy birthday. And he was just waking up and getting ready to go to work because he works a shift and like shift work.

Unknown Speaker 38:17
I'm like, Oh my god, how

Scott Benner 38:18
does he do that? You know? But yeah, I just, there was nothing. And I just jumped my my uncle gave me a job. But did that for a while I did everything else that I told you about it. There's a bunch of others. I've worked in a 711 for like a year. Like, that was it like I just I wanted, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I cut lawns for people. And it's Kelly really, who deserves a lot of credit for seeing who I was through what my life made me look like I was Yeah, I don't know if that makes sense or not. But I didn't like if you looked at what I did and how I did it. I appeared one way but she actually listened to me and you know, kind of heard my thoughts and I just got randomly lucky. I really, I really belong, like in a trailer somewhere. Oh, no, I do. You know, please

Unknown Speaker 39:06
really don't left

Scott Benner 39:08
my own devices. I'm somewhere with a with like a bog. like Shrek basically is what I'm saying. I think that's about all I would have accomplished on my own. Kelly was the one who I think saw like my potential. And not that she was trying to coax it out of me. But she didn't judge me for the other stuff. You know, like that I was working in the 711 which there's nothing wrong with it was a perfectly fine job and, and I did it I worked hard at it. But you know, it's not a career, obviously. And it just was a way to pass time and make some money to pay bills. And one day I just realized I'm like all you're doing is living to pay this bill to live to pay the bill like this. You don't have to do something. But a lot of just lucky. Like I said like how do I talk to a human resources person into letting the credit card collector do the it's so If any, if all this tells you one thing, it's that my, it's talking is what I'm really good at. So I talked my way.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 40:08
And I think you've, you've sort of finessed your talking, though, to a point of really being able to teach. And that's there's a difference. Because, I mean, there are a lot of professionals who have gone to college and spent 1000s of dollars to do what they do, and still do not talk. Well. They just and that's I feel bad saying it, but it's the truth. I mean, and dust is. Dust is I think a lot of the reason, and I certainly wouldn't down any of the diabetes professionals that are out there. But when you're in a, in a when you're managing a condition, like diabetes, talking sometimes needs to go beyond, like, the basic hit points on a list to address. And you have to get to a very personal level of talk in order to meet the need. And everyone's needs are everyone's needs are different.

Scott Benner 41:15
Right? So well. Yeah, that's that's basically what answered the question to me when people like when I talk to somebody privately, that doesn't have diabetes, like they're like, wait, so someone listens to your podcast to learn about diabetes, instead of talking to their doctor. And I was like, Yeah, I was like, the doctors are, generally speaking not great at explaining it to them. And you know, it's hard for like a lay person who doesn't have type one to even understand how that would be. Because most people's experience with doctors, is one of the problems with going to a doctor, is that your support you people think you go in there and you sit quietly, and they tell you something, and then you leave with the answer, right? And it just doesn't work that way, especially with type one. But still even talking. Like if I'm not lying to you, if I tell you that 30 seconds before you popped up, I was thinking maybe we should talk about like some, like, do some defining diabetes stuff. And then when I saw you, I was like, No, let's just talk like, do like an end of year wrap up. So nothing that I've said, while we were talking Have I ever considered before I said it, and I speak pretty quickly. So that I make sense. While I'm talking. That's where I think, again, I think everyone's good at something. But I'm proud of myself, like I can't believe I'm this good at speaking in a coherent way that leads to something I'm not just filling time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 42:39
Yeah, you should be proud of what you've put out there. I mean, it's, it's, it's been beneficial enough in specially in terms of what you've seen in the listeners that you have and the growth and who it's reaching that more and more and more people keep, like, Hey, you should listen to the juicebox. Hey, you should listen to the juice box. And that outreach is beyond. I mean, I don't know how many other places I know, online, too, that I could send people to listen to, or do a little bit more reading or whatnot. And but many of them, I don't I mean, there are lots of them. Yeah, and I don't direct people to very many other sites, I just don't, because when, when you want somebody to really learn and to continue to learn, especially in the past five years, with all the changes that have come with diabetes management, you have to continue to evolve and move along with that in your discussion. And you also have to be willing to say, Hey, you know, a couple of years ago, I remember we talked about such and such, and with today's technology, we don't need to do that anymore, or we don't need to do it as much, or it's changed now. So you need to continue to sort of move people into learning that things aren't just gonna stay where they are.

Scott Benner 44:07
Well, those. So I think where most people get stuck, and this is where the listeners deserve. A lot of the credit is there, those people get so stuck trying to drive traffic that they take what's what they hear people talking about online, and they turn it into content. And I don't think of it that way. I don't look to the people who need the answers, for the ideas about what to say. And I think those other blogs and probably some of the look, I don't know, I've never listened to another type one podcast, but I can tell you that I can see some metrics online. And as far as Type One Diabetes podcasts go, there's this one, and then the rest don't come anywhere near this one in terms of listenership right and, and I don't mean them, I think it's terrific. Like I really think it's terrific that people do what they do and if they're helping people, I think that's terrific, but If they they'd see more growth, if they were giving people something that made a listener, like get off and think I have to tell somebody about this. Right, right. You know, I, I listened to podcasts, and some of them, I enjoy, but I would never tell anyone else to listen to. And there are some that every time I'm with somebody, I'm like, have you heard this conversation on this thing? Like, it's, it drives you to want to talk to somebody. I just think that, while he, you know, Jenny and I talked maybe a week ago, we set a schedule. So like, she's on the schedule throughout 2021. And I told her what I wanted to do in 2021. And then I was like, hey, in 2022, I also think we should start moving in this direction a little bit. And, and that's what she's talking about, like, I know where diabetes is going. And I need to understand it so that when it's happening to you listening in real time, I'm already, you know, I can I can articulate it in a way that will help you do it. Right. I just see it that way. Like I've never worried about the clicks, I always think about anything that I've ever produced and put online. If it's good people will listen to it, if it's great people will tell people about it. But you can't force people to tell people about things that we're sharing, like, please share, please click please. Like, just if it's good, it's good if it's not stop wasting people's time. And I think the diabetes space where it fails over and over again, is that it just does the same kind of banal over and over again, like, Hey, here's a recipe for a fourth of July. Right, Great, thanks. I don't my kids chart jumps up my graph goes 463 5082. Right, I don't your low carb, you know, hotdog bun recipe is not gonna save my life, I have bigger problems. And, and all of those other places, no matter how friendly, they try to make them, Look, our businesses, and they are not going to go out on a limb and tell you how to Pre-Bolus they just won't. It's the it and it's despicable that it's despicable that some doctors won't even do it. Because they don't want you to get low and come back and say, Look what you did to me. I would rather you drop dead 15 years before you're supposed to and have nobody to sue. And and, you know, I gave them I gave them competent care is what they would think when it was over. And not everyone's like that. But if there wasn't a lot of people like that, then this podcast would have no need and nobody be listening to it. So

Jennifer Smith, CDE 47:33
well. And I think that's, that's kind of you can't really sugarcoat things, right? Because people eventually see that. And you have to give it like it is this is the information. This is how to do it, if you choose to go forward and use it. Great. And if you don't, well, then at least you heard it somewhere, right? I mean, it's kind of like the eons ago. I mean, my nephew, who is now 21, he was diagnosed when he was seven. And at that point, when he was diagnosed, his doctors kept telling his parents, it's okay, if his blood sugar is, you know, 250 he's little. And that's okay, for right now. We're just worried about him being too low. And whenever my husband and I, we didn't have kids at that point, but whenever we'd go and visit them, I'd be like, it is not okay for his blood sugar to be 250. I mean, that was like eons ago, right? Like 15, or whatever years ago. Not quite but and so bringing this up now is really important, because there are a lot of little kids and teens being diagnosed. And for them to know from the beginning that despite their services being much more conservative, and that quote, unquote, like, let's make sure that you're safe. And by no means am I saying Don't be safe. But that down the road, like you said 15 years from now. They're little blood vessels and things are not going to be safe because you were more comfortable with a blood sugar of 200.

Scott Benner 49:17
Yeah, so the the evil person that lives inside of me that, you know, that I got rid of a long time ago who could have become an attorney and become really rich doing it. That person doesn't get the worst thing that I can imagine Jenny is wasted time. Like I have a real trouble with that. I do not like to waste time. I don't like to have conversations that that aren't valuable. I don't like to have friends that I just I hate wasting time right? It feels like the ultimate sin. And if I was the type of person who could put out a podcast about nothing and draw you into it when You could be out there using that time, legitimately learning how to make yourself healthier. I couldn't live with myself and do something like that i and i think that there are too many people who have talked themselves into believing there's no real help for these people with diabetes. So I'll just serve them this bland content. And I'll get them excited every year about a cure coming. And then I'll string them along with some recipes for something. And then once in a while, I'll let somebody tell a story about how scary it was to have diabetes. And that'll keep them locked in with fear. I mean, I want you people to listen, which is why I do the interviews with other people. I think good stuff comes out of the interviews. But I think also that too many of you listening don't know another person with Type One Diabetes. So you get to listen to people who have type one, I try to make it entertaining, so that it's not just like, the same thing over and over,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 50:58
where they could essentially be watching like a presentation on a PowerPoint. Yeah, you don't want that there's no personality.

Scott Benner 51:07
I talked to April Blackwell a couple days ago, and I put it right up. And I think we talked about diabetes for eight seconds. And then she, she flies the International Space Station. So like, this is what we need to be talking about, you know, and she has type one diabetes. Same thing with when Alyssa Wallerstein was on. She said, world class cello player, like I asked her about how she Pre-Bolus is, you know what I mean? Like, like, no, like, like, let's have great conversations. Those conversations to me are really interesting and help you meet people who have type one diabetes who do interesting things. Because if I just came on every time and I was like, Alright, feet on the floor, this is what it is, you know, you'd be out of here, and it wouldn't help you then. And I have to part of my job is to trick you into doing better with your diabetes. Like it really is. Like I said something online the other day, somebody asked a question. And I was like, Jenny said that I can't remember where. And there's this part of me that's like, wait a minute, are you not listening to every episode? I'm doing this very specifically for you. But I understand everyone can't listen to every minute. Or that maybe I don't do a good job sometimes or whatever, or you know, but the idea is that I honestly believe if you went back, I don't know, I haven't heard episode one since I recorded it. I don't know what's in it. But what I can tell you is if you went back, found a way to listen to 420 episodes of this podcast, when you got to the end, you'd be incredibly good at taking care of your diabetes. And you may have heard, you may have heard 50 hours of conversation that later you could write off and say it had nothing to do with it. But I don't know how to point you to the exact episodes you need to hear like I don't know which episode, Jenny said when you fall asleep. your digestion slows down. Like I don't know which one that is. And you know, Jenny, there are, does this happen to you? I'll get a note from somebody. And they're like, Oh, my God, what you said worked. And I'm like, Who are you? And

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:11
what was it that I said that works? Let me apply

Scott Benner 53:15
it exactly. Like tell me that. And then I have to like I dig backwards. And I'm like, Oh, this is a person, they have a kid and I read it. And then I realized that we had enough meaningful back and forth. I get that she thinks I know who she is. Except I've had them back and forth like that with 100 more people since then. And I don't know who you are anymore. Like, I it's the worst thing to like somebody go I'm so sorry to ask this. Who are you?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 53:37
What was your name again?

Scott Benner 53:38
Don't don't I don't have time to go look, and but that's good. Like, that's good. Because the more people who learn how to handle themselves, well, the more they'll tell somebody else which will lead to other people having healthy results. And I'm telling you, like it's a it's a long shot for me. But I want for this podcast to fundamentally change how doctors talk to people with type one diabetes. Like I want to my whatever my last day is like I want I want one of my last thoughts to be no one's gonna cry in the shower. And I helped, you know, right, right. That's what I'm shooting for. Well, I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 54:16
think what helps to is kind of what you were elaborating on with discussion, just mentioning those two other women, where you might have spent like a minute talking to them in the whole discussion about their diabetes. But that's a that is a piece that's missing in, in diabetes. Education, it's not really the right word for it, because what you're bringing in is a piece of real life. The fact that you could be this person, you could do this, you could do that. And our whole conversation for 45 minutes, was not about a BD. It was about what an awesome cello player you are in. Where you've been and what you've seen and what you've been able to do. Yes, you have diabetes, but you still live. And those are grabbing points for a lot of people, I think, and a big reason. Many people would continue and do continue to listen. I mean, that's a grabbing point for me, in terms of listening. I mean, I don't really go to the episodes that are about education. Other ones are, they're awesome. And I listened to, because they're their people. And one of my favorite things that I ever did in my life with diabetes, is I attended a diabetes training camp for adults with type one who wanted to be better athletes. And while the whole week was all about diabetes management, the in between with all of the other people I was at camp with was life. And that's kind of what your podcasts spring, it's, it's life. And it's also Oh, I want to learn a little bit more of this. Let me click on this one, versus I just want to learn about the cello player.

Scott Benner 56:06
I think it's incredibly important. And I didn't realize so I'm a boy. So when something happens when something happens in front of me, I just think like, we'll blow it up kill it. Or don't worry, it's not a problem. Like you don't mean like I I genuinely, I genuinely don't think women understand how men think any more than men understand how women think, right? But there's nothing you could say to me that I don't think I could do. Like, I'm sitting here right now. I'm almost 50 years old, I'm completely out of shape. And if you brought a 25 year old guy in here and said, Can you kick his ass? I'd be like, god damn right. I can. And by the way, I can't. Okay, like, but but but it makes, I don't ever have that thought. And so when Arden got diabetes, I was just like, well, I'll just do it. Like, I'll figure it out. And I'll do it. So to hear that somebody might not think that they could be an athlete, because they have type one that doesn't like, that doesn't resonate with me at all, I would never think of that. Even when people are saying, like, I'll get notes. Sometimes they're like, you know, how do I keep my kids? Excuse me blood sugar from falling during, like an activity? And I was like, well, you get your settings. So right, that there's no active insulin while you're running around, and it won't fall. But that's not really an answer to that question, is it? You know, so? And the answer to that question is so much bigger, and why it works in audio, and doesn't work as well in writing. And also doesn't work as well in audio, if you're not good at talking about it. Right? Right. It's just, there's, there's a lot there that has to coalesce to make it. I can tell you don't have active insulin while you're being active. And that but people don't, it's just diabetes moves too quickly. Right, just one meal rolls into the next meal rolls into the next day. It's like, it's almost like, they don't recognize that three times a day, they're doing something that's going to screw up six hours from now. Right? That's the biggest caught get caught in this wheel of of doing something, getting fooled into thinking it's okay for a couple of hours, and then having it go wrong. And the insulin that they worked with happened so far in the past, they don't recognize that's what's going on. So they never see the real problem. They're always just they're swinging at ghosts all the time. Right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 58:20
I think that's a lot of the reason, though, that our conversations together that are about specific, like diabetes, like topics, right? are more, they're conversational in nature. And that helps people to think further than, like you said, a written kind of paragraph about something is just that there's nobody to converse about with it. It is you read it. And you kind of try to apply it. It's sort of like going to a doctor who takes the clinical cotton dry. Well, you should adjust it this way. Because this is what's happening. Yeah. But there's no like back and forth, which is kind of what we have, which is fun.

Scott Benner 59:03
Well, I recorded with Kenny the other day to add another loop episode. And I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 59:07
haven't listened to it yet. He gives I came into my email, and I was all excited.

Scott Benner 59:11
It gives this great explanation about putting in a Bolus, but changing the time to the future. And then when it adds, but then when the loop says okay, we're gonna put in three units now saying no. And so that right, and so it gives us great explanation. But in my mind, I'm like, I don't know if that's clear to people listening. And so I said, So you're telling me that basically, what I'm doing is giving Luke some pocket money, some walking around money that he can spend wherever it wants? And he goes, yes, and then Okay, great. And we kept moving. Five, five notes I've received so far in the last two days. That changed my whole understanding of something. And I didn't know I was gonna say that. I just, it's just how it occurred to me in the moment, you know, so if the weird way that my brain works Somehow was helping people. That's cool. But I can't even take that much credit for it like it just like, basically what happened was I understood what he said, but I could not re articulate it in a technical way. If you asked me to say what he just said, in my own words, I would have been lost this, you know,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:18
that it like a guy walking down the street who has no knowledge about you're like, this is like this instead. Yeah, it's not just the medical term. So

Scott Benner 1:00:27
what you're saying is this, and that's my whole approach to diabetes. I'm, at this point, I'm sure you feel the same way. But anyone could walk into this room right now. And I could, I could set them right in a couple of hours. It wouldn't be that hard. But

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:45
and give them tools to move forward with as well,

Scott Benner 1:00:48
that would take another day. Yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:00:50
a bit. But the right now you could say, this is definitely a big part of the problem. Let's do this. And then we'll work on the rest as we see that this

Scott Benner 1:01:00
work. And so we're gonna keep doing that, we're gonna, you're gonna keep coming back. Jenny's gonna record all through 2021 and 2022, we're going to talk about all kinds of stuff, I would imagine there's going to be more conversations about algorithm pumping, because that is kind of the future. And I want to get people into that way, it'll

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:01:19
be interesting to have a conversation when some knee pads, yeah, system comes,

Scott Benner 1:01:26
it will be. And so that'll be good. And then we're gonna get people in to talk about, we're going to talk about control IQ, we're going to talk about on the pod five, I'll talk about that Medtronic one when it comes out if we need to. And I'm just kidding, I would be happy to do that. But the podcast is gonna keep moving forward, I have no plans on slowing down. And I want to thank everybody listening 2020 downloads, and I know some people are like, I stream it does that count however you listen counts. But from 2017 to 2020. We have doubled our monthly downloads every year. So 2018 was doubled, over 1719 was doubled, over 1820 was doubled over 19. And if 2021 doubles over this, it's gonna be easier for me to get other guests because it's gonna stick us into a stratosphere where people are actually gonna be like, Yes, I'll come on, because they know that we'll do something for them. So we're kind of making the podcast into a commodity, which then will allow us to, to do a little better. Right now, I still have to fight to get some people on the show a little bit, you know. So it's interesting how the how much the downloads mean, behind the scenes.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:02:37
So maybe you'll have to ask only once versus three times.

Scott Benner 1:02:40
Yeah, we'll have to, I'm gonna have to work so hard to get them. So Jenny, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And I want to cut this off now because I want to tell you something privately that these people can't hear. Sorry, guys. That's it for 2020 131 episodes, one pandemic, and a lot of a one sees going down and getting stable. Thanks so much for listening to the Juicebox Podcast. I'll be back in just a few days with the beginning of season seven. I have a great story about someone who is diagnosed with Type One Diabetes as an adult, just as they were finding out they were pregnant. One of my favorite stories in the last couple of years. And I finally got to record with the person that it happened to. I'd like to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year. I'd like to give you a lot of credit for making it through that last year. And I think we can all agree that if 2021 can just be a little less than a disaster. That would be amazing.

#423 Defining Diabetes: Insulin Deficit

Scott and Jenny Smith define diabetes terms

In this Defining Diabetes episode, Scott and Jenny explain Insulin Deficit.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon Alexa - Google Play/Android - iHeart Radio - Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scott Benner 0:06
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 423 of the Juicebox Podcast. On today's episode of defining diabetes, Jenny Smith and I are going to define insulin deficit. Today's episode is part of the defining diabetes series, which lives here inside of the Juicebox Podcast. It's where Jenny Smith and I take terms from your life with type one diabetes, and explain them in ways that we hope make them useful, and understandable. Myself friend, Jenny Smith has had Type One Diabetes since she was a child, I think for over 31 years now. Jenny holds a bachelor's degree in human nutrition and biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a registered and licensed dietitian and certified diabetes educator and a certified trainer on most makes and models of insulin pumps, and continuous glucose monitoring systems. And she used to be one of Santa's elves. Please remember, as you listen 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 health care plan are becoming bold with insulin. Now the music will build to a crescendo and we will begin.

This is going to be probably a pretty simple one. And it might not take a lot of talking. But I do want to I do want to give it its own space. Define insulin deficit? How do you think of it? If I say those words,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:42
I think it could be defined in a couple of different settings. And insulin deficit is easy to decide to eat whatever you're going to eat, you just don't take insulin for it. So there's a deficit of insulin nearly right. There could also be an insulin deficit. And this one, I think, is harder to determine how much insulin you need to correct and right, the situation of insulin loss is when you have someone using a pump, and the pump site has failed. But you don't quite know that that's what's happened. You're like doing all these extra things, your bolusing extra you're trying to like fix the high blood sugar. And finally, you realize, Oh, my pump site is all wet, or I smell insulin or Oh, look at that my pump site was like kinked instead of you know, when I took it out, that's a harder deficit to repair. Because you're not quite sure. How long is the deficit been going on? How much of the Bolus two hours ago actually went in? Did any of it go in the my blood sugar is here. So that one's I think, a little harder to take care of. But a deficit I mean, it's you're just you're missing insulin Bri has to do with like figuring out where you didn't get insulin.

Unknown Speaker 2:57
That's the reason we're

Scott Benner 2:58
in the situation scenario when your pump site goes bad. I sort of just looked back on as the Dexcom. So it's easier, but I sort of look back at where I start seeing that drift up and up. And if I think to myself, well, that was two hours ago, and she's 225 right now. I just act like none of that insulin that I thought I gave her exists. And I go pretty hard at it and and just try to start over again. I am such a big fan of like, crush it. Stop it start over again. Because I think it's time saving. Yeah, you know, and I and I don't like the idea of I don't know, I know, this is probably completely backwards from what most people get told. But if you have a 300 blood sugar, and it takes you six hours to bring it down. I don't know. That just seems

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:45
that's a long time of feeling like crud. Yeah,

Scott Benner 3:47
yeah, that doesn't seem right to me. And I don't make a habit of dropping Arden's blood sugar like a stone. I'm not I'm not saying that. And I don't think that's good, either. I'm just saying that if I see that drift up, and it's been an hour, well, then I think all right, an hour ago, she stopped having enough insulin. But the truth is, though, is that I have the comfort in my head to know that her insulin is being used correctly, or it's been set up correctly, so that at any sort of a drift up. I don't think of as an anomaly, I think of it as something went wrong in the process. But that's because I have the confidence to know that the process is going to go the way it's going to go. It's tougher for people who are who are still getting things right or chasing things around. That's a horror that I have trouble putting into words like what does it feel like when something's happening inside of your body and you don't know what it is? Correct. And how do you make the next step? And I do see how people get to while Just wait.

Unknown Speaker 4:50
Right? You know,

Unknown Speaker 4:50
right. So,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:52
I mean, that's a really valid point to bring up is, if you're going to be as you coined the wonderful term, if you're going to be with insulin, know how your body responds to it, you can start to learn that, because you have things for art. And so well set that you can say, she wouldn't be drifting like this, I know that there's something not right here, I can add this much more insulin, I can attack it, I can avoid being 300. And if you do it with the pump and the pump site, she just keeps going up. Well, you're going to change that out, you're going to stop it again before and you might like me, I usually just do an injection. I'm not going to wait around for a pump site to start absorbing. Well, I give an injection and I take care of it. Yes. Who, like you said who wants to sit at 300 for six hours,

Scott Benner 5:37
right? You have some sort of a deficit fix. The issue is you can come in inject a correction I always like do like a Temp Basal increase to to kind of get the site moving. And then you're on your way again, I don't think we've experienced a site change high blood sugar in a very long time, because I don't even bat an eye. Now last night we changed Arden's pod and her blood sugar was like 85. And I Bolus the half a unit just because we changed the sight. And and didn't think anything of it. But but but to dig in farther for insulin deficit, like you can have a deficit at a meal, right? Like you could need four units us three, three units, that'd be a deficit of your meal Bolus. I see people whose basil rates are sometimes really steady. Like their their lines are steady, but they're higher, like oh, look how steady I am. But I'm always 140 That to me is a basil deficit. You don't have enough basil, unless you meant for your blood sugar to be at 148. And then even with corrections, you know, like we talked about earlier with, you know, with your with your ISF for your correction factor, you if you You're too late there, but when you're missing in all of those places, these deficits have different impacts, right, like so your basil depth, your basil deficit keeps your raised higher. If your meal deficit, if you have a meal deficit, then you're going to shoot up after you eat. And if you have a correction deficit, you're going to stay up longer, once you're up there and, and all of those things are really just to say that you have to use the right amount of insulin at the right time. And if your blood sugar is high, you probably don't have enough insulin. But a lot of people have deficits. I don't know if this is the right place to talk about this or not. But in the last month or so, since I talked to you last. I've helped to people with control IQ. And I did it blindly. Meaning that I have never seen the settings on control IQ. I don't know what the menu looks like, I have no idea. But I followed their Dexcom. And I said I'm going to talk to you, in my words. And we'll translate them to what you see there. And I was able to get two people's graphs level lower. Yeah. So it was all I almost just did it for fun, which I think says something weird about me. I was like, I wonder if I could do this. And I started with the one I said to the wrong one. I'm like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm like, I'm happy to like be a sounding board for you. But just remember that everything I say is going to be a gas, I have no idea. But in the end, it didn't matter. It was all the same. You know what I mean? Like it just you need more insulin here lessons on here. You don't Pre-Bolus you have to Pre-Bolus it was all the same stuff. Right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:25
I think something too. And you bring in like good point about like, Where did the deficit kind of start and you know, with your initial if you're sitting nice and stable, but at a blood sugar 140 or even 150 or whatever, and you're flat and stable at it. What I always recommend to people is, was it flattened stable at a lower number and then you ate and then you got to the 140 or 150. And it never came down after that. Yeah, because that's the not necessarily relative to the basil. That's the Bolus problem. Right? Right. So sometimes it takes like, you have to take a couple steps back to look at where does it look like the deficit kind of got going? Because somebody might think in the scenario of Oh, it's 140, but it's flattened. I'd rather it be at you know, 102 and flat. I'm going to dump more insulin in here. Well, what if you start at 102 then and that basil hike that you popped in? isn't quite right, it's too much but you didn't realize you needed the insulin before that. So

Scott Benner 9:25
yeah, I will probably this will just end up being a different kind of an episode than I thought but I'm so where I go when I see somebody grant for the first I listen, you show me a 24 hour graph. I can fix your blood sugar in about four hours. Like that's how it is right so but the first thing I look at, if I see a graph that's kind of up and down my first question is always are you feeding insulin or stopping highs? Right? If you're feeding insulin I it makes me leap to your base was too strong. If you're always stopping highs, and everything's else faded away from where I where I want it to be. And I'm thinking about 85. When I'm looking at it, then I think, okay, where we'll start is, we're going to pick one basil rate, yep, I'm going to bring everything down, try to get it flat. And then we'll identify spots on the graph where maybe you need less or more overnight or etc, that kind of a thing for basil. And then once I've got that, then we figure out the Pre-Bolus time, you know, and yeah, and I'm, like, Look, you have to Pre-Bolus it's just not going to work. Otherwise, after you've got the Pre-Bolus time, then we work on understanding like the glycemic loads of different foods, and then you're kind of done. Like, I don't I listen, we're stretching this podcast out.

Unknown Speaker 10:43
It doesn't need to be rocket science,

Scott Benner 10:45
get your basil right. Pre-Bolus your meals, understand the impacts of foods, go live your life with diabetes. Right? Right. Like it kind of is like that. But it's fascinating to have that conversation. And you know, just as well having a conversation with a person and watching them have all their different aha moments. And, and they see all the things that they thought they were seeing that weren't right. And you're right, they can they never seem to be able to step back far enough away to see the whole, the whole picture, you know, right. It's really interesting. Okay, do you do it? Similarly, you do it, you do it like

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:18
I do? Well, we do, actually. I mean, you're you do it kind of, really in the same scenario that we essentially we look for, we look for the lows, we always want to get rid of lows to begin with. Because if you're constantly feeding extra insulin, you're creating a lot more of the roller up and down, because you're constantly adding, and then you might be correcting, and then it's dumping you off, and then you're feeding that incorrect. It's just this never ending cycle. So we avoid the lowest first, even if it means adjusting things to a little bit higher to begin with, to get rid of the lows, and then we can bring that down. Once it's more stable, you can easily bring that down once you're not adding in all this extra food that you didn't really need.

Scott Benner 12:02
Do you find that it's harder to talk people into believing that their Basal is too low? If they're experiencing lows? Yes, like, like when you say to somebody, Hey, your Basal needs to be higher, they're like, No, I'm low all the time. Like if you're low all the time, because your base was too low, or over bolusing for food and you're crashing for the foods out of your system, and then they're gone, then their minds are like, Oh, you know, like, No, no, we're gonna make the basil higher, so that stable times are lower so that meals aren't as impactful on your system, you'll see and it that's a hard thing to talk people into believing it is it that's that's always interesting.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:40
It kind of it kind of goes right along with like, it's not really insulin deficit, but it you know, in a way, it's sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul, insulin in one place for insulin and another one place is wrong. And the other one, you're compensating and feeding with more insulin because the other place doesn't have enough of it. So if you get it smoothed out, yeah, then you got this nice, like, you know, but because

Scott Benner 13:06
we need to librium when you do that, when you have it unbalanced like that. To me, the biggest problem it causes is extra Bolus that's still available after food is digested constantly Yeah. And then you're crashing, and then you're feeding the you feed that insulin, and then you fly back up again, then you're correct and crash and then and it's just, it's fascinating to watch people. It makes me better at it to watch to watch it go wrong for people. Because the more that I can look at it, and just say like, Oh, just do this, this and this. It's it's great practice for me every time like, like my wife has said to me one time, she's like, the podcast reaches so many people at this point. She's like, Why are you like, you're giving a lot of time talking to like, one person at a time. Like, no, I'm learning. Like, they're getting help. That's what they get. I'm like, but I'm getting better at it. Like, right, like, by doing you learn? Yeah. So it's Yeah, it is really interesting.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:02
Yeah, I think it's, um, it's the way that and that's why I always bring up people's graphs when I'm talking them through adjustment, and why do I see the things the way that I am seeing them, because going forward, I want you to have that tool. I mean, as much as I love all the people that I work with, I want you to be able to have these tools in your own toolbox and go on your merry way. And

Scott Benner 14:24
Jenny can't sit in the matrix and just with a thing plugged into her telling you all how to take care of your ledger for the rest of your life. So it's funny. What I do notice, too, that some people are just in general. So like, I don't, I can never tell if it's they're scared or they're so sure that the things that they figured out are right. But I end up saying to people a lot of times privately, listen, I appreciate what you're thinking here is like but you're just wrong. And you got to let it go. You know, because you just you're fighting and you're wrong. Like I just try this once and see what happens. Yeah. I think

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:00
it's many of the people that I see that more so in are those that have some pretty significant like hypo anxiety, they're very, very, very worried about having a low and many for good reason they've had a very significant problematic event happen, or, you know, EMTs coming to their house or,

Scott Benner 15:26
you know, be that's a good reason to be scared treated

Jennifer Smith, CDE 15:27
with it, right. I mean, there are a lot of reasons to be scared. But I think I see that a lot more with that group of people with diabetes. Well, I'm talking

Scott Benner 15:39
about that. And I mean this with love, but the Type A lunatics that are just trying to control like everything. And I'm like, Yeah, like you're trying to control six things you don't understand, which is, you know, who's particularly. And I mean, this again, would love particularly bad at this, nurses. I'm not a nurse, nurses and nurses who have kids with diabetes, are particularly thrown by diabetes. It's really interesting. Like, like, I listened had it happen once, twice, three times, I'd say, okay, maybe I'll make it up. I'm on my 30 100th nurse who all react exactly the same way. Like, I think that they're so accustomed to this, the order that they follow at the hospital, not really realizing that that hospital orders just really in place as somebody doesn't drop dead or get too low. It's not really about managing diabetes day to day. But yeah, they're they're the hardest to break free. But once they break free, boom, then they've got it like because then they can use that order that they that they're accustomed to in the right way. It's interesting. It really is interesting how different people react differently. If you'd like to learn more about what Jenny does it integrated diabetes, go to integrated diabetes.com.

The podcast has a private Facebook group that you can find, you know, on Facebook, it's called Juicebox Podcast, and then there's a colon and then it's type one diabetes. There's also a public page called bold with insulin. I'm on Instagram to just hit 10,000 followers there. It was kind of cool because I'm not very good at Instagram.

What a salesman I am. Hey, would you like to see an Instagram page? That's probably not good. Go to Instagram. Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor and you can learn more@dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. We're also sponsored by the Contour Next One blood glucose meter. Check it out at Contour Next one.com forward slash juicebox. Want to get a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod tubeless insulin pumps sent right to your home. You can do that at my Omni pod.com forward slash juice box. Learn more about g vo Kibo pen at G Vogue glucagon.com forward slash juice box support my favorite type one diabetes organization at touched by type one.org and follow them on Instagram, and Facebook. And if you'd like to support type one diabetes research that makes a real difference. Check out T one d exchange.org. forward slash juice box. Let me do a little bit of talking for the podcast itself here at the end. As the year winds to a close there's one more episode left. But if you want those diabetes pro tip episodes, go to diabetes pro tip comm or head back to Episode 210. Your podcast player that's where it starts. Diabetes pro tip newly diagnosed we're starting over Don't miss the after dark series. Any of the episodes that are titled after dark and then something else. They're incredibly interesting and topics that people don't talk about very often. More recently, we have type ones who've experienced heroin addiction, believe me it depression, bipolar disorder, divorce. They talk about having sex with diabetes, smoking weed drinking, look for those episodes in your podcast player there after dark. And then you know other words. If you're interested in algorithm pumping, I have a whole series on it. Episode 227 is where it starts with diabetes concierge from there 250 to 304. And then the great three parter Fox in the loop house episodes 312 313 and 420 with Kenny Fox. We even have an episode about the mini med 670 G. Jenny and I talked about that Episode 326 and the blog looks pretty great too. You should check it out at Juicebox Podcast comm or anything else? Oh, no, I don't want to tell you about that yet. How about this juicebox Doc's dot com Have a great endocrinologist or diabetes practitioner or need one juicebox docs.com. Alright, that's it. One more episode left in 2020. It's kind of a relaxed conversation between Jenny and I, I started the year with Jenny. I wanted to end it with her

without them, without the talking overtop of the add music, you can see how incredibly repetitive it is. Isn't that weird?

But if you just talk over top of it, it's kind of handy. Learn more at my omnipod.com forward slash juicebox. See, then it really comes in, then it really does the job. promise that now you want to just chill with me. We'll do the end here. Change this here a little bit. I can tell something's gonna happen. I'll be back soon with another episode. Thanks so much for listening, for sharing the show for leaving great reviews. Wherever you listen. And if you're listening online, find yourself a nice podcast app and subscribe to Juicebox Podcast is available everywhere you get your audio